Christmas 2012

Christmas is a time to brag about the amazing presents you got, so here I go:

-a new camera from the bf! I've been wanting to take actual pictures of Harrison and not just iphone pictures that kinda actually suck in comparison to a real camera, so it's perfect!
-stemless wine glasses from my sis. Let's be real here, having stemless wine glasses makes you a cooler person.
-a new curling iron. I was a little too excited about this one, and I have admitted to myself that I probably spend way too much time in life on my hair. But, when you are born with the hair of an certain ethnicity when you are not that ethnicity, and your hair is extremely thick and textured, you have no choice.
-a Birchbox subscription. If you have to ask what Birchbox is, you are dead to me.

I also got a bunch of other kewl presents, but I don't want to make you too jealous.

We were a little concerned this year if Harrison was going to make the nice list. He is a naughty one most of the time, and were expecting to see coal. However, he pulled it together just in time, and Santa brought him some awesome gifts. His favorite (ahem... my favorite) is the giant ducky bathtub.

Thanks Santa 

 In other news, Harrison tried some new foods over the Christmas break. We attempted giving him sweet potatoes. As per usual, he LOVED them... until he got a wicked rash all over his body, I freaked out, and swore him off solids for the next month. However, it did make for some awesome pictures.

FASTER!!

Gimme those taters

Did I get any on my face?

 And then there's this.

Do you like my jew fro? It's just like yours, Mommy. 

I would have written a longer post, detailing the amazing time I had visiting with family, playing with Harrison's new toys, etc etc but he just woke up so stay tuned.

an A+ in Sleeping 101

I realize that the last time I blogged was Friday, shortly before the news surfaced about the tragedy in Newtown. I'm not one to drone on about political/social issues, but I do just want to say that it definitely put things into perspective for me. My last post was full of complaints, about petty things, but after hearing about the devastation that occurred, not only to the families of the victims, but to the entire community, I realized that I have a lot to be thankful for. Especially my little angel, Harrison.

Before I completely contradict myself with a bout of complaints, I have a progress update for you. The past few days have been really challenging with the little one. Yesterday, I pretty much cried as much as he did, with the exception of when my stepfather brought me Starbucks, and my mom's Bacon Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese and that thoroughly cheered me up. I've basically boiled all of his behavioral issues down to his lack of sleep. So, over the past few difficult days, I decided it was time to put my foot down and get the kid to learn to sleep without 30+ minutes of violent, brain-shaking rocking.

I never thought I would be one to let him "cry it out" just because, as I've mentioned, the sound of his crying pulls at my heart strings and often makes me cry along with him. It's a painful scene. However, it was time. Kid needs to learn. Plus, with Christmas coming up, I didn't want the precious time with my family interrupted by 30 minutes or more of nap-coaxing each time he gets tired.

If you think I look like death, you are absolutely right.

We started three days ago. It was all spurred by a night that he woke up from a pretty deep sleep, with the tantrum of all tantrums. Since nothing we were doing would help him stop crying, Dave suggested (thank god) that we just let him cry in his crib, where at least it wouldn't be making us go deaf. After 5 minutes, I went in to check on him, gave him back his pacifier that he spit out in anger and misery, and he was out like a lightbulb.

I had tried this method before, and it did NOT work, so now I figure that maybe he just wasn't ready. After three days of letting him cry in his crib for a few minutes, and finally put himself to sleep, I am crossing my fingers, praying to the lord above, knocking on wood, etc etc.. that he has finally learned this sacred skill. The nap he is currently taken begun with absolutely no fighting it or crying!

I'm sure you all care so much about my growing insanity due to Harrison's sleep issues. In short, I didn't want to complain about the ways Harrison challenges me, I just wanted to congratulate him for winning the "Most Improved Baby" award.

The only thing cuter than a sleeping baby, is a sleeping baby with wrist rolls.  

The world might end tomorrow, and today being only 5 days until Christmas, I might as well list everything I'm excited for incase it's tragically taken away from me by aliens and/or a meteor.

