Kimba

Sunday at the park

We went to the dog park this afternoon because the weather was fantastic, and both dog and baby were in need of something different.

Wy's almost over his cold, but is teething again. I'm not even sure what teeth he has left to get, but getting he is. He's never been this fussy ever, not even when he got his 4 molars at once. The last two days he's been almost a completely different kid - he cries if I put him down, cries if I take away his binki, cries if I'm not understanding what he wants.

Like he's a toddler or something.

Even a woman at church today commented that he must not be feeling well - he was squirmier and fussy. Which means we spent our time in the halls.

And Bear, well. Bear always has energy. Bear is never not on full tilt. A woman at the dog park today asked Caleb if he was 6 months old. Caleb replied that no, actually, he's almost 7 years. She was so shocked she yelled out to everyone there, asking how old they thought he was.

She thought it was fantastic. That's cause she doesn't have to live with him.

I spent the time in the little dog park with Wyatt so that he could walk around without getting knocked over. He wanted to do two things: pick up all the balls lying around,

(I had to keep reminding myself, you have hand sanitizer, you have hand sanitizer...)

and sit in this chair surveying. 

 

He got tired though, and we headed to swing.

But in reality? This is all he wanted to do since arriving. Watch the big boys play volleyball.

"Baaaaaaoooooow! Baaaaaaooooow! Baaaaaaaaaoooooow!"

Over and over and over again. And 8 more times, just for good measure. Mom! Do you see the ball? Do you? Do you? THE BALL! A BALL! BALL!

I am not in Barbie world, anymore.

Outnumbered

It's 5:34 pm, and Wy and I are (not s0) patiently waiting for Caleb to come home so that we can eat dinner, play for a bit, and put Wy down while Caleb returns to work.

Oh, the glamorous life we lead!

I am laying on the ground in the living room, because for some reason Wyatt thinks this is the best thing in the whole world. He crawls all over me, touches my nose, and searches for my belly button. He thinks knocking my knees together is absolutely hilarious.

So we're hanging out and I spot something on the ceiling. As I've mentioned, I'm good at this. Maybe the best. I look at it for a few minutes, hoping it's a moth or a beetle, anything but a spider, knowing full well I have to get up and get it. It's just me and The Thing.

I grab two paper towels (yes, two. as a wise friend once said, "it is what i require!") and climb onto the back of the couch.

It is indeed, a spider.

I steel myself, take a deep breath, and smush the living daylights out of it, spreading the paper towel and squishing as I go. I am taking no chances! Then, the moment of truth.

I slowly pull away the paper towel and watch in horror as the thing scurries off the side.

I scream. A loud scream. A top-o-the-lungs scream, and jump off the couch in two seconds flat.

The next bit is sort of a blur, I had to search for and find the spider and get it, I wouldn't be able to function knowing there was a loose spider on the couch somewhere. Successful,  I turn to go throw it away, trying to calm my nerves.

Wyatt has been watching the whole thing, and as soon as I faced him he starts laughing. He shrieks, giggles.

Shrieks, giggles. Shrieks, giggles.

He is mocking me. My 15 month old son is mocking me!

And this is when I knew it was two against one.

I'm gonna have to get me a girl or something.

Keeps the clingies at bay

Wy woke up yesterday morning with his cold having returned. Or maybe another cold? Who knows. All I know is that I'm once again wiping his nose and he's clingy and coughing.

His sick-clinginess usually only happens for a little bit during the day but when it does, nothing can really get done. I usually just enjoy it, no sense in fighting it, and we sit down on the couch with his blanket, probably his binki ("ki!"), and watch a few Youtube clips while I rub his bare feet and legs.

His favorite? And mine? This trailer. We will be watching this when it comes out in April! Can't wait.

Another favorite, Toy Story 3 trailer. 

Have you heard of Despicable Me? Looks great. This one and this one show more of the story, and this one just cracks Wyatt up. And Caleb, if you want me to be honest. 

After a bit he's ready to hop off the couch and go play, while I chase him around the house with a tissue. I never feel more like a mother than I do when wiping my child's nose. Something about that annoyed, "eehhhhhhh!" sound he makes. It makes me laugh because I totally remember feeling that way.

I've also done that thing where you lick your finger and wipe a smudge off his face.

I know, I know. Pass me the mom jeans. 

