Happy Halloween!

Our construction worker had a good time trick or treating...for about 4 houses. He didn't nap today, so his tolerance was pretty low. It's too bad, because he was so excited to say "Trick-or-treat" and he was pretty darn good at it too. We had so many kids visit our house. Poor Shadow is going to need counseling...why are all these people in scary costumes ringing my doorbell? It was nice to see good old-fashioned trick-or-treating again. Living in apartments and condos, you just don't have many little kids visit. What fun!

What a weekend!

We've just completed a crazy couple of days...and now we shall begin another set of crazy days. YIKES!!!

Thursday Andrew and I drove up to visit my mom because my sister and nephew were going to be visiting. Andrew and Colin hardly ever get to see each other, so I had to jump at this chance. Andrew has been totally healthy since his ear infection weeks and weeks ago. We are halfway to Cinci, and he sneezes. I hear "BIG BOOGERS Mama". Um, excuse me? Where did we learn the word "boogers". I know, I know, I have no one to blame but myself. Lord, I can't wait until he goes to school so I can start pinning some of these embarrassing phrases on someone else!

So with that sneeze, Andrew was suddenly sick. I kid you not. One sneeze and he has a cold. Unbelieveable! No wonder I have to chase my sister down and trick her in order to get the cousins together. She is convinced that Andrew is the cause of all Colin's illnesses. I used to be a little put out by this. Uh, your kid goes to day care, sucks on all the toys at the church nursery, but it's his cousin that lives hundreds of miles away that you are worried about? But now I'm a believer. Andrew really gets sick at the least convenient times.

We dashed back home Friday night so I could host my book club meeting. It was loads of fun, and we stayed up way too late.

Saturday, Jeff had a fencing tournament in Nashville, so he was gone all day. Andrew was pretty much miserable, but we made it to the neighborhood Halloween party. Not worth it. The highlight was the pumpkin shaped cookie and some 9 year old dressed like a football player. "Mama, FOOTBALL PLAYER!" Andrew followed him around for 5 minutes. He made that boy feel like a real superstar :)

Sunday, we dragged Andrew back in the car and drove back up to Cinci for a Bengals game. Okay, so I didn't actually have to go to Cinci this time. But it would have been day 2 of no adult interaction, so I went. And while we had a great time with Memere all day, Andrew had HAD it by the time we put him back in the car to drive home. It was dark, so we couldn't read books, find trucks, etc. It was a long hour and a half. The good news is, we won't have another long car ride until...oh wait. Thursday.

Yup! Our cruise is this week! I am SO EXCITED! I need a vacation like I can taste it! Now I just need to pack and organize and get ready. Oh yes, and buy Halloween candy. And carve a pumpkin. Can we say "procrastinator"? At least Andrew's pumpkin won't rot this year!

The Playground

Yes, that is capitalized. Andrew and I visited The Playground today, or shall we call it "an answer to my prayers". I had heard of this mystical place, but I didn't dare visit until today. In my ignorance I said things like "$8 to enter?!? That's way too much" and "Who names an indoor kids' play place 'The Playground'...how confusing" and "I can't figure out where it is". I take it all back. It is wonderful, and I paid for a yearly membership today.

You walk in and they take your money(you only have to go a few times to make the yearly membership worthwhile it's so darn expensive). Then you sign this disclaimer/waiver that has more legaleze than my mortgage documents did. Uh, yikes. And then, the pearly gates opened to the wonderland.

To my immediate left was a HUGE play area. Like McDonald's on crack. On the other side of this half wall that separates the entry from the play area, the entire wall is chalkboard, with a big bucket of chalk and erasers. Let me take you around the room from that point.
-Tool station, with a couple plastic workbenches and all the tools and screws a little boy could want;
-Wooden block station: a full set of bookshelves FULL of wooden blocks, wooden animals, wooden anything that you could want to build
-Baby land, a little fenced in area with rocking chairs, exersaucers, those bead thingys, big wooden puzzles, a kitchen set, a grocery store set, board books on a book shelf, a teeny tiny playground equipment, Fisher Price Little People toys galore;
-Dress up land is on the other side of Baby Land. There are several little closets full of all different costumes. Then their is a huge wall mirror and stage so the kiddies can put on a show and watch it;
-Lego land...for kids 4 and up, so I didn't really get into this room
-Book shelves full of books and puzzles for older kids
-Doll house complete with furniture and cars for the dolls

