A kinder, gentler political ad

Ahhhh ... 

Yes, I know

Pictures of T haven't been loaded on Walgreens since June.  We have hundreds of pictures for July and sorting through them has been bigger than me. I promise to have them up soon.

Ions and ureters and centromeres

Oh my.  I just finished my first exam in my Anatomy and Physiology class.  All in all, I think it went pretty well.  I am annoyed by professors who mention something, offhand, once, and then ask a question about it on the exam.  Lucky for me, I guessed this particular professor might be this type and wrote down everything that came out of her mouth (that I could catch when I wasn't furiously scribbling notes).  There were one or two questions that didn't even sound familiar, but I think I'll come out with a pretty good score.

I have a lab practical tomorrow, which is some of the same material and some other, very specific material.  A&P fun fact: in order to make one viable egg, sex gametes must also produce 3 polar bodies that simply disinigrate each month.  In contrast, cell division (or meiosis if you will) produces 4 viable sperm.  Also, saturated fats are bad, mmm kay?

Not bees

Yeah. The little suckers living in our siding are not bees, they're yellow jackets.  Yellow jackets, unlike bees eat wood and puke it up to make their nests.  The good news is that they die each winter, making the nests a lot easier to eradicate.  The bad news is that we're still going to have to get rid of the nest.

Got bees?

We have some critters (that we assume are bees) living in our siding.  We assume they are bees because yellow jackets look a lot the same. Does anyone have a sure-fire way of telling the difference?  Anyway, I digress.  

I'd like to save the hive (especially given the current state of bees), but we're not entirely sure how to go about this.  Apparently, they can go on living quite happily in our siding for a long time without destroying anything.  My one and only concern about this is that my mom is super allergic to bees and we don't know if T shares the allergy. 

I know that bee-keepers will come and remove bee colonies as well, although from what I understand, this will probably entail ripping big sections of our siding off.  We used the Google and found a dude nearby who advertises removal services.  Any other ideas about how to get in touch with local beekeepers?  What would you do with a colony of friendly-type bees? 

On having a mammogram at 28

I never expected to be getting a mammogram at age 28.  I had been having some pain that didn't want to go away.  While it was never bad, Ry noticed that I commented about it a few times over several weeks.  He made me promise to go to the doctor (which is generally my role).  So go to the doctor I did, about 3 weeks ago.  Honestly, I expected her to say that I was overreacting and send me home.  Instead, she sent me for a mammogram and ultrasound.

I have heard really scary things about mammograms for large-chested women, so I wasn't looking forward to my visit this morning.  The tech, however, was everything a medical professional should be.  She was professional, caring, and clear.  After the first 4 scans, I started getting warm and dizzy.  I didn't feel overtly nervous, but my blood pressure obviously had a different idea.  The tech was great as I spent most of the next 5 minutes with my head between my legs.  What a baby I am!  Anyhow, the actual mammogram wasn't nearly as bad as expected, and the radiologist gave me the all clear. Thank goodness I don't have to do that again until I'm 40.

Observations on my week

1. Never, ever trust a syllabus. Especially when it lures you into thinking you have another week before a test.

2. Having two tests in one week blows.

3. Rereading books from my childhood makes me happy.  I picked up a copy of Anne of Green Gables at the last library book sale.  Then I had to buy the entire series on ebay.

4. "Who is the shifty-eyed stranger?" is the worst dialogue I've heard in a movie recently.

5. I enjoy that T has little friends.  Apparently, one of his friends recently kept asking her mom about him when she picked him up from daycare.  They are so cute together.

6. Those finger tooth brushes are a great idea until your toddler almost bites your finger off.

7. T is still huge.  At his doctor's visit this week he weighed 28 pounds, 2 ounces and was over 34 inches tall.

J's Sippy Cup Axiom

The sippy cup lost under the couch or in the tupperware drawer for three days is invariably the sippy cup containing milk.

Cue creepy music

"What is that?" Ry asked as I pulled it out of the Happy Meal box today.

"It's the cowardly lion" I said.

"Are you kidding?" he responded. "It's a creepy doll. They didn't even make a lion face, it's just a leftover doll head with whiskers painted on."

"I think it looks like the cowardly lion" I said as I handed it to T.

"Meow" T said.

Nuff said.

T turns 1.5!

