Running Around...
One of the wonderful things about Jack becoming a toddler is that he is much more mobile, and he's a lot easier to take out with us now.
We ran a lot of errands yesterday, and of course we did this as a family. Jack in his big-boy car seat is a terrific thing to behold, and he gave us very little grief while we were out and about. We hit the DMVS office, went to my insurance company, did some shopping all with the little one, and until he got cranky and tired he was having a great time. We didn't used to be able to do things like this together as Jack was not one of those affible children out of the house. Times have changed.
People like Jack; he's a cute baby and very curious about the going-ons around him. Old southern gentlemen pat him on his head, southern women stop and smile and talk to him...it's good times for him, and for us as well.
The freedom of getting out with Jack is great. I used to feel really cooped up because we didn't go out a lot during the winter; who wants to carry around a baby while it's cold out? Now with the summer being here, he swims, plays, we go for walks every day, we take drives and go out for lunches and dinners...
It's time to start thinking about daycare a few days a week. Jack could use the interaction with other children, but I don't look forward to it. Being around others means bringing home colds, the flu, other little kiddie diseases, but if that's the worst of it, and he has a good time then I'm all for it. "Mommy and Me" time is great, but I'm sure he gets bored around me. It's time to loosen the hold and let Jack become a social little person...God Help Us!
"Batman" Bull...
I've been foaming at the mouth to see the new "Batman Begins" since I first heard about it over a year ago. I've seen the previews, watched the "Making of" special, read a lot of really positive reviews on it, and now I'm ready to go! Saturday night is the big night...woo hoo!
I'm talking to a friend at work who shall be nameless, (Corey Dawkins...) and he starts trashing the whole movie, telling me what a piece of crap it was, and how he's read nothing good about it (I didn't realize this guy COULD read, but okay...) and how he won't waste his money even on the DVD when it comes out for him to see it! He'e talking all this garbage about a movie he HASN'T EVEN SEEN YET!!! Below is our semi-intelligent conversation about the subject.
Me: "Corey, do you even know what the hell you're talking about?" Him:"Yeah, and it just doesn't look like the other Batman movies" Me:"It's not the OTHER Batman movies, it's THIS Batman movie you moron!" Him:"I'm not a Batman person anyway, I prefer Spiderman. Batman is too morbid and dark-looking." Me:"Think that's why he's called 'The Dark Knight" maybe??? Stick to the cartoon...oh wait, that's too morbid and dark too...better move on to "The Rugrats" if your Mommy will let you!" Him:"There's no need to get mad, I'm only stating my opinion!" Me: "You can't have an opinion about something you have no knowledge of, so shut up, okay know-it-all?" Him: "Have you seen the new Star Wars? It was awesome!!!" Me: Yawn......
Moral of the story: Don't be a dumb ass and review something you haven't seen or don't intend to see around me. You only look dumb, and I hate dumb.
I still can't wait for Saturday night and the chance to form my own opinion about this movie...even if it sucks I'll probably love it anyways. Christian Bale is gorgeous!!!
A Brand New Being!
What was once an infant is now a toddler...Jackson Dillon Head is now at an age where the real fun begins for us all!
Daddy loves to play with him; they chase one another around, they tackle each other, Jack loves to hang out with his Daddy. This is what I've been waiting for all this time!
Now that Jack is crawling, we've lost our infant and replaced him with this hilarious toddler that emulates us. He has cognitive reasoning skills, he can find his way out of a tight situation with a minimum of fuss, he eats solid table foods like he's been doing it forever, and we can now spend an entire meal in a restaurant because he's amused with his surroundings...Jack's a changed "man".
Here's to the future with our brand new being! May he grow and grow, and may we continue to keep laughing well into the terrible two's...
Now let's get to his first birthday in a month and a half!
And The Oscar Goes To...
