Baby With Cochlear Implant Hears Mom for the First Time in Touching Video

Precious.

Baby With Cochlear Implant Hears Mom for the First Time in Touching Video

A Must Read

This is a story of an abortion survivor.  I've never ready anything like it.

He lost his EYE!

I have to post this.  I don't know if the humor will transfer to blog or not but in reality this was quite funny.
I was at the elementary for artist in the schools day or whatever they call it.
The Kindergarteners were studying Dale Chihuly.  He is an amazing artist who blows glass to create a really interesting and unique affect.  We have a lot of his art in our town and here he seems quite popular.


The Kindergarteners were told about Chihuly's life and how he was in an accident many years ago.  Through this accident he "lost his eye" and was still able to create his awesome works with one eye.  Immediately hands went UP!  The lecturer (for lack of a better word) addressed one of the raised hands.  Of course (you can probably guess) the child said, "Well, did they find his eye?"  Ha!  Every adult in the room started laughing while every kindergarten eye was on the lecturer...waiting to find out the answer.  It's funny when you don't work with Kindergarteners you forget how literal they really are.  The lecturer tried to explain that his eye wasn't "lost" but that it no longer worked.

Even at the end of the "learning time" the kids were still quite worried about his eye.  Hopefully they don't go home asking their parents about Chihuly's eye.  There will be many confused parents.  If you get a minute check out his website because he really is talented.  I'll post a picture of the kindergarten "work of art".  It really does look like Chihuly's works...minus the glass.  We used clear plastic tubing instead.  Blown glass probably wouldn't have been the wisest choice with 5-7 year olds! =)

Twin Love

This one pulled at my twin heart strings.  Check it out...sweet twin love.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127213664&sc=fb&cc=fp

By the way, you'll see that the twins' names are Hunny and Bunny.  I have Great Aunts named Nyla and Twyla.  Must have been the thing to do in that generation.  Glad that's passed.

Is Every Dumpster a Bathroom?

Little Dude has a very mature bladder.  He potty trained himself at 26(ish) months.  He's never looked back since then.  He can hold it for longer than anyone I've ever met.  He's Guinness Book worthy.  (Before you get jealous please know that I spent 2 years potty training Boy Wondertwin and he still has issues from time to time).  Today he announces in a stressed voice, "Mommy, I gots to pee pee white dis minute".  We were driving down the highway and had JUST left the elementary school.  Ugh.

I pulled off the highway into a business park and found a dumpster.  Parked next to it,  Little Dude says, "Mommy, do we always go pee pee here?  I never go'd here before".  After relieving himself on the dumpster he says, "Mommy, we gonna come back here and pee pee again?"

Ha!  No, not if we can help it Little Dude. 

One More Thing for a Mom to Worry About

Dang Silly Bandz!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593585,00.html

Every Parent Does it...

Right?  Worry I mean?  It's normal to analyze your kids and hope they are where they need to be...and are who they need to be (or who you want them to be?) 

I feel like I worry more with Little Dude.  He was VERY slow to develop communication skills...talking, signing, eye contact.  All of those Autism signs.  We were concerned there for a while.  He's talking like a banschee now although we still have a tough time understanding him here and there.  He's made MAJOR progress though. 

Our deal now is that he is SILENT when he is with a lot of kids.  In preschool his teachers think he has no opinions and that he is as sweet as sugar.  At the Thanksgiving party he threw a FIT because I tried to serve him some Stone Soup.  Yikes!  He flipped.  His teacher said, "I didn't know Little Dude did that.  I've never seen any emotion like that out of him."

At first that warmed my heart...he's a good kid.  And then I worried.  He's not normal.

Soccer season was the same way.  He looked like he was watching grass grow.  He wandered around the soccer field in some daze while the rest of the kids chased the mob all over the field...you know how they run in hives at that age.  Little Dude was not even aware that the hive existed or that the ball was on the field for that matter.  Finally the last couple of games the ball ran into him and it appeared that he gave some sort of forward motion that could have possibly been a kick, in some strange altered universe.  Progress.

I wrote the coach a thank you email telling him that despite Little Dude's outward demeanor, he really did have a great season (since he'd been looking forward to it ever since the Wondertwins started playing 2 years ago). 
This is what the coach wrote back in response, "Little Dude was fantastic!  I wish every kid has his demeanor to be honest...sweet kid there."

