Reflecting on Tradition

I was cleaning out our spare room when I came across this letter to my Aunt from last New Years. Here is an excerpt:

Hi there!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! I wanted to thank you both for your kind words about both Collin and our new home.

We all had a great Christmas with one exception (it's the same exception every year), the dog...Mr. Bojangles. Every Christmas Eve Brian buys his mother Godiva Truffles and leaves them within dogs reach while we go out. And every Christmas Eve Bo finds and eats all 18 Godiva Truffles. When will they both learn? The scene that plays out when we get home is always the same. Brian yells at the dog for being so stupid, calculates how much money Bo just cost him and inevitably utters the phrase,"I brought you into this world and I can take you out!" I have to believe his dad used this phrase alot and this must be a knee-jerk response to anger because while Bo does appear to have my blue eyes and Brian's dark hair he is not biologically ours. Anyhow, while he is screaming I am setting up my cleaning products because we both know that Brian will pretend to be asleep while Bo is throwing up and I will be the one cleaning it up throughout the night and into the early morning. So while everyone is peacefully sleeping on Christmas Eve I am cussing and cleaning up what can only be described in both smell and color as hot cocoa vomit, or as I have come to call it....
hot "Bo"coa. I have to admit that over the years I have become resigned to it and have even begun to consider it another cherished family tradition. Brian, however, gets angrier and angrier. Perhaps he is angry at himself and his apparent inability to stop this occurrence.....

I go on to write about our son, parents, blah, blah blah...

the point is this,

After reading this it occured to me that we didn't buy the truffles this year, hence no hot "bo"coa. I know I should be ecstatic but it sorta saddened me that another holiday tradition has fallen by the wayside. What's next? My holiday zit (which rivals Rudolph's nose) won't show up? No holiday party in which I make an ass of myself? Never losing my credit card at least twice while shopping? These are the unwelcomed traditions of our family but they are expected, dealt with and then laughed about. When they are gone something seems amiss. Then again, maybe I won't miss the zit.

P.S. I also realized that our dog requires more maintenance and bodily fluid clean up than our child.

Lucky You

I have never considered writing a blog before. And I have never made a New Years resolution before. Oddly enough, I have decided to make a New Years resolution to write a blog. Why now, you may ask? Well, with another baby on the way I'm afraid all the little things that happen every day that crack us up, amaze us and give us our "ah-ha" moments might get lost in the chaos. It may be nice to have a place to reflect and laugh about it all. Not to mention, sharing those tiny details of our life with friends and family will keep us close in heart.

You may wonder why this first post is entitled Lucky You. You, my friend, get to hear about the current stressful situation that has occupied my every waking moment for the last two weeks...Doggy Diarrhea. Mr. Bojangles is in a terrible state. And while I do feel bad for him I feel even worse for me. I never know when, where or on what. I walk around the house like a detective sniffing for clues. Busy carpet patterns only add to the confusion with their poop camouflaging ability. Damn them. The worse part is Bo thinks he's helping by going on the area rugs instead of the hardwoods. I can only conclude he thinks they're a type of indoor grass or something.

But I will tell you that he has never eaten better in his whole life! Everyday I make him boiled chicken breast and rice in hopes to control the uncontrollable. I've never seen him so excited at mealtime. I'm starting to wonder if he's putting two and two together. In fact, I tried to give him some Imodium AD and he resisted as if to say,"what? and ruin this gravy train?".
Ok, maybe there's no diarrhea conspiracy on his part, I'm just losing it. Spend all day walking around your house with your finger on the stain remover trigger like you're the Sh!t Sheriff and your thinking would become a little skewed too.