Walking through the Front Door

6 Mar

During our trip back to Savannah, I stopped by WSAV and it just felt weird.  I was looking forward to visiting the station right up until I went to drive there.

It dawned on me – I have to park in the front and I have to ring the front doorbell instead of parking right behind the newsroom and using my key like I did for the majority of my grown-up years.  I’m not one of “them” anymore.  That got me thinking – should I even be going back? I mean, they are probably all busy like I always was when people would come visit and what do I really have to say to them?

I decided that since I drove there I might as well just go do it – besides I had already told Paul I would be there and I knew he would make me feel like I still belong (he even asked my opinion on a story which felt really good!). But as soon as I walked in that front door I felt the awkwardness – I could tell some people were thinking – “What in the world is she doing back?” Some people even said it to me.  I guess they were thinking “she’s free – why would she ever return?”  All I could say is I just wanted to say hi and while that is true I also wanted to see how the place was doing.

I don’t really know how to describe it but what I do know is that place was busy and felt so different to me.  Maybe it was so different because I knew I didn’t have to worry about scripts or the deadline or adding stories in at the last minute – I could be in there and just hang and I could leave whenever I wanted and then not even watch the news that night!

I guess my visit back was worth it because I did get to laugh with some of my buddies and hug others that I’ve missed – plus it made me realize I could walk away from something I loved to be a part of without any regrets.

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Hello, my name is…

6 Mar

Ducky? Quakers? Party Duck?

I thought it was a question that would get a simple answer.  I asked Nia what she named this tiny toy duck – instead of hearing something obvious like “ducky” here’s what I was told…

“I Live on Land and He Lives in the Water.”
Me – “That’s right, but what’s his name?”
Her – “I just told you.”
Me – “You’re naming your duck ‘I Live on Land and He Lives in the Water?”
Her – “Uh-huh.”
Me laughing – “That’s a pretty long name don’t you think?”
Her – “No  Well, we could call him Hat?”
Me – “Honey, whatever you want to name him is fine, I just thought “I Live on Land and He Lives in the Water” was a pretty long name to say.”
Her – “I could call him Cream.”  (I think this was because I was putting lotion on her at the time.) “Or how ’bout “He likes to fish when he’s on land?”

I just love listening to her mind work.  It’s so sweet and entertaining – and unpredictable. I just hope she’s not quite so original when it comes time to name her babies.

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I’d Like to Thank…

5 Mar

These are just a few of the random (sometimes ridiculous) things I’m thankful for on any given day:

  • Paper Towels – I’ve used more in the past few months than I think I have in my entire life.  I’m constantly washing my hands because of diaper changes (another thank you related to this one is coming up) or cleaning up spills (2 Cokes were sacrificed today alone) – if I didn’t have paper towels I would have a lot more laundry to do.
  • Lotion – I can actually see my skin cracking on my hands – I never had dry hands before – I actually wondered why some people use so much lotion – now after tons of dishes and hand-washings (my own and Nia’s) I get it.  I now have lotion stashed at every sink and where I sit each night.  The smell of the one I use most often reminds me of my mom and makes me miss her even more.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants – with all the cartoons Nia watches – this one is my savior because it is super funny.  We both laugh at the craziness.  I think I look forward to watching it more than Nia – it’s the only tv show I get to watch during the day and I don’t think I’d have it any other way right now – it cheers me up and gives Nia and I something to share – especially when she looks at me with a funny face and says “What’s SpongeBob doing Momma? He’s silly, huh?”
  • Dogs – man do they make cleaning up after meals easy or what?  I still sweep around Nate’s chair when I think Joe-Boy might have missed a few crumbs but for the most part he does the sweeping up me.  The only downfall to this though is at night when he’s sitting at my feet relaxing – I can’t even describe the stinky dog-gas I have to endure.  But hey, the floor is clean!
  • The Library – I totally love story hour – the storyteller is really nice and the kids get to do crafts plus it’s so much fun for Nia and I to pick out a bunch of books to read every week and even more fun when I don’t have to pay for them!  I do buy the ones we really love though like the one Monica told us about called Fancy Nancy – it is really cute and Nia loves it. It actually even made me cry!  There’s just something about a library and bookstores in general that I love – even though I don’t get to read as much I’d like to – I just love getting lost in all the shelves of books and knowing that there are so many different stories out there waiting to be read…as for my story tonight – I thank you for reading and say “The End.”

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Thoughts from an Outsider

4 Mar

I truly hope I didn’t anger people as much as television news writers are angering me now.

