Ten On Tuesday

1. Pretend it’s Monday morning–take us through a day in the life of you.

Well, you’re about to be bored stiff. I wake up around 5:30 when Jack starts crying. I go in the kitchen and get his medicine ready. Come back and grab him out of the crib and put him in bed next to John and give him his medicine. I lay next to him until he falls back asleep (lying next to his Dad ALWAYS makes him fall back asleep) and take a shower. I do my makeup and wake John up to get ready. I lay next to Jack for awhile until John is ready to come in the bedroom and keep an eye on him. I get dressed, kiss my boys and leave. I get to work, drink a cup of coffee, and read and review contracts all day long. Sometimes I have meetings and other boring stuff in there too. Eat a lean cuisine or something similar at my desk around noon. Look at the clock around 4 and think, “One more hour!” I check my messages/pictures from Laura (the nanny) throughout the day. Get home around 5:30 and hang out with Jack and Laura for about 20 minutes chatting and playing. Laura leaves and I get dinner started. About 20 minutes later, John comes home and we eat dinner on the living room floor while playing with Jack. Then we play some more or go on a walk. Give Jack a bath at 7:30 and then take him into his room for his last bottle. John feeds him while I sit next to them. Then I hold Jack and pray with him and sing to him for a little while until he’s almost asleep. (My wonderful husband does all the dishes during this time) I put Jack in his crib and on this Monday night, I came in the office and did a blog entry. EXCITEMENT, huh? Now you can all lift your heads off your keyboard and move onto the next question.

2. What’s your favorite reality tv show?

Teen Mom! Or Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.

3. What motto do you live by?

Depends on the day, honestly. Lately it’s been, “Thy will be done.”

4. If you knew could you try anything and not fail, what dream would you attempt?

This is embarrassing to admit—but I’d probably want to act. I wouldn’t want to have all the pressure of the craptastic Hollywood lifestyle. But man would I love to be in movies or a good TV show.

5. What was your first job?

Receptionist/Shot Clinic Assistant at an Allergy/Asthma clinic. We dealt with lots of kids with food and other allergies. Please believe I’m about to cash in on all my good, hard $5/hour work by bringing Jack to Dr. E here soon and having him help me figure out what all my kiddo is allergic to.

6. What is your current job?

Assistant General Counsel of a company. Basically, I’m an attorney for a company so anytime someone in the company has legal issues, needs contracts reviewed, wants to see if we can sue someone, etc., I’m their woman.

7. What would you call yourself if you could choose your own name (and you cannot pick the one you already have)?

Probably Maggie because it’s the only thing people have consistently called me by mistake. Although when I was really little, I loved the name Andrea. Long “A” Andrea (Glovinnia, you know what I’m talking about!!!). I once loved it so much that I prayed really hard that my name would be Aaaaaahndrea. I had a little “Molly” sign that Danny Sampson made for me and one night, I put it in my drawer and prayed that my name could change to Andrea. I woke up in the morning so excited! I ran over to my drawer and pulled out my sign and…it still said Molly!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it! God didn’t change my name even though I prayed SOOOO hard! Sheesh!

8. What musical instruments can you play?

None really. I played the flute for a semester in 6th grade and then switched to the drums. I played the drums in for 2.5 years. Now I can’t really do anything except a drumroll. When we got to the trap set, I was kind of terrible. I was on permanent Timpani duty.

9. Is it easier to forgive or forget?

Forgive. I can forgive very easily but I have a tougher time forgetting about things when I get hurt. They just pop up into my stupid little head and I can’t let go of them easily.

10. What is one food you’d never want to taste again?

Gefilte Fish.

The IVAR chair

When we drove to Houston a couple weeks ago, we did so with one goal in mind: to buy cheapo IKEA chairs for our dining room table. We found some on the IKEA website for $19. Yes please!

