Babies can be mean

To say that I love Robby is an understatement. That doesn’t mean that I love every last quirk about him though. For instance, I don’t love that he yanks my hair out, pinches me and laughs, bites me, kicks me, rips my glasses off, and scratches me with his razor nails. Despite being a massive 17lbs, he can be pretty darn mean sometimes.

Here he is just waiting for me to turn my back so he can take every thingy of baby wipes off the changing table shelf and put them all over his room. This past weekend he took one of my shoes and hid it under the bed and I could not find it anywhere! Yesterday he went thrashing through a pile of mail on the floor and ripped my Fast Company magazine and a bunch of envelopes, including some bills. (Why was the mail on the floor, you ask? I was "mommy multi-tasking", playing with Robby while sorting mail.)

He’s definitely getting to the age where items will start becoming displaced. In addition to taking things, he’s getting bolder by the day testing his limits by opening every cabinet, drawer, closet, door, stealing ipods, phones and Wii remotes, touching the stereo equipment and his latest trick, turning off the TV while smiling a devilish grin.

Robby gets more attention when he does mean things, which provoke's him even more. We're thankfully at the stage where his bold behavior is really kind of funny. He's charmingly mean, not tantrum-y mean. I know he won't be like this forever, but I like my little mean Robby just the way he is.

A trip down South

Orlando, FL is a great place to have relatives and I’m proud to say that I do. We recently took a trip down there with Robby to visit Jude’s brother and family. (I’m not making excuses as to why I haven’t posted in a while but it has been a busy few weeks for us)

We took our first airplane ride with Robby on Southwest and all went well. Robby made friends with Sarah, the cutest flight attendant I’ve seen in years. (have you noticed the ‘caliber’ of attendants has seriously dropped?) Jude loved that pretty Sarah kept coming back to flirt with Robby and check on us. I didn’t mind that Robby had small spurts of entertainment and that Jude and I got a couple more shot-glass sized ginger ale refills.

Traveling with a baby is for the most part, very cool and fun! We took him to the Kennedy Space Center, the Harry P Leu botanical gardens, Downtown Disney, the beach, and various other excursions. We didn’t do any of the major parks this year because I absolutely love thrill rides and was not about to pay $75 a ticket to eat Dippin’ Dots on a park bench with Robby. Good news is that, if you have family in Orlando, you will be back.

It was definitely one of those vacations where you feel like you need a vacation when you get back home, but it was fun overall. Plus Robby got to spend time with his cousins from whom he learned how to smack his lips and stick out his tongue on command. Fantastic.

Goodbye's can be shocking

This morning I kissed Robby goodbye at daycare and our lips created a shock. The tingling feeling left with me while I walked out the door, got into my car, and finally started fading when I reached the highway. He was probably thinking "WTF mama? that hurt!" I was thinking that his kiss (or a mouth-opened mess that resembled a kiss) stayed with me for a pleasantly long time.

Goodbye’s are getting harder. When Robby was just a little baby, I would plop him down on the Boppy pillow near the other babies. He sat there like a bump on a boppy, half conscious and seemingly happy to be anywhere but his car seat. Now I set him down and walk to the door. Within seconds he’s zooming across the room, butt wiggling fast and furiously behind him to crawl at my feet. The kiss of death is picking him up and I’m a martyr for it. We play this game at least once until I finally kiss him and make the walk of shame to my car only to take the drive of despair to work.

OK, I’m being WAY dramatic because the truth is I do like my job and I feel that Robby is in good hands at daycare. Despite, they are not MY hands and I would love to spend the day kissing him (shock free).

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And now for a completely unrelated but cute photo taken this weekend. Don't babies look cool in blazers? According to Jude, Robby has a 'swagger'. I have to agree!

Turn that frown upside down, or else it might get stuck

I think we'd all agree that smiles are infectious. No one every talks much about frowns, but as I recently discovered, baby frowns are pretty damn cute!

Most people don’t take pictures of their babies frowning, but I caught Robby at this particular moment in time displaying one big-ass “woe is me” frown.

