What Monkey Has Learned...

Since I took some time off from posting, you might not be aware of some of Monkey's new tricks, so let me share them with you:

1. Rolling Over. Yup, my big boy has learned to roll from his back to his front. Sounds exciting, but there are some caveats. He can only roll to his right side, he can't roll back, and he has no control over his rolling (I mean it, it's hard wired in him that he must roll over no matter how tired he is). So, what we've learned is that no matter what you think, no matter how impossibly small the space seems, Monkey will roll over and then he will cry because he can't roll back. Oh, and goodness me, don't EVER lay him down until at least 60 minutes after his bottle. Hmmm, he is kind of like a mogwai (come on 80s kids... you know the mogwai - pre-gremlin) in that he has 3 basic rules: 1) Don't leave him alone anywhere, 2) Don't lay him down after feeding for at least 60 minutes, and 3) When he rolls over be prepared to roll him back.





















2. Grabbing. He can unclench his fist and grab things. But since Monkey is my son he is rather peculiar about this grabbing thing. He will only grab things if they are dangling from the bar on his bouncy chair, dangling from my head (my hair), or hanging off Daddy's chest (his hair). He isn't interested in grabbing any old thing you know. And when he does grab, make sure it is something you don't need because his grip is serious and pray that I've cut his talons.

3. Smiling. Oh my, we smile at everything. It's that giant toothless grin that is just awesome. His three favorite things to smile at are (in no particular order): 1) Mommy's hair - the curls must do something to the light because he LOVES it, 2) The sounds of the letter "W" - it's a no-fail - who knew, and 3) Pretty much anything Daddy does - he is a funny guy.

4. Evading Sleep. Apparently, sleep is for the weak and Monkey is not weak. This child will fight sleep up to the very end. I kid you not when I tell you he almost fell asleep sitting on someone's lap the other day. And the worst part is that he won't always cry, he will just pretend all is well. This is why I have pictures of him sleeping in his bouncy chair, floor, and swing. These are the places he lost a battle... but he is still waging the war.

5. Watching TV. Much to the chagrin of his parents, Monkey watches TV. No Monkey is enamored with TV. And what does he love the most - football (E-A-G-L-E-S). I make myself feel okay by saying it is really just the movement and the colors that he likes but I am secretly (and now not-so-secretly) concerned that he will turn into Mike TV from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

6. Thumb Sucking. Yay for self-soothing. No more looking for pacifiers, putting in pacifiers, holding in pacifiers, losing pacifiers, well - you get the picture.


(This picture shows both thumb sucking AND watching TV - possibly even evading sleep)

7. Manipulating Mommy and Daddy. Now, this is advanced thinking ya'll because the manipulation is not the same for the both of us. To manipulate Daddy all Monkey has to do is cry. It doesn't have to be a wail, a simply cry to indicate that he doesn't like whatever is currently happening (sleeping, in bouncy chair, not being fed - whatever) and Daddy will immediately remedy the situation. Mommy however, has a very specific manipulative factor. When Monkey doesn't want to sleep (see previous point) he will cry in his crib. Mommy will go upstairs with the intention of patting him, telling him it's okay, and then leaving him there. But, what happens is that when Mommy bends over to pat Monkey, he locks eyes with Mommy and delivers a GIANT toothless grin. Mommy is completely powerless and Monkey gets to come downstairs to fall asleep in his bouncy chair, on the floor, or in his swing.

There are other small things that I won't bore you with and there are new things every day. It is a complete joy to watch his personality emerge. Now, if he could just learn to roll back all would be perfect (but then this blog would be called This is Perfect).

Bonus Post

Okay, since I was gone for so long (and since Mr. Monkey Pants is still sleeping off yesterday's party) I'm going to throw in a bonus post for today, but don't get used to it. I already did my obligatory "story about my life" post so now it's time to do a "sharing" post. I'm going to share with you one of my idiosyncrasies... one that is so weird you won't even know what to do with yourself. I change every one's and every thing's name.


You already know two of my targets. Brian, my wonderful husband, quickly became "Bubs." Evan, my amazing son, has almost always been "Mr. Monkey Pants" (credit to my mom but I don't think she realized how far Brian and I would take it) and now he is simply "Monk." I can't wait for the first day of school when the teacher calls out names and my son has no idea that his name has been called because I will have to register him as "Evan" for school.


I've also renamed every single cat... and we have 4.




This is Bubba Cat Castrucci (nee Assisi). Bubba came to me through a friend's fiancee who was a vet. Someone found Bubba on the steps of a church, St. Francis of Assisi, and thus his original name. It took a few months of me living with him to see how sweet and laid back he is (I hum "dum de dum de dum de dum" whenever he walks) to realize he needed a different name. What was more perfect than Bubba? And he has been that ever since. Sadly, he will only came when I call him "Assisi" so he hasn't embraced his new name the same way Bubs did.








This is Lucy. Brian found her on the Internet (different website from where he found me, but doesn't he have some mad Internet skills?). She was an alley cat and when she was "rescued" her foster mom named her Lucy because of her red hair. Then she came to me and I starting calling her "Lucy Goosey" which quickly became "Goose." Poor Lucy, she became a whole other animal.






















These are the kittens (almost 4 years old now, but they will always be the kittens, the same way the first two cats, the fluffies, will always be the classics). The gray one was originally named "Saber." What?? She was so not a "Saber" so we (I use "we" out of respect for my husband because I totally chose the name, but he claims he did, so I'll say "we" did) changed it to Isabella and now she is Bella, or bel-bel - depending on if she is being bad or goo. Or, more often, I refer to her simply as Gray Cat.





