Will's Halloween Past

Happy Halloween from our family to yours!  This year Will's going to be a pirate.....a scary pirate! 

From Halloweens past, starting with last year.

Halloween 2008:  Dressed up as a monkey at the playgroup's Halloween Party.  We went trick-or-treating for the first time and he loved it.  :)

Halloween 2007:  Our little cowboy had just turned one year old!  Daddy brought him to a Halloween party at Mommy's work.  The residents at the elderly housing complex all oohed and ahhed.....

Halloween 2006:  Ten-day old Will in his fine Halloween PJ's.  He celebrated with Mommy and Auntie Tracy by snoozing while we handed out candy.  What a cute lil' pumpkin!

Wordless Wednesday: Painting and Phantoms

The Toy War

Every parent faces it, cringes when walking into the room, curses over the tripping over it, and secretly thinks of putting them out for the trash.  Yep, I'm talking about toys.  TOYS!!!  They're the bane of our existence.  Don't get me wrong....we love our kids and want them to have toys and to be happy.  But you watch them slowly take over your house, rendering you powerless.  You try to fight back, get rid of some of them or at least put half of them away to be switched out later.  Ever try to do that with your toddler present?  HA!  Half of what you box up ends up getting trotted back out when your back is turned.  You start to dread Christmas and any other gift-giving occasions.  If the influx of new toys doesn't get you, the overabundance of packaging will surely do you in.  My basement looks like a cardboard recycling plant!

With Will's birthday being last Wednesday, it's been a week of endless party!  (Again, Happy Third Birthday, Sweetheart!)  We hosted a birthday party yesterday that was a huge success, with pizza, cake and a pinata.  Will received some lovely gifts and I am fortunate to have great friends.  In cleaning up the house during Will's naptime today, Brian and I tag-teamed the family room together.  Toys everywhere!  (Lots of happy kids yesterday at our house)  So, in our united front with about two hours before Will gets up, we waged war at the toys.  Brian filled bins and brought them to me at the couch (no crawling on the floor for me these days) and I sorted them in the "keep", "put away" and "trash" piles.  "Keep" was sorted back into the empty bins and toy boxes.  "Put away" was stashed in boxes and traipsed down to the basement for Will's little brother to play with later, or to be switched around with "keep" stuff later.  And trash well, was trash. 

Some of the things in those bins were interesting finds!  For example, LOTS of sandbox toys and other outside toys made it into the house that we didn't even realize.  We sent a big pail back out to the shed filled with shovels, balls and bubble wands.  Another big pail of bath toys went back to the bathroom.  Other odd non-toy finds:  Mom's hairclips, TV remote, lint roller....  Other things that are definitely Will's but won't be stored in toys anymore:  finger paint and playdough.  Especially playdough, our vacuum doesn't like picking it out of the rug! 

By the time Will had gotten up from his nap, Mommy and Daddy had completed their task and were pleased with their (temporary) victory.  We opened up birthday presents and put them away to be played with.  And celebrated by painting with Will at the newly de-cluttered table and chair set.  Wahoo!!!  Let's see how long it stays that way. 

Stashin' Fool

With Baby #2 making his debut in January and it being the end of October, I've finally gotten serious about cleaning out that back bedroom this week.  (Hey, I work well under pressure.)  The supply closet that held all my craft supplies has been packed up, and the cabinet was given away on Freecycle.  (Without incident, I might add!)  I redecorated a bit in our bedroom for free by reusing the IKEA duvet that was in the spare room, hanging some pictures from there and putting my collection of porcelain shoes on the dresser.  Next up is getting rid of the full bed by freecycling the headboard, footboard and rails.  (the mattress and boxspring are destined for the dump)  NO, I'm not going to attempt to do this myself at seven months pregnant.  Not only for reasons of pregnancy and sciatica by itself, but I have a bit of shortness of breath going due to the baby smacking himself into my diaphragm, making my lung capacity smaller and deep breaths not really attainable.  Me moving the bed would make quite a spectacle, get me breathing like a Janet Jackson track.  ("Control," anyone?)

In my attempt to become organized, I tossed all of my yarn into a laundry basket.  Holy crap...that sucker was full to the brim!  Now....how do I store this, and how do I know in the future what I already have so I don't buy more?  (Ha ha, like I'll stop buying more.  Sorry, Brian.)  We made a family trip to Walmart and I found some great storage containers with wheels that fit perfectly under the computer desk.  I'm SO glad I came home with two of them, because it was necessary.  I spent about an hour entering them in my "stash" on Ravelry.com.  Ravelry is a cool community of knitters and crocheters, where you can see what your friends are working on, browse patterns and show your own work.  The patterns are searchable, and one such filter is to use yarn from your "stash." So I believe this will be worth it in the end.   Or, at least I have the delusion of believing that I will be organized.  I'll hold onto my hopes.  :)

Happy Birthday to You, Will!

