called it

our weekend turned out pretty good after all.

when i wrote that last blog post, i really had a feeling jack had an ear infection...but he never gets a fever with those (a common telltale sign) and since there's really no way to KNOW if they have an ear infection unless you bring them in, i still hesitate a little. for jack, my telltale sign are those horrendous mood swings, so i figured we were onto something. i took him to urgent care on saturday and wouldn't you know -- double ear infections.

poor little monkey! we got him some amoxicillin stat and fortunately, contrary to his last ear infection, he loooves the stuff and asks for "mo! mo!" after each dose. i'm pretty sure he is feeling better already because he spent the morning running in circles around our kitchen island saying "go go go!" he still won himself a free pass from church, though, so i went alone today and spent three hours trying not to fall asleep with all my newfound alone time.

since we had that mystery solved, b and i still had our date night last night. (not too awful to leave your infected toddler with a sitter, right? ;) we picked up take out from our favorite lot no. 3 and went to lincoln square cinema. for some reason washington hasn't caught onto 21st century movie theater technology and lincoln square is the only stadium-seating theater near us. worth it!

the artist was amazing and i hope it wins all the awards tonight at the oscars. (btw, did you know that "attend academy awards" is actually on my bucket list? i've been officially obsessed with that show since i was little...but i realize at this point in life my best bet for attending is probably via some type of make-a-wish foundation and seeing as how other required conditions for that type of activity are far less than desirable, i'm not holding my breath. but a girl can still dream. and yes laura w. i'm officially jealous of you ;) it's a silent film which was super fun -- reminded me of my film class days when we'd screen movies from the 1920s. i love how the absence of dialogue makes you focus so much more on the acting, music and cinematography to learn the storyline. as someone who grew up in a family trained to communicate frequently through movie and tv show quotes, it's always a little disconcerting to lack those speaking parts -- but i totally loved it all the same.

after the movie we went to starbucks and holed up at a table right next to the window and just sipped caramel apple cider and talked. that might have been my favorite part of the night.

cookie therapy

omg. toddlers are the worssst.

jack screamed his head off pretty much the whole morning. visited a cute elderly couple from church...he cried so much the adorable old man decided to go take a nap halfway through the visit, despite the fact that the adorable old woman kept bringing in old cars and trucks from her "grandkid stash" to try to distract jack. nothing more embarrassing than two people (who raised 6 kids) observing your clueless, inept parenting skills. drove to joann's fabrics (i live right in the middle of two joann's fabrics and BOTH are 20+ minutes away, so annoying)...he screamed the whole way. did okay IN joann's because there were plenty of cool things to pull off the shelves and throw on the floor. drove home from joann's...screamed the whole way, except for the 5 minutes of peace i got by feeding him a fruit strip; once that was gone it was back to screaming. got home, tried to feed him lunch...more screaming, back-arching, plate-throwing, etc.

what to do? i just put him to bed of course -- my go-to response when i don't know what else to do with the kid. he fell asleep within 4 minutes. i then proceeded to the kitchen and ate 4 chocolate chip cookies, which i baked last night and have already regretted. sometimes you really need some cookies.

i think i'm just in a bad mood overall. boring work week, a few personal setbacks, too much comparing myself to other people. i can't WAIT for the weekend mostly because we finally got ourselves a babysitter (could not get one. single. person. to babysit over the past three weeks!) and we are finally going to dinner & to see the artist, something i have been dying to do for a month now. that is, assuming we are still going. b has an ear infection (i know this because a doctor come to our house at 1:30 a.m. last night...i didn't even know you could get a doctor to do housecalls, thanks microsoft) and we all know how well men handle pain / sickness. he & jack have had the same snotty, coughing cold all week so who knows, maybe jack has an ear infection too and that explains all the screaming. or we could just chalk it up to molars, growth spurt, deep hatred of everything i do, etc.

also, you know what's weird? the fact that my life is pretty much compartmentalized based on how much we've moved. i'm working on creating volume 2 of my blog-to-book series (2009 - 2010) and i've almost forgotten about all the crazy stuff we did. things like chasing crazy people through subway stations and touring movie landmarks and happy babysitter-free weekends in LA -- things that totally make up who i am, though none of my current friends would even know about them. i miss those days.

so anyway. i think i'll take the afternoon off.

cool shades

after seeing how much jack hated the sun in az, i decided to break down and get him some toddler sunglasses. [sorry, but am i the only one who thinks baby sunglasses are hideous? they're just so dorky looking.] imagine my surprise when i found these bad boys in the target dollar section. and jack thinks they're more cool than i do! so, you know, it was a win.

man i love this kid.

