I drove into Houston last night for some biz-nuss today and so I am writing this from my inlaw's kitchen. The week has been pretty busy. Hubby stayed home on Monday because he still felt bad, and he went back to work on Tuesday still feeling bad. The kids seem to be ok (finally) though both have felt warm at various times throughout the week. Port is dealing with some sort of wicked rash type thing - it's too complicated to explain.
I am so done. And I am still denying germs entry to my body. Nope. No way.
On Wednesday, Kiddo had his first baseball (t-ball) practice. Thanks to the generosity of G&H he will play baseball every week for the next couple of months. He is so ecstatic! He did pretty well - he is one of the biggest players, and one of the oldest too, but definitely not one of the most skilled. Poor guy, he is just not a runner. But he tries and he has fun so I am happy with that.
Hubby is supposed to take Kiddo to practices but he had a photo session this week so Port and I took Kiddo instead. It was quite the chore trying to keep Port out of the way and off the field. He wanted to play too! And it's not set up like I had hoped with the kids on a field and the parents sitting on bleachers behind a fence. It is all open and there is no where to sit but on the ground. The parents that had obviously been there before showed up with camp chairs - smart thinking.
Port did get a big kick out of watching Kiddo do the drills. And he shouted and cheered him on from the sidelines. It was the cutest thing ever! The mom sitting next to me thought it was sweet too. When Kiddo was moved way down the field where we couldn't see him, Port took to cheering for the other kids too. "Good Job! Yay! Keep it up! Good job, Guys!"
Like I said...I want to keep him in my pocket. ;-)
So, I am in Houston today and after doing the thing I needed to do I stopped off at Old Navy to see if I could pick up an item of clothing I forgot to bring with me. They didn't have what I needed so I was leaving the shopping center parking lot when out of nowhere this lady ran a stop sign and plowed into me. Joy.
Thankfully no visible damage was done to me or my car. It was actually a very strange accident. I was in the CRV and she was driving this big honkin GMC suburban type thing. And when she hit me, 1) I barely felt it 2) it barely made a noise - no typical car to car SMACK that usually happens and 3) her car basically did little more than pick my car up and set it back down a foot to the left. On the other hand, her bumper was crushed on one end, dented in about 3 inches and smeared with grey plastic from my bumper. The most bizarre thing ever.
We exchanged information, but I don't think anything was done to my car so I guess there really is nothing for me to do. She said she had a friend with a body shop so she was going to be fine. Well, good for her. I wanted to ask her if she planned on actually stopping at stop signs from now on, but I was nice. This is the second time I have been in an accident (where I was driving) since we moved back to TX, and both times the accident has happened in Houston. And, both times it was when someone was approaching a place where they should be stopping and they were looking in the other direction instead.
So that was the excitement for the day. I am looking forward to getting home tomorrow and diving back into work. So much is going on right now that I don't like being away from my office for too long.
Tonight G&H are at a church function and Port and I are at their house. Port fell asleep on the way to church so I just brought him back to their place. I am bored and now torturing my friends on Facebook with obscure quotes from old movies.
It's a party up in here. ;-)
Until,
D :)
Showing posts with label Grammy and Happy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grammy and Happy. Show all posts
Friday, March 25, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Ache
I know, I fell off the planet. The day of my last post, Kiddo came home from school with very bright, red cheeks. By dinner time, he had developed a lacy rash on his arms. Because I was going to be working on my birthday Saturday, we decided to go out that Friday night for my birthday dinner, and everything went really well. It was a nice night; normally I am hesitant to take Port out to restaurants because he is just at that age that he is very difficult to deal with. He doesn't like to sit still, he can get really loud and that, among other things, makes most meals out pretty unbearable for me. But anyway, I guess the birthday mojo was working for me and dinner was a very pleasant event. By the time we got home, Kiddo's rash had spread to his legs.
Thankfully it was only Fifth Disease, so he didn't have any other issues; he just looked funny. Within a couple of days it was gone. I shot a beautiful wedding with Allen on Saturday and then on Sunday had an amazing senior session in Lockhart and McKinney Falls State Park. It was a fun but tiring weekend. On Monday, I had what I call a wedding hangover - after shooting weddings I am often very sore for the next few days. It didn't really hit me until Monday though; I guess it was because I had a long session on Sunday as well.
The week went pretty well and then on Friday I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Every part of my body ached and I was in serious pain. At first, I thought maybe I had finally succumbed to the flu. All these weeks of not getting what everyone else had finally caught up to me. But, as the day went on, I realized that if I didn't think about the pain, the rest of me felt fine. I had no other symptoms aside from that. It was very strange - I felt like every joint in my body had severe arthritis, with the pain multiplied by 1000. I ached in places I didn't even know could ache. My hands, feet, ankles and knees were the worst, but I ached in my arms and my neck, my collar bone and shoulder blades. I had a headache as well.
And then I remembered, when reading about Fifth Disease, a little blurb about how it is much worse in adults. I remembered reading that adults suffering dealt with body aches and joint inflammation. And I remembered that a sweet friend of mine and her husband were afflicted with the same thing after their children had Fifth Disease. It all became clear.
Fifth Disease is sort of like Chicken Pox in that, once you have had it, you are very unlikely to get it again. Apparently I had never had it as a child.
Thank your lucky stars if you did.
I had to stop Google-ing it after a while, because I started hitting all this information on complications that can result if you have an autoimmune disorder. I am so thankful that it didn't activate or irritate my lupus, because it could have been very scary.
But, it still was brutal. Ibuprofen took the edge off, but for the most part it was just tons of unrelenting pain. The third and fourth morning was by far the worst. Swelling had set in and I would wake with my hands and feet looking worse than they did when I was pregnant and had pre-eclampsia. I couldn't get my rings off and things like typing and writing were very uncomfortable. I couldn't grip anything and was afraid I would drop anything I touched.
The second day just happened to be Saturday. I was scheduled to shoot a wedding in Dallas with a friend and fellow photographer. It was a full day event.
I have to say, I think that wedding saved me. The drive there and back (4+ hours each way in the car) was brutal. I popped ibuprofen every chance I could and just tried not to think about it. But once we were there, the adrenalin kicked in and I really didn't feel too bad for most of the day. The only time it really bothered me was when I tried to sit down and my knees just couldn't handle it. It was a blessing that I *had* to move all day.
Sunday was pretty painful, but thankfully I had the wonderful distraction of dropping the boys off with my inlaws for a few days! Woo hoo! Monday was pretty bad too, but as long as I stayed active the pain was manageable. The more I moved, the better I felt.
We were all supposed to go to Big Bend for spring break, but with all the pain I was in, and the wonderful addition of Kiddo getting an ear infection, we canceled our trip. Thankfully, Grammy and Happy volunteered to take the boys on Sunday for a few days for fun, so we, of course, let them. The boys had a great time, but Kiddo's ear infection got worse and moved to both ears, and by the time we got the boys back on Wednesday he was running a fever and had burst an ear drum. The other ear drum burst later that afternoon. I was starting to feel a lot better on Wednesday, thankfully.
So we got the kids back and then I was up all night with Kiddo and his poor ears. He was in a lot of pain. I took him in to the dr Thursday morning and sure enough he had perforated both ear drums. The goo and big glops of gunk that were coming out of his ears was totally disgusting. He got another script for antibiotics and some drops for his ears and he began feeling better that day, thankfully.
The only bad part is, he can't hear a thing.
The only way he can really hear us is if we get right in his right ear and yell.
*sigh*
So that's where I've been. I am shooting another wedding tomorrow and have another senior session next weekend. I am a blissfully busy girl.
Now, if I could only get everyone healthy. ;)
Until,
D :)
Thankfully it was only Fifth Disease, so he didn't have any other issues; he just looked funny. Within a couple of days it was gone. I shot a beautiful wedding with Allen on Saturday and then on Sunday had an amazing senior session in Lockhart and McKinney Falls State Park. It was a fun but tiring weekend. On Monday, I had what I call a wedding hangover - after shooting weddings I am often very sore for the next few days. It didn't really hit me until Monday though; I guess it was because I had a long session on Sunday as well.
The week went pretty well and then on Friday I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Every part of my body ached and I was in serious pain. At first, I thought maybe I had finally succumbed to the flu. All these weeks of not getting what everyone else had finally caught up to me. But, as the day went on, I realized that if I didn't think about the pain, the rest of me felt fine. I had no other symptoms aside from that. It was very strange - I felt like every joint in my body had severe arthritis, with the pain multiplied by 1000. I ached in places I didn't even know could ache. My hands, feet, ankles and knees were the worst, but I ached in my arms and my neck, my collar bone and shoulder blades. I had a headache as well.
And then I remembered, when reading about Fifth Disease, a little blurb about how it is much worse in adults. I remembered reading that adults suffering dealt with body aches and joint inflammation. And I remembered that a sweet friend of mine and her husband were afflicted with the same thing after their children had Fifth Disease. It all became clear.
Fifth Disease is sort of like Chicken Pox in that, once you have had it, you are very unlikely to get it again. Apparently I had never had it as a child.
Thank your lucky stars if you did.
I had to stop Google-ing it after a while, because I started hitting all this information on complications that can result if you have an autoimmune disorder. I am so thankful that it didn't activate or irritate my lupus, because it could have been very scary.
But, it still was brutal. Ibuprofen took the edge off, but for the most part it was just tons of unrelenting pain. The third and fourth morning was by far the worst. Swelling had set in and I would wake with my hands and feet looking worse than they did when I was pregnant and had pre-eclampsia. I couldn't get my rings off and things like typing and writing were very uncomfortable. I couldn't grip anything and was afraid I would drop anything I touched.
The second day just happened to be Saturday. I was scheduled to shoot a wedding in Dallas with a friend and fellow photographer. It was a full day event.
I have to say, I think that wedding saved me. The drive there and back (4+ hours each way in the car) was brutal. I popped ibuprofen every chance I could and just tried not to think about it. But once we were there, the adrenalin kicked in and I really didn't feel too bad for most of the day. The only time it really bothered me was when I tried to sit down and my knees just couldn't handle it. It was a blessing that I *had* to move all day.
Sunday was pretty painful, but thankfully I had the wonderful distraction of dropping the boys off with my inlaws for a few days! Woo hoo! Monday was pretty bad too, but as long as I stayed active the pain was manageable. The more I moved, the better I felt.
We were all supposed to go to Big Bend for spring break, but with all the pain I was in, and the wonderful addition of Kiddo getting an ear infection, we canceled our trip. Thankfully, Grammy and Happy volunteered to take the boys on Sunday for a few days for fun, so we, of course, let them. The boys had a great time, but Kiddo's ear infection got worse and moved to both ears, and by the time we got the boys back on Wednesday he was running a fever and had burst an ear drum. The other ear drum burst later that afternoon. I was starting to feel a lot better on Wednesday, thankfully.
So we got the kids back and then I was up all night with Kiddo and his poor ears. He was in a lot of pain. I took him in to the dr Thursday morning and sure enough he had perforated both ear drums. The goo and big glops of gunk that were coming out of his ears was totally disgusting. He got another script for antibiotics and some drops for his ears and he began feeling better that day, thankfully.
The only bad part is, he can't hear a thing.
The only way he can really hear us is if we get right in his right ear and yell.
*sigh*
So that's where I've been. I am shooting another wedding tomorrow and have another senior session next weekend. I am a blissfully busy girl.
Now, if I could only get everyone healthy. ;)
Until,
D :)
Friday, December 31, 2010
Release Me
Well I didn't want to end the year on my blog with that depressing post from last week. Things actually got worse from there. The tummy bug hit Port pretty hard. First there was a day of high fever (105 at the highest) and then there was a day of vomiting. I was thrown-up on more times than I care to recall and ended up doing multiple loads of laundry throughout the day. Port handled it really well, I have to say. He didn't really cry much; you could tell it freaked him out a bit, but he always recovered quickly.
Thursday night we took a risk and took the boys to look at Christmas lights at a couple of local hot spots. Thankfully we didn't have to get out of the car. Port was so distracted about the pretty lights that he did great. Of course, when we got home he threw up again a couple of times.
The next day was a day of horrible diapers and almost more messes than the vomiting caused. By Friday night I was pleading to God for some relief!
Saturday, Christmas morning, was such a blessing. Port woke up excited and energetic and everyone else felt good too. There was no more vomiting, no more bad diapers and everyone could eat!
Yippee!! The boys were super excited about their gifts and I think Hubby got more play time out of the boys' toys than they did!
I am so thankful for a beautiful Christmas day! God is certainly good. We were able to enjoy the morning; some enjoyed it a little too much!
We even made it to the inlaw's place for dinner. I made my first ever brisket in the oven. It turned out pretty good but it looked horrible! I am not sure how to make a brisket look pretty, but next time I attempt to cook one I will have to do a lot more research.
