My family is soooooo lucky!

Yup...that's what a patient told me yesterday. She said I was sweet,funny and extremely intelligent and that my family is very lucky to have me! She said that I had to go home and tell my family that she said they were lucky. She made me laugh.

I have to start off by saying her name was Lillian. I always get chatty with nice patients named Lillian since it was my Nana's name and Rich's Nana's name which is why Lillianna has her name.
Lillian was 85 years old and very sweet. We chatted about a bunch of things after I did her eye exam. I don't get great patients very often so I really cherish the good ones. She really made my day.

Lillianna always tells me that I am the best mom so I knew she already realized how fortunate she is to have me! Rich,on the other hand....well.....I often wonder what he thinks of me. When I told him my conversation with Lillian he agreed that he was lucky to have me. Hmmmm......that kind of surprised me. You just never know what your family is thinking,do you??

An insult wrapped in a compliment?

Lillianna and I have quite an earring collection so we are constantly sharing our earrings with one another. One time I stood in the living room,arms akimbo (damn! I finally got to put that expression in something!I only hear it used in books.)and I said in that mom kind of way,"For the last time....put....your.....earrings....away."
She held them up in front of me and laughed,"Mom,these are your earrings!" Hmmmm.....who knew?

So the other day I borrowed one of Lillianna's Halloween earrings:a pair of fat,sparkly,happy ghosts. They are quite adorable. They look like the Pillsbury PopNFresh guy with glitter. I try to dress up my navy blue scrubs whenever I can.

I called in a patient who immediately noticed my earrings. She sat in the exam chair shrieking,"OOOOOH! I love your earrings. I gotta have 'em. Give them to me!! I just love them!!!"

I thought she was a little wound up for 67 but what the heck. I said,"Oh,thank you." Then she looked at my earrings again and said in the most disappointed voice she could manage,"Hmmm....they're Caspers....I thought they were cats! You can keep them!"

I was speechless. What could I have said to that?

Have you met Dash?

Lisa finally wrote about the birth of her second son,Dashiell. I can say from 1st hand experience that he is a little cutie pie. Then again,his older brother Trent is so cute I want to bite him. I got to feed and burp Dashiell a couple of weeks ago and since Lisa is really sleep deprived,I could've run off with the child. I only drive the speed limit so I could've never out run the police. That's why I didn't abduct him.

Lisa and I are going to plan a sleep over for me and Lillianna. She's going to take Trent and Lil out to a movie and I get to stay home with Dash! I told her I'd get up and feed him in the middle of the night. I love those feedings!

So hop on over to Lisa's blog and congratulate her on the birth of her precious new baby.

Munchausen by proxy syndrome

The first time that I heard about Munchausen by proxy syndrome I was shocked.I didn't understand how a parent could purposely hurt their own child. I was horrified and fascinated that the parents do it so that they can be the center of attention. Family members,doctors and nurses commend the parent for taking such good care of their sick child without knowing the parent is the one causing the sickness!

I've always hated when Lillianna has gotten sick. When she was about 5 years old,she threw up for the first time. I called the pediatrician several times during the day to update her on Lillianna's condition. By the next morning she looked horrible and I brought her in to be seen. The doctor took one look at her and had her admitted to the hospital for I.V. fluids. She ended up being in the hospital for 2 days.

I was with her constantly. When she had an accident getting to the bathroom on time,I cleaned and changed her and gave her reassuring hugs that Mommy would stay with her. If I could've been sick instead of her I would've changed places with her. My heart ached for my lifeless,droopy and sad child who cried because the nurse put the I.V. in her writing hand so she couldn't color.

Today,Dr.Phil talked about Munchausen by proxy syndrome. I only watched it for 5 minutes and then I had to leave to pick up Lillianna's friend Hannah who was coming over for a play-date. Lillianna watched it for 2 seconds and then said she didn't want to watch it at all. She was uncomfortable with the topic. I told her I'd watch it tonight when it repeats.

