Category Archives: Best Husband

August 22, 2014 · 4:04 pm

Nine Years.

What a journey, what a story. Yet, oddly, it doesn’t seem like we’ve been married for nine years. Of course, when I think of all the things we’ve done together, all the things we’ve faced, worked through, laughed about, and even conquered together, there’s no way we could have fit it into anything less than nine years. I guess it’s a good thing we have so much fun together, because time just seems to fly.

(Warning, picture heavy post ahead!)

For our anniversary, we went to the mountains… back to where Tony proposed to me… back to where we got married. Remember that? LINK We did our “wedding aisle” hike, I don’t know if you remember, but there is a bit of rock climbing at the end that. Despite having done this hike a few times in the last couple years, we’ve never felt comfortable completing the rock climbing part with William. We decided to try it this time, though, with William on me in the Tula.

Tony wore William in the Tula carrier on the way up. I wore him for the rock climbing portion, since the crevices were narrow. Tony went ahead of me and made suggestions on hand and foot holds, and William encouraged me with, “You’re doing good, mommy. You’re almost there! Keep going! You got this!” When I finally did the final jump across the rocks, William said, “You did it! Yay Mommy!”

The views were resplendent as ever, and we even had a visit from a chipmunk. We took a different trail down and it was a lot steeper. Since I wear William down the mountain (going down speedily is my strength ha), let’s just say we won’t be taking that trail again… my thighs are still feeling the burn 4 days later.

Highlights included, eating at our favorite restaurant, visiting our favorite candy shop, visiting their little zoo and going on a bicycle ride that was shortened by a flat tire, thankfully not too far from our cabin.

We also celebrated Tony’s birthday while we were up there. So, happy birthday and happy anniversary to my love. Still the same man I grew to love, only he seems to be even more kind, thoughtful and hilarious to hang out with than he was when I married him. That’s a good thing.

Next year, to celebrate a decade of wedded bliss, we’re thinking of doing a road trip with the goal of seeing Mt. Rushmore. Not sure how long that will take, or what else we’ll want to see, but I figure if anything can challenge a marriage, a road trip ought to do it. Thank the heavens above that we have GPS, because my map reading skills suck!

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, Our Kid is Cute

August 11, 2014 · 11:30 am

Letter to our 32 month old.

Dear William,

On August 8, 2014, you turned 32 months old. You are 40 1/4 inches tall and weigh 38.3 pounds. You are currently in size 4T tops and 3T bottoms. For pajamas you are in 5T. I’m buying size 5T in tops for you these days, because they’re really not all THAT big on you. I finally realized that, uh, you’ve outgrown your size 9 shoes, since your toe is hanging out the front of your sandals. We’ve now moved you up to size 10.

Language Development:
You are playing with the English language… for example, we were joking around and I said, “Do you want some grapes?” You replied, “Yes! That would be grape!” And then you laughed uproarously at your pun.

You say “chocwate” for chocolate.
You say “alrus” for walrus.
You say “grirl” for girl.

Food and Nursing:
I keep forgetting to mention, you are in the midst of the toddler rite of passage — dipping into condiments phase, particularly ketchup. You ask to dip anything and everything in ketchup, the “normal” things, like french fries or chicken, but also pancakes, dried mango, fruit. This past month, while eating a salad from El Pollo Loco, you wanted “leaves with dressing” and you proceeded to unapologetically dip things into my favorite cilantro dressing, too. You like to have a lot of ketchup and bit of mustard, too. You haven’t acquired the taste for mustard yet, but you like to have the option… so your father just puts the tiniest bit of mustard next to the huge blob of ketchup, and then we both sit there and laugh about it.

Nursing is going well… it continues to be a pleasant thing for both of us. You find it soothing, and I find it a wonderful way to reconnect with you after a day away from you. One of the funny things you’ve started doing, you will lay down on the floor and bonk your head ever so gently. Then you fake cry and say you bumped your head and ask to nurse.

Sleep:
This month has seen some interesting changes in your sleep. For naps and bedtimes when I’m home, you will nurse until you’re almost asleep and I will either tell you “all done” and you’ll unlatch, or you’ll unlatch yourself, sigh, and in your bed you go. You immediately flip to your tummy and go on to sleep. The last week and a half you have decided that you will go back to sleep after I nurse you in the morning before I leave for work. I’m beyond pleased that you have taken this step, as you are ensuring that you get the amount of sleep you need.

One morning last week, I put you back in your bed and you said, “Mommy lie down with me.” I said, “I can’t, it’s not Saturday.” You replied, “Get in here.” I laughed at that and said, “Are you going back to sleep?” You said, “Uh huh… mommy, leave the door open?” You did indeed go back to sleep.

Things we did:
07/12 – a friend’s birthday party at Pump it Up
07/12 – Lego Movie at the OC Great Park with food trucks!
07/13 – mass with daddy, visit to your Grandma and Grandpa’s house
07/14 – swim time in the evening
07/16 – Sign Language Library Story Time (Tustin)
07/17 – Beach
07/21 – Library with Miss Mary (El Toro)
07/22 – 07/25 VBS at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
07/24 – Beach
07/26 – FIRST CIRCUS! Took a nap there. ha
07/27 – Church/Pancake Breakfast/Family time … painted a birdhouse
07/29 – Library, fireman visitor/speaker
07/31 – Beach
08/02 – FIRST MOVIE – Planes 2
08/07 – Beach

Things I want to remember:

The amazing hugs you give, and how good it feels to have you wrap your arms around my neck and squeeze with all your might.

How you randomly will tell me, “I love you, mommy.” Usually as you’re hugging my leg while I wipe your butt. ha

How you love our fairy garden, and the one fairy house, looks like a tree stump, you call it “the treeschoolers.” (From Rachael and the TreeSchoolers) First thing in the morning, you like to get up and go downstairs and check on the fairy garden.

Driving to the OC Great Park, in your car seat, you were looking for your Kellogg’s Corn Flakes car. I asked you, jokingly, if it was up your butt. You said, “Yes.” Surprised, I said, “You’re sitting on it?” You replied, “Yes.” Sure enough, I dug under you and there it was. I guess I need to check your car seat better before putting you into it.

