DNA is Like a Box of Chocolates

So, when Nicholas was first born, most people said he looked more like me. Granted, it's hard to tell with an infant so young, but I did agree with them......over the weekend, though, my mom said that Nick Knack was looking more like Andy! I took a close look at my baby and thought, "Hmmm....I just don't see it...." [or maybe I don't WANT to see it!]

What is lurking in Nicholas's DNA is 50% a mystery. As Forrest Gump would say, it's a box of chocolate....you never know what you're going to get! I suppose that could be true about what I passed on....the only thing I know for sure that I gave to that child are his toes! They are definitely my toes, and they are the same toes that my father has. We all have these lollipop big toes and the second and third are close together. In fact, that's the second thing I said in the delivery room right after, "He's so beautiful! And slippery!" I then said, "He has my feet!"

I remember when I was pregnant, and the doctor asked me about some test for a disease that is hereditary. I said, "Oh, that's okay....it doesn't run in my family." Then, I suddenly realized that I have NO idea what runs in Andy's family! It's because he was adopted, and he has never looked for his biological parents. Therefore, he could have all sorts of things lurking in the shadows of his genes....

Me, for example, I am half Greek. I already know what evil noses and big ears are hidden in my DNA. My grandmother had quite a schnoz! Thankfully, they don't seem to be dominate genes! So far, Nicholas has a cute, normal nose. We'll see if it becomes the German nose that both my brother's and I have.

My biggest concern with this unknown family history stuff is that we don't know what to look for or prevent.....physical appearance is pretty minor compared to the real problems he could have inherited. Like, does cancer run on Andy's side? Mental illness? Or something like that? Same for his girls.....we really don't know.

I guess there isn't much we can do but wait.....and see how our little baby grows....

Whole Foods ROCKS

There's a Whole Foods grocery near my parents' house. This place ROCKS. I really wish we had one in Cincinnati.....maybe one day we will. I'm hopeful since Whole Foods bought Wild Oats, and we have that grocery.

So, if you haven't been to a WF, you are probably wondering, "What's so great about this place...? It's just a grocery store, after all....."

Just a grocery store. That's like saying the Louvre is "just an art museum." Oh lord, that is quite a dramatic analogy! But oh so fitting.

WF is not cheap, and you probably won't find Tide and Charmin there. Instead, you'll find all sorts of organic stuff. We like it for the organic stuff, but it's the fresh stuff that we love. The fish department is stellar, and they have all these wonderful cheeses, meats and prepared foods. Oh, and the bakery and fresh bread and wine department. Basically, it's ALL good.

While there, we bought some tuna burgers and these spicy buffalo burgers. They were giving samples away....which means there was a HUGE crowd in front of the counter. We bought a couple of burgers and froze them for this weekend. These burgers have quite a kick but are yummy!

We also spent some time in the wine department chatting about Viognier with someone who works there. We were trying to find a nice Champagne for my brother and his wife. They just moved into a new house. In addition to the Champagne, we found one of Andy's favorites, Hangtown Red from the Boeger Winery. He was THRILLED. And I found Wishing Tree Shiraz, which is one of my favorites. So, we were quite happy with our little detour to the wine department.

Maybe if I pray really hard to the Whole Foods gods, they will send one of their stores our way...

New Tooth!

Last Thursday, Taylor called me to inform me that Nicholas had a tooth! I guess Andy was waiting for the girls at school and happened to notice something white in Nick Knack's mouth. He felt it and realized it was a tooth -- very exciting!

There's just one so far, and it's on the bottom. And let me tell you....my normally happy-go-lucky, smiling baby has been a little fussy and pill-ish from this whole teething experience. Even the day care ladies commented that he seemed a little fussy -- something they are NOT used to from Nick!

On Sunday night, he would scream every time I put him down in his crib. I finally gave him some apple juice with baby Tylenol in it. AND he and I slept in Taylor's bed [she was at her mom's]. He had a fitful sleep, but he did sleep....unlike his mother who is a light sleeper and wakes up at every little twitch!

It's okay....I did get to nap while he was at day care.....and he seems to have returned to his sweet, happy self. From what I've read, the first few teeth are the worst....so if THIS was the worst, then we are pretty darn lucky.....

What is Wrong With the Dog?!?!?!??!???

Oh my GOD......never give a dog a lamb bone. This is a lesson I wish we hadn't learned the HARD, nasty way.....

This past weekend was Easter. It was also Greek Easter. So, we packed up Nick and the dog and headed up to visit my parents. As usual, we had a wonderful time and lots of great food. Nick tried some mashed potatoes and really liked them.

