Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

I've been sitting at the computer for 15 minutes working on a research paper for music class. So far, I've written one sentence..."During the twentieth century the musical stage was a platform for expression of social and political issues in everyday American life." I know, I know, it's one heck of a sentence that must have been intellectually exhausting to compose, but now the creative juices have stopped flowing and I have an overwhelming urge to procrastinate (hence this useless post). Maybe it's because my second sentence will only pale in comparison to the immensity of the first sentence, or maybe it's just because I've spent the better part of the last 10 years writing research papers, and frankly I don't want to write anymore. When can I retire these magic fingers, whose brilliance can be likened to the paintbrush of Michelangelo or the tennis racquet of Andre Agassi? When can they enjoy a life of relaxation where they are only used to make trivial comments on MySpace and search for good movies on Netflix? Maybe someday that kind of life will be a reality...someday

AAAHHHHH!!! If I could only harness the power to manipulate words the way I have in this BLOG in my research paper! But alas, I click the tab at the bottom of the screen to see that magnificent sentence staring back at me and my mind goes blank, my body gets antsy and I have no control over my fingers as they navigate me away from my paper to the refuge of Yahoo! games. So, I am waving the white flag for now. Send some positive thoughts my way in hopes that my verbosity will soon return. Farewell!

I've been sidelined, put on the bench, return date unknown. This morning at approximately 8:04 I was swinging by the high chair on my way into the kitchen. My four biggest toes decided to pass it on the left, but my pinky toe (she's always been a bit stubborn) decided to pass it on the right. End result - broken pinky toe (and Hailey's first words may have to be bleeped out, so let's hope she wasn't listening:). So, while mobility is much easier with a broken pinky toe than it is a broken big toe (I have broken it twice and let me tell you, I'll take this any day) I can't workout or play tennis until it heals. BUMMER! Why do I keep breaking bones that can't be cast. Never have I broken a leg or an arm, but I've broken two big toes, a tailbone and now my pinky toe. Sheesh. Ice, tape and hanging out on the couch, what an eventful next few days (yes, I'm being optimistic that I will feel good enough to rev up the engines in a few days). I guess this is the answer to my wish of writing that darn research paper, cause what the heck else am I gonna do?

Happy Birthday Hailey! She is 10-months-old today, which means she has broken into the double digits. Not crawling yet, but she is now pushing up on her hands and knees and rocking back-and-forth, so I predict it will happen sometime this month. She is eating everything (and I mean everything, because there is really nothing - other than pork - that we don't feed her). Last night she had fruit salad, cheeseburger, deviled eggs and poppyseed cake for dinner...sounds a lot better than the cottage cheese and squash that the other little boy (also 10 months) was eating, huh? She is also developing quite a stubborn streak (think she gets that from her dad). We have to put finger foods directly into her mouth, because if you give them to her to pick up herself, she will drop them on the floor to see Jake come over and eat them. She knows she shouldn't do this and what our stern "no's" mean, but she continues to do it anyways! She started signing "milk" again, so now we are working on other signs like food, more, mom, dad, cat, dog and all done. Hailey is developing a reputation as the "motor mouth" baby (think she also gets that from her dad) and she entertains the crowd wherever we are by talking and laughing non-stop at a very loud volume. I hope they don't have to put a refrigerator box around her desk in school like they did with Tim when he wouldn't shut up!!!
It is hard for me to believe that she is already 10-months-old. Where did the time go?

So, this is kinda funny. I was at Subway eating lunch with Hailey today. She has started reaching for and pointing at things, and I will say and sign what they are to her. Well, she was sitting on the table and pointing up at the lights, so I would say and sign light. The woman sitting across from me was giving me a funny look, but I didn't know why so I chalked it up to her being a weirdo. Hailey really likes lights, so she kept pointing at them and I kept signing light. Finally, the lady just gave me a ghastly look and said "How awful!" and got up and left. I was thinking, "what the hell?" when it hit me - I was signing light on Hailey instead of myself because Hailey had her back to me. Well, the sign for light involves flicking your middle finger off your thumb and onto your chin. So, to this woman, it looked like I was flicking my baby as only a horrible mother would do! She was probably considering calling social services on me! Guess I'll have to be more careful when I'm in public:)

I walked into Hailey's room this morning because I heard her up from a nap, and she was just sitting there playing with her toys. The operative word is SITTING, something she couldn't do before. Well...yes, she could sit, but she couldn't get herself into a sitting position by herself when she was laying down. Now she has done it five times today since, so I think she has mastered this skill. Crawling, here she comes:)

So, I'm a total tard! I went to my school this morning to get some paperwork together, and of course I had Hailey with me. I was standing at my car looking at the diaper bag and my purse and thinking I didn't want to take them both inside. I put everything important into the diaper bag and then left my purse in the car...everything except MY KEYS!!! So, I am finished about an hour later and go out to my car. Oops, can't get in. Hailey is really fussy because her teeth are hurting and she is ready for a nap. I call Tim, but sadly he can't get away from work for another two hours. So, we waited, and we waited, and we waited some more. Finally he gets there (thank goodness, because Hailey wasn't going to take any more of this crap) and he was the best hubbs in the world because he didn't give me any crap about being such a tard. Thanks for saving my behind, babe!

Today Hailey made a huge step towards crawling. She learned to army crawl. We have video footage of her making her way across the living room floor to get a cell phone using her army crawl. I think it is crazy, because army crawling is way hard, but she is super proud of herself! Our little soldier:)

This past week I was in Delta / Grand Junction playing a tennis tournament called the Taco Bell Western Slope Open. I played it when I was in college, so my friend Jared (from Five Face Down - great up and coming Christian rock group) & I decided to play some mixed doubles. I also played singles (well, I tried to anyways) and doubles with a woman I didn't know from Greeley. My first singles match went great and I won really easily. My second match was tougher and I had to run around lots which made my toe (the broken one) really flare up. We we going to have to play a third set and I knew that if I did I wouldn't be able to walk, so I had to default that match and all of my other singles matches since I couldn't move side-to-side, which was a HUGE BUMMER!!! My doubles partner from Greeley turned out to be a complete waste of space on a tennis court and our opponents figured that out really quickly, so they never hit the ball to me. Needles to say, we lost quickly. Jared and I didn't play really well in our first match, but our second match was great - we lost but it was really close and very fun to play. I'm back now, sunburned and tired, with a few days off before my next tennis league season begins. Hopefully the toe will hold up and let me play!

True story...and really scary!

I was driving back from Delta today and of course I hit awful traffic once I reached Georgetown. It was stop and go the rest of the way to Denver. Well, I noticed that the car behind me (old green Ford truck with a middle-aged cowboy driving) was following pretty close and wasn't reacting very quickly when I braked. One time, he had to swerve not to hit me. I decided that with Hailey in the car I didn't want to deal with the fool, so I switched lanes (making my drive a little slower, but oh well). I was now followed by a nice motorcycle who kept plenty of distance - I felt really sorry for him when it started to rain in sheets which eventually turned into hail:( Anyhow, back to the story. Several miles down the road I noticed that everyone was trying to get out of the left lane. Low and behold, that fool in the green Ford had rear-ended someone and banged up both cars pretty bad. Thank goodness I listened to that feeling in my gut that said "Don't drive in front of this jackass!"