It's all about the hair

The hair. The boy has got a massive head of hair....it's one of the main things people comment on. I've been putting off a haircut because he just seemed too little- and it was getting these curlies at the back of his neck and they were so cute, I just couldn't bring myself to cut his hair yet. But lately he's been looking a bit more like a raggamuffin, and the hair was getting "helmety", so I took a deep breath and admitted defeat. It was time to cut the hair. Only I had no idea where to take him to get it done, and the more I thought about it - I didn't think that him sitting on my lap while some stranger messed with his head would go over very well with him. I figured there would be screaming...lots of screaming. And I didn't want to pay for screaming because I'm cheap like that. So I decided to do it myself (dun-dun-DUUUUN). I watched a few videos online, bought some actual hair cutting scissors, a comb and a spray bottle, and figured if I messed it up really good, we'd at least have some good pictures of his hair before we had to buzz his head...haha. We brought his high chair into the office and popped in a video of Veggies Tales, Jonah and the Whale. He LOVES Veggie Tales and gets super focused when one is on, so we figured that would be a good distraction. I got snacks and a sippy cup of juice and took of bunch of before pictures:Hubs took some "during" pictures:And here's the AFTER pictures:To me...he looks like he's ready to sling a backpack over his shoulder and head out the door to school while calling out "see ya mom!" as he lets the screen door slam. Seriously, when did my baby turn into such a little boy???????????????????
He's 10 months old today by the way...ay-yi-yi

A Day at the Park

On Friday morning it started HAILING...which was so crazy it looked like SNOW which is unheard of here on the coast

So on Saturday, even though it was cold and windy - the sun was shining and so we headed off to the park. Does this kid love the swings or WHAT? My new favorite picture...notice the tongue, what a crack up

Sleeping

This is how my kid sleeps....and it's EXACTLY how I used to sleep - hilarious!
And look what I found on Friday morning...I walked in and saw this:He suddenly figured out how to pull himself up and STAND in his crib. I was so shocked, I just had to grab the camera for evidence so hubs would believe me.

Reflecting

I am 8 years old. I am on the playground at the school across the street from my house. I am with my friend Jenny and we are sitting on top of the metal bars, something we are not allowed to do during school hours. We are comparing blisters on our hands when we hear voices. We look up and see two older boys walking across the grass in our direction. I look around and notice that the vast schoolyard is unusually empty. My stomach twists like something is wrong. The boys continue to walk towards us and stop at the end of the grass with their arms folded across their chest.
"Hi" the taller one says
"Hello" we both mumble back
I am studying the metal bar, running my hands over the worn places that are discolored.
"What are you girls up to?" the younger one says
"Nothing, just talking" Jenny says
"Why don't you come here and talk to us?" the older one says
"No thanks" she says and jumps off her bar into the sand below.
She turns around and looks at me with big eyes that say we need to leave. I look at the boys standing there and they are whispering to each other...I normally wouldn't jump off such a high bar, but I take a deep breath and drop myself into the sand.
We start walking up onto the grass and then onto the blacktop.
They follow and again we hear "Hey...hold on a second"
For some reason, we stop - turn - and look at them. They are standing about 10 feet away and the taller one says "how about we take you girls into the bushes and get fresh with you"...
My stomach flips around and my throat feels tight and I know we're in danger.
"yeah right" Jenny says...and she grabs my arm and we start walking back across the asphalt. Soon we are on the grassy field. We stop and glance back to see that the boys have followed.
Jenny looks at me and whispers "we're gonna have to run...on the count of three...."
"One..."
the boys are catching up to us
"Two..."
I can't breathe. I'm looking at my feet and hoping they know what to do...
"Three..."
I am frozen. I am watching Jenny run across the big schoolyard towards my house. Away from the boys...away from the danger. My feet are stuck...and I feel like things are going in slow motion.
The ground finally loosens it's hold on me, and just as I start to run, I feel a hand on my arm. I turn and open my mouth to scream, but no sound comes out. The taller boy grabs both of my wrists hard and bends my arms in front of him - between us. I'm trying to twist and flail my arms out of his grasp and I hear tiny squeals of struggle escape my lips. In my head I am screaming and panic-stricken. The boy just grips my wrists tighter and sneers at me with a sideways grin on his face. He has dark red hair and a smattering of freckles on his face. He is calm and controlled and smiling. The smaller boy with dark hair and a hat, watches this all take place, and laughs.
He starts walking backwards, pulling me across the grass. I am filled with an immense sense of terror and urgency and I start kicking my legs and thrashing around. At some point I connect hard with his shin and he lets go of my wrists. I turn and run as hard as I can towards home. I see Jenny has made it across the street and is running up to my front door. I don't even remember crossing the street. Suddenly I am home, and out of breath, and there is Jenny gasping for air and trying to tell my mom what happened. I see my mom's eyes are wide and her face is a combination of fear and distress as she hears what we have to say. She takes a deep breath, and grits her teeth. She looks out our big living room window to the schoolyard and I can see her jaw muscles moving on the sides of her face. She tells us to lock the door behind her and she will be right back and then we will call the police. Jenny and I look at each other when we hear the word police. At that moment, I realize how terrified I am. We both start to shake and we climb up and lean over the back of our sofa to look out the big window. We watch my mom swiftly moving across the big yard towards the playground. We hold hands and I am scared that the boys will do something to my mom.
The playground is empty.
My mom walks all over and never finds the boys. She comes home and calls the police and tells us everything will be okay. She seems angry, and there are tears in her eyes. She is a mama bear, and somebody has messed with her cubs.
The police come and ask alot of questions. They seperate Jenny and I and ask more questions. They bring out books with pages and pages of men and ask us to point to some that resemble the boys. I point to a few and the policeman asks "are you sure?" and I look at his face and think maybe I don't remember the details like I should. Things are getting fuzzy. I feel like maybe somehow we've done something wrong, only I don't know what. One of the policeman says to me "you are lucky you got away". And my mind plays that sentence over and over and I know he's right, but I can't help but think of the what if's. To think of the girls who didn't get away. At some point it dawns on me that the boys saw us run home. They know were I live. My bedroom is at the front of the house...with windows accessible from the street. They know where I live.


