Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Her Mother's Daughter



She might look like a carbon copy of Drew,


but her personality is all Mama.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Oh Yes, They Call Her The Blur


Look at that, look at that.
Fastest thing on two feet
Look at that, look at that.
She's just as proud as she can be
Of her mobility
She goin' give us a peek

Don't Look Ethel! Any Ray Stevens fans out there? Oh the memories that song brings. My brother had this cassette and would listen to it over and over and over. He probably doesn't want me broadcasting that tidbit across the internet, but what else are big sisters for if not to occasionally publicly humiliate little brothers?

Now that you've seen the pictures, I'm sure you can understand the reasoning behind my post title. Little Petunia is on the move. And she doesn't go anywhere slowly. No sirree. She runs full speed. Which is why a majority of the photos I take show her as just a streak. (heh,heh)




Oh yes they call her the blur,
Look at that, look at that.

But sometimes, if I stick with it long enough, I can get a real peach of a shot. Well, Look at that, look at that--is that you Ethel?


Saturday, September 26, 2009

No Swine Here

Mr. Magoo is still not quite himself. I can always tell when he's feeling under the weather because he'll actually sleep during nap time. I guess yesterday the exhaustion caught up with him rather quickly because he didn't even have the energy to take off his Smitty hat let alone make it to his bed before conking out.


It seems that my son might think that I need to have a bit more excitement in my life. That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with for why he sent his Mama's heart into a flutter by deciding that he needed to take another ride in an ambulance .

The story goes like this: Wednesday night Monkey woke up screaming. Drew gave him Tylenol and everyone went back to sleep. In the morning, he was breathing hard, lethargic and coughing so we scheduled an early appointment with the doctor. When Drew got him to the office, Magoo suddenly began having an asthma-like attack where he was grunting and breathing so hard that his ribs were showing and his neck muscles and tendons were prominent. His O2 was at 87%. He gave everyone in the office quite a scare, so they called in the ambulance to take him to the ER.

My poor little monkey looked so sick when I met them at the hospital. His eyes were dull with dark circles under them and he didn't even fight the mask they put on his face. I watched as his stomach went up and down heaving with the effort to breathe. His breaths were shallow and far faster than normal. He was quickly given a series of treatments, some steroids, a chest X-ray and some other diagnostic tests. An hour later, he'd perked up and was back to his lady killing ways chatting up the doctors and nurses like they'd been friends forever. I didn't think it was possible to be happy about hearing his endless list of demands, but after seeing him barely able to speak it was a blessing to be able to get him his juice, a movie, some cars stickers, Lightening McQueen, Scruffy, his blanket, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Please note though that this blissful approach to meeting his every desire has since passed. Didn't take long at all.

All of his tests came back negative--no pneumonia, no swine flu, no RSV, no strep. We were left with no definitive explanation for what brought on the attack. It might have been allergies, a viral infection or it might be asthma. Frustrating to not know the answer, but what can you do?

On Friday, I took him back to the office for his follow up visit. All of the nurses, techs and even the doctor that saw him the day before came into the exam room to say how happy they were to see him doing so well. The doctor even had to lift up his shirt to confirm for herself that he was breathing better. It was quite touching to see their concern.

He still is breathing a little hard and his energy isn't quite up to par, but he's on the mend. We'll continue his Albuterol and steroid treatments and hope to never encounter this breathing difficulty again. We've been lucky this past year with Chase since this is the first time he's been really sick since last winter. That's not an open invitation though, so Mr. Swine, you can continue to stay away. Because despite Chase's stated desire to return to the "Hopspital", my heart has had enough of a thrill thank you anyway.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Which one doesn't belong?


Let's see. We've got doodle, doodle, doodle, contemplate. Probably one of only 50 times this year you'll catch the littlest one sitting still for any significant time period. Nate is prepared for her impending energy surge though--he's got that helmet on nice and snug. Smart boy.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Dear Pottery Barn

I get a little electric charger cursing through my body when I see your catalog in the mailbox. It is my home style bible. I love the smell of it and all the inspiration that's contained within its covers. I dream of living the idyllic life that is invoked by the neatly labeled baskets, plush sofas and perfectly accessorized shelves. So imagine my delight when I came across this page in the October issue.


I understand you might be confused. Let me just show you this picture of my living room.

Notice any similarity between the two? It seems that your designers and I have a similar affinity for a certain carnival game. I've had mine hanging there for a few months now, so I just have to ask: In the words of the great Black Eyed Peas, are you chickens jackin my style? Cause if you are, I'm completely cool with it. Especially if you want to use my consultation services. I'd forget the whole thing entirely if you had 3 of these wrapped and shipped to my house.
You've got my number--we'll talk soon.

