Apparently, I am not smarter than a 5th grader

When my husband is out of town, I finally get to control the remote and engage in all my guilty pleasure tv...you know reality tv, dumb game shows, home improvement, the usual guilty pleasure tv, right? Anyway, tonight I'm watching some game show hosted by the "you know you're a redneck, when" guy where they ask questions to contestants taking on 5th graders and 5th grade knowledge questions.

I was psyched about this, I was ready to go - that was at 7:07, it is now 7:22 and at this point I am ready to get on the phone to numerous 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers and inform them that apparently they did not do their job. I mean, really, why didn't they teach me that not every adult rhinocerous has only one horn? It's gotta be common first grade knowledge, right?

In other news, I haven't given a Babygirl update in quite some time, so I thought while I am wallowing in my sub-par education, I would indulge in a little "my babygirl is growing up" nine month old nostalgia. So here are some of the new things babygirl is up to lately:

- Munching on lots of solid foods these days - up to the 3's - who knew babyfood came in numbered stages? She's also eating cheerios and those gerber puff things (which, btw, I've decided are just expensive cereal in a fancy bottle with a fancy name thought up by some baby marketing mastermind to fool all first time scared of choking moms like me into buying them) and trying little bites of our food.

- Moving and grooving! She is constantly on the prowl; able to spot a spec of anything smaller than 1/4", stalk it out and pounce immediately while putting it where else but in her mouth and then looking at me as if to say, "mom, picking up random bits of food and dirt and shoving them in my mouth is the bomb!" The grooving part is the best - when there is a jingle on tv or when dad is singing the "daddy, dad, dad" song, she immediately starts a little baby dance while trying to mock the melody or song. It's hilarious and could not be cuter.

- A little more snuggly. Not to jinx it, but finally, my little babygirl is starting to be a little nuzzler. It only happens for ever so brief fleeting moments, but on occasion, she will actually rest her head down on your shoulder or chest and as soon as it happens the head darts back up and she immediately looks around as if to make sure no one saw that snuggly moment and to ensure we all know that she is most definitely NOT tired, that is NOT the case.

There you go - that brings you a little bit up to date (although most of my loyal blog readers already know all that), but it also marks this time in writing for me, too. I really love it right now and I'm sure 5 years from now it will be hard to remember the difference between 6 months and 9 and a year, etc... She is so interactive and has a huge personality developing (even if it may be a demanding one at times) that I feel really connected to her as a little person even if she's still my little babygirl!

Well, back to my guilty tv and trying to figure out how long it takes the moon to make one full orbit around the moon and how many pecks are in a bushel...thank god for the internet!


PALTSKKJ

Friday's Baby Fashion Trend: Little baby sombrero

Look mom, I'm pretty proud of what I did when you weren't paying attention to me...

Of course, now that I have your attention, you have to put a big stupid hat on me?

Did you slip some tequila in my bottle, mom? My teeth sure feel better now.

Happy Friday & Memorial Day Weekend!

Future Computer Programmer?

Lately, this is the ONLY place babygirl likes to be when we are working - directly under my chair and between the two CPU's. As you can see, she thinks it's VERY funny.

She's starting to learn how to ham it up for the camera, ah.. such a mama's girl...

I had to take drastic measures to keep her from pushing
the pretty blue blinking power button AGAIN!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I know you all know why, but I think I am getting ready to get back in the swing of things. It's been a rough couple of weeks and will continue to be hard, but thanks to everyone for all the support, cards and prayers for not only us, but most importantly for Steve, Karla, Kailey, Jake and my entire extended family. They still need the prayers, so keep 'em coming.

We had a great weekend at the Ehlert's wedding and it was incredibly nice to be out with good friends and to, not forget, but to be surrounded by people that care about you is so important when life is harder.

The last week was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced, but as I've said before, I'm trying to use that as a learning experience and to keep doing more positive things. One thing I will take from the funeral service was what Steve said in a letter he wrote to Karla, I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this, "the laundry may not be done on Sunday nights, the grass may not be cut and the house may be messy, but 20 years from now our kids won't remember those things, but they will remember all the trips to Branson with family, vacations to Florida and camping trips at Lake Carlysle". He's so right and if there's one thing that Steve and Karla did know how to do it was to live life to the fullest and they certainly crammed a lot of quality in what was definitely too short of a time and we could all take a lesson from that.

Thanks again for the love and prayers. I love all of you if I don't say that enough...well, I know I don't, but I do, I even love you non-blog readers.

It's a Josh Groban kind of morning..

Tim just walked upstairs and said, "why are you listening to church music?". Defensively, I corrected him that it was not church music, it was Josh Groban. Of course, not knowing who Josh Groban even remotely is he just gruffed, "well, sounds like church music to me..."

