The Caffine is the Life

 Maybe it was the excitement of having a  GIANT GLOWING TREE covered in bells and colorful things in the living room, but MiniMonster did -not- want to go to sleep last night. He refused to lie down until almost ten, and then he only made it about ten minutes with everyone else in bed before setting up a howling ruckous.


He was clearly exhausted, he kept cuddling up and rubbing his eyes, but absolutely would not sleep, didn't want bottle, didn't need changed, didn't want food... but couldn't seem to sleep. Eventually, burnt to a frazzle trying to figure it out, I took him to our room, where the second he touched mattress... he was out like a light. ((it is very interesting to try and reposition an instant-noodle.))
 He took over half my pillow in the process and staked his claim by dropping his pacifier and drooling.

 Pushed to the edge of the bed, and already anxious ((Grandma S needs some minor surgery, nothing technically serious but it's not stopping me from being obsessively anxious.)), I couldn't sleep a wink, and was pretty much awake until sometime after 2:30. I did at one point also make the mistake of trying to take MiniMonster back to his room, and that... well that went exactly like the begining of the night. ((not well))

 Tilmani checked on him, got the same results I had, and deposited him back in bed with me, where he latched on and snoozed again.

 He was cute enough this morning to be forgiven for his night time antics, crawling back up onto my pillow and poking my nose while making doe eyes, and looking out through the curtains and bouncing. ((It was snowing)). So He was forgiven and got blueberry pancake with the rest of us.

 We just ordered him something we think he'll love, an baby-Mp3 player from ThinkGeek. It's got a solid rubbery outside to keep it from being damaged, hidden volume control... good stuff.

Oh Tannenbaum Oh Tannenbaum,

Mini Monster would like everyone to be very clear on the fact that WE HAVE A TREE. It's an Artificial Tree, but it's a pretty nice one, though we did spend some time 'fluffing' the posable parts of the branches to fill it all out. It's not 100% decorated, we need to put the tree skirt down and also put on some more ornaments, but it's most of the way there.

 MiniMonster was extremely excited by this, though he was a little edgy when it first went up because everyone was a little stressed. When it was up and lit (It's not lit in the picture) however, he did a circuit of the tree and delicately poked the lights he could reached, and jingled the bells that we hung down low.

 I still need to finish fixing the toe of his Christmas stocking, but it's a pretty good Christmas Season so far.

MiniMonster Furnature Moving Service and Popcorn Addicts Anonymous

 I'm currently watching Mini Monster play on the floor, he's shoved our two 'guest chairs' away from the wall and is sitting behind/underneath them, banging a purple bath octopus on the floor, a shape sorting blue and green elephant, and a rubber bath tiger in scuba gear. ((It's a very interesting plastic safari behind that chair, especially if you include the toys hung between the legs of one of the chairs.))

 It's kinda funny watching him shove the chairs around, I think he likes doing it because it makes him feel big and strong, and also I guess it's his version of building a fort, and moving everything to places he wants.

 I was going to try and see if I could find "Legends of the Guardians", but apparently red-box doesn't have it, (yet). I'll ask tonight if we can check and see if it's on the PlayStation Store. I haven't read the book, though I heard good things about it, and the trailers are absolutely beautiful.

 Owl City also did one of the songs (yeah you can laugh now) which I heard on the radio yesterday, and it was really nice. Even if I don't end up liking the show I want to listen to that song again.

 Aditionally, we've discovered Popcorn Indiana's Caramel Popcorn. The popcorn I mentioned yesterday? That's the one. Their white cheddar isn't very good I don't think, but the caramel... oh that's some good caramel popcorn. They also have a bacon ranch one I really want to try, but they don't seem to have that one in the immediate area. ((I'm seriously disappointed here.))

 I was kind of hoping to find a snack that would replace chips in my snack pantheon, but so far I don't think it's going to quite cut it, unless another flavor is better than the cheddar. Darn.
 MiniMonster LOVES the caramel popcorn at least as much as I do though, which is kind of fun....and has sneaky potential as a last ditch 'get out of that and come here' lure/

Inside every Responsible Adult

 Is a little kid who's pretty convinced that they're making up everything as they go along. I'm having one of those days where I feel kinda like that at random intervals. I dunno exactly what triggers these things, maybe it was playing around on the floor with Owen and giving him a horsie ride on my leg. ((Great work out by the way.)), or maybe it was after I put him down and he made a loving attempt to scalp me. ((He grabbed a big hank of my hair and yanked. Man... remind me again why I'm growing my hair back out?))

 Of course then again it could be that I'm curled up on my couch with a fantasy book, a bottle of fizzy white grape juice, and a big bag of caramel popcorn. There's just something about caramel popcorn I guess that makes me feel like a kid... though admittedly then I was picking it out of Cracker Jack because I thought it was the only part of Cracker Jack worth having. ((I know, sacrilegious.))

 The MiniMonster is napping, and I just had a brief flash where my brain clicked into action and went... y'know... this is OUR house. OUR living room. OUR son. ... How messed up and amazing is this? We're like a responsible adult or something like that.

 I wonder if all adults go through this from time to time.

 On a completely unrelated note:
 I'm going to dust off "Holding pattern for Wild Dreams", a blog I started and did absolutely nothing with before this one, and may use it as a dumping ground for random stories about the RP world(s) I am intermittently involved with.
 The Link is available in the Followed Blogs list. 

