Pig Roast at the Russians'

I've mentioned one of my co-workers, Zhenya, on here a few times. A couple weekends ago, her and her husband Kostya had a pig roast at their house. Yup, they drove up to Houston, brought home an entire pig in a cooler and cooked that pig for about 8 hours on a spit in their backyard. I took a few photos, so if you are weak in the stomach, I recommend skipping this post...

Here are the hosts, Zhenya and Kostya (sporting a Russian smile):

Travis was working that day (of course), so Rachel helped me out with the kiddo a bit.

And, dun dun DUNNNN! The pig:

This whole thing was a little weird, but I was totally grossed out when I asked why some of the skin was gone. Apparently people had been eating the crisped skin all afternoon. Sorry, but I've never been a fan of pork rinds and this disgusted me to no end.

They had to put a bracket around the vertebral column to hold it to the bar of the spit all day. Before they cut it up for us to eat, they had to unscrew the bracket, hence the screw drivers. They eventually grabbed a drill... LOL!

I had a little trouble watching the cutting. Then I couldn't get myself to go grab some meat. The sliced portion was sitting between the legs that had been removed and the remains of the pig. Too much for me, so Scott grabbed Rachel and I some meat. It was absolutely delicious! Just like a pork roast. Ha. Guess that's what it was huh - a roasted pig. What I was referring to, though, is the piece of meat that you roast in your oven in a pan.

At the end of the feast, while Aiden was taking his nap in the house, I partook in several of the desserts.... mini strawberry cheesecakes, Andes mint brownies (courtesy of Rachel), chocolate covered toasted soy nuts... mmmmm.... I really need to start controlling myself or I am never going to lose this baby weight!

Anyhoo, here are my comatose homies soaking up the last few drops of sun as it sets behind the neighbor's house.

Neighborhood Watch

More midnight drama at the Ward's house!

At 12:30am (just after Travis got home from HD) Thursday night I woke up to screeching tires just outside my window. Immediately after the screeching tires came a lot of yelling. I assumed there had been a car accident - why else would someone slam on their brakes so suddenly?

Apparently, another reason is because you are in the middle of an argument with your passengers and would like to scare the crap out of them. I went outside to see what all the commotion was about and Travis followed me onto the front porch. We could hear the people in the truck arguing, although we couldn't figure out what it was about.

Two women got out of the truck and they yell some more. Then BAM. The driver throws the truck in reverse and guns it down the street, then turns down another street. In reverse. That pedal had to be to the ground. His tires were screeching the entire way, dust flew up in the air, and then he flies through Cowboy Willie's yard. Poor guy has had the worst luck lately with idiot drivers turning his property into a high traffic area. I checked it out the next morning and if that guy would have swerved into Willie's yard just another foot, he would have gone down a 3-foot ditch and probably rolled his truck right into Willie's house.

The driver stopped just a few yards later, magically facing the opposite direction, and the passengers started to run after him screaming for him to stop. At this point I turn around to Travis frantically worried that the driver might throw the truck in reverse and run into our house. I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep knowing that some wacko was sitting outside our house with the potential of killing us or our son in our sleep. So, Travis called the police. It took them about 10 minutes to get out, which was a bit longer than the last time we did our civic duty (see link in previous paragraph).

The cop had them stopped for a good 20 minutes. By this point, they were too far away for us to tell what they were saying, especially since they had stopped yelling. It looked like the cop gave the driver a breathalyzer. I guess he passed, because he let him go a little while later. Travis and I drove down that street the next day and we're pretty sure that guy lives in a house on that street. Dumbass.

I'm sure it's so crazy by my house because we live in a crazy town. And I'm thinking it's even worse because we live on a fairly busy road. I can't wait to get out of this town! We talked with our realtor and she seems pretty confident that we should be able to sell our house next year! Let the countdown begin...

Magazine Advertisement

So. Yesterday at lunch, I was minding my own business, reading a Parenting magazine, when I came across this:

Is that teddy bear having diarrhea??

The small print talks about how vomiting and diarrhea can lead to dehydration, hence the need for Pedialyte. Which leads me to believe that my assumption that this teddy bear is pooing out it's stuffing all over the couch is fairly accurate. I understand that dehydration is a serious subject, especially when it comes to our little ones, but who thought this would be a good advertising idea.

Shorties

The other day, Travis was at the back door calling Callaway to go outside with him. Callaway came barreling through from the back of the house - and ran straight into the baby gate that was latched. Travis' response?

"Oooo, right in the face!"