I hate the abuse that takes place with this syndrome but for some reason,it fascinates me and I will have to watch it.

I'm the mom!

Lillianan's best friend Mollie came over around 2pm today so that the girls could spend some extra time together before the sleep over starts at 5pm. After a few minutes Mollie and Lillianna asked if she could open her present right then. I said okay.

Mollie asked,"Are you sure it's okay?" I laughed and said,"Ya...I'm sure. I'm the mom and I make the rules. Go ahead and open it."

She gave her a friendship bracelet kit which Lillianna loved but I knew it was the second present that Mollie was so excited about. She had made a framed scrapbook page of their dance recitals for Lillianna. They have been dancing together since they were 3 years old.

I had made a similar gift for Mollie 2 years ago and I had wanted to make one for Lillianna but of course having it come from her very best friend gives it more meaning. Her mom and sister helped her put it together. It is just beautiful. I hung it up in Lillianna's room immediately.

I told her they could each hang their frames up when they room together in college. That would be so cool if they did!

Happy Birthday,Lillianna!

My daughter is 10 today. TEN!! She's been awake since 2am. How do I know this? I woke up to go to the bathroom and she was in bed reading and watching t.v.! I don't think she ever went back to sleep although she eventually stopped reading and turned off the room light.

Since I am a goofy mom,I put notes all over her lunch today.

On her peanut butter and fluff sandwich it says:

Hey,Peanut butter!
Ya,Fluff.
Did you hear that Lillianna turned 10 today?
Lillianna Piccini ?
Ya....that's the one.Hmmm...never heard of her!


On her bag of grapes it says:

A ten year old grape would be a really wrinkled raisin,
don't ya think?

On her bag of tortilla chips:

Ten year olds love tortilla chips.
Well,nine year olds do too
but that's not the point,is it?

On her bag of mini Oreos:
From all of us in the Oreo bag....
Happy 10th Birthday,Lillianna!

On her bottle of water:
Drink me!! Ten year olds need water to help them grow to be eleven year olds!

I also have a few surprises in store for her. I love sneaky surprises. Today is Wednesday which is rehearsal for the Winter Festival she was picked for. I will pick her best friend,Mollie up on my way home from work. She lives one town over from us. Then we will get Lillianna and Ashely from Winter Festival rehearsal. Lillianna will be shocked to find Mollie with me and I'm sure she'll ask why.

That's when I'll tell her we are going out for pizza before dancing school. The 3 of them are in the same class. After dance class,I will take the girls out for ice cream before taking them home. It's been hard to keep this a secret but it'll be worth it to see her little surprised face!!

Why October 2nd is an important date to us

Fourteen years ago today,Rich and I met.
October 2,1993 is the date Rich and I have inscribed in our wedding bands. We got married on November 5,1994 but we thought the day we met was more important than the wedding day.

Ten years ago today was my due date with Lillianna. When my midwife gave me my due date on my first check-up I nearly fell off the table. How could my due date be the very day that Rich and I met? I thought that was pretty amazing.
I went into labor right on schedule on October 2nd and delivered my precious baby on October 3 at 4:59am.

That means my bouncing baby will be TEN tomorrow!! She has asked me to wake her up at 4:56am so that she can savor her last minutes of being nine before she turns 10 at 4:59am. Ya gotta love her.

After work today I'll pick Lillianna up from school and then it's home to mass produce baked goods. We'll make funfetti cupcakes to bring to school tomorrow,a chocolate candy cookie cake and some cookies to bring to my mom's for Thursday and then we'll collapse.

I love her birthday!!!

What makes a family?

Every now and then Lillianna plays this game with me which I call "Real or Not Real." It consists of this type of conversation.

