hair chop

ok...that was REALLY difficult to get some shots of the chop without laughing hysterically.

almost as difficult as recording a voicemail greeting...something i have not yet done successfully on my new phone. it's pretty much me laughing and scott at the end saying something like "that's a nice one, babe."

here is the former length of my hair
here is the new length, which actually looks longer in the photos because of the way i am sitting
can you tell i'm about to lose it here?
ok...kind of a smile but not in focus.

TSA and In Control

I'm not saying that TSA is in control...just that I'm sticking two topics in one post.

My recent conversation with a TSA employee:
TSA: That you baby?
ME: Yes, he is.
TSA: You give birth to him?
ME: No, he was born in Taiwan.
TSA: Oh, so you are like his foster mom or you adopted him?
ME: Yes, he was adopted.
TSA: You got a....a...significant other?
ME: Yes, I am married.
TSA: You want any kids of your own?
ME: Well, we consider him our own...but if you mean biological children, whatever God has planned is fine.
TSA: Well, God bless you!!!
He already has!


IN CONTROL...not...
Ok, I'm guessing that most people have some sort of "thing" they do when they are in the midst of a not-so-fun situation in which they have no control.

For some it may be organizing closets. For others it may be retail therapy.

For me...it's cutting my hair.

Or maybe I should say "chopping"...yes, chopping-maiming-annihilating is a much more accurate description. I guess that when I am in crisis mode, hair chopping is my signature "thing." Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing IF I went to a professional...or had some kind of scissor-wielding certificate of achievement myself.

But, alas, I now have a messy, uneven, *coughcough* inches shorter hairdo that I will complain about until it grows out to my standard shoulder length. BTW, I tend to fall on the sassy side when I have short hair...so no telling the direction my posts will take for awhile!

OTHER STUFF
Matthew is pretty much as cute as can be. We are working on one nap/day...which seems to be going OK. Would be better if he could sleep for longer than an 50 mins-1 hour for his one nap, but that may take time. He loves dancing and has added the side-to-side sway to his list of groovin' moves. He's become pretty picky with eating and will shudder and cry at the thought of putting something in his mouth (even if he loved it the day before)...but if I say "5 more bites" then he quickly just shoves them in his mouth, no problem. He is still growing like a weed. Pants that fit him in May are high-waters now.

I recently had a biopsy at my gynocologist's. It was an endo-someotherletters-opsy. I wasn't too worried going into the appointment. Afterall, my gyno is Dr. Touchless. I think the first rule of thumb for any procedure ending in "opsy" should be "keep all 20 inch clawed metal instruments out of patient's view." Seems reasonable. The procedure wasn't horrible (yes, yes, it really was), but for some reason in gyno-related situations I suddenly morph into Jerry Seinfield's sister and run comic relief commentary the entire time. I actually think the whole thing could have been over in mere moments if the doctor had not been laughing so hard. What was I thinking??? BTW, the results were fine.

Funny...not sure if I already posted this...but I told Scott I was craving steak one night. So what did we do? Steak tacos from Taco Bell. Classy, huh? Should have paired them with a nice box o' wine. And the really funny thing is we searched the Taco Bell website so we could make sure they even had such a thing before we ran for the border. Gimme an L, gimme an O, gimme an S.......

Photo courtesy of my precious friend, Kari:

edited2add: ok, of course right after i post about M doing fairly well with the new sleep schedule, it falls apart. he has been sleeping til almost 8:30 every morning which is how we've been able to make it until noonish for his one nap. he sleeps for about 50 mins, then he's up til bed at 7:00p. he had a restless night last night and was up before 7:00a this morning...making it highly unlikely that he'll be able to make it until his noon nap without a huge throw down. so....do you keep on the same schedule OR put him down earlier thus having to either put him down again for a 2nd nap or to move up his bedtime tonight? i really want to get him on one nap a day if possible.

A little of this, a little of that

To answer some questions:
- I cut Matthew's hair while he is in his highchair and I use regular men's clippers. Not sure which size attachments...I always just eyeball it. I do the top first and then the sides...and I just try to go fast, fast, fast!

- They are building a new house in the field behind our home. The good news is that the people like us and tried to push their home as far east as possible so as not to block our view of the mountains. The bad news is they may still block our view of the mountains. The other good news is that the animals (Xena, sheep, llama, etc) will still be able to roam free once the house is finished.

- My mom got me the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book and, while it is taking some time, I really think it is working!!!!! Matthew's wake time is around 7:00a, 1st nap around 9:00a, 2nd nap around 1:00p, and bed around 6:30p. While he was up from 11:30-12;30 last night he hasn't been doing the really huge stretches of awake time like he used to. He still wakes up at 5:30a...and seems to go in and out until his bottle at 6:15a...but then back to sleep til 7:00. He seems to be much more well-rested....his old bedtime was around 7:15/7:30p.

- The blog posts are going to be hit and miss for awhile as my mom is in the hospital and Matthew and I will be traveling to see her. Please pray for healing for her body...and peace in her heart. And please pray that I will keep my eyes on Jesus instead of the storm.

Baby Math?

I gave the boy a haircut yesterday...all by myself...what was I thinking??? Actually he did REALLY well despite the fact that he had been up from about 11:30pm-3:30am the night before...and the fact that he kept trying to look at the clippers! The crazy thing is this...I am going to call it "baby math"...his hair was not that long, so how did it get all over our whole house? It is like right at the moment that each strand is cut, it goes into self-preservation mode and immediately multiplies by some crazy baby math way before it scatters to cover every inch of the house. I keep finding little black hair everywhere! I think it is the same baby math that happens when you accidentally spill one tiny drop...even less than 1/8 tsp...of baby food onto the kitchen table. Before you can even grab the napkin you have ready for such incidents, somehow baby's ever-flailing arm makes contact with said food and, within seconds, the food has mysteriously multiplied and is now in his hair, covering his arms, all over his face, smeared on the table, and even on the floor. All from a drop of baby food. A miniscule drop. And then, as the cherry on top, baby sneezes...making sure that you, too, are covered in baby food.

Photos are of new haircut...and the result of staying up all night!