WOOOOOO

I did it.   This is my last post for NaBloPoMo.  I can't believe I posted something every day for an entire month.   This is a big accomplishment for me as most of you know, I am completely sporadic with my postings.
Some people manage to do it every day (ahem, KELLY) but somehow I just can't normally muster that on a regular basis.  Perhaps my life just isn't that interesting...hahaha - obviously, since I posted things I was supposed to talk about LAST YEAR.  Oh well...life is busy!

And now here we go moving on very quickly into December...I can't believe 2011 is almost here.  I'm not ready....but it's coming whether I am or not.

Cheers everyone

It's about time....

This will be our 6th Christmas in the house we currently live in, and this is the first time I've seen THESE on our house!

Thanks to hubs getting a wild hair, we

now have Christmas lights on our house - woot, woot!  (not done yet, but it's a start)

I'm feeling like this year I am going to be way more into Christmas because of Adam.  He's finally old enough to get into it, and he says "christmas tree and christmas lights" and he wants to watch a christmas veggie tales video at least once a day.   So, since I am not usually one for decorating or being "christmasy" because I usually dread this holiday - and feel more stressed about it then anything else - I'm thinking it's a good thing for me to have a toddler that is really excited about it.  It helps me focus on keeping it fun for him and not sweating the small stuff.

We haven't gotten a tree yet, but that's next. 

I ordered our Christmas cards, which is freaking amazing because it's not even December yet, and usually I'm all about being last minute this time of year.

And I've done a wee bit of shopping already.  Still have alot more to go because we have alot of family to buy for - but I'm thinking 95 % of that will be done online because I hate shopping.

You all are probably bug eyed right now...a woman who doesn't like shopping and isn't excited about Christmas...I'm like a freak of nature over here - ha!

Next thing you know I'll be baking cookies...mmmmmmm, cookies.

Relaxing Sunday

This morning we lounged around the house all morning, taking long showers and watching Star Wars...and then the boy got rambunctious and we decided to head out for a picnic and some kite flying at a local park.

It was COLD!  But ended up being a beautiful day out there...

We got this Crocodile kite at Kmart for $1.74 on clearance...and quickly realized why it was on clearance because we couldn't get that thing to fly for ANYTHING.  The other cheapo kite we got flew great, but this one ended up in the trash when we left.

 After the kite adventure, we had to go hit the swings because that's his favorite thing to do...as you can see by the look on his face...

 Pure bliss...

Couldn't love this kid more!   Happy Sunday folks :)

Preschool

I believe I mentioned in a previous post about Adam getting kicked out of his first preschool for that whole biting issue.
Well, a couple of weeks after that, his new preschool was able to squeeze him into some drop in spots throughout the summer, and then at the end of August, we started his regular schedule going twice a week from 9am to 1pm.
This has been great for me because it gives me a few hours at least twice a week to focus on getting paperwork and billing done during the day instead of putting Adam to bed, kissing hubs and heading off to the office for a late night.
I LOVE this preschool...he has two fabulous teachers who are very montessori style in their teaching.  Every day I am sent home with an art project of some sort, which I love.  There are as many as 11 other kids, so it's big enough that he has interaction with lots of kids, but not so big that he gets lost in the shuffle. 
That being said - we've been going there twice a week now for four months, and he STILL cries when I drop him off.  We've had a few days scattered here and there when I can leave with him just pouting, but most of the time he's crying and calling out "mama".
It kills me.  I can't even tell you how many times I've left that place and climbed into my car and driven away with tears in my eyes.  Not so much anymore, because I know he's in a good place and I know he's fine when I leave, but in the beginning, when they would have to pull him off of me, him screaming at the top of his lungs and clawing at my clothes...and I'd have to hand him over and just bail because the longer I stayed the worse it got....that was awful.
The first month or so, he would start sniffling in the car on the way there, and then the minute I got off the freeway, he would bust out a sob or two.  I would look in the mirror and his big eyes would be huge and full of tears, just quietly falling down his cheeks.  He would softly say "mama, don't go away"...and then I'd have to talk myself out of just turning around and heading home.  Remind myself why we are doing this - but oh my GAWD that was awful. 
He finally stopped doing that, and now the crying doesn't actually start until we are in the door and I've signed him in and we're ready to go.

One of the reasons we wanted to do preschool was for the social aspect.  He is so content to play by himself, that we really wanted him to learn how to share and interact with others.  Also, he's so attached to ME, that we wanted him to learn that it's okay to be away from mom for a while...and when I say I'm coming back, I AM coming back.
I didn't anticipate him having this much trouble to be honest.  I knew at first it would be really hard - but I didn't think he would still have a hard time with it 4 months later.