Lillianna: Auntie Kara.....is she really my aunt?
Me: Yes,she's my sister so she is really your aunt.
Lillianna: Auntie Belle.....real or not real?
Me: Belle is my best friend so she's your auntie because I love her.
(Belle is really Liane. I used to call her Lianabella in junior high and high school and over the years it got shortened to Belle.)
Lillianna:Auntie Ida?
Me:Auntie Ida is my aunt because she is married to my father's brother. She might be your grand aunt or something but she is your aunt.


I'm sure everyone has aunts and uncles that are not really related to them but it doesn't make them any less a part of the family. I think it makes them more a part of it because we choose to add them.

With that in mind,I had a great time at Kara's yesterday. I fell in love with Lisa's baby Dash. He is such a sweetie pie. I got to feed him which was so much fun and burp him,which was more difficult than I expected. He does not burp easily. I felt victorious when he finally gave me two big burps.

As we were gathering our things to leave in the evening,Lisa washed Dash's pacifier and then dropped it on the floor. I picked it up and washed and dried it and handed it back to Lisa. She looked tired at that point. She said,"Thank you Auntie Robin."

I said,"Ya....I decided I want to be Auntie even though we're not related."
Lisa asked,"Aren't we related because our families got married?" It was a good theory but I laughed and said,"No,honey. Technically,you are my sister's sister-in-law. We are not related."

We decided it didn't matter at all. Lillianna always calls her Auntie Lisa and I enjoy creating my own family with people I love.

Who have you added to your family?

Twenty year anniversary

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of when my dad died. Twenty years! That is just so sad.Sometimes I can't even process how long he's been gone.
I wrote about this last year so I'll just link to it.

I watched our home-movies this morning with Rich and Lillianna. For Dad's 50th birthday Mom put all our reel-to-reel tapes onto a video and bought Dad a VCR. There is no sound of course and some of the tape is scratched but for the most part,it's awesome.

Much of it is of me when I was a baby up until I was about 3 years old. There is also Mom and Dad getting married,their one year wedding anniversary,Dad and his friends in Fort Dix for basic training in the Army Reserve and lots of family parties.

I love seeing my Nana and Papa when they were young and all our family. It's just fun and sad all at the same time. The amazing thing is that we just watched Lillianna's baby videos last night and then when we watched mine this morning,we all noticed similarities. I love that part.

Today Lillianna and I are going to Kara's house for Trent's birthday and to meet his new baby brother Dash.You may have read their mom's blog over here. Lisa is Kara's sister-in-law and Lisa has not blogged since Dash was born last month. Hmmmmm....I wonder why she can't find the time? I can't wait to see everyone. It'll be good to be together and have a fun day with all the kids. I am also looking forward to spending time with my furry nephew,Cody. I love that dog!!

Remember when flip-flops were called thongs?

I was a kid back in the 70s.When we said thongs we were talking about flip-flops,you know,those in between your big toe kind of rubbery beach sandals. Granted,thong underwear and thong bikinis have the same concept as flip-flops.....there is a big strip that fills a space. It may be a butt crack or the space between your toes but there is a divider involved and it's not often comfortable.

Not to harp on thongs but who thought it was a good idea to invent underwear that intentionally gave you a wedgie? That was one of our worst nightmares as a kid...getting a wedgie. Ahh the teasing that went on when one was trying to right this awful wrong..."Bobby's picking his wedgie....Bobby's picking his wedgie," the kids would mock in a sing-songy voice. Proper etiquette dictates that you NEVER pick your wedgie in public!

Remember when it was a humiliating experience if anyone ever saw any portion of your underwear? Now the girls wear their thongs higher than their skin tight hip-hugger pants and boys wear big baggy pants five times their normal size that they wrap with a belt but their billowing boxers have to be higher than the belt.It's all about seeing the underwear. If a boy saw a girl's underwear he would since,"I see London. I see France. I see Mary's underpants!" Oh the horror!

Let's look at the word,shall we?.....UNDER-----WEAR. If we were meant to see people's unmentionables then they would be called OVERwear or Peek-a-boos or something along those lines.

