Stomach Flu: 3 Wands: 0
Sick Saturday
PW and I spent Friday night out with my best friend Beth (no, not talking in third person) and her husband Grant at the St. Mary’s football game. It was a blast to be back at our alma mater and especially fun since it’s where PW and I met. It was made even better because the Knights won!
Bay was fast asleep when we got home. About an hour after we went to bed I heard “Mommy. Tummy. Hurt.” on the monitor. I let it go for a bit because I thought maybe she had just woken up and was looking for a reason for us to come in her room. I finally went in and discovered her tummy did hurt. It had hurt all over her crib and down the side on to the carpet. The poor thing started crying when I walked in obviously sick, embarrassed and well, grossed out. It’s amazing how the ick factor diminishes when your kiddo is hurting. Suddenly it doesn’t matter that it’s 1am or that you’re cleaning up a very gross situation, it just matters that she feels better.
Saturday morning we decided to hunker down and just rest. No errands, no nothing. Just pedialyte and cartoons. Around 11, Peter decided to test out Baylor’s wellness by taking her on a quick, don’t-get-out-of-the-car errand. In my car. It was a failed mission. If you saw a man trying to clean a munchkin off on the side of the road on Saturday, it was them. It was solidified that a quarantine and lock down was necessary.
We spent the rest of the day watching football, movies, doing some crafts and a lot of napping. It was after I woke up from a ridiculously long nap that I realized how much we all needed a down day. We needed to stay in our jammies all day. Take a long nap. Sit around and do nothing. Make frozen pizza and not worry about having veggies on the side. It something we need to schedule more often so that we can enjoy doing nothing and not worry about what we’re not doing.
On a side note, Baylor is feeling much better and as of Sunday evening, neither Peter or I are sick. Fingers crossed!!
Where’s the Tome? – 6th Edition
Sadly, this post does not have a picture. When you read the story, you’ll understand why.
This week Tome was in the water table, the bench outside, the bench inside and lastly Baylor’s crib. And not just in her crib, but sleeping on his own pillow with his own blanket next to her. As I was tucking her in for the fourth time, she reached over and grabbed Tome to snuggle – only to remark “oh my Tome” when his pointy hat caught her in the cheek. But being her parent’s daughter, she wasn’t willing to admit she was wrong in putting Tome in her bed so she tucked him and fell asleep.
There was a perfect picture opportunity of an angelic Baylor sleeping peacefully with smiling Tome under her arm. But I’m not insane (yet) so I didn’t risk the flash or click of the camera waking her up so for this edition…so just use your imagination this week!
Sweet Sweet Sleep
Last week, out of the blue, Baylor started waking up at 4:50am. I was woken up out of a deep sleep by a very loud voice shouting “MOMMY!!! AWAKE!!!!” over the baby monitor. I promptly turned the monitor down a bit and attempted to go back to sleep, praying that she would do the same. No luck.
This has gone on for the last two weeks. Bay wakes up, attempts to wake us up and then we all spend an hour + trying to get back to sleep. It’s made for some amazing melt downs (from each of us) and some extra super dark circles under my eyes.
I stomped into Bay’s room one morning, tired and crabby. I was sure I couldn’t take the forced, early mornings anymore when the sweet face standing in the crib proclaimed “Mommy. Teeth. Hurt.” I asked her which tooth and she pointed to the new white molar stabbing through her gum. My heart broke. Her early mornings were obviously coming from painful new teeth causing her not to be able to sleep – or get back to sleep.
Suddenly the early mornings didn’t seem so bad and getting her to feel better became the priority. With some extra nap time and a little Tylenol, she is finally sleeping a little later. Not like 8am sleeping, but you know, a mom can dream.
Um. Yeah.
I sat down and got half way through a post before I decided it was utter crap. It was all about how I’ve got a few too many irons in the fire and was actually quite funny….and yet began to sound a bit stupid by the time I got to the 12 thing on the list.
So instead, I decided to just come clean; life is busy. A good busy, but I’m short on time AND material so I’m sorry, but I’ve got nothing worth reading. It’s a terrible excuse, but a true one. I promise funny and entertaining posts are a comin’. Promise!
Interest in Pinterest
My friend Kristin turned me on to a website called Pinterest. I consider myself a pretty hip, happening and tech savvy person – and yet Pinterest baffled me. What the hell is it? How do I make it work? And why do I need to use it?
I decided to get an account, mostly so I could see what my friends were doing. They all post beautiful pictures that either they have taken or have found on the web somewhere. Again, I was left feeling left out. At one point in my life I would troll the internet looking for pretty things and fun ideas while chained to my desk during a conference call – but that ship has sailed. I barely get a check in on Facebook and fire off emails before it’s time to actually get to work, pick up the munchkin or get an errand run.
