Enjoying the weather

We got a taste of spring today and boy did we enjoy it! It was nearly 70 degrees. I feel like old man winter is just teasing us. Oh well, we'll take it! Wesley, hubby and I spent the morning playing outside. In our ongoing attempt to fence in our property, Hubby purchased a motorized auger/drill. Today he went out and tried it out. He successfully dug two holes to start putting up the wrought iron fence that was removed from around the pool. He got the posts set and sections of fence hung. It's going to look awesome. I think he figured up only 27 holes left to dig. Yikes. He's hoping to have the fence up before Spring. It's sure nice to get a head start on something BEFORE the warm summer weather hits. Wesley enjoyed hanging out while Dad dug holes.


We have a huge leaf problem. The leaves are still dropping from the oak trees so we constantly have piles of leaves all through winter. I always wish for a giant wind to blow them into the field next to us, but that never seems to happen. Come spring I'll end up just mowing them into mulch.

I took Wesley out for a walk in his buggy that hasn't been used since last summer. He's noticeably bigger than he was last time he was in it. Kind looks like a big man in a little car. He enjoyed it though.



Even though it was close to 70 degrees he insisted on wearing his Bert hat.


Hope everyone has a nice Super Bowl Weekend! Yea no more football after tomorrow!!

The pictures.....

.....of his new found love.

The 40 year old hat

Wesley's little personality is shining through more and more each day. Last week he went up to his coat rack in his room and put everything on. Everything. He had a jacket, vest, hat and gloves on and then went racing through the house so excited with himself. It was hilarious. These are horrid pictures because he won't stand still much for the camera anymore, but you get the idea. He looks like a little fisherman.




He loves hats now. He constantly throughout the day will bring a random hat to me and ask me to put it on him. While I was surfing eBay the other day for a Bert doll to round out his Sesame Street characters he sleeps with, I found a Bert hat. This is a hand knit winter hat that was knit by this guys grandma 40 years ago. I couldn't pass it up. Combining Wesley's love of hats and all things Sesame Sreet....I mean how could I go wrong? Plus it was only $1.00. So it came yesterday and I washed it and he wore it around today, all day. Funny stuff, I wonder what the next obsession will be.

Bye bye

So the weekend Wesley had with my folks went so well that when I entered his room this morning I was greeted with "Noni"? "Papa"? He was wildly looking around me out the door looking for his beloved grandparents. Boy, don't I feel special. Once he figured out they weren't here he settled for playing with old Mom. We went down stairs and admired the new basement full of GeoTrax. My father spent something like three straight hours creating this maze of tracks and buildings while Wesley was sleeping one day. Wesley does enjoy it, he's still more interested in trying to take the track apart than actually playing with the trains. But I'm sure he'll get there. Along the lines of kids and toys, my father also found the Mega Bloks to be quite fun. During Wesley's naps he would take the 200 piece set and build a giant castle that was bigger than Wesley. Then Wes would wake up and run into the living room and tear it apart as fast as he could. Boys and their toys.

I shot a small video as my folks were leaving last night. Wesley was really sad to see them go.

Fun times in Phoenix

We made it home in one piece. We flew to Phoenix Friday and enjoyed some fabulous southwest cuisine as soon as we arrived. It was wonderful to sit and chat and laugh with family. Especially family we see only a couple of times a year. We hung out around the hotel pool, soaking up the 75 degree weather. I can see why Phoenix is a popular winter location. The sun was just glorious. Another really cool aspect of Phoenix? They have citrus trees growing EVERYWHERE that are just drooping with fruit. This is just the coolest thing ever. It reminds me of visiting California while growing up. I can't even imagine just going into my back yard and picking an orange off of my own tree. They had little stands set up where you go pick your own oranges for 10 cents an orange. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to bring 40 pounds of oranges home with me on the plane. Darn.

