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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I want my MTV! And HGTV! And A&E! And E!

This post brought to you by Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

CharterMomsLogo

My family loves watching TV. We even upgraded to a 55" flat screen to enjoy our shows on a bigger scale. I will admit that my kiddo watches more television than she should but Mickey Mouse is the best babysitter ever! His adventures with Toodles and the clubhouse gang allow me to do the dishes and shower every day!

We usually watch TV in the morning while eating breakfast and during that time the TV is turned to whatever we DVR'd from the day before: Nick Jr. and the Disney Channel dominate my child's attention. I don't know how Spongebob came into our lives but I'm going to kill the person who introduced that little yellow fucker to my daughter.

What I wish I could do is tell my cable provider what I'd like to see so that I don't feel like I'm being gouged when I look at my bill. The people at Charter Communications know that moms want a say in what their families watch and want YOU to join their Charter Moms Panel on Facebook. By joining this panel you'll be the first to know about Charter's new services and programming and you can tell the company what you'd like to see. Charter is a big company with 5.5 customers but it sounds like they aren't a faceless corporation who don't give a damn about what you want as long as you pay your bill.

Isn't that refreshing? Now shut up, Hoarders is on.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A room fit for a child who is going to leave me someday

My daughter is now twenty-one months old. Do you know what that means?

If you do can you tell me? I'm kind of freaking out about it. It seems like every day she sheds what is left of her babyhood and becomes a real person.

A KID. I have a kid. Not a baby. A kid.

A part of growing up means sleeping in a real bed and after discussing it Jacob and I agreed that it was time for Avery to take that next step. We packed up her crib (which is actually just a pack 'n play; we're ghetto like that) and rearranged the furniture in her room to accommodate her new toys. I want her to enjoy her new big girl room and I think it looks kind of rad.

Want some photos? YEAH YA DO.

Before:



After:

I know that tree decal looks weird but it used to be behind the bed and NOT floating in the middle of the wall. I need to figure out a way to make it not look odd.


Oh look! It's the big girl herself! Trying to escape out of the window and leave me.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Aftermath

There are puzzle pieces and baby doll accessories and play food all over my living room floor.

Santa brought Avery toys. Why didn't Santa bring me a maid?

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Dream big.

Tonight while watching the beginning of the lunar eclipse (which is boring during the first ten minutes) my daughter looked up to the sky and said, "I can't reach the moon!"

My husband and I were surprised. She has never said a sentence of more than three words on her own. I praised her for saying such a big sentence and then corrected her.

"Honey," I told her, "you can do whatever you put your mind to. If you want to reach the moon then you can do it."

Jacob looked at me and our eyes met and we both looked down at Avery.

She was eating dirt.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Knock knock. Who's there? ASS RASH.

This post brought to you by Boudreaux's Butt Paste. All opinions are 100% mine.

My poor child.

She has the cutest little butt but (haha, BUTT BUT) because of our special diet she tends to overindulge in the acidic fruits and veggies. My kid loves peppers and will eat her own finger if it's dipped in salsa.

Don't judge me. We live in Texas. From birth we learn that salsa is eaten with everything and bigger hair is better hair.

So yeah. Diaper rash. Isn't that what I'm talking about?

One day she had the misfortune of being dragged around shopping and was sitting in her diaper for longer than she should have been. Let's face it- when you're out and about as long as it isn't leaking or smells like shit you tend to forget about it. We don't cloth diaper so she doesn't have to be changed every half hour (just kidding, cloth diaper advocates; don't go crazy and try to poison me with your overpriced laundry soap!) but on this particular day she patiently sat in a wet diaper for a little too long. When I went to change her she had a little rash. I apologized for neglecting her and smeared some diaper rash cream on the offending area. We went on with our errands and when we got home she was ready to be changed again. A couple of hours had passed so I assumed that the small rash would be gone. IT WASN'T. The evil fucking rash was bigger. Angrier. Bumpier. Redder. Assholier. Why the hell didn't this cream make it go away? WHAT IS YOUR FUNCTION? I screamed to the tube of worthless shit as I tossed it into the trash can.

I put Avery in a clean diaper sans diaper rash cream and hopped online. I consulted Twitter: "I need diaper rash cream. GOOD stuff. I don't care if it's made from unicorns. Help!"

