Tuesday, November 27, 2007

TGIF

It's Friday! Well...it is for me anyway, and thank goodness. I'm ready to be home and be lazy. Preferably in my pajamas. With lots of icy cold diet Pepsi...and chips. I have a ton of After Black Friday shopping to do with all of the free money certificates I earned while shopping on the Actual Black Friday...so watch out mall, here we come. My efforts to have a China-Free Christmas are coming along nicely, with just a few exceptions...I decided it might be fun to try and buy all of our gifts made from places other than China and Lucas has ended up with some really fun stuff that I might not have sought out otherwise...so that part has been neat. Of course, some things are only made in China, so I bought them anyway, and we'll just hope they don't poison us to death before Christmas rolls around again.

Last year I shopped like a madwoman to earn all of those $10 dollar off store certificates and then worked the next week straight and they all expired before I could use them...but not his year. Oh, no...this year we shop...ten dollars at time.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Singing in the Rain...Except Without the Singing

It's raining here, an icy cold rain that won't stop until it turns to snow, and Lucas loves it because the rain means that he can use his umbrella. Except...he calls it his raincoat and will not use the right word no matter how many times I try to remind him that the word is umbrella. But that's okay, because it's beyond cute to see him walking to the car with his little red pirate umbrella perched carefully over his head. Keep in mind, we park our car two feet from our front steps, and it's more work than it is help to open the umbrella and then navigate Lucas out the front door without poking some one's eye out...but if he thinks there's a drizzle happening somewhere in the county, out comes the "raincoat". I would love to post a picture, but it's hard to do when we're rushing out the door, my arms breaking under the weight of all the things he has to take to Grandma's.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

My Post Thanksgiving List

I have found myself laughing a lot this week, despite actually venturing out on Black Friday with a pinched nerve in my neck (Really! What was I thinking?!). After reading a number of other people's lists, I decided to write my own...everything will have to do with the kid, of course!

OK...I am thankful for, in no particular order:

  • My son's use of choice words...like "Oh barnacles!" and "Tut-tut, wooks wike rain" and "Oh tartar sauce" and the newest and maybe the best "Oh fiddlesticks!" Which I will admit sounds a lot like "Oh pisticks!" And I try very hard not to laugh while I correct him.
  • The way he always tells me good morning the second he wakes up.
  • The way he offers to be very, very quite in case I want to "rest" which is what he calls it when I fall asleep on the couch in the middle of the day. (In my defense, I work nights.)
  • The way he offers to do the dishes, and really means it...I find half dirty dishes stacked neatly on top of the clean ones in the sink strainer.
  • The way he offers to help me move heavy things, 'cause he's "soooo strong!" (Picture a small boy flexing chubby arms here.)
  • The way he shows me just where to rub his face, his feet, his arms, his hands, his head and his back just before he falls asleep in my arms.
  • The way he sings Christmas carols, Fa La La La La, but then says his name is 'Ucas.
  • They way he introduces me by my actual first name to strangers.
  • The way he says, agreeably, "Maybe later" when he asks for something at the toy store and I say no, and then puts it right back and doesn't make a scene.
  • My mother...I am endlessly thankful for my mother.

And, you know, this list could just go on and on. As hard as being a single parent can be, and as much as I never planned to raise a son alone, I am thankful a million times over to be this child's mother.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

My Budding Chef

I cannot walk into the kitchen these days without my kid wanting to cook something. He has found a new love in cooking and preparing his own food, and he wants to do it all. the. time. Take last night for instance, when he announced at 9pm that he was "just gonna cook me some eggs." Or how about the hundred times a day he wants to bake a cake. And heaven help you if you spread butter or cream cheese on ANYTHING without first asking him if maybe he would like to do it with his favorite red plastic butter knife. It's something you'll only forget to ask once. Any less gets you a meltdown and a face that says you must surely have an utter lack of regard for his majesty's feelings. But he wears an apron (thank you Aunt Mary) and he loves to be helpful, so we're having a good time, and we're baking lots of cakes.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

'Tis the Season!

I bought Lucas a Christmas outfit, just so I could torture him...um...I, mean, take his picture and stuff it into a 100 Christmas cards. It is so cute! It might be the last year I can get away with dressing him so cute for, well, anything. His is of the opinionated sort, you know, I don't get away with much these days. I will be taking the picture myself as I would rather jab at my own eyeballs with hot pokers than take him back to Sears Portrait Studio. Those folks live to torment the masses during the holidays. Although, I have heard good things about Olan Mills, but ours is located in the layaway department at Kmart, so...I'm wondering...could they really take a better picture than I could? I'm inclined to say no. Pictures to follow shortly. I'm going to at least post the picture here in a timely manner since I've been known to write, stamp and address all of our cards, but then never mail them, because I was too lazy to go to the post office, and my cards always seem to be too big to stuff into our apartment's outgoing mailbox. (Typing out that dirty little secret actually made me laugh out loud!)

