Weekend

What a busy weekend! Friday evening we went outside and flagged out the property where we want to fence it in. We are fencing in about 2 acres of it for the horses. It came out to 39 holes to dig. So yesterday I went to the local rental center and rented a Dingo. This is a walk behind skid steer with an auger attached. The lady said this would be our best option and we could knock out the holes in 4 hours. We bring it home and start digging. Two hours later Hubby has successfully dug three holes. Yep, three holes. The thing sucked. I think the dull auger combined with our clay dirt and not much weight pushing down made it not work very well. Hubby was getting really frustrated (to say the least) so we took it back. No sense wasting an entire day. The rental store said they would credit the money for the Dingo towards an actual skid steer with an auger but we don't have a tow vehicle to bring it home. The truck is sitting in the shop without a bumper after getting rear ended and the Jeep is a big fat wuss when it comes to towing. Oh well, we're pretty pooped today anyways. Hubby says he's going to hand dig them, but that's a tall order so we'll see.

Doesn't he look thrilled?



Hubby is outside right now trying to clean up the shop enough that we can fit 150 bales of hay in it that are being delivered this afternoon. Leave it to us to wait until the very last minute to do stuff. It would just be weird to actually accomplish something ahead of time.

In Wesley news, he's getting pretty close to walking I think. He cruises everywhere and practically runs around with his push toys. He's standing alone and will walk holding onto one of my hands. He's getting there. He's also a chatter box. It's pretty funny because whatever I say, he says. I say "do you want oranges with your lunch?" and he says "orangies orangies orangies". He's got about six words he says now. Seems to be growing by the day.

The kid loves his cell phone

Progress report

We have a smart kid. He sure picks up on more than we think he does. Tonight he was sitting on my lap facing me and I ask him where his head is. He immediately points to his head. I then ask him where his ears are and he sticks his finger in his ear. Hubby and I are dumbfounded. I ask him where his mouth is and he opens up wide and points in his mouth. Does the same thing with his feet and nose. We haven't been formally teaching him his body parts so I suppose he's just picking it up. Crazy stuff.

I'm proud to say he's drinking his milk out of a straw cup now. He never got the hang of lifting the sippy cup to empty it so the straw cups are right up his alley. He still gets his bottle before bed but I hope to wean that one in the next couple weeks. Wish me luck, I'm sick of washing bottles!

He's also mastered "How big is Wesley?" He throws his hands high in the air. Here is a video. I'll have to get one of him pointing to all his parts.

I'm gonna lose it

I feel I might be going a little insane. I've told you all that we canceled our DISH cable tv something like 4-5 months ago. That's fine and dandy, no regrets there. The problem is that DISH Network can't wrap its imbecile brain around the fact that someone ditched them. They call me EVERY day. Sometimes two or more times a day. Some times 20 minutes apart.

For the past 3 months.

I, seriously, can't take it anymore. I think I'm going to lose it. I've called them back to be placed on their No Call List. I believe I've been placed on that no call list at least 120 times. I've reported them to the National Do Not Call list. Nothing will stop them. What makes it worse is when they call and I pick up the phone, it's just dead air. There is no one on the line. It's like they're taunting me.

I finally semi-lost it yesterday and called them up after two phone calls during Little Dudes nap. Don't mess with Mommy during Little Dudes nap. I talked to this nice Hispanic woman (it's harder to yell at them when they're nice), she said they were very sorry and after looking up my records she proceeds to tell me that I have indeed signed myself up for their no call list. Thanks for telling me something I ALREADY know. She then transfered me to someone else that can help me (can we say passing the buck?) I sat on hold for 18 minutes and finally hung up. Back to square one.

I just don't know what to do. It's like they are just harassing me now. I'm going to have to call someone or just get a new phone number. Those asshats are never going to get my business ever again. They've thoroughly made Mommy mad.

Or maybe I'm just going mad.

Blueberries or head injury...you decide.

