Stay Classy

Friday Fluff

Yeah... so the Fluff hasn't exactly been around in a few weeks. So sue me. Why do you have to be so mean about it, anyway? And why are you looking at me like that? Stop LOOKING at me!

Kidding. Love you!

Anyway...

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An amazing thing happened last weekend. I was out, with adults, in adult settings, with no children, on both Friday and Saturday nights. I literally can't think of the last time this happened, but I know it had to be before Brady was born. Friday night was the Dancing with the Stars of Lincoln event, and Brady was home with a babysitter. Paul and I went downtown with some people afterward, and didn't get home until around midnight. This is big in my world as it exists recently.

Saturday night I went to see Every Little Step (which was fabulous, by the way) with my friends Summer and Barb while Paul stayed home with Brady and helped a friend revamp his resume. Seeing a movie is a rare, rare pleasure for me lately, and it always reminds me just how much I miss the whole movie-going experience. I need to do a better job of going to the movies more often, because it really makes me happy. Anyway, the night included great friends, cookies, vending machine art, a late-night run to Sonic, and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. What's not to love?_______________________________________________________________________________________

At the park today, a helicopter and an airplane flew overhead. Brady spoke about nothing else for hours. Tomorrow morning I think we're going to go to the Farmer's Market specifically to see the firetruck that hangs out there. The obsession with vehicles is alive and well.

Brady does seem to have a problem distinguishing trucks from tractors sometimes, though (let's be honest-- this is probably because I don't know what to call half the farm equipment that we see driving around), so he's been talking about truck-ters a lot lately.

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Doesn't it seem a little ironic that in order to get Brady his flu shot to protecthim from the flu, I have to take him into that hotbed of flu germiness that we call the pediatrician's office? I'm just saying. A mom can't win sometimes.

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The Daily Show has been on vacation for two weeks now. This is not cool. Paul and I are both losing the will to live. Come on, Jon Stewart... America needs you!

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Happy weekend, everyone!

Friday Fluff

So, dudes. Seth Godin mentioned Paul on his blog this morning. If you work in the marketing/sales/etc world, you know that this is a big deal (otherwise, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about). Suffice to say Paul spent literally all day answering emails and phone calls from all over the world from people who are now interested in working with him. This is a very, very good thing.

Speaking of the work that Paul has been doing that got him mentioned by Seth Godin (squee! I'm still a little giddy!), that's also the reason this blog has been a little quieter than normal this week. I've also been writing here, so my writing time is divided. All fun stuff!

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Yesterday was Brady's last Float for Life class, and he passed with flying colors. There my little boy was, fully dressed (even shoes!), floating on his back all by himself for over a minute. Hopefully he will never, ever need to use the skills he learned, but it's definitely nice to know that he could buy himself a little bit of time if (God forbid) he ever needed to.

They gave Brady a book, a rubber duck, and fruit snacks when it was over, so I think he was happy with the experience too.

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I think that fruit, yogurt, and granola parfaits (not the ones from McDonald's, though-- I need real granola) just might be my favorite food in the world.

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Julie, Bella, Brady, and I walked to the park this morning and stopped for lunch on the way back. Brady was starting to get cranky, and I knew he was probably getting pretty hungry. I told him we were on our way to lunch.

"Eat! Eat! Eat!"

"What do you want to eat, Brady?"

"More! More! More!"

Fair enough. The boy knows what he wants.

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Happy Friday, everyone!

Friday Fluff

Yay! It's Friiiiiday!

Brady finished his first week of Float for Life classes yesterday, and it's amazing how quickly he's adapting. The first day was a little rough, with a decent amount of crying and fighting his teacher. By Thursday he was reaching out to go with her, and didn't cry at all. He is now floating with her hand only under his head, and he knows how to get onto his back when the water gets too deep. He's also learned to flip onto his back when he goes underwater, and how to flip over when he reaches the wall. Plus, he's actually enjoying himself.

Can I tell you how glad I am that we decided to do this class? ________________________________________________________________________________________

After more than two weeks of comfortable, beautiful, below-normal temperatures, today finally got hot-- and of course, we're already whining about it. Julie and I tried to take Brady and Bella to the park this morning, but we gave up and turned back after about a block (we did, however, score some garage sale deals along the way-- Brady got 7 new books for $1.75!).

