...Watching the Grammy's right now...

HOLY WOW is Taylor Swift AWFUL.

(That was less a question and more a statement.)

(She's better on CD. And the radio. Yikes.)

Ferg Friday: Video version

Here's Ferg.
After a bath.
Acting like a crazy river rat.
(Sorry for the quality.)
--
She's cute, though.
Have a great weekend!

Cute little idea.

I think this little doll might still need a booster, but seriously - this is a kind of cute idea. It's an automatic little high-chair seat. The back cushion part just slips over a chair back and apparently it folds up uber-small. Cute.

See here. $25.00

Glamour shots has really stepped it up.

Remember when Glamour Shots was so cool? (Well, sort of.) You could go in and totally get all made up and wear varying colored feather boas... then pose with your head tilted obscenely far to one side all the while smirking at the camera a la Deb-style from Napoleon Dynamite.

Very alluring.

Well, a quick search on The Google showed me that Glamour Shots does still exist. And, it looks like the pics are better... sort of... I mean, they even take out your wrinkles and laugh lines now. (See Exhibit A. below.)

Exhibit A.

So find your local GlamourShots. (My guess? They're in a mall. Sandwiched between a Spencer's Gifts and Build-a-Bear.) Search by zipcode here.

A $25.00 charity donation goes to the first person who makes an appointment, gets a glamour shot and emails it to me so that I can post it on my blog. (It's got to be you. Not someone you know or your kid.)

Awesome.

Awkwardly Fantastic

It's making me laugh how awkward Apple's new iPad looks. (Story here.)

Tell me it doesn't remind you of that big 'ole TV remote that Brookestone sells.

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

A Martha Moment:

Store your leftover wrapping paper pieces that you don't want to throw away because you're too cheap IN the wrapping paper tube until you have a gift that warrants that size of leftover remnant paper.

The sad tree

And this is the "finished product." Apparently, it's supposed to bloom again... We shall see...
Sent from BlackBerry® Wireless

Redefining friendship

After reading my dear friend's post about social networking, I got to thinking...

Are we allowing Facebook to redefine what a "friend" is?

A refresher:


Back in the good 'ole days (before online social networking), we phoned and hung out with our friends. In fact, we even could hug them in person. We'd share stories and recount our days and experiences and share photos of our families all the while enjoying eye contact!

This was friendship, no?

Now, we status update.
We post our photos for anyone to see.
We invest 0-3 minutes in our friend's "lives" (by reading their facebook accounts) and can often tell you what they're currently doing (thank you, twitter), but we have no idea who they are. Today.
We text.
We comment.
We blog. (wink, wink.)
--
I'm very conflicted about all of this. Social networking is both a blessing and a curse, if you ask me.

Thoughts?

Nature's rough.

Our BEAUTIFUL bougainvillea tree in our sweet, cozy, lush and green courtyard caught some sort of "worm" (?) and is in a bad way. It's been shedding leaves like crazy for the past several weeks.

We chose to ignore the problem thinking that perhaps it was just going through it's change of "season" (autumn) a bit earlier than normal; however it appears that the shedding of the leaves were really our trees' tears of pain. That we were ignoring.

The tree is really TWO trees and has GOT to be at least 50 years old or so.

And now, it looks like this. (Gasp. I know, it's awful.) Oh, and they said it just needed to be "trimmed."

Maybe, "trimmed" means something different here?

(View from inside my house, looking out to the "tree")

I think I'm going to throw up.

Positive note: I guess the birds will no longer have anywhere to live...

As I was leaving for work this morning they were cutting down the once-beautiful part of the tree that cascaded over the side of the courtyard wall... (See the man up there?)

So sad.

More pics to come.

Pet Peeve.(No, I'm not pregnant.)

When announcing that you and your life partner, boy/girlfriend or husband/wife are increasing the number of dependents in your family via the introduction of a baby within 40 weeks, please don't say, "We're (plural) pregnant."

Because, you (plural) aren't.


The last I heard, men don't give birth. (No comments about the pregnant man, deal?)

"We're pregnant."

Really? How's that?

You'd never say that, "We're getting a vasectomy."

There are just some things only one gender has the pleasure of experiencing. That's life. No equal-rights here.

Alternate acceptable pregnancy announcements: "We're having a baby." Or, "My wife is pregnant" or the 1950's-era, "We're expecting."

Thank you very much for complying.

The Management

Happy Birthday, Mom!

It's my Mom's birthday today!
• • • • •
Mom, you know I love you to the moon and back a bazillion times.
I'm so glad you were born.
I hope you have a wonderful day -- you deserve it.
With all my heart, I love you.

