Leaving...

The boys and I are taking a road trip with Gaga this week to Ohio to visit my Aunt Barb, Uncle Bill and their two boys Grant and Frank. We leave this morning. Actually, we're supposed to be leaving right now...but punctuality was never my strong point.

We'll be back on Friday!

**PS. Anyone who lives close by- make sure Bryan is fed and watered while we're gone :)

Lookie Lookie

I set Chase down in front of the recliner. When I came back, here he was!

Seriously. He can't pull himself up in his crib, or on the edge of a table, but on a rocking recliner?!?

Word of the Day

Avenue Q is coming to Charlotte soon. And Mandi sent me today's word of the day, which happens to be:

Word of the Day
Thursday May 29, 2008

schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun:
A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.

That the report of Sebastian Imhof's grave illness might also have been tinged with Schadenfreude appears not to have crossed Lucas's mind.
-- Steven Ozment, Flesh and Spirit

He died three years after me -- cancer too -- and at that time I was still naive enough to imagine that what the afterlife chiefly provided were unrivalled opportunities for unbeatable gloating, unbelievable schadenfreude.
-- Will Self, How The Dead Live

Somewhere out there, Pi supposed, some UC Berkeley grad students must be shivering with a little Schadenfreude of their own about what had happened to her.
-- Sylvia Brownrigg, The Metaphysical Touch

The historian Peter Gay -- who felt Schadenfreude as a Jewish child in Nazi-era Berlin, watching the Germans lose coveted gold medals in the 1936 Olympics -- has said that it "can be one of the great joys of life."
-- Edward Rothstein, "Missing the Fun of a Minor Sin", New York Times, February 5, 2000

Sometimes I do feel like I'm here for everyone else's benefit...that at least, with all the crap going on in my life, someone can feel better about theirs. Making the world a better place to be...

Brett Banford

Did everybody see this on So You Think You Can Dance last night??? I love this boy!

Pretend

Ian has been diving more and more into the world of pretend, but I think that it is Leah who really pushes him into it. She's been playing over here for the last hour and a half or so, and the entire time, Ian has been pretending to be the baby while she is the mommy.

Excerpt of a conversation:
Leah: Babeeeeee! Come here!
Ian: Mommy! Mommy! I'm coming!
Leah: OK, baby. You sit here.
Ian: Help me! I can't do it because I'm a baby!
Leah: It's just pretend, Baby. You can do it.

And so on and so forth.

And for the record, watching kids Ian's age is almost like hiring babysitters for him- except I can't leave the house. But they keep each other soooo entertained!! All of a sudden I'm not the most funnest entertainment ever, and I don't quite know what to do with myself.

Kudos

To Me:
Because I just found out that I officially graduated from USF with my Masters in Educational Leadership! Apparently graduation was May 3rd. Woo-hoo.

To Chase:
Because he just learned how to drink from a straw!!

**Why do I feel the need for a chocolate covered granola snack?**

More Catch-Up

I am really doing a terrible job of blogging. Here is another random catch-up post from this week:

*New van...is here! We've been driving a loaner from Hyundai this week, but on Thursday we picked up and paid for our van. I'd post a picture, but our camera is in the shop again. Ian thinks it's "great, great, great!" and Chase has yet to spit up in it. I'm sure it's coming...

*Butt problems: Chase has a mad diaper rash. Poor dude.

*I founnd my magical power last night: making chocolate martinis. Yum. We partied with the Gallers and their friends from CA last night. Bryan is sleeping in this morning...:)

*Remember when I was digging out the front bed a while ago? Well, I finished it recently...and my mom helped me out with plants, and so far, I haven't killed anything! I'm looking for a tree to put in there, but otherwise, landscaping is done! Again- no picture. Sorry. Stupid camera.

*More planting news: My sunflowers are almost 4 feet tall! And there are blossoms on my green beans! And my green onions look like onions!!

*Ian's last day of school was this week. *sigh*

That is all for now. Chase is done eating his watermelon for breakfast and he is ready to be done with all the highchair nonsense.

Injury

Sometimes Ian eats more lunch when I serve it with toothpicks. He likes to stab stuff.

Unfortunately, he stabbed his own self. It started innocently enough; chicken bits and cheese and apples, all in little cubes...cute little multicolored toothpicks.

I don't know exactly how it happened, but he stabbed his finger, right in that tender part on the inside of where his finger connects to his hand. Oh, the drama.

Fortunately, a Spongebob bandaid took care of the pain, and his ear-piercing screams subsided after it was securely in place.

