Back to life, back to reality

Wow, is it Thursday already? This week is flying by, and after returning home from Michigan on Sunday, I'm finally caught up with my email, parenting forum, and Google Reader. You know, the important stuff.

The first thing we did when we returned to Seattle was grab a coffee on the way home. Ahhhh, sweet java. How I missed thee! Unlike the whole it-always-rains-in-Seattle propaganda, it is an actual fact that coffee tastes better here. Even the decaf instant Fred Meyer (grocery store) coffee that I keep in my fridge is better than any cup you can find anywhere else in the country. Starbucks being the exception, of course. It is crappy no matter where you buy it, even Seattle. Still can't understand why that's the top coffee export of this great city. But whatevs.

When we pulled into the driveway, the first thing we noticed was that our neighbor had watered and mowed our front lawn for us because of the drought we've had for over a month now (told ya it doesn't always rain!). She wanted to repay the favor of me critiquing her resume for her. (In a former life, I was a Certified Professional Resume Writer. Actually, I guess I technically still am. The certification is like SPAM, it never expires. Tastes better than SPAM, though.) Anyway, our lawn looks nicer now than it has in the entire year we've lived here. I wonder what I'd have to do to get her to do the back too.

Tuesday was a big day. In the afternoon, Bean and I went to his 15-month pedi check-up. It was fairly unremarkable, but I will remark about it anyway. His head circumference is in the 75th percentile, his weight (22 lbs 1 oz) is in the 20th percentile, and his height (31") is exactly the national average. So he's a very strange, wobbly-looking boy, apparently. It's no wonder he's a late walker, how can he be expected to keep up that huge noggin with a skinny little frame? I told the doc that Bean still gags on moo milk, and she did encourage me to keep trying, but she wasn't overly concerned. That's probably why he's so thin, she posited. (Note to self: cut out milk from diet. Follow-up note to self: never mind, forgot about chocolate. and cheese. and ice cream. and Lucky Charms.) The doc also has me giving Bean fluoride supplements, because it is not added to the water in our town. I'm thinking the fact that I never remember to brush his teeth is the bigger problem, but I hope to rectify that soon, so I didn't mention it.

Then in the evening, I had my very first board meeting for our co-op preschool. Loved it! At first, I was worried about working with the mom who shares my vice-chair-of-fundraising position, because she is pregnant and due the week I would have been if my chemical pregnancy hadn't just been a chemical. But despite the fact my period arrived two hours before the meeting started (thank you, Universe!), she turned out to be such a ridiculously awesome person that I never felt uncomfortable around her baby bump. I knew we would get along well when two things revealed themselves in conversation: 1) she named her daughter after a contestant on American Idol and 2) she uses the f-bomb casually in conversation at home. As someone who finds four-letter words to be linguistic genius, I was pleased to hear this. (As an aside, you don't know how difficult it is for me to keep the swearing out of this blog. It's fucking rather hard.)

The only complaint I had about the evening was the venue. We met at a local pizza place that was suggested by someone to be "the best in the area." Seriously?! It was only one rung above Chuck E. Cheese in my book. And they all agreed how yummy it was! I didn't even eat the crust, and I am on an all-carb diet. When I think of good pizza, I think of Dewey's in St. Louis. We used to go there with our friends A. and J., back when we had time, money, and friends. Of course, back then we weren't really aware that we had time, money, and friends... but in retrospect, now that we are parents, we realize that we had plenty of all three. And we were also smart and thin. Who knew?!

And a few random remaining vacation pics...

Bean reaches new heights on Mel Gibson's Grandpa B.'s shoulders.

I only picked this picture because you can see my kick-ass new sandals in the background.

Bean pushes his own stroller with Grandma M. and Grandpa J. And yes, I'm sure he's totally safe doing that in the middle of the road.

Lookin' cool in mom's sunglasses.


After telling DH that Bean is too young for ice cream (why push it if he doesn't know what it is yet?), I couldn't resist giving him some of mine. I'm the mom, I can do things like that.


Speaking of good ideas, my parents decided to put Bean in the kitchen sink wearing only his pajama top right before bed.

Did they really not see this coming?