With more reasonable gas prices these days we decided to take a family Sunday drive this past weekend . After a quick bite to eat at In-N-Out Burger and a stop at Starbuck’s for a coffee for the drive we headed down a cute country road. After driving through some really pretty areas we ended up taking a turn down another cute country road that we were not quite sure where it went. It was kind of one of those “Hey, I’ve never been out this way before –let’s see where it goes” kind of moments. The road went on and on and it became apparent we had no idea where we were, but it was a fun drive and we just kept going. The baby had fallen fast asleep and was happily taking his little nap in the car so all was well. When we reached a stopping point and figured out approximately where we were we took a turn and decided to go a different way home. What we didn’t know was that it was a very windy road. I am pretty prone to car sickness and our happy Sunday drive quickly turned into not so much fun. Things took a significant turn for the worse when little guy woke up out of his nap and effectively lost his lunch. It was one of those baby throw up situations where you can’t imagine how that much could come out of someone so small. Daddy quickly pulled over and we started the clean-up process. Thankfully we’re always prepared and travel with pretty much everything we could possibly need; trash bags, lots of baby wipes, plenty of extra clothes, etc. I went to work in the back of the car stripping down the little guy and changing him. Meanwhile Teenager is helping run interference between me and Daddy who’s busy cleaning up the car seat the best he can. Now my husband knows me very well. And he knows better than what he did next. But somehow in the moment he didn’t happen to consider that it was exactly the wrong time in which to describe the mess he was dealing with in both a disgusting and hilarious manner to his wife who was queasy, cleaning up a barf covered toddler and really needed to find a potty after having a triple cappuccino. But of course those circumstances only made the whole scenario even more amusing. To him.
In the eyes of my child
Several months ago while at the bookstore we were strolling by the children’s books when the little guy pointed towards a book and said “Mommy!” and then “Daddy!” Upon closer inspection we discovered he was pointing to Cinderella and actually seeing the characters Cinderella and Prince Charming as Mommy and Daddy, something we thought was highly amusing and darn cute. So flash forward to recently: the bedtime routine around here is for the little guy to be read a story or two by Daddy when going to bed. He’s been pretty good about communicating which book he’d like. Lately it’s been “Go Dog Go” but the other day I heard him request the “Mommy book”. As it turns out the Mommy book is actually a book with various stories of all the Disney Princesses. This cracks me up and of course makes me feel good…you know, not being a Princess and all. Of course I was delighted to see that my birthday gift this year from the little guy was this:
Now you'll have to excuse me while I return to my "princess duties". Of course those would be the Cinderella pre-Fairy Godmother variety which includes laundry, scrubbing floors and talking to mice about my new dress.
Because how can you resist the Snuggle Bear?
Just passing along to my readers a $2.00 off coupon for Snuggle's new "Snuggle Creme" Fabric softener.
Old Navy, WTH?
But more importantly, what is up with the return to the seventies fashions? Frankly, that's a decade of clothes I'd rather not see resurface.
Because what this says to me is the woman who would typically wear it is clearly a bored, middle-age housewife circa 1978 lounging around on a hot June day with a glass cold duck in one hand a cigarette in the other while waiting for the pool boy. If you know what I mean.Another post: Little Guy Meets the Old Navy Mannequins
The Binkie Breakup
Although little guy should technically have already had this momentous event occur in his little life we’ve delayed it due to his sensory issues. At this point we are shooting for eliminating the binkie all together by age three. He has only used it for sleep since age one when we took it away during the daytime which he did not object to. But the kid loves his binkie for nighttime and naps. Because of this, I try to always keep “travel binkies” in the diaper bag complete with a binkie clip so that if he needs to nap in the car we can hook him up. This morning when I picked him up after my WW meeting it was such a nice day I thought we’d head over to the shopping center and take a stroll. Generally, I get lucky and after he has lunch I can often count on him napping in the stroller with it reclined. This allows me to actually shop for quite some time. For the first few minutes he was happily looking around while we strolled along and after a while it became apparent that he was getting sleepy and ready for a nap. Frankly, since I don’t get out much I could hardly contain my excitement as I thought about all the possibilities. “I’ll check the clearance racks at Old Navy!” “I’ll see what’s new at World Market.” “I’ll take a peek at Ross and Marshall's and see if they have that seat cushion I need for that chair.” “By gosh, if this lasts I might even pop into the book store, look at the books and get a latte!” “Could it get any more exciting than this?” Little guy proceeds to sleepily ask for a binkie. I open the diaper bag and cannot find one. I rummage around through all the pockets and down into the depths of the bag and no binkie. At this point I’m starting a mild panic as the complaints start getting more insistent but I reassure the little guy that I’ll get him one. We head out to the car parked close by and I search though the various baby accessory bags in there…no binkie. I’m certain there has to be at least one in there somewhere ...even if it’s under the seat and I have to go wash it off. Nothing. By this point little guy is in tears, wailing for binkie. And he’s doing it so cutely it breaks my heart. I tell him Mommy can’t find a binkie but we’ll go home and get one. So much for the shopping trip that I foolishly dared hope for. (Yeah, I know. How silly of me!) We head home and of course little guys is asleep in his car seat by the time we pull into the garage. I carried him into his crib (where binkies await) and he went right back to sleep.
Oh how I dread the upcoming process of Operation Bye Bye Binkie. Feel free to share your binkie breakup stories here. I can see we’re going to need all the help we can get!