The wedding was just beautiful. It was held at the brides brothers house which was this enormous, beautiful house with a backyard straight out of a backyard makeover show (the end result). What a gorgeous setting for a wedding. It was all perfect. We are so happy that Nate found Stacy because she belongs in the family. She made a gorgeous bride. Congratulations you two, now go enjoy lounging around Hawaii while I sit here being jealous and cold. :)

Now to the part of the blog where I tell you about how horrible it was leaving Wesley home with my parents, and how he was just miserable without us, and how my folks were just itching for us to come home and save them. Yeah, none of that happened. Wesley was an angel for my folks. He was smothered with constant attention, doted on hand and foot and thoroughly enjoyed his time with "Noni and Papa " (as he now calls them). In fact, we returned home this evening expecting a gracious welcome, only to receive a glance while he searched for Noni (while saying "Noni, Noni, Noni"). He quickly warmed up to us though. How quickly he forgets who gave birth to him (grumble grumble). Just kidding, it was cute. No separation anxiety happening with this little one just yet. I'll write a future blog about Wesley's fun fun time with the grandparents. For now, we have wedding weekend pictures.

Here is the happy couple for the rehearsal dinner

Hubby and his silly momma

Officially tied the knot!

Sister-in-law Becca with darling Sasha

Hubby and I and our surrogate child, niece Claire

Family photos

Off we go!

We are off to Phoenix in the morning. Wesley will be spending the weekend with my parents. We are praying there is no Mommy complexes happening this weekend, if so he'll have to deal (there might be large amounts of Elmo's World if he does have issues). I wish my parents luck and I know they'll all have fun. I'll write about the whole experience on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Fun with Dad

Weekend update

What a fine relaxing weekend we had. Relaxing because we did nothing. The winter months are the glorious months when we don't have to go outside and do house repairs "because of the weather". Of course on 55 degree days, such as today, it's hard to keep our mantra going about the cold weather. Instead I took my little monster outside to soak up some vitamin D while exploring. We ventured into the walnut grove and he picked up as many walnuts as he could hold in his hands.

Other winter activities include game play. After Christmas Hubby and I tend to become Playstation 2 nuts for at least 2 months. After the two months are over, it tends to wear off until the next Christmas. My parents are good about getting Sean whatever game is currently to his fancy. This year it was Shadows of the Colossus and God of War. Watching him play gets me wanting to play something as well, so I found Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus. Super fun game. Come February I'm sure we will both have drifted off to new lazy day hobbies, but for now this is it. Tell me, when do you get too old for video games?

I've been organizing everything needed for our Phoenix trip this Friday. Since we aren't checking any bags we have to pack light. We were having a dilemma about Hubby's suit and how we'd get it there without checking it, so we decided to roll up his suit pants (and iron like crazy when we get there) and he'll wear the suit jacket on the plane. I thought I'd be antsy about leaving Wesley for 2.5 days but I really feel good about it all. I have several lists ready, along with medical info, schedules and food options to give to my folks. This is going to be a blast! Stacy and Nate, we are so excited to see you tie the knot!

Seriously....

...I don't think there is anything cuter than this little kid smiling on the tractor.

Blue teeth

The kid has a new love in his life. It is blue and squishy and goes by the name Play Doh. Several times a day he will wander into the kitchen and point to the cabinet where his little friend lives and say in his most precious little voice "play doh?". Although it sounds more like "pla duh". So we get out the clay and the little clay station (that we found in my parents attic from when I was a kid....can we say antique?). He'll stand at the table and play for about half a hour or until it starts getting licked repeatedly. I know once the licking commences I have about one minute before the whole chunk goes into the mouth. And what I learned yesterday is that once it goes in the mouth it stays in the mouth. The kid just about bit my finger off yesterday after I went in after some clay. He ends up with lovely blue teeth after the whole experience is said and done. But he loves it....playing and eating.

