One year?!

Since I blogged last.... ok, not quite. It's been a while. Things have been happening, important things, but I got caught in the trap of "It's been so long--too long to catch up, but also too long to move forward without explanation." This is the same trap that catches me when it comes to my sporadic journaling, keeping up with old friends (sorry guys), and mopping the kitchen floor...

But, on this, our one year anniversary of moving to Texas, I had to post. We love it here. Really, really love it. An example: for the past three weeks straight its been sunny and in between 70-80 degrees. This week is chilly (60s), but still sunny. Relatedly: there has not been one muddy paw print in my house. Yay!

We have had such an enjoyable time. We bought passes to Sea World (2 hours away in San Antonio). There is a Children's Museum downtown that Tony thinks is the coolest place ever. Any my personal favorite hangout: the dollar theater 10 minutes away. Even the notorious Texas-size bugs have only got the better of me a few times.


We're ready for Christmas to come! Tony helped get the tree ready.

The presents are (partially) wrapped

And the sounds of the season are ringing through the house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDbZbwyRp2I

Hopefully I'll be back into blog mode now that I've gotten this Back on the Wagon post out of the way. If not though, Merry Christmas!

Frustration Is

• When your library religiously enforces it's LAME policy of only having ONE copy of any particular book, which is of course currently checked out.


• When, in desperation born of new resolve to be financially conscious, you hold fast to the rule of not buying a book until you have read it and know that you like it, so you resign yourself to option number 2: book on CD (note: with the funds spent on purchasing the audio book, the library could have bought two or three more regular copies).


• In order to listen to said book-on-CD, you must dig out that ancient and otherwise obsolete item: your portable CD player (because the whole household objects to listening to your book on the living room stereo, dooming you to the solitude and uber-gooberness of the Level 2 Walkman) and hope it still works, despite being found in the bottom of a toddler's toy box.


• After having dedicated 21 hours and 19 minutes (probably 3 or 4 times longer than it would take to just read it) listening to the story, otherwise ignoring your real life (except for things you can do simultaneously like wash dishes [yeah, right] or play Marple*), you finally reach the end, and your only response is, "wait, what?! that's it?"

*Marple: App Store it.

Quotables

Just now we were sharing a cookie and I ate the last bite (I am the mom, after all--it's my prerogative!)
T: Can I have some more?
M: Sorry bud, it's all gone.
Tony runs to the kitchen: Let's go get some more! Come on, Mommy!

Walking around the store today, Tony grabs his pants.
T: Mom! My bummy rash hurts.
M: I'm sorry. Should we put some medicine on it?
T: Yes. And you need to kiss it.


Don went to Washington DC for the week. We took him to the airport on Monday. Every day since then:
T: Daddy went on an airplane! He'll be home Friday. Today is Friday.

This afternoon.
T: I like Rocket. We need to watch some.
M: Nope, not right now.
T: But we haven't watched Rocket for DAYS!
M: We watched it yesterday.
T: Oh, that's right.

When I come out of the bathroom (sorry for the visual)
T: Great job going potty Mommy!
M: Um, thank you Tony.
T: Do you want a sticker?

His new responses to just about anything.
For yes: Oh YEAH!
For no: Nah, probably not.

When he shows you something he's proud of
TA-DA!

As Ususal...

It's been awhile since I last blogged, as pointed out by a Grandma who shall remain nameless. In an attempt to appease her, I have returned.

I will begin with a couple more funny sleeping pictures because they are fun :)

You can't see it, but he's got his feet resting on his pillow (which he calls his Milk Pillow because it has a white pillowcase on it. He also calls Don's white shampoo Milk Shampoo. ha.) These are the special things he needs for bed. Good thing we have four free bags to take on our trip to Oregon (beginning NEXT WEEK, btw:D)

He ate lunch while I was in the shower. Tired much? hahaha.

Joyful in a laundry basket spaceship.

Helping Don tighten the chair screws.

Testing out his new church duds.

Not Stuffy, but...

We've all had a lousy cold the last few days. Tony wasn't too sick to be funny though; he'd come up to me and squinch his nose, saying, "Mommy I need a tissue. My nose is fluffy."


In other news...


Tony is now out of the crib and sleeping on a mattress on the floor. He calls it his Special Bed, and he couldn't be happier to go to bed like a big boy. Of course, sometimes things go awry; just this morning I peeked in on him and he had rolled off the bed and halfway across the room, partly under the crib (which is still up, just in case).


Here are a few pictures of other naps gone slightly wrong:

Must have been exhausted from heartfelt prayer... haha.


Apparently he was too tired to make it the two more steps to the bed, so he zonked out just inside the door

Something New

I've been trying to get more good things done, and I've come to realize that I need more time. Mostly because I just can't let go of doing my most favorite thing (reading all. the. time.), so in order to accomplish anything else, I started getting up earlier. Like, WAY earlier. Since we have been blessed with a great sleeper I normally don't wake up until almost nine, and Tony is content to hang out in his crib for a while so there's usually no rush to get out of bed. Glorious!

