Hair and other things

Last post was kind of heavy. Things are still hard but I am trying to give us some space from my mother and enjoy our life with our friends, who are amazing. My son is also amazing, and I realize that more when I am away from my mother more and when I am not fighting to make him into someone or something that he isn't. the fact is, dinner out with your 3 year old on a friday night when you have to wait 40 minutes to be seated is never going to turn out well. Oh, and you have to wait outside on the sidewalk too, of course. And the wait followed an hour in the car.

Bah.

So he's great. But one thing that I didn't predict loving about him is his hair. I mean, I love his hair. He has perfect curls and lots of them. I dread cutting it for real when he (or we) decide it must be cut. Right now, we all love it, so though he is seen as a girl from time to time, the hair is here to stay.

curls

curls

We have some fun plans for the weekend. In fact, E and J are out picking strawberries with some of our friends today. Then tomorrow we are going to this awesome looking circus demonstration and sunday a bbq at our friend in closest proximity.

In 2 quick weeks we are off to vacation, which is exciting and terrifying both.

Thanks again to everyone who offered kind words last post. I just got super down with all the stress.

Now, behold the boy.

sleeping off a fun morning, memorial day

party

family picture from the night we took e to dinner too late and just about lost our minds. We look good anyway...you'd never know.

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.

Trixie

trixie before her new home, but after eating

trixie, after her first meal





I know I haven't blogged in a while, partly because it gets more daunting every day that I don't to actually do it. I feel impossibly behind and so I just avoid blogging. But something happened this week. And it's not even peanut related, really. So I will save a catch up post for next time, or never, and share with you the story of trixie...dumpster cat.

The other day I was driving down my alley minding my own business and ahead, I saw a man and a woman looking under a dumpster for cans. Now's a good time to say that our neighborhood is less than awesome. We like it, but we know that in reality its not as financially stable as where we lived before (huh, but isn't that true of us?). It's in transition (also us). So when people approach you and you are driving, it's best to just go on and pretend not to see them. I have a well practiced regretful head shake, and I can look right through people who come too close and won't back away. I can even add an eyebrow furl, puckered lips of regret for their situation. It works and keeps us safe/unbothered/isolated/etc, though suspect that I'm not fooling anyone and that as kind as I wish my expression of regret to be, I probably seem just too stuck up, too Bourgeois.

But, given my very skilled expressions, it came as a great surprise to me when the woman approached the car and stood right next to the drivers side window and lifted up her purse. Now you and I know that you do NOT open your window when a person you don't know walks up to your car and shows you something. Was she trying to show me drugs? If so, could she see I had a kid with me? Then I heard her say something I have dreams about, but have never heard before. "we found a kitten. Can you help us?"

A kitten? finger goes to let down window. "Can you help us?" me: "I can't have another animal" her, "please, we can't take care of it. It won't eat. There was another kitten too, but it died today." me: "oh no. Can you take it home?" the man now "we are homeless" me, in my head "shit." out loud: "oh, wow, sorry, can i see it?" Woman opens purse: a very small kitten meows from within. Yep that's a kitten. Not a gun or a knife or some drugs. Then the woman says, "i think its 4 weeks old. it won't eat." then they both continue to plead with me to take it, so I agree to. Looking for something to hold it in or with because it is filthy. The man says, "give her the purse. We found the purse too" the woman now, "I kinda wanted to keep the purse." Knowing I would only throw away the purse I said, "keep the purse. I can just hold it. Then she removes the thing from the purse, and the man offers a shirt he found in the trash which smells strongly of cologne and begins to hand it to me, but then pauses...."are you sure you can take care of it?" I say, "I'm a dog trainer. I will find it a home. Until then, it can stay with me." The man says, "give it to her. She has a kid." as if my mother-status would qualify me to care for a tiny little kitten. Then the woman hands it to me. And I have a kitten. I find a clean, but not 100% so (just food crumbs on it) cloth diaper in the back seat to wrap around the shirt. Then thank me and thank me and bless me and we drive away. Me, Peanut, kitty. She cries now. I thinks she must miss the woman, but this isn't even her last transition. I cannot have another cat. as much as I love kittens, I do not love cats all that much.

We bring the trembling kitty home and watch life come into it as it eats and eats a half can of wet food. It's incredible. Later that night, she is playful, not shakey, and on her way to her new home. The next day, she is named trixie. She weighs in at one pound.

The whole experience makes me glad to have a home. Glad to have a home for my animals. And glad for such a network of friends.

And although I must not update right now, I will post some peanut pics for those of you here just for those.

love this pic of peanut dancing.


boating this summer with uncle M.

feeding our chicken who lives with our friend.

saying goodbye to the beach, which is artificial and gets drained after labor day.