---

Travis and I were watching a program on the History channel about Cocaine in US History a couple nights ago. It said that in the early 1900's, cocaine sniffing became prevalent in the South. White folks quickly began accusing the "negroes" of becoming violent and raping white women whilst under the effects of cocaine, dubbing them "Negro Cocaine Fiends". It was soon made illegal to sell cocaine to "negroes", because at that point cocaine was not nationally illegal.

RIGHT. The black people hated whites because they were under the influence of cocaine. It had nothing to do with racial discrimination and the violence against blacks.

---

Monday night, Aiden started crying in his sleep. He does this occasionally, but I guess Travis was unaware of it since he is gone working most of the time. When he took a step towards the door to go check on him (it really is a horrible scream), I told him to wait 5 seconds to see if he stopped crying because it was probably just a nightmare. Sure enough, Aiden stopped screaming immediately.

Travis wanted to know what the heck he would have a nightmare about.

Taking his bottle away from him, maybe? Not being allowed to play with the DVR? Being forced to eat PURE PEACHES with all their tartness?

That's a lotta gum

How cool is this? A prom dress and matching vest for the dude made out of GUM WRAPPERS.

When Ariel and I were young, we used to go to this local pizza restaurant, called Monical's Pizza (I have to go there every time I visit home now), with our parents. My dad would pull out a bunch of gum wrappers and show us how to make a chain when each one was folded a certain way and linked with the next. Just another one of the good memories from my childhood that I would like to pass on to our child(ren).

Bad babies go to jail

I only get to hear the word 'mama' out of Aiden's mouth when he is upset, and even then it is far and few between. 'Dada' on the other hand, has a regular show in Aiden's speech. NOT FAIR.

Baby Jail from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

9 Months Old

Aiden's new skills:

• He can go back and forth from crawling to sitting, back to crawling, with ease. (He practiced in the tub.)
• He can crawl on his hands and knees, as long as he has bare knees or is on carpet. When he has pants on, he still prefers the army crawl.
• He finally started eating cereal by hand. Thus far he has stuck to puffs and crackers by hand. He is not that great at wielding the spoon, but he sure tries!

Aiden is currently pushing out a canine tooth on the top, right side. He has no incisors on the top yet - only two on the bottom. That means we're going to have a little vampire on our hands! LOL! I can feel the tip of the tooth, but you can't see it outside the gums yet.

Because of this teething, I was unaware there was anything more wrong with him until he developed a fever of 102.8F Tuesday afternoon at daycare. I tried to set up an appointment with his pediatrician, but they had no openings. Starting at 5:30, his doctor's office turns into an urgent care clinic. I didn't feel like sitting around for an hour waiting, so I took him to the urgent care clinic next door that is open 9am-10pm. They saw us right away and we only had to pay our regular co-pay. I was relieved.

They immediately gave him Motrin to help bring down his fever and then the doctor saw him. After a quick once over, he determined Aiden had an ear infection. They gave us some Pedialyte (Travis met me there when he got off work) to give him while the Motrin had some time to work. When they checked his temperature again 10 minutes later, it was down to 99.0, the doctor called in a prescription for Omnicef and sent us home.

I called Aiden's daycare to see if it would be okay for him to go to school the following day, since their normal requirement is a wait of 24 hours after a fever develops before he is allowed back. They said yes. Unfortunately, they will not give any medications unless they are prescription. That meant he would not have any Motrin or Tylenol to ease the ear infection pain all day. I had already told my boss I wouldn't be in Wednesday, so I opted to just stay home with Aiden.

Wednesday morning we got up at the normal time for Aiden's first feeding. I laid him down for his nap at 8:30, but he didn't fall asleep until 9. I decided to lay down for a nap with him. I forgot to set my alarm, so I didn't wake up until 11:30am. AHHH! I took a two and a half hour nap first thing in the morning!! I had made plans to meet with Travis for lunch at noon and I knew we wouldn't make that. I called him to push back our lunch date. I am so glad we made it, because we sat outside at a Mediterranean restaurant and soaked in the sun.

After lunch we took a walk down the Strand, a street lined with shops and restaurants. Aiden loves being outdoors - it makes him smile every time. After our walk, we stopped at Target to pick up a bunch of baby stuff. We started getting all of Aiden's diapers and formula from there and I am surprised to say that I actually like their brand!

It was hard to go back to work Thursday. I felt like I had a short weekend and then had to go back to work early. I gave Aiden Motrin right before bringing him to school. His teachers assured me that he did great all day. He drank both of his bottles and took both of his naps. That means he was feeling good - THANK GOODNESS.

TGIF!