And while I'm at it,when did the phrase Baby Bump come into play? I am sick of reading a magazine and having someone's bare pregnant stomache glaring at me. The term baby bump irks me just as much as a man saying,"We're pregnant." I wouldn't want to be in the delivery room with that guy.I couldn't take the whining!

Following directions

I was just checking my email before packing up for work and I got an updated field trip notice from one of Lillianna's Girl Scout troop leaders. They're adding in a trip to the Cape Cod information center and then we go on the beach at low tide for exploration. That sounded great to both of us.

As I printed out the directions Lillianna laughed and said,"HA! Directions....that's funny........You're gonna have to carpool!"

Pretending to be stunned I said,"Well that's not very nice,Lillianna."

She looked over her shoulder on her way out the bedroom door and said patiently,"I'm just telling the truth."

Ya....she's right. I can never follow directions. Won't she be surprised when she finds out I actually know how to get there? I used to work on The Cape and it's not far from my office. HA back at her! (I might still carpool though....it's more fun to go with another mom!)

Marcia and Jan in love??

I just read about the newest Brady Bunch scandal. Maureen McCormick is confessing in a book that she and Eve Plumb had an affair. Here's my take on it.

#1) Why come out with this now?

#2) Who is going to feel better by this confession?

#3) I guess it makes sense why Eve Plumb had such bad memories of the show and had to be replaced at some point.

#4)Why can't you just let the public live with our "perfect family" illusion of the Brady Bunch? The more I hear,the more it sounds like the whole cast was involved in an orgy! Barry dated Maureen and Florence. Now Maureen and Eve?

I think they should update the words to the opening theme song...

Here's the story
of a horny family.......

From soul mates to cell mates

Rich and I were sitting on the couch watching t.v. this evening when I said,"You know,I have a great name for a post about the decline of marriage. It's called 'From soul mates to cell mates.' "
He just looked at me and burst out laughing. That made me laugh but the subject really isn't amusing.

I know the honeymoon is over faster than any married couple would like but Rich and I really thought we would have this loving,romantic and soul mate kind of marriage and that just didn't happen.....not at all.

We've been through a lot these past 14 years. We'll be celebrating our 13th anniversary in November. I think that's quite an accomplishment in this day and age but this isn't quite the marriage I had in mind.

I had always thought Rich and I could face any situation as long as we were a team. The reality is,we're usually not on the same team. Part of our opposite perspectives come from the whole Venus vs Mars thing. Men and women are just different. I often wonder why the whole world isn't gay.

Men understand men. Women understand women. How do these 2 groups ever get together?
It can't just be about sex. Marriage is so much more complicated than that. We've tried marriage counseling....twice. We're still married but I don't think either one of us would go so far as to say we are happy. We function. We get along fairly well. We both love Lillianna. We have a lot in common but I don't feel connected to this person. We both knew we were soul mates the minute we met. What the hell happened?

We've talked and talked about this over the years but nothing has ever changed. It makes me sad. It makes me feel lonely. No one should feel lonely in their marriage.
When he left for 6 months over 4 years ago,it was horrible. I cried every single day.When he came back,we said we'd never put Lillianna through that again. I don't want to be without him. I just want us to be better when we're together. I want to feel that connection again like when we first met.

How do you make that happen?

The Birthday Party Competition

For the past 5 years I have worked every weekend so Lillianna's birthday sleepover has always been from Friday night to Saturday morning. I would take Saturday morning off from my ophthalmology job which was 8am-12pm but I still worked my 2nd job from 1pm-7pm. Apparently,without knowing it,this saved a party conflict all these years. Lillianna's classmate Bridget must've been having her birthday party on Saturday which never interfered with Lillianna's party. (Their birthdays are one day apart.)

Since I quit my 2nd job back in May,this is the first time we can have the party from Saturday to Sunday. As "luck" would have it,the girls sent out their invitations on the same day and invited almost all the same people. When I heard this news I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was going to come down to a popularity contest and friendship loyalty. Who needs this crap at 10??

