The return

We got home from the car trip from hell around 4:30 AM this morning. We had a well tempered little boy on the trip down to NM but a little demon child on the way home. Not real sure why. Oh wait, it could be the 17 hours he spent strapped into his car seat....yep that would do it. He was not a happy camper and we tried everything to make him happy. We read to him, sang songs, played with toys but nothing would keep him from screaming except a little red monster named Elmo.

I so did not want to be one of those parents that set a DVD player in front of their child on long car trips. I used to make fun of those people, and now I'm one of them. *shudder* Yes, my child watched Elmo's World across Texas and part of Oklahoma. I'm not proud of it but in my defense one can only listen to hysterical screaming so long before one drives into a ditch. If I never see that little red monster again it will be too soon. I will not be letting him watch TV for 2 months. This I swear.

The trip (other than the car ride) was wonderful. It was relaxing and we had a great time seeing family. Wesley was his usual happy, silly self. He enjoyed the vast amount of attention from all the different and new people. He had a great time meeting his cousin Sasha and announced that she was indeed a "baby" every chance he got. He also dazzled every one with his not so new word "battery". Since returning home he has figured out that it's just old Mom and Dad again and his newfound friends aren't around to constantly read to him at a drop of the hat. He's is totally bummin about that fact.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this past week.

Here is Granny Randi and Wesley after playing with oodles of stickers.


My favorite picture of Sean's brother Nathan with his fiance Stacy.


Grandpa Rich reading to Wesley


Sean's brother Jeremy and wife Becca.


Granny with Sasha and Wesley.


Grandpa with the babies.

Eyes for Cookie

Wesley has developed a "thing" for cookie monster. It's, by far, his favorite character on Sesame Street but it hasn't stopped there. He loves to watch clips of cookie monster on YouTube and any board book featuring cookie.

I guess it runs in the family. When Sean was a little boy he had a large stuffed cookie monster that he carried everywhere. It was dragged through everything, beat
up, stomped on and all around thoroughly loved. While down here in New Mexico we mentioned Wesley's love of cookie and Sean's Mom suggested we go out and retrieve the old toy from its place in storage. So out came this well loved, eyeless cookie monster about the size of Wesley. It lost it's eyes long ago because Sean would drag it around by its eyes.

Grandma Randi being the fabulous crocheter she is, made Cookie some new eye balls.



I don't know why but I just love that photo of freshly crocheted eye balls sitting on a chair. They were then sewed on Cookie's head and Wesley has been carrying that stuffed animal around ever since. I think Cookie will be traveling home with us tomorrow so that he can love on it as much as his Dad did when he was a kid.

Thanksgiving......

......through pictures! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did! It's truly a blessing to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends. The in-laws house was practically over flowing with people today. There were 15 of us. We had a delicious meal and everyone is just lying around stuffed.

Wesley got to meet his cousin Sasha yesterday pretty much for the first time. It's really been cute watching them interact. Sasha is 13 months old and such a cutie! Here is Wesley feeding her (notice they both have big open mouths).



We all watched the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade and Wesley was just in awe to see his favorite Sesame Street characters in the parade. It was cute.



Besides Sasha, Wesley got to play with Tanner who is a six year old. Wesley followed Tanner around whenever possible and giggled up a storm. Tanner is such a well behaved little boy and played with him. Once again, cute.



And of course after filling our bellies with turkey everyone is lying around sleepy.

Road trip

We made it! I wasn't sure I'd have internet access but turns out we do. The trip was uneventful and went quickly. Wesley was a wonderful traveler, taking regular naps and being his happy self. Here is Sean and Wesley posing in Albuquerque yesterday morning at the hotel.

I've always told Sean that I could see living in Albuquerque. It's such a pretty, clean town (from what I've seen). It's really a pretty city.

We stopped along the way at different fast food joints for lunch or dinner and Wesley enjoyed playing in the booth and not being confined to his clip on high chair.


The landscape around here is sure different. Beautiful mountains, very scrubby and dessert like. We are sure happy to be here and are enjoying the time with Sean's folks. Wesley has warmed up to Granny and Grandpa and now plops down in their laps with a book in hand ready to be read to. He's having fun. I'll write more when there is more to write about.

Off to New Mexico

We are leaving Sunday mid morning to go visit Hubby's family in New Mexico for a week. We are somewhat packed at the moment, hoping to finish it up in the morning. We decided to scratch the idea of leaving tomorrow evening in the hopes that we can now make it almost there Sunday, leaving only 4-5 hours on Monday. We're not booking any hotels since we don't know where we will end up tomorrow night....but we are aiming for Albuquerque. Wish us luck, it will be a long 11 hour day in the car!

