Current mood:	sleepy
Current music:	Galaxie 500: Don't Let Our Youth go to Waste

i know you did this, what a punk, you would never sell out
MiL evacuated against Gustav yesterday & heads back to Mississippi tomorrow, jrsonday is a rock star for all her weather updates!

In my opinion, Lionel Richie's "All Night Long" is just a timelessly awesome pop tune. I never fail to enjoy it whenever I hear it, it never gets old to me.

Oops, I missed the Prison Break premiere. Are they re-airing it, does anyone know?


Both friday and saturday nights Cash was up from 3ish to 5ish. *yawn*

Saturday we had Jackson's birthday party to go to, we got there on time and were the first to arrive. After about a half hour Cash was fed up with looking at the pool through the window and not being in it already, so I asked Tonia if she minded if we went ahead, and she said not at all. I figured it was less rude to get in the pool before everyone than to have a child throwing a tantrum in the living room.

Eventually everyone else joined us and we had a great time splashing around. Cash is going to be so bummed when swimming season ends!

Cash found the sidewalk chalk while taking a break from the water and made some very nice artwork. Then drew all over himself with the chalk until he looked like was going on the warpath. After I dunked him in the pool to clean the chalk off, he went back, got another piece of chalk, squatted down to work on his drawing some more and peed on it (through his swim diaper). I told him he was very avant garde.

Eventually we moved inside and the boys wandered around in the diapers playing with all Jackson's new toys while lunch got finished up. Cash ate two weenies and a tiny bit of bun, I ate two small burgers that had chopped onion & garlic mixed in with the beef. Yummy!

Cash was about ready for his nap after he ate, as were most of the guests, but Tonia didn't want to do the cake until her parents arrived. So it was a long half hour of almost all the boys having some level of exhaustion related meltdown. At one point three of them climbed into Jackson's bed and laid there rubbing their eyes and whining. I wanted to take Cash home to sleep, but I didn't want to a) be the one rude person who leaves the party or b) start a mass exodus and leave Jackson with none of his little friends to help sing to him. So we gutted it out. As soon as the happy birthday was sung, I was about to pick Cash up and leave and they started opening presents "real quick".

Luckily he opened ours second, and since no one would be looking for us for a while after that I took the opportunity to sneak out. It was 90 minutes past nap time & he was DONE. Fell asleep before I got to the end of the block & allowed me to move him inside with stirring. He's getting so much better about that all of the sudden, which is nice.

Slept for two hours while I ChaChaed & Sean did schoolwork. When he woke up, the sky, which had been cloudy, cleared up and we were able to have our walk as usual. It started to rain once we were home and playing out in the street, and this time Cash decided he'd like to come out of the rain instead of staying out to splash in puddles.

Once it stopped, we went to WalMart, where the sky darkened up again just as we went inside. Then the lights went out. That was weird! The screams, then silence, then rising buzz of conversation when they came back was just an odd thing to hear in WalMart. It sure is black in there when the lights go out!

Bought all we needed, looked at the fishies for a while, then came home and had leftover chinese while watching more Burn Notice It's definitely getting more interesting.

Speaking of series we like, The Shield starts again on tuesday. SO excited. But it's bittersweet since this will be the last season...after 6 years of being so caught up in the drama and the characters, it will be hard to see it end.

Saturday night would have been perfect, Cash adhered to the sleep schedule I am trying to get him on at the moment, waking up just once, 7 hours after bedtime, and if he'd gone back to sleep at that time it would have been textbook. Instead he was up until almost 0530. But did sleep until 0730, which is my ultimate goal, to get him sleeping from bedtime until 7ish every night.

Baby steps, we're getting better and better every few days.

Sunday we woke up to the news that MiL was en route, having decided in the night she wanted to get away from the storm. FIne by us! After a caffeine run, we straightened the house & put fresh sheets on the guest bed while Cash watched Sunny Side Up. Then I took him out to KMart to return something I thought was generic WD-40 but turned out to be a different automotive product entirely, and also to buy some foundation.

From there we went to the playground so Cash could get some fresh air and exercise before naptime. I figure he might be cooped up in the house tomorrow due to the hurricane, so he may as well enjoy being out of doors while he can. We had a good time, though I only put bug spray on him and not myself, so I have a few bites!

Got home & put Cash down to nap, then MiL came so we sat and chatted while she ate some cookies to tide her over 'til dinner.

Cash was very surprised to find that grammy had arrived while he was asleep and even more see a giant doggie had taken up residence in his backyard!

Once he'd had lunch, we went outside, MiL put Bruno on a leash and Cash got to pet him a bit. Cash was very sweet and cautious, Bruno was laying down my MiL's feel and Cash squatted by his side and gently petted his haunch, looking at me like "This is okay, right? Am I doing it the way I should?" and I told him he was a very good boy to pet the doggie so gently.

We went walking then and MiL came along with Bruno to the end of the block. Mr B was most discomfitted when they turned back and we kept going!

There was more doggie petting when we got back, up until the point where Cash accidentally stepped on Bruno's foot as he was walking away. Not hard, he was barefooted and Bruno weighs 120 lbs but it caused the dog to growl and snap at Cash's back. Which scared the crap out of me and also of Cash, who started to pout and whimper. I snatched him up immediately, MiL yelled at Bruno and we all went inside without him.

