Sometimes...

...actually, a lot more frequently than sometimes, I forget to brush my teeth in the morning because I am so busy taking care of Ian and the little girl that I watch.

REI Fans, Pay Attention!

If anyone needs anything from REI, they are having their Super Clearance Sale, which starts today and ends September 1. They have things on sale, but anything that has a price tag that ends in .83 is an additional fifty percent off that price. So it's a pretty good deal. I'd head in sooner rather than later, because all the good things will be gone. Sale prices are also available online.

Oh, and I'm still bummed about big foot. I guess I thought, "Hey, if Phelps beats Spitz's record, maybe this is the year big foot can be real." I guess made-up things can never be real.

Finally, Jesse and I are headed to New Hampshire, with a side-trip to Lake Champlain in Vermont! I can't wait--it will be nice to see his family, have Ian meet the rest of his great-grandparents, and to get out of this stinky state. We really haven't done many summer activities, so it will be nice to just hang out at the beach (even though it's the frigid New England beach) and the lake. We don't leave until September 6th, and we'll get back on the 16th, so it's not coming up for a few weeks. But I'm still excited.

The big foot thing was a hoax. What is this world coming to when you can't even trust in big foot?

Two Years!

Today is our second anniversary! Yay. Unfortunately, Jesse has to work tonight and I have to go to enrichment, so the celebrations are limited. We'll do something when we go up to New Hampshire to visit Jesse's family in early September.

Here are some pictures of the memorable day, courtesy of Kathy.

Right after the sealing:

Kathy and I:


It's not obvious who's family this is, is it?


Jesse's family:


Rebecca, Jenni, and Brigg (foreground), who all drove a long while to get there. Brigg was having a great time....


So, there you have it. Our honeymoon was nonexistent, because we had to move here in a short amount of time, our one year anniversary was celebrated with a two-week old infant, and you know about this one. Maybe next year will be better.

Big Fat Lie?

Have you guys read this article? Two men in Georgia claim they found a dead Big Foot by a stream. Supposedly they hauled the body away and are waiting for some scientists to come and do an autopsy. A huge part of me doubts this is for real, but what would be the point of lying? I mean, scientists are going to know the difference between a monkey suit and a real body. I'm excited to see what comes of it....Oh, yeah, and I love the Olympics.

Blast From The Past

I was just thinking of this video Kathy and her friends made and thought I would let everyone watch it. If you want to see the most awesome music video ever, click here. The video is at the very end of the post.

I also have a few items of business to report.

Yesterday Ian ate my deodorant. Yeah, had to call poison control to see if he was going to have problems. In case any of the (few)readers of this blog run into this situation, Women's Degree Little Black Dress Edition deodorant is extremely safe to ingest. Worst case scenario you get a stomachache. Ian seemed to burp a lot after, though, so maybe it causes gas, too.

Today I caught Ian eating crayons.

Also in today's news, when I put Ian in his crib for bed, he pulled his two blankets over himself and then laid down to go to sleep. It was so cute.

Smile That Frown Away

Sorry to be such a negative nancy. It's the best thing to be treated by a competent doctor, and the worst thing to be treated by some idiot.

To try to make up for my negativity, I am going to post five great things that happened this last week.

1. I watched a compilation of Jim's pranks on Dwight (from The Office) on YouTube. So worth the ten minutes!

2. Jesse got to come home early from work two days, and got let early one other day.

3. Ian had his one year check-up on Monday. He is a little over 22 pounds and is 29 1/2 inches long. I am so grateful he is healthy and strong.

4. I did laundry, and I was worried that some things would have stains on them, but they came out stain-free. Strawberries--bah! You don't scare me anymore.

5. I got some samples from the dermatologist of some face cream, so I don't have to buy a whole bottle to find out if it works well or not. Can anyone out there recommend a good daily face cream with sunscreen in it???

I appreciate the small victories.

I Want A Refund

I went to the dermatologist yesterday--you know, because both my grandmothers and my father all had malignant melanoma. What a total waste of time.

My old doctor would ask me if I had concerns about any specific moles (I hate talking about moles--it's gross. But this story has to be told.) and he would then look at all of my moles. Which makes sense, because if I could pick out the cancerous ones, I might as well treat myself from home and forget the dermatologist.

I told this doctor about my family history of skin cancer, and her response was, "Well, you wear sunscreen, don't you?" Then I tried to show her some particular moles of concern (she didn't even look at all of them), and she said, again, "Well, don't you wear sunscreen? Really, unless a mole changes over the course of a month, it's not going to be a concern." Oh, really? So, the only time I should be concerned is if I have a mole on my body that changes as much as a developing fetus? That's a good rule of thumb, except for the fact that the mole they cut off my dad that turned out to be cancer wasn't one they were really concerned about. And the one I had taken off that was possibly cancer, possibly not, was only taken off because I thought it was gross.

