Let's give this a whirl!

Well, howdy, everyone! Deano the Bambino here. I discovered the other day that some of my mom's blog friends have babies my age (or younger! Gasp!) who have already done guest spots on their blogs, so I figure it's high time I write my first guest post!
Yesterday was a very peculiar day. When I woke up, Mommy and Daddy gave me this pumpkin (which I'd already found and played with last week, but they don't need to know that!)















They kept telling me to look inside, but I was a little leery...

Finally, I gave in.














And scored myself a brand new book! (I can turn pages, you know.)














After a nice day of napping, playing in the yard and visiting my cool Halloween decorations,














Mommy said it was time to pick up Daddy and go tricker treating. (am I spelling that right??????? I'm just a baby...)














My friend Kate brought her Mama and Papa and we hit downtown Montevallo, where all the businesses were passing out treats. Mommy and Daddy said it was a perfect reminder why we moved back to the south. (Where were we before? Did I miss something? I have a very short-term memory...)



















Isn't Kate soooooooooooo pretty in her Tinkerbell costume?



















I do love the older women...

We scored lots of neat treats, like cookies, candy and freezie pops. I don't really go for freezie pops, so Kate ate mine.



















She even color-coordinated them with her outfit!

After dinner, we headed to Auntie M's and saw Chase in his Viking costume.




















Back at home, some kids in costumes knocked on our door and Mommy gave them candy. It only took her three times to figure out that she needed to take me to the door with her so I wouldn't COMPLETELY FREAK OUT. You know, because if she leaves my sight for a second she might never come back oh my gooooooooooooooooooosh, where's my mommyyyyyyyyy?????????? :)
I proceeded to pass out around 7:30 from all the excitement.

But the excitement didn't end there! When we woke up this morning, Daddy went outside and discovered that someone had decorated our trees!














Wasn't that nice of them!?!? They must know we're new to the neighborhood...

All in all, I enjoyed my first Halloween, but I hope Mommy doesn't try to dress me up like a monkey again today. It's awful hot in that costume.
Later, peeps!

****************************************************************
PS from Jen L.:
Hey, y'all! Hope you enjoyed Dean's first guest post. I fear there will be more in our future.
I wanted to let everyone know that I'll be participating in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), which means I'll be posting a blog each day in November. Be sure to check back often!

Next year we're getting fireman hats

Today was the annual Fire Prevention Parade in Montevallo. It is a TRIP! All the fire trucks in the entire county come to town and parade down Main Street blasting their sirens, flashing their lights, throwing candy and waving to the crowd. There were about 50 trucks in this year's line-up and they held everyone from the mayor to local Girl Scouts. Marcus and I were really excited. This is the reason we moved back to the to the south--community-wide events. (And SEC football, of course) After a quick bite at McDonald's (we went there solely to collect Monopoly pieces--the annual McMonopoly game has started!), we rolled Dean's stroller out to the sidewalk and waited for the parade to start. Dean found a girl baby to flirt with and seemed really excited about whatever was coming.



















(Hey, look! Jen posed for a picture! Pay no mind to her lack of make-up...)
Suddenly, we heard the sound of a drum line and soon, the Montevallo High School marching band, majorettes, dance team and flag corps came marching down the street.














That's the ENTIRE band. If you didn't believe we lived in a small town before, betcha do now! We have seen the band practicing on the field a couple of times and we noticed how few people there were. I told Marcus "Oh, maybe they're practicing in sections." Not so much. At least everyone's marching on the right foot.
Soon, we heard the squeal of sirens. Make that the deafening squeal of sirens. And horns. It was really fun, but I worried that Dean would be scared. He seemed un-phased by the loud sounds, so I held him close, putting a hand over his ear when the noise got really loud. Marcus took some great pictures and caught a good amount of candy.














The parade started with this cool vintage engine, incidentally driven by one of the nice fire and rescue guys who checked Dean and me out after our wreck on Tuesday. It was followed by several Volswagons from the Montevallo Volswagon Club. Yes, we have a Volswagon Club, complete with "Sweet Pickles Buses" as we used to call them.














We call that one "Roll Tide Bug." Anyway, there were a ton of very cool trucks. Marcus was having a blast. He grew up in a family full of firefighters, so this parade really hit home for him.







































































Marcus wants the boat.