So yes, Christmas was great! I would like to wipe the couple of weeks leading up to it from my memory (except for the time spent with family of course), but thankfully the big day was great. The rest of this week was awesome too - we got to spend more time with our family and Hubby and I even got 2 1/2 days of kid free time while the boys stayed with the inlaws just a few miles up the road. It was so nice to be able to have a couple of date nights! I got a ton of work done and slept in for 3 mornings. Pure delight! By Thursday though, the silence was getting to be too much and I missed my boys terribly. I had a family photo session that afternoon and left straight from the location to go pick up my boys.
Port acted so strangely. When I showed up, I walked up to the house and he was playing in the living room. He could see me through the door and he was all smiles. The problem was, the door was locked and I couldn't get in (Grammy was in the back of the house and didn't know I had arrived). My poor baby was twisting the door knob and trying with all his might to open the door and he couldn't do it. I walked around to the back of the house to try the back door and it was locked too. By the time I got back to the front, my baby was in tears. Grammy finally heard the commotion and unlocked the door. Port cried and cried and clung to me for dear life. It was as if he had repressed all the sadness of me leaving a few days before and finally it all came to the surface when I returned. He wouldn't let me out of his sight for the rest of the evening. When we got home, he didn't want to go to bed and ended up screaming and crying for about 45 minutes before passing out. He was so exhausted, but didn't want to sleep in his bed.
We had a pretty good day today, and we decided to stay home tonight and have our usual low key New Year Eve. With so much that has happened in the last few weeks, I just really didn't feel up to another night out. I cooked a bunch of snacky, finger foods for "dinner" and we all enjoyed a "feast" (as Kiddo called it) and the kids went to bed on time. Woot!
(for the record, jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and blue cheese, wrapped with bacon and baked are DIVINE! YUM yum, yummy, yum, yum!)
ahem
So tomorrow begins the new year and I am so excited at all that is on the horizon. I am ready to let go of the bad things that happened this year and start out fresh and positive. I have some great personal stuff coming up this year and also some really great business stuff too. I can't wait to see what happens with everything and of course, share it all with you.
I'll close this with a partial quote from a post on my facebook page (that I stole from my cousin - she got it from dailyword.com) ...
Wishing you an amazing New Year full of great fun, happy family, yummy food, fond memories and overflowing prosperity! See you in 2011!
Until,
D :)
The next day was a day of horrible diapers and almost more messes than the vomiting caused. By Friday night I was pleading to God for some relief!
Saturday, Christmas morning, was such a blessing. Port woke up excited and energetic and everyone else felt good too. There was no more vomiting, no more bad diapers and everyone could eat!
{mmm, homemade caramel apple cinnamon rolls!}
Yippee!! The boys were super excited about their gifts and I think Hubby got more play time out of the boys' toys than they did!
I am so thankful for a beautiful Christmas day! God is certainly good. We were able to enjoy the morning; some enjoyed it a little too much!
We even made it to the inlaw's place for dinner. I made my first ever brisket in the oven. It turned out pretty good but it looked horrible! I am not sure how to make a brisket look pretty, but next time I attempt to cook one I will have to do a lot more research.
So yes, Christmas was great! I would like to wipe the couple of weeks leading up to it from my memory (except for the time spent with family of course), but thankfully the big day was great. The rest of this week was awesome too - we got to spend more time with our family and Hubby and I even got 2 1/2 days of kid free time while the boys stayed with the inlaws just a few miles up the road. It was so nice to be able to have a couple of date nights! I got a ton of work done and slept in for 3 mornings. Pure delight! By Thursday though, the silence was getting to be too much and I missed my boys terribly. I had a family photo session that afternoon and left straight from the location to go pick up my boys.
Port acted so strangely. When I showed up, I walked up to the house and he was playing in the living room. He could see me through the door and he was all smiles. The problem was, the door was locked and I couldn't get in (Grammy was in the back of the house and didn't know I had arrived). My poor baby was twisting the door knob and trying with all his might to open the door and he couldn't do it. I walked around to the back of the house to try the back door and it was locked too. By the time I got back to the front, my baby was in tears. Grammy finally heard the commotion and unlocked the door. Port cried and cried and clung to me for dear life. It was as if he had repressed all the sadness of me leaving a few days before and finally it all came to the surface when I returned. He wouldn't let me out of his sight for the rest of the evening. When we got home, he didn't want to go to bed and ended up screaming and crying for about 45 minutes before passing out. He was so exhausted, but didn't want to sleep in his bed.
We had a pretty good day today, and we decided to stay home tonight and have our usual low key New Year Eve. With so much that has happened in the last few weeks, I just really didn't feel up to another night out. I cooked a bunch of snacky, finger foods for "dinner" and we all enjoyed a "feast" (as Kiddo called it) and the kids went to bed on time. Woot!
(for the record, jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and blue cheese, wrapped with bacon and baked are DIVINE! YUM yum, yummy, yum, yum!)
ahem
So tomorrow begins the new year and I am so excited at all that is on the horizon. I am ready to let go of the bad things that happened this year and start out fresh and positive. I have some great personal stuff coming up this year and also some really great business stuff too. I can't wait to see what happens with everything and of course, share it all with you.
I'll close this with a partial quote from a post on my facebook page (that I stole from my cousin - she got it from dailyword.com) ...
I release and let go, ready to make the most of this present moment.As I reflect on the events of the past year, I recognize successes and failures, gains and losses. Each event has taught me something and made me wiser. Knowing this, I acknowledge and release the past year in gratitude.In contemplation of the coming year, whether I am excited or apprehensive, I know the spirit of God will empower me to meet every situation with confidence and strength. With this in mind, I release any concerns I may have about the future.Today I am ready to stand tall in this present moment. I appreciate the now, perfectly balanced between the blessings of the past and the promise of the future. This is the moment of power and action. I am ready!He has made everything suitable for its time.--Ecclesiastes 3:11
Wishing you an amazing New Year full of great fun, happy family, yummy food, fond memories and overflowing prosperity! See you in 2011!
Until,
D :)
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Already Gone
Once again the days are slipping away and I keep forgetting to blog. It's not really that things have been busy - actually, I think it's been just the opposite. Starting this weekend though I am going to be completely swamped until Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to it for sure because it is going to be incredibly fun. But I know I will have my days where I will be pulling my hair out in frustration from one thing or another.
I have been trying to tie up loose ends all week; answer emails, follow up with clients, etc. But of course there are quite a few things I am forgetting and missing and putting off. I really wish there was a way to carve out just 2 solid hours a day for me to work completely uninterrupted. I could get sooooo much done. But the constant bombardment of questions and needs and general chaos from the short people around here keeps me from getting anything productive done. And don't even think about suggesting I get up early - HAHA! 6:45 is too early as it is! We don't usually make it to bed until 11 or 11:30. With any less sleep I really won't be able to function.
Last weekend Grammy and Happy came to town to spend a few days here on their property for their anniversary. The boys got to see them for a little while one week day afternoon, and then on Saturday they got to spend most of the afternoon out on the property. Hubby and I got a "date afternoon" of sorts and were able to run errands and hang out in general peace and quiet. It was very nice, but I kept finding myself fretting over doing fun things with my husband instead of working on all my chores and stuff I have been wanting to do around the house. I go for weeks without getting the things I want done. It is extremely frustrating to put off stuff like gardening and repotting plants for weeks on end.
*sigh* my poor garden.
The okra is so tall now that I can't reach the top. I would guess the plants are about 10 feet tall at this point. I have to bend them down to harvest the okra that are still popping up daily. And now, there are about 10 new little okra plants that have sprung from the ground around the old timers and they are producing too. It is insane! Good thing I like okra...
The peppers are producing like mad now too but have unfortunately succumbed to pests. I just can't keep them healthy. And I need to pull them but I just can't find the time. I needed to plant for the fall LAST MONTH and I just couldn't do it. Either I was busy on the weekend of Hubby was. We are hardly home at the same time anymore.
The basil is about done. The plants are getting woody and the new growth is bolting almost instantly. I cut a bunch of it tonight but I don't know if I will have time to wash it and lay it out to dry. (of course I could be doing it right now but I am choosing to blog instead)
I bought some dirt for the other bed, but I think I am going to add it and then cover the whole bed with a thick layer of newspapers and plastic and let it rest until next spring. At this point, if I plant anything it will get too cold before anything can be established. I will probably secure a nice section of the currently growing bed for some garlic since it will not be ready until spring anyway.
So that is the garden situation. Kinda got off topic there - what I really wanted to post was a funny from Kiddo when he and his brother were staying with Grammy and Happy.
Happy had left some cash out on a table or counter and Kiddo walked up and swiped some of it. Happy told him to give that back. Kiddo said he just found it. Happy said something (playfully) to the effect of "That's my money and you stole it." My charming son replied:
"I didn't steal it, Happy. I'm not a bank robber. I am a tax collector."
Happy gave him a quarter for such a clever response. ;-)
Until,
D :)
I have been trying to tie up loose ends all week; answer emails, follow up with clients, etc. But of course there are quite a few things I am forgetting and missing and putting off. I really wish there was a way to carve out just 2 solid hours a day for me to work completely uninterrupted. I could get sooooo much done. But the constant bombardment of questions and needs and general chaos from the short people around here keeps me from getting anything productive done. And don't even think about suggesting I get up early - HAHA! 6:45 is too early as it is! We don't usually make it to bed until 11 or 11:30. With any less sleep I really won't be able to function.
Last weekend Grammy and Happy came to town to spend a few days here on their property for their anniversary. The boys got to see them for a little while one week day afternoon, and then on Saturday they got to spend most of the afternoon out on the property. Hubby and I got a "date afternoon" of sorts and were able to run errands and hang out in general peace and quiet. It was very nice, but I kept finding myself fretting over doing fun things with my husband instead of working on all my chores and stuff I have been wanting to do around the house. I go for weeks without getting the things I want done. It is extremely frustrating to put off stuff like gardening and repotting plants for weeks on end.
*sigh* my poor garden.
The okra is so tall now that I can't reach the top. I would guess the plants are about 10 feet tall at this point. I have to bend them down to harvest the okra that are still popping up daily. And now, there are about 10 new little okra plants that have sprung from the ground around the old timers and they are producing too. It is insane! Good thing I like okra...
The peppers are producing like mad now too but have unfortunately succumbed to pests. I just can't keep them healthy. And I need to pull them but I just can't find the time. I needed to plant for the fall LAST MONTH and I just couldn't do it. Either I was busy on the weekend of Hubby was. We are hardly home at the same time anymore.
The basil is about done. The plants are getting woody and the new growth is bolting almost instantly. I cut a bunch of it tonight but I don't know if I will have time to wash it and lay it out to dry. (of course I could be doing it right now but I am choosing to blog instead)
I bought some dirt for the other bed, but I think I am going to add it and then cover the whole bed with a thick layer of newspapers and plastic and let it rest until next spring. At this point, if I plant anything it will get too cold before anything can be established. I will probably secure a nice section of the currently growing bed for some garlic since it will not be ready until spring anyway.
So that is the garden situation. Kinda got off topic there - what I really wanted to post was a funny from Kiddo when he and his brother were staying with Grammy and Happy.
Happy had left some cash out on a table or counter and Kiddo walked up and swiped some of it. Happy told him to give that back. Kiddo said he just found it. Happy said something (playfully) to the effect of "That's my money and you stole it." My charming son replied:
"I didn't steal it, Happy. I'm not a bank robber. I am a tax collector."
Happy gave him a quarter for such a clever response. ;-)
Until,
D :)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Garden State
Happy Monday all!
I had an awesome weekend - starting on Thursday with a trip to Houston. I had two photo sessions on Friday and got to spend the day with my bff and her family. It was wonderful! My backyard mom colored and highlighted my hair and I love it! I wish I could have spent more time with them. Grammy and Happy were kind enough to watch the boys for me all day long and I didn't want to make them resent their generosity, so Friday was my only day away. I am so blessed with inlaws that are relatively close by and so willing to take the boys for me when I am visiting friends and working in Houston. The boys love spending time with them too. Of course, when we left on Saturday, Kiddo cried for a good hour off and on while Port slept. Then Port woke up right about the time Kiddo fell asleep, and when we pulled into our neighborhood, Port started whining and crying for his BeeMee (Grammy). Good grief I just about turned around and shipped them back to their grandparent's house!
Regardless, we made it home safe and sound. Saturday was Hubby's and my 11th anniversary (I know that was probably not the proper way to say that. help! I suck at grammar). Since we hadn't planned anything too special, we picked up a pizza for the kids (Little Caesar's $5 large pepperoni ROCKS) and grilled some steaks for ourselves. While the kids enjoyed pepperoni, we dined on steak, baked potato and a very yummy cucumber salad I concocted at the last minute. While I was gone to Houston, my garden produced 3 very large cucumbers! I don't usually like cucumbers that much, but something made me chop them up with some diced red onion, jalapeno, black olives, tomatoes, salt, pepper and feta cheese. I mixed it all up with some Greek vinaigrette dressing and it was sooooo yummy! It was even better the next day.