I am prepared for the journey. I think I have almost packed up every board book we own and will be reading them as we drive across the country. I also purchased a little DVD player off of eBay and have videos ready and waiting. I stocked up on odd toys over the past month and have a small collection to keep him (hopefully) whine free.

Sean and I got back this evening from seeing Twilight. Oh boy was it good. Not entirely true to the book but they did a decent job. Had I not read the book I'm not sure I would have understood the strange (not very well pulled off) chemistry between the leading roles. They also left out some (I think) important scenes, but hey....overall they did a good job with the budget they had to work with. I'm thrilled it is doing so great in the box office and can't wait to see what they do with a New Moon. Exciting!

I probably won't be blogging for a little while so I hope everyone has an awesome Turkey Day!

Crazy hounds go to the vet

I spent the day running around tying up loose ends in preparation for our departure to New Mexico this Sunday. Every year I am amazed at what it takes to actually prepare for a vacation. Of course it's mostly animal related. Lining up people to take care of said animals, making sure there is enough food, installing de-icers in stock tanks, and today there were shots. The kennel that I take the dogs to require them to be up to date on shots so every year around this time I load up the crazy hounds and make my way into the vet clinic to hand over loads of cash. Today was no different.

Our dogs are crazy. The only one that was well trained died this year of bone cancer. Thus I am stuck with crazy untrained Humane Society dog #1 and crazy untrained Humane Society dog #2. You throw them both into a closed compartment such as a car and it generally spells disaster. Sophie, the retarded irish/golden mix has no manners. I mean NONE. And she's dumb as dirt (umm..did I mention irish setter?). She is 69 pounds of red terror and thinks she's a lap dog. The entire trip to the vet she tried to sit on my lap. When she would do this she would stand on my accelerator leg and would cause the car to jet forward until I could correct it. Needless to say there was a stream of profanities escaping my mouth. Chance, the little black terror sat in Wesley's empty car seat the whole trip. Wish I could have gotten a picture, it was actually cute.

We did make it there and back alive and they are now pumped up full of vaccinations and ready for their fun filled trip to the kennel on Sunday. There really is a reason we don't go on many vacations, it's crazy (but worth it!).

Pictures

We went into Sears Portrait Studio today to have some pictures taken. Wesley really did well, he was all smiles...it was wonderful. We got some really cute snapshots due to the photographers skills with a rubber ducky. She would squeak it and he would smile away. She was good.

Here are a few of my favorites. I'm sure some will become Christmas gifts so I won't show them all. I went way over my budget but since we do this every blue moon, I thought it would be ok.





On a different note, I am totally bummed to not be going to the midnight showing of Twilight this Thursday. I got online last night to pre-order a ticket and both showings were already sold out. I had it all planned, Sean would be home (sleeping) as would Wesley so I could go see it with no problem. My normal bedtime is usually around 1-1:30 am so being up that late would be no problem. But alas they sold them out in record time. So Sean and I are going Saturday to a matinée while my Mom babysits. I'm really excited to see it! Thanks Mom!

Orangie Lover

A couple of times a week I break out the orangies (mandarin oranges) for dessert and the kid goes nuts. He loves his orangies. He could seriously care less about cookies or cake....but orangies.....Mmmmm orangies.

Silly faces

He really is a happy little silly kid. He's learning that he can make new faces and make old Mom and Dad crack up.

Random thoughts

I swear the snot is never going to stop oozing from this childs nose. Never. Ever. He's had this cold for 8 days now and I just assumed it would go away after a week but after talking to my friend Jessica it looks like the snot can last up to two weeks. **banging head on desk*** I just wish he could learn to blow his nose, man that would make this a lot easier. I'm apologizing in advance to Becca and Jeremy if he still has the snots by next week when we see you guys. From what I've read, a child with a cold can pass that cold as long as there are symptoms (snot) present. So sorry!

Happy Birthday Jeremy! The big 3-1! You old man you! :) Hope you are having a great birthday!

Oh and since this post is turning into random thoughts....there is only 37 days until Christmas. Crap.

Laugh out loud funny

This is the funniest thing I've seen in awhile. This is so Wesley in a couple of years.

The sicky

Well, my kid gave me whatever he had and now I'm sick as well. Joy. I've had the sore throat from hell for two days now and just now decided to start medicating myself. Tylenol works wonders on a sore throat by the way. I'm still congested and have a sinus headache but at least the throat is feeling better. I feel like I'm on the downhill side of it though, I've felt decent all day.