Leaps and bounds

Wyatt is learning so quickly these days, it's hard to keep up. I love watching his wheels turn, and seeing things click on his little face. His eyebrows arch up and the corners of his mouth twitch into a smile.

On Monday I took him to a Gymboree class, a trial, to see if it would be worth our while. Money wise, I mean. Classes aren't cheap, you know. He needs some stimulation however, to keep his brain and body busy, and I have to say he absolutely loved it. I thought there was just the right amount of group and free play, a little bit of learning and experiencing and time to explore. By the end of the 45 minute class he was clapping, and while that might not seem like an earth-shattering matter, to me it was. We've tried to get him to clap for ages, and he just never was interested. He'd watch us and then move on. I wasn't worried or anything, he's growing and learning just fine, but there it was. He saw kids his age doing it, saw me clapping with them, and it clicked. He got it. Yay! = clap! Genius!

So. We might be ponying up the dough. In reality, it isn't too bad  if we utilize the free drop-in times during the week along with the class.

**********

Just in the last two days while Caleb has been out of town, Wyatt said cracker, or "cah-cah!". He says "oh-po" for apple, "chee" for cheese, and "tee" for teeth. We started coloring (I know! Lock me up! I hadn't thought to let him color until now!) and he's learned that he can open the filing cabinet drawers where the markers and envelopes and post-it notes are. Oy.

**********

Tonight while we looked at his word book, he'd pull his binki out of his mouth and say "baaaaowww" when he saw the ball and "caaaaaaah!" when he saw the car. When we got to the page of Caleb he grinned. The boy has missed his daddy. (And I have too.) Wy will be so excited when Caleb gets him out of bed in the morning. (And I will too...)

Made with love

I know it's past Valentines Day and all, but I decided this year to keep up my decorations until March. I've decided it's Love Month. What's so wrong with celebrating love? Right?

On Saturday I tried out a recipe my friend posted, for wheat sugar cookies. I know, crazy right? But get this, they're super good. I didn't have luck with her icing (shoulda stuck with my tried and true, Martha's Buttercream!),  but the cookies were awesome. I cut them into heart shapes and dyed the icing a light apricot color - and didn't snap any pictures before they were gone.

I took most of them to give to the kids in the class I teach at church - teenagers - and they even liked them. They're dense, thick, chewier. It makes a lot, I only ended up baking half the recipe. Which means there's more for later...

**********

I wanted to send out some Valentine cards from Wy this year, but as usual left it to the last minute. I had to come up with something, and I wanted it to be meaningful. I decided to make a little heart with Wyatt's handprints. I pulled out the ink, only took two tries, (and a bit of cleanup) and then scanned it into my computer. My original idea was to switch the color to red, you know, Valentiney, but Caleb pointed out that it could look a little, well, gruesome.

Good point. This is why I run this kind of stuff by him.

I did pink instead, and I think it turned out well. Next year he might even be able to do it himself! Although I'll probably still have to clean up ink after wards.

Everything in it's place

It came to my attention recently that my dresser was crowded. I have a little stand to hold my necklaces, but my ever-growing collection of earrings was getting out of hand. I needed somewhere to put them where I could find them, both of them, easily. So I bought a little frame and some cross stitch fabric and whipped this little thing up.

It's not a perfect system - I quickly realized, too late, that I'd have to somehow find a way to attach the stand to the back and still keep it thin enough to poke the earrings through. I decided to glue the the fabric to a thin piece of cardboard that came with the frame, and then glue the stand to the cardboard. Not ideal, but it works. I wonder about just putting the frame on an actual stand? A little frame holder? Anyway, for now, this works. I just need to round up all my earrings...

And attempt a straight picture. Just tilt your head a little, okay? I'll do the same next time, however in the other direction.

The man your man could smell like

Just a little humor for your weekend - this is our new favorite commercial. Enjoy!

Wyatt: 15 months

For some reason it feels like an eternity since the last monthly update. We hadn't been home from our trip to Utah for long, and that seems like ages ago. I'm not sure why, except that maybe this month has been so full of changes. Not major milestones like crawling or walking, well, wait. Maybe. But more so it's been the small subtle changes that have made a huge impact, and make it seem like suddenly he is a toddler. Not a baby.

