Saturday, February 26, 2005

I arrived in Washington, DC earlier tonight. It's very cold outside, but quite lovely. I haven't been here for a couple years. I flew in to Reagan National because I always enjoy driving past the Jefferson Memorial on my way into the city. It's my favorite of all buildings. Since this whole week will be extremely hectic, I decided it was important to keep a good sense of humor...a little pet project to keep my mind off of this behemoth conference.

Judah received a traveling gnome in his stocking this past Christmas. Up until now, he's been traveling around in the car, but had not gone on a trip. So, I packed him up in my suitcase and here he is on his first night in D.C. As you can see, he fancies 800 count pima cotton bedding and presidential biographies.


Gnome Gets Settled in DC Hotel Posted by Hello

Micheal will be taking Judah to his Gran's house tomorrow. A whole week on the ranch to play with the cows, horses and dogs. One of his favorite activities is riding around on the tractor. Micheal will be joining me in a couple days on his birthday.

I'm always so wound up my first few nights in a hotel. I should be sleeping right now, but I am wide awake. So much in my brain -- room set-ups, audio/visual, logistics, logistics, logistics.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

I am pulling a work late nighter, listening to the Gospel station on Yahoo!LaunchCast. "Hosanna" by Kirk Franklin is playing. That man pulls me right out of my shoes with his absolutely stunning, powerful voice. He's got pipes like Teddy Pendergrass!

I listen to gospel music sometimes when I need a bit of a lift. Kirk always does it for me. A very special reason that I adore him, besides the fact that he is from Fort Worth, is that about four months ago, Micheal bumped into him in Judah's doctor's office and Kirk blessed my son.

Judah's new words this week:
  • Pasta
  • Work
  • Sandwich

I leave in just a few days for Washington, D.C. It is going to nearly kill me to be away from my son, and thank God I see Micheal for part of that time since he'll be with me for about 2 days. Judah is going to the ranch to stay with his Gran. I think this time it will be especially difficult since he has been sick a lot and has been home with me nearly all the time. He's my little buddy and it is going to be tough leaving him. NINE DAYS AWAY FROM MY BABY! Ugh.

So, today, I was getting Judah ready for daycare when he got this peculiar look on his face. I felt him tighten up, and so I flipped him over and he vomited his entire breakfast. Fortunately, I had laid my bathrobe out on the ottoman under him, so it caught everything, but he freaked out when he saw what he had done. Vomiting is so scary, not matter how old you are. He has been barfing for a couple days now. No fever, just congestion and recovering from pinkeye. All systems normal, basically, except for that one thing. He threw up on the way to church on Sunday (so we didn't go). We thought it was because he drank a whole bottle of water within 5 minutes. Then, he did it again Sunday night after playing in the park with his friend Miles.

It hasn't happened again since breakfast even after eating a bunch of Kashi crackers, jello and two cheese sticks for snack and pasta, tomatoes and buttered bread for lunch.

The weather is about 80F, so we spent some time outside. He likes to put this flowerpot riser on his head and wear it like a halo. Here is a picture of him wandering around the garden with his halo on (see how cool it looks with the sun shining on him? It was a fitting effect.)


Saint Jude Posted by Hello

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Our sweet child has pinkeye. He managed to be 100% healthy for...oh...one week! Last night he came home with red, glassy eyes and this morning had eyelashes covered in crust. He stayed home with me and we had an "all pajama" day.

His appetite has been voracious this past week. He has to be experiencing another growth spurt. I have been giving him extra snacks to keep him full. He now likes to pull up his shirt and pat his belly. This is something I used to do when I was little. I would curl up beside my Grandpop in his easy chair and we'd compare who had a bigger pot belly.


Judah with Electric Hair Posted by Hello


Judah's new words of the week:

  • Hahpoo ("Harper", a very pretty blonde girl in his class who giggled with him through naptime last Friday)
  • Night-night (when he wants to go to bed)

I found out today that my pregnant sister-in-law, who is due in July, is having another boy. The name they are considering at present is "Rope".

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

It just isn't a real visit to California without a car chase!

