moosh in indy.

(Giveaway over…Winner has been contacted, thanks for entering!)

I see you there with your phone hidden under the table.

You see, not too long ago I was hiding my phone under the table too.

While all my friends tapped out tweets and updated statuses on their fancy phones I could do exactly two things with mine.

A) Call people. B) Be called by people.

For one of you that is all about to change…because one of you will be winning a brand spanking new Motorola DROID RAZR from Verizon.

(more…)

“If people are being so careless about their children’s health, what else are they being careless about? If you’re willing to forego something as essential as health insurance, what else are your children going without? If you can’t afford to insure you’re {sic} kids, don’t have them.” This was a comment I received on a post about not having health insurance. The same commenter accosted another commenter for being unable to afford health care while her husband was in graduate school.

Continue reading on babble...

Also on big babble...How do you know when a trend is over? When 6 year olds start sporting it.

I had heard of people taking an annual photo of their baby in their turkey pan. A really good turkey pan can be passed down for generations and what makes an heirloom better? Generations of babies being photographed in them.

Continue reading on babble...

Also on babble...bear crawls and biting.

Three years ago today I was in Los Angeles with Addie at her house celebrating her daughter’s first birthday with cream puffs and swag toy guitars.

154 days later I was back in LA at her daughter’s funeral.

Today would have been Maddie’s fourth birthday.

11-11-11.

Pretty cool day to have a birthday.

Her parents wrote a song and all proceeds from the purchase of the song will go to Friends of Maddie, a charity dedicated to make the life of NICU parents a little easier.

I miss you Maddie. You were the first baby I ever loved through the Internet.

I love you Heather and Mike.

You have and amazing big sister Annie.

**********

I went to elementary school with Amy, she’s having a brain tumor removed today. She has three little kids. Any spare love you have lying around sent in her general direction would be greatly appreciated.

There is this indescribable warmth that comes from holding a sleeping baby.

When you have to put them down you are left with this very odd sensation, sort of like being cold…but also that you are missing something.

I was supposed to take Vivi to the doctor yesterday for her 6 month visit but before we had to leave, this happened.

We were 20 minutes late to the doctor’s office. Sorry about that.

When it came time to put her to bed, again, I couldn’t put her down.

I held her as she slept until the big one insisted that I come downstairs and play with her.

She’s in her bed now, fast asleep and I am sitting here with that strange and cold empty feeling in my arms.

It’s not a sad feeling, or even a lonely one.

Even if I held onto her forever she’d still get bigger.

I spent so long without a baby that to spend any time without her now that she is here feels wrong.

These two.

They make parts of my soul tingle that have been dead for so long.

Give me the option between a loaded diaper from Vivi or watching Addie play with a dangerously loose tooth with her tongue? I’ll take the diaper thank you. I remember being fascinated with loose teeth as a kid, maybe because it meant the tooth fairy was coming or that you could go into school with a giant blank mouth space of courage…whatever the reason was I’ve since forgotten about it and now dread these six words. “MOM! I’VE GOT ANOTHER LOOSE TOOTH!”

Continue reading on Babble...

Also on big babble...ever woken up to a pair of eyes thisclosetoyourface? Congratulations on surviving.

Hey big sister, I know we really don’t get the chance to talk, with me being all “BA BA BA” and you being all “MOM I’M BORED!” but I really wanted to take this chance and tell you what it’s like to be your little sister. First of all, I’ve noticed over the past few days that you don’t come straight for me as soon as you walk in the door from school. This is unacceptable.

continue reading on babble...

also on baby babble...4 am is an entirely different experience with babies around.

Hey look at me! Talking about my cats again! Pretty soon I’m just going to go into a complete cat lady montage wearing a bedazzled cat sweatshirt with attached collar to the tune of “You Light Up my Life” as I gaze longingly into their eyes (well, eye) Only it has to be the Debbie Boone version of “You Light Up My Life” the LeAnn Rimes version is way too normal for what’s going on up in here.

You know what I forgot about owning cats and a piano at the same time?

They will jump up on the keys in the middle of the night and walk across them, but instead of being level headed and thinking “Whoops! Forgot to close the piano keys and those pesky cats are at it again!” you think “A MURDERER GOT INTO THE HOUSE AND IS PLAYING THEIR OWN HORROR MURDER MUSIC WITH THEIR RUSTY HOOK BEFORE THEY MURDER ME IN MY BED AND I THINK THERE WAS A LIFETIME MOVIE ABOUT THIS OR IF NOT MAYBE I’M GOING TO BE THE SUBJECT OF ONE…”THE PIANO PRELUDE KILLER”…OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND KIRSTEN DUNST WILL PLAY ME BECAUSE SHE HASN’T BEEN IN A GOOD MOVIE FOR A WHILE SO LIFETIME SPECIALS MUST BE NEXT FOR HER.”

You know, or something like that.

I also found two entirely new ways to feel like the absolute filthiest person you know.

A) Purchase a large dark multicolored wool rug and watch as your formerly clean house becomes littered with tiny little wool rug threads that stick to everything and look like you hate vacuuming or performing any sort of regular house maintenance at all. Attempt to blame said rug when you see company’s eyes shift downwards towards your fiber covered floor and see the obvious look of judgement when they assume you are attempting to pass of copious amounts of cat hair and filth as “rug fibers.”

I SWEAR IT’S THE RUG.

B) Adopt two cats from the Human Society only to discover that one of them has a tapeworm a week later (Hint, it’s not Wink.) The levels of disgusting range from “OH HI CAT WITH A GIANT PARASITIC WORM INSIDE OF YOU.” to frantic cleaning and decontaminating every surface ever touched by said cat, which is convenient given that the rug already has you working overtime with vacuum in hand.

Whoever said animals were easier than kids is A TOTAL LIAR.

Poor girl that sat next to me at church asked me some question and I responded with “I spent the morning cleaning up tapeworm segments from my cat.”

Parasites, rug confetti and gorilla paw cats.

It’s how we roll these days.