That's just around the walls. In the middle of the room there is:
-Table of trains
-Table of dinosaur figurines complete with terrain
-4 Ft ramp with all sorts of cars to roll down it (guess where Andrew was for a majority of the time)
-Table of farm animals complete with barn
-Lego table for little ones
-Baby doll station, with stroller, changing table, etc

Add in lots of park benches for mom's to sit on, and you have "The Playground"

I think I just found what we'll be doing in the afternoons this winter! Oh, and it's only 2 exits up the freeway from me. It'll take all of 10 minutes to get there! Hooray for Louisville! The perfect place to raise a family...and to be a stay-at-home mommy!

Super dog

You all remember my dog, right? 13 pounds, really small head, brains to match the head size? Well, I learned something new today...she knows how to swim! I realize that "all dogs instinctively know how to swim", but a chihuahua? Really? I had my doubts.

So here's what happened:

Andrew wakes up WAY early from his nap. Mommy is already bored out of her mind and full of cabin fever (can we say, it's only October...what the H%!& am I going to be like in February???). So we bundle up and head outdoors. And by bundle up, I mean BUNDLE UP. It was cold. Andrew gets gear from the grandmas, so he is decked out in a turtleneck, sweatshirt, winter coat, and fleece hat. Mommy is in the only coat she owns, a spring jacket. Yea, I'm a smarty. Anyway, because it's been raining so much, I decide to take Shadow along with us on our walk to the park. No problem...a dog and a toddler. I can handle it, right? I mean, I want another child, so I think of these outings as very easy dry runs.

Let's fast-forward a few minutes. Andrew and I are sitting on a bench preparing to throw the ducks some very old raisin bread that I found in the back of a cabinet today (it doesn't speak or move yet, so it's not THAT old, but it is a questionable texture and a bit more like toast than bread now). I was throwing bread WAY out in the lake to try and coax the ducks closer. I can't imagine why they didn't want to waddle around our ankles. A yapping, unleashed dog and a toddler yelling "Come here ducks" sounds safe to me? Shadow catches a piece that Andrew has thrown into the grass and decides that she likes it. So she DIVES INTO THE LAKE. Andrew and I fall silent as we watch Aqua-dog swim out to the bread, eat it, turn around, and swim back. At first I thought, "I'm going to watch my dog drown" and felt very sad. When I saw what a good swimmer she is, I thought, "I'm going to watch myself kill my dog for doing this".

Shadow walks out happy and proud of herself...and COVERED IN POND MUCK. How gross!!! Then I had to convince the toddler that we suddenly needed to leave the park, as I do calculations as to how long it would take hypothermia to set in for a wet, 13 pound dog in 50 degree weather. Shadow is running through the leaves like an insane wild animal. It took me 15 minutes to wash the briars and slime out of her fur.

Ah, the joys of being a dog owner. To top off my day, Andrew had a MONSTER fit at dinner. Jeff was at fencing and Andrew and I were just generally sick of each other. He brought me a container of cookies and declared that he was having a cookie. I had just moments before set his dinner down on the table. 15 minutes of screaming and crying ensued. I just kept telling him that he needed to eat dinner first. I kid you not, the fit just turned off. It's like he figured out I wasn't going to give in. Turned it off like you would turn off a light. Laughed and had fun while we ate dinner together.

Lordy, I am scared of the 2's.

12 days

Yes, less than a fortnight until Jeff and I are boarding our cruise ship. Jeff's dad has prepared our will for us, so Andrew has a place to go if the ocean opens up and swallows our ship. Which very well may happen. Have you noticed the vacation destinations that Hurricane Wilma chose to spend a few DAYS lingering over. Yup, those were our excursion destinations. Someone upstairs is really hoping we won't take a vacation anytime soon. But we are stubborn (and probably a bit stupid) and we are going on this cruise. Just a few things to do first:

1) Lose 35 pounds so I can look good in the cute cruise clothes that you see on commercials

2) Buy said cute clothes

3) Hypnotise Jeff so that when he hears the word "Dinner" he instantly runs to put on a tux to accompany me in my sexy new clothes down to the elegant dinners.

