Five favorite cable TV shows

1. Digging for the Truth (History)



2. No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain  (Travel)



3. The naked archeaologist  (History)



4. Dirty Jobs (Discovery)



5. Freestyle (HGTV)

Yay me!

The scale told me I am down two pounds this morning. GO ME!  Alright, so two pounds is far from impressive, however, what is impressive (to me anyway), is that I was able to stick to a diet for an entire week.  A feat I haven't managed to accomplish since before I got pregnant.  To astound you with my dieting prowess even more, this week, this week I've been on a diet, is the very same week I've been on my period, aka the week I wanted french fries more than air. 

Surprisingly, it hasn't been all that hard.  I have to admit, I'd gone over my allowed calories and fat grams almost every day, but I was still well below what I normally eat.

In other news, I read a whole book last night.  A whole book without pictures or 30 point font with well over 15 words per page.  John wanted to watch boring sports stuff all night (both the NBA draft - YAWN - and the USA v Argentina soccer game), so I took it as an opportunity to leave the boy with him and go upstairs and spend some quiet time alone.  Earlier in the day Alex and I walked to the library (where we almost got kicked out due to his screaming.  Screaming because I wouldn't let him tear the pages out of all the books in the romance section) and I picked up four parenting books: one on potty training, two on disciplining toddlers and a "fluff book", funny stories about a SAHM's life.  I read the fluff book last night.  I tell you,it was pure heaven, just to lay on my bed, no one hanging off my leg or pulling my hair or smelling someone's |John's| farts.  Just reading a book for pure entertainment.  Just for me.  I'm going to try to do that more often, try to carve some time out of the week to just be alone, be quiet, not be needed.

Anyhow, the diet will continue and I'm going to make a more concerted effort to not go over my allowed calories.  I'm a stress eater, so if I try to give myself more breaks, maybe I'll be less stressed and therefore not snack as much.  I'm also hoping that this week's success will help me stay on track.

Go Alex Go

When we were in Panama, we watched Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego Go because they were the only kids shows that had any English at all.  Alex didn't seem to care much for either show at the time so when we came back, I didn't bother putting either show on for Alex. 

A few weeks ago Alex and I went shopping for a new toothbrush for him.  He's at an age where he really seems to enjoy picking things out himself, so I showed him all of the toddler toothbrushes and immediately he began saying "Diego! Diego!"  pointing wildly at the Go Diego Go toothbrush. I was surprised he recognized the characters, not having seen them since March.  Of course, we got the Diego brush.

Alex LOVES his new Go Diego Go toothbrush and when we go into the bathroom every morning to brush his teeth, he squeals with excitement "Diegogo! Diegogo!"  I still hadn't bothered to put the show on for him though.

This week we were out looking for new sippy cups. I didn't even have to give him choices, the second we walked up to the sippy cups, Alex went wild shouting "Diegogo! Diegogo! Diegogo!"  I found the Diego sippies and handed to them to Alex and he hugged the package like it was his long lost best friend.  He insisted on holding them in the car on the way home and when we got home I washed them at the sink with Alex clinging to my leg wailing "DIEGOGO!" in the most pathetic manner imaginable.  I filled one with juice and handed it to Alex, "DIEGO JUICE!" he exclaimed.

Finally catching on that my son, he kinda likes Go Diego Go, I put the show on for him.  He's usually not able to sit through an entire television program, but he plopped on his butt about a foot away from TV stand and watched the entire show, occasionally pointing to the screen and saying "Diegogo!"  I really don't know why he likes it so much, I can barely stand it, but he does, he absolutely, truly, madly, deeply, loves Go Diego Go.  It could be worse I suppose.  At least it's not Boobah or The Wiggles.

This is the first time in his life that he's demonstrated his very own preferences.  Go Diego Go isn't something I've encouraged he watch.  We watch Arthur every single morning and Alex barely acknowledges the aardvark exists.  It's just another reminder that Alex isn't just an extension of me or John, he's his own person, with his own likes and dislikes.  I love that. 

Best Shot Monday

I just love the smile in this one.  He's happy about his new mohawk hairdo.

Maybe it's time for some new t-shirts

Since Alex is so skinny, his t-shirts have an unusually long shelf life.  Almost all of the clothes he's been wearing this summer are last summer's duds.  I don't have such good luck for Autumn and Winter clothing as he is tall for his age and long pants only last a month or two before they become floods on his spindly legs.

