Photo Project 12-3-09

I love these little sausage fingers and toes... ************

Some other pics from our morning - snuggly in our warm little house.

Good morning mama...complete with bedhead!

Still tired!

Photo Project 12-2-09

Infinity...
Explanation:

I love beautiful peices of wood with the grain showing, and just a natural oiled finish, not that shiny varnished surface. I bought my mom some salad servers a few years ago, and I'd always kicked myself for not buying some for myself, so I've had my eyes peeled for some more of the same ones everywhere I go. Well lo and behold I found some and I know you're not supposed to buy anything for yourself so close to Christmas, but I couldn't help it! I love them...

Absentmindedly, I left them sitting on my desk and while I was cooking dinner, Adam got ahold of them and started using them like drumsticks and proceeded to snap off the end of one of the pieces. It's not too bad, and I can totally overlook it - but I was still bummed. I guess now it has what we call "character"

Photo Project 12-1-09

I decided to join the December Photo Project in hopes that it will inspire me to take more pictures and be more creative with my picture taking. PLUS, it'll remind me to post a picture every day, which should be interesting given my crappy blog upkeep skills thus far. That being said, here is today's picture...

This is a painting that hubs and I got in Pacifica quite a few years ago. It hangs over our piano and reminds me of Maui, which is a place I simply adore. Plus, today was freaking COLD, so looking at this picture takes me away to a warmer place, if only for a moment.

Happy Thanks...I mean Hallow...nevermind

Let's just pretend that instead of being December 1st, it's actually November 1st...and I'm actually really on the ball with this whole Halloween update thing....shall we?

So, most of you know that Adam was Larry the Cucumber because of the whole Bob the Tomato bag thing. Well I ordered this cheap little costume online for $20, and I ordered a 2t figuring it would be too big, but unfortunately they ended up sending a 3T - which...let's face it, was WAY too big. So to prove that I am normally not crafty, instead of hemming it or fixing it correctly - I busted out the duct tape, folded up the bottom, taped it and called it good. He was swimming in that sucker, although the hat fit perfectly! Obviously my kid has an itty bitty body with a big ole noggin. I figured this whole costume thing would be a crapshoot because everytime I tried it on him, he ripped the hat off first thing and proceeded to pull and yank and scream at his Larry costume. Not a happy camper, so I did not have high hopes that he would even wear the darn thing.

We had an invitation to a friend's house for a halloween party, and were instructed to dress up. So a couple of weeks before Halloween we went to the big "store" in SLO to scope out some costumes. Only one half of the store was full of hooched out hooker costumes, and the other half was a bunch of cheesy overpriced costumes that we weren't about to spend our hard earned money on. We went home and hubs started looking online for homemade ideas, and suggested to me to be Octomom (I swear Kelly, I did NOT steal your idea - I just consider us both funny as hell, and yours was hilarious!) and of course my mind was all "eight babies from the dollar store, a black wig, and that's all I need - score on the cheap costume idea!"

And hubs decided he wanted to go as the Swine Flu...get some scrubs from walmart, and a pig snout and tote around a box of kleenex and there you have it.

I found the black wig for $4 at the drugstore, and went to the dollar store for my eight (rather hideous) babies and I looked for some wax lips, but they were all out, so I grabbed some fake eyelashes and went on my way. Hubs bought some dark blue scrubs, but had NO luck finding a pig snout - strange huh? So at the very last minute, we crammed a turkey baster in his pocket and made him my fertility doc. We even made a big sticker for the back of his costume that said "SALE - eight babies for the price of one!" and we made him a nametag that had the name "Dr. Tumeni Bebes"
(you have to say that with a middle eastern accent - ha!)

Course did we get a picture of hubs close up? NO - that day ended up being super hectic for some reason and I had to snag some pics from other people at the party.

So here's Adam..and yeah, the hat lasted exactly 1.7 seconds before it was yanked off defiantlyI know the orange top is LAME under his costume, but it had a glow in the dark mummy on it and said "I love my mummy" so I figured if the costume tanked, at least he'd be halloweeny looking. I didn't even think to bring something to change him into because I suck.

We put two kids in a wagon, and the others in strollers and headed out for some candy - 8 adults and 5 kids in tow!

Here is hubs and myself...this was taken after the trick or treating and I was so ready to get that stupid wig off my head - it was SO HOT - and by this time, one of the girls had swiped a couple of my babies - ha!

