Continual State of Becoming

We have hit a few minor milestones lately with Dylan. First of all, he's talking up a storm. I think he's reached the 3 word sentence point now and I'm sure 4 and 5 words are just around the corner. His words still aren't that clear... motorcycle sounds more like moder-car, but he's getting there. Second, we took down the baby gates. He's fully capable of going up and down the stairs now on his own. He still has to hold on to something to keep from losing his balance, but I think he's smart enough to know not to go head first down the stairs. Plus he's pretty s familiar with his boundaries at our house, so there just didn't seem to be a point to the gates anymore. It's so strange to me that he no longer needs to be corralled. Third, he has peed on the potty a whopping 4 times! Always right before his bath (since the first thing he was doing in his bath was peeing anyway). It took me a few weeks just to get him to sit on the potty, and the...

After making a big deal of not wanting to use the word "hate" I did a search in my blog to see if I do use the word. I do. Here's how: I got 61 results, though a lot of those were for the word w hate ver. So that made me feel a little better. I took Dylan to the library, which Dylan HATES. Dylan's only doing one nap a day now, which I though I would hate, but I actually love. I'd just hate for them to have to walk through it. (Referring to my piano student and his father coming to the house on a day when our door was covered in beetles). I hate it when I'm wrong. I hate having to fight for a good spot. (at a general admission concert) I hate needles and doctor-related things. I used to hate gardening. I really hate that the rest of the world doesn't structure their information so it is library ready. (I think I wrote this while working at the NGA when I came across an artist who constantly used a different version of his name, yet I needed to make a...

So after adding 2 entries to my forgotten blog last night I went to bed still thinking about the whole swearing thing. I think I can get another post from it, so here we go. There's a blog that I check out from time to time called www.shitmykidsruined.com It has pictures of things that have been broken by people's children. The "Desi-twins" picture is absolutely worth seeing. It's very entertaining to see just how much havoc a small child is capable of wreaking. Every time I check it out I can't help but wonder what my future contribution to the blog will be. So far most of our damage consists of a few dings on the wall, some stains on our couch, and snack crumbs everywhere. But I'm sure our time for a catastrophe will come. Anyway, I was reading a review of this newish site in an online newspaper. Because of the swear word in the url/title of the blog they decided to refer to the blog as Stuff My Kids Ruined, but they did make note of the fact th...

Sometimes I feel as though I've always been a mom. I think this is mostly due to the fact that my life changed so drastically once Dylan was born that I tend to think of the person I was before Dylan as a completely different person or a completely different lifetime. Like that was the era of Just-Jessica, followed by a brief era of Jessica-and-Matt, and now I'm in the Mom-era of Jessica. And it's strange when I think of some of the things I did pre-Mom. Like I used to be able to eat a meal without a squirmy child on my lap... or that I ever went to grad school. I love being a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM). Before Dylan I would have never thought it possible, but I just couldn't imagine our lives any other way now. And even though I am taking care of a child and the household there is still a little bit of guilt over the fact that I went to grad school, specifically to get a degree that would help me get a career going, and then never used it. My poor MLS is just hidin...

Aside from email, I don't think I have written a complete sentence in a very long time. I write down to-do lists, grocery lists, directions to people's houses, dinner menus, and the ABC's (Dylan's learning his letters) on a very frequent basis. I even occasionally write things in Facebook: "cute pic" "haha, awesome" with some strange amount of "!!!!" or the smiley emoticon following it, but now you don't even have to do that, you can just click the "like" button... no spelling required. Even the sentences I write in an email are less than interesting, most of them revolve around scheduling play dates "we're free Mon, Wed, or Thurs morning... you?" But as far as intelligent written communication, nada. Even earlier today, I signed and anniversary card for matt, but all I wrote was "Happy Anniversary, Love Jessica." I can actually feel my ability to coherently and intelligently express myself dec...