We got the kiddos to bed on time and Hubby and I watched a movie (shock! I know!). It was a lovely quiet evening with us together instead of in front of our computers. We really should do that more often.
Anyway, I haven't talked about my garden in a while so I thought it might be time for an update. Things in the garden are, well, um, it's hard to say. Good and bad I guess. It has been both frustrating and rewarding at the same time. First the frustrating: the lima beans never even sprouted. Carrots didn't sprout at all either. The green beans kept getting chomped by a squirrel and so now only one plant survived. I had so much hope for it, but then I discovered one morning that some sort of beast had completely covered it in a fine, sticky netting; over the top and bottoms of every leaf, all over the stems and also the small beans that were growing. It is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. And you can't wash it off! ugh.
The corn is growing and producing some small ears, but it looks like the shallow depth of dirt and solid limestone bed underneath has stunted it's growth. It is only about 3-4 feet tall. So much for the theory of corn being able to grow in 8 inches of soil. Anyway...
In one bed I planted the lima beans and carrots (that didn't even sprout) along with some cucumber, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, garlic from last fall and onions. The onions were from last fall too - I thought they weren't going to grow and then suddenly they went bonkers. I have pulled a couple and they are very good - sweet and mild, but still small. The broccoli was doing pretty well and starting to sprout some little baby broccoli heads. I was having a bit of a problem with some sort of worm eating through a few leaves, but I thought I was staying on top of it. Then one day after a rain I walked out to check and over half of the plants were gone and the remaining plants and leaves were absolutely covered in these little worms!! I was so upset - they were everywhere! I had to pull all the plants; there was no saving them. :( The spinach and the lettuce produced a ton of edibles until the heat got to be too much for them. The garlic seemed to be doing great, then just last week it seemed to go from "almost ready" to "past ready" so today I pulled them. They bulbs were starting to sprout their own plants and separate. I am still pretty proud of them since they started from 3 little cloves I haphazardly poked into the ground last fall.
The cucumbers are going bonkers out there and taking over the bed. I will soon have more cucumbers than I can deal with. Thank goodness Kiddo loves cucumber. Maybe, I will have enough ready at the same time and can make some pickles!
In the other bed I planted okra, snow peas, black beans, tomatoes, basil, peppers (bell, jalapeno and banana) and dill. The okra are growing great! I get 2-3 beautiful, perfect okra every day. The peas were doing really well at first (better than anything else in the bed actually) but when it started staying really hot during the day they just couldn't handle it. I will try to plant them earlier next year. The black beans absolutely thrived and I am now getting a ton ready to harvest every couple of days. The tomatoes were slow to start but are coming in nicely and the basil is absolutely beautiful.
After a couple of months of absolutely no growth, I finally started treating the peppers with some coffee grounds. They finally took off and I now have several bells, jalapeno and yellow banana peppers that will be ready in a couple of days. I am very excited about it because I have never had success with peppers before.
When everything but the beans seemed to be struggling at first, I tested the soil to see where on the scale everything was. It seems the soil is pretty Alkaline (above 8.0) which is just amazing to me considering how much compost I added to it before I planted. It is also pretty much void of the essential nutrients like Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. Seriously, I have no idea why. Though I have to say that after giving the nitrogen loving plants some coffee, they perked right up. Also, the recent rains have helped a ton - I think a lot of the nutrients were "locked" in the soil because it would get so incredibly dry between waterings. Hopefully I can remedy that some.
We have 3 little blueberries about to turn blue and the blackberry plant is finally blooming. I didn't expect much from the blueberries - one of the pair or plants is less than a year old and they aren't supposed to produce the first year. I hope next spring will be a great one for them.
The zucchini; my word those weird zucchini plants. Last year I had more zucchini than I knew what to do with. This year the plants are super small and so bizarre. One day they look great and the next they look almost dead. Then half the plant will wither and the other half will thrive, and then a day later the opposite will happen. I have no idea what to do for them. I am going to try to build up the soil some and see if it helps. I have seen some squash borers so they probably don't have much longer to survive, but I will try to keep them going for a little longer. I have harvested a couple of small zucchini from them, but I am not expecting many more.
So, I guess that is the long version. Gardening is such an amazing, frustrating, rewarding, confusing adventure. Maybe some day I will actually get good at it. lol!
Until,
D :)
I had an awesome weekend - starting on Thursday with a trip to Houston. I had two photo sessions on Friday and got to spend the day with my bff and her family. It was wonderful! My backyard mom colored and highlighted my hair and I love it! I wish I could have spent more time with them. Grammy and Happy were kind enough to watch the boys for me all day long and I didn't want to make them resent their generosity, so Friday was my only day away. I am so blessed with inlaws that are relatively close by and so willing to take the boys for me when I am visiting friends and working in Houston. The boys love spending time with them too. Of course, when we left on Saturday, Kiddo cried for a good hour off and on while Port slept. Then Port woke up right about the time Kiddo fell asleep, and when we pulled into our neighborhood, Port started whining and crying for his BeeMee (Grammy). Good grief I just about turned around and shipped them back to their grandparent's house!
Regardless, we made it home safe and sound. Saturday was Hubby's and my 11th anniversary (I know that was probably not the proper way to say that. help! I suck at grammar). Since we hadn't planned anything too special, we picked up a pizza for the kids (Little Caesar's $5 large pepperoni ROCKS) and grilled some steaks for ourselves. While the kids enjoyed pepperoni, we dined on steak, baked potato and a very yummy cucumber salad I concocted at the last minute. While I was gone to Houston, my garden produced 3 very large cucumbers! I don't usually like cucumbers that much, but something made me chop them up with some diced red onion, jalapeno, black olives, tomatoes, salt, pepper and feta cheese. I mixed it all up with some Greek vinaigrette dressing and it was sooooo yummy! It was even better the next day.
We got the kiddos to bed on time and Hubby and I watched a movie (shock! I know!). It was a lovely quiet evening with us together instead of in front of our computers. We really should do that more often.
Anyway, I haven't talked about my garden in a while so I thought it might be time for an update. Things in the garden are, well, um, it's hard to say. Good and bad I guess. It has been both frustrating and rewarding at the same time. First the frustrating: the lima beans never even sprouted. Carrots didn't sprout at all either. The green beans kept getting chomped by a squirrel and so now only one plant survived. I had so much hope for it, but then I discovered one morning that some sort of beast had completely covered it in a fine, sticky netting; over the top and bottoms of every leaf, all over the stems and also the small beans that were growing. It is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. And you can't wash it off! ugh.
The corn is growing and producing some small ears, but it looks like the shallow depth of dirt and solid limestone bed underneath has stunted it's growth. It is only about 3-4 feet tall. So much for the theory of corn being able to grow in 8 inches of soil. Anyway...
In one bed I planted the lima beans and carrots (that didn't even sprout) along with some cucumber, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, garlic from last fall and onions. The onions were from last fall too - I thought they weren't going to grow and then suddenly they went bonkers. I have pulled a couple and they are very good - sweet and mild, but still small. The broccoli was doing pretty well and starting to sprout some little baby broccoli heads. I was having a bit of a problem with some sort of worm eating through a few leaves, but I thought I was staying on top of it. Then one day after a rain I walked out to check and over half of the plants were gone and the remaining plants and leaves were absolutely covered in these little worms!! I was so upset - they were everywhere! I had to pull all the plants; there was no saving them. :( The spinach and the lettuce produced a ton of edibles until the heat got to be too much for them. The garlic seemed to be doing great, then just last week it seemed to go from "almost ready" to "past ready" so today I pulled them. They bulbs were starting to sprout their own plants and separate. I am still pretty proud of them since they started from 3 little cloves I haphazardly poked into the ground last fall.
The cucumbers are going bonkers out there and taking over the bed. I will soon have more cucumbers than I can deal with. Thank goodness Kiddo loves cucumber. Maybe, I will have enough ready at the same time and can make some pickles!
In the other bed I planted okra, snow peas, black beans, tomatoes, basil, peppers (bell, jalapeno and banana) and dill. The okra are growing great! I get 2-3 beautiful, perfect okra every day. The peas were doing really well at first (better than anything else in the bed actually) but when it started staying really hot during the day they just couldn't handle it. I will try to plant them earlier next year. The black beans absolutely thrived and I am now getting a ton ready to harvest every couple of days. The tomatoes were slow to start but are coming in nicely and the basil is absolutely beautiful.
After a couple of months of absolutely no growth, I finally started treating the peppers with some coffee grounds. They finally took off and I now have several bells, jalapeno and yellow banana peppers that will be ready in a couple of days. I am very excited about it because I have never had success with peppers before.
When everything but the beans seemed to be struggling at first, I tested the soil to see where on the scale everything was. It seems the soil is pretty Alkaline (above 8.0) which is just amazing to me considering how much compost I added to it before I planted. It is also pretty much void of the essential nutrients like Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. Seriously, I have no idea why. Though I have to say that after giving the nitrogen loving plants some coffee, they perked right up. Also, the recent rains have helped a ton - I think a lot of the nutrients were "locked" in the soil because it would get so incredibly dry between waterings. Hopefully I can remedy that some.
We have 3 little blueberries about to turn blue and the blackberry plant is finally blooming. I didn't expect much from the blueberries - one of the pair or plants is less than a year old and they aren't supposed to produce the first year. I hope next spring will be a great one for them.
The zucchini; my word those weird zucchini plants. Last year I had more zucchini than I knew what to do with. This year the plants are super small and so bizarre. One day they look great and the next they look almost dead. Then half the plant will wither and the other half will thrive, and then a day later the opposite will happen. I have no idea what to do for them. I am going to try to build up the soil some and see if it helps. I have seen some squash borers so they probably don't have much longer to survive, but I will try to keep them going for a little longer. I have harvested a couple of small zucchini from them, but I am not expecting many more.
So, I guess that is the long version. Gardening is such an amazing, frustrating, rewarding, confusing adventure. Maybe some day I will actually get good at it. lol!
Until,
D :)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sailor Song
I know today is supposed to be a Gratitude Monday, but I am dealing with a very sick and cranky boy today and no sleep last night so I just don't have it in me for a long post. I will try to get a GM post up some time this week, hopefully when we are all feeling better.
In the meantime, I will leave you with the cute little ditty I overheard Kiddo singing to himself as he was preparing to brush his teeth this morning. He was recently introduced to the Popeye movie by his Happy, and so now all day we hear variations on this tune.
"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot toot!
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot toot!
I always brush my teeth,
So I can be super strong.
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot toot!
I love to go swimmin wif bowlegged wimmen,
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man! Toot toot!"
Until,
D :)
In the meantime, I will leave you with the cute little ditty I overheard Kiddo singing to himself as he was preparing to brush his teeth this morning. He was recently introduced to the Popeye movie by his Happy, and so now all day we hear variations on this tune.
"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot toot!
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot toot!
I always brush my teeth,
So I can be super strong.
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, toot toot!
I love to go swimmin wif bowlegged wimmen,
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man! Toot toot!"
Until,
D :)
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Far Away
Oh my little bloggy blog, how I miss thee! I am so sorry to have neglected you this way over the past few months. I miss having you to unload on, to brain dump on and to sing high praises on! I miss being able to sit down several times a week and unload the good, the bad and the ugly. I miss my commenters and my visitors, and I miss just typing in general. Strange, no? Yes.
Ok, so with all that our of my system...
Last week was but a blur; head injuries and lots of editing and running around with the kids, and then we packed up the entire house, hitched the trailer to the back of the van and headed out to the outskirts of town. We met up with the Fry clan at a quaint little home on the Blanco River in Wimberly, TX for an extended weekend of R&R.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
So I had a whole different kind of post in mind, but this horrid day got away from me so I will leave you with some out-of-the-blue Kiddo speak...
Tonight, as I was cooking dinner:
Kiddo: "I'm gonna have a baby sister and when she is born she is going to have brown hair."
Me: "Oh really? And when is this going to happen?"
Kiddo: "It's gonna happen when Happy dies."
Me: "And when will that be?"
Kiddo: "When he's 61." (FYI, Happy just turned 60 about 3 weeks ago)
We had to have a long talk about Happy living a long long time. He was confused because apparently Happy told him that he was getting older and older and smaller and smaller and I guess in Kiddo's mind, a year is about all he had before he would be too small!