This picture should prove that I will do almost anything for free candy...hehehe

All in all, a fun time - and technically hub's VERY FIRST TRICK OR TREATING EXPERIENCE EVER....yup - he had never done that before. He even got to piss off a couple of teenagers when he answered the door and gave one kid one piece of candy, and poured the entire bowl into the other kids bag. He got flipped off for that - and he's oh so proud! hehehe

Ducks and Convicts...now THERE'S a title

I have several posts that I'm in the middle of...mainly halloween stuff. I know I'm such a lagger, but I'll get there. In the meantime, today, the boy and I headed to a park during the lunch hour. Usually he's sleeping during lunchtime, which means I don't get to the park as often as I should. But since he's getting more molars and has been downright nasty and not napping as well as I'd like him to, I decided to keep him up and get some fresh air and burn some energy off of this kid. I had a loaf of bread in the freezer, so I grabbed it and decided we should go feed the ducks in Oceano. I put the loaf on my dashboard and turned on my defroster hoping to thaw out the bread, which was kinda funny because I had a few errands (bank, post office, etc) to run and I did it all with a loaf of bread on my dashboard. Got a few funny looks but it worked, and by the time we got to the park, we had squishy bread!

It was freezing down there and windy as could be, so I put made Adam put his hood up which made me laugh because he looked like such a little goblin running around. He of course made a beeline for the water, so I had to keep him from going right in...which he would have done - given the opportunity - and then I started to toss out some bread for the birds and ducks. He was dazzled by them (enough to stop wanting to get in the water anyway) and I forgot how ruthless and evil some of those birds can be! damn seagulls kept snatching it all away from the poor mallards. Anyway, it was interesting - but way too cold and windy, and every little movement caused a huge flock to fly around and I could just see myself getting crapped on, so we made it a quick bread tossing adventure.

Then we hit the park - which was toasty warm in the sun and not at all windy. Adam quickly made friends with two other boys there and as always ran around for a bit and then headed directly for the swings. He LOVES to swing...and nine times out of ten, we leave the park with him screaming his bloody head off because we had to take him out of the swing. But I love that smile, and the laughs and giggles that come out of him while swinging make the fuss totally worth it.

I got to chatting with another mom that was there and we were both pushing our kids for at least 20 minutes, and then we saw a white van pull up and a bunch of prisoners from CMC in yellow jumpsuits (you know, the ones you see working on the side of the road every so often) jumped out and piled onto a couple of picnic benches to eat lunch. There was ONE guard with them, and it just creeped us out because they were literally like 20 feet from the playground and sort of leering at all the mom's...so I decided it was time to go, as did the mom next to me. I noticed a few others leaving as I was getting into the car, and then a busload of kids from a school showed up, looked like they were on a field trip or something and you could tell some of the teachers and parents were eyeballing each other. I felt so weird about it - and wondered why in the heck the guard would bring them to a fricking playground full of kids to eat lunch. I have half a mind to call CMC and find out if that's even allowed. I certainly didn't feel comfortable staying there, with all of them watching...but who knows - maybe I'm being over-protective. What do you all think? Would you have felt the same way?

Harried mother moment of the day...

I spent almost all morning at the office with Adam in tow...which can be kinda nutty sometimes - although my boss is super cool and doesn't mind him being there. We'd been there a couple of hours before he started to melt down because it was getting closer and closer to naptime - and I spent the last 15 minutes of my time there cleaning up after him and putting things away. My phone kept ringing, but it was the lunch hour, so I didn't answer it - but in a frenzy of trying to get all my crap in the car, and heft Adam into his carseat...I ended up mindlessly tucking my phone into my shirt (funny how those ladies sometimes create a good pocket for random things isn't it?) so I could have my hands free. We got on the road around 12:45 and headed to the bank so I could deposit my check. Annoyingly, my bank does not have a drive thru, and hubs has my ATM card - so I parked...got my deposit ready...and unloaded Adam so we could go inside. Course there was a line - but it usually moves pretty fast, so we waited. Problem is, Adam is at that age where he'd rather be running around wreaking havoc, then being held by me...so he was a bit squirmy - and pointing and jabbering and basically turning on the charm for all the people in line with us.
At one point I was next in line, and the guy behind me goes "so how old is this little guy?"
and I smiled and answered "a year and a half"
and the man then says "I take it he's your first"
and I answered "yup - he sure is"
and he goes "I can tell"

And I was about to ask him WHY he could tell...because I thought that was kind of a wierd thing to say, except that at that exact moment - MY CLEAVAGE RANG.
Yes...I forgot to take the friggin phone out of my bra - and not only was it ringing - but I usually keep it on vibrate as well...so I had a vibrating, ringing, rectangle of fun inside my bra..in front of a big line of people. AND the guy behind me smirking with a raised eyebrow.

