Ode to Frank Sinatra

I've often wondered what it was going to take for me to feel like an 'adult.' 

I've gotten married, graduated college, had a 'real' job, birthed a child, achieved silver status with the Delta SkyMiles program - but none of it made me feel like a grown up. 

And then, yesterday, it happened. 

I was driving home from work listening to the local pop station as I usually do.  There are a few songs out right now I really like (I can't get enough of this one or this one).  But, for the most part, it's pretty crappy music.  So, the radio DJ informs me that he's going to play the new song by Usher, Scream.  Immediately, I'm excited.  My mind imagines a fun song reminiscent of Usher's reign over the year 2004-2005 where every song he released was AWESOME. 

Then I heard it.  Honestly, the sound is alright.  But, the lyrics.  I actually had to change the station.  I thought what is the world coming to? And then I realized - the song isn't any more offensive then "Yeah," I'm just generally offended by pop music (don't even get me started on "Wild Ones"). 

And so it happened, I'm an adult. 

So, now, I must express my sincere appreciation for my Michael Buble Pandora station and the music of Frank Sinatra and his contemporaries. 

Let's do a compare and contrast, shall we? 

Some lyrics from Usher's previously mentioned single (Note: Subtlety is not his strong suit.  Note to men out there: Subtlety is sexy): "I see you over there, so hypnotic. Thinking 'bout what I do to that body.  I get you like ooh baby baby.  Got no drink in my hand, but I'm wasted getting drunk of the thought of you naked. I get you like ooh baby baby...Got one life, just live it, just live it.  Now relax and get on your back."

Some lyrics from the Sinatra song "Make Someone Happy" that came on while I was cleaning last night: "Fame, if you win it, comes and goes in a minute. Where's the real stuff in life to cling to? Love is the answer, someone to love is the answer. Once you've found her, build your world around her. Make someone happy. Make just one someone happy and you will be happy too."

So, thank you, Mr. Sinatra, for reminding men (and women) everywhere that there's nothing wrong with a little tenderness.  That there is more to love then lust (however marketable).  And that, eventually, we all become adults and realize that love, not lust, is what we really wanted anyway.

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Mondays.

Mondays really are the hardest day of the week. 

Not just because:

1) They signify the end of the weekend.
2) Between me starting the work day at 7:30am and Geoff ending his work day at 9:30pm, it means I've got five straight days where I see him for about 3 hours a day. 
3) I usually wake up to find that I really DO wish I'd finished that load of dishes the night before.
4) I go from having driven the 2011 Kia Optima all weekend to driving the 1994 VW Passat. 

But mostly because after spending two straight days at home with my boy - leaving to go to work is the worst.  I cherish my weekends so much these days.  Will and I have such a great schedule figured out.  Between grocery shopping, visiting dad at work, and cleaning together on Saturday and church and cooking on Sunday (not to mention a lot of playing, napping and, sometimes, skyping with grandma) our weekends are wonderful. 

I'm glad he gets to spend his days with his dad...but every Monday breaks my heart just a little. 

And I even like my job.  So, I guess it could be even worse!

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Where's Your Money?

So, I was thinking about baby names the other day.  And, no, I'm not expecting more children anytime soon. 

I happened like this. 

I spend a lot of time at Walmart.  There is a Super (Dooper) Walmart about a mile from my house and it's a go-to most days of the week to grab what I've forgotten here or there. 

And, thus, my mind began to wander (as it so often does) and I thought what if we had to name our children after the places we spend the most discretionary money? 

With the amount of time I spend at Walmart and Burlington, we'd have Wally and Burl. 

Geoff's visits to McDonald's and DQ would certainly end us up with a Ronald and Queenie. 

But then comes the question - how do you name your child after Tutti Fruiti (self-.serve frozen yogurt bar)?

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Arachnophobia

So, I'm afraid of spiders. To anyone who knows me, this is not a surprising statement.
It all stems from a night of terrible parenting (thanks mom), when, at the tender age of 5, I was allowed to watch Arachnophobia.  It's a terrible movie by anyone's standards, but the premise of deadly spiders running rampant and attacking [and killing] people was pretty upsetting. 

Yet, I had managed to come to terms with the 8 legged creatures and had no trouble killing them when they had the unfortunate happenstance to saunter into my presence. 

And then, it happened.  I've never really blogged about this event before.  Mostly because it occurred pre-blog and I really try to forget it ever happened.  But, since that fateful day, the sight of a spider (or pretty much any creeping crawling thing) leaves me feeling dry-mouthed and covered in pins and needles for hours. 

I was sitting at my desk in the old BYUB building in Utah.  I was working on data entry, I'm sure, when I felt a slight movement on my head (I will have you know, just writing this story is making me feel light-headed).  I instinctively reached up and ran my fingers through my hair to clear out whatever was on my head.  Into the trash can [conveniently] located to my right fell the largest spider I have ever seen with my own two eyes. 