Yesterday afternoon I was getting him ready for the soccer game by putting on his green t-shirt with a soccer ball printed on it.  I bought it for him the beginning of last season, but since it's not the right colors (Real colors are red, blue and yellow), he hasn't worn it yet this season.  So I'm trying to put it on and it's just not going over his head.  I'm pulling and tugging, he's crying, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why the neck hole won't stretch over his head.  Finally we get his head through and the shirt fits fine, though when he raises his arms his belly sticks out the bottom.  I start telling him what a big noggin he must have to not fit through the shirt when I notice the tag.  The shirt is sized 3/6 months!  I realize that there is indeed a limit to how long a shirt can last in his dresser.  I've decided if the shirt is small enough to fit on his baby cousin Lily, I'm probably not going to try to have him wear it.  I practically had to cut the damn thing off of him.

Candy man

Recently Alex has developed a love, nay, a passion, for all things candy. In particular gummy candy.  I blame myself.  His vitamins are gummy cars.  I'm sure eating a gummy vitamin every morning just whets his appetite for more candy throughout the day.

I've been spoiled with this kid, he's always preferred healthy foods, veggies and fruits over almost anything else, but that trend seems to be changing, now preferring gummy bears and licorice to apples and green beans.  Now, for the first time in his life, I have to start watching what he's eating and imposing limits on him.

Last night was quite the wake up call for me regarding this new obsession of his.  We were at the soccer game and next to us was a family with a little girl about his age and they were all eating Red Vines.  Alex flipped out, screaming and begging and sticking his "gimme hand" at them pathetically until, get this, THEY GAVE HIM A RED VINE!  He totally begged for and scored candy from strangers.  This is not good.  It only got worse until John and I ended up going and getting him a box of Sour Patch Kids to keep him from begging for more food from them.  This has got to stop.  Immediately.  While I'm not planning to ban sugar from his diet entirely, he's definitely going on a detox program so he doesn't act like a crazed crack addict the second he spots a Jujy Fruit.

Here we go again

I admit, I haven't really tried that hard to loose my pregnancy weight. (Ok, almost two years later, it can't really be called pregnancy weight anymore, but humor me ok)  I lost 30 pounds about five minutes after I had Alex, and I guess I've just been hanging on to this other 30 pounds as a souvenir.  Luckily, I haven't gained a single pound in the almost two years since he was born, which is pretty much a miracle given the fact that I really, really like ice cream sandwiches.  I do walk about 2 miles every day, I've stopped going to the gym because it's just too nice outside not to take advantage of it, which is probably why I've maintained my current weight. 

I've tried several times to start dieting only to fail, more times than I'd like to admit, only half way through the first day.  I don't have any real incentive to loose weight right now, so I think that's why I've got little to no motivation to do what it takes to get in shape.  Despite the fact that I am undeniably overweight, I am still a good 50 pounds less than my heaviest (at the age of 22), so I don't feel all that bad about it.  John seems to be plenty attracted to me, and according to my doctor, I'm "boringly healthy".  Perfect blood pressure, low cholesterol... never once mentioning my weight.  Aside from being jigglier than I'd like, my weight doesn't seem to have much, if any, affect on my life.  So why diet?  I don't know.  I think I'm supposed to feel bad about myself at this weight, even though I don't really.  I think I'm supposed to want to get thinner.  Problem is, dieting is a huge commitment and it's hard to do if you don't really care about it.  So, I'm trying to care.  I'm trying to find some incentive to want to skip dessert and pump up my exercise regimen.  Here are a few ideas:

• I don't want to go into another pregnancy with old pregnancy weight.  I want to start fresh and gain brand new shiny pounds for the next baby.



• I have a closet full of clothes two sizes smaller than my current size.  They are cuter clothes than I have now.  I'd really like to be able to wear them this fall.



• If I'm on a diet, it's easier for John to diet and he really wants to loose weight



• It'll be nice to get to a weight that is reasonable, comfortable and maintainable so that I don't have to go through this dieting shit anymore.

And, that's all I've got really.  Maybe it'll be enough.  I'm going to start tomorrow.  My plan is simple, burn more calories than I take in.  I'll be attempting this by continuing my morning walks with Alex five days a week and watching my calorie intake (I plan to use a system simliar to WW Flex Points).

I don't want this to become a diet blog, but I will probably post a weekly update, if only for accountability purposes.  Wish me luck!

