Current mood:	good
Current music:	teevee: Ravens vs. the stinky Steelers

i am not your ruby degrees
A weekend's worth of happity hoppity birthday wishes to lucymoore & lauranrichard!

Wow, how about that Alabama v. Georgia game, huh? It was quite a weekend for upsets all around. Didn't do my fantasy games any favors, sadly.

I finished Bag of Bones last week. It was the 5th or 6th time I've read it & it never remember the ending. That's part of the magic of that book for me, I am always shocked by who lives and who dies and what happens. For some reason, as much as I love it, the final scenes just don't stick in my head.

As with many things I have revisited in the last 17 months, it's much more emotionally troubling n ow that I am a mother.


Mr B woke up around 0230 friday night, I know it took a long time to get him back to sleep but I don't know how long because I fell asleep too. Woke up in his bed at 0530, woke up in my own bed at 0800! That's the latest I have slept in a while.

He was so funny, as soon as we came out to the living room, he saw his new ball popper toy & punched the button to make it go. While dancing in delight to the music, he spies the new pound & roll toy. He picked up the hammer, let out a yodel of triumph that woke Sean up, and started to bang away like a madman.

It tickled me, it was like he forgot in the night that he had gotten new toys.

I had a nail appointment at nine,so I left him in daddy's care and went to get my fingers and toes prettied up. I changed colour choices 3 times, finally ending up with OPI's Opus in Amber. It's sparkly.

I hate when they do my fingers first, it's hard to read while they do my toes and then I always end up messing up my toe polish after I leave. I need to just take it off my toes now and repaint them a somewhat complimentary color.

Mr B & daddy were happily watching Pingu together when I returned. We got ourselves together and went to Target and Petsmart. It's so funny as soon as we round the corner of the street that Petsmart is on, Cash starts to pant like a doggie.

He was in luck, the county animal control was having an adoption event so there were plenty of doggies to be had. Mr B got many many slurpy kisses.

I had to return a pair of short to Target, we walked around but didn't buy anything. From there we went back to the playground I'd been to thursday, I wanted to show Sean. Sean likes the chance to go to the playground with Cash, it's something usually Mr B and I do on our own. And this place is hidden so it's not overrun with children. There was one elementary school age girl there with her mom and a dog. A dog that likes children, so Mr B got more than his share of doggie affection!

He also went on the slides and swings and we went on a little nature walk through a wooded area that Mr B wanted to explore. He found a big pinecone that was fascinating to him.

Cash fell asleep on the way home & stayed out for 2.5 hours. Sean and I took full advantage of that time!

We'd been debating whether we wanted BBQ or Applebee's or Chinese for dinner. The Chinese place we like sent us a new menu in the mail that afternon, to we took it as a sign. It was a good call. Mr B got his chicken mei fun, which he sure does adore. We had the singapore mei fun, which we also adore.

Watched the end of Survivor then finally finally the premiere of The Office! Loved it.

Mr B went to bed fairly easily, in spite of the fact that I woke him up three times trying to shut the gate. I have got to practice on that stupid thing.

He woke up at 0230 and I was up until five. It was a disaster. I had to pee & usually will go before I go in to him, but he sounded really upset, so I figured I'd just go and hope he got settled quickly. He did, it was only ten minutes. Then I had to extricate myself from his grasp, since he recent thing is to hook his arm around my neck and squeeze when I try to get up. I finally managed to escape then with the damn gate again. I'd go out & make some kind of noise with the latch or the hinge where I have to lift it, he'd wake up, I'd go back in and pat his back, he'd close his eyes again, I;d go back out and repeat. FInally I decided after the third time to just leave it unlatched and go pee! Hoping that when I returned to latch it, he'd be more deeply asleep and not wake up,

No such luck, he did, and than time it took an hour to get him back to sleep. Woke him up with the gate again and spent another hour.

I was not a happy bunny when I crashed back into bed at 0445.

I didn't realize that Sean hadn't been in bed when I got up at 0230, apparently he came to be a little before one and was just drifting off when he realized he hadn't done his school work for the day! So he had to get back up to write and submit it, didn't go to bed until after 0330.

So when Cash woke up at quarter after seven, he was definitely the happiest of the three of us!

We all got ready and left at 0830 because it was Zoobilee. The small zoo here has this yearly event where entrance is $1 (instead of like $17 or some ridiculous thing) and there's all kinds of extra events going on. I'e long wanted to et Mr B feed the goats and ponies in the petting zoo, but didn't want to pay the exorbitant prices when I didn't think he'd get much out of the rest of the zoo. When we were military we could get a cheap pass, but that gravy train ended 9 days before Mr B was born! So Zoobilee was our big chance.

It was crowded even twelve minutes after the gates opened, so we hoofed it tot he petting zoo area to start before it got too packed. Mr B's favourite thing was feeding carrots to the ponies. He was not too impressed with the goats. He did pet Sydney the giraffe and giggle while Sean held Mr B up and I held the giraffe feed, which Sydney was very eager to eat out of my hand. Because it took both of us, we have no pictures of Cash petting the giraffe, which is a shame.

After that we had to drag a screaming Mr B out of the petting zoo area because all he wanted to do was climb up and down the stairs of Sydney's feeding platform. If it had been empty, no big deal, but there were many people trying to go up and down those same steps to see the giraffe and Cash needed to get out of their way.

