Faster

e loves scooting! I took this action shot by snapping it before he was even on it.

this is my favorite picture of e right now. He's watching tv in this shot, the day before his 3rd birthday...but such an angelic look.

Ok....it's become obvious to me now that I suck and getting the blogs posted. Can I blame it on the job? Yes! Is it fair to say that having a 2 to 3 year old is a huge time suck? Yes. Would I change it if I could? Well, the job, yes...but not the kid. I mean who doesn't wish for a better job?

Well, little boots boy is probably happy with this job.

I work for a department at a University as an Assistant to the Head. It's a fancy sounding title, but I end up just feeling like e knob...like a pee-on, like a person who is helping someone else succeed in while at the same time not succeeding. I rarely write anymore....except for the job and that is not creative writing my friends, it is not at all. I rarely craft. I made E a doll for his birthday, but that's about it for the last year. I hardly even read blogs. I think it has everything to do with being too busy both at work and home. Obviously, blogging and reading blogs at work is a no no...though I might be doing it right now because it's spring break and no one is here, and at home, by the time E is asleep and I have cleaned the kitchen, I'm ready to watch one TV show and call it a night. That's it.

Night is a bit of a circus sometimes. It's hard for me to deal with in a rational way...I think because I'm so tired from working and then I have to just swing into high 3 year old gear and roll with the punches. And E is getting better at playing by himself, but he isn't the kind of kid you can turn your back on. He just might scale a bookshelf or find something he shouldn't have. He's gotten so tall that there is only one home surface he can't reach that I can reach. This has made said surface into a verifiable disaster area...as everything gets stuck up there that needs to get out of his reach. And if he has the idea to do it, he simply pulls a chair over and reaches the top and all the things on it easily. he knows he isn't supposed to do this, but sometimes, he does it anyway.

All of this is to say why I haven't blogged in a while. I just can't. By night's end I'm wordless...and wordless blogs are ok now and then, but it's not why I blog.

Now that I have that off my chest, I will let one other thing off and then I will update and go. I am still planning on making the give away winner her squirrel. If you still read this, please know that I think of it often.

ok....updates.
1. E was sick with stomach flu this weekend. He HATES throwing up. Even while he is doing it he says how yucky it it (yes, talks while the puke is coming out). I hate throwing up too, but I was impressed that he was able to talk while doing it. He said later that he wished it didn't have to come out of his mouth.
2. His 3yr old healthy boy visit found him 3 ft 1.5 inches tall and 31 pounds.
3. We live in a sketchy neighborhood and the other day I drove through a fight and someone tried to get into my car. I didn't mean to drive through a fight, it was just there.
4. As a result we are moving....though we were moving before that too...this just makes it even more important.
5. We just found out that E is pretty far down on every waiting list for every school we applied for him to go to...thanks Chicago Public Schools. We really needed more stress. We'll just send him to the neighborhood school where the fight was that I drove through.
6. I need to breathe and stop thinking the worst.
7. I'm tired of being run by our debt.
8. I've still only lost 20 lbs at wait w..atch.ers. I think I am going to juggle the money and just follow the program but use the money spent there to join the Gym here at school instead.
9. in the more than year since I have written: I had emergency surgery for a hernia, J's mom had a stroke, then J's mom had open heart surgery to repair a hole in her heart, my brother went to and came back safely from a non military mission in Afghanistan, e learned how to use the potty and now only wears a diaper at night, we moved and will move again, I took a new job at the university.
10. I have missed blogging but can't promise I'll keep up.

Have a good day...I'm going to try to do the same.

Happy birthday peanut!

On February 20, 2008, the amazing peanut came into our lives. I am ever grateful for him. I love him more than anything.

I'm posting from my itouch, so this may(will) be a bit brief. But I still wanted to mark the day after his birth as a day to remember.

Pics soon. But I can't do those from here. Can I?

birthday cake face

moms and peanut

trains with cousin k

at the MSI

Birthday Blog

Depending on my day, I might add more to this throughout the day.

Today is my birthday. I'm 36. I'm going to tell you 36 things about myself. You may already know them. You may not.

Here goes.

1. I was born on 12-22-73 at 22:22 hours.

2. I was born in Buffalo, NY

3. At sisters Hospital

4. during Hee Haw

5. i cried a lot as a kid

6. you might say I had a hair trigger temperament

7. i loved rudolf and santa

8. and my family of course

9. except my brother.

10. just kidding. i loved him too.

11. we are 14 months apart. every day with my son i realize what a big deal that is

12. since i was born my family has owned 5 dogs.

13. 2 died young. one of bloat. one of a collision with a car.

14. the collision with the car is one of my earliest memories.

15. i loved horses as a kid

16. and unicorns

17. i had a toy unicorn name uni.

18. it seemed like the perfect name

19. I also had a gazelle, named zelly

20. i was OBSESSED with the A-team

21. i was Face.

22. if you know the A-team you got that, if you don't, watch some A-team

23. I also loved bambi

24. and E.T.

25. i still love e.t.

26. we moved to NC when I was 8

27. where i acted out the A-team on a regular basis

28. you could say i was a tomboy

29. when I was 9.5 we moved to MA

30. When i was 11 we moved to germany

31. i was obsessed with the a-team still. also horses.

