The Dangers of Yard Work

This is what happens when you hit a rock mowing the lawn and your car is nearby...

Windows are overrated anyway, right?

The Itchy Little Kid

Do any of you have allergies, food or other? Do any of you have children with allergies? We took Sam to an allergist fairly early in his life (7 months) because he clearly had a problem (severe eczema and constant itching, as shown above). The original diagnosis was that our little guy was allergic to tree nuts, dairy, wheat, egg whites, and flax seed - whatever that is. We made immediate changes to Amanda's diet because, at that point, Sam was still getting most of his nurishment through breastfeeding. The changes were almost immediate.

Over the past year or so, we have become a bit more lax in what we feed him. He is a very picky eater and needs to be tricked into eating new things. Some of the things that we can always count on him eating are cheese, fig newtons, crackers, potato chips, and bread. Most of the time he does not react to the dairy, wheat, and egg which are included in the ingredients of the aforementioned favorite foods; however, every once in a while he does react in the form of a rash or an itch fit.

Fastforward to today. Today he reacted to something by itching himself bloody. The poor kid. He typically itches his hands, elbows, and legs with this hands and he rubs his feet together to scratch that itch. We try to keep socks on his feet to limit his access, however he is a pro at getting the socks off.

I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, but it is clear that we will need to wash the sheets.

Signing on the Bottom Line

Is it okay for men to blog? My wife assures me that it is and that it shouldn't be included with activities such as watching "Americas Next Top Model", doing the laundry or anything like that.

So here I go.

My father worked for the same company for over 30 years. He had a very nice engraved gold-rimmed champagne glass to prove it...until it fell victim to my pre-teen clumsiness. They told us in high school that our generation (generation X?) would change jobs at least 5 times before we would retire. Well guess I am two-fifths of the way to retirement because this past Friday I signed an offer letter committing us to change jobs in August. If I continue to change jobs at this rate (once every 23 months), I should qualify for retirement in just over 6 years. If only our savings account would allow it. We accepted a position in the Spokane office of Moss Adams, LLP - a public accounting firm. We think that this one should stick for a while, so maybe I'll never get to that 5th job change. As long as we are talking generational issues, they say that the next generation ("the millennials" or "generation Y") should expect to change jobs 12 to 20 times before retiring at 75 years of age. That doesn't sound like any fun at all.

So we have been stewing on this decision of a month or so now and it has been causing Amanda some unwanted anxiety. She is 7-months pregnant. Those of you who have experienced the human gestation period know that the emotional state of pregnant woman is fragile enough already; consequently, additional stress and/or deviations from the normal routine can leave a mark. Needless to say, both Amanda and I are relieved that we somehow found the guts to make a decision. Now we can focus on preparing for the arrival of the second dude to our brood.

Our actual move to Spokane will depend on who we can find to rent our house. It could be as early as September 1 to as late as late October. Know anybody looking to rent in the Seattle area? I'll make 'em a good deal, maybe even throw in free cable. Plenty of free parking and the neighbors are only somewhat intrusive.

They say that the only thing constant is change, and so it goes in the Skidmore home.

I've got to run, "The Gillmore Girls" starts in just a few minutes.

Highlights from the week...

It's not so much that we did anything very exciting or even blog-worthy, but there were a few interesting things that I thought were funny, interesting, or even just plain annoying that happened this week.

1. After watching the Wiggles with Sam on Monday, I've had the lyrics "toot toot chugga chugga big red car" stuck in my head all week. It didn't help either that when I mentioned this to Chris, he started singing the song for me, only changing the words to "toot toot chugga chugga big blue Nissan."
2. One morning Sam had a poopy diaper, but in this case he somehow defied the law of physics and pooped out the side of his bum as most of the poop was on the side of his diaper and down his entire leg.
3. In reference to #2, I took Sam to the bathroom to clean him off, and as I pulled off his diaper a big piece of poop came out the bottom his pajamas and landed on the rug. As I was cleaning this mess up, Sam decided it wasn't enough to poop on the rug, so he peed all over it too.
4. Sam and I decided to visit Chris at work and have lunch with him. Chris was running a little behind and was in a meeting with several co-workers. The blinds were open in the board room, and Sam could see his dad. So, he decided to pound on the windows and door until they let him in. Once he was in and securely positioned on Chris's lap, Sam decided to freak out and cry at the top of his lungs. He wanted out of that room. I told Chris that he probably realized what his life would be like if he became an accountant. Chris didn't find it very amusing.
5. I took Sam to Barnes & Noble to play with the train station they have in the children's section. Sam played for 5 minutes and decided it was time to pull every book out of it's place. After he finally found a place to settle down on the floor and look at some books, I joined him on the floor. After another few short minutes, Sam again decided it was time to move on. He jolted back to the train station and left me on the floor. I stupidly/naively used a book shelf to help hoist myself up. In the process of doing this, I broke the shelf and the books came tumbling down. I felt so fortunate that there were so many people there to witness my humiliation. I know they were just thinking "What did that poor shelf ever do to her to deserve such treatment?" Sam and I left shortly after.
6. Sam does not like to sit still for a diaper change. Usually it consists of laying him down long enough to get his diaper off. Then I have to chase him down again to put his diaper back on. This last time was no exception. He decided that after he jolted, he was going to look at one of his books. I think he likes to read in the nude personally. I sat there just long enough to watch him pee all over his book. I know better now for next time.

This is my life with a toddler.

Starbucks...

I love hot chocolate from Starbucks. When I was working, I used to spend my lunch hours there enjoying it's rich chocolaty goodness and reading whatever book I was into at the time. I went there the other day, with Sam in tow, (thank goodness for drive-thrus) because I was cold and a hot chocolate sounded too good to resist. This is the dialogue between me and the barista.

Me: "I'd like a tall, non-fat, no whip hot chocolate."

Barista: "You want a tall, non-fat, no-whip Mocha?"

Me: "No...a tall, non-fat, no whip hot chocolate."

Barista: "Well, that's different!"

Me: "Uh-huh."

Now, I know hot chocolate and mocha sound nothing alike, so I'm pretty sure the barista didn't mishear me, but instead was correcting me on what she thought I wanted. After all, who goes to Starbucks and orders a non-coffee drink?

This little experience made me realize that even something as small as ordering hot chocolate instead of coffee is noticed by "the world." Then again, maybe it's just because I live in Seattle. Either way, we (Mormons) certainly are a peculiar people.

Our First Attempt

Hi....My name is Amanda and I'm a blogaholic. From what I understand, the first step to overcome a problem is to admit I have a problem.

Unbeknownst to all of you, for several months, I have been perusing yours and others blogs. At times it has caused me to feel a bit voyeristic. So, to ease my conscience, I have decided to put myself out there in blog format.

We (me and my husband) will try our best to make your time spent on our blog worthwhile and rewarding. Enjoy!