. . . and My Son Shall Say, "Meow!"

We have a lovely cat . . . Oreo.  Aaron loves her dearly.  Since he's become mobile, she has gotten more exercise than in all her 10 years.  Aaron follows her everywhere, and when she gets still for very long, he inevitably lays on top of her.  I think it's his little boy effort to hug her, but at this age, he hasn't quite figured out how to do so without laying his full weight on her.  I'm so happy that she's been amazingly tolerant of Aaron's attentions.

What Aaron also has a love for is cat food.  I've tried everything!  I've redirected his attention.  I've spatted hands.  I've sternly said no.  Short of placing the cat food out of his reach, I cannot keep him out of it!  Sure, I know logically that it's not going to hurt him, but still . . . yuck!  This cannot possibly taste good!  Not to mention a little boy with cat food breath is also not the best smell in the world!  Sigh!  I suppose I should look at it positively.  It is indoor formula cat food, so at least Aaron shouldn't develop any hairballs any time soon!  LOL

Of course, I've been comforting myself with the fact that Aaron had not yet discovered the litter pan.  This discovery has been delayed by closing the bathroom door.  I know you can guess where this is going . . .  Ron left the bathroom door open.  I'm trying to finish supper, and we noticed Aaron was very quiet.  Now all parents can tell you, contrary to what one might think, this is not a good thing!  Ron went to check on him, and the next thing I hear is, "Darlin'?  Can you please come?  I need your help!"  And what should I find in the bathroom?  A helpless husband, and a little boy that's a bit perplexed.  He can't possibly understand what is so distressing at this moment, as he stands there . . . with cat litter in his hair, all over his clothes, on top of the closed toilet lid, in the bathtub, and all over the floor.  His main concern at that moment is that Daddy was holding him, and he couldn't continue with his fun!  I am so thankful that I'd just cleaned that litter pan, meaning it'd been sifted, not that this was new clean litter!  First step, clean all the litter out of the tub.  And that doesn't mean washing it down the drain.  It is after all clumping litter.  Once the tub was clear of litter, Aaron was stripped and plopped in bathwater to play with his duckies while Mommy cleaned up the remainder of the mess!

And while Ron has been most attentive to closing the bathroom door since this event, the solution to ending the consumption of cat food has yet to be found.  If this continues, I fully expect to hear Aaron say, "Meow!"

Aaron & Oreo both giving me a little while of peace!

Easter 2010

Aaron experienced his second egg hunt of the season on Easter Sunday at my Memaw's.  It was a most enjoyable small family gathering.  The egg hunting enthusiasts, including myself, didn't seem quite so enthusiastic this year.  The eggs were only hidden and hunted once.  Honestly, I pretty much stink at hunting eggs.  Put me into egg hunting battle with the average kid, and I will lose - every time.  So, with me as his only help, Aaron is pretty much doomed.  Fortunately, he had plenty of help Sunday and ended up with 14 eggs in his basket . . . which I figure is quite a haul for a 15 month old!  Here are a couple of pictures . . . one with Mommy, and one with Daddy.

Spring Break 2010

So, it's been two and a half weeks since my last update, but in my defense, I've been quite busy!

For the week following my last update I was swamped at work.  Afterall, I was taking some vacation time last week, and had to get my desk clear before being off.  Then of course, I took that time off, and really, you can't expect me to keep you all updated via dial-up . . . can you?

So, I quite enjoyed my Spring Break.  Really, it was Ron's Spring Break from school.  I just chose to take my vacation time so I could be off with him.  We worked on a few projects on our property, where we plan to build our dream home.  One of those projects was painting the shed.  We've yet to complete that project, but it's about 3/4 of the way done and looking quite nice . . . out with the gray and in with the green.

We also ran a little plumbing.  When our well was put down, a faucet was attached to the tank, but when we built the pump house around it, that left the faucet inside the pump house.  So, we removed the original faucet, added some plumbing, drilled a hole, and we now have a faucet outside the pump house.  It's the small things.  Aaron was doing helpful things like playing with cans of cleaning compound and plumbing cement (I promise those cans were closed very tightly!).

Of course we spent some time with family.  At our Friday night dinner with my parents, Aaron got to swing with his cousins, Linzey and McKayla.  He then played piano with Linzey and I (McKayla got in on this after we'd put the camera away).

And then on Saturday, we attended our first egg hunt of the season.  Aaron discovered a love of the trampoline and found his first egg.

Oh, and the fun continued later that evening as he discovered he could walk . . . Really!  Which you can view here, since I can't figure out how to upload video into this thing!

What a Busy Weekend!

This weekend went by in a whirlwind of busyness for me . . .