I don't remember telling my dad or my brother what happened. I don't remember the few days immediately following. I just remember I was suddenly afraid to sleep in my own room. I was suddenly afraid of the dark. I was suddenly afraid to knock on my neighbors doors and sell candy...or collect money from my paper route. I was afraid because I thought perhaps one day, that sneering face would open the door.
I got away.
But in my mind...I was still sometimes trapped by the fear I felt. I knew I was too old to be sleeping on the floor in my parents room. But my fear of that controlled, and smiling face in my bedroom window beat out all the reasons I had to sleep in my own room.
Even living in a small town - I never saw those boys again. A few years later we moved out of that house...and as much as I didn't want to leave my friends or my school...I finally felt safe. They saw where I lived - but I got away.

Sickies and Stats

Soooo, it's been coughing/runnynose/fever/barfing central over here for about the last week. My munchkin is sick. He has a nasty virus and an ear infection to boot. Tonight was the first night he's actually kept food down in about 4 days. I'm tired and my poor little man is miserable. We've been to the doctor twice and I think he's starting to hate that place. Doesn't it just suck when little tiny people who can't talk yet are so sick??? I swear he spent almost a whole day just sitting on my lap and moaning. I would switch places with him in a second.
Anyway - that's what's been going on in my house. But we had his 9 month wellbaby appointment last week, so I have some stats to report!
He weighs 20 pounds exactly (40th percentile)
He has EIGHT teeth...and more on the way. Somebody get this boy a steak! (by the way, he loves steak)
If you tell him to say CHEEEESE - he shows all eight teeth to you: He is 27 1/2 inches long (25th percentile)
His head is off-the-charts big...(97th percentile - Charlie Brown Status)
He always crosses his feet: He is extremely tickelish...especially when I'm doing it with my toes: He's about ready for his first haircut...otherwise this is quickly going to be a mullet and I will never hear the end of it:
And we're having way too much fun with the different hairstyles:
This is The Caesar
The Combover
The Mad Scientist
I haven't yet found a food that he refuses to eat (well, except for ALL food this week during the sickies) and I've discovered that a handful of cheerios on his highchair tray will entertain him just long enough for me to either load or unload the dishwasher. He points with one finger (and oh yeah, tries to stick it up your NOSE)
A couple of days ago, he very distinctly said "DAD" and pointed at hubs who had walked down the hall to the bathroom. (I fully expect him to say every single family member's name before he says mama because he's a big STINKER)
He LOVES Veggie Tales. He watches more episodes of them that I'd like to admit. And Sesame Street is a close second.
He is thrilled by our cats and our dog and consistantly tries to bury his head in their fur
Houston we have crawling! Well...sort of. His own military style "my house is full of barbed wire" crawling anyway. Observe (after the attack of the giant ball): *I absolutely HATE how I sound on camera, so please ignore my yapping and chuckling in the background*

