The Problems With Phones

They are too expensive.  Little computers that we carry around with us in our pockets are just too dang expensive and easy to break.  On Wednesday as I was walking down our condo hallway with Emmett in one arm and my running stuff (including my phone) in the other, I dropped my phone.  Ok, I’ve only dropped that thing a million other times and I’ve never had an issue with it.  I picked it up and went on my way.  After I got everything set up outside to go run, I plugged in my earphones and my phone wasn’t turning on.  I tried several things to get it to turn on and nothing worked.  So, I went inside and plugged it into the charger.  Luckily that worked and the phone turned right on but it said that the date was Wednesday, December 31 at 5pm.  Clearly that’s not right so I tried to get to my data.  All my pictures and videos were accessible but I couldn’t connect to any sort of towers for service.  If I took the phone off the charger then it would turn off again.  I was at a loss as to what to do.  I went for my run and decided I’d deal with it when I returned.  Well, long story longer, I decided to take it to the apple store to see what was up.  Of course all appointments they had open weren’t until that evening so I decided to drive up to Boulder and take it to the apple store there since they seemed to have openings all day long.  So Emmett and I packed up the car and drove on up.  They got me right in and of course told me my phone had water damage and it wasn’t fixable.  UGH.  I had a feeling they’d say that would cost a little money to get it fixed but I had NO idea that it would cost me $199 no matter what!!!  My two choices were pay the $199 or have no phone.  I left because I didn’t know what to do and with a purchase over $100, I feel like I should talk to my husband about it.  Well let me just say that my husband is good to me and doesn’t ever make me feel bad about things like this.  He always tells me that accidents happen, pay the money, and move on with your life.  I’m extremely hard on myself when it comes to things like so called “accidents”.  You see, I don’t really view them as accidents at all but rather short comings on my part.  Was it really an accident that I wasn’t careful and dropped my phone?  Or is it really accidental when I leave my phone out where Emmett can get it?  I don’t know, I blame myself big time for stuff like that because I always tell myself, “If I had only…”.  It’s such a counterproductive way to live but for some reason I just can’t forgive myself for being careless.

Anyhow, because I was up in Boulder we had a quick visit with my mom at her office before heading up to the Cherry Creek Apple store.  I had left my phone in my hot car and when I got back into my car I decided I’d try the car charger and see what happened.  It totally worked on the car charger!  I was ecstatic!  And ya know what I should have done?  Uploaded any photos that I hadn’t to flickr and sent videos that weren’t backed to someone so that I could retrieve them later.  Yeah, that’s what I should have done.  Of course I didn’t do that though.  I drove back to Denver and listened to Pandora.  I also called my mom and husband to tell them the good news.  Well, you can imagine what happened next…It broke again when I got to Denver.  I canceled my appointment at the Apple store because I knew what they were going to say.  I hoped and prayed it would magically turn back on like it did in the car but no such luck.  That night I was out of a phone and the next day, actually just yesterday, I finally did something about it.  One more Apple store and 3 visits to the Verizon store later, I have an iphone 5.  I’m not dissatisfied with it but I really just wish they could have fixed my iphone 4S.  That’s the phone I really want.  I JUST purchased a cover for it about 3 weeks ago.  And of course the cover won’t fit onto this iphone.  It’s such a money scam.  I hate this industry, technology.  My husband is going to hate me when he reads this.  But seriously, you can’t fix the phone!?  It has to be replaced!?  That’s the only option!?  I find that hard to believe.  The worst part is that I sold my phone back to Verizon and they gave me $27 for it!!!  At least with Verizon they didn’t lie to me and tell me the phone had “water damage” which is what the two Apple stores told me.  Verizon said there was absolutely no visible sign of water damage.  I have always been a loyal Verizon customer and as always, yesterday at all stores they treated me like royalty.  They even had me bring in an old phone from 2004 and reactivated it so that I could at least have a phone on me, something Apple didn’t even mention was an option.

So word to the wise, check with your carriers first.  Don’t run to apple store.  Not only will they not do anything to help, they will also make you feel like a piece of shit for breaking your phone.