Thanks God for those little encouragements throughout motherhood.  I wouldn't survive without them.

HCG Anyone?

Do any of you have experience with a diet plan that involves taking HCG orally or via shot?  It's all the rage, or so they say.  I know of someone who has been on the plan for 3 weeks now and has lost 15 pounds.
I don't know how I feel about HCG...I haven't done the research but if I lost 15 pounds (which I think might be physically impossible at this point) I'd be back to my pre-marriage weight...we're talking age 21 weight.
So, maybe the weight loss is relative to the person and not a promised X amount of weight.
What does concern me is the damage that carrying twins and then my 9 plus pound singleton did to my abs and skin.  Pretty sure no amount of HCG could fix that...
Maybe what I should be asking is...does anyone have experience with miracle worker doctors who can nip and tuck...for free?

Couch Potatoes

Via Parenting.com I found the following SCARY information.

Kids Ages 2 to 5 watch 32 hours of television per week.  That's a lot of Dora the Explorer.

Kids Ages 6 to 11 watch 28 hours per week and they say that's because they are in school 40 hours a week.  How do school aged kids have time to watch 28 hours of television?

Am I the meanest mom in America?  My kids are lucky if they get 30 minutes to an hour of TV per day.  There are many days when we don't turn on the TV at all.  I seriously don't see how kids have time for that much TV.  Take today.  We had 4 soccer games, a nap and then the kids played at the athletic club while we worked out.  We'll eat dinner, watch some home movies together tonight and then they will go to bed.  That's a typical Saturday for us...although some weekends we actually do have a social life...well, at least I plan to someday.  Anyway, really?  32 hours of TV?  No wonder this Mom stuff is so hard.  I've been going about it all wrong.  Where's that TV when I need one?

Another Blog???

So, if you've followed Ventalicious for any length of time you'll know that I love a good deal.

So much so that I've gone crazy enough to start another blog...well, that's 4 blogs now.  One is a personal family blog that the grandparents don't even follow (YAWN!  but it will be great for the kids to have someday), Ventalicious, the Twin Club Blog (that I created and help to maintain) and now...drum roll please.


www.4our2cents.com



And the crowd goes wild.

It's just day two for our infant blog but we (my friend and I...I'm not crazy enough to start one of these by myself) are posting like crazy people trying to get this thing up and running.  If you are curious or new to couponing, we hope you take a look because it is our desire to help families live (and live WELL) by teaching them a few tricks that others have taught us.  I have a passion for saving money and spending it wisely.  Hopefully this blog will be helpful to you.

Don't worry.  I'll still have plenty to vent about that isn't appropriate for professional consumption so I'm not going anywhere.  Ventalicious is where I live.

Just Found Out..

that Staples pays $3 per ink cartridge.  I will be getting a $6 check from Staples for turning in 2 ink cartridges.  I never knew...and to think I've been throwing them away all of these years.  If you know of a website/company who pays out more than $3, please let me know.  I'll be researching this one and I'll keep you posted.

Note to Self

Stop printing coupons for free oreos.  I buy them for "the kids" but somehow they end up on my lips...and hips.  How does this happen and why can't I resist an oreo?  Ugh.  Another reason my kids are aging me beyond my years.  I never bought oreos before I had kids.  Dang it.

Boys and Friends

Life is full of ironies and dichotomies, isn't it?  There are so many things about the world that really just don't make sense.  Here is one that has been bugging me for a while now.
Have you noticed that men give very little effort to their friendships?  (Big generalization I know, but mostly true across the board).  It's not a concern to them if they've called their friend a sufficient number of times or if they have hosted their friend's son to return the favor. 
If they see each other, they see each other.  If they have room for a 4th for their round of golf then great.  If not, no biggie.  What has peeved me lately is that since I've been living in my home town, I've noticed that many guys from high school are still in their "cliques" they were in way back then.  They've brought a few in or some have moved away but overall there friends are their friends.  Once group I'm aware of has even brought their wives into their clique and they say it's the wives who have kept them close.  Apparently the women are even closer friends than the men.  Good for them.  What they have is great.  Instant plans every weekend but to get into this group, you would need to marry in.
Women are different.  I know that women are capable of keeping close friendships over long periods of time.  Just look at the Sex and the City gals.  They are still going....and going.  Surely this is the last movie, right?
I don't know what I'm trying to say here other than men have it easy.  They can have a basketball in common, talk once every 3 months and pick up where they left off. 
If women tried that it would be the end of the relationship, never to be forgiven. 
Maybe women have something to learn from men.