Of course, as far as Bella knew, the park was "closed" because of the heat. I completely condone lying to toddlers.

Instead, we went and sat on the porch and had Jimmy John's delivered for lunch. Much more civilized, I think.

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After quite a bit of the "should we or shouldn't we's?", Paul and I went to Nebraska Furniture Mart last week and bought a new dining room table. Brady's ready to move out of the high chair and into a booster seat at the table, and we figured a glass-top table probably wasn't the best place to do that. Plus, our old table was just plain old too small. We bought it when it was just the two of us, and even though there are only three of us now, it just feels like we've outgrown it.

Our new table is a beautiful dark walnut deal with 6 chairs and a leaf that can make it even bigger. It was delivered today, and I LOVE it. Pictures to come in this week's Project 365!_______________________________________________________________________________________

To add to the positives of living in Nebraska: the fresh summertime produce.

A co-worker and I just walked to the corner and bought fresh sweet corn from a little old lady who had set up a little farm stand. Her husband picked the corn this morning at a farm just south of here. Doesn't get much fresher than that!_______________________________________________________________________________________

Speaking of produce, I completely forgot how much I love watermelon. I bought half a watermelon for Brady last week, and it turns out he's the only kid on the planet that doesn't like it. So of course, I ate the whole thing myself. I was allergic to mellon as a kid, so I figure I have years of mellon-less years to make up for.

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Have I mentioned that Brady has learned to pucker up and give kisses? Cutest. thing. ever.

When I ask for a kiss now (which is many, many times a day), he'll pucker up his whole little face and lean in. That's usually followed by a hug, during which he lets out a big happy sigh. Be still my mommy heart.

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That's all for now! Happy weekend, everyone!

Friday Fluff

I have a new obsession. Last weekend, I stumbled across a marathon of "The Next Food Network Star", and I am totally hooked (I'm not all the way caught up, by the way-- so if you're a fan, don't spoil the ending for me!). I have 3 or 4 more episodes waiting for me in my DVR, and I'm anxious to get to them.

I think I like this show for the same reason that I read the circular ads in the paper for supermarkets where I don't even shop: food porn. There are no calories in just looking, right?_________________________________________________________________________________________

Spending every morning this week at the YMCA pool for Brady's swim lessons is bringing back all kinds of memories of the time I spent as a swim teacher at a YMCA in my hometown. For example-- did I ever tell you about the time I hit my boss in the head with a racket?

The pool supervisor when I worked at the Y in high school was a real piece of work. We'll call him Ed (not his real name). You know the type-- an overgrown frat boy who was always thisclose to getting sued for sexual harassment and wanted so badly to be best friends with everyone, which of course didn't make him anyone's favorite person.

Anyway, one night I was on the closing shift at the pool along with Ed and one of the other lifeguards who I was dating at the time. He and Ed were friends (probably should have been my first clue, right?), and they decided that we should wait until the building was all locked up and sneak onto the racquetball courts to play. I decided to go along with it, and even gave them fair warning that I am horrible at racquetball.

We had been playing for all of about 5 minutes when Ed decided to dive after a ball that I was swinging at. My racket caught him across the forehead, and I literally flattened him. As he lay there flat on his back, the purple bump above his eye had already started to grow.

For about a week, whenever anyone asked him what happened to his head, he said "Lauren attacked me with a racket". I was totally a local hero.

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Here's your daily dose of adorableness:

When Paul pulled into the garage after meeting me for dinner last night, the 3-year-old who lives next door was standing behind the car before Paul could even get out.

"What is Brady doing? Can he please play?" (It's our first official, "Can Brady come out and play?"!!)

Paul told him he was sorry, but that Brady had to take a bath and get to bed.

He says little Eli went running back across the lawn to his house, screaming "MOM! BRADY HAS TO TAKE A BATH!!"

Couldn't you just puke from cuteness?_______________________________________________________________________________________

There is a giant bag of fresh caramel popcorn about 3 feet from my desk right now. I have already had several handfulls. This is bad news.