Have any of your kids struggled with this?  Or do I just have an exceptionally clingy mama's boy on my hands?

My Love Bank

A couple of months ago, I had my 33rd birthday.  We went to my parents house for dinner (my choice which was appetizers - wooo!)  and pie and presents.  I need to brag about my hubs for a bit and tell you all what he gave me for my birthday gift...quite possibly the most thoughtful and treasured gift I've ever recieved.

First he handed me a box:

When I opened the box, I saw this cute little guy:

Isn't he great?  he's a piggy bank!

When I opened up the bottom, there were tons of peices of paper folded up and crammed inside.  I pulled them all out and ended up with this big pile:

Each peice of paper had the words "I Love You Because..."
and once I started reading them, I realized they weren't just from hubs.  They were from my entire family.  Hubs had gotten everyone in my family to fill out these little slips about why they love me.
(hold on just a moment...I'm getting verklempt...this whole idea makes me choked up)
There were some from my mom:  (please note I did not take pictures of every peice of paper, there were way too many!)

Some from my dad:

 Along with one from him that totally made me cry...

(in case you can't read that it says "I love my daughter because she reminds me of my mother"  - my sweet grandma Jean who died long before I was even a thought.  But who I've always felt a kinship with because people say I look like her)
There were some from my brother:

Some from my Sister in Law:

 And even some from all my Nieces:

The majority of them were from hubs...some were funny:

But most of them were incredibly sweet and loving:

(To explain that last one - when hubs asked me to marry him, my answer was "of course" - so I had that engraved on the inside of his wedding ring)

This gift is something I will keep forever.  Anytime I'm having a bad day or feeling like a crappy person I can open this box and be reminded of all the reasons I am loved.  I doubt I could fully express how much it means to me that hubs would take the time to do this, and include my whole family in the process.

No purchased gift would ever be as priceless to me.

Everyone in my family seemed impressed that he had this idea - at one point my sister in law pouted and said "I don't have a love bank..."

and my brother looked at hubs and goes "thanks alot ya JERK"

Hahahahahaha!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart hubs, you're the best - how am I ever going to top this one?????

Family fun...

Any of you who read this blog regularly might remember that last July Adam smacked his head and we had to take him to the ER...well, I forgot to talk about my neice's birthday party that day.  They sent everyone on a scavenger hunt - so every family was competing as a team.  The invitation said "make sure you have gas in your car and a camera ready" - so I knew since hubs would be working that day, I was going to have to team up with my parents.

We all arrived to the party with our game faces on (my brother has some very competitive friends) and my sister in law handed out the list and sent us on our way with a 1 hour time limit to get things done.

The list had things like:

Sing the Oscar Meyer bologna song in the supermarket next to the bologna

Sing a christmas carol (july, remember?) in front of walmart

take a picture of your team in a boat

take a picture of your team in a volkswagon bug (luckily we have one in our driveway)

buy 50 cents worth of gas

(minimum was $1 so that didn't work)

get a stranger to say the pledge of allegiance

(I got someone to do this, but her husband was all "don't forget to leave out Under God" which totally offended me, but since we were in a hurry - I let her say it and when she got to that part, I turned the camera around and said it for her)

Video someone doing the YMCA dance

(luckily we saw some friends driving through town and stalked them knowing they would do it)

wash a stranger's windshield

(mom stepped up for this one)

It ranged from the really embarrassing to the not a big deal...like getting a picture of out of state license plates. 

We earned a certain amount of points for each task, so it was up to us which ones to do.

Well, we did a bunch of things - but one that I got a video of,  was us doing a conga line across a crosswalk.  We kinda cheated and did a crosswalk in front of a store instead of an actual intersection crosswalk, but still - pretty funny.  I'm holding Adam, and my mom and I are in sinc - but my dad is just doing his own thing back there. ha!

Ironically, we actually won the scavenger hunt - only because another team was disqualified for singing the oscar meyer weiner song instead of the bologna song.  And with us having to get a toddler in and out of a carseat every time, that is no easy feat - yay for us!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone - hope you all stuffed your pieholes and remembered why you are thankful :)