Love,
kylee

Lila Lunes: The many faces of Lila

My Lila Ross is seven months old.

Q. How big is Lilakins?
A. At this point La-la-la-Lila weighs 16.8 lbs. She's also about 27 inches long. We feel she's just right.

Q. Does she have any teeth yet?
A. Nope. However, she understands the benefits of good oral hygiene. There she is brushing her gums. (Note her one long hair? Stuck to her cheek? Lol.)


Q. Is Lila crawling yet?
A. Nope, but she's trying! (Video to come.) We did lower her crib this week. (Sad. She's no longer a newborn...) Here she is waking up from her nap in the new and improved lower crib. (She's wearing a sleep sack. I love, love, LOVE sleep sacks.)


Q. What's Lila up to?
A. Gettin' around. A lot. See?



Q. How are Lila and Ferg?
A. Just fine. Here's Ferg greeting Lila after we returned home from somewhere. Yes, Ferg's sitting on Lila.

Lila was very happy with Ferg kissing her. See?
(Her legs are, as always, a blur. This child never stops moving.)

Speaking of Ferg... I'd like to walk you through a Ferg/Lila moment from this past week.

Ferg got a scarf for Christmas from C.'s Mom.
She loves it.
She's very proud to wear it.
See?

Lila is semi-grabby.
She also adores Ferg, so... Ferg + scarf = I.need.to.touch.that.now.

Lila, (who is just now learning to support herself when she's falling down), grabs for Ferg's treasured scarf and inadvertently falls on her.
Ferg sighs.
And doesn't move, so as to hold up Lila. (Good dog.)

Lila then tries to grab the scarf again.
Ferg is clearly very uncomfortable with letting her baby sister touch her scarf.

Finally, my Ferginator steps closer so as to give Lila closer proximity to her treasured scarf.
Lila pulls on it. Nearly chokes Ferg.
Ferg is over Lila and promptly walks away from her. (Taking her scarf with her.)

Lila rolls her eyes.
(That's my daughter.)

Q. When does Lila cry?

A. I'll tell you what, Lila seems to only cry when I sit down to eat a meal. I'm serious. I'm not certain I've eaten more than six warm meals since she's been alive. Seriously.

She also cries when her [non]teeth hurt, when she's over-tired and [this is new!] when she's with anyone other than Craig and I. Fun.

Ok, I've got a few product reviews for this week's Lila Lunes.

1. Hyland's teething tablets. OMG, they are so much better than the Little tummies brand. They're all natural and dissolve VERY quickly. (The little remedies brand unfortunately doesn't seem to dissolve as quickly as the Hyland's do. Lila has coughed out the little tummies brand more than once. These ones actually work.)


2. Little Remedies Gripe water. We've been giving this stuff to Lila since she was a newborn. Why? Hiccups. At this point, because of her love of this all-natural product, she'll take ANYTHING out of a baby-syringe.3. Binki-brand pacifier clips. We used to use these with Lila's Soothie-brand pacifiers and since she's given up her pacifier at 9 weeks old - we've started to use these clips to attach a teether to her or to attach a toy to her (or her cart cover) when we're at a restaurant or shopping. They're supper handy and strong.
Ok, I'm tired this week. :) On to the pictures.

My daughter appears to be very expressive. I love it.

Annoyance.

Scrumptious delight.

Quiet contemplation.

Total frustration.

Happiness!


Cautiousness.


Well, cute.

On to the movies, this is VERY serious Lila. She had just been crying in her crib (teething?) and we gave in and got her up.



Here she is... super-annoyed with me. And crying.



We hope you have a really great week.

Heavy, heavy (loser-esque) sigh...

I'm so jealous of Heather Armstrong and Dooce.

You've got to be kidding me.

Sarah Palin is absolutely and positively the worst extemporaneous speaker I have ever heard in all of of my life.

It's excruciating.

She's going to be a contributor to an off-the-cuff television show?

It's like leading a sheep to the slaughter...

Ferg Friday: Headband

Even Ferg likes wearing accessories.

Still not there yet.

Yuck. See here.
I would scream if someone bought this for me.
Awful. Terrible. Blech.

I have to acknowledge it.

Sweet Lila is 7 months old today.

(Go ahead say it, "Where does the time go!?")

Family Addition! He's here!

...As it turns out I became an aunt again today... (Yess!!!!)

My brother and his wife (who live in Cabo with us) just had their beautiful baby boy (in Dallas)!

More info to come. YAY!