Busy bee

I've been so productive today.  So far I've:

• Washed and folded all the laundry



• Mowed both the front and back lawns



• Went grocery shopping



• Did the dishes



• Roasted a turkey breast (to use in sandwiches for the week)



• ordered photo books from Qoop for both our Panama and Boston trips



• Found all of our wedding and honeymoon negatives and the wedding video and took to Inkley's to have put on CD's and DVD.



• Threw away all of my old tupperware and replaced it with the $6 set of tupperware I bought at IKEA yesterday



• I have blown up these little blow up microphones (John brought home four of them from eBay Live) about 30 times each for Alex.  He likes to have me blow it up, then he undoes the little tab so all the air goes out, then hands it to me to blow up again.  It's not nearly as fun as you might think it is.

I figured I deserved a break so while Alex was napping I ordered The Pursuit of Happyness on demand.  I cried like a baby the entire time.  Like a baby.

You had me at "Welcome to Boston"

Whew!  We're back from our whirlwind tour of Boston.  Well, whirlwind for Alex and me.  I kept forgetting John had been there for a week.

When I was waiting to get on our flight on Saturday, I talked with a woman who used to live here and now lived in Boston.  She told me it was the best place in the world and I would love it.  You know what?  It is and I do.  I absolutely loved it.  From the second I set foot in Boston, I felt like I was home.  I can't put my finger on it, but there is something special about that city.  I think I was expecting something more like New York.  Big and bustling, smelly and sticky...  It was none of that.  Well, it was big, but it didn't feel big like New York.  The streets were clean and wide, and surprisingly light traffic.  The buildings were tall, but not overwhelming, in fact most of them were older with beautiful architecture and character.  Even the subway surprised me.  It didn't smell like pee and there wasn't a single rat to be found.  I don't know why I was so surprised at how clean the city was, but that's almost all I talked about all day on Sunday.  My hat goes off to Boston Public Works because DAMN they keep a nice city.

Our big day was Sunday when we went to see a Red Sox v Giants game at historic Fenway Park.  We sat in the most uncomfortable chairs in all creation for nine very long innings.  They had to be original to the 95 year old stadium.  Despite the literal pain in the ass, we had a wonderful time booing Barry Bonds, and even I, a die hard Yankee's fan, cheered for the Sox.  Sox won, we saw Bonds hit a home run (Yea, boo and all that, but it is Barry Bonds, and it is pretty cool to watch him do his thing).  I think the highlight of the day was the fact that Fenway allowed all the fathers and kids to go down on the field and play catch.  Wow, I mean, it was John's 30th birthday AND Father's day and he got to play catch with Alex on the grass at Fenway.  I know John will remember that forever.  Alex won't, but we've got pictures to show him when he can appreciate it.

Monday we did a walking tour of Boston along the Freedom Trail.  We saw a lot of the historic sites (though we couldn't find the site of the Boston Massacre, even though we walked past twice.  You'd think they'd have a sign or something, I mean it's the Boston Massacre!).  I was in awe of the beautiful stone streets and historic buildings.  We also spent a lot of time both Monday and Tuesday in Boston Common and Boston Garden feeding squirrels, pidgeons and ducks.  We went to both of the Cheers bars, the original Bull and Finch Pub at Beacon Hill and the replica at Faneuil Hall.  Tuesday before we left we ate various forms of lobster (Lobster quesadilla and a lobster sandwich) on the pier at the harbor.

In the end, my first impression of Boston is a good one.  A great one.  I would go back for a visit in a heartbeat.  Bostonians may have a reputation for being rude, but we found them to be very warm and friendly.  Oh, and I totally dig the accent.  "Lets go get beeah and lobstah at the bah"

Best Shot Monday

Boy and Dad, originally uploaded by Jmelee.

Another Father/Son photo. This is my favorite from this week because it's John taking Alex to a baseball game on Father's Day (and John's 30th birthday) at Fenway Park.  They even got to go down on the field and play catch.  I really think this may be a memory John will have forever.

Welcome to Boston

Alex and I just arrived in Boston after a whole day of air travel. I feel like I've just run a marathon and hiked to the summit of Everest. My left arm (the one I hold Alex on) is pretty much dead and lifeless,the muscles are so shot from carrying Alex around all day.  Thank goodness he's skinny!  I don't know what I'd have done if he was a normal kid.