Well, since it was Greek Easter, we had lamb. And the lamb came with a bone. My dad and Andy decided it would be a good idea to give this bone to Ginger.....yes, in theory this sounds like an okay plan. Obviously, you wouldn't give chicken bones to a dog, but what's wrong with a little lamb bone, right....?

Ginger was thrilled with her bone and quickly devoured the entire thing. Yes, the entire thing....not sure how she did this, but there was no bone to be found.

That night, the trouble started....she seemed to have a little diarrhea.....okay, gross, but she was doing it outside....so, we put her away for the night and went to bed.

The next morning.....and here is where my story gets NASTY, so stop reading if you don't want all the gory details......well, the next morning we discovered that Ginger and her bowels had been rather busy all night! Thank goodness she's in an UNfinished part of the basement with cement floors.

I'm not sure if there was a jagged part of the bone that caused a little internal damage, because there was blood mixed in with all the brown stuff. I was wondering if she was going to die or something! It was pretty bad.

By the time Andy got home from work, she and her bowels were feeling fine and on their way to being normal. I refused to clean up the nasty mess, so Andy got out the bleach and a scrub brush and got busy. I had to clean up after that dog went through her second [and LAST] heat, because Andy was in China. That time, she had dripped all over the cement floor, so I was scrubbing with bleach on my knees for hours. Andy got a little luckier, although there was the brown stuff mixed in.....gross, gross, gross!

Needless to say.....knick knack, paddy-whack.....never give your dog a lamb bone! Hell, for that matter, we'll never be giving her any bones PERIOD unless they come from the pet store and are filled with something safe like peanut butter......

2 Busy 2 Blog

Where does the time go? Before I know it, days have passed, and I've had zero time to blog! Just been so busy lately....I have found a moment while Nicholas is busy cooing at the Higgley Town Heroes and gnawing on a plastic doggy.

Things have just been crazy lately. I recently left my employer of eight years, and I was trying to wrap up as much as possible before I went. At the end, it was like a feeding frenzy for all of my stuff! I do admit I had some top notch equipment -- I think I'll miss my 24" Dell wide aspect monitor the most....sniff, sniff.....however, hubby has promised me that I can get one at home! March was our best month ever, so I get to "reward" myself with the monitor. This 19" flat panel seems so puny now....

Internet Scams.....Beware!

Recently, I decided it was time to try selling the Medela breast pump I barely used. I was going to use eBay, but I feel their fees are a little steep. So, I gave craigslist.com a try. Well, someone from California [who obviously knows English as a second language] contacted me and wanted to buy the pump....the fact that they weren't local should have been my first clue.....

Well, after several e-mails [that were usually one, very long, rambling paragraph], I agreed to sell them the pump and pay their shipper from money they were sending me via PayPal. Hey, it's PayPal, right? I figured I would be safe....how can they screw me over with PayPal....??

We paid about $320 for the pump, and I had it listed at $150. I figured shipping would be about $35 - 50, so I was looking for about $185 to show up in my PayPal account.....NOT $975! I suddenly get an e-mail from PayPal regarding this rather large deposit and then another e-mail from the "buyer" giving me details on what to do with this money.

Seems they had bought several items from sellers in Cincinnati, and they were entrusting me, a total stranger, with making payment to their "shipper" in Washington, D.C. And payment came from somebody in Arizona and was marked "UNICEF." Oh, and I was supposed to use WESTERN UNION to wire the money. And I was supposed to keep an extra $50 for my "trouble" of going to Western Union. However, the math didn't add up, and they didn't send me enough money nor did they tell me where to actually ship the breast pump....hmmmm.....

Are there really people who are THIS stupid or naive that they would fall for this scam? How many red flags do YOU notice in this scenario? Let's see....the horrible English.....all the different locations.....WESTERN UNION [major red flag]......not enough money......

Needless to say, I immediately contacted PayPal and explained the situation to them. They agreed it was a stolen account and scam and are supposed to put a freeze on the payment. Actually, they didn't seem all that concerned....which really surprised me! Wouldn't they have some interest in going after these people who are using THEIR system to scam others out of money.....? You would think so, but maybe not.

Luckily, a local woman contacted me about the breast pump, and I sold it to her instead. She's due in July, and I hope she gets more use from the breast pump than I did! Now, can I interest you in a Chicco carrier.....?

Bouncing Baby Boy

Last night, we went to the house of my friend, Diane. It was to make up for our missed St. Patty's Day dinner. Her son, Rowan, has been very sick with a virus for awhile, but he's finally better. We had a great evening, and the Ohio State Buckeyes won....all around, a good time.