CRIMONY

It was at that point, my angelic son reached his hand down my shirt - pulled out my phone and held it to his ear saying "HI DADDEE!"

Awesome...

Because it really is all about the treats...

My last couple of evenings have been all about sewing. And that...is a sentence I never thought I would type. See, blog friend Joanna (Ms. Craft Queen herself - along with Kelly - both just put me to shame with all their craftyness) posted a tutorial on how to make halloween treat bags, and then challenged all her friends to make a treat bag this year. It's a tradition she has created to make her girls a treat bag that matches their costume and has their name on it. I love that idea...and I would love to be THAT kind of mom - but crafts are not my strong point. In fact sewing in general is probably my LEAST enjoyed task, and the one thing I really suck at. But, I didn't want to back down on the challenge without at least trying. Besides, it's for my boy right?

So I dragged my lazy butt to the store and bought some felt for the bag. I then went home and ransacked my craft box (I know, believe it or not, I have a large box of crafty crap stored under my bed) and found tacky glue, thread, an exacto knife and even a cutting pad with measurements on it. Who knew I had all that stuff lurking under my bed? I got out my sewing box, which is PINK of all things ( I don't do pink, but my mother in law bought it for me and since it was for breast cancer proceeds, I love it anyway) and sat down on my living room floor to plan it all out.

Adam is dressing up as Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales (to be explained in a later post) and so I decided to attempt a bag that looked like Bob the Tomato. So I cut everything out and decided to sew the face on by hand, which turned out to be a good thing because I got the idea to stuff a bit of cotton in the eyes, nose, and mouth to make them stand out a bit more. I surprised myself by how much it actually looked like Bob when I was all done with just the face part. For the green leafy part at the top, I was going to glue it on, but turns out - storing tacky glue under your bed for over 5 years without using it...chances are it will be dry as a bone - so I ended up finding some stitch witchery (that stuff that you just iron on and it sticks) and that worked pretty well. I did that for the letters in Adam's name too. For the record, stitch witchery is normally my sewing method of choice. All the curtains in our bedroom were "hemmed" using this fabulous stuff. No way I could mess that up - ha!

So then, I got out our sewing machine. Now when I say sewing machine I don't actually mean a regular sized sewing machine. I mean an itty bitty little sewing machine that we got for like twenty bucks and has been gathering dust in the way back of our closet. See? cute lil thing..

The fact that it says dressmaker on it cracks me up because you might be able to make a DOLL'S dress on this thing, but a dress for an actual human being? - fugettaboutit.

Itty Bitty. For comparison sake...here it is next to a can of soda...

Not your average machine. In fact, I've never even used it before (although I have used a sewing machine before and know how they work even if I suck at it). I sat down to try and hem the handles and...well...this happened. Yeah, it was a mess. I jammed that machine up 3 times before I cursed out loud and hubs heard me and goes "oh yeah, it did that to me all the time too!" Great.

So I sat there wondering what I was going to do because I still had to sew the actual bag together. I decided to just sit down and get cracking because my only other option was to sew it together by hand. And I did. And it took me two evenings of tv watching combined with hand sewing to finish it. I double stitched everything because I wanted it to be strong enough to hold actual candy...so it took longer than I expected. But it's done, and I'm so happy with it!

I can't wait for Adam to wake up and see it! I feel like I actually accomplished something I'm proud of - wooooooo! Thank you Joanna and Kelly and all you other crafty bag makers for inspiring me to follow through with this one :)

18 months

This month Adam officially turned 18 months old, and today we had his well baby check up. Here are his stats:

25.4 pounds (50th percentile)

32 inches (40th percentile...and up 2 inches in 3 months!)

Head is still off-the-charts big (they don't even put a number...just an UP arrow on his chart - ha!)

He's jabbering constantly and says words here and there - Daddy, Puppy, Baby, Cheese, HI, Ball...etc, etc. He DOES NOT SAY MOMMY..or momma, or mom, or anything of that nature, the little punk! When he's really pissed, once in a great while he'll wail out a maaaaaamaaaaaa but seriously, I got the shaft on this one. He runs around the house shouting daddy non-stop, but I can't even get one little mama out of him.
He loves EGGS (he would eat scrambled eggs for every meal), string cheese, pasta, chicken, fish, sweet potatoes (actually any potato in general), bananas, pears, peaches, mandarin oranges, blueberry waffles, goldfish crackers, fruit snacks.