We felt good enough to dance today. One of our new rituals is to dance in the afternoon to Micheal Buble on YouTube. I love Micheal Buble, he's got as awesome voice and Wesley seems to like it too. He sits on my hip and we twirl around the room. Him with a giant grin on his face. It's cute.

Yesterday I set up a photo shoot at Sears to have some family pictures taken. I found Wesley the cutest little outfit and decided we needed some new pictures. Now I just hope he smiles for the camera. I'll put them up here on the blog when I get them (if they turn out good). Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Sixteen months old!

Happy sixteen months today little man! You are still battling a cold and it sure is making you a fussy kid. You absolutely hate having your nose wiped but, surprisingly enough, love to have your nose sucked out with the bulb syringe. The humidifier in your room last night enabled you to sleep through the night without waking up, let's hope for a repeat tonight.

At sixteen months old you are keeping your old Mom and Dad on their toes. Always getting into everything possible and constantly making us say "where on earth did you find that?!". Luckily you seem to be over the "put everything in your mouth" stage. Although you relapsed slightly this evening with crayons. But they are, after all, tasty morsels of colored wax. Yum!

You have a infinite love of books, which I'm thankful for. At least 19 times a day you come up to me with a book (often the same book all 19 times) and deposit it in my lap and precede to whine until I read it to you. Your newest interest is in the picture board books. The ones with just normal everyday pictures of objects in them. You will sit quietly by yourself and point to random objects on each page reciting what that object is in your own "toddler language". Even though ducky and doggie seem to be the same word I, as your mother and secret language decipher, can figure out the small difference in the tone of your voice.


Oh Mom, you crack me up!


Little man, you crack me up on a daily basis. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't laugh hysterically at something you do. You never fail to entertain. Looking forward to the next sixteen months you crazy kid!

We got ourselves a climber!

The climbing has progressed to chairs. Lord help us all. I came out of the kitchen this afternoon to find Wesley standing on the kitchen chair flinging my half painted sculptures off of the table. I think I had a minor heart attack. Luckily none of them were damaged, I don't know how but I'm sure thankful! For once in my life I wish the house had wall to wall carpet instead of hard wood and tile since a topple off of a chair onto the latter is going to be painful and inevitable.

In addition to his new found climbing skilz he is getting over his second cold. I'm thankful this is only the second time he's gotten sick and I hope it's gone as quickly as the last time. Poor kid woke up several times last night with a blocked nose and finally I brought him into our bed so we all might get some sleep. That theory backfired. Instead of just him being awake all night he made it so we all got no sleep. I just hope he stays healthy after this for our big road trip in less than two weeks, I don't want anyone else getting sick. That's all that's new around here.

Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend for a change. Last night we went over to a friend of ours house who was having a BBQ. One couple that came brought their 18 month old little girl and Wesley had a blast following her around. It was the first time he's been around another kid close to his own age. It was really cute watching him interact. They kept giving each other hugs all night, just adorable.

Today we haven't done a darn thing and have enjoyed every minute of it. The weather has gotten down to freezing keeping us indoors. I did accomplish something yesterday. Sean has had an old dirt bike frame (body and wheels but no engine) in the shop for years and it somehow got itself parked outside by the horse pen. I've been running into it for a few weeks during feeding and decided enough was enough. So I took a picture of it and posted it on Craigslist in the free section. I did that around 10 in the morning and by 1pm it was picked up and gone. Not 3 hours later. I love Craigslist!

This afternoon I'm in the kitchen making lunch and turn around to find Wesley climbing on the drawers. Oh joy!




Sean went out and rented a Playstation game this morning to fully enjoy his lazy weekend. So here is Wesley sharing his snack with Daddy who's playing his game. Too cute!

Nigh Nigh

We have a pretty good night routine that consists of a nice warm bath at 9:00 pm, followed by Jammie Man (Sean) putting him in his jammies, a few minutes of play while his room is cleaned up and then off to bed. Sean and I take him into his dark room and put him in his crib, turn on his crib aquarium night light, give him his pillow, blanket and cookie monster toy and say "Good Night" and leave the room. For a couple of weeks now as we walk out of the room he says "Nigh Nigh" to us and it just melts our hearts. It is super cute. Well last night we put him in his crib and say "Good Night" and turn around and go to leave expecting to hear the usual "Nigh Nigh" and he instead says "battery" as clear as day. What a strange and funny little man.

