Lisa Wants Us to Do This

Lisa got an idea from a book called No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas For Your Blog by Margaret Mason in which bloggers should stop painting themselves in the best light on their blogs and actually get real for once, ugliness and all. With the brutal honesty will hopefully come a better understanding of the blogger and maybe even a deeper friendship. Lisa wrote her list of things you may not know about her in this post and asked all of her blogger friends to do the same. O.K., Lis, here's my list. Hopefully you'll still be my friend at the end.

• I was in Air Force ROTC for three semesters in college. I quit because they were about to kick me out due to my poor grades and PT scores. I came out of it with a husband, though, so it's all good!
• Speaking of college, it took four schools and seven years for me to finally finish my B.S. Half of those years can be blamed on my poor decisions. The other half I firmly yet lovingly blame on the Air Force.
• I too, like Erin, am afraid of the dark. Actually, I wouldn't say afraid, just have a sharp distaste for. There's a difference. THERE IS!! I have a total of seven night lights scattered throughout my 1500 sq. ft. house.
• I also am afraid of water. Nothing has ever happened in my life to warrant this. I just have an extremely active imagination and my number one fear is to drown in a car that has ended up in a body of water.
• I'm pretty sure I have a little of the OCD. I check locks about fifty times and constantly worry that my curling irons are somehow going to set the wall on fire and cause my house to burn down.
• Bathtubs and pools that aren't PERFECTLY clean gross me out to the max. I have the hardest time getting in the toddler pool at the YMCA because of what MIGHT be in there, but I do it for my Aaron.
• When my husband first told me that my mother had died, my brain immediately went to suicide and I was very angry. I mean, why else would a 46-year-old woman pass away? Then I found out that it was actually an aneurysm and now I am truly ashamed of myself for even remotely thinking for a second that she would be that incredibly selfish. I'm sorry, Mom.
• I am a proud Democrat. I am pro-choice, pro-gay rights and even pro-Bill Clinton. So sue me!
• When I was in high school and even into college, I used to sneak my boyfriends into my room at night when my parents were asleep. Our house was fairly old and had been added onto many times, so my room was all the way across the house from my parents' and it even had its own front door leading outside. Sorry, Dad.
• It still surprises me when people say to me, "I can't believe you're a mom!" I can't remember what it was like to not be one.
• I love to go jogging. Love, love, LOVE to go jogging. I never knew what endorphins were until I started jogging up to Highway O and back to my house in Missouri. I would love to join some sort of marathon or cross country team.
• I love to do counted cross stitch.
• I am sometimes jealous of my husband's "job coolness."
• I still feel guilty for being a SAHM.
• I have been extremely shy all of my life and have been told on more than one occasion that this makes me come off as a snob. I'm really not! You might have to make the first move, but I promise I'm a nice person!

Well, there you go, the nitty gritty of what makes me me. I could go on but I don't want to bore you. I'm sure that you have probably learned something new; maybe something good, maybe something that you don't particularly care for. Are we still buds?

He's Finally Found It

The naughty spot, that is. He's really not a bad child. Really. But there just comes a point when you can no longer yell or say no or "remove and distract" like all the books say. Aaron's very favorite thing to do is splash around in Reagan's water bowl. He doesn't mind the getting wet part such as in this picture:

However, Mommy and Daddy mind it. And Reagan probably a little bit, too. So after catching him playing in her water bowl again and saying NO a hundred times, I decided to give the naughty spot business a try (Stop laughing, Dad). I made him stay there for one minute (supposedly you subject them to the naughty spot one minute for however many years old they are) until the timer went off and then I let him get up. The first time I did it, I think he was a little bit amused. The second time, it was a little harder for him to sit there, even for just 60 seconds. I guess it's working, though, because every time he goes near Reagan's water, I give him one chance and tell him if he does it again, he's going to the naughty spot. And he stops!! We'll see how this goes. I refuse to spank him, so hopefully this works because, honestly, I'm all out of ideas. I've reached the point where I really don't know what to do with him when he does stuff like this. And it works for the Supernanny, so that's a good thing right?