I am watching a car chase on the O.C. evening news that has been going on for 1:25 hours. It is rumored to be a shooting incident and the victim is in the trunk of the car on the phone with 911. This all started in Koreatown. He's was on the 5 Freeway going about 100mph, but now got stuck on residential streets, so he's only going about 40 mph and I guess if he wants to make a clean getaway, he needs to figure out how to get back on the 5. I guess the LAPD can't take him down since there's a victim in the trunk.

It just cracks me up that there are so many car chases in the Los Angeles metro area. It seems to be a favorite pasttime as the news anchors are giving all sorts of little factoids about how the police and public "typically" respond to these chases. They're saying things like, "Well, typically the chase only lasts for a short time as the car runs out of gas" or "this isn't the way we usually see this done." They are offering up all these little factoids like this happens every day.

I wish this guy would run out of petrol so I could go to bed! I want to see how it all turns out.

Update: The driver just went into a neighborhood and got blocked in on a cul-du-sac with a big fishing boat parked in the way. They checked the trunk and there was no victim. There were about 30 LAPD officers and they pulled the guy's pants down around his knees so he couldn't run. This guy is toast! But, wait....who was on the phone with 911???

Monday, February 07, 2005

It was bound to happen eventually. Judah likes to take the cordless phone and "call people" (he is typically calling some random sequence of numbers that don't actually dial out and will chatter away at the dial tone or busy signal). He really uses his imagination and has conversations that last five or more minutes that include "Hello, yeah, {{{gibberish}}}, OK, Bye!". I encourage him to do this because he is starting to speak to his Grandma and Grandpa when they are on the other end now.

So, today Judah finally pushed the buttons I've hoped he'd avoid. He called "9-1-1-1-1-1-#". I could hear the phone ring, so thought he had hit the redial by accident. Imagine my horror at what I saw on the display. Sure enough, two seconds later, emergency services called to ask if everything was okay. How embarrassing! (I wonder if this happens a lot?)

I just wrote to my 2nd cousin, whose infant son had to have surgery to repair his saggital suture (it fused too early), a condition called scaphocephaly (a type of craniosynostosis). He has a big zig-zag scar from ear-to-ear across the top of his head and was just fitted for a cranial orthotic helmet to reshape his head. My son had to wear two DOCbands for four months each for plagiocephaly. Luckily, our insurance covered both bands. Hers denied the claim and so I just spent the last hour researching the status of a bill that had been introduced to the 108th Congressional session - S. 977 - which in a nutshell was introduced in hopes that insurance companies would be required to cover procedures to correct congenital deformities in a minor child. (The bill has been sent to a committee and apparently deferred). I feel so horrible for her (and angry!) because it is hard enough to be a new parent, much less go through all of this.

In other news, our car died this past week and we just got it back on Friday night. I am so traumatized by my finances right now, but can only buckle down, be money smart and hope for the best.

Micheal went bowling with his men's church fellowship group on Friday night. Judah & I played with Weebles, his abacus and trains while watching the Counting Crows on Direct TV "Freeview". I am not a fan of theirs...they don't bother me one way or the other, but he loved the mandolins, etc., so I kept it on for him. Saturday morning, I met a few moms from playgroup at a local tea shop for our "Sad Sisters Sewing Circle" (we meet to knit, talk and have tea & scones while our children are home with their daddies). Saturday night, we went to our friend Mimi's birthday party. It was a great party, only I had to be home by 11pm, so I could put Judah to bed. I was happy to see my friends, especially since we never get together very much anymore. Stephan Pyles, one of the greatest chefs in the nation, and highly regarded for his Southwest style cuisine, was at the party. My old friend Peter was bartending, which was a surprise to bump into him. He runs a catering business and was hired by the party hosts. Today, I slept in and then went to church to teach Sunday School. Today's lesson was "People Love Me" and we talked to the kids about unconditional love. We read The Runaway Bunny and then they made construction paper bunny ear hats to wear home.

I am leaving for a trip to Newport Beach, CA tomorrow to facilitate a strategic planning session for 15 CEOs. I haven't had a lot of time to prepare for this, so it will be 75% "winging it". I've done four others, though, so I think I can handle it. I'm working all the time and it's wearing me out. I can't wait for March 8, which will be the day after our last big conference ends and I can take a vacation for a few days to unwind and plan my department retreat which will be in Puerto Rico for 8-10 days in July.

I hate leaving my family tomorrow. I get really depressed when I am away from Judah. It's just not natural for a mommy to be away from her child.