4) Find a magic drug so that my friend Pamela doesn't have to feel the way I felt in Hawaii 2 1/2 years ago.

5) While we're finding magic drugs, can I find one that fixes my hair? Oh and one that will delay my period so I won't get it while on the Eco-Kayak trip through the jungle?

Hmmmm, I'm losing track of why I started this post. Oh yes...

OUR CRUISE IS COMING SOON....(hooray)

Wait a minute

Andrew has the CUTEST new phrase. It all started yesterday at the outdoor mall. I was carrying him back to the car and he grabbed my face between his little hands and forced me to look at him directly. And he said "Wait a minute"..."Firetrucks". And indeed there was the sound of a siren in the distance. Holy cute man! Then I suggested we go back home to have dinner. Andrew again grabs my face and says "Wait a minute. Have idea". He says this over and over again in the most intense, serious way. So I asked if he had an idea for dinner. He said "pizza".

Well, we've created a monster now. We must have overreacted to this cuteness, because this new phrase keeps popping up in conversation. Tonight we were singing the alphabet song, and we got to about "K" when Andrew interupts, "Wait a minute. Have idea".

I know this probably doesn't sound as cute as I think it is, but I promise that if you heard it in person and saw his little face as he says it, you'd be enamored with the boy as well.


On a totally seperate note...I was watching tv the other day and said "Wait a minute, did I just see what I thought I saw?" It was a commercial encouraging Kentuckians to get a hunting license and take a shot at one of the best herds in the country. -gulp- Where have I moved that we have prime time commercials touting hunting? The scary thing was the commercial that immediately followed...beer. Now there's two things that go together!?!?

L-A-Z-Y

Sometimes I'm frustrated because our yard doesn't look as neat and healthy as our neighbors. And our house still looks like we just moved in. But I shouldn't be frustrated, because I know why things are the way they are. Jeff and I are LAZY. Andrew is currently taking a marathon nap, and we have a long list of things to do around the house. It looks something like this:

Giselle, get hair cut, shop at Kohls, organize desk in kitchen, set up new files for filing cabinet, finish planting bulbs, pull weeds in front beds, dust, pickup, wash enormous house

Jeff, hang pretty fall decorations, plant grass seed, mow lawn, move old filing cabinets to basement, move garage fridge,

Here's what we've done today:
1-slept in (Andrew slept until 7:30 today!)
2-lazed around in pjs (7:30-10:00)
3-jumped on bed and played chase (10-10:30)
4-took a walk around neighborhood and enjoyed the fall weather (10:30-11:30)
5- fixed, ate lunch and watched Elmo's world (11:30-12:15)
6-Andrew naps, Jeff reads Kiplingers, Giselle plays on computer, reads book, and basically does everything that isn't productive

And now that Andrew is awake, we are going to wander around the outdoor mall and enjoy the weather some more.

And we wonder how nothing gets accomplished on the weekend!

Bunco and other random life events

Tonight I subbed for my mom's club Bunco group. Is there a game that uses LESS brain power than Bunco? It is perfect for a group of brain-dead moms at the end of a long day and week. One of the most fun parts was going into the host's home. She lives down the street from me, and I'm insanely curious about other houses in my neighborhood. This is the 4th I've been inside...and I still like my house the best. By far. That just makes you feel good. :)

Andrew was a BLAST today when Jeff got home from work. We were listening to a kid's song tape and jumping on the bed when Andrew spotted Jeff. He hollered "Daddy!". Jeff laid down on the bed with me, Andrew flopped down in between us. He looked us in the eye and said "Whole family". What a concept. So cute. And since Jeff and I gave him such a positive response, he said over and over again, "A-ew family, whole family, A-ew family". Then he got in Jeff's face and said some sort of garbly-goop. I finally figured it out and interpreted "Mr. Noodle has a family too?" (For those of you lucky enough to not be living in a world of children's programming, Mr. Noodle is a character on Elmo's World). Andrew nods yes, turns to Jeff, gets nose to nose with him, and practically yells "Noodle family too" as if Jeff just couldn't get it. So intense. We were crying we were laughing so hard.