1. Family. Obviously, this is an exciting part of the holidays, but this Christmas has some extra exciting elements. For one, my bro in law still has not met Harrison. FaceTime does not count, so Harrison will finally be meeting the kewlest black member of the family, Dom. Another first-time meeting for Harrison is my Aunt Leslie! She is coming all the way from Colorado to join us for Christmas, which is amazing for one, because she's Jewish, and two, we haven't seen her in a few years. I am jumping for joy. And as if I even have to say it, I get to hang out and drink wine with my sister for 5 days straight, so pretty much nothing can be better in the world (assuming it doesn't end, of course).

2. Food. I have a recent obsession with cornbread, and make boxes of it only to eat the entire pan myself. The last pan I made was consumed in it's entirely over two days. Sorry I'm not sorry. The point is that I will have other delicious foods to choose from soon and this is much needed. Sustaining one's self on cornbread and cornbread alone is not advised. A sampling of our Christmas menu includes: bacon blue cheese Mac and Cheese (which I got to sample last night and is AMAZING), beer bread as per my request after reading my sister's blog, and crack brownies (use your imagination).

3. Resuming my role as the Christmas Nazi. I was given this title after repeated years of taking full control over many elements of our Christmas celebrations. I am the designated gift passer outter, simply because everyone else was too slow at picking out gifts to open, and I wanna open that shit asap. I also do not let anyone else touch, decorate, contribute to, arrange gifts, and basically do anything other than look at the tree. This is my job and I do not want your help. It will only get in my way.


I am, for once, done with Christmas shopping and wrapping before the very last minute. Are you done with Christmas preparations?

We can't bathe

I have a little bit (or a lot) of complaining to do. And no, it's not about Harrison as one would think (he was a bad boy yesterday so I have some pent up resentment). It's about my apartment.

Don't get me wrong- there are parts of this place that I love, like the two bathrooms, our HUGE bedroom, and being able to walk obnoxiously loud to piss off the guy below us. However, the longer I've lived here, the more I'm noticing is wrong.

Our stovetop has four burners, three of which are tiny and don't fit most regular sized pots and pans, and the only normal, adequate sized burner is broken. Ask me if I've called our landlord to get this fixed....

There are a LOT of spiders.

The roof looks like it could cave in at any moment.

The laundry "facility" contains two working washers and zero working dryers. You must pay quarters to use the machines, so you are paying for seeping wet clothes.

And then, there's this:

No, we didn't add a mixture of food coloring to get the water to turn that horrible color. That's just how it comes out of the faucet. For some reason, the water comes out clear when we take showers, but if we try to take a bath, we are met with that beautiful sight.

This wasn't so much of an issue until recently. Judge me all you want, but Harrison was not getting daily baths. To all of you gasping in horror at how negligent that is, just know that all of the "experts" say that little babies should not get baths more than 2-3 times a week, because it will dry their skin out. So there.

He's also just outgrown his little bath, so we need a bathing facility for him. Obviously, our bathtub won't work. We try giving him baths in the sink, but scrubbing the sink with a magic eraser every day is stupid annoying.

The dilemma is this: if our landlord won't get over here to fix a burner... there is NO WAY he will fix the plumbing for our shower. Meaning, we will probably have to take this issue up with the Housing Authority department because bathing ourselves in water that color MUST be a health violation, or at least I would hope. I CANNOT give Harrison sink baths every day for the next 8 months, so this must be tended to pronto. I can't even explain in words how annoying this situation is to me, but if you can imagine the endless phone conversations I'll probably need to have between the Housing Authority and my landlord, and the probable month(s) it will take to get fixed... you can imagine my pain. Or should I say Harrison's pain at being the world's stinkiest child.

Do you hate calling your landlord as much as I do?

Big Boy Food

What I'm about to share is a true story. The other day, I was sitting alone with nothing but my thoughts, and I thought to myself, "I just remembered I have a blog". I don't know what came over my deranged mind, but for a short period there, I subconsciously suppressed my own blog. And that's the story of why I haven't blogged.

Normally I feel like I have nothing going on in my life to share, but since it's been a while, a lot has happened! Harrison had his 4 month check up with the pediatrician and all is well. Plus, a few of my neurotic anxieties were calmed, like:

-his head is not misshapen as a result of my terrible parenting and always laying him flat on his back
-he does not have shaken baby syndrome. And before you jump to conclusions- sometimes I have to rock him very violently to get him to sleep. I made the mistake of reading "What to Expect the 1st Year" which informed me that even small movements that you wouldn't think would harm the baby, can actually shake his brain around inside of his skull. So ever since then, I have to choose between rocking him the only way that will put him to sleep and fear ricocheting his brain around, or let him scream and thrash in my arms.
-he's actually a pretty normal baby and not the spawn of the devil. Apparently all babies have peculiar behaviors.