She closed up the interview with a "just make sure to wear your sunscreen". Annoyed, I decided to at least try to get something out of the appointment, so I asked her if she knew about the really great sunscreen they just came out with that my old dermatologist recommended. She just looked at me blankly, and then, desperate for some kind of prize to take home, I said, "Can you recommend any daily moisturizer with sunscreen in it? My old one just made my face oily and gross." She then launched into this statement of physical barriers and chemical barriers, and if my skin was too sensitive, I should stay away from the chemical barriers and try a physical barrier. Excuse me, did you just assume I have sensitive skin? Because I don't. And, did you just recommend I wipe zinc oxide all over my nose every morning, like the lifeguards used to do? Yeah, she did.

I want my thirty dollars back, and I am going to call my insurance company and file a formal complaint. She didn't even look at my moles! Why, when medical school is so hard to get into, is it hard to find a good doctor?

Next project: El Cap

First Hair Cut

Before

After
(You will notice that there are no pictures of the haircut taking place. Haley had to hold Ian still while I did the cutting.)

With Ian's hair cut we noticed that he looks like Haley's brother, Brent (on the left)

Basket Case

Some of Ian's favorite past-times:

Climbing in the stroller basket

Climbing on the rocking chair

Chair tipping

Sitting in his corrugated toy box

Sitting in the laundry basket

Stashing glue sticks under the couch

And climbing into the dishwasher with his yams

Ian is One!

Ian turned one on Sunday! I can't believe it--he is so different than the baby I took home from the hospital. Okay, enough reminiscing. This is how we celebrated:

We opened presents. Only a few of Ian's were wrapped because I forgot to wrap ours until he needed to be opening them, but that's fine, because he had no patience to open presents. Here he is with some of his presents.

Then we had some cake. I didn't want Ian to have a really sugary cake because he has been picky enough with his eating recently, and I was worried he'd go off food and only want cake once he tasted it. Also, I'm an RD. So, we went with angel food cake with home-made strawberry glaze and real whipped cream. It was good, and what I would have for my birthday if it wasn't in December. Already living vicariously through the kid.



And, because Ian already understands the importance of giving as well as taking, when he was done with his cake, he threw it off of his highchair tray. Yay. So, to pay him back, he got a bath.

I wanted to do things a little more structured for his first birthday, but it just didn't turn out that way. Maybe to make things seem a little more formal (in the pictures, at least) I shouldn't have worn pajama pants, but hindsight is 20/20. Haven't I already said that in a few previous posts?

Surprise!

Last Wednesday we realized that Jesse didn't have to work on Saturday. So, we called his mom, Karen, to see if she would like to fly out for a visit (she can fly for free because her sons work for Delta). It was especially good timing because Ian turned one on Sunday, but that's a different post. It was also good timing because we hadn't seen Karen since Christmas.

I picked up Karen and Jesse from the metro Friday right before I had to leave to work at REI. They visited me on my break with Wendy's and then spent the evening relaxing at our apartment.

Saturday we decided to head out to see the National Zoo. I have never been to the zoo before, so I'm not sure if it was a big zoo or not, but it seemed pretty updated and it was easy to see the animals, even when there were quite a few people around the enclosures. Here are some pictures:

The lion is in the middle of the picture. This is what he was doing the whole time: just staring. It was creepy--you knew he had a constantly changing plan of who he would attack first if he ever got out.

This tiger was playing with this ball, but then he lost it to the other side of the electric fence in the water. I felt bad--his day had long written all over it after losing that ball.


After that we had to walk a long way to see the elephants because they had construction going on in the elephant area. They were going to make the elephant area way bigger, and they had signs up asking for money to fund their "growing family of elephants". I told Jesse we should put up a sign, too, asking for money to fund our "growing family". He fell in love with me all over again because of my clever wit.

We saw some farm animals, which obviously weren't very interesting, and the pigs were downright disgusting. We also saw pandas, lots of birds and bugs, and the primates. Take home message: monkeys are gross.

It was hot and they had these sprinklers spraying mist across the sidewalk every quarter mile or so. Ian loved it--check it out:


I took off his shirt because I was worried about him getting too hot. I had a dilemma then: is it trashier to have a baby wearing just camo shorts and diaper, or just a diaper? I'm not sure.

Since the zoo was a Smithsonian feature, it had free admission. Then, because they didn't charge you, they had signs up asking for donations to keep the zoo running. Good thing they had them in the park and not on the way out, after their visitors had payed for parking, because NOBODY would donate after paying five bucks an hour for parking.

After we got home Saturday from the zoo, Karen watched Ian and Jesse and I went to see the Dark Knight. It was really good, and I left feeling totally creeped out by the Joker. Two-Face I would handle--not realistic at all. But your next door neighbor could totally think like the Joker and you would never know it...at least until he tried cutting your mouth open.

Sunday we went to church and celebrated Ian's birthday. We went for a walk outside and saw a ton of deer. Here's a picture of the buck we saw:
Another buck, not so young:


We also walked by the elementary school in our neighborhood and tried to find their playground I had seen from the road, but it was gone. Do schools pack up their playgrounds for the summer? We walked around back of the school just to make sure they didn't drag it back there and we saw a home-made chicken coop complete with about six chickens and a rooster. Not sure what that was doing back there, but the rooster started getting really territorial and pawing the ground with his claws, so then we went back home.

Monday Jesse called in sick (Ian actually gave both of us a cold) and we all just hung out. It was great to have Karen come visit. Thanks for coming out, Karen!