Monday, November 19, 2007

Some of Our Conversations Are Confusing if You Haven't Watched Winnie the Pooh

I said: "Are you going to be so good for Grandma today?"
***hear the sound of crickets chirping***
I said: "Hey! Are you going to be good for Grandma today?"
He said: "Work brain work, work brain work...think, think, think!"
And then I said: "What are you talking about?"
And then he said: "I can't think of the word... ... ... ... Oh yeah! I will be good for 'Amma today!"

And every once in a while he just says "Stuffed with fluff!" out loud for no reason. It might be time to start cutting back on the Winnie the Pooh DVDs.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

If I Sound Hoarse, It's 'Cause I'm Still Sick

Does anyone think that Airborne really works? I've been slugging back toxic-swamp-looking cups of it for days...and I can't decide if I'm so much better than I would have been without it...or if it's useless. Lets pretend it's really helping.

*******

Costco was a joy to shop at today...I KNOW! On a Sunday morning, the week of Thanksgiving. Oh, don't get me wrong, it was a madhouse in there, but I still got a stellar parking spot, a short checkout line (!) and a piping hot slice of pepperoni on the way out the door. Go Costco!

*******
I got out of work early tonight due to low census! Four more blissful hours of sleep for me! Yeah low census!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Rock and Roll, Baby

Today, with a construction hat on, zoned out to PBS...it's a little blurry...but it's also the only one where you can't tell he's pantless!

I Found Him Like This



Crashed on the living room floor.

Super Fun...and I AM Being Sarcastic

Lucas and I both have colds...again. Or should I say still? Same thing, I guess. We tried to go to a few craft fairs this morning, and Lucas was, um, shall we say...rotten...at the first two, and moderately well behaved at the third. Apparently, his three year old brain only heard the word Fair...and not the word Craft...so his expectations of the fun day he was going to be having were blown to pieces when he entered the first gym. The second one was really spectacular, I have to say. I had the NERVE to tussle his hair after I pulled off his fleece hat and he went to pieces. He kept wailing that he wasn't handsome anymore thanks to me. No matter what tactic I tried to use to get him to lower his voice, or lower the volume of his crying and whining, it only seemed to make it multiply times a thousand. And he seems to have inherited my mother's knack for breaking out in hives when he's stressed. He got a big fat hive right on his cheek as I carried him in a barrel hold, screaming and crying (him...not me...heh) out the front door, trying not to knock out any tables along the way. I did manage to buy a couple of really cool key chains made from bending silver forks into neat shapes...one for my keys and one for Luke's backpack...because, you know, after all that he deserved a little present. Right.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Channeling the Car Gods...Please Be Kind

So, my car kind of crapped out on me a few days ago, and I have been thinking of little else. I don't know why it sends me into a state of panic when I let my mind wander to the act of actually going to a car dealership just to look. I think it's because I don't like change. In fact, that is exactly it. I don't like change at all. I've driven the same cars for years. I've worked at the same place for years. I've lived at the same place for years. (Great...typing all that just made me feel so boring! Now I not only have a crappy car to deal with, but I'm depressed.) I'm thirty one years old, and this is only my third car, and that includes the '72 Volkswagen Bug I got for my 16th birthday. I really like not having a car payment, but the time has come...it just stinks that it has come a month before Christmas...but what are 'ya gonna do? Wish me luck...the hunt is on for a good, reliable, low on gas, won't break the bank car...

I want everybody thinking affordable-car-thoughts for me! ;-)

Monday, November 12, 2007

Gosh, I Love the Weekends or Sickness and Waffles

My boy has a cold. Poor little glassy eyed, red cheeked peanut. I got home from work this morning at the ungodly hour of 3:40am...and he was wide awake after I picked him up at Grandma's house. Wide. Awake. I was exhausted, so exhausted that I didn't think carrying his 40 pound self up 14 stairs was an option, so we slept on the couch. Luckily for me, my couches are super deep...like twin size bed deep. I threw a bunch of pillows down and covered us with a big warm quilt, and we both fell fast asleep. After a few doses of children's cold medicine, he felt like a million bucks, and he was nice enough to sleep in a little, too.

Oh, and just as a side note, I got a new Belgium waffle recipe from a friend of mine who came to visit, and I am in love. She also introduced me to the idea of strawberries in syrup and whipped cream for my waffles, so it's possible I may not fit in anything I own in the very near future...'cause I can't get enough of these waffles.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

He's Growing Up!

Oh! My son is growing up! He had his first sleepover. Well, he had a friend sleep over at our house for the very first time, which totally counts! Lucas is 3 1/2 and his buddy is a whole 4 years old...it made for a very fun night. To say Lucas was excited for this sleepover would do it an injustice. He was over the moon that his little buddy would be spending the night...in his Thomas the Train bed! He kept skipping around the apartment, going in circles. Those little party animals managed to see the very late hour of 8:30pm...wild, I know...well, Lucas fell asleep at 8:30pm...his buddy took a little longer to fall asleep...though to his credit, he never made a peep.