As pooped as I feel, it couldn't have gone better.  We got to the airport at 6:30AM (after a night of no sleep, Alex fell out of his big boy bed around 1AM and got stuck between the bed and the dresser and wouldn't calm down about it all night long, poor guy). We flew through the check-in and security process and waited for an hour and a half at our assigned gate.  Alex, un characteristically, wanted to be held the entire time.  Probably still traumatized from the night before.  A half hour before boarding they announced that the flight was overbooked and they needed volunteers to go on different flights.  Not being in a hurry, I volunteered and scored a non-stop flight to Boston (the original flight layovered in NY) AND a seat for Alex AND two meal vouchers AND a $200 coupon towards future travel.  The only downside was we had to wait around the airport for another hour, which wasn't too big a deal.

Alex behaved himself most of the flight, there was about 30 minutes or so that he threw a major tantrum complete with screaming, scratching, crying and raisin throwing.  It was just a tired tantrum and soon he passed out and stayed out for about an hour and a half.

We arrived without incident and caught a cab to John's hotel that was swarming with eBay people (John's here for eBay Live) and now we're eating a $30 room service meal of a cheese quesadilla and a hot dog waiting for John to get done at the party (which will likely be late tonight).

Now all we need is a robot maid and a flying car

John is in Boston this week on business.  Alex and I are flying up this weekend to be with him for his birthday and Father's day, but since John was going to be gone for a couple of days before we get there, we setup our two computers to do video phone calls.  We tried it last night and it was awesome!  Alex really got a kick out of seeing his daddy on the computer screen.  He even kissed the screen a few times.  This is going to make all the difference for Alex when John goes out of town in the future.  Usually when John is gone, Alex gets a little sulky at night, knocking on the garage door hoping Daddy will come through it any minute or carrying around a wrinkly picture of John all day long.  Kid is seriously attached to his father.  Now he can give John night night kisses before he goes to bed.  Totally worth John having to pay the $13 WIFI fee to the hotel in my opinion.

I can't seem to get over the Jeston-ness of it all.  It really felt like I was in Star Trek or something.  I'm getting to be such an old fart, in awe of these new fangled technical gadgets.  Alex will likely not even remember a time before video phone.  I imagine telling him of the good old days when all we could do is hear the person on the other end of the line.  When I was a kid, I actually used a rotary phone.  And it had a cord.  You know, a curly springy cord that was about 20 feet long that got all knotted up in the middle.  I didn't even have a mobile phone until I was 16, and it weighed about 10 pounds.  It was so much work, calling someone barefoot, uphill both ways.   I can just hear him now  "Wow, that's so old fashioned!"

The big boy bed is a hit

This big boy bed is really working out.  Alex absolutely loves it.  When he wakes up in the morning or from a nap, he'll usually stay in bed for a while, just chillin', then he'll get up and come find me.  Sometimes he just won't get out of bed at all, and I have to go into his room several times tempting him with yogurt or fruit snacks or his singing duck puppet.

Tonight he actually put himself to bed.  We were walking down the hall to his room, I was fully expecting to have to rock him for 10 minutes or so, but no, he just got into bed, laid down and stayed there.  I stood in his room in shock for a while, thinking any minute he'll get up and start jumping on the mattress, but nope.  He went right to sleep.  Weird.

There is still the worry of him getting up in the night and roaming the house unsupervised.  He can open doors, so closing his bedroom door won't keep him in if he really wants out.  We do have a security system with motion sensors, so if he trips those, it would wake us up, but he may be too little for them to detect him.  He's generally a great sleeper, only waking up in the night if he's sick or has a bad dream.  When he's sick, we usually just have him sleeping in our bed anyway, and I'll hear him crying from a bad dream before he can ransack the house.  He's been sleeping in this bed all week and hasn't gotten up yet, so here's hoping it won't be a problem.  I really think it's more likely he'll come get in our bed with us if he gets up in the night anyway.  I hope.

Kissin' Cousins

I never knew how much Alex loved his baby cousin Lily until today.  Yesterday I had a photograph I took of Lily made into a 5x7 and put it on my piano in our family room.  Alex has not left it alone all day.  He keeps taking it off the piano and saying either "baby" or "wiwwie"  I didn't even know he knew her name was Lily.  He's never said it before.  I'm guessing "wiwwie" is his version of "Lily".  If it's not, it's one hell of a coincidence.