Lillianna and Bridget are friendly in school but they've never been friends. They don't invite one another to their birthday. They don't ask for playdates. They aren't involved in any common activities......but they do have many of the same friends.

Lillianna invited 15 people to her birthday. Four of them are people Bridget doesn't even know since they're not from school so we knew we weren't going to have a conflict there. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The first wave of sadness came when Lillianna announced,"Hannah isn't coming." Lillianna had just been to Hannah's party a few weeks ago so I couldn't imagine why she wasn't coming. Lillianna said,"Hannah told me that since I invited 15 and Bridget invited 12,she felt she should go to Bridget's party."

I'm an awful mother. My first thought was,"Well.....if that's the way she is going to play she doesn't need to be friends with MY child!" Luckily I didn't say that. I have no idea what I said really since I was so stunned that Hannah wasn't coming.

Two girls can't come at all. One is going camping with her family much to the horror of her mother who left the message on my answering machine. Sarah,one of Lillianna's closest friends is in a soccer tournament out of state. I promised Lillianna that she could have a special sleepover on another night with Sarah. She was one of the 3 girls with us at the dude ranch.

So now it's a waiting game. Neither girl wanted to change their party date since the invitations had already been sent. Lillianna and I know that some of her friends will probably go to Bridget's party and not come to hers and that hurts us both. She loves having her friends sleep over for her party.
I told her that it doesn't matter how many girls are here. We will have fun just like we always do.

I don't want Bridget to be sad and not have her friends at her party either. I want them both to have a happy birthday. They deserve that. They're 10 year old little girls!

Have you ever dealt with this situation? What did you do?

Six years later...are we any safer?

I'm sure everyone will be talking about where they were on September 11, 2001 tomorrow. I don't blame them. It was the worst thing to happen to this country since I've been alive.

My question is,do you think we're any safer since it happened? Security was high right after it happened but people get back in their comfort zone and they forget. People relax and get lazy and forget that the terrorism is far from over. I'm not saying we should all be paranoid and anxiety ridden every day but I don't think we should feel safe here. I don't believe we are safe.

I think airline security is a joke. Oh sure,they made Lillianna put her stuffed puppy through the scanner to check for weapons a few years ago but that didn't make me feel safe. Not at all.

If you've ever flown on El Al then you know what safety feels like. I wish Israeli security would come over here and train all the airport employees to be just like them. That would be wonderful! They're not afraid of racial profiling.

Osama is still running around somewhere. Why the hell can't we find him? Is anyone still looking for him? What are we actually doing in Iraq right now? Why is America involved in everything? A lot of countries hate us. We're not going to win them over. They are jealous of us and all the nice words in the world are not going to make them say,"Golly gee willikers....let's not kill the Americans. Let's sit down and have tea!"

I don't feel like we're safe and I am quite sure we will be attacked again....probably soon.

Do you feel like the terrorism is over here? Do you feel safe?

Taking a chance

Lillianna came home today with a notice to sign up for a Winter Dance Festival at the local college. Her elementary school is opening this up to 4th and 6th graders. If they sign up,there will be a drawing to see who is chosen to be in the show. There are no try-outs.

I looked at the list of practices and the dates of the shows. Some practices are on her regular dancing school day and Girl Scouts and they may need additional practice times. I thought about it and told Lillianna that I was sorry but she wouldn't be able to do it.That was over 3 hours ago.

She just asked me again and said this was the last year the festival was being opened to the elementary kids since next year Lillianna's school will close down and will be given back to the college. She will be sent to another school across town.

I told her I was willing to sign her up and take a chance. If her name is picked then I will make this work for her even if we have to juggle her other activities for a while. She jumped up and down screaming her thank-yous. I figure,if it's meant to be then it will be.