THIS is why you have children. Not for family pictures or Christmas cards or stories to tell on your boring blog. You have them for those informal, impromptu moments on your bed as a family when you are crying your eyes out because you are laughing so hard. I just wish I could have a camera man follow me and tape them so when I am old and gray and Andrew only calls me once a week with nothing to say I can watch those tapes and remember the "good old days". These are very good "good old days".

Getting the love back

It has finally happened. After telling Andrew "I love you" a bazillion times since he was born, he has started saying it to me. Unprompted. At appropriate times. And it melts my heart every time. He was exceptionally loving yesterday. He woke up, I picked him up out of his crib, and he hugged me, patted my arm and said "A-ew loves Mommy". He would do that throughout the day. Melts my heart. Daddy even got an "A-ew loves Daddy". Of course, Shadow did to. That dog climbed into his lap and cuddled with him. Seriously, I think she may have been born without a brain. What kind of self-preserving animal would willingly climb into a toddler's lap?

But not only is my kid sweet and loving, he's smart too. (have I mentioned that?) I totally understand why all the parents in my classroom 6 years ago thought their child was gifted. You watch this lump of drooling pooping chaos become an intelligent being in just a few short years. It is nothing short of amazing. Yesterday, Andrew saw a picture of the moon on a DVD that was lying about. He ran to get his stuffed cow and put the cow on top of the DVD. Then he looked at Jeff and I and said "Cow jump over moon". Either I'm just amazed because he is my first child and I don't know any better, or I am going to think my second kid is retarded. Poor thing. Not even conceived yet, and I don't know how it will compete with its older brother. Can't be cuter, can't be smarter, but maybe it will be able to walk up a step. :)

Fall weekend

Have I mentioned how much I love living back in the Midwest? Only a few hundred time? Okay, here's a few hundred and one. I LOVE LIVING IN THE MIDWEST!

This weekend, Jeff's brother Chad was going to be visiting his parents. So we just drove up. Yup, that's right. Piled everyone into the car(including Shadow) and drove 4 hours up to their house. No need to buy plane tickets months in advance, no need to kennel Shadow, no need to wait in lines at the airport or hike from long-term parking with child, car-seat, and luggage in tow. Ah, the blissfull simplicity and spontaneity of driving to see family. To top it all off...it is fall. Have I mentioned I haven't had a fall since 1998?

So we drive up, and to add to my perfect weekend, Andrew slept for an hour on the drive up!!!! Andrew NEVER falls asleep in the car. It was amazing. Grandma's house is like Disneyland in Ohio for Andrew. So many new toys take out of their organized stacked crates and buckets and spread throughout Grandma's clean house. Plus, Grandma and Grandpa have a tee-ball set up (which we played for hours) and a ladybug infestation outside their garage (Andrew "the exterminator" Spurgeon helped reduce the numbers...although completely by accident. Don't ladybugs like to be picked up by toddler pinchers and put into a glass jar?) Great-grandma Spurgeon came over and we went to a farm for their fall festivities. To my happiness, Andrew finally warmed up to Elsie, counting her fingers in the car, and not scowling at her the whole time. The farm was so picturesque. The best part...a Corn Crib. Which is basically a huge tub (well, wooden mini pool contraption) filled with corn. Who knew corn could be so much fun? Andrew threw it, rolled in it, pooped in it (okay, so he pooped in his diaper in it, but he was inspired to do it). And amazingly, he only brought 3 kernels home in his clothes!

Chad arrived that night after we'd put Andrew to bed, so we had a nice time chatting and catching up. My favorite "Chadism" of the weekend, "Austin is really nice except that it is surrounded by Texas". Andrew woke up Saturday morning and fell in love with his "Kuncle Tad". It was so cool. Chad would leave his sight and Andrew would ask "Tad go?" Chad continued to try and train Andrew to be left-handed...a losing battle, I'm afraid. Andrew adored the UT balls that Chad brought him. He even got to watch hours of TV with Chad. They were buddies. I hope Chad enjoyed his time as much as Andrew did.

