Serenity Now

A to Z

2012-02-08T23:38:00.000-08:00

Saw this on "Two Adults, One Brown Baby" and thought it looked fun...maybe something to help me get back into the blogging world since I've been gone since friggin OCTOBER.   Gah!
Here goes - if you participate, link in the comments!

A to Z

A. Age: 34

B. Bed size: Queen. Wanted a King but before we got married and were bed shopping, hubs balked and said it was too big and he wanted to be snuggly. Now after 10 years we are both wishing we had gotten a king. HehC. Chore that you hate: Scrubbing the shower is a pain in the ass. OH! and putting laundry away.   I can do the laundry and fold the laundry - but I HATE putting it all away. It's not unusual for us to live with piles of folded clean clothes on the table or the dresser. Lame, but there it is.

D. Dogs: LOVE. in fact, I used to be a cat person, but now I think I'm a dog person. My Georgia is the sweetest. I can't imagine not having a dog.

E. Essential start to your day: Stumbling blindly to the bathroom to pee

F. Favorite color: Green or possibly blue.

G. Gold or silver: Silver

H. Height: 5'2 and 3/4...must have the 3/4

I. Instruments that you play: Piano and I played the flute about 25 years ago, ha!

J. Job title: Contract Manager. Although it's more like "she who answers the phones and does all things billing and money related"

K. Kids: My sweet boy Adam

L. Live: California, the central coast

M. Mothers Name: Marilyn

N. Nicknames: K, Auntie, Robyn (although that's from years ago), Babe

O. Overnight hospital stays: Six - one in 1999 - 3 in 2000 and 2 in 2008

P. Pet peeves: Bad drivers and people who chew with their mouth open

Q. Quote from a movie: Hubs and I will shout "Two dollars! I want my Two dollars!" often...from the movie Better Off Dead. Or "Put the money in my hand little man" from Clerks. Or "I gotta dollar, I gotta dollar, I gotta dollar hey, hey, hey, hey!" from The Little Rascals

R: Right or left handed: Right

S: Siblings: One older brother, and one older half-sister who I didn't know about until my early twenties

T. Time you wake up: I am not a morning person...and I'm usually up super late, so I sleep until about 8am when my work phones start ringing. Boy sleeps until 8:30, woot!   Unless it's a school day and then I get up at 7:45. And by get up, I mean push the snooze button 3 times and then rush around like a mad woman and get out the door late for school with unbrushed hair and a half dressed kid. I really need to work on that.

U. Underwear: Sad (agreed K!) (note to self, buy new underwear)

V. Vegetable (s) you hate: Green peppers and fennel

W. What makes you run late: Myself because I am unorganized and have no sense of urgency

X. Xrays you've had: both wrists, both ankles, several fingers, and chest

Y. Yummy food that you make: Hot artichoke cheese dip, potato salad, lemon dill chicken, enchiladas, and chocolate cake. Now I'm hungry

Z. Zoo animal: Monkeys. I love watching monkeys.

Reaching out...

2011-10-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hubs and I feel like our relationship started at a wedding. Our dear friend Allison married the love of her life Nick (an Australian) on November 11th, 2000.....and my BFF (her sister) arranged it so mark and I would sit together at their reception.   If not for them, who knows if we would have gotten together!

Allison and Nick went back to Australia and started their life together and had two beautiful and sweet little girls.   We miss them a ton, but luckily they have been able to come to the states at least once a year and stay for weeks at a time to visit their family here.
At one point during their last visit here, Nick was able to go dirt biking with a friend in the valley - and unfortunately contracted valley fever which turned into fungal meningitis. Of course they didn't find this out until he was back in Australia and very sick...and it took the doctors over there forever to figure out what it was. He's been so sick and it's been very scary. They are desperate to save his life at this point and feel that he needs treatment here in the states...except since he's an Australian (allison and the girls are american citizens) he would have no medical insurance.
They have started a website to explain the situation and I wanted to share it so hopefully we can get him here and get him WELL.
We really love this guy and his family, and we simply can't imagine any outcome other then him making a full and complete recovery from this nasty illness.
There are 22 million people in Australia and Nick is the ONLY ONE there with this disease.

I have no idea how many people read this silly blog - but I felt it was worth a shot to post his story here.  God works in mysterious ways...and we are praying so hard that Nick will be healed!

http://www.millionto1.org/

Please send a shout-out to the Man upstairs for our dear friend Nick and his family!

As Requested...

2011-10-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hair before...

I'm ashamed to admit that I had to search for this picture and it's almost a year old...so my hair was actually longer then this when I cut it - but you get the idea....it was LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG.
(I donated it which is why I let it get so ridiculously long)

Hair after...

I always feel like such an idiot taking pictures of myself...

I really like it...although there are times when I wish my hair was long again so I could just braid it or throw it up in a clip. It's harder to get out of the way when it's this short - but it seems to suit me. Hubs says it matches my personality better...ha!

This is our new house....this is a crappy picture of the place - but it's the first picture I took of it when I was sitting in my car waiting for our real estate agent...before we'd seen the inside (which was a disaster) and before we put in an offer. Who knew a little over a month later we'd have the keys in our hand!

I have lots more pictures to share...but for now, here's the facts:

It's in Nipomo which is about 15 minutes south of where we live now.
It's on a cul-de-sac which we LOVE.
Most of the neighbors seem to be about our age with kids about Adam's age...awesomeness
It's 3 bedrooms/2 baths...and a 2 car garage which we are absolutely giddy about (no garage where we live now)
We spent all afternoon hauling CRAP out of the place because the previous owners left a ton of stuff behind (will snap a picture of the trash pile tomorrow)
and we have ALOT of work to do...painting, painting and more painting. Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. New carpets, new flooring, new doors....blah, blah, blah. It's a project house. But we're just happy it's not a 2 bedroom 800 square foot shack like we almost bought 3 years ago for more money..ha!

This house was sooooo meant to be. I can't even explain all the little things that just fell into place...God seriously had plans for us to live here. We are so excited...and so grateful.

Stay tuned!

Loves...

2011-09-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

Love...that today I am officially 34 years old and I still get carded

Love....that I have a sassy newish haircut instead of the long hippy mess it used to be

Love...that we are days away from closing escrow on our first house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (ohmigodohmigodohmigod)

Love...that I sent pictures in of my broken stroller and that even though it's been almost 4 years and I have no reciept they sent me a BRAND NEW one. Unbelievable.

Love...that our landlords are letting us store our packed boxes next door for FREE so we don't have to rent a storage unit, or stumble around boxes for the next month

Love....that although we have tons of work to do on the new house, it's OURS, so if we wanted to paint it purple with yellow polka dots we could (I won't...I'm just sayin I COULD)

Love...that my son really loves school - so much...and he's starting to write his name

Love...that we took him to Disneyland for the first time and he can't stop talking about how awesome it was

Love...that he loves roller coasters as much as I do - and that he scoffed at how not scary the haunted mansion was

Love...that we are all healthy - I'm trying to be thankful for that everyday....knowing what other people are dealing with these days :(

Love...that I married my best friend and after almost 10 years of marriage, we are about to embark on a new adventure together

Love...that my boy will randomly give me kisses and tell me he loves me....and that he'll says to hubs "daddy, you're my best friend" Heart. exploding.

Love...that I have so much to be thankful for.

The Darndest Things...

2011-09-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Scene:   Adam and I lying in bed reading an alphabet book together.

Me:   Letter H...H is for....
(picture of a beehive)
Adam:   Honey House
Me: Honey House? It's a hive!
Adam: No mama, that's a honey house.

I may seriously call it that for the rest of my days it's so cute...

______________________________________________

Scene:   Me turning on the water at the tub for bathtime...

Me: Hey monkey, do you know where the plug is for the tub?
Adam:   I don't knoooow
Me: Well can you find it?
Adam:   (puts his hands on his hips and stands all proud) "YUP! I am FINDER BOY!" (and then proceeds to pretend fly out of the room)

*he actually did find it...in his ROOM for some odd reason*
____________________

I feel like I should record all these wacky things he says because I know I will forget and it'll be fun to go back and read someday. Nutty kid

takes after his dad

(and umm, hey hubs? if you're going to take pictures of yourself like this and leave them on our camera....you should probably just assume they will be posted on the internet at some point. love ya! heh)

Bullets....

2011-09-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

Hello my neglected little blog...and hello friends who have nicely reminded me that I'm a lazy non-blogging bum. *I actually had a post all typed up with pictures weeks ago and then it lost all the pictures so I left it as a draft and gave up. I hate when that happens...

We've just been busy. Lots of work stuff going on, which is good because I was worried there for a bit that my job might be a goner - but now we are affiliated with another company which has increased my paperwork load quite a bit. My nights are mostly spent in the office trying to keep on top of it all.

My days are spent keeping the boy busy with preschool, Library visits, playdates, park trips, etc....been a good summer!

So here are some tidbits of what's gone on since APRIL...sheesh:

After being sick since January, I was tested for Mono and Pneumonia and finally diagnosed with Viral Bronchitis...and told I would have to wait it out, awesome.
Adam turned THREE on April 15th (too fast, it's all too fast)
We skipped a party here and went to San Francisco...on his birthday we went to a place called Happy Hollow in San Jose - had a small petting zoo and rides, great place for the littles!

this boy cried so hard when we got off that roller coaster...because he didn't want to get off! I'm so glad he likes roller coasters!

cake lovingly made by his auntie M and his cousins....

He had his 3 year well baby and they measured him THREE times because he only grew half an inch since he was two...go shawty - it's yer birthday! Someday we will have to explain to him that it's totally our fault that he is short.
Then we did easter...note to self- don't use BLACK bowls for color or you won't know what color it is, ya dumbass.

My sweet angel boy grew horns right around that time and upon advice of his teacher I went to the library and got a book called "Your three year old; Friend or Enemy?"
He started biting and hitting at school and I was called several times to pick him up early....I was so stressed and worried, and not sure why his behavior changed so drastically

Around the middle of may he finally had a major turn around and started having fantastic days at school....Thank goodness his teacher worked us through that rough patch

after NINE MONTHS of preschool he finally stopped crying/pouting when I dropped him off....and would run off happily with his friends. I no longer feel like a terrible mother on school days - yippeeee!
Middle of May and I FINALLY felt human again, ears mostly unclogged and able to leave the house without an inhaler
Had a wonderful mother's day and talked hubs into getting a pedicure with me...super fun
Went to see Cars 2 at the drive in - Adam was stoked even though we froze our asses off and the movie sucked. (okay I shouldn't say SUCKED...but it wasn't the sweet, small town story as the first one)
Hubs made a sob-inducing father's day video for my dad, with pictures of my brother and I from babies until now...I must have watched it 30 times throughout the process and cried every.single.time. We decided to make my dad a "privacy box" so he wouldn't be embarrassed about getting emotional...we even put a tissue dispenser inside - ha!

July 4th we decided to keep it mellow and had friends over for a bbq and lit our own fireworks leftover from last year
Mid July we had this cutie stay with us for a week...friend Allison's sweet puppy Baker (who turned a year old while he stayed with us!)

he even got to go to the beach with me and a friend early in the am and run around off leash

and a trip to my parents house to run around the hills and be chased by the boy

we kept him so busy, this is what he looked like at night...hee!

Adam learned how to use the hose - not necessarily a good thing

At some point in July - hubs decided to grow a beard...and cover our kid with tattoos.

Mostly we are just enjoying our boy and soaking up every minute we can...embedding it in our brains because we know this time is so fleeting.

He suddenly seems so grown up

LOVE this munchkin!

***catch up on August will be posted soon - promise!***

Another Day, Another Haircut...

2011-04-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

I know I've posted many haircut pictures before - but since alot of this blog is simply for me, so I can look back and say "awwwww" about my little man - I'm posting more haircut pictures. This kid's hair grows like wildfire, seriously.

The "helmet" was making it's appearance again - and the bedhead was getting funnier and funnier, but he has refused to let me touch his hair lately, so it got a bit more out of control then usual - observe:

Mid cheeze-it - ha!

Eeeeh - whatcha doing ma?

Serious bedhead..and almost enough for a combover - OY

After about an hour of convincing and bribery with a lollipop and the movie Cars, he FINALLY let me snip away. *one of these days I gotta learn how to use those clipper things because the comb/scissors method is testing his patience and something tells me it's not going to last much longer*

There were a few times where he would get up and run around shouting "NO HAIR CUT!" - but I persisted and now he looks ready to carry a briefcase and attend a republican convention:

Kinda wish I had lips like that!

Everytime I cut his hair he just looks older to me...sob!

Especially when he wears our shoes...

My Boys...