He's right, it does sound like church music, but some days, especially right now during these very difficult times, I sometimes feel better by making myself - or maybe allowing myself - to listen to sad songs and feel down. To accept the sadness, to accept the aching in my heart that is constantly underlying, to acknowledge it and say to it, "hey, I know you're there, and right now, I'm going to let you come out and play for a little while..."

I'm trying and sometimes succeeding at believing that what my family and mostly my extended family is going through right now is a part of life. Take the beautiful baby girl that lights my days - she just entered my life - out of nowhere and became the biggest part of it, all in less than a year.

Just like I can't believe something like that can just happen, I also can't believe that such bad, terrible and completely horrible things can just happen... to really, truly good people. It's clichéd and certainly trite, but it is truly a cycle of life. I am not good at accepting it and I really don't think I ever will, but I am witnessing it and I am trying to learn and grow from it the best that I can.

So, while I struggle with emotions and showing them or masking them, today I am wearing them. I am saying to them, come out, just for now, just for this Josh Groban morning, let me feel the pain, the sadness, and then go back to your little hole deep in my heart until I need you (and Josh Groban) again...

---

P.S. To counter balance this downer post, you'll notice I've changed the look of the blog with a cute new summer look. That was, before the JG songs came out, but at least, it's not all so sad, right?


PALTSKKJ

Make the Cereal, Save the World...

Tim has been eating cereal roughly since January. This is a new thing for him that I pushed when he started the "biggest loser" contest on December 1st. Since that time, when I come downstairs, almost everyday left on the counter is the particular box of cereal he has chosen for that morning (he has about 8 different varieties to choose from) with the bag and box left open, gallon of milk sitting out, cap laying somewhere next to it on the counter and typically at least 6-9 pieces of the offending cereal spread about on the counter (usually complete with our ant houseguests also enjoying their breakfast on his leftover cereal).

Anyway, this particular scene always leaves me with visions of what can only be the most hurriedly fixed bowl of cereal EVER. It's undoubtedly being prepared with such vigorous speed and intensity that surely this bowl of cereal had to be made in less than 20 seconds or the world would implode.

Today I actually beat him to fixing myself cereal so of course I had to make some passive aggressive comment about it:

"Did you notice that even though I had cereal before you today that the milk and box were put back where they belong when you went to fix your bowl?"

He looks up with 100% complete seriousness (as if to say, how could you even possibly question this) and says,

"I'm going to put it away when I get done eating it. I have to fix it and eat it as fast as possible so it doesn't get soggy."

Well, thank god I know - for months I was sure Tim was the saving us all from worldly destruction, but really he is just saving himself from soggy cereal.



PALTSKKJ

You know I'm over-emotional when...

Both Earl & Scrubs made me cry.... Tim won't even begin to let me watch the E.R. wedding...

PALTSKKJ

At last ! Mr. & Mrs. Ahren Jetensky

I've been extremely remiss in not commenting on how great my cousin Christina's wedding was. Although the weather didn't cooperate, I think everyone would say the wedding was a big success and judging from some of the truly awesome pics, I now understand why people say rainy/cloudy wedding days make for great pictures. Here are just a few of my favorites:

This is my cousin Lori's daughter Lauren. She was a great little flower girl and I think this is one of the coolest flower girl wedding pictures I've ever seen. Look to the right and you will see the petals are in a big puff up in the air! So cute!


Here's another sample of one of them - don't they look too cute!



Now for one I took:


Some of my cousin's cool kids :


Pictures I took of the wedding can be found here.

And photograher pictures are here (warning - there are quite a few, but worth the time if you have it since there are some truly amazing ones!) I think the photographers did an unbelievable job. I joked with Chris that they could wallpaper a room with the number of awesome pictures there are of the two of them.

Congratulations to you both! I'm so happy for you and love you mucho!

PALTSKKJ

Monday's Baby Fashion Trend (Drool included)

I'm honestly having a hard time blogging right now about things that wouldn't include delving deep into how I'm feeling at this difficult time for my family and I don't know if I have that in me right now. So for the time being, I might just post a happy baby picture once in a while or funny baby story, because lets face it - I don't think anyone can look at one of these sweet baby faces and not feel a little bit better about life - even during the most difficult "life" times.

PALTSKKJ more than ever right now.

And I wonder why she doesn't nap well during the day...