I exaggerate not, it was the size of my palm.  The only witness I have to event was a fellow student employee who took my trash can, killed the spider and then proceeded to examine him to see if he was poisonous. 

I think I was in shock.  I didn't scream.  I didn't cry.  I just was frozen.  Said student employee commented on how well I handled the situation.  I tried to sit down at my desk and finish the work day - but, honestly, I couldn't.  I mean - WHERE DID THE SPIDER COME FROM?  How did it get on my head?  Did that mean it had crawled up my body?  Or my chair?  Or had it come dangling down from above and plopped there?  None of the prospects made sitting at that desk remotely possible for the rest of the day.  So, I found non-desk-related work to keep my busy...although I've never spent so much time looking over my shoulder or running my hands through my hair. 

Now, whenever I see a spider, I instinctively run my hands through my hair - an action I have taken about 20 times while writing this tale - and then (after killing the little monster) abandon whatever task I was doing for something seemingly spider free. 

So, the moral of the story?  Spiders suck. 

Carry on.

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Normal

6 months ago I never thought my life would be normal again.  I never thought I manage to cook a meal, clean the dishes, renovate a bathroom (ha!), plant a garden, or reorganize a basement - let alone complete an 8 hour work day, every day.  6 months ago I just thought I'd be lucky to sleep a full night or manage to eat breakfast ever again. 

And now, 6 months later, life IS normal.  A bit of an ammended version of normal - but a great kind of normal.  Will is now old enough to more-or-less entertain himself for 30-60 minutes.  This means he can come outside in his exer-saucer or his pack and play and join me in the sunshine while I pull weeds or tend to my garden.  He can join me in the kitchen and giggle at me while I try to remember where I now keep the pasta since I reorganized in there.  Or watching me intently as I make a mess pureeing his favorites. 

He now goes to sleep without much of a fuss around 7:45pm each night, leaving me ample room to clean up a bit or tend to whatever tasks I neglected the day before (or to neglect whatever tasks I want to put off until tomorrow). 

Life is surprisingly - normal.  So normal, in fact, that sometimes I can't even remember what life was like before Will joined us.

I'm so grateful to be his mama. 

In other news: we planted a garden in our garden area of our yard.   Tomatoes, peppers, peas, green beans, radishes, carrots, and summer squash are all (hopefully) on their way to us. 

Will had his 6 month check up.  6 months!  He weighed in a 15.1 pounds and 25.25 inches.  He's a little dude, but healthy and happy.  I keep telling him he can stay little as long as he wants!  :)  When Geoff was 6 months old, he weighed in a 14.4 pounds and 25.25 inches.  Very similar men in my life!

I miss blogging.  I used to be kind of good at this.  I'm going to try to figure out how to get back into the blogging swing of things.  Maybe go back to public...

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Parker Family Recap

So, as usual, it's been awhile since I've posted.  Between work, baby care, cooking, cleaning, meal planning and shopping, bill pay, general errand running, laundry, being bitten by the spring cleaning/organization bug, and general lack of desire to look at a computer screen outside of the office, it's been hard.  I won't lie. 

I love blogging.  I was reviewing some posts from awhile back and realizing that my blog used to be FUN and random and it's so full of memories!  I'm sad that it's been a bit neglected and that some of the newer memories we've been making with our little man-face won't be documented here (like, for example, the trip we took to Utah in April for a family party and Will's baby blessing - I'll try to blog about that all some time!).  Alas, I'm not here to make any grand promises of change - because blogging is just SO far down on my priority list.  But, when I do have a minute, I'll do my best to keep from getting too far behind. 

So, here's a little recap on the fam (we'll end with Will in a ploy to try to get you to read through to the end):

Geoff: Geoff is taking finals this week.  This means he is just TWO semesters away from graduation.  He's already registered for all of his classes through to the end and it's starting to feel pretty real - although still daunting.  He's a rock star in my eyes.  Juggling full time school, full time work, and full time day-care for the Willie Bean is some serious work, and he navigates it like a champ.  Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that it's all worth it for Will to be at home with his pop and not in day care full time (both from a nurturing and financial standpoint). 

He is still working as a pharmacy tech during the nights and weekends and Will and I love to visit him for lunch breaks on Saturday and Sunday. 

Amanda: I'm doing well.  Will is slowly, but surely, starting to sleep better during the night, so that's helping me to feel a little more like a normal person.  I'm pretty much always exhausted, but it's operating procedure at this point, so I function pretty much as normally as possible.  In fact, recently I've begun to feel more and more normal - regaining my ability to clean and cook with any sort of consistency.  Haha. 