Scenes from Father’s Day

We had a great day on Sunday.  We made pancakes for Emmett’s papa, we went to my parents house for a great lunch of grilled sausage, baked beans in the crock pot, and kale salad with chocolate pecan cookies and homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert, Chad napped, I went to the pool with my own father and we played outside with Emmett’s water toys.  All in all I’d say it was a great Father’s Day all around!

Kale Salad

Until recently I’ve never been a huge fan of kale.  It is tough and chewy and tasteless, or so I thought.  Turns out, I was just preparing it incorrectly.  A few weeks ago I went out to lunch with my mom in Boulder and was quickly inspired by this restaurants kale creations.  We split one of their kale salads and I fell in love and decided to give kale another try.  So for the past few weeks, kale salad has made its appearance in our household several times a week.  We have it for dinner one night then I devour what’s left of it for lunch the next day.  Here is what’s in our kale salads I make at home.  Enjoy!

1 bunch kale

1 bag of frozen edamame

1 box of cherry tomatoes

1 cucumber

about 1/4-1/2 c. walnuts

about 1/2 c. feta cheese

about a 1/2 c. craisons

1/2 a red onion cut super thin then soaked in a balsamic/red raspberry walnut dressing mixture

Cut up the kale and wash it in a salad washer.  Wash it under warm water and massage the kale so it’s not as tough.  This can be done by wringing out the kale several times during the washing process.  Place the kale in a large bowl and add all of the above ingredients until you come to the onions.  Let the onions soak for at least an hour (preferably overnight). When the onions are done soaking, wring those out and place them on top of the salad.  These onions are used as the dressing so depending on how dressed you like your salads you can either save the extra mixture they were soaking on and serve it on the side or you can drizzle it right onto the salad.  I tend to think that there is enough dressing left on the onions to give the salad a nice flavor and just keep the mixture on the side.

13 Months

Is it odd to still be doing these monthly post now that my baby has past the year mark?  I feel like now I should be doing yearly updates but so much is going to happen in these next 12 months that I figured I’d still continue.  I don’t even know where to begin.  I am two weeks behind on getting this post up but a lot has happened in this 13th month of Emmett’s life.  So I can finally come out and say it (and should have a while ago) but we bought a house!  We are so incredibly excited that I can hardly stand it.  We still aren’t moving in for a few more weeks but that happened on May 6th, during Emmett’s 13th month of life.  We also had Emmett’s one year pediatrician appointment.  The boy is 50% in weight, 70% in height and 50% in head circumference.  He’s starting to pass up his usual monthly stats of 30% across the board.  People have commented especially over the past month how tall he looks.  I guess?

This is usual doc’s appointment visit photo.  He looks super tired.  I always do his appointments right around nap time.  Bad timing on my part.  He received 3 shots that day.  He always takes them like a champ.  He of course cries for a few seconds but is super easy to sooth and it’s really do big deal.  So many people talk about how traumatizing it is to get their kids shots but as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather him be “traumatized” than contribute to world health problems!  Everything is spot on for development and we joke that he’s either right on or a little bit behind in development.

He has also started brushing his teeth!  We aren’t very regular with it and one time he even gagged himself before bedtime and threw up while brushing his teeth but we’re trying!  He usually lets me brush his teeth first and then I let him do it himself.

Through out the month of May, we went to several birthday parties as well.  Emmett (and his parents!) are very blessed to have so many friends already.  Here are a few of the birthday parties we went to.  All of them were outside.  We were planning on having his outside but it rained the whole day.  I guess that’s what happens when you try to have a party in Kansas City 😉 (just kidding KC peeps!  His birthday still turned out great indoors!).

We missed one on the weekend of his own birthday and we still have one more later in June to go to and then all the babies will have officially hit the year mark.  I got to celebrate my second Mother’s Day as well.  The Thursday before Mother’s Day there was a free sensory event at Whole Foods that we went to.  It was great.  Emmett got to play with dried beans and rice with a bunch of other babies.  One of my friends from birth class told us about it and so we knew almost everyone who attended.  It was a great even because someone from the Motherhood was running it and is a baby expert.  We got to ask her tons of questions and get advice for free.  It was so much fun to watch Emmett experience all the new sensations and I can’t wait to move into our house so that I have room to set something up like this.

