So much for that...

Today, I came so close to making a life long dream of mine come true.... okay, maybe not life long but at least for the past two years. I almost had all the laundry done. In one day! That is including folding and putting away in the proper drawers.

Until of course, I looked over by hubby's dresser and noticed a pile of clothes.

Aaargh!!

That's okay. We're even. I think I threw away a crucial part of plumbing from the old sink for our newly remodeled bathroom. And it's something that Lowe's doesn't carry anymore. Ooops.

Better luck next time.... for both of us.

Little Moments in July

Since it's the end of July already (!!), I thought I would give a brief highlight of Little Moments that happened during the month of July. Although I really have better things to be doing (ie. helping hubby finish the upstairs bathroom, laundry, dishes, getting to bed at a decent hour), here goes:

Fourth of July started the beginning of an adventurous month ... for all of us. Little Man A witnessed his first Fourth of July parade and boy was he fascinated. Not only did he see LOTS of motorcycles, cars, and of course, fire trucks, he stood still for an hour. I guess seeing that many fire trucks in one place will do that to an 18 month old.


Little Man is such a great helper. I'm not sure if that is because that's just the toddler's inclination to help and please his parents, or if we really make him. Either way, he wanted to help his daddy's so badly with the downstairs bathroom. Here, he decided to help by shoving a screwdriver in the door frame.


Although I don't have any photos of the event, just videos, July is when we realized Little Man had an affection for singing. Look out American Idol!

Since taking Little Man to Gymboree, not only has he gotten the chance to run around crazy and wild (and get all of his wiggles out by lunch time), he's also taken up art and music class. Although we've only gone to one music class, mainly because he really wasn't in to it when we did go, we've made several attempts to release his creative, artistic side as well. For some reason, and maybe this is the OCD that has genetically passed onto him, he really doesn't like the paint on his hands. Well this cured that problem:


Although I really didn't like the idea of having my child watch television, I have to admit sometimes it is a lifesaver. However, I found out that some things are really starting to scare Little Man ... like Monsters, Inc. Okay, maybe not scare but more like stun.


Little Man has always loved to play with our shoes at the front door, but July he actually started to try to put them on... and walk with them on. And yes, those are Daddy's goggles, too.


So, I guess all those art classes at Gymboree are really paying off, because when we found this (and yes, I mean found as in on the side of the road. Probably after someone had a yard sale and couldn't sell it, yet there is nothing wrong with it!), we can't seem to keep him away from it. Now he loves to first dump all of his crayons on the table and then scribble create masterpieces.


We knew this child had an addiction to lawnmowers, and I mean, soon this child will be saying "Hi. My name is Little Man A and I'm addicted to lawnmowers." Yes, he loves them that much... and here's proof: For 30 minutes (I'm not kidding - okay maybe 15 minutes) he pushed around his lawnmower in the house wearing another pair of Daddy's safety glasses.


We still have yet to take Little Man to the pool, so last month I bought him a Thomas the Tank kiddie pool. Although he loves getting in and out of it, he's not into really stomping or splashing in it yet (mainly because he kept slipping on the bottom every time he got in or out of it). So we found a new place to take him: Spray Ground! A small "park" run by our homeowner's association, but it's packed with lots of fun!

I know there are some parents out there who cringe at the thought of taking their children on a road trip. We started taking Little Man on road trips at the age of 4 months old when we drove to Disney World. Over this past month, we've driven to Fredericksberg, VA area which is about 45 minutes on a good day. I'm not sure if it's the little trips around town or just the fact that he can watch everything go by, but he's a great rider. I've said this before, but it wasn't until the other day when I looked at this picture did it really sink in. Give him a book, a toy, and a monkey blankie to hold on to and he's a happy boy.



It's been a long month. Over the past month, Little Man has really been trying to assert his independence. I see this more at Gymboree, but every once in awhile he still holds out his hand for me. He's trying so many new things, is trying so hard to communicate with us his needs and desires, and he's growing up so fast. He really is a great kid. I like to think it's because we're actually doing something right, but it could be just luck (or his real terrible twos are just around the corner). I can't imagine my life without him now, and I am so lucky to be his mommy.



Love you, Little Man.

We might be ok after all

I saw this video for the first time on Catwoman's website. At first you think this is just another video...

And I completely agree with her that it makes you feel like the world is not that bad after all and might just turn out ok.



For complete information and to watch a few more videos from Matt, visit Where the hell is Matt?

