From North of Here

The Short Stick

2008-02-29T16:29:10-05:00

Everything ran very smoothly and quickly at our house in the morning of 29 February, despite a late start to the day. With 15 minutes left to get Gigi up and dressed, I walked into her room.

Before I turned on the light and saw, I instantly knew she wasn't going to go anywhere. There are several things I have become an expert at since becoming a mother - one of these is knowing when vomiting has taken place. I knew she'd vomited at some point during the early morning, but the thing about Gigi is that it's a large crib (to her) and she likes her sleep, so if you throw up in one corner of your bed, you just move to the clean side(s). There is no yelling or beckoning "Hey, get in here and clean me up!" She just moves around the crib and has boughts of sickness and sleep until there are no vacancies left. I arrived to get her just as she was standing up with no vacancies left.

"Thrup." She said when I turned on the light. "My thrup."

Translated from the Reaganese language into English, this literally means "I threw up" though the exact meaning is lost in translation. The meaning of "My thrup" is "You're not going to believe the nastiness awaiting you in my crib. And once you see this you will realize the enormous amount of cleanup which will be involved."

Confession time. Gigi didn't want to eat dinner last night. She didn't touch her vegetable soup. Since I am the sort of mother who refuses to admit defeat and let you walk away from the table if you haven't at least had a few bites of something, I pulled out potato chips for Gigi. She didn't touch them. This should have sent the Sick Child Radar into motion. Unfortunately I feel my Sick Child Radar is either broken or was, perhaps, never correctly installed. I am consistantly surprised when my children become ill, though in hindsight there were clearly warning signs. At any rate the radar didn't work and I pulled out the one thing in this world Gigi cannot say no to.

Sauerkraut.

Yes. You read that correctly. Sauerkraut. The child loves it. She can't resist. I put sauerkraut in front of her and she ate it up. All of it.

This probably won't come as a surprise to anyone, but sauerkraut and a stomach virus fall into the same category as gasoline and fire in relation to one another. You don't want to mix sauerkraut and a stomach virus.

Since I have taken every sick day with the children since last January, Chris volunteered to take this one. I didn't tell him about the sauerkraut. Chris hates sauerkraut as much as Gigi loves it. I explained to him that the dolls she sleeps with which had been witnesses and recipients of stomach virus needed to be washed - and hand washed at that since none of them are washer/dryer approved. I grabbed Will as Chris made a "you're joking" face at me as he held a sick child in a soiled nightgown. I waved and pointed Will toward the car.

We drove off to school.

"Did you tell Dad what she ate?" He asked.

"Um..."

"That's mean." He said.

The Environmental Entrepreneur

2007-02-20T20:54:00-05:00

Reagan probably will not have many second dates. I say this because I have seen her eat. Every night the child not only uses dinner as nourishment, but also as an art form. It is no coincidence that bath and laundry time immediately follow dinner at our house.

If necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is the father. Laziness and a surplus of plastic grocery bags. Tired of stain sticks, spray 'n wash, and bleach pens Chris decided to eliminate the mess from the start. He took off the baby's shirt, grabbed a pair of scissors and a plastic Albertson's bag.

My grandma MiMi collects plastic grocery bags and recycles them into handbags. I thought she was the only family member with a creative way to eliminate consumer waste. I was wrong. Chris created "the spaghetti shirt" for Reagan. So named because it was keeping the spaghetti off her clothes the other night. He likes his idea so much he thinks he can start a business for dads with messy kids. He said he needs to make sure he markets it correctly. I say it's a plastic bag. "The spaghetti shirt" (patent pending) is an Albertson's bag with three holes cut in it, worn by our dining diva. She loves it. Chris loves it. Chris' friends love it. And, of course, since Reagan had one, Wilson wanted one too.

It's hard to be negative about recycling, and I do have to admit I enjoyed laying off the spray 'n wash and stain stick for the evening. Pictures of the kids and their father's invention, "The Spaghettis Shirt" (patent pending) are in the photo album. Coming soon - a step-by-step guide of what to do with plastic bags hosted by Chris and MiMi. Imagine how stylish it would be if Reagan wore her "spaghetti shirt" (patent pending) while carrying the matching purse. Environmental fashion.

Harry Potter and the Produce Aisle

2006-08-15T22:41:25-05:00

We went to the grocery store yesterday. Cooking is a hobby I have - I figure you have to do it, why not have fun with it? So we have to make two trips to the grocery store - one to a specialty food store for all of our produce and ingredients and one to a regular supermarket for our meat. Yesterday was the trip to the specialty store because the things I need to cook with just are not found on the produce aisle at Super Wal-Mart in Lake Worth.

Chris looks over the list of produce and starts reading:

"Arugula. Broccoli Rabe. Broccolini. Escarole. Watercress. Raccidicho. Reggiano. Capers. Proscuitto. Panchetta..."