He lay, recouping on my bed, as I did some chores upstairs. Twenty minutes later, he starts whimpering. I peek around the corner into the room to make sure there isn't anything dangerous going on.

He looks at me and says through big crocodile tears, "I don't want to use toothpicks ever again."

Hungry

Today Chase had breakfast, a bottle, played, then napped until Carol (his play therapist) showed up. He worked with her for a while, but started to become kind of whiney. He'd play, then get pouty, then do this cute thing where he tapped his mouth with his open hand.

"Are you blowing kisses?"

"Are you so tired still that you are yawning?"

No, morons. He is signing hungry!! It took us a few times of him doing it, looking at us expectantly, then going back to being whiney before Carol said, do you think he's hungry??

AH-HA! I brought out the goldfish and he devoured them. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I truly believe in the past week we've seen Chase pointedly signing change, more, milk, and now hungry. Awesome.

Much Fun

Ian says in the car after picking him up from preschool, in answer to my question about why he was wearing a party hat:

I don't even know what the party was about, I was having so much fun!

You Underestimate My Sneakiness

Ian went downstairs last night to pooh...I thought Bryan had an eye on him. When I went to check on him a little later, he was not in the bathroom as I expected him to be. Nor was he back in bed, as Bryan expected.

We searched the house calling for him. All was quiet. Finally, I demanded that he tell us where he was (crossing my fingers that he was still in the house...yikes! Has he figured out how to get through the door guards?!??). Then, I hear his little voice:

"I'm here under the table, eating something that I didn't know what it was...!"

Which is Ian-speak for, "I'm hiding under the dining room table, gorging myself on jelly beans and Twizzlers that I snagged from the goody bag that I brought home from Leah's party yesterday, and I know that I'm not supposed to be eating it because it's bedtime and I've already brushed my teeth and you pointedly told me 30 minutes ago that I couldn't have any more candy today. But aren't I freaking adorable?!?"

Miscellaneous

It's been awhile. I have no excuses.

Hi Tiffany!

Anyhoo. Lots of things going on.

*I sent out my transcript for my final class...should be a graduate next week, I think. Can't remember when the actual ceremony is. I'll have to look that up so that I can celebrate or something.

*We bought a van! It's a Hyundai Entourage and I LOVE it. I'm still getting over the actualization of becoming a minivan mom, but it's freaking NICE. Just in time, too, because Bryan's stupid car was sometimes refusing to go into 4th and/or reverse.

*Went to lots of birthday parties this weekend. Happy birthday to Leah and Lindsay :) Ian now has entirely too much candy at the house again. And I will NOT eat it again.

*I realized that I haven't updated you on my broken toe situation. I never went to the dr about it- I think it's pretty much fine. I think I'll even be able to get on the treadmill again, well, someday. Speaking of the treadmill, it's not getting very much use from anyone. Chase is still on strike.

*ST is going really well. I'm very very happy that we have Miss Erin, who is very logical and gives me homework assignments and directions.

*I watched Logan for the first time today. It went ok. He's very clingy. And have you ever noticed that other peoples' kids' cries are SO MUCH MORE ANNOYING than your own kids'??! Oy. But, he's a sweet kid and just needs some time to adjust. He actually did better than I thought he would :) No worries.

Ian is trying every trick in the book to not 'rest' right now, so I am off to corral him back into his room. Then I will find something on my humongous list of chores to do. No more blogging time for me.

Logic

Ian was scared of the monsters in his room tonight. He couldn't sleep in his own bed. He wanted to sleep in our bed.

We told him no. Never. Not ever ever ever.

"But if I peepee in my bed, then I can sleep in your bed...riiiiiight?"

Dear Lord.

A Minivan Kind of Mom

Well, I knew I couldn't escape it forever.

We went shopping for a minivan last night. Yipes.

Really, it's not so bad. It's kind of like driving your living room around town. And I do like my LazyBoy...

Bryan's little sporty car is ready for it's second transmission/clutch replacement/issue in 2 years, so we're really not wanting to put another $2K of work into it. And we take lots of car trips. And it's getting harder to fit all of our junk in the Santa Fe. And it would be nice to be able to fit both Ian and Leah and Chase in the car so I could do some carpooling to preschool with Angelle...