2011-04-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm still sick. So the other day my mom offered to watch Adam for a while so I could rest. I took him up to their house and passed out on their bed. It's been a long time since I've slept in that house, kinda wierd, but also comforting. Having my mom tuck me in and take care of me was kinda nice :) Isn't there that small part of us as adults that still wants to be taken care of by our mom?
Anyway, when I woke up it was 5:45pm and Adam was passed out on their sofa. Which is weird because I have tried EVERYTHING to get this child to nap, and 9 times out of 10 it doesn't work, but yet, we go to Nana and Pop's and he falls asleep on the couch. No rocking, no singing, no benedryl, just OUT. Mom said she was just sitting with him and rubbing his feet and the sun was shining on him so he was warm and relaxed and he just fell asleep, just like that. By that time my dad was home and he joked about the whiskey they gave him, ha! I was just in disbelief that he was actually asleep. Adam is a good nighttime sleeper, but the napping has gone by the wayside. I am holding onto it for dear life, but most of the time my nap attempts are a giant fail.
Around 6pm, I finally tried to wake him up and put him in the car, he kind of stirred, but fell right back asleep in the car. We got home right at the same time hubs was rolling in, so he got him out of the car and into the house where he promptly fell back asleep. It's been a while since hubs has had a sleeping munchkin in his arms (let's just say his biological clock has been ticking for a WHILE) so he sighed a happy sigh and sat with him on the couch for a while, cuddling his boy:

Our every attempt to wake this child up resulted in him screaming at us and curling up and falling back asleep - so we put him to bed. He'd been asleep since around 5pm, so we desperately hoped he wouldn't wake up at 3am and think it was time to be UP!
Since my ears are clogged and I can't hear much - I didn't hear him open his door at 4:30am, but I did feel a tug on my arm and when I opened one eye, I saw a very sleepy kid with 24 stuffed animals in his arms wanting to crawl in bed with us. Too tired to argue, I pulled him into bed, and he fell back asleep until 8am. FIFTEEN HOURS that child slept. Growth spurt? Who knows, but it was wierd...and fabulous.
I loved seeing my boys snuggle on the couch together like this. Another heart-catching-in-my-throat-moment that makes me feel so blessed and thankful for my family :)

It continues..

2011-04-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Friday I had to go back to my doctor because 5 days after finishing antibiotics for the sinus infection, I had developed a nasty, rattley cough and felt like utter crap. "Virus" he said. and I said "really? again? I've been sick since January, what the hell?" and he said "it's a bad season. People just seem to be catching things over and over and over".
Apparantly the "virus" triggered my asthma, (which I havent' had issues with in about 6 years) so he gave me a couple of inhalers, one with steroids, and sent me on my way.
I got home that afternoon and a few hours later had a fever of 101.5, not bad, but bad enough to make me feel all shivery. So I popped in a movie for Adam and curled up next to him under a blanket and dozed for the duration of the movie. Fever broke, thought I was on the mend.
That night, I woke up with shooting ear pain. I figured it was a symptom of the "virus" and popped some tylenol and put a hot compress on my ear. It was a struggle to sleep that night, but at least Adam who was finally on antibiotics was sleeping peacefully.
Saturday morning, I woke up with clogged ears. Like I was underwater. Like everyone was talking to me through a brick wall. Boy does that suck.
Shooting ear pain continues Saturday and Sunday and on my way to the airport to get hubs (yay!) on Sunday night, I notice white patches in the back of my throat. I know that's a sign of strep, so I inwardly moan because I know this means I'm going back to my doctor on Monday.
Poor hubs came home to a MESS of a wife, but boy are we glad to have him back!

So yesterday I went to the doctor and now it's confirmed. I have strep and a double ear infection.
I'm now on two inhalers, nose spray, antibiotics, and I'm doubling up on Tylenol and Motrin for the ear pain. My ears are still clogged and achey.
At least hubs gets to watch whatever he wants on TV because I can't hear the damn thing anyway, and I'm getting some reading done. But I can also hear myself breathe, and swallow, and chew, which is just disgusting...and I'm annoying myself by the minute with the nasal breathing. I'm like a bad date for my own self over here.

I think the phrase "This Totally Sucks" pretty much sums it up for me.

Cheers!

sigh

2011-04-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

Cat food in my washing machine....something tells me three years old is gonna be tough

Private moments

2011-03-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

So once I became a mom...I quickly realized that doing almost anything bathroom related ALONE was a thing of the past. Especially now, when Adam is too big to contain anywhere, but not big enough to leave alone - which is why I have to keep the bathroom door open when I'm doing my business. Hubs is baffled at this act, but hey - a mom's gotta do, what a mom's gotta do. I'd like to see how he handles pooping when he's in a house alone with a toddler.
Nine times out of ten this means that I might steal a few seconds alone but then inevitably Adam will follow me and start asking questions "whatcha doin mama?" - "hey mama, you got stinks?" - you get my drift. It's awkward....and annoying that I can't poop in peace...but to avoid him running amok while I'm in there, it's what I gotta do. I am the fastest pooper in the west.

Today, Adam was all involved in watching Max and Ruby (is anyone else annoyed that these bunnies seem to have NO parents whatsoever?) and I thought it would be a safe time for me to steal away and have a private pooping moment. I actually took a chance and closed the door and took longer then 3.8 seconds....a relaxing poop if you will. At least it was, until I walked out of the bathroom and realized that my sweet little angel was NOT sitting on the couch. In fact I came upon this in the hallway...

And then I stepped into the kitchen and saw this:

Following the trail further into the kitchen:

Into the bin apparantly...

Further still into the laundry room....basket of CLEAN clothes (or at least they were)

Even the dog food bin got the wrath:

When I turned to go back into the kitchen, I found the culprit - completely oblivious and happy as a clam...

2 minutes in the bathroom = 1 hour clean-up

What - A - STINKER

* I know he needs a haircut, but I am lazy

**Hubs is in Chicago all this week for work - but today is his 35th birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBS!!!!

We miss you so much, and we love you to bits :)

Trip #3

2011-03-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

To the ER that is! Yes, hubs and I had one more trip to the ER with our boy last week. 3 times in one year, that should hold us for a while right?
This time was pretty scary.   He had a high fever here at home, although we felt like we couldn't get quite an acurate reading using the under the pit method, and he's so squirmy when taking it. He was incredibly hot and once he started babbling incoherently, I thought he might be hallucinating - our parenting instinct kicked in and we headed to the ER.
Ironically, we had taken him to the pediatrician that morning because both hubs and I have sinus infections, and Adam started to have a low grade fever and cough, so we decided to nip it in the bud - although murphy's law, he had no fever once we arrived, and they diagnosed him with a virus and sent us home with the whole rest/tylenol/benedryl cocktail of instructions.   That evening is when things took a turn for the worst, and when we got the ER around 11pm, his temp was 104!   So scary, hubs and I were very nervous. We saw our poor lethargic kid lying in a hospital bed feeling like utter crap, and boiling hot to the touch. That just sucked.
He's HORRIBLE at taking liquid meds, so they immediately gave him tylenol suppositories, to get the show on the road of bringing that fever down. But then they tried to give him motrin in liquid form and learned firsthand what we meant by "he's not great at the medicine thing". There was screaming and holding him down and spitting and choking. It was...in a word....AWFUL. And then they had to do it again for an antibiotic.
I was strong when I had to be - but when that part was over and my sick little boy crawled into my lab sobbing, I kinda fell apart. Holding him down like that goes against everything in me...even if I know they're just trying to help him. Plus, darn kid is STRONG!
They sent us home when he still had a 102.5 temp, so needless to say we didn't sleep much that night. It spiked again around 4am, but after giving meds it went back down. He held steady at a 101.5 fever for the next couple of days and then it finally went away. Just a nasty virus I guess.
So there you have it - that's what we've been up to at the Thyphoid Mary House of ILL lately - hunkered down and hermity trying to get over all our sicknesses. Hubs and I still sound like we're gonna cough up a lung any minute, and AJ is nursing a runny nose and cough still too.   This season has been the worst!

What the...

2011-02-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

I found this picture in a file from last October. I can't believe I missed it. This is just a reminder to me that I should never let hubs get so bored that he finds time to torture our pets...

Oddly, Tweak didn't seem to mind. Not sure which is more disturbing - that hubs put a diaper on a cat, or that the cat didn't care...

Sorry Amanda

2011-02-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

We desecrated poor Rocky with some Chocolate frozen yogurt. I'm either the stupidest mom on the planet for letting my kid eat that stuff on the couch before dinner...or the coolest. I can't decide which, but figured I should document it here on this blawwwg to remind adam someday when he's older and tells me I never let him do anything fun. ha!

For Amanda...

2011-02-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Just so you know, we be "representin" at school today :)

Catch up time

2011-02-05T22:39:00.000-08:00

So I realize I've neglected this blog lately, I seem to have a pattern when I go through periods in my life where there's just alot going on and the blog gets put on the back burner. When things are busy with work, I'm buried in paperwork after Adam goes to bed and it seems I just don't have time or when I do have time, the last thing I want to do is look at a computer screen. End of the year, and beginning of the year are some of my busiest months workwise, and yet, it's the holidays, hanging out with family...it's the one time I probably have the most to blog about.
All that to say it's catch up time...

-Christmas was great, kind of a mellow year it seemed - or maybe I was just more relaxed because it was more FUN having a 2 year old around for the holidays. We got him a tricycle, which he still hasn't figured out how to ride yet. He still doesn't seem to really GET the whole Christmas thing yet, but he loved the trees and the lights and hanging out with all the family. Oh yeah, and his new train set....

(please take note...boy kissing his dog...awwww, and hubs wearing a shirt that says "I Beat Anorexia"....snort)

-We went up to SF for about 4 days over New Years, had our Christmas with hub's side of the family. We actually left the boy overnight with Nana and Papa and went OUT for New Years Eve with my sister in law and her hubby. And by out, I mean we went to a BAR and drank actual BOOZE...and after that headed to a party with a bunch of their friends. It was fun, and just nice to actually be out on the town like grown-ups instead of sitting on our couch in an onion dip coma watching the ball drop while hubs drinks root beer and I drink champagne by myself....ha!

-What with all the holiday traveling, and visiting....adam went into full on potty training regression. It almost felt like we had to start all over from square one when we got home. He's doing great now and can usually go to school and not have any accidents, but there are times when I get distracted and don't take him on a regular basis...and he's not so great at TELLING me he has to go BEFORE he goes....so we do still have accidents from time to time. Overall, he's doing awesome though. He doesn't have to be king of his own throne, which is great because we can go anywhere...even if there is no potty seat, he doesn't care. So we don't even use the potty chair anymore, we got a toilet seat with a kids seat built in. So far so good. Still using Pull-Ups at bedtime though, and I don't even have the slightest clue how to ditch that...so for now, we'll stick with what we're doing. Also, don't have any idea how to teach him to stand up and go...hmmmm, must google that at some point. I dread the mess.

-In January, Adam finally decided that preschool is actually a pretty awesome place, and is now fully excited to go. He actually runs to the car shouting "yay! school!" (and every time I think "is this really MY kid?"). If he's not running into the teacher's arms, then he's grabbing some random kid and dragging them off to play. It's SOOOOO much nicer dropping him off now that there's no tears or screaming or even pouting. SIGH...I thought we'd never get here.
Also, the fact that he's playing with other kids and making friends is huge. My little social recluse is coming out of his shell...we've even had playdates with some other boys from school...amazing.

-I caught a NASTY cold shortly after New Years, and I rarely get sick, but this one knocked me on my ass for a couple of days. I even took Nyquil and I NEVER take Nyquil. After those bad days, I started to feel better...but my voice got worse and worse. I mean seriously worse like I would try and talk and just a little squeak would come out. It got to the point where I had NO voice whatsoever for an entire week. My boss had to answer phones, but of course was busy, so it was a juggling act...and how do you not talk when you have a toddler who's constantly asking questions? Poor guy just couldn't understand why mommy was whispering - which turns out is actually WORSE on your vocal chords. Anyhow, I finally went to the doctor and they confirmed I was in fact not sick, but had a nasty case of Laryngitis. They put me on prednisone and voice-rest (ha! HAHA! shyeah right!) which gave me my voice back - but apparantly my vocal chords were so jacked up during that time that my throat STILL hurts...and at the end of the day, I start to sound like a 70 year old chain smoker. Sexy.

I've never had a cold with lingering effects like this one, it's been almost a month now. I'm thinking I just talk too much...must shut up more.

-On January 26th, hubs and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! Can't quite believe it's been that long already. The weekend before, we left Adam overnight with my folks, and headed to a bookstore. Yes, you heard that right. We had some gift cards burning holes in our pocket and we wanted to go to a bookstore without a toddler. It was awesome. We walked in, kissed each other goodbye and went to our respective corners of delight. Then we met up in the coffee shop and read to our hearts content. Remember, I wasn't supposed to be talking anyway, so it was a nice quiet relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Then we went to a late lunch and hit ANOTHER book store. Then we went home to a nice quiet toddlerless house...which just felt, ODD somehow. But still, we felt re-energized. Sometimes it's good for us to just reconnect and remember why we like each other. Not just love each other, but actually LIKE each other. Turns out, we do :)

(thanks for my beeee-yooootiful flowers hubs!)

-The boy and I have had very busy days lately, full of playdates and park trips....the weather has been gorgeous and we're taking advantage of it. We've been walking more and playing outside with friends...I always feel like a decent mom when both my kid AND my dog are worn out at the end of the day.

Today Adam even said "momma, I'm TIRED".   Shocked, I said "you are?" and he goes "yeah, Adam needs a nap" - ha!
and yes, he now refers to himself in the third person for many things.   "adam's hungry" - "That's adam's chair" - "Adam's going potty" - "can Adam have it please?"
What the hell is THAT about?   It's like an episode of Seinfeld around here lately. And since when did my kid start speaking in sentences? I swear it happened overnight. We have actual conversations now, it's WEIRD. He says the word "delicious" now.   (course it comes out like "mmmm dewishus!" but still)
I'm just stunned at how he's growing and learning...I'm soaking it all up like a sponge these days. I'm feeling like those baby days are behind us...thank God he'll always have those squishy cheeks! (sorry kid, your mom still has em, you're dad still has em - you're STUCK with em)

May I forever remember these times...

2011-02-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I come upon moments in my house...moments that make me stop in my tracks.
My breath catches in my throat...
My eyes get teary...
I have to press my hand hard against my chest to make sure my heart doesn't just come flying right out....
and I have to ask myself "Does it really get much better then this?"

And I hope like hell that I will always remember.
My hubs crawling into that tiny little bed with our son...his feet sticking out through the slats...Adam's smile from ear to ear...snuggled under a blanket together. Reading his favorite bedtime story.

SIGH

Arts and crafts explosion...

2010-12-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

I am LOVING all the awesome stuff Adam is coming home from Preschool with these days...his teachers are big on arts and craft projects and it's always fun to see the things that are sent home:

"Hand"made ornaments

"Hand"made reindeer (is it horribly sad that I had to google how to spell that? It just didn't look right for some reason!)

Which I'm glad I got a picture of because about 5 minutes later the boy decided to shred it in peices all over the floor ...sad

They even had a drawing of his made into an actual plate! Methinks this will be a good cookies and milk plate for Santa :)

A Wreath

And all of his paintings are sent home, this is one of many...

"A necklace, complete with baseball beads, ha!"

"And today's project, a gingerbread house - they used small milk cartons underneath so they wouldn't fall apart!"

Ahhhhh, this Christmas has been fun already - I'm curious how he's going to do on the actual DAY. Might be a bit overwhelming? We'll see...I'm excited!

Busy days

2010-12-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

So you guys....we started potty training.
We weren't planning on it, honestly. We had decided to wait until after the holidays what with all the traveling and busyness.   We felt he wasn't ready. We've had a potty chair for 6 months and have yet to convince him to even sit on the darn thing fully clothed.
But then last Thursday happened.
Last Thursday, I had him stripped nekkid and ready to throw him in the tub - but before I could do that, he cruised over to the potty chair, put the lid up, sat down...peed...stood up, and PUT THE LID DOWN.
Seriously?
Seriously. Like he'd been doing it forever.
After I was done gaping in amazement, I said "Did you just go potty?"
He said "YUUUUUP!"
Again, like he'd been doing it forever.
Unbelievable.

So last Saturday, when it was rainy and cold and I knew we'd be home all day - I just put him in big boy underpants and waited it out. Took him to the potty every hour, and he went! Just like that!
#2 has been another story, but I've been told that will take a while.
We then went out of the house a few times, and he did great - no accidents.
Then yesterday he went to school for the first time wearing unders...and again, NO accidents.
In shock over here, truly. Even his teacher was impressed.

And today, the #2 happened. I thought it would take a while for that to happen, but nope - he sat down and did it like a pro.

I am a puffed up mother hen....so, so proud of my little guy. I guess he was ready after all.

This potty training stuff hasn't been nearly as bad as I had made it out to be in my head.   Course I'm totally expecting accidents, but still....for our first week, he's done AWESOME.

Funny story. I was so proud of him doing the stinky business on the potty, I sent a text to my friend Ashlee...

"Houston, we have #2! I can't believe it, I thought that would take months!"

Except in my mind, I was in poop-mode.   And in her mind, she thought I was trying to tell her I was pregnant..HAHAHAHAHA!
She called me going "WHAAAT! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??"
Which I can TOTALLY understand now that I went back and read what I sent her, but I was just not thinking how that would come across....LOL

Sorry Ash, trust me, if I was expecting number two - I wouldn't be texting you, I'd be sitting on your couch with a legal pad writing down all your advice on how to handle two kids...hahaha

WOOOOOO

2010-11-30T18:02:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-11-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-27T20:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-23T20:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-22T22:06:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-21T22:35:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-19T23:10:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

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:

It's HERE

2010-11-16T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today is a momentous day for our little town. Today...we got an In and Out Burger.

Oh the deliciousness!

I love this place. I remember as a kid, whenever we had to travel down to the LA area, we would stop at the In and Out in Pasadena. Fond memories of eating drippingly good cheeseburgers in the back of our 68 Camaro. Sigh.

Hubs and I usually stop at one on our way to or from San Francisco as well. This might be the very reason I can't fit into those jeans I want to....

But if I'm going to eat fast food, I'd much rather it be from here - it seems more like REAL food then those squished and filled with god-knows-what other burgers from other places

Anyhow, I drove past it today around 2pm thinking the line would be outrageous - but it actually wasn't bad at all. There were maybe 15 cars in line - which really is pretty normal for any In and Out it seems.

Although I have heard from other people that earlier in the day there was a line of about a hundred.

I didn't go of course because I thought that needed to be something I do with hubs.

But still, I'm happy just knowing it's there.

In case you need to know...

2010-11-15T21:44:00.000-08:00

I am about to provide you with step by step instructions on how to have an indoor camping adventure. In case you are like us and have work schedules that don't coincide with an entire weekend off to actually GO camping....or if you are like us and live in a place where your only yard is accessible from the street, so camping in your backyard isn't an option.

Step 1 - Set up tent in yard so you can sweep out the dirt from previous camping trip before you bring it into your house. Make sure you pile tons of blankets and pillows in there and play "fort" with your munchkin all afternoon.

2 - Get hubs to clean and fire up the grill.

3. Keep hubs happy by bringing him a tall glass of Guiness

4. Keep boy happy by letting him roll around to his hearts content in the sandbox

5. Let your boys get into a swordfight...

6. Make sure the boy defends the castle

7. Stop for a second and marvel at the smile on that child's face

8. Promise your worried dog that no harm will come to her

9. Go inside and eat fabulous steak dinner with broccoli and hollandaise and rice pilaf

10. Push all your furniture to the side and let the boy enjoy the space after you vacuum 923 tons of cat hair from under the sofa

11. Bring tent inside and realize either your tent is bigger then you thought, or your living room is smaller then you thought...shrug your shoulders, leave the sides down and "make it work" Tim Gunn style

12. Light a fire in the fireplace. IMPORTANT. Before lighting the fire, make sure the damper is open so that when you light the fire, it doesn't proceed to billow out black smoke directly at you and fill you with panic (not that this happened....ahem....I'm just sayin)

13. IMPORTANT....do NOT yank on damper chain hard enough that it breaks off in your hand and then you have to thank the Lord above that it broke while damper was open and not closed.....also, keep fire extinguisher handy - just in case.

14. Set up air mattress and pile blankets, pillows, and your BOYS into the tent

15. Make sure to angle tent so you can still see the TV

16. Realize it's too freaking hot for a fire in the fireplace and open the door and turn on the fan

17. Get out the cutest sleeping bag ever

18. and bust out the marshmallows

19. Roast marshmallows. Then decide you feel like a dork roasting marshmallows inside the house with the door open.

20. But do it anyway because a hubs filled with marshmallow is a happy hubs. Also discover boy does not like marshmallows.

21. Get the boy ready for bed and take a picture of your right eyebrow as proof that you were actually there

22. Try to convince the boy that it actually is bedtime, not run in and out of the tent-time

23. No, seriously dude....bedtime

24. Realize boy sleeping in tent is a giant fail and put him in his own room. Then proceed to discover there is a hole in your air mattress and decide to sleep in your own room as well. Camping turned into "hanging out in tent for a while"

25. Wake up in the morning, watch tv, eat breakfast, and drink coffee on quickly deflating air mattress.

26. Sigh with happiness that your little family of bedheads can have fun snuggling in a tent in your living room.

Snip-snip

2010-11-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

Some of you might remember when Adam was 10 months old and I gave him his first haircut...I found the post I did back then, and it made me kinda teary to see how much he's changed. If you want to reminisce, click here .
Anyhow, he's had many, many, many, many haircuts since then. His hair is like mine in the fact that it grows super fast...but it's like hub's was (before he started shaving his head) in that it's really thick and there's alot of it. We've only paid for him to have his haircut once, and it was $20...so by the time you tip and everything - we just figured it wasn't worth the money and I could do it here at home until he really starts having an opinion about his hair. So I've been doing them all myself, and I think I'm getting better at it, just from experience. We did buzz him once, which some people liked - but I thought made him look like the boy in the striped pajamas (concentration camp movie...very sad)...and I've had my share of hair debacles. About 6 months ago I was trimming around his ears and he moved and ended up with a vanilla ice triangle over his left ear. Oops. Other than that, I think I do an okay job.
This morning his hair was sporting a big time helmet look, and it was bugging me - so I finally convinced hubs that it was time:

So we put in the movie Shark Tale and gave him a lollipop and I snipped away. He finally decided he was done, so I gave up and tossed him in the shower.

Turned out allright this time, but MAN he looks like such a BOY after a haircut. The chubby babyness is pretty much gone these days :(

Busy Day...

2010-11-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

Today started at the too early hour of 7am (I know all you people with early risers are shaking your fist at me right now, but 7am is early to me!) when Adam woke up and started knocking on his door (he can't turn the doorknobs in our house yet, thankyajesus) and saying "helloooooooo"...."mama?"..."helloooooooo"..."come out?"
We got up, got dressed, drank milk, fed all the critters, and headed over to my parents house so we could pile into their car and go up to our friend Landon's 3rd birthday party. The party started at 10am and they are about 45 minutes north of us, so we needed to get an early start. Adam fell asleep in the car which meant that he was grumpy and unsocial right up until the time we had to leave, which kinda sucks. Although they had one of those blow up slides there, and I finally convinced him to go on it with me right before we left. He LOVED it - and then I realized in the car after we left that I had busted the inside seam of the leggings I was wearing under my dress....giant hole...not pretty. I showed my mom later and she cracked up. Luckily nobody was taking any pictures - and I forgot to get out my camera (sorry ashlee!) . It was fun to see everyone since so many close friends came from out of town, but it was short lived because we had ANOTHER birthday party to go to - my neice Keeley turned 11 yesterday!
So we piled back into the car and headed back down south for another hour or so on the road to go to Keeley's bowling birthday party. Adam fell asleep in the car again, but I figured since his cousins would all be there, he'd perk up and be more social. Well....not really....he was still whiny and unsocial at this party too - except that my youngest neice Gracie wasn't putting up with it and she pulled him out on the floor to help her shove her bowling ball down the lane. The ball rolled veeeeerrrrrry slowly, but it eventually made it!

It was pretty funny...he seemed interested in all the balls knocking down the pins - but also confused as to why he couldn't just pick up that ball. After she made him help her a few times, he got into a better mood and stood on the sidelines with her and another friend to cheer all the other kids on.

I keep forgetting we have a bowling alley nearby - it's not something I ever think about doing, but it's kinda fun!

After that, we stopped by hub's workplace and brought him cake...then we took one of my neices home and headed back to my parents house so I could get my car. I got home at 6:30pm, just in time for dinner, pj's and bedtime at 8:30 for the boy.

Long day, but lots of fun involved! I only wish AJ had been in a better mood for it all - but oh well, it's a crapshoot with a 2 year old, right?

A Snail's Tale

2010-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

We have a little round fish tank sitting on the bar of our kitchen. In it, there is a calico goldfish, named Cali...so creative right? Also in it, is a snail that helps keep the tank "clean". Our little sucker snail, awwww.
Recently, we suddenly noticed several small brown bumps in the tank. Looking closer, hubs and I realized they were BABY SNAILS. We both looked at each other wide eyed saying "how in the hell did THAT happen?"
So we googled...and discovered that snails are hermaphrodites! Check it out:

Snails are considered to be hermaphrodites. This means that every snail will have both male and female reproductive organs.

(photo credit Johannes_Meisenheimer )

Did you know that? I didn't know that - neither did hubs. I guess I never considered how snails reproduce, but it kinda blew our minds to have one snail and suddenly have one snail and three babies. I wonder if our little hermaphrosnail will keep going? Will we end up with like...30 snail babies and 1 goldfish? hmmmm - I guess we'll find out.

I remember when our family from Colorado came for a visit last year and while they were loading stuff into their car, they found a garden snail in the driveway. I looked out the window and all of them were gathered around in a circle gazing at the garden snail. Apparantly, they don't have basic garden snails in Colorado....maybe because of the altitude? Who knows - I googled and didn't find much info on that.

Ironically, Colorado was the first place hubs ever tried escargot. He liked it - but it seems to me, almost anything would be good drowned in that much garlic butter. I bowed out because I was pregnant at the time, and not dealing with the altitude well. I am still a snail virgin...wahooo.

I'm starting to think I must be hard up for things to post about during this NaBloPoMo thing. I just wrote an entire post about SNAILS for pete's sake. I will end this before it goes to a bad place...consider yourselves now schooled on the sex life of a snail. You're welcome.

Allergies, Schmallergies

2010-11-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

I have allergies. Lots of allergies. Always have, probably always will. But here's the thing...my normal allergies are to pets/dust/pollen. Stuffy nose, itchy eyes type of symptoms. For instance, if I pet a cat or dog and then touch my face without washing my hands. My eyes turn into puffy red, itchy holes in my head. Hubs even drew a picture of a big green eye with a red circle and a slash through it and hung it above our bed as a reminder not to touch my eyes after I've loved on a critter. Or if I go to someone's house with pets, sometimes it affects me and my nose starts running...but not always. And it's never prevented me from doing anything or going anywhere, I've just dealt with it...and tried every allergy medication known to man and nothing works on me...(haven't tried the shots, don't wanna)
All that being said, it was strictly those sorts of allergies I've dealt with....never had any skin reactions or hives or anything like that. I've never even had poison oak...and I grew up out in the country surrounded by poison oak.
But then I had a baby. And everything changed. I've been all screwed up ever since. Nobody told me that hormone fluxuations from pregnancy could cause all kinds of weird problems...or make my body just FREAK OUT about random stuff.
2 weeks after having a c-section I had the worst rash of my entire life....it started out at the bandage site and I got a rash exactly the same shape as the bandage, which is when it was determined to be an "adhesive allergy" - except that rash went out of control and spread like wildfire - after a week, it covered my thighs, my stomach, my chest, my arms...and creeped up my neck onto my face before 3 stumped doctors finally presribed me prednisone (a pretty gnarly steroid) and it knocked it out within a few days. That was the most horrible rash I've ever had...the itching was CRAZY and I would much rather have another c-section then go through that again. It's pretty bad when you'd rather have major abdominal surgery over a rash...but it's the truth.
Ever since then, I've had periodic rash issues - not nearly as bad as that first one...but just random rashes for random reasons. Sometimes it's red puffy patches on my face....I've had puffy red splotches around my eyes...I've had rashes on my legs....and every now and then I get these tiny little fever blisters along with puffyness and swelling on my lips. Usually it goes away within a day or two, and I've never been able to pinpoint exactly what I've eaten or done that causes these problems. Hubs has been bugging me for a long time to go see an allergist, but once the symptoms go away, it's out of my head and I don't think about it until the next time it happens....it's a mad cycle.
Last Monday I woke up with the same ole puffy lips/fever blister symptoms, so I wrote down what I ate the previous day (as per usual), put some aquaphor on my lips and went about my day. Day 2, symptoms were worse, more blistery and red. Day 3, when things are usually clearing up - I woke up feeling like I had fish lips they were so swollen. By this time they were starting to HURT. Usually it's just mildy annoying, but this time it was getting worse and more painful as time went on. Today was day 4, and when I woke up with giant reddened lips looking like Goldie Hawn on the First Wives Club, I finally called my doctor. I was miserable this morning - my lips and the skin around my lips felt like they'd been burned. I couldnt' find anything that made them feel better, and the blisters were awful. I dragged AJ to the doctor's office with me, and the doc said it's obviously a food allergy of some sort. He gave me some medication to help reduce the symptoms and a topical thing to slather on and then sent me to the lab to draw some blood so they could do a food panel and find out what exactly I'm allergic to. He still wants me to see an allergist because he doesn't think the other rash issues are food related...but for now, at least it's a start to find out what the problem is.
He said allergies just show up all of a sudden, and can go away all of a sudden too - so if it turns out I'm allergic to something, at least my symptoms aren't life threatening so I can periodically test myself and see if I still have that allergy.
Even after only a few hours, my symptoms have lessened and I don't feel like someone with bad collagen injections anymore - but still, this sucks!
Hubs thinks maybe if I have another baby, I'll go back to normal...hahahaha! (can you all tell that the campaigning for baby #2 is in effect over here?)
So crazy that having a baby can cause so many changes, physical and otherwise. One look at this little munchkin face makes it all worth it though

*Special thanks to my dad who came over to watch AJ so I could go to the lab and get my prescriptions. My dad is a VietNam Vet and I'm so proud of him - he's got quite a life story, let me tell you! Happy Veterans Day to all the men and women out there who help keep us safe.

Wanted: Any and all advice on this topic

2010-11-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Potty Training.

There, I said it. I have DREADED this for some reason. Perhaps it's all the "boys are harder to train" and "boys take alot longer than girls" things I keep hearing from other mom's. There is a part of me that doesn't so much mind the diapers, because I can literally change him anywhere - and having to find a bathroom, not as convenient, you know? (except for those nasty 2 year old turds, good LORD the smell!)
BUT, as of last month, he officially hit 2 1/2 and he's telling me when he's wet or has "stinks", so I kinda feel like I won't know if he's actually ready until I at least try. I am completely against pushing him on this subject, if he's not ready, then he's not ready and we'll try again later - but I feel like I at least need to give it a shot.
Hubs and I picked these up over the weekend and I can't get over how stinking CUTE they are!

(dun - da-da - DUN!)
But seriously, what the HELL is this pocket for? a matchbox car? I've never understood this - anyone? anyone?

Once we got home, we realized we should have bought more than a pack of three because he could probably ruin all 3 pairs in about 45 minutes, ha!

So here is my tentative plan thus far:

Wait until I have 2 or 3 consective days where I know that I or hubs, preferably both - can be home all day
Roll up living room rug and remove
Close all doors to bedrooms - i.e. carpeted areas
Put him in big boy chonies
Proceed to take him potty every 15 minutes or half hour and see what happens...
I don't really want to go the pull-up route except for bedtime, because knowing my kid, if it looks like a diaper, and feels like a diaper, he will pee in it and forget about the big boy potty thing...so I kinda feel like just putting him in big boy unders, and that way he'll feel the difference.

Thoughts? Advice? Funny Stories? Please share, I need all the help I can get over here...

Rated PG13...

2010-11-09T08:39:00.000-08:00

Any of you out there who like and appreciate baseball must have heard by now that the Giants won the World Series right?
Well after they won, they were interviewing one of the pitchers and he had a hat on backwards...there was this weird shaped symbol on his hat and we kept squinting and saying "what the heck is that penis looking thing on his HAT?" It was really distracting, but we couldn't figure out what it was the whole time he was on the screen.
A few days later, we got a call from the Mother of Hubs, who stold us that she purchased some world series shirts for us....very cool - since we heard alot of places had sold out or had huge lines. Today they arrived in the mail.
So I didn't open the package, knowing hubs would want to - and when he got home, he took out a couple of shirts for us, a tiny shirt for adam (so cute!) and a world series hat. The minute he pulled out the hat, I spied with my little eye, a wierd penis looking symbol on the back.
He put the hat on and it was way too small - I threw my head back and laughed my ass off because it looked so funny. Seriously like a condom on his head...and with that penis on the back, it was even funnier.
We were cracking up and hubs kept saying "what is that about? how could they put that on this hat? it's a world series hat!" HAHAHA
Come on, tell me at first glance, that wouldn't make you do a double take...

Upon closer inspection you will see it's a picture of the trophy, but DUDE...somebody dropped the ball(s) on this one because I will never be able to look at this hat without giggling

I have to admit though, since the hat didn't fit Hubs, it fit me perfectly....so don't be surprised if you see me walking my dog and my kid while wearing the penis hat. Snicker if you must, I will understand completely.

Attempt 1 - Fail 1

2010-11-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

I see alot of other bloggers out there who cook with their kids. I think I always thought I'd be the kind of mom who did that, but I don't. Maybe it's because I have the kind of kid who would rather throw all the magnets from the fridge into the kitchen sink, so I have to dig them out of the garbage disposal - but either way, I've never attempted to have Adam help me in the kitchen.

Also, I don't BAKE much. I cook dinners and that's about it. and maybe breakfast on the weekends.

At any rate - this evening, I decided "let's make cookies!" FUN!

So first we washed our hands, because God only knows how many nosepickings have occured in the last hour...

Then I pulled out our kitchen stool thinking "he's gonna totally dig sitting on this!" only...not so much...

(top pic taken with no flash - bottom pic taken with flash - apparantly the lighting in my kitchen SUUUCKS)

He pitched a fit and ended up smacking his head on the tile counter. Awesome.

It is at this point that I am thankful hubs bought this cookie mix, because no way am I doing from scratch when a toddler is involved.

I let him pour the mix into the bowl, which goes pretty well...
I crack an egg into a bowl to let him add to the mix -

It didn't make it......

At this point hubs came home and AJ decided he wanted daddy and he was no longer interested in making cookies, so I cleaned up the egg and put in the rest of the ingredients.
We brought him back in for the grand "flipping of the switch" which he was fascinated with..

For about 2.4 seconds and then he wanted "DOWN MAMA!"
It was at this point I realized it was after 6:30pm and I was so focused on the cookie project, I forgot about dinner. So I quickly covered the dough up with plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge.

Then I opened every cupboard in our kitchen searching for a quick meal, and then picked up the phone and ordered pizza. HA!
Hubs drove the few blocks to pick up the pizza and in the meantime, AJ looked at me and goes "cookies done?"
ummmmm, NOPE! LOL
Maybe tomorrow kid...maybe tomorrow

Rainy Daze

2010-11-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

I love the rain. Sometimes I think I'd be right at home in Seattle or somewhere up there in the Pacific Northwest.
Tonight, we rented Toy Story 3 and put a fire in the fireplace. All three of us snuggling on the couch with all our critters nearby and blankets to cuddle with.
Everything was perfect....until that darn fire decided to snap, crackle and pop.
The dog jumped up in a panic and started pacing around and Adam started crying and holding his hands to his face.
So guess what you can do to stop a fire from crackling? Ummmm yeah, not a damn thing. HA!
Made for an interesting evening.

At least we got an extra hour today - wahoooo! But bummer for getting dark at 5pm...

1-2-3 GO!

2010-11-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday we went to our local Grace church to watch a pinewood derby race. My neices are involved with Awana's and this was something fun for all the kids to do.
We arrived a bit late, but when we got there, my oldest neice Keeley dragged Adam off to sit with all the kids and watch the cars go down the ramp.

It was all very official with a computerized finish line and everything - very cool

Keeley won first place for best design - a chocolate bar, that looked so incredibly real

and Abby's car was a piece of bacon - she LOVES bacon, so this was hilarious

(sorry about the picture quality, it came out too dark so I had to adjust it a bit)

Sleepy kid who is up past his bedtime...and in dire need of a haircut

I have a soft spot for these pinewood derby races because when my brother and I were little, we did this too. We belonged to a church group called the Caravans, and I had a pink car named "flower power" who was super fast and won first place in speed. My brother won first place for design which was a firetruck (totally awesome with a ladder and everything). Ironically, my mom just recently brought over a big bag of stuff I had stored at their house and in it, was my car, missing two wheels, and my trophy! It's dated 1984 which means I was 7 years old. Crazyness.

Fall Foodie

2010-11-05T23:17:00.000-07:00

I love fall. I love the cooler weather. I love the feeling in the air. I love the big oversized sweatshirts I get to wear. I love comfort food. I love a good soup with a crusty bread. Problem is, I love all those yummy creamy soups with a zillion calories.
My mom used to make this Butternut Squash soup, and I love it - so I wanted to share! I don't have an actual recipe or amounts...or times...it's kinda hard to mess up to be honest.

First, cut some butternut squash in half and bake until fork tender

While squash is baking, slice up some leeks and saute them in either a little bit of butter or a bit of chicken stock or both ( I use both)

When squash is done, scrape out seeds and toss. Scrape out chunks of squash and add to leeks along with more chicken stock

Let simmer on the stove for a while
I used to have to transfer this to a stand up blender which was a pain (and messy!), but now I have an immersion stick blender which I LOVE and makes this task much easier. (picture taken before fancy stick blender). Soup should be pretty thick at this point.

Put back on the stove and depending on desired consistancy...add more stock...also throw in some seasonings like salt, onion powder, garlic...all the stuff you like. Make it till it tastes the way you want!

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some chives (crumbled bacon is delicious too!)

voila.

I usually make a huge pot of this and either simmer it all day in the crockpot, or I'll bag some up and freeze it for later. Hubs isn't much of a soup guy, so I'm the only eater of this one in our house :)

Cheers

Brussel Sprout Saga

2010-11-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

I never liked Brussel Sprouts as a kid...nor did I like cabbage of any kind, even cole slaw. But now, as an adult, I like cole slaw (although I'm picky about it) and I love the cabbage boiled with corned beef, so I decided to give brussel sprouts another shot, since essentially they are itty bitty cabbages right?

Adam and I went to Trader Joes yesterday and they had these brussel sprout stalks there looking just like these:

And Adam was all "Trees, mama, look TREES!"

So I figured now was as good a time as any (and since they are so cheap this season) to try and like these little guys.

I went home and googled for a recipe. I had heard that roasted brussel sprouts will convert anyone who doesn't like them because it changes the flavor rather then steaming them, so I found one on Cooking Light called Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Ham and Garlic.

Healthy, and sounded delicious.

Okay, so basically it called for brussel sprouts cut in half in a baking dish with olive oil, garlic, chopped ham, lemon juice and salt and then roasted in the oven for 30 minutes.

Then you sprinkle parmesan and bread crumbs over the top before serving.

Sounded good and looked good, only they weren't so great. They were edible, but definately missing something. They were dry, and not very flavorful. Hubs tasted them while I choked down a whole serving. Then I wrapped them up and stuck them in the fridge figuring I could docter them up for lunch the next day.

Which I did...and I sent hubs the following email:

so I ate the rest of the brussell sprouts for lunch. Those things weren't half bad with butter, salt, lemon and more parmesan added...LOL
So much for that whole "healthy" aspect eh?
I'm gonna toss that recipe and call it a giant FAIL

And then I thought "how lame am I? he's not gonna give a crap about the damn brussel sprouts"

(course he's had jury duty for the last 3 days, so he's bored out of his mind)

Only I was wrong...he responded with the following:

You don't have to call it a fail, I liked the roasted aspect of it I just think it needed a little more flavor and some taste would have been good. The parmesan cheese made it a little bit better taste wise but the dryness of the sprouts and the cheese caused the feeling similar too licking a sand dune. (I should say a tasty dune).apparently there has been a good reason why Brussels sprouts have been unpopular with the younger generations. In fact last night's meal brought up some obviously repressed memories for me. I had flashbacks of crying at my parents table pleading with them to "please don't make me eat that, it tastes like feet". This of course then brought up memories of the ill treatment my sister forced me to endure. So let's not think of last night's meal as a failure because while the dish itself lacked any hint of taste or flavor - we must try to think of it as a chance for therapy. A rare chance at being able to confront the pain we went through as children. If you plan on making this dish again I have some suggestions. The sprouts have a unique taste that would be better accompanied with something tangy like basalmic vinegar . If you roasted them the way you did and had a sauce of some sort it would have been great. We should try it again sometime. And next time you desire some therapy may I suggest a kidney bean or a liver
Love ya

Ummmmm, allrighty then hubs. I underestimated the amount of boredom he must have been experiencing.

Do you see what I'm dealing with over here? LOL!

(for the record, I tried to give AJ a sprout and he shook his head and said "no thank you mama, I no like it" - so hey, at least he was polite about it! hahaha)

Aquarium fun

2010-11-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

After the airshow, we headed over to Monterey where we met up with our friends Jill and Chris and their son Devin. They live up north about 5 hours away, so we don't get to see them very often - but they are very good friends and we always wish they lived closer.

We all went to Bubba Gumps for dinner (delish!) and stayed at a hotel that night. The next morning we hit the aquarium. We've been dying to take Adam there beacuse he is going through a mild Shark obsession and loves all things fish related. We were glad Jill and Chris could come too because the boys have alot of fun together and are good buddies.

(Devin is 9 months older then Adam, but dude - check out the size difference! - course he has two tall parents and Adam has two short parents, so there ya go)

Adam was in awe from the very beginning...eyes wide open taking it all in - running everywhere

They have this big circular room where the fish are swimming all around the whole thing and it's so cool - he loved that room!

The Jellyfish room is my favorite. I want to sleep overnight in here it's so peaceful

It was a gray and rainy day out there, but still - that bay is so pretty

Adam would NOT leave these globes alone - we had to drag him away

I love this cool industrial walkway they have that goes from one side of the aquarium to the other.

It's funny, I've been to this aquarium a few times before - but this being my first time with my kid - I saw it from completely new eyes and it seemed SO COOL.

"Look Mama!"

"SHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!"

You guys, this kid could not have been more excited to see a real live shark. It was so hilarious and fun to watch - he just never got tired of watching them and shouting SHAAARRRRRRRRRK! every single time

Here is a short video of him shouting SHARK! hahaha

The boys loved this wave simulator they had there - it was a tunnel that you could stand under and the water would come crashing overhead onto a glass window, the boys LOVED it - and both would do countdowns and then shout "WHOA!" when the water washed over.

Then you can go outside and watch it from that point of view as well

They have alot of really neat kid areas too - all places I skipped the times I've gone before!

Side story: In the turtle exhibit there is a little cubbyhole that kids can crawl into and see the sea turtles up close. Well, I crawled into the hole - then Adam crawled into the hole - and then HUBS crawled into the hole and totally let one rip and of course since he was sitting in the entrance, we were trapped and I'm covering my mouth shouting "EW" and adam's going "TOOTER! STINKY!" and hubs is laughing like a 10 year old boy. He finally lets us out and we crawl out of the cubbyhole only to find Jill and Devin walking up and I'm all "hey Jill, check out that cubbyhole" and they crawl into the stench. Apparantly I am a 10 years old too.

Anyway, it was a super fun day - Adam had a blast and we'll definately be going back!

Watching Da Planes

2010-11-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Around the beginning of October, we decided we needed a little family getaway. We left our house on a Sunday morning and headed up to Salinas. Not really a vacation spot, but we decided to go to the air show up there at the local airport. We arrived shortly after the show itself started, but the police had lots of streets blocked off and we got stuck in a NIGHTMARE of traffic. By nightmare I mean being directed to dead ends and sitting in a not-moving car with a screaming toddler, while watching the F18's flying by and realizing we were missing some of the best parts of the show. We almost abandoned ship a few times, but since we'd already paid for our tickets, we stuck it out and after literally an HOUR in traffic, we finally arrived - albeit ready to write a letter to the city and complain about how stupid their traffic directors were.
We weren't sure how Adam would do since air shows are really loud - but he loves planes and at first sight of a small plane doing tricks, he was shouting "AIRPLANE! AIRPLANE!" and super excited.

At one point we were watching the Thunderbirds fly in formation.... which was amazing!

(love this picture!)

(short video of them flying)

Then one plane did a surprise fly by which was really close and really loud and the whole audience was shouting "WHOA!" because it scared the crap out of all of us - nobody saw it coming. Adam FREAKED. I couldn't even hear him crying, and I was holding him - it was that loud!

He pretty much remained crumbled in my arms after that until we decided to high tail it outta there. Where we encountered another traffic debacle as they had everyone re-routed to drive through residential streets with stop signs as they left the show. Really dumb. Nothing like being stuck in traffic and having to drive veeeeery slowly through a neighborhood where everyone has bars on the windows and security doors. I even saw an entire front porch caged in. Oh my.

All in all, a cool show - but the traffic issues sort of put a damper on the whole thing.

First of all....

2010-11-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

They won! They won! The Giants WON the World Series! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We've been watching all the games possible (except for the first two games while we were out of town, but we were able to stay informed of the score) - and even went to chili's last night after trick or treating and sat in the bar so we could watch Game 3 - ha! I'm so proud, go Giants!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system...

I did it. I signed up for NaBloPoMo. This means I have to post every day this month. Yikes.

I have all kinds of posts rattling around in this head of mine, but I'm not disciplined enough to actually sit down and POST anything. So I figure this might help, and I might win a cool prize in the meantime. Thanks Alison for the idea!

Halloweeeeeeen

2010-10-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here was the plan:
Purchase dinosaur costume for the boy

Put boy in dinosaur costume because he loves dinosaurs, no problem

Make dinosaur egg treat bag to match

Have fun on Halloween trick or treating with other costumed kidlets.....

Here is what actually happened:

Try to put boy in costume

He proceeded to scream "I NO LIKE IT!" and escaped my attempts to get him to try it on

Spent several days wearing dinosaur head going "ROAR - Adam! Don't you want to be a dinosaur? ROAR!"

To which he would reply "yeah momma!"

But then would run away screaming when I tried to put the darn thing on

My mom and I actually HELD HIM DOWN and got the costume on (come hell or high water I was determined to at least wrestle him into the thing) during which we almost peed ourselves laughing so hard and tormented the boy as he was screaming "NONONONONONO! I NO LIKE IT!!!!" and then found the zipper and bailed on that bad boy right quick.

Grandparents tried, neices tried, aunts tried...was.not.happening.

Thus enters Plan B:

A close up?

aaaaaand the treat bag to match:

We headed down to the village to trick or treat with my nieces and he got dragged around by Gracie who showed him the "ropes" about getting candy, while we got lots of comments and laughter about his "costume".

Oh well, there is always next year right?

Happy Halloween everyone! I love this holiday because it means I can shove candy into my piehole and not feel guilty about it :)

Note to Self...

2010-10-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

Don't give the child lotion to "play" with during a diaper change, (despite the screeching and unbelievable strength and squirmability of said child...do they make 2T straightjackets? cause I'd be all over that...) even if you THINK he can't get the darn thing open because he will at some point run off and you will forget he has it until there is 5 minutes of silence and you realize with great dread that you will probably be cleaning up a mess of some sort. Silence equals disaster in the house of a toddler (or maybe it's just my toddler, although I doubt it)

Immediately following the taking of these pictures would be me chasing this little monster around the house who proceeded to touch EVERY FRICKIN THING he could before I could get the lotion off his hands. Damn he's fast. Thank God for baby wipes is all I'm sayin...

Starting it all off right...

2010-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I turned 33. For some reason, I feel like this is a birthday I just want to shrug off like it never happened. Total ambivilance. I'm not sure why I feel that way, I mean I still get carded when I buy alcohol for pete's sake....but the more I get INTO my thirties, the more I notice those tiny lines around my eyes....and on my forehead....and it's a slippery slope. Hello Oil of Olay!
BUT, my lovely family and friends insist on reminding me about it...and have all been very sweet.   I got e-serenaded (ahem alison)...had many facebook messages and texts and phone calls...it's been awesome. My dad called me yesterday and goes "I realized today that I was 33 when you were BORN, and that's just wierd" - HA!
So I spent the morning working and then I went up to visit with my dear friend Ashlee and her two boys. Later in the afternoon Adam and I headed to hub's workplace and we went to Red Robin's for dinner. Some people have grimaced and said "THAT'S where you want your birthday dinner?" and I emphatically said yes because of several reasons:

-I don't have to dress up
-I can eat a delicious juicy hamburger which I haven't had in a while
-three words - garlic parmesan fries
-It's just the right combination of loud and quiet
-It's kid friendly what with all the stuff on the walls and the crazy carpet that hides all the bits of chicken strips my kid casually tosses on the floor.

I had a blue cheese burger wtih garlic parmesan fries and it was deliciously fabulous.
Tonight we are getting together with the rest of my side of the family to have dinner and dessert. Should be a good time!

This morning, it was rush-rush-rush to get Adam off to school. My phones were kinda busy this morning, so I got into the car after dropping him off and made a bunch of phone calls...then I hopped on the freeway and headed home to bury myself in paperwork. I was just going past Pismo when my car started sputtering...and I thought "oh crap....". Our gas gauge has been busted for a while, so I go by milage - only recently my boy has figured out how to push the button that resets my milage. Ahem.
So luckily, I got off the freeway right at the top of the hill on Hwy 1 - and my car died.   There wasn't any traffic at that hour of the morning, so I coasted through the stop sign and headed down the hill into downtown pismo hoping to go as far as possible just on momentum...hahaha. It worked out great actually because I got all the way into downtown and pulled over into a parking space. I was only about 5 or 6 blocks from a gas station.
I hoofed it down there, bought a gas can - filled it up - and got back to my car.   I now have a full tank and mental note to make sure I check my milage more often in case little fingers get curious again.
WHEW!    An interesting start to my October 1st....

Busy day and Beach Fun

2010-09-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was a busy and fun day. First thing in the morning we had a visit from our friends Kelli and her daughter Addison. Kelli is due any day now with a baby boy, so we've been trying to get together often in the hopes that the kids will wear each other out and Addison will nap so Kelli can rest. I put on a CD of kid songs and Adam and Addison proceeded to have a little dance party on the sofa

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Shortly after they left, my neighbor stopped by for a visit with her new little man, he's so tiny and scrumptious, I just adore snuggling with him. He always falls asleep on me, so she comes over when he's being particularly fussy, ha! Isn't he precious?

And then my mom called...she and my dad had my three neices for a few days while my brother and sister in law were out of town - and they decided to hit up Avila Valley Barn and then the beach for the afternoon. So, after I got my baby fix, we headed out to meet them at the barn. Adam ran all over the place shouting "coo-coo's!" which is what he calls chickens. (he calls chicken nuggets that too - which is kind of sick if you think about it...I wonder if he KNOWS) He always likes running from pen to pen and feeding all the critters out there. And of course we had to get the requisite pumpkin and hay bale pictures

Finally, the beach! I wasn't really prepared and didn't have swim trunks or anything for AJ, but I just doused him in sunscreen and called it good. He had a BLAST. He loves the water, so that's where we spent most of our time...

and then the girls were able to drag him away to help build sand castles and play in Abby's "hot tub".

By the end of the day, he was stripped nekkid and running around on the beach with a sandy butt, and my mom trying desperately to get him to sit still long enough to snap a bare booty picture. (which I don't have copies of yet). I threw him in the car with nothing but a diaper and we both jumped in the shower when we got home. I think I washed about 5 lbs of sand from his ears and his butt crack!

It was a great day - there is something to be said about that sun-sapped kind of tired you feel after a few hours at the beach...makes for some good cuddle time on the couch with my boy :)

For Kelly...

2010-09-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ms. Kelly asked about naps. WELL. I have to say the boy is currently sleeping in his bed as I type and it's 3pm in the afternoon. But I cheated.
I ran errands and drove around until the drunk eyes became closed eyes. Then I transferred him to his bed and he let out a big sigh and rolled over and went right back to napping. This is the first nap he's taken in the last 5 days. I honestly don't see me putting him in bed during the day and him actually falling asleep, but Lord knows I'm still gonna try! These days I will at the very least give him a stack of books and tell him it's "quiet time" - and he'll usually be good for an hour or so.
So yeah, it's all a big crapshoot for us napwise. I always HOPE for a nap - but 9 times out of 10, he doesn't do it. And with this whole bed thing? ShYEAH, so not happening. Unless I want to drive around for an hour everyday and pray that I can get him from the car to the house without the dog barking, the cat meowing, the phone ringing, the screen door banging, or me tripping over the 832 toys on my living room floor.

Another day, another change...

2010-09-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

So, despite the fact that Adam will be turning 2 1/2 in October...he has still been in a crib all this time. For two reasons:
#1 - He doesn't climb out....I've applied the "georgia" theory to this one. See, Georgia could easily jump the white picket fence keeping her in the yard - but she doesn't KNOW that she could, so she doesn't. Adam could probably have climbed out of his crib long ago...but didn't KNOW that he could...so he didn't. Yay.

#2 - I believe in total containment. I think I did a post once about playpens and the whole controversy there...well, I think small areas where the kid is safe and contained - are totally awesome. I can leave him in there during naptime despite him running around in circles, and screaming "MOMMA!" at the top of his lungs 4927 times in a row. But he's contained, so his ability to get into trouble or get hurt, is minimal. Yay.

Hubs has been wanting to transition him to a toddler bed like a "Big Boy" for a while now - but knowing that naps are probably hopeless once that happens, and see the above two reasons, I've been putting him off. We agreed to visit the discussion again once he hit 2 1/2...
Until yesterday.

Yesterday, he was doing his normal laps in the crib and screaming and generally trying to NOT sleep as per usual..when I heard some grunting and commotion and decided to glance into the video monitor to see what he was up to. Aaaaand, discovered he was in the process of climbing out. Dammit.
So I ran in there and actually caught him just as he was going over. I put him back in and he proceeded to sling one leg over and do it again. I hung my head and had to admit defeat. There would be no nap, and there would be a crib turned into a toddler bed that evening. SIGH

It was kind of a sad thing actually. My baby will never again sleep in a crib. This growing up thing is so bittersweet. I'm so excited to see the little man he's becoming (he now says "no thank you" - how crazy is THAT??) and yet, I'm kinda bummed at the babyness going away.

Adam was SOOOO excited that he could climb in and out of his bed - he ran around like a mad man while we were putting the little rails up.

Anyhow...I had myself prepared for an awful night of transition. We did our normal routine, story...song...kisses, etc - and then we both started to walk out of the room and he hopped right out of that bed and tried to follow us out of the room. I decided to stay in there and try and calm him and keep him in bed, hoping he would go to sleep. So back to bed he went, and I sat and sang some songs and he flipped and flopped and tossed and turned and eventually I had to pee, so I got up and walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. A quick peek in the monitor told me that he was still in bed, and shortly after that - fast asleep. WHEW - that way too easy. We kept checking and he was still in his bed...and then right before we went to bed ourselves, I checked again and found him like this:

(we didn't turn on the light, but that flash made it look like we did!)
Hilarious - we laughed and chuckled and carefully put him back in his bed, where he slept ALL NIGHT LONG. Never got up - never fell out of bed - totally amazing. In the morning, I got up before him and I was making coffee at just after 8am when I noticed he was awake. He lolled around in bed for a while and then sat up and said "Momma?" hahahaha. I went in there and hugged and kissed him and thanked him for sleeping through the night so well in his Big Boy bed. He just beamed and kissed me back....so proud.

Tonight, we did the same routine - story, song, night-night kisses....and we both left the room and closed the door. He stayed in bed and 10 minutes later is FAST ASLEEP.
Sometimes I think the things I worry about the most are the things I shouldn't be worried about. HA. Although I haven't attempted a nap yet. Hmmmmm

An update of sorts...bullet style

2010-08-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hubs left on August 1st for Memphis - a week of work stuff ahead of him
I have since decided that being a single mom is hard and kinda sucks..
Adam was super cranky and full of tantrums...I decided he missed his dad and was acting out
Thursday night, he woke up screaming covered in vomit...
He then proceeded to wake up several more times throughout the night
I got about 3 hours sleep total
Friday morning I discover my little man has a cold...awesome
Friday night, adam and I pick up hubs at the airport at 9:30pm
Hubs was having stomach pain and a fever, and decided he needed to get to a hospital because he felt he was having a diverticulitus attack
I dropped him off at the ER and went home to wait for my dad to come watch Adam
I got back to the hospital around 10:30pm
We ended up at the ER until 4:30am Saturday morning
Came home and climbed into bed at 5am
Adam woke up at 7:45am
Hubs felt pretty awful, and slept on and off all day - with us taking his temperature constantly and adam wondering why in the world daddy couldn't play...especially after being gone all week
By 9:30pm that night, we were waiting for my mom to come stay with adam while we headed back to the ER
By 1am, hubs was admitted to the hospital
I got home at 2am and climbed into bed....didn't fall asleep until 3am, and slept fitfully worrying about hubs and feeling weird that he was in the hospital and I wasn't there
Adam thankfully slept in until 8:30am, so I woke up actually feeling pretty okay with some solid sleep, albeit not long enough
My mom got an eyefull that morning of how cranky and tantrum filled my little man has been during the time hubs has been gone.
Luckily she was still willing to take him back to her house so I could go visit hubs.
I find out when I get there, they still need to keep him another night
Adam is REALLY acting out now because daddy was here and then he's gone and he just doesn't seem to understand what's going on...
Finally last night at 6:30pm, hubs is released and allowed to come home...and everyone is happy
Hubs actually gets up and goes to WORK...of all things
But he comes home early because he's having some pain and needs rest
Which of course is hard to do when there is a 2 year old who's thrilled to see you and just wants to play
Adam and I leave for our mommy and me swim class this afternoon
After class, my friend Kelli and I are leaving the changing room and the kids start running and chasing each other and suddenly make a break for it around a corner....near the pool
We take off after them and shout STOP! and NO! and her little girl stops....but Adam doesn't...
The pool is covered and he walks right off the edge...
I see him go under the water, and the pool cover just envelope around him...
I don't even think, I just jump in and grab him...with my bag, my keys, my cell phone....everything
My only thought was getting him out from under that water
He looks a little surprised, but doesn't cry
Kelli grabs him from me and I'm just standing in the water with my stomach in my throat
We slowly walk out and get into the car, dripping wet...no options
I had to pull over after starting to drive home and allow myself to have a mini-panic attack
I'm so scared of drowning...I have nightmares about my neices and my adam drowning...
And I know the image of him falling into that water will haunt me for a while
But Thank God he's okay
Tonight he had a major tantrum...I think the worst one ever...and I'm afraid I lost my temper and didn't handle it the way I should have...
I think I'm emotionally spent after this last week...and his tantrums sometimes send me over the edge and make me lose my patience
I'm ready for today to be over now - I think I suck at parenting today.
Please God let tomorrow be better...let this WEEK be better.

The Testosterone Tea Party

2010-08-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

I leave my dad and Adam alone for a minute...and this is what happens...

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It was bound to happen eventually...

2010-07-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

But neither one of us thought it would happen twice in five days.
Yes, we had to take our 2 year old to the ER for the first time - and then again five days later for another injury completely unrelated to the first one. I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if the authorities came knocking on our door to ask some questions. And I've considered buying a bubble....because not only does it totally suck to see my tiny little man in pain - but it causes some serious anxiety for me and hubs.

First Injury...July 3rd - at my neice Abby's birthday party.
We get through the whole party without a scratch, but as we're cleaning up, Adam slips while climbing stairs to the slide and smacks his head.   Giant cartoon-like welt appears, followed immediately by gnarly black and blue color. Totally looked like it might burst it was swelling so fast. He's had some goose-eggs before, but nothing like that.    It was hard not to freak out.   One of the mom's of a kid at the party happened to be a pediatric nurse and looked at it and said "Well, I've seen worse, but that's pretty bad - he definately should be looked at". So I tried to keep myself calm and my dad and I jumped in the car and hightailed it to the hospital. I started to panic on the way there because he looked like he was getting sleepy in the car and of course the only thing I could remember about head injuries is not to let the person fall asleep until they are examined....so I think I told my dad about 57 times "don't let him fall asleep!" - and my dad, God bless him, did a great job of keeping me calm and also making sure Adam was looking at him and not passing out on us.
I wish that when things like this happen, you could go the emergency room and be whisked away immediately and deal with all the registration/paperwork crap LATER...because hello? My kid has a freaking black and blue massive lump attached to his noggin and I'm answering lame questions about my address while you type it into your little computer there?   No, not sitting so well with me as a parent at that point. Granted, the swelling had already gone down quite a bit - but still!   first trip to the ER! kinda freaked about the screaming child on my lap! quit asking me questions that don't matter and send us to someone in scrubs who can tell me my kid is okay!

Anyway, we did the whole registration thing and we sat in the waiting room (which was pretty full being a Saturday on a holiday weekend). Dad still trying to keep me calm and me just worring incessantly.   FINALLY they call us into triage where a nurse tries to get some oxygen count or something by attaching a little bandaid type thing to Adam's finger. The screaming that occured when she tried to do that convinced her maybe she should try using a toe instead, so I had to stand up and hold my kid who was trying to squirm out of my grasp (so he could make a run for it) and also about to break some windows with the ear piercing shrieks...all while this nurse is looking bewildered and going "umm, he's going to have to be still before I can get this reading" and I felt like smacking her because really?   can someone look at his HEAD already and stop f''ing around with the stupid bandaid oxygen thing? Obviously based on the screaming, his oxygen levels were fine. I was seriously getting frustrated...and poor dad was trying to wipe all the snot off his face and feeling totally helpless.   She finally gets what she wanted and he somewhat calms down until she tells me we have to weigh him...which we did - quickly. Then we get sent BACK out to the waiting room with a pillowcase full of ice and instructions to hold it on his head. Ummm yeah....you mean the big black and blue swollen and SORE spot on his head?   yeah, he was TOTALLY gonna let me do that. And then she has the balls to make the comment "wow, in 20 years I've never had such a tough one...they usually calm down once they realize we're here to help them, but not this guy!"....thanks lady, appreciate that. Maybe he didn't like your scrubs.   (If I sound sarcastic, it's only because I've had experiences at this particular hospital ER that cause me to be kinda cynical...and snarky...and irritated - plus, it's my kid, you know? the mama bear in me was in effect).
When we walk out to the waiting room, we see my mom sitting there waiting. She heard Adam screaming and asked if she could go in but was denied, and she said she had a hard time not gritting her teeth and shouting "but I'm the GRANDMA" - hahahaha - made me chuckle. Guess the mama bear was in effect for her too.
Adam kinda zoned out on my lap for a bit until they eventually called us back and a doctor came and looked at him (sort of) and said he didn't think we'd need scans or anything and they just wanted to observe him for a while to make sure he was okay. He actually fell asleep on my lap, which they said we didn't need to be concerned about and pretty much just left me and mom there to chat and watch him sleep and reminisce about all the injuries my brother and I had as kids.

I had to make the dreaded phone call to hubs to tell him where we were and what happened - and he was at work, so I really didn't WANT to call him, but I knew I had to. He was worried obviously, but at that point it seemed pretty clear that Adam was going to be fine and it was just a giant bonk on the head. I started to feel lame about bringing him to the ER, especially after he fell asleep and we were able to put ice on it and get the swelling down so much....

but then I had to remind myself that it's better safe then sorry, and it was worth it simply for the peace of mind. I wish I had a picture of what it looked like right after he fell....OY. Let's just say my butthole puckered right up looking at my poor kid's head.

So, after he woke from his snooze and hopped off my lap and chattered up a storm, (and seriously looking no worse for wear at ALL, you could barely even see his bump - although I should have taken a side shot)

we were sent home with instructions to wake him up every 2 hours, and keep an eye out for any scary symptoms. Here he is a few hours after being home...bruise starting to show:

Luckily, we have a guest bed in his room, so it was easier for us to just sleep in there with him instead of being all the way down the hall. He was totally fine the next morning, still a bit swollen and bruised, but doing okay.

We dosed him up with tylenol and decided to hit the beach that night for fireworks with friends and family. Heard quite a few groans of "oooooh, poor adam's head!" because of the big black and blue stripe across his forehead, but he was oblivious and had a great time playing in the sand and watching the fireworks show.

Here he is on day 3...

All in all, a hit to my nerves, but none the worse for wear. At least there was no blood!

Fast forward to July 7th. Another birthday party (no more, we're swearing off birthday parties now) for my sister in law this time. We had an awesome dinner at a Japanese restaurant, sitting at the Tepenyaki table (or however you spell that grill thingamabob). We get up to leave and my brother grabs Adam to carry him out. On the way to the car, he and my niece do the swinging game....you know, with the kid between you...1-2-3 swing...kid laughs hysterically...fun for everyone right? Except that when they stopped, Adam started crying. Well he's kind of a sensitive kid, so we just figured it was nothing and put him in the car. Except then hubs noticed he was holding his wrist kinda funny and crying OW and OUCH through major tears. So we stayed there for a bit trying to calm him down...except he wouldn't and we looked at his hand and his arm trying to see anything wrong, but figured he just may have tweaked it during the swinging game. We decided to head home instead of going to my parents for presents and cake and see if he would calm down. He kinda mellowed out in the car, but when I went to get him out of the carseat, he freaked and started crying again. I put him on my lap and we turned on his favorite show and he calmed down again, we put ice on his arm - but everytime we touched him or moved him, he'd start screaming and saying "ouch". My gosh you guys, it was agony...just not knowing what to do, but knowing he was in pain. Eventually we laid him on the bed and took his shirt off to see if there was bruising or anything obvious, but there was nothing. Adam seriously winced every time we touched him and would start crying again ....so in the end we decided we needed to take him in....AGAIN. Luckily, this time it was a weekday, and late at night and we walked right in...no waiting, minimal torture with the oxygen thing...and right into a room. We got Adam comfortable on the bed and he was just lying there, not moving his arm...not wanting us to touch him.

We were worried about it being broken, or needing surgery...the worst things possible of course - I think our nerves were pretty much shot at that point - both of us could have used a xanax or 12. But then the doctor came in and we explained what happened and immediately he goes "oh, it's probably a nursemaids elbow"
???
Apparantly, they call it that because the nursemaids from back in the day used to yank the kids around "C'mere you!" style and pull their elbow out of it's socket. In other words, a dislocated elbow.
So the doc sits down...puts Adam on my lap - bends his arm up while adam shrieks in pain...and BONK - snaps his elbow back into place (another butthole puckering moment in case you were wondering. your welcome) and the boys stops crying within seconds. Looks at the doctor with bewilderment. Hubs and I look at the doctor with bewilderment. And he goes "we'll check back in 15 minutes, but he's gonna be fine".
So he leaves and Adam starts crawling around on the bed using his arm, pointing at stuff, laughing, smiling.

Hubs and I just stared at each other like "oh my gosh, he's a different kid". I swear, I was so relieved I could have cried. It was awful knowing he was in pain and I couldn't do anything about it. Totally different from a bonk on the head...this was a "don't-move-me-don't-touch-me" kind of pain. I hate feeling helpless like that.

After a little while the doctor came back in and smiled and saw how happy and great he was doing and said those are the injuries they hope for because they are easy to fix. We called my parents and told them what was going on - my poor brother felt terrible - but it was an honest accident. Could have happened to anyone, especially us since we ~~swing him~~ swung him like that all the time. The doctor said some kids are just more prone to those kinds of injuries and we just shouldn't do that anymore...or at least until he's five. I guess five is the magic age...hehehe
Anyhow, again...none the worse for wear - but dude, 2nd visit definately took it's toll on our anxiety level.
Look Joanna, they gave us a doll too!

No more kiddo, mmmmkay? We've filled our ER quota for a while. I thank the Lord above that both injuries ended up being no big deal. I know parents go through worse and oh my gosh I can't even imagine. This parenting stuff can be stressfull!

Did you know...

2010-07-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

That hairspray not only takes ball point pen out of sofa....but also removes FELT tip pen?

Just a little FYI

Also? My kid knows how to climb now - and it sucks

Cold Front moving in...

2010-07-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

Today is July 1st, which means it's the start of fiscal year, which means work right now is NUTS for me. It's piled...high. So last night, once the boy was in bed, I headed for my desk and buried myself in work. Hubs headed for bed around 11pm, and I kept working. Before I knew it, it was 3:15AM - crazy right?

Throughout that time, Adam woke up like five times, which was wierd because he never does that - unless he's teething or something is wrong. Well, last night it seemed that he had bad gas pains because he was doing that squirmy thing and then he'd let out a huge fart and sort of groan and go back to sleep on my shoulder. I finally climbed into bed at 3:30am, and since my brain was still going a million miles an hour, I read a couple chapters of a book and called it a night.

This morning I stumbled out of bed bleary eyed on barely 4 hours of sleep....and stood in front of my coffee maker for almost a full five minutes before I remembered how to use it. I get stupid when I don't sleep.

Adam woke up shortly after that, and I walked into his room to find a kid with a full on runny nose, low grade fever, and a grumpy disposition with bags under his eyes. 20 minutes later, he's coughing and sneezing, and I kinda at that point had to admit that he probably has a cold. Which...sucks because 4th of July is right around the corner and it'll be our first time taking him to the beach - so we better kick this cold's ass in the meantime.

I set him up on the couch all cozy like and told him to look poorly

and then he sat up and went all "CHEEEEZE" to prove that I'm a big giant exaggerator and really he's not that sick...

In fact later, he felt good enough to go all OCD and line up his trucks and cars...

and then his animals...

He really perked up later - and seemed to be fine except for a low fever, mild cough, and runny nose. So keep your fingers crossed people! Our 4th of July is supposed to be full of sand and smores and fireworks in the sky!!

Movie fun

2010-07-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

We took Adam to his very first big theater movie on Monday. We used to take him to the drive-in back when he was a wee tike and would just fall asleep in the car. But being a toddler, we've been unsure about his patience level lately. Right before Toy Story 3 came out - they started playing the first two movies on regular TV, and we noticed he was actually interested enough to chill and watch the whole thing. So we decided to give it a try and see what happened, hoping we weren't going to pay $487 dollars for the movie and snacks, only to have to leave with a screaming kid.

We loaded up a bag with snacks thinking we could use them as a distraction....stopped and got some Taco Bell, burritos for us and a quesadilla for the boy...another possible distraction...and then got popcorn...one more distraction. (that stuff is too good, I think they put crack in it or something because my microwave popcorn just doesn't taste like the movies) He seemed so excited and was pointing out all the lights and posters and talking a blue streak. He ran down the hall to the theater, and we found seats, and hubs tried to put Adam in a seat with a booster which is when he promptly squirmed out of hubs arms and hightailed it out of there...I barely had time to throw down all our stuff because he was hauling ass! He literally ran all the way back down the hall, into the foyer, past the snack counter, and almost to the front door before I caught him...complete with all the teenagers behind the counter giggling at me.
I grabbed him and we walked around killing time during the previews and finally made our way back to the theater. We stood in the hallway for a while and he seemed absorbed in the preview they were showing, so I headed back over to where hubs was sitting. NOPE - screams, cries...I told hubs to grab our stuff and move closer to the hallway as I carried him back out. I did NOT have high hopes for this experience at this point and thought for sure we were gonna have to bail.
But, in the hallway, he quieted down and finally the movie started and once he saw the characters on the screen he was hooked. After a few minutes, I was able to sneak down into our seat and he sat on my lap the ENTIRE MOVIE. He ate some of his quesadilla and some yogurt bites and then I busted out my trump card for the rest of the movie - a LOLLIPOP. I am so glad I brought that thing.

We were the last ones to leave the theater and hubs and I kept saying "I can't believe that worked! We made it through the whole movie! How awesome is THAT?"

And you guys, the movie was awesome. Dare I say it....better then the first two? And I'm not even ashamed to admit that I cried at the end...especially holding my little boy on my lap with my chin resting on his head. Le SIGH

Did you know...

2010-06-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

That HAIRSPRAY will remove ball point pen from your sofa?

It's true.

I can vouch for that.

So next time you're on the phone, and your toddler grabs a pen from your desk and proceeds to draw on every single cushion of your microfiber sofa, including the armrests....and you see it and immediately think "oh crap, there's no WAY that's coming out"...and you contemplate taking a picture and sending it to the website "Shit my kids have ruined"...
Take heart...and GOOGLE...you will discover there are people out there who have been in your shoes and can tell you how to fix it.

Hairspray. No lie...it works - my couch is now unscathed and smelling like the 80's.

So ummmm...

2010-06-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

My 2 year old....that sweet little boy of mine...got kicked out of preschool last week.

Now, you may be wondering what on earth he could have possibly done

am I right?

Well it involves teeth...specifically HIS teeth...on someone else's kid.

Yeah that.

He started going to this place back in March, and did really well

Except for puking on the teacher his first day because I left him and he was crying so hard

and except for that other time that he threw a matchbox car and it hit another kid in square in the noggin

that kind of sucked.

And then everything was fine for a while!

Until about a month ago, when I got a call in the middle of the day informing me

that Adam had BITTEN another little boy.

I was shocked,

mortified

He's never done that before...what on earth?

It was just a nip on the arm, or so we thought

Until that little boy got home and his mom found an actual circle bite with teeth marks on his back

and when asked what happened he said "adam bit me"

I saw that circle bite 2 days later...a perfect little oval bruise of teeth marks on a tiny boy's back

I felt terrible

no matter what happened, or why adam was pissed off at this boy...

seeing that bite mark disturbed me

Teacher starts to observe more closely and keep a better eye on things

and thinks it's a problem strictly between adam and this one boy

boy being a bit on the aggressive side and not respecting adam's space

no problem with any of the other boys - but this one kid just sets him off somehow

We go a couple of weeks without incident

Until last Tuesday

I was there when it happened

This boy ran up to adam

grabbed his arm, ripped a toy out of his hand and ran off

adam FLIPPED

Shouted NO, chased after him

and chomped on his arm

just like that

I was shocked

tears

time out

other parents and kids observing

other boy was fine, just a red mark on his arm

but still...

to see my kid lose it like that just unnerved me

I contacted the parents, with apologies,

decided to call adam's doctor and seek advice

Later the next day I get an email asking for us to "remove adam from my care"

3 strikes and all

I'm not even gonna pretend that didn't hurt

I understand her position

I understand her need to protect her kids

I know she didn't want to do that

but I still cried

(also pmsing and overly emotional about it all)

Nobody ever wants to hear that their kid isn't welcome

He really is a sweet and hilarious little boy

it's a phase right?

Hubs seems to think it's from all those vampire books I read while I was pregnant

HAR-HAR.

I have to admit - the boy does have some fangs

Moving on

Adam is starting a new preschool in August, one he's been on a waiting list for since he was 15 months old

And both hubs and I felt we should do the right thing and tell this new teacher what happened

just in case

And today - she wrote us this long email

putting our hearts at ease

She gets it

she's dealt with this before

her own son did it

she knows how we feel

but also said in almost 20 years

she's never asked a child to leave

(although she HAS asked some parents to leave - hee!)

She's excited to get to know Adam

and reassured us he's just frustrated about not being able to communicate yet

AND she is fitting us in with a drop in spot

one day a week starting early July

So we don't have to wait until August

Yippee

Love her already

Relief

5 Reasons why I need to get a life...

2010-06-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

I am unreasonably excited about the new season of Intervention and Obsessed starting tomorrow
I am also unreasonably excited about another season of Rescue Me FINALLY starting this week
I'm wondering, now that the 2nd season of 16 and pregnant is over, when does teen mom start? HUH?
I spent a good 20 minutes googling trying to find out when the new Mad Men will be on
Real housewives...enough said

More Snow Adventures

2010-06-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

Video's this time...
We desperately wanted to go sledding, but the snow was so powdery, it seemed impossible! And we were practically the only ones on the mountain this time of year, so there was no designated "play area" with snow that had already been trampled down. Sooo, we found a small hill by the lodge and tossed our snow discs down and proceeded to make our own very small sledding hill. Here is me (totally out of breath from the altitude and snow packing exertion) and Adam taking a quick trip together:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

And here is Hubs and Adam - looking like weebles while sledding down the mountain

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Here we are on a walk - Adam insisted on bringing a little plastic hammer with him everywhere, and thought it was his "job" to hammer snow every few feet. Cracked us up...

