Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has some fun and exciting plans for today, lots of food, time with family, maybe some shopping this weekend?

Happy Turkey Day!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A Little Baby Attitude

Normally I am against forcing something on children. Like for example, I'm not really thrilled about dressing Christina in anything that has a character, a sports team, or a saying on it. I figure that when she is old enough to want to wear those things, then she should. Until then, I'd rather try to stick to generic stuff. Of course I'm totally for bibs that say "I love my Mommy" or something like that but come on, I know she loves her Mommy even if she can't say it, so there really isn't a problem there :-)

I did happen to stumble onto this website though and I found the shirts to be hilarious.





If Christina could talk, I could definitely see her saying all of these, especially "I'll walk when I'm good and ready"! Although she takes steps without a problem and I KNOW she CAN walk, she just won't. Whenever we try to egg her on, she'll just sit down. So yeah, she will walk when she is good and ready. Very cute shirts. They have a bunch of others too, but those three in particular fit Christina.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Last swim class

This weekend Christina had her last swim class for the season. I'm sure we will sign her up for another class in the spring, but for now it is her last class.

As far as skills go, I don't really think she learned anything. I think that everything she did in class was pretty instictual. It is always good to practice though. Also, skills aside, I think she enjoyed the class. At this point, that is the main goal. When she gets older, then the skills of learning to swim will be a bit more important.

Overall, I think the class went very well. I didn't pick a great time of day for the class though. I chose Saturday at 11am so that we could take our time in the mornings. I thought that maybe Christina would get a nap in before we left the house. In realty, it quickly became obvious that there was no time for a nap since she would normally not take a nap any earlier than 10am. This meant that each and every Saturday, she was already very tired by the time the class started.

She wasn't cranky or anything during the classes, but she obviously wasn't completely into it. On some days she just went along with everything we did and didn't even smile. I know the class was still enjoyable for her, but if it had been a litter earlier or a little later, I think that would have worked out better. Next time I will keep that in mind.

Anyway, I told you that last weekend my Mom did the swim class with Christina so I could sit a week out. I wasn't feeling too well and I wanted to give my Mom a chance to do a class. The great thing about that was that I took a lot of video and some pictures. Take a look at a couple clips of Christina's swim class:




And here are some pictures:






Sunday, November 15, 2009

New Music

I love Lady Gaga's new song Bad Romance and Ke$sha's Tik Tok. Tell me what you think about the songs and the video for Bad Romance.


Lyrics | Lady GaGa lyrics - Bad Romance lyrics


Lyrics | Kesha lyrics - Tik Tok a.k.a. Dolla lyrics

Saturday, November 14, 2009

First Steps

My Mom came over today so that she could come to Christina's swim class. In fact, she did the class with her. I took pictures and video that I will post another time. Today, I want to share something more exiciting.

After swim class and lunch, we went back to my house. My Mom has been very anxious to get Christina to walk so she started trying to entice her to walk. Of course she is walking no problem while she pushes her toys across the room, but she hasn't done it on her own yet.

My Mom set Christina up on her feet and let her get her balance as she let go of her. While she was standing on her own, my Mom then encouraged her to walk towards her. Can you believe it, it actually worked! She walked right towards Grandma!

The first time she did it, she took like three or four steps towards my Mom. She did awesome! It was so exciting to be able to see it. After she had done it a couple of times, I grabbed my camera. As usual the video isn't quite as good as it was in person, she didn't take as many steps as she did when I wasn't recording, but still, it is pretty cool!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

And she's walking, sort of

Ok, so she is holding onto a toy, but she is walking while she pushes it along . . . and she is doing it so well!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I'm Old

I came across some pictures of myself from a few years back (ok, ten years ago) and I was shocked to see how young I looked. I must be old now, lol.


Now: (just ignore the crazy looking guy next to me, lol)

Then:
(high school)





(College years):
Hey, I guess I'm not the only one that got old. (Sorry honey!)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Standing Tall

Over the weekend, Christina took her first steps.

I don't think it officially counts though since she didn't actually mean to take them. Nik was holding onto her hands and sort of running around the room with her. He would lift her up and make it seem like she was running over all of the couches and then back to the floor. (She was loving it). Then, he let her go and she just kept on walking by herself.

After a couple of steps she realized she wasn't holding onto Daddy's hands and then she sort of stumbled into a sitting position. I got to see it first hand, which was awesome. She was clearly walking. She had the strength and the balance - but not the confidence. It is only a matter of time.

In fact, the very next day I saw her practicing trying to stand up without holding on to anything. She kept practicing over and over again, getting half way up and then sitting down again.