We went to CarMax last night and test drove an Oddessy and a Grand Caravan (with both children...which was ok until it was almost 8 o'clock and we hadn't had dinner yet and CarMax doesn't give out balloons to keep restless children occupied like the Hyundai dealership does). The Oddessy was definitely nice, but $8,000 nicer? I'm thinking that I could use that money elsewhere and driving a Caravan would still feel pretty good. Also, we wanted to look at maybe a used Hyundai Entourage because generally I like our cheapo Hyundais...Anyone have any input on any of those vans? We're looking at 2006 models (2007 for the Entourage).

In other semi-related news, I'm going to start watching kids again at home. We could use the extra income (especially now that we'll have car payments again), and I'm mostly stuck at home all day anyway with Chase's crazy 4 therapy/week sessions plus 2 naps a day. I just met Logan and his mom this morning, and he'll be starting on Monday probably. He's 20 months old, and Ian is totally thrilled to have him at the house. Although I think Ian thinks of Logan more like a pet than another little kid. He asked Logan's mom today, "Um, can you leave him here? Because I think I need another little friend to play with." In September, I'll start watching Will, who will be 3-ish months old. So I'll have an infant, a 1 yr old, a 2 yr old, and a 3 yr old AT THE SAME TIME. Maybe I should start studying the Duggars...

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy belated Mother's Day to all my mommmy friends. Hope it was a good one :)

My boys did an awesome job making my day yesterday. Bryan was out of bed and had breakfast waiting for me when I got downstairs...with a cup of coffee in a new picture mug from Ian and Chase! They even remembered that I love to drink coffee out of super sized mugs, and they made sure to find one that fit enough caffeine it it. I gotta give it to them...they though about the details :) Unfortunately, that means that I am gong to have to hand wash this mug every day so that I can use it all the time...

We went to church (still loving Elevation!) and got a gourmet cookie on my way out of the service from them. Yum. (I shared- Ian and Bryan enjoyed it, too!)

We had lunch with my parents at Steak and Shake. Seriously, what says Happy Mother's Day more than a steakburger with cheese and a large chocolate malt??

Afterwards, we went shopping at Concord Mills, where my awesome husband did not ONCE complain about the amount of time I spent browsing and shopping. We picked up new jammies for the boys, a new pair of sneakers for me (gotta get back on the treadmill!), new shoes for Ian, and a new hat for him, too.

By the time we got back to the car, there was enough time to pick up Taco Bell for a quick dinner and get exhausted kiddies into bed.

I so love my family. Thank you for a wonderful day :)

New Chasey Picture

How cute is this guy?!

Not PC Challenge

Quiz:

Which one of my kids has special needs?

a.)


OR

b.)
If you can't tell in the full body shot, Ian is actually wearing a tupperware on his head. He wore it for about an hour as he played outside this afternoon. His idea. I think it really goes well with the frog boots.

Donor Garden

Cate and Michelle posted this and I'm passing it along. I did it. So should you.

It's free, it's painless, and you could quite possibly help someone someday.

Milk

Though not as exciting as Abby's sign for milk, I think Chase is signing milk now!!

I've been suspecting it for a little while, but tonight at dinner, Bryan was giving him a bottle and he kept taking it away (not being mean, but busy with dinner things!) and Chase would sign MILK with both hands until he gave it back!

We tested it multiple times...he passed every one! It was very deliberate. Bryan would take it away, Chase would look at the bottle, and if he didn't give it back right away, he'd sign!

*On another semi-related note, I got Chase up from nap this afternoon and noticed that he had some shmutz on his sheet and on his Green Frog. I thought that he had spit up some sweet potatoes from lunch- gross. So I picked him up out of the crib, noticing too late that the mess was not from his mouth, but from the back of his diaper, which overfloweth with really nasty nasty poo. Like, really nasty. And especially so because it was all over my hand, my shirt, every piece of clothing on Chase, and his hair.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Not Too Sad

Ian was wailing...wailing...WAILING about one of the many injuries or injustices he got playing in the backyard with all the neighborhood friends.

He became coherent enough to request Blue Dog, but really, it just sounded like crying with the words "Bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuue Doooooooooooooooooog"-- so pathetic. I told him I would go get Blue Dog for him, and started inside the house to retrieve him.

Then, all of a sudden, the wailing changed. And it sounded like this:

"Actuuuuaallllyyyyyyy...I would liiiiiiike a popsiclllllllllle."

Another Good Use for Moms

Ian was in bed with us this morning (another bedwetting incident...darn that second cup of milk at dinner last night!) and I was wearing my big floofy pink bathrobe. He started petting my arm. I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that since his Blue Dog was wet, he needed to pet me instead.