"Belf"
Apparently this is the word that comes out when the little guy tries to say "milk". For a long time, he would only sign milk and never attempt to say the word. Now that more and more words have been coming out of him we've worked hard to try to get him to say milk. I guess this is a close as he could come to the word at this time. We're cracking up over here because of how unappetizing this word sounds (but of course enjoying the accompanying cuteness with him saying it). All I've got to say is Starbuck's should feel fortunate that this isn't milk's name as I'm certain their milk containing coffee drink sales would plummet. Can you imagine ordering a Cappuccino with low fat belf?
Speech Delay & Sensory Processing Disorder
As many of you will recall, the little guy has Speech Delay as well as Sensory Processing Disorder, the latter of which loosely translates into “can’t take him anywhere”. (This is the kid who got us thrown out of Weight Watcher’s “mommy & me” meetings!) Well, we are finally beginning to see some real progress in regard to the little guy’s speech and sensory issues. He is now in three therapies per week; Speech Therapy, Occupational/Physical therapy and more recently Music Therapy because he is very receptive to music and it’s been shown to help with both speech and focus. As you can imagine I’m quite busy getting him to his various therapies along with playgroups, my own WW meeting [which I now attend solo] and the whole errand/grocery shopping/household running thing I’ve got going. All I can say is it’s a good thing I’m a stay-at home-mom! Although, this means I rarely actually stay at home. In fact, I’ve got so many things going on each day of the week that my days out far exceed the number of pants I have that actually fit. You know, since I’m STILL working on that whole Operation Fit [back into my pants] project. But back to the story.
We’ve been hearing more and more words out of the little guy lately and this is really reassuring. He will say (& recognize) most letters of the alphabet, along with making an attempt at the names for colors. We have to admit, hearing “wellwo” is awfully cute! He is finally beginning to put a few words together and he signs many words along with speech. (We counted the signs he currently knows and it’s upwards of 42.) His occupational therapist is seeing progress in his being able to focus more and be able to complete activities without constantly jumping from thing to thing. He is also receptive to the physical movement exercises and seems to enjoy the swinging now, which he previously did not.
What has been most remarkable though is Music Therapy. It appears that he might be somewhat musically inclined (something he did NOT get from his mother!) Recently during Music Therapy he played the Triangle in time to the music of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. When his therapist started playing the guitar he was mesmerized. He really enjoyed the music and actually sat down in his little chair to hear her play and sing. He then decided he wanted to play so his therapist had him sit down in her lap and he immediately placed both his hands in the correct position and started strumming. We were rather surprised by this.
You may recall that both the little guy and his big brother got guitars for Christmas—of course little guy’s was a toy and Teenager’s was the real thing. At this point we are anxiously waiting for Teenager to learn how to play his guitar since it seems to have such a calming effect on his brother! Then I told Teenager that if his little brother learns to play one day that he’ll have to let him in his garage band. Because you know, there’s nothing like having a little brother tag along to completely destroy any chance of being “cool”.
DMV
Apparently I am due for renewing my Driver’s License. I am not happy about this for several reasons.
1.) I’ve been informed I cannot renew through the mail, I have to show up in person this time.
2.) In case you haven’t heard, the State of CA has a wee bit of a financial issue—DMV employees have taken pay cuts—as if they weren’t cranky enough.
3.) Obviously care arrangements for the little guy will have to made, further creating a huge inconvenience.
4.) I have to have a new photograph taken. I always worry I won’t get a good, decent, not hideous photograph. This worry is now compounded by #2.
5.) I have to once again make that painful judgment call about what weight to put down. There are a couple of schools of thought on this one; be accurate and just live with it or put down my “ideal weight” and have something to aspire to. Decisions, decisions.
6.) I’m rather sentimental about my Driver’s License because I got this particular one when I changed my name after getting married. It was on the very same day (just 3 hours before) I found out I was pregnant. So I can look at that photo and reminisce about my 37 year old self who had no idea what was about to hit.
Upon further reflection, a new photo is not such a bad idea. I just looked at my hair in my current license and it’s truly one of those “What was I thinking?” moments. Speaking of hair, here’s a positive; the state of CA actually recognizes “auburn” as hair color. I vividly recall when I had to relinquish my CA license for a Utah license and was told that my hair cannot be auburn…apparently it’s not on the “approved list” of possible hair colors. I’m serious. I can’t make this stuff up.
Classic Mommy Photo Op
When out driving around in the car, as a mommy of a toddler here's something I expect to see:
However, as a mom of a toddler and a teenager here's something I do not expect to see:
We’re having technical difficulties...please stand by
So, I’m frustrated because the last two blog posts I had written up I was unable to post due to various technicalities I was (and still am) unable to figure out. (In case anyone's curious they had to do with being unable to embed an audio file in the blog post and Flickr's inability to allow text to show in a photo slide show.) This blogging/Internet thing is interesting because I have been forced to learn many things I previously had no knowledge of so that part is good. However, there are some things which I end up spending inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out that I end up never learning. Ugh! Well, to toot my own horn for just a moment, I did finally figure out one techie thing that I had researched for quite some time; the “favicon!” You know, that cute little picture thingy that shows up right before the web address in the address bar of your Internet browser? I had no idea it even had a name! I didn’t get very far attempting to Google “cute little picture thingy right next the web address” so it took some time. I also had a hard time coming up with the right icon to make as the favicon for SAHM: Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem as it has to be very small. Obviously my family graphic wouldn’t work and none of the symbols in the banner seemed right so I eventually settled on the cute “swirl” from my background. I’m reasonably happy with it but probably most happy that I actually got it to work. The hubby was highly amused with how happy it made me to figure that out. He made some sort of comment like; "if only it were that easy all the time."
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