The air was crisp and smelled like fall. We wore sweatshirts and jeans and crunched through leaves when we went for walks. We saw a wooly caterpillar! Loved it loved it loved it. And Andrew just loves his grandparents (and Kuncle Tad) so he would've been happy no matter what the weather.

As usual, when we visit Jeff's parents, life problems get solved. What would we do without them? Paul made the engine coolant light in my car go away (add coolant, and it goes away...go figure!). He also made a little shelf for Jeff to stack his TV electronics on (Jeff tried, but didn't measure properly). Linda managed to find a Halloween costume that Andrew will wear (construction worker). And she once again made me feel like Andrew is a little genius (apparently most 2 year olds don't know the meaning of directional terms such as in front of, next to, under, etc). Oh yes, and she single handedly ruined any DIE-et that I was on. She makes such good food! And both his parents and his brother managed to bring smiles back to my Jeff's face, a feat that I wasn't able to accomplish much the last week. For that alone, they are miracle-makers.

Hope everyone out there had as good a weekend as we did. They don't come much more perfect than this.

So dagg-on tired

I have still not recovered from Andrew's all night cry-fest on Friday night/Saturday morning. I feel so drained. And I'm pretty sure it's because I have an ear infection too. Sunday night, it felt like someone was jamming a pen into my ear, down along my jaw line. Not pleasant. Not helped by the fact Andrew was up crying just about every hour (not that I went to get him...he just woke me up each time). And then he has this insane wake up time the last couple of days. Uh...5:45 IS NOT MORNING. Moral of the story...I should be going to sleep when Andrew does. Another moral of the story...what am I thinking wanting to have another child? I remember the exhaustion of the first couple of months (not to mention the BARFING). If I think a little ear ache is a problem, months of illness will not be fun. Craziness.
(and for the mother who is going to call me and tell me to go to the doctor...no. Andrew's doctor said if he was over 2, they would just treat the pain because half of earaches aren't even bacterial. Since I am WAY over 2 years old, I'm pretty sure they'll just tell me to suck it up)

The good news is Jeff is working nights this week. How is this good news, you ask? Because he is home in the afternoon to help play with Andrew. Bad news for him, but it works out okay for me. He started off his week of nights poorly. He sliced his finger open, and ended up in the ER for hours waiting for 4 tiny stitches. He said it didn't even hurt, he was mostly just embarrassed by it. It does get him out of bathing and changing Andrew for a week or so. Hmmmmm...

And on a more cheerful note...we scheduled our excursions for the cruise. Now I am really excited (only 25 days until we are on the ship!). We will be visiting Tulum, a Mayan ruin right on the Carribean and on another day we will be doing the "Eco Kayak Jungle Adventure", a kayaking trip through the jungle that ends up on a beautiful sandy beach. Yea!!! I can't wait!!!

Andrew's goofy grins

I have attached some photos of Andrew smiling for pictures. I'm kind of excited, because he's actually responding when I ask him to smile for the camera. But what is up with the open mouth and scrunchy nose???

How dumb can I get?

So here you can see our nice new piece of furniture. It was bought to sit in our small front hall. The drawers are also file cabinets, so there is some function to our lovely piece. I picked it out a while ago out of a catalog, and ordered it last Monday, and Jeff assembled it yesterday.

But do you know what I forgot to do? Measure the wall. Yup, I didn't even think of it until we were moving it into place. Hello??? Can we say RETARDED??? My unbelievably patient husband just laughed at me. I am so angry with myself. Who doesn't measure before buying a piece of furniture???

So, as you can tell from the picture...it doesn't fit in the front hall. At least it has some functionality so it's not a total loss.

Loser. The worst part is, if I had just measured, I could have ordered to two drawer table and it would have fit perfectly. And been cheaper. Arghhhh!

Mommy is right!

