My Little Flirt

Isaac has adjusted to life in Texas better than Mike & I. Our first week here he got his first tooth, began crawling & pulling up. Now he has his SECOND tooth which broke through the day before yesterday. He says "Dadadada" all of the time & just the other day I asked him if he wanted his bottle and he said "bababa" I gave it to him & he drank it. He's just growing up faster than I ever could have imagined. His personality is huge...just look at his pictures...they are worth a thousand words. He's a MAJOR flirt too. Everywhere we go he gets the ladies. I went to the gym yesterday & there was a young girl filling in for the usual lady. All of the kids just got out of school for the summer & it was super crowded. When I picked Isaac up I asked how he was and she said she just LOVED him & his huge smile. She said he tried to take toys from the other kids, but no big deal. All of the little girls were helping take care of him. It's so funny. I never realized how much little girls love babies until taking Isaac out and about. Every time we go somewhere, like Wal-Mart or something, and Isaac starts getting fussy, some little girl comes out of nowhere and starts entertaining him until his smiling and giggling. When we go out to eat the waitresses and hostesses ooh and ah over him & he eats it up. A guy manager came to talk to him & Isaac didn't even give him the time of day. We went to Outback the other day & the table next to us had two senior citizen couples. Before they left they came over and asked if they could hold Isaac & one of the ladies offered a bunch of advice. Texas people are so nice!

SAHMs then & now

One day not too long ago, a co-worker & I were complaining about how good the SAHMs (Stay at home moms) have it. She has a five-year-old & I was not even pregnant with Isaac yet. She'd drop her daughter off at school & see the SAHMs doing the same, but they were dressed for the gym & she was dressed for work. We were working as Paralegals at a Bankruptcy law firm 8-5 Monday-Friday. Sometimes it seemed we spent more time sitting around complaining about our job than actually doing the job. Both of us worked our way through college, ambitiously seeking that career that our generation told us we wanted. Once we gained the coveted degree & got the job, though, we realized that all we wanted to do was be mother's & wives & take care of our family. It's strange to hear myself say these things today. I'm a member of Generation X, a generation that watched our mothers & grandmothers generations fight for the rights we have today. It seems like so many people turn their noses up at the June Cleavers of yesterday, but yet secretly envy them. I think the last three decades of women fighting for equal rights have not been in vain, but the preceding decades had their strong points as well. I wish I knew how to cook & sew & keep my house spotless & raise my son all in stride. My education was about having a career. Now I wish that I had a degree in how to be a SAHM. Some churches seem to have the same idea. I wonder if they let you do it online...

colloquialism

A 'colloquialism' is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms denote a manner of speaking or writing that is characteristic of familiar "common" conversation; informal colloquialisms can include words (such as "y'all" or "gonna"), phrases (such as "ain't nothin'", "dressed for bear" and "dead as a doornail"), or sometimes even an entire aphorism. ("There's more than one way to skin a cat"). (http://www.wikipedia.com/)

I like to write. I really, really like to write. The problem is all of the rules imposed on the process. I like to write the way that I speak. Easily, casually. I prefer to use punctuation where I'd use it in conversation. So what if it's not a complete sentence. So what if it's a run-on. Poetry has always been a passion of mine. I joined clubs where you submit your poems for feedback or constructive criticism. I'd get lectured on my style and the rules that I didn't follow properly. Some even had the audacity to "help me out" by rewriting my submission "correctly". I stopped writing for a long time. Now along comes BLOGGING. Hallelujah! I can write whatever I want to noone in particular. Of course I still have my lovely readers who love to correct me which is sometimes annoying at first, but usually helpful in the end. For instance, all of my spelling life I had been mispelling the word definitely until one fine day when I was corrected on my blog. Now it'll never happen again. It's like sitting behind someone who's got their tag hanging out (or worse, seeing someone with their fly down). It's wrong to let them walk away without making them aware of it. They may shoot you a dirty look (probably more out of embarrassment), but they are most likely grateful for being made aware. So, if I ramble, if I misspell, if I sound like an idiot, go ahead and let me know. I might call you a jerk under my breath, but I still appreciate the heads up!