Short legs, long distance

My friend Alison and I went on a walk today with our dogs and the boy...we decided on the Bob Jones trail which is long and scenic and well paved.  At the beginning of our walk, her dog Baker stopped for a "break" and while I was on the phone with work, adam squirmed and slithered his way out of the stroller, and did NOT want to get back in.  So we let him walk.  He actually had to kind of RUN to keep up with us, and
unbelievably he went all the way to where the trail meets up with the road - he then continued on the way back with us until we went back under the bridge where he finally wanted juice and crackers and allowed me to put him in the stroller and bundle him up. 
I just clocked the distance on Gmaps and holy crap, he went 1.84 miles!  On two tiny little legs, running, running, running.  I was amazed - and bummed that I couldn't figure out how to post a picture of the map...seriously, it was a long way.
I was so worried he'd be cold...I kept asking if he wanted a jacket and he'd go "NOOOOOOOO!"  and then I'd ask about a hat and he'd shriek "NO HAT!" 
hahahaha, I don't know why I was so worried - with all that running, no way could he have been too cold. 
I thought he would fall asleep in the car, or pass out at home...but nope - he hung in there till the very end at 8:30 when we put him in bed.  Amazing.  I wish I had that kind of bottomless energy.
I seriously love this kid - he constantly makes me laugh and smile all throughout my day - he's totally my buddy.  I'm glad we can all take the day off and relax as a family tomorrow...

There are lots of smooches to steal and tickles to find!

Can I just say...

That having a kid with a sensitive gag reflex really sucks sometimes???

Today for the FOURTH time, he threw up in the grocery store.  Right after I had left the checkout line.  Which means, yeah...I was walking where EVERYONE could see me - and oh yeah, two days before Thankgiving?  Everybody and their monkey's uncle was there.

The first time it happened, I was in Vons in the veggie section which was very convenient because I just grabbed a plastic bag, let him do his thing...cleaned him up with baby wipes...tossed it in the garbage can and we were on our way...

The second time this happened, we were in Trader Joes...he started gagging in the frozen food section and I hightailed it over to the coffee section because I spied with my little eye, a TRASH CAN.   Really long and gross  story short, I ended up begging paper towels off the food sample guy in the corner....stripped AJ down nekkid because it was all over his clothes...and left my cart with the sample guy to go try and fix things and get a change of clothes from the car.
Wasn't too bad because hey, at least I had a trash can and paper towels...and a whole crapload of baby wipes.

Third time, again in Vons...in the deli section - he start gagging and I conveniently grab a plastic container from the mushroom bins...unfortunately I was too late, and it went all over the floor...and himself.  Luckily, I once again had baby wipes and a trash can close by.  Stripped him down...did self checkout - all was saved.

Today, as we were walking out of Vons past all the checkers, he literally grabbed the zippered part of his sweatshirt to his face and hurled right inside his shirt.  Which, thank GOD because if not, it would have been all over the floor in front of all those people....
I grabbed a handfull of wipes from my bag and held his sweatshirt closed at the bottom and high tailed it to the door - only today there were a bunch of disabled people for the salvation army piled by the door and this little girl was being so sweet and putting money in the bucket...except she was taking forever and there was a pile up of about 6 people with carts waiting to get by....and here's me..."EXCUSE ME, BUT MY KID JUST THREW UP CAN WE GET BY PLEASE????"
ummm, yeah...not very subtle - but dude, I was holding puke in my HAND...not so fun.  And AJ was screaming and it was just mortifying.
Passed all the eyeballs and ran to the car....dumped out my groceries and used the plastic bags to help with damage control.  Stripped the kid nekkid in the parking lot only to realize I didn't have a change of clothes with me and oh yeah, it was flippin FREEZING outside.   He's crying and chattering "mama...cold" - so I clean him up as best I can and toss him into the car and crank on the heater. 
I got everything cleaned up and seriously felt like crying because I never thought I'd be so USED to cleaning up after this problem.  And at the grocery store no less.
I even carry around puke bags from that time hubs stayed at the hospital in my diaper bag.  Only every time I've needed it, I never have time to grab it out of the bag before he spews.
I'm thinking I should just take it out and put it right on the seat next to him - ha.

I joke about it - but honestly, hubs and I are like a Nascar team when it comes to this puking business.  We are Adam's pit crew. 

The Great Pumpkin Prank of 2009

Due to the fact that I have to blog daily, I am stumbling upon things I never blogged about...and meant to.  So, here is one I should have done last year.  See, last year we went to this awesome (and cheap!) pumpkin patch close to my workplace out on the Mesa.  They had these giant pumpkins for $12, so of course hubs had to pick one out.  Here is our little man last year, so tiny next to that pumpkin!

(sniff, sniff - I kinda miss this little tiny version of him)

For comparison's sake...here is a pumpkin picture from this year

Anyway, we bought the pumpkin...but then we had to figure out what to do with the pumpkin.  We decided to take it to my parents house...who we knew weren't home at the time and leave it right in front of the their front door.  Well, by the time we actually got up to their place, we decided against the front door thing and instead put it here...

In their hall bathroom, on the toilet.  taaadaaa!
And then we raided the grandkids dress up box and added a tiara, pearls, and a feather boa

And then we left.