And sometime last week:
Kiddo: "When I am in college, I am going to marry Duchess. She lives in Paris. It is far, far away. It's right past Louisiana. Duchess has dark skin and brown eyes and curly brown hair. And she lives in Paris. But I love her and want to marry her, but she says we have to wait until college. We are going to have a little boy and his name will be Kiddo Jr. And he will have dark skin and dark curly hair just like Duchess. Duchess has a little brother too and his name is Port. And her Dad's name is Tyler (our dog's name). "
For the past week or so we have heard all about Duchess. I am not sure if she is someone he made up (the momma cat in the Aristocats is named Duchess and they live in Paris) or if he actually met a little girl in Sunday school that he likes. It is so cute when he talks about her though - he gets this dreamy eyed look and speaks in a sing-songy voice.
Ahh, young love!
Until,
D ;)
Ok, so with all that our of my system...
Last week was but a blur; head injuries and lots of editing and running around with the kids, and then we packed up the entire house, hitched the trailer to the back of the van and headed out to the outskirts of town. We met up with the Fry clan at a quaint little home on the Blanco River in Wimberly, TX for an extended weekend of R&R.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
So I had a whole different kind of post in mind, but this horrid day got away from me so I will leave you with some out-of-the-blue Kiddo speak...
Tonight, as I was cooking dinner:
Kiddo: "I'm gonna have a baby sister and when she is born she is going to have brown hair."
Me: "Oh really? And when is this going to happen?"
Kiddo: "It's gonna happen when Happy dies."
Me: "And when will that be?"
Kiddo: "When he's 61." (FYI, Happy just turned 60 about 3 weeks ago)
We had to have a long talk about Happy living a long long time. He was confused because apparently Happy told him that he was getting older and older and smaller and smaller and I guess in Kiddo's mind, a year is about all he had before he would be too small!
And sometime last week:
Kiddo: "When I am in college, I am going to marry Duchess. She lives in Paris. It is far, far away. It's right past Louisiana. Duchess has dark skin and brown eyes and curly brown hair. And she lives in Paris. But I love her and want to marry her, but she says we have to wait until college. We are going to have a little boy and his name will be Kiddo Jr. And he will have dark skin and dark curly hair just like Duchess. Duchess has a little brother too and his name is Port. And her Dad's name is Tyler (our dog's name). "
For the past week or so we have heard all about Duchess. I am not sure if she is someone he made up (the momma cat in the Aristocats is named Duchess and they live in Paris) or if he actually met a little girl in Sunday school that he likes. It is so cute when he talks about her though - he gets this dreamy eyed look and speaks in a sing-songy voice.
Ahh, young love!
Until,
D ;)
Friday, July 10, 2009
Picture Me Rollin
Good Evening Company Girls and Beloved Regulars (and my Newbies too! Hi!)!
So it is Friday again, please come in, pull up a chair and relax. I will put a pot of decaf on since it is late.
I am really late getting to this post this week because I just got back from Houston a couple of hours ago. I was there for a couple of days to do a photo shoot - a maternity/family combo that was so much fun! The momma is pregnant with twin girls! I am very excited because she has also hired me to do a newborn session for her when the twins arrive. yeeeee!!!
So in the past week I have had a family session, a wedding and the maternity shoot. Next week is a newborn and hopefully my senior rep session. I am waiting for the word to come and possibly shoot a birth session as well. I LOVE being this busy with my photography biz. Lord knows we need it!
I swear the drive to Houston the other day was by far one of the most memorable. Of course, there was a full moon that day so I shouldn't be surprised, but man, people on the road were downright nutty! One woman in a Lexus SUV seemed to get irritated every time I passed her on the freeway. I was using my cruise control so I was maintaining a constant speed, but she kept speeding up and slowing down. When she'd slow, I would pass. She would then stomp on the gas and aggressively pass me and get in front of me. Then she would slow and I would pass her again. This went on for miles and when I passed her for the last time I finally got a good look at her - she was reading a magazine while she drove. It was spread out over the steering wheel and she was flipping the pages....while driving between 65 and 75 miles per hour!!
As soon as I got rid of her then I managed to get behind a guy driving about 60 in a 55 zone on a long, curvy two lane road. I watched as he drove completely off the road into the ditch 6 times and into the on coming traffic lane 4 times. He drove for about 2 miles with two wheels on the road and two in the ditch. He weaved from side to side the entire time, and at every red light he would stop in the middle of the intersection. Every time someone turned in front of him I thought for sure he would rear end them. He scared me to death. When the road finally opened up to 4 lanes I floored it to pass him. Looking in the car I see a little old man; the top of his head barely level with the top of the steering wheel. His mouth was wide open and his knuckles were white. I don't know how he managed to not kill somebody or himself, but strangely his car didn't have a scratch on it.
We managed to make it there safe and sound. On Thursday I was able to meet up with one of my best girl friends and share some time at Sonic. I never get to see her so it was a welcome treat. The photo session was at sunset that night (fabulous!! and so much fun!) and then this morning I met up with another friend and her daughter at a Chick-fil-a. After a wild goose chase trying to find the place (you would think I would know where I was going, considering I grew up in the area, but sadly, no) we were surprised to find out today was cow day. The restaurant was all decked out in cow balloons and fun stuff, and if you wore a cow costume you could get your meal for free (darn! I left my udders at home!). The kids had fun playing together. Even little Port enjoyed his chicken and biscuit breakfast (or should I say my chicken and biscuit breakfast) and play time in the kids play area.
After our breakfast playdate I delivered Kiddo back to Grammy and Happy for an official sleep over and Port and I headed back home. G&H will bring Kiddo back to us tomorrow - I am sure he will be terribly upset that he won't get to stay longer.
[this is the attitude I get when I ask him to model for me so I can test my equipment. *sigh*]
Well, I should go enjoy the quiet evening and head to bed. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Until,
D :)
PS. For all of you new readers (HI!), I just wanted to let you know that I also co-host a podcast called Musing Mommies. We record a new show every week, talk about all things mom related and we have a ton of fun. Please stop over at our site and give us a listen. I would love to know what you think! Thanks!
Friday, June 26, 2009
What's Up
Happy Friday Fry Moments Readers and Beloved Company Girls!!
Ah the Fry Casa is almost back to normal after a looooooong 4 days of Hubby being gone. The boys really had a hard time dealing with his absence (Momma did too!) and we are so happy that he actually came home earlier than expected late last night. Kiddo was not happy that his Daddy was going on a trip without him, and little Port was very confused when Dadaaaaahh didn't come home each night. He roamed the house for hours at a time calling for him.
I tried to do some fun stuff to keep the boys occupied. On Wednesday I took them both to their first theater movie. We met some friends to see UP. The boys did great - though I was kind of disappointed that Kiddo wasn't more impressed with the movie theater. I remember being overwhelmed the first time I stepped foot in one. He was more excited (and then of course upset) about the little water spray area in front of the theater. I wouldn't let him play in it and he got mad. *sigh*
On Tuesday I put some elbow grease into our little kiddy pool and got it all cleaned up so the boys could swim. It was a lot of fun letting the kids play while I sat in the shade. Port was super cute as usual.
"What Mommy? You want me to look at Big Brother?"
"What's Silly Big Brother doing??"
"He is so funny!!"
{biggest laugh face ever!}
"Hmm, this plate looks cool."
{llaahlollah nom, nom}
"What?!?"
cheese!
More laughter from my cutie pie...
The cause of the laughter...
On Thursday Grammy and Happy surprised us with a quick visit. Thank goodness they did because this momma was about to lose her mind! I mean, uh, I really needed a break. ;-)
And thankfully today I didn't need to plan anything because Daddy was home! YAY!
How was your week? Did you go over to Company Girl and vote for your 3 favorite photos??
Have a great weekend!
Until,
D :)
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Simple As That
gonna blog today gonna blog today gonna blog today...
I've had a pretty productive little day today if I do say so myself. I ordered some new vinyl lettering for the back of my car (business stuff), did a couple loads of laundry, did a massive overhaul of the kitchen (it was a total disaster!), came up with another brilliant business idea and made a purchase toward achieving that goal, developed another business idea; building it from merely a concept to a plan of action and fleshed out the details. I finished and posted my last session's gallery on my website (blog entry soon to come), started my very own Google calendar so I can get a little more organized, ran to the grocery store for some much needed items, worked in the garden for a good while, harvesting a couple of zucchini and a bowl full of green beans. I mulched the grape vine and watered everything as well.
I still have a lot on my to do list, but as usual, the more I do, the more motivated I feel so I guess it is all good. Oh yes, and on my small thing list for the house today I filled all of the soap dispensers. I am trying to do at least one small thing each day. Yesterday it was wipe down the bathroom mirrors and medicine cabinets. I figure, unless I figure out a way to make things like that less of a bother, they will never get done. right?
Kiddo has had a little goal of his own for about a week now. I'm not sure where he got this (though I suspect it has something to do with his Happy), but about 5 days ago he got out of bed, came to me and said "Mommy today I am going to be an adult. I am to brush the teeth, and wash the face and comb the hair and change the clothes." And that is exactly what he does now every morning as soon as he gets up.
It is super cute, really. But it's not so cute when I am trying to sleep and he is in my room asking me to turn on the water in the bathroom so he can "brush the teeth". ugh. He can only turn on the faucet in the kitchen by himself and one morning I actually caught him brushing 'the' teeth in there. I had to stop him when he started rinsing his tooth brush in a dirty bowl full of water...
So yeah, super cute, except for when I'm SLEEPING. *sigh* Thanks Happy. ;-)
In Walmart the other day he asked me to buy him a razor because he needed to shave too. When he brushes the teeth and washes the face and combs the hair and changes the clothes - yes, he says it just like that, every time!
In the car last week Kiddo says "My hair is a masterpiece."
Me: It is?
Him: "Yes, but some times I have to get a hair cut."
Port surprised me the other day. We had stopped at Sonic while we were out and I got Kiddo and I a drink. I decided to get another small cup of water as well, in case Port had cup envy. Sure enough, when we got home he started screaming for Kiddo's cup, so I gave him the water. He happily drank it while sitting on the floor and soon enough he pulled the straw out of the top. Once it was out he decided he wanted to drink some more so he got up and brought the cup to me. I told him, "you have to have the straw, Baby, go get it and I will put it back in the cup." And wouldn't you know it, he turned around, walked back over to the rug, picked up the straw and brought it to me?!? I was shocked!
He has also made the connection with wearing shoes and going out side. Now when he wants to go outside he will find his shoes and bring them to me. And if I sit on the floor he will turn his back to me and back up until he can sit in my lap. Then he will stick out his feet for the shoes! Soooooo cute!!! He loves to go outside and swing. I can't wait until he figures out how to get off the porch by himself!
I have been on a roll with cooking lately. I made two amazing dishes this week; a lasagna and a seared salmon with a dill cream sauce. YUM! I am soooo loving this garden!! I swear in my next life I will be a chef. I will share the method/recipe next time. :)
Until,
D :)
I've had a pretty productive little day today if I do say so myself. I ordered some new vinyl lettering for the back of my car (business stuff), did a couple loads of laundry, did a massive overhaul of the kitchen (it was a total disaster!), came up with another brilliant business idea and made a purchase toward achieving that goal, developed another business idea; building it from merely a concept to a plan of action and fleshed out the details. I finished and posted my last session's gallery on my website (blog entry soon to come), started my very own Google calendar so I can get a little more organized, ran to the grocery store for some much needed items, worked in the garden for a good while, harvesting a couple of zucchini and a bowl full of green beans. I mulched the grape vine and watered everything as well.
I still have a lot on my to do list, but as usual, the more I do, the more motivated I feel so I guess it is all good. Oh yes, and on my small thing list for the house today I filled all of the soap dispensers. I am trying to do at least one small thing each day. Yesterday it was wipe down the bathroom mirrors and medicine cabinets. I figure, unless I figure out a way to make things like that less of a bother, they will never get done. right?
Kiddo has had a little goal of his own for about a week now. I'm not sure where he got this (though I suspect it has something to do with his Happy), but about 5 days ago he got out of bed, came to me and said "Mommy today I am going to be an adult. I am to brush the teeth, and wash the face and comb the hair and change the clothes." And that is exactly what he does now every morning as soon as he gets up.
It is super cute, really. But it's not so cute when I am trying to sleep and he is in my room asking me to turn on the water in the bathroom so he can "brush the teeth". ugh. He can only turn on the faucet in the kitchen by himself and one morning I actually caught him brushing 'the' teeth in there. I had to stop him when he started rinsing his tooth brush in a dirty bowl full of water...
So yeah, super cute, except for when I'm SLEEPING. *sigh* Thanks Happy. ;-)
In Walmart the other day he asked me to buy him a razor because he needed to shave too. When he brushes the teeth and washes the face and combs the hair and changes the clothes - yes, he says it just like that, every time!
In the car last week Kiddo says "My hair is a masterpiece."
Me: It is?
Him: "Yes, but some times I have to get a hair cut."