As far as I'm concerned, caramel popcorn (it has to be really, really fresh) is one of the world's great inventions.

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Alright... I'm off to have another handful of popcorn. Sigh.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Friday Fluff

Obviously it's not true, but I feel like I'm the only person in the world who has to work today. It's veeeery quiet around here. Let's try and keep it that way, ok? Nobody go blowing your hand off with a firework, alright? I'm looking at you, random drunk guy who has been blowing things up since Tuesday.

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Last week, Paul canceled our cable tv service in a fit of rage. We had a cable/internet/phone bundle package, and our internet had been going out all the time for a matter of weeks. For someone who has been working mostly from home recently, this was apparently kind of annoying. Anyway, all I really know is that I heard a string of obscenities from downstairs (where his computer is), and a few hours later there was a satellite dish on my roof. He told me we'd actually save about $100 a month, which was enough for me.

So about an hour after he canceled our service, I suddenly couldn't get my email. Then it hit us-- our email addresses had been connected to that particular service provider. It didn't take long to get new email addresses from a new provider and a mass email sent out to all our contacts about the change, but for about an hour I was in kind of a panic. I had no idea how cut off I'd feel without my email. How would anyone contact me? How would I know if there were comments on my blog? What if I missed something important?

I may be a little too plugged in. Seriously. Life may have been better before all this technology. (But you know I don't really believe that for a second!)_______________________________________________________________________________________

Note to self: There are certain times of the month (ahem) when I should really refrain from "let's make decisions about our goals/dreams/direction of our lives" kinds of conversations. It only ends in totally irrational emotional breakdowns that will seem ridiculous in a few hours.

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I was totally planning to write about how freaking stressful mealtimes are with Brady (i.e. will. not.eat.) lately... and then he started eating like a horse over the past few days. My kid who wouldn't eat more than a few bites at each meal is once again wolfing down entire quesadillas.

I suppose I'll file it under "everything is a phase". No doubt he'll launch on another hunger strike shortly, and I'll forget everything I've learned and get all stressed out again. Sigh.

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In honor of my actually being home on the 4th of July, Paul and I have decided to go full-Americana and take part in all our little neighborhood's activities. We'll be out front for the kiddie parade tomorrow morning at 9, I'm bringing spinach dip to the neighborhood potluck bar-b-que tomorrow evening, and we'll be back on our lawn after dark to watch people blow things up (dudes-- my neighbors buy a lot of fireworks) in our cul-de-sac.

It'll be interesting to see how Brady does with all the fireworks. My guess is that they won't phase him, but after the sprinkler incident, who knows. But whatever happens, you know there will be plenty of photographic evidence!

Have a fun, safe 4th everyone!

Friday Fluff

It's time for Friday Fluff, the I'm Going on Vacation! edition.

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I have no idea why (well, maybe I have some idea), but I am a total ball of stress about leaving for LA tomorrow. Logically, I really have no reason to stress. We are pretty much all packed, our house/cat sitter is all set to go, and all our tickets/reservations/etc have been confirmed.

The only real question mark is how Toddler Brady will handle the flight, and I'm trying to get to a zen place with that. On that front, we caved in and bought a portable DVD player yesterday. It wasn't terribly expensive, and we figured that we'll have plenty of opportunities to use it in the coming years. Also, I have decided that tv limits totally don't count on travel days. I'm counting on Elmo and Barney to get us through.

I know I'm acting like I'm the first person on the planet to ever travel with a toddler, and I apologize for all the whining. Maybe I just need a glass of wine or something. :)

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On Monday morning, Brady and I went over to my friend Emily's house to hang out with Emily and her two daughters. Thank goodness Emily is so easy going, because Brady made it his personal business to empty all the tupperware out of her cupboards. At least it was plastic, right?

We had been there for about an hour when one of the girls asked, "Did Brady sit in a puddle?" Uh oh. I don't know if his diaper just shifted to the side or what, but he had a giant wet stain all over the front and back of his pants... and because I am such a good mother, I didn't have a spare outfit for him.

Fortunately, Emily and her girls pretended that it wasn't strange for Brady to run around their house and yard for the next hour or so in nothing but a diaper, a t-shirt, and sandals. Even better, her husband came home shortly after the incident. I had never met him before, so that was his introduction to us-- crazed Mom and half-naked baby. Oh, well. At least he knows the real us.