They weren’t the prettiest chairs in the world but we could stain them to match the table and they’d hold our tushies during a nice dinner so that’s all that mattered. I thought that for that price, we could just buy them and ship them here. No go. They aren’t available online. Next best: drive to Austin’s IKEA and get them. No go. They aren’t available in Round Rock. Next best: drive to Houston with a 5 month old. Of course, I knew it was risky to drive that far for 6 chairs…especially at that price. There was a very good chance that they would be out of them. Luckily, the IKEA website has a little “counter” that shows you exactly how many are in stock. I stalked that website for weeks—the inventory would dwindle, then go back up, then dwindle, then go back up. I knew that our big risk was the weekend before: if, after the weekend, there were still 10ish chairs left, we would be good. The weekend before? Inventory said 12 chairs. The day we left? 12 chairs. The day we planned to go to IKEA? 9 chairs. As we were WALKING INTO IKEA? 9 chairs. We only needed 6. This was grand! We walked through the displays and found the chairs. What the heck? $24? That’s $5 more per chair…which is $30 total more. Psha! That’s a whole chair. Oh well. At least we liked them. For that price, we were expecting to sit on them and have them collapse. But no! We loved those little Ivar cuties. And surely there were enough because the floor displays were stupid with them. Ivar chairs everywhere! There were probably 30 just on the floor for display purposes. We walked around the store with everyone complimenting our adorable son in his old man hat and proceeded to the checkout. Lane 15, Aisle 16. I’d memorized it. But just to be sure, I pulled up the iphone. Still 9 chairs left! But wait. Why were there only three sitting on the slab? What the hey can I do with three chairs? Surely there was a mistake. My phone inventory even says there are 9 here! We asked someone and he confirmed: yes, there are 9 chairs in this store. We walked around looking at people’s carts and nothing. Those darned chairs were nowhere to be found. We checked out with our measly 3 chairs thinking, “well, I guess we’ll get them when we return to Houston.” I checked the iphone inventory. 6 chairs left at IKEA. But apparently they were invisible. So basically, we drove to Houston to buy THREE chairs.  Which we haven’t set up because 3 chairs around a giant table look even stupider than no chairs. A few days later, just to torture myself, I looked again: 14 chairs in inventory. So I thought, “Well I’ll just call and see if they will ship them to me. I will even pay for the shipping! But come on! Give me a break! Your inventory lied to me because someone apparently hid my flippin’ chairs!” So I called IKEA. And I was on hold. For an hour. On a Friday night. FINALLY someone answered. And promptly hung up. Fantastic customer service.

In case anyone was wondering, I just looked online: 9 chairs in inventory. Ha. Nine chairs my ask.

Seven Quick Takes

1) From 5th grade until 9th grade, I wore mismatched socks every single day. I thought it made me unique. Everyone else thought it made me strange. One of us was very wrong.

 

2) Jack has very blue eyes.

He definitely takes after his daddy in that respect. Sunday morning, we were lying on the bed playing with him before church and this conversation took place:

John: Woah there Mr. Grey eyes. Where are your blue eyes?

Molly: It’s just because he’s against the black comforter.

John: No, my eyes used to do that too.

Molly: Do what?

John: Change colors.

M: What?

J: My eyes would change color depending on what I was wearing.

M: Your eyes didn’t change colors—the colors of your clothes just brought out the color of your eyes.

J: No, if I was wearing a blue shirt, they’d look more blue. If I was wearing--

M: John, I’m telling you. They weren’t changing colors. The colors in your clothes just enunciated your eye color.

J: Whatever. I was like a chameleon.

 

3) Jack is crawling. He started on Saturday. He loves anything with a screen so I put my iphone at one end of his blanket and put him at the other. Next thing I knew, he was scooting right over to it and almost had it. He flipped over a few times onto his back but I was still giddy with excitement. And also frightened that my son’s life is on Fast Forward.

 

4) We also had this conversation:

M: Jack is growing up so darn fast! Did you read the babycenter email with all the stuff that he’s supposed to be doing this month?

J: Yeah! He did that stuff months ago!

M: I know! I’m scared that he’s growing up on fast forward and that he’s going to be 90 when he’s actually only 30.

J: Yeah! Like that movie! The one with Robin Williams. What was the name of that?

(Long Pause)

M: JACK!

 

5) I found the baby book! It was with our wrapping paper. Not quite sure how that happened but I am SO flippin’ glad I found it!!!!

 

6) John has a troll mouse pad. John’s sister gave it to him for Christmas. It freaks me out every time I look at it. (sorry Kim, but it does!) I played with Trolls when I was little. Someone tell me how that didn’t totally freak me out. Those things are weird looking!!!