Port surprised me the other day. We had stopped at Sonic while we were out and I got Kiddo and I a drink. I decided to get another small cup of water as well, in case Port had cup envy. Sure enough, when we got home he started screaming for Kiddo's cup, so I gave him the water. He happily drank it while sitting on the floor and soon enough he pulled the straw out of the top. Once it was out he decided he wanted to drink some more so he got up and brought the cup to me. I told him, "you have to have the straw, Baby, go get it and I will put it back in the cup." And wouldn't you know it, he turned around, walked back over to the rug, picked up the straw and brought it to me?!? I was shocked!
He has also made the connection with wearing shoes and going out side. Now when he wants to go outside he will find his shoes and bring them to me. And if I sit on the floor he will turn his back to me and back up until he can sit in my lap. Then he will stick out his feet for the shoes! Soooooo cute!!! He loves to go outside and swing. I can't wait until he figures out how to get off the porch by himself!
I have been on a roll with cooking lately. I made two amazing dishes this week; a lasagna and a seared salmon with a dill cream sauce. YUM! I am soooo loving this garden!! I swear in my next life I will be a chef. I will share the method/recipe next time. :)
Until,
D :)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Scream
From LOL Cats:
funny!
Oh it was a looooooong weekend. I am absolutely at the end of my rope. Port hasn't been sleeping. He has a Houdini tooth - it pops out and then gets sucked back in, only to pop out and the disappear again a couple of days later. (actually I think the gum it just swelling and receding) It is making us all miserable. I haven't slept for days now. To make it all worse, my allergies are in full force right now, my nose is raw, my throat is raw and I feel like I've been run over. Our stockpile of tissue is about gone; I guess it's time for a run to Costco.
Friday was a mess. My goal was to leave some time during the day, to avoid the 5:00 traffic and hopefully catch Port in a nap. It didn't work. Port was clingy all day and finally crashed out about 1:00. Since I hadn't the opportunity to pack and get everything ready to go (clingy baby syndrome) I had to quietly get together what I could and then wait for Port to wake up. What I didn't realize was that since Port hadn't slept the night before, he took the. longest. nap. ever and didn't wake up till well after 4pm. And of course, since he had the grandest of grand naps, he was not in the mood to be strapped in the small person torture device and hauled for 3 1/2 hours to Houston. I drug my feet for a while trying to give him some good awake time. We finally got loaded up and ready to go at around 6, and after strapping the kids in the car I hopped in the drivers seat.
and turned the key...
and nothing happened.
aaaRRGGGGGG!!
Thankfully Hubby was there to hook up the battery charger, and thankfully it only took a few minutes to get enough juice to turn the engine over. Little did I know though, it probably would have been wise to wait an hour or so before taking off.
Port SCREAMED the entire way.
Yes screamed. Not cried, not fussed, not grunted or moaned or groaned. He screamed. He screamed until he had no voice and then he screamed while sucking on a bottle. The most bizarre sound ever. Once he had his throat sufficiently moisturized he screamed some more. Kiddo and I did our best to calm him. We sang Old MacDonald for about a hour. I sang You Are My Sunshine for as long as I could before it put me in a coughing fit. We sang Old MacDonald some more. I stopped half way and took him out of the car seat. A front was coming in and it was extremely windy out, which made Port scream even harder. The boy does not like the wind blowing on him. He was hot in the car seat so I turned on the a/c. I froze out the rest of us, but it never phased Port, who just kept on screaming. About 30 minutes from our destination he was at the point of passing out from exhaustion. He would wail, then doze for about 10 seconds, then shake himself awake and wail again. Suck on the bottle, wail, doze, repeat to infinity...
I was soooo done when we got there. I don't know how my sleep deprived brain even functioned. I was frazzled beyond anything. I think after a couple of hours I just tuned him out completely. Poor Kiddo was not so skilled; when we were about an hour out he started wailing about being cold, then told me repeatedly we were "going the wrong way". He held his hands over his ears and whined about Port screaming. I know it was getting to him.
Thank goodness there was a Happy redemption at the end of our trip. lol! {Happy is his grandfather}
Hubby joined us about 30 minutes later. He had to drive our wagon in separately as the purpose of the trip was to sell it to a friend in Houston. Now maybe we can finally register the van and get it some new tires.
God smiled on us on the way home on Sunday and Port slept the entire way home. I am so very thankful. I don't think I could have handled another drive like the one Friday.
Of course, he hasn't slept since...
Until,
D :)
funny!Oh it was a looooooong weekend. I am absolutely at the end of my rope. Port hasn't been sleeping. He has a Houdini tooth - it pops out and then gets sucked back in, only to pop out and the disappear again a couple of days later. (actually I think the gum it just swelling and receding) It is making us all miserable. I haven't slept for days now. To make it all worse, my allergies are in full force right now, my nose is raw, my throat is raw and I feel like I've been run over. Our stockpile of tissue is about gone; I guess it's time for a run to Costco.
Friday was a mess. My goal was to leave some time during the day, to avoid the 5:00 traffic and hopefully catch Port in a nap. It didn't work. Port was clingy all day and finally crashed out about 1:00. Since I hadn't the opportunity to pack and get everything ready to go (clingy baby syndrome) I had to quietly get together what I could and then wait for Port to wake up. What I didn't realize was that since Port hadn't slept the night before, he took the. longest. nap. ever and didn't wake up till well after 4pm. And of course, since he had the grandest of grand naps, he was not in the mood to be strapped in the small person torture device and hauled for 3 1/2 hours to Houston. I drug my feet for a while trying to give him some good awake time. We finally got loaded up and ready to go at around 6, and after strapping the kids in the car I hopped in the drivers seat.
and turned the key...
and nothing happened.
aaaRRGGGGGG!!
Thankfully Hubby was there to hook up the battery charger, and thankfully it only took a few minutes to get enough juice to turn the engine over. Little did I know though, it probably would have been wise to wait an hour or so before taking off.
Port SCREAMED the entire way.
Yes screamed. Not cried, not fussed, not grunted or moaned or groaned. He screamed. He screamed until he had no voice and then he screamed while sucking on a bottle. The most bizarre sound ever. Once he had his throat sufficiently moisturized he screamed some more. Kiddo and I did our best to calm him. We sang Old MacDonald for about a hour. I sang You Are My Sunshine for as long as I could before it put me in a coughing fit. We sang Old MacDonald some more. I stopped half way and took him out of the car seat. A front was coming in and it was extremely windy out, which made Port scream even harder. The boy does not like the wind blowing on him. He was hot in the car seat so I turned on the a/c. I froze out the rest of us, but it never phased Port, who just kept on screaming. About 30 minutes from our destination he was at the point of passing out from exhaustion. He would wail, then doze for about 10 seconds, then shake himself awake and wail again. Suck on the bottle, wail, doze, repeat to infinity...
I was soooo done when we got there. I don't know how my sleep deprived brain even functioned. I was frazzled beyond anything. I think after a couple of hours I just tuned him out completely. Poor Kiddo was not so skilled; when we were about an hour out he started wailing about being cold, then told me repeatedly we were "going the wrong way". He held his hands over his ears and whined about Port screaming. I know it was getting to him.
Thank goodness there was a Happy redemption at the end of our trip. lol! {Happy is his grandfather}
Hubby joined us about 30 minutes later. He had to drive our wagon in separately as the purpose of the trip was to sell it to a friend in Houston. Now maybe we can finally register the van and get it some new tires.
God smiled on us on the way home on Sunday and Port slept the entire way home. I am so very thankful. I don't think I could have handled another drive like the one Friday.
Of course, he hasn't slept since...
Until,
D :)
Friday, January 16, 2009
Down To Earth
Something else from the weekend:
On the way to Houston I got pulled over (if you call pulling into a gas station, the cop following and turning on his lights *after* I stop at a pump, being pulled over, but whatever) for having a bracket around my license plate. It's illegal in Texas, but not in Louisiana (that I know of) which is where the vehicle is currently licensed. I'm guessing the cop was bored. He gave me a warning, thank goodness.
If I ever get around to finishing the posts from our vacation last August, you will understand the significance of this; this weekend Happy took Kiddo to buy his very own, kid sized putter. They proceeded to spend tons of time putting golf balls in Happy's office while we were visiting. Kiddo LOVES golf - LOVES it! He played more rounds of putt-putt on our vacation than any kid in the history of the world. He would have slept on that course if we let him. Anyway, it was a big event and something he's been talking about all week. Yesterday I had to run to Hobby Lobby to pick up something for my business and we drove past Academy.
Kiddo: "Mommy that's where Happy and I got my putter. Academy"
Me: "Yes, I know."
Kiddo: "Mommy, Happies can play golf and kids can play golf and daddies and Grammies too."
Me: "And Mommies?"
Kiddo: "Nooooooo, Mommies can't play golf!"
Me: "They can't? Why not?"
Kiddo: [reluctantly] "Ok, Mommies can play golf too." [then excitedly] "and Aunt Addies and Uncle Wesses and baby brothers..."
...gee thanks kid. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had an extreme low parenting moment the other day. We were playing in Kiddo's room. He has been doing this thing lately where if the baby wants (or in Kiddo's mind appears to want) what Kiddo is playing with, Kiddo will hover over the toys or gather them up in his arms and cover them with his body. He does this a lot when they are in the tub together - Kiddo will collect all the toys he *might* want to play with and hide them in his arms so Port can't get them. It absolutely, positively drives me up a wall and it is one of the things I fuss at him about the most. Mainly it bothers me because over half the time Port isn't even trying to get the toys - Kiddo is just being a selfish butt about it. {I know I'm not supposed to call him something like that, but it's how I feel about him when he behaves that way} So anyway, we were all playing in Kiddo's room, and Kiddo built a Wall-E
and Eve
out of wooden blocks. I was so proud of him - they both looked like perfect representations of the characters (as perfect as one can get with basic wood block shapes). I wanted a picture of it, so I told Kiddo to leave it there while I ran to get the camera. I was seriously proud; just beaming at his creativity and craft. I got up to get my camera, and Port turned from what he was doing and started to crawl after ME. I was leaving the room and he didn't want me to, so he was going to follow. Typical Port. So I walk into my bedroom where my camera was and I heard a big crash. I ran back into Kiddo's room and he had literally thrown his whole body on top of the blocks because he thought Port was going to get them. He crammed them all up under his body and screamed at Port to get away.
I
was
furious
To say the least. There was absolutely no reason for it. Port wasn't anywhere near him, nor was he going after the blocks. Of course Wall-E and Eve were crushed and so was I. I know it seems like a petty thing to be upset over, but I really wanted to get a picture because it was just that good - and it just infuriated me to no end that once again he was pulling that maneuver in reaction to his baby brother.
My stellar parenting skills prompted me to shut Kiddo up in his room, telling him that if he couldn't get used to the fact that he had a brother and that he was going to have to find a way to share his toys, just like Port shares his toys with him, then he could stay in his room, by himself all day and keep all the toys to himself. I told him that no one was going to play with him because he couldn't share so he could just be alone. All day. And I closed the door.
Well the worst punishment for Kiddo right now seems to be playing by himself. He wants people around even if they are not playing specifically with him, so this particular punishment was pure torture. I shut the door to his room, and he banged on it and screamed for a good 30 minutes. I was so mad I couldn't even see straight, and I needed the time out more than him.
The whole thing was ridiculous really. So very mature of me. sheesh.
I mean, I know the boys are going to squabble. I know there are some jealousy issues. But I just wish I could make Kiddo understand that Port is just a baby and that he should show him some tolerance. I know it's a lot to ask of a 4 year old who up until 9 months ago was the center of the universe, but honestly, he does a lot better than most older sibs I have seen.
I just want things to go perfectly all the time. Is that too much to ask?
I was asked recently if I use sarcasm.
So that was my stellar parenting of the week. Hopefully I can manage to keep myself together for the rest of the week.
Yeah, right.
Until,
D ;)
On the way to Houston I got pulled over (if you call pulling into a gas station, the cop following and turning on his lights *after* I stop at a pump, being pulled over, but whatever) for having a bracket around my license plate. It's illegal in Texas, but not in Louisiana (that I know of) which is where the vehicle is currently licensed. I'm guessing the cop was bored. He gave me a warning, thank goodness.
If I ever get around to finishing the posts from our vacation last August, you will understand the significance of this; this weekend Happy took Kiddo to buy his very own, kid sized putter. They proceeded to spend tons of time putting golf balls in Happy's office while we were visiting. Kiddo LOVES golf - LOVES it! He played more rounds of putt-putt on our vacation than any kid in the history of the world. He would have slept on that course if we let him. Anyway, it was a big event and something he's been talking about all week. Yesterday I had to run to Hobby Lobby to pick up something for my business and we drove past Academy.
Kiddo: "Mommy that's where Happy and I got my putter. Academy"
Me: "Yes, I know."
Kiddo: "Mommy, Happies can play golf and kids can play golf and daddies and Grammies too."
Me: "And Mommies?"
Kiddo: "Nooooooo, Mommies can't play golf!"