Lately the kid has taken to squishing blueberries into his forehead during meals. By doing this he covers his head in blueberry juice. By the end of the meal he resembles an Umpa Lumpa or a head trauma victim. It's hard not to laugh at him.

We all need....

....someone to look up to.



Alex has been here since 9 o'clock this morning. Jessica had to take Abby into the hospital to get her x-rayed. Abby has to drink barium and then have x-rays done periodically throughout the day to figure out why she throws up all the time. Poor kid.

Wesley has been following Alex all over this house like he's his idol. I think he's just jealous Alex can walk.

We are all getting pretty bored though. One can only read books, eat snacks, and watch Elmo's World for so long before we all go insane.

Wish me luck.

edited to add: of course in the picture above, my kid is the one without pants. I swear he had shorts on all morning, then they just disappeared. The (de)pants fairy visits us every day.

The milk man

He's been having issues learning to hold his sippy cup up in the air to get the liquid out. So his new thing is to lie down and drink. How innovative.

Temperaments

I wish I was writing about something exciting we did this weekend, but we did nothing....as usual. The high point of my weekend was taking a flat tire to the service station to get fixed. We seriously get a flat tire every two weeks. I told the guys at the local service station they should tip the road graders. We have our dirt roads graded at least once a week and they draw the gravel and nails out of the ditch and onto the road. One of the downsides to living on gravel roads I suppose.

Wesley is starting to act more and more like a toddler. If I take something away from him he's not supposed to have he will cry and throw himself on the floor. It's such odd behavior from the normally even tampered kid. I guess the temperamental thing is here to stay. Lately I call him my little re-decorator. He walks his high chair all over the house, along with a side table. He's also in love with his walking toy he got for his birthday. He'll walk all over the place with it, ramming it into walls. He's sure growing up fast. I'll get some video of him walking with his toys.
That's all for now.

My Little Monet

Well, not really. We tried out sidewalk chalk for the first time yesterday. And when I say "tried out" I mean I drew with it and Wesley ate it. Might be too early for chalk. The first picture is after he bit off a large chunk of red chalk, I had to fish it out as he wasn't about to give it up.

The cop out

I'm not one for letting my kid watch television. For one, we pretty much don't have television since canceling cable. We get four channels that come in kind of fuzzy and then Fox that comes in crystal clear (strange). But today I needed to get some work done and Wesley kept standing next to my chair pinching me. He really enjoys lifting up my shirt and pinching my side. It's not pleasant. I try not to react but it's like a bee stinging me over and over. I think the thing that bothers me the most is how much enjoyment he gets out of doing it and watching me squirm. Crazy kid.

SO anyway, I copped out today. I plunked him down in front of the computer, loaded Elmo's World on YouTube, and put his juice and Cheerios next to him. He had a great time and I had a date with my paint brush. It was lovely. So lovely in fact that I just bought my first Elmo's World DVD off of eBay. Ahhh, the love affair with the television starts young in this house.

No more graham crackers....ever.

So this afternoon I decide to give him a graham cracker. Now after his last graham cracker induced tantrum you might think "maybe she should stop it with the crackers" but no, I gave him another. Because as of two days ago he was great friends with the graham cracker. Gladly gobbled it down and asked for more. So I give him one...and this is what I get:



This one was A LOT smaller than yesterdays. This was like a mini tantrum. What's with this behavior at 13 months old?? I thought this came a lot later. Damn.

Storm moving in

I'm back to having absolutely nothing to do. Some days I feel like this house is my jail cell. I think if Wesley was walking we'd be able to do more things, especially outside. As it is he just crawls around outside and eats grass and plays with stones. Not a bucket of fun. I thought about going to the pool, they have a baby splash area...but the only problem (and I say "problem" lightly) is that it's so darn cool. Today's HIGH was 76. Yea, strange for August. So we sit in the house and play and read.

