Christmas season is crazy. If you wonder why you haven't seen me much lately, this is part of the reason why: I am performing in two upcoming holiday concerts.

An Evening of Christmas Joy
Friday, December 4th, 7pm
Bethlehem Bible Church, 307 Lancaster St, West Boylston
Ticket price: free!

I am singing a solo, and making my debut as a choir director (gulp!)


Boar's Head Festival
Saturday, December 12th, 4pm (Snow date: Sunday 13th, 4pm)
Wesley United Methodist Church, 114 Main St, Worcester
Ticket price: $25 / $20 student / $10 children

I am singing with the Master Singers of Worcester, and also have a small solo.

It just takes a professional photographer to remind me of that sometimes.

( Cut to save friend pages )

So, nightskyre's birthday is on Wednesday... and baby C's birthday is next Tuesday (can you believe she's going to be 1 year old already?)

We want to do something, but we just hosted a gigantic party last week (Labor Day). To throw in another complication, nightskyre's cousin will be visiting, too; so we want to keep things low-key.

So, here's my thought. We'll do something this weekend. Dinner Friday night (18th) at O'Connors for nightskyre, and chocolate cake for C on Saturday (19th) in the early afternoon.

Thoughts? Would you come celebrate one or both birthdays with us?

Poll #1457400 Birthday celebration(s)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

Would you join us on:

Or, more specifically, a coverage provider.

Anyone heard ANYTHING (good or bad) about Metro PCS? I can get unlimited calling & unlimited texts for $40/month (within the coverage zone - outside, calls cost 19¢/minute). No contract needed.

I will have to actually buy a phone instead of getting a free one. But for no contract, it would be worth it.

Anyone use a company OTHER than Verizon for their cell phone? I am less than thrilled with their service recently. Not terrible, but not good enough to keep me loyal either. I am a light but everyday user, mostly voice (usually 10-20 mins/day, except when I'm phone-tutoring) with a little bit of text-messaging.

Who do you use? Do you like them? What kind of plan do you have?

What a whirlwind trip. Definitely have better ideas for sightseeing w/baby now, and also better idea of what works well for Smith family vacations. It's hard to get 3 people who are used to doing their own thing to work together. Throw a baby in the mix, and 2 more folks who like to plan everything out (nightskyre and me), and getting ANYWHERE is challenging. There were a couple of times that I had a meltdown (hungry and/or tired), and a grumpy baby for a few of the outings (same - hungry and/or tired).

We did have fun, though. Discovered a few attractions at the Falls that I hadn't done before. Surprised at how much Claire seemed to enjoy Maid of the Mist. And the Whitewater walk is probably better done with a toddler who can walk up and down the stairs.

Didn't get as many photos as we had planned, since we forgot the camera on Saturday. Did meet a really nice woman on the Maid of the Mist who took a family photo and promised to send it to us via email.

Also spent time with my dad and his wife, which went a lot better than I expected.


Definitely good to be home. Now I have to figure out how to catch up on sleep and chores.

(Photos)

Took baby to the park, and actually found the playground!

Probably wasn't the greatest idea, though, since I was sick this weekend. On the way home, I felt like my heart was going to pop up my throat.


Distance: 3 1/3 miles.

Total this year: 5 miles...

We were planning on the IKEA "experience" today.. but I went to bed with muscle aches, stuffy nose, and sore throat. I think I wore myself out teaching songs and motions to kids this week at vacation Bible school (3-12 year olds, mostly), and left myself open to get sick. Oh, and nightskyre thinks the pain in my shoulder is a small muscle tear (probably from doing the motions too enthusiastically to try to keep kids' attention).

But hey, I'm already feeling better than I did last night! I just gotta keep up the Vitamin C and lots of liquid. And rest... if possible ;)

This time, with the baby in tow. It was a short ride, about 1.5 miles, and I stopped to check on her 3 times.




She was asleep by the time we got home.

Next time, we'll actually GO somewhere - like the library!