Me: "They can't? Why not?"
Kiddo: [reluctantly] "Ok, Mommies can play golf too." [then excitedly] "and Aunt Addies and Uncle Wesses and baby brothers..."
...gee thanks kid. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had an extreme low parenting moment the other day. We were playing in Kiddo's room. He has been doing this thing lately where if the baby wants (or in Kiddo's mind appears to want) what Kiddo is playing with, Kiddo will hover over the toys or gather them up in his arms and cover them with his body. He does this a lot when they are in the tub together - Kiddo will collect all the toys he *might* want to play with and hide them in his arms so Port can't get them. It absolutely, positively drives me up a wall and it is one of the things I fuss at him about the most. Mainly it bothers me because over half the time Port isn't even trying to get the toys - Kiddo is just being a selfish butt about it. {I know I'm not supposed to call him something like that, but it's how I feel about him when he behaves that way} So anyway, we were all playing in Kiddo's room, and Kiddo built a Wall-E
and Eve
out of wooden blocks. I was so proud of him - they both looked like perfect representations of the characters (as perfect as one can get with basic wood block shapes). I wanted a picture of it, so I told Kiddo to leave it there while I ran to get the camera. I was seriously proud; just beaming at his creativity and craft. I got up to get my camera, and Port turned from what he was doing and started to crawl after ME. I was leaving the room and he didn't want me to, so he was going to follow. Typical Port. So I walk into my bedroom where my camera was and I heard a big crash. I ran back into Kiddo's room and he had literally thrown his whole body on top of the blocks because he thought Port was going to get them. He crammed them all up under his body and screamed at Port to get away.I
was
furious
To say the least. There was absolutely no reason for it. Port wasn't anywhere near him, nor was he going after the blocks. Of course Wall-E and Eve were crushed and so was I. I know it seems like a petty thing to be upset over, but I really wanted to get a picture because it was just that good - and it just infuriated me to no end that once again he was pulling that maneuver in reaction to his baby brother.
My stellar parenting skills prompted me to shut Kiddo up in his room, telling him that if he couldn't get used to the fact that he had a brother and that he was going to have to find a way to share his toys, just like Port shares his toys with him, then he could stay in his room, by himself all day and keep all the toys to himself. I told him that no one was going to play with him because he couldn't share so he could just be alone. All day. And I closed the door.
Well the worst punishment for Kiddo right now seems to be playing by himself. He wants people around even if they are not playing specifically with him, so this particular punishment was pure torture. I shut the door to his room, and he banged on it and screamed for a good 30 minutes. I was so mad I couldn't even see straight, and I needed the time out more than him.
The whole thing was ridiculous really. So very mature of me. sheesh.
I mean, I know the boys are going to squabble. I know there are some jealousy issues. But I just wish I could make Kiddo understand that Port is just a baby and that he should show him some tolerance. I know it's a lot to ask of a 4 year old who up until 9 months ago was the center of the universe, but honestly, he does a lot better than most older sibs I have seen.
I just want things to go perfectly all the time. Is that too much to ask?
I was asked recently if I use sarcasm.
So that was my stellar parenting of the week. Hopefully I can manage to keep myself together for the rest of the week.
Yeah, right.
Until,
D ;)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Weekend
As you all know from my somewhat deranged post last Friday, I took the kids to Houston for the weekend. My best friend's little darling turned 3, and we went in the celebrate her birthday and I also did a photo shoot for her. I have been photographing this little one since her momma carried her in her belly, and it is always a joy to be able to capture her personality each year near her birthday.
After a harrowing day on Friday getting my own kids packed, fed, on the road, to the house, and settled in, we really didn't sleep well that night. Port was up several times, and ended up in bed with me most of the night. Kiddo, excited from being around his Happy and Grammy, had trouble getting to sleep too - but once there was ok. Port and Kiddo woke up around the same time in the 7 o'clock hour; Kiddo creeping into my room, and sadly lamented that Happy and Grammy were still sleeping (lucky ducks!). We camped out in the bedroom for as long as we could, then made our way into the living room to play quietly. Thankfully the inlaws woke shortly after and Kiddo was relieved. That kid loves him some Happy and Grammy!
I took off that afternoon to do the session, which went fairly well despite the fact that we were all severely under dressed for the shockingly cold temperatures. Though the forecast called for close to 60 degrees, the actual temperature was probably in the low forties. Add to that the biting wind and we were most likely traipsing around a park in freezing weather. We were all so cold - I was complaining, sweet M's dad looked like a popsicle, and I know my friend R was freezing too. We stuck it out as long as we could (maybe 45 minutes) and ran to the warmth of the car and the nearest Starbucks. Ahh, how I love Starbucks!
Back at R's house, we played and waited for R's parents to come over so that my Backyard Mom (R's mom) could do my hair. I have to say that I am so happy with the new 'do - I can't wait to show you pictures. {more on that later}
Port and Kiddo did so well with their G&H all evening, and both kids were asleep when I returned to the inlaw's house that night. My allergies were out in full force, and I could barely breathe by the time I got there. With no other options readily available, I took 2 kid doses (half an adult dose) of some Children's Benadryll that Grammy kept on hand and promptly passed out 30 minutes later. When I fell asleep, Port's bottle was beside me on the table. When I woke up 8 hours later, it was in the pack-n-play with him! I don't remember getting up at all, AND Port slept through the night!
{My theory is - he was able to sleep through the night because he thought I wasn't there. We so need to get him out of our room!}
Sunday could not have been more perfect. After a wonderful night's sleep, Port went down for an early morning nap, the woke just in time to meet G&H and Kiddo for lunch down the street. He took a second nap on our way across town and woke just as we arrived for the party. Port was great all through the party! He only cried a couple of times when R's mom took him from me so I could snap some pictures. He was great afterwards when we went to R's house for a little while, and he slept in the car again on the way back across town to G&H's house. He even went to bed for the night at a somewhat reasonable time. He did end up in the bed with me at about 4 am, but it wasn't bad at all.
The party was a blast. My friend had it at one of those bouncy house type places. It was the second one Kiddo has attended like that, and he did great. Surprisingly, even though the noise level in those rooms is beyond obnoxious, it didn't even phase him. I guess because he has room to run and move about he is ok. He did put up a bit of a protest when it came time for the group picture, and after sitting for a mere, oh 10 seconds or so, he tried to climb backwards up one of the slides. So, all the group shots have the smiling faces of party goers and my kid's backside. Joy.
And, I guess you are wondering why I don't have any pictures in this post. Well, I of course took tons over the weekend, but unfortunately I cannot do anything with them right now. The reason Hubby didn't come with us was because he was staying behind to work on the floors - we still haven't laid the wood in the hall or the kitchen. He also needed to level the floor he has already laid by pulling up the wood and putting down concrete leveler before laying the wood back down again. He hit some unexpected snags and didn't get near as much done as he thought he would, and so my "office" is slightly displaced right now. As I type this, I am in my bedroom (while Port is napping) on my laptop which is propped up on a pillow in the bassinet by my bed.
Even if everything was sort of normal, I still wouldn't be able to process any photos because I took them all with our new camera and my laptop can't handle the much larger images. For this reason, we had to purchase a new desktop computer last week and it still sits in it's box amidst a pile of dining room things stacked up in my now unusable living room. *sigh*
So, hopefully I will be able to get things set up this week, process some photos and share with you.
Hopefully.
I hope.
I really hope.
Until,
D ;)
After a harrowing day on Friday getting my own kids packed, fed, on the road, to the house, and settled in, we really didn't sleep well that night. Port was up several times, and ended up in bed with me most of the night. Kiddo, excited from being around his Happy and Grammy, had trouble getting to sleep too - but once there was ok. Port and Kiddo woke up around the same time in the 7 o'clock hour; Kiddo creeping into my room, and sadly lamented that Happy and Grammy were still sleeping (lucky ducks!). We camped out in the bedroom for as long as we could, then made our way into the living room to play quietly. Thankfully the inlaws woke shortly after and Kiddo was relieved. That kid loves him some Happy and Grammy!
I took off that afternoon to do the session, which went fairly well despite the fact that we were all severely under dressed for the shockingly cold temperatures. Though the forecast called for close to 60 degrees, the actual temperature was probably in the low forties. Add to that the biting wind and we were most likely traipsing around a park in freezing weather. We were all so cold - I was complaining, sweet M's dad looked like a popsicle, and I know my friend R was freezing too. We stuck it out as long as we could (maybe 45 minutes) and ran to the warmth of the car and the nearest Starbucks. Ahh, how I love Starbucks!
Back at R's house, we played and waited for R's parents to come over so that my Backyard Mom (R's mom) could do my hair. I have to say that I am so happy with the new 'do - I can't wait to show you pictures. {more on that later}
Port and Kiddo did so well with their G&H all evening, and both kids were asleep when I returned to the inlaw's house that night. My allergies were out in full force, and I could barely breathe by the time I got there. With no other options readily available, I took 2 kid doses (half an adult dose) of some Children's Benadryll that Grammy kept on hand and promptly passed out 30 minutes later. When I fell asleep, Port's bottle was beside me on the table. When I woke up 8 hours later, it was in the pack-n-play with him! I don't remember getting up at all, AND Port slept through the night!
{My theory is - he was able to sleep through the night because he thought I wasn't there. We so need to get him out of our room!}
Sunday could not have been more perfect. After a wonderful night's sleep, Port went down for an early morning nap, the woke just in time to meet G&H and Kiddo for lunch down the street. He took a second nap on our way across town and woke just as we arrived for the party. Port was great all through the party! He only cried a couple of times when R's mom took him from me so I could snap some pictures. He was great afterwards when we went to R's house for a little while, and he slept in the car again on the way back across town to G&H's house. He even went to bed for the night at a somewhat reasonable time. He did end up in the bed with me at about 4 am, but it wasn't bad at all.
The party was a blast. My friend had it at one of those bouncy house type places. It was the second one Kiddo has attended like that, and he did great. Surprisingly, even though the noise level in those rooms is beyond obnoxious, it didn't even phase him. I guess because he has room to run and move about he is ok. He did put up a bit of a protest when it came time for the group picture, and after sitting for a mere, oh 10 seconds or so, he tried to climb backwards up one of the slides. So, all the group shots have the smiling faces of party goers and my kid's backside. Joy.
And, I guess you are wondering why I don't have any pictures in this post. Well, I of course took tons over the weekend, but unfortunately I cannot do anything with them right now. The reason Hubby didn't come with us was because he was staying behind to work on the floors - we still haven't laid the wood in the hall or the kitchen. He also needed to level the floor he has already laid by pulling up the wood and putting down concrete leveler before laying the wood back down again. He hit some unexpected snags and didn't get near as much done as he thought he would, and so my "office" is slightly displaced right now. As I type this, I am in my bedroom (while Port is napping) on my laptop which is propped up on a pillow in the bassinet by my bed.
Even if everything was sort of normal, I still wouldn't be able to process any photos because I took them all with our new camera and my laptop can't handle the much larger images. For this reason, we had to purchase a new desktop computer last week and it still sits in it's box amidst a pile of dining room things stacked up in my now unusable living room. *sigh*
So, hopefully I will be able to get things set up this week, process some photos and share with you.
Hopefully.
I hope.
I really hope.
Until,
D ;)
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Decision of the Skies
Why is it that when I am away from the computer, I think of all these great things to blog, but then when I have a moment and I sit down to blog them I can't remember a thing? I can't even think of where to start or what to write about. There is just so much right now.
So, I realize it is only January, but I am completely immersed in thinking about Kiddo and school. This could be his year to start Kindergarten or I can hold him back one more year. My, it went so fast. I really thought I had more time to think about this. But, I think many of the schools start the fall registration process in February. ack!
I'm still not even sure if we are going to send him to public school, private school or go the home-school route. There are so many reasons for and against all of it - it is completely overwhelming.
First off there is Kiddo's peanut allergy. This is a BIG issue because his allergy is not slight - just being around someone that has the proteins on their hands could send him into a reaction. He is contact sensitive and if he ingests something unknowingly, he is still too young in my opinion to know what to do about it. Or maybe it's that he is still very socially immature - when something is wrong he is more likely to hide rather than seek help. That scares the life out of me. I wake up in a cold sweat dreaming about it at night. I cannot trust that a teacher or even a school nurse would know what to do - nor can I trust that they could locate and properly administer the epi-pens even if they did. I know a lot of the schools are going peanut free and that is wonderful - but what about the parent who forgets or just doesn't care, or the kids that have pb&j for breakfast and get it on their clothes??? The possibilities of contamination are endless. I am trying not to be paranoid about it, but man it is tough.
Private Christian school would ultimately be my first choice - if we could afford it. I seriously doubt that will ever happen though. I may as well take that out of the running.
