Anxiously Awaiting

I bought a set of these from Etsy for Mother's Day, both for myself (couldn't help it) and also for my cousin who recently had her second daughter. I can not wait for them to arrive. I'll post a picture when it gets here. Now I'm tempted to buy the ring as well...Etsy might prove harder on my bank account than eBay ever was!

This is EXACTLY Why I Love My Kid

We were in Costco today and Lucas was riding in the shopping cart. As I wheeled him around he starting counting..."a-one, a-two, a-three" and it made me think of the Tootsie Roll pop commercial. I leaned over the cart and said in a silly low announcer-man sort of voice..."How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?" And he answered back without missing a beat..."The world may never know." He is the perfect kid for me.

I Shall Poll the Audience

On a scale of 1 to 10, please rate the following scenario, 1 being "Oh my, how's that migraine coming along" and 10 being "Oh my, what a lovely sounding day you've had!":

I put my friend's wee little daughter in her Kelty backpack and strapped her to my back, for today was a hiking day, and we were about to tackle a very tame trail with the boys in our efforts towards fitness. Lucas was very excited for about the first 15 feet, and then it began...carry me, my feet hurt, my head hurts, it's too hot, I can't make it, we're going too fast, wait for me, whaaaa I stepped on a stick, whaaaa I stepped on a leaf, put that baby down and caaaaaaaaaaaarry meeeeeeeeeee. Oh my good heavens. Like I could even actually carry that full grown boy in a Kelty backpack anyway. It never ended. The entire hike was a colossal whine-fest. By the end I was ready to leave him in the woods. We cut the hike short because I had to (blessfully) go to work.

At the very least, I can say that I must have burned some calories. Not from carrying the sweet little girl in the backpack, but from dragging my pitiful son the entirety of the trail. I am exhausted just remembering it. My friend said that by the tenth time we did that trail, Lucas would just race right though it without any trouble, and I almost teared up thinking of going through that nine more times. We are clearly not yet good at being outdoorsy people.

At the Waterfront...

Sold Me Out

I heard my child telling the (grown-up) guest of honor at a birthday party today to go yell at me for "breakin' his stick". Heaven forbid he not just chose another stick from the eleventy billion that were strewn across the front and back yards...oh no, he was furious that I not only dared to touch a stick from his "collection", but that I also had the nerve to break it. (For the record, we were building...and I was helping...) And then, of course, once he got a bee in his bonnet about the stick, well then everything I looked at was just wrong. So I just stood there with my eyes closed and my arms crossed until it was time to leave. Well...not really. He did eventually forget that he was peeved about the stick and turned right back in to his happy helpful self...but it was touch and go there for a while.

I Want One of These in My Yard

A friend found this great wood shop/train maker so we went on a field trip on Wednesday. It was absolutely beautiful out so the kids got to run around the front yard and play on this fantastic wooden train. That is, until Lucas put his newly purchased train down the funnel on the engine. And then freaked out because it only has a hole in the top...not in the bottom. Would you like to know how difficult it is to pull a train back out of a hole 3 feet deep that's only 2 inches across? Yeah. Luckily my bestest buddy Yvette likes a challenge and dug away at that little train until she coaxed to the surface. (Strong work Yvette!)

Snuggled With His Honey!