Knitting.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I have lost 17 lbs so far on w>eigh>t w. Almost 10% my starting weight. I feel awesome.

I'm coming back

and I have a lot to update on. Big life stuff. not much (any) crafting, but lots of other things. If you ever read me, please keep me on task to do this update. I feel like I need to blog. Even if I don't have time to very much anymore.

E is 2. and so smart and so fun. Here is a picture of him. He's changed so much.


he did his own hair here, and ate too much sugar.


a visit to the zoo during our week on our own, that's for the update, but i love this picture.

also from our week on our own. He's walking the dog and dressed in an outfit of his own design.


Us saying goodbye to mama.


Kicking back in jammies in the yard on st. pats day.

no time, just a little holiday cheer

a tree!!!!



I mean it...I don't have time. I'm in the midst of seeking career advancement, christmasing, mothering a very needy toddler (needy in a good way, he's just got a lot going on right now)

We are so far from being done with christmas decorations and gifts that i feel a little sick thinking about it. But that might be the chocolate i just downed too....can you say sugar high?

The squirrel design is coming slowly and sorry leslie, is kinda on hold until after christmas! hope you're still reading and not disappointed. I've scrapped a couple designs because they didnt seem cool enough.

Last weekend we got a tree, at hmo dpoe. Twas fun and easy and less stressful and expensive than a treelot. That doesn't stop me from feeling a little bad about getting a tree from a big box store...i mean we are a diy christmas family, but we just can't afford a nice tree from a lot or nursery and we can;t do the driving to the country this year, which we have NEVER done, for the record. Last year, since we were out of town from the 2oth to the 27th, we didn't get a tree at all.

E. is loving the tree. He says hi to it every day. We just got the lights on it last night, so it's not even decorated yet. It smells great. Just not as far along as it was, pre baby.

Hope you all are staying sane. I know we aren't.
some christmas pictures

smile for the camera!

Preview

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.

trying for 30

Now, it's no secret that I don't post as often as some people do. Part of that stems from the fact that i am busy, part of it comes from being lazy, and then I also think no one reads anyway, but that's not the point, I guess. So even though it's november 3rd and I am going to need to play catch up, I am doing the NaBloPoMo challenge. It will give me a chance to articulate all the crazy stuff that's been happening of late.

And hopefully make me a better blogger.

I am going to take this moment to say that while I mostly write about peanut, I'm going to try to write about other things too, like crafting and maybe even politics, Or to bore the life out of you, my life story.

I'm also trying to lose weight, could write about that as well.

Birthday Report, a bit late...and where did the sleeping go

first nap as a one year old

Peanut turned a year old. It was a wonderful thing to have happen. Aging is inevitable, but now that he's been in our lives for a year (well, longer now, since this post is really past the 13 months point) every day I think, this time last year, you were just starting to see, or just starting to nurse well, or we were all sick. So that's fun. Relations with my relations are improving again, which is also good. Peanut had an amazing birthday party where we crammed something like 24 people into 900 square feet of apartment. J's fam came from MN, and mine from in town. My mom got a great cake for our guests and with my sister made Peanut his own sugar free carrot cake. What an amazing gift!
Now that he's a year, Peanut also seems to be interested in fighting sleep. He's walking up a storm, signing about 10 signs, screaming when he's mad, and mad when we try to get him to sleep. Lately, we suspect that it has something to do with teething. That better be what it is. Or else I'm not sure what to do.

Peanut and Winnie, our dog.

Lately, in blog land, people who I've been following have been getting pg, and it makes me long for those times as well.

This post is all over the place.Peanut and Mommy...that's me.

Oh well. Peanut pics posted for fun. Birthday pics from his awesome and fun party.

Countdown

Today begins the 10 day countdown to the peanut's first birthday. We are having a party on the 21st, but his birthday is the 20th.

I'll admit I'm a bit in awe at the cliche that is this year. The speed of it. The specialness of it. The fact that I had no idea how much I'd love him. Even as the "other mother" i am staunchly protective of, physically attached to, and completely in love with this little guy. I can't even imagine how j must feel. I see him and i just want to take him up into my arms, just like the first time I ever saw him. (back then, i was amazed he was so big too....how did that fit inside my tiny girl?)

Last night I was feeding the peanut yogurt. He was eating cheerios too, off his tray. Then he reached out for me to give him the yogurt bowl. It was close to bath time, so I figured it would be ok. Well that kid used his spoon to scoop up the yogurt and put it in his mouth. Not neatly or anything, but I was impressed. Since I'd be the first to admit that while I grew up with a little one in the house, I don't know much about child development, every time he does something new I think he's the most advanced amazing baby ever.