Almost every reply claimed that Boudreaux's Butt Paste was the best so I immediately handed the kid to my husband so I could run (let's face it- I don't run. I drove there.) to the store and get some (if you go to their site you can get a free sample!).

All of the stories are true! It's a miracle! And I can go on about how it's pediatrician recommended but I'd rather listen to the testimony of a mom who has used the stuff. It cleared up her rash within a couple of hours and she was back to being a nightmare toddler.

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Webcam dump.

Um, that doesn't mean what you think it means.

And now, in lieu of actual content:
















And tonight's pointless self portrait:

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Call me Santa, bitch.

You know how people start freaking out about a week before Christmas because they still have tons of shopping left to do and baking and cleaning and travel and blah blah blah?

Not me!

At least not this year.

We are broke this year so we are spending what little money we have left over (there really isn't anything left over) after bills on gifts for Avery. Thanks to my blog I have a rad new partnership that enabled me to get a really nice gift for my kiddo (review to come!). Her grandparents are setting the bar pretty high and since she has three sets of g'rents I could probably get away with not buying her anything.

HOWEVER if I did that I'd remember. I'll remember every gift she gets this year. I'll have a mental (as well as an actual) picture of her opening her gifts and getting excited with each new toy and I'll know who got what for her. I just can't imagine sitting there knowing that nothing under the tree is from mommy and daddy. She is too little to truly get Christmas and she won't reflect on her second Christmas and say "hey, my parents didn't get me jack shit that year." Of course she won't. But I will. It's exciting to give your kid something that you know they'll love. When you become a parent this stupid holiday transforms into the greatest day ever for your child and for you because you get to make the magic happen.

I want to be the reason the smile is on her face. Is that selfish of me? Sure, we can't really afford much but I will do what I can with what we have and goddammit it's going to be AWESOME.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Did something die in your mouth?

This post brought to you by Toms of Maine. All opinions are 100% mine.

click hereI need to tell you something. Don't take this the wrong way and I mean it in the nicest way possible: your breath REEKS.

Has anyone ever told you that? Have you ever had to tell someone that their breath was so bad that it smelled like something DIED in his or her mouth?

In all reality that person was probably eating meat and that makes your breath nasty. And your shit.

So, what's the point? My poor husband has foul breath. Most days he doesn't eat meat but the dude has halitosis or some little tooth gnomes are burying their garbage in between his gums. It's unbearable.

After putting up with it for a few years I said "Look, buddy, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT." And then he made me go to the store for mouthwash.

Mouthwash! Of course! But what kind to get? I saw rows and rows of the clinical looking bottles of Listerine and thought that maybe the germs need to be burned off of his gums. But then I did some research and it turns out that Listerine, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, tests ALL of their products on animals. Why the hell are companies still doing that?

So Listerine was out. Obviously. Their list of ingredients was also a little terrifying.

So I Googled. That's what a green consumer has to do! You can't just go to the store and easily find products that are friendly to the environment and to our fellow creatures. In my search I found Tom's Of Maine. This is one of the few nationally sold brands of oral care that isn't toxic and is vegan! Hooray! Their ingredients for their new Wicked Fresh mouthwash includes glycerin from vegetable oils and NOT animal fat and benzoic acid from APPLES. That's a fruit, y'all, not some scientifically engineered chemical.

Anyway, Tom's is rad and vegan so it gets two thumbs up from me!

If you have a minute (and I know you do) you should follow them on Twitter @TomsofMaine and friend them on Facebook! While you're at it check out the That's Wicked Fresh contest page and win some prizes.

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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This post brought to you by Pier 1 Imports. All opinions are 100% mine.

I'm sure that you all have heard (read?) about how much I hate the holidays but reality that isn't entirely true. I hate the religious aspect of it (Jesus was born in March, y'all) and I hate how stupid people act when it comes to buying gifts for people. My advice? Don't buy shit just to buy it. Gifting for the sake of giving a gift is stupid. Is there any real thought into randomly selecting a sweater or even a gift card for someone who probably owns plenty of sweaters and doesn't really need anything?

