Where The Wild Things Are

I went to see this movie with Angela last week.  I went to see it, but to also see if it would be appropriate for Elijah to see on a date with Jerry.  I'm glad we do this as a rule, it helps to make sure there are no surprises.  I did make the minor mistake of showing Elijah the preview on line, but there were no promises made that he would get to see the actual movie.  And it is not really a kids movie.  It is a movie about childhood and not a so great one at that.

Max is older than he is in the book.  His parents are divorced and his mom seems stressed about her job and is trying to start a new relationship with a man.  Max has a sister that is older and while he loves her, he does not love the way he is treated by her and her friends.  The tone of the movie is set immediately and it is not a feel good movie.  But that's not to say that it's not good.  Max ends up running away and going to the Wild Things' island.  Let me take a moment to comment on that amazingness  (yes, I know it's not a real word!) of the costumes and setting!  The costumes could really have walked right out of the book.  Amazing!!  So Max is on the island and he becomes king of the Wild Things.  And lives there for an undetermined amount of time.  I don't want to delve to deeply, but I will say that it seems that each of the Wild Things sort of takes on a feeling that Max is feeling in his other life.  This projection allows him to deal with what is going on in his life.  It's really very well done and if Elijah were a few years older, I'd take him in a minute!  But I think that he is not old enough to understand what's going on.  There are two scary/gross scenes.   And these I would worry about scaring him as well.

Regardless, it is an AMAZING movie.  It is sad, but not in a ball your eyes out sort of way (though I came close to crying a couple times, I never did.)  The little guy playing Max did a great job.  You cheer for him, are angry with him, and feel hurt with him.  Definitely worth seeing!!!

May 2009

May 01

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE!!!!

One year ago today we held you for the first time and were overwhelmed with how lucky we were to have such a perfect baby girl!  On year later you:

• are trying to walk
• are learning new words
• are playing with Elijah
• will play independently
• love to dance
• can climb
• are sneaky
• smile easily
• love to cuddle
• still have eczema
• are night weaned
• love broccoli
• love chicken
• refused to every eat baby food
• can drink from a straw
• have a few signs down pat
• is very tolerant of Elijah's games where you are the dog...

Grace and I have had our first argument.  It went like this:

me: Look Grace, it's a plane.

Grace: bird?

me: Well, it flies like a bird, but it's a plane.

Grace: bird.

me: It's a plane sweetie.

Grace: Bird!

me: It's a plane.

Grace: BIRD!

I'm pretty sure that I lost.  Of course, she was riding in the car with Jerry and said, "plane."  (punk!)

Anyway, Happy Birthday Baby Girl!  I hope that you are as happy with us!  We sure love you!!!
 

May 02

First Birthday Party -- Gracie Style

We had cake!

and more cake...

and more cake

and played

and ate

All surrounded by friends!  It was really windy, but warm.  Overall a pretty darn good birthday!!

May 18

Grace's Well Child Check and VACATION!!!

I wrote a huge entry about Grace's Well Child Check Up, but stupid Windows Live Writer froze and it got lost in cyber world... sooo the gist:

Grace weighs in at 20 pounds (25-50%), is 29.5 inches tall (75%), and I can never remember her head size, but it's in the 50%.  She is all around well.  She does have low iron so we are on a Multi-vitamin with iron for her.  Her eczema is really bad, so we (after lots of talking!) broke down and got her a steroid creme.  I now feel like a total jerk for not getting it for her six months ago.  Overnight her eczema is gone.  We can only use it 5-7 days at a time and then have to take her off it for 4-5 days, but keep her lathered in the thickest lotion one has ever seen.  So far, GREAT!  So, I've made peace with it.  Two days after her appointment Grace took many independent steps, while on the ferry on vacation, she took off!  She is officially a walker now!

Okay VACATION!!!! WAHOO!!  (This is a REALLY long entry...but it's our whole vacation...so sorry in advance!)

We went to the Outer Banks hanging out in Kitty Hawk, to be more specific.  Here's how our week went (I will add an album of our week shortly!):

Saturday:  Got up bright and early to be on the road by 7:00 a.m.  We had to be at the ferry gate by 10:00 and made it there by 9:52.  Luckily we had pre-ordered our ticket as the ferry was full and if you didn't have a ticket, you were out of luck... or at least stuck waiting for the next ferry 3 hours away!  Elijah thought the ferry was the cat's meow and we spent the 2.5 hours wandering around talking about how the waves were generated, what a life buoy was, and why channel markers are VERY important!  We also saw a bunch of HUGE jelly fish (to which he informed me that it was okay, because the turtles will eat them...thanks Diego!) and some dolphins.  Grace found her sea legs and loved wandering around in the air conditioned part of the boat.  Afterward walking so much, Jerry and Grace took a nap in the car while Elijah and I explored the ferry yet some more!  Once we got off the first ferry, we raced to the next one.  This one was only 30 minutes.  So we hung out in the car.  Then it was a 1.5 hour drive to Kitty Hawk.  After unloading the car, Elijah, Grace, and I went to the pool and the playground on the grounds while Jerry went grocery shopping.

Sunday: We lazed around and explored the grounds a little more.  We went to the main rec area and checked e-mail and played around.  After lunch and a nap, we went to the beach for some afternoon playing.  Elijah got to stay up a little later and watch Finding Nemo (thanks for the movies Kristie!!!)

Monday: It was rainy and chilly.  So we decided to hit the aquarium.  Elijah was excited to see the "diving boys" in the tank and when we arrived we rushed to the big tank.  The question/answer time with the divers was over, which actually worked in our favor.  All the big groups were gone, but the divers were still in the tank cleaning.  So we got a front row seat to see the divers and the HUGE sharks.  I'm not sure you could pay me enough to be in there with those sharks.  Obviously the sharks knew what it was all about, they seemingly would swim by where all the people were standing and SMILE, showing off all 8703245 teeth they have!  My kids were FACINATED!  They loved it.  So after the divers finished cleaning, we went back to see all we had missed.  It was a good day.  Elijah and Grace were awesome!  So we stopped by the gift shop and Elijah got a souvenir of a truck with sharks on it!  cost: $23

Tuesday: The rain was gone, the sun was out and the temp was perfect at 67.  We hit the Roanoke Island Festival Park.  This is by far the best day we had!  This park has a replica of the Elizabeth II ship.  Complete with actors in New World garb and speaking in Old English-ish style.  This is all well and good, but I always don't know how to react...  Anyway, we had a nice visit with the boat, but that wasn't the end of it!  We walked a little way down a forest path and into an English settlement with tents and a blacksmith.  We were given a tour of the tents and then got penny nails made for us from the apprentice black smith.  (Fun fact: 100 nails cost a penny then...sounds cheap... not so much... one penny then is worth 100 DOLLARS today.  So nails were only used to hang doors.)  So THEN we walk up the trail a little more and there is a GREAT hands on museum.  We were greeted here by a museum worker who was thought that Elijah pretending to be a puppy was cute and totally played along.  She guided us through the whole museum, personally.  This museum ROCKED!  There were dress up clothes, boats to climb on, tents to walk through, a pirate that told funny stories from his ship, a general store, and a house.  There were interesting things for the parents to read and no one was saying, "NO DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!"  In fact, there were little hand prints and foot prints that led through the museum for kids to follow and to know that it was indeed ENCOURAGED to put their little grubby paws on things!  THEN we went out to a fossil digging area where you are encouraged to dig and sort through dirt to find sharks teeth and other various things.  Apparently there was even more to see, but we had to get the kiddos fed and napped.  The pass is good for two days and next time we will go back the second day for sure!  It was worth every penny!  cost: $16 (kids under 5 are FREE!!!)

Wednesday: Again, the weather was sunny and warm.  So we packed the kids up and headed up the coast to Corolla to the Currituck Lighthouse.  After a brief screw up in directions from yours truly we arrived at the lighthouse.  Elijah and I decided to climb to the top.  All well and good in thought... not so much in reality.  First, I forget how much I really don't like places that are high up.  Secondly, I had a 3 year old to worry about in addition, which was rather nerve wracking.  Walking up the stairs you can see through to below.  There is a space in between each stair and I was left wondering if it was indeed big enough for Elijah to slip through and down many stories... It didn't help that it goes around and around, making me not only wary of the height, but also rather dizzy.  But it was fine.  Elijah was GREAT going up.  He climbed all on his own (mostly with me holding onto his hand.)  We stopped at each landing that had a window and looked out.  When we got to the top we waved to Jerry and Grace.  Then we walked around the top.  Elijah was excited and wanted to stand on the bottom railing.  This left me wondering why the hell there was no plexiglass covering the whole top of the lighthouse.  So, of course, when I tried to pull him back, he had a massive breakdown.  I explained that it was very dangerous to be that close to the edge and it made mommy VERY nervous.  He then decided it was time to go back down and I was more than willing to oblige.  Of course, we had to wait for 5 of the slowest people in the world to finish climbing (there is really no room to pass at the top.)  Then it was down the lighthouse for us.  This started out okay and then Elijah realized that he could see all the way to the bottom and FREAKED out!  He got scared.  He wanted me to carry him.  My legs were already sore from climbing the 8 million stairs to the top, no way was I going to carry him all the way down.  So we stopped on a landing and I hugged him and reassured him that it was fine and I would hold his hand.  What tickled me was what got him to agree to walk down.  I told him we could count the stairs in between each landing.  This seemed like a great idea to him and he made it all the way to the next to the last landing, where he suddenly declared (very loudly) that he had to pee!  Screw the tired legs, I scooped him up, waited for some dazed looking children to hurry the hell up the stairs and ran him down the stairs, stopping only to pick up a sticker that said we climbed to the top, and ran him to the bathroom, where he peed in the toilet without incident!  We then walked back to Jerry and Grace and I went in to the gift shop and got a little snow globe for Elijah.  I was very proud of him!  We took a stroll out to the sound and then headed for some food and back to the condo for some naps.  cost: $12 (including admission to the lighthouse and souvenir)

