Sunny 9 for 2007 October

(2) Thu Oct 04 2007 23:02 Like mother like daughter: If you're lucky, you just may be able to get Gunnar to wave at you. Once he gets started he doesn't stop. He swings his arms around and round.

I feel so bad for him lately. I am beginning to see the effects of my anal-ness in that Lily will now close doors in Gunnar's face. To explain, I have my bedroom door, the bathroom door, and what used to be the office door now Gunnar's room door closed and the knobs have those things on them. Surprisingly, Lily has not been able to figure them out. One time finding Lily in the bathroom like this, and finding her in the office with magic marker over the computer screen, and in my room with lotion everywhere- I decided I didn't want to live my life cleaning messes or following Lily around the house to make sure she wasn't into anything. Lily will literally explore everything and she just has to test things out hands on to see what it is about. So she isn't allowed in those parts of the house without me present anymore. Just ask Jenni what she and Caden did in her room when we weren't watching. She is the master at creating messes.

The result is now that Lily closes her bedroom door ALL THE TIME to make sure "Gunnar can't go in my room". She doesn't seem to have a problem with him going in her room while she is there for nap time and hasn't fallen asleep yet when he goes looking for her. But if I am in my room then she will follow me in there and close the door behind her or really whatever room I am in and she can shut Gunnar out. It is sad but funny how little kids mimic adult behavior. Now that Gunnar is last in the pecking order, she limits him, just like I limit her.

It's too bad but I am not about to let her start roaming about the house freely. In other news, Gunnar has a birthmark. It showed up about 2 months ago and it is a light colored little blob on the inside of his thigh. My mom said when she found mine on my ankle she thought it was some dirt and tried to wipe it off. When I noticed Gunnar's I thought some of the stuff from his diaper got out and I tried wiping it too without results. Then I figured it out.

(2) Wed Oct 10 2007 15:52 hou-AHH: The day before yesterday, my mom called me up spur of the moment and asked if I wanted to go to the outlets with her. Rule of thumb: never turn down the opportunity to go shopping, especially at the outlets. So we went and stopped at Las Palapas on the way there for lunch. We shopped till the kids dropped- literally, Gunnar had it by the end and my arm socket felt like it was just being held in place by ligaments and I felt like I needed a hip replacement by the time we were done. Pottery Barn had such a great sale- everything in the store was 40% off already marked down stuff. I bought Lily's Halloween costume there. It was 70% off of get this--$90! Hello? Where does a company get off charging insanely ridiculous prices for a little bit of fabric and thread? But since it was $27 instead of $90 I got it. It's a cute little witch costume and good thing because Lily said she wanted to be a witch out of the blue. She can be a witch and Gunnar is going to be a wizard (Harry Potter). Not planned but very fitting.

So after spending a small percentage of our annual income at the outlets, the next day I woke up feeling queasy. I shrugged it off thinking it was just an empty stomach. I was also in a rush because it was Lily's preschool day and so I put it out of my mind so I could hurry and get out the door.

After dropping Lily off at preschool, I went to the gym. I felt a little fatigued during my workout. Afterward, Gunnar had a meltdown in the car (lately he has been loathing his car seat) so I just decided to pick Lily up early from preschool and get home to settle Gunnar down because he was so worked up. He had been screaming and quivering 25 minutes straight from the gym to the preschool house and then to our house so I decided to get him first instead of Lily first which I usually do since she can walk in by herself and I can't really hold Gunnar and get her out. When I came around to her side and opened the door Lily just had this blank expression on her face and all the sudden "lost her lunch" or her cupcake she ate for a snack at preschool. She threw up everywhere and I had Gunnar in my arms and could barely get her out in time for her last blah to be on the lawn. Looking back, that's why she didn't feel like breakfast that morning.

I myself felt that way but forced myself to clean it up knowing how hard it would be to clean it up after I felt better. Interestingly, Lily acted as if she never felt better, in fact making jokes about "I throwed up" and proceeding to reenact it for me with hand gestures demonstrating a waterfall of vomit and of course sound effects. Ok, whatever, I am going to lie on the couch. And I did. Sipping water and eating dry Cheerios.