Anyhow, just now, I caught him giving "Wiwwie" kisses.  Complete with puckered up lips and smoochie sounds.  One of those times I wish I had my little camera that takes video handy.  I took some still shots with my Canon but it just doesn't do the cuteness any justice.

Smoochie, originally uploaded by Jmelee.

Click on the photo or here to see the set.

Sleepy

I can't seem to get it together this morning.  I rolled out of bed in a fog, barely making it to the coffee maker to find that we only had two pods left and damn if John didn't feel like having coffee this morning too.  I was left with only one pod for me (which is usually all I need on a normal day) and inexplicable exhaustion right down to my bones.  I tried showering this morning (I usually don't shower until afternoon when Alex is down for his nap), I even tried going for a walk and I'm still all fuzzy around the edges and I really just want to go back to bed.

We have our choice of activities this morning:  Brunch with the mom's club or a play date at the park with the neighbor.  I don't feel like doing either, but going to the park for an hour seems like much less work, so that's where we're off to now.  Ugh, I hope I get out of this soon or it's going to be a very, very long day.

Best Shot Monday

I'm going to start participating in Best Shot Monday over at Picture This.  I may even get into Theme Thursday, you never can tell.

I picked this shot from last week because it reminds me so much of everything summer.  Playing outside, being cold and wet from running in the sprinklers and not wanting to go inside, so you just drink from the hose.  It's also a cute shot of a daddy/son moment.

Big Boy

What's wrong with this picture?

That's right!  There is no crib in Alex's room anymore.  We've decided to transition Alex into a "Big Boy Bed" a couple of months early.  We had planned to move him into this bed sometime after he turned two, but the little Houdini was caught escaping from his crib yesterday after nap time.  Literally hanging off the side holding on with his two little hands and his right big toe.  Now that he knows he can get out, well, there'll be no stopping him.  We decided rather than let him continue escaping, risking an injury, we'd just put him in the twin bed now.

Alex really digs his new digs.  He was so excited as we were putting it together.  So much more room to jump!  He can get in and out by himself!  Wheee!  I, on the other hand, am sad.  Taking down the crib and storing it away never to see it again for at least two more years (Oh yea, we decided to stick to the original plan, waiting to get pregnant again summer of 2008).  Not that I was so attached to it.  It was a hand-me-down hand-me-down coming to me after two of my cousins used it for their kids.  It's nice enough, but that's not why I'm going to miss it.  Taking down the crib, for me, symbolized all too clearly that my baby, well, he's no longer a baby.  He's growing up.

Sniffle sniffle.  MY BABY'S GROWING UP! 

Add to the Big Boy Bed, the fact that this week, he totally started talking.  He'd been stuck at about 15 or so words for so long.  I was beginning to consider having him evaluated by a speech therapist.  Last week he added probably another 15 words to his repertoire and it's growing leaps and bounds almost hourly.  He can tell you what he's eating, what he wants to eat, what he's playing with, what he wants to play with, most of his body parts (especially "pee pee" which already is his favorite)...  It's still in his garbled baby-talk, but they are definite words and it's all happening so fast!

There goes that Mom of the Year award

I took Alex in to the doctor today because I noticed a strange bump on his neck last night.  I didn't think it could be too serious, it didn't seem to bother him when I poked at it, but in my house, strange bumps require a trip to the doctor to ease my mind.  So, off we went.

Turns out the bump on his neck is a swollen lymph node, but the doctor said it wasn't big enough to worry about.  I just need to watch it and make sure it doesn't get bigger and if it does, or more show up, bring him back in.  Then she did some checking around to see if it could be in response to any obvious infections.  She checked his ears, his throat, his nose...

"Wow, those are some impressive boogers" She remarked
"Aren't they though?"
"How long have they been like that?"
"Oh, maybe a month or so, I've just figured they're allergy boogers"
"It looks like a sinus infection"
"Really?"
"Yes, nasty boogers like that for over three weeks.  Definately a sinus infection"
"But he's not acting sick at all.  Are you sure they're not allergy related?"
"I'm pretty sure"
"But he's acting fine.  Really it's been like six weeks and he hasn't acted sick even once.  A sinus infection?  Are you sure?"
"I am a doctor"
"Right.  Ok"

So we left with a prescription for an antibiotic and me feeling like the worst mother in the world.  My poor kid's been suffering from a sinus infection for weeks and I've just been wiping the snot off his face and going about my day.  I keep going over the last month or so in my head, looking for any thing that may have been a sign he was sick (other than the boogers) and there's nothing.  If anything, he's been happier and funner to be around than ever.  So much for being in tune with my child's every need.  Hummph.