Work has been swamped and it's a little overwhelming, to be honest.  Pre-baby, when things got like this, I'd just stay until 7 or 8 at night and tie up my loose ends.  Now, since I both need to and want to spend that time with Will, my work hours are filled to the brim and beyond.  I'll probably need to start doing more work after he goes to bed to make sure I complete everything, but it's all still a learning process and I'm learning how to juggle as best I can (ensuring that Will comes first always). 

Geoff and I were making a list of all the improvements we've made to our house the other day and feeling pretty proud of ourselves.  In 18 months, we've put in a new kitchen sink and light fixture, put in a new (and AWESOME) ceiling fan/light in the dining room, added a deck and french doors to the back of the house, fenced in the yard, re-did the upstairs bathroom, and replaced the homemade swingset with a firepit in the backyard.  And I was pregnant for 50% of that time!  :)

Will: When we last left off, Will was just approaching the 5 month mark.  Well, this week he'll be 6 months old.  It's unbelievable how fast time passes.  He gets smarter and stronger by the day and it's so much fun to watch him grow. 

Foods he has now had: Rice Cereal, Oatmeal, Bananas, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, Pears, and Peas.
Coming this week: Potatoes and Carrots. 

He loved the pears, but pretty much eats anything with a happy heart.  Sometimes he'll make a little face at first when the flavor or texture isn't what he expected, but then he'll take more...and more.  He eats a LOT.  He's probably up to 5-8 tablespoons of food per meal in addition to his bottle.  I'm certainly anxious to find out his weight as his 6 month appointment in a couple weeks.  I'm still making all the baby food and I've found that I rather enjoy it.

He's getting to be a better mover (rolling and scooting around on his back) and I'm betting he's within a few weeks of sitting.  He loves music and books and his sippy cup and his face lights up when Geoff or I enter a room. 

So, all in all, the Parker fam is doing good.  Tired, perhaps.  Busy, indeed.  But good.  Happy.  And excited for the future. 

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4 Months and Beyond

So, I know it's been a long time since I've blogged.  I apologise for that.  I have a lot of things I could blog about.  Including, but not limited to: airport changing tables, baby sunglasses, injured Pelicans, and bathroom remodelling. 

However, I wanted to do a quick blog post now about Will at nearly 5 months so I can document some of his skillz (with a z) and growth.  I've got all of it written down elsewhere, but I'd like it here, as well.

At his last weigh in (at 4 months 1 week, or 19 weeks, however you want to count it) he was 12 pounds 15 ounces and 24 inches long.  He's certainly not a big fellow.  He falls into the 5th-10th percentile for both (which means he's the right weight for his height).  Looking at Geoff's baby book, he was a pretty little baby at this age as well. At 6 months, Geoff was 13 pounds and 25.5 inches.  So, if that's any indication, it appears that Will may be built more like Geoff (I was 16 pounds at 4 months).  But, we'll see!

He rolled from back to front for the first time just last week on 3/21/12.  He can now roll all directions, which is kind of fun.  He likes to sleep on his side - rarely will I come in and find him sleeping on his back anymore. 

His favorite toy currently is (what we call) his bumblebee.  It was gift from his great-grandma (Geoff's grandma) and he loves to talk to that thing and to chew on it and squeeze it.  He also really likes his Sophie giraffe (which I like to call Geoffrey the Giraffe, for obvious reasons) and his Baby Einstein saxophone. 

If he's not hungry, sleepy, or wet - he's happy.  He loves to smile and giggle and play and is so curious about the world.  Church is already growing difficult for me because he doesn't like to sit still or just play on my lap for an hour (let alone three).  About 15 minutes in, he's bored and he wants to go do something else.  Saturday was the Relief Society birthday party at church and we spent most of the day reading the bulletin board (he couldn't stop looking at all the colorful paper/words) since sitting in the chapel wasn't working for him. 

He loves to read.  If he's getting sleeping or cranky, but I'm not quite ready to put him down, I can just pull out a book and he's happy until the story ends.  I'll read and he'll just stare at the pictures (and sometimes gnaw on the end of the book). 

We started him on solids (slowly).  So far he's had rice cereal and bananas.  He enjoyed both.  Tonight we are going to introduce peaches.  Next week is going to be sweet potatoes and apples(auce).  So far I've been making his food on the spot (mashing a banana with some breast milk is not intensive work), but I'm going to start making some baby food each week to freeze.  I'll make the potatoes and applesauce this weekend so it's ready ahead of time for him.  I'm excited for spring and summer to come, because I'll buy whatever fruits and veggies are in season and cook/freeze them so he'll have a good variety through the fall and winter. 

Lastly, Will went on his first business trip!  Kind of.  I had a work trip last week and Will came along.  Grandma G met us in Tampa, FL and acted as nanny for the week while I was at work.  He traveled like a champ and got to go to the beach for the first time.  He couldn't have been cuter.

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