Mommy's Night Out - Benefit Concert

Allison recently made some new mommy friends in the neighborhood. She was invited to hang out for a mom's night out. Bring a snack, don't bring the kids. That's all fine and good, but when the your 7 week old daughter has only been bottle fed once in her life, there could be problems brewing at home. Let's see what happened shall we?

We ate dinner then Allison got her S'mores type snack ready and hit the road. I was getting mentally prepared for my night and I didn't even get to do my classic S'mores joke. I'll have to double up next time.

I got Ben in his pajamas early. He still isn't himself yet. I don't know if he isn't 100% over his virus or if he is teething and that is bothering him, but either way, he's not himself. He's been angry and whinny. He actually sounds a lot like me when I'm sick or hungry or sick and hungry.

I knew he would go to bed early, and that would just leave me and my little girl. Last time I was alone with her, I had to admit defeat and call mommy home. Not tonight little girl! Not tonight!

We played in the kids room for about 20 minutes and all was fine: see exhibit A

Then one of Ben's cars fell off the ramp and he thought it was a good idea to punch, kick and push the ramp. That marked bedtime. I did a very quick teeth brush and put him to bed. I tried to be slick with his bedtime story. I knew it was only a matter of time before Abigail got upset that she was alone and I wanted to get back to her before that happened.

I started reading Clifford and Friends. It's a double feature, Clifford and Friends in the front, Clifford's Family in the back. I skipped directly to Clifford's Family. Ben was happy for the first 3 pages, then WAIT A MINUTE! SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT!!! He figured it out and started reaching for the book. I quickly finished up then played the "tuck in" game. (tucking him in by pulling the blanket over his head) I said good night and was on my way. I feel bad for skipping story time, but he'll get 2 or 3 stories tomorrow night to make up for it.

It was off to tend to Abigail now. Did the abbreviated story time keep her from getting upset? NOPE! Missed it by that much! Now to calm her down and feed her a bottle for the second time in her life, the first time being her first meal ever! No sweat right?

I dressed her in winter feety pajamas. It's going to be 47 degrees tonight. Gotta bundle up. I got a bib and two burp cloths. I was ready for action. I tried to feed her and she flipped out! WAIT A MINUTE! That taste like my food, but you're not mommy!!!! She probably screamed bloody murder for 30-45 seconds, but it felt like 4 or 5 minutes. I decided to sing a song to calm her down. It worked. She stopped crying and started eating. So I couldn't stop singing could I?

Those of you who know me well, know I'm a horrible singer. Ms. Duck wouldn't even let me join the chorus in elementary school. I had to play viola in the orchestra! It's scary to think my singing soothes my baby girl.

I think her first sentence may be "quick to the point to the point no fakin, cookin MCs like a pound of bacon" because I sing that song to her a lot. On to the playlist:

1. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
2. Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
3. Paul Revere - Beastie Boys
4. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra
5. Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi

Things got bad for a minute during Wanted Dead or Alive. I started laughing thinking about an SNL skit. The whole thing is funny, but I was thinking about the scene 4:25 into the clip.


Jon Bon Jovi interview SNL, funny :) from monster on Vimeo.


I composed myself and continued the concert. She started eating again. The encore set list:

1. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
2. NY State of Mind - Billy Joel
3. It Takes Two - Rob Base & DJ Easy Rock

She fell asleep during the last song. I woke her up for a quick burp. She only ate 1.5 oz, but I'm calling that a success of epic proportions. However, if Allison reads this, I'm pretty sure she hated the bottle and me feeding her. She's much happier when you do it and let daddy sleep! WINK! SMILEY FACE!!!

To summarize my night - Daddy Rules! King Kong ain't got nothing on me! (Sorry for the cursing, I couldn't find the clip from the preview when he says "nothing")

Best and Worst of the Weekend - Sick, Sick, Sick

Before I get into my best and worst of the weekend I wanted to bring up something I mentioned a while back. Another celebrity died today and that's all that people are Tweeting or Facebooking about.

You can search back six months and I bet you don't find any posts about Heavy D in your timeline. I think he would have wanted to hear how many people loved his music and appreciated him as an artist. Pick a celebrity you enjoy and give them a tribute while they are still alive.Heavy D's most popular song had to be "Now that we found love" but my favorite song of his was "We got our own thang"


Pick your favorite 90s song and ask your local radio station to play it. Send an email to Fred Savage and thank him for The Wonder Years. Or write a happy blog post, tweet or status update about someone. This is my third installment of Best and Worst of the weekend, that was inspired by Dan Patrick and the Dan Patrick show.

This week's best and worst of the weekend are actually the same thing.
Worst of the weekend - Ben was sick and I had to spend the last 4 days taking care of him.
Best of the weekend - Ben was sick and I got to spend the last 4 days taking care of him.

Friday night before bed, I was putting on a puppet show for him. It was to the part of the show where the sheep puppet picks a volunteer from the audience and tickles them. I noticed that Ben felt warm. I took his temp and it was 103.5! Holy KTU that's hot!

I looked at Allison and said "Bye bye!" I made her take the baby and get away from me and Ben. I can take care of him. It's ok if I get sick, but I can't have my 7 week old baby or my wife who takes care of her getting sick. Sorry. Take a hike. You're both quarantined until further notice.

I was about to read her the riot act or even better, the "DFS" quote by Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak, but she went upstairs without a fight. That left Ben and I alone for 4 days.

Ben was a brave boy at the doctor on Monday. We called the doctor back when his temp hit 104.7. She told us if he hits 105, take him to the emergency room. I got dressed and stayed dressed for the next 4 or 5 hours just so I would be ready if we needed to roll. When I went to bed, I laid out clothes next to the bed. so I could be ready at a moment's notice. Luckily we didn't have to take him. 

What do you do with a sick 2 year old? We played with a lot of toys and watched A LOT of television. That's what you're supposed to do with a sick boy. Wear pajamas, eat ice pops and watch TV. Here's a list of what we watched and an estimate of how many times we watched it:

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - 10 episodes.
Jake and the Neverland Pirates - 3 episodes
Sesame Street - 2 episodes
Thomas and Friends - 12 episodes
Chuggington - 5 episodes
Yo Gabba Gabba - 1 episode
Full House - 30 minutes of clips on YouTube
Cars - twice
Cars 2 - three times
Pixar Shorts - twice
The Little Mermaid - 1/2 of it, then we switched to Cars 2
Tangled - Once
Football - one half on Saturday, Three quarters on Sunday

I honestly feel like I left some shows out. All the kid shows start to look like the same show after a while. His fever broke this afternoon. During a nap, he sweat through his shirt and soaked his pillow. His temperature hasn't gone above 99.2 since. I hope I didn't jinx it. We'll find out soon because I'm going to check him again when I go to bed in a few minutes

One thing I learned this week - Chuggington is a good substitute for Thomas and Friends, but the theme song is very catchy. It's been in my head since Saturday morning. "Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga-Chuggington!"