Thursday, March 24, 2005


Anemone by Judah (2005) Posted by Hello

Two nights ago, I cut a couple kitchen sponges into fish shapes and laid out finger paints and crayons for Judah. We had a really great time painting, talking and laughing. Here is one of Judah's original works of art. He really enjoyed smearing the paint with his hands and when it was complete, I thought it looked a lot like fish swimming above sea anemone.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Must. Make. These. Turkish Slippers.

My Gangy (great-grandmother) crocheted hundreds of slippers for family members and every Christmas we would be given bags full to choose our favorite color combos. Every pair of mine now have big, gaping holes in the soles and now that I am a bonafide knitter, I want to make slippers for the whole family. I am anxious to buy the Simple Crochet book, so that I can crochet these lovely Turkish slippers, which are very aesthetically pleasing to me.

But first, I must finish my super top-secret gifty that I am making for a dear friend, which is taking 4-evah!

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Judah is such a peach. I don't know how I could possibly love him any more than I already do, but then he'll do something new or funny or unexpected and I marvel at how this little man entered my life and rocked my world in such an absolutely amazing way. Micheal had a meeting at church, so Judah and I spent an hour in a local tea shop enjoying a snack and me relaxing with a cup of black tea/darjeeling with toffee bits melted in. He sat in my lap chatting about "cups" and "hot tea". On the way out, he saw the moon and said, "Bye Bye Moona!" This is a combination of the English moon and Spanish luna.

Judah also hit a major milestone today. Since he turns two years old in a couple weeks, I decided to start discussing the potty with him - casually at first, but starting to bring it up more frequently. I don't want to pressure him to potty train yet for two important reasons: 1) he was a preemie, so he has an extra 'grace' period, and 2) he isn't exhibiting all the classic signs of readiness quite yet, though he is doing things like being extremely fastidious and being on a very predictable poop schedule. About three days ago, I started asking him each time he pooped if he had done so, while patting my behind. Within one day, he was repeating me and I would say, "Go tell Daddy." He would go into the living room and pat his behind saying, "Daddy, I pooped." This afternoon, he patted his behind and informed me, "Mommy, I pooped. I pooped, Mommy." I patted his pants and couldn't feel anything. "No, honey, you haven't pooped. Maybe you pottied?" I proceeded to tell him that potty is in the front and poop is in the back. He started crying and insisted, "Mommy, I pooped. Poo poo." Still not feeling anything in the trunk, I just let it go, because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Then, five minutes later, he pooped. He gave me advance warning! What a major accomplishment! He is becoming aware of his bodily functions!

The Saga of the Boo Boo
On Friday, I opened the Lazy Susan so Judah could play with the cooking pots. He accidentally dropped a copper lid on his toe. It hit at an angle that left me wondering if he might have broken his toe as he screamed bloody murder. He got a nasty scrape and I learned that bandaids don't come in small enough sizes and that kids don't like bandaids put on toes, even if they have Spongebob Squarepants printed on them. I figured that once the crying had subsided, the antibiotic ointment had been applied and a lot of kisses has been dispensed, he would feel better about things.

Apparently not.

Since Friday, he will be playing, relaxing and eating when every once in a while, he remembers his toe got hurt and will point at it saying, "Boo boo, kissy. Boo boo!" (usually involves crying or major whining). Then, he sticks his foot up to your face expecting it to be kissed. Sometimes he puts the opposite foot up for kissing and we have to remind him that his boo boo is on the other foot. Tonight on the way home, he informed us, "Boo boo, shoe, kissy."

Hot Zone (...and I don't mean Hi-Wi)
Micheal brought me a note today from daycare that one of Judah's classmates got a staph infection, so I pulled him out of school within the hour. I really don't want him to go back, but his pediatrician said it should be fine and that we just need to check him over really well for any non-healing sores or pimples that crop up. I had an 18 year-old cousin die when he was in college from a scratch that got infected. My mom said it was a staph infection, but I had thought it was a strep strain called necrotizing fasciitis. It has been so long that I can't remember, but no matter...I don't want Judah coming down with anything.

Dumb Things I Do Sometimes
Micheal's dad and sister came up this past weekend for a volleyball tournament. We gave them our bed and made a pallet on Judah's floor. Around 3am, Jude woke up and started crying, so in a fog, I reached in between two crib slats and pulled a blanket up around him, reinserted his "wowie" (pacie) and as I pulled my arm out, it got stuck at the elbow. I have put my arms through the crib slats hundreds of times, but it was not budging. Now, at 3am, when you're disoriented and you're in a "tricky pickle" (as my friend Heather calls difficult situations), and well, you're ME, you start thinking of all the possible extreme outcomes.

  1. I will be stuck here forever and Micheal will have to spoon feed me.
  2. We will have to call the fire department.
  3. Someone will have to saw through the slats to free me, destroying my son's divinely lovely Chris Madden $500 cherry sleigh crib.
  4. Save the crib! Amputate the arm!

After about 10 minutes of sitting there contemplating the fact that I might have to ask someone for help, I finally got the nerve to wake my husband. "Honey, get the Vaseline. I'm stuck in the crib." Micheal, being a good person, got up, brought the Vaseline and just as he was about to pitch in, I raised my arm higher and higher trying different spots in the slats for a wider spread. My arm finally came out on its own! Hoorah!

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Bill and Ted's (Not So) Excellent NCAA Adventure

I tuned in via Yahoo Sports to the live audio feed of the Penn v. Boston College game at about 2:38p ET. The game was scheduled to start at 2:55p. So, apparently the play-by-play announcer didn't know it was live on the air already and was griping out the control booth because they said they wouldn't start the broadcast feed until 2:58p. He said, "Well, if you guys want to miss the tip-off, that's your problem, but you've been late all year. I mean, you know, the game is going to start at 2:55 and you're going to be late." He went on and on and on chewing them a new one. They must've realized he was being broadcast on the internet, b/c it suddenly went quiet.

Sure enough, despite his griping, they started broadcasting promptly at 2:58p and not a minute sooner. The play-by-play voices sounded like different (new) people who are named "Bill" and "Ted". Not sure who the other guy was or if he still has a job after that little episode.
I haven't posted in a couple weeks because the conference I worked at in D.C. took about 18 hours of my life each day that I was there and now that I am home, I have been spending all of my time with my family. The weather was gorgeous last weekend, so Judah and I went to the park about four times. He is such a brave little boy, particularly loving the "big kids" spiral slide - a very heart attack inducing thing for his mommy!

The highlight of my week during the conference was escorting Senator Barack Obama to the stage where he was interviewed by Campbell Brown during our one-day educational summit.


Senator Barack Obama  ©2005 by Teri Sobel Posted by Hello


Because he was the first speaker and had a tight turn before he had to leave for Capital Hill, there was no photo opportunity for me and I was so worried about observing proper protocol, that I didn't dare ask. I led him from the front door of the Hyatt down an elevator, through the side corridors of the ballroom and to the back stage. I also led him back out once his interview was over, but I can say one thing for certain. In that 15 minute period of my life, I felt the charismatic aura of this great man and I believe with all my heart and soul that he is destined for great things (I can only hope he runs for U.S. President someday!)

For the next few weeks, I will be quite predictably tuned in to all things NCAA. If anyone has anything to say to me, they will have to wait between game time. Because March Madness has descended upon my household and has once again taken charge of my soul. (Go Duke Blue Devils!).