We also had the joy of starting solid foods! That phrase kind of sounds sarcastic, but it is not at all (not yet anyway). I always knew Harrison would be a chow hound, simply because of the enthusiastic way in which he nurses (enthusiastic is a polite way of saying it hurts like hell for me because he goes AT IT).  It took him only two meals of the rice cereal for his fat kid self to show its true colors. He went to town. It was pretty funny for Dave and I to watch, because he was literally lunging towards to spoon to get more. He finished the whole bowl, and probably could have gone for seconds. As my sister said, there was never any doubt that as a member of our family, he would love food.

What's all over my face?

You suck at this, I can do it better.

Last weekend was a Chrismakkah extravaganza. Dave's family came out for both Hannukah (no, they're not Jewish. Something about wanting to celebrate the roots of Christianity), and an early Christmas for Uncle Jamie, who will be in Colorado over the holiday. I'm not one to brag... wait, yes I am.. so let me say how perfect our tree is. I pretty much picked the most beautiful conifer known to man.

I also made out with a lot of great gifts! My favorite might be the huge box of diapers. No lie.

Tonight, we are going to a Christmas Dinner hosted by one of my bffs from Geneseo. I am excited because this dinner falls during Harrison's witching hour, so my parents graciously offered to babysit and save me from the wrath. Despite this, my parents are excited to feed Harrison his big boy food and bathe him. Can you think of anything more exciting?

Working Out for dummies

I know I'm a little late to this, but incase any of you were wondering, my Thanksgiving went great! The bread was miraculously edible! It tasted great, just was a little dry. Harrison slept through the entire meal, which was yet another miracle.

One of the nights, we got into Dave's old baby pictures, and I have to share the findings. I also must note that prior to this discovery, I had no idea who Harrison looked like. I've been told he has my eyes, Dave's nose, etc... so I guess I could distinguish certain features, but overall, thought he looked like neither. Until now..

Harrison at 3 months

Dave at 3 months 

Tell me that's not like a mirror image? Just put a little hair on Harrison's head and that is the same baby. 

I also got a few workouts in over the long weekend. HA just kidding. I mean, for me they were workouts, but for the normal person who actually exercises more than once every 9 months, they were simple tasks. First, Dave and I had an intense dance battle via Kinect's Dance Central. After about 4 dances, we were both sweating balls, winded, and ready for a water break. This made me feel a little better about my own endurance (or lack thereof) since Dave was equally out of breath. Sweating = a workout, right?

Next, Harrison and I competed in our first 5k! And by competed, I mean walked. I pushed the stroller along at a quite leisurely pace, Harrison slept, and we still managed to pass people. I've never walked a 5k before, so I'd say this was a PR for both of us.

When we got back to Brockport, I had the brilliant idea to put this thing together.

Disclaimer: ladies, a little advice- if there is ever some sort of baby contraption that needs to be assembled, always, ALWAYS have your significant other do it. Up until this point, Dave has put together every other baby accessory- the swing, crib, mobile. I would look on and think: I don't need to offer any help, he's got this, piece of cake. 

Oh no. I was wrong. I consider assembling this silly thing to be my third workout of the week, because I was sweating equally, if not more, than I was during the dance-off. I laughed, I cried, I acquired injuries. And it was all for nothing, because for one, Harrison's feet don't even touch the floor when you put him in it. He has an inch or two left before he'll be able to use it safely. Two, he was content for about a minute before he started wailing. So much for that project. At least I got some cute pictures of a naked baby.

Quick Bread woes

This will be my last post until at least next week. Sad, I know. We are travelling to Watertown for Thanksgiving, and my boyfriend's family has something I didn't even know still existed- limited internet. As in, no wireless. I'm not even sure what method they use, but it definitely doesn't allow me enough time to blog. 

I am very excited for Thanksgiving at the Porters' though, because Dave's mom is an excellent cook. I often have to force myself to not take thirds of her cooking, but seconds is unavoidable. Needless to say, I will be wolfing down her food similar to how I wolfed down my mom's on Saturday. Thank god for all the calories I'm burning producing milk for the hungry hungry hippo. 