Vegas Recap

For your viewing pleasure...our trip to Vegas :) (Finally.)
Bryan and I in front of the conservatory gardens in the Bellagio- the flowers were BEAUTIFUL. Yes, I had a few glasses of wine before this photo...
The view across the street at night. See the sign for the show Jubilee at left? That's the show we went to. FYI- even if the show looks classy, pasties are not included in Vegas Showgirls shows. Boobies. Everywhere. Bryan loved that show.
This is the conservatory again. There were two greenhouses where guys were taking live butterflies out of envelopes and letting them fly. BONUS: I identified these as Blue Morpho Butterflies because I recognized them from an episode of Go, Diego, Go!
Our side trip to the Hoover Dam. Totally amazing, engineering-wise. I admit, though, it made me feel pretty incompetent. I'm just not a think-outside-the-box type of person.
I put a dollar into this penny slot machine at Hard Rock Casino and turned it into $8.00! That's an 800% return! Then I lost it all. So muc for cab fare back to the hotel.
I took a picture of these pastries at the Jean-Phillipe chocolate/pastry shop at the hotel-- who could eat those? They are works of art!
We took a trip downtown to Fremont Street, where they are trying to breathe life back into the old casinos since everyone stays around the mega-casinos now. They now have this amazing light show (all set to Queen songs) over the street every hour- they turn off all the lights except for the show on the canopy overhead. Very cool.

We had an awesome trip. We didn't spend as much as we thought, so that counts as winning money, right? There was lots of walking to see the different hotels/casinos-- we even sunck up onto an upper floor in the Luxor to get a view from the pyramid from the top. There was too much to see for 3 days (especially since I spent one morning recovering)...so we need to go back. Anyone up for a Vegas trip next year with us? :)

Short Lived

We picked up some new exercise equipment from Craigslist this week- a weight bench and a punching bag. I thought I'd try it out for the first time today.

Ont he first rep of my lat row (I think that's what you call it- when you kneel one leg on the bench and put the other foot on the ground, then lift the barbell up from the ground to your shoulder?) the freaking plate on the barbell slid off and landed on my toes! GAH! Apparently the lock wasn't tight enough on the end.

So, the good news is that not all of my toes are broken, just swollen and red. And my big toe is really swollen and a little purple and bleeding. And I can't bend it too much. And it's the toe with a pin in it from a prior surgery, and I think that might be messed up, too. I think I may go to the doctor this week if it doesn't get any better.

Fa-bu-lous.

Garden Update

Sometimes...

You like the new-found freedom of sitting up by yourself in the crib so much that you refuse to sleep lying down anymore.



This reminds me of Ella Grace, when she just folds in half and goes to sleep after the park.

Officially 1

Chase had his real birthday party today with the neighborhood gang...
He had no issues with the cake eating:
Most of the kids...it's really hard to get them to congregate in one place:
Chase and Daddy- all smiles :)
Chase is not a hat baby.

He is officially one now. Wow. I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Next year they will be 4 and 2!

New Low

I guess it's time to start thinking about lowering the crib mattress.

This is what Chase looked like today while he was taking his nap.

Coke and Cheerios

I got up from the dinner table to warm Chase's bottle. When I turned back toward the boys, Ian was leaning precariously over the table to *my* side, doing something to my can of Coke.

I asked him what he was doing.

He told me, "I was just putting that Cheerio into your Coke."

Oh, is that all? And you know, it wasn't even a fresh Cheerio. It was one that had been probably swept under the napkin basket for quite some time now, as I don't think anyone ate Cheerios today...or yesterday, for that matter.

I started to say, "Do you want me to put a Cheerio into your...?"(then I looked over and realized he was drinking milk, and realized at that point, the lesson was going to go unlearned.

The Bandwagon

Chase just can't seem to stop trying to keep up with the Joneses.

He had his 1 year check up today, and- surprise, surprise-- fluid in his ear again!

This is the 4th ear infection he's had since February. He's probably been on antibiotics more than he's been off them in the last 3 months. So, the ped said that we could either wait the summer out and see what happens now that it isn't really cold/flu season anymore, or go to the ENT for a consult.

I'm going to call for an appointment today. I'd rather just have this done and over with instead of waiting for the inevitable. I feel like every time he gets the slightest sniffle, it turns into an infection. I don't want him to end up resistant to every antibiotic on the market by the time he's two! I also don't want to risk him having chronic ear infections because they happen so quickly that I miss them, and he's so used to them that he doesn't even complain.

So, I guess we'll be jumping on the ear tube bandwagon. Woo-woo.