Doe Re Mi Fa So La Ti Doe

Okay, so some blog posts just don't go where you want them to go.  See below.  Or don't.  I advise you not to.  It has the potential to be funny when 3 people aren't climbing all over me and begging for food.  I'll go there another day.

I was reading FB posts and was reminded by Jen at www.DiagnosisUrine.com about Little Dude's song writing abilities.  I really should post one.  I am biased of course since he's my littlest pumpkin but I tell ya, the songs he makes up have sticking power.  They stay in my head of days (sadly).

His newest is about Bouncin' Storms.  He's yet to tell me what the heck a "Bouncin' Storm" is but he's a little songwriter.  He doesn't understand that when others want to sing his song that's a compliment.  Whenever his siblings get his little ditty stuck in their heads and happen to hum it while walking down the hall, he threatens to beat them with his lacrosse stick (for which he's promptly punished of course.)

If I can get him to sing it on video I will post it.  That way you can have his songs stuck in your head too.  Lovely.

Story Time Anyone?

I tend to make things up.  A lot of things, really.  Not lying.  I hate lying. But I think, in my head, I try to explain things around me.  Maybe they are right, maybe they aren't. They're subjective things so it can't be proven one way or another.

I'm not the only one who does this.  When we moved into our first house, back in the Dallas days, our neighbors across the street were moving in too.  My in laws decided they were mormons.  Generally speaking, there really isn't a certain "dress code" for Mormons, right?  Muslims where their head garb and Jewish people might wear a "cap" but Mormons?  After inquiring (and I always wish I hadn't) my mother in law goes on to convince me that these new neighbors have to be Mormons because they have a lot of kids. Well, it turns out that "all of those kids" happened to belong to the families that were helping this couple move.  They didn't even have kids at all.

My sister in law and her husband are masters at making things up.  The best was when they decided that their old middle school principal was gay.  They had so many reasons for this.  The most prominent one was because he spent a lot of time at the gym and shave his arms and legs.  Turns out he got married a few years later. Ha. 

I have more to say but these little banshees are begging for milk.  How dare they demand so much.

Conservative Texas Hubby Turns Socialist

Silly Bandz HELL has hit our home. Sorry. I don't mean profanity, I mean the place...and it has spread to our home. I'm wishing those things were non-existent. Some kind child or two passed a few (okay, like 20) Silly Bandz on to my twins. Sounds generous, right?

Not two minutes after my kids crossed my threshold, Little Dude was BAWLING, screaming and making all kinds of atrocious noises that words won't correctly portray. Not just Little Dude. The twins were fighting over who gave what to who and if one was willing to trade for another.

AHHH! (Insert Calgon Take Me AWAY commercial here).

Silly Bandz War 1.o was still raging when hubby got home. He couldn't handle the noise anymore and demanded that Girl Wondertwin pass off several of her Silly Bandz onto Boy Wondertwin and Little Dude. He said, "It's only fair. If you have 12 and they have 2, you should share." Okay Karl Marx.

I presented to him the irony that in real life he's all about conservatism and capitalism but under out own roof it's "from each as he is able, to each as he has need" (not a direct quote b/c I'm too lazy to google it). His defense was that our home is a dictatorship and not a democracy. Therefore, we live in a way that keeps peace among the troops.

I found the irony hilarious though as he's been railing against the socialist direction of our government but enforcing socialism under our roof. Good for my capitalist daughter, right? She has the social skills to talk other 6 year olds out of their favorite Silly Bandz. Tough luck to the other two if they can't finagle the going currency out of their own friends. Go capitalism.

Speaking of which, who is the evil one behind these freaking Silly Bandz? I need to have words. Now.

For fun, here is a quote from the Silly Bandz site:
"Thank you Brainchild Products for offering such a great product and customer service! I purchased the Zoo animal pack on a whim for my son for his birthday. He took them to school and they were all the rage! Kids are going crazy over these. Since then the school store has picked them up and they can't keep them in stock. The booster club just placed an order too!"
Sara Jessica from Nebraska City, NE

Really?  Because around here every school is banning these insanity producing things.  Parents, if your kids haven't caught on to these things yet, avoid them at ALL costs!

