Sticks!

I took this with my iPhone, which doesn't work so great in low light, but it captures the action-y blur of these xylophone sticks, which Zack used today to bang the heck out of everything.  I thought he might smash his new little toy cell phone.  He banged the sticks together.  He would not let go of the sticks today.  I had to put him in the high chair with the sticks, and he didn't eat much--just sat there banging on the tray.   I finally pried them loose for bath time.  It was great to see how much he latched on to the concept that these were little hammers.  It kinda looked like that monkey scene in 2001--except much louder.

Jeff came home and found one stick in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and Zack and me asleep on the futon.  I often fall asleep at 7:00 with Zack and then have a little wander round the house at 2 or 3 in the morning.  You know, a little dinner.  A little futzing with our internet.

I don't know what is up, but I keep thinking that maybe the economy is finally hitting our internet connection.  It's slow, and for some reason, my computer can't see devices, and then Jeff's computer can't access my network.  And we're having trouble on Rational Moms, too.  It's just frustrating because it's bad enough that I have to do my taxes, but if you get me started fixing computer problems, I'll just emerge three days later from this frustrated but happy little geek hole.  It's such a time suck, but in this weird way, I do enjoy it.

And speaking of tech stuff, Zack and I went to Best Buy today, and we had a stellar time together as usual.  He decided it was nap time--no arguments, folks, it's happening now!  And he napped in my arms while I looked at various flat screen pictures.  When he woke up, he was in a great mood, bubbly and ready for admiration.  A woman came over and started talking about his big blue eyes, his red hair, and oh my gosh, a dimple, too?  It's the whole package! Then she tickled Zack (okay, a little weird when people touch your baby, but this time it was fine) and he let out a peal of his unbelievable little laugh, and then it was over.  The woman was just beside herself.  She could not believe it.  I mean what is with this kid?  Did he go to baby charm school when I wasn't looking?

The guy working at Best Buy gave Zack a little toy Curious George, and Zack looked the guy right in the eye.  It was like he was saying thanks.

And then the guy rung us up for a brand new TV.

Happy frickin' 40th birthday to me.

Okay, it's actually coming up in April, but here's the thing, our old TV sucks.  The sound is terrible.  My ex got the TV used from the people moving out of our old apartment, and it went on the fritz not too long after that.  We tried rerouting the sound through the stereo, but the sound connection thingy is also broken.

I work at a vocational school, so I asked the home theater repair teacher about fixing my TV.  He said it wasn't even worth it to fix TVs.  I don't know if that's necessarily the whole story, but hey, good enough excuse for Jeff and I to buy a new one.  Only we haven't bought a new one.  We just keep trying to watch the old one, and we have to use the captions feature on DVDs just to make out anything at all.

We just had a discussion about the TV situation, and we also had a discussion about how we're going to track our expenses for 30 days, starting today.  We figure we're spending too much money on takeout and expensive juices, and we need to curb that.  So today I spent $1.80 on snacks, $4.00 on Girl Scout cookies I bought from a co-worker....

And oh yeah, I bought a TV.  Add that to the tally!  First day out and I'm already saving money on juice!

Another funny thing about Best Buy with Zack was that I didn't bring in my diaper bag.  I didn't even bring in my wallet.  I just got out my bank card and my driver's license, and my phone, and I carried Zack.  I left everything else in the car.  And oh yeah, I actually left my diaper bag at home.  I didn't have it with me when I picked him up from daycare, and Best Buy is on the way home.

It was such a bad idea, in retrospect.  I had none of his stuff with me, not even another diaper.  And it was near nap time.  But what can I say?  I guess he travels light like I do.  He was ready for the whole scene, as long as we could stop for an hour while he slept in my arms.  And that actually worked out great, because then I could really study the subtle differences between the pictures on the models in my price range.  (It was the low range, just to make everyone feel a little better about the TV.) I think this is what that actually stopped me from buying a TV during my other trips to Best Buy.  I didn't have enough time to stare and stare at the three choices I really had, trying to determine if I wanted the sky to be bluer or the butterflies to maybe look more realistic.  I totally opted for more color.  Screw realistic.  I'm a sucker for saturation.

Zack is still waking up every three hours at night to eat, and I think I might actually muster up the strength to try and night wean him.  But for the most part, I find then when I just roll with what he can do, it works.  I have kind of stopped believing I can do much about his naps.  Obviously if he can sleep in Best Buy and Home Depot, he knows when he needs to sleep.