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Has anyone else noticed that Pushing Daisies is suddenly back on tv on Saturday nights? Wasn't it canceled? My thought is that they had a few leftover episodes that were already shot, and they decided they might as well run them. Saturday night doesn't seem like the time slot you'd give to a show you were trying to revive, right?

Anyway, if you haven't watched it, you should really check it out. I am in LOVE with that show. It's funny and smart and weird, and as a bonus they have Broadway actors on all the time (Raul Esparza! Kristen Chenoweth! Ellen Greene! Christopher Sieber!). 

With the loss of Pushing Daisies (well, maybe), Scrubs, and ER this year, I feel like the tv landscape just got a little less entertaining.

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Someday I will figure out how to stop Brady from putting everything in his mouth all the time. Now that he's cutting more teeth, the situation has reached epic proportions. At one point yesterday when we were over at Liz's, Brady literally tried to gnaw on the outside of her house. 

I must have sounded ridiculous yesterday. "Brady, don't lick the windows." "Brady, rocks don't go in your mouth." "Brady, you can't eat a xylophone."

Sigh. At least he's building up his immunity.   

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I think that's all my Friday Fluffy, pre-vacation brain can handle for now. I don't know if I'll be able to write much while we're away, but I'll do my best. Expect a ton of pictures (including a giant, 2-week Project 365 post) when we get back!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Friday Fluff

Between my continuing sleep deprivation and the recent onset of seasonal allergies like I haven't had in years, my fluff is a little less fluffy than usual this week. But ever onward, right?__________________________________________________________________________________________

Molly the Devil Dog (tm) has been abducted by aliens. Seriously-- she vanished sometime this morning, and we have no idea how she even got out let alone where she could have gone. We have searched every nook and cranny in our house, so we're figuring she must have somehow gotten outside. She's an indoor dog, so she doesn't even really know our neighborhood.

We've searched and hollered outside, driven around the neighborhood calling her, and filed a report with the Humane Society. Beyond that, I'm not sure what we can do. I suppose all we can do now is wait and hope that she gets hungry enough to find her way home.

My dad thinks we need to interrogate Peanut, but I don't think it's come to that just yet.

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On a lighter note...

Brady's newest word seems to be "tissue". After a few days of a runny nose brought on by two new molars making their way in, he will now come up to me with a face covered in snot saying "tisssshhhhuuu! tisssshhhhuuu!".

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? His little brain told his little mouth, "We need to figure out how to convey that we are not cool with all this snot!"

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At long last, here it is. Proof that I am a 1st Degree of Kevin Bacon (or possibly a Zero Degree-- there was some debate). Anyway, that makes you all 2nd Degrees!

 That's Paul, Kevin (we're totally on a first name basis now, of course), me, and Michael Bacon. Notice that the Bacon Brothers are wearing University of Nebraska t-shirts. Know your audience, right?

We didn't have a very long conversation ("Thanks for being here!" "We're happy to do it!" and the like), but I can report that both of the Bacons seemed to be genuinely nice guys. Also, in my humble opinion, Kevin Bacon is way more attractive in person. I've always liked him as an actor, but he didn't top my hotness list. In person, though, he's got kind of a rock-star edginess that I like. And now I'm blushing.

Anyway, the coolest part of the evening was probably the fact that I got to introduce the band. Rod and I waited backstage with them briefly, and then went out to a full, cheering house, looked out into the dark, and said "And now, what you've been waiting for... here they are... Michael and Kevin (I was given strict instructions to introduce them in that order)... The Bacon Brothers!" Very cool.

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Yay for Paul's show opening tonight! (Check out the write-up they got in the paper today!) He's very excited, and I can't wait to see it tomorrow! Some friends are coming over to watch Brady tomorrow night so Paul and I can go to the show and then to the cast party.

Of course, I would never wish Paul's cast and crew good luck... so break a leg, guys! 

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I think that's all the Fluff I have in me today. Happy weekend, everyone! 

Friday Fluff

Another Friday! More Fluff! Yaaaay!