Mother’s Day itself was great.  We actually did a 5k together (Emmett and I) with all the mommas from birth class at City Park while the dads made us brunch.  We ran with our little ones in the strollers.  It was a huge success and sadly enough I didn’t take a single picture of us at the brunch with all the wonderful food.  So moving right along, Emmett still really enjoys riding in my beloved BOB.  He has really just learned to except there’s no way around it.  I think he likes seeing all the people we pass at the park, all the different dogs, all the squirrels and of course all the other babies.  He sometimes falls asleep in there but more often than not, he just talks and talks and is perfectly content just being along for the ride.

Emmett has also really started showing a distinct personality for liking and disliking things.  He really tells you when he’s done with food or doesn’t want you to hold him or be around him.  He’s developed a sort of hitting reflex if you will.  If you’re holding him and he doesn’t want what you have to offer, he’ll hall of and hit you.  Sometimes while I’m sitting and he’s standing using me as a support, if he wants my attention, he’ll pinch me.  I try to reprimand him and not to laugh but it really is hilarious.

He is also doing really well at picking up what we call party tricks.  He knows “So big” where he raises his hands over his head, “So strong” where he balls his fists up and shows his biceps, “Home Alone” where he puts both hands on his head like Kevin McCalister from home alone, “More” where he balls his fists up and claps them together to show us he wants more of something, “Sadie Come” where he pats the side of his thigh to get the dog to come over, “Where’s so and so’s nose?” where he points to that person’s nose, ” and we are working on “Are you a pirate?” where he’s supposed to cover one eye.  That one looks more like “home alone” though.  He also points at EVERYTHING!  Lights, cars, people, dogs, you name it, he points at it.  He’s so advanced 🙂

Much to my chagrin, Emmett got his first hair cut too.  It was getting a bit out of control but we received so many comments on it.  Good or bad, it was such a conversation starter so I was a little sad to see his lovely locks go.  Let’s be honest though, he really doesn’t have a single “lock”.  It’s all straight and totally stringy.  Even still, it was hard to see his newborn hair be chopped off.  But he did great and found an ash tray on the side of the chair to play with to get him through the entire haircut.

Most babies are walking by now but not Emmett.  He can stand with the best of them but forget about walking.  He won’t even take a step.  He also doesn’t want anything to do with holding onto our hands and having us walk behind him.  The second we try to do this, he falls to the floor and his legs become noodles.  People keep telling me that it’s better when they can’t walk but honestly he crawls so fast, I don’t think it would make a lick of difference.  I think it would make my life a tad easier because I wouldn’t have to constantly watch him at the baby pool!  I look at other kids who can stand and walk in the water and am a little envious!  Not to mention when we go to the park and he can’t walk around, he gets his knees so scraped up.  Oh well, maybe next month.

Emmett also has finally switched over to his big boy car seat.  Gone are the days where he could fit snugly in his bucket car seat.  I actually took a photo of him on his last day using his bucket car seat.

He slept better in that thing than he does in his new one but we had to make the switch.  His legs were hanging over the end and it was really hard to buckle him in.  I think he’s much happier in his new one over all.

And of course sleep.  Wow, is it ever going well.  He sleeps pretty much from 6:30ish-7pm all the way through to about 7-8ish in the morning.  He sometimes wakes up here and there but we rarely go and attend to him if he wakes.  He’s pretty good at just putting himself back to sleep.  It’s so nice because I can get a lot done in the evenings and a lot of the times I’ll be up in the mornings before him and can get things done then too.  I have even been on a few early morning runs without him even waking before I get home!  It’s been really nice.  He is also done with his sleep sack!  He used a sleep sack of some sort from day one and we have finally transitioned him into just wearing his pj’s or a shirt to bed!

I think that about covers it for this past month.  It was a big one.  I feel like every single day he was doing different things.  I’m sure he’ll just get busier and more curious as the days go on.  I’m enjoying so much of my time with him.  I love that he’s getting older and growing so well.  It makes for one proud momma!  I can’t wait to see what the next month brings.