Grumpy is Down!

Eww...today was bad! Grumpy...I mean Little Dude was once again in rare form. It's not rare form when it happens this often. It was my experience with the twins that at about 3.5 years, they chilled and I was able to speak reason with them. Not Little Dude. He is stubborn.

Take today. Against my better judgment I decided to take the trio to a local store that is also a playground. It sells playground equipment and there are at least 15 playsets and 2 trampolines as well as a few basketball courts. This should be any child's dreamland. I told them if they brought a quarter from their OWN piggy bank, they could buy a gumball on the way out. I thought this was a good plan since they continually BEG for these and I refuse to spend money like that. Needless...but well placed by the establishment because you have to pass this candy machine on the way in AND out.

Little Dude was picking fights with his bro and sis all morning. I should have nipped it in the bud when we were home by canceling the outing. I hate to punish the other two when one is out of sorts so I continued as planned, knowing Little Dude was a little tumultuous.

We arrive and we have 45 minutes of free play left. Perfect since I can barely sit still that long. I didn't even see Little Dude for the first 30 minutes. The place is large, quite secure and I stood near the exit...don't call CPS on me. So, the first 30 minutes were peaceful (minus the 850 million other kids there screaming their heads off). Little Dude eventually reared his super cute (and sometimes evil) head and ick. It was bad. He started screaming because he got kicked out of the trampoline line for not waiting his turn. For his behavior I put him in timeout where he screamed like a banshee (causing every mom in the place to turn and give me the evil eye) and then he starts hitting me because he doesn't want to be in timeout.

I grabbed the possessed child, kicking and screaming, and I drag him out of the store. He was mad...and I was madder. (I know, not a word). He was scolded and told that he would have to forgo the rest of playtime, to which he promptly apologized. We make up and go inside. He asks for his gumball, I tell him he needs to wait til the end and he starts hitting me again. This hitting thing is pretty new by the way...not acceptable, obviously and it TICKS me off. So disrespectful. At this point he loses all gumball privileges.

His head then begins to spin around on its axis like the exorcist. It wasn't pretty. He screamed the whole way home and I put him in his room. From there he screamed for 20 more before he finally stopped. I let him out for lunch, on the condition that he take a nap afterward.

After spilling $8 worth of real maple syrup (oh, I was ticked...and while I was downstairs looking for rags to clean it up because it would have taken a whole roll of paper towels) I had inadvertently set the microwave to 4 minutes instead of 40 seconds. I mutilated a pancake and the plastic on which the pancake was sitting started melting and huge fumes of smoke were flowing throughout my kitchen. I was alerted to this fact by the beeping of my fire alarm. After all of this, there was not a peep from Little Dude. He went straight to his room and fell asleep quickly. Even Little Dude knows when he shouldn't mess with Mommy.

What a day.

Discounts on Diapers!!!

Get $10 off

your first order of diapers

use code PINS3818$49 min. total order

Okay, so I'm past the diaper stage BUT I'm still buying Good Nights!  Ugh!  6 years and counting and I'm still buying this stuff.  Wouldn't it be nice to have 3 kids COMPLETELY beyond wetting themselves?  I've recently found (way too late in motherhood)Diapers.com and I'm in love.  Here's a deal above for a discount on your first order AND it comes to your door (be sure to use code pins3818).  I've just ordered 3 months worth because Boy Wondertwin had to sleep without a pull-up last night...and it wasn't pretty.  Ick, that smell is terrible.

So today, I'm thankful for Good Nights and Diapers.com! Free shipping when you buy $49 or more..and let's be honest. That's pretty easy to do when you are buying diapers. Just use PINS3818 for your discount.

Babies

In honor of Mother's Day, I've been asked by BZZAGENT to share this amazing movie that just hit the theaters on May 7th.  It's called Babies and I'm looking forward to this one.  Here's a clip.

This is where I profusely thank the makers of Google...

What did moms do before I Phones?  I get insane questions thrown at me by my kids all the time.  Mostly I make up the answers.  Like today.  Little Dude asked, "Mom, Vhat collyer is a erthquake?"  (What color is an earthquake?)
How the heck do you answer that one?  I don't even remember my response..it was something insufficient to him, I'm sure.

After that came (from the way way back of the van) "Mom, what causes an earthquake?"  Well, kids...

