Random and Stuff

- I have a new goal in life. I would like to go an entire week without something bizarre happening with the Fish Tank of Horrors. When I was cleaning it earlier today, I pulled out a rock and took it into the bathroom to do a little extra scrubbing. I failed to notice the Ghost Crab hanging out in a nook of the rock right up until he (she? it?) suddenly lunged out of the nook right at my face. I jumped out of my skin and my innards ran out of the house and down the street, shrieking the whole way. Mr. Husband is still laughing at me and the neighbors now KNOW I am a freak. If they recognized me without my face, that is.

- A couple people asked how I keep managing to get tickets to the Penguins games. It's simple, really. TicketMaster.com is scared of me. If I sit down at the appointed hour for any sort of event, there is a 90% chance that I will walk away with a pair of tickets. The other 10% of the time I beat TicketMaster to a bloody pulp, and that seems to help my future chances of scoring tickets. I've had the magic touch my entire life, which explains how it is that I managed to see New Kids on the Block and Nelson in concert back in the day. For the record, North Dakota isn't exactly the land of quality concert choices. In fact, I had to drive six hours to Minneapolis to see New Kids. Look how nice I am, giving you oodles of reasons to mock me. Enjoy.

- If you haven't started using Twitter yet, you are SO missing out. AFF tells the tale here.

- This thing where the Toddler hauls her doll Baby Shell all over creation is kind of cute right now, but I smell a pain in the arse on the horizon. Methinks I might just have to go buy a twin, just to be safe.

Just in Time for Mother's Day

Every time the Toddler reaches a new milestone, I beam with pride.

The first time she used a spoon to eat pudding all by herself, I felt like I should throw a party. After all, no other kid has ever before figured out how to use cutlery for anything other than evil.

There was the time when she plainly said, "Bye-bye" at the pediatrician's office when she was nine-months old, causing the nurse and doctor to freeze in their tracks in amazement that she was already talking. (We will be ignoring the part where I told them they were smoking crack if they thought she was talking. It took me a few weeks, but eventually I figured out they were right.)

I looked on in amazement the first time she took a few steps without any help.

The first time she saw the Steelers on TV and said, "Go, Steelers!" I nearly burst with pride. The Pittsburgh Sports Fan stage is a critical one, after all.

Each and every time she proves that she knows a new sign, I glow. The knowledge that she currently knows well over 150 words in American Sign Language blows me away.

But, I don't think I've ever been as proud of a new stage of development as I am of today's. My genius child? Has realized that the words "poop" and "pee" are funny.

Oh, yes.

She yells one or the other or both, then cackles with glee.

I know, you're jealous.

Raising a Burgh Baby the Right Way

There is no way that the Toddler will remember the Steelers winning the Superbowl when she was just nine days old.

She certainly doesn't remember how we lent her lucky mojo to her Grandpa's Colts for Superbowl XLI.

But how perfectly Burghtastic would it be if some of her earliest memories are of attending Penguins playoff games?

(Really crappy video, but it was SO FUN to be there.)

(Somebody got a new lens for Mr. Canon for Mother's Day. That someone is a very happy camper.)