Trains, diets and more

Now that our kids are back to being healthy, Wesley has been visiting Alex and Abby regularly. Jessica brought her kids over this past weekend to play and we had a nice time. As I mentioned before my father is a train nut and has purchased little toy trains called Geo Trax by the buckets full. These little train sets all connect together and some (crazy) people build huge layouts that span several floors in their house. Now I hope to not become one of those people, but we nearly have enough Geo Trax to cover the entire basement floor. Unfortunately Wesley is not yet at the age to think these trains are "da bomb" BUT little Alex is. So we brought up just a few pieces of track and two engines to test the waters and see if Alex was ready for it all since he's a little over 2 years old now. Yeah, he's sure ready. He thoroughly enjoyed playing with it which gives me hope that one day soon Wesley will find it all quite interesting.

Alex the train conductor



The window lookers



Nine month old Abby (I swear she was born just the other day)



On the diet front, I hit my goal of 5 pounds already. I started the Atkins diet on the first of January, so in 14 days I've lost 5 pounds. Not bad. My jeans are fitting better and there is not much of anything hanging over the top of the jeans when I sit down. So, if you all want to drop some LB's quickly and painlessly give old Atkins a try....it works. I've started adding in whole wheat bread here and there but don't plan to splurge on my big delicious dessert just yet....soon.

I'm getting excited about the up and coming trip to Phoenix next Friday. I'm a little anxious about leaving my little man here while we jet off to the southwest but I know I'm leaving him in capable hands. I can't even imagine the amount of lists I'm going to have to write to make sure I've informed my parents of everything...from how to feed the horses to what Wesley's schedule is. And everything in between. They'll have fun though, that I'm sure of.

I leave you with a video taken in Wesley's destroyed bedroom the other day while Jessica and her kids were visiting.

Soaking up the rays

This weekend has been a fun one. The weather has been quite good, in the mid 50's and Wesley and I have been outside exploring today. Jessica was kind enough to let us borrow some of her lawn vomit (Little Tykes Slide) and so Wesley was out today climbing all over the slide and even learned to slide down it all by himself.




We then wandered over and saw the horses. He likes to pick up any form of vegetation and thrust it at the horses. I'm sure he'll have fun with them more and more as he gets older.




Then we decided to go see what Daddy was doing in the shop. Sean got his circuit board etched with the vat of acid in the basement and preceded to drilling holes in it next. His homemade circuit board project is a success.



Last on the agenda was playing in the dirt pit that was our pool. It is almost finished, we'll need to have a load of dirt brought in this spring and leveled. Wesley thought the loose dirt was too much fun and managed to get himself covered. He also enjoyed poking the cat with a stick. Ahh the joys of cat poking. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Scary stuff

Yet another reason to breastfeed your baby for as long as possible.

Sweet Cookie Lovin'

The kid just adores Cookie Monster so I give in whenever I find something fun and Cookie related. The other day I was wandering around Toys R US (totally not something I would normally do unless I was laden with a gift card) and ran across a dancing, giggling Cookie Monster. Who doesn't want a dancing, giggling Cookie Monster on their kitchen table? Why, you ask, is there a dancing, giggling Cookie Monster on your kitchen table? Well if it goes anywhere near the floor the demons dogs will rip it limb from limb and the kid will sob and be permanently scarred for the rest of his life. So he must climb up on a chair and play with Cookie on the table. And yes, Cookie joins us every night for supper....he's part of the family now. Here is my Cookie lovin' kid:

No more muffin top

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am trying out the Atkins diet and so far so good. I don't have a large goal as I just need to drop five or eight pounds, mainly I need to tackle the "muffin top" that came along after the pregnancy. I've only technically been on the diet for 6 days now but my pants are already fitting better and there's not as much of me coming over the top of my jeans. I'm excited! It hasn't been too hard to accommodate the diet into my life as I'm not a huge bread junkie to begin with. My weakness is sweets. In this diet I've had to give up bread, fruit (a hard one), pasta, sugar and dairy products other than cheese and butter.

