Just a Wee Bit Sensitive

So I just have to tell this story about my sweet niece. She and I were hanging out one day reading when her father started telling me a story about her bathroom habits. Apparently, my niece requires her privacy when pooping. Let me clarify a little. My niece is one year old and is still, obviously, in diapers. So whenever she feels the need to poop she will drop whatever she is doing and move behind the lazy-boy recliner in the family room to gain a little privacy. There she grunts a little, stiffens up a bit, and does her business. Well, one particular time she happened to be reading the Costco coupon brochure when urgency required her to stop and move behind the recliner. She stayed there very briefly before coming out to retrieve her Costco ads and then return to finish her business behind the recliner. Well, both her dad and I found this story hilarious and began laughing. Well, my sweet niece didn't find us laughing at her bathroom habits quite as funny. Her eyes went all sad-puppy on us and her bottom lip started quivering and then she let it all break out into full on tears which continued for sometime and completely put her off her dinner.


Sorry honey. We love you. We will bring this story up again, though, when you hit your teen years—but only because we do love you.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Okay, so technically it isn't looking a whole lot like Christmas right now, but it was on Sunday and that has completely put me in the mood for Christmas and all things Christmas. That has meant that in a completely unprecedented act I have begun...wait for it...to Christmas shop! Yes, I have now officially purchased 2 entire Christmas gifts. Normally I run frantically through stores the week of Christmas silently cursing anyone who is walking too slow or standing in line in front of me. This, obviously, does not help get me in the spirit of Christmas and sometimes knocks any spirit I may have previously gained right out of me. This year, with any luck, will be different. Having successfully completed my Christmas shopping (maybe even before Thanksgiving), I can avoid the malls and all their gaudy decorations and Chipmunks Christmas carols. Instead, I can focus on all the lovely aspects of Christmas such as family, the music, the Christmas performances, and (gasp) the birth of Christ. Now for those of you who are thinking it is a bit premature to have a Christmas post (I do realize that we haven't even celebrated Halloween or Thanksgiving), this will be my last Christmas post until after Thanksgiving--that is unless I do actually finish my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving in which case you will all be forced to celebrate with me.

Hmmmm, are you wondering if you're going to be the lucky gift recipient?

Merry Christmas

Black October

So in a moment of bored brillance I decided to dye my hair. In the past I have always gone lighter than my natural color so this time I thought I would try darker. By darker I was thinking a nice dark brown--something that would go well with all the nice fall colors and my dark sweaters. What I got was black. And what I mean by black is BLACK. It was so black that it was nearly blue. After I got over the initial shock of it (and washed it about 20 times so that it faded into a less shocking black) I started to like it. Then when I started heading out in public again I received enough compliments on how well it suited me that I really started embrassing it. I still have to avoid a certain bathroom lighting scheme that continues to send uncomfortable shock waves through me and I haven't quite brought myself to wear a light color next my dark hair for fear the BLACK would pop back out, but on the plus side I have been told it is sexy (by a student I work with---soooo entirely inappropriate). Also, it perhaps suits my mood a little since the Yankees are out of the race for the World Series yet again.