I hate shopping for people who don't NEED anything. It's even worse if I don't know the person well enough to get a gag gift (for my sister's birthday I got her a Shake Weight) or something sentimental (like a framed photo of Avery). In fact, the grandparents will all be getting one of a kind pieces of art from Avery because she's talented with finger paints and I like to encourage her creativity. Also? Canvases and paint are cheap and it's the kind of craft that keeps her occupied for at least thirty minutes. It's a win-win!

ANYWAY, just because I'm not getting YOU anything for Christmas this year doesn't mean that you can't buy something for ME. I'm in NEED. Sure, I posted my wish list last week but the more I thought about it I realized that I left off some things that might make my home merrier this holiday season. I have some decorations up but it isn't what I imagine when I close my eyes and mentally decorate my home. Basically what I'm saying is that you need to get me the following holiday gifts and then get one for yourself because OBVIOUSLY:

1.Set of four candy cane dip bowls. If I were throwing a holiday party this would be a must-have!!
2. Shatterproof ornaments? HELL YEAH. If you have kids you can't have breakable ornaments.
3. Snowman cookie jar. That is the cutest thing I've ever seen. EVER.
4. Ornament wine charm tree. What a fun way to display the charms before using them? Now DRINK, damn you!
5. Disco ball ornaments. Oooh, shiny!
6. Red spiral glassware. Like a candy cane except that it holds your booze!
7. Sea animal ornaments. Squids and octopi are huge this year so hang a few on your tree! Ink!
8. Merry Christmas metal photo holder. How cool is that? I would use it to display holiday cards but that's just me.
9. Mercury snowflake candle holders. This would make a great gift to someone with very good taste and modern home decor.
10. Colorful tree. It's 20" tall and would look badass on a mantle. Like mine.
11. Keep Calm & Have a Cocktail stationery. What an great hostess gift!
12. Peace wreath. I would leave this up year-round. Also, how rad is that?!

So if you happen to stop into Pier 1 this holiday season feel free to get me one of each of the above and finish your shopping on a high note while you're in there; Pier 1 is accepting gifts for Toys for Tots and if you check out their Facebook page you can help them raise even more money for the organization.

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Monday, December 13, 2010

Strangers with candy.

Last year was Avery's first Christmas and since she was sitting on her own and had absolutely ZERO stranger danger we decided to take her to visit Santa Claus. We were told about this Santa with a real beard and real twinkles in his eyes and ZOMG maybe he really is Santa!

So we went.

2009


And it was magical. She LOVED Santa. Maybe it's because he rocks a pretty hardcore beard and so does her dad. Who knows, and who cares? I was so happy that she didn't freak out like the other children before her did. They were twin boys and were about Avery's age and neither one of them wanted to be anywhere near Santa. Poor ol' Mr. Kringle tried offering the boys a coloring book and they each grabbed one and then ran out of the room while their mother chased after them apologizing to the photographer.

This year we returned to the same Santa and he was just as jolly this year and Avery warmed up to him right away.

2010

To say that I was relieved would be an understatement. Toddlers are notorious for acting like assholes around strangers and most of them seem to HATE the man in red but not my kid.

So that's a V for Victory in my book. Now, if she would just stop taking off her diaper after she poops.....

Friday, December 10, 2010

An unnecessarily large television: I haz it.

My husband Jacob and I love gadgets. We love anything shiny that lights up and if it makes a noise that's even better. If it wasn't for our lack of extra income we would be ass-deep in electronics.
When Jacob and I were both working we were so careless with our money but it was acceptable since we had all of this disposable income. It was SWEET. One day Jacob and I were talking about buying a new TV and the next day he stops by Best Buy on his way home from work and buys one. Without even blinking an eye he bought me a verrrrrrrry nice laptop for Christmas three years ago and a few months later built the ultimate gaming computer for himself.
Even though I didn't cook very often I still had a lot of kitchen gadgets and the more singular its function the more I had to have it.
Now? We have to discuss every. single. fucking. purchase. We have been talking about buying a Nintendo Wii for a few months and after watching some eBay auctions we still didn't take the plunge. I told Jacob that if we sold the Xbox360 and the games we could afford a Wii but then we saw demos for Gears of War 3 and decided to keep the Xbox a little longer.
Holy shit. We are such nerds.
ANYWAY. I can't remember what I was doing at the time but Jacob was at home by himself and instead of watching porn like a normal person he orders a new television and a bluray player.
Now I know that I can never leave him alone. Or can I?