I met with the creators of Scottsdale Moms Blog last week and I am happy to say that I will be their DIY/Craft/Home project contributor starting in October! I was energized after our meeting and started to make a list of the things I wanted to write about and research to be done. I began Googling as fast as my fingers would type crafts, Halloween, kids crafts, easy crafts, no mess crafts, etc. I was bookmarking all the lovely ideas – but later when I was trying to find a picture again, I was stumped and guessing at each of the random bookmark titles to find what I was looking for…and then it hit me, Pinterest! How silly of me to over look such a useful tool…and just like that, I got it. Pinterest. I can take the picture from each of the sites I’ve bookmarked (better known as pinning) and put them on to a board (also fancy for category I create) and they will all be in one place!
So I spent a good hour going through all of the things I’ve felt were important enough to bookmark: books, recipes, pictures, craft ideas, home improvement ideas, funny blog posts. You name it, it was in my bookmarks. I created new boards on Pinterest and then sorted out all of the little Easter Eggs of ideas. And the result was a beautifully organized and visual account of all the things I think are worth hanging on to. Fun craft ideas for Halloween? Noted. Delicious recipe ideas? Pinned. Great books and blogs? Done. All of it right there and best of all, now friends and readers can see my ideas too. You can also steal them and pin them to your boards if you love them.
Check it out: http://www.pinterest.com
Search for me under Beth Wand
See what you think of what I’ve done and look around a little at what other are doing. I guarantee you’ll find something you like or worst case scenario, it will be a fun way to waste a few minutes. Happy Pinning!
Best. Neighbor. Ever.
The first time I met Melissa, she came by on a sunny afternoon. As I answered the door, Baylor and her cousin Zoe were having a hair pulling / screaming match in the background. The pretty lady at the door said “Hi. I’m Melissa. We met a few weeks ago – but I was wondering, do you drink wine?”. My sister-in-law and I burst out laughing. My response? “Do you hear this shenanigans? Of COURSE we drink wine!!”.
Flash forward a few months and PW and I have become friends with Melissa. We’ve gotten to know her and it’s been a blast!
The other night, I realized while making dinner for friends (who were due in less than an hour) that I was totally out of balsamic vinegar. Despite my obsessive list making, the vital ingredient in my balsamic reduction for the caprese salad was no where to be found. Thankfully, in addition to working for a wine supplier, Melissa is a trained chef so there’s a good chance she will have whatever item I’ve forgotten at the grocery store.
Sadly, she too was out of vinegar. I hung up the phone and began dialing PW to ask him to stop on the way home when my phone rang:
“I felt bad that I didn’t have any vinegar so I’m running to the store. See you in a few minutes!”
And not 10 minutes later, there was smiling Melissa with a full bottle of vinegar. She explained she didn’t want me waiting too long to make the reduction as it leaves the house smelling quite pungent and she didn’t want our guests to arrive and immediately fall over from the smell.
seriously, who does that?! Best. Neighbor. EVER!!
Rain Rain….
You know what is great? When it finally, finally rains. Like a good, soaking rain.
You know what is not great? When all of your clean bedding was air drying on the patio. Including the down pillows. And you don’t remember until they have all been soaked by the awesome rain.
Laundry? FAIL.
The Grinch Who Stole Night Night
For months now, Baylor has required various stuffed animals, books and other talisman in order to fall asleep. Sometimes she’s literally sleeping on top of them so that all of them, and her, can be tucked in. Because of this, I usually sneak in her room about an hour after she goes to sleep to pluck out several items and move others to the foot of the crib (I can buy myself 15 more minutes of sleep in the mornings if she has a book and an animal).
I have perfected the art of lightly plucking the toys, blankets, pillows, books, tea cups, wooden angels, etc from under her or around her so that I don’t wake her up. I always think I must look like the Grinch nabbing Cindy Loo Who’s candy cane and sugar plumbs – quickly and nimbly sliding each item away from Baylor.
The other night she was dead asleep. I was pulling out the usual items when, without opening her eyes, she snatched back her Spot the Dog book and said “no. My book” and clutched it to her chest. I realized that maybe I wasn’t as stealthy as I thought….or the kiddo has inherited both sleep talking and sleep walking (or grabbing in her case) from her parents!
PB&J Sashimi
We don’t usually get to eat together as a family during the week so we make it a priority to eat almost all our meals together on the weekends. This Saturday we got take out from one of our favorite places, Dozo sushi. It is by far, one of the hidden gems in Scottsdale.
While PW and I enjoyed salmon sushi, a Vegas roll and a Rainbow roll, Bay enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a fruit smoothie and carrots. She was loving using the plastic forks that came with dinner – but then became obsessed with using the chop sticks. So we handed her a pair and cut up her sandwich so she could grab a few bites. And I have to say, she did pretty well!!
What?? I use chop sticks all the time.
allllmossttt got it….
Success!!!
The best part? The novelty of the chop sticks means she ate every last thing on her plate!
The Goon Room 