The last two weeks have changed him so much - things just clicked in his little brain. He added words to his list of ever-growing tricks. His first word, his first real word, was ball. More like, "BAAAAAoooooooooowwwwww". His inflection is sort of adorable. And now everything even remotely round is a ball. The produce section of the grocery store is just one huge ball. The limes on our countertop are balls. Balloons are balls. Rocks are balls. Ball is the word of the day around here. It's either ball or car. My sister gave him a bunch of matchbox cars for Christmas and I keep them in a bin in his toy cabinet. He gets it out every morning and says "cah!" as he shows me each one, with the same enthusiasm the entire time. He points out the cars as we're driving, and loves to point at the cars in the parking lot.  He says hot, or "haw!" at anything on the stove, and I'm hoping he'll soon understand what that means. He tries to say binki, which is just "ki". 

He understands so much. If I tell him it's time to feed Bear, he walks over to the laundry room door and waits. He'll walk into our bedroom if I tell him it's time to change his diaper. He knows where the crackers are, and insistently signs and tries to open the cabinet door when he wants one, which is about every 5 minutes. His most favorite phrase ever is "let's go bye-bye". He races to the front door on his tip toes, giggling. He can't wait to get out that door.

Once out, he doesn't really care where we go. To the park, the grocery store, Costco, the mall, everything is an adventure. I was reading an email today from Baby Center about his growth, and it said that running errands would be a challenge at this age, with all sorts of tantrums, arched backs, and screams. I'm lucky. That hasn't happened. Sure, he gets tired of sitting in the stroller or shopping cart, but he's never thrown a tantrum.

Knock on wood.

We are officially down to one nap a day. It was a fairly easy transition, easier than I expected. We just went for it, and though it's been hit or miss, some days only an hour, others three, overall it's been good. Getting ready in the morning isn't as easy, I basically lock him out of the bathroom with toys and some kid show on TV (that may be more for my peace of mind than for him) and shower as quickly as possible. The only casualty so far has been a box of tissues. Not too shabby.

If Wyatt had to choose one food to eat for the rest of his life, it would be raisins. Gold or dark, he doesn't care. I discovered this at church, as he stood by another mother for about 10 minutes begging for every raisin in her tupperware. He pops as many as he can in his mouth and reaches for more before he's even started chewing. I have to be careful about how many I let him have, because his other love is grapes. So. It makes for interesting diapers.

Despite all the crackers and grapes and raisins and macaroni and cheese and pancakes, he's still little. His 15 month check up put him in the 22% for height, and only 2% for weight, weighing in at 19.4 lbs. He's been in size 3 diapers for as long as I can remember, and it doesn't seem we'll be switching any time soon. I'm having a hard time finding pants that fit for him, the 6-12 month size fit okay for length, but are too big on his waist. I've been searching for pants with an adjustable waist, but can't seem to find any under size 2T. So he's wearing 3 -6 month pants and 12 month tops. Thankfully it's almost short season, and we won't have to worry about pant length very much. He'll just be wearing short shorts...

He loves his dad, loves to have Caleb push him on his bike or just chase him around the house. He loves his blanket. He loves his stuffed monkey. He loves books. He loves being offered anything from your plate, regardless of whether he has the same items on his. He loves ketchup or any dip for that matter, and usually just digs in with his fingers. He loves to shut doors, and has become the official Fridge Door Shutter of the house, whether you're done or not. Still rooting around or not.  He loves to climb onto the bed via the bench, the couch, or just today, the kitchen chairs. My world just shifted. Once he figures out he can move the chair to various places, my life, as I know it, is over. Okay, fine, changed. The baby-proofing will officially be moved to the next notch. Nothing will be safe. 

He's curious now, will crouch down on his hands and feet (yes, feet) to see what's underneath the bed or couch. His one goal in life is to get into the cupboard where I keep my baking items. He can just reach in to try and grab the Pam, or the little bottle of toothpicks, but can't get them out. It frustrates him muchly.

You just need the sound on this face, which is, "EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" But don't feel bad. He moves on quickly.

As I've said before, he's a busy guy, always going going going. Recently it's become apparent that he needs more activities to do. More stimulation. We're trying out a free Gymboree class on Monday, I've looked up story time at my local library, and we're starting to go to our church's weekly park group. I think he'll really enjoy the Gymboree class, but am not excited to hear the prices. We'll see if it's worth it. Anyone ever tried it?  

