Sassy

I sit in the chair and grip the arm rests with white-knuckle ferocity.

“I haven’t cut anything. I’m just combing.”

“Ok….. are you cutting now?”

“No. I promise I’ll warn you first.”

“Ok.”

“Do you want to know how much I’m going to take off?”

“Um, ok.” My knuckles get a little whiter.

“Five inches at the highest point in the center.”

“Five? That’s a lot. That’s an awful lot.”

“It’s only hair.”

“But it’s MY hair.”

“We don’t have to do this. We can cut it just like that picture you brought, if you want to.”

“No. Let’s do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hurry! Cut it before I change my mind!”

SNIP

“There. It’s too late.”

I release my death grip on the hapless chair and relax. It’s only hair, afterall.

It’s hard to tell from my camera phone pics, but it’s shorter in the back and swings forward. It’s super sassy and I love it. There’s a reason I’ve gone to the same stylist for eleven years.

Toddler Nutrition

A friend sent me this website today and I just had to share it with you. It’s possibly the best website on toddler nutrition that I’ve ever read. Be sure to read the Nutritional Needs section as well as the recipes. I honestly read the entire site. I feel so much better about feeding Maddie and the way she eats. For example, she hardly ever wants dinner. I though this was something I was doing wrong and it turns out that it’s perfectly normal.

I plan to make quite a few of the recipes this weekend and then freeze them for meals in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know what I make and how it goes. If you decide to make any of the recipes, let me know!

P.S. I’m going for the Big Haircut this afternoon. Stay tuned for Before and After pics.

P.P.S. Tattoo pics will be forthcoming as well.

Drumroll Please….

Interwebs, meet Sadie:

I took her to the vet today and found out some interesting things. First, he thinks she’s closer to nine years old than seven, judging by the wear on her teeth. Secondly, she has a pretty pronounced limp in her back right leg and he said it looks like it was broken and not set so it healed funny. (You can see that her back leg is crooked in the above pic.) The vet thinks it looks like an old injury, so there’s nothing we can do about it. She’ll probably get some arthritis in that leg as she gets older, but we can treat it pretty easily.

She tested negative for worms, both heart and poop. She got all her shots and never once fussed. She was calm and mellow and the whole staff gave her scratches and fell in love with her.

I guess we’re going to keep her. *sigh* Just call me Crazy Dog Lady.

“We’ll let the interwebs name our dog!”

Gerald came home with a dog today. She’s an almost seven year old German Shepard. Apparently, one of his coworkers is a dog foster mom and she nursed her back to health, but already has a herd of dogs, so she can’t keep her. A second coworker took the dog home with her, but quickly discovered the dog’s affinity for chasing cars. (Their land isn’t fenced.) Gerald heard about her and thought we might be a good home for her.

Some of you may remember that we had two Labs and I desperately wanted to get rid of them. We found good homes for both of them, but one ended up staying with us. The male, Sam, went to live with a family with three school-aged kids. The mom still emails me updates and photos of him. They have a female Lab, as well as Sam and they are all happy as can be. The day after Sam went to his new home, our female, Pippin, was supposed to go to her new home. Except Pippin took Sam’s absence really hard. She was visibly upset about it and I didn’t think it was a wise idea for her to leave. I thought that Sam being gone and then her having to go to a new place with new people would be too much for her and she’d act out. So we decided to keep her. Luckily, the lady that was going to take her understood completely and there were no hard feelings.

Pippin still misses her brother. Not him, per se, but another dog to run and play with. We had talked about getting a smaller dog as a companion for her, but decided against it. Looks like the fates had other plans for us. The new dog is settling in just fine. She’s great with Pippin and Maddie and is very mellow. Not at all like our Pip. She’s HYPER and NEUROTIC.

The new dog’s got a breeder’s tattoo in her ear, and the breeder was able to tell the foster mom when the litter was born (March of 2001) and who the owner was. A call to the “owner” proved fruitless. He said that his dog was right where it was supposed to be and he had no idea what they were talking about. So, either he’s lying or the breeder got the owners and tattoo identifiers mixed up. We’ll never know. It makes me sad to know that this sweet girl has a name, but we don’t know what it is. So here’s the deal. We need a name for her. What’s your suggestion? I suggested Merri to go along with Pippin, but she’s just not a “Merri.” I told Gerald that we’ll let the interwebs name her.

What would you name her?

Yet another post about my hair

Hey, what do you think about this cut? The after one, of course. I think that’s what I’m going to ask my stylist to do for me. I’m pretty sure it will work, as it has lots of layers and so do I.

Lemme know what you think, kthxbai!

P.S. I colored my hair this weekend and it turned a bright, GLOWING red.  Thank jeebus it’s temporary! Even so, I’m going to buy either some color remover or a new, non-glowing color today. Say a prayer to Ken Paves that I don’t screw it up even worse.

Portrait of a toddler

Upon the advice of Shelly Overlook, we took Maddie to Portrait Innovations today for her one year pictures. I’ve been nervous about it all week because of the LEVEL RED MELTDOWN that occurred when I tried to get Christmas pictures taken. The only other time I’ve taken her for pictures was when she was seven months old. Both of these trips were to JCP portrait studios, and at the time, I thought the reason we didn’t get very good pictures was because of Maddie’s separation anxiety. I was wrong.

This morning, Maddie decided to only take an hour nap, instead of her normal two to two and a half hour nap. This did not bode well, so I had pretty much written the portrait session off due to crabbiness. I needn’t have worried. The girl who took Maddie’s pictures didn’t get flustered when Maddie started getting upset. And there was no rushing us because the next people were there. We kept our cool and another girl came in and played with Maddie while the first girl took pictures. Maddie laughed and smiled and never got too upset. There was anxiety and a few tears, but no full-on meltdown.

All in all, she took 35 pictures and they’re all great. We spent $135 on pictures and they gave us a ton of free ones and a CD with ALL the poses on it. I can Photoshop it ’til my heart’s content! And they’re not copyrighted, so we can print whatever we need… not that we need anymore with the eleventy billion that we bought.

I was going to show some to you, but I’m going to wait until next weekend. We’re going to be seeing Gerald’s family and giving them pictures. A few of them read here and I don’t want them to see the pictures beforehand. I want them to be surprised by how great they are.

Ok, ok… here’s ONE:

Bottom line: Give Portrait Innovations a try next time you want pictures taken. They aren’t expensive and they do great work. (At least the one closest to me does.)

Informal Poll

Do any of you have Mirena? If you do, have you had an increase in acne? How about mood swings or bad PMS?

Explaination: I’ve had Mirena since Maddie was eight weeks old and I have been inundated with acne since then. I can’t get rid of it and I don’t know if it’s simply because I had a baby or if it’s the Mirena. I also have horrible mood swings/PMS like I’ve never had in my life. I’m seriously considering having it removed next month at my annual.

Toddler Question and Tattoos

We’ve already had a post and discussion on my “Maddie” tattoo, but I’m not satisfied, so we’ll be having another. I’m going to take pics of my existing tattoos so you can see what I’m working with and then maybe you can help me brainstorm ideas for my next tattoo. As an aside, I have also decided that once I have the gastric bypass and reach my goal weight, I’m going to have my highest (non-pregnancy) weight tattooed discreetly on the inside of my left wrist. That way, I’ll see it all the time (I’m left-handed) and be reminded how far I’ve come and not to ever, ever go back.

And now, the toddler question: How in the world do you deal with diaper changes on an older child who has NO INTEREST in lying on the changing table? Maddie squirms and fusses and arches her back and throws stuff* when I try to change her diaper. Is there some secret trick to it that I’m not in on? Is 12 months too soon for potty training? Can I just let her go around without diapers? Because truthfully, that would be less frustrating.

Seriously, what is it about Maddie that can piss me off in TWO SECONDS FLAT? She can get under my skin like no one else. She’s starting to get tantrumy and I’m not impressed with my reactions so far. I’ve got to learn to control my temper because I know it’s going to get WORSE before it gets BETTER.

*I almost typed “throws shit,” but I decided that gives sort of the wrong visual impression.

I don’t see your name on the guest list…

A quick birthday party recap. Five people ended up coming, and that was just fine. We had a wonderful time. My best friend and her son, Cohen, were there and Maddie loves Cohen. She demonstrated this by pulling him down on top of her, pushing him and then kissing him. My girl’s a little, um, forward. I swear she gets her “trampiness” from her father. He’s a total tramp. Ask anyone.

I’m still a little put out with the non-RSVPers. You really don’t have time to make a 60 second phone call? Or type an email? Because I sure had time to sit down and hand-write your ass an invitation. I even had someone who didn’t RSVP email me TWO DAYS AFTER THE PARTY to let me know she was sorry she didn’t come. WHATEVER. All I know is I’m going to be much more selective in my invitations next year. “Family” doesn’t mean you’re automatically invited.

P.S. Those of you who wanted to see pictures, they’re in my Flickr. You can see them over there to the right, or go here.

Hurt Feelings

Maddie’s birthday party is tomorrow afternoon. We decided to keep it a fairly small affair by only inviting close friends and family. In total, we invited 24 people.

I have already purchased all the necessary decorations, plates, cups, etc, I ordered a nugget tray from Chick-fil-a and just made 48 cupcakes.

Between the people who didn’t have to courtesy to RSVP (19 of them, to be exact) and those that canceled at the last minute (as in THIS EVENING), we are looking at seven whole people coming to Maddie’s party.

Now, I know my daughter isn’t as important to these people as she is to me, but they were all invited because we’re either related, or they’re close friends of ours. And they all have something better to do.

I really thought I’d have years before I had to worry about no one coming to my daughter’s birthday party.