I was detailing my car and you wanted to hang out with me. So you climbed into your car seat and sat there, playing with your car Cars and eating your car snack mix. At one point, you asked if we were going anywhere, I replied that we weren’t, that I was cleaning my car. You hung out in there for about a half an hour.

After we’d been out for the evening, we pulled up next to your grandma’s car. She got out and you said “Goodnight, Grandma! I love you!” Then, with an ear-to-ear grin said in an undertone, “Go home.”

How you wanted to touch the food trucks at the OC Great Park. The back of one was hot (their cooking stuff was there) and the red one was cold (it was the engine area). I would never have thought to touch them if you hadn’t been there, and was surprised to learn their temperatures.

You wanted to help push the wheelbarrow at Grandma and Grandpa H.’s house.

At Pump it Up, you were so excited to get to eat cake. The guy had stuck the fork firmly in the cake, you just lifted the whole thing and said, “Look mommy, I got cake!!!” And proceeded to eat the big piece of cake like it was a popsicle. Also, you were the only boy amidst 10 girls at the birthday party… totally awesome!

At the circus, the motorcycle on a wire came out right above us. You jumped and then asked, “What the heck are they doing up there??”

Fascinated by traffic, you were counting the cars around you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleventeen.

When I put your new shoes on you, I asked you, “Aren’t your new shoes fun?” You replied, “No. Legoland is fun. Disneyland is fun. The waterpark is fun.”

How brave you’ve been getting at the park. You now climb up (carefully) the rope climbing ladder and will go up the ladder to the big tube slide. You also slide down the enormous tube slide all by yourself.

Our local Walmart has stopped giving free cookie samples, which is the saddest thing for you. You informed grandma that, “Cookies are much better than a big ol’ chicken.”

At 5:45pm, I asked you when you had last gone potty. You replied, “At six thirty, mommy.”

In the craft store, I wondered aloud if the Christmas stuff would be out. You replied, “Nooooo, mommy, it’s still July!”

How I had you in a back carry in the Tula. You were driving your car on my neck and I asked you if you were driving your cars on my back. You replied, “No, they’re driving into the cactus.” This as they go through my hair.

We use a timer to transition you through the stages of the evening… upstairs playtime, potty, bath time… one evening the timer went off for the end of your bath, and I came around the corner and you’d put all your bath toys out of the water onto the side of the tub, and you grinned, and said, “Mommy! I cleaned up my toys!” I was so very surprised, and told you how surprised I was. Every evening since then, you want to clean up your toys and surprise me… multiple times. So, I let you surprise me, a few times at least.

How, when grandma leaves for the day, you tell her, “Thank you for taking care of me. I love you. Thank you for stopping by.”

Each week when we go to the ocean, you remind us, “We’re going to get grandma?” And when we get there and can see the ocean from the road, you exclaim, every single time, “THERE’S THE WATER!”

How when I jokingly tell you we’ll be playing the quiet game while driving around, you’ll respond, “No, I want to talk!” And then just last night, you asked to hear a specific song and it was playing. Your father and I were talking and you said, “Be quiet, please. I’m trying to hear my song.”

You are such a joy and we love your sense of humor, imagination, thoughtfulness and kindness. If I could have custom ordered a little boy, I don’t think I would have been able to do so half as good as what we have in you.

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Love, Momma

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Filed under Best Husband, Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

July 21, 2014 · 1:51 pm

Back Yard Fairy Garden

We’ve been spending a lot of time in our tiny back yard working on our fairy garden. I’ve been refreshing and repainting my long-time fairy residents (some of which are over 12 years old), and adding some new things, too. It’s so earthy and fulfilling to work with dirt, and with the addition of the fairy accessories, adds a little bit of magic, as well.

We have a farm/cottage (in a vintage wheelbarrow), a bird sanctuary (in a pot), a gardening area (in a pot), a playground and water fountain area (in a vintage wheelbarrow), and a treehouse garden (in another pot). My long time dragon resident has suddenly found himself guarding not only my sweet violet plant, but a treasure chest, too. My long time unicorn is lazily keeping watch over it all. I keep coming up with other ideas, so I expect more of my plants will be sporting “fairy” additions, too.

I’m collecting feathers for our bird sanctuary… anyone have any feathers you want to send my way?? ha

Yesterday, we spent the morning in the back yard together, I was working on making a miniature tree swing. I found a piece of scrap wood and grabbed my drill gun (safely tying my hair back so it didn’t get stuck in the motor) and drilled two tiny holes in the aged branch of my rosemary plant… a plant that I’m patiently waiting for it to come back to life. Let me tell you, rosemary wood is super hard to drill through! I then went over to my “new” vintage wheelbarrow (that I’m currently setting up) and drilled a couple holes in it for drainage.

When I was done, I set the drill aside and started threading the plant wire through the holes to hang the tree swing. I heard William talking to himself, and I turned to look at him. He had picked up my drill and was carrying it away. I came alongside him and asked him, “What do you need the drill for?” He bent down to pick up one of several leaves he had collected, apparently waiting for me to get done with my drill so he could use it and said, “I need to drill a hole in my leaf.” So we set his leaf down and, holding his hand and guiding the drill, “we” proceeded to “drill” a hole in it. Several other leaves needed holes, too, apparently.

I have plans to make a teeter totter and some monkey bars to the playground of our fairy garden. As well as a pool, and maybe a beach/sand area. Oh, and William loves the tiny swing I made. He even helped the fairy dog up so he could swing on it.

It really is something we’re doing together… William loves playing with the little fairy animals and was beyond thrilled when he came out one morning and saw the little house set up, with a wishing well… he said, “It’s a little town!” Tony has been an immense help, bringing home to two vintage wheelbarrows and drilling holes in awkward places, and giving his opinions on various things. I love that this has become a family project… and that we’re just enjoying the process of creating it together.

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Filed under Best Husband, Entertainment can be Cheap, I have Family, Our Kid is Cute

July 11, 2014 · 12:54 am

Letter to our 31 month old

Dear William,

On July 8th, 2014, you turned 2 years 7 months old.

