A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Today's the day

It's 7am and I am waiting, coffee cup in hand, for the bean to wake up. Today was the first morning awaking to an alarm... a manufactured, noisemaking, time-setting alarm, since sleeping in a hotel room by the airport in LA with my Mom and peanut of a baby, before flying to Chicago to start this new life. I think it was almost 1 year ago to the day as a matter of fact. Since that morning one year ago, I have been living life by the Elliott clock. When she wakes up, I get up. When she take a nap, I get shit done.

But today, today is the beginning of yet another chapter in The New Life. Today is my school orientation and I am so excited I think for the first time in almost 15 months I really didn't need my cup of coffee to get me outta bed, but its just so warm & loving, I had to drink it. As an FYI to all the LA peeps, the high today here is going to be 49, with 70% chance of rain, and 20mph wind gusts. BUT, I will take that over the fires, floods & earthquakes... don't you worry about me. And I guess there's the 1800 sq ft house for 1,200/month, but I am not here to pour salt. (ha ha ha)

Anyway, lets get back to it. Starting today, the whole routine changes. Life with alarms, possibly even having to wake Elliott up in the morning. Can you imagine?!??!!?? I have lived this time with the firm belief of NEVER NEVER NEVER WAKE THE BABY SO HELP ME GOD. I know some people get all up in arms about the never shake a baby thing, for me, its the waking. And I think if you don't shake 'em tooo hard its all ok. I'M KIDDING, CALM DOWN.

Now, I can see I am all over the road this am. Maybe that's why I am not an early mornin' blogger. It's now almost 7:15, my coffee cup is empty, and I think (gulp) that I have to wake Bean, for I hear no signs of stirring. Damnit. This is just the beginning... soon there will be a few school visits for her, then the start of school in only two weeks. TWO WEEKS!!! nothing to say now but, here we go...

In Other News:

We spent much of the weekend on home improvement projects and catching up with friends and family all over the place. Nothin better than laughs with the ones you love... even if it is over the phone.

-over and out-

Top 5 songs to get your Friday morning started....Go!

Last night while Fer was out enjoying one of MY favorite peoples in the whole wide world, let alone the musical world (hamell on trial), I was at home martyring myself for the cause. The propellment of Fer's musical cause that is. I think that's what they mean when they say "take one for the team." (since we couldn't find a babysitter that is.) So I stayed up and made 2 mixed cds and a few burns of some musics that I have been promising my dear friend Cassiejane.

All jacked up from spending waaaaay too long trying to figure the right progression of songs and the ebb and flow of one tune into the other, two very important things crossed my mind:

1. I desperately need more new musics before I fall prey to this land of mommy and start driving a mini van, not putting product in my hair, and wearing things like polo shirts with pleated pants. And keds. And listening to Q104, today's light rock. And joining car pool. Oh my god this cannot happen to me! Do you hear me peoples? New cds, STAT!!!
2. there are now another 15million reasons why I AM John Cusack's character in High Fidelity. And I too have a Cosby sweater in the back of my closet.

So I mixed & matched & molded 2 cds... 1 of rockin tunes by which to drive 80mph, and a maudlin sad sac blend for fall, alternatively titled: music to slit your wrists to. Not that fall makes me sad, but it makes me yearn for sad sackin it. Maybe it's the natural 6:30pm lights out in the sky, who knows. All I know is that I was all riled up after sitting in front of the computer for a few too many hours and I tried to stay up to catch a recap of the show & dinner with Hamell, but I guess somewhere between 12:45 and whenever Fer got home, my SEVERE LACK of a rock n' roll lifestyle got the better of me. Lights out.

In Other News:
Being so full of energy yesterday made me think about the way I've been going about things in the past few months. And with my orientation for school on Monday, and only 1 month till things around here turn upsidedown, I think I have to cut out even more of my tivo schedule. I added The Daily Show & The Colbert Report... but I have to admit that after the first few, Colbert may be getting the axe from me anyway. Also by the wayside is going to be ER & Everybody Hates Chris. I don't want to do it, but I know I have an addiction and I have to make a change here. I know, I'll 12 step it. Baby steps. 1 day at a time. Let go & let god. right? riiight?

And while I tell you all about how good I am going to be about tv, I will totally not disappoint and be completely contradictory when I say: WTF! I cannot believe they are bringing Robin back on GH! She is such an asshole, and EVERYTHING about her storyline is bunk after Stone died! And if she even tries to stir up something and take Jason away from Sam, so help me god! I'll... I'll.... I'll join a GH message board and really raise a stink! That'll show that Bob Guza! LMAO. I love me some GH. ;-)

-over and out-

Oh, and ps: baby this, baby that, baby baby baby baby. , she's cute, she's funny, she's gone back to throwing herself down and rolling all over the floors. This time it was all about ME.

She lay there like a slug...

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

It was her only defense.

The Day of Great Joy

The fam and I returned yesterday from a nice, relaxing TEXAS weekend with the Carter clan. Food & drink, Drink & food, and a little Astros thrown in the mix for good measure. Elliott got her first sports affilliated onsie & faux pink fur coat this weekend, both of which from Casey's mom. And if I never hear "Everything's bigger in TEXAS" again, it will be too soon. They say it even on the commercials! We get it already!! Texas is BIG. Wowie! ha ha.