Why I shouldn't go running anytime between 5 and 6pm

Lately, the earliest I am managing to hit the streets "new mommy style" (baby in tow blaring my favorite hip hop from my ultra yuppy jeep - yes, it's a jeep - jogging stroller) is sometime between 5:30 and 6:30pm. This is probably the worst time to try and head out in my neighborhood for this one reason: these people know how to grill. Imagine running between that time or in my world "the hungry hour" and every street and corner brings a new unbelievable aroma of delicious food on a grill. It's so bad that I have developed a little game to keep me distracted from the mouth watering smells - It's basically just a guessing game of what meat or veggie is making that smell? Is it pork tenderloin? Chicken? A veggie packet? A bratworst - which I've decided has the most recognizable grill smell. It's just pure torture the whole time, but at least guessing the meat keeps my mind distracted enough from going right up to the perpetrators door and demanding that they let me and babygirl in for dinner.

Regardless, the whole point of this post was to tell you about the two funny things that happened today on the run/walk but I get so damn distracted thinking about grilling that it's all I can focus on...

Today, this hungry hour time must have also been a popular time for 2-3 year old girls to be outside because they were running rampant in the neighborhood. The first one I encountered on Spring Hill drive was walking up the driveway with daddy when she spotted me.

"Daddy -daddy, look at the baby"

"Yes, that's a cute baby"

This is where I luckily start slowing down so they can admire my gorgeous baby a little longer - just as the little girl decides to dart away from daddy directly into my path causing me to come to a very abrupt stop. As I look up, dad has a pretty nervous look on his face as he is leaping to pull her away from the eminent yuppy stroller squashing injury that is about to occur. Luckily, I stop just fine as she comes up to the stroller, stands on her tippy toes and and peers over the edge,

"Daddy - I want to pet the baby"

Laughing, the dad explains that babies are not like doggies and that you don't "pet" babies, you say "hi" to babies. She goes on to say hi about 10 times and I say hi back on Bridget's behalf and finally as we slowly say goodbye and start moving again I hear her say to dad as she is walking back up the driveway,

"Daddy, I don't know why that baby didn't have any shoes on."

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this time with babygirl, but things like that certainly make me see that the future is going to be filled with so much fun, too.

I'll save my other funny little girl story to entice you with later in the week as I have already blown off way too much work already!

Happy Tuesday!


PALTSKKJ

The great toy uprising

Can you spot the baby in this pile of toys?

I wouldn't want to spend even one day in your head...

This morning Tim takes his car to Combs to get a "quick" tire rotation and check on the brakes before he and the boys head out to Memphis for Ehlert's big bachelor party. Fast forward 1/2 hour to a frantic phone call to me about car needing new brakes, has to leave it for 3 hours, meeting at UMSL at 9:45, need to print out instructions, the password is Tremco9435....yadda, yadda, yadda...

So, to give you a nice run down of how I spent my day from approximately 8:17 am (the time of the first phone call) to 12:23pm (the time I FINALLY arrive at Sydney's Closet for my work day) I've prepared a lovely numbered list for your reading enjoyment:

1. Drive to combs and pick up Tim - 8:45am
   
   
2. Drive up to UMSL and drop Tim off for some big roofing meeting (only after reliving all my *crazy* good old days at UMSL ALL the way up there) - 9:30 am
   
   
3. Drive back to Brentwood to meet client for 10:30 meeting at Bread Company
   
   
4. Stop off at Brentwood Target for no other reason then I had 15 minutes to kill and who doesn't love to go to Target when they have 15 extra minutes
   
   
5. $47 Target dollars and one Venti Mocha non-fat no-whip later, I wrap up my meeting and go back up to UMSL (surprisingly the timing could not have been more perfect as Tim was just leaving his meeting)
   
   
6. Drive Tim back to Combs tire. This is where apparently (somewhere between the Venti Mocha and after only approximately 5.5 hours of sleep last night, but that's a whole different Bridget entry) I apparently became a monster chatterbox about my surroundings and events as they were occuring in real time:
   

"Do you think we can live in a house like that some day?"

"I know she's going to bug the crap out of me today with all this ABS b.s."

"Wow that dog just went after that little kid - did you see that?"

"Oh man, I hope there's not a train - is that I train - do you see a train? "

"This satellite sh*t is cool - don't you love it?"

These are just a few of the ones I remember and they were in that order - rapid fire. So, my whole point about this last bullet point is this...no really, I think I have one... -I decided today (when someone was actually in the car with me during my usual "alone" time) that I have a complete constant thought stream - it seriously never stops. Actually as I am typing these lines I'm thinking at least 4 sentences ahead and listening to 30 Rock in the background. Anyway, I guess Tim picked up on it especially today since he was privy to my own little J.D. world, because when he finally could get a word in he said:

"I wouldn't want to spend even one day in your head...it's tough enough even being out here".



PALTSKKJ

the landlord

This is worth watching - disturbing, but funny at the same time... sorry if this offends anyone - blame Will Ferrell.

The Landlord


I have lots of pictures from the wedding and easter getting ready to go up on shutterfly. I'll post as soon as I get them all loaded!

PALTSKKJ

It's the big ONE!