STATS:

You are 39.5 inches tall and weigh 38.12 pounds. Another growth spurt has happened since last month and you grew another 1/2 inch. This growth spurt has placed you well over the specifications of your car seat in its rear facing position, and we’ve had to forward face you in my car now. Sadly, I will miss having your undivided attention as we drive around together, as you’re now enthralled with everything that’s happening in front of us.

One of your two front teeth has gone gray… likely a result of a fall on the entry way tile a couple weeks ago. The dentist said just to watch the gums for infection and brush well.

SPEECH:

Intentional mispronunciations:
You say “nurgets” for nuggets. “I would like some chicken nurgets, please?”
You say “frowgy” for froggy.”
You say “big ol’ chicken” for rotisserie chickens.

Unintentional mispronuciations:
You say “lellow” for yellow.
You say “Photosynpethesis” for “Photosynthesis”

NURSING/FOOD:
You have begun to eat lettuce over the last couple months. Salads used to be the “safe” thing I could eat in front of you without you begging food off me. That is no longer the case.

Out of my nut mix, or “mommy’s snacky mix” (as you call it), you have begun to show a preference for pistachios, digging through them all and deigning others to the pistachios. You will eat the others if there are no pistachios to be had, but you definitely prefer to eat them first.

You have started eating tomatoes thanks to our neighbor, Nichole, who is growing a tomato plant on her front stoop. You never cared for them before, but she offered you one, fresh off the vine, and you ate it. I wisely held my tongue, figuring it would come half eaten out of your mouth, but it didn’t. And now, anytime she offers, you meekly hold her hand, walk over, pick one and eat it. I am so glad I didn’t say anything. You still don’t eat commercial tomatoes, but that’s fine. Fresh off the vine is the way to go.

Nursing continues to be a blessing to both of us, and I’m ever so grateful for the regrouping time that it provides us.

SLEEP & HEALTH:
There has been a definite shift in your sleep this month. Your naps are shortening and you are waking on your own around 3pm, and your overnight sleep is lengthening, sometimes going back to sleep after our morning nursing at 6:30am, and waking later at 7:30 or 8:30am. We’ve been able to tell you, and you understand, that if you don’t take a nap, we can’t go out and play together as a family in the evening. For example, when we were at LegoLand this past weekend, I told you that you needed to take a nap so we could go out and look at MiniLand. By golly, if you didn’t force yourself to nurse nap for an hour in the midst of chaos and heat right there in the waterpark. I was amazed at you.

On the flip side, you’ve had a couple of wakes in the middle of the night, I think because you’re having bad dreams. One morning in particular, through your sobs you told me, “I didn’t get the toy.” There was no help for that sort of sobbing sadness but to nurse. I’ll tell you, though, that I wish for you that the rest of your life were that uncomplicated. You’ve also been requesting on a regular basis that we leave your bedroom door open. Also, because it’s been so hot lately, and we don’t run the air conditioner at night, we’ve been running 3 or 4 fans in your room, in strategic places for maximized indirect air flow…. we’ve also been leaving your window open. I always feel a major sense of achievement when your room reaches 70° in the morning, down from the 80° temperature it was when I put you to bed the night before.

THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:
06/14 – LegoLand and their waterpark (you went down the red slide by yourself)
06/21 – breakfast with Grace and family at Ruby’s
06/21 – attended retirement party for your father’s former band teacher
06/22 – attended Sunday school for the first time at my church
06/25 – went to the airport to watch planes take off and land with Grandma D.
06/25 – went to my work for my lunch time
06/26 – visit to the ocean
07/02 – visit to the ocean
07/04 – our city’s 4th of July parade AND FIREWORKS!! (You loved the fireworks this year, and waved at all the cars in the parade!)
07/06 – family time with your grandparents
07/07 – Legoland and their waterpark (you went down the tube slide by yourself!!!!)

Recurring events:
Library story time (Mondays and Wednesdays)
Taking a break from music class this month.

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:

William: I want to watch Cars?
Tony: Nooooo, we watched Cars yesterday.
William: I know! I want to watch Mater’s Tales.
Tony: Noooo, we’re not watching anything right now.
William, standing around the corner from us: Oh! I want to watch Star Wars.
Pause, while Tony and I look at each other with shocked faces, and then,
William, in a high pitched voice, with Tony as a 1 second delay echo, “Whaaaaaat? What did you say?”

We’ve continued with our “Operation: Leave the House in the Morning” by allowing you to watch Rachel and the TreeSchoolers. You adore Rachel (from Signing Time) and, best of all, you learn so much from her. I even learn stuff from her! We are big fans of Signing Time in this house. One of the episodes address bugs, another addresses weather and the last one teaches about plants. One of the characters in the show is easily frightened by things, and the other characters rally around and help him learn about stuff. Now you can be heard to say, “I’m not scared of that, it’s just bugs.” “Or it’s just thunder. There’s no need to be scared.”

On the off days, however, we’ve let you watch Frosty or Mater’s Tales. One morning, daddy had already queued everything up when we came downstairs. All that was on the screen was a brownish box with “Start” on it, no pictures, nothing and you said, That’s Mater the Tales!” I set you on the couch and leaned in to kiss you goodbye and you were doing the head dodge to try to see around me. I got my kiss and “I love you,” and then daddy leaned in to kiss you and you said, “Go away, mommy and daddy. Go away!” Suffice it to say, we now severely limit your access to Mater’s Tall Tales to viewing maybe once every couple weeks.

How sweet it is when you see a baby, you affect a high-pitched voice and say, “Awwww, it’s a little baby!”

You have a renewed love of your belly button this month and often will raise your shirt and ask for a kiss or zerbert. Even more sweet, though, is you will sometimes walk up and kiss my belly button.

We told you we were going to get dinner. You replied, “Let’s get ice cream first!”