Update as of 1/21/10 at 9:31 a.m.:

b r o d y d a n i e l
born at 4:45 pm.
January 20, 2010
7 lbs. 15 oz. • 20 inches long

This week's theme: Increased fees

Just coming off of my American Airlines baggage fee rant, I read this today:


I read the NY Times online daily.

What's this you speak of, Richard Perez-Peña? (Peña means pineapple in Español. Love that last name.) I'm going to be CHARGED for reading the INTERWEB?

Yep, the NYTimes.com - the most frequented news source on the web - is considering the idea of instituting a subscription-based service for its loyal readers and intends to roll it out sometime in early 2011. (Story here.)

My first thought: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I shan't pay for access to your stupid site.

My second, more reasonable thought: Ok, well... maybe... This sort of makes sense to me. I suppose that there should be a price for well-written, "premium" journalism. Any Joe Blow can hock his website as, "fair and balanced" (ah-hem... Foxnews.com), and publish mis-spelled crap.

Maybe it's time we consider the value of objective journalism in today's world.

(Of course, you may or may not consider the NY Times as objective - but I'll tell you what, I prefer it to, say, the crazy L.A. Times.)

We all know that newspapers as we knew and loved them have been hit hard in the past ten years. There's virtually no place for them in today's households. They're a relic, really. An anachronism. No one [under the age of 55] reads them. Ever. (Tell me I'm wrong.)

If we want to continue reading some sort of accountable, objective news in an easy and accessible fashion we may need to consider the costs that are associated with this service, no? Solid journalism isn't a right, it's a luxury.

Journalists need to be paid for the time they take to investigate. For the time they take to confirm that they're sources are trustworthy. For the time they take to travel to where the news is happening. And for so many other reasons.

Someone has to pay for it. Why shouldn't it be us?

But then again, money begets influence and newspapers are always influenced by someone - I know that. I mean, just 7 months ago the NY Times took a loan from known Mexican-monopolist, Carlos Slim Helú for a shabby $250 million. I wonder what he's getting in return?

(Carlos is a mega-entrepreneur in the land of my daughter's birth - and he already purchased about 7% control of the Times back in 2008. He essentially owns the telecommunications industry in Mexico and resides in place #3 on Forbes list of overly wealthy people. His net worth is $35 BILLION, just after Warren Buffett and ($37 billion) and Bill Gates ($40 billion).)

That said, should we pay? Otherwise we may be stuck reading a bunch of, "he said, she said" biased blogs and crappy news websites.

Thoughts?

Stop it, Vera.

How great are these new Vera fabrics?
Fun stuff. More new stuff here.





And, how great is this new baby book? Love it. $24. See here.

Crazy is welcome here.

Craig came home from work yesterday, looked at the chairs on our patio and promptly came into my office where I was working and very nonchalantly asked:

"Hey. I see you foiled the chairs... [silence]... did you do anything else crazy today?"



--
He cracks me up.

Yes, I foiled my own chairs. Why? TO KEEP THOSE NEIGHBORHOOD CATS OFF OF THEM. (Ya'll recommended I do this, remember? See here.)

I'll let you know how it goes.

The foil is starting to grow on me. All spaceship-like... :)

Really? What else American Airlines?

American Airlines just raised their checked baggage fees.
Why am I complaining about this? Because prior to the change we could travel to and from our international destination to the United States with two bags each for FREE. And, we used to be able to put Ferg under the seat for just $50 per way.

(Yes, I'm aware that domestic travelers have been paying for bags for quite some time now ($25 first bag, $35 second bag), but as a rule we pay more on average because we're flying internationally.)

Ok, let me map out how much it costs us to fly home.

$600 - $700 per ticket (including taxes.) x 2 = $1200 - $1400
$200 for ferg to fly with us ($100 both ways. For our little 8 lb. dog who sits UNDER THE SEAT IN FRONT OF US.)
$100 for Lila's ticket (approximately)
$50 for Craig's second bag
$50 for my second bag
-----
TOTAL: approximately $1600 - $1800 to fly to OHIO.

Update! OOPS! I forgot the $50 and the $50 for our bags coming BACK to Cabo. This brings the cost to $1700 - $1900.

SHOOT ME.

What's the alternative? Walking. Looks like we have to walk to Ohio. I'm not sure it's worth it.

Talent abounds in my family.

I'd like for you to see the fairy homes that my sister, Chloe and Clo's friend made from my sister's homegrown pumpkins.

How CUTE are these? (Cameraphone pics. Sorry.)

WELL done, you three. So cute.