When it was my turn, Lily was down for a nap but Gunnar was up playing at my couch-side and eating Cheerios I was tossing to him off the floor. I quickly reached for the bowl beside me and turned my stomach inside out. Gunnar was so traumatized and upset, he started bawling. I don't know what he thought was going on but I think he knew his mama was not ok. He's such a bleeding heart. Afterwards, he had tears streaked down his face. Hey, when I am sick I will take the sympathy wherever I can get it! It was too cute.

I am feeling much better today, and come to find out my mom is so sick with it coming out on top and bottom. I think we were poisoned at Las Palapas. Otherwise, why would all three of us get it? And this is something I have been thinking about a lot lately, how I go to eat at different places and I am sure back in the kitchen it is not pretty. I have just been sicked out altogether with fast food places and call me a food snob but I just am past that phase of my life. It seems like if I am going to go out to eat, I am going somewhere nice, or not at all.

(5) Tue Oct 16 2007 23:06 Star bashing: Sick and Disgusted: So I open up Foxnews.com and look at some headlines. I like to stay afloat of current events and stuff like that, even if just to skim headlines...I've only got so much time during nap time. I scroll down to the Entertainment part and I see a headline: Supermodel to Super-Waddle: Milla Jovovich's Pre-Birth Body Blues. Okay, let's see what the 100lbs actress/model has to say about gaining weight to have a baby. First, let me run and grab my Kleneex. I especially love the advice she gives to people about weight gain, to quote the article "so far, she has a simple suggestion for future moms who don't think they could wear the excess weight. "You might want to adopt," said the retired runway royal". First off, there is nothing wrong with adoption. It is wonderful. However, if your motives for adoption are so you can keep a perfect body, excuse me when I ask could you get any more vain and self-absorbed? The article gets better. In the interview Milla goes on to say, "Milla, 2004's highest paid model, even believes she would have been more mentally equipped at age 16 for the lumps and bumps having a baby brings. But once she hit the hottest of the hot list, the pressure of perfection has made her aware of every dot and dimple. Oh, I'm sorry you CHOSE to be a model and let everyone examine your body naked and bare and then remarked about it good or bad. Let me give you some advice- keep your clothes on your rear and you won't get people talking about your dimples they see. It is interesting that she says she has this "pressure of perfection" because she is apart of the very profession that perpetuates that pressure she claims to be a victim of.

The Entertainment "news" gets laughable to worse. It talks about Britney Spears losing custody of her sons. Yes, the paparazzi are relentless and cruel, but I have two kids myself. I am not out all night partying because, why? I am home watching my kids and being there to witness their lives. Maybe she should do that more and her pictures wouldn't be splashed across magazines and tv shows and she will have the privacy she claims to desire. She obviously does not take advantage of that time with them so I don't feel too terrible about the whole situation in fact I don't think anyone high on drugs and alcohol should be in change or infants and toddlers.

Then in the headline there is Lindsay in rehab. Yet another "DUI" celeb that isn't even old enough to purchase alcohol. Where were her parents 10 yrs ago? Oh yeah, that's right, getting her an agent and sticking a 10 yr old into the "Hollywood" garbage. Smart. What do you expect a child to do with all that chaos and freedom? Enough said.

And then there was Natalie Portman. Natalie Portman Promotes Her 'Free Online' Steamy Sex Scene Oh, Natalie! I love how her friends said that she would only do nude scenes if there was art behind it. Oh, in that case it isn’t sleazy at all. The logic of celebs dumbfounds me.

So with all these female role models (whether you want them to be or not) how do we expect female teenagers to even make it with this kind of garbage being thrown in their face day in day out. --To be interesting and have value you have to be thin, party hard and get wasted, be anorexic and get boob jobs, and sell your body for money and fame. Nice job society we are well on our way to the Second Coming. I just hope and pray Lily and Gunnar and any future children I have can make it through unscathed.

