Thought for the day:
Honestly, no one cares if my life has blemishes all over its ass.


Secretly their lives do, too. (A wise friend and I agreed on just this today.)

All About Ryder
(Inspired by Taylor)


So I haven't had much to share lately, no stories or anything really. I read Taylor's post about Parker and decided that I, too, should post an update on my boy. He'll be 19 months old next Monday, which is really hard to believe.


It seems he's learning something new every day. He's really starting to talk, and like P-Dog, he's telling me when he has a BM (a.k.a. POOP). He actually goes and gets the diaper for me, saying "diaper, diaper, diaper." He wants that dirty one off! We're starting to potty train a bit, but he always wants to go to the potty after he's already gone potty. He's not good at telling me in advance. But it's OK, because we're totally not rushing and just sort of waiting for him to really figure it out. He's starting to do so.


Ryder says "Mama" about a hundred times a day. He says it over and over and over, sometimes for no reason at all. I just mimic him and say "Ryder" repeatedly right back. Now when he really wants something, he'll whine, and say "Mommeee." That's when he's working it.


One of his newest phrases is "I love you." The first time he ever said it was on the phone earlier this month when I was in Raleigh. It about made my heart burst and overflow with love.


He loves smoothies and is still a big eater, weighing in at 27 lbs., though he's 33 inches tall. One thing he likes better than food is Bob the Builder. Since the grandparents' awareness of this affection for Bob, Ryder has received more videos than he can watch, Bob pajamas, several of "the machines," including Roley, Muck, Scoop, Scrambler and Benny. He also has a vehicle shelter where the machines sleep at night. Yes, I realize he has inherited my crazy gene.


Further proof of this, is his anal retentive behavior. He has to put everything back in its place before bed, before we leave, first thing in the morning, etc. For example, there are these two "babies" (stuffed toys) that go on the shelf above his bed. He's recently decided they need to go to bed with him, but when he wakes up in the morning, and I go to get him, he lets me know that those babies go back on the shelf. He also gets upset if you do things out of order. Weird, I know, but so much like me that it's scary. It's strange, but the doctor said it's nothing to worry about. It's not a sign of autism or anything like that, though it could possibly be a sign of a little OCD. BIG surprise, eh? Right now, everyone just thinks it's cute and helpful. We'll see how cute it is when he's 30.


So Ryder's doing well. Learning and always wanting to help feed the dog, water the flowers, sweep the floor, etc. It's amazing to watch him grow, to see how he just absorbs things like a sponge. And man, is that kid lovable. I could go on and on, but well, I think that's enough today. I do know I need to post some new pictures.

The forces were against my getting a Pop Tart this morning, but I overcame them. I think I've mentioned before that every other floor in our building either has a soda machine or a snack machine. My floor has a snack machine that ran out of Pop Tarts a week ago; I think I double-handedly consumed them. Two floors up, the snack machine is out of order; two floors down, the sucker won't take dollar bills; four floors down, I finally got my Pop Tarts.


But Pop Tarts weren't enough. I had to go down to the cafe and grab a muffin. And yes, I am PMS'ing.

Really, I have nothing for you these days; I wish I did. This is not to say that life is boring because it's far from that, but it's not the good kind of action occurring. I'm sure I'll share more when the time is appropriate, if the time is ever appropriate. I don't know.


Work's going really well. Really well, I said. It and my boy are my two areas of focus right now, so I'm experiencing my share of pleasure in the midst of a bunch of crappity-crap crap.


And have you seen my chili peppers? Watching them grow from seeds we took out of a dried pepper strand (that we brought back from New Mexico in '04) makes me happy. They're the prettiest shade of red.

Walking down long corridors in hotels always makes me think of The Shining. The hotel room in Raleigh doesn't quite compare to The Paris in Las Vegas, not to mention that my best partner in crime isn't here to celebrate it with me. At the same time, the landscape is amazing, so then, there's that.


There's this old school plaque on the desk, like one I received in middle school for being on The A Team for receiving all A's in the seventh and eighth grades, that proclaims "Complimentary High Speed Internet Access," and the airport is only a half mile away.


This place has its benefits.