I LOVE April 11th - I always have. I get a little fluttery inside when coincidentally someone on tv announces something taking place on "April 11th" or when Easter falls on "April 11th" and people say it over and over again. It's no secret people - I LOVE April 11th. I really do think of it next to Christmas as the best day of the year.

Now, I have gotten plenty of flack in my life for this love. "Birthday Season" jokes have arisen and much ado has been made over this little day, but I really don't care, in fact I think I like that a little. I think of it as just a testament to another aspect of my quirky, yet childlike at times personality and whether I'm turning 11 or 32, why shouldn't I still love this day? It's really not the self-serving "give me all the presents you can" reason that I like so much about this day, although I would venture to say that many people think that is it. It's really just more that there's just a nice little something special to a birthday. Like a little secret you can carry around in your pocket that no other stranger knows about you on that day. You are special that day and, for that reason, I've always walked around with a little spring in my step.


So, now that I am 32 and have been through quite a few of these April 11ths, I started thinking about why I love this day so much and I realized it's not about the presents or the cake (to be honest, I've never been the hugest cake fan - I know, crazy...) but what it is about is basically one great thing - my family and specifically, my parents. They are why I love this day so much. They are the birthday king and queen. They made each birthday, no matter how rushed of a time of year or how many times it fell on Easter, always a special day for me. It was all about me - although occasionally my mom would remind me that they really should give the presents to the mom's on birthdays since they did all the work and, I'd have to say, this is the first year that I would probably agree with her on that one.... But, really, I would like to say thanks mom and dad - thanks for making all those birthdays so special and for teaching me that life is too short to not have a piece of cake on your birthday and be grateful for another year in life with good friends and family.

Well, finally to this April 11th (the whole reason I started this post way back when) THIS April 11th is especially special. (Can you use especially and special back to back?) Well, it is, let's just say SUPER SPECIAL this year! I am so happy to be able to now share what was my secret & special day with a very deserving little man. Yes, one year ago today, Mr. Matthew Wellington Muldrow made his way into the world on the (second) best day of the year - April 11th. I remember going to see him in the hospital and holding those tiny 6 lbs of pure adorableness and thinking how cool that birthday for me was -here I was seeing one of my best friends go through a real "birth" day and, for the first time, I got a real appreciation for why we celebrate birthdays the way we do. It truly is a miracle to have Matthew in our lives now and what better way to remember that every year then to celebrate the day he entered the world. I remember feeling so excited that he and I would forever be connected by this awesome day - April 11th.

So, without further ado - to my main little man -

Happy FIRST birthday!!!!!

Here's to many many more awesome April 11th's to come for you. Because, just like my parents made this day something great for me, I have no doubt that you will be 32 years old someday and looking back on how special your mommy and daddy made every April 11th for you! Love you, little man - Happy First!


-PS- Aimee wrote a great blog entry (something I will undoubtedly steal come August 26th) about Matthew's arrival into the world one year ago today! Check it out here.

PALTSKKJ

Larry Birkhead is the Baby Daddy

Well, thank god we all know now. I don't think I could have slept one more night not knowing.

Sorry, just bitter as they have broken in, yes, I repeat, broken in numerous times to announce the "breaking news". America, please get a life!

-Easter pics coming soon! Stay tuned!

Everyone here is extremely gruntled...

This takes forever and is absolutely beyond cheesy (although, brilliant NBC viral marketing at it's best), but you know how I'm a sucker for a good lovey dovey video and the music just fits so well. Anyway, don't bother watching if you don't like cheese or don't have 4 minutes, but DO get PSYCHED cause tonight Roy is "gonna kill Jim Halpert" (well, hopefully not...)

Happy Thursday and FINALLY new office night!!!

Diversity Training Day at the [CWC] office

Come on everyone, gather around, you too Blue Octopus, we need to address the comments you made toward Yellow-Orange Fish on Wheels last week.

Wait, I have a question... if I know Pink Puppy is socializing outside of the workplace with Green Frog Lily - is it my responsibility to pass this on to corporate?

Okay, let's say there is a certain colorful male giraffe who happens to sport a lot of bling - if he doesn't tell, we shouldn't ask, right?

Diversity training is fun - let's all celebrate diversity!

PALTSKKJ

Tuesday Newsflash

Anne Curry still makes me want to jab my pretty silvery-blue metallic pen into my eyes.

I'm a complete sucker for physical comedy

happy only one more week until the new office where Jim Halpert gets it!

PALTSKKJ

We really did try to get them IN her mouth...

Tonight we tried carrots - oh the humanity!

She's not terrified of the dog, she's terrified of the carrots...

Is the torture over?

Thank you, this is all I need...

In case you didn't read the previous post...make sure you do to catch up on how much babygirl LOVES eating solid foods...


PALTSKKJ