Growing like a weed

Wesley must be doing some serious growing lately as he is having a hard time fitting into some of his clothes. So I've been buying "new" clothes for him off of eBay for the past couple of weeks and it's been filtering in the past several days. Some of the clothes are new with tags and others are in used but like new shape. Looks like he's officially in 18-24 month clothing (although the pants are a little long and most have to be rolled).

There is some really cute stuff on eBay and I'm picking it up for a fraction of the cost of new stuff. I picked up nine long sleeved shirts for $3.00, two long sleeved Gap onsies for $.99 (these are ultra cute), a red pull on fleece for $.99, and an adorable brand new outfit with a little puffer vest, shirt and corduroy pants for $5. Super deals. Since these little ones go through clothes so fast I just can't imagine how people can afford to pay full price for brand name clothes or even non brand name clothes.

Since he's become proficient at walking he needed some new shoes, the leather soled Robeez knock offs weren't cutting it anymore. So I found these:

Aren't they just the cutest little shoes? They are made by Jack & Lily. They are still leather soled shoes but they have more padding and some rubber on the soles for beginner walkers. He's not ready for the jump into thick, rubber soled kid shoes. I got these brand new off of eBay for $17 with free shipping (they are $30 brand new in stores). I can't wait for them to arrive. They are 18-24 month size and I hope they fit until the end of Winter or Spring.
Here's hoping!

Have I mentioned how much I love eBay? :)

Election

I try not to push much of my own political opinions into this blog. But I seriously can't help posting this link.

Is McCain president?

I am so proud of this country for getting out and voting on Tuesday and for picking the right man for the job. I'm excited for Wesley to grow up in a country that can choose a candidate based on the ideas that come out of his mouth and not by the color of his skin. Change is coming.

Testing

My little man has definitely been testing me over the past month. He's figuring out that old Mom and Dad can be wrapped around his finger and that he can get away with things. His "Little Tiny Turkey" status is growing by the day.

A new development that came along with walking is the fun ability to stand in the bath tub. He's been doing this for about a month now and it is just the most frustrating thing. He stands up, I take his little arm and tell him "No, we don't stand in the bath tub" and make him sit down. He giggles, looks at me and stands up again. I know it's a matter of time before he falls and breaks something open. As a result we have speedy little 3 minute baths. It's a shame because he really enjoys bath time.

Another turkey moment happens when I give him his cup of milk. He sits down and sucks up a few gulps and then spews it all out down the front of his shirt. If we don't catch him right away he will do this to the entire cup of milk. I'll find him smiling, holding his cup, with his shirt and pants drenched a dog licking up all of the evidence. It's so frustrating.

He also still pinches my fat whenever he has the chance. He knows it bothers me and takes full advantage. It's lovely.

Here are some random pictures from the past few days.
Here is happens when I ask Wesley to give the kitty a hug.


Here is Sean and his "mini me".


Wesley's clean-up crew.

Off to vote!

Wesley and I made our way to the voting station this morning. We were in and out of there in a little less than an hour. They didn't have lines so much as musical chairs. They had chairs lined up and we just hopped from chair to chair until we made it to the voting booth. Wesley danced and amused everyone while we were waiting. He went up to random strangers and "talked" to them, he even petted one ladies purse and declared it a doggie. This is such a cute age, and he's such a cute kid. Good combination.

I was excited to vote for the first time today. I don't know what made this year "the year" but I felt strongly over some issues and decided to let my vote count. My Mother-in-law says it's because I'm a Mom now, and I think she's right. I'm excited to see this man win tonight and hope he does (my fingers are crossed).

Walk softly.....

....and carry a big stick. At least that's Wesley's motto. Here are pictures taken today as he wanders down the driveway and torments the kitty.

Halloween, cold fishies & giggles

I hope everyone had a nice Halloween. This year Halloween just crept up on me. We totally didn't do a thing. No trick or treating, no candy, no costumes. It was a total bust. We did have a nice, quiet evening though. Living out in the middle of no where means there is virtually no chance of youngin's on our doorstep looking for candy.

Today I went out and attempted to catch fish out of the koi pond before it freezes over and they all croak. First place to find fish was the filter box, that's where they like to hide. I caught the three large ones there. Then I crouched next to the water with my net and with stealth like movements managed to catch 18 more little baby fish. There are at least 20 more out there that I couldn't catch. Good luck little fishies! The lucky 18 I did manage to catch are safely upstairs in a stock tank in the bathroom. I'm sure everyone wishes they had a big Rubbermaid stock tank full of fishes in their bathroom.

Here is a random video taken today of our silly, giggly kid doing what he does best....be cute.