Score one for Dr. Mommy. I love being right for two reasons...#1-it buys me credibility with the doctor, so they don't think I'm just some over-paranoid first time mom #2- my baby gets medicine so he doesn't have to suffer

Anyway, his left ear is bulging and bright red. So now onto the torture of forcing medicine down his throat twice a day. Last time he had an ear infection (in February) we just added it to his milk. But now he takes so much medicine (he weighed 33.2pounds today!), it really makes his milk taste icky. Poor guy. Maybe he'll be more agreeable once he's feeling better!

Up in the middle of the night

So it is 7 am. And I've been awake for 3 and a half hours already. Yup, Andrew woke me up at 3:30 crying in his sleep. Banging his head like there was no tomorrow and crying the whole time. I thought he was having a night terror, so I woke him up and rocked him a bit. He went back down, only to cry and bang his head. He didn't want to be awake, but he couldn't get to sleep. So I let him get up at 4:15...why not? He wasn't letting us sleep anyway. But he couldn't even calm down to watch tv...he was crying SO HARD. I gave him some milk and some Tylenol. Finally at about 5:45 he stopped crying. But he is so fragile. Every little thing just about sets him off. I was trying to make him laugh and kissing his neck and face when he let out a cry. Further investigation made me realize his left ear is VERY tender.

Well, duh, mom. He must have an ear infection...hence the can't lie down without crying and Tylenol helped him calm down. Thank God his doctor is open on Saturdays. If there is any advice I can give to future parents looking for a pediatrician...find one with weekend hours. That is the ONLY time they get really sick!

So here I wait until 8 am and I can call the doctor. Poor kid.

Can we skip Halloween?

Evidently, Andrew has inherited his parents' disregard for the upcoming holiday. I bought him the CUTEST Elmo costume from Target. He didn't like it when I bought it, but I figured once I put it on him, he'd be really excited to look like Elmo. Um, no. I forced him to put it on this afternoon, again thinking that if he saw the end result he'd be okay with it. BIG MISTAKE. He began crying hystarically when he saw himself and after I pulled it off, he continued sobbing, and I mean hiccupping sobbing for 40 MINUTES!!!

I guess I'll return it. But if he won't dress up like Elmo, I don't think I'll be able to get him to dress up like anything!

Night-Night

Damn, my kid is cute.

Today it was confirmed that Andrew needs his "Night-night" to go to sleep. I always wondered, but now there is no doubt.

Let me back up. I always wanted my kid to have a security item. A pacifier, a thumb, a lovey of some sort...just something that could comfort them to sleep other than me :) So when Andrew rejected the pacifier and never even took one slurp of his fingers (though I tried...imagine that) I decided that he WOULD get attached to a lovey. I picked a very cute baby shower gift, although I can't recall who it was from. It is one of those tiny blankets with a bear head. But there is no satin, it's made of this wonderfully soft fleecy material that washes and dries so easily, it's like new after every wash.

So he goes to bed with it every night. When I was nursing, I stroked his face with it. When I rocked him to sleep, I put it on my shoulder. He re-christened it his "night-night". But I could never tell if he just slept with it because I sort of pushed it on him. Until today that is.

He peed EVERYWHERE this morning. Apparently he has learned to get out of his crib in the night and drink gallons of water, because the amount of pee was astronomically more than the amount of liquid he drank yesterday. His diaper literally weighed 10 pounds. He peed all over the sheets and on poor old Night-night. So Night-night and sheets all went into the washer. But after our morning routine, running errands, and playing a lot of one-sided football (no share, mama), I totally forgot to put the load into the drier. Until it was nap time, that is.

I just tried to pretend Night-night never existed. I gave him his Elmo doll and his spotted dog (which is actually a leopard...but try to convince Andrew of that). He seemed happy, so I said goodnight and left. In the time it took to put the laundry into the drier, I hear Andrew frantically saying, "Where Night-night go? Mama, no find night-night". I open the door and he is sitting up, with tears brimming in his eyes. Poor little guy. So I offered to read books until Night-night was done drying. No good. He needed to see that Night-night was okay. So we took him out of the drier. Andrew SNATCHED it out of my hand and ran back to his crib. Back to nap he went with wet Night-night.