Thursday: Warm, sunny, and WINDY!  We headed to the Wright Brother Memorial.  I have to say, that this is not a great place to take kids.  Well, I shouldn't say that...it's not a great museum to take kids.  Elijah wanted to see the big plane.  They were giving a lecture where the big plane was... we had to leave the area, Elijah broke down.  BUT I got him excited by (foolishly) coercing him into a race to the top of the monument.  So, once he agreed, I had to actually do it!  SO, Elijah and I raced to the top of the monument.  I am still feeling the soreness in my thighs from the lighthouse climb and the shin splints from running up a big-ass hill...sigh... Anyway, it was fun.  Even more windy at the top.  But great view.  After hanging out up there for a bit (read, catching my breath) we RAN down the hill to meet Jerry and Grace at the airplane sculpture.  This is where you should go if you bring children here.  The kids can climb on the plane and hang on the figure and all around get all the sillies out.  In fact, had I known it was back there, we may have forgone the museum all together.  Though there are some interesting things in there and SOME hands on stuff, but not a lot.  So the day redeemed itself at the end.  cost: $14 (including a 7 day pass to the park (wish we had known this beforehand as well.  We would have gotten it at the beginning of the week and gone a couple more times for the kids to play) and a souvenir.)

Friday: This was our last day on the islands.  What better way to spend the day than climbing up Jockey's Ridge.  The climb is tedious and there is no easy way to get up on top.  Don't be fooled.  But I think it's worth it.  You climb up these huge dunes and really see how thin these islands are.  From the top you can see the sound and the beach.  And regardless that there were three school groups there, you can completely feel very isolated.   We took some sand toys up.  This is where people hang glide as well.  We happened to be there on the first day of a hang gliding festival.  Unfortunately, Elijah got antsy so we only got to see some practice flights as they tested where the best take off place would be.  Some of the high schoolers that were there were sliding down the dunes.  Elijah wanted to slide down SO much.  So I thought, what the heck.  I walked down in front of him and since he didn't have anything to slide down on except for his tush, he scootched down the whole way.  But he thought he was something else!  He smiled the whole time and laughed!  So it was good.  At the bottom, he wanted to go back and do it again, but with bribes of going to the beach, he left willingly enough.  cost: free!

Saturday: Our trip home was uneventful (thankfully!)  We drove all the way back and for this I'm thankful.  1) it is really hard to schedule the long ferry ride.  If you don't make it you are stuck for 3 hours and that's saying the next ferry isn't booked.  You can only get on and off of Okracoke Island by boat.  2) it was raining and rough water...not so much for Erin.  So we drove.  It's only about 5 hours, but that's a bit of a trip with kids and only a few rest stops.  Nevertheless, it was fine.  Elijah entertained us the last leg of the trip with made up songs about: bedtime, bears, a twinkle twinkle little star remix, good and bad dinosaurs, mama and dadu raccoons, peeing and pooping.  He also made up some stories that he "read" from some construction paper that he had in his little pack (can I just say this was a handy little investment and I filled it with things for him to do including: coloring books, chalk, crayons, dry erase markers, books, lacing cards, and toys!  Got one for Grace too!)

Overall VERY good vacation.  Busy, but you have to be with kids or they get bored and then you go crazy.  We also utilized the resort's indoor pool a few times, as well as their video rentals.  The costs I included did not included the MANY times we ate out, but I thought that we did A LOT of stuff for not a lot of money!  Best kind of vacation!!

May 24

Another good week

my folks left yesterday morning.  They arrived last Sunday for a visit.  It was a quick adjustment to come home from vacation then to dive into hostess, but my folks stayed at a hotel this visit and this allowed for a little more downtime in the evening and waking up time in the morning.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as nice as it could have been, but it's all good.  We hung around the house on Monday.  Tuesday we had soccer, so mom and dad played with Elijah and Grace for the morning.  Right before we left for soccer mom and I went to get the right sized bolts for the baby bike seat.  Wednesday was a HUGE day.  Elijah had his first dentist appointment.  I was very nervous since he would NOT open his mouth for the doctor at his 3 year old well child check.  I also thought that they would simply look at his teeth and count them and make sure everything was okay.  HE DID GREAT!   I was SO proud!!  I seriously almost cried! not only did he let them look at his teeth, he let them polish them, and floss them!  We decided to just bring him to our dentist instead of a pediatric dentist because of insurance and convenience.  They said that if there were any problems then they would refer us to a pediatric dentist, but his teeth were perfect!  He got to choose two toys from the treasure chest and got a new toothbrush.  My folks then took him down to a local cafe while I had my teeth cleaned.  Turns out that I had a cavity.  But the scheduled me in for 8 the next morning.  So Thursday I went in and had the filling, then I went to the cafe until about 9:15.  At 9:30 I had an appointment to tour the preschool where we may send Elijah.  We are looking for a year from August.  But I want to start looking now so we can start putting money in Jerry's flex spending account at work.  This one is in a church about 10 minutes from our house.  It's 9-12 (or 1 if we pay an extra fee per month) 5 days a week.  Our biggest thing is to get him comfy around teachers and other peers.  They do a lot of learning through play which is a big deal for us.  I'm excited for him, and a little sad since it means my little guy is growing up. Thursday was also our 9th anniversary! Friday morning was spent at the beach.  Mostly because it was the first day that it wasn't freezing cold or raining.  My daughter has no fear!  This child LOVES the water.  We had to bring her out after about 10 minutes because it wasn't THAT warm yet, but she was fascinated.   And her confidence wore off on Elijah a little bit.  He came into the water as well.  I decided, though, that it would be really hard to take them together on my own.  So it will be a rare day that we go by ourselves.  Not that the beach is that fun without at least another adult.  So we got back, ate lunch, and I sent the kiddos off to nap while I got ready for an actual DATE!  Jerry and I went to see Angels and Demons while mom and dad took the kiddos to a local free family concert.  We met up afterward for dinner and ice cream.  Elijah did not fall asleep until 10:00!!!  And then woke up at 6:45 on Saturday...WTF?  SO anyway, with grouchy toddler in tow we met mom and dad for breakfast before they hit the road.  I got my lawn mowed.  Dad weed whacked my back yard.  I ALMOST have the pool rid of algae.  Overall life is good.  We have ordered a new mower, an electric one with a cord.  I love our reel mower, but it's already getting SO hot...so this is another option.  I really wanted a battery powered one, but the one I want is REALLY expensive, so this is something that we know how to use and it will be easier than the reel mower and still low emissions.  So hopefully it will all be good!  Our garden is looking better.  It rained so much that all the nutrients in the soil washed out, so we fertilized and sprayed the worm poop on there a few times and it's looking much better.  I'll get pics soon!  okay... I'm going to go enjoy the fact that Jerry has an extra day off this weekend and watch a totally brain candy movie!!!

May 31

Curiosity Killed the Cat...

but satisfaction brought him back right?  I hope the same is true for little boys.  Elijah has entered the question stage.  This is all well and good, I really try to encourage questions asked and finding answers... but there really should be a limited on questions asked before 9 in the morning!

It's actually all good.  Here is a sampling of the questions we have been getting lately:

• What's that?  (pointing to random things... most frustrating is while in the car and I can't see what he's pointing to... the question increases in volume and intensity until I, thinking my head is going to explode risk the lives of myself and our children to see what the hell he is pointing to only to find that whatever he was pointing to is gone since he started pointing to it 5 minutes ago.)
• What's that train/plane/truck/car/bird/bug/tree (you get the idea) does? (Yes, the grammar is bad, I try to restate the question correctly, but he doesn't get it...yet... sigh, this question seems to be easy right?  Not so much.  I have tried saying the following, "What do you think it does?" (response: I don't know mommy, what it does?) "It takes people places." (response: WHERE?) and finally, "I don't know!" (response: why you not know mommy...) sigh... also, Air Force One does touch and go practice once a month here.  I made the mistake of telling Elijah that it was Barack Obama's plane, so through in the mix of this, "Mommy is that Orock Omama's plane?" "Yes it is." "Where he going?"  lather, rinse, repeat....)
• Why? (I ask myself this question often... At least, thus far (KNOCK ON WOOD) it is usually just one why, I try really hard to come up with good answers as to nip the 9835769 whys in the bud, but we'll see...)
• Where does steam/smoke/rain/thunder/lightening come from? (again, try to answer as best I can... have had the Why question follow these...)
• Will you/Gracie/Dadoo play with me?  (I love this question, because he really just wants you to sit on the floor with him.  But he comes up with the best stories during his playing.  You will get dressed up as a fire boy or ride in a plane or build a dumping trash garage, but it's totally worth it!  Grace ends up getting distracted within a few minutes.  He will also ask me if others can play with him.  I tell him it's not up to me.  He needs to ask that person.  This is probably my favorite question.)