The triumphant return of the Friday Five

Because I know all three of my readers have been missing it terribly and because it amuses me to make up stupid lists of things.

Five pet peeves

1. Purse dogs.  Not the dogs themselves, but the people who insist on taking their itty bitty dogs shoe shopping, grocery shopping, browsing IKEA...why?  I mean really, why?  And I have to wonder, do the dogs ever need to poop?  Do they just poop in their little purse?



2. Roller shoes.  Alex will NEVER EVER EVER own roller shoes.  Rollerskates, fine.  Shoes, fine.  But the shoes with the little heel wheel.  NEVER!!!!



3. People who stick the "support our troops" yellow ribbon magnets on their cars sideways so the text is perfectly horizontal.  I don't know why this bugs me, it just does.



4. Baby talk.  Not baby talk to a baby, but baby talk between two adults in public.  Ewww. 



5. Dreadlocks on white people.  Particularly blonde guys.  Again, don't know why, but I want to punch them.

Manna from heaven (or our fridge)

I'm a bona fide History Channel-aholic.  If I'm watching TV, it's a good bet that I'm watching the History Channel.  Most often I'm watching some sort of show about first century archeology.  What John likes to call "Those damn bible shows".  I can't help it.  I'm fascinated by the thought that the stories of the bible actually have some basis in fact as supported by archaeological finds. 

It's not that I'm looking to science to "prove" the scriptures are true.  I don't think science can do that.  If you find evidence of two ancient cities that were burned to ground thousands of years ago, that doesn't prove that God himself burned the sin cities Sodom and Gomorrah.  I particularly like the way most of the History Channel's programs present the material in a mostly unbiased light.  Interviewing believers and skeptics alike for a more balanced opinion.  Leaving you the viewer to draw your own conclusions.  I think I'm drawn to shows about biblical archeology because they're talking about stories that I'm already familiar with.  It makes the science that much more interesting.

Since I watch them, Alex watches them.  Not that he ever seems all that interested.  Although, yesterday, we were all in the kitchen and Alex was trying to tell us what he wanted to eat.

"Cookies?"  I ask
"Grrrr"  He responds
"Peaches?"
"Arrgh"
"What do you want?"
"Manna!"
"Manna?"
"Manna, manna, manna"  and he runs to the fridge and pulls on the handles.  Because apparently, my son is under the impression that we keep our manna in the fridge.  Of course.  Duh.

John sighs and shakes his head "He's watching too many damn bible shows."

Lunchtime entertainment

This afternoon while John was home for lunch, Alex entertained us with a spirited rendition of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"  complete with the hand actions (though "down comes the rain"  looks suspiciously like Spirit Fingers)

Alex's version of the song goes like this:

"Biddy biddy sider pout RAIN! biddy sider" 

over and over again.  And yes, he sings "RAIN"  bold and underlined with exclamation points along with the aforementioned Spirit Fingers.  The song concludes with a dramatic flourish as he falls face first into the couch cushions.

I almost died from cuteness overload this afternoon is what I'm saying.

And here's something gross

Because it's been raining all day, I took Alex to the play area at the mall.  He was running around having a good time, then stopped and spent about five minutes picking something off of the wall.  He runs back over to me with someone elses used bandaid stuck on his forehead.  I'm completely grossed out, but can't help but smile when he comes up to me and says "Booboo" and points to the USED BANDAID ON HIS HEAD!!!

Bleh!

Naturally, I took it off and soaked his forehead in instant hand sanitizer.

Seriously.  BLEH!

Cutest thing EVER

Last night, all on his own, Alex called John "Daddio"  all night long.  It was the single cutest thing that has ever been said.

This could be bad

I was busy reading blogs while Alex entertained himself with his Mega Blocks in the family room.  Suddenly, he got up and ran off, blocks in hand.  I didn't pay much attention.  I figured he was just taking them to his room.  Then I heard it.  The unmistakable sound of our master bathroom's toilet flushing.

Oh

Shit

I got up and ran to the bathroom to find Alex putting the toilet seat down.  "What did you do?"  I asked him.  He just grinned at me.  I opened the lid to find nothing in the bowl. I did a test flush.  Everything seemed to be in working order.

