I Love You, Shut Up

So tonight there was a segment on ABC news about Mommy Bloggers, and how awesome it is, and how much free crap they get and blah blah blah, and I get the question from my husband that I loathe so much: "Hey why don't you do that? You could totally do it; that looks easy." Okay, first of all, no it's not easy. These bloggers, and the various other award winning "Mommy Bloggers" are not the only ones out there. For every Heather Armstrong, there's, say, 150 mes that write but do not have that "it" spark that projects a blog from family/friend read to an actual public offering. My attempt at an argument went thus: 1)some bloggers have things like activities, arts and crafts, recipes, decorating, or some such how-to thing that other parents can use for ideas. While I have posted recipes, I just am not creative often enough to have daily or even monthly project postings; 2) some deal with things like specially abled children, post-partum depression, balancing work/school/home/combination of any or all of these (none of which I deal with); or some other topic people can relate to personally; 3) but the most read ones deal not only with a combination of these, but get very close and personal, bringing the reader into intimate details of the writer's life, sex life, relationships with in-laws, neighbors and parents, photos of the kids, etc etc etc, all of which, by the way, he's completely been against in past conversations about Why My Blog Isn't A Money Maker. (Also I don't write in it enough, but this is about him). However, I never got to finish my pints because he said I talked to much and I was ruining the Special News Segment, so now I'm going to be petty and post this haha!! Now I just need to add a picture of my baby Doing Something Precocious and wait for the offers to roll in! Great idea!!

GoGo Barcelo and the Great Escapes

Bella hasn't quite reached the point where she solely walks, but if we lived in a house built by Escher, she'd have no problem getting around. I mean, the girl lives to climb. You could have a totally flat surface with her favorite toys laying about, and tucked far off in the back is one lone ottoman-and she will bypass everything else to climb on that ottoman. She mostly goes for the couch, but yesterday she climbed on my bed without even the slightest grunt or noise. One minute she was on the ground and I was chatting online with a friend's daughter I hadn't talked to in a year, and I turn around to see her sitting on the bed, just playing with my keys as quietly as possible. So now even if she's napping, it's become hard to enjoy a shower without thoughts of her waking up, attempting to climb out of the crib, and falling on her head. Last night she was impossible to put to sleep (that phrase does NOT sound right), so when she finally drifted off I had to risk waking her up by opening the door just to make sure she hadn't secretly gotten out of her crib and was heading toward the puzzles. Of course, this only leads to being more diligent. Like, locking the handle and bolt on the garage door, double-checking that all other doors are closed, and picking up myriad random objects, not just off the floor, but off the couch, any small tabletops, and of course making sure that things aren't hanging over the edges of tables. I have to say, in some ways it's pretty cool to watch. She can climb super fast, and this is also broadening her play area as well as keeping me from slacking off too much in the mom-watching area

The Only Mom Who Didn't Do Halloween

If it wasn't for Bells catching a fever, I'd have absolutely no excuse for why I had no costume and no plan for how to spend this October 31st.


My cousin's daughter, who was born earlier in the month, had a costume. I dug through a box of clothing until I found my niece's from two years ago and slipped it on. Then took it off an hour later when it seemed her fever was spiking, perhaps due to the hot felt costume.

The night was spent in dealing with her either bouncing off the wall (I guess I have the only kid who is more energetic while sick) or crying as I tried desperately to cool her off and calm her down.

finally, at around 4 am, her fever broke. At 7 she woke up crying again and I just brought her to bed with me, where we slept till almost 11.

Today, though, both her cousins came over, and we dressed them up and took them trick-or-treating to various bedroom doors with aunts and grandparents passing out candy. That was pretty cute.

I have twelve months till the next Halloween. Maybe I can get it together then.