This stage is definitely keeping me on my toes, but I love that he gets it and remembers things we tell him/he sees.  At the same time, it makes me a little sad.  He's growing up (literally and figuratively) SO quick.  He really has only been speaking understandable sentences for a year.  It's CRAZY!  Sigh... My little guy...

February 2009

February 05

Enter February!

February (what a weird word...) has started with a bang.  I guess January wen out with one.  We went to a super fun birthday party.  They rented a bounce house and while it was chilly, all you had to do was jump jump jump to get warmed up!  It was a blast!  Elijah had a great time once he got over the initial shyness of being around people (that he's around at least once a week...)  Jerry kept Grace at home and therefore making him stay away from work for a little bit.  He hasn't taken a whole day off since Jan 17th (not that I'm counting... well, really I am!)  And while that's a lot of overtime, it is becoming obvious that Elijah and Grace miss him a lot.  Grace sees him and immediately wants to crawl over to him and snuggle.  Elijah has a tough time after lunch when Jerry goes back to work and then coming to the table to eat dinner.  The latter because Jerry comes home and plays with him.  But it's okay.  I have something for every weekend the rest of the month, so he'll have to be here.  And I need a little break too!  I'm going out with the two K's this weekend to see a movie and I'm soooo looking forward to it.  Honestly, it could be a blank screen for 2 hours and I"d be fine with that!

So the weather has been all weird!  Today the high was supposed to be 35 by Sunday it's supposed to be 70!  So whatever!  Yesterday we had 20 minutes of hard snow and then it stopped, but was FREEZING the rest of the day!  We went to a friends house and iced Valentine's Day cookies and had lunch.  Today we went to the train museum (where Elijah had his party last year!) and had it completely to ourselves.  I was happily surprised.  They have a great children's room and I thought it would be packed with moms that wanted to get out of the house...alas, it was not the case.  So that was nice.  I think that I might get a membership there.  I mean if we go just 3 more times it would pay for itself and they do cool stuff like Polar Express readings and whatnot... so we'll see.

On another note: I love our crock pot!  It's my new favorite thing!  I mean we had one before, and I guess I just wasn't that into it or something.  It just didn't seem to cook things right or something... of course, the only thing that ever really cooked was beef stew... But I have been trying all kinds of things in it and most recently I made BBQ!  It was so easy and SO yummy!  I love it!  Just wanted to share! ;)

Tomorrow we are heading for a park since it's going to be in the 50s.  I also have a baby shower that I'm taking Grace to this weekend.  While it's nice to get out, I really wish I just had two days to really work on the house.  I don't know what the solution is to the toy room, but there has to be a better way.  Maybe I'm just not diligent enough at keeping things where they go, but Elijah is REALLY into piling things up.  That's fine, but then when it's time to clean up everything gets all mixed up and unless I go through and sort it all out it's impossible to find things.  THEN he gets all whiny that he can't find one specific toy and tears up the room finding it.  I really think shelving maybe the answer, but when the heck am I going to have time to install them?  sigh... My folks are thinking about coming down for a week in March, so maybe I can do it then.  I really think that I depend on order.  And while I don't want to be anal, or pass this tendency onto my children, it really makes me a little crazy to not have organization.  We won't even talk about the mess that is the master bedroom right now...though it may say something to my lack of sleeping well lately...hmmmm... sigh...again... time...

Okay...that's all for now...

February 15

How I lost my Mother of the Year Card and regained it!

I've been soooo bad about blogging lately.  I honestly, have wanted too, but...well, am too lazy.  Though, we have been busy.

So last weekend I went to see He's Just Not That Into You.  Good movie, great cast!  I went with two of my good girlfriends and we had an absolute blast!  I love hanging out with them.  Usually I'm not a good triangle friendship type of girl.  But with these women, we seem to really connect and have a good relationship with just the three of us.  It was really nice to get out of the house!  On Sunday I went to a baby shower and I took Grace.  It was nice and low key.  Again, nice to get out of the house.  The weather was absolutely great!

Then Monday happened... sigh... I was striped of my Mother of the Year card for sure!  We went to walk the loop (I am determined to get in shape!!) and everything was good.  Though Elijah now understands landmarks and generally where things are.  Since the loop goes right by the beach, he KNEW we were there, and would NOT stop asking about it...so I reluctantly crossed the road and allowed him to spend time at the beach.  I thought that we would get out there and he would want to leave because the wind was really strong and a little chilly.  sigh... not so much.  He was perfectly content to play.  As was Gracie.  So I let them.  It was fine.  I had very little to do that day, so why not.  We were there for about 30 minutes and I was starting to get hungry and we needed to stop by the grocery store on the way home, so I gave Elijah a five minute warning, then a two minute warning, then a one minute warning and then told him it was time to go.  I picked up Grace and started back toward the stroller.  Elijah screams, "NOOOOOOOO!" and takes off running in the wrong direction.  Okay. I think, he's going to stop and come back, because he knows better.  or not.  So I say, "Elijah Jacob Jones, you need to come back here right now!"  And I proceed to count to three.  He doesn't stop.  So I start walking slowly after him thinking, SURELY, he is going to stop and turn around and come back.  SURELY he KNOWS that I'm already mad. He DOES stop and turns around and sees that I am coming after him, and starts running faster!!!  Now, my blood is physically boiling.  I am honestly thinking about sitting down and crying, because this is what happens to me when I get REALLY mad.  I'm at a loss.  I have a 20 pound baby I'm carrying as well as a jacket which contains my camera, keys, and wallet (not too light) and I'm on the beach alone.  I stop for a minute.  Elijah stops. Then starts running again.  He is now about 100 yards in front of me.  I drop my jacket and start jogging in sand with Grace.  I'm not covering any ground.  My only two choices are, watch Elijah run away out of my sight, or put Grace down, sprint after Elijah and hope that Grace is fine for the couple minutes she'll be out of my sight.  I choose the latter.  I sprint (mind you I don't run) after Elijah and have to contain myself from not ripping him a new one because the girl child needs me to get back to her.  Grace is, of course, happily eating sand and could have cared less, but the fact that I had to put her down pissed me off beyond belief.  So I'm half dragging Elijah back to Grace.  He's laughing which irks me to the point I am seeing red.  I say, "That's it Elijah, we are going straight home, you will have lunch, and go to bed.  No chicken fries (McDonald's), no TV, NOTHING!"  Elijah suddenly realizes, hey, mom's pissed!  And collapses on the sand crying.  I say, "GET UP NOW!"  He goes limp (must be opposite day I didn't get the memo.)  I jerk him up, and do something I thought I would never do, I swatted his little butt.  He walks for three steps and collapses again.  At this point, I don't care anymore.  All good parenting has left my being and sailed away on the ocean.  I let go of his arm and say, "Fine.  You know what Elijah?  I'm done.  You can stay here.  The tide is coming in you might want to go up to higher ground, good luck."  And I walk away.  I pick up Grace and I keep walking.  My lungs heart, my heart is racing, and I just want to curl up and cry.  Elijah comes bolting up next to me saying, "NOOOOO MOMMY!!!! 'Ijah want to go with mommy!!!!  P'ease...... 'Ijah going to be a good boy now."  I say, "You may come with us, but you need to make big boy choices."  He says nothing, just follows us back to the stroller where I chug the rest of my water and sit down while I calm down.  I then start getting the good parenting vibes again.  I explain to Elijah why it's dangerous to run from mommy.  He apologizes and we finish our walk.  He was upset that there was no special food and no Curious George, but every time he whined I said, "Next time you won't run from Mommy" and he shut up.  After nap we started fresh and had a great rest of the day!  sigh...

On Tuesday we had soccer. I LOVE this class!  Elijah is doing well in it as well.  We got home from soccer, Elijah watched about 5 minutes of TV and announced he was going to bed...and then did so!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we played at various parks because the weather was sooo AWESOME!  I wanted to get to the beach again, but the wind was REALLY strong AND I didn't want a replay of Monday.

Yesterday we went to a really fun birthday party at Monkey Joe's.  This is big indoor area filled with inflatable jumpy things.  Elijah and I have been there before but he's been to nervous to really do anything and I was either preggo or had Grace so I couldn't really do the things with him.  Yesterday, though, I got to play with him and we had a BLAST!!!  Jerry worked for a bit and then brought home chocolates for me.  Next weekend we are going to Myrtle Beach and staying at this place.  It has a HUGE indoor water park, so I think it will be really fun.  Today we walked around Home Depot and daydreamed about home improvement stuff.  We priced a bunch of stuff and I think much of it will be doable within the next year.  We also went to Target because Elijah's feet have grown (AGAIN!)  I bought shoes for him three months ago a size to big and he's outgrown them...sigh... so new shoes for him.  Ohhh, and I forgot, I treated myself to some Fit Flops.  They are not THE fit flops, but they are 1) MUCH cheaper and 2) helped out our neighborhood Avon lady.  I picked them up Friday and wore them for about 2 hours.  They are SUPER comfy and Saturday morning, my thighs were a little sore.  So I'm really excited about them.  I mean if I'm going to wear flip flops anyway...right???