Got a text from my mom one day that I needed to call you about a confession about candy. Turns out you had found my huge box of chocolate that your father gave me for Mother’s day. Apparently, knocked it to the floor and had sampled one of the pieces. You were walking toward Grandma saying, “Mmmmmm, this is SO good!” Later that night when I got home, I had a piece of chocolate. You were sitting on my lap and started sniffing loudly, and then said, “Are you eating chocolate, mommy?”

William: Wanna go on the freeway?
Daddy: What’s on the freeway?
William: Trucks!

Eating at Chick-Fil-A, we asked you what is in your tummy? Your prompt response was, “Ketchup and chicken!” And then, you said, “I want a strawberry milkshake?” We were hemming and hawing, you turned and ran up to the cashier and ordered it with two pleases! “Please, may I have a strawberry milkshake, please?”

Upon hearing a sound that sounds like a toy being thrown, I ask, “What was that? Did you throw your car?” You immediately reply, “He is racing right now!” As you sling the car across the room. A verbal avoidance maneuver.

Slinging your cars through the dirt, I ask, “What’s going on?” You reply, “They’re racing in the dirt!” I clarify, “Like Doc Hudson?” You enthusiastically rejoin, “Yes!”

Daddy makes Froggy play peek-a-boo after bathtime… then, one night, daddy stopped before you wanted him to, so you hopped off my lap and started making Froggy play peek-a-boo with yourself.

We had fruit skewers one afternoon with lunch, and you were calling them “fruit towers”

For the past two months you’ve been pulling your hair and Telling me you need a haircut, that your hair is too long. I finally got you a haircut on July 3rd.  It’s the second time we’ve  used this discount hair cut place and, even though there’s no fancy seats to sit in for you or a movie to watch, you just sit there and look around.

You call the tall, narrow evergreen trees “green bean trees.” You started doing that in Hawaii last August, and I was surprised to hear you say that again.

Trimming my sago palm in the back yard, you grabbed one of the fronds and started waving it up and down, saying “God, God, God!” Apparently, you though it was Palm Sunday!

You were eating car snacks and handing me the mangos, I would say, “No, those are yours!” Then you would hand me a banana chip, and I would say “Thank you.” Then you said, “Mommy’s being patient!” as I waited for you to hand me banana chips.

Then, the box of snacks kept sliding down your lap, and I kept putting them back up, only to glance over and realize you were doing it on purpose. I started laughing. You said, “I put it that way… it makes mommy laugh!”

Driving home from the beach, we took a side street home that has a tunnel. Your father and I were conversing about the person’s driving skills who was in front of us. A minute after we got through the tunnel, you piped up and said, “Daddy? You forgot to honk!”

You spilled water down your shirt and said, “I made a BIG waterfall!”

At the 4th of July parade, you kept asking for food, and all I had was your snack bag. I kept offering to take you home and give you lunch, and you kept replying, “No, thank you, mommy, there are more cars coming!” You didn’t want to miss any of the cars in the parade!

Driving through the parking lot where we parked for the 4th of July Parade a couple days later, you exclaimed, “We’re going to the parade! We’re almost there!”

One evening, you were talking to your father about a Winnie the Pooh book you’d read that day. You were really concerned about Piglet being scared about hearing knocking on the bed. Daddy told you we (mommy, daddy, grandma) were all there to protect you… and then you shared that the knocking on the bed was just a tree branch, that it won’t hurt you and you don’t have to be scared.

One evening over the long holiday weekend, you said “I know what we can do!” “We can go to the Spectrum and get food!” We get there and you said, “Now I want to go get food with the red motorcycle! And see Grace and Mia” Except Grace and Mia (his godmother and her daughter) weren’t there. Funny kid, remembered where we’d had breakfast a couple weeks ago with them.

A project we’re sort of doing together is a fairy garden in our backyard. I’ve had fairy statues for years and years, but for some reason never thought to create little gardens for them. It’s coming together beautifully and it’s a joy to have you be a part of it.

One of the short stories on the Cars movie is called the One Man Band. We went to Sprouts the other day and there was a man playing a violin, with his wife and daughter who was about your age. They were holding a sign that said they were homeless and needed food or money to buy food. It was such a hot day and people were driving by and handing them water, or a popsicle for their daughter as he continued to play his beautiful songs on the violin. You asked me for a coin to give him and, then you walked up and put it in his violin case. You hesitated, though, and I could see it coming together in your mind like in the movie… although in the movie, the girl doesn’t ever give them the coin.

In your bathtub I gave you some small bottles that used to hold your bath paints. They are easily squeezable and if you fill them with water and squeeze them quickly, water shoots out. You told me one night, “Mommy, do you want to see something funny?” And then you proceeded to show me how to shoot water out of those bottles.

You’ve started to love to splash us in the pool, or in the water when we’re at LegoLand, or at the ocean. You think it’s so very funny. And your comfort level in the water is growing by leaps and bounds… one evening you surprised us by hand-walking the side of the pool.  And you wanted us to help you jump in from the side.  In response to this new found confidence, we purchased you a PFD and are continuing to work with you on your swimming skills.

And then there was tonight, as your father and I finished your bedtime prayers. You latched to nurse to sleep, and then proceeded to unlatch repeatedly to add to your prayer. Thank you God for bugs. Thank you God for sand… for water… for Walmart… for fruits and vegetables… strawberries… thank you for bananas… for Froggy… for light… for Jesus… for Target and big trucks. And as things came to your mind you would unlatch and pray with a thankful heart for them. After some time passed, you stopped unlatching and drifted off to sleep.

I pray that you always have such a thankful heart for the simple things. For one truth that always stands is that when you count your blessings daily, life’s hardships have a way of diminishing to a manageable level.

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Love, Momma

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Filed under Best Husband, I have Family, Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

June 27, 2014 · 9:27 am

Going to the Beach.

The thing I’m finding about being an older parent is that I’m more patient with William than I would be if I were the younger me. In day-to-day interactions, I weigh the importance of “issues” more, and give more consideration to the big picture, instead of reacting to the immediate situation.

