Only in grammar can you be more than perfect

I know I have been lagging in my posts, so, for anyone looking for a quick fix, please keep the following in mind:

1. The word is recurring, not reoccurring. Man, this bothers me so much.
2. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life." A nice holiday reference for all of you. By the way, not only are all of my xmas lights up, but my tree is also up. Sorry jacko neighbors, the Walters have won this year. Snap!
3. A snail can sleep for 3 years. My nightly average is about four to five.
4. Married men revealed that they change their underwear twice as often as single men. I'm not even going to go into the reasons why this may be true.
5. The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards. This is obviously why I switched to Mac. Geez.

At some point I'll forget when the dream began

For those of you in the inner circle of our personal triumphs and failures, which are very few lately, since I have been so swamped with work, that I haven't talked to any of you, are familiar with the issues we've been going through with Lyla sleeping. With the heaviness of work at day job, and the massive amount of work I have had for Fold between events and custom orders, I have already been coming home late, then working until 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. to keep up. So, Lyla not going to sleep has not been easy. Especially since we never really went through the not sleeping phase with her. She always slept. Now, I feel like we have a newborn. Either she's up until 11, or she's up a million times in the night. All scenarios end with her not staying in her room/bed.

For those that don't know the events as they occurred, let me briefly take you through it:
1. Lyla was born two years and three months ago, and from the tender age of three weeks, she slept through the night until two months ago.
2. To days before vacation, she woke up with what seemed like a bad dream. Scared, clutching us, we took her out of her crib, and held her for a few minutes, then put her peacefully back into her crib.
3. Vacation-Sleeps like the wee angel she (was). No issues, nothing but a few routine wake-ups, she's a jem.
4. Day one home from vacation, and she screams bloody murder in the crib when we try to put her down. She also started school at this time which wasn't easy for her, so I thought maybe it's all related. So many new things, new kids, new peeps. I would be pissed too.
5. Next two weeks continue, and we start troubleshooting every solution under the sun to figure out why she suddenly won't go down. Enter night lights, stuffed animals, singing, lights on, door open, fall asleep in our room first then to crib, turtle milky way light, new songs, new books, vaporizer, blow-up mattress on floor, Dora sheets (which were at least well received), big girl bed, sitting with her until she fell asleep...

Sitting with her until she fell asleep became the new norm, since I refused to let her a. sleep in our bed, b. fall asleep elsewhere in the house c.scream for five hours, which is what she did when we let her "cry it out" in her crib.
Well, at first it wasn't bad. We'd wait in there for a few mins, and then slip out. Then, the time in there got longer and longer, and her ability to sense us leaving got greater. She would be dead asleep, and I would sneak out, but if a bone cracked in my ankle, or a floor board would creak, she would wake up and call for me/us. So, we would have to wait until she was so out of it that the noise of leaving (which is not loud!) wouldn't wake her up. The funny thing is, she takes a nap for our nanny every day without issue. She also slept at my parent's house in her own bed without issue. Of course, it's only with us that this occurs.

Well, after a month and a half of almost an hour and a half each night in her room, and about 500 games of Word Mole on my Blackberry to keep me entertained in there on the chair (high score of 2001 suckas), we realized it was no longer fear but manipulation on her part.

So, two weeks ago we decided to do boot camp. I figured it would take four to five days max to shake this. Well, two weeks later, we're no closer to her staying in her bed. She is up until 10:30 or 11 each night, once she was up until midnight chatting it up with us downstairs and yelling, "Go Ravens" during Monday Night Football. (Did I mention Lyla knows almost all the starters' names for the Ravens?)

The little thing puts on this voice, and says things like, "Hey Mommy, can you sing the mountain song or a lullaby, " "Can you hold my hand," "Can you sit in the chair," etc. She's super cute, and it's so hard to resist her, and over the past two weeks we have caved, and patted her on the back, or stayed in a few minutes for her to go down. She's like Edward. I know he wants to suck my blood, and potentially kill me, but I give in to him anyway. Lyla is the same. She is so charming (and pale for that matter). However, doing that hasn't helped the departure each night. So, twice, I have done the full blown Super Nanny approach. I put her back in the bed the first few times and console her. (side note is we had a gate in her doorway and the stairs of which she scaled both, so we have since taken both away, and she can just climb in and out of her bed now). Then, I just don't talk to her, and I simply put her back in the bed. Of course, as soon as I put her in, she climbs right out. Then the pleading and little voicing ensues. She usually will sit in her doorway or the hallway and calm down, but she never goes back into her bed. Monday night she started singing jingle bells (btw, the kid has perfect pitch), last night it was Mary Had a Little Lamb, last week it was a full story about a pink dinosaur. Last night, I kept a tally, and I put her back in 21 times. I finally let her be in the doorway, and she proceeded to put her blankie down on the floor, lay on it, and fall asleep. This is the second boot camp night she's done this. She absolutely refuses to stay in her bed, but will sleep on the floor in the doorway without issue.