He does NOT like red meat, pasta with red sauce, watermelon, cake or ice cream...freak.

He loves to sit and flip through all his books, and he's into "sorting" things now...he piles all his stuffed animals in one place and moves them to another place and then sorts them and moves them again...over and over - such a crack up. He loves digging in the dirt and he's throwing balls and toys overhand, so we're convinced he's gonna play "ball" someday :)

I tried to fingerpaint with him the other day, but it ended up being a big giant FAIL because he screamed bloody murder when he got paint on his hands and didn't calm down until he was in the tub and all the paint was off. Also, coloring doesn't exist in my world because he keeps EATING the damn crayons. So arts and crafts are just gonna have to wait.

Still loves his Veggie Tales over everything else, but also likes Sesame Street, Word World, Superwhy, Sid the science kid, Wonder Pets, and Handy Manny.

He's busy, busy, busy - and some days it seems like he's going to go through the terrible two's early because he throws major tantrums over lame stuff. He's been sort of a bad napper lately, but I'm counting my blessings because he goes to bed SO EASY, and sleeps from 8:30pm to 7:30 or 8am...WOOOOOOOOOOOOO - thankyajesus!

He's so full of smiles and laughter and shrieks of delight - it just melts my heart to see him be such a happy little guy. I'm still even amazed that he's MINE. Hubs and I quite often watch him running around and we'll nudge each other and go "we did that...".

It's just crazy to think about sometimes. And before I know it, he's gonna be two. NUTS

(this picture was taken in hub's work truck...a fun lunchtime spent with daddy!)

An explanation...

I should have known ALISON would find the one detail from the pictures in the last post that needs explaining...hehehehe

She wants to know what it says on the shirt that hubs is wearing in this picture:

So, hubs and my brother AJ get together about once a week and watch a show on the BBC called Top Gear. It's actually a really good show, very funny and entertaining...but also all about cars and anything else with a motor in it. They have a professional driver on the show called The Stig....who's a total badass, and each week drives a different car around a track and they rate it against all the others. Usually the cars are super expensive high end cars... Nobody knows what The Stig looks like because he's always wearing a white driving suit and a helmet. So last year for Christmas, we got my brother a shirt

and then for hub's birthday - they gave HIM a shirt (they were a wee bit worried he'd be offended....but when hubs cracked up and proceeded to put it on and wear it proudly, they stopped worrying)

I should do a post about hubs and all his nutty t-shirts one day...

You should all know that when I met him, he always wore PRESSED long pants...a button down shirt with a leather jacket...and perfectly gelled hair. He wouldn't be caught dead in shorts and a t-shirt...no way. And then we started dating - and it was a downhill slide after that. He doesn't wear anything BUT shorts and t-shirts. And ironing doesn't exist in our world - it's all about a wet washcloth and a toss in the dryer. Classy!

I think I ruined him...

Picture Post

I have been reminded (thank you Joanna!) that it's been way too freaking long since I posted pictures of Adam. The summer was a whirlwind and I can't believe it flew by so quickly (although I am SOOOOO enjoying this rain!!!).

So here are some pictures taken during a recent trip to Avila Valley Barn...

We started out in the little kids hay maze, and oddly - Adam refused to actually touch the hay.

Notice how his little hands are clenched together - ha!

So then hubs decided to try out the big maze...I was gonna go too, but once I saw how narrow the whole thing was, my claustrophobic side kicked in and I made it about 2 feet before I hightailed it outta there. I stood at the exit and waited for my boys
Check out Adam's face...methinks he's not-so-much into the maze thing The boy has reached this point where getting him to actually look at the camera and smile is a near impossible feat. I'm afraid I have no cheesy smiling pumpkin patch pictures...maybe he's going Emo on me, I have no idea...but I can say that the majority of the time, I look like a IDIOT trying to get him to look at the damn camera. Good thing he's cute anyway
I have a story about our visit with this cow: While we were standing here looking at the cow - which is QUITE OBVIOUSLY a cow. This girl walks up - probably in her late teens or early twenties - and she goes "ummmm, what is this? Is this a cow? It doesn't LOOK like a cow..."

I gave hubs the eyebrow raise like is this girl kidding me right now?

and then she starts talking to the cow and says "are you a cow? you don't LOOK like a cow!"

You guys, I seriously have ridges in my tongue from biting it because DUDE (and for the record, she was not a foreigner...just a red blooded american dingbat) I don't get it...how could a girl that age not know a cow when she sees one?