GRACE: has three teeth now, is crawling like there is no tomorrow, has the funniest chuckle EVER!, occasionally says some words (other than mama and dada), and is pushing up...not so much pulling up.  She pushes up on her legs to stand.  This only works if she has her hands on something, but she doesn't seem to pull with her arms so much as just use them for balance.  She LOVES doing downward dog and REALLY wants to stand up from that, but alas, gravity (and strength are against her in that endeavor...soon baby girl too soon!)  She loves to go into the playroom when Elijah isn't in there and play with all the toys by herself.  It is AMAZING to me EVERYDAY how absolutely different the kiddos are and yet rather similar.  Grace also LOVES her veggies.  She will eat corn and peas and broccoli.  She also LOVES rice of any kind.  However, said food must be whole.  None of that mushed up crap for her.  Easier for me!  Oh, and of course, the world might stop spinning if we run out of cherrios!

Okay... so this is a REALLY long entry...but now ya know!  I'll post some pics and hopefully I'll write sooner than later.

February 20

The 3 year old stats!

Today we took Elijah for his 3 year well child check.  While a little late, we wanted to wait until we had our new insurance...which is nice because well child checks are free on our insurance (well, no co pay anyway!)

So here are the stats: He's 36.6 pounds which is the 90% for his age.  And he's 40.5 inches tall which is 97% for his age.  He is roughly the size of a 4.5 year old!!  He grew 5 pounds and 4.5 inches in one year!  The doctor was impressed that he grew that much.  Though he doesn't think I'll have a 7 foot kindergartner, he probably will be one of the taller kids in his class...unless he stops growing (ha!)  Elijah is healthy all around.  The doc answered my questions about the car seat/booster seat thing (he said to go by weight as opposed to age...so in a 3.4 more pounds or two more inches, he's in the booster part of his seat) and reassured me that his speech issues were normal.  I figured they were, but it's always nice to hear from a doc. There is a cool little form you fill out at the beginning of the appointment to see where you child is developmentally.  Elijah does everything on the paper except say his first and last name when asked what his name is...which is something we just started working on anyway. During the appointment Elijah was super shy and wouldn't let go of me until the doc said he was done and then Elijah was all about saying bye bye.  Grace was a very good girl though the whole thing.  We went to McDonalds as a treat afterward.

                          

                                       my little guy!!!

We are now waiting for Jerry to get home so we can load into the car and hit the road to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. We are staying in a resort that has a HUGE indoor water park, so even though the weather isn't going to the warmest, we'll have a fun time.  I have been fighting a nasty cold all week and think I'm finally nearing the end of it.  I sound all low voiced, but I feel a lot better...mostly due to Jerry being so great.  He kept Grace the past couple of nights and brought me soup and juice and zicam and cough syrup and anything else I could have needed.... JERRY ROCKS!!! (in case there was any doubt!)

February 22

Mini Vacation

We're home!  We had a GREAT time!  I wish we could have stayed for longer, ah well...next time!  I gotta say that this was one of the nicest places we have stayed.  There were two indoor water parks.  We were right on the beach (though it was rather cold...but ya know!)  There are restaurants on site, so you don't HAVE to leave...and we only did once.  Everyone that works there was SUPER nice!  I do have to say that I cannot imagine being there at peak season.  I don't know how booked they were, but it was fairly crowded...not so much that it was bothersome, but if they were at full capacity, I don't think it would have been as fun.  The kids had a blast in the water.  I posted some pics in the February album ( had more but apparently there is some mystery error so a bunch didn't upload...whatever...)  I wish we had brought the camera the second day, but on our way out Elijah's hand got caught in the door and we got sidetracked.  The second day we went to the second park.  There was a lazy river and smaller slides that allowed tandem sliding.  Elijah actually went down with me twice...but that enough for him.  The other water park is cool too.  It was in our tower, so a little closer.  It had a submarine that had water features all around it, and I think that was Elijah's favorite thing.  Grace LOVED the water.  A friend of ours lent us a little float for her and her little legs just kicked and kicked under there.  It cracked me up!  She was just happy as a little clam hanging in that and watching everything!  The two bedroom unit was the way to go.  We tried the kiddos in the same room and it worked really well.  I slept in their room and Jerry slept in the big master bed.  When Elijah would wake up and want to sleep with me, I transferred Grace to Jerry.  But they slept well together in one room.  Elijah even slept through Grace crying when she woke up.  That was my biggest thing about transferring her into her own bed in their bedroom.  So I think we will start that transition soon.  This morning we got up and went for one last play in the water before check out at 11.  We got back to the room by 10 and changed clothes and went to load stuff up.  We had to wait a while for an elevator down and then decided to just carry our stuff across the road to the parking deck instead of trying to fight the insane check out traffic.  If we had expendable income, I seriously think we would consider getting a time share at this place.  Even if we were there at a warmer, more crowded time, we could walk just about anywhere anyway!  There's also a new bypass (or maybe it's not new...but whatever) that made getting to this place super easy (we did it in just over one and a half hours.)  On our way home we stopped at the outlet mall for lunch and went into Old Navy.  They were having a huge clearance sale so we walked out with a bunch of new clothes!  Now we're home and (sorta) ready for another week!

December 2008

December 04

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My mom doesn't have Windows Live Writer on her laptop, so bare with the typos and what not...

SO after Jerry left on Sunday, we have hit the road running.  It snowed on Monday.  Not a lot, but enough to go play in.  Elijah really liked it.  Until his feet started hurting.  I'm a bad mom... poor guy was wearing boots way too small for him.  totally didn't think about it.  So I ended up piggy backing him up the mountain to my folks driveway.  I just couldn't carry 37 pounds on my back any farther (or is it further...i always got those mixed up... i think that farther is the distance...right?)  ANYWAY, we nipped that in the bud.  We exchanged them at a place where my folks volunteer.  SO now his feet won't hurt in his boots.

Tuesday we went downtown Black Mountain for me to meet up with a friend of mine.  It was good to see her and chat.  We did that and then came home for a bit.

On Wednesday, my folks watched Elijah in the morning and I crashed for 2 hours with Grace.  Neither of the kids had been sleeping well and I was exhausted.  When we got up, mom, Elijah, Grace and I went out for lunch and then went to get a Christmas Tree.  It was really fun.  They get their tree from the fire station.  The fire man that helped us let Elijah go see the trucks.  Made his day!!!  After a good nap we decorated the tree.  Elijah LOVED that.  I'm pretty stoked that Elijah is getting into Christmas this year.

Today, mom and Elijah and Grace and I walked up to the coffee shop to meet with mom's group of friends.  I ate the best broccoli corn beard there... yyyyyuuuuuuummmmmmoooooo!!!  Elijah and I wandered around downtown for a bit and then came home and played.

Tomorrow we'll go to Holly Jolly downtown.  Just a night on the town where all the shops are open and having goodies.  Should be fun.  Then Saturday we'll go to the parade in the afternoon.  That's about as far as I've gotten.

I'll post some pics now... OR not... WTF... this new crap is messing with me... so no pics until I get home and can deal with this.  I can't get pics to turn the right way... sigh... oh well... maybe i'll post with pics later, but the girl child is on my chest and not so much right now...

December 19

December...since almost over and all...

So to pick up where I left off two weeks ago...

We went to Holly Jolly and waved to Santa.  Elijah is still not too fond of actually speaking to Santa, much less going anywhere near him, but I'm okay with that.  If he wants to have a distant relationship with the big man in red, I'm fine with that.  I have no pictures of me with Santa and I don't think that it's the end all be all if he doesn't either.  We talk about Santa daily and Elijah has taken to wearing a Santa hat and his new galoshes and calling himself Santa.  He goes around saying, "HO HO HO!"  He's attached a chair to his scooter and it has become his sleigh and reindeer.  To me this is way cooler than sitting on Santa's lap. ;)  Anyway, Saturday we went to the parade.  I have never in my life seen so much candy.  Luckily we had a plastic bag in the diaper bag, so we took a ton of candy home with us!  We got a Christmas tree from the fire station and Elijah helped decorate while Grace and I supervised.  I went shopping in downtown Asheville and mom took Elijah to see a gingerbread house display.  It rained a bit the rest of the week.  I made some cookies and mom played with Elijah out in the rain.

A low note of the vacation, well there were two.  One was grace's eczema.  For some reason it really flared up while we were there.  Maybe it was because it was so dry.  It did seem to get better once the rain came...but who can say.  Anyway, the other low note was the fact that I left my cell phone in my jeans and then proceeded to put them in the wash...sigh.  My folks have a front loader, so even when I realized what I had done, there was nothing I could do.  Sigh.  I dried it out, but the microphone didn't work.  We got another one in the mail yesterday, but it was odd being without for so long.  I was nervous being without it with just me and the kiddos.  But we survived.

Mom and I did Christmas in the Valley Arts and Crafts show.  While I didn't do as well as I wanted I did better than I expected.  The economy is really taking it's toll.  Mom said she did SO much better last year.  But it was fun.  Mom and I hung out with Grace all day.  Jerry, Dad, and Elijah hung out together.  It was good experience.  I realized what sells the best, so that's good to know.  I got a little spending cash and that's good too.

I sent out our Christmas cards earlier this week.  We went with e-cards again this year.  We do this for a few reasons.  1) it's super easy.  2) it's free!  3) we never have stamps that are the right denomination since we do almost everything online.  4) it's more environmentally friendly.  I don't claim to be some environmentalist, but I like to save money and if I save the earth a little too, BONUS!  Having said all this, I do enjoy getting Christmas cards in the mail and I reuse them as tags on gifts, so I guess that's recycling too! hehehehe!