On the other hand, I have less patience for the lack of time that I seem to have with him. There’s just so much we want to do with him, to share with him, that I fear he’ll never experience boredom. Isn’t being bored one of the greatest things a person can do? Because they learn how to fill their time with nondescript, mundaisical (mundane/lackadaisical) things? Honestly, it’s really not an intentional thing on our parts “to fill William’s days and evenings.” It really isn’t about William at all, but more that Tony and I enjoy doing things together, and William is along for the ride.

I constantly worry about cramming so much into the evenings, and then William doesn’t get to bed until late, and then that he’s not getting the sleep that he needs. But, there’s just so much in this world to see! And much of it is so close… and it seems a shame to fail to visit the places that are in your own back yard, just because you need to sleep.

Then, last week, I was looking for something on the Internet and came across a Yelp review of a park over in Laguna Beach… it was 3 blocks from the part of the ocean that I took William to for his first time when he was 11 months old. If only I had known it was so close, I would have just gone there instead! So, of course, we needed to go check it out, and a warm Thursday evening (no crowds!!), seemed just perfect for it.

Of course, I can always (for the next couple months) use the excuse that it’s summertime, right? The season of heat, warm breezes, late nights, sprinklers cooling the evenings, mists in the morning, sleeping in. Or i can just say that we like making memories with our little boy. Because when you have joy, sleep is just maintenance.

The ocean air, the waves, the sand, the dogs, the people all there to enjoy the beauty of nature at sunset… William wanted to be tossed in the air, and walk in the water, dig the sand, and run from the waves. I really think we should fit in going to the beach more often.

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, Our Kid is Cute

June 3, 2014 · 11:03 pm

Tustin Chili Cook Off

Over the weekend, we spontaneously decided to go to the Chili Cook Off.  I mean, we were right across the street having breakfast and one of our table mates mentioned it.  Tony and I looked at each other, shrugged and said, “You wanna go?”  The reply was, “Sure, why not?”  It’s something we’ve talked about attending the past few years but we never seem to be in town when it’s going on.

We meandered around at first, distracted by the old cars.  William kept saying “Hey, that’s Sheriff!  That’s Sheriff!”  (From the Cars movie?)  Yeah, except for the paint job, it IS Sheriff.

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And then there was the “car that looks like Flo!”  Yes, yes, it did.  Something tells me this kid likes cars.

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Then we got down to business and sampled several cups of chili that looked like this.

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We all really liked the one made by the police department.  It was spicy but went down smooth.  If they sold that stuff in jars, I would definitely buy some.

William has a thing about Weinerschnitzel… THANKS MOM!  He now requests to go get “ice cream” every time we drive by it, which is  a lot, since it’s on the way to the grocery store, Walmart, Target, the gas station, the gym, and uh, the freeway.  Meaning, it’s on the way to everywhere we go.  So it was a no-brainer that he asked to have his picture taken with their Wagon that was at the cook off.

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We were looking for somewhere to sit and there were some tables set up.  We meandered over and sat on the concrete wall around the sign, turns out the restaurant owner had set up the tables and were inviting people to sit there, whether they were patrons or not.  The owner was even sitting there and pointed at the sign above William, told us the pictures on there were of his parents.  Personally, I liked the way the guy organized his chili.  He said, with a wink, that he’s been doing this for a few years now.

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IMG_0989Overall, for a spontaneous outing, it was fun and I wouldn’t mind going again next year, but I’ll definitely be bringing my cupcake pans… that idea is ingenious!  Plus, you know, people watching… IMG_0982

 

 

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Filed under Best Husband, Entertainment can be Cheap, I Left Home for Awhile, Our Kid is Cute

April 7, 2014 · 2:30 pm

Mountain Weekend.

The quiet and peacefulness of the mountains is one of the biggest draws for us… even with a 2 year old in tow. It helps that William requests to “go to Big Bear” and seemingly gets more excited about going up there than we do. We also enjoy our Saturday morning breakfast restaurant, the people there are like visiting family. Sometimes I can hardly sleep the night before, just because I know we’re gonna get to see our friends there. We enjoy our routines, what can I say?

Never before, in all the 40-some years that Tony’s family has owned the property, built the cabin, have they experienced such a weird thing as we did this weekend.

We drove up Friday morning and spent the afternoon settling in. William had some trouble sleeping that night, so it was that around 2 AM Saturday, Tony was sleeping lightly and heard a car door slam out front.  He thought it was the neighbors across the street, since they had rented the place out for the weekend.  We were surprised then, to look out our window Saturday morning to find a strange vehicle parked within 5 feet of our front door, directly under the window of the room where we’d been sleeping. Thinking it belonged to the neighbors to the left of us (a rental cabin), we knocked on their door and windows, but no one was there. We checked with the neighbor to the right, and he didn’t recognize it. I suggested that perhaps it was a stolen vehicle, and so Tony called the police. They said it hadn’t been reported stolen. Since it was early yet, and we really didn’t want to pay to have the thing towed, we decided to let a little time pass and go to breakfast.   Plus, you know, priorities.  Food vs. intruding car?  Food wins every time.

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breakfast pic

Five hours later, we returned to our cabin. The vehicle was gone, and in its place was a Sheriff’s car. The officer was dusting items on our porch for fingerprints. He said the vehicle had indeed been stolen, and the items he was dusting had been inside the car and not belonged to the owner. According to the Sheriff, there have been a bunch of break-ins and car thefts in that area the last month or so. Turns out, the car’s owner lived just a couple streets down. She had trustingly left her car unlocked with the keys in the ignition, thinking it safe within her gated yard. She didn’t even know her car was gone. Her sister drove by and recognized the car!

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Then, driving home Sunday morning, we had grabbed some food at Carl’s Jr., eating our food, we got back on the road.  Tony had been staying with the flow of traffic while he ate, and just finished his burger. I was alarmed when he said we were being pulled over by a motorcycle cop. We truly wondered why?  Talk about making your food turn into a brick in your stomach! We made our way off the freeway into a deserted bank parking lot.  I suggested that Tony roll down William’s window, too, so he could see the officer and maybe the officer would let us off because our kid is cute. What? It can’t hurt, right? Ha. The officer claimed we had been speeding in a construction zone on the freeway.