I always thought I would home school - but as of late have been doubting my ability to stay focused and organized enough to actually do it properly. Kiddo is very bright and I know he needs social interaction, and I am afraid that while I can probably give him a better education (assuming I can get my act together), I know that I probably won't give him the social interaction he needs. Past actions can predict future actions, and I have a hard enough time taking him to playdates and stuff as it is.
Another downside to home schooling is that I really need a break. I need the social interaction as much as he does I think.
And now we are possibly dealing with another big issue. Hubby and I think Kiddo may have a slight sensory disorder, hyperacusis. This is something that actually I have dealt with in some degree all my life, and lately Kiddo has been demonstrating hearing sensitivities - to the point of it interfering with normal life. He has always been a bit weird about crowds and loud places. As a baby and toddler I had to be careful to keep him on the perimeter of a group or he would freak out. I thought he had outgrown it, but recently his Sunday school teacher pulled me aside after a particularly rough morning. She told me that Kiddo freaks out every Sunday when they go for children's worship (the music time). Kiddo complains that it is too loud; he won't listen and usually he freaks out and starts crying or panicking. The teacher decided it would be best to have him walk the halls with a volunteer every Sunday during the music time. He has been much better behaved since they started doing that. It makes me incredibly sad when I think about it.
He has unusual or weird reactions to different kinds of noise. Sometimes he gets scared, sometimes he panics and sometimes he just cries uncontrollably. He even gets mad or enraged. On Christmas Eve we went to the 7:00 service. Rick Trevino was performing, and at one point he invited all the children to come up to the stage and sing a song. Even though I wasn't sure it was the best idea, we let Happy take Kiddo up to the stage. He sat down on a step with about 200 other kids and when the music started...well everyone was all smiles except my child, who crossed his arms across his chest and had the most sour look on his face the entire time. The video cameras were panning across the sea of children, close in on their smiling, beaming, happy Christmas faces, and you could actually hear the crowd collectively giggle when Kiddo's face came up on the big monitors hanging over the stage. By the time the song was over, Kiddo was in a full on rage and Hubby had to take him out of the sanctuary until he calmed down.
So now I am doing some research into what can be done for him, and eventually will have to set up some hearing tests. I am hoping their might be some early intervention programs or some sort of therapy that he can get into - because if he doesn't learn how to control himself and cope with the confusing signals his ears are sending his brain, he is going to have a lot of trouble in school.
My affliction with the same thing is probably not as severe. I have always had a problem with certain tones and dissonance. Growing up I had huge reactions to the emergency broadcast system's warning tones. When they changed the warning tones some 10-15 years ago I was greatly relieved, though I still have to turn them way down when I hear them on the tv or radio. As a music major in college, I learned to deal with my reactions to certain tones, but overall my sensitivity caused me to struggle with singing "loud enough". It wasn't until I was studying at ASU that my vocal professor suggested I have my hearing checked. He told me the reason I couldn't give him the volume he wanted (after him shouting at me "sing loud!" and I shouted back "I AM!!" grr!) was because my head was telling me I was already singing loud. He spoke to me at a "normal" speaking volume and asked me if I thought he was speaking loudly. Of course, I said yes, and he determined that I most likely have oversensitive hearing. After doing some research on Kiddo's behalf, I am certain that I suffer from hyperacusis as well.
But poor Kiddo, he just doesn't understand his reactions sometimes and I think it makes it worse. I can ask him what is wrong and he will wail "I don't know!!!!". I think it scares him.
So, in all this school stuff that is something else to consider. Something else to make the decision more difficult. As a mom I struggle with the intense desire to keep him home, to shelter him from the big, bad world; to keep him as far away from feeling "different" as possible. He has issues, every kid does, but no mom ever wants to see the day that their child realizes they have something going on with them that is not normal and not "special" in a positive way. I hate that he will someday have to experience that. I pray daily that I can prepare him, so that he can take his issues and spin them in a positive manner. And I pray that God will give me the wisdom to come up with a way to make that possible. Because right now I am at a total loss. I have no idea how to explain things, if I even should explain them, or how to go about it. I know things could be much, much worse and much more difficult. I know we are so very blessed he is healthy and smart and able bodied. I know that there is so much more positive than negative. But I still struggle with not having a normal existence; a normal life.
We all struggle in one way or another. This is our journey. I just wish it came with a map.
Until,
D :)
Blues Traveler Lyrics
When you're living in a series of atmospheres
You don't stand upon the world, but within it
And the faster that you move, the lighter you become
The farther out you go, the better the view
And you wanna rise
So that you can last
Take it all in slowly
Real fast
The capsule goes at 17,000 miles an hour
To make the sky act like a pond
And if it should slow down
Then the mighty ship will sink
As if falling through the sea
So your destination for the outskirts
Thinks the answer lies beyond
But the slower that you go
The more substantial you become
Come to rest against the pure and solid center
And you wanna last
So that you might rise
Take it all in slow
That's the decision of the skies
The decision of the skies
Your best discovery will always be
Simply what you see
And there's something to look at ...everywhere
Devoid of any destination
Yes, you're part of a relation
From the cold ocean floor
And beyond the softest air
When you're living, you're just a series of atmospheres
Whatever velocity appeals
And no matter how you move
You're going to become
You cannot end and there's no beginning
The farthest you can go is right behind you
The closest you can get is nowhere near
And it could make you wonder where
When you're discussing here or there
And do you really have to get going
And nothing lasts
And only time really flies
And you're always free
From the decision of the skies
Decision of the skies
Friday, December 26, 2008
The 12 Days of Christmas
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great Holiday Season!
We have had a great Christmas so far. Our Christmases tend to go on for days - starting usually with my parents a few days before and ending with Hubby's fam for the week after. The inlaws and Hubby's sis and her Hubby are in town for a few days. We've had merriment and presents galore and are still in the middle of lots of good family time.
Christmas with my parents was wonderful! As usual, they spoiled the kids rotten. Our living room has been taken over by toys and clothes and stuff. I tried to clean things up a bit last night, but gave up after realizing I spent 30 minutes just pushing things around the room! We'll have to find a place for everything later I guess. Our own core family Christmas on Christmas morning we nice and low key. Santa brought Kiddo the Cars video game for the Xbox that he desperately wanted. He has been in Xbox nirvana ever since. Port is thrilled with his little singing mirror thingy - that goodness for good deals on Amazon. Santa did good despite the economic downturn. I guess all it takes is one good gift to make the day special. We did discover some sadness today though - Hubby got a new camera (we both needed to upgrade and I have been saving my session money for one for quite some time) for Christmas and so he was playing with it Christmas morning. I was dealing with Port and Kiddo and so Hubby was the official picture taker - his new camera has video capability; he thought he was video-ing the whole thing, but it turns out he wasn't. We don't have any pictures of Christmas morning. *sigh* It's pretty sad when a couple of photographers can't get one Christmas picture. Oh well. We may have to recreate Christmas morning so I at least have one of Port on his first Christmas.
Hubby's family will be here for the better part of the week, so hopefully I can get some images of everyone while they are here. Hopefully my parents got some pictures of the kids opening presents as well.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
Until,
D :)
We have had a great Christmas so far. Our Christmases tend to go on for days - starting usually with my parents a few days before and ending with Hubby's fam for the week after. The inlaws and Hubby's sis and her Hubby are in town for a few days. We've had merriment and presents galore and are still in the middle of lots of good family time.
Christmas with my parents was wonderful! As usual, they spoiled the kids rotten. Our living room has been taken over by toys and clothes and stuff. I tried to clean things up a bit last night, but gave up after realizing I spent 30 minutes just pushing things around the room! We'll have to find a place for everything later I guess. Our own core family Christmas on Christmas morning we nice and low key. Santa brought Kiddo the Cars video game for the Xbox that he desperately wanted. He has been in Xbox nirvana ever since. Port is thrilled with his little singing mirror thingy - that goodness for good deals on Amazon. Santa did good despite the economic downturn. I guess all it takes is one good gift to make the day special. We did discover some sadness today though - Hubby got a new camera (we both needed to upgrade and I have been saving my session money for one for quite some time) for Christmas and so he was playing with it Christmas morning. I was dealing with Port and Kiddo and so Hubby was the official picture taker - his new camera has video capability; he thought he was video-ing the whole thing, but it turns out he wasn't. We don't have any pictures of Christmas morning. *sigh* It's pretty sad when a couple of photographers can't get one Christmas picture. Oh well. We may have to recreate Christmas morning so I at least have one of Port on his first Christmas.
Hubby's family will be here for the better part of the week, so hopefully I can get some images of everyone while they are here. Hopefully my parents got some pictures of the kids opening presents as well.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
Until,
D :)
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Draw the Line
Kiddo loves to draw and he spends countless hours a day creating pictures and scenes on his magnadoodle. I love the thing, but sometimes it frustrates me because he draws the cutest or neatest thing and then erases it before I can do anything about it. So, I have tried to photograph as many of his creations as I can in the hopes of capturing something memory worthy.
This one was kind of neat - I have labeled the characters for you. They were all fighting and webbing each other. I think "Spiderman's Boy" was originally Iron Man (notice the head piece) but when I asked him about it today he insisted it was Spiderman's boy. Whoever that is...
I thought the one above was particularly cute. He drew himself with glasses watching his Happy (his grandfather) work on his helicopter. I don't know where the helicopter is in the drawing, but it was pretty creative anyway if you ask me. (though Happy does look a bit frightened. Perhaps the helicopter is flying straight toward him...)
He drew this one of Tyler the other day. Only two legs, but cute nonetheless. He did remember to put her spots in there.
This one was hilarious to me. Tyler looks a bit like a reindeer or something. And I love the hole in Kiddo's pants. He has ripped a couple of pairs of pants lately - so it is very fitting.
Now this next one is one that I drew - I am no artist obviously. But Kiddo wanted me to draw our family. He wanted me in a polka-dot dress (I never wear dresses) and he wanted us all to have a beverage. Daddy had a coke, I had coffee, Kiddo had a Spiderman Cup with fruit punch and Port had his bottle.
What I didn't draw on here are the little lines coming from every one's backsides. Apparently we all had "accidents".
*sigh* oh the potty humor...
Today he wanted me to draw the family again - this time with Grammy, Happy, Port, Kiddo, Mommy, Daddy and uh, Madison the duck (and his little sister/sometimes Baby). So I drew us all, with Grammy, Happy and Daddy waving. At the top of the magnadoodle Kiddo wrote "Family" in bubble letters. Then he says to me, "everyone has their superpower."
Daddy had the superpower of Fire - and he drew flames coming from Hubby's head.
Kiddo had the superpower of Smoke - and he drew smoke coming from his hand.
Grammy had the power of Water - he drew a hose coming from her waving hand and water squirting out.
Happy had the power of...
Coke
?? I had to ask of course.
Kiddo: "he shoots it on the bad guys"
Me: "oh and they get all sticky and wet?"
Kiddo: "yeah"
Okay...
Madison had the power of Screaming and Crying and Pooping
[what a formidable foe!]
Port had the power of Pooping and Crying
(perhaps Port and Madison are the Wonder Twins!)
But I had the best power of all...
Mommy had the superpower of...
...
...
Putting Babies in a Box ?????
um
eh
hmm...
I don't know about that.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of our masterpiece. He erased it when I got up to get my camera.
It was probably for the best. No one wants to see a family on fire, doused with water, coke, and poop and no one wants to see babies in boxes either.
I guess.
Until,
D :)
This one was kind of neat - I have labeled the characters for you. They were all fighting and webbing each other. I think "Spiderman's Boy" was originally Iron Man (notice the head piece) but when I asked him about it today he insisted it was Spiderman's boy. Whoever that is...
I thought the one above was particularly cute. He drew himself with glasses watching his Happy (his grandfather) work on his helicopter. I don't know where the helicopter is in the drawing, but it was pretty creative anyway if you ask me. (though Happy does look a bit frightened. Perhaps the helicopter is flying straight toward him...)
He drew this one of Tyler the other day. Only two legs, but cute nonetheless. He did remember to put her spots in there.
This one was hilarious to me. Tyler looks a bit like a reindeer or something. And I love the hole in Kiddo's pants. He has ripped a couple of pairs of pants lately - so it is very fitting.Now this next one is one that I drew - I am no artist obviously. But Kiddo wanted me to draw our family. He wanted me in a polka-dot dress (I never wear dresses) and he wanted us all to have a beverage. Daddy had a coke, I had coffee, Kiddo had a Spiderman Cup with fruit punch and Port had his bottle.
What I didn't draw on here are the little lines coming from every one's backsides. Apparently we all had "accidents".*sigh* oh the potty humor...
Today he wanted me to draw the family again - this time with Grammy, Happy, Port, Kiddo, Mommy, Daddy and uh, Madison the duck (and his little sister/sometimes Baby). So I drew us all, with Grammy, Happy and Daddy waving. At the top of the magnadoodle Kiddo wrote "Family" in bubble letters. Then he says to me, "everyone has their superpower."