I woke at 7 a.m. Saturday morning, and by 8:30 I had a load of laundry washed and ready to go on the line, and I had my car washed!  Ron came home from work and waxed my car for me.  Before the day was over, I'd washed a total of 3 loads of laundry, hung them out to dry, and gotten two loads in.  Ron got the last load for me.  I mopped the floors.  I cleaned the bathroom.  I washed the dishes.  We briefly attended a birthday party next door.  Aaron and I attended the baby shower I was helping host at my mom's house.

In spite of what I felt was a lot of last minute planning, the shower turned out quite well.  Naomi made a cute horse cake, and the punch was both tasty and a pretty cloudy blue.

Sunday we went to church and then we stopped by our property afterward.  We began painting our pump house quite a while back, and we decided to try and finish it.  We first applied primer on the last of the bare spots, and then we broke out the paint.  We used a whole gallon of paint, and the pump house is now a nice country shade of green.  It looks quite nice.  We do still need to put a second coat on a small section, but since we'd finished off a gallon of paint and it was time to head home, we decided that last little bit of second coating will wait until we paint our shed (soon) the same lovely color of green.  And, while we were beautifying the outbuildings of our future home, Aaron was entertaining himself by using the stepladder as an assisted walking apparatus.  Hey . . . whatever makes him (safely) happy!

I Used to be So Organized

There was a time I was the master of organization.  I reconciled my bank accounts and credit cards weekly, if not more often.  I never ran out of anything.  I had my menus planned.  My house was clean and organized.  You get the picture.  I was a bit OCD.

S o o o o o, what happened?  Well my downhill slide began after Hurricane Katrina.  Nothing like losing your home to a hurricane and moving into a much smaller place (not to mention a touch of depression, I think) to knock you on your butt.  But, I gradually began regaining my sanity and organization.

Then . . .  I found out I was pregnant.  I still managed to hold it together until rather close to the end.  And then, my organization went down the tubes again.  I spent the first year of Aaron's life feeling rather overwhelmed by all that was required of me.  Aaron is 14+ months old now, and I finally feel like I'm starting to get it under control again.

My main area of weakness now is in planning events (which I love to do).  Remember how OCD I am?  I like the events I plan to go perfectly and smoothly.  I, along with my sister and two cousins, am planning a baby shower.  This event is happening tomorrow.  I feel like I'm skating in just under the wire.  I just purchased the game gifts, the punch supplies, the chip and dip, and a gift for the baby.  So, I've got it all together . . . right?  Nope, I just realized, upon a phone call from my sister, that I forgot to send invitations to two people who should have gotten invited!  YIKES!  I feel awful.

I'm really going to get this thing called life back in order.  I am.  And the next time I plan an event, I'm going to do much better . . .

On the other hand, here's the punch recipe I'm using for tomorrow.  It sounds good and looks cute (though ours will be without the rubber duckies).

Ouch Report #1

Aaron received his first Ouch Report yesterday, less than an hour after I dropped him off.  He is trying to get the hang of walking, and yesterday he fell, striking his head on the edge of the little tykes picnic table in the one year old room.  This apparently left a red mark next to his right eye.  It was treated with "ice, hugs, and kisses", and there was no evident sign of injury by the time I picked him up last night.  I have the distinct feeling this is only the beginning . . .

Aaron's nemesis of the day . . .

. . . and the Parent's of the Year are . . .

not us!  We aren't bad parents . . . really, we aren't, but this past Friday and Saturday definitely did not highlight our strong points!

Friday, I put Aaron into a pair of pants that were already inhabited by a giant bumble bee!  Of course, I didn't know there was a bee in there.  Who would think?  This pair of pants had been sitting in my clean laundry basket for a week.  How did a bee go unnoticed with a cat in the house???  And all of Aaron's reactions to a bee in his pants were so easily explained due to his normal reactions to getting dressed or having gas, etc.  When I finally realized something was going on and stripped off his pants, I was stunned to see a bumble bee tumble onto the floor.  He'd been stung twice on his leg, but he was happy as a lark once the bee was gone.  I, on the other hand, took the opportunity to beat myself up (even though I realize now I really couldn't have known) and cry . . .

Saturday, Ron put Aaron into his car seat while I was putting some things in the trunk of the car.  Ron never buckles Aaron (unless I'm not there), and didn't this time.  When I stepped around from the trunk of the car to buckle him in, the car seat was empty.  My heart dropped.  I leaned over his seat, and there in the floorboard lay a little boy with a "How do I get out of this?" look on his face!  Of course it's quite funny now, but we're going to have to be more vigilant in the future.  If he'd climbed out the other side of his seat, he would have fallen out of the car (as the door was also left open), and the outcome would have been significantly less comical!

This thing looks so much more harmless here than it did in Aaron's pants!