Today we had our first real tantrum. I personally think it's from him being bored. He got up from his nap, I gave him a graham cracker and he broke it in half and threw it at me then proceeded to throw himself on the floor and scream and thrash around for 15 minutes. For the first 10 minutes I kind of laughed at him, I mean it's pretty funny in a not so funny sorta way. Then I started to wonder if something was wrong with him, after all he's never had a tantrum that lasted that long before. So I picked him up to comfort him. That didn't work...he just threw his body back and screamed louder. We're talking the hyperventilating, can't catch your breath crying. Poor kid. I took him into our bedroom (a place he usually LOVES to play in) and he just continued the screaming and writhing. I finally had to take him outside to get his mind onto something else: picking and eating grass. So I guess I survived our first, and certainly not last, tantrum. Guess he wanted Cheerios instead of that blasted graham cracker.

Little dog home

I'm happy to say that Chance is home after paying $320 dollars to spring him from the vet clinic. He seems back to normal. Poor dog has some sorta irritable bowel syndrome. The vet said it's something caused by stress or diet. Hmmmm....could it be the kid torturing him? Or perhaps the odd variety of food thrown at him from the highchair? The vet asked if there was anything out of the ordinary that Chance has eaten recently. I laughed out loud. Well, let me see...on a regular basis he gets tidbits of french toast, graham cracker, oranges, peas, globs of yogurt poured on his head, the list goes on and on....seriously he could have gotten this from eating anything. The vet is an older gentlemen, obviously doesn't remember what it's like having a one year old around the house. The dog is on AmoxiDrops and special food for the time being. Poor little dog.

Here is a picture from Saturday I forgot to post, our little happy family.

Saturday

I had an interesting Saturday. I woke up and went into the laundry room to let Chance out of his cage to find him covered in vomit and diarrhea. The poor thing was sick as a dog (pardon the pun). It all didn't worry me until he started having bloody stools. So I took him in to our local vet who said he couldn't hear any digestive sounds (that's bad). He got an IV to keep him hydrated and some meds for the irritated bowel. Poor dog. So they kept him there at the clinic to nurse him back to health. He's still there. I hate that I don't know how he's doing. Since it's Sunday and they are closed I have no way of getting a hold of them. Grrrr. First thing tomorrow I'm calling to make sure he's ok.

I get home from taking the dog to the vet and go upstairs to pull out all the carpet in my workroom. We have a cat. The cat was locked in my workroom with her five (count em FIVE) litter boxes and still couldn't manage to urinate in them. So she gets thrown outside during the day and then thrown in the unused upstairs bathroom at night (she won't urinate on linoleum). I can't stand the cat but she's incredibly lovable which is the only endearing value she has. I feel I can't get rid of her since she not young and has the urinating problem, she would get put to sleep at the shelter. So for now she's an outdoor cat, part time. Anyways, I pulled out all the carpet and pad and found that the sub floor had spots that were still wet so I sprayed them with Clorox Cleanup and plan to paint the floor with Kilz. God I hope that gets rid of the smell. I can only smell it if I'm upstairs and close to the room, so I'm thankful the whole house doesn't smell. Crappy cat...no scratch that, pissy cat.

Last night we went to hubby's annual company picnic. This year they had it at a local farm. I say farm but it was more than a farm. It had a petting zoo but it also had paintball, horse shoes, cable swings, a stocked pond, hiking trails, a pool and tons of other stuff. It was a really neat place. We stuffed our face on BBQ and then went around looking at stuff. To get to the cable swing you have to cross this (you can click on a photo to make it bigger):



I watched Sean carry Wesley across it and then I went across. Had I known it was as rickety as it was I would have never let either go. It was scary, then again that kind of stuff has never been my bag. I laugh because I know if my father was there he would have been jumping up and down on it and my mother would have been scared to death.
Second was the petting zoo (which was closed by the time we made it out there, so we petted through the fence). They had the tiniest little goats I've ever seen. My goats poop bigger than they are. Why didn't I find these sweet inncoent creatures when I was looking for a goat??



Next we have the tower of tires. It was a pole with tires on it and a rope that you climb. Yes, very redneck. I dared hubby to do it and he did, made it to the top too.