XXOO,
Laura

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Let's Go...



Mountaineers!



Doesn't that picture look like she's checking out her rear view? Pretty sure the teen years are going to be rough here in the Mellon house. Anyway, I don't know how I never got around to posting these pictures of the kids all decked out in their blue & gold. I think that I shared them on facebook and then just assumed that everyone would see them there forgetting of course that some of my dear readers are online social media challenged. (hi mom!)

So here at long last are the pictures from the dinner that we had at John & Jeanne's after the first WVU game. They invited us to watch Nebraska's opener with them. It takes a brave person to sit next to former Blackshirt John while he watches his Alma Mater play. Since I'm a chicken at heart, we girls spent the evening on the deck enjoying the cooler weather instead of on the couch next to the growling men. Amaya was thrilled to be spending time with Sophi outside the gym and together they had their own private tailgate party of shredded cheese and puffs. Not to be outdone, Chase too had a grand time as he jumped around on the trampoline and played the Wii. Of course, I think it was the attention from the older ladies that he enjoyed most. Like I said, the teen years will be trouble--no doubt.





Monday, September 14, 2009

Consumerism, take me away.

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for the nutrition program offered at my gym. I've been pretty good about following it--mainly because the plan has me eating 5 times a day so I'm never hungry. Of course, hunger was never the biggest of my problems. Stress was my downfall. I am a huge comfort food ingester. Anytime something stressed me out--kids, husband, dog, grass growing too fast--I'd locate the nearest delectable goody and inhale it faster than you can say "Impulse Control Fail".

Now that I'm paying an arm and a leg to have a nutritionist tell me what to eat all day, I don't want to ruin those efforts in one fell swoop because my Tivo cut off Project Runway before Heidi said her auf wiedersehen. So, I have replaced this rush to gorge with a new, perhaps equally unhealthy, diversion: shopping.

Since making the substitution, I've relieved some of my tension by visiting Amazon, Etsy, Anthropologie, Sephora, Nordstrom, Old Navy and a few other random storefronts that we need not mention at the moment. I've worked out my own little algorithm for stress balance: as the calories consumed decreases, the dollars spent must increase.

Today, the floor people were here yet again to install the bamboo on the stairs. Strange people in and out of my house. Strange, loud people. Strange, loud people who like to sing odd Spanish songs in very off key voices. Amaya was terrified of the air compresseratorwhatchamacallit and thus screamed every single time it went off. Stress. STRESS. STRESS.

So what did I do? Went shopping of course. We went to the happiest of all places on earth--Target. Oh how I love Target. I mean who doesn't love a store where you can buy this


this


this


and this

all in one transaction. Shopping utopia it is. After an hour of roaming through the glittering aisles, my calm core had returned. It quickly evaporated when I returned home and had to become reacquainted with noise until 8:40 that evening, but we're not going to dwell on that. Nope, we're just going to keep looking at the pretty pictures of the stuff we bought. Chocolate free stress management--I might learn to love it.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Mama's little Ragebot



There's just so much in this world that irritates the little half pint that she frequently has to clench here whole body in an effort to control the fury that yearns to be unleashed. Rage on little Petunia--you are cracking your parents up.

Having the camera taking her picture doesn't appear to be one of the things that sets her off though as it was hard to catch her doing her thing on film. These are the best that I got, but they don't really do the maneuver justice. I hope that you can at least get a feel for what it's like living with a 13 month old who suffers from rage blackouts. In the second video the action is at the very beginning, so you have to be real quick to catch it. If you're not quick enough and it starts driving you mad, you can always employ the use of the Ragebot's coping mechanism--just make sure you have someone record you doing it--I'd love to see it!

Friday, September 04, 2009

Miracle on Mellonforth Street

You might remember me ranting a bit about not being able to get pictures off of the small, black camera due to a missing USB cable. It was two whole posts ago, so perhaps you've forgotten in which case, you might want to scroll down and read the entry with the French title again.

It would seem that my whining over the internet brings results as evidenced by my dear, sweet husband quickly ordering a replacement from Amazon. This new cable arrived yesterday. It had 5 different attachments that you could interchange to meet all of your electronic uploading needs. Except, not a single one of the little plugs was tiny enough to fit into the small, black camera's port. I was about to throw the little trouble making device out the window when it dawned on me to take the memory card out of the camera and slip into the handy little slot on my computer. Suddenly, the clouds parted and the sun shone down on me as a choir of angels sang of the miracle for right there on my laptop screen were the handful of missing pictures now available for posting.


