DADDY DAYCARE

Exchange between me and Adrian today at the playground, after I'd arrived from the gym where I had been all morning.

Me: "Why are Jack's bottom and pants all wet?"

Adrian: "I think he might have spilled some water on himself during breakfast."

Me: "Have you changed him since he got up this morning?"

Adrian: "Oh..."

MUSIC five

"THE REASON"
by Hoobastank

I'm not a fan of this song in particular; it's just that this is the only song I've ever sung on the Xbox karaoke game at Katie and Noah's house and received a perfect score of 100%. Not only did I then receive a platinum record, but I also unlocked additional song choices and numerous wardrobe additions. Now, every time I hear it on the radio, I smile because it takes me back to that glorious time when we actually could karaoke on our visits...you know, before parenthood entered the picture.

JACK IS OURS

We've been approached by fellow parents/nannies numerous times with ordinary questions such as, "How old is your son?" or "What's his name?" or "Where did he get those cool kicks?" - you know, whatever breaks the ice as Jack plays with their kid or charge. But today we had a winner when a white woman carrying a black little boy sat down next to us at the diner where we were eating breakfast and asked, "Is he yours?" She then asked the appropriate "How old is he?" question after which she told us the boy she was holding was 16 months, but then said his birthday was in January. Um, that makes your kid (or charge) 15 months, not 16, last time I checked. Now we thought about her weird question our whole walk home - either she couldn't really see Adrian and she thought I was a nanny or she had just stolen her kid and wanted to make sure the diner was a safe place for racially non-matching parent/kid combos or she was just a weirdo or she thought I was a nanny who breakfasts with her charge and a random male adult. To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she gets asked that all the time (which would be understandable, but we didn't ask) and she feels that's the most appropriate first question when befriending other parents. Who knows? But yes, Jack is ours through and through, even if he doesn't look like either of us.

CS/37

Since it was simply beautiful today, we decided to make a trek out to Brooklyn to visit our friends Mark and Jillian. First, we visited the newly opened Brooklyn Flea Market where we were more interested in the food vendors than those vendors actually selling anything vintage or homemade. Then it was on to lunch at Pacifico, a Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating, which was a must for today. While we waited for our table to be ready, out walked none other than Rory Gilmore herself! Okay, okay, Alexis Bledel is her real name, but no matter what she does for the rest of her long life, for me, she will always be Rory Gilmore from the "Gilmore Girls." Even though she came from inside the restaurant, she obviously was waiting for her group to join her and she sat in the waiting area with us for awhile. Adrian even told me she said "Hi" to Jack when he went wandering at one point. Go Jack! And while both Adrian and Mark agreed that she looked like a skinny 12-year-old with a zit on her cheek, Jillian and I agreed that while she is super, super skinny, she is beautiful - and skinny.

MUSIC four

"FROM THIS MOMENT ON"
by Shania Twain (featuring Bryan White)

Sure, Shania does a version of this song all by herself, and Bryan White isn't the best singer out there, but the duet version of this song is one of my favorites of all time. I really wish this was on Katie's country version of karaoke for Xbox because I would sing it every time I was visiting. It truly should have been the song we danced our first dance to because the sentiment is just perfect, but I was hesitant to throw a country vibe on the wedding and it was so overplayed back then (possibly still is). My favorite line: "I give my hand to you with all my heart" - ah, it kills me every time. Maybe for our five-year anniversary, Adrian and I can have a special "first dance" to welcome the next half a decade.

MUSIC three

"ROCK YOUR BODY"
by Justin Timberlake

If you were to have peeked into the discotheque on our hotel grounds any of the nights leading up to our wedding, you would have found me (along with many others) dancing to this song as if our lives depended on it. The only thing that could make the night better was if this song was followed by Noah's song of choice at that time - the Black Eyed Peas, "Let's Get It Started." We were dancing fools who ruled that discotheque until it closed, even on the actual wedding night. Good times.

MUSIC two

"STANDING OUTSIDE A BROKEN PHONE BOOTH"
by Primitive Radio Gods

I had never heard of this band until I met Adrian. I still only know this one song. It is the song that Adrian wooed me with. When we were first dating and we'd hang out at his place, he'd put on all kinds of different music for me that I'd never been exposed to and this song was one of my favorites. It's very mellow and chill and every time I hear it, I can imagine us just relaxing in his room at Bayside Village in San Francisco, getting ready to go out. Oh, there might have been some making out to it too.

MUSIC one

Okay, so I completely failed on my "New Love" theme for March (it didn't help that we had a trip to California thrown in there, then a toddler who refused to get back on his nap schedule for over three weeks, and a second pregnancy that was just ending it's horrible tenure of nausea). So now it's April (sure it's already the 6th, but it's still pretty early in the month) and my angel card theme for the month is "Music." I was thinking how I could relate that to this blog, so I decided to pick random songs and talk about what they mean to me. Here goes.

"WHISKEY LULLABY"
by Brad Paisley (featuring Alison Krauss)

As a huge country fan, songs don't get much better than a ballad sung by two country artists (see: "A Bad Goodbye," "Good News, Bad News," "In Another's Eyes"). When "Whiskey Lullaby" came out back in 2003, it instantly joined the ranks of my favorite country duets. This was back when I still had access to country radio on the commute to work, and I would sing my heart out whenever it was played. Fast forward four years to 2007 to when Jack was a newborn and I composed a playlist for him of songs I knew by heart that I could sing that would relax him and get him ready for sleep. Well, "Whiskey Lullaby" (yes, a song about a double suicide) became my go-to song - it's music is soft and beautiful and the la-la-la-la-la-la-la chorus is perfect for relaxing a tired baby. I still sing it to this day when Jack is being exceptionally cranky and it still seems to work.

CS/36

Last night, my friends Daniel and John were in town and we headed out to see the newly opened "West Side Story" on Broadway. We got to the theatre about 3 minutes before show time and right as we were hurrying through the doors, I saw Dr. Oz (Oprah's top medical authority) a few steps ahead of us. I have a feeling he arrived so close to showtime to avoid being asked any sort of medical questions from fellow show goers. (And, unfortunately, the show itself was just okay, but the company and night as a whole were fantastic.)