(8) Thu Oct 18 2007 22:33 TA-DAH!: I am so happy. You don't know how long I have been waiting for this moment to happen. Over a year to be exact. After Aaron and I found out we were having a BOY! I thought long and hard about how I wanted to redecorate our "purple" office for Gunnar's room. It was actually a purpleish, muddy, clay color not "olive greenish" as my mother called it. That's another story. So I looked at bedding and finally came up with a plan. An interior design plan. Just look at my picture blog and you will be so impressed. And by the way, it is patented so if you use my idea then you will have to pay me royalties. Hehe. Yes, it's that good.

So this is how it went down. I pretty much begged Aaron to do the whole thing by himself at first, since I was pregnant and couldn't inhale the fumes of paint. Since that whopper didn't work, I had to wait till life was sane again and I could handle taking on superfluous work which was pretty much 9 months after Gunnar was born. Then there was the complications of Gunnar sleeping in the very room we needed to work in. I finally persevered and painted the room first the top half a khaki and then another day the second half a milk chocolate. A month later I painted the chair rail and crown molding and then a few weekends later Aaron and my brother David put the woodwork up and I did the finishing paint touches.

If any of you are wanting to do this, be warned: it is so much more work than you can imagine. I don't know what possessed me to want crown molding in my whole house so much but it is SO MUCH WORK. But it looks awesome. My next house I will pay for it to be done. Just doing Gunnar's one room wasn't too bad, just a weekender project but small bites at a time is wise and advised.

So I am so proud of it and I think it looks perfect. And when we sell our house it will be a great office/boy's or baby boy room/guest room, or pretty much fit any need of the new buyers so I feel good about that. I would feel so embarrassed if people looked at my house and said, "if we buy this house, we would have to repaint everything". That would be such a blow to my decorating taste. However, I admit there is the story about the notorious red wall as Betina has mention in her blog. I have one and I am sooo over it and wish I could do something with it. Maybe before we list the house.

Back to the story. So I thought in the beginning that I wanted to do the browns on the wall and then have baby blue bedding but the bedding I was watching was not going on sale at an affordable price and so during a mall trip with Aaron we stopped into a Pottery Barn Kids. If you know me, you know that I don't buy things unless they are on sale. However, when they are on sale it means you can buy as much as you want, after all you can't afford not to get it because you would have to have it anyway and so I basically spend the same as the next person, just I come home with twice as much stuff. Not really "saving money" but hey. So in PBK, this particular bedding was like 70% off. I paid like $25 for the quilt and bumper each and $14.99 for the crib skirt, and I had to throw in the valance (at $14.99) and rug (at $69.99) because I was saving so much I could justify it. People, the rug was originally $300. Now do I know how to shop, or do I know how to shop? Ok, maybe I was just lucky. So anyway, there you have it. Finished product, and feel free to pick my brain for decorating ideas in the future! :P

(2) Wed Oct 24 2007 16:33 7 things: First, I was tagged by Jenni (http://hootieshowl.blogspot.com/) Anyhow, now I get to tag 7 people on their blogs and follow these rules :

1-Link to your tagger, and also post these rules on your blog

2-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird

3-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs

4- Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog

Here they are: 1.I love to get into a deep strategy game, or just any board game I really enjoy.

2.In 4th grade I was hospitalized for pneumonia.

3.I love natural light. I always have to have the blinds and curtains open during the day.

4.Much to Aaron's lament I am a multi-tasker and I prefer to be multi-tasking. He calls me a busy body.

5.I still have my baby blanket and Lily insists on sleeping with mine and Aaron's including all of her own.

6.I was the fastest girl in running the mile in my PE classes in elementary school, middle school, and also on the tennis team in high school. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

7.I had an earring in my left upper ear when I was 18 for about a year.

So Erin has taken all my people so in addition to them, I will add my sister Julie: http://juliebrowne.blogspot.com/

and some cousins: Rachel http://www.crummy.com/rachel/

Susie http://www.crummy.com/swishina/

John http://www.crummy.com/traffic/

Leonard http://www.crummy.com/

Jill http://www.crummy.com/jill/

and brother Joe http://www.crummy.com/joe/