Here we are going on a hayride...again, boy NOT looking at the camera

Our attempt at a self portrait....only oops - cut out AJ our second attempt...capturing the perfect DIGGING FOR GOLD portrait. ACK...boys!

Lesson Learned...

Today - hubs and I attempted to go to Barnes and Noble in downtown SLO to use a gift card we've had hanging around. It was an impromtu trip thus we had no stroller or backpack for the boy. We had faith...we shrugged and told each other "He'll be fine".
We walked out of there empty handed and frazzled and vowing to never leave home without a stroller ever again.
Our shopping trip went like this:

Enter store carrying child
Cruise around for a few minutes looking at the tables full of books
Child starts to squirm and flail around like his butt's on fire
Child gets granted permission to "run around"...and apparantly takes it literally
Hubs runs around store chasing the little man getting many "awwwws" from customers
Child proceeds to wreak havoc and pulls many books from the shelves
Hubs pick up books and I look up to see the back end of the child disappearing around the corner of the shelf...
I hastily run around the corner only to find many many many many other aisles of shelves the child has quickly disappeared into
Hubs goes in one direction
I go in the other
Hear giggling and books dropping on the floor
Find child...pick up books...
and for some (WTF WERE WE THINKING) reason decide it would be "fun and distracting" to ride the escalator upstairs
Hubs heads to the history section leaving me to hope the kids section will be fun and interesting enough
I quickly learn that the kids section is worse because all the books are lower and smaller and there's more of them
Child is squealing and running faster then I think possible through the kids section
We round a corner and find two parents with children sitting quietly in their laps reading books together
Right then is when my child finds the stuffed animals and proceeds to pull them ALL off the shelf and toss them onto the floor...
Then squeal at the top of his lungs and tear down another aisle.
I quickly pick up the stuffed animals and cram them back on the shelf ignoring the laughter from the parentals
Only to run around the corner and find my kid in the coffee shop with a ceramic mug in his hand
(why oh why would they put the kids section right next to the breakables section???)
I run over and snatch it from him and tell him NO
Child laughs and runs over to a table of people shouting 'HI!!!!" at the top of his lungs
and then turns around and tears back into the kids section finding more stuffed animals neatly placed underneath a display table....and then not-so-neatly undisplays them while I sigh and hang my head in defeat
Some poor employee there is gonna have to redo all those lovely displays
At this point, hubs finds us...we give each other the "abandon ship" nod...scoop up the child...and bail outta there.

The boy is BUSY :)

Daddy's Boy

Adam has become a real daddy's boy lately. He'll hear hubs pull into the driveway, and he'll run to the screen door and mash his face up against the screen with a huge smile...and then when hubs comes in the door, he'll scoop him up into his arms, and adam will lay his head on his shoulder and just smile and be held for a few moments. It's by far the sweetest thing ever. He just lights up and shines when hubs is home....like his family is complete. He's fine with me during the day, but it's obvious that something, or I should say someone is missing in the way he reacts to hub's homecoming. I recently caught a seqence of pictures that I thought was really sweet:
Tears... Comfort... SMILES... And of course sometimes you have to shake out the giggles...and if that doesn't work, then you blow raspberries on his feet...Love - It.
Hub's parents came for a visit this last weekend, and they got a little video of hubs and Adam which shows a bit of their sweet connection to each other....especially since they have the same lips...hahaha! Observe ...

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Divine Intervention

Soooo, hubs and my brother AJ have been waiting for this movie called the Hurt Locker to come to one of our local theaters. They've spent weeks checking the movie's website and all the theaters in neighboring cities...and FINALLY a few days ago they discovered that it's playing at one of our local "indie" theaters called the Palm in downtown SLO.
They made plans to just meet up tonight after work and have dinner and then see the movie together. This morning when hubs left he was kinda sad because he knew the boy would be in bed by the time he got home and so he essentially wouldn't see him all day except for a few minutes this morning.
Well I then decided to call up my sister in law and invited her and all my neices to come over for pizza and hang out with me and the boy while our guys were out on the town. She made a comment about how this is the second time this week that my brother has been gone all evening...but was excited to come over and hang out with me.
Well I just recieved a breaking news email from our local news station...headline is the following:

Car drives into Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo

Hmmmm....I'm thinking they're out of luck, don't you? My sister in law is gonna laugh at this one!

***Update...AJ called the theater and it's still open...apparantly there's just a massive hole in the wall. The show must go on!