Claire,

You woke up at 5:30 this morning. You woke up at 4am yesterday. You've barely napped the last two days. 10 hours of sleep in 24 hours is NOT enough for a growing baby, and it only lets Mommy and Daddy get about 6 hours, which is not enough for us to keep our sanity.

On a completely different note...

When did nearly all children's toys become cheap junk? I have nothing against plastic toys, but I'd like to buy something that doesn't look like it's going to fall apart in a month, without spending an arm and a leg on it.

Inspired by my regular babysitter's (15-year-old) talky-keyboard-letters toy, I went to Toys R Us the other day, looking for a fun noisy electronic toy and/or a pull-up/walking toy. I didn't see anything I was willing to spend my money on.

(I really like this handcrafted wagon full of blocks, but that's in the "arm and a leg" category. I'd call it an heirloom-quality toy.)

If you've been following nightskyre's LJ, you know that our pool has had some problems. Our Memorial Day BBQ is now the "Save Our Pool" party. There will be no swimming :(

Donations are much appreciated, but don't feel like you shouldn't come if you can't give money. Even a show of moral support would be great, and make us feel like we're not spending the money to fix a pool that no one would use anyway.

Anyone want to spend an hour or two on Thursday afternoon with an award-winningly-cute baby?

I have a dentist appointment, and I keep forgetting to ask people about watching her. (I already tried to reschedule the appointment...)

So, nightskyre already posted this, but I need to share, since I'm a proud mama.

This picture of Claire was a a runner-up in the Knickernappies photo contest.

My girl, she's popping up all over the internet.

Now is an excellent time to buy a year of hosting from Dreamhost. Today only, you can get a domain and a year of hosting for less than $10! I had to pay over $100 for the same thing... and the deal is for new customers only.

Details on the Dreamhost home page.

So, we have our first real bout of sick-baby-and-sleepless-nights. For about 36 hours now, baby C has been alternating between cranky, normal-happy, and screaming in pain. After very little napping and poor sleep, we also threw in tired-crying-because-it-hurts-and-I-cant-sleep starting at about midnight last night. She finally fell asleep after projectile vomiting on daddy around 2am.

Got to the dr. around noon. Turns out ear infections can have a variety of symptoms, and babies won't always touch their ears if it hurts there. Started her on amoxicillin and baby Motrin. After the Motrin kicked in, she got a 2.5 hour nap.

Let's hope this clears up quickly, and that mom & dad can get some sleep tonight...

Well, that was a much longer walk than I intended to make today...

3.5 miles. I was intending to go 2 miles at the most. Oops.

Plus the ~1 mile round-trip to go to the Honey Farms (for milk) and back.

At least I was using the stroller, which makes it possible to stop and rest... but my legs are still tingling after sitting for 10 minutes.

The last panel of today's Control-Alt-Delete is awesome.
( At the risk of giving away the gag... )

Watched the pilot on hulu today. Had no idea it was going to be based on the lives of David & Saul.

I think it's a good drama (as any account based on their lives would have to be), AND reasonably accurate. The names are a nice touch: "David Shepherd" (David), "Silas Benjamin" (Saul - of the tribe of Benjamin), "Jack Benjamin" (Jonathan), "Michelle Benjamin" (Michal, Saul's daughter that David falls in love with), and "Reverend Samuels" (Samuel, the last of the judges of Israel). Even the lesser characters have names that match Biblical ones, when applicable (Eli Shepherd = Eliab, David's eldest brother).

The only thing that really bugs me so far is that Jack shouldn't envy David. It's in keeping with human nature, but not with the Biblical account. I could do without Jack being secretly gay, but I know that's a popular theory about Jonathan, so I'll let it go.

I installed the new carseat today. It just BARELY fits behind the passenger seat in our sedan. And then the front passenger's knees hit the glove compartment. And this is one of the shorter, cheaper carseats.

Obviously, once you have kids, it is only possible to get good gas mileage OR leg-room, but not both.


(We've been discussing getting a new car for 6 months, but figured we would hold off until we knew whether we wanted to get a new commuter car for nightskyre, or a bigger "family" car.)