Diane and Tim have this bouncy seat thing that hangs in a doorway. We put Nicholas in it, and he went NUTS. Nuts in a GOOD way, I should clarify. He was a bouncing fool. It was hysterical to watch him bouncing and spinning around and loving every second of it. We'll definitely be buying one of these for Nicholas as soon as possible.

They also have one of those rolling walker things. Rowan was in it for a little while, but he seems to get upset when he gets stuck. We tried Nicholas in it, but he only wanted to go backwards. I think he'll need a little more practice....something else to add to our shopping list. And something else I'll eventually be selling on craigslist.com!

Formula Breath

Formula breath is pretty bad. How is it that those cute little things can produce smells that are so foul?? When my little one does a formula burp......oh my GOD, it's usually not pleasant. He's still a cutie.....



Fortunately, most things about baby smell good.....I love the smell of his skin, especially after a bath. And Taylor, one of his sisters, loves the smell of his banana baby food. It reminds me of the Baby Alive food......ick.

I had one of those dolls, and I only fed her once after all the food that went IN suddenly came OUT....much to my shock! My mom found this very amusing and asked me, "Well, where did you think it would go?" Hmmm....I never thought about it, but I guess it couldn't stay inside of her and rot. Gross. So, my poor Baby Alive only got to eat once, but I didn't want to clean up the mess!

Seems the Baby Alive doll didn't do a very good job of preparing me for motherhood! But Nick Knack is well fed, and I am no longer shocked that what goes in must come OUT.....and I've gotten over my issues with cleaning up the mess....as stinky and gross as it might be at times.

Psycho Bird

On Friday, a crazy bird started bashing itself against our front window.....I kid you not.....this freak of nature bird is still at it....and it's now Monday. This bird is seriously insane.....

From what I can tell, the freak bird is a Robin. A crazy, psycho, weird Robin.....

Now, it's hanging around the sliding glass doors that lead out to our deck. It's like the bird is looking inside to see if we're there! Do we owe it money???!?!?!??

It's making the window look all nasty and gross by bashing it's dirty body against the glass.

Freak bird.

Silly Baby

So, Nick Knack turns 7 months in two days. And he's changed a lot over the months [which, of course, is supposed to happen!]. I thought I would strip the poor thing down to his nappy and take some fun photos....partly, because my mom has been demanding them and partly because I needed some new shots for the Web site. And it was a nice, warm day, so I knew he wouldn't get chilled being half naked.

Well....let me tell you WHAT! I got some great shots! I just started snapping away and let Nick be Nick. What a little character....he's going to be such a riot when he starts talking! I can't wait to hear what comes out of his silly brain.

These two photos are from our informal "photo shoot." Two of my favorites. And YES, I immediately sent several to my mom, so she could print them out for the fridge. I, on the other hand, have added the Mr. Flirty shot above to my computer as the wallpaper. Now, if I'm having a bad day, I can minimize all my programs and laugh at that precious face. Either that, or I'll head to youtube.com and watch his videos.

Speaking of videos.....I have one of an insane Robin bashing itself against one of our windows for hours. I kid you not. This STUPID bird start flying into one of our large picture windows around 8:00 a.m. By 9:00, I was filming it. I couldn't believe the thing was still at it!! I filmed it off and on for about 45 minutes! The entire time, it's alternating between flying into the window and sitting on a tree limb, staring at the window. No idea why this bird would even want to slam into the window over and over.......did we owe it money or something? Seriously, what the HELL?

Finally, around 11:00, it had slowed down to a crash into the window every fifteen minutes. At this point, I had to run into work and then pick up our tax documents. This took several hours since I had Nicholas in tow, and he was very popular with the ladies. When I got back, that freak of a bird was STILL sitting in the tree right outside this window. And sure enough....I got into the house and heard a little bird mass slam against the window.

And no, I am not some sick, inhumane person.....I did go out several times and try to "shoo" away this blasted bird. It really was.....thump......getting annoying.....thump.....hearing this bird slam......thump, thump......itself against the.....thump......window.......

Didn't work. It kept coming back.

In fact, another Robin flew over, and the two of them went at it. I can only imagine what the new Robin was thinking....you know, if it was capable of complex thought.....Hey, dumb ass.....quit slamming into that window. You look like an idiot! And you're making Robins look bad....

FINALLY, the bird took off when it started to rain. We shall see if this crazy creature returns tomorrow for another day of window thumping.