Apparently, even if it’s a Sunday and there’s no active construction going on, and we were being passed by other cars, it’s still a construction zone and can be used as a speed trap. The officer collected the information:  license, registration, proof of insurance, said he’d be back in a couple minutes.  A few minutes passed, the officer returned, handed all the stuff back to Tony and said, “I’ve received another call and have to go. Please drive safely and watch your speed.” Knowing firsthand, and recently, that speeding tickets are around $300, double that for construction zone, plus traffic school, all I could think was, we were just spared spending $700.

But, you know, despite the couple of strange things happening, we said hi to “Baby” the donkey, we saw snow (a tiny bit in front of our cabin and way far off on the mountains), we had our breakfast and saw our friends, we laughed and relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. William got a tour of a fire truck, a tour of a sheriff’s car and visited a playground. What more could we have asked for from a weekend in the mountains?

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January 9, 2014 · 10:17 am

Letter to our 2 year 1 month old

Dear William,

On 01/08/2014, you turned 25 months old.

On 12/28, you came down with your first stomach flu. You woke an hour after you’d been asleep, so I sent your father in to tend you. In response, you puked on his arm and your sheets, we cleaned up, changed your bedding, I nursed you and then the next round, you puked on my arm and your sheets, and the next round you puked all over your father. The following round, despite having puked in a bucket, you puked on a pillow I was using and it just went on and on and on, much like our washing machine did that night. If you nursed, you could keep it down. If you drank water, you puked it (and everything else, including mommy’s milk) right back up. You finally passed out while nursing at 1:30am. Puking again in your sleep at 4am. Then, later that day, it turned into diarrhea… with cloth diapers. That’s a load of fun right there. In desperation, we bought a small pack of disposable diapers to use until you’re feeling better, because I’d just start to rinse out the diapers and you’d be behind me starting to puke. It seriously took me 4 hours to get 2 diapers rinsed out because of that. Then you seemed to be feeling better, but the next day the puking started again, this time in conjunction with the diarrhea. And your father came down with it, too.  You lost 3.5 pounds as a result of this sickness, which equated to 10% of your body weight.  As of today, you are still a pound shy of where you were last month… stomach flu is no joke.

It also impacted you, mentally, because now you’ll finish nursing and ask “Do you need to puke?”  Or the other night,  you said, “I can puke on the Christmas tree?  I can puke in the tunnel?  I can puke on the cat?  I can puke on the chair?”  Each greeted with a “Nooooooo, puke in your bucket!”  And then you grinned.  You didn’t need to puke, you were just playing a game.

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In response to transitions that you don’t want to do (i.e., going upstairs, changing your diaper, leaving to go to the store) or if your toys don’t cooperate with you, you’ve taken to screaming. We do gradual transitions with lots of discussion beforehand, so I’m not sure what to do or to continue to do to teach you that this is not an acceptable thing to do. Mostly I implement the technique of telling you to “stop it and use your words” or “use your nice voice” and “to say I’m sorry.” You do say I’m sorry, but then scream again when told you still can’t do or have something, followed by an automatic “I’m sorry.” I’m kind of at my wits end with this one. The frustrating part of it for me is, you have such an immense vocabulary, you know how to tell me what’s wrong, but instead you’re screaming, as if it’s more automatic than verbalizing. Thinking that maybe this is a necessary part of your development, I’ve told you scream into Froggy… this is helping sometimes, but you don’t always have Froggy. Since I know this is a phase, I’m just sticking to being consistent and praying it passes quickly.

We let you watch some Christmas movies this year… hands down your favorite Christmas movie is Frosty the Snowman. We attempted to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, but barely into the movie the head elf yells at one of the other elves, and you didn’t like that… you immediately requested to see Frosty. Your favorite movie of all time, though, is Cars… the original, not Cars 2. Anything and everything comes to a standstill when watching Cars. You are also an incredibly sweet snuggle bug, and love to be held and cuddled when watching movies. We were watching Santa Claus is coming to town and you walked up to the screen and started lifting your knee and said, “Climbing into the movie!”

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You loved having us home with you over the Christmas holiday, and we loved being able to spend that time with you. We had Christmas morning at our house, just the three of us. Then, after your nap, we went to your Grandpa and Grandma H.’s house for the evening meal. Your Grandma H. started a new tradition of letting you put baby Jesus into the nativity scene; it was very sweet. You love nativity scenes, and name the wise men, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the angel… I’m so glad that one of my favorite nativity scenes, and one I purchased about 5 years ago, is a Little People set and totally kid friendly!  You also managed to add your own decorations to our tree this year, a ladybug and gecko.  Also, not pictured is your Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater Christmas ornaments.

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You have loved all the Christmas decorations… especially our Mr. Christmas collection, which includes an animated train that blows steam, an animated clock that has elves singing every hour, an animated advent calendar that plays a song and yields a tiny toy, an animated Christmas tree with a train that goes around it. We went Christmas light looking many times in December, we saw so many lights and decorations… as we’d drive down the street, you were heard to say, “Looking for more lights…. we’re looking!” We put you in your red wagon and wheeled around Grandma D.’s condo complex, and you had a grand time, singing “Jingle Bells” and looking around at lights. So much fun stuff that comes with Christmastime!
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STATS/TEETH:
You finally have all your teeth!

You are 38.5 inches tall (growth spurt this month, anyone?) and weigh in at 33 pounds 12 ounces. For clothing, you’re wearing size 5T in feeted pajamas (for the height), and size 3T in pants and shorts. You’re mostly in 4T for shirts, because of your broad shoulders.

THINGS YOU SAY:
You still say “Lightming” instead of Lightning.
“Ice crean” is still ice cream.
You still interchange the “you” and “me” pronouns, and truly that is kind of a hard concept to teach. We’re working on it, though, and sometimes you get it right.
You say “OK” a lot as a result. You’ll say, “Do you want to go outside?” And then I’ll ask, “You want to go outside?” And you say, “OK.”

