Comedian

Squish
Originally uploaded by Mainline Mom

I don't want to jinx myself, but I feel like we've turned a corner with Nathan. For the past week or two he has been an absolute delight, eating his food without complaint, going to bed and school without a fight, and demonstrating his imagination more and more. The best part is that he has just discovered that he has a captive audience with Alex. Alex laughs at Nathan as soon as he walks into the room. So Nathan has become a little ham, making funny faces and voices and dancing around to make all of us laugh. It is precious. The two boys interact all the time now, making it much easier for us as parents to keep sane. You just can't get stressed out when the baby is in giggle fits and the preschooler is singing the Wonderpets themesong at the top of his lungs.

Video Evidence

And now presenting...my very first blog video clip! Thanks to my mom for the new camera for Christmas that takes video, and thanks to Mike's goofy mug for creating the scene.

Snow Day!

Snow!
Originally uploaded by Mainline Mom

Hooray for a real snow day. The first one this year, and it fell perfectly on a Friday morning, my usual day off work. I just wanted one good snowfall for Nathan to use his new snowboots, pants, shovel and sled. Mission accomplished. He LOVED his little shovel, and followed daddy all over the driveway. He also enjoyed riding down the hill on his new tube. Now we're taking a hot cocoa break.

I was over at my neighbor's till 1am last night drinking wine and talking politics with some girlfriends. They chided me very hard for saying I liked Barak.

Energy

You know you're sleep deprived when you pass out at 8pm at night and don't wake up again even once until 6:15am. Yep, I dozed off last night while giving Alex his bedtime bottle...something about sitting in a rocker in a dark room will do that to me. So I decided there wasn't anything on TV I wanted to watch (except the Foo Fighters on Letterman, but that was already TiVo'd) so I climbed into the sack at 8:30 and told Mike to leave the TV on but turn the lights out. I didn't wake up when he came to bed, whenever that was. Apparently neither kid woke up all night, because even the slightest peep on the monitors and I'm usually wide awake. But when Mike turned the TV on this morning at 6:15am, I suddenly woke up, completely rested.

Then I proceeded to drink way too much coffee, because I could babble endlessly on any subject right now...too bad I can't type as fast as I can think.

Not Politics as Usual

Why, oh why, do I have to like Barak Obama so darn much? I mean, he certainly does not view the world the same way I do. He's a big government guy, and God help us if he ever has to appoint a Supreme Court justice. But darnit, he's a great speaker. I just really like listening to him in interviews or speeches. Hillary makes my skin crawl when I hear her voice. Same with John McCain. He just annoys me to know end.

I love listening to Mike Huckabee talk too, he's a very good speaker as well. Too bad he won't last. I'm still voting for him in April, but right now I honestly can't say who I will vote for in November.

I think the most important issues to me personally are the abortion issue, which unfortunately is unlikely to change very much, and the estate tax, which is an atrocity. As Whoopi Goldberg said, the estate tax is the definition of taxation without representation. I can't believe she and I agree on something so passionately.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hooray
Originally uploaded by Mainline Mom

I forgot to express this sentiment when I posted this morning. I found this little outfit for Alex on clearance at the Gap on Wednesday and thought it perfect for this holiday.

This holiday was less than stellar. The kids were fine, thank goodness. But I had a very nice steak dinner planned for Mike, and he got stuck at work and didn't get home till almost 8. So he called and offered to pick up BK on the way home, while I put Nathan to bed. By this point I was getting pretty hungry, and looking forward to my chicken sandwich. Unfortunately when Mike walked in, he announced that BK had forgotten my sandwich with our order, AND had given him the incorrect change, shorting him a buck. Add to that the fact that Mike is still very sick with a cold and is going to bed early.

So Mike and I have elected to have a "do-over" tomorrow.

Making Me Chuckle

Curled Up
Originally uploaded by Mainline Mom

I confess that sometimes I leave the TV on low volume while I work at home. I don't pay that much attention to it. This morning as I was replying to my emails, Jane Fonda was on the Today show talking about the Vagina Monologues. She used the "C" word, and I heard it and bristled, but it didn't occur to me that you can't say that on morning television. It only caught my attention because it's an ugly word. Five minutes AFTER the segment, poor Meredith Viera had to come on and apologize to the TV audience for Jane's slip-up. THAT made me chuckle.

Health

Six Months
Originally uploaded by Mainline Mom

Seems like everyone is feeling much better today. Thank goodness. It was a bitter cold but clear day, perfect for staying inside and snapping some portraits of Alex while Nate was at school. He was in a pretty good mood, but now when I place him on his tummy as in this shot, he immediately rolls to his back. It's cute.

I had to laugh at a thread on a bulletin board I frequent entitled "Who else thinks the "Superdelegates" are a big pile of poo?" The poster believed that we ought to have a "true democracy" and have everyone register online and vote on a secure server. How naive. First of all, we live in a republic, not a democracy. Second of all, there is no such thing as a secure server. I personally still favor the electoral college method of choosing our president. I have no faith in the intelligence of the general public to make sound decisions about what's good for them, or what's good for society as a whole. I see and hear about too many stupid...er...let's say ignorant...people. And by ignorant I simply mean uneducated and uninformed.