Her brother (literally, same litter) was named Socks because of his white feet - how original. And he has pretty much kept that name except I started calling him Socksie-Biloxi which eventually led to just calling him Biloxi. Unless he is trying to get Brian's attention and knocking things off the counter, then he is Bad Cat.





So what does all this mean? At first I didn't care, I just thought it was odd. But then I realized it had to mean something... I'm thinking it's purely an ownership thing. I think, for me, in order for me to "own" you I reserve the right to "name" you. And the naming comes from your personality. In this way, God help me for what I'm about to say, I'm kind of like Michael Jackson. He didn't want to name his children until their personality shone through. The only difference is I'll give you a temporary legal name until I figure out what I'm going to call you.

Oh, and in case I haven't said it recently, the fact that Brian and I have a wonderful son, 4 kooky cats, friends to say goodbye to, and a move that doesn't break our bank... well - this is as good as it gets!

The Morning After

Thanks to everyone who came to our brunch yesterday. I had a really good time and I appreciate the work you did on emptying out my refrigerator.

For those of you who didn't attend, this should make you jealous:


This was the "br" portion of the brunch. There were bellinis, juice, frittatas, a crustless quiche (which tasted a lot like ricotta cheesecake... yummy), some sort of puff pastry thing I made and tons of other yummies.











This was the "unch" portion and the dessert portion - not included in the word. We had London broil and roast beef, salad, cuties, raspberry thumbprints, pizzelles, and other good sugary stuff.











And this beautiful sight is my almost empty fridge (yeah) and I'm happy to say that very few things went back into this fridge. What a beautiful sight.












But the one thing I can't figure out how to manage is visitors and Mr. Monkey Pants (who has know been completely abbreviated to Monk - poor child). He didn't take his morning nap yesterday so he was exhausted when people showed up. But I know they wanted to see him, so I left him up. He feel asleep on my old boss, then on me, then he went down for an hour and that was it for the entire day.

He may seem like he is happy playing here, but look closely. Yes, those are bags under his eyes. My baby has bags under his eyes. Oh, and this picture was taken about 5 seconds before complete meltdown.















The poor Monkey - it's tough being the cutest baby in the greater Austin area.

All at Once

Something you should know about Brian and I is that we tend to do everything at the same time. Like how we got married and bought a house within months of each other. I think he thrives under stress and at some point stress just makes me laugh so the more the merrier.

So, what are we doing all at once this time? Not only did we just have a baby... but we are moving to Atlanta. Yup - Brian and I, Evan, and the 4 cats are all packing up and shipping out. For some reason this move feels much more complicated (more on that in a later post) and so I figured why not also throw in a going-away party? Since we have friends all over the place, it would make more sense for us to do it. Oh yeah, and I'll make everything since I want to clean out my fridge and pantry.

And so, here we are. It's noon-thirty the day before our brunch, thankfully Evan has decided to take some sort of nap today (failed at the first attempt but the second one was definitely successful) and I want to share the insanity with you, because that is really the point of insanity - to share it.

To clean out my pantry and refrigerator I had to scour the Internet for recipes. Some, like the London Broil marinade, are tried and true, but some are new. But those of you reading this who will get to eat it, don't get too excited - for me, recipes are more of a suggestion. I've already altered one of the frittata recipes - yummy!

And this is the inside of my fridge. Look at all those eggs - lots of frittatas to make. My goal is to have all of this gone (or most of it) by Monday. I hope everyone is hungry!

This is my kitchen counter top which will become the coffee station. I'm a little anal about parties. I list out all of my dishes and drinks and set everything out as soon as possible to get it positioned and cleaned.

And the pear nectar will become Bellinis.

This is my dining room - more dishes waiting to be filled. Not sure where I'm going to put everything tonight but I'll know before I go to bed.

I'm sure a normal person would have just donated their food, had a few dinners with friends and moved on to their new city. But, I'm not normal and I believe in sharing food. Hopefully I can post pictures of an empty refrigerator on Monday.

It's Been a While...

Wow, it's been a while since I posted and a lot has happened (hence while it's been a while). I am going to try and be better about posting but don't look for a daily post.

To commemorate my return, I wanted to provide you with the top 10 reasons why I haven't been posting:

10. Laundry. Oh my goodness there is a lot of laundry. Burp bibs, onesies, towels, sheets, changing table pads, and anything else that can be pooped on, peed on, or spit up on. Laundry takes time.

9. Visitors. Apparently, when you have a baby people want to meet said baby. And while people will give you a break on your cleaning standards since you recently gave birth, they still need a place to sit and a bathroom to use. This all takes time people.

8. Sleeping. Sorry, but when baby slept so did mommy. There was no posting going on.

7. Leaving the house. This takes time and preparation when you first start you. You have to remember to get the diaper bag ready, get the baby ready, put the baby in his car seat, bring the car seat AND the diaper bag out to the car, go back in to get your car keys because you forgot them inside... etc.

6. Being with baby. Contrary to what anyone tells you, there is a lot to do with a newborn. I had to stare at him in awe for hours. I had to touch him to make sure he was real and check to make sure he was breathing and make sure I didn't miss one cute thing he did.

5. Routine. His changed. I used to blog at the same time everyday and then that time became an awake time. I never gave blogging a new slot.

4. Laundry... did I mention that there is a lot of laundry.

3. Computer. Ours is in our den. About 50 feet away from where Mr. Monkey Pants hangs out and there is a wall between. Therefore, I can't watch him and blog at the same time.

2. Life. Yeah, it's this little thing on my "to do" list every day. It includes cooking dinner every night (or almost every night), cleaning, running errands, taking care of 4 cats, 1 baby, and 1 husband, having fun, and all those other miscellaneous things.

And the #1 reason is...

1. You tell me, when you have free time would you rather post or spend it with Mr. Monkey Pants: