DragonBlog

Kindergarten

Oh my gosh. I dropped Jareth off at school this morning. He's officially a kindergartener!!!

Crap. I'm getting older, aren't I? I think I just felt another hair turn gray...

My little guy was totally nonchalant about the whole thing. And he's totally still young enough to still let me smother him with hugs and kisses before leaving. I think I have at least another year before I start hearing "MOM!!" out of him and have to play it cool in front of the other kids. Fortunately, I'll be able to transfer my smotherings to my daughter at the time.

She, on the other hand, is totally loving the whole "I don't have to share SHIT while my brother's off at school! Mwahahaha!" thing I think. The family room floor is littered with toys and she has been content to let me get some work done around the house while she played on her own. More boxes to unpack and stuff to sort through. I think Jareth will likely be moving on to high school before I get everything unpacked. We're trying to find appropriate long-term solutions for the boxes of old photos and documents from my long-gone family members. One day, I'll find time for those projects. One day.

Meanwhile, I just want to get all the books back out. I think we emptied about 20 boxes over the weekend - just in books! There is actually ONE box of books that I have no use or need for anymore, but I am loathe to get rid of books unless they are really, really, REALLY useless in my life. Which means I still have a shelf half-full of British monarchy-related crap that was my mom's. Because... I might have an interest one day. Or, one of the kids might. Or... whatever. They're books, damnit. They're, like, sacred and stuff.

But the big, honking book on pregnancy can go. Been there. Done that. Two kids is enough for us. We've decided.

Besides, the health crap is still lagging on. Apparently blood pressure wasn't annoying enough - now I find that my cholesterol is crap too! I refused to go on the meds for that one yet, as I'm already on something for the blood pressure (at least it seems to be mostly working), so I'm adding three big, juicy pills of fish oil to my daily routine. Mmmm. Yay. These things look like someone pissed in the jello mix and then turned it into suppositories. And then I'm supposed to swallow them instead...

ANYway...

I think I'll just leave you with that lovely visual image. I'm off to get back to some housework before I go pick up my kindergartener from his first day...

Current Mood: accomplished

Two One Cent's Worth...

Oh, hell. My darling son just announced that while he was supposed to be napping, he instead ate a penny!

We give him two pennies each week (one for each of his allergy shots he has to have on Mondays) which he likes to keep in his wallet until I eventually make him put them in a piggy bank. And now, he just ate one! I asked him where it was and he smiled and pointed at his tummy.

I totally had that whole "oh, my kid will never do something like that" ideal going on in my head. Pfft!

I know, I know. He'll do a billion OTHER things that I won't expect too. I see it coming. It makes me cringe to think of it.

He's been informed that he has to use the potty chair again whenever he needs to poop now, and I have positioned a fork in the bathroom to "sort" through his poop with until we find the penny again...

EEEEEWWWW!

Oh, how I just love motherhood. I'm totally making Brian go through the poop until Monday morning. It's gotta be HIS genetics as *I* never swallowed a penny as a child (aparently my husband swallowed a dime when he was little). Cross your fingers it comes out tomorrow.

Brian looked it up and we don't have to get worried unless it doesn't come out after four days. FOUR days of poop-squishing? Oh man, I hope not! Brian also had the lovely idea to wonder aloud if he even really did swallow the penny or if he dreamed it while napping...

Urk. So now I'm hoping he DID swallow it just so my little guy can avoid the X-rays or whatever they have to do if it DOESN'T come out the other end. Nevermind that the stupid penny will cost us at least 20 bucks in medical copays on the insurance if we DO have to take him to the doctor. *rolls eyes*

It's like the treasure hunt from hell.

And, of course, he's practically getting rewarded for this one. It's been explained that eating food will help it come out the other end. And it just so happens that we're having leftover pizza for dinner tonight. I can't even take advantage of the chance to get him to eat some nice chicken and veggies meal. Nope, the kid gets to feast on pizza. All for the low, low price of one little penny.

I may just put that penny in his baby book one day. Once I sterilize the damned thing.

EEEWWWW!!!

*sigh*

G'night!

Current Mood: amused

My BIG Little Guy...

On the 6th, my little guy turned FOUR years old! Where did the time go already??? I know, I'm a little late in posting about it, but frankly I've been super-duper-extra-honkin' busy as of late. Between preschool, doctors, moms' group activities, birthday parties, drum circles, and other things my calendar is not only covered in red pen (I really need to stop writing in RED, but then I'm afraid I'd miss something!), but it's also had to grow BIGGER just to fit all the stuff on the schedule. I've finally bailed on trying to keep a "monthly" schedule and have moved on to using the "weekly" part of the planner too. Eeeep!

So, on his birthday on the 6th, we finally did the "kid party" thing for him this year. We invited the kids in his playgroup and the kids of some of the other moms I know, and planned a shindig at Pretend Playground, since it's one of the fun places for kids that I've found that I really like, and I know Jareth really enjoys going to. I also managed to find time to pick up plates, napkins, etc, with Cars stuff all over them, and order a similarly themed cake. Oh, and make goodie bags for the kids. Hot Wheels for everyone! And little flutes, stickers, bubbles... But no candy - I'm learning it's just too difficult to put candy in goodie bags these days with half the world having peanut allergies or some other food issues. So I just stuck with toys instead. Hopefully they went over okay. The boys will have liked the cars at least. I made sure they were all race cars anyway. *grin*

Overall, Jareth had a great time, and technically knew all the kids in attendance, at least on some level. I, on the other hand, knew ALL the moms. So, instead of wandering around, totally unable to yank my foot out of my mouth long enough to make conversation in the first place, I didn't know who to talk to first! And then, of course, I was so busy wanting to take pictures of all the cute kids I ended up hardly getting the chance to do much chatting at all! lol. I have a weakness for photographing adorable children. And we only invited the cutest ones we knew - *wink*

Pictures can be found here. Pictures prior to then, that I meant to put up... well... never quite made it. Not enough time. Maybe I'll get them up later. Maybe I just... won't. What can I say - my kids just keep getting cuter every day. *smirk* It's hard to backtrack.

On that note, one of these days I'll have to scan in pictures of me when I was Kayla's age. I found a photo album recently, and in some pictures she DOES look like me after all!

Woah. I was, like... cute once. I'd say "what happened?" but I can already hear Brian frowning at me and he hasn't even gotten home or read this yet. lol.

Oh... and I like allergy meds. Yes. I. DO! Because Jareth wants to play outside EVERY SINGLE DAY. Eeeeek! I'm having to breathe in all that "outside" air and stuff. Nevermind that all the windows are open too. But, like a good and diligent mommy, I'm scheduling in a little time each day for him to play out in the yard. Sometimes I'm even doing something about the atrocious weeds too. Go me!

More another time. I've still got things to do while dinner finishes cooking...

Current Mood: busy

Preschool!!!

So much has been going on lately. I've actually had tons of things I've wanted to rant blog about, but haven't had the time to really log in and take care of it. Last weekend we managed to get outside and take care of some gardening. Yesterday, I planted tomato plants out there. Jareth can't wait for the tomatoes to grow! Last weekend we also went to a party where I got to see a whole bunch of people I haven't seen in a little over ten years! Wow, so much has changed, and yet there are still some things that stay the same...

I used to be more social, for one. Lately, I've noticed my social skills just seem to be... inadequate from my perspective. I'll leave a place and five minutes later be asking myself why I didn't say something about a topic or why I forgot to ask someone a question I'd been meaning to... the list is endless. I used to be less socially awkward, but now I find I'm quiet until someone asks me a question, and then I ramble instead of making the point that I most want to make. It's frustrating.

Then again, the party last weekend was one of the rare times when I felt that comfortable. The presence of old friends was like putting on that old favorite sweater when you find it at the back of the closet. And the new people I met fit into the folds so well that it just fit so well... Ahhh. Like a little boost to remind me that I'm not a social misfit after all. heh. We had fun at the party. Brian, the kids, and me.

However, the real reason I picked today to blog was that tomorrow - my little guy starts preschool!

Holy crud he's gotten so big already!!!

So tomorrow, at an ungodly (for me anyway) hour in the morning, I will hoist him out of bed and take him to preschool for the first time. I'll drop him off and drive away.

Hoo boy. That's gonna be a toughie. I had a hard enough time leaving my kids 10 minutes away in a day care for 3 hours while I went to a class that kept me adequately distracted. At least I'll have Kayla to keep me distracted. But it will be for 4 hours and he'll be about a half an hour away...

And yet, I think this is going to be totally good for him. And I'm thoroughly excited. And proud. My little guy is both potty-trained AND about to go to preschool! Wow. Wow-wow-wow!

*shakes head in disbelief*

It's all going by me so quickly!

Oh - and pics are coming soon. I just haven't had time to get to them yet.

Current Mood: impressed

Potty Training My Little Guy

As Brian mentioned on his blog, we've begun the potty training "push" around here. I searched and searched and found a book that got rave reviews and talked about potty training in just ONE day. Since he's ready to start preschool, his diapers have been the only thing holding him back. Telling him that didn't seem to help. Nothing I'd tried seemed to be working. Even the day I spent with him in underwear and me running all over the house cleaning up puddles of urine. So the book was ordered, shipped, and arrived in short order.

Then I attempted to read the damned thing.

Ever since my head injury in 2001, I've noticed my capacity for textbook learning is atrocious. Bad. Abysmal. After several months passed and I hadn't gotten past the second chapter (and it wasn't technically that hard of a read) between the lack of time to read and my inability to just quickly digest the information I finally bailed and handed the book over to Brian.

He, of course, read it in about two days.

Then he explained it to me, which made my life a zillion times easier, and we began planning for the potty "party" and our big "push" to get him out of diapers and over that milestone hurdle.

Since Brian had been the one to read the book and the day needed to have a) no interruptions (meaning Kayla) and b) be really special to Jareth, I got the proverbial boot out of the house on party day. Since Jareth doesn't get nearly enough one-on-one time with his daddy, I took Kayla and ran errands and drove around for the better part of the day while they did the whole "training" thing. I also hit a library with a play area to let poor Kayla out to crawl for a while. She's recently taken a dislike to being put in her car seat (she doesn't seem to mind it once she's IN there, just the getting in part!) so she was pretty royally pissed at me for putting her in it over and over again throughout the day. We came back around dinner time - Jareth even picked out what we were having, since I had some of his favorites in stock in the freezer. Then I got to join in on the watching of videos and encouragement as he kept "practicing" on the potty and having the occasional accident throughout the evening.

That first day with Brian, he crossed some major hurdles. For one, he'd never actually done anything successfully on the potty prior to that. He still had quite a few accidents, and went through quite a few pairs of his new underwear, but he was starting to understand what to do. Partly, training the doll helped him get it. Partly, the one-on-one with Brian gave him the opportunity to focus on it. He also likes to show off for Brian more. He'll behave for me more, but likes to show off for his daddy. That's what I get for being "bad cop" all the time. lol.

Sunday we had to continue the process. Originally there had been plans to help Lindsay (Brian's sister) and Scott move. However, their new dog was going to cause a logistics problem with us bringing the kids and Jareth wasn't ready to be separated from Brian yet. In the end, Brian had to back out and stay home so that we could continue what had been started. We kept going, with the movies, the books, the stickers, the treats, and all the other scheduled things to mark his successes. We also went out briefly and bought him a new potty, since the one we had was crap. The "boy shield" part kept falling off into it, which made him have this panicked "Uh-oh! Help!" every time. So, we upgraded from this one to this one. I also picked up this one for when we're on the road. Fortunately, I'd had a gift certificate left from someone that I was able to cut down the costs with too. He LOVES the new potty in the bathroom, and I think I'm going to be very happy with the travel one too.

Yesterday Brian went back to work and I was on my own. We'd made HUGE progress on Sunday, both diminishing the accidents throughout the day and also "weaning" him back off the reliance he'd built up on Brian being in the bathroom with him every single time Jareth wanted to go in there. Half of the excitement had been about the time spent with daddy. Now we'd weaned it off so that he understood that it could be just as fun with me there. Monday was the push to get him to be more independent. By noon on Monday, I had it so that he'd gone to the bathroom, wiped, emptied the potty into the big toilet, flushed, AND washed and dried his hands - ALL without my direct supervision.

Last night, we also got him to understand that he's allowed to come out of his room at night to go on the potty. Despite the fact that he did that about six times before he finally went to bed, he woke up DRY this morning as a result. In fact, we've had NO accidents for the first half of the day today. At the moment, he seems to have to pee every 10 minutes on average, and spends about half the day in the bathroom, BUT he is DRY! Eventually, as I wean down the stickers and treats to more occasionally, he's going to figure out that the bathroom isn't ACTUALLY the funnest place in the house to spend half your time...

I'm hoping today that he'll go in there for his poop though. That was the prime accident during the day yesterday. I've heard that that one takes a little longer. He's doing so well as it is though! While it's been exhausting on Brian and I, it hasn't had him in tears 99% of the time! I'm SO pleased!

Wow... my little boy is growing up!! Next thing I know I'll be dropping him off at preschool... Whoa...

Current Mood: impressed

Orange

This picture turned out really well. He was so crisp in the image I couldn't help but play with it, masking out all the background. I love how it turned out.

I did it a couple days ago, but I just had to share!

I've been working on getting images of the beaded earrings I've done so far and cleaning them up for the web. I've also taken some "stock images" to use on the site, now I just have to do something with them. My brain is all full up with HTML code and stuff right now. Oof.

Current Mood: creative

The Birthday Boy

Here he is! After Big Trucks, we stopped off at the park. Partly, we weren't at the trucks thing long, as all the kids beeping the horns on those trucks had Jareth edgy. I guess he's still got some inhibitions when it comes to noisy places after all. He liked looking at them, but didn't want to try and go inside them or get too close. I did pick him up and take him into the driver's seat on one early in, but he literally asked to get out. So, to make sure it was still a fun morning, we stopped at a park I'd seen on our route. He had so much fun, he cried when I made him go back to the car.

Yes, he's got a scraped-up nose. Leave it to my child to go running down the hall and trip less than a week before his birthday. All the pictures are going to have the evidence of his rug-burned nose right smack dab in the middle of them. *sigh* I keep telling him not to run in the hallway upstairs! Of course that's because I worry I'll see him go careening down the stairs. I didn't expect it to be some other injury. Good grief!

He's napping now, after helping me make the batter for his cake. He loves to help in the kitchen these days! A future chef perhaps? Who knows...

Gotta go though! Lots more to be done for tomorrow's party!

G'night!

Current Mood: bouncy

My Little Guy Turns THREE!!!

Jareth turns three today! Of course, we'll spend most of the day cooking and cleaning, in preparation for the party tomorrow. But I am planning to take him over to this Big Trucks thing in a little while. It's not much, but hopefully it will be fun.

I picked him up new summer sandals yesterday, and on Wednesday I went out on my way back from class and got him one of those kid's standing easel/chalkboard things, along with some washable markers and colored chalk. I also got one of those big pads of paper for him and we've got watercolors and crayons already, so he should be set for "art supplies" to go with it for the moment. I've just got to assemble the darn thing later, during naptime, so we can present it to him tonight. I'm not going to try and wrap it though. If I have time, I'll wrap up the accessories. He's already seen the shoes - he helped me size them and pick them out - so I won't bother wrapping those. Heck, they're already in with the rest of his shoes. We just need the weather to warm up again so his toes can come back out of socks to wear them. I got him Buster Browns of course. They're the best. *grin* They don't have the sandals shown on their web site though, so I can't link them.

Anyway, that's all for now. I've got to get the birthday boy out of bed if we're going to go see the trucks. Maybe I'll have time to post a picture or two later. No guarantees though - I've got a party to prep for.

Later!

Current Mood: optimistic

Crossing the Language Barrier...

TWO! Count them - TWO posts today! If you haven't read the other one, scroll down there first...

Jareth absolutely amazes me sometimes. Right now I have him stashed away for a short, late nap after spending four and a half hours of "being good" at my NST and doctor's appointment. First we had to wait a half an hour just to get registered for the NST - something I can never predict, so I never know when I'll get in or out of that room. Then, they prolonged the test and I ended up spending nearly an hour and a half in the room getting the NST - during which, Jareth was reasonably content to color in the notebook I keep for him, chat with me, and open and close the blinds on the window - which are trapped between two pieces of glass and can be manipulated by turning a small knob. There was also a span of him playing peek-a-boo with me over the footboard of the bed.

Since RainMoon couldn't join me today, I was on my own, but once again Jareth was an angel. Any other child might have figured out that their mommy was kind of "trapped" on the bed, hooked up to the monitor, and couldn't leap out and stop them from running off or getting into trouble. Mine was happy enough to even let me finish reading the magazine I had brought along. Imagine that - I have actually READ a magazine, cover-to-cover! This is a momentous occasion - I haven't done THAT since before he was born!

After we got out of the NST room, we headed to the doctor's office. Down one elevator, across the facility to another "building" of the place (it's a hospital and something like two medical buildings, but they are all connected together). Then up another elevator and into the office to sign in. At this point, because of the wait on the previous occasions, I am now more than an hour late for my 2:00pm appointment. Which means I have to wait. A while. I had gotten the last available chair in the waiting room, actually.

Having exhausted the "coloring" distraction tactic already, I whip out one of the "backup toys" I keep in my bag. A large matchbox car. He proceeds to play with that on the table next to me, as well as one of the bead puzzle things they have in the office for kids. He gets bored with the beads quick today though. The car is more enticing. So is one of the other people waiting in the office. A man who is waiting with someone keeps smiling his way. And my kid has an instinct about people. He smiles back, shyly at first. Then he puts his car on the floor and scoots it in the guy's direction. The guy smiles - the right response! Jareth scoots the car a little more. Again - response to the stimuli! He bravely goes forth, giving the car that final shove that will leave it at the man's feet. It helps that there were no more chairs - this guy's sitting on the floor, at Jareth's level - another reason for him being targeted in the first place, I'm sure.

The man scores! He grins and grabs up the car, sending it racing back to bonk into my son's shoe! This results in uncontrolled giggling from Jareth, one of those infectious giggles that makes a few others in the room chuckle from the sheer cuteness of it. Within five minutes, my kid not only has an avid playmate in the man on the floor (who even went so far as to create tunnels and ramps for the car to use, out of the literature available in the office!), but has at least half the room watching him, being entertained by his antics. This, in a standing-room-only doctor's waiting room where Jareth and I were quite possibly the ONLY two people there who didn't speak a lick of spanish...

Amazing. This guy and my son amuzed each other and quite a few of those waiting for nearly an hour. There was more conversation on Jareth's part, entirely in English of course. The man hardly spoke, but they didn't seem to have any trouble communicating. I kept watching for any signs that my son might be annoying him or anything, but he seemed happy for the distraction too. Despite the fact that Jareth was already at the point where he should of been napping, overtired from a long day (which had also included a gymnastics class for him in the morning), and a little high-strung - he managed to keep a captive audience and still be a good little boy. I only had to warn him a few times not to throw the car back to the guy, and only because I knew he was at that overzealous point where he'd have been likely to bean the guy in the head with it. And he mostly listened too.

I am so blessed with this wonderful little boy that I have! It warranted a second post for today, especially since I've been pretty lax in posting lately.

G'night!

Current Mood: grateful

One Perfect Moment...

I've probably used that title on at least one other post. It's actually the title to a Ralph Covert song. I find that I tend to want to use it as the post title here for posts relating to my son.

We had one of those this morning. I woke up and he was awake already, knocking on the door of his room (which is likely what woke me up) to get my attention so I'd come get him. I went and got him and changed him and then he and his stuffed puppy followed me into my bedroom so I could get properly dressed for the day, since a t-shirt and undies is generally not appropriate attire for the grocery store.

As happens often when I've not gotten dressed yet in the morning, we spent some "snuggle time" first. When he first crawled up on the bed next to me, he gave me this big, unprompted hug, and said "I love you!" to me. Naturally, I returned both the gesture and words, hugging him tight and just beaming inside. He then camped out on my pillow and pulled the covers up around himself and his puppy and I laid down next to him and dropped one arm around him. He wanted kisses and "eskimoes" (we rub the tips of our noses together as "eskimo kisses" - something my mom did with me when I was little) and hugs, and I was obligated to kiss and hug his puppy as well. Then we laid there picking out animals at random and learning/making the sounds that those animals make. We must have oinked, hissed, barked, meowed, and cock-a-doodle-dooed for a half an hour, with the occasional "tickle bomb" (Brian came up with this one - a closed hand drops down from the sky with appropriate noise and then opens up as it hits his tummy to tickle him!) thrown in for good measure. We also developed a "tickle snake" while we were busy hissing today too.

There was also one point when he looked up at our ceiling and said "hand." I'm not sure what age it normally happens at, but I was impressed nonetheless. The way a child might see some shape in the clouds in the sky, my son saw a "hand" in the abstract shapes that adorn our ceiling. The "shapes" in actuality, we think are either a really piss-poor paint job on the ceiling and they didn't finish properly or a cleaning effort with a sponge mop that left dark splotches on it. We hadn't noticed it looked like that until after we'd moved in. I've been seeing shapes up there for a couple years now myself. Today, though, Jareth noticed a hand shape. He matter-of-factly pointed out where the thumb and other fingers were. It's a little, silly thing, I know, but I was proud of him for making that kind of association out of a random abstract shape. There's probably some sort of term or psychological chart that would say something about him for his ability to see it, but I could care less. He's my little boy. I just love watching him grow and explore his world. I love it most when he shares it with me, as he did this morning. We laid there together for a short while, staring up at the "hand" on the ceiling, each of us holding up our own hands in comparison to it.

One perfect moment. Thank you Jareth. I love you too!

Current Mood: loved

Cleaned Up and Dressed Up...

First, I submit my proof that my 2 1/2 year-old son helped us clean house the day before Thanksgiving!

Brian even showed him how to hold the cord out of the way of the machine with his other hand too! Wow!

Then, Thanksgiving day, both Jareth and Brian got dressed up all spiffy.

And yes, I did crop myself out of that last picture. It was the best shot of the two of them, however MY expression looks somewhat psychotic for some reason! I sense some "editing" that will need to happen before we pop a picture into the yearly newsletter. But my guys look great, don't they? Awwww...

And, again, I wore red. I didn't plan to wear red for the newsletter pictures this year. I always seem to be wearing some version of red in them lately. I wanted to wear blue. But none of the blue stuff I have looked quite the way I wanted it to. So I wore red again this year. *sigh* A closet stuffed full of clothes and nothing to wear. At least, right now, I have an excuse for that - as a lot of my clothes aren't fitting right due to the pregnancy. I've got pregnancy clothes and regular clothes both stuffed in together, since I don't have anywhere to go with the regular clothes for a few months anyway. After the pregnancy, I'll have space in my closet again. And a lot more options for wardrobe.

Okay, that's all for today!

G'night!

Current Mood: pleased

The Future of Blogging in a Snapshot...

I suddenly felt inclined to whip out the camera again today, to capture Jareth. I set up a couple other shortcuts on his computer for him. While he enjoys the other learning game we recently introduced him to, I've also shown him the wonders of "paint" and "wordpad." Today he played with both, not even bothering with the learning game. He giggles something silly when he presses the keys and can recognize some of the letters as they show up on the keyboard. He seems particularly fond of the "W" and presses that one the most. I sense a future blogger in training...

Brian and I have decided that the caption for this one is something along the lines of "Don't worry mom, I'll send you a link when I'm done!" We found ourselves scoping out web domains to see what we might get him when he's old enough to blog himself! Unfortunately, jareth.com is already taken until 2014. Since we're not likely to be able to wait until he is 11 years old before he'll want a domain name, I've scoped out some alternatives. One that Brian thought of has cool potential, but I won't put it here as I wouldn't want anyone to buy it up just to be mean. I'm still trying to decide if we're willing to fork out actual money each year to secure a domain name for a two-year-old. The fact that I'm considering it, however, just goes to show how far down the "geek" path I have ambled.

The other one I liked best of the pics I took today was this one, which I just felt was "whimsical."

Later today we're going to have dinner with Brian's folks, and celebrate Lindsay's birthday finally. Mmmm. Cake. And a welcomed respite from cooking before the huge flurry of it I will need to do next week. Thanksgiving is Thursday and I still don't have a clue how many people will be there yet. *sigh* I guess I'll end up cooking for a horde and then have enough leftovers that my next child will be born sprouting turkey feathers and yam roots. Oof. That would suck, actually. I'm allergic to feathers.

It's unlikely there will be more later, as I still have to finish that project for class (I'm having "sculpter's block"? with the jewelry wax!) and then roll out of bed early tomorrow morning to actually go there.

G'night!

Current Mood: amused

Daddy's Little Boy...

Sometimes, when my son looks at me, he so has his daddy's eyes...

Busy yesterday. Busy today. Maybe I'll find time to blog more later. Who knows.

Later!

Current Mood: loved

Trick-or-Treat!

My little guy went trick-or-treating with his daddy for the very first time today! Previously we've taken him over to see Brian's folks, but we did that yesterday when we joined in their neighborhood's parade. After following the fire engine in a small speed walk parade to the community center there, they had cookies and punch spread out for everyone and a raffle for all the kids to each get a chance to pick a toy off of a big table of stuffed animals and other assorted halloweeny stuff. Jareth got a bear with a sweater on it. We call it the "pumpkin teddy bear" as it's got a pumpkin on the sweater. We're not to good at giving his stuffed critters names apparently, we tend to just call them what they are. This is surprising considering I usually give the Thanksgiving turkey a name, my car usually has a name, and I'm trying to come up with names for the two new spider plants that RainMoon recently gave me that are now happily brightening up my kitchen windows as they dangle just out of kitty-kat reach from hooks in the ceiling. But, see, they aren't my stuffed animals. They belong to Jareth. HE needs to name them. Some things I just don't feel right doing for him.

The picture was taken yesterday, at the playground where the parade participants met. I couldn't resist taking it while it looked like he was in a "cage" on the playground equipment. We took off the bear "feet" as we were afraid he'd slip and wanted to let him play for a bit. He walked for a while, but we were falling way behind so his Grandma carried him for a good majority of the parade. We'd brought the stroller they keep handy for when he's over, but he wanted none of it. Because of Brian's new schedule, we haven't gotten to see his family as often as we used to, so I think Jareth was getting his "gramma fix" on as he kept demanding her over anyone else for most of the time we were there. *grin*

Today we stayed home except for a quick jaunt to the bank and waited for the trick-or-treaters to start coming. I convinced Brian to try and bail out early on work so that Jareth could have a chance to trick-or-treat this year. Otherwise Brian wouldn't have gotten home until it was too late to take him out. They had fun and I guess Jareth did really well at saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at the houses they visited. We did let him pick ONE item out of the bucket after dinner was over (after rifling through and pulling out the stuff he absolutely couldn't have). He picked a Kit-Kat and seemed to like it pretty well. While we had had an "episode" with him during dinner, he was surprisingly good about not getting more after the one little package was eaten. We also got him to pick ones out to share with us as well, which is part of how we intend for it to go away quicker. We'll keep the bucket handy and let him pick each night for a few days more yet before it all will magically disappear (as in mommy and daddy get to finish it off so he doesn't eat all that candy!). Each year we'll let him have more control over it all, but while I do want him to have the occasional sweets so he doesn't binge later in life from deprivation, I don't want him eating them all the time.

We got lots of trick-or-treaters this year, as I even ran out of candy - something which has never happened to me before! At least I didn't run out until late enough that there were probably only a couple more kids who might have come after I turned off the light. It had wound down to a trickle by then.

I think Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's just fun. I look at it as about letting one's imagination run a little wild for the day. What a fun thing. I'm hoping that each year we have kids we get a little more into the decorations and having fun with it. Jareth seemed to get a great kick out of dressing up and romping around as a "teddy bear". I certainly got a great kick out of watching him!

I hope your Halloween was fun and safe! (and full of "loot" too!)

G'night!

Current Mood: quixotic

The Civil War Couple and The Little Bear Go To a Party...

It's been some time since I've dressed up in Civil War period clothes, since we haven't really done much in the way of reenacting in quite a while. But, since we had another shindig.. errr... Halloween party to go to this evening with Jareth, I thought it would be fun if I dressed up for once. I don't know if I'll do it on Halloween itself, but it was fun to do. I may not be very "girly" about stuff, but I do like skirts that spin just right. And big ole' skirts with hoops under 'em spin good. Wheee! *grin*

I have pictures of Jareth and Brian (who also dressed in his Civil War uniform) at the party, although since I'm the shutterbug in the family we didn't get any pictures of me. I haven't gotten to uploading the pics off the camera onto my computer yet, so we'll see if I post any or not once I've done that.

I'm worn out. Lots of food, people, and chaos. I was also on the volunteer group for this party (it was done by the same group that does the summer camp Jareth went to, and that group asks that you volunteer for at least one thing each year in addition to the reasonable dues they require to keep it going), which meant I arrived a bit early to help do the setup. I also helped hand out treats during the "trick or treating" stage at the end of the party, which was fun as it meant I got to see all of the little kids' costumes. I love kids. They are so cute. Some are shy and look at you with big eyes, some run up and demand their god-given candy rights, others wait and scope you out and will reward you with a big, glowing smile if you give them one first. To be honest, I have a far better time relating to the kids than I do the adults. Go figure.

It also looks as if the beef & cheese ravioli crock pot dish we brought went over well, as we brought back only enough in the crock pot for Brian to take a small serving with him to work with lunch tomorrow. I had bought enough to double the recipe, but it wouldn't have fit in the crock pot, so I only made one batch. I'll wait a few days at least before making the next batch though, so we don't get innundated with italian food right off the bat. Just because it was enough as a side dish for maybe 50 people and their kids (although not all of them took some of it, obviously or it would have been scraped clean!) doesn't mean WE won't have to eat it for about 3 - 5 days as a primary dinner. I did have a small helping myself tonight though, and it turned out good. We'd had it before and I hadn't remembered any complaints, but I haven't made it a ton of times so I could only hope it would be well-received.

Anyway, that was the highlight of the day. Another Halloween party for Jareth. This time Brian got to go with us, making it an official "family outing," something we don't get very many of these days with his schedule being as it is. Fun for all, but exhausting too. Time to go tuck the little bear into his bed.

G'night!

Current Mood: good

My Little Guy, and how he came into the world...

I don't like to repeat myself. Alright, let me rephrase that: I don't like to repeat myself too often. I think that's part of why I seem to be skipping down to blogging every other day instead of daily as I was before. I expect that once I have my baby, it will become more often again (assuming I get some sleep here and there) as I will suddenly have much more to blog about as I compare/contrast the two children and my experiences with them as newborns. I'm sure that it will be different with the next child than it was with Jareth. I don't yet know how (obviously), but that's part of the adventure I signed on for. While I keep reminding this new little one to stay inside, as it's not time for it to be born just yet, whenever I feel him/her squirming about in there, I still am already waiting impatiently for the birth to arrive.

Today, while RainMoon and her daughter popped in for a visit, I was showing off some pictures of Jareth when he was just a little bitty newborn. How I already miss those teensy-tiny hands and feet. How small he was! How much he's grown in such a seemingly short time already! Wow! Simply... W O W. I don't think there is a day that goes by that I don't have one point where I just look at my son and smile with pride and amazement. I did that. Brian did that. WE did that together. What an amazing accomplishment we have made. And are still making as we struggle each day to try and raise him as best as we possibly can.

Our little boy. I don't think I've really told the story of how he came into this world. Now's as good a time as any...

He had only just been born in that photo. Not even an hour old and he was already looking around, checking out his world, and practically smiling for the camera! They placed him on my stomach right after he came into the world, and I said my first hello to him. Then, to my dismay, they scooped him off and took him over to check him out and clean him up while I had the unhappy duty of delivering afterbirth. Talk about anti-climactic! "Here's your child, ma'am! Isn't he wonderful? Great, now we'll take him away and you can give us one more push, okay?" I didn't want to push, I wanted them to at least move out of the way more so I could see my new BABY! But I did get to have him back shortly after that photo was taken, once they'd bundled him up in a blanket to help keep him warm. Then I got to snuggle up with him properly for the first time and gaze into my baby's face.

I did, however, hand him over to the nurses in the nursery for a while once we'd left the delivery room and gotten settled into a regular room. I'd pulled an all-nighter to give birth to him and was so exhausted I was afraid I'd either drop him or not hear if he started to cry. Brian, at least, had gotten a brief catnap on one of the chairs, but then he wasn't the one having contractions. He was awake for the back labor though - he wouldn't have lived it down if he'd slept instead of supporting me through that. (for those who don't know - back labor is when the contractions cause the baby's head to hit SLAM up against the laboring mother's spine - mighty painful stuff and the main reason I finally broke down and had the epidural instead of sticking with just the Nubane to take the edge off of the pain)

The labor was really only 11 or 12 hours? I started having contractions in the late evening and Brian got about an hour of sleep before I woke him back up and said it might really be time. We'd had some false labor contractions already, but I was pretty sure that time. The delivering nurse told me on the phone to get something to eat before going to the hospital as I wouldn't get anything else really after I got there. I ate something (don't remember what, but something easy and quick) and grabbed the rest of the stuff on my list for the bag to go with to the hospital. I even put makeup on, which later came back off when they had me take a shower at one point in the bathroom attached to the delivery room. The nurse who delivered Jareth got to go and put makeup on and all that after she was done and there's a picture of her with my son, looking all perfect, while all the pictures of ME look pretty darn crappy with no makeup and having just been through labor and all!

We brought music. Jareth was nearly brought into the world with music from Gladiator playing in the background. Right after he was born, I realized the music had stopped playing at some point since we didn't have our boom box on auto-repeat. That was the last soundtrack playing though. We had brought mostly soundtrack scores and soft, non-lyrical stuff. We were a little distracted to remember to keep it playing during the actual moment of birth, however. It certainly wasn't my responsibility anyway, as I was busy pushing! Brian was busy too, so I just remember that Gladiator was the last disc playing before Jareth was born and all. Interesting that it was that one. Some powerful and beautiful music on that CD. I wonder what the next baby will be born to?

I tried to go with just the Nubane - a drug to take the edge off the pain, but back labor and the fact that one of the hospital nurses was late bringing me my shot made me bail out and finally ask for the epidural. I will make sure that the next time they put the IV in at a separate time. My mother-in-law, who was with us for the birth, had been unaware on just how afraid of needles I really am until that point. I can handle them better when a) it's not an IV - something about those just bug me, and b) I've had a chance to breathe and calm myself in preparation. I didn't get the "b" side of the deal, and therefore went into "panic mode" for the IV insertion. The actual epidural going in was no biggie - it was just a little plastic bit in my back where I couldn't see it anyway, not the big-ass shot they like to show in the movies. But the IV was a problem for me. I was having back labor to begin with and when they decided to come in for the IV, they rolled in and expected to just pop it in right then and be done with it. I asked for a "moment" to breathe and calm down, knowing that I needed to prep myself a bit, but they acted like it was all "now or never" and stuck it in me anyway. I was shaking and in tears and technically THAT was the most traumatic part of the whole childbirth experience. While I know I hurt a lot during the actual pushing, and I remember getting tired and asking if they couldn't just pull him out the rest of the way, it wasn't nearly as difficult for me to get through as that damned IV. I'll be talkin' to someone NEXT time. Oh yes. We do NOT want a repeat of that little "experience."

Once the epidural was in, the RN/midwife gal popped something in my IV to help move the contractions along. I guess I responded to it very well indeed, because actually pushing and delivering the baby only took a little over a half an hour! I can only hope that that part goes as well the next time too.

So that's pretty much the most of the story about Jareth being born. The best thing I remembered to pack in the hospital bag? The two disposeable cameras. I didn't have to worry about losing my own camera, and it meant my mother-in-law took most of the pictures of Jareth right after he was born, including the one above, without me having to explain how a camera worked or anything like that. Totally uncomplicated. While I'll probably pack my digital for some post-delivery pics of my own, I'll definitely get another disposable again.

That's all for tonight.

G'night!

Current Mood: enthralled

Ohhhh... You Meant THOSE "Terrible Twos!"

Well, despite the hope to the contrary, the workbench that RainMoon left me a comment about didn't work out. Because it's going into the family room, when I do find one it will have to be within a certain size range and the one she was getting rid of wouldn't have fit the spot it's got to go. It was certainly worth stopping by and looking at though, if nothing else because it gave me the chance to give RainMoon's daughter some big ole hugs. *grin*

At class tonight, I think I managed to salvage my piece. It seems that most of my problems stem around soldering stuff with that darn "hard solder" that gets used first. In the future, if I know that I'm not going to need to solder anything else after the initial solder, I think I'll start using the medium I used tonight instead. The hard stuff takes forever to melt properly and I think I have a nasty habit of overheating my piece in the process. I'm not the most patient individual in the world sometimes. Guess I'd better work on that more. I thought I was starting to get a knack for it through practice with my son.

Speaking of which, it seems we've hit the "terrible twos" officially. In the past, I figured I was getting off easy, as he's been all but qualifying for sainthood in the "child behavior" realm of things. I also figured it must be something from his father's side as I seem to recall getting yelled at a LOT as a kid myself, although I don't recall doing very many things that would qualify as particularly horrible.

Jareth has recently begun some selective hearing when I tell him to do (or not do) something, and the newest thing is to be standing next to me and then suddenly bolt when I ask him to come with me or to hold my hand. He runs off laughing, as if it's the greatest joke for mommy to chase him down yelling at the top of her voice for him to stop. *sigh* I've obviously been giving him a little more freedom than he's quite ready for, letting him walk beside me in a couple of the stores we go in for quick trips to. Looks like it's back in the cart for this kid. I am not going to risk him running off somewhere that I can't see him. The little guy just doesn't seem to understand when I explain that it's dangerous for him to do that. He's not wanting to hold my hand either lately - something we do when going between the car and the cart. I'm ending up either carrying him if my back is feeling up to it, or getting a firm grip on his wrist and keeping him next to me that way instead. Sometimes, however, if I'm holding him by the wrist, he'll just suddenly sit down like a little lump on the pavement and be totally uncooperative. *groan*

He's also testing us - seeing how much he can get away with before we get mad and actually do something. When we DO discipline him, we either get the "throw myself down on the floor and lay there like a sulking deadweight" act or the "scream and cry in the most ear-piercing manner possible" routine. Neither are pleasant, although the former is far easier to cope with than the latter.

Apparently, Brian had a heck of a time with him at gymnastics class tonight, despite the fact that Jareth spends half the week just waiting to get to go there. Brian says that the class on Thursday nights is bigger and that the size and time of day might be a big part of it, although it seemed as if it was particularly bad tonight. I think we've finally begun those "Terrible Twos" in earnest is all. Jareth has learned how to communicate what he wants to us and he'll be damned if he's not going to GET it too. Hooooo boy.

I'm just glad I'm already pregnant with the next one. Brian has upped the anti on the "two's the limit" for how many kids we should have. He's just not entirely sure he could go through this a third time. But he's already locked into doing it again for the next one. *grin*

And, to think... it's only just begun. Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe it won't last long. Maybe it won't just get worse. I like to think I'm giving Jareth the impression that I'm just as stubborn as he is. I keep telling him that that's where he gets it anyway. I knew my genes would kick in at some point.

Ah, well. One day we'll look back and laugh. Because it will all seem so simple and easy when we're busy going through the "Terrible Teens"...

G'night!

Current Mood: determined

Snuggles and Squishes...

We are totally running late today on getting out to do errands. I think I'm going to have to evaluate how important each errand actually is and decide what can wait until tomorrow at this point.

But I am not at all annoyed by this deviation from schedule. Why?

Because I got to spend nearly an hour being serenaded by my little boy while he snuggled in my lap and intermittently asked for high-fives, tickles, hugs, and "squishes" (extra-tight hugs). I got a couple recordings with my computer microphone of his singing too. I was close to tears with sheer joy just having him there in my arms wanting to spend time snuggling with me. It was one of those precious moments I want to remember forever and was NOT worth interrupting just because I need to run out to the hardware and grocery stores.

Nope, not a chance. These are the moments I'll never get back if I miss them. These are the moments I love most about being a "mommy". He's been one happy little ball of laugh, sing and snuggle today and I just can't bear to disrupt that.

Mmmmm.

G'night!

Current Mood: loved

As Life Doth Spilleth Over...

Today seems to be about things spilling...

This morning, after he'd been sitting there an hour with his breakfast, I asked Jareth why he wasn't eating. It took me a while to figure out, actually, which is something I feel a bit badly about. He kept giving me this look that I couldn't quite interpret, but looking back I'd have to say it was along the lines of bewilderment. He wasn't eating breakfast because he'd thrown up!

At first I saw the small puddle under the high chair and figured one of the cats had puked. The oldest of my two cats is puking occasionally lately, although this was more of a puddle than I'm accustomed to finding with her. Then, upon closer examination, I realized my poor son was sitting stiffly in his high chair, not moving his right arm or leg because they were sticky with puke! Eeeww.

You see he hasn't ever thrown up before. Oh he'd spit up a few times as an infant, but not really hurled before. I'm pretty sure he had no clue what had just happened to him. I tried explaining that he'd "thrown up" and that if it happened again he should let mommy know so I could clean him up. Hopefully he understood me as I went about the task of sopping up the liquidy stuff with paper towels and then using a damp washcloth to wash him, the high chair, and the floor down. Afterwards we took a trip upstairs to fetch some fresh clothes for the poor little guy. He doesn't seem to have a fever. I think something may have just disagreed with him. I kept lunch light and then bulked back up at dinner, and he seems to have no trouble keeping anything else down so it must have been a fluke.

The other spill today involved the bathroom floor downstairs. I believe it was leaking out from underneath either the shower or the toilet. The water seemed clean though, so we're banking on the hopeful idea that it was the shower. Either way, the plumber is coming tomorrow to root out the crap in the sewer again. Seems we need to have that done once a year. Last year we had a wash-out (?) put in outside. A bit of pipe that means they can do the work OUTSIDE of our house instead of coming inside, dragging filthy machinery down my carpeted steps to the basement, PULLING OUT THE TOILET, and then rodding it out via the toilet drain. I think the money spent letting them tear apart my front garden bed and put that ugly white pvc pipe in will start paying off on my nerves tomorrow while they stay out there with their big noisy machine.

Of course, with having to do this every year for just over $100, it makes me wonder how much one of those big ugly machines costs. Except that's yet another thing that I don't want to have to figure out how to store for the REST of the year. I've already got too much crap in my garage.

Fortunately, we got the first paycheck from Brian's new job that had some commission on it today. Which means we can hopefully afford to pay the plumbers too! Yay!!

G'night!

Current Mood: hopeful

There goes the bandwidth for this month...

Today we had the end-of-camp party for Jareth's summer camp group. We all met at a larger park in a nearby town where the group's organizers had reserved space and rented a "bounce house" thing for the kids to jump around in. Everyone brought something to add to the table, and the group provided hot dogs and the remainder of the crafting supplies were brought out for those who missed a craft. We showed up a bit late, as I overslept a bit, but Jareth seemed to not notice and we had a good time. We lined as many kids as we could up on the bleachers for a group picture too:

I've also got an extra gallery set up with the rest of the pictures, located here as some of the other moms didn't have their camera or had a difficult time catching shots. It was tricky, since there was a fence only a few feet in front of the bleachers. I managed to get that shot by holding my camera up in the air and angling it down over the top of the fence from the other side of it. Some other shots where taken right in front of the kids, but you just couldn't get all of them in the frame at the same time without going at it from an angle or somehow behind the fence. There weren't really other good spots to line up the kids though, so we made do with what was available. I think that should be a mom's motto - "we make do with what we've got." Some days can really feel that way.

Of course that means that suddenly my site is getting a slew of hits on the gallery and then some of them will add extra load by saving the pics too. I don't think it will be a big deal, but I've never actually had enough traffic to bother keeping track of my bandwidth. It just means if I have any more gallery images to share with a group of people like that, it might wait until next month just to be safe. That's what I get for going with the inexpensive server host. Although I have to say that cleverdot.com has never been a real problem yet. There are some slow, laggy server times sometimes and the occasional downtime. Usually that means they are upgrading me again, however. I don't mind getting upgraded. *grin* And so far they've been excellent in the customer service area, which is why I link 'em now and again. I'm ALL about getting good customer service.

Today was also Brian's first half-day of work, so we spent most of the afternoon lazing about, enjoying having him around again. It feels like it's been forever since we had any time with him.

That's all for today. I'm going to blow off doing anything remotely constructive to play a computer game while unwinding before bed. Hopefully I can convince my body to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight. I don't have any plans for tomorrow, which means I've got piles and piles of stuff here to tackle.

G'night!

Current Mood: relaxed

Oh CRAP!

I'm a bad, bad mommy. Although it's not entirely my fault, as Brian should have remembered too...

Remember just a couple days ago when I told Jareth that he couldn't go to the other gymnastics class that he saw going on while we were there, but that we'd be back for HIS GYMNASTICS CLASS ON SATURDAY?!?

Oh crap. I totally forgot. Last night, I went to bed thinking "Awesome, I don't need to set an alarm or anything for tomorrow morning. We can stay in all day!"

In fact, I didn't remember until Brian got home tonight and mentioned that he remembered it himself on the way to work this morning at about the point it would have been too late for me to get up and get there in time.

Oh.. and it WAS the last class of this session too. My poor little guy now has to wait until the next session starts on September 8th.

DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT! BAD mommy! NO BISCUIT!

I feel so bad. I partly blame Brian's new schedule. I have to work hard to just remember what day of the week it is anymore with him working Saturdays. And this weekend is totally screwy as he's working Sunday too, for the RV show.

*sigh*

I know that someday I will be reprimanded for the expensive therapy bills my son will have to pay because his mommy couldn't get it together enough to remember his last two sessions of gymnastics class in August while he was two.

I guess next time I'll be putting it into the PDA even though it's Brian's thing to take him to and not my own. At least by that time I'll be in classes, so if nothing else that will help me keep track of which day of the week it is.

Ah, well... it will all come together in the end. I'm going to have to take him out somewhere now to make up for it though. Maybe tomorrow I'll take him to the park or something. We'll see.

G'night!

Current Mood: distressed

My Little Trooper...

I have to feel bad for my kid today. First I tell him we're going to "camp" which he enjoys so very much. Then, after I had rolled my sorry ass out of bed early so that he could go to camp, as we're putting his shoes on to leave - it starts raining.

Normally I love rain, but today it wanted to work against us.

I took him by camp to see if anyone else had come, but I wasn't suprised that there was no one else there. After that, we ran errands. One of them involved going to get him signed up for the next session of his gymnastics class. He enjoys that one a lot, as it's all about jumping and tumbling and climbing. He's almost got jumping down. He was practicing tonight and got a teensy bit of lift anyway. His current class is about to end and then there will be a couple of weeks break before the next session starts. I've signed him up for Thursday evenings so that Brian can take him to that again. Brian got a kick out of taking him for most of this session, and he's already going to be doing half days of work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that I can go to jewlery class starting at the end of the month. So Thursdays dinner will be early and then they can go to Jareth's class while I go to mine.

The problem was, while we were there - there was another gymnastics class in session. Jareth pretty much only goes to that building for his class, and on top of that he could SEE them in the gym, tumbling and climbing and jumping... I tried to explain that that was a different class and that we'd be back for his class on Saturday, but he's TWO! C'mon, this kid's sense of time is lacking in any real depth of measurment here. I can tell him something is "tomorrow" and he'll still ask me five minutes later if it's time to go.

Needless to say there were tears shed as I took him by the hand and led him away from the class, back to the car. Poor guy. Double whammy of disappointment and then I follow it up with a trip to the grocery store. I'm a bad, bad mommy sometimes... *pout*

Although I did introduce him to the joys of Starburst this evening. I was hesitant, as he's not really been given anything quite that sticky-chewy to eat before, but he seemed to enjoy it considerably. But, no - I generally do NOT bribe my child with sweets. Fruit, on the other hand, is fair game. Right? Mmmmm.

This kid is totally benefitting off of his mommy's cravings lately. But knowing I have to either share with him or eat it furtively while he's sleeping is at least keeping my own sweets intake down to somewhat minimal. That's something anyway. I'm trying to keep eating healthy and indulge my cravings in small doses now and again. Unless the craving happens to be a healthy one. At which point all bets are off. *grin*

G'night!

Current Mood: indescribable

Things that go WHOOOOOOOOMMMP!

If there's anything that terrifies my little boy the most, it's the lights suddenly going out. At about 8:45pm last night, half the neighborhood lost power. All of a sudden, the whole house made this sort of WHOOOOOOOMMMMP kind of noise and we were suddenly blanketed over in darkness and silence. Three computers ground to a halt. The fountain and lights in the iguana cage stopped working. Three fans across the house stopped spinning. Lights everywhere winked off, along with the fridge, the clocks, two-thirds of our phones (there's a reason the bedroom has never bothered going cordless too and this was it!), the vcrs, the satellite receiver, and all the little night-lights I have strategically around to keep us from tripping at night. Oh. And the air conditioning turned off, along with the loud fan that distributes it throughout the house.

There was this moment of utter silence while Jareth and I both processed what had happened. I still had one hand resting on the mouse as I'd been browsing a web site. Jareth had been standing next to my chair, still totally distracting me from the web site after having climbed down off my lap where we'd been "snuggling" (read "tickling and squirming with the occasional hug or kiss thrown in for good measure").

Then the dam broke and his little terrified voice piped up with his fears. I was really glad he happened to be right there as it would have taken me a bit to find him. I scooped him up and started fumbling for the Aim 'n Flame I keep handy. Fortunately it was exactly where I had thought I kept it, and I lit candles with one hand while holding my little clinging boy in the other and saying soothing things to try and help him get past his fear.

Thus, last night, he really and truely learned the word "dark".

Basically, as I was getting the first few candles lit, is when Brian finally came in the door after having been gone for two days. Go figure. Then we had to figure out how we could put Jareth to bed. I called the electric company and got an estimated repair time of 10:45pm - far, far too late to keep Jareth up waiting for his nightlight to come back on. He's not quite alright with sleeping in the total dark, so we finally found a battery-operated light that we have and put it up against the wall so it wouldn't be TOO bright. Poor kid was very confused.

The lights came back on early though, so Brian ended up trying to slip back in and retrieve the battery light to save on it's batteries. Which resulted in a short spat of renewed tears from Jareth who didn't want to go to bed in the first place.

Yeah, kid. I know... life's rough ain't it? Having to do all that "bedtime" stuff and all? Whatever! Man, do I ever wish he could bottle up all that extra naptime he doesn't take now and pop them open as "naptime opportunities" for later in life when he'll need them. I know I could use some extra "naptime opportunities" about now. *yawn*

As for today, we had camp, errands, naptime (for me too today) and then dinner. My sister joined us for dinner tonight and brought over some Eli's Bailey's cheesecake for dessert (mmmm) as well as some of a dessert she made that I got to sample but Brian ate most of as it was laced with actual alcohol. She's left me with the recipe and I plan to tamper with it further once I'm not pregnant. *grin* I'm not going to get to see much more of her for a while though as she heads back off to college on the 15th, although she's coming back one weekend a week to keep her job at Ikea (we pronounce it "icky-ah" in our house) so she can keep her seniority there.

Oh yeah... I just remembered the other thing I wanted to blog about tonight. The bitch I saw endangering her child today. *puts on her best dragon glare* This woman was either oblivious or didn't care that her child was half hanging out the window at the back seat behind her while she drove along at 45+ miles per hour on a busy road! The kid had his arms crossed on the door and was leaning waaaaaay out like a dog might! He either didn't have his seat belt on or it wasn't fastened properly to be allowing him to lean out like that. He may have been just old enough to not legally need a booster seat in the car anymore, but COME ON! One little accident, even just a fender-bender, and that kid could have been TOAST! I was horrified. I even tried waving at the mother in the front seat and stuff, doing all but rolling down my window and honking my horn, but she was totally focused on the road ahead of her and noticing nothing!

Is there something I can do about this woman? Report her to someone? I did get the make, color, and license plate off her car and I might go over to Roadragers.com and put a report there, but that's supposed to be for bad driving (like the guy that went up onto the curb just to try to get around me as I waited to go around another guy making a left the other day - I got his plate number too, as he had also been tailgating me even though I couldn't go any faster than the traffic in front of me!) and not for bad parenting. Arrrgh. It looked like there was another kid in that car too. I hope she isn't that negligent in all her parenting!

Okay, enough ranting, I'm tired. I'm going to wind down a little and try to get to bed early tonight. I've not been sleeping well lately at all.

The good news? I think the nausea I've been having is finally starting to let up. Maybe. At least that's my fervent hope.

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

It was a busy day today. The good news is that the digestion problems I was having seem to have finally subsided. The bad news is that the nausea I was having seems to be specifically from the pregnancy. Eeep. I'm finding that snacking on whatever I can find that doesn't seem utterly revolting to me every couple of hours seems to help.

I had another pregnancy test at a doctor's office today. Yep - still pregnant. Heh. But now I've got a list of names for OB-GYN doctors to choose from. Today's doctor estimated that I'm anywhere from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 months along. Which was not much of a surprise, that's around where I was estimating too.

Already like a third of the way through. *boggle*

We were at the doctor's long enough, filling out paperwork to get me covered through the goverment system stuff since I have no insurance, that we didn't make it over to the Algonquin Founders Day festival I was hoping to check out. I was mostly wanting to see the farmer's market/bazaar stuff to check out what kind of jewelry vendors they had. Gotta scope out the competition for when I start getting enough together to qualify as an actual inventory. By the time we got out of the doctor's though, I needed to eat something and it would have only left us with a half hour of time at best to see the vendors. Also, I wasn't about to pay to get in and only spend a half hour there.

Instead, we took Jareth to the park for a while...

He can go down slides on his own now. It's sooooo cute. He scooches on his butt for several feet just to get to the edge of the slide and start scooching forward to go down. It makes me giggle to watch.

I was clutching my sides at another antic today though... Jareth likes to say "water, water, water" when we are filling cups from the spigot on our fridge. Today, while he was in the bathroom with Brian (which we encourage right now as we are working on the potty training thing) in the background of Brian's "tinkling" in the toilet I hear Jareth's little voice saying "water, water, water..."

I totally get where that connection came from, but he'll just have to understand that daddy is not available to refill his sippy cup. Bleh!

That's all for now!

G'night!

Current Mood: amused

Poolboy in training...

As promised, a picture from the pool in the back yard yesterday:

That's all for now though. I have tummy troubles today and they seem to be getting progressively worse as the day continues. I hope it's just something I ate disagreeing with me and not me coming down with something. Urg. Been nauseous at the very least all day long. *hurk*

G'night!

Current Mood: nauseated

These eyes...

From the playground today, my ever curious little guy...

I'm lost in those precious eyes.

G'night!

Current Mood: busy

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

Today, Jareth discovered one of the benefits to having his "big boy" bed. When I went in to get him, he was kneeling on his pillow, holding the curtain to one side so he could peer out the window.

"Rain!" he told me, pointing. "Rain!"

I sat and watched with him as he said "Rumble, rumble, rumble" (although, honestly it comes out more like "rummle, rummle, rummle" most of the time) when the thunder rumbled overhead. He also pointed at my car parked in the driveway and informed me confidently that it was a "car." I nodded my head and explained:

"Yep. That's mommy's car."

"Mommy's car," he solemnly repeated, nodding his head.

For a while, we just sat there and watched the rain.

My little guy. Staring out the window, enthralled by watching the rain to the point that he forgot that mommy had overslept some so he hadn't had his breakfast yet. He is SO my little boy. When he went downstairs he pointed and insisted I immediately open the drapes so we could watch the rain there too. (although it did take me a minute to figure out what "dapes" actually meant. The pointing helped.)

It had stopped raining by the time we had to go outside though, so no dancing in it for us today. Oh well. Maybe next time.

G'night!

Current Mood: enthralled

And now for something completely... not really different, nor surprising.

I've finally set up a Gallery for my images. Right now it's a bit messy in there, as the gallery can't seem to figure out that all the pictures weren't actually uploaded to my server on the same date, but no guarantees on when it will get cleaned up. In the meantime, the images will now go into there too, until I figure out all the little nuances to using it. Right now it should contain most of the pictures that I've put up on this blog so far. A couple got left out on purpose, but only because they weren't pictures I took, but stuff I referenced from the web.

I've got one from today too... My little playground zombie:

Brian's got news, but I won't spoil it. I'll make y'all wait in anticipation. Maybe it'll give him a few extra hits on his blog this week. *grin* I expect he'll also be blogging about a friend of his as well, since he hadn't seen the friend in years and years until we had dinner with him tonight, as he was in the area. I thought the guy was nice. He and his wife have seven kids and an eight on the way! Egads! *clutches abdomen* I think NOT for this girl! I might be able to picture having one or two more than the two we've planned on having, but the jury is still out on whether or not we will even try for more after the one I'm carrying. Most certainly not EIGHT !!! I think while we were in the motorhome we once discussed what would happen if we had just six (since a couple parked near us somehow had six kids packed into their motorhome with them!). We determined we would lose one. In fact we both looked at each other and simultaneously said the following:

"Okay kids... where's Jimmy?"

Thus, we have not only resolved to never have as many as six children, but we have also resolved to NEVER, EVER, name a child "Jimmy" as we would most assuredly LOSE THAT CHILD! Eek!

Which just gave me an interesting thought - if we really, really, really can't find a way to handle the pregnancy financially, didn't someone auction off the right to name their child on e-bay? Maybe we could...

No. Nevermind. I do NOT have enough faith in mankind to put the naming of my unborn child up for sale. I'd end up with a "Francis Weiner" for a boy or "Lucy Panties" for a girl with my luck. *runs off shuddering to clean her mind out with soap*

G'night!

Current Mood: nerdy

Those Bedtime Blues...

Bedtime went well enough last night. He was tired out enough from a busy day of camp and errands, and the flurry of excitement and activity that went into putting up his new bed. He did cry for a short while, but then seemed to sleep fine in his new big bed.

Naptime today, on the other hand, was a screaming, banging, unhappy adventure. I tried putting him down when I knew he was ready for a nap, but he just wanted me to stay up there and play with him. The first time I gave him the option of napping or coming back downstairs with me. He didn't want to come downstairs, so I plopped him down on his bed, said g'nap, and left the room.

He did NOT like that at ALL!

I eventually caved and let him come downstairs again and play for a while more. Then it was naptime for sure, so I took him up there again.

Let's just say he was less than exemplary this time too.

The bouts of screaming and banging his little knuckles on the door hoping I'd come back lasted about 10 minutes at a time. In between, I could hear his feet banging on the floor as he ran around playing. Then he'd remember again and repeat the process. I clocked him doing that for a good hour before he seemed to settle down. I think he got an hour's nap, maybe an hour and a half at best, but I wouldn't count on it.

I think this "big boy bed" thing will take some slight adjustments on his part. I was firm though. I had the temptation to put him in the crib for his nap, but it helped that we have kind of blocked of the crib with a small bookcase until we can take it down. Maybe tomorrow will go better. At least bedtime tonight seems like it wasn't too bad. *knocks on wood*

That's all for now. It's SciFi Friday again. Which means I've got a decision to make. Either I'm about to watch another episode of a new season of shows I like, or I'm about to go get "grown-up" with my husband. I know, I know... just because we've already gotten me knocked up doesn't mean we still can't have some fun! And the episode is being recorded for us too, just in case we were to have a big interruption while watching it. I mean c'mon! Rwar!

Feel free to take bets on which one it's gonna be. *wicked grin*

G'night!

Current Mood: horny

Ralph's World, No Lions, No Tigers, Bears POOPING, and Butterfly PORN! Ohhhhh MY!

So today we hit Brookfield Zoo, as we'd found out through the Ralph's World newsletter that there would be a performance there today. Since Brian has been missing out on quite a few "firsts" lately (first trip to the pool, for example), so we decided that the first trip to a real zoo (Randall Oaks Barnyard Zoo notwithstanding) would be something that he'd be involved in. Timing for a super fun day intact, we loaded the "big stroller" into the back of my car and hit the road.

I'd say we left nice and early, but then I'd be lying. I'm having a terrible time sleeping lately, even with the nice hepafilter thingy screening out the allergens through the air conditioning. There IS this naggling part of me that is tempted to take a pregnancy test and check on that, since I had considerable sleep issues during the last pregnancy. But I'll wait at least a week before I start ripping open the box. I'm not late yet. Technically.

Anyway, I didn't get to sleep until about 3am and then got something less than 4 hours before it was time to get up. Which basically meant it was actually next to impossible for anyone - alarm clock, Brian, OR my son - to manage to convince my sleepy, sorry ass that I should get out of bed. I was totally out of it and by the time we left the house we were already running a couple hours later than we intended. We got to the zoo in time to catch lunch before the Ralph's World show started. We watched most of the show before we figured we'd better hit some of the zoo too, before Jareth started getting antsy for the lack of nap today.

I haven't been to the zoo in a long while. Some mental calculations makes it probably about 15 years. It's changed a bit. But word to the wise - don't buy food at the bigger food "cafes" and such. Stick to the ice cream and soda and pack a cooler for everything else. Zoo food still sucks. Maybe not quite as bad as I remember it, but I could still smell 15 years ago... eww.

As for the title... Suffice it to say that we never actually got to the area that had the lions and tigers, nearly every single bear I tried to take pictures of moved to a better location for me to take a picture but then turned its butt towards me and promptly began taking a SHIT! I managed to not get mid-turd pictures, or piles of steaming turd for that matter, but I did get one LOVELY shot of a bear mid-stream pissing just prior to taking it's dump. Don't worry. I'll share. Promise. *murderous grin*

The Ralph's World show rocked. Literally, since he does quite a few tunes in a very rock 'n roll style. I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone with a kid or more over the age of two. Jareth is only just beginning to be ready for this kind of stuff as it is. He clapped at the end of songs when he saw others clapping, and I think I caught him tapping his foot once although I can't guarantee he wasn't just mimicking me. He does love music though, and was pretty content despite the gazillion-degree temperature when the tent was packed. We weren't able to get incredibly close to the stage though, so I don't think he was totally aware of where the music was coming from. Ralph likes to bring the crowd into it, so there's more commentary than you hear on his CDs. I suspect Jareth just thought I was playing a different "mix" of the usual stuff is all. The original Ralph's World CD is one of the standbys that I keep handy in the car for when I'm wanting something fun with lyrics that I'm willing to let my kid listen to. I'm very picky about what goes in the car with me, and that's one of three CDs in the 10-slot pouch that has Ralph on it. The other two are from some of the other music Ralph has done. I think he's actually only competing with three other discs that stay perpetually in the car. The other slots rotate around or stay empty.

Of the zoo stuff I think my favorite stuff that we had the time to see was the wolf exhibit and the butterfly exhibit. There was also an interactive family area that Jareth loved and where they had several small animals available for petting (hampster, baby guinea pig, & bunnies). Both the butterfly thing and the family thing cost extra but were well worth it. The "children's zoo" cost extra as well, but half the animals were hiding from the heat and the other half were less than enthusiastic about being out in it. We had bought a package where we chose three things out of the "paid exhibits" vs. the whole zoo access package or the zoo admittance only ticket which would have meant paying for the rest individually. They also had a dolphin show and a safari ride (read open bus tour of the zoo with narration) that we could have bought but didn't worry about. Jareth just saw the dolphins recently anyway, and tours like that are usually about as exciting as the monotone voice of the poor employee having to repeat it for each and every ride all day long.

The wolf habitat was really cool. I think I managed to get some really neat pictures too, despite the distance between them and us. They've got a really big area to roam in compared to most of the exhibits it seems. And much more natural-seeming than some of the other areas too. There were three of them that we saw (I'm not sure how many they have there) lounging at the top of a hill and watching the people watching them.

An interesting thing I learned today - when wolves are howling, they will each howl differently. If two wolves start on the same key, one will change to a new one. Apparently a pack of 6 to 8 wolves wants to sound like a pack of 6 to 8 wolves - that way their enemies know that it's more than just a couple and will keep their distance. There was a darkroom with blacklights and "stars" on the ceiling where you could stand and listen to a recording of wolves howling together. It was cool. After we'd gotten home and eaten dinner, we all started howling after talking about the wolves again. Howling in my own kitchen, I picked a different note to howl on to help keep my neighbors at bay. I suppose it might have been more effective had we been in the backyard...

I found myself especially entranced by the butterflies. I've got some phenomenal pictures from that exhibit - a large netted tent filled with a flower garden and a path and a bunch of butterflies flying freely about. They have two small buildings you have to go through - one on the way in and one on the way out - to help make sure they lose as few butterflies as possible on people's clothing or from people holding doors open for too long. We didn't have any land on us, but I was like a kid running after them and snapping as many pictures as possible. I expect they might unbalance it a little when I put the collage together tomorrow. It would take me too long to do tonight, so I'll wait to do my usually "event collage" of pictures sometime tomorrow after I've slept. It will look better that way. I've also got a picture of two butterflies mating. Can you think of reasons we didn't worry so much that we never got to the monkey exhibit? Hmm? *click-click*

Here's something I've noticed about myself lately - I hate bugs when they are in my house. I can't wait to have them bodily removed dead or alive if I find them invading my home. But if I find them in the wild or a situation like a zoo? I can't wait to slip my camera into "macro mode" and start getting close-ups of their little feelers and antennae. Go figure. So far my favorite subjects aside from my kid are plants and bugs. *rolls eyes* Is there some bug magazine I could get a job with? Except then I might have to be around lots of bugs and I'm not so sure about that... Maybe a plant magazine would be better. I got some flower pictures today too.

Anyway. I'm pooped, tired, shattered, wrecked, and any other word you can come up with to describe the total and utter exhaustion that comes from taking one's two-year-old to the zoo. With no nap. And less sleep for ME than I ought to have had the night before such an event. On that note...

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

An Answer Found & Some Allergies Refreshed...

Okay, first off, whomever first said "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" was obviously just trying to sell more apples! I mean geez - I have the air turned back off and the windows open for less than 24 hours and already my allergies have returned full-force. My eyes water, my nose burns, my ears are damp and itchy, I'm sneezing like crazy, and my throat aches as the day wears on. Oh joy. If it weren't for the cost factor and the fact that I LIKE having the house all opened up and airy-feeling, I'd turn the damned air back on even though it is currently getting cooler at night that I'd even set the thing for.

Does it sound crazy for me to wish for that 90 to 100 degree weather to come back now? *sigh* It's been too gorgeous out for my health to handle.

I SO need to get out of this area. I may have to get one of those counters that counts down to a point when we can start seriously considering moving out of our current house. That's the point when we can start honestly picking a location to move. In the meantime (about two years or so) however, I need insurance again so I can pinpoint exactly which plants should NOT be growing within a 100-mile-radius of whatever spot we move to.

*grumble, mumble, whine, complain, blow nose again*

In other news, I finally figured out why my son started saying "thank you" every time he hands something to someone. He's imitating us. As in the following:

Person #1: "Hey, hon? Could you rinse my dish off while you're standing at the sink?"

Person #2" "Yeah, sure."

*One person hands the plate to the other one*

Person #1: "Thank you."

He's seen exchanges like that enough times that I think he picked that up as the rule. In trying to correct him on it, I've now confused him - he says "thank you" any time he gives and receives things now! LOL!

We'll get him sorted out eventually. But now it's time to go tuck him into bed.

G'night!

Current Mood: sick

Welcome To The Pool

RainMoon and her daughter have gotten themselves a season pass to hang out at the pool this summer. So last night she suggested that Jareth and I go with them today. I haven't bought a season pass yet as I wasn't sure just how well Jareth was going to handle the pool after his terrified reaction to the spray park we went to.

I never got around to blogging it, I don't think, but he spent the entire time we were there either in my arms or frantically waving his arms at me until I picked him back up again. He wanted nothing to do with the various fountains, sprinklers, and misters they had going. He wanted nothing to do with the sand area either. It did not bode well for us making any plans to hit the pool on a regular basis this week.

But let me start at getting to the pool first. *sigh*

[/begin rant mode]

So I arrive at the pool, already running a little later than I had planned. But RainMoon had called me and knew I'd be a couple minutes late, so no big deal. I gather up all the crap from the car, slinging bags over my shoulder until one arm hangs down where I could drag my fingernails along the ground as we go. Then I haul Jareth out of his car seat, lock the car, and grab his hand with my barely free one - thus completing the hunchback monkey image with the small exception of the noises. Those come later.

Now keep in mind - I'd had no caffeine by this point in the day yet. It was not hugely early (11:00am), but I just hadn't had time to pop open a can of eye-opening bliss to get me going. That, and the amount of overpacking I always do, and the fact that I had a kid in tow - well, just bear all that in mind when you read the next bit...

I get to the door and the guy asks me how old my kid is. I say "two" and he tells me that Jareth is free of charge. He then asks if I've got a specific swim diaper for him.

I should have just lied and said yes. Silly me always has to be honest about every damned thing. And somehow it always seems to get me into trouble. Every. Damned. Time.

Instead, I said, "oh, he's got swim diaper on."

"As long as it's not the Huggies ones," poolguy says. (note that he's poolguy and not poolboy. Poolboys are cute, not rude, and supposedly good for throwing down and having your wicked way with. If I ever actually meet a poolboy I'll be sure to let you know. Privately. *wicked grin*)

"Well, actually, yeah - it is that kind," I stupidly reply.

That resulted in them telling me I could not take him inside until I purchased their specific type of $6.00 swim diaper thing that they just happen to have for sale right there at the admissions office. Because they've had "problems" with the Huggies ones leaking.

*sigh*

And, of course, I don't have the extra six bucks in my wallet. And they will NOT allow me to let my friend know what the hell is going on that is delaying me so much. They smugly tell me that there is an ATM at the gas station next door.

Which there is, but it wants $1.95 extra for the