Attention ebayers

I have to vent about something totally annoying to at least moi. Recently, I've been bidding like crazy on Cricut diecut machine cartridges on ebay. Of course, I'm not like every other impulse buyer out there though. I know my limit. If an item starts at $0.99, I'll bid but won't put a maximum price limit on the item. I'm also not someone who tries to outbid the next person when there is still 4 days left in the auction. Why you ask? So the next person doesn't jack the price up even more. However, apparently some people out there do this just for fun.

Case in point, I'm bidding on something right now that started off at $0.99. If you were someone who was interested in this item, why would you outbid me at $15.00 right away???

If it were me, I would bid the next amount and continue until I reach either the maximum I feel the item is worth, or until I outbid the previous bidder.

Now I'm guessing that particular person is expecting me to not want that item after they outbid me by $14.01 and they would be correct. Because more than likely they are the exact same person who will be stalking the item and watching as the seconds tick down then pounce at the very last second.

It's the thrill of the bid. I get that. But...

Here is my proposition to the thousands of ebayers who are bidding on items of which there are thousands of the exact same product available. Unless you absolutely need 3 of the same item, I propose that we all get one. So if you see an item that is already bid on, leave it alone and go find another one. It might take a few days to find one that no one else has bid on, but at least this way, we'll all get one at an incredible price!

Sound good?? Let's see if it works. Probably not.

Is this bad?

So the other day I looked over on my counter and saw this:



A sweet potato with sprouts. Is this bad?? I'm not even sure if I can still cook this, but I don't think I'm going to try.

Better luck next time with the sweet potatoes. Hopefully, the regular potatoes I have on the counter now won't go bad before I have them for dinner.

Bathroom reno complete!

Prior to fourth of July weekend, I posted that hubby and I were renovating our downstairs bathroom. We were hoping that it wasn't going to turn into one huge project just like every other small project in this god forsaken house. Now that it's over I can say, the worse thing that could have happened, both time and monetary wise, was if we needed to replace ALL of the drywall and the shower. Although hubby begs to differ because he says he could have gotten a even surface to work with. I say yes, but sanding the wall did just fine (except for the spots that he missed of course).

Actually, I say we, but it was mainly hubby. The bathroom was really way too small for both of us to work and of course he's the more handier of the two of us. About the only thing that I helped with was painting, and even that I seemed to be in the way. I'm sure it was also because I had that nasty fall last week and he really thought I was in too much pain to be helping at all.

So here is the before picture (gross, huh? And yes, everything is an ivory-dingy yellow color):



And here are the after shot (very pretty!):



The vanity and medicine cabinet are actually smaller than the original (I think the toilet is as well, but I only care that it's a water saver toilet) so it makes the bathroom seem much bigger. The nice coal miner's gray wall cover complements the gray slate color tile. That in itself also helps make the room seem bigger, not to mention cleaner! I don't dare show you the drywall mold accumulation at the base of the shower we had to replace.

I'm not sure how much it cost us exactly, mainly because we were also purchasing products for the upstairs bathroom reno as well. Plus not to mention the numerous times hubby had to make emergency last minute, crap the part didn't work runs to Lowe's. All in all, hopefully this will make the house sell for our asking price when and if we need to sell.

Let me know what you think. Next project: The main bathroom.

I hate emergency rooms!

Saturday, Little Man wakes up with what feels like a fever. Unfortunately, we have a piece of crap ear thermometer. I thought it was cool when I purchased it because you could theoretically just point it at something and get an "accurate" temperature. Whatever. Every time I check Little Man's temp it says it's normal, but mother's intuition says otherwise.

We were able to make it through the morning routine miraculously because all Little Man wanted to do was walk around with mom with his head attached to my shoulder. He slept until 3:30pm for his nap, which really isn't all that unusual. When he wakes up though, he's not into eating for himself. I would hand him a yogurt covered pretzel and he would turn around and feed it to dad. Although dad was extremely appreciative, I was concerned that he was only wanting to drink juice or milk.

By this time, he felt even more warm to my touch. I called my mom and asked when I should begin acting worried. I double checked his temperature with a regular digital thermometer under his arm and it registered 101 degrees. I knew I really should be taking a rectal temperature, but I was not into torturing my child at that point. I had already given him 1/2 dose of Tylenol 30 minutes prior, so mom recommended to give him the other half of dose.

When I did, he started choking and eventually threw up ALL of his lunch (5 hours later) and anything else that happened to be in his stomach. I yelled down to hubby to say it was time to go to the emergency room.

Now, I know I'm probably throwing this way out of proportion, but I had this aching feeling something else was going on. First we had the problem with the UFR (Unidentifiable Freaking Rash), which we are still trying to get an referral appointment with a dermatologist. Lately it's been a horribly runny nose which I associated with his first molars emerging. I just felt like this could not wait until Monday morning.