I've been waking up and making a tasty one egg omelet with mushroom, swiss cheese and cilantro. It's really good and keeps me full until lunch. Lunch has been a salad with ham and feta cheese and a drizzle of greek olive oil dressing. I've been snacking on string cheese and sugar free jello. Dinner last night was shrimp scampi (without bread crumb topping) and seasoned broccoli. I'm not making my skinny hubby and youngin eat this diet, so they get rice or noodles with the meal. It's funny but I'm not even craving the sweets or carbs anymore.

I'm going to keep this up until I loose the 5-8 pounds and then I'll start slowly adding in whole wheat breads and pastas and I'll occasionally indulge in a sugary dessert. My first splurge is going to be these (DROOOOOOL):



And I can't wait. Don't they look good? They are Whoopie Pies and they are going to be my prize for sticking to the diet. Wish me luck!

Lesson learned

So to beat the winter blah's, Wesley and I went into our little tiny town and wandered around. This is a one stop sign town (not even a stop light), yet surprisingly they have a really nice little library. So we wandered into it and had a nice time killing almost two hours. Wesley is finally at the age where he can go into a library and not yell and scream and totally mortify me in front of other library goers. He went from board book to board book quietly taking them off the shelf, sitting down and flipping through them until he looked up and discovered there was, in fact, row after row of more books. It was fun.

We went outside the library and he was wandering around when, to my dismay, we discovered that precisely at noon on the first Monday of every month the city does a test run of the tornado alarm. This was RIGHT ACROSS the street from us. I almost crapped myself and the poor kid looked like he was getting ready to be attacked. Just stood there shaking and wide eyed. I don't think either of our hearing is ever going to be the same. We hid in the library for the three minutes it was going off. Note to self: Don't be in town at noon on the first Monday of the month. Lesson learned.

Back to life, Back to reality

It sure has been nice having Hubby home for all these consecutive days in a row. It's wonderful having him home for two weeks around Christmas and New Years and then it's back to reality and back to work. Wesley and I will miss him this week. I'm already bored and the week hasn't even begun. I can't seem to get back in the swing of things with my work either. Sculpting like crazy before the Holidays takes the creativity right out of me and I'm left with an empty shell. Now I have to crank it back up to pay bills, uggg such is life.

Wesley has been, er, interesting the past week. I'm not sure what has gotten in to him but we are having some really crazy mood swings that involve him giggling one moment and throwing himself on the floor the next. When I got him out of his crib this morning he managed to have two tantrums before we even make it out of his room. Don't have a clue what going on but I hope he snaps out of it soon as it's growing maddening. My friend Jessica says her little boy did the exact same thing right around 18 months. No fun at all.

In the category of Adorable, Wesley has grown to adore Sesame Street characters. He used to only have eyes for Elmo and occasionally Cookie monster but now whenever he sees any of them in a book or on TV he'll point and excitedly say "Ernie" or "Zoe". We got him some little stuffed Sesame Street characters for Christmas which he sleeps with now. Sometimes he won't leave his bedroom without clutching one under each armpit. We only have Elmo, Ernie and Cookie, but I hope to find Bert and Zoe soon as they are his favorites too. Here he is sitting on the couch with his "friends".

Lazy bums

Welcome 2009! We spent yesterday enjoying the many football bowls on television, eating blueberry muffins, taking naps and reading new books. Being all around lazy bums. What a great day!

My husband has started a new project that requires him to dress like this:


He found some instructions online on how to etch his own circuit boards at home. So he went out and purchased a small aquarium, some different acids, and other supplies and set up this lovely bubbling aquarium of acid in my basement. Luckily it is in the window well, so noxious fumes won't kill us all. I guess he just feeds this tank of acid pieces of copper until it turns from brown to green then you know it's ready to etch away. This is pretty standard in the way of bizarre projects he starts up. I wonder what it will be next month? Hey, whatever makes him happy!