I've learned that while frowns are typically a sign of supreme discontent, they don’t always lead to full-blown crying. A couple months ago, Robby would frown at random people that were unfamiliar to him. Probably 70% of the time the frown would be the precursor for some crying, but sometimes the frown would just turn upside down. There was a rumor at my elementary school that if you frowned too much your face would get stuck like that. The Perma-Frown syndrome scared us. If I were to frown today, I would still only hold it for a second or two.

So what was Robby thinking during this particularly cute frown? Probably the same thing former President George Bush was thinking during his press conference frown: What am I doing here? Who are these people? Why are they staring at me? What's this stupid thing in my hand? When will this be over? I’m hungry and I need a drink.

Work ends, Work begins

I probably ‘work’ harder from 6pm-10pm than I do from 8am-5pm. I don’t have time from 6pm-10pm to engage in a lengthy coffee break conversation, to Twitter, to gossip, or to scour the office in search of leftover food. I am simply forced to do more stuff in less time. (If I had a dime for every time someone said “do more with less” let’s just say I wouldn’t be writing about being a working mother.)


Despite that I do more, I love the stuff that happens between 6pm and 10pm. First of all, I get to spend time with Robby! He smiles at me way more than anyone in the office ever would. It’s not always easy to make people laugh in the office. At home, Robby laughs when I dance, make a funny face, spin him around, or make a weird guttural sound of syllabic nonsense. Last time I tried that in the office it raised more than a few eyebrows and didn’t get me any stand-up comedy gigs. At home, I’m the cats ass. If Robby were CEO, I’d be his top aid making beaucoup bucks for doing a few tricks and preparing the occasional dinner.


The other stuff I get to do from 6pm-10pm is spend time with my husband Jude. He has the most positive, laissez-faire (in a good way) attitude of anyone! Robby just adores spending time with his father and so do I. He’s a ton of fun, makes us all laugh and teaches us not to take things too seriously.


In addition to the cool stuff, there’s also the drag of washing bottles, preparing dinner, laundry on occasion, house cleaning, packing for daycare, lunches for work, sometimes more, sometimes less. I really like my day job and it doesn’t always feel like work. I really love my evening job and it almost never feels like work. Without my day job, I wouldn’t appreciate my evening job nearly as much.


Some days I'm as weathered as a pinata at a six year-old's birthday party, but some days I feel like I scored all the candy inside. I'll suffer a few blows for some of the sweetest moments life can serve up.

Baby vs. Blackberry

You can give babies every toy known to man, but for some reason, they will always go for the one thing on the floor that is not a toy. I did a test with Robby the other day. Step 1: Surround baby with toys and get him engaged with the toys. Step 2: Place Blackberry out of reach when baby is not looking. Step 3: Wait for Blackberry procurement.
Robby took a little time to text some of his friends before he brought the Blackberry back to his den and would not take his hand off of it. Some people have dogs that eat homework, I have a baby that would probably swipe and eat my Blackberry in about three minutes. I don't think that would go over too well at the office.

A stupid cute hat

Stupid cute - an adjective used to describe something that under normal circumstances would be ridiculed, but in this instance is endearing and funny.

Babies are the prime example of stupid cute. You can dress them up in the most insane things and they keep getting cuter. The more 'flair' you add to the ensemble, the higher they score on the stupid cute scale. This may not lead to nod on Regis and Kelly's beautiful baby contest, but it certainly will get a nod of approval from parents, grandparents, and random strangers.

Hats are an accessory that scores very high on the stupid cute scale. They are an easy accessory for a baby to rock, assuming they actually like hats, and the had doesn't fly off with a gust of wind leaving you with a decision to drop the baby and chase after that damn hat or leave it blowin' in the wind. (totally kidding about leaving the baby for the hat)

I digress. Robby loves wearing hats. I think he knows how sharp he looks in them. We can thank Grandma and Grandpa for this recent newsboy number from BabyGap. Here's a picture of Grandpa and Robby. I challenge you to think of a better adjective than 'stupid cute'. Bring it on!