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday.  The place we went only had 9+ foot trees.  So we thought it would be okay, but we got it home and in the stand and WAY TO TALL!  So we cut the top foot off.  It looks a little funny, but it's still pretty.  Then I got the lights on the tree and plugged them in... and NOTHING.  Lesson learned.  Always check the lights before putting them on the tree.  So Jerry went to Target, which was out of white lights.  So he got the icicles instead and I gotta say, they worked really well.  Now our tree is all decked out and ready for Santa!

Yesterday, our playgroup had a Christmas party.  It was fun and almost everyone came by at some point.  The weather is insanely warm this week, so it was fun playing at the park.  We didn't get home until 2:30!!!  oops!  It was worth it though!  'Tis the season and all!!

Which brings us to today!!  It was 77 degrees today, so we spent the morning at the BEACH!!!!  It was perfect.  Not crowded, warm enough to be bare foot, and free parking!!!!  We built sand castles and flew a kite (until it broke!) and played with friends.  It was awesome.  While it's hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 77 degrees out, it's been nice to be out of the house and playing in short sleeves.

So I have added pictures.  There are some turned on the their side and I'm sorry for that, but my computer (for some reason) will not allow us to rotate pics and this new upgrade that MS has done doesn't allow for editing...sigh... so sorry... but enjoy!

December 23

If only...

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! (thanks Amy for sending me this!):

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple,which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother, "because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch a cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,

MOM...

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

*Santa has asked that this gets passed on to all the mommies you know.

December 25

We had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

We'll start with yesterday.  We went to the park in the morning to meet with Rachel and co. to exchange gifts and play.  We came home and Jerry came home from work for the day!!  After a nap, Elijah and I made cookies for Santa:

Then I made some sugarless cookies for Jerry's dad and yummy full of sugar cookies for his mom and siblings.  Before going to bed we made sure the cookies were out for Santa and a carrot was out for Rudolph.  After a seemingly endless night we awoke to find this:

And unwrapped gifts such as these:

After a relaxing morning of, um, hair styling: 

We traveled to Jerry's parent's house, where both kids received a TON more gifts which I totally forgot to get pics of, but will tomorrow and will post them.  We then went to visit Jerry's dad in the hospital.  He's recovering from really bad arthritis in one of his hands.  He is doing much better and it was good to see him in good spirits.  Matthew played cars with Elijah while we visited.  Jerry got pics of the rest of the family, but Matthew's head got chopped off... Sorry Matthew!

We plan on playing tomorrow and going to the beach again on Saturday (supposed to be 75 degrees again!!)  While I'm not thrilled about not having cooler weather right now, might as well make the most of it.

I think that I will probably post like this until we figure out the picture thing.  It's kinda fun, and for the time being works well.

I hope that everyone had as fantastic a day as we did!  Merry Christmas!

December 27

Is global warming really THAT bad?

Of course it is...but we went to the beach today... Elijah and Jerry were in shorts and I was barefoot.  So, ya know...

Anyway, wanted to start with the gifts from Grandma and PopPop's house:

                    

Elijah's favorite thing to do is start at the top of the driveway and throw his feet up and ride down down.  It isn't motorized but has the sounds, so he pushes the button that makes it sound like it's revving and goes.  It's pretty funny to watch.  Grace likes to watch him go as well.  Grace is attempting to start to pull up on things.  She scoots across the floor on her butt and rocks on all fours, so it's just a matter of time before the crawling happens...sigh... but what she really likes to do is stand up.  She can be in a full blown screaming-crying-life-is-not-fair tantrum and you stand her up and it's as if you gave her all the chocolate in the world!  So this little table is good for her!  Now if Elijah would leave it alone...

Back to today.  When I woke up I was a little bummed.  It was REALLY foggy.  I was skeptical about going.  Jerry said we should go and if it was too cold, then we would just come home.  I'm so glad we went.  About 5 minutes after we got there the sun came out and it was warm and really nice.  There was still a fog bank to our left and right and out over the ocean, but it was GREAT!  Here are some pics:

So now Jerry and I are watching Burn After Reading and relaxing.  I love having him home for extended periods!!!

December 29

Getting Organized

So this morning was spent in the toy room.  We decided a while back that Grace and Elijah would share a bedroom, so her bed is already in there.  We changed her bedroom into a toy room.  So today, I took out Grace's dresser (which was in the closet in the toy room) and all her hanging clothes and moved them into the bedroom.  Elijah helped make a HUGE pile of all the toys in the middle of the room.  While he did that I moved the bookshelf and all the books into the closet.  Then I sorted through all the toys.  Got rid of a bunch that he hasn't played with and then split the rest in half and put them in containers to rotate out.  I did the same with Grace's toys.

I really hate defining them as "Elijah's" and "Grace's" toys because they are both of theirs.  It's been interesting watching Elijah want to play with the baby toys that he hasn't played with for a couple of years.  And Grace LOVES anything that Elijah plays with, especially if it has wheels.  Anyway... I cleaned up in there!  I have my old toy box and I use it as a place to store dress up clothes.  I would really like to take the top off so that it is open, but I can't figure out how to do that...the hinges are put on with some non-screw type things... hmmm... Elijah got a doctor's set and a tea set and Grandma got him some pretend food.  So those are all in the dress up area.  It just would be easier if the lid was off...I'll figure it out though.

I got a call to confirm Elijah's birthday party today!  I'm really excited.  It's a Curious George goes to the Fire Station party!  I found some great sites with things to do.  So all the gift bag things are going to be crafts that the kids do at the party.  I think it'll be fun.  we are having the party at a local fire station.  My friend that made the train cake last year is going to make us a fire engine cake and I'm going to attempt a Curious George cookie to "ride" on the fire engine.  I love planning birthdays!  It's so fun for me.  My mom says that I have been doing this since I realized what a birthday was.  She says that the evening of my birthday party I was planning for the next year!  It's not the gifts (our group doesn't do gifts), it's just a party!  And that's fun!  Maybe it's a sickness.  I know that Grace's first b-day will be at a park, maybe the beach park and the theme will be 1st b-day!  I know that next year we're going to have a Where The Wild Things Are b-day for Elijah... It is a sickness...hehehehe!

This afternoon Elijah put on his boots and we went out and jumped in puddles:

Afterward we came in and made dinner of beef stew and cheese biscuits.  While I did that:

Elijah saw Peter and The Wolf ballet the day after Christmas and he LOVED the twirling and the tutus.  I know the quality is not good, but it's funny to me.  He's fine at the end.  He totally got up laughing.

And my little miss?:

 

So a good productive day!

October 2008

October 08

There and Back Again...a REALLY long post...

So I guess I need to rewind a bit.  Getting ready for our trip was a long process, that would have been made easier had Elijah and Grace not gotten sick.  I don't know where they picked it up, but they had a fever and cough and runny nose and it was annoying.  Then the day before we were to leave, Jerry got sick.  Sigh.  I was a little more annoyed.  But fortunately, I didn't get sick.  ANYWAY, before we left, this happened:

That's right, Miss Grace decided that she would sit up a little bit (long enough for me to get the camera and take about half a dozen pics!  It's still the tripod sitting thing, but it's still a big step!  She's excited about it, being able to reach things and whatnot!

Okay, moving on...lots to cover.  We left Thursday morning.  Jerry and Elijah slept until 8-ish (and only because I woke them up.)  So we got on the road around 10.  I was super paranoid about the car trip.  Elijah has just soooo much energy and for him to have to be in a carseat for 6 hours = not so much!  But he did really well, as did Grace.  I have to say that the ride up was helped with this.  It kept Elijah busy for at least 1.5 hours of the trip!  Best of all is that as the pictures dry you can reuse them.  And if anything spills its just water!  LOVE IT!!!  (at least on the way up... but that's for later...)

So we get to my folks house and Elijah is immediately excited to be there and had my folks off and running.  Of course, Grace captured everyone's hearts as well.  So Elijah played and then we ate and then watched the VP debates.  Gotta say... not really impressed by Palin... never was to begin with, but that was her time to shine, and not so much.  Do love Tina Fey's SNL sketch of it though!!!  Then went to bed.

Friday we got a slow start.  My dad was on jury duty pretty much the whole time.  Jerry and I took Grace and met Leah at Barley's for pizza lunch.  Elijah went to hang with my mom at WWC.  We came back home for naps and dinner and then Jerry, Grace, and I went to the homecoming BBQ.  We just went for friendship not for food this year (good thing, since I heard they turned people away that didn't pre-register!)  It was a good evening.  I caught up with lots of friends.  It was really fun.  (side note: we left Elijah with my folks knowing that we would be really late.  So I left them with a movie (a rarity and special treat) thinking that Elijah would fall asleep... ummm, not so much.  He watched the WHOLE freakin' thing! ha!)  After the bonfire was lit, we decided to head up to the theatre since they were having a reception at 10 (at night!!!!!)  Grace had fallen asleep for about 2 hours in the sling, but she was WIDE awake!  So we went up for a bit and it was FANTASTIC!  I love that theatre.  It made me miss the stage (something that I haven't felt for quite a few years now).  I came across this picture in the lobby...not as young as I used to be for sure... I'm the one in the middle by the way:

This is from a (very little known) play called "Film is Evil, Radio is Good".  It is a very odd play, but it was really fun!

So after a late night Friday (for everyone!) we thought the kids would sleep in on Saturday...not so much!  We got up rather early, but dragged our feet for a bit and ended up on campus around 11:45.  We walked around a bit with Rebecca, Patrick, and Dane.  It was interesting to be on the campus and really look around.  It's changed sooo much since we were there as students.  We hooked up with Leah on the soccer field and watched the soccer games, bounced with Elijah in the bouncy houses, hung out with friends, and ate ice cream.  We left for a little rest period.  While we were at home my folks gave Elijah a BIKE!  You would have thought that the world had stopped!  He was soooo freakin' excited.  He jumped on the bike and was off.  He could have cared less when we left to go back to a casual, fun dinner that Katie had put together!  It was amazing what she did!  There was music later, but we were beat, and I really couldn't ask my folks to deal with Elijah two nights in a row (especially since he had had no nap that day.)  So after catching up with more friends at dinner, we went home.

Sunday, I went in to church with my folks and Jerry got the morning off from everything.  Elijah was still clingy and after Sunday school with my mom, had a bit of a melt down, so after I sang the anthem with the choir, I went and hung out with him.  After lunch, I brought the kids home and we relaxed.  At 2, Obama spoke to a crowd of 28000 people in Asheville so we watched on TV.  I was amazed that he was there.  It was REALLY cool!  Katie met me for dinner and then came over and hung out a bit.  It was so nice to see her and just sit and talk.  It was (as always) as if we hadn't really been apart from each other.  I miss her so much!  There are days it seems everything remind me of some inside joke we shared.  I was thinking about my days at WWC and I think that the friends I had there are the best I ever had (exception with Laura and Katrin... knew them outside of WWC and I include them in best category!)  I have very good friends here.  I haven't known them as long.  But my WWC friends (and the exceptions!)FREAKIN' rock.  After all, I did meet Jerry there...

Monday mom and I took the kids to the lake to play and walk around.  It was a nice day and Elijah learned about Geese (or gooses...hehehehe!)  And Grace learned that sand is oh so fun to play in.  We had a picnic in the park on the way home and then relaxed around the house.  I made dinner for my folks (turkey meatloaf...sooo yummy!) and watched HEROS!

Tuesday was a rainy day.  Elijah wanted to play, so my mom took him out for a bit, but it was a little chilly.  Dad finished his jury duty around 2:30 so Jerry and I went out for dinner on our own and walked around the mall (meaningful since we got engaged there...hehehehe!)  Then came home and watched the debates...another blog entry...maybe...  I stayed up WAY to late trying a new pattern on circular knitting needles.  I have been scared of them, but mom had this pattern for a grocery bag and I wanted one, so I tried it (must say that it did not turn out right, but I'm no longer scared of circular needles...still don't really like them, but not scared....)

Today we drove home.  It did not go well.  We were all tired, and Elijah didn't get that he couldn't get out of the car and play with the toys on the playground below my folks house...for the WHOLE ride home...sigh... he cried for my folks the whole way...no nap... just whining and crying.  That's not true.  He had periods of clam playing, but not a whole lot.  He kept waking Grace up and it annoyed me...but I was crabby too.  I didn't want to leave and I know now that we have the challenge of trying to get Elijah potty trained while Jerry is home until next Wednesday.

Sorry this has been so long, but I haven't blogged in a long time and this week was so much fun!  I miss the mountains soooo much and I need to write this stuff down to remember.  I'm going to post some pics to an album to match!

October 16

Alone again

during the day anyway.  Jerry went back to work today and he is going to start working through lunch.  This means I'm on my own with naps.  So I tried since Monday to put Elijah and Grace down on my own.  It worked Monday and that was it.  But today wasn't so bad.  We have finally broken the habit of rocking Elijah to sleep for nap.  He gets to watch Curious George, take a truck with him to bed, play for about 15 minutes and then he has to at least be quiet in his room.  We had a little bit of a struggle, but both kiddos are asleep for now!  WAHOO!

So since we got back last Wednesday we have been working on potty training.  I swear I would rather go through natural labor again than deal with this, but I am determined.  Yesterday was a major success in that Elijah stayed dry all day...well I should say that he kept his undies dry all day.  We put him in a diaper for nap and night and both were soaked, but it is the small victories that keep me going.  We are rewarding for EVERYTHING right now.  He gets a sticker for trying to go, a sticker and one skittle for peeing, a sticker and three skittles for pooping, and for staying clean and dry all day he gets to have a glow in the dark bracelet to take to bed.  He was super excited about the bracelet last night. I got a few packs at the dollar tree.  I think I'll have to go back and stock up.  He quasi pooped in the potty once, but I made a HUGE deal out of it, so I'm hoping that he'll go again.  He is however, trying to use the whole "I gotta poop" at naptime to avoid going to sleep.  Not okay with me.  And I let him know that today.  I hope that he gets this soon.  I am refusing to go back to diapers.  We have training pants and vinyl covers, so we are set.  He did have an accident at the park today, but I think it was my fault.  I really think he was trying to get my attention to tell me, but I was trying to sort out Grace and didn't respond immediately.  He did however, tell me he had gone pee...so that's a step in the right direction.

Okay, now... the f!#$ing washer.  They came to fix it three weeks ago.  The motherboard they brought didn't work.  So they ordered one from Kenmore and put it in yesterday.  It didn't solve the problem either.  However, for some reason we ended up having to pay for the part.  Sigh.  ANYWAY, so we go to do another load of laundry and the knob is broken.  We call the appliance place and they can't send someone out to fix what they broke until today between 10-12.  Well, that didn't work as I was going to be gone and Jerry is at work.  So we have decided we are going to buy a used machine and save up for one we like.  However, apparently this isn't a malfunction of just our brand.  Apparently this happens quite often with many front loaders.  Sigh... I don't like this solution, but if we spend even just 70 more bucks on this machine (which is what it would be just to have someone from Sears come look at it) it's the same price as another machine.  It's all rather annoying.  I mean our clothes are SOAKING wet since there is no final spin.  I have been wringing out each item into the washer and then throwing it into the dryer, then running a drain cycle to get rid of the water.  What a pain.  So I'm letting it go.  We'll hopefully something reasonable on Saturday and maybe we can sell this one for parts.

Okay, that's it for know.  The girl child is up and trying to pull my lip off....hehehehehe.

October 20

The Weekend

This is just a short post.  I am in the process of writing a longer one that will (hopefully) be my last political blog for a bit.  But in the meantime...

The potty training has taken a fabulous turn!  Elijah goes when we ask him without (as much) complaining.  He has stayed dry since Friday and as a reward gets a glo-bracelet to take to bed with him each night (thank you Target for offering 15 for a dollar!!)  He gets a M&M candy for each pee and 5 for each poop (which has yet to happen, but at least he's waiting until the nap or night diaper goes on...sometimes...  I understand the pooping is a little harder of a concept.  I'm a little worried about constipation now though.  He is holding the poop.  We try to let him do it his way, but...well, we'll see.

Grace has started solids officially.  Well, bananas anyway.  We will move on to better things just as soon as I get off my butt and make them.

We threw in the towel with the washer.  We went Friday evening to a little whole in the wall used appliance place and purchased a used Whirlpool top loader for 150 (including delivery and installation!)  Much cheaper than having to hire someone else to look at the washer and charge some insane price to fix it.  The guy that sold the washer also gave us the name of someone that might buy the front loader off of us!

So Saturday was spent doing 138927407 loads of laundry.  I still have some to do, but most of it is done, folded, and put away.

Sunday was spent weed whacking the jungle that was our back yard. It still needs to be mowed down, but it looks much better.  Now to kill all the ants that think our backyard is prime real estate for their multi-level condos!  And to do so massive black widow killing (killed three yesterday and I know there are more hiding...Dear Black Widows, there are perfectly good woods right next door...move there or face the wrath of my shoe!!!)

Today we finally got rid of the chair that was with Jerry for many many years.  It's been sitting in our garage since we moved in.  Today the trash people agreed to take it for us!  Tonight someone is coming to look at the exercise bike (that has been out there for almost as long!) and since we took the recycling earlier last week, our garage is looking like, well, a garage!  For some reason this gives me a since of calm.  I mean there is still a lot of organizing that needs to happen out there, but I feel like I can move around and deal with it better.

Okay, Elijah has been really quiet now for a bit, he has either 1) decided that mommy is right and he needs to rest quietly in his bed, 2) up to no good, or 3) taking a poop (finally!)  Whatever the choice, I will go check on him and then get back to work (I am working for a company called ChaCha!  totally crap pay, but the work is really really easy and I can work for 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there.  If I can make a little money, the the daunting-ness of paying for college out of pocket next fall seems a little less, well, daunting...)