This image made Marcus and me cry. We are sappy.
At about this point in the parade, I noticed Dean had laid his head on my shoulder and started to relax. I turned him so Marcus could see his face and...



















ASLEEP. Never mind the BLARING SIRENS, HONKING HORNS and crazy children running around screaming. Can you tell he's a former New Yorker?















All in all, it's a cool event, completely unique to Montevallo. After the parade, we went over to Orr Park where they had booths set up selling everything from Tupperware to shaved ice (yes, I got one!). The local drug store was giving out free shopping bags full of loot. Ours contained Alabama Lip Balm (Roll Tide!), an energy drink, a calendar, some magnets, about 20 individual packets of Excedrin, some candy and a Slim Jim (the sausage stick, not the thing you use to unlock your car). It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning in our new home town.



















Dean remains unimpressed.

This is how I post when Dean keeps me awake all night

I will start by telling you that I have some kind of bizarre thing going on under my wedding ring. I don't know what has happened, but the skin is raw, almost like it's been burned. Marcus is certain I have a chemical burn from using too many Clorox wipes. Maybe so. It's better than it was, but still hurts a lot. The annoying part has been not being able to wear my ring. I finally just put a bunch of lotion on my finger and put the ring back on today. So there.

So, we grocery shop at Publix. I love it. It's a nice store and you can find whatever you need. They carry the right kind of baby food (Dean's a fan of some of the Beech-nut flavors) and my yogurt (soy, because I"m lactarded. It's not nearly as gross as it sounds.) My favorite thing they do is offer a penny mystery coupon in Sunday's paper. You clip it, bring it in and then find out what the mystery item is that you get for a penny! Last week it was Pringles chips. This week it was peanut butter. I didn't really need either of those items, but you better believe I grabbed them up for a penny! Ok, I digress. The one thing I don't care for as a part of my Publix shopping experience is the freaky, over-zealous baggers. Sometimes they are fine. Other times, like today, they are waaaay over the top. I suppose it's the store's policy to have the baggers bag your groceries (duh), then push your buggy to your car and load them up for you. They wear buttons saying "Don't tip." I always feel bad not giving them a dollar or something. Marcus HATES this practice. He likes to bag and carry the groceries so they will be easier to unload when we get home. He says the baggers make him feel unimportant and like his job has been taken away. I think he's being over-emotional about it, but who am I to judge, right? MY problem is that sometimes, the bagger finishes loading the buggy then just takes off to the parking lot WITH MY BABY IN THE BUGGY. Today, for instance, an older woman was my bagger. Y'all, I had 9 jars of baby food and some parmesan cheese. It all fit intot one bag. I was planning to push the buggy to the "lobby," take Dean and my bag out and walk to the car. She threw my one bag into the buggy and proceeded to take off with my buggy, bag and BABY. And I went all New York crazy in the Publix. (This is what all those years of "if you see something, say something" does to you. And it's not a bad thing!) I, quite loudly, screamed, "HEY!" She looked shocked. I noted my tone, smiled a little and said "I can get it." She said "No, ma'am! I'll take it for you!" and took off again. I ran up beside her, muttered something about wanting to stay near my baby and put a hand on the buggy, gripping it so hard my knuckle was white. Dean is fine with these people, who are always lovely, pushing him in the cart. And, truth be told, I very seriously doubt the Publix bagger is just going to take off with my kid, and even if they did, I"ll bet I could catch them, considering they'd almost certainly be slowed down by the weight of my groceries and my 20 pound child. I just wish they would at least ask "Ma'am, can I push your baby?" instead of taking off and giving me a heart attack.

Perhaps I'm over-reacting and this is just one of those small-town things I'm going to have to get used to again. Marcus is amazed by the number of people who come up in stores and restaurants to touch Dean. That doesn't bug me. What do you think? Would the baby in the buggy with the bagger thing freak you out?

The grand tour...well, kinda

Ok, ok! I hear you! You want to see pictures of the house! Well, these will have to do for now. The house is still kind of an unorganized disaster, and is likely to stay that way until Grammy and Papa come next weekend and can take care of Dean for a couple of hours while Marcus and I make sense of the clutter. But here are some pictures to tide you over. As I write this, by the way, Dean is snoozing on the big bed between 2 pillows. He would NOT sleep in his crib or his pack and play. He really wanted to sleep on ME, but I needed to do laundry, so I just kind of slid him off of me and onto the bed. Poor guy. He's still got the cold and has all but lost his voice. Ever hear a hoarse baby? It's pretty pitiful. :(

Ok, here we go. I'm gonna try to get Blogger to help a sister out and drag the pictures where I want them to be. Yeah.

