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Wibbly Wobbly Belleh

This video - is so great, I just HAD to share!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFp4tENigHo

7 years and no itching...

*apologizing in advance for the photos...they were scanned in and the quality is not so great

Today - January 26th...is our 7th Anniversary. I can't believe it's been 7 years already. Our wedding seems like forever ago, and yesterday.

I'm so lucky to have married such an awesome guy. He's so much fun and I really appreciate how much laughter we have in our relationship...And the fact that we are both cake smashers - even in fancy duds...hehe!

But I also appreciate the seriousness with which we both took our vows, and the committment we both have...right down to signing our marriage certificate.

That one day is such a blur in my mind...such a big ordeal - and yet, such a tiny part of our lives together...I live for the small stuff. The laughter over stupid arguements - the smile on his face when he walks in the front door - the tender way he hugs and kisses our son - the silly ways he answers our phone - when we turn off the tv and snuggle on the couch with a kitty or two or three to read books - fires in the fireplace on a rainy evening - trips to the beach with our dog - "fend for yourself" dinner nights - making Adam laugh until he squeals and screams - watching reruns of Friends and cracking up together - doing random projects around the house and being proud when we actually finish something - dancing in the kitchen to distract our cranky kid - oh my gosh the FARTING (that includes all living creatures in this house) - reminding ourselves "there is no weirdness like family wierdness" - and all the other day to day stuff that make me smile and thank God for the life that I'm living.

Happy 7th Anniversary Hubs - I would do it all again in a heartbeat...

Time gone by...

I can't believe that as of today, I have a 9 month old son. Part me of is so excited to see the next phase and the next milestone, and another part of me just wants to cry that my little boy is growing so fast. I feel like I'm just gonna blink and miss something big. I'm trying super hard to just BE in the moment, and absorb him and drink him in as much as possible. This age is such a blast! He's really happy most of the time...and smiles and laughs and cuddles and plays. I knew being a mom would be tough - and honestly, it's the hardest thing I've EVER done. But it's also the most fun...I didn't anticipate feeling that way because, I was too focused on the enormous responsibility of it all - but damn, can I just say it's SO MUCH FUN?

I know I haven't written in a while...work has been cuh-razy, holidays were busy, we've had alot of visiting with out of town friends, and we've been trying really hard to get ourselves organized and cleaned up around here.

So finally, a holiday recap!

Our Christmas was really great actually - it's WAY more exciting to have a little one...usually I get stressed and it's not a relaxing holiday at all...but this year, I felt pretty mellow most of the time. On Christmas Eve, my brother and his family celebrate with my sister in law's family - so hubs and I hang out with my parents and my aunt nancy and uncle ed who usually come up for a few days. My uncle Eddie (aka- eddie spaghetti) is 81 years old, which is nuts because he doesn't seem even close to that age. He wears camo Vans, for pete's sake....he's like a 16 year old...only not...which I love. This was their first time meeting our little guy and Adam took to his Great Uncle Eddie immediately - climbed all over him and laughed like crazy

We usually have a mexican dinner on Christmas Eve, so we indulged in tamales and chile rellanos and rice and beans and all that good stuff.

