Priceless Pasta

Early this afternoon, C got into the pantry and found an open box of uncooked ziti noodles. After telling him "no" and "put those back" about three or four times, he disappeared into the other room, so I thought it was safe to turn my back to the pantry. I was wrong. He had disappeared into the other room to get his sand bucket (never been used for sand). He proceeded to pour all the ziti noodles into the bucket.

My first thought was to fuss at him. After all, that was a "good 44 cents' worth" of food that he had gotten germs all over and that I would not be able to cook to feed the family. And then I thought about the mess that he would likely make with them that I was going to have to clean up. Albeit, he did not drop even the first noodle on the ground!

I chose to react on the outside differently than I was feeling on the inside. I wanted to shout; I wanted to yell; I wanted to grab everything from him and put it back in its rightful place; I wanted to throw away the "ruined" noodles and have a slight pity party about how my child was not minding me.

Instead, I did the opposite. I hugged him, sat down on the kitchen floor with him, dug my hands into his bucket of noodles, and made the loudest noice I possibly could, swirling the pasta around, picking it up and letting it fall back against itself and the bucket, and pouring it from hand to hand. He loved it, and it was a wonderful time of mommy/son bonding. He even decided it was a time that HE could use to teach Mommy about counting and sharing!

So what if I can't serve that pasta tonight? (OK -- I probably could because I would be boiling it long enough that it would likely kill the germs, but I'm not going to....) So what if I did not intend to have spent less than 50 cents on a toy that wasn't really a toy? It's like those credit card commercials -- that time with my son really was priceless.

C's Singing

C is so funny! He is in the stage where he thinks he knows the words to songs but doesn't. Right now he sings, "Bringing is the sheeps," instead of "Bringing in the sheaves" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_in_the_Sheaves). It's cute, to say the least!

P's appointment today

Whew -- our "little bit" has gotten a little bit bigger.... by almost two pounds since he was last seen at Dr. P's. He's gone from 12.85 pounds to 14.65 pounds. He's still not on the chart, but he seems to be making up ground on the curve. I also got a slight surprise when the doctor told me that he really did expect them to find something when he referred us to the specialist, but he was glad that everything came back normal. Of course, he is not even half as glad as we were!!!! We're scheduled for another appointment in four weeks. Keep eating, Little Guy!

Photo Shoot

OK -- It's official... or close to it. I've now taken my pictures for my modeling comp card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comp_card) with Carolina Talent (http://www.carolinatalent.us/home.htm). Today was a long day but I had a blast!!!! I had to bring lots of outfits (three per season and then some others "just in case") and they only chose three from all of them. I think that was perhaps the hardest part. Then makeup (by Chris Lanston -- see http://www.chrislanston.com/c1.html -- a real hoot to work with!) and hair -- LONG waits due to the number of people waiting -- followed by shoots at the various locations. I'm anxious to see how the final product turned out. In particular, I am interested in the shots that were taken with P as a prop. I'll post some here when I get the proofs back. The most surprising thing may have been that the stylist straightened my hair. I hadn't seen it that way since 7th or 8th grade! (Of course, then he could not get it to do what he wanted for the 2nd or 3rd looks!)

Haircut.... finally!

OK -- I finally got my hair cut! I was just pregnant the last time I got it cut, so that is about a year ago..... It was getting just way too long. I thought about all the possible Jeff Foxworthy-type comments... "You know your hair is getting too long when .... " (you mistakenly tuck it in your pants instead of your shirt tail, you get it caught on door handles, you look up and wonder who just brushed against your "bum", you have to change your arm position to finish braiding it, etc.). I found a group that I will be donating it to (http://www.beautifullengths.com/en_US/wigshelpingwomen.jsp) instead of Locks of Love. They need about six ponytail donations to make their wigs (compared with 20-30 for wigsforkids.org and 6-10 for Locks of Love). Their wigs go to women fighting cancer who have hair loss. Part of me feels a connection to these women based on my grandmother's leukemia and D's Gma's former breast cancer. I also want to give it to a group that doesn't do just children's wigs.....

Enjoy these pictures.... before, during, and after.....

Oh -- funny...... Mom told our hairdresser that I might cry. Yeah -- whatever!!!! I mean, it is a little sad to think about since it is pretty much one of the last three things I have from the pregnancy. The other two are the scar and P himself! I have this sneaking suspicion that I don't need the hair to remind me of either of those! Still, I am glad that I can give this to a group that will use it.... It's REALLY healthier than I even realized it was. It feels good to me to run my fingers through it, so I can only imagine what someone who has lost their hair will feel about it when they can do the same.