Lydia is on her way back home to Boone North Carolina as I write this. Oma OR "Na-na", as she became known in her THIRTY days here, is a battered, bruised, burned-out mess who will probably sleep for a week straight after her six and a half hour drive home.
My mother-in-law was a really big help and I feel horrible for seeing her off in this condition, and my father-in-law is going to be really pissed off when he sees her like this. NOTE*** Walter, I am REALLY sorry that Lydia is all messed up. It won't happen again.***
People, NEVER let your mother-in-law continue to watch your child if she has a SINGLE physical problem, like a bad back. With all of the bending and lifting that this woman did it's a miracle that she's even standing at all. I should have come home from Lithonia when she strained her back to begin with, as Ken was not the biggest amount of help to her, which also bothered me some. I don't think I'll be opening another restaurant anytime soon. Lydia deserves better quality time with her grandson than this. She put up a really brave front, and I know she was in quite a bit of pain, but she just kept on trudging through it, claiming to be fine....uh huh.
Here's the joke of it all: I was more worried about my mother-in-law these past few days than I was about Jack. I have no doubt of her abilities to take care of her grandson, but I just wanted her to be be feeling in better shape than she was, and you don't rest with a ten-month old, so it wasn't going to happen, and I knew that things were only going to get worse for her, which they did. If I'd had a Vicodin and about ten hours of time on my hands, I would have had her take it and just crash...she needs it.
Jack had a good time. He learned some new things, plus she was here when he started his whole crawling thing, which was also cool because she got to experience a landmark in a series of firsts for him. They bonded, and I know she had more than a few good moments with him over the past month, so I hope it was worth it for her.
I forgot to burn off a disk of pictures for her, and Ken never took the picture of her and the baby that she wanted to send to her sister for her birthday. Here's something even more lame on my part: I bought an umbrella stroller for Jack the DAY before she left to go home. She was toting a 20plus pound stroller around...not an easy task. An umbrella stoller weighs something like 5 pounds...nice huh? I am not altogether right in the head at times, and sometimes my timing stinks.
I think the next time that we see Lydia it will be because we drove to North Carolina to go camping at the end of the summer. We'll stop by the homestead on the way in and out I'm sure, but it's time she had the home court advantage for a change.
Thanks a lot Mom. I really appreciate your help once again. I hope we see you soon. Be sure and get some sleep.
Home for a moment.
I got stuck working a third week in Lithonia, but decided it was a fantastic idea to come home for two days, on the days they gave me off before finishing another 65 hour work week. Hey, I missed my husband and son...what can I say?
Jack is now the king of the carpet. He's doing the full-blown crawling thing, and man is he everywhere! My mother-in-law is exhausted trying to keep up with him, and I don't blame her in the least...he's a fast little bugger!
Father's Day is coming; Ken's first. He wants a cabinet smoker and a MP3 player...in all reality he'll probably get a few pairs of new Dockers, a grill brush for our old barbeque, and a DVD of "The Aviator". We don't always get what we want, but we do get what we need with something fun thrown in there too. (I'll probably throw a hummer his way as well.)
I just want this opening to be over with. MIT is next, and that's ten weeks in Orlando, Florida...oh joy, but they want me to go into management and I guess I'm ready to go as well...I'm getting burned-out on the whole service thing, and management isn't any better; it just offers better benefits so we'll see when this all jumps off. I hope it's after Jack starts walking or I'll be really pissed off if I wind up missing it.
I'm just glad to be home, even if it is only for a moment.
Oh Lithonia...
Wow, this is the largest concentrated amount of black people I have EVER seen in my life all at once, not counting television!!! This is a very dark town, but it's the highest income per capita for African-Americans in all of Atlanta...okay, fine.
The opening's going pretty well; I've made some new friends out of the other trainers that I haven't met before, but I know most of them from previous openings. It's a large amount of work, a little bit of play, and the concept of having fun in places you wouldn't normally travel to.
Smokey Bones will do very well out here...
Man, I can't wait to go home.
