This guy? Is a ham. Like ham sandwich hammy. I think he’s learning how cute he is and is thinking it will get him out of trouble – and he’s probably right.
Take for instance his impromptu photo shoot on Easter:
Ham
Hammier
Cousins? Just a good excuse for some hamminess
Maybe he gets it from these knuckleheads…
I think every mom hid some attention getting, melt down averting, stomach rumble stopping tricks in her bag. I certainly do. Which means I carry a bag that would make a sherpa strain to lift and looks like this when you peak inside:
Peanut butter Ritz Bitz? Check.
Tissues? Check
Face and antibacterial wipes? Check.
Other forms of disinfection? Check.
Suckers? Check.
Diapers, wipes, rash cream? Check. Check. Check.
Dinosaurs? Check.
It should be noted that the only things in this bag that are mine are the wallet and sunglasses case.
It’s over! February is over! I’ve never been so excited to see a month end.
Why? Because it means we have Peter back both physically AND mentally. My lovely hubby has been studying for the Montana bar exam for the last several months. This past month has been the most brutal. The last time he studied for the Arizona bar, we had no kids and he did not have a job which made the process a slightly less painful. Like a filling with novacaine.
Studying with a full time all consuming job and two kids? Root canal. No painkiller.
I thought it was just me but while driving this weekend, B piped up from the back seat saying “Daddy – it’s so nice to be able to talk to you again!”. She was referencing the fact that for the last 6 weeks, we literally haven’t talked to Peter. He was working, studying, listening to lectures or trying to get a moment to relax so we didn’t talk to him. He was listening to lectures a lot so I got very used to looking to see if his ear buds were in, deciding if what I had to say was important enough to ask him to take them out…and then forgetting what I had to say all together. It was a long month.
To put it in perspective, I was emailing with a former college of PW’s and filling her in on what he was up to. She emailed me the next day saying that she woke up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare that she had to retake the bar exam.
But we did get out a little in February – recap coming tomorrow. For now, we’re just excited to be off of social probation!!
I had to chuckle when I opened a package from Amazon today. As if I didn’t remember I was on the slippery slope to 32…the contents of my order were a good reminder:
A second knee band because I’m now unable to run a 5k without pain in both knees…an elbow ice pack for the tennis elbow I’ve developed from lugging around a chunky 15 month old and sinus rinse. Holy. Moly. Add some Bengay and an AARP membership and I’ll meet you at Denny’s for the early bird discount.
Monday afternoon I was busy in the kitchen throwing things in the slow cooker, making a week’s worth of smoothies for us and for Bay, whipping up Auggie purees and hard boiling eggs – pretty much anything that would keep us fed with something other than frozen pizza for the week. Baylor protested napping and Auggie woke up early from his so I banished asked them to play outside for awhile while I finished. For about an hour and a half, they wandered, played, whined, played some more and then finally got settled into a game they made up. Everyone played nicely and complaints turned to giggles and belly laughs.
The entire time I was having pangs of guilt for not being outside with them. It was like the devil on my shoulder was telling me that I was a horrible mom for not playing with my kids. I tried to convince myself too that we played by ourselves all the time as kids and we loved it! Peter has told me the stories of how he and his buddies would “hunt snakes” with the pool cleaning equipment in the desert for hours as kids. And he’s a fancy lawyer so it can’t be all bad, right?
That night I read this article on someone’s FaceBook page. It makes a great argument for letting your kids get bored. It talks about how bordem, unstructured playtime and the freedom to run amok teaches kids how to problem solve. How to make their own fun and how to be self motivated. It makes a great point that at some point in life, no one will be there to tell them what to do or how to do it. Playing alone now will start to give them the tools to think outside the box and learn to fix their own problems.
I used to spend hours in the yard, the trees and roaming our neighborhood. I had tree houses, forts, made mud pies, tied the dog to the wagon and made him pull us, dressed up the cat, and had Olympic events with our friends. I’m not sure if it made me a better person, but it did make me an excellent mud pie chef.