Bruno is a big lummox and not at all a violent dog, but he doesn't know a thing about babies and is also in a strange environment. He actually was barking and lunging at me tonight when I went out to put some trash in the can, and it scared me. It takes a lot for a dog to scare me, but he succeeded.

We had beef stroganoff over veggie rotini for dinner, it came out super yummy. Cash had just the noodles since he is not a big fan of beef just yet. He does love his veggie rotini though! MiL was most impressed with his fork skills.

Sean had to finish a spot of homework so MiL and I watched Sprout with Cash, then we watched a Discovery channel show about giant squids. Cash likes whales, apparently, they showed a few swimming, including a mamma and baby, and he got really excited about them.

He had his bath a bit early, showed off his funny hall streaking action for MiL who found it as HIGH-larious as we do. I got a good video of it a few days ago, will post it soon.

He was ready for bed right up until we laid down and then he decided he had to poop. Once that was dispensed with and cleaned up, he went to sleep in a jiffy.

Had a horrible night though, worst we have had since we came home! Lola woke him up twice and then he had a hard time going back to sleep both times because he was so gassy. Too much junk he's been eating these days, what with the hot dogs and chinese noodles, all that grease :( By the time Lola woke him up again at 5 (by having a seizure & peeing in the bed to boot ) he was so tired and unhappy he just wanted to cling to me like a baby monkey, if I tried to put him down to sleep, he'd wake up and start grabbing for me again. So I just laid there and held him until almost six when he finally was deeply asleep and I could lay him on the bed.

I have got to find a baby gate she can't get over, this is getting ridiculous. I appreciate that she loves him, but she needs to restrict her love to when he is awake.

We'd planned to take Cash & MiL to Gulf World this morning, but me and Mr B slept until eight, so by the time we were all rounded up and ready to head for the beach side, it was too late to go and get back for a reasonable nap time. So we just went to Pier Park and walked around. MiL was all excited about a Coldwater Creek store, so she browsed in there while Sean and I went to Borders, where I amused Mr B by playing with a raccoon puppet in the kids' section. The boy does love his puppets.

What he does not love is an extended period in the stroller, after a long car ride, then being put back in the car with no free run around time! It was so windy, we were worried it was going to start pouring on us. And since Pier Park is outdoors, we figured we'd best get back to he car before that happened. Cash was NOT PLEASED.

And MiL was less indulgent than I'd expect her to be. I don't know, to me grandparents are more patient than parents with their children, but MiL is not, at least when Cash is having a fit, she acts like he's being bratty. Not in a mean way, but it gets under my skin a bit. I was sympathetic to Cash, seeing as how he'd been strapped in to one seat or another for almost 2 hours & he is used to having his mornings be run around and play time. I said as much and she said "Well, when he's in school he's going to have to learn to sit still!"

.....


?!

1. If my memory of kindergarten is anything to go by, they don't expect them to sit still for hours on end at that age and 2. Why would you expect a 1.5 year old to behave like a 5 year old?

Anyhow, not a major thing, but compared to FiL, who thinks Cash can do no wrong and anything he does is what a child his age should do and nothing to worry about or be annoyed by, it does get to me a little. My perspective may be skewed, as my grandmother was endlessly indulgent to my every whim, but she also didn't have that much contact with me until I was 5.

I pulled out everything in my bag of tricks to keep him happy on the ride home. I figured he;d be ready to nap as soon as we got back, but instead he was ready to poop. And how!

After that he felt feisty for a bit and didn't fall asleep until one. We got Larry's BBQ takeout for lunch and ate that while watching the Closer marathon. MiL is a big fan.

Sean throwing the take out dishes away woke Cash up, but I was able to get him back to sleep easily. He woke up refreshed an hour later & we set off walking after some sweet potatoes.

When we got back, poor Cash wanted to play with Bruno so badly. But MiL wasn't comfortable with it & since she knows her own dog, that made me not comfortable with it either. It was so sad though, he was just baffled that he had a doggie right there in his own yard and wasn't allowed to pet it.

Then he started to pant at Bruno which is about the funniest thing I've seen him do in days. MiL had Bruno on a leash and kept leading him away from Cash, finally even taking him out into the street for a walk, an cash was running down the street after him, mouth open, tongue out, going *pant*pant*pant*pant*pant* "DOGGY! DOGGY DOGGY!" *pant*pant*pant*pant*pant*

It was so funny. Later when he saw a doggie on teevee, he did it again. Cute!

We tried to watch Hitch tonight but MiL and I got into a conversation about my grandparents and then about my brother, so I stopped the movie since we weren't paying attention.

Then, midway through the (long) story of my brother, Cash just had a complete inexplicable meltdown. MiL attributed it to the fact that "he just wants you to pay attention to him, he's just having a temper tantrum because you're talking to me" which is ridiculous, I have conversations all the time while Cash plays happily, something else was going on. I don't know what, I do hope he isn't getting sick. He's just not been himself all day & is not sleeping great tonight either, he seems like he can't get comfortable.

Anyhow, I jollied him through it, and eventually bathtime rolled around. He was doing his little hall streaking trick while we waited for him to come in, then wandered into the guest room and pooped on the floor. I swear the child is trying to make me look bad in front of MiL :)

I got him to sleep fairly easily, but he woke up less than two hours later & took a lot of cuddling to get back down. He's really clingy again tonight, physically speaking, it's hard to extricate myself from him. Probably now that the weaning is setting in as permanent, he's feeling a bit insecure?

He sure is cute though, isn't he?