I don’t really watch the news anymore because usually I just end up screaming at the television – critiquing the newscast story by story – also cartoons are pretty much all I get to see during the day now and night time is reserved for our sacred shows.  The only time I ever watch the news is try to see what Atlanta traffic will be like for Andrew on his way home from work but even then it drives me nuts.

The latest incident that’s causing me to vent involves that peanut butter recall.  I like to think when I wrote a story or approved a reporter’s script – I made sure we didn’t b.s. the viewer and just told them what they needed to know without dramatics or treating them like they were idiotic freaks.  I like to think I did the opposite of what so many news people do – – – – “Now for a story that is sending fear into the hearts of mothers everywhere…”

WHAT?!?! Oh right – they’re absolutely right – as soon as I heard the report I ran to the pantry and threw cans of food out of the way searching for my peanut butter – when I discovered it had the dreaded “2111” code on it I ran screaming from the kitchen, grabbed the children, tossed them into the cars (without putting them in their child safety seats you know because there’s no time to buckle up for safety when that peanut butter is lurking inside them) and sped to the emergency room.

What makes me sick is that they generalize and try to scare people into watching – JUST TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW!

Since that really doesn’t happen anymore – I’m now not even trying to watch tv news.  Instead I look online for what I want to know – but even then I can’t escape the sensationalism – it “sends fear into my heart” every time I click on a story.

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My Little “Big” Girl

3 Mar

In these past few weeks I’ve caught glimpses of our little baby girl becoming a little big girl. It just seems like she’s growing up so quickly now and while I’m excited and anxious to see the person she’s going to become I’m also so sad and scared.

Part of my fear is that I wonder if I’m teaching her the right things. I’ve been trying to explain the Golden Rule to her because it’s what I’ve always tried to live by but now I’m worried I’m teaching her to be a push over and I’m afraid it will hurt her in the long run. She’s not even 4 yet and I can already tell she’s going to be a kindhearted and sensitive person – I just need to make sure she has the tough side too so she’ll be able to handle all the a-holes out there.

The other reason why I’m afraid is because I hope I can be a good parent to a pre-teen and teen.  I know all of our parents had to go through it with us but when I think about how annoying some pre-teens/teens can be (I know I was!) I get a huge headache.  I can’t even imagine how much I drove my mom crazy when I obsessed about the New Kids on the Block.  I mean I was a FREAK about NKOTB and some days it was all I could talk about with anyone.  It seems only fair that my daughter will do that to me – I just hope it’s a group that I like too!

Just so you understand how much she’s growing up I want to share a few things she can do now – it’s not to brag and say “look how smart my kid is” because frankly I’ve never raised a kid before so I don’t know if this is smart or just normal – I just wanted to let you know the kinds of “grown-up” things she’s doing now.

  • She knows the words to music that Andrew and I listen to.
  • She can read entire books based off of memorization even if you’ve only read it to her a few times.  She even can pick out the picture in the book that matches the one on the cover.
  • She can write her name and other letters of the alphabet.
  • She says please without being coached (I started crying the other day when she said it to me without me asking for her to say it!)
  • She makes her princesses and princes kiss!
  • She’s getting to be a super sweet big sister.  She helps me with Nate in a lot of ways like picking up his bottle for him when he drops it or by screaming his name to get him to stop fussing for a second (it startles him just enough to get him to realize he’s being unreasonable).   Granted there are the times she pushes him or tries to sit on him but for the most part she’s been so loving and caring – even telling me when he’s doing something he’s not supposed to do.  Tonight she even cuddled him as they watched television and then told me to “take a picture momma.”

    • Loving Brother

  • She goes potty all by herself – but tonight she didn’t quite make it there in time and instead of screaming for us to come help her in the bathroom she took care of it herself.  She came out of the bathroom and told us with hand motions, “I went on the toilet seat and the floor but it’s ok because I cleaned it up – I got some paper and put it in the water and then wiped up the floor and the seat.”  Me – “You used toilet water?”  Her – “Uh-huh but it’s ok because it’s all clean now.”

At least that last one proves we still have some time with our baby girl Nia – even if it means I have a mess to clean.

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Swingin’ in Savannah

2 Mar

Whee!

Swinging Boy

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Feast or Famine

2 Mar

So much has happened with the Valles fam this past week that it was too hard to sit down and write about at the time – now though the boy is taking a nap (and will probably wake up before I can finish this) so I will try and share everything as quickly (and interestingly) as I can.