NURSING/FOOD:
You had some rough times this month with vomiting due to your stomach flu. You nursed your way through it and it was such a relief to be able to provide you with that nourishment, especially since it was the only thing that would stay down. Once you started feeling better, your appetite returned in a huge way. This past week you’ve been eating anything and everything that crosses your path. it’s nice to see you eating, even though I know this is a short-lived thing… it’s nice to know you do like to eat, despite the times you prefer to eat just air. One thing that is consistent from last year? You love gingerbread… love it. Your father put gingerbread in your stocking this year, and it was a huge hit.  http://youtu.be/rPyN4aH0gaM

You and I made gingerbread cookies together for the first time, and it was one of those things I’ve always wanted to do with my own child, and now I have — making gingerbread cookies with my little boy! I loved involving you in this holiday tradition… and it was the cutest thing ever, when I put the first batch in the oven to bake, you whispered, “You can taste it?” I looked over and you had pulled some of the unbaked dough from the counter and were stealthily attempting to get it to your mouth, thinking I would forbid you because I had told you we had to wait to eat it. Well, everyone knows, eating cookie dough is a reward of baking… and so I told you it was OK. Because it is OK, that little bit of raw dough won’t hurt anyone.

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SLEEP:
Overall your sleep has been good this month. Good solid naps, 2 or 3 hours in length. You have a day here and there that you refuse your nap, but you’re mostly OK through the day. We just get you to bed earlier than usual and you sleep well at night. Your night sleep has been solid, although, after your sickness, you’ve had some early wake times, but I’m thinking they’re either as a result of being hungry (seriously, you’ve been ravenous), or cold (you messed up the thermostat dial on your space heater).

A few times this month, when Grandma D. has put you down for you nap, you will horse around in there and look out the window.  She busts you, though, she goes out and checks to see if the shutters are open or not.  If they are, she goes in and closes them and checks you for poop… sure enough, the last couple times this has happened, you’ve had a nap thieving poop waiting in your diaper.

THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:
12/09 – Christmas Music Together Class with Miss Elena
12/14 — we had your 2 year birthday party at your Grandpa & Grandma H.’s home. It was smaller than last year’s party, but still well-attended. Especially given our last minute planning for it.
12/21 – another hair cut for you
12/25 – Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma H.’s home
12/28 – LegoLand
12/28 – your first stomach flu
01/01 – still recovering from your sickness
01/05 – trip to IKEA
01/06 – Library story time started up again
01/07 – Music Class with Miss Cheryl started up again

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PLAYTIME AND CHILDREN INTERACTION:

This past month, we introduced bath paints and bath crayons to you and you love painting and coloring the sides of the bath tub. Although, mostly you seem enamored with having various colors of paints in your palette. More blue? More red? More yellow? More green? You’ll ask, but then not use them to paint.

You still love, love, love chalk and using it on our fridge chalkboard.  You also walk around with a piece of chalk and ask if you can color various things.  “I can color the car? I can color the cat?  I can color the table?  I can color the chair?”  One victim of your “coloring” was my sorter folder… I still haven’t erased it, because it was the cutest surprise to find.

You really enjoy driving your cars and trains on the edges of shelves and tables.  Apparently, the shutters are fair game for driving things on, too.  When we go out to eat, the triangular tent cards on the table are “garages” according to you, and the cars get to park in them while we eat.

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THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:

Back in October we went to Michael’s and they had a Halloween section. There were some scary things in one of the aisles and to distract you, I said, “Uh oh, That’s a scary aisle… I feel a kiss coming on.” For the next month, everytime I would say, “Uh oh” You would respond with, “That’s a scary aisle! I feel a kiss coming on!” Now you’ve started to say, “Where’d the scary aisle go?” And the conversation has been shortened to me saying, “Uh oh!” And you responding, “I feel a kiss coming on!” while leaning your face to me to kiss.

How when you give someone a hug, you walk up to them and lean in… they have to put their arms around you and you just stand there.

When nursing, the way you put your hand up and press it on my shoulder, draping Froggy like a blanket.

When you’re in your bath, your father goes down and cleans up the toys. You listen to him doing that and then say, “Daddy’s playing with my cars.”

The way you ask so sweetly, “Mommy sleep with me?” if you can’t fall asleep on your own.

How you love to read your books, and you paraphrase what’s happening on the page by the pictures you see.  You particularly love the Cars book we found for $1 at the used bookstore.  You search for the part about tractor tipping and Frank, you talk about tractor tipping and then say, “Here comes Frank!  Go fast over the field! Frank’s gonna get you!”  and then skip to the end where Lightning helps the King finish the race and you say, “Lightning helped him!”  You also really love the book Grandma H. got you for Christmas, about a little blue truck going to the city… you love to say “beep” when the blue text comes up (it says beep!) and paraphrase the whole story as we turn the pages, before I can even read it!

So many changes have happened this year, one thing that has stayed the same is that we are continuing to nurse.  Having a third Christmas of nursing snuggles is something I looked forward to, and I can’ t help but compare how last year, you would moan loudly while nursing… it was so comical.  This year, you hum loudly. Simultaneously to latching you start humming various songs… Wheels on the Bus, Trot Old Joe, Jingle Bells, Riding in the Car… all of these are in your repertoire of songs.  Sometimes I hum along, sometimes I will start humming the song and let you finish it.  And sometimes I’ll sing the words to the song and stop suddenly, and it’s the funniest thing to me that you will wait a couple seconds and then unlatch to sing the next line of it, and the latch again.

My funny little bug-a-boo.

P1470392Love you forever,

Momma

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Filed under Best Husband, Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

January 7, 2014 · 3:13 pm

Cloth Diapers: A random story, plus poop!

When we first started this parenthood journey, I intended to do cloth diapers.  But then  the hospital sent us home with the cutest little Pampers that had the “wet indicator” strip on the front of them.  It changed color when it was wet and we became very reliant on that strip to know if he was wet or not.  A couple weeks in the gig, we ended up switching to another brand because someone had bought it for us as a baby shower gift.  I remember when we made that change, we stared at each other and said, “How do we know if he’s wet?  There’s no indicator strip!”  ha  Rookies!