I pull out my trusty Android and google like crazy.  Voila.  The answer to their question and the kids think I'm a genius.  And I am, right?  Um...but I still don't really understand the whole earthquake thing.  Maybe they can teach me when they hit 2nd grade geology. 

How to get crayon out of clothes AFTER it has gone through the dryer...

Not that this would EVER happen in MY home but it might happen in yours so here you go:

• 2 caps ALL liquid 3x ultra
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 cup Shout
• 3/4 cup peroxide

Fill washer with hot water and added ingredients. Let agitate about 5 minutes to make sure everything was mixed well. Then add clothes and let agitate for about 5 minutes. Let soak overnight, run through a rinse cycle. Then wash clothes regularly with detergent and softener only.

I'll let you know how it turns out...hypothetically of course.

What I did on Mother's Day/12 Anniversary

This happens sometimes.  Every 6 years or so in fact.  Our anniversary lands on Mother's Day.  It wasn't a big deal for the first 6 years but somehow now I'm getting the shaft.  Most (unselfish) moms wouldn't be phased but of course I am.  I wouldn't mind an extra day of the year that allows for extra sleep, lots of chocolate and some free (kidless) time with hubby.  Wouldn't we all love a day like that?

I really can't complain.  Today we went to church, hit the grocery (ok, I can complain about that part, right?), I cooked for my mom and family, and then J and I went to see Ironman 2.  Yep.  A real, adult (ok...so it's marvel comics but it's good!) movie at 7 o'clock at night WITHOUT kids.

I can't even think of the last time we did that.  I'd say it was a perfect mother dayversary...wouldn't you?

Now, only if I could have another...

UPDATED:  A special thanks to hubby for making it a great day.  I love him dearly.

Sometimes there are those moms...

Sometimes there are those moms who just put you under the pile.  You know the kind.  My best friend is one of those.  She had 3 kids in 39 months and you'd never know it.  She could raise 3 kids with her hands tied behind her back and blind folded.  She's just one of those super moms.  It wasn't until she had babies #4 and #5 (twins!!!) that she started to act like the rest of the maternal people I know.  She's just that good.  Maybe God gave her the twins so she could finally struggle like the rest of us.

I think I've commented here before about the twinge of bitterness (um strong word...read slight envy) when I see a mom with one baby in hand.  I never had that since I had twins first.  I have no idea what it's like to coddle and love one child...to be able to meet their every need.  To feed them when they're hungry and change them when they're wet.  I remember pumping on one side, feeding a baby on the other and rocking the other twin with my foot in a bouncy seat on the floor, never being able to give to each as they needed.  (read tons of maternal guilt here).

In honor of Mother's Day, there are posts galore on Facebook thanking mom or thanking God for the mom they have become.  One mom wrote this: 

Being a Mom is the coolest job I have ever had!  Although B is not a job, he is a joy.

Call me sensitive but when I see a post like this it hits me in the gut. I don't know if it's that infamous maternal guilt or if it's having too many children too close together but joy is not how I would describe motherhood.  Could it be that her son is only 8 months old and so he's still a joy?

Don't get me wrong.  I love love love my kids and have chosen to be home with them but they are my job.  They are my responsibility to raise and groom to adulthood.  There are (many) moments of joy, of course but motherhood for me is not "joy".  It's responsibility, one that I take very seriously.  

Maybe I'm approaching this all wrong.  Maybe I should be joyful like this new mom of an 8 month old.  Really though, is cleaning out a poopy spidy undy really joyful?  Or breaking up the 85th fight of the day joyful?  Or stepping on a freakin' Star Wars character in the middle of the night (on the way to the bathroom) joyful?  Or, as occurred today, standing in a crazy tornado like wind in 50 degree weather to watch 3 soccer games (at the same time, on different fields) joyful? Note:  I could go on and on here.

It's work people.  Work.  I wouldn't trade it for the world but it's work...and it's work that is pleasing to God in a way that no other work I do could be.  On this Mother's Day Eve, I'm triplely (is that a word? not according to spell check) blessed to have such a stewardship entrusted to me and for that, I'm truly joyful.

Mess After Mess

I've found my job description.  It's what I would put on a resume if I ever had anyone who cared enough to think I might be employable after 6 plus years with children. My brain is truly mush at this point.