So as long as I’m making healthy, delicious meals, I won’t feel guilty. And I’ll feel just a little guilty when it’s for Real Housewives and Nutella on graham crackers.
The view from my rear view mirror is awfully cute these days
Sort of by accident, the life of our Elf on the Shelf, M&M, has gotten way more exciting. One night after moving M&M for the night, Baylor got up (big shock) and spotted her. So after we were sure she was really asleep, Peter set up M&M in front of the last of our Sprinkles Cupcakes. For added measure, he took a bite…
The look of shock and complete delight on Baylor’s face was priceless. I realized we’ve entered the phase where she 100% gets Christmas and everything is real and amazing. It was so fun to see her so excited!
Which means we had to keep it rolling…so last night M&M got into the Advent House and raided it for Hershey Kisses. B was equally shocked, but not nearly as delighted. These are HER Hershey Kisses and sharing them is not high on her list. After explaining that we had plenty to go around, she got a little more excited.
Googleing “Funny Elf on the Shelf ideas” brings up some hilarious and hilariously inappropriate ideas. Check out these on Pinterest.
When I first watched this my thought was I have things I need to be doing and this is not one of them. Later that night after some wine, I was reminded about this and could. not. stop. laughing. I showed PW and he too found it wildly amusing (after a few cocktails, of course). It’s a slow burn so give it a minute. And a cocktail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqx5xmNsnvU
NO! I’m NACHO friend!! I’m giggling as I type.
I have been carded three times in the last month. Which is a lot considering I can’t remember the last time I was carded…oh no, I do. I was super pregnant with Auggie and was buying wine for OTHER people to drink at a party. Takes all the fun out of being carded when you don’t get to consume what you’re purchasing.
But I digress…
The first person to card me was a woman in her 50s which I decided was not a testament to my new eye cream because she probably thinks anyone under 40 is 21. The second person was a kid and he thought he was annoying me by asking for my ID. Little did he know how much the ladies over thirty like when you think they don’t actually look over thirty. The third person was my age which I decided meant that those five consecutive hours of sleep I had the night before really did make me look better! But as I left the store, a thought occurred to me; perhaps I looked not only like I could use a cocktail, but also like I could really use a compliment.
But I’m going to pretend my new eye cream is really working.
I snuck away for a pedicure and was reading Self Magazine which was all about breast cancer and awareness. I read the statistics and a learned more about the risk groups and realized as I am now in my early thirties, I’m now at a higher risk and that it’s time to start taking those self exams seriously.
The next morning I got an email from a very good friend of mine. It started out apologizing for the mass email – as it began, I thought she was about to write that she and her husband were getting a divorce – I don’t know why I thought that, I love her husband and they have a great marriage, but it seemed to be the only logical piece of bad news she could be sending out. I literally felt my heart stop when I read that she was writing to tell everyone that she had breast cancer. 32 years old. Stage 4 breast cancer. My heart is racing as I write those words.
The good news is that she is crazy tough. And she is married to an amazing guy and they have been battling this awefulness together and she’s going to be ok. The road to recovery is long – she’s already endured several months of chemotherapy and despite it being successful, she is having surgery and then radiation. And all the while she has been open, honest about her feelings and making jokes. I will never look at arm pit hair the same way after she told me how excited she was to see hers growing back!
The part that makes my heart happy is that as I forwarded her email to our massive group of Phis, they all jumped in. They started a Meal Train so for the next several weeks, they will have dinners brought to their house a couple of times a week. There have been gift bags, flowers, emails, cards, texts and love going out to her. I know sororities get a bad wrap most of the time, but I’m proud to know my chapter has an amazing network of women who come from far and wide to help when a sister needs it.
I hate that this had to hit so close to home in order for me to pay more attention to my own health and risk. Take this as your wake up call to get your annual exams, do self exams and contribute to a charity/non profit who is working on a cure for such a miserable disease.
The Goon Room 