And we waited.

and waited and waited and waited

And hubs about had a COW wondering if they'd found it yet.

He picked up the phone to call them and I made him hold off, because if I know my parents - their silence means they found the 80 pound pumpkin on their toilet and were going to keep their traps shut in order to throw us off and start plotting their revenge.

He couldn't stand it.

He called...and they played stupid.  He got nothing out of them at all.

Then we found out my sister in law had been there with the kids before my parents even arrived home,

So he called HER...and got NUTHIN. 

"Pumpkin?"  she said...

"What pumpkin?  I don't know what you are talking about"

Dammit.

So then we had nothing to do but wait...which we did.  Wondering when they were going to strike back.

Until one day, we opened our fridge and found this:

That would be a giant pumpkin pie that took up the entire bottom shelf of my fridge...and yes, wearing a tiara, pearls and a feather boa.   Kudos.

Grasping at Straws...

We just arrived home after being in San Francisco for the weekend, and I'm tired and have no idea what to blog about - so I'm reaching here, and I found some pictures from a few months ago I have decided to share.
I threw a friend of mine a baby shower back in August.  We didn't actually call it a shower because it was a couples thing and we didn't want the word shower to scare away any of the men species, so we called it a Baby BBQ - ha!

 Anyway, they were having a boy but it was their second baby and since she's not really into anything super frou-frou, we decided to keep it way simple.  I stole some frugal decoration ideas from Jeannett and made these soup can vases....

okay, I have to admit they were dog food cans - but whatever...some scrapbook paper and ribbons and little flower thingys and I end up looking crafty - wooo!

My friend prefers to use the Seventh Generation diapers, which are kind of a beige color, so I made a diaper cake intended to serve as a table decoration of some sort.  It turned out pretty cute I think - the colors meshed really well...

And I actually piped frosting onto the cupcakes, which is a miracle.  By the time I was done, I thought they all looked like I had squeezed toothpaste all over them, but oh well - they were delicious, so that's all that matters right?

All in all it was a great party - and little baby Collin was born on 10-10-10!! (best birthdate ever)  He's adorable and I get to squeeze on him whenever I need a baby fix :)

Currently...

We are with all of hub's family...a rag got accidentally flushed down the toilet so none of the plumbing is functional. 
We had an early Thanksgiving dinner celebration with everyone, but we can't do dishes...bummer.
It's pouring rain, along with hail, lightening and thunder.  Totally awesome.
We all have to pee...but can't use the toilets.

I'm tempted to bust into AJ's diaper supply.

That is all.

An explanation

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
My kid is cranky
And now I am too


There once was a boy from Nantucket
Who had such a bad tantrum
He puked in a bucket


That pretty much sums up my day....cheers

Bringing Back Memories

Last Sunday, we visited a local school yard to play on the playground and let the boy burn off some energy.  The thing is, we visited the school yard that I grew up on.  I used to live right across the street from this school.
(that's our old house with the picket fence...just to the left of the jungle gym)

 I went there from Kindergarten through 5th grade.  We moved the summer after 5th grade year, so I had to do my 6th grade year at a different school. 
I spent a thousand hours on this school yard.  We had family softball games, and birthday parties, shot off rockets and flew kites and climbed trees, all on this school yard.

 I watched my dad catch gophers and fill in the holes so kids wouldn't break their ankles.  

It wrenched my heart a bit to be back on these grounds and see my son and my husband playing where I once played as a child. 

My brother and I rode bikes and skateboards and roller skates up and down the halls.  We made friends and met neighbors...all on this school yard.  Hubs and Adam and I walked up and down the halls...over to the kindergarten classrooms and all around to the places where I spent so much time as a kid.  So many memories...some good, some bad....but memories just the same.

Memories of a childhood that was wonderful and loving and yesterday and a million years ago.

I hope my own child knows how loved he is, how much we just want him to be happy in life. 

And if that means not wearing pants, then so be it...

So lucky

My friend Alison and I have been walking together a couple of times a week.  She has a puppy to wear out...meet Baker, who is adorable - looks just like Georgia - and is absolutely as sweet as pie:

and of course I always like to wear out Georgia as well, so it's a chance for us to chat and get in some exercise. We've walked in different places each time, which has been interesting...kind of an adventure actually, trying to find new trails and places that are dog and stroller friendly.
Today we walked the Bluffs in Shell Beach and it was so gorgeous I couldn't stop taking pictures of the sunset.  Both Alison and I remarked on how lucky we are to live in such a place where we can walk and take in these beautiful views.  I think we both try hard not to take it for granted...and since we both have lived in this area our entire lives, I think that says alot about how much we love it here.  Despite how freaking expensive it is...ha!
This was today's sunset: