Bringing Back Memories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So lucky

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

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

It's HERE

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

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...

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.