MiniMonster has Leveled Up

 So the Mini Monster continues to grow at an alarming rate. He's now taking an occasional bold venture and letting go of everything he's holding onto when standing or cruising. He's even taken forays of one or two steps without holding things, but mostly he'll just let go, stand for a minute, and then either drop to his butt or grab on again. Most of these forays include having his father or I close at hand, but they're really awesome and fun, and we've been telling him how incredible he is. ((He eats it up, and I don't blame him)).

 He's also apparently Cute-leveled. We had to make a emergency run to WallyWorld this morning because the Diaper Pail liner decided to completely run out, and in spite of my certainty that I had purchased refills, either the laundry gremlins took them ((And our new Toothbrush holder... and the brackets for the shelf we're trying to hang in the bedroom...)), I couldn't find a single one. So after that discovery, ((and one extra diaper change I had to stuff in a ziplock to seal and pitch)), We packed up and fled to get stuff.

 We made a quick stop at the dump ((Wow it's so NICE if you get there literally right when they open. No crazy people trying to attack you for your position in the cue.)), and then jumped on the road and went shopping. It took me about 15 minutes to find the refills, since for no discernible or logical reason they'd reorganized things since two days ago, and had stashed them in a totally different location, but I managed to grab four and trot out the door again.

 After he charmed the cashiers within inches of their sanity, he turned his cranked up Cute-powers on a totally random woman in the parking lot, who not only gushed at him (He smiled lots), but called her friend over to gush (He smiled some more), and then gave him a dollar.

 He has apparently leveled his cute powers to the point where strangers will now give him money for being cute. This is truly an amazing power. Now if we can keep this up until college.. *grin*
 But you never know: it might have been the hat.

He's also enjoyed the first snowfalls of the season:

 

And then settled in for a snooze with his new blanket. I think it has a sleep spell on it or something. He dozes off fast curled up with it! <3 ((That's Tilmani by the way.))

I had my own silly little joys on the way back from today's trip. I stopped and treated myself to a hot Mocha and an breakfast meal from McDonalds. The McGriddle was... well great when you're starving but after 10 bites the appeal wears down to middling. I was however, ridiculously excited when we got into the driveway, I started to put the remnants into the bag, and discovered that I had -entirely forgotten- about the Hash Brown. I have a crippling weakness for McDonalds Hash Browns. It was cold, but I popped it in the toaster oven and enjoyed it while MiniMonster devoured some Cheerios and Baby Goldfish.

 Good times!

Photo@#*^@it.

 Has anyone else out there been having rediculous amounts of trouble with photobucket these days?
 Every time I try and use it anymore, I can't upload anything directly from my computer, I usually end up bringing it HERE, uploading, and -then- moving it to photobucket. Usually it'll take stuff from another web site, but not always. It's driving me BONKERS, and I'm not sure about a good alternative.

Octgenarians and OMG

Sorry for the absence folks, though I officially invite you all to my neck of New England to come play in our scattering of snow.
 I'm watching old episodes of American Chopper, so you can laugh about comparing that to my topics of the hour.

 Today was apparently my day for running into INSANE SENIOR CITIZENS. I'm immensely sorry to those of you in that set who are not insane, because I ran into the ones that make -everyone else- look bad.
 At the dump, I went to move up from the recyling area to the actual trash dump, and nearly got my nose taken off by a large van, who almost waited for me to leave my spot then changed their mind at the last minute. They then pulled forward, with me behind them, and pulled up in front of the trash. Seeing that I was pulling up to the trash right behind them the driver imediately stopped, although she had clear space directly in front of her, leaving me at an angle because I couldn't adjust without hitting her or the car behind us. And she sat there. She just... sat there. Doing NOTHING. For a good five minutes while, feeling a touch of rage at this obnoxious behaviour, started unloading my trash. Only when I was partially done did she pop out of her car, pull out RECYCLING, and walk all the way back to the other building. ((She could have taken my spot, but apparently that made too much sense.))

 While she sorted out her cardboard and cans, I finagled my way back out and escaped the dump. I then had to go to the post office. A nice looking little old woman with white hair and a sweet grandmotherly smile pulled in ahead of me and parked. I went to pull into the slot beside her. She waited until I was half way into the space and then attempted to open her door with great vigor into my hood. Fortunately she did not time this correctly and I stopped, and it swung without hitting my car. She gazed at me in a sort of vague way, and wandered off into the post office with a look that indicated that she figured she must have hallucinated my son and I, since obviously no one else in the world would be parking in the post office while she was there.

 After that, Several people attempted to run into our cart at the grocery, and another sweet smiling happy granny beamed at me... and then cut in line in front of us. Apparently sweet granny smile is code for "I own your ass because no one will contradict me." ((Betcha didn't know that.))

 Also just to make myself laugh: I dropped a dollar in the bin and grabbed June Deveraux's "Rememberance' from the paperback bin. It's a Romance Novel.

 The first thing it did was make fun of itself.

 ...I am actually. laughing. ((Repeatedly.)) at a Romance Novel.


 I'm either really bored or June Deveraux is a better author than I was prepared to give her credit for.
 She's also educated herself to hugely entertaining levels on the more risque aspects of 'ye olden times' and is using it to poke fun at the fact that "Every Generation thinks it's the one that invented sex". <-- this is kind of true I guess.

 Hell I didn't know that in the roaring twenties there were open Gay Bars. They didn't exactly cover that in the history books when I was growing up, but I thought that was kind of insanely cool, because it fit the era, which was also when dating really started to resemble the way we know it today. It was a major time of sexual liberation and as a culture we haven't back tracked a whole lot. ((Some, but not all the way.)) Yet we act like we, as the last generation or three, invented sexual liberation.

 Haha. Jokes on us.