Madison rocks and so does my kid

So here are some shots from the weekend. For those of you who are not believers of processed meats do not read on, in fact, get the hell off my web site we don't want your kind here. Anyway, the summers in Madison begin and end with an event called Brat Fest. Basically, the entire city gets together and tries to eat as many $1.50 brats as possible to raise money for various local charities. The Oscar Mayer (an industry headquartered in Madison) Wienermobile shows up and a great time is had by all. Over the past couple of years the Brat Fest has had to move to bigger venues to accommodate the record-setting crowds and so it has taken on a more carnival-like aspect, hence the photos of my daughter climbing the rock wall. That's right she killed that thing. I was so proud; as my terrified friends looked on and were speed-dialing children's' services.

Weekends like this are why Madison has been named in the Today's show's America's Friendliest Cities (thanks for the tip Mike!). Madisonions love to be outside, mostly with each other. There are a million festivals, farmer's markets (literally we have one every day of the week), fun runs, and block parties. The quote Mike sent me from the show was something like in the winter everyone shovels each other's snow and feeds the elderly, which if they were talking about somewhere else I would treat with snide derision because it sounds so Pleasantville, but here it is totally true. My neighbor snow blew my sidewalk for weeks this year and all of the neighbors take turns cooking for our elderly neighbors.


So, greetings from the friendliest place in America, it is because we do not deny ourselves pressed meats.

Shout Out To My Homies

So I have to give some shout outs to my friends who are doing funny things right now. If you don't hit the links of my friends on a regular basis now is the time to do so. Brad has video up right now that literally caused me to pull a muscle I was laughing so hard. Pulled a muscle, and I do yoga so that crap is not supposed to happen to me. Daimon has a link to a funny blog that I had not yet seen but I have a feeling is going to blow up soon. I personally don't have an issue with John McCain's age, but it is interesting to think about.

One Two Three Four I Declare A Thumb War

I am using this video to disprove my father-in-law's theory that I am not picking my battles. Anyone who lets their child go out in public wearing this outfit has clearly given up fighting many differently types of battles. In fact, i was worried that everyone would think I had lost a battle with the bottle.

Actually, the only battle I am fighting with Olivia these days is over a very controversial issue, her thumb. I was a deeply committed thumb sucker as a child and was secretly thrilled when we had ultrasound pictures of Olivia sucking her as well. I also had really messed up teeth. So I was deeply dismayed when my dentist and my pediatrician told her that it was time to stop. I rebelled, then I researched and I found out that nobody really knows whether it causes long-term damage. An argument I tried to use on my husband who pointed out that the fact that Olivia was no longer removing her thumb to talk was problem in and of it self. So after much soul searching it was decided that we would paint Olivia's thumb with cayenne pepper and break her of the habit.

It has been excrutiating. At least she is getting a lot of sympathy from Mommy.

Once You Get Over The Wood Tones, The Tax Deduction is Quite Nice

So today was a great day. Why you ask? Because today we chose all of our pieces of the kitchen. That's right, countertops, cabinets, floor, all chosen. They may be products of compromise, but I no longer care. The reason is that I have become a cheap bastard. Two thirds of my kitchen remodel will be tax deductable because they are recycled goods. I am getting solid surface countertops for the price of laminate through tax deduction. Oooooh nothing makes me happier than tax deductions!!!! I am doing little handclaps while I write this.

Can you also tell that I got a full night's sleep? To celebrate, the whole kitchen thing i made out with my hubby who is wearing jeans to work tomorrow and may actually not be working this weekend. Then we analyzed Robert Frost Poetry and watched the Colbert Report. We are nerds, but nerds in love.

Tomorrow will be photos of Olivia and I and our new obsession, vintage aprons. I am passing on the time-honored tradtion of vintage thrift, nothing could make me happier.

Saying yes

We don't talk to Chad's dad too terribly much, which is why when we do he is generally able to give us an insight-adjustment. Chad must have intimated at one point during the conversation that Olivia's energy level has reached the point where I think I am going to stop putting gas in my car and just harness the child and have her pull it. To which Chad's dad just charmingly replied, "She's just curious!" She is also climbing the counters.

Typically after we talk to Chad's dad we marvel at his inability to grasp just how terrible it is to have to be parents to a child that never stops, moving, talking, and worst of all, thinking. We usually repeat, "She's just curious!" in varying degrees of sarcasm and disdain and then threaten to put her on the next flight to San Fransisco to show him just how curious she is. Not this week. Somehow in all tumult of not sleeping, of both Chad and I working maximum overtime and Olivia being Olivia, for five minutes I looked at her as her Papa does. A sweet, smarty pants who worked hard rehearsing her Ni-hao, Yeeyah to please him. He is proud of her and of us for not killing her. I can't wait until he gets here and mischief turns to inventiveness, hyper-active turns to enthusiastic, and the Papa who hides his medications because he NEVER underestimates her ability to break into anything is here to really enjoy her. So I took her to the lake today to do nothing but be curious and say yes. Though, I drew the line at pulling the dead fish out of the water with her bare hands, it was SO much better to do it with a stick, yeck.

Now I have to stop her from being "curious" about what she can put into the oven. I love when i yell from the next room how the response is always, "NOTHING!!!!" and then she suddenly appears with a big smile and I can just hear her brain thinking, "Smile big, she'll never know-blind her with cuteness." Yeah, I think Papa needs to experience this Olivia, preferably at 8 AM, his favorite hour to chit chat.

Spring Fever?

For the past couple of weeks I have not slept a full night's sleep. I am used to having shorted myself sleep because it usually takes me forever to fall asleep, but now I am waking up in the middle of the night and lying awake for hours and it is killing me. I have virtually no short term memory, zero creativity and zero patience and the last few days I have been breaking down and napping in the afternoons which means i also have no free time to get anything done.

The good news that everyone else seems to be having the same problem. Most of my mom blogs have been complaining of out-of-town husbands, grating children, and no sleep. Is anyone else not sleeping? I know some people have problems with the increased amount of daylight, but I just seem to be stuck in a bad rut that even over-the-counter medications have not been able to alter.

What Mamma Wants

So Sunday was the make-up date for my Mother's Day and what a day it was. Instead of gifts and spa I chose to use it as a way to exploit work from my loved ones. I know that this might seem strange, but remember that this is coming from the woman who asked for a stove for her birthday. So yesterday my family did yard work, housework, extra childcare chores and they had to eat things like extra servings of fruit. With Chad headed out of town again this week, I was much more grateful to start the week with a semi-clean house and a head start on all my spring plantings than any pedicure.

I still have a long way to go on my to do list, but I think that I opened my family's eyes to how much work we can get done when we all work together. Or maybe they are just counting their blessings that my day is only once a year. It would be nice to refinish the deck for birthday though...