But back to the resume...my job description for the past 6 years would be:

I do things so that other people can UN-DO them.  And then I do them again.

It sums up my entire existence.  It's that easy...a mission statement if you will for the life of a stay-at-home mom (another title I deplore)...Domestic Diva, Domestic Engineer.  Well, I haven't found a quality title for my current employ (or lack there of) but my title encompasses my purpose.  Maybe my title could be,
"Do-er of the done, needs doing, and already done but ruined and then done again".

You get my drift.

The World According to LIttle Dude

Little Dude is all about the world lately.  Everything he says has to do with blah blah blah ...in the whole waulld. (world).  Yesterday after seeing the neighbor's new driveway, "Dat id da most booothifulist dwiveway in da whau waulld". 

Translation:  That is the most beautiful driveway in the whole world.

Referring to the weather, he said, "Doday id da most bootifulist day in da whole wauld"

Translation:  Today is the most beautiful day in the whole world.

And the one I'm considering an early mother's day gift, "Mommy u da bootifulist Mommy in da whau waulld".

Translation:  Mommy, you are the most beautiful Mommy in the whole world.

Little Dude may be a pain in my gluteous maximus but he's worth it.

BlogWall

There once was a time when I had witty things to say, or at least I thought I did.  Maybe I was in that deep, deep fog of early motherhood when I thought everything was funny...lack of sleep will do that to you.

I'm digging for dirt these days and I've got nothing.  Even for real authors go through drought, right?  And it's not like I'm making the big bucks over here or anything.

Anyway, just stoppin' in to apologize that Little Dude hasn't pooped in his shoe lately nor have the Wondertwins picked any fights in the kids' club.  I should be thankful for peace here right?  It doesn't mean that they are staying out of trouble, it just means their antics aren't quite as funny anymore.  When a six year old poops it just isn't humorous...but it IS nasty. 

On another note, my high school boyfriend got married this weekend. Finally. He's almost 40.  Good for him.  Wish I could have seen it.  Now there's hope for my 30 something sister, right?  Anyone want to fix her up?  She'd kill me if she read this.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

This is a heartfelt thank you to all of my teacher friends out there.  I survived in the education field for 3 short years and it boggles my mind that anyone can teach for 30 plus years.

I'm so thankful for the preschool teachers, sunday school teachers and of course our current Kindergarten teacher.  I'm not sure how these men and women do it, especially with the state of public education these days but kudos to them.  God has bless my kids with some phenomenal teachers thus far. 

Thank you teachers!

Calling India, Come Home India

I just can't get used to it.  Really.  India.  I pick up my phone, make a call to Amazon and get a man that says, "Shank ooh foah caulling Amazon.  Con I hep oooh?"

Really, I just called Amazon?  The World is Flat is an amazing book (admitting here and now that I didn't finish the whole thing...I have 3 kids under 6 is my excuse and is still working, right?) but it covers a chapter on the outsourcing of America.  Companies profit boatloads by outsourcing their call centers....even if we don't get the most fluent people on the planet.  Weird though, right?

Twitts, Tweats and Trends

Somebody bring me into the 21st century please.  I really thought I was pretty with it.  I blog, I text, I Facebook and update.  If someone had said any of these words to me 5 years ago I wouldn't have understood a thing. I try it stay within the times.  I don't want to be my MIL who is just now getting online...although kudos to her.  If only she'd get an email account.  That sure would make life easier.  But really, I want to be an old lady who knows what's going on in the world.  I give credit to my mom in that way.  She's not the hippest thing (another day I'll blog about all of her teenage tendencies despite the fact she's in her 7th decade) but she stays with the times.

Here's where I'm lacking.  I really don't get this silly Twitter thing. I've tried and tried.  I've had an account for 2 yearsish and I just don't get it.  At first I thought it was like the whole Facebook status update thing and why would you need two of those?  It seemed redundant.  Now I'm seeing that in a very scary way, Twitter is where many under 30's are getting their news.  Their freaking NEWS is coming from Twitter. 

Although Twitter is social, it's not purely social and seems to even trend more toward news (events in the world) than social interaction...although everything is social these days.  Basically Twitter seems to be a way to hide behind a handle and say whatever the heck you want...and the more vague and surreal, the better. 

Here's a link to Twitter's Trends of the Week.  Tell me if you understand any of this...and who knew Korea had rock bands.