Elmo's World

Elmo's World appeared in our basement over the weekend. His goldfish, Dorothy, as well as his crayon arrived to help Brett celebrate his third birthday.

Didn't he do a good job ; )

Dear Baby Boy

This morning I woke up and you weren't a baby any more. today you are three years old! Part of me is in denial. You weren't born until 10:53 PM, so I still have 14 more hours until you are officially three. Part of me is so excited! I've been trying to teach you to hold up three fingers and I am looking forward to all the other new things you'll learn this year. (Ironically, the only questions I toddler is asked are "what is your name?" and "how old are you?" Both of which you answer incorrectly. "Grandpa" and "five" are the answers you give, when you choose to give answers at all...)

Since time seems to pass without my permission, however, I guess I'll just be glad you are growing up so happy and healthy.

I've seen cute birthday scrapbook pages where moms write down things they love about their kids-- one thing for each year. There is no way I could limit myself to three, so here are some of the three thousand things I love about you!

Your imagination

The way you call Lammie "Tim" and yourself "Grandpa"

How you imitate things I never even realized Daddy and I do

You are such a sweet, big brother

You play and play outside and still want to go back for more!

Big, blue eyes; especially when you are wearing blue pajamas

Your constant excitement about life in general

The hours you spend in the combine and tractor and never become tired of it

Making pancakes and bread while you "dump" ingredients into the bowl

The fact that you know more about farm equipment than I do

Little feet running through the house

You take such great naps and still sleep 12 hours at night!

Watching you play with friends

That smile!

Happy Birthday little guy. You'll always be my baby.

Mommy is not MacGyver

Mothers wear many hats. Cook, nurse, teacher... you know what I mean. And being a little bit of a Handy Manny won't hurt any mom's resume. I, apparently, need to brush up on this skill. Why? you ask.

Because my two year old is locked in the bathroom.

It all started innocently enough. He finished his peanut butter and jelly sandwich with about as much jelly on him as in him. Naturally he was sent to the bathroom to wash.

I opened the child latch on the outside and went back to my own sandwich. Running water... clank of the soap dispenser... water splashing... door shutting... more water... Wait. The door was shut but still water running? Something not quite right...

And sure enough, two seconds later I hear "Mom? Mom? Can you open door?"

So I (reluctantly) abandon my sun-dried tomato turkey sandwich to rescue my son, except it isn't that simple.

The door isn't just shut. Its locked.

Vainly I tried to talk Brett through the steps of unlocking the door. It was a comical experience, filled with lots of "uh hu's" and "yep's" but no results. Cool heads are necessary in such circumstances so I tried to chill and remember what Daddy did when this happened once before. Oh yeah! Unscrew the door knob!

So I did.
Still no luck. What I failed to comprehend before I tore my door apart is that the locking mechanism won't allow the other side of the doorknob to fall. The bolt in the middle still needs to be popped.

Which of course I cannot figure out how to do. Thankfully Brian is working in the shed a few miles away and is on his way home.

But, like I said. My two year old is locked in the bathroom, happily flushing the toilet over and over because there is no one to stop him.So I failed the MacGyver portion of the Mommy test, but at least its not a burning building.

Promised Pics

Terrible Twos

It's official. The little guy is two. Terribly two. Right now he's sitting on my lap screaming at me because I will not let him play with the electrical outlet. What a mean Mommy.

The fun part about turning two was the Birthday Party. I had tons of fun planning and scheming to make it just right. And I think it turned out really well. I created a dump truck cake, "birthday zone" sign, and CAT truck center pieces. With yellow and orange balloons it all came together!

His birthday present from Mom and Dad was a swing set (see old post here!). We invited his Sunday School class and they broke the set in nicely.

I'm working on a picture trails slide show, so I'll post more later. Right now my screaming toddler has fallen asleep in my arms.

Two is not completely terrible.

Its Not Easy Being Green

Literally. For the past several days my family and I have all been quite green. With the stomach flu. Very apropos, being March and all. Really, it was our turn. Brian was sick in January for a long time, but he hasn't been sick in years, so I figure he was just due. The little guy and I have both been bug free all winter long. And that is just not fair.

So we have now done our part to promote justice and equality.

I have learned how many loads of laundry my washer can handle if you stay up all night just waiting for the dryer to ding. Little guy has learned how to say "tummy hurt" (but not what to do about it...). Both of us now know how to subsist entirely on Sprite. So in addition to being fair, this whole thing was also a learning expereince.

But I've learned enough to last at least another year I think...

Overload

My brain is fried. Mush. Overloaded. Why? Because I have been on the Internet for hours. Looking for the perfect swing set.

Which, by the way, does not exist. This one (from willygoat.com) comes close. But I have to pay shipping. So is it really a better deal than the one from betterplaysets.com? Or berfeldrecreation.com? What about Home Depot or Lowe's? And can I add a taller tower someday when he gets older so we can have a fireman's pole and tunnel slide? I wish this one had a lemonade stand like the other one...

So I keep looking. In the entire world there must be a set, reasonably priced, which has all of the six options I'm not compromising on and at least a few of the "prefers." Of course, I actually have the entire world's worth of play equipment at my fingertips.

Must. keep. looking.

Just Cute

Life is made up of such random moments, or at least it is when you have a toddler. This one was so cute I just had to share it.