Here we have Wesley starring at all the kids running around. He sat there and wouldn't even turn around to eat. There were some older kids playing football by the tables and I think if Wesley could've gotten down from the table and joined them he would have.



Last is Wesley and I just enjoying ourselves and the beautiful 80 degree August day.

How big do they get?

I've talked about the joys of owning livestock before but I feel I must talk more. As I've mentioned we have just a few outdoor animals consisting of two miniature horses and two goats. I bought one horse then decided he needed a friend and bought him a baby goat and then did it all over again with another horse and goat. I admit I didn't know a lot about goats when I bought the first one but I learned quickly. One thing about goats (and all livestock) is that they need to be wormed regularly. No problem. All you do is figure out their weight and then give them a wormer based on that weight. I, being the animal saver I am, bought myself meat goats (boers) because I wanted to save them from being eaten. I go to pick up this baby boer goat from a breeder and ask the large man "how big will he get?" The man replies (between large spits of tobacco) "he'll get as big as you want him to get, just butcher him when he gets large enough." I give him this horrid look and tell him that the goat is a companion animal for a horse. This large redneck fellow looks at me like I have two heads and says "well, I don't know how big they get...never kept one around that long." Great.

So back to the worming. I have to figure out how much this full grown goat weighs, so I just ask hubby to pick up the goat and stand on the scale. Then just subtract his weight from the total to get the goats weight. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal right? My husband, the six foot tall 180 pound man, picks up this large goat (with a great deal of grunting I might add) steps on the scale and proceeds to break the scale. The scale only went up to 300 pounds so the goat was well over 120 pounds...at a year old. Needless to say I'm guessing its weight these days.

They are entertaining animals. I complain about them but I really enjoy having them. Going out and scooping manure and grooming them is my alone time every day, my de-stress time. Everyone has to have that, don't they?

Tub time

Not much happening around here. I've been back to sculpting on a regular basis. It's nice now that I can sculpt when Wesley is awake and playing by himself. He will sit and read or otherwise entertain himself for several stretches during the day. I've been noticing small tantrums forming. There is a laundry room off of the kitchen that is off limits to him and we keep the door shut. First thing in the morning the door is usually open while the dogs are getting fed and so forth. As soon as I put him down he crawls at warp speed for the laundry room because he knows it's off limits. Like a moth to a flame. If I shut the door before he gets there he will throw himself down on the floor, face down and scream. It's lovely. I can see a glimpse of what the terrible two's will be like. Can't wait.

Here are some pictures of the kid in the tub tonight. I'm letting his hair grown out a little, I've been buzz cutting it for the past 4 months and I think it's time to see what it looks like a little longer.

Ode to the spoon and all of its loveliness

Well I know how much Granny Randi loves the movies, so here is another. The kid has been trying to feed himself with a spoon lately and here is a video showing how much fun that is.

Turkey Lips

"Turkey Lips" is my term of endearment for when the kid does something he shouldn't. Yesterday was a turkey lips sorta day. I'm sitting at the computer sending an email while Wesley is playing with the phone on the floor. As I've said before he likes to hold it up to his ear and "talk" gibberish into it. Well I'm sitting there and I hear a mans voice on the other end and think ah crap the kid called someone. He didn't just call someone, he called 911. The phone is sitting there with a man saying "911 is this an emergency?"....not good. I picked it up and sheepishly told the man the situation. He said "oh no problem, I appreciate you staying on the phone." I'm guessing people normally hang up and then they have to send a cop car out to your house. Needless to say, no more phone playing going on in this house. Little tiny turkey lips.

Here is the turkey himself dragging a book around the house in his mouth. Strange child.

Next thing you know you'll be swimmin with the fishes

Dear Little Fleshy Human,
Please, for the love of God, do not:

•pull out my fur and then eat it
•chew on my ears
•sit, stand or crawl on me
•grab my flesh and squeeze until I squeal
•take my toys while I'm chewing on them and then offer them back to me like you're Santa Claus
•disturb me while I'm sleeping
•throw things at me, unless it's food
•believe that you are anything but a play toy to me
•pull on my collar until I turn blue
•scream at me...seriously, you're scary and I don't understand you
•suck on my paws

Sincerely,
The Dog

Couch Potato

The kid loves the couch. Anyway chance to play on the couch (and potentially fall off the couch) he's up for it.