Seaglass jewelry

My friend Liane has her website up and running....finally! She has designed the most gorgeous seaglass jewelry. Please take a moment and check out her website.
Uniquelyseaglass

I own this amethyst pendant!
I always get a million compliments when I wear it.

When she hosted a jewelry show on her last visit to Massachusetts,I couldn't believe how clever and talented she was at designing jewelry. We've known each other since we were 12. I am so proud of her accomplishments.

If you know of anyone who may be interested in her website,please pass along this information.

Thank you!

Ya gotta love Judge Judy!

I just adore watching court room shows when people are pleading their case and in an attempt to look intelligent,they use a word incorrectly or just make one up.

I am now watching Judge Judy and there is a couple who asked a neighbor to watch their dog while they were away for 3 days. The dog was ill and wouldn't eat so the nice neighbor took the dog to the vet where he was diagnosed with a serious illness. When the couple came home,they refused to pay the vet bill.

The wife said,"I know this sounds bad but if our dog was so sick we would've euthalized it." Euthalized? I think she meant euthanized!

It just reminds me of Gilda Radner when she played Emily Litella on Saturday Night Live. She always misunderstood things and then had a fit about them. She ranted and raved about euthanasia because she thought it was about the Youth in Asia! She said something like,What is it about the young kids in Asia and why are they all killing themselves? That's all I could think about while listening to the testimony about being euthalized!

That stupid Yoplait commercial

There are many dumb commercials on t.v. but one of the more irritating ones is the Yoplait yogurt commercial where the short haired brunette is a bridesmaid at a wedding. First of all,this brunette is a terrible actress as well being incredibly annoying. She's the one that can't just say her yogurt is "good" because heaven forbid the audience doesn't understand just how good that yogurt really is.

She has to go above and beyond and compare her yogurt to other good things.It's like finding a parking space in the front row good. It's like staying home from work good. Ya,ya....I get it. We all get it! MMMMMMM......your yogurt is good!

Now this Yoplait wedding commercial has me asking a whole lot of questions. If you haven't seen it,the brunette and a friend of hers are sitting all alone at an outdoor wedding reception dressed in hideous fluffy bridesmaid dresses. They have their feet propped up on a chair as they eat their yogurt. Of course they have to say how good this really is.

"It's like not catching the bouquet good!" (What's the point of catching the bouquet? You are so one dimensional. Your whole life revolves around your stupid yogurt!)

Then there is a comment to the effect of "It's like burning this dress good." (Hey....bitter woman,suck it up. Anyone who has ever been in a wedding has dealt with the dress whether they liked it or not. It's a few hours out of your whole life. Can you just stop complaining?)

"It's like getting out of these shoes good!" (I wore flat shoes at my sister's wedding and then ya know what? I put on my big fat white New Balance sneakers so that I could dance without pain. No one even noticed! So shut up about your dippy little sling backs!)

I'm curious to know why these 2 woman are all alone at the table. All the other 15 or so tables are EMPTY! Why is everyone else having fun? Maybe,all the other guests ran as far from the yogurt eaters as they could because they were complete fun crushers and whiners. That sounds about right to me.

Finally......some good news!

The past few months have been so stressful. When Rich was laid off back in February he looked for a new job every day and finally found one in April. Unfortunately,the pay was less but the medical and dental benefits were great. I didn't realize how bad the pay cut was going to be.

We have had such horrible financial problems these past few months and the stress got to be overwhelming about 3 weeks ago. After having 2 anxiety attacks every day,I went to the doctor and got some meds to keep me calm. They've helped but the financial doom continued to hover over our life.

Yesterday,Rich found out he got the night job that he had applied for. This will be from 6pm-11pm Monday through Thursday and then he'll work 12pm-6pm on Saturdays. His day job is from 7:30am-4pm so he can go from one to the other. We are so excited. Now our life can finally turn around and we will be able to pay our bills on time and get out of debt!

I know the new checks won't happen for a few weeks but at least I know money is on the horizon and that will allow me to breathe without anxiety!