desert weekend

last weekend, the 3 of us took a quick trip to lovely phoenix, arizona. my grandparents, aunt, uncle & cousins live there and i had been missing them -- not to mention, ditching seattle for some nice desert air in the middle of winter is always a good idea.

jack LOVED checking out all the cactus, throwing rocks and playing outside in the sun. except when that sun got in his eyes. he cried a lot and kept rubbing his face. it's so sad how quickly we've become no-sun people! boo. 

we went out to eat, read books, slept in -- a relaxing long weekend was just what the doctor ordered. one day during naptime, b and i even squeezed in a kid-less trip to the pool! 80 degrees & a sunburn in february? yes please. 

the best part, of course, was spending time with my family and doing a little sight-seeing. one day we went to arizona's largest candy store and it was probably the highlight of my weekend. behold, a whole aisle of sour candy! wowza. 

jack hates taking pictures, but he loooves my aunt's dog, maddie. he chased her all over the house and even let her lick his face. he helped my aunt take her for a walk two nights in a row, by holding onto the leash and walking around the entire neighborhood! not a small feat for those little legs. and, after dining on my uncle's amazing filipino cooking skills for two meals, i was happy to accompany them on said walks. 

we also went to a model train exhibit, which was probably jack's favorite part of the weekend. he was SO amazed by the trains that drove around by themselves -- i was amazed by the intricate, detailed tiny villages the owners had created. guess i wasn't aware that this is a huge hobby for some people. takes my polly pocket collection (circa 1995) to a whole new level. 

jack loved spending time with his g-grammie and g-granddad! this photo [snapped by b when we were walking out of church] just warms my heart. 

thanks for a great trip, az! obviously jack was heartbroken to leave. hopefully we'll be back soon!

rough morning

i think we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. i was tired [been staying up too late and getting up too early all week], jack was grumpy [6 molars, a runny nose and the typical frustrations of being a 1-year-old] and only so much mickey mouse clubhouse can fix that kind of morning, especially when it's only 830 a.m.

so what did we do? went to target, of course. the solution for all of life's quandaries. except for the requisite car ride...which jack let me know he did NOT like. though he looks merely sad and pathetic in this shot, he was actually pretty pissed. mama was having a rough day.

by the time we got there, it was raining. surprise, surprise. this is a pretty typical view for me these days...target parking lot, rain, cranky kid. ha.

once we were inside, life was better. i found some turquoise slip-ons, jack found a loofah sponge with a rubber ducky head, all was well. i even let jack play in the toy aisle, which turned out to be genius because five minutes later our BFFs monica & violette randomly showed up in the same aisle. it was an official party.

finished up, grabbed our groceries and headed home so the dragon could eat lunch and go to sleep. which he is currently still doing, for almost the past 3 hours. guess he was tired! i am really, really grateful for naptime. i think both moms and kids need it very badly.

unexpected

oh, hey. yes, we're still alive. it's been a busy week around here! b spent three days in tampa and atlanta last week, flying around on msft's private jet, no big deal. jack and i occupied ourselves with plenty of play dates, work meetings and SUN!

we had the most gorgeous five-day sunshine spell over the weekend and it was glorious. i guess my last post was a good omen. i mean, come on! 60 degrees in seattle in february?! what is this, miami beach?

we went to the park a few times to take advantage of the vitamin D. i keep a towel in my trunk at all times for our impromptu park outings, since even if it's sunny all the equipment is still wet and needs mommy to wipe it down prior to use. jack is too funny -- whenever we're driving in the car and the sun shines on him, he cries. guess we're official seattle-ites. here he is, playing in the little train at the park -- notice how he chose to sit only in the shady spot.

today, we got a quick reminder that things always work out for the best. the company b interned with during business school announced that they're closing down that office & moving the business to another state. if you recall our job hunt saga, he had originally hoped for an offer from them -- and if he had ended up working there, we'd now either be out of a job or forced to move far away. i feel really blessed by how things worked out!

and, my work is -- as always -- busy. i think i have a problem with taking on too much ;) it's all so fun though, and i feel lucky to be able to do work i love. being a mom is my favorite thing and still takes up most of my time -- but once naptime comes around, i'm off to my computer to be a professional again for a few hours.

this week i have worked on a TON of random, separate projects including the following: DIY party crafts, women's bidets, all-natural drink mix, online retail business, child abuse prevention author, blogger campaign. i also attended two local blogger meet-ups, one of which i hosted as founder of seattle bloggers unite. yeah, i know. i'm crazy.

sometimes, when i do things like write a pitch about a bidet or say "jack, please don't lick the carpet" or realize i'm not actually living in california like i always thought i would, i stop for a second and think -- WOW, my life is really weird right now. i may be doing things i never expected, but it's pretty dang fun all the same.