cuteness

As of yesterday, Smooshie is 9 lbs. 3 oz. of cuteness!

You know I never really questioned my spelling of her name until my mom asked me a few minutes ago. No clue why I went with Smooshie instead of Smooshy. Maybe I've driven by too many Smoothie Kings?

Blah blah blah

Thank goodness the William and Kate wedding is finally over! With any luck things will start to die down soon. I'm just so sick of hearing about it!

New Addition and Lessons Learned

I am now an aunt. I have learned much in the week and a half or so that I spent becoming one.

I think I knew more about the birthing process than the rest of the family. That's after I tried to only know the bare and basic outline of what to expect. I think it was all the TLC and Discovery Health Channel. I must cut down on my viewing of them.

It takes a lot more energy to keep from screaming and hitting someone than it does to actually scream and hit them.

(I have a lot I could rant on about but it's not fitting for blogging.)

I think I picked up waaaay more from observing friends caring for infants and toddlers than I had realized. (at one point I broke and snapped at my sister to shush and that I had had what I was in the process of doing down pat since before she even thought of getting knocked up.

I held the baby every day I was there and on the last day even did so without a pillow and walked a bit. I am still scared to death to pick the baby up or move the baby around much. They're so tiny and I really freak out about their little necks.

I learned that while I don't exactly like the baby screaming (especially when I'm holding her), I can deal. I get a little worried that I'm not supporting the head, pinching something, etc. But I can deal. Still, I pass her off to someone who is more able to calm her down.

I am not changing diapers. Unless it's dire emergency or the kid is mine, there will be no diaper changing in my future.

Shaken baby syndrome is not as big a concern for me at this time as shaken mommy syndrome. (I swear it was all I could do a few times not to at least smack her.)
The baby is sunshine and rainbows and goodness in the world. She barely cries and when she does, it's for a very good reason.

I thought I was pretty obsessed with the four legs and put them right up there with the two legged kids. Not as much as I thought. It is my belief that the dog is not to bark at the baby. The dog is not to jump up on the mother when she is trying to feed or hold the baby. If an alarm goes off, I'm checking that the kid's not upset and working itself up before I check on the dog (who I know from past experience doesn't like the alarm noise but hides in a room when it goes off).

It is my belief that a baby not even a week old should not even hear the word pacifier and should be encouraged to eat as much as makes baby happy. I believe that it doesn't matter what form nutrition takes, getting that nutrition inside the baby is more important than pride or a need to feel vindicated by anyone. As long as the baby is healthy and getting nourishment (all the be determined by regular check-ups with the pediatrician)who gives a care?

People (and even people who you know know better) are too ready to just go along with anyone who went through med school. First off, your doctor is hired by you to provide a service. If you are not satisfied with the services, you dump the one you have and find one who you do like. Would you keep the car mechanic who said you needed work you didn't really need or fixed something incorrectly? Second, you need to interact with your doctor. Ask questions. If they are not willing to answer your questions (which are part of the services you're paying for by the way) you need to change physicians. If they say you should have a procedure you need to find out the pros and cons of having that procedure. You need to remember that just because they say you need it, it is still your choice whether to have it done or not.

Segueing from that, you need to be ready to speak up for yourself. It's hard. It's harder when someone you expected to advocate for you seems to be going in the opposite direction. There comes a time when you know what is best for you and you need to stand up for yourself.

And I should probably stop the ranting here and now. Probably said too much, but hey.

Gut Punch

At times I strongly feel that every 28 days or so all men of a certain age should be knock-the-wind-out-of-'em punched in the gut. At other times I feel that still would not be satisfactory.

Funnies

More funnies or huhs from rumination.com

"Why do people end up in their parent's basements? What happened to their rooms they used in childhood?

It's funny how people would consider drinking human breast milk beyond their infant stage to be disgusting, but will drink the breast milk of another species for their entire life.

Why don't guys ever suck at singing? It's either good enough or surprisingly great. Of the girls I know, maybe two are amazing, the rest of us sound like drunken seagulls, and there's always one who can only be described as a serial ear murderer.

Hockey has twenty minute periods. I'm so fucking jealous.

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to stare down your family, but your baby keeps smiling at me and I don't want to be rude to it.

Hair ties only exist in one size... the size where if you don't loop it enough, it's too loose, but if you loop it just one more time, it's too tight.

The definition of a comfortable relationship is when you eat the same way around each other as you do alone.

Bananas are one of my favorite fruits, so how come everything banana flavored tastes worse than licking the bottom of someone's shoe.

It was much more comforting when my computer took 20 seconds to save something and gave me the hourglass, versus the nonchalance it shows now. "You are saving this final thesis, right?"

I want to start a pizza franchise with $4 Hot 'n Ready pizzas. It'll be called "Little Brutus: The Caesar Killer."





AND . . . a few random quotes I found elsewhere:
Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask why me? Then a voice answers nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.
Charles M. Schulz

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'
Charles M. Schulz



Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_m_schulz.html#ixzz1IhR3kmEb

I'm Just Saying

In my view, if it's dead critter, it's meat.

Dead chicken = meat
dead cow = meat
fishy = meat
guinea pig = meat
critter = meat

bits

Virginia is wide.
No, I mean really, I think all of MD is closer than some spots in VA.


Even if you're making a good salary, would many people mind if they got a higher one?


Sometimes you end up with something you didn't expect and didn't think you really wanted and it turns out to work out well.


The sound of cutlery whacking on china carries insanely well.
No, I mean it's like I'm at the other end of a building with all the doors closed and I can hear it like it's next to my head.

Sometimes it's fun to read garbage.

Is there any easy way to decide what hotel to book online? Good reviews and bad reviews, prices, amenities. They all start to blur.

Why can't employers do a preliminary interview over the phone? I mean I get that you want to make sure I can dress decent and there are some things that just plain don't come across over the phone, but you could get a basic idea of whether you're interested in hiring or not. I mean especially if it's a long car drive or plane trip away. Have you seen gas prices lately?

When Did That Happen?

It's April? What? *sigh* In November I thought I'd have a job by now. Someone told me that someone else told her to look at unemployment this way: A lot of the people who have jobs hate them. You have the opportunity to find a job you love.

I'm thinking of the saying that tough times go down better with soup than without. (Horribly paraphrased but ya get the gist.)

Here's hoping for that perfect job that pays me billions an hour to sit and read whatever I want, maybe say a few words on what I read, and offers great benefits that include dental. Until then, I'll settle for a more "regular" job. ;-D