I just booked my first trip without Wyatt. I'm going up to see Abby's new baby, and I'm super excited. And super nervous. Not because I don''t think Wyatt won't be completely fine with Caleb for the weekend, because I know he will. Caleb is a fantastic dad, and as I said, Wyatt just adores him. But because the longest I've been away from him is 6 hours. I'm going from 6 hours to DAYS. And while the thought of boarding a plane with nothing but a purse and magazine intrigues me, (what will that even be like?!) I know it'll be hard. At first. And then I'll get up there and be totally fine, right? I'll fill my arms with her little baby and we'll have a fantastic time. I really can't wait to go, and I know I'll have to steel myself against the baby hunger. She's such an adorable little thing. It'll be fabulous.

I'll just miss him so much.

Doneish!

As part of my vow to shake things up, I'm finally getting around to finishing Wyatt's nursery.

15 months later.

I know. It's terrible.

But I finally found a cute little piggie bank for his dresser. He loves putting the change in, and I love having a place to put it.

Also, in the background? Curtains! Novel! That part was a little ridiculous, see, I've been hoping to find the perfect curtain this entire time and then suddenly realized a plain dark blue would look best. Not hard to find, ya know? Already the room looked better, if you can look past the ghetto cardboard behind the old fashioned blinds. My mom says I should take it down so that he gets used to sleeping in a lighter room, but we just can't. Our neighbors floodlight faces directly at his window. The first night we slept in this home I went in for his nightly feeding (or was it still two feedings back then?) and audibly gasped. No wonder he wasn't sleeping well! I could have read by the light that was coming in through those blinds! So the next day I made Caleb break up a box and up it went. To stay. Till we leave.

Secondly, something for the wall behind his crib. Again, looking for the perfect thing (are you sensing a pattern? yes?), was going to actually PAINT something, but that hasn't happened yet, and honestly, I don't think I would have been happy with it. I don't paint, I'm not artistic, and it would have shown. So several months ago I got an idea to hang monthly pictures of him. Simple, meaningful, easy. I used twine and teeny tiny wooden clothespins I bought at this lovely little shop in Berkeley called Tail of the Yak. Good heavens, that is a strange and wonderful store. Do check it out sometime, okay?

And please forgive these pictures. I am not a great photographer. His room isn't really this dark.

So there you have it, folks! Sorta done! I would love to eventually move the majority of his toys into his room, add a bookshelf,  but that won't be happening until we move somewhere with larger rooms. So, done for now!  I think!

Is a room ever done?

Shorts

Today I wore a short sleeve shirt and shorts. I'm going to really miss 70's in February.

This is the reality - Wyatt spends more time picking up items at the park than he does swinging or sliding. Anything that isn't supposed to be there, tiny bits of plastic, paper, cigarette butts...and half the time they go in his mouth.

Yes, I'm serious.

He's like my little trash buddy. He gets worn out, and we leave the park spotless. Perfect.

Perpendicular

So I'm just gonna come out and say it, somehow in the last few months I've become addicted to The Bachelor.

Trust me, this surprises me more than it surprises you.

I'm not a really romantic person. I don't turn my nose up at romantic gestures, flowers, heart-felt confessions, but all in all, I get squeamish. I'm much more comfortable teasing someone. Truth be told, Caleb is more romantic than I am.  And even as I'm watching it I'm engaging in the hugest eye rolling, dry-heaving, oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-he-just-said-that fest you've ever seen, yet every week I go back for more.

I know. Seriously. It's shocking me.

So tonight one of the girls is bawling, big ole puffy eyed cry fest, and just as I'm thinking to myself gees, she looks better bawling than I ever do all dolled-up, Caleb glances up at the TV screen and says "Oh, she looks terrible!" 

And........hmm. End scene.

Happy Love Day

Valentines Day last year. The year before that. The one before that.

This year.

Maybe it wasn't full of surprise trips, flowers, chocolate cake, or fancy dinners. But I think it was pretty perfect. Hope yours was too!

Rolling with it

A cookie exchange. A fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day, no? Getting together with your favorite girls, talking, eating, sampling all sorts of delicious cookies and swapping. I set about decorating my little kitchen and preparing for the evening. 

