the underwear drawer

big mack attack

Good god, hide the cookies, he's in the 6-12 month clothing already:



If Cal is any indication, his size will eventually normalize, but man, is Mack ever a big baby.

Also, does this outfit look girlie to you? I would say no, because what, it's GREEN, but for some reason I could only find it in the girl's section on the Old Navy website. Perhaps there is a hidden Barbie intarsia somewhere in there that I can't see, but whatever, who cares. I love me some stripes.


* * *


Another weekend, another kid's birthday party. Some people complain about this, because their weekend social calendars are just littered with all these little parties, making it difficult to do anything else, but we like them. BECAUSE WE HAVE NO LIFE. Anyway, It's a free activity at a kid-friendly venue, and it's nice to get Cal out of the house and with his friends on the weekend, all sugared up and blah blah blah. I do think I have to start employing my mom's strategy of The Gift Closet, though, where basically I buy a whole stash of little kid's birthday gifts on sale and keep them around for all these events. Most of the parents in Cal's class actually are of the "please no need to bring gifts" or "instead of gifts, bring canned goods for the food bank" variety, but still, there are occasionally some birthday gifts exchanged, and since I always forget this involves a last minute run to Borders the day before to pick up yet another copy of "Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late!" (An excellent kid's book, by the way.)

Yesterday the party was at 1:30pm, which implied to me that there was not going to be any lunch, so we made lunch at home for Cal before we left the house. For the sake of simplicity, I just made him pizza and a banana, two foods which require the least amount of assembly and preparation possible. Midway through lunch, this exchange, per Joe:


JOE
So how are you liking that lunch? Looks good.

CAL
It's good. I love pizza and bananas together. It just makes good sense.

JOE
Makes good sense, huh?

CAL
But you know what doesn't make good sense?

JOE
What?

CAL
You farting.


I've said it before and I'll say it again: this house is lousy with BOYS.


* * *




A few weeks ago we got some of that Two Buck Chuck from Trader Joe's, which, for those who don't shop there, is basically the very extremely cheap but reportedly good house wine. (Actually, it costs $2.50 now, but Two-and-a-Half Buck Chuck is something of a mouthful, and anyway sounds too much like "Two and a Half Men," that show with Charlie Sheen and Duckie from "Pretty In Pink.") I actually had a patient this summer who was a wine distributor out of Manhattan, and he swore to me--though perhaps the midazolam had affected his recall--that in his expert opinion, Two Buck Chuck was as good if not better than many of the much more expensive wines he has tried. So with that endorsement in mind, we bought a bottle of the Shiraz and a bottle of Merlot, just to keep around.

Not that I'm some kind of wine connoisseur or anything like that (actually, I barely drink at all) but I've been wanting to try this wine since we got it. But now that I'm back at work, there's never a window for me to drink it. I don't want to have a glass during the work week, because I feel too rushed in the evenings and if there's the off chance that it will make it difficult for me to wake up the following morning, I have to shun it. (See also: allergy medicine in the Spring.) Ditto Sunday evenings. Friday evening Joe doesn't get home until late, so I don't have any hands free, nor the patience to taste anything more nuanced than chicken nuggets and ketchup. So really, the only window I have is Saturday evening, which I missed this week. And the week before. And the week before that.

But never fear, I will try again next week! And for those purists who frown at the idea of me having a glass of wine when I'm breastfeeding, it's called first-pass metabolism, people. And anyway, I hear babies love the sauce.