Yesterday the little guy spent the day in the semi truck, hauling grain to town with his daddy. He is such a Daddy's Boy anyway, plus he loves the diesel truck, so little guy had allowed himself very little sleep when he came home about 4:00. I figured it was too late for a nap, seeing as how bedtime is at 8:00. However, at 5:15 the little angel broke a glass and was put in his room for safe keeping while I cleaned up. By the time I finished sweeping the dinning room there was no sound coming from his room. The right thing to do here is debatable, but I decided to fix dinner and wake him up at 6:00 to eat. He was going to be crabby anyhow, might as well get 45 minutes of peace...

So at 6:00 Brian came back from loading the semi and I went in to wake up little guy. Only instead of being on the floor in the middle of his animals like usual, he was sitting in his favorite plastic Rubbermaid tub. It's a big 18 gallon type and his favorite thing to do is put all his stuffed animals inside and go for a ride-- Daddy pulling everyone with a rope zip-tied to the handle. Finding him here wasn't really a big surprise, until I realized he wasn't just sitting. He had actually fallen asleep sitting upright in the tub surrounded by every stuffed animal he owns!

Of course, this may or may not interest you. But I thought it was just too cute.

Thankful

I’m starting Thanksgiving early this year! (Not that there is a time limit on being thankful or anything!) Yesterday we took our little guy to the children’s hospital to be re-evaluated for his muscle condition. He was born with cramped muscles on one side of his neck and at nineteen months old he has been in therapy for most of his life. Some children face physical deformations, surgery, and various other trying medical procedures. So far our son has had therapy, taping, a special collar, and Botox injections (who knew?), which have not been fun, but could be much worse. Well, yesterday we got good news! He still tips his head more than he should, but it is now habit and not a muscle condition!!! Yea!!!

More good news is that the Doctor could find no sign of physical deformation in his face or jaws (bad for dental work!) and only a little bit of a flat head where he sleeps. The doc informs us that this should continue to round out as he grows and hair will soon (we hope—he’s been bald for a while now!) cover whatever remains.

So while I plan to write a whole Thanksgiving blog in a few weeks, I just had to post this blessing a little early.

Praise God!

Thank Goodness

Today I've got a full schedule. I've temporarily suspended fall cleaning in order to create enough order for a party at our house on the 31st! The garage is looking better, bathrooms are... as good as they get, and the pinata is almost done. I'm so excited!

And... the little guy is out cold.

Thank goodness.

He had his 18 month shots today, which means, as a good mother, I can give him Tylenol. Which may have contributed to this coma-like sleep I love so much, but he needed it. Really. Shots hurt. You'd want medication too.

Normally I am not about giving my son unnecessary medication. In fact I lean to as little meds as possible, since he's so little and all. But today I am acting on dr.'s orders.

Thank goodness.

We Are So Doing That Again!

Wow! I've just discovered the most amazing thing! My son loves the combine. And he loves it so much he's happy to sit there for at least two hours while Daddy works. And Mommy LEAVES!!!

Last night I had an appointment with a client, so I dropped the little guy off with his Dad and then hurried home again as quickly as I could. I was picturing my husband holding the destructive toddler forces at bay while trying to steer a huge piece of equipment with one hand. I was imagining Brian with no hair as he had pulled it all out in frustration as baby poked and prodded every imaginable button available and then tasted everything else. I was dreading the words "never again" as my son was handed back to me.

But no! He and Daddy were happily working along until they finished the field, at which time they went back to the farm to fuel the combine before moving on. Brian was feeding our son turkey and cucumber when I got there.

Way to go Dad!

And tonight I had a women's group meeting, at which I was speaking and could not possibly hope to corral 26 pounds of dynamite.

So once again I was thinking, imagining, brainstorming, fearing...

And all of it groundless!

I am definitely doing this more often.

The Toddler

Over the years I've outwitted a lot of wildlife.

Opossums, raccoons, deer, mice, once even a ground hog. It all started when I stopped feeding our poor kitties the cheap (gross) cat food my husband bought and started giving them Science Diet, compliments of my veterinarian Dad. Oh yeah, the good stuff.

Well, then I began to notice the cats were eating a lot more than I thought they should. And they still seemed hungry. My suspicions were confirmed when I noticed the sleek raccoons and a opossum with a very soft looking coat. Well that stuff doesn't come cheap, so the battle was ON. We moved the food dish, got a dog, fed the kitties in the house, fed them in the garage, and a variety of other things. I finally found something that worked.

Our garage door is the one we use the most often and I'm sure it smells a lot like us. And instead of feeding the kitties once a day we just scoop out a little each time we go through the door. Presto! Problem solved.

And then, today, I met with the wildest wildlife of all.

The toddler.

Just when I thought my kitty food was safe, just when I had out thought, out planned all the other woodland creatures, my son comes along. Oooh. Neat. He started out by dropping each individual piece into the water dish to watch it swell. So I got rid of the water dish. (Hey, the cats are drinking out of his Fisher Price water table anyway...) Not helpful. He just moved on to dropping each piece one at a time into the bushes. I later found Sammy carefully crunching his way through the box woods like a child from the Hansel and Gretel story. I am back to square one.

Well, I have gotten rid of raccoons, opossums, mice, deer, and ground hogs, but it seems I have met my match.