Wyatt, as mentioned, did not cooperate. With only a 30 minute nap and a case of the clingies, I still managed to get things ready by 6. By sheer force of will, and maybe a sucker or two. He's in love with those Trader Joe's Organic pops, and I have to say, they are mighty tastey. Anyway.

I wanted to get proper bakery boxes for the ladies to take their samples home in, but couldn't find a bakery that would sell me any, and the few stores that carry them were pretty pricey, so I did the next best thing.

I decorated. Not crazy like, I'm building up my Valentines decoration supply.

 

(those flowers didn't open up until today...but...eh?)

My cookies were a variation on whoopie pies. I took an intense chocolate chewy cookie and sandwiched two with Martha's basic buttercream, tinted a dusty rose. 3/4 cup of cocoa powder, people. 60% cacao. Pretty seriously chocolatey.

I was originally going to just have hors d'oeuvres, but as things usually go, I got a bit carried away. I found these cute heart shaped filled pastas at Costco and it was all downhill from there.

 

And what would a Valentine's Day celebration be without red velvet cupcakes?

I was ready! 

And then, you know, I didn't quite get the turnout I'd hoped for. Planned for. I knew several people wouldn't be able to attend, at meetings and out of the country and such. We still had a good time, I had lots of fun chatting with the girls. It was fun to see Wyatt play so well with my friend's little girl who is two days older than him. Really funny to see their similarities and differences.

We just had a ridiculous amount of leftovers.

Thankfully the girls agreed to take home plates for their husbands, and the missionaries for our church stopped by (I'd asked them to come get cookies at the end of their day so I wouldn't have more than a couple leftover...trying to be good here!!) and we loaded them up.  

All in all, it was great. I had fun planning and preparing, and the three of us had ourselves a cozy evening. I highly recommend having your own. 

Sleep

Tonight I hosted a cookie exchange party. But I'm not going to talk about that just yet. I'm just going to say that this cold is wreaking havoc on Wyatt's sleep. Today, amidst all the things I had to do to get ready, Wyatt slept for 30 minutes before waking up with a coughing fit, and then refusing to fall back sleep.

 

I feel bad for the poor little guy, he's exhausted. And I am too. And instead of mindlessly staying up, I'm going to go to bed.

It's so novel!

Toys That Are Not Toys, That Are Toys, Part Deux

Long over due for another round.

*Shoes. Not his own, but mine. Caleb's. Yours! Anyone's! He'll spend 10 minutes trying to get them into position and on his feet, and another 10 trying to walk around in them. It's adorable.

*Buckets, bins, anything that holds anything. The contents get dumped out, and the bin goes on his head. This never gets old. Ever.

*My diaper bag. It's a bag of wonders! He particularly loves the Ziplock bag (we flew so much last year I gave up trying to switch it back and forth between my cute holder and a Ziplock) of lip gloss and chapstick, and has a few favorites he likes to chew on. 

*His toothbrush. Loves this, may have the cleanest 16 teeth you've ever seen!

*A plastic cup full of plastic spoons. They get dumped out, they get put back in. Dumped out, put back in...

*Anything foreign - a case of water, box of Costco baby wipes, Costco size paper towel rolls. No, they're mountains to climb! To get to the things hidden on tops of counters! Climb up and over, up and over, up and over.

*My cell phone. Again. Still. He has figured out some button that tells you how to use the voice reader option, and he pushes it each time. I had no idea about this button, and still don't know which one it is. 

*Flip video camera. He will carry it anywhere.

*Baby wipes / tissue box. Magical containers of never-ending wonders! I have found him wiping the kitchen floor with a baby wipe however, so I may look this over...

*Chapter books. He'll flip through the pages over and over again. The hymn book at church provides several minutes of lovely distraction each week.

*Water bottles, preferably partially filled. He'll shake it and then watch the bubbles swirl around.

*The tub! So fun to get in! And then out! And then in! And then out! It takes me almost two hours to get ready these days...

Words for Wy

I saw this idea to create a word book uh, last year or so, and fell in love with it and decided it would make a perfect 1st birthday gift. Well, okay, a perfect Christmas gift. And then, no....a perfect...sometime...gift.

I procrastinated. It took forever to figure out what to use as letters, since I loved the Scrabble tile look but didn't want to have to edit out all the little numbers. (Party Perfect found hers in a thrift shop...) Then Abby texted me one day saying she'd found some tiles, Bananagrams actually, and would these work? Should I buy them for you?

