It's called "back-up"

The man in the mirror

Today I took my car in for service and was given a loaner car to use. I installed Z's car seat in the loaner, but I didn't move the Bear View Mirror (we have the monkey version). I didn't realize how accustomed I am to watching Z through the mirror until my heart stopped not once, not twice, but three times in a 20 minute period when I glanced up at my rear view mirror and thought, "My baby's gone!"

They owe me

I hear and see so many commercials about those annoying, aggressive, hassling, bothersome pit bulls (all words used in actual ads) who bother innocent citizens AT THEIR HOMES and need to be stopped! These poor victimized souls need someone to protect them, to stand up for them and tell those bullies to back off! Who is mercilessly bullying our hapless friends and neighbors? Why, those evil collection agencies and credit card companies! How DARE they hassle people who borrow money to spend way beyond their means and then are unable to pay the debts that they themselves accrued? That's just downright cruel. If I were to build up $50k in unsecured credit card debt (what are these people buying and why can't they stop before they reach $50k?), I would totally expect my credit card company to leave me alone and not demand that I pay them back according to the terms of the agreement I signed when I applied for the credit card. After all, why should I be accountable for my own bad decisions? They are the ones with all the money, so that makes me the innocent victim.

And yes, I fully realize there are situations out there where people are taken advantage of or get stuck in a cycle of debt that they can't get out of without help. But help should come in the form of a reasonable payment plan and counseling on how to make better financial decisions. Not these ridiculous companies that claim to "reduce or eliminate your debt by over 60%!" or "beat the credit card companies at their own game!" If you spent the money, then you should pay it back. And if you accepted the terms of the credit card YOU applied for, then you've agreed to play their game.

Sorry for the crankiness, but I get SO tired of this sense of entitlement and lack of accountability, and I must hear those ads on the radio at least a dozen times a day.

Warning! Clouds!

Wow, I'm lazy

I seriously need to update this blog. Somehow, I don't seem to have much spare time (I think it has to do with a very busy little 14-month old who runs me ragged) so I'm lucky if my baby hill blog gets updated, let alone this one! And most people seem to be much more interested in baby hill than in me. Don't worry, I don't take offense. I'm more interested in baby hill myself.

I hope that everyone had a happy, healthy and safe holiday and we're all looking forward to wonderful things in 2009! In our house, we are steadily marching towards (or perhaps even entering) the "terrible 2's" -- that fun-filled time when our already headstrong boy decides to assert his independence. We can see traces of it already and are looking forward to a whirlwind of new experiences. I'm about to enter my "thrilling? threadbare? 36's" and I'm wondering if that gives me license to throw tantrums too. I hope so. Z and I can go head-to-head. And I'm still bigger.

I hope to update my pictures on flickr soon and maybe even find more time to babble on this blog. But if not, you can always head over to baby hill to see what's going on in the whirling dervish's life! Since our lives revolve around him anyway, you'll get an idea of what's going on in general.

Happy New Year!

On a completely different note...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Jules

Just wanted to take a moment to remember my friend Julie Brusegaard-Bissel, who lost her year-long fight with cancer yesterday. She leaves behind a family who loves her dearly, including her husband Bob, her 19-month old son Blake, and her sister Tammi. Julie, you've touched a lot of people with your joy and love and your baby boy is lucky to have such a wonderful guardian angel watching over him. Rest in peace.

He makes me smile

Apparently I'm a bit behind on the times on this whole thing, but my mom introduced me to "Where the Hell is Matt" on YouTube and I've watched it at least a dozen times already. It makes me happy. Especially the Bollywood segment.

Como say what?

I've been receiving emails from Swedish Medical Center (where Zachary was born and where we took our parenting classes) every week for the past 18 months or so. At first, the subjects were along the lines of "Your pregnancy this week: Pack your bag". Then they changed to "Your baby this week: Bathtime" Today's was "Your toddler: Saying 'no'".

I'm sorry, what? Toddler? MY toddler? When did that happen?

Our own Tom Thumb

I had a strange dream last night. I dreamed that we were at a baby party with Z, and he suddenly started walking. Then he was running around, and Chris and I were trying to keep up with him. The problem was that he was only about 2 inches tall! He ran down a hall and we lost him. The party was in a student house or something, with lots of doors into bedrooms opening off of the hall. It was really dirty, and we were crawling around on our hands and knees trying to find our little 2-inch boy. It was crazy! Chris was angrily yelling, I was quietly panicking, and even Cowboy was helping us look. But I woke up before we found him.

When I woke up to the sound of Z babbling in his crib, my first thought was "Oh thank goodness, he came back!" And then I was relieved that he's too big to lose under a pile of dirty clothes, no matter how fast he runs.

Very odd.