Chop Suey

My title's meaning is two-fold: it's both literal and rhetorical. Literally, I'm making Chinese food tonight. I'm attempting my first from-scratch stir fry. I have a big-ass bag of white rice, 12 stalks of broccoli, a bag of baby carrots, a bag of frozen snap peas, sesame oil and soy sauce. Wish me luck!

Rhetorically, my post today will be "mixed pieces" of my life as it stands. Complaints, commentary, and happy notes. Bon appetit.

~ I feel sorry for my son, I really do. He's cut his two bottom teeth already, about a month or two ago. Last week he cut his right lateral incisor. This week he's cutting his left incisor and possibly his left lateral incisor. Right incisor isn't far behind. So his gums are swollen and he's in a lot of pain. He's grumpy, whiny, clingy and all-together miserable and I really can't blame the guy! But GODDAMMIT!!!! Must he keep biting me? Seriously? He bites my leg if he's standing up in front of me, he bites my hand if it gets too close, and today he made like he was going to kiss me and sucked in my bottom lip and bit the fark out of it. I'm honestly surprised I didn't bleed.

~ That aside, he's just the Prodigal Baby. He's cruising and starting to stand independently, he's trying his damnedest to say "kitty," although it's coming out more like "dit-dee," and he's totally feeding himself. He's also, when he's not teething, the happiest baby in the world! He's sleeping through the night, despite teething, and that is SUCH a relief.

~ My daughter. She's really picking things up like a giant magnet in a room full of paper clips. Her speech has become so complex considering where she was a year ago and she's learning manners. She knows "please" and "thank you," as well as "you're welcome," and we're working on chewing with her mouth shut. She loves giving "Biiiig hugs!" and saying, "I loooooove [insert object here]!!" It's hysterical.

~ I can't wait for fall programming to come back. I miss my shows. I like "Last Comic Standing" but honestly, I've not been blown away by any of the comics. I was all for Jeff Dye but his last act kinda fell flat. Louis Ramey was funny last week but not so much before that. Rob likes Eliza's comedy, but I'm iffy on her. I was glad to see Papa CJ and the skinny little leprechaun-looking muppet go. Neither of them were ever funny! How long can you play the "I'm Indian and that's what my comedy's all about" card? But I digress, I miss Chuck, Ghost Whisperer, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, not to mention The Office. What will become of Phyllis' secret about Dwight and Angela?! Anybody else on board to keep discussing this?

~ So my birthday's coming up and it's going to suck just like it does every year. It's September 10th and that falls during the "rent paycheck period." Virtually all our money goes towards rent during the first half of the month so there's never anything left to celebrate my birthday. Then we're almost always broke anyway, so celebrating five days later never really happens either! It sucks. I hate it. I know that's very Negative Nelly but I haven't had a fun, happy birthday since I was 18 or so.

~ Is anyone else contemplating Christmas already? My husband's looking at picking up a second job (for various reasons that I'm not going to get into - gotta leave a little mystery for you all, right?) so funds might not be a huge issue this year, but now we're buying for two kids plus the whole family. I'm thinking about baking for them this year. Cookie trees for everyone! Buy cute little Christmas mugs, lollipop sticks, foam blocks, and make Cookie Trees. Good idea?

So that's all in this week's edition of Got Serious Writer's Block Chop Suey!