Here's one of the family in front of the new abode. (Don't look at my hair. That's what happens when I dont use the straightener.) Our plans for the future include staining this deck, then knocking it down to build a cool porch.























This is the new sofa. We had wanted it to be chocolate brown, but this was all they had and they promised that the micro-fiber was easy to clean for when little fingers start getting stickier. Or when little mouths spit entire doses of Tylenol on it. They call the color "Cafe" and we actually like it a lot. And it's REAAAAALLLLY comfy!














Marcus is so happy he can't stand it.














About our giant new flat-screen tv, that is. Which we totally didn't need. But totally love. Epsecially the HD channels. And the football package. ( People are often surprised to find out I'm as big a football fan as Marcus. I grew up around SEC schools adn my dad is a die-hard Ole Miss fan, so it's in my blood. Alabama is my team now, since I graduated from there. Roll Tide!)














Here's the dinette set. It's smaller than we'd planned to get, but we loved the details and the leather chairs. It fills the space in our Eat-In kitchen nicely. And to answer the next question, Dean's booster seat lives on one of our folding chairs that goes with our card table, NOT one of these babies!














And now a brief pause in our tour of the Marjen house to show you the tackiest yard I've seen so far! We were out exploring the other day and came across this. The picture doesn't really do the yard justice. This is about 1/4 of the yard, but was my favorite as far as decorations go. I'm definitely swinging back by at Christmas. Can you even imagine? Ok, back to the tour!














This is the snazzy new bed we got for our room. It's super cozy and sooooo pretty! Note matching end tables. There is also a dresser, but the one they brought is dinged, so we're getting a new one Tuesday.

That'll have to do for now. Next post...big boy bed! The big boy is giving me a hoarse little whine right now, so I've gotta run!

A big dose of local culture AND I walked off the hot wings I ate yesterday

Today was a busy day for the Marjen household! (Marjen, by the way, is our combined celebrity name, like Brangelina or Bennifer.) We left home a little after 8 this morning to hit some yard sales. We racked up at one yesterday, finding the exact crib mattress we were about to shell out 70 bucks for at Target on sale (and brand new!) for only $15!!! We also bought 5 boxes of Christmas lights. I see that Marcus is coming around to my way of thinking. This will make the holidays happier for all of us. ;) This morning, we picked up some fun new books for Dean, a cool set of wooden blocks and a neat plastic rhino for our nephew. (His daddy collects rhinos and he thinks they are neat, so we snatch them up when we see them!) Once we'd hit all the ones that we had highlighted in the paper, we headed to an estate sale. Marcus loves them. I had never been to one...and I will probably not be going to another one. It creeped me out. Never mind the fact that we were in a house that had not been updated since the late 60's, never mind the strong smell of mothballs (and bacon!?!??) in the air, let's focus on the fact that you are DIGGIN THROUGH A DEAD PERSON'S CLOSET! There is something so wrong about that. Sure, they don't need their mop or their sassy collection of cardigan sweaters or their 39 baskets of needlepoint supplies anymore, but something about it just creeped me out a bit. I told Marcus I felt like we should say a prayer or something. Bleh.

Anyway, after that, I was actually still hungry, so we ate at Cracker Barrel, then headed to the Bessemer Flea Market. Uh, ghetto. I mean, how much need is there in Bessemer, AL, for 17 booths of cell phone clips (yes, I counted), 9 sock merchants and a print of the Last Supper on a piece of tin? Like the estate sale, I think this was my first and last trip to that particular flea market.

From there, though, our day got pretty awesome. We happened to notice in the paper yesterday that this weekend was the annual Birmingham Art Walk. More than 100 artists from the area gather once a year in downtown B'ham to exhibit their work, including sculptures, jewelry, photography, paintings, crafts and multi-media work. There's also live music, food and kids' activities. (I really wanted to paint a flamingo at the DaVinci Gallery. I'm just sayin'.) Anyway, we hit the jackpot! We got 3 great photographs and an AMAZING print of a painting for our house! We have decided to do our "formal" living room in a New York theme, using some cool photos or paintings of New York, stuff we bought there, our Broadway posters and perhaps a neat coffee table book, to decorate. This is a painting of the top of the Chrysler Building and the colors will work perfectly in our living room. The artist is making another trip to NYC soon and will be doing a painting of the Flatiron Building, which we hope to buy at next year's Art Walk.