On Saturday, while we were at my Mom's house to celebrate her birthday, Christina decided to give Grandma a wonderful birthday present. Even though she was wearing slippery tights, she was able to stand all the way up on her own. Then she did it again and she continued to do it over and over again. It was so cute and so exciting. She loved it and was so proud of herself for being able to do it.

Nik and I got to see it first hand. We were so excited. We would stay as quiet as possible as she stood up, and then once she sat back down we would applaud and tell her what a good job she did.

After she had stood up about six times or so I finally realized that I should have had my video
camera going! Duh!! I didn't have it at my Mom's house, but I did have my digital camera, which can take video. So I ran to grab it and I caught this, it isn't the best, but it is something:


Monday, November 9, 2009

Jury Duty

This week I'm at Jury Duty. I can't tell you how much better this experience has already been compared to the last time I had Jury Duty.

Before Nik and I bought a Condo four years ago and moved to the middle of nowhere, we lived in Hudson County, NJ. Jury Duty in Hudson County was a miserable experience. Driving there was a nightmare, finding parking was a nightmare, everyone around was mean and rude and everything you looked at, touched, or sat on was dirty. They made you sit in a room and they pretty much left you there to rot. I did get called into the court, but didn't get put on a trial. That pretty much sums up my first Jury Duty sentence.

There is a world of difference between that and this. Where I live now (in the middle of nowhere), the court house is located in a pretty little town not far from where I live. They have a parking garage that we can use free of charge. They greeted us with smiles and hello's when we came in. They provided us with an entire orientation in which we watched a video all about Jury Duty and then a nice woman proceeded to tell us all about what we can expect and answered all of our questions.

This woman covered everything you ever wanted to know about Jury Duty. When I did this in Hudson County I was completely clueless. But here, wow, she covered everything from where the bathrooms are to how much we will get paid to how long a trial might last. She told us she would keep us updated throughout the day about which trials are in the court and whether they settle or whether they will need a Jury. She told us she would tell us when the court is done for the day so that we could leave early. She told us we have AN HOUR AND A HALF for lunch. She told us where we could go for lunch, what was good in the area, and that there is a refrigerator and microwave in a nearby room.

But wait, there's more. She told us to take our jackets if we get called to court because it might be cold. She told us to feel free to talk on our cell phones while waiting to be called to court. She told us to make sure to tell the Judge if we have a hardship of some kind and therefore can not serve on a trial. Vacations actually count has hardships.

I distinctly remember that last time I was called for Jury Duty, everyone got piled into a stuffy room in which we had to sit in horribly uncomfortable chairs all day long. Each person was practically stacked on top of the next.

Here, not only are we in a nice bright room that use to be part of a church, but we have very comfortable chairs, tables with outlets for lap tops and a Plasma TV. There are plenty of seats so that everyone can spread out.

The orientation covered so many details, that she even told us the history of the building we are in. She went so far as to tell us about the architecture, the stain glass windows, who the artist was and that the colors are no longer used. This building is apparently very special and she seems to have a passion for talking about it.

Where I am??? This can't be Jury Duty, can it???

It seems like I'm on a business trip or something. I'm about to start a training or a conference. Aren't people suppose to dread Jury Duty? Well, I'm not. But, let's see how this goes.

I'm interested to hear what your experience with Jury Duty has been. Please, spill the beans!

Preview for next time . . . Christina is standing on her own now and even took a couple of steps over the weekend. I'll tell you all about it and I have video!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Pre-Black Friday Sale - Today!

Apparently, today retailers are kicking off the holiday shopping season. There are great sales going on right now. I know I've already emailed a bunch of people about it, but I thought I would post it here as well.

Today you can get an XBox 360 for $199 with a $99 e-gift card either at Walmart or Walmart.com. You can also get a Sony Bluray player for only $150 at Walmart or Sears.com. Sears.com also has a Samsung Bluray player for only $150.

Both Walmart and Sears are also having great sales on TV's if you are in the market. JCPenny and Kmart are having great sales on lots of stuff as well. So, now is a great time to start your holiday shopping!

You can check it all out on my favorite black friday website.

Happy Shopping.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Curse of the Car Accidents

Over the summer, my step dad was in a car accident.

Only a couple of weeks later, he was in another car accident.

A month and a half ago, I was in a car accident.

A couple of weeks ago, my Mom was in a car accident.

On Monday, my sister Mindy was in a car accident.

Thank goodness no one was seriously injured. But, please, be careful out there. Let's hope this curse has run it's course. We don't need any more accidents in our family.