We're Blessed, Dammit

So I have decided that I will be grateful Big Daddy had to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, because that's how we found the hose to the ice-maker spraying water all over the kitchen and the puddle that was turning into a pond across the tile and hardwood floors, and thankful that I remembered where the turn-off valve for it was (downstairs, through the rain of water that was coming through the floor). I will consider us lucky, even, as I have today off and dammit I really need to relax and I don't want to think about having to spend more money to fix things in this cash-sucking hole of a house.

Book Blog

Hello!

My computer at home is dead.

Well, maybe only mostly dead. It might be able to be revived. But not this weekend! Because we will be at a waterpark hotel in Wisconsin Dells for free! About damn time I got some perks for working for the company I work for. So that is why posting has been light, and why my blog still looks ugly.

However, this computer thing is a problem becaue I had promised to participate in a Blog Book Tour for the author Jennifer Margulis and her newest book, Why Babies Do That: Baffling Baby Behavior Explained.
I am here at the end of the tour, so you may have already seen the book mentioned in other blogs (click on the link for her page, listing a whole bunch of other cool Mama blogs under the Blog Book Tour link). I wanted to do an interview with her, but life kind of got in the way. So I will tell you instead about the book.

I was very flattered when Jennifer emailed me and offered me this chance, putting me in with the big girls of blogging like she did. But then I realized, it's a gift book. I hate gift books. I have a bizarre heirarchy of books that I find worthy of reading/owning, and gift books are way down there. BUT! (don't get discouraged, Jennifer!) I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I expected pretty pictures with very little content, but this contains real information. Weird stuff about baby reflexes and drool and poop. Interesting stuff about growth and brain development. If you are like me and read the parenting/medical books cover-to-cover, there probably isn't much in there you don't already know. But if you are like Big Daddy, and simply don't have the patience to wade through all those books, this one would be great. I read somewhere that she chose this format because it was something easy for a sleep-deprived new parent to digest. I don't know about that, because I think I still couldn't comprehend more than two sentences together after her birth. It's still a nice shower gift, or Cliff Notes for someone who runs screaming from What To Expect The First Year.

I also want to mention her other book, Toddler: Real-life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love. This is a collection of essays (she's the editor) about toddlers, and seriously, it is Hi-larious. I got an extra copy to give as a gift. Plus, it was banned from a book sale at her kid's elementary school because one of the essays had naughty words! Mind, this wasn't a sale of children's books, it was a sale of books to benefit the school. My general rule is to immediately buy any book that gets banned for stupid reasons like that, and this was definitely worth it.

So now that you have your next baby shower gift and light summer reading picks, I am off to the wonderful world of water slides, wading pools, and being in my swimsuit in front of all my coworkers.

Mimic

Scene: On Bad Mama's bed, Peanut has insisted on putting on Bad Mama's pajama shirt and pants.

Peanut: Now I'm da mama.

Bad Mama: Ok, Mama, what is Mama going to do?

Peanut: [flops down onto a pillow] I'm tired! [Yawns exaggeratedly, and then giggles]


What can I say, the kid pays attention.

Sad

Please send your prayers to Cancer, Baby's family.

She was the same age as me. Things like this are not supposed to happen to thirty-three year- olds.

The National Ovarian Cancer Resource Center has more information on the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women.

It's All Relative

Peanut is really into "big" and "little" right now. She also enjoys naming body parts. And she is the only person in the world who can get away with telling me, "You have a BIG vulva" without something ugly happening.