Daddy had the superpower of Fire - and he drew flames coming from Hubby's head.
Kiddo had the superpower of Smoke - and he drew smoke coming from his hand.
Grammy had the power of Water - he drew a hose coming from her waving hand and water squirting out.
Happy had the power of...
Coke
?? I had to ask of course.
Kiddo: "he shoots it on the bad guys"
Me: "oh and they get all sticky and wet?"
Kiddo: "yeah"
Okay...
Madison had the power of Screaming and Crying and Pooping
[what a formidable foe!]
Port had the power of Pooping and Crying
(perhaps Port and Madison are the Wonder Twins!)
But I had the best power of all...
Mommy had the superpower of...
...
...
Putting Babies in a Box ?????
um
eh
hmm...
I don't know about that.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of our masterpiece. He erased it when I got up to get my camera.
It was probably for the best. No one wants to see a family on fire, doused with water, coke, and poop and no one wants to see babies in boxes either.
I guess.
Until,
D :)
Saturday, September 27, 2008
You Don't Count the Cost
My dishwasher decided to give up the ghost again. *sigh* Oh well, I already wash bottles a million times a day, what's a few more dishes??
So, with the exception of the dishwasher woes, I'm having a pretty good weekend here. Kiddo and Hubby drove to Houston last night and today went with Happy to Louisiana to see Hubby's Grammaw. Port and I have been living it up single and partying till the wee hours...uh not really. Port has been really good. It is so funny though, he has been looking for Kiddo all day. Every time I pick him up he looks over my shoulder in each direction looking for something. We decided to venture to Costco today (Lord help me). I was talking to him and mentioned Kiddo and his little eyes brightened up and he got all excited. It was so sweet. Tonight I was carrying him into my room and he spotted a picture of Kiddo on the book shelf. He kept leaning toward it and reaching for it. I can't wait to see what he does when they get back tomorrow.
Costco was interesting to say the least. I purchased the membership just before we went on vacation, but had yet to set foot in the store. I figured since I had only one kid today I could probably manage a trip out today. The place was packed (as I suspected it would be on a Saturday). We did manage to snag some meat and a few sundries, but I still ended up spending 100 smackers. Oh well, I got salmon and pork at a really good price so I am happy. I was trying to figure out the etiquette of the store, but it appears there really isn't one. People were not polite, they left their carts in the worst places and they had no problems getting in your way or running you over. I had to learn to drive my shopping cart defensively. lol!
Tonight I picked up some really bad Chinese food and watched 3/4 of the greatest movie of all time, When Harry Met Sally. Port got a kick out of me singing the songs and saying the lines with the characters. He thought it was hysterical. He also got a kick out of my Lo Mein noodles! He has had a bit of a stuffy nose today, so he keeps snorting when he laughs - it is so cute!!! [note: sorry it's so dark. the first snorts are from me trying to get him to laugh]
Port has started "talking" a lot as well. He does this pretty much all day now...
So, with the exception of the dishwasher woes, I'm having a pretty good weekend here. Kiddo and Hubby drove to Houston last night and today went with Happy to Louisiana to see Hubby's Grammaw. Port and I have been living it up single and partying till the wee hours...uh not really. Port has been really good. It is so funny though, he has been looking for Kiddo all day. Every time I pick him up he looks over my shoulder in each direction looking for something. We decided to venture to Costco today (Lord help me). I was talking to him and mentioned Kiddo and his little eyes brightened up and he got all excited. It was so sweet. Tonight I was carrying him into my room and he spotted a picture of Kiddo on the book shelf. He kept leaning toward it and reaching for it. I can't wait to see what he does when they get back tomorrow.
Costco was interesting to say the least. I purchased the membership just before we went on vacation, but had yet to set foot in the store. I figured since I had only one kid today I could probably manage a trip out today. The place was packed (as I suspected it would be on a Saturday). We did manage to snag some meat and a few sundries, but I still ended up spending 100 smackers. Oh well, I got salmon and pork at a really good price so I am happy. I was trying to figure out the etiquette of the store, but it appears there really isn't one. People were not polite, they left their carts in the worst places and they had no problems getting in your way or running you over. I had to learn to drive my shopping cart defensively. lol!
Tonight I picked up some really bad Chinese food and watched 3/4 of the greatest movie of all time, When Harry Met Sally. Port got a kick out of me singing the songs and saying the lines with the characters. He thought it was hysterical. He also got a kick out of my Lo Mein noodles! He has had a bit of a stuffy nose today, so he keeps snorting when he laughs - it is so cute!!! [note: sorry it's so dark. the first snorts are from me trying to get him to laugh]
Port has started "talking" a lot as well. He does this pretty much all day now...
Unless of course I have a camera on him. It took me three tries to get it caught on tape!
Well it's late and I should be getting to bed.
Until,
D :)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Celebration
Hey there Kiddo, Happy Birthday!
You turned 4 years old today!
It's late now, you've been asleep for a while and Mommy is up taking care of some things before she goes to bed. But I wanted to post my birthday wishes to you on my blog, so that you'll know that this day is so very special to me.
I love you so much. I know right now it seems like my focus is elsewhere, mainly on your baby brother, but I want you to know that my heart still follows your every move. I am watching you grow and mature and try to figure out this strange world we live in. I know things can be confusing at times, and at times it is so hard for you to express your thoughts about things - but I do care and I am concerned for your feelings at all times.
You are such a big boy now, both in size and mentality. You take care of yourself so much more than I want you to, but because of your baby brother there isn't enough time for me to do all the things I want to be able to do for you. I am so proud of you for being able to do so much.
I miss our connection, that intense bond that kept us practically inseparable for 3 1/2 years. Sometimes I forget how loving you can be, and then you will say something to me like you did today.
Kiddo: "I sure do like you Mommy"
Me: "Well I sure do like you too Buddy"
Kiddo: "Let's kiss"
When we were all three laying on the floor today, I rested my head on your little chest. And instead of the push away I was expecting, you sighed and stroked my hair and said "Mommy you're so cute". It melted my heart. When I picked up my head to move you pulled me back down again.
Someday soon when Port is a little less dependant on me, things will be much easier for us. Right now it is just so hard to do much of anything and I know you get bored and frustrated with me. It will get better.
And right around the time we get this all figured out, you will be off to school and things will change again. Such is life.
You blow me away my Love, with your talents and abilities. You are quite the artist; taking after your Daddy and drawing things that amaze me on a daily basis. I want to keep all of your artwork, but the sheer volume of it could just about push us right out of the house!
Your memory is amazing. It seems like every day you tell me something in detail that happened to us 6 months to a year ago. I wish I had that ability.
Your capacity to learn is unending. You soak up knowledge like a sponge. I wish I had the time to teach you myself.
So today I tried to make it a fun day for you. We went to the sprinkler park with some of your friends. All of the Mom's group showed up, and we had lots of fun with them.
You terrorized a couple of kids there, but overall I think you had fun. We went for ice cream and cheese sticks at Sonic afterwards. Then we went to the grocery store to pick out what you wanted for supper. You chose hot dogs, corn, mac-n-cheese and apple sauce. However, your 4 year old attitude came through when you refused to eat come supper time. Eventually you ate the things you chose, but not without some frustration from Mommy and Daddy. I made cupcakes for dessert.
We had your actual birthday party last Saturday in Houston.
Mommy was asked to sing at her old church in Huntsville on that Sunday, so we moved your party to Grammy and Happy's house the day before. 
It was really cool because all of your Houston friends came. Aunt Addy and Uncle Wes came too and we all had a great time. 
You got some awesome presents, including the Cars computer you've been asking me for for months (even though you didn't know one even existed). You also got some Spiderman and Batman action figures and a way cool Cars backpack with a sleeping bag. I can't wait for you and Daddy to go camping. G&H gave you some much needed clothes and a way cool RC Truck and Aunt A & Uncle W gave you an awesome turtle that lights up your room with real constellations. They also gave you some light up bath ducks that are really neat. Miss Shannan gave you a pair of C's shoes he had outgrown, and you now call them your sports shoes. Every time you put them on you have to go get a basketball or football and kick it around the house. And speaking of C - you got into a couple of squabbles with him at your party. There was some rock flinging and some pushing over the Cars computer - you are getting big enough now that you don't just take it anymore; you two are pretty equally matched.
Nana and Big Daddy are coming out this week and the birthday celebration will continue for a couple more days. You are such a lucky little boy to have such a loving and caring family.
There is so much more I can say about you - how bright you are and how loving. You are emotional and moody as well; I guess you got that form me. I'll say your stubbornness came from Daddy. ;)
But just know sweet boy that we love you. I thank God every day for bringing you to me. I pray that I can be the best Mommy I can be for you. I hope you know that I only want the very best for you. You changed my life, and every day that we get to spend together is the very best day.
I hope you had a wonderful birthday.
Love,
Mommy
You turned 4 years old today!
It's late now, you've been asleep for a while and Mommy is up taking care of some things before she goes to bed. But I wanted to post my birthday wishes to you on my blog, so that you'll know that this day is so very special to me.
I love you so much. I know right now it seems like my focus is elsewhere, mainly on your baby brother, but I want you to know that my heart still follows your every move. I am watching you grow and mature and try to figure out this strange world we live in. I know things can be confusing at times, and at times it is so hard for you to express your thoughts about things - but I do care and I am concerned for your feelings at all times.
You are such a big boy now, both in size and mentality. You take care of yourself so much more than I want you to, but because of your baby brother there isn't enough time for me to do all the things I want to be able to do for you. I am so proud of you for being able to do so much.
I miss our connection, that intense bond that kept us practically inseparable for 3 1/2 years. Sometimes I forget how loving you can be, and then you will say something to me like you did today.
Kiddo: "I sure do like you Mommy"
Me: "Well I sure do like you too Buddy"
Kiddo: "Let's kiss"
When we were all three laying on the floor today, I rested my head on your little chest. And instead of the push away I was expecting, you sighed and stroked my hair and said "Mommy you're so cute". It melted my heart. When I picked up my head to move you pulled me back down again.
Someday soon when Port is a little less dependant on me, things will be much easier for us. Right now it is just so hard to do much of anything and I know you get bored and frustrated with me. It will get better.
And right around the time we get this all figured out, you will be off to school and things will change again. Such is life.
You blow me away my Love, with your talents and abilities. You are quite the artist; taking after your Daddy and drawing things that amaze me on a daily basis. I want to keep all of your artwork, but the sheer volume of it could just about push us right out of the house!
Your memory is amazing. It seems like every day you tell me something in detail that happened to us 6 months to a year ago. I wish I had that ability.
Your capacity to learn is unending. You soak up knowledge like a sponge. I wish I had the time to teach you myself.
So today I tried to make it a fun day for you. We went to the sprinkler park with some of your friends. All of the Mom's group showed up, and we had lots of fun with them.
You terrorized a couple of kids there, but overall I think you had fun. We went for ice cream and cheese sticks at Sonic afterwards. Then we went to the grocery store to pick out what you wanted for supper. You chose hot dogs, corn, mac-n-cheese and apple sauce. However, your 4 year old attitude came through when you refused to eat come supper time. Eventually you ate the things you chose, but not without some frustration from Mommy and Daddy. I made cupcakes for dessert.We had your actual birthday party last Saturday in Houston.
Mommy was asked to sing at her old church in Huntsville on that Sunday, so we moved your party to Grammy and Happy's house the day before. It was really cool because all of your Houston friends came. Aunt Addy and Uncle Wes came too and we all had a great time. You got some awesome presents, including the Cars computer you've been asking me for for months (even though you didn't know one even existed). You also got some Spiderman and Batman action figures and a way cool Cars backpack with a sleeping bag. I can't wait for you and Daddy to go camping. G&H gave you some much needed clothes and a way cool RC Truck and Aunt A & Uncle W gave you an awesome turtle that lights up your room with real constellations. They also gave you some light up bath ducks that are really neat. Miss Shannan gave you a pair of C's shoes he had outgrown, and you now call them your sports shoes. Every time you put them on you have to go get a basketball or football and kick it around the house. And speaking of C - you got into a couple of squabbles with him at your party. There was some rock flinging and some pushing over the Cars computer - you are getting big enough now that you don't just take it anymore; you two are pretty equally matched.Nana and Big Daddy are coming out this week and the birthday celebration will continue for a couple more days. You are such a lucky little boy to have such a loving and caring family.
There is so much more I can say about you - how bright you are and how loving. You are emotional and moody as well; I guess you got that form me. I'll say your stubbornness came from Daddy. ;)
But just know sweet boy that we love you. I thank God every day for bringing you to me. I pray that I can be the best Mommy I can be for you. I hope you know that I only want the very best for you. You changed my life, and every day that we get to spend together is the very best day.
I hope you had a wonderful birthday.
Love,
Mommy
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