Anyway, I have returned to find many good and nice and neat things happening around here. Rach-o moves into her new digs today, she got a new job with her company, KatoChanel has a new jobbie-job and is buying a "summer home" (since SHE can't be bothered to blog about it, I will damnit!) and I got the best call of all this am, OUR TA GOT A NEW JOB!

I want to scream it from the rooftops that things are going well for him these days, today, and hopefully tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed, dear internet....... its about time for good things to happen. We love you Ta.

In Other News:

We came home last night and one of the 1st things I noticed was that the blue light for tv 2 on the tivo box was OFF. That could mean a million things... most importantly that my sunday night shows & medium might not be waiting, commercial free, for me. But, in yet another stroke of good luck, THEY WERE THERE. Ready & waiting. Too bad I have so much crap to do it will be awhile till I get to see it all, but its supposed to rain all weekend.... guilt-free tv here i come.

-over and out-

Rewind

k, g & e, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

As if we needed even more proof that Elliott is her father's daughter, she notices immediately anything pointed at her with a lense-type front and begins hamming and shouting Baby!! Baby! because she knows that with the video camera she can see herself move around, and she loves it.

And because I am who I am, I do not stop taking video of her. Playing in her crib, stacking blocks in the living room, singing after her bath, taking a poop. You name it, it's on video. Now the insanity of me, is that each day, after Ellie's gone to bed, I sit down and watch all the video and photos from the day on the TV and re-live it all.

Yesterday while cleaning up, I found the DVD from Ellie's 3-4 months when we had first moved to Chicago. I put it on while we were playing, and I could tell that she was confused. I think she may have recognized herself somehow, but she was soooo tiny then. My, how times change.

In Other News:

Fer strikes again with the rotten food. Since the tupperware fiasco, I have located a ziploc bag, in the closet, in a backpack, with an entirely green-with-mold piece of bread. And if that was not enough, this A.M. while cleaning off the dining room table, picked up a Chicago Reader Magazine with a rotten apple core mashed inside of it. Now tell me people, how would you respond to behavior such as this?

And, it may be my last note of the day, but it is CERTAINLY not least, Happy BirF-day to the bestest step-dad, Barkyboy himself! Hope you are having a great day! We love you.

-over and out-

Poncho baby

Poncho baby, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

The last few photos of Elle have been while moving from the camera phone, and while cute, quite grainy. Hopefully this makes up for it...

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

No time here, what with all the celebrating.

Oh yeah, celebrations abound the greater Chicago area this week. It's official, Elliott got into the Lakeshore Schools "Little Fishies Room" for early pre-school. She starts Nov.7 and I can't wait. I can't wait because this kid is MENSA in the making, and it is seriously tiring me out. Not to toot my own horn, but definately to toot her's since she can't yet call you up and tell you herself, even though she would love nothing better since any object even remotely shaped like a phone she pulls up to her head and lets out a giant HiYa! followed by strings of language that sound like bobbie! Debbie-debah! and grunts and Ya! I mean, she is only 14 months old, that should be enough, but no, there's more: she got the top 2 1st year molars this week, and the bottoms are right behind. She sings the ba-bah parts to Deathcab for Cutie, as well as the "round and round" part to the wheels on the bus, but get this, its not only in the right places, when the music starts she recognizes it and starts to sing! I don't know, but I think its genius. The list just goes on and on as far as celebrations and Elliott's genius, but I think I will stop there while I hopefully still have some friends.

Anyway, Princess Mombie has been inspiring me as of late with all her purging of belongings and junk. I do not have the patience to sell or ebay my items, but I can sure throw stuff away let me tell you. So, inspired by her new tradition of going through 1 thing a day and getting rid of things, I have been trying to do the same. So far we have cleaned out the dressers and closets, and tonight I think I am going to start the LARGE project of tackling the basement.

I mean, since i have all this time on my hands with the not watching of all the tv, well, I might as well be productive.

In Other News:

I spent yesterday and todays morning naps going through all my tivo'd episodes of Everyday Italian & 30 Minute meals and writing down all the recipies I want to make. I think I came up with a total of 15 new recipies. Who wants to come over and be a guinea pig?

-over and out-

Always on the move

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

2nd fat lip

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by nonobaddao.

Its hard being a baby.

Equal to or less than, thats all I'm going for

You may or may not be happy to know that I deleted 4 shows from the TiVo roster this weekend. It would have been 5, but Fer asked me to put back SNL because he thinks this season is going to be good. I'm on the fence about it, but that's ok. Anyway, gone are Oprah, Between the Lions, Extreme Makeover, and AFV. You were right, all of these things could be seen if I catch it, but not important enough to make an effort to fit in to my busy television watching schedule.

However, all the others I really enjoy, and I feel like if I am even going to try to watch them, I might as well TiVo them, since at least I can FF commercials & storylines that bore me. And let us remember that in a given 30 min. sitcom there are only about 17 minutes of actual show content. Unless you are watching something on MTV, VH1, or E!, in which case I think it's 17 minutes of actual non-repetitive content per hour.

Except Viva La Bam... you know I love me some Bam Margera & Ryan Dunn. Amen.

In Other News:

All I'm gonna say is, Elliott loves chili, but I'm afraid the chili does not love her.

-over and out-