Today is T's half birthday. Happy Halfday little man! Ry's family always celebrated half birthdays with a half cake and a small gift. I think it's a great tradition and one we're going to start with T. Since we just got back into town this afternoon, we had to settle for a half candle instead of a half cake, but the sentiment is the same.

Aggressive Sharing in DC

T and I spent the last few days in Washington DC with Ry (who had to work). We went to the National Zoo on Thursday. T was completely uninterested in the animals, but had a great time with the play structures and doors. He also wore himself out chasing the birds that congregated around the crumb-dropping toddlers at lunch. Fully half of the women I met while in D.C. were nannies. I have met a handful of nannies out and about in NJ since T was born. I wonder if D.C. has a higher percentage of nannies or if NJ nannies just don't hang out in the same places we do. Regardless, they had some great suggestions for things to do the next day.There is a great sculpture garden on the Mall. I got to enjoy the art and T got to run around. This was a fountain at the garden. I told him he couldn't get in the fountain, so this was his solution. We also went to the National History Museum and the National Building Museum. The National Building Museum building is beautiful. The museum itself is somewhat lacking, but they have a kids room that rocks. It's a big room filled with blocks, costumes, trucks, books and a "green" playhouse that they allow kids to run around. T had a great time. We've been working with him a lot on sharing lately. We have inadvertently rewarded a behavior Ry likes to call aggressive sharing. He will take every toy he can get his little hands on and force it on whichever unsuspecting child is nearest. He will follow this child around until he or she takes the object T would like to share. I guess it's better than the alternative.

Does one issue a social conservative make?

My sister sent me this article, which is a debate between two journalists about whether one can be both a feminist and a Palin-supporter.  While the discussion about Palin is interesting, what is more interesting to me is that both authors seem to be saying that you cannot be both pro-life and a feminist. Also, if you are pro-life, you are by definition a social conservative. I am pro-life. I'm also pro gay marriage, anti abstinence only education, pro contraception, pro extended (paid) family leave, pro universal healthcare and semipro affirmative action. By this definition, I am a social conservative and not a feminist.  

 I'm not big on labeling. I think it mostly divides people, amps up the vitriole and contributes to the "us vs. them" mentality of our political system.  It's easy to label someone a feminist or a social conservative, but the real picture is in shades of gray.  This is probably why I've never declared a political party. Labels; I defy thee!

He'd eat dirt

If you gave him his own spoon.

Why I'm pro-life

I've been having an ongoing conversation about politics, political rhetoric, and most recently, abortion with an old friend.  Generally I like to keep politics off my blog, but this one really touched a nerve.  Read the latest exchange here. I am "transplanted."

Update: Here is the post that kicked off the discussion.

Boys are gross

I have one sister.  She's not gross.  Growing up, my dad never made me bait my own hook or kill my own creepy crawlies (although he did make me pick up dog poo ... I'm forever scarred).  I wasn't a particularly girlie girl, but I am throughly unprepared for the boy my little baby is about to become.

It is darling that he wants to investigate everything.  He wants to know how doors work, how rocks taste and if he can pull every thing out of my bag before I get to him.  Today we were at the park, and T was putting mulch and rocks on the merry-go-round (an alternative to throwing them that I rather endorse).  Then I noticed something in his hand that didn't look like mulch or rocks.  Nope.  It was a big, ugly, creepy, crawlie, inch-and-half long beetle.  When I realized what he had in his hand I started shaking it uncontrollably and exhorting him to let go.  The bug went flying and landed legs-up next to the merry-go-round.  I don't know if it was squished or dismembered, but I do know that it spent the next 20 minutes trying to right itself.  He also tried to eat a piece of siding and there was a cricket in my laundry pile today. Um, ew.

5 Cute things

1. When I was putting T down for a nap the other day, he rolled over on his back, lifted up his shirt and tickled his belly.  Then he said "ha ha ha."  

2. We got a helium balloon from a store a few days ago.  The string came off.  T will let it go and then ask us to get if off the ceiling.  Really, he wants me to get it off the ceiling because I have to jump.  That, apparently, is hysterical.

3. He's learned the word "sticky."

4. He has started humming to the songs on his favorite Veggie Tales episodes.

5. I started spinning him around before putting him down.  Now he spins himself around to make himself dizzy.  Then he walks around like a tiny drunken sailor.