He had a strange look on his face.

"What?" I asked.

He looks at me and dead serious says "I can't figure out if this is a grocery list or a list of Harry Potter spells."

Chris' Birthday

2006-06-22T09:57:28-05:00

I asked Chris last week "What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?" He said "Oh, we can do a cake the weekend after my birthday because I'll be gone anyway."

Simple enough. No cake. I tried, but no cake.

Because the boy refuses to let anything be "simple enough", I should have known better and just overruled Chris on the "No Cake". Since Chris is gone I drove the kids in to school/work alone yesterday. I told Will it was Daddy's birthday. He said "What kind of cake are we having?" I told him we weren't having a cake. He said "Don't you love him?"

I explained love wasn't the issue - his Daddy simply did not want to worry about a cake on his birthday, but we would have cake over the weekend. He would still get a cake, just not on his actual birthday.

A sigh came from the backseat. "It's just not the same..."

I explained again that love had nothing to do with it. I offered the cake, the cake was given a rain check.

"You should still have made a cake. It is a birthday, you know."

I dropped him off at school, thankful the Birthday Cake = Love debate was over. Unfortunately, he hadn't forgotten when I picked him up after school.

"Did you buy Daddy a cake?" No. No I didn't. I didn't buy a cake. I didn't make a cake. I will make a cake this weekend, like Daddy wanted.

"Everyone needs a birthday cake or it's just not a good birthday." He's looking very critical at me through the rearview mirror. "You should make a cake if you love him." I told him I DID love Daddy and that's why I was SUBMITTING to his wishes for his CAKE on the WEEKEND! He gave me the Whatever-Helps-You-Sleep-At-Night look and turned his attention to the other cars on the highway.

Chris comes home. I tell him I'm going to make him Birthday Muffins. We had muffin mix, just no cake mix, but if I baked something the boy would leave me alone about the cake.

"I don't want muffins. We can have those this weekend." Chris says.

"You're GETTING muffins TONIGHT because it's your BIRTHDAY and I LOVE you and there's no cake mix in this house and so you get BIRTHDAY MUFFINS! That's IT!"

Chris, unaware of the birthday no-bake controversy, walked to a safe location away from the kitchen in front of the TV. Wilson monitored my muffin making.

"I sure am glad it's Daddy's birthday. Muffins are more special than cakes." He said.

Father's Day

2006-06-18T22:28:01-05:00

Both Wilson and Reagan made Father's Day presents for Chris. Reagan made footprints so Daddy will remember how tiny she was on her first Father's Day, and Wilson painted a water bottle. Wilson also made a card for Daddy at school. Here's what it said:

Reasons I love my Dad

Because he makes me orange juice.
Because he makes me dinner and tea.
Because he cuts off trees a lot.
Because he made me a Fantastic 4 cake.
Because he takes me to Red Lobster.

We're not sure about #3...

When the Pujols Hits the Fan (The Astro's Fan)

2005-10-17T22:53:00-05:00

Well, it looks like the Astros aren't going to the World Series. I say that in full confidence that the St. Louis Cardinals will win Games 6 and 7 at home to bring the World Series to Busch Stadium.

Jolene was correct in saying that I grew up an Astros fan. We lived 2 hours away and that was all the baseball that was on TV. However, ever since marrying into the Davidson family it's been the Cardinals ever since. So...when the Astros play the Cardinals in the NLCS I'm very torn.

Tonight we got to see what makes the Cardinals a great team. Jolene and I exchanged high-fives when Albert Pujols cranked one into the rafters at Minute Maid Park, silencing the Houston crowd and putting the Cardinals up by one run. Oh, what it means to be a Cardinals fan.

Don't get me wrong...it would be nice to see Texas get its first World Series ever, but with all of the red and blue in our house we couldn't have blue and orange. Plus, I would have to find a new favorite baseball cap to wear out...and that's too much trouble.

Go Cardinals!

The Astro Turf is Always Greener

2005-10-16T19:27:00-05:00

One of the definitions of the word Loyal is "faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution, or product". Another definition is "unswerving in allegiance". Here's the thing - when we set up this blog Chris set the links over there on your right hand side. Do you see what links he put in? That's right, there's a link to the St. Louis Cardinals. Do you see a link to the Houston Astros? No. You don't. It's not there because he did not put that team there.

I was born in St. Louis. I grew up in St. Louis. I grew up watching and attending Cardinal games. Before we got married I let Chris know there are a few things my family holds sacred - politics, religion, the Marine Corps, and the Cardinals. Everything else is fair game. He had no problem with that when we met nor when we married. He's been attending Cardinals games and cheering for them every year with my family since then. He buys a Cardinals hat every time he wears one out and those are his favorite hats.