Muffin top anyone?

Ahh geez, the kid is getting into everything today. He's getting tall enough to reach stuff on the lower shelves. This is bad. Today alone he's already:

-pulled down the bag of pasta in the pantry, spilling shells all over the floor
-ripped out every piece of paper from the desk drawer and is proceeding to eat them
-flung every DVD from the shelf in the living room onto the floor and danced on them

It's barely noon and I want to pull my hair out.

This is not all he does. He has taken to pinching my fat. You know when you sit at the computer, the little fat that comes out the top of your shorts (muffin top anyone?). Yeah he pulls up my shirt and pokes and pinches it. It's ironic since he's the reason I have muffin top in the first place. Little tiny turkey.

My Payoff

Having a kid has been quite a roller coaster. On one hand you have the early days of sleepless nights, the endless crying, the isolation. As a Mom you give up a career and loose friends. All to take care and nurture this tiny little version of yourself.

Now I feel there is a payoff to all this misery. You might think I'm about to go on and on about that first cheesy smile or the priceless giggles.....oh no, my payoff will be hard labor. I did it as a kid, hubby did it as a kid. I mean the mowing of five acres in August, doing the dishes every night, washing and waxing muddy cars, scrubbing dirty dogs and vacuuming. That's the short list. I seriously think that might be the reason my parents had children in the first place. Much like them, I am looking forward to the 7 short years before I can turn over the keys (to the mower that is) and lay down on the couch and eat bon bons. I feel that that will be my payoff.

Where's the Friggin Phone Number?!

We had a little excitement last night. I was out mowing and was almost finished when Sean comes out carrying Wesley. He informs me that Wesley was chewing on one of those little packets that come in shoe boxes that say "Silica DO NOT EAT". I guess he found one (God knows where) and proceeded to chew on it until it ripped open. Sean dug several of the little silica beads out of his mouth, who knows how many he ate. I decided to call Poison Control and could not find the phone number. Anywhere. You know I'd have no problems finding it if I didn't need it. Heck I thought I even had a Poison Control magnet on the fridge, but under pressure I was at a loss. Finally after the third phone book I found it and sat there on hold for a few minutes before the most unfriendly woman finally answered. She informed me (rather rudely) that the silica graduals are non toxic, just give him plenty of fluids to pass them through. SO if your kid ever eats that stuff now you know. I guess the packets themselves are more of a choking hazard than anything else. Interesting stuff. By the way, I now have that all important number etched in my brain 1-800-222-1222.

Today Alex came over while Jessica escaped to Wally World to do shopping without her little monster. Wesley just loves Alex. The entire two hours he just crawled around after Alex at suppa speed. He wanted to do everything Alex could do. He had a smile on his face the whole time. It's good to have social interaction for the two of them. Here are some pictures. Aren't they just cutest little people?

New Abilities

I can usually find something to write about but this week I've just been in a funk, so here is a video I just shot over lunch showing Wesley's (not so new found) ability to feed the dog half of his lunch. Also he says a couple of kinda recognizable words, and shows off his seven teeth. When did he get seven teeth you ask? I don't know, he just opened up his mouth the other day and there they were. They seem to have came in over night.

Weekly Favorites

Not much happening so here are some pictures of the cuties in my life.

The Summer Blahs

Well it's official, the summer blahs have arrived. It's nasty hot outside so Wesley and I just spend the day inside doing nothing. I'm bored. He's bored. Not a good combination. I hate going anywhere because whenever the kid touches the car seat he falls asleep. And as everyone knows a teeny tiny 20 minute cat nap will spoil the two hour afternoon nap. So we spend our days doing the regular routine. Wake up, feed every single mouth (there's about 15 or so) my mouth being the last, then he plays until noon and eats again. Naps from 2-4 and then eats again at 6. I swear the day revolves around the kid eating or sleeping. Everything else is just fluff.