32. i rode my bike constantly

33. started to have boy friends

34. learned to play the flute

35. i tend to remember lots of childhood details

36. but i don't remember much about yesterday....

Nigh-nee

Well, I missed a day, a whole day, even though I was planning very much to write last night. I had a good day, a very good day. Woke up too early with peanut and he had a bad night of sleep. Poor kid's teething right now. He has a tooth coming in between 2 others that already exist. It has less room than it needs but it's making room, as teeth do. It is making his nose itch all the time though and I think it's disrupting his sleep. Anyway, woke up early and crabby, but J let me go back to sleep for a nap which was just what I needed. So that helped my day be awesome. Then we all went for a fun walk. Then I got a hair cut, a good one, a really good one, which is hard for me. Some of you probably know what I mean. I want to walk out looking hip and cool, but I walk out looking like dorothy hammel. I walked out looking a lot cooler this time.

So why didn't I write last night? Well, peanut woke up before I could. And I could get him back to sleep, but he woke up every time I left him again. It's the teeth, I'm sure. We just had to call it an early night. I woke up freezing and in my jeans and sweater at 1am. Reminded me of newborn days.

So E has lots and lots of words now, but one he's had for a long time is this one that he seems to have made up. And more than that, it seems to be an expletive, a curse word. And it cracks me up. The word is Nighnee. He says it in distress when he's sad, or frustrated, he says it when he can't get something to work right, he says it when he stubs his toe or hurts himself in a minor way. Other than comic relief for his moms, it got me thinking about how we need expletives or how we use them to feel better. I just saw an article about this the other day.

Do your kids have one or 2 choice words like mine does?

in other news, we are not trying hard to potty train, though we encourage potty use. And e used it twice (both for pee) yesterday. And today, twice too, so far, with one of each.

leapin' leopard

with mama

suckers!!

bay? bay? (band? Band?)

our little leopard on the way to the parade

pumpkin carving on the night of halloween

Halloween was sick house here, but the previous week there was a neighborhood parade and trick or treating in the stores in our hood. Peanut had a blast. There was a marching band. He LOVES marching bands. Sadly, we got the tail end of the band and he wanted to follow them where they were going. He stood watching them saying, "bay? Bay? C'mon? Bye!!"

Monday Moody Mahem

hat!!

I am moody. He is moody. The sky turned cloudy and sunny all at once, and that too is moody. How many meltdowns this morning, let's see....
y'know...i'm too moody to list them. Let's just say, a bunch. And one was because I wouldn't let him pick up the dog poop. That one actually had tears involved. And him trying to run back into the house. yeah, that kind of day.

picking flowers in the yard, deep in thought.

sleeps with a fist.

18

months, that is!

A year and a half (and a day) ago our little Peanut was born. It’s hard to believe because he’s such a big boy now. He’s as busy as his moms these days and keeps keeping them busy, too. He can run, climb any and every thing, jump, and throw just about everything he wants to. He also likes to help walk Winnie. He can take off his own diaper. He can use a spoon or a fork when he feels like it. And he can drink from a cup, if we feel like it.

He knows lots of words and says probably 40. His favorites are: Ball, dog, berry, bath, shoes, pants, yummy yummy, water, and doll. He uses Yummy Yummy when he sees something he wants to eat. Like a peach, which is another word he says. Every night before bed we talk about his day. I’ll ask, what did you do today? And he’ll say, “ball”…”George”….”Winnie”….”ball”. I know…very interesting collection, but ever since Georgie stayed with us, he mentions her in his nighttime recap every night. Yes, every night. It’s very cute. And I’ll say, Georgie is at her home, with cha cha (which is my mom). And he’ll say, “cha cha…house” He’s quite sleepy at these points in the day. And it’s pretty cute.

His favorite food right now is blueberries, or any berries, really. He likes berries so much, we can’t discuss them if we aren’t going to give him any because a tantrum will ensue, and those are ugly. One can only eat so many berries though. And so they are like Voldemort in our house.

One other super cute thing he’s doing is being very opinionated about his clothes. Twice this week he has insisted upon wearing his swim trunks. And yesterday, he would wear no other pants than his orange stripey ones from Halloween. LAST Halloween. They are too short but fit his waist. They are captured in the picture below. The first is how they fit about 13 months ago when we went to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard. The second is yesterday.

Peanut last october...about 7 or 8 months old.

Peanut 18 months old. Same pants. Note to self: put away pants.

In other news, the experience of having 3 jobs and being a mom has been really hard lately, especially when we struggle financially regardless of the 3 jobs. I have one full time job that gives us benefits. And I have 2 part time jobs...both working with dogs. I like all my jobs, but i miss my family and I miss having time to sew and knit. Yes...I miss being crafty. Oh well. That's life, right?

Since J. got laid off, it's been hard for her, and easy for me, to find work.

Well I could go on all day about him, but I should get back to work.

what's that in the grass

I'm a little sad because J and peanut are out of town for the next five days. I'm trying to stay upbeat about it, but it is hard to do. At least they will have fun with grandma and grandpa and p's cousin.

here are some recent cute pictures of my peanut. Oh how I miss you little guy!

with my wonderful partner.

swinging with his unfriend e. They fight all the time.

yep. chewing on a truck.