Oh! And thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! You are the best!__________________________________________________________________________________________

I know I've mentioned before that Brady has started to kiss, but he really gets it now. He'll even do it when you ask now (most of the time)-- I'll say "Brady! Give Mama a kiss!" and get clobbered by a big, open-mouthed baby kiss. It's adorable and disgusting all at the same time. He throws his arms around my neck and presses his open mouth against my face, inevitably leaving behind a big drool spot. If I'm not careful, it seems to quickly transition into a kind of baby-vampire face bite. 

Just this week, Brady started kissing Paul too. He's in Daddy heaven.

In further adorableness, Brady has also started trying to say kiss-- although it mostly comes out "keeessssooooh". I tend to say "I'll kiss you!" before i give him a kiss, and apparently "kiss you" is all that stuck. So we hear "keeesssooooh" over and over all day long. 

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Why did it not occur to me that a 15 mile bike ride would be a lot harder when pulling a baby trailer filled with 25 pounds of baby?

Paul and I did a long ride last Saturday morning, and I wanted the trailer attached to my bike so that it would be there if I wanted to take Brady out some morning during the week (which I actually did yesterday!). So I was the one pulling the kid, and I was an exhausted, sweaty, sore mess by the time we got back.

I did feel like kind of a workout rockstar, though. (ps-- I know that 15 miles is not that impressive on a bike, but I'm still choosing to pat myself on the back, ok?)_______________________________________________________________________________________

Continuing on my streak of Sunday night depressing movies (Rachel Getting Married, Milk, Doubt), this Sunday night I watched Seven Pounds (actually, I think it was one of you guys who recommended it). I really liked it... but holy cow was it depressing. I had to start watching Forgetting Sarah Marshallafterwards just to restore my will to live.

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Oh, iPhone. How I love thee.

After all my whining and complaining and doubting and questioning, I finally conceded and let Paul buy me an iPhone for my birthday (how spoiled does that sound? I let my husband buy me an awesome gift for my birthday. Geez.).

Anyway, it was once again proven that Paul knows me better than I know myself. I wasn't sure I'd like it, but he assured me I would.. and as much as I hate to admit it, he was totally right. .

My favorite application so far (other than the practical ones, like Google Reader) is a game called Tap Tap Revenge. It's basically Guitar Hero for your phone. Totally addictive. I also love reading email and blogs on my phone, accessing Facebook on my phone, watching YouTube videos on my phone, and having full internet access on my phone.

Sigh. I'm all atwitter (I don't Twitter, but I could do that from my phone too if I felt like it!).

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Happy weekend, everyone!

Friday Fluff

Sometimes the speed at which the weeks fly by kind of terrifies me. How is it possible that it's already Friday again? Oh well-- on with the Fluff!_________________________________________________________________________________________

So it turns out that baby drool can be fatal to a Blackberry.

I was out for coffee on Wednesday morning and Brady started getting fairly fussy-- and the only thing that made him happy was holding my phone. I figured since there was no way for him to hurt himself with it, I would just let him have it. For some reason it never even crossed my mind that the phone would be the one in danger.

He soaked it in drool. I'm not even sure how he did it, but even the batteries on the inside were wet. I opened everything up and let it dry, but to no avail. It's toast.

This leaves me with a dilemma-- do I get another Blackberry or go for the iPhone? Paul is seriously trying to peer pressure me into the iPhone, and I think I'm starting to cave in. I'm not sure I need all those features, but it does sound like a lot of fun. I'm also a little afraid that I'll never really learn to use it.

Paul, though, is using my fear against me. He says that my emerging fear of new technology means my "Momification" is nearly complete, and soon I'll be saying things like "How do the kids use these new-fangled do-hickeys?". He claims the next logical step is Mom Jeans.

Let's face it-- I'm probably getting the iPhone.  

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When I watched Bella on Tuesday morning, we blew bubbles outside for a good 45 minutes. The only problem was that the strong wind (always! windy! in! Nebraska!) was taking them away before she could see them.

Bella: Miss Nauren, will you please make the wind stop?

Me: Miss Bella, if I could do that they'd probably make me Governor. 

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I've said it before and I'll say it again: my cat is a saint.

