Camping with baby

We're going camping tomorrow. I'm both excited and terrified at the same time. As much as I hate to admit it, I am not an outdoorsy type. I wish I was, you know, all mother nature loving and stuff, but grass creeps me out, bugs make me break out in hives, and I like being clean. I do. But, I do love the idea of a change of scenery, sleeping in a tent, and hanging out with my babe and realizing that I can do without the noisemaker and the baby monitor. It'll be great.

So did I mention my baby is cuter and awesomer than any other baby alive? It's been logically proven, you see. Your kids will never compare to my amazing child. Oops, did I just say that out loud? Having a kid makes me have these weird feelings that I've never had before. I've read about these feelings, but never had them myself. Like the feeling of loving something so much that tears squeeze out and you can't breathe.

What? Milk from boobs?

Every time I feed Ruby while LaDaysha's in the house, she stares curiously. Today she finally asked:

L: What is she sucking on?
Me: My boob.
L: silence
Me: You know, milk comes out of there.
L: That's so weird.
Me: Maybe.
L: That's so weird that milk comes out of there. That's so weird.

I guess she doesn't know that regular milk comes from cow boobs either. It reminds me of Reese from Malcolm in the Middle who said: Wow! Women are the cows of people!

Traumatized by Poo

My 6 year old neighbor took our dog Bailey for a walk down the block with Jonner. Bailey pooped and peed like the good little doggy she is. Later that afternoon, she was back, and she told me:

L: I didn't like how she (Bailey) did that.
Me: Did what?
L: Did that.
Me: You mean, poo?
L: Yeah. I can't stop thinking about it. I shouldn't have looked.
Me: Yeah, well all of us poo.
L: But I can't see it when I poo.
Me: True. We're lucky. We don't have to watch ourselves poo.

Obviously obssessed with the "doodoo", she spent the whole day talking about it, on and off. She told us to make sure we threw away the doodoo. And how do we pick it up with those bags? Is she going to do it again? Oh you bet she will.

How fast can you go?

My neighbor's kid Everett (5 or 6 years old) was telling me the other day that he could go 50 mph on his scooter. Then he told me, "You should see me run. I can run 40 mph." I told him that I thought that was faster than the fastest person on earth. Then he said, "No, I know someone who can run even faster than me. He can go 45 mph."

Here's a video of Ruby Ru.

Noise

Lately, I have been increasingly irritated by the level of noise in my environment. It's definitely on my mind mostly because THE BABY IS SLEEPING AND FOR THE LOVE OF JEBUS PLEASE BE QUIET.

1. PLANES. I never really noticed the roar of the planes that go over our house every 2 minutes until this weekend when the inlaws pointed it out. Not only that, but I think the flight patterns actually changed this weekend. They are flying so low that I can practically see the bolts on the wings. I can't even believe Ruby can sleep through it all.

2. People who play their bass so loud in their cars that I can't believe that the earth doesn't just split up everywhere they go.

3. Semis and dump trucks that drive by.

4. The freaking dogs (including our very own dear beagle) that will not shut up for a half hour straight.

5. Our 4 fans (one of which is called the King of Fans and sounds like a jet engine right inside our house)

6. The birds. Believe it or not, if the bedroom windows are open and the cardinals, sparrows, and crows are all going at the same time, it's practically deafening.

7. Our kitties sometimes get a hair up their butt and run around the house like maniacs. They can be really loud!

There are probably a host of other things that could possibly wake the baby up, including ourselves, but guess what the solution so far has been? That's right, more noise. We have a white noise maker next to her bed to drown out all the other noise that we have no control over.

Oh for some peace and quiet.

National Night Out

Last night was national night out, one of my favorite evenings of the year. This year, I got in on the planning a little bit and helped get signatures from our block so we could close the street off for the festivities. This year was particularly great for several reasons. I had a baby (yay), there were a lot more people from a couple other blocks, I wasn't off performing a puppet show in another neighborhood, I knew a lot more people from our block, people ate up every last bit of our pilaf and cookies, me and a bunch of other nursing moms got to dig in the food first, and there was a big ass firetruck that came by!

There is a little girl on our block with some developmental problems. She comes up to me sometimes and asks me things in a very serious and intense way, usually followed by a lot of "why"s. The great thing is, when I give her a satisfactory answer, she gives me this great big sparkly smile that's just amazing. Well, yesterday, she got to go on the fire truck. There was a big old fireman there with a booming voice who was talking to everyone about firetrucks and answering questions, and he turned to her and said, "and this fire truck belongs to you"! You should have seen her face. Her jaw dropped to the floor, and she said, "Really??", and of course the big fireman said "Yes!" in a giant voice. He had no idea that she would take him literally of course, and turned away. She immediately turned to her mom and said, "How long can I keep it? Can I keep it forever?"

Ruby was all hyped up from the action and didn't go to sleep right away, but it was worth it.

We're ok

We are ok. 35W fell into the Mississippi yesterday during rush hour, not far from where we live. Thankfully we don't drive up there anymore, so we were nowhere near. Jonathon drives the other way and he was already home.

My friend was crossing a pedestrian bridge when she saw it happen and called me. It's horrendous. The wreckage is unbelievable and I'm sure there are a lot of people dead.