When we get to DeWitt Hospital, I inform them of his symptoms (temperature, vomiting, not eating or drinking since noon - past 6 hours). Apparently, these symptoms were not urgent enough to the triage nurse because it was close to 2 hours later that we finally were called back to get his vitals. When she registered a temperature of 103 degrees, I about hit the roof! So, not only has my child not eaten or drank anything for now 8 hours, he has a fever. Can you say dehydrated??

I paced and paced over the next hour and half. We tried to get him to take some liquid Motrin, but that just upset him even more, so we had to give him a suppository of Tylenol to help break the fever. Thankfully, it worked and by the time we made it back to the emergency room, his temperature registered 100.4 degrees. So three hours after we first arrived, now we have to wait to be seen by a doctor.

I told hubby that I was giving them until 10pm to get a doctor or we were going home. Thankfully, Little Man was totally content to play with daddy's wedding ring, his phone, take tissue out of the box and watch it float to the floor. However, we're now 2 hours past his bedtime and he's starting to get cranky.

10pm comes and I address the nurse's station. "My son's temperature is down. He's no longer a priority to you anymore. Can we just go home?" Thankfully, one of the nurse's asked if he's been able to hold anything down. No one had offered him anything, we forgot his sippy cup at home and didn't have one in his emergency diaper bag in the truck (one will be going there now), and now he's just plain tired.

So they got him some Pedialyte and a popsicle to try and he didn't want anything to do with it. Apparently, now he's an urgent patient (not ingested anything in 10 hours!) and around the corner finally comes a doctor. Wouldn't you know it, one look in his ears and he had an ear infection. (rolling my eyes)

However, the doctor is extremely concerned that he's getting dehydrated (no duh!) so now comes the fun part. He's also concerned about RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and making sure there is no other underlying problem going on. Since he's not eating or drinking on his own, the fun part is an IV in his arm. I'm so sorry buddy.

The rest of the night is kind of a blur, but about midnight I'm about to pass out from lack of nourishment myself. Hubby visited the trusty venting machine and comes back with Cheetos. Little Man's favorite! At first he wasn't interested - said no to daddy when he asked if he wanted a Cheeto and pushed his hand away. But when he got a taste of the cheese, it was all up hill from there.

By the end of the night, he was finally sleeping (until of course they removed his IV and urine bag around his pee-pee (ouch!)) and we were heading home at 1:30am. I never want to do that again! I feel so sorry for parents who have children with repetitive ear infections (as a matter of fact, there was a mother there who knew her child had an ear infection and waited 2 hours without being seen by the triage nurse. She ended up going home and said she would be back tomorrow if it was worse). I feel even worse for parents who have to experience their children being hospitalized for any other reason at all. I consider myself to be a strong person (I listened to my child scream when they checked his temp rectally, tried to give him medicine orally when he couldn't breathe through any other opening than his mouth, and give him an IV and pump his arm to get one last drop of blood for a CBC), but I don't think I could handle my child being hospitalized for a serious illness.

Long story not short, he's doing better today. Although I'm trying to figure out how to not torture my child while giving his medicine (he didn't fall for it in his milk - in fact that made him even more upset last night). I'm going to try putting the grape flavored antibiotics since it's only 2ml in some yogurt. If he needs Motrin or Tylenol (5ml), I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Up until now, he had always just opened his mouth and seemed to like the taste of it. Not anymore.

On a good note: Stay tuned for tomorrow. We finished our bathroom project! Until then, tootles!

Karaoke anyone?

My dad found and brought Little Man A this radio/microphone while he was packing all of his dearly belongings to move to California last month. At first he was a little taken aback by it, but now he walks around the house with it saying, "do do dododo."

I know he's a little young to get started with stardom (or maybe not), but I'm sure this song will be a hit in no time. :)

Happy Birthday to me!

In case any of you read Wenderina's comment from yesterday's post, today is my birthday. Yup, I'm getting old. Although the funny thing is... I really don't feel like it. Nor do I really even think that I look like it either. But that's just my point of view. I'm sure if there was an 15-year old walking past me on the street while I was pushing my 18 month old son in the stroller they may think otherwise.

Anyway, although it didn't turn out exactly like hubby had planned (he didn't even tell me he was able to get the day off until this morning), I think it turned out to be a very nice day.