I wanted to bring a dish to share, but this makes me extremely nervous, since comparing my creation to Lisa's creations is basically a death sentence. I will be bringing scalloped corn. Don't ask me how I settled on this, or why. As if my cooking will never compare to hers anyways, I'm apparently making their grandma's recipe of this dish, so I am completely doomed. Why did I think bringing corn to a farmer's Thanksgiving, people who specialize in corn for a LIVING, was a good idea? 

I decided it was necessary to make a test run of the dish, just to make sure it wasn't poisonous. I made the test run for our Fakesgiving last weekend, and it wasn't half-bad! Almost the entire casserole dish was gone by the end of dinner! I think that's a good sign??

Then, in a delusional state, I thought bringing a second dish would be a good choice. It's Melissa's family's brown bread recipe. I was introduced to it a few years ago, when I went to their Thanksgiving, and have been addicted ever since. My reasoning was that it would be nice to bring one dish that was expected, and a second as a surprise treat. 

Call me crazy, but I've never baked a quick bread before. I'm hindered by the fact that my mom's are just too delicious- why bother making my own? I'm additionally hindered by our g.d. oven. As a renter, I don't expect top notch appliances, but this oven really shits the barrel. The temperature dial is no where near accurate, so it usually runs at least 15 degrees hotter than you set it at. I've tried to dial back to adjust for this discrepancy, but somehow I always, always manage to burn things.

To my delight, the bread had been in the oven, smelling delicious, so here I was thinking things were going smoothly. When my timer went off, I go to pull the bread out only to see that the edges are starting to burn. But, here's the kicker- the inside of the bread was still mushy. Meaning that it wasn't fully cooked throughout, but I couldn't put it back in the oven in fear that the edges would burn even more. BUST BUST BUST. Strongly considering just not even bringing that one. 

Doesn't even look good

I then had a minor freakout telling myself that I will never be a good cook or baker, and I will just quit while I'm ahead now, never to cook or bake again.

The food you give me is delicious, Mom!

But I'd rather eat my foot

What's more exciting than a new layout?

Welcome to my new blog! Quite frankly, I think it looks pretty spectacular. You are not allowed to have a different opinion. hah but seriously, it took me all of yesterday morning to perfect it. I was practicially hypnotized by my own blog, because I physically could not do anything until it was complete. You may not think it looks pretty enough to warrant 3 hours of my time, but yes, that is how long it took me. So I hope you all appreciate it. Especially since I had a different template design settled on within 2 minutes, but my sister informed me that many of my readers would refuse to read centered text, and since the text was locked for that template, it was bye bye to that. You're welcome.

I feel like I have a lot of useless information to update you on. Sheila's fish recipe was a big hit, and she has plenty more where that came from, so I suggest you go look at them. And while I'm in my shoutout section here, I have to thank Rachael for saving my blog's life. She was the genius who suggested how to fix the design of it.

Fakesgiving was splendid. Harrison was a cranky boy as per usual, wouldn't nap as per usual, and had to be held in rotation while we ate dinner as per usual, but we're all used to it now so we still had a great time!

Starting his modeling career early

I would have to say there were dual highlights. First, and most obvious, was my mom's cooking. I wolfed that shit down like I was on Survivor and hadn't had a real meal in 30 days. Second, was Marc getting drunk off of red wine, and claiming that it was like Alyssa and Eric's wedding all over again. Many of you will not be able to appreciate this for how great it is, but when Marc gets that drunk, it is easily the most entertaining thing anyone can experience.

We found a recipe for a Christmas cocktail. I'm not excited or anything

Today is Dave and my 2 year anniversary. Harrison decided to give us the greatest gift of all, and slept through the night last night. Granted, he went to bed around 8:30, and I woke him up for a little late-night snack around 10:30, but he didn't wake himself up til 6. I call that a victory. Not sure if that technically qualifies as "sleeping through the night" since I did feed him once in the span that he was asleep, but in my mind, it does.

This is how he fell asleep last night- sitting up. 

Other than that, our anniversary night tonight will include the riveting activities of Dave studying for his CPA exam, and me watching the results show of Dancing With the Stars. I am dying of anticipation for such excitement.