He also decided to go with a wall mount instead of one of the table-top flat screen TV stands because, well, TODDLERS.

I can't be mad at him. Why? Because I watch it ALL THE TIME and I'm kind of in love. With a television. Even non-HD stuff looks different. It's almost like the cast of Friends is right in my living room ignoring me.  It's pretty amazing.

Disclosure: See that link up there? Yeah, I got paid for that.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

I've been a good girl this year!

If you know anything about me you must know how demanding I am and how greedy I can be and I crank it up to eleven around the holidays. Do I expect any of these items to be under my Christmas tree? Of course not. That just means that someone better not expect me to, ahem, plug in his lights Christmas morning. Without further ado I give you my wish list:

1. 2011 Ford Edge Limited AWD - $38,730 (price with all of the goodies that I selected)

Here's the deal: if I am going to get a car, a MOM car no less, it better look cool. And for fuck's sake give me GPS! My Focus (which I love even though it's kind of bitchy sometimes) doesn't have a working AC adapter so I can't plug anything into it. It's stupid and frustrating. So yeah. Bigger car. I'm a mom now! ME WANT GIANT AUTOMOBILE! Also my car is way too small for two car seats and a double stroller would never fit into my trunk (that's what she said). No, I'm not currently pregnant but as you all know we are going to start trying for spawn #2 in February. Also, my car smells and no matter what I do the smell won't go away so that means it's time to trade it in. Obviously.




2. Marshall combo amplifier - $399

Remember, this blog is Mommy is ROCK 'N ROLL. I have an electric acoustic guitar (which means it's an acoustic guitar that you can plug into an amp to rock the fuck out on James Taylor covers). After all, how will I motivate Jacob to buy a bass so we can jam together? My plan is to have a family band. Avery will play drums and child #2 can sing. Oh yeah, it's going to be sweet. We will call ourselves The Carltones. Gah that's catchy. It's such a 50's Motown group name. How about..... Eh fuck it. I'll brainstorm band names later. Rock out with our cock out, y'all.





3. Bissell ProHeat Deep Cleaner - $199

I'm not even asking for the top of the line carpet cleaner! How sad is this? All I want for Christmas is to fucking shampoo my living room carpet? My banal suburban existence has clearly reached its pinnacle. It can't get any better than this. UNLESS, of course, I have my awesome carpet cleaner!













4. New dishes - $130

We currently have these eggshell white dishes that don't have a shiny finish to them which means that any time one of them gets scratched it leaves an unattractive gray mark. They looked messed up from the moment we started using them. Anyway, folks, what I'd like are some black glossy dishes. That's right. Black. You know what? I'd even be cool with red. Yeah, that would look nice. And I like the not exactly square but not exactly round style.








5. Apple iPhone 4 - $300

Look. Everyone else has one. Oh, and I'll need the extra $50 per month paid to AT&T for having such a glorious phone. Even if I owned a smart phone we couldn't afford the charges. AT&T takes enough of our money and we just keep bending over and asking for more. But then we remember that we can't exactly speak with the ball-gag in our mouths so we whimper as our cruel mistress hits us harder.










6. Derek Hess original artwork - $150-800

I was introduced to Hess' artwork a few years ago by a coworker and it blew me away. It's raw and edgy and it's very emotional. He plays with images and puts them in scenarios that seem off but it's only to make you really look. He's badass. And I want a piece of badassery.















7. Krups Grinder/Coffee maker combo - $140

I know that everyone wants those single serving flavored coffee dispenser thingies but this? This is for real coffee drinkers. I love the smell of freshly ground coffee beans. I also love that it's probably easy enough for my husband to do for me so that when I get up in the morning the coffee is already made and ready for my enjoyment! And with a ten-cup pot well, I could drink coffee all day! Imagine how much I'd get done! Yes! Caffeine for the win!