We insisted to family that we wanted the morning to ourselves, just the three of us. So we woke up, made coffee, cinnamon rolls, and little smokies - and we all snuggled on the couch together in our pj's to help Adam open his gifts

We took it easy and just got him a couple of books and a toy because we knew he wasn't gonna be hurting for gifts this year. He hasn't really had a chance to be put on the naughty list, ya know? But I? Got spoiled. Hubs really outdid himself, and because he broke the rules - my gift to him looks totally lame in comparison. We agreed to spend no more than $40 on each other this year...but did he stick with that? NOOOOOOO. Behold my new something blue: (the picture sucks and came out blurry - bah)

It's a beautiful sapphire (dark blue) stone surrounded by a ring of diamonds. My birthstone surrounded by Adam's birthstone...how stoked am I that Adam's birthstone is a DIAMOND? hahahaa - I actually had no idea :)

And what did I get him? hmmm, well...I can't believe he did it - but he actually modeled them for the entire family:

Yes, those would be red longjohn style pajamas - complete with a butt flap! (you know, for that nighttime pooping convenience...eeeewwwwwww)

I know, I know...LAME...but hubs has always talked about wanting an old style union suit...with the flap! Everytime I put Adam in footie pajamas he comments on how comfortable they look. I had already ordered his suit, when I took these pictures of our little man by the tree:

and I just had to snicker when he said "look at those red pj's - those look so comfortable! I want some!"

I tried to be all artsy-fartsy and take some nice black and white pictures by the tree - but my kid decided it was way more fun to try eating ribbonand of course when I took it away, he screamed his bloody head off - so there are no artsy pictures to be had.

When we arrived at my parents house for our family Christmas, all the girls were dressed in red and white, and since I had Gracie's old santa suit, I decided to squeeze Adam into it for some pictures. He looks thrilled as you can see:Luckily for him, his diaper leaked and I had to change him out of this outfit quickly :) My mom has this tradition of giving each of her grandchildren a tiny red wagon, and she paints their name on the side. So Adam got his very own wagon amongst all the other fun toys and books and clothes he recieved.He even got a special ride in it from NanaHubs got these huge plastic ears in his stocking (he also got a du-rag...all courtesy of my brother I'm pretty sure) and he proceeded to freak our kid out by wearing them...this picture makes me laugh because hubs is all "la-de-daaa" and adam is all "WAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Notice, my MOM is the one to comfort him....me? I grabbed for the camera first - hee! The day after Christmas - hubs had to work and so did I, but I got the car all packed up because we had to drive to San Francisco that evening. In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to go back up to my parents and meet up with some long time family friends from Texas, it was so great to see them. I was waiting to get a call from hubs with an ETA about when he'd be getting off work...it got later and later - finally he called at around 7pm and said he was headed home. So I left, and got adam fed and changed and we hightailed it out of town around 7:30pm. We thought "well this won't be so bad, adam should sleep the whole way up there!" ooooorrrrrr NOT. We got to King City and had to stop for a 2nd time because of the screaming, and hubs was ready to turn around and go home. I think he just get uncomfortable in that seat or something - it sits down really deep. We're researching bigger carseats because it's time to move up in size anyway, and we're hoping that will make a difference travel-wise. It suuuuuucks traveling with a grumpy kid in the back. Anyway, we finally got there around midnight, and he was fast asleep and even stayed asleep after getting him out of the carseat, into the house and into his bed. Saturday was a calm day of visiting with the in-laws and then in the afternoon, hub's sister and family arrived and it was dinner time followed by present timeHub's folks bought Adam a rocking horse! if you squeeze it's ears, the tail wags, it moves it's head and makes that clip-clop-clip-clop sound. Pretty fun...and hilarious to see how far his feet are from making it into the stirups...we've got a short little guy on our hands here.Sunday was Madison's 5th birthday (madison is the one on the right shaking the gift), and they had her party at this place called "pump it up" which is basically a couple of rooms full of bounce houses and slides and obstacle courses. Pretty awesome...and we kicked off our shoes and joined in a few times :) And Adam finally got a bath in na-na's sink...he had his own little personal shower and was happy as a clam

I think that last picture is so sweet...something about her hands in there with him...

Anyway - that was Christmas! New Years? We spent the evening calming down Georgia who was freaking out over all the fireworks going off in our neighborhood...I drank 2 glasses of champagne and passed out on the couch. We were both in bed by 10:30pm. Woooo - party at our house eh?

That's all for now!