A terrifying, but totally expected, milestone

We finally did it! We finally took down the gate at the base of our stairs and moved it to a tenuous perch at the top of the stairs. The Boy loves it and must have climbed upstairs to say "hi Dada" 500 times before settling down for his nap.

We're still working out the kinks. We taped foam tiles to the ceramic tiles at the base of the stairs, but The Boy made quick work of that; tearing up the tape and lugging the big chunks of foam up the stairs... without holding onto the railing while doing so. Ug!

So, no more tiles until we figure out a better way to keep them attached to the floor. In the meantime I'll be spending lots of time sitting on the stairs, guarding him from a fall and bribing him off the stairs with hugs and stories.

And this is why MS sucks

I read THIS article by Perez Hilton today. It's all about Hef using a scooter to get around Disneyland. Do I feel bad knowing that The Boy's first trip to Disneyland will see me scooting around like a 90 year old? Yup. Does the fact that he's a bajillionaire and was flanked by scooting bunnies make me feel any better? Nope.

Crap!

Now if I could lose some weight and maybe look more like a bunny... that might make the scooter more palatable.

It's almost Easter!

My mom got me an antique Easter Basket when I was very little. Sadly, it was destroyed in a fit of teenage anger and I haven't given Easter much thought since then. Last year Mom hosted an Easter Brunch but this year she's been too busy to organize anything.

I didn't give any of this any thought until I saw The Boy's response to the tiny stuffed bunny Mom gave him on Saturday(in case she didn't see him again before Easter). He loved it yesterday and today he continues to love it. So, it occurred to me that, regardless of how not bothered Hubs and I would normally be by Easter, we've got The Boy now, and he deserves to have us give a crap about holidays like Easter.

So, I just bought THIS shirt to go with this THESE pants he's had forever. Together I hope they will make an acceptable Easter ensemble for a fancy Easter Brunch on Sunday.

And I hope to have my picture issues solved soon, thereby limiting the link action.

Time for some history/word geekdom

My New Year's resolution to read more started out with a bang but has been waxing and waning since around Valentine's Day. The last week or so I've been getting back into reading... again. Cold War action/adventure at bed time, a history of Ukraine and mother effing Pride and Prejudice(still) in the morning when The Boy is working on his blocks or puzzles.

I don't always get to the Le Carre on account of often being in a Boy-induced coma at the end of the day, and I'm actually almost done with Austen, but it's Borderland that I'm really getting into. I actually bought it a million years ago, right after college, and chose it to follow up The Black Sea, which I started reading in preparation for the arrival of my old grad school professor's latest book, Crimea.

My Crimean book was supposed to arrive last month but, when it didn't, I picked up Borderland and I love it! It combines my love of Russians and East Europeans(I never knew Ukraine was that of as Poland until the First World War and that it was also part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), but was also written by a chick! Sorry, woman. I love that.

Anyhoo,I had really been getting into Borderland when, as if on cue, Orlando Figes' tome to the Crimean War arrived on my doorstep. Yay!

Now time to get reading