Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day!

Money savvy

Ever wonder if you are paying too much money for your cell phone plan or your internet access? Apprently, there is a website out there, Billshrink.com that can analyze your bills to find the best plans for you.

I haven't checked it out yet myself, but I thought it was too cool of an idea not to share.

Oh, and speaking about money. Has anyone seen the gas prices in the D.C. area lately?? Around the corner we are down to $1.59 per gallon for gas! Kick ass!

Potty humor

We've been trying for awhile now to get Little Man interested in using the potty. As any parent can tell you (except for my beloved friend "C" who's child announced to her one day "No more diapers, mommy!") potty training is definitely a chore. It's something you have to work at before finally accepting.

He definitely knows when he's going. Sometimes he even announces it after the fact. Then we turn around and say, "Thank you for telling Mommy you went potty." What else am I suppose to do? I don't want him to think that I'm ignoring him and obviously I want him to tell me before hand in the future.

A few weeks ago, I thought I would try another indirect route. Books. When we went to the library I found a few potty books that would hopefully peak Little Man's interest. If you know him and his books, he took to those new books like glue. For a couple days, actually practically every day since I brought the books home, he's been wanting to read them. Over and over again.

In one particular book, No more diapers for Ducky, they show a little blue potty chair. Nothing fancy. This little chair though, Little Man points out every time. So when I saw a little blue potty chair during our family's Sunday morning outing to IKEA last week, I had to buy it in hopes that Little Man would quickly catch on.

Instead, he's carrying it around the house.


Pushing it across the kitchen floor. Yelling, "Pa-tee!" He stops every once in awhile to sit on it, but no potty in the chair yet.


Maybe after he turns two all things will be different. Yeah, they'll be different all right. Like the temper tantrums will be more fierce. Just kidding - I hope.

Ouchy!

I know, it's been awhile. I have very good reasons, believe me.

The first being I have had cold/upper-yucky-respiratory-not-quite-an-infection problem for the past almost three weeks now. Heaven forbid I actually get some sleep while I'm sick. Big Daddy and I slept in separate beds for an entire week just so at least one of us could get some sleep. Fortunately, when I went to the doctor almost 2 weeks ago now, she prescribed cough medicine with codeine. No more coughing for me at night! Yippee!

The second reason being these. I enter exhibit A:

My top two wisdom teeth. Yes, I am a freak and asked to keep them. (That's the scientist in me, sorry. When I got my gall bladder out I would have asked for that too, but I know doctors are a little weird about giving back body parts.) Fortunately, I only had my top two wisdom teeth - either the bottom never came in or they never will. I like to think I am part of the evolutionary process of ridding such unnecessary body parts for our future generations to come. Hence the removal of my gallbladder, tonsils, and adenoids. Don't need 'em.

I was absolutely petrified to have my teeth removed. My top left had bothered me in the past by rubbing on the inside of my cheek, but then it would dissipate after a week or so. This time around, I could barely open my mouth wide enough to brush my teeth. Needless to say, I couldn't wait any longer. The dental office had originally given me a treatment plan that would remove one tooth at a time, but after a brief thought decided to get it all over with at once, especially with the holiday/birthday season approaching.

After I waited more than 20 minutes for the novocain to "take effect" (it doesn't take that long), the doctor came back and within 2 minutes the tooth was out! I've removed teeth in cats and dogs before, so I knew the "drill" (hehe no pun intended), but that's exactly what I was afraid would happen. I've heard horror stories where the doctor needed to break the tooth and, according the many people, would have me bed ridden with dry sockets for weeks.

Apparently, the doctor didn't get the message that I wanted BOTH wisdom teeth removed. As he was washing up, I said, "Aren't you going to take out the other one?" He replied, "Huh. You wanted both out today? It's almost 5 o'clock." He thankfully was just a good sport and decided he wanted to make the practice a little extra money that day. He had only applied novocain to the left one, so we needed to wait again for it to set in for the right one. This is when you learn it really only needs 3-5 minutes to take effect. Exactly the same as the first, it took the doctor no more than 2 minutes to pry the tooth out.

What a relief to finally have that over with, but now I needed to worry about post-op care. Being a vet tech and OCPD, I made sure to follow their instructions to the letter. Thankfully, I can report that I had no difficulties at all during recovery. Big Daddy was able to take a couple days off though, just to make sure.

And third, thank you to all you out there sending me new client mojo. I accepted a new client last week. Just in time for the holiday season. Unfortunately, the Vicadin and Tylenol with codeine didn't quite enable me to do much work, but I'll be up and running this week for sure.

Stick around. There's more to come this week from A's Mom.

TTFN!

Gotta have manners

Yesterday we decided to venture out to Borders Bookstore to look for some Christmas presents... and just to get out of the house. Little Man was in a Bob the Builder mood, so we hurried back to the children's section to discover no Bob the Builder books. Instead, we found tractor and truck books. This made Little Man happy too.

Big Daddy and Little Man settled down near a small children's table to read the books we had found. I wandered away to find some Christmas presents. No more than 2 minutes later I hear the distinct sound of my child screaming. Since I wasn't too far away I peaked around the bookshelves to see Big Daddy trying to console Little Man.

When I asked what happened, Big Daddy informed me that a little girl about the age of 4 or 5 came barreling over and made herself comfortable at their table. She then took over ALL the books Little Man was eye balling over!

I wanted to go to the child and beat the living daylights out of her steal back the books she had stolen, but instead we tried to go back to the original location of the truck books and find another. Little Man wasn't falling for it, he wanted those books!

Eventually, the little devil girl ended up leaving the table and the books behind. So Big Daddy and Little Man tried again. I did the same. No more than 1 minute later, the little shit comes back! This time Little Man was prepared. "Share. Share. Share." Was all he said to this big bully. Her reply, "I am sharing." Thankfully, this time Big Daddy stood up for him as well.

What is it with children nowadays? Don't they learn manners anymore from their parents?? Her parents were no where to be found, just let her off to terrorize my child do as she pleases. Apparently, children's behaviors are a mirror image for their parents. I think those parents need to go back to kindergarten and learn how to share. And while they are at it, learn about putting things back where they belong as well.