Memories of Us

Random Thoughts

• I put things on the stairs that need to go upstairs.  I assume that to be a common practice.  In the history of mankind, no man has EVER just grabbed something on the way up because he SAW it there.  Until last week.  Until my son.  My awesome amazing fantastic son who, completely unsolicited and to my utter delight, grabbed his dirty PJs as we climbed the stairs and dropped them in the hamper in our bedroom.  It was, to date, my proudest moment as a mother.  I was not even aware that he understood either the concept of dirty clothes or the hamper.  You know, because he's TWO.  And yet, at two years old, he has managed to do what most grown men claim to be impossible.  He SAW housework that needed to be done and just DID it.  It brings tears to my eyes just remembering it.  I couldn't even really believe it happened.  I thought maybe it was some incredibly awesome fluke or something.  Until today, when he took the bathroom garbage can (which I had brought downstairs to empty and left sitting on the steps) back upstairs and put it where it belongs in the bathroom.  ALL BY HIMSELF.  He's going to make some woman a very fine husband some day. 

• There was an earthquake today.  Everybody is acting like it was the end of the world.  Not a single building fell over.  I haven't heard about anybody being hurt.  There was brief talk about the Washington Monument LEANING, but it turns out the news anchors were just BRINGING THE DRAMA.  I think Californians are probably laughing at us East coasters.  Well, not at us.  Not at me anyway.  I didn't even freaking NOTICE the earth quake.  Leave it to me to be in the middle of something remotely interesting and STILL somehow manage to miss it.  I think I took obliviousness to a whole new level today.

• There's this show on TV where they have two people hide a briefcase filled with $100,000 and then those people are arrested and interrogated and if the detectives don't find it and neither person breaks down and tells them where it is within 48 hours the people get to keep it.  I have watched it twice.  Both times somebody breaks from the pressure of being interrogated and locked in a cell.  A big roomy cell with a bathroom and a mattress.  Interrogated by pushy but seemingly nice people.  The first time I watched this show Jamie was with me.  Jamie went through SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) training, as all aircrew in the Air Force must.  Essentially, this training involves pretending to be captured and interrogated, except, you know, the getting hit and getting locked in boxes and stuff was real.  He just watched the show incredulous the whole time at how WIMPY these people were.  And honestly, even I, who have never been hit or imprisoned, could not understand why these big dudes were freaking out and breaking down.  Nobody was HURTING them.  They KNEW there was a time limit to their incarceration.  There was a freaking HUGE payoff for toughing it out.  They were letting people down and embarrassing themselves by spilling the beans.  I just don't get it.  I'm betting they screen contestants for military histories though.  A military dude would OWN that competition.  No contest.

Things that make me uncool

1.  I have severe minivan envy.  I want one.  BAD.  I can't get one until we NEED one though, especially since my husband's old (paid for) car died a few months back and we had to buy him a new one.  So, TWO car payments a month is not something we care to think about at the moment.  But oh my Lord, how the jealousy swells in my chest when I see a mom driving down the road in her Toyota Sienna, with two sliding doors and bucket seats.  Every time I heft my 30 lb toddler or my 23 lb infant over my head (literally) as I launch them into their carseats way up in the Tahoe, I close my eyes and drift off to my happy place where Will can climb up into my minivan by himself and the DVD player folds down from the roof.  I have it bad people.  

2.  I joined Twitter.  Like, 5 years late.  And I don't even do anything except stalk my favorite bloggers.  And I'm not even sure HOW to do some things.  And I don't ever tweet anything because I feel like I'm not cool enough to be clever and sassy.  Not that it matters since I don't have any followers.

3.  I stay home all day to let my kids nap.  I'm kind of militant about protecting their sleep.  I have no life as a result.

4.  I don't like either wine nor coffee.  So, I essentially have the beverage preferences of a high schooler.  I actually do feel pretty uncool for this one and fairly unsophisticated.  I do like how coffee SMELLS though.  So there's that.

5.  I really like Taylor Swift.  And young adult novels, particularly ones with vampires or magic or werewolves or other such pretend crap.  So, what I'm saying is, my entertainment standards did not mature past high school.

6.  A significant portion of my wardrobe came from Costco.

7.  I enjoy watching Bob the Builder building things.

I'm going to stop with that especially sad last one.  I've accepted my uncoolness.  You could say I'm "cool with it."  Especially since I managed to snag a pretty awesome guy for a husband despite my lacking coolness, and made AWESOME babies with him.  They think I'm the best thing ever when I snuggle up on the couch with my Diet Pepsi in my Costco t-shirt to watch Bob the Builder.  Turns out I'm pretty cool by toddler standards.

One Stinking Bucket

Will woke up at 5 in the morning yesterday.  This was approximately 2 hours after I had finally crawled back into bed from Jake's mid-night feeding.  I was barely functional.  I don't really understand what my problem was though.  I survived on much less sleep when Will was a baby.  But I was SO TIRED yesterday.  Like, unreasonably tired.  Whenever this happens to me, I freak out that I'm pregnant.  Especially when I've been having headaches and extreme thirst, as those were my earliest symptoms when I was carrying the boys.  And so, I was kind of mulling the idea around, wondering if I should get a test.  But then I remembered that I had just finished my period.  But THEN I remembered that, according to that show I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant, you can have fake periods and still be pregnant.  So I was like, "Hmmmm."  But then I came to my senses and realized, it's not pregnancy.  It's Daylight Savings Time.  Still kicking my butt three days later.

So, Jamie was supposed to fly a local training run last night and slept in a bit yesterday morning in preparation.  I had just put Will down for his nap when he finally came downstairs, and so he took mercy on me, took Jake, and sent me up to bed until he had to leave at noon.  As is typical when I nap during the day, I had totally messed up, vivid, exhausting dreams.  The dream I woke up remembering was about Jamie and myself going on this long, arduous, dangerous, Indiana Jones type journey to get mulch.  Yes, mulch.  Like what you put on flowerbeds.  Though I'm not sure why we needed it in the dream.  It was IMPORTANT though.  Like, worth dying for.  Anyway, we got back from our journey and I realized that Jamie has only brought back ONE BUCKET of mulch.  And I was so mad.  Because all that work and fear and risk!  And all he got was one puny little bucket!  And in my dream, other people were actually comforting me because Jamie had been so dumb and only brought back ONE BUCKET.  So clearly, I was not being unreasonable.  And then Jamie sat down on the bed and woke me up because he needed to go.  I told him about the dream before he left for work, and we laughed because, you know, ha ha, what a weird dream.  But secretly, inside, I was harboring a little residual dream anger, you know?  Anyway, so the plane was broken, as the planes always are, and his flight was cancelled last night.  He got home around 11 and we crawled into bed.  But before I fell asleep, I turned to him and said, "You better bring back more than one freaking bucket of mulch this time."  And then I fell fast asleep with a smile on my lips and the sound of his laughter to warm my heart.  It's those little moments that make me so happy to be married to him.  Well, moments like that AND, you know, THESE little guys.