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
All in all, it was a good trip - serene surroundings - no home stuff or work stuff to bother us - no puking down the mountain - yippeeee - and now we've vowed that we need to visit the snow at least once a year. Agreed?

To the SNOW Jeeves...

2010-06-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

Back in April, we took a little mini vacation to the Sequoia National Park. We were supposed to go last November, but there were major snow storms going on and Adam spiked a fever the night before we were to head out there, so we decided we didn't want to risk getting stuck up in the mountains with a sick kid and the lodge allowed us to put off our reservation until April.

Turns out the day we left, it was pouring rain here - and poured almost the entire trip over there too. At one point I changed a diaper at a Sonic drive-in with rain dripping off the roof directly onto the back of my neck and down my shirt, ha!

We finally started driving through all the cute little towns heading into the mountains and the rain started to let up - I got excited because we could see all the snow covered peaks and it was so beautiful. As we were almost to the entrance to the national park, we heard a familiar "BLORK" from the backseat, and our poor little man (who has a tendency to get carsick) threw up all over the place. We stopped and did damage control, changed his clothes, got him some fresh air, cleaned out the car and the carseat, found the nearest dumpster and once again were on our way. I sat in the backseat with him after that just in case it happened again, knowing we were about to be on a super twisty/curvy road for the next hour.

A few miles up, it started raining again...and eventually as we climbed higher, the rain turned to snow. I was even starting to feel a little blah because to the curvy road, and as I looked at Adam, he was really green and not looking so good. He started throwing up again and luckily I had a big tall cup that I just held for him - poor guy - there simply was NO place to stop or pull over (anyone who's been on that little mountain road knows what I'm talking about) plus it was freaking SNOWING, so we didn't have a choice but to keep driving. Poor hubs felt so bad, he had a hard time not being able to stop and help his boy, but we hung in there and opened all the windows for fresh air and I had blankets bundled up around him so he wouldn't freeze - it got better...and eventually he dozed off. The snow was so thick coming down that we could only go about 20 miles per hour, so that just made it really slow going. At one point, we passed a guy in a prius going the opposite direction who had pulled over and was standing just behind his car, and just around the corner from him, we came upon a BEAR - in the middle of the road, snowing like crazy and there's a freakin BEAR just cruising past us lumbering down the road. I was GIDDY with excitement, but since I was in the backseat I didn't get a picture of the darn thing, and hubs was driving and going really slow trying not to hit the BEAR in the road - so we missed our opportunity. Still really cool though!

We momentarily wondered if we should go warn the guy in the Prius who was probably about to pee off the side of the mountain only to turn around and see a bear coming his way....ha!

(we didn't - and we never heard about a nerdy white guy in a prius getting eaten by a bear, so we called it good)

Anyhow - we FINALLY arrived and found our lodge. The road was closed right at the road to the lodge, so it's a good thing we didn't need to go any further then that! Oddly enough, we didn't need any chains that whole trip up either. Despite all the snowing, the roads were good.

It was kind of a walk from the main lodge to where our room was, luckily they provided luggage carts for us, ha!

A car in the parking lot...

It was almost dark when we arrived, so once we carried our shivering boy up the hill to our room and got settled, we decided to go to the main lodge and have dinner at the restaurant (the ONLY place to eat up there, luckily we brought a ton of our own food). It was still lightly snowing when we started our walk down there...

The restaurant was one of those fancy pants places that was really quiet and candlelit, except that we have a 2 year old who is not-so-quiet or fancy (I mean really, a wine GLASS of water for a 2 year old?) so we sort of ate and ran and ordered our meals take out after that.

The next day was clear and GORGEOUS - so we were snapping away!

He couldn't really put his arms all the way down we had him so stuffed in those clothes!

Hubs pulled on this tree branch and I snapped the picture right as a huge chunk of snow fell off...

We decided to head down to the General Sherman tree - which I've only seen during the spring/summer seasons.

There was a path cut out, but it was only about the width of our feet and definately a one person trail. Adam was walking in front of me and took the lead - we weren't sure how he'd do in the snow, but he just trudged up the hill like it was nothing, we were AMAZED at how well he did on that hike

Let's just say he was not happy about being shoved into the carseat with all those layers on...

grumble, grumble, grumble

As the sun was going down that evening, the whole place just felt so magical - so quiet and serene - we were thrilled to just cruise around on the walking trails and enjoy the scenery with our boy

I kept calling these Dr. Seuss Trees

not so happy about being put into thigh deep snow...

To be continued....

Magic Eraser Kind of Morning...

2010-06-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

This pretty much says it all...

(I took away the crayons and he was pitching a fit and then I grabbed the camera and said "say cheese!" and he shouted "NOOOOOO!" - and CLICK went the camera. Needless to say, I was laughing)

It's a good thing he's cute

(wearing my shoes)

In other news, I made french bread...

Delish!

Thanks Ashlee...

2010-05-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

She got a picture of our hubby's passed out on the couch after all that CRAZY egg hunting business.

Apparantly it was all just too much for them. Buncha lightweights...

A day at the museum...

2010-05-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Since Adam's actual birthday fell on a weekday...I decided I wanted to do something different then our normal working-from-home-maybe-take-a-trip-to-the-park thing. So I took him to the kid's museum in SLO...just me and him!

It was really nice to just hang out with my kid and PLAY.

My attempt at a nice mother and son portrait....giant FAIL

OKAY, so this next part absolutely cracks me up. My son's klepto side kicked in once again at the outdoor water exhibit. See, they have all these rubber ducks floating in water out there. And Adam was a man, with a plan...

Heading off with an armfull of ducks...

FOUR ducks to be precise

More ducks! Running with GLEEEEEEE

The end result...FIFTEEN DUCKS...AH-AH-AHHHH

(okay, is that look on his face just priceless or what?)

Birthday Catch-Up

2010-05-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

We recently had to buy a new dryer to the tune of $400, and 3 days of me hanging laundry on a clothesline (which really puts the convenience of a dryer into a whole new perspective) - so we decided to keep Adam's 2nd birthday on the small side, and instead of inviting ALL our friends (sorry guys) - we figured we'd just have a small gathering at our house with a few close friends and family. All of hub's family had just come for a surprise visit on hub's birthday(34th!) March 31st, so we just assumed they wouldn't be here 2 weeks later for Adam's birthday.

Well, we were wrong...they all wanted to come! And since just our two immediate families alone total 17 people, we decided our house was gonna be a tight squeeze. We instead went to Strother Park in Arroyo Grande. I'm not really a "theme" person in general, but I'm learning that kids parties are much easier when there is a PLAN, so after going back and forth we decided on a Curious George party. I found a great deal on a bunch of George stuff online, including a pretty lame looking pinata....

But he's 2, who cares, right?

We kept it pretty simple. Just some food and pinata busting and gifts and DONE. Except I did not anticipate the weather totally sucking. The day before, was awesome. Blue skies, gorgeous, perfect. On this day? CLOUDY, sprinkling, cold, and very windy. It totally sucked. We were all cold...and I was wishing for hot stew instead of cold sandwiches.

But oh well...the kids were on the playground having a good time and all the adults were hanging around chatting, it ended up being okay.

The pinata was pretty funny because it was one of those "non-violent" ones where each kid pulls a string and one string opens the floodgates of candy?

(which by the way, nothing funnier then cramming candy up a monkey's ass the night before your kids party...I think I giggled like an 8 year old the whole time I stuffed that sucker). Except that apparantly I didn't read the instructions or something because we were supposed to cut a certain part of it so it would open....and we didn't. So each kid took a turn pulling a string and once all the strings were gone, we still had a full pinata hanging from that tree. Wah-wah-waaaaah.

Which is when the men stepped up and found tree branches and let kids start whacking away...only none of them were big enough to do any damage. My brother finally went for it and with one solid THWACK knocked the whole body off of George's head and candy spewed forth. Admist all the kids scrambling for candy, we had one poor little girl Addison crying into her mom's neck because it scared her - and one poor little Adam standing there looking horrified at the carcass of Curious George at his feet....and the HEAD of Curious George still spinning around on the end of the rope...HA!

Man, that was funny. Not my most sensitive moment in regards to my kid...but funny nonetheless.

After that, it was banana cupcakes for all - and a quizzitive Adam wondering why were trying to light that giant number 2 in his cupcake...

which he devoured...

And then presents! The boy got quite a haul...

and I honestly HATE opening presents like that in front of everyone because it's just like "oh hey, thanks!" and then set it aside and onto the next one...in the meantime Adam is wondering why he can't play with each item. It just seems like kind of a whirlwind and too fast and overwhelming for a kid this age.

The toys and givers of toys don't really get the respect they deserve, and I hate making everyone else stand there to watch that whole debacle. Not really sure how else to handle that though...anyone got suggestions for future birthdays? Do you do something different?

Anyway, after that - the kids all took off to play while we adults starting packing stuff up because it was so cold and we all wanted to go HOME. I left Adam in the care of my oldest neice Keeley who is 10 years old and very capable...she's a little mother hen that one. Pretty soon, before I knew it - he was asleep in the swing...happily clutching his new toy jigsaw.

Now if any of you were reading this blog last year...you might remember he also fell asleep in the swing at his 1st birthday...hilarious!

I'm wondering if this will be a yearly tradition?

At this point, I walked over to gawk at my baby boy and take some pictures....which is when he pulled his head up and heavily blinked around wondering where he was...and then he slowly and quietly threw up ALL OVER HIMSELF. Awesome. (I spared you all and didn't take any pictures of THAT)

Now, we are used to dealing with puke around here - in fact, nowadays we're like a Nascar Team doing damage control with the puke...but at a park? and in the park swing? that was a new experience. Let's just say, I was extremely thankful I had an extra change of clothes AND a jacket for him because that was a bad one. Thanks to my mother in law who helped me get him back to our picnic area without any puke getting on ME. Thanks to my dad and my neices who helped clean the swing and under the swing...and thanks to my neighbor who was there to take his clothes from me and put them into a plastic bag...and thanks to my friend Ani who cleaned off his new toy jigsaw...and thanks to my hubby who was there to run to the car and get everything I needed for my poor shivering, green-around-the-gills boy who I think just had a little too much cupcake and too much swinging. It really does takes a village!

After some cuddling and warming up with some clean clothes, the boy was good as new and back running around on the basketball court chasing his cousins. He even FINALLY got up the cojones to go down the slide without me....and went with his cousin Gracie.

We had a good day with friends and family...here is hubs with my best friend Amanda. We've known each other since we were 4 years old, and she's the one who introduced me to hubs in the first place. She's an absolute doll and we both adore her to peices :)

Nice hat-head there, hubs...

And we had several thwarted attempts at a family picture because hub's sister kept closing her eyes...but with a little force...I finally got one - they might just kill me for posting this, but I'm willing to risk it

My mom has a really cool tradition of painting a banner for each of her grandbabies. An actual vinyl banner that can be rolled up and reused for each birthday. Well, last year she was busy making Bob and Larry cutouts for his 1st birthday, so this year she pulled through, and isn't it fabulous?!?!?!

Still can't believe my baby is two!

Serenity Now

A to Z

Reaching out...

As Requested...

Loves...

The Darndest Things...

Bullets....

Another Day, Another Haircut...

My Boys...

It continues..

*sigh*

Private moments

Trip #3

What the...

Sorry Amanda

For Amanda...

Catch up time

May I forever remember these times...

Arts and crafts explosion...

Busy days

WOOOOOO

It's about time....

Relaxing Sunday

Preschool

My Love Bank

Family fun...

Short legs, long distance

Can I just say...

The Great Pumpkin Prank of 2009

Grasping at Straws...

Currently...

An explanation

Bringing Back Memories

So lucky

It's HERE

In case you need to know...

Snip-snip

Busy Day...

A Snail's Tale

Allergies, Schmallergies

Wanted: Any and all advice on this topic

Rated PG13...

Attempt 1 - Fail 1

Rainy Daze

1-2-3 GO!

Fall Foodie

Brussel Sprout Saga

Aquarium fun

Watching Da Planes

First of all....

Halloweeeeeeen

Note to Self...

Starting it all off right...

Busy day and Beach Fun

For Kelly...

Another day, another change...

An update of sorts...bullet style

The Testosterone Tea Party

It was bound to happen eventually...

Did you know...

Cold Front moving in...

Movie fun

Did you know...

So ummmm...

5 Reasons why I need to get a life...

More Snow Adventures

To the SNOW Jeeves...

Magic Eraser Kind of Morning...

Thanks Ashlee...

A day at the museum...

Birthday Catch-Up

sigh