7) Today is our nanny’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!! You are an absolute God-send to our family and we simply could not be more grateful that you are part of our little family. Thank you for everything you do and for all your loving, teaching, soothing, and playing with Jack! We love you RaRa!

Our Family Videos

Molly says they make her sick.  I think they’re just plain sick.  Let me know what you think.

The Real Ten on Tuesday

There was quite a debate in our house when I (John) saw this weeks Ten On Tuesday.  Yesterday, Molly showed you what you might have thought were real images.  However, she actually just google searched stuff and posted pictures she thought would make you think more of us.  What you’re about to see is the real Ten on Tuesday. 

For each of the following, take a picture. This is a chance for us to get a literal glimpse into each other’s lives. Feel free to skip a question if it doesn’t apply to you or it’s too personal. You can include explanations if necessary.

1. Your house.

2. Your shower.

3. The inside of your refrigerator.

4. Your pet.

5. Your favorite pair of shoes.

6. The most comfortable seat in your house.

7. Your favorite cup or coffee mug.

8. Your laundry room.

9. The view from your office chair.

10. Your spouse/significant other/roommate.

Ten on Tuesday

Chelsea (http://rootsandrings.wordpress.com/) had some interesting questions this week. The instructions: For each of the following, take a picture. This is a chance for us to get a literal glimpse into each other’s lives. Feel free to skip a question if it doesn’t apply to you or it’s too personal. You can include explanations if necessary.

1. Your house.

Okay. Not showing you the actual house. Because I don’t want all my avid readers (Hi all two of you!) to stalk me and find my house. So how about some pictures of my “House Wall”?

 
2. Your shower.

This thing is dangerous. It’s a roman bathtub so you step down into it. My mom almost fell down once when she was trying to get in. Oops. And it looks really dirty in this picture. It’s not. At all. I’m kind of a clean freak.

 
3. The inside of your refrigerator.

We look like big old boozers with all that wine/booze/beer. We’re not. The beer is from Wisconsin…some people from work brought it back for him when they went. You can only get Spotted Cow in WI and John misses it. He is kind of ridiculous with his rationing of it though, I gotta say.  

4. Your pet.

 No. That is not Truman puke right in front of him. Those satillo tiles aren’t sealed so anytime you so much as drop water on it or, say, have a baby drool or vomit on it, it stains. Classy, I know.

5. Your favorite pair of shoes.

I wear those same black pumps nearly every day. Nine West should give me some sort of a lifetime discount.

6. The most comfortable seat in your house.

Where Jack spends much of his time.

7. Your favorite cup or coffee mug.

My mom made this coffee mug in 1982. It’s my all time favorite. I truly think that if it ever broke, so would my heart. I took it when I went away to college and I’ve managed many a move with it without it breaking. I fear what kids may do to it if they get their grubby little paws on it.

8. Your laundry room.

9. The view from your office chair.

Again, don’t really want to show the view seeing as how I don’t want people to know where I work….since I don’t really know who reads this blog. Aaaand my office view is pretty recognizable.  

10. Your spouse/significant other/roommate.

 Since this is both of our blog, we had to both be in the picture since we’re each other’s spouse. Plus we had to get our roomie in it.

Our Life As a Reality Show

I’m pretty in love with reality shows. Not all reality shows, mind you. Just a handful.

I love Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I got really into it after I had Jack and I was up all hours of the night and it was the only thing on. I am also a big fan of Teen Mom. I sit there watching these shows and I’m just AMAZED at how entertaining their lives are. Granted, Tori and Dean are famous so that helps. Red carpets and movie premieres are sure to make life more exciting. And teen motherhood is interesting…especially if you’re completely dysfunctional like Farrah. Or even better, an absolute nutjob like Amber.

But it got me thinking…what would OUR lives be like if we had a reality show?

We’d have fun scenes like us laughing hysterically when Jack pukes on one of us right AFTER changing clothes. Oh man! That’s comedy there. Or maybe real dramatic scenes like when Jack starts crying and I’m in bed and John comes into the room and says, “Can you take care of him?” And I ask, “Why can’t you? I’m asleep?” And he says, “Molly! I’m playing Starcraft! WITH REID!!!!” Yeah, maritial problems are good television. Or maybe intense scenes like when John washes the bottle for the 2nd time in a row and I say, “No, I’ll wash them. You just did it. And he pushes me away and says, “Don’t be silly. I can do them again.” Nothing like a little physical violence.

Or maybe we can do a scene all about our exciting weekends of autoposting blog entries, doing laundry, vacuuming, and playing with our son. Oh yeah. That’s television, folks.

Or maybe the camera could just explore our home and see all the exciting things we do. Like the time I walked in the office and found this sitting on the desk:

 Me: "What is that?”

John: “The RSVP to Pat’s wedding that I never sent in.”

Me: “The wedding is in St. Louis. We bought tickets to it. We managed to buy plane tickets but we didn’t send in the RSVP? The pre addressed, pre stamped RSVP?”

John: “Right. I facebooked him though.”

Me: “Well what’s written all over it?”

John: “Oh, I was just practicing something.”

Me: “Practicing what?”

John: “I just wanted to see how bad I could write.”

Me: “What?"

John: “Like Handwriting. I just wanted to see how bad I could make my handwriting. I can write pretty bad.”

Yeah folks. That’d be one for the sweeps books there. Okay, E! Television. I’ll await your call.

It’s Friday!

Molly has once again left me with the 7 Quick Takes.  After number 1, I’m going to try something different and see what happens.  Basically, it’s going to be my thoughts typing as the quick takes.  You can get quicker than that.  Here they are:

1. Imagine not being able to hear for your whole life and then hearing:

2. Sometimes when I have my contacts in my eyes get super dried out and it make me want to point a water hose at them.

3.  What if a water hose actually shot flames, that would defeat the purpose of a water hose.

4. Lately, my right knee has felt a little funny.  I think it is from sleeping on it funny.

5.  If you can sleep on something funny, don’t you think you would either a) move or b) start laughing?

6. Funny bones are not funny.

7.  I love Seinfeld.

8. Sometimes I type really fast and try to hit the keyboard really hard at the same time.  It’s crazy ridiculous. 

9.  My eyes are still dried out.

10.  I have an iPhone4, but it doesn’t drop calls.. so if you don’t have one and you’re not going to get one, you should anyway.

11. My uncle is going to get an iPhone 3GS.  I told him to get the $15 data plan.

12.  I understand the $25 data plan is open to corporate discounts, but the $15 dollar one isn’t.

13.  Sometimes when I’m typing a dollar amount like $25, I’ll hold down the shift button too long and it will come out $@% and it makes it look like I’m saying a cuss word.

14. I really don’t cuss that often.  However, on Wednesday I had a customer say the F word to me.  I said the F word to tell the story to someone else.  That’s acceptable right?

15.  The F word could be any word that begins with the letter F.  Chew on that.

16. I don’t chew chewing gum, because I have issues with my TMJ joint (look it up) and chewing gum really wears out my jaw.

17. Contacts are driving me CRAZY!!

18.  I just tried like 15 times to type 18.. and then when I just typed in there I messed up.  The next sentence I’m not going to hit backspace and I’ll just keep typing until I get it right.

19. I’m going to type here and keep typeing tuyping typing until i get the dull full sentecne sneteence sencencve sentence correct.  I apparently have a tought tough time wriging writing sentence.  You should really tyr try this.  It’s hard!!!  It’s so reflective f reflective reflexivce relfic reflexive to hit the f backt backspace hey an a key and clealy clearly i need it.

20. Good night.

What’s in a Name?

Last week I was doing some research for work. I was trying to find out the name of someone and I came across a website that I thought might bring me to a link about him. It didn’t.

Instead it was a website all about the origins of names. There are some names I know the origins and meanings of.

For instance, on more than one occasion, John has informed me that his name means “God’s Gift” and that that has worked out really well for me…you know, the receiver of that gift. He’s humble. I also know this because I prefer the other meaning of it when thinking about my son, “God is Gracious.” It really sums up how Jack came into our life. Here we had this whole plan of our lives and God, in His AMAZING Graciousness, interceded His plan. Which rocked. Way more than ours. He could have been all Grandma on us and asked us, “What do you want?” And when we responded, “The new Power Ranger toy!” he would have gotten it for us even though He knew that we would hate it in a year and it would probably be broken before that anyway….

But no. He was all, “No no. That toy sucks. You just don’t know it. Let me give you this awesome matchbox car that will hold up like woah and will be worth a million dollars in a few decades because it’s vintage. And everyone loves vintage.”

Maybe not QUITE like that but you get the picture. The picture is: Jack is awesome and God is Gracious.

Jack’s middle name, Robert, means “Bright Fame.” John’s middle name, “Udell” means, “That middle name is hilarious!” (John said he is offended by that. But I left it. Because that’s what a marriage is all about.)

Our first girl will be named, Christine. The meaning of that little gem? “Follower of Christ.” YES PLEASE!

So that, of course, brings us to my name. Molly. I used to think it meant, “Name of Dog” but apparently it doesn’t. Why did I think this? Because it seems like everyone and their mom (appropriate, eh Chelsea?) names their dog “Molly.” I mean it! It’s like the #2 most popular dog name! MY NAME! This is just not right. I love my name. Stop naming dogs that! I’ve been bitter about this for a very long time.

Which is apparently appropriate. Because I recently learned that my name? Yeah. It means “Sea of Bitterness”. Awesome. Well I wasn’t satisfied with this definition so I did some more snooping. And I found these fun little explanations on a very reliable website called “Urban Dictionary”

Molly: Pure Form of Ecstasy sold in capsules. It is the real deal, not what you will usually receive in a common E pill on the streets these days.

Awesome! I’m so exciting I’m like a drug!!! And the real deal, no less!

Molly: a very beautiful girl, also thought of as perfect, very athletic, and fun to be around, she is smart, and is loved by many, she has low-self confidence, but doesn't realize that people think very highly of her, she is amazing in every way, and has a b**** for a sister.

Hmm….they may be onto something there. Beautiful, fun to be around…I like this better than “sea of bitterness”…But which sister could they be talking about there at the end?

Molly: Extremely Hilarious person. Very good listener. Loves melted cheese sandwiches.

I do! I DO LOVE MELTED CHEESE SANDWICHES!!!

Molly: Every Molly loves a good youtube video, so post one on her wall. Don't be shy around Molly, no worries just take your friends phone away and say something random. For instance "I heard you weren't awkward".

Ah, Taryn Peine. I knew we were meant to be friends over our shared love of youtube videos.

Molly: they're known for "krill-ness" but don't smoke mary jane. they wear skinny jeans, but don't follow the "scenester guidlines."

It’s true. I don’t smoke the Mary Jane. But I am not really sure what the rest of this means.

Molly: a type of girl who wears really cool sweaters.

Ain’t that the truth! I was rocking my mom’s High School Homecoming Queen sweater just this past weekend!

Molly: a girl with a HUGE NOSE!!!!

Well, I guess I DO have a honker.

Molly: a girl who is very hyper, likes to have fun, and is usually the coolest small fry ever. molly's are usually short, and usually have bestfriends named sarah or occasionally alyssa....or maybe even......rachel. but the best is sarah...molly's are so freaking awesome, and sometimes dance really randomly in public and scream when neccesary. molly's also like to put yoga mats on their heads and run back and forth screaming that she is a superhero or batman...either way they are amazing and they rock more than a rockstar...yeah.

Okay. Now this is just getting a little strange.

Molly: Slang for the word "moltov coctail," which is a bottle filled with flammable alcohol with a rag sticking out of it. This rag is then lit on fire and the molly is thrown, such that when the bottle hits the ground, glass flies everywhere along with a huge burst of flames.

I’ll have you know that I have NEVER burst into flames.

Molly: the name for an alcoholic who falls out of bed in the morning, rarely showers, and can name the entire Del Taco menu off the top of their head. a derogatory term for a moocher. will feed off of other people's food as though it were their own. the worst roommate in the world

Wait. What?

Molly: A regional term for a young person who dresses very unfashionably. Used mainly in North East England.

I mean. I know my wardrobe isn’t amazing post-baby but…come on…I’m not that bad. Am I?

Molly: A person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. A person who presents with these types of behaviors: Persistent lying or stealing, Superficial charm,  Apparent lack of remorse, or empathy; inability to care about hurting others,  Inability to make or keep friends, or maintain relationships such as marriage.

Well now this is even worse than Sea of Bitterness!

 

So there ya have it, friends. I’m an unfashionable, psychopathic sea of bitterness who apparently runs around with yoga mats on my head while wearing awesome sweaters and having a naughty word for a sister. Hmm…not quite sure how accurate that is. But really. What’s in a name?

On Not Being Pregnant

For some reason, I’ve been thinking alot (yes, “alot”) about not being pregnant. I keep staring at Jack and all of the things he is discovering (chief among them is saying, “Ma Ma” and melting my heart each time. Even if he does say it to John. And his bottle. And his pacifier.) and I am just in absolute amazement that he went from this:

to this:

to this:

And every time I see a pregnant woman, I can’t help but think how amazing it is that she has this very same life (well, not the VERY same life…but you get the point) inside of her. And I know lots of ladies who are in all sorts of “with child” right now. And I hear them talk about it and you know what? As much as I HATED and I mean HATED being pregnant. There are things I miss. I miss being able to eat anything and everything with reckless abandon (if you’re not of the camp that this is okay while pregnant, guess what? I don’t care! I did it and I have one of the strongest, smartest babies I’ve ever seen! That and I lost all but 8 pounds and I’m only 5 months out. So shutty.), I miss feeling him kick and know that nobody else knows that it’s happening but me and Jack, I miss learning the patterns of his movement. And let’s be honest here people, I miss the attention. When you’re pregnant, you’re the center of attention. And I like attention. Why else would I have my own little corner of the internet dedicated solely to my life?

Then there are things I don’t miss. I don’t miss having my face go from

this:

to this:HOLY YOWZAS!!!!

I don’t miss having my feet swell up so much that they looked like sausages and even walking was painful for fear that they may quite possibly pop like water balloons. I don’t miss the impossibility of sleep (not that much has changed on that front). I don’t miss all the fun indigestional side effects. But here I am with a five month old somehow finding myself thinking, “it wouldn’t be SO bad if I got pregnant again.” Here I am. A girl who, one year ago, thought, “How did I get myself into this? How in the world are we going to be able to be parents right now?” to me: a mother of a 5 month old with all sorts of little quirky issues, with a more than full time job, a mortgage, a husband, and thinking, “Eh, so what if I get knocked up?” AM I CRAZY?  Yes. Yes I am.

Don’t worry folks. It won’t happen any time soon. Right now, our babies are Jack, our mortgage, and my student loans. We need to get rid of that pesky third one before any other babies can come into the picture. But isn’t it funny how I was so miserable when I was this:

Yet I’d become the next flippin’ Michelle Duggar if it meant I got to fill my life with more of these:

Sometimes I think that career-minded, “I’m going to be a high-powered attorney and I’ll worry about kids if and when they happen” Molly would have a heart attack if she read this blog post. I think my own husband might too…I haven’t exactly told him that I want a million babies now. I think that the birth control aisle may be sold out about 10 minutes after John reads this post. Eh. Whatevs.

Ten on Tuesday

All the questions are about college. Should be fun! Until you realize that I was a big old speech geek and my college experience was a pretty geeky one. Whatever….

1. Where did you go to college?

Creighton University. I found a picture of myself from first year of college. A part of me really doesn’t want to show it to you because it’s so ridiculous. But the other part of me is itching for comments on this darned blog so I’m gonna do it. And I expect lots of, “WHAT THE HECK?” and similar comments. Are you ready? Are you ready for this?

Oh. Heck. Yes. Can I just give you a rundown here? Leather jacket. Jeans with a boys belt. Cross necklace. Goodwill T-shirt. Long hair and, of course, the coffeehouse glasses. Why did I ever grow out of this hot girl phase?

2. What did you study?

International Relations with a focus on African Studies. Is it any wonder I went to law school? What in the heck was I going to do with that degree?

3. Was college really all that it was cracked up to be?

Yes. I loved college. LOVED it. After I got over the whole homesickness thing my first semester, of course. And then I hated it again my junior year when Susan Schnase AND John Campbell left me to go pursue bigger and better things. But whatever. I liked it.

4. How far were you from home?

1,000 miles.

5. Did you have the same roomate all four years?

Nope. First year was Lorrie the sex maniac who LITERALLY did it in the bed next to me. On multiple occasions. But here’s the deal: I never did figure out when these boys came in. We’d go to sleep at night just the two of us in our room. The next morning, I’d wake up to moaning and whatnot and bam! There was a boy in there making his presence VERY known. I am not putting a picture on here to protect the innocent. Or the promiscuous. Whatever.

Second year I lived with Denise. She will agree: don’t live with your best friend. It’s a recipe for disaster. But even though we went nearly 2 months without speaking to each other, we had lots of fun when we were actually getting along.

We had a quote wall and celebrated random holidays like world smile day and ate chilis takeout every Thursday night while watching Friends.

Third and fourth year I lived with Allison. Allison was John’s best friend/roommate’s girlfriend. We didn’t know each other at all except for the couple times we all hung out at the boys’ apartment together. I needed a roommate. She needed a roommate. So we kind of out of nowhere decided to live together. We didn’t even know each other’s last names when we were filling out the deposit paperwork. She will agree: sometimes living with a nearly-complete stranger means finding one of the very best friends a girl could ask for.

6. Where did you order food from at 2am?

I was asleep at 2 am. There are only 2 times in college I can think of being awake at 2 am. 1) I had really bad cramps and took way too many midol. Midol is full of caffeine. Denise and I stayed up making web videos for my sister. Awesome, I know. 2) John and I had our 2nd date—we went to a wedding and then hung out with a bunch of friends afterward and stayed up talking all night long. Okay, there was a little smooching in there too.

7. Did you date in college or were you tied down?

My freshman year, I was dating my high school boyfriend. Things didn’t go well from 700 miles apart so we broke up. Maybe it’s not so much that things were going well as it was that he saw the picture from #1 above and realized that maybe Molly Mac didn’t quite have it going on. Then I started dating John about a month later. So I guess a bit of both?

8. Funniest drunk college moment?

Folks, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I like me some alcohol but I’m pretty much a one or two drink kind of girl. Honestly, that night I was all sorts of hopped up on Midol, I may as well have been drunk. Seriously. I wish I could find you the videos. I sound like an idiot. I thought I was hilarious because I took everyone’s door tags with their names on it and put them on the ceiling so when they woke up, they’d be all confused. And I’m wearing a furry baseball cap. To this day, I have no idea where that hat came from or where it went.

9. Did you make it to class on time?

Almost always.

10. What was your favorite class in college?

Good question. I don’t know. Probably Gender Communication because I took it with John and I did better than he did. And that’s saying something because John graduated Summa Cum Laude.  I’ll tell you what my LEAST favorite class was: Food and Society or some crap like that. I can’t remember the name of it but it was a senior seminar class. Everyone had to take a seminar and it was just some dumb pointless class. So Denise and I decided to take it because we figured it’d be about food and we’d get to eat in it alot. WRONG! VERY VERY WRONG! I think we talked about the history and importance of salt for like 6 classes in a row. It was terrible. And we only got to eat ONE time when the darn teacher brought hominy for us to try. NO THANK YOU! He brought it on a day where we were on the third of 5 classes focused solely to the importance of corn in America. BOOOORING. And very disappointing.

Like Mother, Like Son

I complain about Jack’s sleep (or lack thereof) often. I watch Brady (his identical cousin) sit in a swing for hours without a peep and think, “Why can’t Jack be less needy like Brady?” I think it’s silly that Jack MUST be held or touched at all times. But you know what I’m realizing? I only have myself to blame.

You see, Jack may get his big blue eyes from his daddy. But there is one very BIG thing he gets from his mom: his clinginess.

Last week, we were talking to my mom about Jack’s nonexistent sleep schedule. I told her that I was looking through my baby book and that I saw that I started sleeping through the night at six weeks (you’re welcome, mom and dad!) and why couldn’t Jack take after me in that regard? She said that yes, all her kids slept through the night pretty early on. And she was lucky because most of the time, they could just lay in the crib for an hour or so after waking up and entertain themselves. There was only one that couldn’t. And do you want to take a guess who that one child was? If you guessed my brother, you’re wrong. She said that the moment I woke up, I’d start crying out for mom to come be with me. I thought, “Sheesh! That’s too bad! Thank goodness I grew out of that!” and went along my merry way conversing about how I just can’t wait for Jack to sleep more like Brady Mr-I’m-Asleep-For-12-Hours-At-A-Time-And-Have-Been-Since-Day-One. That night, John and I got Jack in bed. We stopped turning on Jack’s mobile because when it stops, it wakes him up and he starts crying for us. So we bought this little light show thing that stays on all night.  After getting gently patting Jack until he fell asleep (because he goes ballistic if you aren’t touching him), I snuggled in for a little King of Queens action while John rubbed my feet. A half an hour later, the DVR’d show stopped and I was startled awake. “John!?!?! JOHN!?!?!?” I yelled when I realized I was alone. John came running in the room and I said, “Where did you go?? The TV turned off and I was alone!” And he started laughing. Wildly. “You are exactly like Jack, Molly! TV is your mobile and you freak out if you wake up and I’m not right next to you.” Whatever. I laid back down to try and fall asleep. But I couldn’t. I was just awake enough to make it tough to fall back asleep. So I flailed. And flung my arms. And make “umph!” noises.

