Chocolate Yoohoo

In the ongoing battle with poop, we have a temporary solution. Owen will go in the potty if he is not clothed. This means that if you drop by my house any given afternoon (he can wear clothes in the morning because he's not a morning pooper), you will find Owen minus pants. This has gone very smoothly as long as you don't count the following situations:
-Ninth grade girl drops by my house to pick up something. I hurry to meet her in the yard so as to avoid awkwardness. I turn around to go inside and find Owen on the front porch, waving, exposed. Ninth grade girl's mom stares incredulously.
-Lunch time today. Chocolate cake for dessert. Owen is not a pro at eating anything with icing. Icing all over his face, hands, arms, and.... Oh well. That's what washcloths are for.

On an entirely different note, I have a question. Will and I were at Baxter's (a sports bar) last night. We ate dinner and then asked our waitress about renting a pool table for an hour. She said she would transfer our bill "over there" so that we could pay all at once. When we got to the table a different waitress approached who asked if we needed anything, to which we replied "no." When we were ready to leave I asked Waitress #1 if our tip would go to her, and she said "no, it will go to [Waitress #2]." In my opinion (as a former waitress), this is total crap, but Will assured me that all is fair in tips and the sports bar. I thought we should have left our tip off of the credit card and given Waitress #1 a cash tip. What do you think?

Open Wide

I'm not a fan of going to the dentist. And yet the Responsible Gene in me forces me to go every six months (or so) and get my teeth cleaned. In my opinion, the most unpleasant part of the experience is when they are using the crazy spinning toothbrush, all the while sucking spit out of your open mouth. But I must say that you don't really notice the electrical instruments in your mouth when you are precariously dangling one leg off of the dental chair and using your toes to rock your fussing infant in her carseat. Ahh, motherhood.

Talking to Jesus

Owen (from his doorway): Mom! Mom!
Christy (appearing stage left): Yes, Owen?
Owen (staring around blankly): ummmm...Mom, my play-doh is missing
Christy (increasingly aggitated): Do you know what time it is?
Owen holds up some fingers
Christy: No, it's quiet time. What does that mean?
Owen: Mom, I'm telling you about my play-doh.
Christy: I don't want to talk about play-doh right now, it's quiet time.
Owen: I'm not talking to YOU about my play-doh...I'm talking to Geee-sus. I'm talking to Jesus about my play-doh, not you.

Girlfriends

Couldn't resist posting a cute picture too. This is Charlotte with her sister from another mother (and father), Tessa.

Another Update

We got the results from the Holt-Oram test today...normal. This, however, does not mean that she does not have Holt-Oram. Apparently, they tested the more common gene that shows Holt-Oram. There are two others. We're not sure if the doctor is going to pursue that route or look in another direction or what. Our actual genetic appointment isn't for several more weeks. At this point, we're really just looking for an explanation, so I suppose there's no need to be in a hurry. All of her other tests have come back normal, and she's a healthy, thriving little girl. "Wait" is always a hard thing to hear though. On the fussy front, losing the dairy in my diet seems to be making a huge difference. I gave myself a dairy-day two weeks ago that resulted in lots of extra screaming and a vicious diaper rash. So here's saying goodbye to tall glasses of cold milk, Dairy Queen blizzards, grilled cheese sandwiches, and pretty much every darn cookie on the cookie aisle. If you have any great recipes that don't involve dairy, please send them my way.

Pondering in the Shower

I was in the shower this morning, enjoying the hot water, not ready to get to the actual cleaning, so I decided to read the back of the shampoo bottle. It has "directions." Do you really need directions for your shampoo? Anyways, it says, "Rinse and repeat." What a thinly veiled ploy that is to get you to use more shampoo than you actually need. Which led me to think about something I read online the other day. I was on a forum for cloth diapering (granola mom alert), reading about the best washing methods, and one lady declared that, even on her regular clothes, she only uses half of the recommended amount of detergent. Her reasoning was, do you really think the detergent company would tell you the exact amount to use? Don't you think they're going to tell you to use a little more than necessary so you'll blow through their product faster and go buy more? This freaks me out a little. How many manufacturers could be lying to us?

Poop Smears

When your child poops in a little kid potty, and you've dumped it in the big potty, what do you do with the residuals? The best I can figure, you wipe it out with toilet paper. But that seems a little bit gross to me. Those little potties don't leave lots of hand-manuevering space, and I'm really not pumped about getting little poop smears on my hand. Any advice?