Last Thursday – I get sick.  Like real sick.  Like can’t stand up or I’m going to throw up sick.  Like did throw up while boy was playing with the toilet bowl brush with one hand and hitting me on the back with the other.  I couldn’t function and wasn’t able to call in sick because Andrew was stuck in a meeting all day and couldn’t come home.  It was a big challenge.  Before, when I worked and got sick, I could call in and then Andrew would take the kids to day care – of course you know that’s not the case anymore so I was forced to try to stomach making them lunch and required to try and stay awake.  By the end of the day I started feeling better but then Andrew started feeling sick and then (even worse) at 3 in the morning Nia wakes me up saying in a very sad voice “Momma, I threw up in my bed.”  She stayed sick for the next 24 hours.  I finally knew she was feeling better when she asked for “chicken, french fries and bananas” for dinner.

After the Sickiness

After the Sickiness

On Monday, we all loaded up (minus Joey who got to stay at a doggy-kennel-resort) and headed to Savannah.  Andrew had to work there and I figured we all might as well go since we really didn’t have to be here by ourselves.  Visiting Savannah was so wonderful and it made me remember why I loved it there so much.  Of course the people we love, but also there’s just something about that town.  I even missed that awful smell that is distinctly Savannah.  We only stayed for a few days but they were such great days.  The kids and I got to spend time with Aunt Ree, Uncle Marcus and Baby Ella – Ginger, Lee and Cami – Karen and Baby Andrew – Paul – I even went to see WSAV and Nia got to play with her old friends at her day care.  It was awesome taking her there – the kids bombarded her and they fought over her all day saying “that’s MY Nia!”  She was a little overwhelmed and played hard and it was just so sweet to see how much 3-year-olds can miss each other.  Nia’s really good friend Avery started to cry when Nia had to leave – kind of like I did when I had to say goodbye to Ginger – proving there’s really no age limit on missing your buddy.

Before the Move

Just Visiting

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The Kids

22 Feb

Watching Sponge Bob

Peaceful Boy

What Patience?

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Look Ma, No Parachute!

20 Feb

DISCLAIMER: No children were hurt in the making of this blog memory.

Couch Diving

He’s only been walking on the earth for about 4 months yet he already loves to couch dive.  As a mom it is probably the most scary thing I’ve seen him enjoy – as Nicole the crazy lady, it’s pretty funny.

Here’s how I think Nate found out he loves to couch dive:

One day he was just chilling on the sofa when he decided to try and stand up.  He then began to boing, boing, boing his little body back and forth across the couch until eventually he didn’t boing anymore but more like plopped.  Andrew was (of course) there to catch him and I think that’s what’s fed his need to couch dive ever since.  He knows Andrew will be there to catch him and we’ll always make that “wooh” sound when he takes the step over the edge.  (The “wooh” sound is the sound of the breath being taken from my body right before my heart stops in fear that he’s going to hit the floor.)  The sound that comes from Nate as it’s all happening is excited laughter and forget about trying to get him to stop – as soon as Andrew has him in his arms Nate is pushing to get out of them and struggling to climb back on the couch.

I just thought I have at least a few more years until the need to jump off things happened. I’m still trying to keep up with him trying to eat non-edibles and bang his head off things!

Before the Jump

Pea(poop)nut Butter Recall

18 Feb

AH!  I can’t believe this!  For the past 6 plus years of my life I’ve been searching for product recalls to write about for our consumer segment on the newscast – none of them ever affected me personally.  Of course, now that I don’t get to see hardly any news there’s a recall that affects my family and I just fed the potential poison to Nia last night!  I found out about it in the weirdest way too – as I was checking out at Publix tonight the cashier was mumbling and laughing about about “feeding her sister Peter Pan peanut butter” – I must have shot the what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look at her because she then went on to tell me about the recall.

I haven’t eaten a lick of the peanut butter myself but I’ve been serving up the possibly salmonella-infested spread to Nia since we moved into this house.  I’m searching my memory trying to think if she got sick after eating the last sandwich I made for her – but that doesn’t matter because all of these websites say even if you haven’t gotten sick yet you still could and you won’t know it for like 8 to 72 hours after you swallow it down.  Now I have to sit through 3 days hoping my little girl doesn’t have a potty attack.  In the meantime, I’m just going to scowl at the little brown jar with it’s alarming red lid as if to tell it – you and me – we’re gonna go rounds if you upset my sweetie’s tummy.  I know I’m supposed to throw the jar away and all – it’s just right now I feel this strong need to have a showdown with it – at a distance of course.

It’s interesting what something like this can do to people.  I’ve read that some are suing because they say the salmonella infection cost them money due to lost work and doctor bills – others say they’re afraid to ever eat the peanut butter brands again. As for what it did to me – it’s taught me a lesson.  I’m trying to make sure I won’t miss another recall – I’ve signed up to get email alerts from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department.  We’ll see…

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