I ALWAYS keep the bathroom doors shut.  ALWAYS.  For just this reason.  Alex loves to flush the toilet and more than once I've found his Superman 12 inch action figure floating in the bowl.  However, today, we had a pest control service out to take care of a colony of ants who were building an empire in our master bath (DIE ANTS DIE!!!).  Apparently, he left the door open and, stupid me, I didn't go check it before setting the child free to roam the house.

I know this is going to come back to haunt me.  Possibly in a messy way involving a large plumber's bill.

I'm married to a 7 year old

There are many things John does that bug me.  I know he'd say the same about me.  But one of the things he does, that he thinks is endlessly hilarious, I find endlessly annoying.  Here is a sample conversation:

Me:  What are you doing?
Him:  Changing out these sprinlker heads
Me:  Why isn't this project ever finished?
Him:  Why aren't you ever finished?
Me:  Huh?

Later in the house

Me looking at all the crap he's piled all over the counter:  If you don't put this away, I'm going to throw it in your office.
Him:  Throw you in the office
Me:  What?

Downstairs watching TV

Me:  Will you take these dishes up to the sink?
Him:  Take you up to the sink
Me:  Ok, you've got to stop that now
Him:  Stop you now
Me:  I'm serious knock it off
Him:  Knock you off
Me:  Honey, it's getting annoying
Him:  You're annoying
Me:  Ok, at least that made sense
Him:  You make sense
Me:  Stop it
Him:  Stop you

and on, and on, and on....

Over-thinking the family planning

Talk has begun about number two.  All along we've been talking about waiting until next summer to get pregnant again, but we're entering into the time frame for a Spring baby and have started thinking that maybe the kids should be closer together than we originally planned.

I don't know.  When I think about a second baby, I don't feel the same as when we were talking about getting pregnant with Alex.  When we made the decision to have Al, I was thrilled.  It felt like getting pregnant was the absolute right thing to do.  We were ready.  I don't think we're ready for another one yet.  I'm still not completely convinced there should be a number two.  With this attitude, I think it would be wrong to get pregnant. At the same time though, I can't imagine ever feeling the desire to procreate again.  At this point, I'm convinced that anyone who has more than one child must be clinically insane.

John says that when we decided to have Alex, we committed to having at least two children.  He doesn't think Alex should be an only child.  I don't remember ever making any such commitment, but growing up as an only child (my half sisters were 10 and 20 years older than me and lived in CA while I was raised here in UT), I admit, it was lonely.  It's still lonely.  I would love for Alex to have the same close relationship with a sibling that John has with his.  If we got pregnant this year, he and his little brother or sister would be the same distance apart in age as John and his brother, which doesn't seem too much or too little to me.

We've got two vacations coming up, Boston in two weeks and San Diego in July.  If we do decide to take the plunge again, we won't do anything until after those vacations are over.  That gives us two more months to ponder.  Maybe I can psyche myself up for this again.  After all, we've done this before.  The second time around likely won't be as scary since we basically know what to expect.  And, hey, we've got all the stuff already.

I'm just going to start buying Bandaids in bulk

Another one for the baby book:  This is Alex's first injury that necessitated a Bandaid. 

This is actually the result of a re-booboo'd booboo.  Earlier this week, Alex and I were sitting on the front steps bugging John while he tried to fix the sprinklers when Alex took a tumble off the bottom step and face planted onto the walkway, thus producing an almost blood free scrape and bruise.  After a few tears, a day later it created an impressive scab.

This morning as I was loading up the car to go to the park, Alex took it upon himself to walk down the steps in the garage alone, which, obviously, didn't go well.  He fell in exactly the same way as the tumble earlier in the week, the garage floor cement scraping the old scab right off his head and this time there was blood.  More of it than I'd like to see coming out of my son's forehead.  After gathering him up in my arms and taking him to the kitchen to inspect the damage, I wiped the blood off his face and out of his hair to discover it was still just a flesh wound.  So, I put a bandaid on it and sealed it with my patented boo boo healing kiss.

He's quite proud of his bandaid.  Often putting his hand up to his forehead to make sure it's still there.  This particular bandaid was one of three we have in our first aid kit, so we're off to the store to buy another box.  Perhaps something in a Superhero, maybe Spider man or Superman.  I'll make sure to get the economy size because I'm sure this booboo is just the first of many requiring a bandaid.