He did like the Spider Monkeys and the Meerkats. And the lemurs because he thought they were Zoboomafoo. He was excited about the tigers, but got really mad when we wouldn't let him climb over the railing to pet them through the bars. That was kind of the beginning of the end of our zoo visit. Temper tantrums and meltdowns started coming faster and faster after that, him being crabby from a bad night';s sleep, overstimulated by all the new sights and smells, wanting to climb things he couldn't climb or go places he couldn't go. And both of his parents having slept poorly last night too were thin on patience, especially trying to wrangle an increasingly angry baby in a thick crowd.

So about an hour after we arrived, we headed for the gate.

Mr B was not happy about getting strapped in the car, but once we were underway he settled down and was pretty pleasant on the ride home.

We played in the yard when we got back, then watched the Pingu we'd missed by leaving early. I actually fell asleep briefly on the sofa during Play WIth Me Sesame and Mr B was ready for his nap shortly thereafter.

He slept for about two and a half hours & woke up happy, ready for watermelon and sweet potato lunch. Sean walked with us & we had a nice stroll.

After our walk we had to go out for a few essentials. Mr B and I are making edible PlayDoh this week, so I had to take him our for supplies.

Ate leftover chinese noodles for dinner and watched the first two episodes of Friday Night Lights. Loved it! I have wanted to watch it since it came out but I missed the beginning then just never got around to trying it. I'm glad we finally did.

Mr B had a good bath & went to sleep fairly easily. I actually made it out of the gate without waking him up on the first try, finally!

He woke up at quarter to six, but met me at the gate, led me to his bed, and tugged my arm to make me lay down. I curled up with him and we slept another hour and a half. Best snooze alarm ever!

Monday we'd hoped to meet navyangel, but it didn't work out. Hopefully soon! Instead Mr B had a doctor visit to make sure the little runny nose/cough business he's had lately was nothing to be worried about. It's not.

I have to go back in two weeks to get his Prevnar shot that I was supposed to get him a few months ago, then two weeks after that to get two of the three 15 month shots he needs.

Our pediatrician is training a new doctor who was in the room as well, and at one point when we were discussing Cash's delayed vax schedule he said to the doctor "Cash's mum takes such good care of him, he is one of my best patients because mum is so concerned about his well being and does all her homework! I wish all my patients' mummies were so well informed!" which made me feel good!

He's good about remembering his patients' names but he calls all the mothers "mum".

From there we hit up the grocery store and the health food store for licorice. The lady offered him a children's multi-vitamin sample and I explained that we had bought a bottle of them & he loved them so much. To prove my point, Cash started bouncing up and down flapping his arms excitedly saying "um um um um!" when the vitamin came out! I said "Cash, where do vitamins go?" and he stuck his finger in his mouth, which cracked the saleslady up.

Since he'd slept late it was a while until naptime still, so we went to the Jr Museum to burn off any excess energy. We were there for about an hour, Cash took a fancy to a pretty 15 month old redheaded girl in a gorgeous vintage pillowcase dress. She is 15 months and exactly the same height as Cash! Someone is going to be tall!

I took Mr B down part of the nature trail, which we've never done before. It's a raised wooden walkway with railings, so it's a nice place he can run without getting into anything. He's recently learnt to walk backwards, which he thinks is pretty funny. He will also raise up onto his toes if I say "tippytoes!" which amuses me to no end.

He worked on climbing stairs unassisted in the pioneer village, he's doing really well. He's quite excited to figure out that he doesn't need mamma to climb steps!

As planned, he fell asleep on the way home. Let me carry him in to bed and woke up for 60 seconds of cuddling before drifting off again. He slept until 1530 and boy was he hungry when he woke up! He scarfed down his watermelon and sweet potatoes, then had a pretzel chaser.

I figured out that he eats about 2.5 watermelons a month. That's a whole lot of melon.

After our walk, we played in the yard, went to Sonic & then I made turkey pasta for dinner. It has been a few weeks since we've had it & all three of us ate our fill. That is such a simple dish, but it is so freakin' good!

Watched Mad Men, which I fall more in love with all the time, and enjoyed our usual family playtime. I love our daily routine, I really do!

Mr B took a while to fall asleep, since he'd only gotten up at four. The six hour rule seems to be holding true, he didn't fall asleep until almost ten, even though I laid down with him a little after nine.

Now I have a lot of ChaChaing to do if I want to stay on schedule!

Oh Cash gave me a great thrill tonight. He's only said "Mama" maybe three more times since my birthday and only once was he actually speaking to me. But tonight he was looking at his book that has the family photo inserts, and on the picture of him & Sean I said "Who's that?" and he pointed to Sean and said "Dada!" Then he turned the page & I said "And who is that?" he pointed to himself, and I said "Yes, but who is that holding you?" and he said "Mmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmaaaaaaaaaa-AH!"

I was so excited!@ I praised him to the skies & Sean leaned over the sofa, because he hadn't heard it and said "Wait Cash, who is that?" and Cash said "MMmmmaaaaaaaammmmmmaaaaaa!"

He flipped through the rest of the book, calling FiL dada and saying K-K-K-K-K at Lola because I have been working on the K sound with him. Then he flipped back to the start and said "Dada" to Sean's picture and"MMmmmmaaaaaaaaaammmmaaaaaaaa!" to mine.

It was very exciting.

Mr B happily eating cheesy crackers


Overbalancing....


...aaaaaand I believe the term is "a$$ over teakettle"


He was fine. Didn't even cry.