So, I thought I would share this sight with all of you.

For all of the screaming, crying, late nights, no down time for us, frustration, and of course concern you feel when going through this, you have to stop and grin at how precious she can be when she finally throws in the towel. And look at those legs! They go on for miles.

Have You Ever Worn the Grapes of Wrath?

The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, is a tale of a poor family that seeks the promise land in CA (a familiar story to me as well), after their farm is taken by drought and the future of their family is at stake. Upn reaching CA, they find not gratification and a slew of acting jobs, but an over-saturated landscape of Hollywood wannabes all fighting for the same jobs and wearing the same trends as them. People are being mistreated, resorting to one-night stands and commercial work just to survive. Unions start forming, and the writers go on strike to demand rights for themselves. After all, a six figure salary is hardly enough for a lead writer on Everyone Loves Raymond. One strike turns violent, and Tom Joad, the protagonist, kills someone (else). He's already a fugitive, so this makes things even worse. So, he's forced to flee in a high speed chase on the 405.

That's the jist of it at least.

Is Ralph Lauren the first thing you think of when you hear sharecropper? No, I didn't say shareholder. Well, his newest runway show, and many other designer's shows featured the return of the overall. He said he was inspired by the Grapes of Wrath, and it definitely shows in the collection. I don't know how runway-worthy the looks are since his runway stuff is usually higher end (see RL Black Label), but I was digging several of the looks. So, yes, cowgirls they're back. I resisted the genie pants and leggings, but can I resist the overall? Don't think so. And I'm pretty certain J. Crew will be selling a stylin' pair with my name on it within three months for $128.

Through the years I've had a few pairs.

My first pair was purchased in the local UDELCO in my town, a second hand shop carrying mostly army pants, surplus stuff, and of course good old overalls. They always smelled like wolf pee when I wore them, and I couldn't get rid of the stink, so after maybe 8-10 wears, I finally tossed them. Then I bought a pair later in college. My boyfriend Rob's roommate's girlfriend had a pair that fit so well. They were definitely more tailored in the waist, which made it look like jeans on the bottom with the traditional apron top. They fit her so well, I decided to go on a hunt for them. I would have asked her where she got them, but she was a real psycho, and I was afraid if I talked to her she'd kill me. She lied a lot, and stole things, and took or dealt drugs. Turned out she tried to sleep with Rob about a million times, and if I recall correctly even asked for a threesome with us. Once, she was sitting in the dark in his room in her underwear when he got home from class. Crazytown. In the end, I got a Calvin Klein pair, since, at that time, CK was the only designer brand of jeans, so I felt super cool buying and wearing them. They were definitely my best pair.

I've always wanted a pair that look like jeans, and have suspenders connected at the belt line. You heard it here first, this look will be in style this winter.

So, here are some of my faves from the RL show. I did buy a caddy hat a few weeks ago that I think I've since lost (along with a gorge gold multi-strand necklace--both from J. Crew), but could rock a winter version of some of these looks. Too bad none of these clothes will ever look like this on me. I tried rocking the boyfriend jeans today with a white tee, jacket, and cool pearlish necklace, but the jeans only made me look like a character from an 80s movie about to paint her apartment. Oh well, a girl can dream can't she?

Halloween 2009

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Halloween

Well, it was an eventful year. Lyla got to dress up twice. Once for school as a bumble bee, and once as Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba. The lead-up to this day entailed Trent wearng the glasses and hat of his DJ Lance Rock costume on a regular basis, and Lyla wearing a combo of wings, pink hat and occasionally some antennae.

As usual, Lyla didn't nap, so as the parade at the end of our block ensued, Lyla started getting crabby. The revelers were merry, and Lyla was repeating how much she didn't want the pumpkin man giving out candy and playing a drum to come near us. Lyla is definitely not good in a crowd, and this place was like Filene's before a wedding gown sale. Packed to the gills with kids and parents. Luckily the mood broke when Lyla hit the slides, and she was pretty happy for the rest of the night after that.

We were afraid she'd be scared to go up to the houses, but she went right up and said Trick or Treat and Happy Halloween to each and every house. It was too cute, and too funny. She enjoyed getting the candy, but was definitely more interested in the decorations and pumpkins at the houses. One house had a ghost that danced when you clapped your hands. We were there for quite a while. The lady that lived there said she's had it since her daughter (who's out of the house now) was three. She said she loved it so much, that when she put it away in November, her daughter cried that she was putting her brother in the closet, and sobbed all day. Seriously, I feel like this ghost had the same impact on Lyla. Man, she loved that ghost.