And Today is Another Day

I was driving Baby Girl to the pediatrician today to find out why she's still wheezing and coughing. It's a beautiful day so I roll down the window. My arm is on the window as BG and I sing along to the radio.

Suddenly, something hits my arm hard. It feels like someone just threw a rock at me. I look down at my arm...and sitting there? The biggest bird crap I have ever seen in my life!

Not to get too graphic, but, if you weren't paying attention, let me repeat - it was big enough and hard enough that I thought...a...rock...had..hit..my...arm.

Ugh.

What the hell was it? A roc? A pterodactyl?

That bird should see a specialist.

Seriously disgusting.

Thank god I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt. And that I had napkins in the car. But I still had to go to the pediatrician's office with a giant stain on my arm.

While we were there, they decided to give Baby Girl a breathing treatment to see if the wheezing was asthma. If it was, the treatment would help. If not, well, it wouldn't hurt. Apparently, that was a matter of opinion. Let me try to describe what this was like for you.

You know how, in movies, the villain would take a rag soaked in chloroform and hold it against someone's nose and mouth while they scream and try to yank his arm away.

Yep, that's what it was like, only with a really pissed off toddler.

I had to hold the mask against BG's face while she kicked and cried and screamed bloody murder. She didn't care about the cute little fishy face on the mask or my attempts at singing. She wanted that damn thing off and now!

It made me really sympathize with moms who have to give treatments all the time. I hope I never have to do that again.

After it, BG seemed better although I'm not sure if it was from the treatment or the snot being cleared out during the crying fit.

Luckily, she doesn't appear to have asthma. Now, we've got a supply of allergy/cold medicine to try. I'm just praying it doesn't make her totally hyper since we'll be boarding a plane to Dallas tomorrow.


Just her and I.

Three hours of fun in a tight, contained space.

Whoo-hoo!

Back on the Pitching Horse

Had a pretty good day today. We had a pitch meeting at a studio this afternoon. It's a project we've been working on that we hope to sell without writing a script first.

For those of you who don't know what a pitch meeting is, basically, the writer or writers go in and outline the potential script to executives. Then, the execs decide if they want to pay you to write it.

Oh, but it's nowhere near as simple as reading an outline from a page. Boring! Executives expect writers to entertain them. I mean, if you can't hold their interest for 10 minutes, how the hell can you entertain a movie audience for 90-120 minutes?


So, since we write comedy, we're expected to actually be funny in the room. And that's the killer. While we write funny, we're not stand up comics, so if we try to tell jokes, we look like morons.

Our strategy is to pretend we're telling a friend about a hilarious movie we just saw. That seems to work pretty well for us.

This pitch was one of our better ones. The exec laughed in all the right places, asked some great questions which we luckily had answers to, compared it to some really successful recent movies, and seemed very interested.

Unfortunately, that could all mean squat. We've had the same reaction before but no checks written.

Still, it felt really good to get out there with something new. It's been a while since we've thrown some ideas out into the ether.

In a celebratory mood, the fam went out for Thai food in Thai Town, which is one of our favorite places. We had Pad Thai and pineapple fried rice and green papaya salad and left with take-out Rad Na and sticky rice with mango. Yum!

On the way home, Baby Girl was signing and saying Daddy. I said, "How about saying mommy," showing her the sign for mommy. She looked at me, signed and said, "dog," and laughed.

I said, "No, no, mommy," making the sign again. So she immediately signs and says, "dog."

Great. My kid thinks I'm a dog. I have no idea why...


I think I'm quite attractive. But, you know, there's nothing like a baby to make you realize what's truly important in life.

Getting her to say mommy! I'm mommy, not doggie! Mommmm-meeeee!

Obligatory Cuteness...

I'm feeling a bit lazy tonight and it's been a while since I posted any photos, so voila: a photo-post.


Although she kept trying to eat the paintbrush and more paint ended up in her hair than on the canvas, Baby Girl had a lot of fun in her first attempt at creating art.


Ready for the hoe-down in our lovely white-trash backyard, hopefully soon to be upgraded!


Just chilling on the neighbor's lawn.


She seems to like sleeping like this, crazy kid. We have to check on her every night and tuck her appendages back in the crib. All hands and arms must remain inside the vehicle at all times!

The Cavalry Has Arrived!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally got myself another babysitter. My next-door neighbor, who helped me find our previous babysitter, found me someone new to help (making her an official nanny pimp TM Rebecca).

The lovely Iris started this week. Baby Girl's not completely thrilled yet. After all, she had mommy all to herself for the last 5 weeks. Today, when I got home from a doctor's appointment, Iris had BG in her arms and they were having a delightful conversation.

BG spotted me and immediately put out her arms to me. I gave her a hug, then she turned to Iris and waved bye-bye. Iris and I laughed as BG continued to wave goodbye to her, finally resorting to pointing at the door, just in case Iris didn't remember where it was.

Still, I think she really likes her and it won't be long before she's happy to see her, because it means someone who's willing to play outside with her all day.

As for me, I feel a little guilty about how excited I am to have found someone. But, while I love Baby Girl to distraction, she's not exactly the independent type. No such thing as playing quietly while mommy works...or eats...or goes to the bathroom. Um, TMI?

I had big plans for this week, including blogging every day, but I was a little too ambitious. I did manage to get to the gym every day, go to the doctor and the dentist, finish an outline for one script that my writing partner and I are supposed to pitch next week, get through the 2nd Act of a script I'm attempting to write alone, and take a shower by myself!

I'm feeling much better this week and I certainly smell a lot better. Let's hope the babysitter curse has been lifted.

Wishing I Was Pregnant

I haven't really posted about this because I wasn't sure how to get started. It's still a little weird for me to put certain things out here but it seems like that's how you find people who understand what you're going through.

We are trying for a second baby right now. I've always wanted to have my kids be close in age and to get through the diaper phase for all the kids as quickly as possible. We would have started trying earlier but I had to wait until after my surgery, which finally happened in late December.

I was really excited in February when I started having those familiar pregnancy signs - falling asleep on the couch every night, having no appetite, feeling weepy. Then my period was late. Whoo hoo! Big belly, here we come!


I took a pregnancy test and it had a really faint positive line but wasn't conclusive - exactly the same as when I was pregnant with Baby Girl. A few days later, I took another test and this time it was negative. I was really surprised and then I got my period a day later.

Total bummer. I started thinking about how things change so much in your life. When you're younger and praying that you're NOT pregnant, you're so relieved when you get your period or that test is negative. Now, it's the total opposite - so disappointing when it doesn't happen.

We decided to use an ovulation tracking kit to maximize our chances in March. Only I didn't ovulate. I ended up going to the doctor for some tests and it seems that I had an early miscarriage.

Apparently, 30 percent of women have experienced an early miscarriage, before most even knew they were pregnant. Since I've been pregnant before, I just happened to know the signs intimately.

I'm not really that sad about the miscarriage. I know it means that it wasn't a viable pregnancy and actually consider myself lucky that it occurred so early.

What I'm most disappointed about is that I probably won't ovulate for a few months now. It's kind of silly because I know that a lot of women would kill to be able to get pregnant at all and all this means is that our plans are going to be postponed for a little bit.

I was just really excited about having another baby before the end of the year and about being pregnant at the same time as friends.

And, dammit, I really wanted another one of these!