8. Williams Sonoma All-Clad Copper Core 15-piece Stainless Steel Cookware set - $2200

This is the last set of cookware I will ever need. I dream of creating beautiful stir fry and curries and, well, even grilled cheeze (non-dairy, yo). I would never want to leave my kitchen. I would spend all day cooking and then delicately washing my new pots and pans. I would name them and give each handle a peck before tucking them into a velvet lined cabinet in my kitchen for the night.





I feel that it should go without saying but I know that it doesn't so here it is, my disclosure: I didn't get compensated in any way for this post. I do not work for nor have I ever been contacted by the companies selling these products. But if any of the companies selling these products would like to work with me please check out my contact information. (Gah, I'm a sleazebag.)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The more you know.

The other night I had a dream that Mike Rowe (the host of Dirty Jobs, purrrrr) and I got drunk at a bar and we called KE$HA (or is it Ke$ha?) to pick us up.

Can someone psychoanalyze that for me? Am I secretly longing to clean up pig shit and party with random celebrities?

I know what it means. I read too much pop culture "news" and I watch too much Discovery channel. Can you really watch too much though? Isn't it supposed to be educational? Eh. Not so much these days. I didn't learn shit from Deadliest Catch except for STAY IN SCHOOL AND DO NOT WORK ON A FISHING BOAT.

Knowledge is power.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Toddler Terrorism

If there was a national alert warning for today's errand it would have been rated bright fucking red. Today was a high-alert day. As in, my kid better chill the fuck out or someone is going to report me to child protective services for abandoning her along with the grocery cart at Walmart.

The errand started out on a high note; she was in a good mood snacking on Elmo-shaped crackers and sipping water from her sippy cup while singing to herself in her car seat. Bliss, right? She giggled at me as I sang along to "Dude looks like a lady" by Aerosmith and I made faces in the rear view mirror to keep the giggles going.

Then we got to Walmart (this could have been ANY grocery store; it wasn't so...Walmarty today. The hillbilly count was low) and as soon as I put her in the cart she flipped out and started sobbing and hollering like I was abducting her. Luckily we didn't draw attention to ourselves and I held her with one arm and pushed the cart with the other. At this point I'm slightly annoyed but whatever.

We headed to their seasonal section to look for lights to put on the Christmas tree and for the front yard. She actually let me put her in the seat as long as she could play with a box of lights. Fine. As long as she doesn't start chewing on the cords she can keep herself occupied.

Oh wait! Silly me! Of course the lights only entertained her for thirty seconds. Her attempts to get out of the cart began again so I picked her up but she didn't want to be held.

"PUT ME DOWN!" she yelled at me. Great. I swear I'm not kidnapping her in the holiday aisle at Walmart.

She wanted to push the cart. Awesome. What-the-fuck-ever, Avery. I let her push the cart and I pushed it too so that we would actually go in the direction I needed to go. We were there to obtain food and various household items and even though I didn't have a list I was sure that I'd be able to remember everything.

And then she started crawling UNDER the cart where the bottom rack was missing. Great. My kid was now pushing the cart from underneath it, crawling on the floor. I felt like a winner. Truly my parenting skills are second to none and I was waiting for frazzled mothers to come up to me and ask me "how DO you do it?" while I smile and shrug humbly. Skillz, I haz them.

At this point I'm mortified at her behavior and my inability to wrangle her. She refused to sit in the cart and she would only let me hold her part of the time. When she wanted to walk I had to keep telling her to quit fucking up shit on the shelves.

And yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I said to her.

By the time we left we had spent $200 and I had totally forgotten to get some of the items we needed. It was such an aimless trip and since I spent the majority of the time keeping her from knocking stuff over or running away from me I was too exhausted to go back for the rest of the stuff. It took us two hours to get through the grocery store.

On the ride home she dumped out her bag of Elmo-shaped crackers leaving the back seat of my car littered with little Muppet crumbs. I wanted to throw Avery at her dad when we got home but he was working so I had to unload the car and keep her from having a temper tantrum just long enough for me to put the cold stuff into the fridge.

She drove me to the brink today. If this was a test? I totally fucking passed.

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Lauren
I'm a native Texan who doesn't eat meat. My husband is tall and my daughter is cute. I am loud but I'm shy. I write because I HAVE to write. I love heavy metal and wanted to name my kid "Metallica" but my husband vetoed it.
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