MSU Sucks

... Or at least that's my take on things right now. Allow me to elaborate. This weekend is Mother's Day weekend. Mother's Day itself - usually celebrated with gifts, breakfast in bed, brunch, a day of rest, or any other kind gesture - is Sunday. This will be my first Mother's Day Weekend. My husband left to go out of town last night and will not be back until Sunday afternoon.

Before you think him heartless or insensitive, let me be quick to say its not really his fault. Its MSU's fault. His little brother is graduating from college and Montana State University in all their scholarly wisdom decided to hold commencement on Mother's Day weekend. Jerks.

Now, I suppose I could have taken time off work and schlepped Cora to the middle of nowhere to spend my MDW in the midst of drunken/hungover college students giddy under the warm delusional blanket that the world's delights await them just on the other side of the graduation stage but that just did not sound appealing either. I figured I'd at least enjoy the comforts of my own home this weekend. Are you feeling sorry for me yet? Isn't it just like a Shakespearean tragedy? I mean it is, right?

So, now thanks to stupid MSU I will spend my poor, little, lonely, sad and soooo pathetic first MDW allllllll alone with Cora. Don't it just break your pea pickin heart?! Of course my mom will be there too. And we'll probably go to brunch. And then shopping. And she'll probably buy me something since I'm in such a tragic position. And then she'll help watch Coco while I take a nap or read a book or just chill out with the TV. Hmmmmm. But no - you still are required by law to feel sorry for me spending my first MDW "alone".

The Fun Continues....

I got "blog tagged" to continue this chain so here we go...

What I was doing 10 yrs ago: Friday, May 8, 1998, 11:43pm - I was probably anxiously awaiting the beginning of my law school adventure at Drake (I started a special "pre-school-year" seminar in June). I was also probably looking forward to enjoying a tasty adult beverage since the place I was working gave us a beer or wine cooler at 3:00 on Friday afternoons to enjoy at our desks.

Five things on my to do list for today: 1. Navigate a political time bomb at work. 2. Take Hubby to the airport in time to make his 7:00pm flight to Montana. 3. Find something good and semi-healthy to eat for dinner. 4. Hang with my mom and Coco to have a girl's night in. 5. Get a plan together for getting the house clean enough to list for sale and show on the market.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Quit my job to devote time to volunteerism for a good cause, go clothes shopping!!, buy some amazing jewelry, buy/build my dreamhouse, create an instant college fund for Coco, buy my sister a cool pad, go on Safari with my mom in Africa, go to Paris with Coco and Ryan, go to Italy with Wendy, buy a second home in the Keys, get hubby the cool car(s) he's always dreamed of, get a personal chef and trainer, that's about all I can think of right now.

Three of my bad habits: Obsessing/over-analyzing, lack of food willpower for any length of time, serious aversion to any physical activity to keep healthy.

Five places I have lived: Des Moines, IA; Memphis, TN; Ames, IA; Johnston, IA; Shipman, VA.

Five jobs I have had: Sales Clerk, Musicland; Candy Striper, Mercy Hospital; Concession Stand Clerk, Skate North; 800# customer service rep, AMI, Inc; Trial Attorney, Bradshaw Law Firm.

I tag each of my fellow bloggers to continue the love and post this on their blogs....

Word Association

Once again I stole an idea from my cousin (and fellow blogger) Amy. But I like it. So I am purely remorseless. Its like a written ink blot test... you have to respond with only one word!

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Significant other? Amazing!
3. Your hair? Annoying
4.Your mother? Sweet
5. Your father? Odd :)
6. Your favorite thing? Relaxing
7. Your dream last night? Dunno
8. Your favorite drink? Perrier
9. Your dream/goal? FashionDesigner (ok ok but how else can I say it!)
10. The room you're in? Office (shhhhh)
11. Your hobby? Baby
12. Your fear? Harm
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Ankeny
14. Where were you last night? Home (why, what have you heard??)
15. What you're not? Rude
16. Muffins? Top
17. One of your wish list items? Clothes
18. Where you grew up? Des Moines (shut up its one word, sorta)
19. The last thing you did? Email
20. What are you wearing? Suit
21. Your TV? Biiiiig
22. Your pets? Annoying
23. Your computer? Fine
24. Your life? Good
25. Your mood? Meh.
26. Missing someone? Ryan
27. Your car? Enclave
28. Something you're not wearing? Necklace
29. Favorite store? Tivol
30. Your summer? Waiting!
31. Like someone? Coco!
32. Your favorite color? Yellow-Orange (again shut it)
33. When is the last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Dunno
35. Who will copy this? Sarah?

The Pasta Approach

This weekend was one full of loooong nights … in a not-so-good way. Coco was having another one of her “I refuse to go to bed when you want me to” spells. Friday, Saturday and Sunday night were all rife with screaming, crying, flailing, hitting, etc. And that was just Mommy. Cora, who normally knows her bedtime routine well and is nodding off in my arms by the time I lay her in her crib, was refusing to have anything at all to do with sleep.

On Friday we decided maybe our Cry It Out approach was harsh and tried to give in and go with the flow, letting her come back downstairs to watch TV with us hoping she'd just nod off on her own and we could softly carry her up to her crib. Yeah, that did NOT work. Finally at 9:00pm we had to just make her go to bed and cry it out some.

On Saturday, determined that she would not “win” and that we would demonstrate our parental determination, we decided if she did not go down easily, we would simply let her cry it out. That took about an hour and a half of crying (her and I) before the poor little thing finally just passed out in her crib.

On Sunday, we tried a combined approach. We would let her cry for about 10 minutes (while standing up at the end of her crib yelling) and then would go in, lay her back down, firmly tell her it was “night night time”, give her a kiss and leave the room. Again this went on for an extended period of time until we again finally just made her cry it out on her own.

The entire weekend we tried and tried to figure out what could be wrong that was causing all the fuss. Other than her being off her routine of going to her daycare during the week we could find nothing. So last night we tried what I like to call the Pasta Approach… i.e. throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Here is what we went with:

1. Teething tablets when she got home from daycare (she is getting her back molars)
2. More solid dinner (Graduates turkey sticks and pear bits instead of baby food)
3. Lighter spring jammies instead of her microfleece ones
4. Tylenol at bedtime
5. No milk that day (we’d been working on giving her whole milk with lunch to start the formula weaning process this weekend)
6. I rocked her longer (30 mins total) and waited until her eyes were drooping before putting her down

The good news is that something worked…. She went to sleep just fine and slept through the night. We had our baby back! The bad news is that something worked – but we have no idea what. Argh. So we win the battle of getting a good night’s sleep, but we lose the war of knowing what the problem was to begin with. Now we’ll have to go little by little with the changes we were trying to make and hope for the best. Whoever coined the term “slept like a baby” should be sued for false advertising.