Then we went back and forth with brands, and finally settled on using Luvs.  And then, just a few short months into it, he was moved into size 4 diapers and I was absolutely horrified at the cost of these things that were just thrown away.  When in size 4, you get less diapers per box and the box of diapers cost more money.  Not to mention the fact that William was soaking the diapers overnight and every morning he would wake up in a pool of pee.  I was spending money on diaper boosters, and even that wasn’t a great solution.  Every poop he would do, they were coming up his back.  It was awful.  I can’t tell you how many of his little baby shirts had poop stains up the back.

I knew there had to be a better way.

In our birthing class, our instructor had mentioned Bum Genius diapers.  She said she used them for her children, that they were not complicated and worked well.  I researched them, and they are a very popular brand of diapers, with a good reputation.  Despite my research saying I should go with the snap diapers, I chose to get mostly aplix closures because, at the time, my mom was having trouble with her hands and the aplix closures were easier for her to use.

We started using cloth in June of 2012.

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Within a couple months, the aplix on two of the diapers started curling and was ineffective to hold the diaper closed.  I called Bum Genius’ customer service and let them know about the issue.  They requested I return the diapers to them and they shipped out brand new ones, and asked if I wanted snap closures… my response?  Sure!

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Now, we’ve been using these diapers since William was 6 months old and about a year into it (June 2013) the aplix closures had become completely ineffective.  So we created what we called a “lock” — basically, a piece of velcro that we cut from a roll and used that to cover the aplix tabs and hold them closed, and that worked for about 6 months and then the other side of the aplix wore down.  Then we we’re faced with “refreshing” the diapers with the “refresher kits” that Bum Genius sells for $1 each.  Obviously, Bum Genius knows this is an issue, since they sell refresher kits.  I had no idea that the aplix would only last for a year… just long enough for them to get out of warranty.  Of course, there are people out there who will sew the refresher kits on for you, for about $4 a diaper… Tony, the amazing person that he is, figured out how to use a sewing machine and do it all himself.  I was impressed that he was working a full-time job, carrying a lot of the household chores AND making time to refresh 3-4 diapers each night.  The man is truly amazing.

Each diaper comes with two inserts, the regular insert and a thinner insert called the “newborn” insert.  William is a fairly heavy wetter, so we needed something more absorbent for nighttime. Something that would hold up to 12 hours of wetting without needing to be changed.  So I researched and came up with Hemp inserts… those go into the diaper along with the regular insert.

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When we started William on table food, and his output changed, we started putting these reuseable liners in his diapers.  The checkered flag pattern… i made myself from material I purchased and cut from Joanne’s.P1010005

There are other less expensive options of cloth diapers out there, this is what we’ve done and overall we’ve been happy with our decision.  Although, since Bum Genius knows the aplix is an issue, I would think they would come up with a better solution for it… or maybe the snap diapers ARE their solution to it.

This past week when William was so sick with the stomach flu, part of that sickness was diarrhea.  He was pooping out of his cloth diapers.  Not to mention, I couldn’t get them sprayed clean fast enough, because every time I’d start to clean the diaper, William was standing behind me puking.  In defeat, we turned to disposables for a few days… $5.97 for 23 diapers.  I had to ask a friend what size her son (who is the same size as William) is, because I had no clue what size to buy!  The disposables saved my sanity, I have to admit.  But now we’re back in our cloth.

My mom summed it up best by calling the disposable diapers “paper diapers” and we both were stunned by how skinny and insubstantial they were and how on earth would they even hold anything?  Not to mention, we’ve been so used to wrapping him up in sturdy cloth diapers, which you have to put on with authority, that if you use the same strength on paper diapers, the tabs just come right off them… and then what?  Duct tape?  We’re not throwing away a quarter just because we broke off the tab!  But, still… paper diapers?  I’m still laughing over that.

Anyway, I’m not real sure there’s a point to this post, other than to share our experience in diapering choices and pictures of our pretty colored diapers.  If you chose one way or the other, what did you choose and why?

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January 4, 2014 · 3:43 pm

Happy New Year!

It’s 2014, did you hear?  It’s kind of not been real to me because we didn’t watch any ball drop on New Year’s eve, we forgot to watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s day, until it was in reruns in the afternoon.  Everything just kind of went into a tunnel for us… we’ll call it the stomach flu tunnel.

It started on the 28th of December, the day we went to LegoLand.  The times we’ve gone to Legoland with William this past year have been focused on visiting their amazing waterpark, so this time we went just to see the rest of the park.  Not surprising that it was all decked out for Christmas, even Miniature LegoLand.  So much fun!  William loved seeing LegoLand Santa and their Frosty the Snowman.  He adores Miniature Land.  He loved running on their fake grass.  We had such a great time!

 

We got home and put him to bed for the night and he woke an hour later, restless.  After ten minutes of him rolling around, I sent Tony in to see what was bothering him.  After a few minutes, William threw up all over Tony’s arm…and that’s where the stomach flu tunnel started.  William threw up 6, maybe 7 times that night.  I lost count and he became a pro at getting it into a bucket (instead of all over his bed sheets, or Tony, or the floor, or me, for instance).   The next day, he seemed to be feeling a bit better, but then on the 30th, he had a relapse with the vomiting and then the diarrhea started. On the 30th, Tony also came down with it.  I had a bit of nausea but, in all honesty, it might have just been in response to all the nasty smells in the house.

So New Year’s eve found us all on puke watch.  New Year’s day found us gingerly trying various bland foods.  It really wasn’t until yesterday, the 3rd of January, that we all started feeling somewhat normal again.

The sickness aside, it really was nice to have all that time with family.  Tony’s job, since he’s no longer working in the commodity business, alloted him more holiday time than he’s had in years.  William and I are continuing to nurse, so that meant a third Christmas filled with sweet nursing snuggles.  I was able to organize some of the areas in the house that have amassed clutter.  The clutter is kind of overwhelming, and I guess that’s kind of an ongoing project that I don’t want to give up on this year.  I learned early on when lap swimming that even the slowest stroke is faster than stopping at each end of the pool, and that’s something that I’ve tried to apply to my life… just keep swimming, even if you’re going at it slowly.

What is something you’re planning to work on this year?

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