A dream come true! 

So then I had all the equipment, I had a list of words to do, and.....nothing. Months went by. Months! Then we received a $20 gift card to Shutterfly when we took Wy to see Santa (thanks, Shutterfly!), and I thought perfect! And it was, until I saw that it expired January 31st. It was the 30th. I had procrastinated again. So that weekend, while Wy took a nice long afternoon nap, I grabbed all the items and snapped away. It isn't perfect, a few pictures aren't crisp, the sun kept going behind the clouds so the lighting was different, there's shadows, but all in all I am pleased with the outcome. It could be better, yes, but it's good enough.

Wyatt loves it. I picked items he loves or sees alot, and he really pays attention. He loves books anyway, but he especially loves seeing his things. The things he knows. 

 

 

When we get to the last two pages, the pages of Caleb and I, he always pauses and turns around to look at me. Like, TWO mommies?! Cracks me up each time.

I have to admit though, it's strange seeing myself in print. Have I always had such a round face? I think it's too late to claim "baby fat".

Anyway. Cross it off mah list! Except I just realized I'll have to make one for each of my kids. Gotta start thinking of this stuff before I take on wild, crazy projects...

Keepin' it real

It takes Wyatt about 5 minutes to do this kind of damage. He needs a bit of help opening the car and finger puppet bins, but once he's got those open, he's golden. And I have a living room that looks like it got hit by a toy tornado.

This is just one ROOM, mind you. Imagine the kitchen and my bedroom. This boy is B-U-S-Y busy.
Does it get worse or better? Bigger boy, bigger messes...but they learn to clean up, right? Isn't that the reward after months and months of putting the same cars and blocks and books back in their rightful bins and shelves?

Fat lips in the city

The strange thing about living in the Bay Area is that the weather from one place to the next can be night and day. On Saturday we left the dreary rainy South Bay and met my friend Lindsay in the city for lunch, and it was absolutely beautiful. Sunny, 60, with just a bit of wind. Night and day.

It was so fun to see her and her family (that little Ginger is insanely cute!) and getting to chat for a few moments, even if Wy was determined to thwart our efforts. By the end of lunch I had pomegranate juice and avocado smeared all over my new cream shirt, we left a thousand grape pieces on the floor, and I found a half chewed piece of wheat toast in my diaper bag.

But look at them. Totally worth it.

 

Look at that - Wy got my squinty eyes. Dang sun is bright!

They had to run catch their flight, so we wandered over to a nearby park to let Wy run off some steam (he'd accumulated a big of energy at lunch...hopefully we didn't frighten them...).

He discovered city pigeons, and fell in love. Just tame enough to keep close, not enough to ever catch. Perfect for little toddlers.

 

He loved wandering the grass, and I let him until we hit a huge mud patch. When I picked him up I was chastised by a local homeless dude for "ruining what was about to be a real learning experience". "Run little dude!" he kept saying, but we just walked off. Not quite sure what he was supposed to have learned from it, but I was willing to take that risk. I already had pomegranate and avocado to get out, I didn't need to add mud to the mix.

We had an excellent time, and plan to head up more often. I've said that before, right? A few times. I'm just reaffirming my goals.

Oh, and Wy also received his first fat lip, courtesy of the twisty slide. Poor little guy.

He kept lickin' it the rest of the day. He went back down though, so all is well. No permanent damage. He's tough.

Erratic, yet somehow related

So I know all I do on this here blog is rave about my sweet little guy, but you guys, seriously, I just love this boy so much. And all those cliche things are true. It goes so fast, blah blah blah...I thought I loved him when he was first born, that I couldn't possibly love him more, but here I am, 455 days later and I feel like I love him a billion times more than I did then, and I'm sure in another 455 days I'll love him even more. It doesn't seem possible, but I'm sure it'll happen. 

Today I took him to the doctor for this lingering cough he has and wrapped it into his 15 month well visit. He was originally sick a week or two before Christmas, nothing serious, a low grade fever and the sniffles, and here we are in mid February and he's still coughing. Mostly at night and after naps, and maybe here or there during the day if he gets laughing real hard. He laughs quite a bit, the kid thinks he's hilarious and you're hilarious and I'm hilarious and everyone's hilarious. Everything is funny. Other than the coughing, he's normal. No wheezing, no stuffy / runny nose, so I hesitated even calling about it, but seriously? This long and no improvement? I had to go in.