I'm sure you're all shaking your heads wondering why I didn't do this in the first place or for that matter why I even mess with a USB cable at all. The reason is simple--I forget to put the darn card back into the camera. Then when I go to take new pictures, I get an error message with a lot of flashing lights which causes unpleasant words to spring forth from my mouth. Since I strive to reserve my unpleasant word use for such catastrophes as running out of hot water in the shower, breaking a fingernail, or having both of my sisters-in-law top my high Bejeweled Blitz score, it's USB cables for me.

Anyway, here are the long lost pictures. First up, Mellon's solo trip to the pool with two clinging children. Please observe my ultra frizzy hair from the humidity and Chase's bored face--neither of which is more important than noting that both of the little dumplings are still alive. See, another miracle.


Hmm. Not sure why I took this picture. It's the only one that I took in the pit that day. I do dream of having my own seat up there with the camera guy. But not on a windy, rainy day. And not when it's too hot either. Hmmm. Maybe I'll just stay in the relative safety of the pit box.


This calls for another hmmm. Why am I standing at such an odd angle? Was it to keep myself anchored down so the wind wouldn't blow me away as it was trying to decapitate me via the lanyard from my pit pass? Mysteries happen around here as often as miracles it would seem.


The island that the track is on is really beautiful. Our driver Pierre told us that Montreal hosted a horticulture contest years ago where different nations each got a section to design with plantings from their native countries. Maybe for the World Fair that was there? Anyway, the vegetation has grown in over the years, and it is truly beautiful. One more neat fact: the island is man made from the rock that they dug out of the ground when they put in the Metro. They just threw it into the St. Lawrence river and Voila! an island was born.

Here I am once again trying to not be blown away outside the casino. I felt like Dorothy minus the gingham dress, pigtales and yappy dog. Oh, and the house that fell on the wicked witch. No flying monkeys either. I guess there really isn't anything at all that's comparable to Dorothy in this story. Or maybe I could pass Drew off as the Scarecrow? If he only had a brain... That doesn't work at all b/c the man obviously has a brain--he married me didn't he?


And here are the Chuck E. Cheese pictures. These are pretty self explanatory I believe.


So there you go. One final note: Not only did I survive my 12 hour shift of watching the kids yesterday, but Chase had no accidents the entire day, Amaya actually drank from her sippy cup, and I remembered to put the memory card back into the small, black camera. Miracles I tell ya. Miracles.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

How many shots does it take to get to the smile center of a Mellon's child?

Let's find out.

One,



Two,


Three,


Four,

Five!

It takes five shots to get a smiling picture of the Amaya flavored one. But what about the Chase variety? Let's find out.

One,


Two,


Three,
Four! Four shots!
Could anyone else go for a Tootsie Pop right about now?

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

ce n'est pas ma faute Which very roughly translated means: I didn't do it, blame Drew.

I know that there are one or two you who would like to see some pictures from our trip to Montreal last weekend. I didn't take a whole bunch this time since I was too busy trying to stay warm in the cold, rainy weather. I do however have a few more than what's shown below, but they aren't available at the moment. This inability to access the photos is not my fault. It is Drew's fault. You see, he packed the small, black camera. Which is fine. But, the small, black camera needs a special USB cable. A special USB cable that he left at the lake. So, I can't get the pictures off of the camera and onto my computer to post until he buys a new cord. Until then I only have this measly handful of images I took with my iPhone.

These first two are from the Le Crystal hotel lobby where we waited for the staff to finish their final inspection of our room. The hotel is a green hotel--at least that's the reason Drew gave me when I asked why the key card had to be in the wall for the electricity to work. If you took the card out, all the lights went off. Freaky. The room also had a flat screen right at the foot of the bed. I think it gave the man ideas. Ideas that I will need to squash.





Here we are having lunch in the deli at the Casino de Montreal . I loved the red and white decor of the place. I did not love that there was no restroom in the restaurant. The Caramilk Bar made up for that disappointment a little bit. Mmmm caramel.



Here's a picture of the truck that Brad rode around the track in before the race. Horrid picture can only be explained by the glare of the sun on my iPhone screen. Sun? Didn't I say that I didn't take many pictures because it was rainy and cold? Yes, yes I did. The sun only came out long enough to screw up my pictures. No that's not true. Race day was for the most part a lovely day. So why didn't I take more pictures? I'm sorry, what was the question again? Je ne parle pas l'anglais.



And that's all I've got. Such a dearth of quality pictures is inexcusable I know. In an effort to win back your faith, I am including these two shots from our trip to the park today.





I also have some shots from our lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, but they're on the small, black camera. I've got Drew's number on speed dial if you'd like to lodge a complaint-- just let me know.