They played trains, and ate toast and watched Winnie the Pooh...does life get any better?

New Favorite Curse Word

My boy has a new favorite, all purpose phrase...and it is....

Wait for it...

"Oh, tartar sauce!"

He uses it for EVERYTHING. Spilled juice, stubbed toe, broken crayon...you name it. Once again, I don't know where it came from, or how it started, but it is funny when it's shouted from a three year old.

Choo Choo!

Lucas and I got to ride the kiddie train that travels a local city street. It's been running all summer and we kept missing it, but I needed to run an errand today, and sure enough, it drove by the window of a store we were in. For just a buck a piece, Lucas got to be in toddler heaven, and I got to freeze my butt off. I have never had so many strangers gaze upon and me and smile and wave...but Lucas had fun. The only picture I have is on my cell phone...if I can figure out how to put it up here, I will.


Updated: Here it is...grainy, sure, but still cute, right?

Also, it appears that I may have driven over the World's Largest Pothole today, and it did a number on my car. Keep your fingers crossed that the car miraculously heals itself, because shoveling money out for car repairs the month before Christmas makes me feel very Grinch-like.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

We're at THAT Stage Already

My kid loves having his daily bath, or "takin' a tubby" as he likes to call it. Lately though, his routine has expanded slightly. He has formed a new love, and it's in the form of deodorant. He gets out of the tub all clean and shiny and pink, and proceeds right to my room, where he commandeers the deodorant stick and loudly announces his need for PRIVACY! as he slams the bedroom door. I know he's spreading deodorant all over...not exactly it's intended use...but at least he smells nice. Maybe Santa will bring him a little manly scented stick for his stocking this year!

Monday, November 5, 2007

He's Not a Baby, He's a Kid

I took a good look at my son today. A good long look, outside in the morning sunshine, with the cold air turning his cheeks pink and the tips of his ears a bright red, and I realized something. My little baby boy has grown up. He is tall and strong, he is able and kind. Lest the telling of this revelation get too sappy, I am coming to this realization while standing outside our local Walmart. He's climbing on one of the quarter operated kiddie rides outside the front door (yuck), and I'm trying to convince him that it's time to go inside and run our errands. But, it's the first time he's been outside today and he doesn't want to go in. He kneels on the outside edge of the blue and green plastic Jetson's spaceship and pleads for quarters, and he says over and over again, "MOM, look what I can do, look what I can do!" He's nimble, and agile in a way that he hasn't really been before now. And that's when it struck me. That my baby is gone. Replaced by a blond haired, green eyed boy who looks a lot like me, and I got a bit choked up. He will probably be my only child, chances are quite good that I will never hold a newborn baby of my own in my arms ever again. And I'm okay with that. I've been known to tell others on many occasions that one is enough for me, but I'm not sure I really realized what that meant while Lucas was still a baby. This child before me is a baby no more, when we left Walmart he opened his own car door, climbed in, shut the door and buckled himself in his car seat. He's been asking me over and over for his own steering wheel and gas pedal to use in the backseat, and today is no exception. I miss my baby, but I love this kid.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Quote of the Day

Me: (Saying something snappish and hurried as I try to coax him out the door.)

Lucas: "But what about friendship?"

He might watch too much PBS. I might have rolled my eyes when he said it...but MAN, I love that kid!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

My Little Bug



It was difficult at best to get a good shot of Lucas in his bug costume...if you were to scan through my camera, you might find several pictures of his back as he ran to the next house, but he had fun, and his manners were golden.

Like A Regular Haircut, Only Louder

My boy got his hair cut again yesterday, and he looks so handsome and grown up, and I nearly broke a sweat. It went a little something like this: Total wreck of a boy...then perfectly happy to be there...then total wreck of a boy. I mean, come on! It's just a haircut! Why all the drama? The crying and the screaming and the waaaaailing. I felt like the main act on the center stage of a three ring circus prancing around, trying to offer distractions...Look at me! Squealing with happiness over what a BIG BOY you are! And how FUN it is to get your hair cut! How about a LOLLIPOP?! Look at BOB the BUILDER on t.v.! Pretend to CATCH me in your red jeep! We can go to a PLAYGROUND when you're done! OH LOOK...something SHINY!

Oh. My. Goodness. Luckily, there was only one other mother who brought her poor unsuspecting toddler in while my child was in his fit of despair...and I'm not gonna lie...the kid looked scared. Sorry Other Mother.

The kicker is, I feel so guilty about the scene we always cause, that I give the lady a big fat tip, making his toddler haircut twice as expensive, luckily for me, we also only go half as often...so I guess it all works out.