Right as I was about to fall asleep, I heard a noise coming from the monitor. I looked over and Jack must have somehow woken up. He started crying the moment he realized we weren’t there. John went in and comforted him but Jack couldn’t quite fall back asleep. So he flailed. And flung his arms. And made “umph!” noises.

Yeah, this is a good thing to pass down. I can only blame myself.

Seven Quick Takes

1) When I was pregnant, I told myself that I wasn’t going to be one of “those moms” who thinks their kid is the cutest in the world. Surely not every baby can be the cutest. And I wasn’t going to fall into that bias of thinking that out of ALL the babies on the whole planet that mine was the cutest. Sure, he’d be cute. But I wasn’t going to be delusional enough to think that he was the cutest.

Wrong. He is.

2) Jack has slept through the night twice in a row. Ah, sweet sleep. It’s amazing. But here’s the rub: on the two nights where he hasn’t slept through the night, he sleeps like a newborn…up 6 times, if not more.

3) I am very VERY angry with IKEA. I’ll update you on that next week. For now, just know that I am full of Swedish meatballs while my house is empty of necessary furniture.

4) I thought I wasn’t a huge fan of roasts. You know…big ol’ hunks of meat cooked for a long time? I like my meat mooing…and roasts usually aren’t mooing. So I don’t like them, right? Wrong. I learned I was oh so very wrong. We had dinner at my friend’s house on Friday night and wowzas does Shayla’s husband make a mean roast.

5) My baby sister, Bridget, is back from her bike ride across the US. We’ve already put her to good babysitting use.

6) And in case you were wondering, Jack’s hat is awesome. But his identical cousin couldn’t be left out in the cold, right? He needed a hip hat too.

7) That Brady kid is pretty darn cute too. Especially when he dresses like a Cuban businessman. My parents must be pretty impressed with themselves for managing to have the #1 and #2 cutest boys on the entire planet. Well done, parents. Well done.

WEEKEND WEEKEND WEEKEND!!!!!

Growing Boy

Birthday:

One Week:

One Month:

Two Months:

Three Months:

Four Months:

Five Months:

To Swaddle or Unswaddle…

Jack loves his swaddle.  He’s been sleeping in it for … well, since he was born. 

It calms him and makes him fall asleep faster than you can snap.  And you can snap pretty darn fast.

A couple weeks ago though, he started his best Houdini impersonation and was escaping it and the swaddle seemed to be keeping him awake.  We decided it was time to ditch the swaddle and go for the pajamas. 

Without the swaddle, he’s literally ALL over the crib.  Getting his arms stuck.  Rolling from one end to another.  (If he’s awake, you can not get him to figure out how to get something just out of his grasp, in the crib though he probably goes back and forth a distance equal to one mile.)  Even the famous, butt in the air pose!

He had a couple good nights in PJs, but for the most part he didn’t sleep well.  Plus, he’s a tummy sleeper and if you know the SIDS people, they’ll tell you that your child will die if he sleeps on his tummy. 

Anyway, we decided to go back for the swaddle.

It was amazing.  All of the sleeping problems disappeared!!

However, as Jack gets stronger, he has combined the steadiness of sleep in the swaddle with the crazy movement of PJs.  That means he’s rolling over in the swaddle.  That’s not good, because he doesn’t have hands… so now we’re back in just the PJs. It’s the first night.  It’s 11pm as I type this… and guess who just started screaming in his PJs.  Good night everyone!