Meet Baby Jones

Avery got this mug for his dad for Father’s Day last year. Ok, I bought the mug, but it’s supposed to be from Avery.

I use it all the time now because Melvin doesn’t drink coffee. He drinks tea and tea is too delicate to drink from a mug.

Anyway, babes, if you’re reading this, remember that we love you and that we hope you’re having a better day than yesterday.

Whatever it is that’s causing you stress, remember that it’s probably not even going to matter in a few weeks.

Let work be what it is. You can’t control people and most circumstances so just let it be.

Not caught on film and not witnessed by me, Melvin claims that Avery handed him back the pink ball twice during play this morning. This is a cool developmental milestone that I can’t wait to capture on video.

Melvin put me down with some good television tonight. To wrap up our day, we laid side by side on the couch in our bedroom and watched 2 episodes of “MTV Cribs“, “The Office” (the best show on network television, bar none) and HBO’s new series, “Tell Me You Love Me“.

It’s one of the most endearing husbandly qualities Melvin has, when he suggests a show or a movie to watch, confidently assures me that I’ll love it, and turning out to be right. It tells me that he knows me quite well and also that we have very similar interests in programming. Still. That’s good to know considering we’re fast approaching a bifurcation in the road in the music department. I can get down with most kinds of music he listens to, but the crazy trance music that he has programmed in his XM box is, well, just a little too crazy for me.

So anyway, back to the show (aka my life right down to the dialogue). It’s about 3 couples in different stages in their relationships who have intimacy issues. They all see this one therapist who, get this, has problems with her husband as well *gasps*. But she’s a therapist, how could that be?

I really do wonder what Arlene does when she goes through drama with her husband. I imagine that if she does talk to another therapist that in her mind the entire time she’s thinking, “Well, I could’ve said that” or “I could’ve come up with that”. I mean, ’cause really it would just be a matter of just talking to someone at that point because she has all the answers. And if it’s just a matter of just talking to someone, why pay someone just to listen? Why not just write in a journal? Or a blog? Why do you think we have blogs? Because good therapy is far and expensive, that’s why.

Hmmm, that’s an idea: a weekly dose of the show coupled with continued honest blogging hopefully equals good therapy.

Starting today then, my mantra for the week taken from the show: “Have the courage to be happy”.

Melvin and I fight over really dumb stuff [1]. I mean, stuff that we really shouldn’t even bother with but because we are just so worn out with everything else, we snap at each other over the littlest thing.

This video reminds me that not one second is guaranteed to anyone of us. And if I ever lost Melvin, especially after a dumb fight, I could never, ever forgive myself.

[1] Like this morning, we fought over his doggone teeth. Yeah. I know. Really dumb.

Me: “That was really heroic of the Titanic’s Captain to go down with his ship. Are they all expected to do that?”

Mel: “Yeah, they are.”

Me: “Says who? Is it like some kind of unwritten rule or something?”

Mel: “Yes. I saw somewhere where a boat was sinking and the Captain of the boat wouldn’t jump off because he had to stay with his boat.”

Me: “I don’t believe it.”

Mel: “Google it.”

Me: “You Google it. I’m making breakfast.”

After 2 minutes trying to look this up on the internet…

Mel: “I can’t find it, but it’s true.”

Me: “It’s bizarre if it’s true. I mean, is it like a fear of not getting another job because they didn’t go down with their ship?”

Mel: “Yeah, something like that.”

Me: “Either you’re dead or unemployed forever. That sucks.”

Melvin called me this afternoon to inform me that we received an offer for our apartment - THE FIRST DAY THAT IT WAS LISTED! That’s wonderful news considering the current real estate and mortgage mess. I was so sure it would stay on the market for at least 3 months.

We bought Rockglen (we affectionately call her that after the street it’s located) in December 2001 for, at the time, to us, a lot of money. Today, the buyer is willing to pay it’s list price, which is almost double what we paid.

I’m stunned, really. Not because someone wants to buy our property at the price we want or that it looks like it’s going to go at record time (the previous owner had Rockglen on the market for almost 6 months), but because it looks like this is really going to happen.

This is all so abrupt. We only made the decision to sell 2 weeks ago, and now, we’re talking inspection already.

All in all, this is good news. It’s good news because Avery is here now and he needs all of our time.

We tried managing our marriage, our careers, our finances and Rockglen for a couple of years and the result was nothing short of a disaster. All of those areas took a hit because we were running ourselves ragged trying to manage it all. It simply didn’t work. When Avery came, we knew the madness had to stop. Something had to give.

It looks like it’s going to be Rockglen.

Where we live in Chester County, PA, hot air ballooning is quite popular. As a matter of fact, a lot of hot air balloons take off and land at a nearby field. Melvin has been trying to get me to go up with him in one and although I have an intense fear of height, I said I would consider it this fall.

Until I read this article this morning.

I knew it!

I knew a huge wicker basket with a giant, non-fire-proof nylon fabric that flies on bursts of flames cannot be the safest form of entertainment!

We’ll keep looking for things to do as a family, but in the meantime, hot air ballooning has just been added to my list of things not to do. Sorry, honey.

Melvin and I actually got to go out by ourselves tonight for the first time since Avery was born (thanks Mom!!!). We planned on seeing a movie and then going out to dinner, but due to time constraints, we only got to go to the movies. Against our better judgment, we went to see “Transformers”. The verdict? As painful as it is to say (since Melvin and I were big fans of the cartoon version), we absolutely hated it! Ok, a handful of parts were very funny, and Shia Lebeauf is definitely a cutie patootie, but for the most part, the movie was mind-numbingly boring. Timothy, we want our $20 back!!! (Avery’s Uncle Timothy ranted and raved about the movie and said it was a definite “must-see”). It was still our fault though. We should’ve known better than to pay to see anything Michael Bay has touched. Nevertheless, I still plan on buying Avery a few “Transformers” toys so we could teach him to appreciate it when he gets bigger.