October 23

quick update

just have to say that elijah is doing great with the potty training.  yesterday after rest time (not sleeping...sigh) when he is in a diaper and told me he had to poop...he could've gone in the diaper, but he took off the diaper climbed up on the toilet (the potty seat and chair are soooo last week) and with a little trepidation pooped in the potty voluntarily!!!!  i was so happy i almost peed my pants!!   today at the park he peed three times and had no accidents!  i know this is probably not of any interest to anyone, but honestly when we (re)started this process i told jerry i would rather go through natural childbirth again twice than deal with this.  i'm glad we stuck with it.  i knew it was happen, it was just a rough few days.  he's even starting to realize when he has to go pee on his own!

the not sleeping at nap thing is bugging the heck out of me!  jerry and i talked about it and we think that it's just his pattern.  when he learns a new skill he just doesn't sleep as well.  i have taken to putting the gate up and ignoring his whining.  but he wakes grace up and that pisses me off.  i just don't know what to do.  i end up being a total grouch because i'm tired from dealing with them.  when grace doesn't get her rest she doesn't sleep well at night.  i don't need a lot of sleep, but elijah comes to me in the middle of the night and wants jerry, so i have to wake up and take him in there to him.  then come back in and settle grace back down.  and then try to get back to sleep.  i guess my tiredness is my own fault.  i'm exhausted by the end of the day, but i just can't go to sleep.  i feel like i haven't seen jerry in ages (though we did watch indiana jones the other night...not a good movie...but nevertheless...)  we did get to go out for dinner when we were in the mountains.  and i haven't had any time away to myself since i got my hair cut when grace was 2 months old.  this is going to need to change fairly soon i think, or i am going to go crazy.

jerry just came home.  he's early.  i am guessing that he thinks maybe i need some help with the crazy boy child...and he's right, but now i have to go make some dinner.

October 28

No rest for the mommas

The one thing I don't like about being a mom is that you can't call in sick.  I came down with a cold or allergies or something.  I'm not snotty, but I have a scratchy throat and am sneezing like crazy.  No fever... but exhausted.  Nevertheless, my day simply has to start.  I did cancel plans with a friend yesterday and we didn't go on our preschool groups field trip today.  But we will get back into the swing of things starting tomorrow.

Elijah is still boycotting his naps (for the most part.)  I'm not keen on this at all. (yes, i said keen...move on...) but I don't know what to do.  I was making him watch Oklahoma with me (with Hugh Jackman...that man can sing!)  but that only got us through a day and a half.  I have tried sending him to his room and putting up the gate... works for all of 15 minutes.  Today we fought and at 3 he fell asleep.  I woke him up at 4 since that's our house rule.  We'll figure something out.

I have decided that I'm not going to post my political blog.  One, it's waaaaaayyyyy long and not even finished and two, it's not going to change anyone's mind.  It's just going to annoy me.  So, I leave it to this: The Daily Show!

September 2007

September 06

Okay, I give up...

I was trying to take a nap, but I keep coughing (which I'll come back to in a bit) so I thought, hey I haven't blogged in AGES, so why not....

Let's see.... it's been a while... The fridge is working great... nothing exciting happened after that until my folks came, so I'll start there.

Last Monday, my parents came into town.  Wahoo!!  Elijah had a cold the week before, so I was glad that he was feeling better.  He is starting to remember people better now.  So he warmed right up to them.  This was great.  Elijah has this little electric piano and he likes to push the buttons and make a beat or listen to (stupid) Old MacDonald (over and over and over and over) ANYWAY, my dad was sitting on the couch and Elijah brought in the piano and started pushing the buttons.  Dad started doing this little dance and Elijah totally started copying him.  It was hilarious.  (I'm uploading the video right and I'll add it as soon as it's done.)  On Tuesday we normally go to story time at the library, but it was such a nice day we decided to go to the railroad museum instead.  It rocked!!!  We are totally having Elijah's b-day party there.  The museum itself is very interesting.  They just moved into a new building, so there was some work going on, but not enough to ruin the trip.  They have a whole room for kids.  It has a little caboose the kids can climb in and tons of toy trains.  Then behind this glass case is a bunch of trains on tracks and you push a bottom and off they go.  There are places for kids to stand all the way around it and watch.  They are working on another huge room that is just trains and tracks.  Once it's done, it will be quite a sight.  They also have actual train cars : an engine, a box car, and a caboose.  The engine is an old steam engine.  You can pull the bell and see where everything went.  The box car is set up with a hobo exhibit.  The caboose is where the party will be.  It's also really cool.  There are places to climb and run around.  It'll be great.

On Wednesday, Jerry and I went out for dinner and this really nice restaurant, called Port City Chop House.  We had a coupon and everything.  It was soooooo yummy.  The coupon was for two entrees, a salad, wine, and dessert...my mouth is watering....sooooo goooooooddd.....  We got home in time to put the little guy to bed and then crash ourselves.  That morning we had gone to the beach.  The weather was perfect.  In fact the water temp was just a bit warmer than the air, so it was almost to chilly, but not quite.

Thursday mom and dad dropped me off at playgroup and went shopping.  Then I had a small business seminar that night (I finish that tonight.)

Then came Friday.  Jerry took the day off, so we went for breakfast.  I didn't feel great, but I thought I was hungry.  When we came home, Jerry had to run something into the office and my folks worked on the yard.  I finished a memory quilt example(my newest product) while Elijah played.  I still felt odd, but really wasn't thinking about it too much.  That evening Jerry and I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum (really good movie, but I swear if the camera doesn't stop moving around...) and mom and dad took Elijah to this music festival they have every week at a local development.  We were going to go out to eat, but neither of us were hungry, so we picked something up and headed home, put Elijah to bed and turned in....AAND THEN....

At 11 that night I woke up sicker than I have ever been in recent memory.  I will spare the horrid details, but Oh MY GOD is was horrible.  I was up all night.  Jerry was awesome.  He brought me water and a cold cloth and let me sleep on the floor.   The next morning we were supposed to take my folks out for breakfast, but I honestly couldn't move.  So they ate here and took off.  I spent the whole day with 102 temp.  I chugged Gatorade, Ginger Ale, and water and attempted to eat some soup and bread.  I slept most of the day and went to bed at 8.  Jerry let me sleep until 9 the next morning.  I felt much better, but still really weak.  By then my nose had started to run...sigh... so the nasty sickness turns into a head cold....ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????  SO now it's moved into my chest and I sound horrible and am exhausted, but at least I can eat.  Elijah and I went to story time this week and that's about it.  It turns out that almost everyone at play group got sick.  Who knows where it came from or what, I don't really care...however, if the US is looking for new torture methods...they should bottle that virus...I would have given up just about any info to make it stop...

So that leads me to now... I have this cough that is preventing me from napping...sigh...the video has finished uploading, so I'll embed it now and then maybe re-try the nap thing... I hope that you are feeling better than I am....

September 09

Feeling better now...

So I am still a little sniffly, but feel soooo much better.  I met my friend Amy at a local park on Friday and we had a very nice time chatting while Elijah played on the playground and ran around.  I knew that this park existed but I hadn't been there in a while.  I don't know why.  So I'm glad that Amy suggested meeting there.

We finally sold our futon and it turns out that we sold it to a guy that Jerry worked with one summer.  It was good for them to catch up.  Saturday was okay, but Jerry had to work once in the afternoon and then again in the evening.  I was a bit annoyed (not at him, at the situation.)  He had to go back in this morning and I don't think he slept very much last night worrying about why the run wasn't working.

So while Jerry was at work this morning, Elijah and I moved my sewing and knitting stuff into the office.  I really like that I'll have a place for everything.  We do want a new desk for the computer, but we can't find one we like.  There is an unfinished furniture place that we'll check out Friday (since Jerry worked so much this weekend, he now has enough hours to take a day off!!!)

This afternoon after running around to some stores to look at desks we went back to the same park.  This is impressive as it's now officially football season...  I was pleasantly surprised to see so many dads at the park.  During the week there is always one or two, but I would say that the number of dads at least equaled the number of moms there.  I think it's so great.  I love that Jerry loves hanging out with Elijah and taking him to the park and whatnot.  I think that if he ever got to work from home, he would take him to story time at the library too.  I really think it's so important for dad's to be hands on and Jerry really has since day one.   I think that there are some dads that think they will be more hands on as the child gets older and whatnot... I guess that's fine, but I honestly wouldn't be considering getting pregnant if jerry wasn't so active in Elijah's daily life.  He gets that things like the park, or Fit For Fun, or story time aren't for him, they are for Elijah.  He's not shy about taking Elijah out by himself, because it's about building a bond and teaching by example.  This is not to say that they don't watch the occasional sports show or whatnot, but he knows how important to Elijah's health it is to get outside and play.  They go on walks together, go to the grocery store, everything.  I will say that Jerry was cracking me up last weekend while I was sick.  He and Elijah went somewhere together and my parents had left the car seat on the porch when they left.  Jerry said it about killed him to get the seat into the car.  I guess I usually do any rearranging of the seat.  But he did it perfectly and it was fine.  He also was wrestling with the baby gate on the same day...  I showed him how to do it (it is kinda tricky to get the top and the bottom lined up just right.)  But at least he's willing to try and put forth an effort.  I know that if I'm just over it all, he is willing to step in and do what needs to be done.  He never complains if dinner isn't ready and I haven't moved the clothes from the washer to the line in a couple of days.  This really wasn't supposed to start out as a rant, but I guess it has become such.  I know that many people think that the husband shouldn't have to be so involved, working and all, but being a mom is work too and very rarely do we get a day off.  Jerry really looks at motherhood as a job and knows that we both work hard during the day.  I love that every other night, I don't have to worry about Elijah.  Our system works GREAT!!!  So to all the dads out there that put in their two cents...cheers!!!!  Those who don't, get off your butt and do something with your kid!

September 17

Fall?

The weather this weekend here has been AMAZING!!  We've been sleeping with the windows open and keeping the AC off during the day.  I went on a walk this morning at 9 and it was so nice out.  I had to go back in and get a jacket for myself and Elijah.  It's been a while since we needed those.