I held him on my lap while his pediatrician listened to his lungs and I just couldn't get over how cute he was. In nothing but a diaper, his little buddah belly poking out, skinny little arms and legs. He's a shy guy around strangers, not overly so,  he just gets quiet with his big eyes wide, his bottom lip tucked in. He sat there watching her very intently and quiet as a mouse, as her stethoscope moved around his back and chest and I almost started giggling, he was so dang serious and cute. 

please excuse the avocado all over his shirt...

It's funny to see him shy, because he is such a goof around those he knows.

They couldn't come up with anything, lungs are clear, doesn't seem to be asthma, could be allergies but they can't really do anything about that. Or something. More wait and see, which is expected but not what I was hoping for. I'm glad it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much, but his sleep would sure improve without it. And mine.

Conquered!

Yesterday I was putting Wy's shoes on so that we could leave and out of the corner of my eye I spotted something.

I'm very good at this, you might even say I have a knack for it.

It was a big something. A big hairy something. On my favorite shoes. I took a closer look.

And then I died.

Do you see it?! I had to step back and calm myself. I had to take a picture (to show Caleb for real sympathy). I had to take each shoe out one by one, very carefully, while holding my breath, and then I had to toss it out the front door.

It was too big to squish. As you can see.

By the time I was done I was all flushy sweaty, and absolutely positively freaking out. How in the WORLD do these things get in my house?! How long had it been there? Where else had it been? Had it multiplied and replenished? Were there more?! Could I ever wear the shoes again!?

I have to report that today I did. I had some pants to take to get altered (why am I suddenly too short to wear regular jeans? Has it been that long since I've bought jeans? Three years? Is that too long?) and those were the shoes I needed as measurement. After 10 minutes of hunting, searching, and prepping, I put them on. I did it.

And I was honestly proud of myself. And you know what? So was Caleb. He was honestly proud. THAT is how serious this spider thing really is. 

But honestly, wouldn't you have felt the same?

They say it's a fruit

Besides allowing Caleb, Wyatt and I to set up house for over two weeks this Christmas and then helping to fix our car, my Dad also introduced me to my new favorite lunch.

Trust me, there is not a better combination out there.

You start off with a couple pieces of warm, buttered toast. Top with avocado slices, several splashes of fresh lemon juice (I'm going to sorely miss this lemon tree...) and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

 

No, you are not dead. Yes, it is heavenly.

Couple with some fresh fruit or some yogurt and homemade granola, and you've got the most delicious and healthy lunch out there. Please, try it. You'll love it.

Diversion

I can't concentrate tonight because Lost is on. LOST! TWO HOURS OF IT! The last season, so it's going to be good. Really good. Okay, wow. I'm gettin' excited!

While I'm thus engaged, please check out these little lovelies I've found. I've bookmarked them all for future reference, and I think you'll enjoy them.

*DEFINITELY going to be using these next pregnancy! That is not an announcement, just, you know. Later. And these will be there.

*Holy crap, someone invented them. Finally! I'll take a million, please!

*I have serious ambitions when it comes to Valentines Day cards, but if time runs out, here's where I'll be heading. And it's free. And you can't really beat that. 

*We're trying to be all healthy-like around here, and I've made this meal a few times. It's delicious, and super quick. Just how I like it.

*Have you seen this site? Love it. Gorgeous dresses!

*Want to print your own stationary? Go here. 

*I know it's not fall, but Costco has had already cut up butternut squash for sale, and I've been buying it like crazy. Love the flavor, and this recipe is easy and yummy. Try it. 

*I made these last year for Caleb, and he quite enjoyed them. Love the packaging, which you make yourself, and it was super cute.

Enjoy! I'm about to steep myself in Lost...

Buddies

We had Mark & Bridge over for dinner yesterday and toward the end of the night we started to get the two youngins ready for bed. We quickly realized we should have been documenting this all along, the comparative growth between the two. Wy is twice his age at 14 months, but look at them!

 

Gav may be younger, but he's trying his best to keep up - I swear he'll be walking soon.

Again, it's going to be one crazy summer!