We started our day at Gymboree art class making a "ring of posies". Too bad Little Man is not entirely sure of what posies look like or even what they are for that matter. Alas, he did a great job painting inside the ring ... and all over the table.... and adding a little to his tongue for good measure. Unfortunately, hubby who was doing more observing than picture taking didn't get a shot of Little Man putting his masterpiece together. No worries. This time in art class play-doh was a hit! However, I think I'm going to leave play-doh and it's mess to Gymboree.


Since my camera decided to die halfway through Gymboree and I wasn't too sure what was in store for the day, we decided to run back home and get the reserve camera battery. Before we got home though I noticed that Little Man was really rubbing his eyes and they appeared red. So instead of hitting the road right away, we stayed home until after his nap. Once he woke up and had his snack we hit the road. Destination: Unknown.

I kind of had a feeling of where we were headed. I had only been hinting around about wanting Sonic for my birthday since I found out the closest one was just south of us in Fredericksberg, VA (about a 45 minute drive - if we're lucky). Well apparently we weren't lucky, because traffic - rather should I say, people of Virginia love to look at other people's mishaps therefore causing the road to back up about five miles or so. Although I'm sure that's the same anywhere else in the continental U.S.

Hubby had originally wanted to take us to a local winery for a tour and tasting session. Not only did they have a good record, although I had never heard of them, they have a child's play area where you can "drop them off" while you drink up. Unfortunately they close at 5pm and by the time we would have arrived, we would have been rushed through the tour. So we are going this weekend instead.

Instead, we found a local Petco and let Little Man run crazy stretch his legs and look at the animals. He loved to run up to the children in the store and point to whatever animal they were peering in at, like he was telling them all about that particular animal. The birds and the turtles were a favorite.


But we did make it to Sonic!!

We had our favorite: chicken finger dinner with a Route 44 Cherry Limeade. Little Man had the corn dog, although he wasn't too sure about the coating at first.

On top of that, hubby was super husband and ordered me flowers. And, a good friend of mine made me this :


Is that not a great birthday present?! Because of this, I am inspired to scrap more little moments of Little Man rather than trying to capture ALL of the moments and leave me feeling like I am so far behind in scrapping. So I am going to put together a small 8x8 album of "Little Special Moments". Also, instead of doing double page layouts, I've decided to try my hand at one page layouts highlighting only one or two photos. Now I just need to finish his first year album and Wenderina's wedding album.

All in all, it was a good birthday.

Always something...

So, this past weekend, hubby and I decide now is as good a time as any to start tackling our projects around the house. Namely, refinishing the bathrooms. We decided to begin with the downstairs bathroom since we don't really use it that much (hubby uses it mainly in the mornings after he goes for his morning run and to shave prior to leaving for work).

Since hubby had 4 days off for the Fourth weekend, we knew we could at least get things off the walls, patch decaying drywall, sand and paint them a fresh new color, clean the shower, and strip the floor of the god awful vinyl tile.

We? Actually accomplished all of the above mentioned! Now, hubby is working on tiling while I? Am sitting here on top of an ice pack. Why you ask? Because I decided it was a novel idea to fall off of our retaining wall yesterday.

Yes. You read that right. I tumbled off our retaining wall 5 feet or so after slipping on the wood because it had rained the night prior. Yes, I'm okay. Just a little bruised in the nether regions along with a bruised ego.

Thankfully, hubby was home yesterday. He was actually walking out back when he heard me screaming and Little Man A screaming. He knew right away that someone had taken a fall and was hoping and praying that it wasn't me WHILE I was holding Little Man. Thankfully, I was not. But, let me tell you. It's even more scary when you have a child screaming because you yourself are hurt. You can tell them that you're okay, but they just witnessed you vanish over the side of the cliff.

When we finally made it back inside, Little Man was calmed down and I was trying to catch my breath, do you know what my child did to me? He smiled and smacked my leg. As if to say "Mom! Didn't you tell me not to get too close to the edge?! Why'd you fall?!! Don't ever do that again!!"

I know it will take me while to recover, but hopefully he won't remember that moment his mom temporarily disappeared over the wall.

Little Man and trucks

Like every other little boy out there, Little Man loves trucks. But I'm not talking just loves. I mean L O V E S trucks. He even hears a truck or something that sounds like a truck, he stops what he's doing, points to the air, and grunts like a truck engine.

When he actually sees the truck... total trance.

So, when Pop-pop showed up with a big yellow truck that parked right in front of his house. Let's just say the little boy was in heaven.



I'm not sure what this child is going to do when he grows up, but I know it's going to include trucks, trains, rocks, sticks, and dirt. Does an engineer still fit in that description?? I want him to do something that makes money in the future.