But, that late start combined with my inclination to ease into the day means that nothing even starts getting done until like 3 pm, and then Don gets home at about 5:30, and I find myself thinking "Alright! Time to just relax" (I know, that's what I'd been doing all day, right?)

So, to combat this massive un-productiveness, I came up with a schedule of when exactly I'll do chores, and go to the park, and read, etc etc. To fit everything in, I started getting up at 5:30 in the morning to go running before Don leaves for work (thereby avoiding having to push Tony in the super awkward jogging stroller). My friend and neighbor Julie has agreed to this insane plan and she joins me for the run. While it has been a great way to start the day, with getting the exercise out of the way, and doing more by 830 than I usually do in a whole day, I have felt pretty good. Except, I'm so tired! I've been going to bed at 10pm, but I've been so anxious about a number of things, not the least of them being that I won't wake up on time and then Julie will be waiting for me and she'll have gotten up early for nothing... So by the time I do fall asleep (130 ish) I am so worried about how little time there is until wake up, that I am constantly waking up to check the time. Ugh.

I'm hoping I'll get into a new normal and then it won't be so hard, but for now I'm beat!

His Mother's Son

Driving home Saturday night
Tony: "Mom, will you sing the Brownie song?"
Me: "I don't know the Brownie song (having never heard of it before). Will you sing it for me?"
Tony: "Yes. Won't you bake me a brownie, na na na naaa; Won't you bake a brownie for Tony pleeeease? Na na na naaa."

The Potty Chronicles, Part I

We just got Tony one of those toilet seat-smallerizers (that's a word, right? ha.) so that he can sit on the potty without fear of falling in. Yesterday (Day One) he had a small success, which was accompanied by much laughter, because even though he's not quite two, it is instinctual: little boys just know that bathroom sounds are funny. So he laughed and I clapped, trying to emphasize the greatness of this moment. Grandmas were called, and more praise was heaped upon him.

Day Two: This morning while watching his all time favorite show (Little Einsteins, aka "Rocket") he tore his eyes from the screen and informed me that he wanted to go potty. Thinking the motivation was to get some pre-lunch chocolate (m&ms have figured prominently in the the build up of excitement for going potty), I laughed inside at the lengths children go to for candy, and put him on the toilet. Well, much to my surprise, barely a moment passed before he was fully engaged in the business at hand. More laughter, more clapping.

I was impressed by his knowing that he needed to go, and actually telling me about it beforehand. While it's much to soon to get my hopes up, I am relieved that so far, it's going well.

Picking Easter

We went across the street to take some pictures with these bluebonnets, which Tony declared to be Easter flowers.

He came up to me and said, "I picked you some Easter, Mommy."

Here's Tony embarking on an Easter egg hunt, armed with his Thomas the Train "basket" and followed close behind by his trusty sidekick Roobin. If the video I took would only load, you'd see how this detective duo sought out and recovered all of the eggs, losing the contents of only one in the process.

In my Inbox

50% off a Trapeze Class!

Tempting.

:)

Cows get tired too

At least he was polite enough to take his nap on the side of the road, rather than in the middle.

Prayers

So over the past couple months we've been teaching Tony how to say prayers. He's getting really good, actually! He will repeat what we say, but he likes to add in his own things too. Usually it's blessing our cousins down here, who Tony just loves and talks about all day. He always remembers Roobin too, and sometimes grandma and grandpa. So yesterday he woke up from his nap and was talking to himself, so I snuck up to listen.

I heard him say "Heavunly Faaather, bless papa at work, bless Megan, bless Jack, bless Monkey, bless light, bless door. Thank you for papa and friends, and thank you for kitchen..."

It was so sweet. I love this kid!

Busy

I haven't been posting much, but it's with good reason: I'm busy! The 'Texas Mieka' Project is going smashingly well, in that I don't just waste ALL my time dinking around on the internet or re-reading books I know by heart (I still do that, just less). Here's a small sampling of what I've been up to:

• Laughing at Tony. He says and does the funniest things
• Building towers and knocking them down
• Writing for fun, but taking it seriously
• Running (it's true!)
• Other forms of exercise- in fact, I have two exercise buddies
• Being friends with people (hence, the buddies ^^)
• Playing some wii, but not too much
• Kicking the ball for Roobin, and laughing when Tony helps me
• Cooking new foods, though none of them are healthy.
• Hanging out with Megan, who is the missing pea from my pod, as it were.
• Enjoying time with a now much-happier Don

Life is good, my friends. Life is good.

Oh! This morning I read Eve's Diary by Mark Twain, and I thought it was cute. You should read it too :)
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/EvesDiar.shtml

Waiting for Daddy