I was standing at the kitchen sink on Thursday morning when Brady crawled under the dining room table. When I heard the cat start screeching and saw paws flying, I immediately assumed the worst and started screaming at the cat. I had to save Brady!

Apparently, Brady was not the one who needed saving. What I found was a little boy with a clump of cat hair in each hand and under each foot, and a tiny little scratch on his arm. Peanut had run to into the living room and was fixing his mussed fur.

I have no idea what happened under that table, but I can't believe Peanut didn't hurt Brady. It's almost like somehow understands that he's a baby and doesn't know what he's doing. God bless that cat.

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It's not officially summer until you can buy cherries at the grocery store.

This week, I bought my first big bag of cherries.

Happy.

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You may find this hard to believe (I know I do!), but I actually have Memorial Day off. After years working in news, having a holiday off feels somehow crazily decadent. I have no idea what I'll do with myself (let's be honest-- probably not much), but the prospect of a three day weekend is really exciting.

Did I mention that I traded a computer for Memorial Day off? A few months ago, Rod and I were trying to figure out who was going to have to work that day. It was right about that time that Paul and I were looking to get rid of an old computer, and Rod was looking for a new used computer after his died. We were just going to give him ours, but he wanted to pay us for it. Finally I said-- "Fine. I get Memorial Day off, you get the computer."

I think we're both happy with the deal.

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I totally get to meet Kevin Bacon tomorrow night.

Rod and I are emceeing a charity event at the Rococo Theater, and the Bacon Brothers are performing.

Do you realize what this means? I'm going to be a first degree!

How will I stop myself from breaking into the Footloose dance?

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Happy (long!) weekend, everyone!

Friday Fluff

How can weeks feel simultaneously so long and so short? On the one hand I am, as always, so freaking glad that it's Friday... and at the same time, holy cow how can it be Friday already? I'm not sure how much sense that makes, but maybe you know what I mean.

Anyway.... on with the Fluff!__________________________________________________________________________________________

Since Brady is a happier kid when there's music on, and there's only so much Sesame Street music a mom can take before her head explodes, we've been broadening our horizons lately. Brady likes a beat that he can dance to, so I generally just put on the "Party Favorites" channel. It's a super weird conglomeration of songs, but at least they're all up-tempo enough for the little maestro.

This morning, though, as I watched Brady get his grove on to Womanizer by Britney Speaks, I started questioning my choice. I'm not opposed to Britney, but it was just kinda weird, ya know? Adorable, but weird. 

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For probably the first time ever, I have literally not seen one minute of American Idol this season. It's been a while since I was a regular watcher, but usually I have at least a vague idea of what's going on. Not this year.

So imagine my surprise this week when I caught a few minutes after I put Brady to bed and was waiting for him to stop screaming (more on that later) so I could go back to work. Holy cow-- that Adam kid is goooood. I actually went on YouTube and started looking up his other performances, and wow. Maybe the best Idol contestant ever??_______________________________________________________________________________________

Speaking of tv... waaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I'm seriously in mourning over the loss of Scrubs. Combine that with the fact that Lost is gone until next year, (what is with that, anyway??) and I may have to officially give up on tv.

Thank goodness for The Daily Show. In my opinion, Jon Stewart alone justifies the price of having cable.

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So getting back the screaming.

As I mentioned before, Brady has adjusted amazingly well to his new schedule in the evenings. MJ comes over and plays with him from the time Paul leave until I get home for dinner, I feed him and put him to bed, and then he doesn't make a peep until morning. Easy. Too easy.

Finally this week, the other shoe dropped. For whatever reason, Brady now refuses to go to bed. Both Tuesday and Wednesday nights he screamed for an entire hour before he finally went to sleep. I know his cries, and he was not sad or lonely or in pain-- he was ticked. Our theory now is that he saw MJ going back downstairs (where she hangs out until Paul gets home from rehearsal), and decided that she was going to go have fun with his toys without him. So tonight, we're going to experiment with having her stay upstairs until I get him in his room-- and if that doesn't work, we may even have her pretend to leave. She is apparently, just too much fun to leave.

Fingers crossed!_______________________________________________________________________________________

Happy weekend, everyone!