I did get bored the other day and decided to clean out my closets. It's amazing how many pieces of clothing I own with the tags still on. Sad really. I found some really cute little cocktail dresses that I bought for God knows what that never got worn so I posted them on eBay. They ended today...I sold them all-yeah! It feels good to know they will go to a home where they will go out and be worn and have a life. Good luck little dresses. We also ran across some old DISH network receivers and threw them up on eBay....can you believe our old receiver sold for $50? I guess people buy them and hack them to get free service. There are some questionable people out there. Oh well, I'm sure happy to sell to those questionable people. Ebay rocks!

Strange Toys part 1

There are some strange toys out there. Toys that you wonder how or why they exist. Wesley has a few of these. One of them is a birthday present I bought at Cabela's. It is a giant, four foot long, realistic looking, stuffed Walleye fish. I mean, doesn't everyone need a four foot long walleye lying around? We had a gift certificate that needed to be used so this is what I found. I thought we'd get a good laugh out of it and that would be that, but no...the kid likes the fish. He will crawl up to it and just bury his head into it. If I'm lying my head on it he will come over and pull it away. It is his fish.

The other toy, although it's not really strange or unusual, is one of the most favored. When we went to the hospital to see Jessica's little girl when she was born I went to the hospital gift shop to look around. I was looking for something to get Wesley and Alex to hopefully occupy them during the long wait and came across these little wooden snakes. I'm sure you've seen them, they have little segmented bodies that can move similar to a real snakes. They were cheap and so I bought two. Well the kid has an infatuation with this snake. He carries it around while crawling (not an easy task), holds it while reading and sucks on the head on a regular basis. Many a time I walk into the kitchen and see this somewhat real looking snake lying on the floor and have a minor heart attack. Lately though I've been thinking about the dangers of letting him play with this snake.....I mean what's going to happen when he sees his first real snake outside? Is he going to walk right up, pick it up and suck on it's head? It's a scary thought especially out here where I usually see at least one good sized snake a week in the yard. Sean and I will have to teach him the dangers of snakes before he finds one on his own. Darn toy.

The child within.....or maybe teenager within

Isn't there supposed to be an age when you outgrow video games? Last weekend I became SO excited to see they released another Ratchet and Clank (Size Matters) that I promptly bought it and have been playing it every night after the Mister goes to sleep. I sometimes play into the wee hours of the morning. I'm obsessed and I love it. It's my "me" time. I'm happy I found my "me" time again, I thought it disappeared under the diaper pail for good. But alas it was just hiding in a $30 video game. Good to know. By the way...Jeremy (my fellow Ratchet and Clank playing brother-in-law) I highly recommend it if you haven't already played it.

Daily Battles

Every day we seem to play battle of the sippy cup. I know he needs to start weaning from the bottle and I'm trying my hardest but he just won't drink milk from a sippy cup. He takes a drink and chucks it halfway across the room. I did feel a small victory last night when he, for the first time, drank an entire sippy cup of watered down OJ. It doesn't sound like much but he's so good at just taking a little suck and tossing it. So I've been offering the cup throughout the entire day and then putting it back in the fridge in between drinks so I'm not wasting all that juice. So it took him an entire day but he finally drank a whole cup. It's truely sad that I feel that's an accomplishment but oh well, baby steps. He's down to three 5 ounce bottles a day of milk, I hope now that we've found THE sippy cup he likes he'll start drinking milk out of it. I wishing by 14-15 months he's done with bottles. Gosh that would be nice.

Second battle is with the darn computer. Since we don't have cable or pretty much any TV at all he has been watching Sesame Street clips on YouTube. Nothing much, maybe one clip every other day. I found it endearing in the beginning. Now whenever I'm on the computer he crawls at suppa speed over to me and pulls up and starts whining until I put him on my lap. He LOVES Elmo clips in particular. Lately THIS Elmo clip.
I sing this in my dreams now. Seriously. Make it stop.