For some reason I still haven't figured out, I have always felt like I was smarter than the majority of the people around me. I'm sure I'm wrong about that, but from childhood I've felt that way, so it's an underlying assumption no matter how hard I fight it. It does me more harm than good.

So now I sound like an arrogant bitch. How's that for a provocative opinion? ;)

Day 5

Our house has been completely invaded by germs. Viruses. One that attacks the stomach and causes you to puke your guts out. Followed by one that attacks the nose and causes it to drip uncontrollably. Plus coughs. All four of us in the household got both viruses, one by one, like dominos. Thank goodness the puking was at least slightly staggered, so that I managed the kids on Friday while Mike was dying, and he managed the kids on Saturday while I was dying. The only one still puking is Alex, and that seems very strange because he started on Friday morning, and seemed fine for half of the day Saturday, then started acting sick again, and puked again this morning. Poor baby, he is just not himself yet. Thankfully we all got a very good night's sleep last night.

I'm glad it mostly hit on the weekend, but that makes at least two months straight that we have missed church due to somebody being ill on Sunday morning. Not cool.

Oh, and we totally missed our big date night out Friday...but it's a darn good thing we didn't go and start barfing THERE.

Sick Kids Suck

So I'm driving home from my mom's yesterday afternoon and talking to my sales rep on the phone when Nathan starts yelling. He had done that in the car earlier that day and it was just something like "my pants are falling down" or "my seatbelt is too tight". That dumb kinda stuff I can't do anything about while I"m driving. I hang up the phone and look up and suddenly he starts barfing all over himself. Poor kid. Over and over. Now I'm in rush hour traffic at least half an hour from home. I stopped at a Wawa but there wasn't a lot I could do, so I just kept going. He barfed the whole way home.

Then he barfed all night long. Every 5 to 10 minutes. He'd barf, pass out, wake up and barf. Mike and I took turns laying with him and cleaning him up. He kept begging for milk but even the tiniest bit he would barf up. Then sometimes when it seemed the puking had slowed, he just would not go to sleep. He had a fever that was probably keeping him awake, but he badly needed rest. So anyway none of the three of us slept at all, all night. Just Alex, he slept fine, despite his cough, and he was ready to go at 7am when the rest of us just wanted to lay in bed. Ugh.

The Second City

I'm back from my adventure in Chicago. It was a pretty good time, but the weather put a damper on a lot of activities. When I flew in on Wednesday the temperature was zero degrees with a wind chill of twenty below. Winds were gusting to 55 mph, but it was clear. My was staying at the Sheraton downtown hotel and towers, the building in the photo, and my room was on the 30th floor directly overlooking the frozen Chicago River and a frozen Lake Michigan. It was a very luxurious place, and thank goodness I did not have to go outside much at all.

I met a new friend for drinks at Pops Champagne Bar, which was very posh. She is a new mommy I met through an internet community for pregnant moms whose babies were all due the same month. She's brilliant and funny, a journalist for the AP, and we had a total blast. Wish I could have spent even more than a couple hours with her.

Then I had an incredible dinner with a perfect 12 oz filet mignon, wine, and even more champagne to celebrate another friend's retirement from our industry after 20 years. It was a long dinner and I enjoyed sitting with some old dear friends and getting to know some new ones, including the incoming president of my trade association. Then I met up with a few other "young professionals" and we went to two bars to scout a location for a huge party I throw at our annual conference in October. I got to bed about 1:30 Chicago time, but my internal alarm clock woke me up at 5am. That's because I get up every day at 6am Eastern.

So I had an all day meeting Thursday, which was ok because the room was on the corner of the building facing the Lake and it had floor to ceiling windows on two sides so we could watch the snowstorm. We finished early so I got a nap before a reception and then dinner at the famous Harry Carey's. We took a cab but still got snowed on pretty good. Then another all day meeting Friday. It stopped snowing midday Friday but there was probably at least 6 inches on the ground. We decided to walk to a tapas resturant for dinner, but it was farther than our local friend told us, and the sidewalks were a mess of slush and snow. I hadn't waterproofed my new Uggs, so I tried my best to keep the sheepskin dry. Dinner was great but when the conversation turned to politics I was vastly outnumbered. After all, it's Chicago, and I work in the environmental industry. The people I was dining with were all from either Chicago, California, Denver, New York, or Boston. All blue states.

I was up till 2am again that night selling and schmoozing, but this time I had to leave the hotel at 5am for my 7am flight. I made it, but I felt terrible. I have a sinus infection that refuses to go away and today it is really really bad. Flying with a sinus infection is a bad idea. If you've ever done it, you know why.

So here are a couple pics of the Chicago River outside my hotel. When I arrived the top was frozen solid but as the temp warmed up to a balmy 18 degrees, the ice melted and broke apart. It was cool to watch.