Dearest Will,

Happy Third Birthday!  I cannot believe how big a boy you are getting to be.  I love having conversations with you and watching your wheels turn as you discover new things in your world!  I am in awe as you want to do everything "by yourself!" but still want me to read you stories and snuggle with you at bedtime.  You are Mommy and Daddy's pride and joy. 

This next year is going to be very special.  You will become a big brother, you'll go to school to learn stuff with other kids, and lots of other exciting stuff.  We can't wait to see what's in store!  Happy Birthday today, and always.  We love you!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

 Will's 2 year portrait

 

 Thanksgiving, 2007

 

 Playing at Toby's house, February 2008

 

Daddy and Will, Christmas Eve 2006

Another Birthday :)

Happy Birthday, Kim!!

In honor of your special day, let's turn the camera on the photographer...

Overwhelm Much??

I think that I need a personal assistant.  Yep, that's exactly what I need. 

How much stuff can you cram into one month???  Family gatherings, FOUR birthday celebrations (and two of them are for your child!)  the dog needs a vet appt and a separate appt for bloodwork the week before, a wellness visit for your kid, gestational diabetes tests and Halloween??  Those are just the big things, there are like a hundred little things to go along with that.  Not to mention that I have a Palm Pilot cram-jammed with work crap as well....housing court appearances, paperwork deadlines....blahblahblah. 

Usually I'm really good about writing things down on the calendar but I forgot Will's annual physical...you KNOW it's the same day as the dog's bloodwork, and the day before the 3hr diabetes test and the furnace appt.  So that's at least a full day of work off between the two.  Augh! 

I'm very much looking forward to November.  There's nothing much on the calendar....yet!

Wordless Wednesday: Love you THIS MUCH!!

Baking with My Boy

Since I had the day off from work today, it was time to do something fun!  I was on Facebook this AM and Will saw a friend of his in a picture, putting red sprinkles on a cake that his mom had baked.  I had discovered a package of sugar cookie mix in the waay back of my cabinet and it expires in a couple of weeks, so let's get crackin'!

Nope, not a chance.  I thought that he'd be sooooo into it, but he wasn't.  He liked playing with the cookie cutters, but kept saying he was too little to bake cookies.  So I baked them, and he helped frost them and sprinkle them with colorful sprinkles. Fun accomplished!

Watching the mixer doing its job.

 

 Well, somebody has to count the magnets on the fridge!

 

 Strategic placement of the sprinkles

 

 Cheese!!

 

Cute taste testers needed in our test kitchen

Our finished product

Greatest Show on Earth!

Will, Brian and I went to the circus today.  I hadn't been in about ten years, and this was Will's first time going.  What a great show!!  I bought discount tix a couple of months ago and our seats were great...close to the front.  Clowns, music, trapeze artists, elephants, tigers, motorcycles!!  And a whole lot more.  Sometimes I found it a little overwhelming to pay attention to everything that was going on at once, but Will's eyes shone the whole time.  I'm worn out!  He's still going strong though, with no nap.  How does he do it??

If you get a chance to go to the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, you should!   Fairly cheap, and VERY entertaining!

My Brother is Officially Old!

Oh wow....my brother is turning 30!  How the heck did that happen?? 

Happy Birthday!  Hope you have a fabulous day, followed by many more.  We love you!

Thank Goodness for Holiday Weekends!

Whew!  This week has been a long one.  I haven't been this glad to see a Friday in a long time! And the weekend's going to be a busy one, but with fun stuff.  Tonight, Brian and I have a sitter (Nana and Papa) so we can go out and have a nice anniversary dinner alone.  Then tomorrow my brother is turning 30, and his wife is throwing him a party!  It's not a surprise, and it's going to be a great time.  Maybe Will will see his latest "girlfriend!"  Then on Sunday, we're going to the circus.  Will's first circus  :) 

I temporarily forgot that Monday was a holiday.  Yessssss.  Clearly I need it!  Not sure what we're going to do with the day, but it doesn't matter.  Hooray for days off!

Unfriendly Freecycle

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been putting a lot of items on Freecycle this week.  I love Freecycle!  And it's really helping me in cleaning out the back bedroom and getting ready for baby.  So far I've gotten rid of a nightstand and some craft supplies.  Then I had a lady no-show on a bulletin board.  I just KNEW it was going to happen, she was pretty wishy-washy in her emails so there's one more person that has my address for no apparent reason.  (Grrrr)  So last night I re-posted the bulletin board.

I logged into my email later to see if there were any takers and I had an email from one of the Freecycle moderators.  It said that I made an "inappropriate post" and listed all of the posts that I had put there since the end of September.  Huh??  When I think of "inappropriate" posting, I'm picturing rough language or something.    I emailed to get clarification and was told that I had to wait two weeks before re-posting something.    I got b*%ch slapped by a moderator!  Why would I want to wait two more weeks to get rid of something??  I'm on deadline here, people!   And I really don't need one more thing in my life to keep track of.  I then checked out the "before you post" section.  Apparently there are a lot of rules to break for a simple service of offering/requesting items for free.  If it wasn't such a good service, I'd send another email to say that their policy was mundane.  But it's not worth it.  *BREATHE.*

Not-So-Wordless -Wednesday: Happy Anniversary!

Today is our Ninth Wedding Anniversary!!

I love you, LB....

Baby Memories

With all of the hustle and bustle around here, I haven't thought a lot about what things are going to be like when the baby arrives.  I mean sure, I've thought of the sleep deprivation, and labor and delivery, stuff like that.  I've thought about getting things ready for his arrival.  But there's a million little things I haven't thought of, and won't until something reminds me of them.

With Brian away, I'm up to my old tricks of staying up too late.  Last night, after switching around laundry, doing dishes and FINALLY packing up my obligatory two boxes of stuff from the guest bedroom and posting a bunch of freecycle stuff, I settled down in front of the TV for last week's Grey's and working on the new baby's cross-stitch birth record.  Then still feeling restless, I cracked open a book  (Sookie Stackhouse "Living Dead in Dallas," anyone?)  I then realized that I was paying dearly for the amount of work I had put in with the freakin' sciatica.  I opened the nightstand for some Tylenol and spied an old diary.

Now, I kept a diary for most of my teenage years and probably for a little of college too.  This is one that I started like three or four years ago.  I am in no way good about writing in it, only the first dozen pages are filled in.  But this is an excerpt of an entry from Jan 2007 that made me smile: 

"Tonight was so adorable.  Will drifted off to sleep as I was feeding him his last bottle of the day, with the bottle still in his mouth.  Brian picked him up, brought him to the nursery and gently laid him in the bouncy seat.  He sleepily opened his eyes, gave us one of his trademark grins and promptly fell asleep.  It was like his way of saying, "Night-Night!" 

That would've made him about three months old.  And it's just another moment where you realize that you are SO IN LOVE with your child!  I can't wait for moments like that with this one.  :)

Pure Laziness

Brian left for Chicago yesterday for a conference.  Growing up, I can remember my Dad going on a few business trips and we'd be allowed to do all sorts of things we normally weren't allowed to.  Like, the first night he was gone was always ice cream for dinner.  And if my mother went away, it was the same kinds of things.  I think it made us forget to miss them as much...or something like that.  Anyway, Will and I had just about the laziest Sunday ever!  Loafing, watching movies, playing with toys and napping.  Oh, and I read a bit.  I didn't even get out of my nightgown until 4pm!!  I honestly can't remember a time that I've done a day like that.  Usually I'm working from a to-do list a mile long...this was exhilirating!

I did make the mistake of letting Will take a nap with me during the day yesterday.  He was quite perturbed when I made him sleep in his own bed last night night.  Whoops.  Now it's Monday morning, and I'm about to wake the boy....hopefully he's in a good mood.  Day one of single parenting down, 36 hours to go! 

Sookie Stackhouse

Welcome to another edition of "I discover a hot new thing after it's already hot."  (see:  iPods, "What Not to Wear" and many, many others!)

I started (and finished) the first of the Sookie Stackhouse novels this weekend.  They're the books that the HBO series "True Blood" is based on.  I never saw myself as someone who would enjoy vampire literature but I really, really do!  It's a nice change from what I normally like to read.  The first fifty pages went kind of slow but then I was RIVETED.  And as soon as I was finished, I was thankful that I had the second one from the library as well.  I haven't felt this way about a book series in a while!

Just putting it Off....

Oh boy....October's here!  I had a mini-freakout yesterday that January isn't that far away.  And I've done almost nothing to get ready for Baby #2's arrival!  Brian's been doing outside work, like powerwashing and staining, before it gets too cold to do this stuff.  (It's already pretty cold!!)  The entire back bedroom/guest room/junk "closet" needs to be cleared out to make room for new furniture for Will.  And painted.  Auggghhh!!!  And Christmas is coming too.....double AUUUGGGHH!!! 

I find that I'm totally lacking in motivation to get this done.  Anybody got some suggestions?  I have this creepy vision of the baby coming early in January, right after Christmas and we STILL don't have anything done!