When he woke up 90 minutes later, the first thing he said was "Night-night wet, mama" followed by the usual, "Pee-U, hold nose" because of his post-nap poopies. (yes, he tells you to 'hold nose')

If he's willing to sleep with sopping wet Night-night, I'd say he's a bit attached!


Oh, and another cute story. We say the Lord's Prayer as part of our bedtime routine. We always say Amen together at the end. Tonight we said "A-men" and the Andrew said "and Ah-men". Hmmm? He kept insisting "and Ah-men, mama and Ah-men". Apparently, Jeff says "Ah-men" and I say "A-men" so Andrew is insisting that we say both at the end of the prayer. God should really get the point!

In a rut

So I can't think of what to write, and I can't think of what to do...with Andrew, with my free time. Maybe I'm a little depressed :(

So this afternoon, Andrew and I are staring at each other wondering what to do. Did you know that when your kid gets bored, they start acting up? Go figure! I needed something fun to do with him. He's bored of his toys...but not as bored as I am. We'd already gone to a park this morning, so it seemed redundant to go to another park in the afternoon. There were no errands that desperately needed doing. It was too hot to walk around the lake. So we were staring at each other. Literally. Andrew was lying on the floor of the family room, as was I, and we were just looking at each other. So I asked if he wanted to play in our big tub. The jacuzzi tub. Andrew jumps up and says "Hooray!" and starts running to the stairs. Oops. I really am not stimulating this kid enough. How sad is it that getting in the big tub is worthy of a "Hooray".

It was awesome. Andrew put all of his Little People farm animals in the tub with him, and I got to look through my catalogs (that have been sitting around forever). Of course, I did not have the jets on...that would have shortened bath time drastically...like to 30 seconds or so. Andrew was in the tub for about 40 minutes! Oh blessed break! And when he got out of the tub, he patted me on the cheek and said "So fun tub, mama".

Sweet, eh? Cut to an hour later. Andrew finishes dinner and wants to go outside. Andrew doesn't have shoes on because of the bath (see above). Andrew goes outside anyway. Andrew cries because our pebbled aggregate driveway is like broken glass on bare feet. Andrew throws a MONSTER fit when I take him in to put on shoes. Full on thrashing on the floor, crocodile tears, screaming his head off. When I ask what he wants (in between screams)...? "Milk". Okay, so let's go to bed. This kid confuses the heck out of me. But I guess that's what being 2 is all about!

Life keeps on truckin'

I knew this would happen. I would run out of things to write. Lose my inpiration to be witty. I'm sad that it happened after just a month or two. This is why my journal is so spotty. And why I could never be a columnist.

Life is just happening. And I can't think of anything to write. So here's a compilation of the last week:

1. I started a book club through my mom's club. Someone suggested it after another conversation about books with me. I think they were bored and trying to give me another outlet to talk about books :) We had the first meeting at my house on Thursday night. It should be fun. We are only going to meet every 6 weeks, because most mom's are afraid to commit to a book a month. It just sounds scary. The first book we are going to read is 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'. Next meeting, everyone is supposed to bring book suggestions so we can have a list for the next year or so. We'll see how it goes!

2. Andrew is still cute. I know, shocking. He now recognizes octagons as Stop signs, so everytime we're in the car and he sees one, he yells "STOP sign. STOP cars". My little police officer. There will be no rolling through stop signs for me for a little while. He also tells you "See you later" when you leave, "Wait a minute" when something hasn't gone quite right (for example, when eating hotdog, he forgot to dip a piece in ketchup before popping it in his mouth. He said, "Wait a minute", took the hotdog back out of his mouth, dipped it, and then ate it again. Lovely...don't you want to come to my house for dinner?), and my personal favorite, "Big fun", as in "Park big fun, mama". Oh yes, and he cheers when you serve him a meal.

3. I'm hungry. Need I say more? I'm doing really well cutting back on what I eat and how much I eat. And I'm not AS hungry as I was before. But I still can barely zip my pants. How patient do I need to be? This is why I always quit...no results fast enough.

Um, that's it. What an exciting update. At least this blog will be useful to the world as a cure for insomnia!