I think this is my favorite day since we've moved. The three of us were together all day, Dean was an angel (he loves being around people and seeing new sights) and we got to do something really fun and local. I can't wait to find more things like this to do around our new hometown.

I forgot this part

The part of small-town southern life, that is, that moves s-l-o-w-l-y. Don't get me wrong, half the reason we left NYC was to slow things down. I'm talking about things like the delivery company Babies R Us told me to call to deliver Dean's crib telling me they didn't return my call yesterday because they decided to close early to go to their daughter's house for dinner and they can't book me for delivery until NEXT WEEKEND. Uh, we'll borrow a truck, thanks. Or the furniture company bringing our living room sofa and love seat (which are great, by the way), but not having the coffee table or end tables in stock. They hope to have them by Wednesday. Rooms To Go also has to bring us a new dresser because the one in our bedroom has a big ding in the corner. But they left the dinged one. Because "Oh, we don't take the bad one, ma'am." Uh, ok. And the Chinese food is pretty bad.

On the other hand, we were able to snag an appointment for Dean at our top-choice pediatrician the same day we called last week to get his cough checked out. (he had a cold) And it takes Marcus a mere 10 minutes (if that) to get to and from work...a welcome change from his 90-plus minute commute from Queens to Brooklyn. And our grocery store ROCKS.

Dean has a date this evening. It's kind of a blind date. One of Marcus's colleagues is bringing her daughter over to play. She's an older woman--she'll be 2 later this month. We, the parents, have been really excited for the two of them to meet. I'm sure good times will ensue, so I'll be sure to snap some pictures to post.

Before I go, I wanted to send good wishes to Molly over at "Lost A Sock." She'll be checking into the hospital in the morning to deliver her third child and first daughter. Good vibes and wishes for a great delivery!

I have to go take pictures of Dean now. He's standing in his exersauces beating the tar out of the little plastic dog that sings "Do You Know The Muffin Man?". What a charmer.

Sweet Home Alabama!

We're here!!!!!! We don't have a stick of furniture and the house needs to be cleaned, but we're here!!!!!!!!! The weather is beautiful, our house is a blank slate just waiting to be filled however we want, and we are SO happy to be in the deep south! My mom and dad left this morning to go home to Oxford. They very graciously came to WV to fetch Dean and me and were a HUGE help over the past few days. Marcus's mom and dad are driving from DC tomorrow (!) with our stuff that has been in their basement all summer. They'll get to stay the weekend and see the house and the town for the first time. We are so very lucky to have such wonderful parents!

Dean is doing great. He's currently playing in his newest toy, the exersaucer. I love the exersaucer. Marcus and I played some scratch-off lottery tickets this summer (and got lucky) and ended up with enough money to purchase said exersaucer. Dean took right to it, especially the parts that play music. I think he'll be crawling any minute. He's got the position down, he just hasn't quite figured out how to throw his momentum forward to get moving. We also purchased bedding for Dean's new room. It's adorable--sage green with, you guessed it, MONKEYS! (Dean's really, really into monkeys.) We'll get his crib and dresser in a couple of weeks, then his room will be all set.

Coming from NYC, we don't have any furniture, so this weekend is about getting at least a couch, dining table and chairs and bed for the master bedroom. I am ridiculously in love with the shower, as I knew I would be. With the stone tiles and cozy set-up, it feels like a spa. YAY. We're still deciding on colors for all the rooms, but it's going to be FUN to fix the house up how we want it! And the washer/dryer? As good as I expected. Maybe better. It dries clothes in 35 minutes. A full load. In 35 minutes. :) I washed a load in my dishwasher last night. Oh, what a miraculous thing to have a dishwasher! I also bought Dean a sippy cup (we went with a Dr. Brown's since we liked his bottles so much). Mom friends, when did your little ones start with sippy cups? We haven't tried it quite yet.

Most importantly, though, the three of us are in a place of our own in a town we will certainly grow to love in no time. Dean and I are heading out for a Walmart/Target adventure later to start our nesting. (And to get some food. When we got here ,Marcus had a jar of olives and a 24-pack of pudding in the fridge. And that's all.) It's so good to be home!