So Jerry took last Friday off and it was so nice to have him home.  I went to get our Pass Your Plate food in the morning.  We went to Home Depot in the afternoon.  We got a few sample paints for the living room.  I'll get to how that went in a moment.  Saturday we decided that since it was rainy day we would go to the aquarium.  So we went and got there at the perfect time.    There weren't that many people there yet and so we just moseyed about.  As we left the parking lot was almost full.  Jerry wanted to go by Old Navy to get some shirts so we did that coming home.  While he was in Old Navy I went to JoAnne's Fabrics and bought some super cute scrap fleece to make hats.  He ended up buying his shirts from Steve and Barry's so I wandered around in there reading all the t-shirts...ahhhh to be in college again!

So Sunday... It was absolutely fabulous day.  We opened all the windows, stuck some paper on the wall for Elijah to paint on and painted our samples on the wall...sigh... Well we bought three samples and don't like any of them...but now we have three huge blocks of paint on our wall, so we pretty much have to paint now.  The one we dislike the least we think we would like in a darker shade.  Maybe I'll break out the paint the builders left and paint over the stuff on the walls...sigh...  Sunday afternoon I went to Rachel's church for Care Kits and Banana Splits.  This was part of the church's outreach program.  We bought all these things to go into Care Kits of children who have be taken into emergency foster care.  The social worker can come pick up this kit (toiletries, crayons, a sketch pad, and a stuffed animal all in a suitcase) and then when they remove the kid they can grab some of their clothes and they're done.  It's quite sad to think that these will be used, but I am glad that I could be a part of this.  Rachel and I went shopping for it last week and we each bought enough stuff for two kits.   After we put the kits together there were banana splits...yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!  While I was gone Jerry attempted to take Elijah to two different playgrounds, but they were both slam packed with reunions or b-day parties, so they ended up back here.

Jerry and I have decided we hate putting Elijah to bed.  He falls asleep in his own bed, but one of us is there with him.  It's just soooo freaking boring!!!!  We have moved putting him down back until 8.  It takes about half an hour for him to fall asleep.  He has to be lying down or we leave the room, which Elijah freaks out!  He is out of bed and screaming at the door before it's shut.  After a minute or two we go back in and stand at the door until he is in bed and lying down.  I usually only have to leave once and then if I threaten it again, he doesn't get up.  For the most part we are just sitting there by his bed.  All this is after we have read 300000000 books and sung some lullabies.  Unless he is just dead tired we don't get out of the room before 8:30.  I guess it could be worse.  I mean he has taken to his bed, but I must say that I am very lazy and if he wakes up at 2 or 3 in the morning I just bring him to bed with me.  Though he is asleep before we even get back to the bed, and I guess it would be just as easy to put him back in his bed, but I really am just too lazy to bother.  Oh well... this too shall pass (I hope).  I may move a mattress into his room and then I could just crash by his bed...we'll see...  Jerry was going to take a week off in order for us to work on the whole sleep thing, but that didn't happen and now that we are leaving for vacation in a couple of weeks... I'm jut making excuses...

okay, I have a munchkin crawling on me....so off I go....

September 19

How do you show love for your family?

I was at Fit For Fun again today with a few friends.  There were two stay at home dads there.  It was really interesting to watch these two men.  one just moved here from the north and he was SO friendly.  He totally talked to the moms and we all responded.  I think it's great to see dads that stay at home, especially when they take a risk going into areas that are predominately stay at home moms.  I mean this guy really put himself out there.  I know there are some women that would totally snub a stay at home dad, but I wouldn't dare.  I know how hard it is to stay at home, why would it be any different for a dad.  Anyway, this guy was down on the ground with his kid and totally involved.  The other guy was very stand off-ish not only to the moms and dad, but it seemed to his kid too.  Unless, someone else's kid did something he didn't approve of and then he said something to that kid or physically moved them... He didn't touch my kid, but if he had I think that I would have said something.  I think the other mom was just to shocked to say anything...

Anyway this all got me thinking about how Jerry and I show love and attention to Elijah, as well as to each other.  There are many things that bring a smile to my face, but I can feel myself glow with love when I see Elijah run to Jerry at the end of the day and Jerry drops everything (literally) to sweep Elijah off his feet and swoop him through the air.  I sometimes sneak up to Elijah's room when Elijah and Jerry are playing and just listen.  It's pretty funny and I love it.  I know that Jerry would do anything to protect us, but I realized that what makes me feel safer than any threat of violence is the love that surrounds me everyday.  I have never had my life threatened, I hope that I never do.  I honestly can't say what I would do if someone threatened my kid, but I would hope that I would react in a rational way.  What sort of example would I be setting for my child if I can't control my impulses?  I am a big walk away type of person.  I refuse to engage with someone that is acting out of anger and hatred.  That doesn't mean that I don't feel those feelings as a result of said confrontation.  But what good has EVER come out of reacting out of these feelings?  I am not a huge love your enemy type girl, but I feel that my kid shouldn't be beating people up simply because he can.  I want him to grow into a well rounded individual.  At Warren Wilson while I was there, I never felt like I was in harms way.  I knew that if I was in trouble, even my worst enemy would help me.  That's the type of place that was, and hopefully still is.  I know this isn't a realistic of the world, but why shouldn't it be?  I mean why not help someone who is down regardless.

Maybe I am being naive.  But I really want Elijah to know that his parents love him and hopefully by showing him this will help him find his way in the world.   I want to support him with whatever choice he makes.  I just hope that his choices show others respect.  This isn't to say that if someone were beating the heck out of him that I don't want him to defend himself, but I would really hope that he won't start the fight.

I think that it's a interesting study in human behavior.  Those who think that violence and yelling is a show of love and those who think kindness and compassion is.  I know it's not so black and white and there are lots of greys... I'm not that naive.

September 21

Just to see if you are paying attention...

We are seven weeks pregnant!!!!    Normally I would have waited to say this, but with homecoming coming up in a few weeks, I really didn't want to just wear baggy clothes all week.  So I'm already showing a little.  My tummy is definitely pooched out and my boobs are looking implantish...  I'm feeling okay.  I'm tired and I have had the worst heartburn.  But anything is better than the throwing up I did with Elijah.  I will say that I am pleasantly surprised that Tums tastes better than they did the last time I took one (which was about 327480072 years ago).  I have my first prenatal visit today with our midwife.  So Elijah (hopefully) will go down for his nap at 11... we'll see.  The heartburn is annoying.  I can't really eat anything.  I'm hoping it will pass, but I have a feeling I'm stuck with it for another 33 weeks.  Oh well...c'est la vie!

We are really happy about this pregnancy and I hope that it continues to be a healthy one.

Anyway, that's all....

September 26

It's been a while

I know, but I'm just so freaking tired!  So my appointment went well last Friday.  I really like our midwife.  We did take Elijah with us and we will not be doing that again...

Anyway, I mentioned that I had been having some pain in my ovary areas and so Mary (the midwife) did a pelvic and I found out that I have a reversed uterus (nothing bad, just a little harder to feel anything near the beginning) but that it was swollen.  So that's good.  We both agree that the pain is more than likely a cyst or two resolving.  Since this happened with Elijah and the pain hasn't gotten any worse everything is all good.  I am still having heartburn, but either I'm getting used to it, or it's getting better, but I don't notice it as much.  I am still queasy in the morning, but after I force myself to eat something I'm fine.  Jerry makes the point that feeling this way is a good thing in terms of pregnancy and that this is a good sign.  I am totally in agreement with him, and so I try not to complain too much...

I have been trying to nap with Elijah, but my problem is that it takes me a bit to decompress and then I want to sleep much longer than he does... oh well...

Jerry's been great!  He's been taking Elijah every night this week.  We've moved a mattress into his room so when we get sick of going in there at night, we can just crash.  This works well, except that Jerry is a heavy sleeper and doesn't realize when Elijah wakes up.  Elijah just looks over at Jerry and then climbs on top of him and goes back to sleep...ummm.... that's sorta not the point... Anyway, Jerry gets ready to roll over to find a child on him.  So he puts him back in his bed and the whole thing starts over again... It's rather cute actually...  I slept in there this past weekend and I wake up every time the child stirs... and I am bad at cuddling him and then falling asleep...though when I do wake up I put him back in his bed... sigh... I keep telling myself that this won't last forever and in the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal.  And the thing is it doesn't really bother me... Maybe that's the issue.  I really do love cuddling with my little guy.  It's won't be too long when he will care less about hugs and kisses and cuddles... sigh...  okay, this is depressing...moving on....

So I watched the premiere of Heros on Monday and before that Chuck.  I'm a die hard Heros fan and I think that I will like Chuck as well.  They have a lot of places they can go with that storyline.  Unfortunately I don't see too many more new shows that look like can't miss...  I'm really upset that they canceled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  I really thought the writing and acting was good.  I think that if they had waited a few years then it may have done better.  I mean they were trying for riding on the coat tails of West Wing, and it was just too soon... oh well... this paragraph is turning into a really boring banter...

Okay, I won't bore you anymore.  We are already starting to get ready for our trip next week to the mountains.  I'm quite excited, though I wish we could spend more time up there... oh well... Oh did I mention that we are painting our living room? We started last Friday, but I've been to tired to deal with it anymore... I'm sure we'll try and finish this weekend.  Okay... have a good one!