Then there's his son - Wilson has literally been wearing Cardinals apparel since he was a week old. He was a newborn and we watched Spring Training during my entire maternity leave. I listened to his colicky cries during the 2002 home opener. He has a room decorated in Cardinals memorabilia, courtesy of the family in St. Louis - including an autographed baseball by Stan Musial. He learned what a Cardinal was as soon as he learned to talk. One of his few sentences starting out was "Go Cardinals!". He's only ever been to see the Cardinals play at Busch Stadium. He watches every televised game and cheers for them.

Here's where I get confused: Chris never mentioned the Astros until last October when it was down to Houston and St. Louis. All of a sudden, he's an Astros fan. Fine, I understand he grew up "near Houston" and attended a handful of games when he was younger. Fine. But he never, ever mentioned the Astros before that and I can tell you last year he couldn't name you 5 players on the team or even who the coach was. I had to tell him it wasn't Enron Field anymore. Big Astros fan, huh? Then the Astros started losing and what do you know, he's cheering for the Cards again. I thought he'd learned his lesson.

This year it's the same story. Only this time he has taken our son who has only ever cheered for the Cardinals and turned him against me. Chris played the Texas card. Apparently if you're a Texan you're going to cheer for the Astros, even if you've spent the last 6 years (or in Will's case - your entire life) cheering for the other team, attending the other team's games, watching the other team on TV, wearing clothing with the other team's logo on it... What's worse is the two boys can give you the batting order of the Cardinals - I had to tell them what the "Killer B's" meant. Then Chris comes up with some jive story about being able to have more than one team to cheer for! Way to teach your kid how to be a fence-sitter. Not in my house.

Chris said "It's just baseball". No it's not. It's not just baseball. It's about the one thing your wife still has here in Texas, her favorite sports team, her connection to her family. It would be like me burying him outside of Texas, and I'm tempted now to bury him in Oklahoma after this stunt he has pulled. They seem to think that when "their Astros" win this series with the Cardinals that I'm going to cheer along with them. Chris, as he has said at least 500 times a game, "grew up near Houston." Well, I grew up "near" Chicago. I'm going to be the best White Sox fan ever - I know just as much about the White Sox as these two Texans know about the Astros.

I've explained to Chris that you don't go against the family where the Cardinals are concerned - during the 1985 World Series there was a rift between the St. Louis side of my family and the Kansas City side of the family due to a terrible call made by the umpire. Chris said "I didn't know you have family in Kansas City." That's the point.

Happy Birthday Baby

2005-06-22T21:29:00-05:00

I completely forgot to write that it was Chris' birthday on Tuesday. Not that we forgot it was his birthday - we just forgot to write about it. So, here's what he got: a hand-made birthday card courtesy of the budding artists in the house, and later this week Wilson and I are taking him out for a seafood dinner and a movie. Doesn't sound like much, however, I will point out that Wilson got to help choose the gift this year and Wilson said "I want to eat shrimp with Daddy and see Madagascar." And as Chris and I both know, the best presents are those where we get to spend time with our boy. :)

We also went over to Kenneth and Lesley's house for birthday dinner. It was awesome. They have this special South African style of grilling. It's a "braai" which in English translates to "really awesome BBQ at Kenneth and Lesley's". It was delicious. And Lesley made a lemon birthday cake. Lesley is a baker extraordinaire. She's always baking, and we are very happy she does. She also kept me supplied with about 2 gallons of orange juice. So far all this baby really wants is orange juice and mozzarella cheese sticks. All Wilson wanted when I was pregnant with him was cherry limeades and Kraft macaroni and cheese. I can't stand the thought of either of those now!

So Chris is another year older and we are all so in love with him! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Father's Day

2005-06-08T20:22:00-05:00

This year for Father's Day Chris' present is going to be a little late. His Father's Day present will actually arrive around February 10th, 2006. We had our first doctor's appointment today - I think the doctor was happy to see us again because I think he was starting to think we wouldn't be repeat customers. Hopefully I will quit being so tired soon. Otherwise, everything is great. Of course, any prayers you can throw our way will be coveted and most appreciated. Wilson will turn 4 on February 18th, so they will be 4 full years apart.

Chris' Big Day

2005-05-03T23:00:00-05:00

Chris got a call today and was asked to attend Baylor's prayer luncheon this week here in Fort Worth. He was asked to do the prayer for students - past, current, and future - at the event. We are so excited for him! What an honor! My personal belief is that while he's praying for the future students he should pray Baylor will give Wilson a full scholarship in 2020. Yes, that's right, Wilson will be heading off to college in 2020. And if you've seen Baylor's tuition increases these last few years we will need that full scholarship to get our boy in green and gold.

We are so excited for Chris!