In case you're wondering, this is where the naughty spot is in our house:


By the way, take a look at this picture:


This looks like a pretty good naughty spot too, right? Nope, this is actually Aaron's fun, happy place. He loves crawling back there!

Nice Hair, Dude!

I tried to be ultra cool like the Girls' Moma and put Aaron's hair up into a "shampoo cone" like Coley and Jalyn had in this post, but, alas, my boy STILL doesn't have enough hair to do it. I was able to make a kickin' curly mohawk, though!!

By the way, check out how many teeth this kid has now:

You can't see all of them in this picture (mostly because I can't get him to pose for me. Imagine that!) but trust me when I say that his teeth are coming in perfectly symmetrical; just imagine a mirror image of the side you can see and you've got his whole mouth. Pretty awesome! And, you know, he hasn't really complained at all about those teeth coming in. Not even the huge molars that actually made his gums bleed a little before they finally poked through. Such a trooper, this guy!

Ladies and Gentleman, My Husband

Are any of you familiar with "Ooh, Aah & You" from Playhouse Disney? This is Daddy emulating the "Sit on the Couch Dance." He's pretty good at it, yes?

This is for you, Lis...

Check out the shoes!! I got these in the mail today and was so excited about them that I had to put them on Aaron right away and take a picture. Converse shoes are so rockin'!! Aaron's best friend and future wife, Jalyn, also has a pair of Converse shoes (hers are red) and as soon as I saw them on her, I knew I had to get a boy pair for Aaron. You can see Jalyn in her Converse tennies here.

By the way, just to show you how out of control I am concerning clothing for my boy, check out how many pairs of shoes he now has:

Insane, I tell you! He has more pairs of shoes than me! Another sad thing about me is that I have in my internet bookmarks the direct links to the baby boys' sections of the Old Navy, Gymboree, The Childrens' Place and babyGap websites. I check them all at least once a week to see what new stuff they have. Who knew clothing a boy could be so much fun!

Hold My Calls!!

So sorry, but I will be unavailable from 8:30 to 9:00 PST this evening due to a most important event that I cannot miss even for one second. Here is a preview:

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No, you don't understand. Kids, husbands and pets be damned! I have had only The Office reruns this summer to pacify my Jim obsession and I am dying to find out what happened after THE KISS. I now know what it feels like to physically feel your heart melt. Melt, I tell you! Lisa knows what I'm talking about. Read about it here and here.

Watch Me Eat with a Fork!

Aaron has all of a sudden started to eat using a fork! I say "all of a sudden" because, a couple of days ago, I handed him a fork to keep him busy in a restaurant and he actually started to use it properly! Surprised the heck out of me! He must have learned just by observing us. I hadn't even tried giving him a fork yet to use as a utensil because I honestly didn't think he could and was afraid he would just use it to push his food off his tray. Just goes to show you that you gotta give them some credit every once in a while!

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The Weather Here is Crazy!!

This is what I had Aaron dressed in Tuesday afternoon for our trip to the park:

This is what I had him dressed in today at around the same time:


There is a temperature difference of twenty degrees between when these pictures were taken. It was easily 80 degrees outside when we went to the park on Tuesday but my computer says that it's only 59 degrees outside right now. It's madness!! God, all I ask for is a little warning before you turn the dial to autumn!

I Have Found Heaven...

...and this is what it looks like:

Aaron is finally drinking out of a big boy sippy cup! In order to transition him from the bottle, we started giving him his juice and some of his milk in this type of sippy cup, the Nuby:


This worked really well for the transition, but as it turns out, the Nuby is not at leak-proof as one would like it to be. I kept stepping in wet spots on the floor and was about to kill a certain little dog I know, but then quickly figured out that it was Aaron pressing the top of the Nuby into the floor. This opens the slits on top of the nipple and lets the liquid flow right out. I had already tried to switch him over to the Playtex sippy cups with the hard plastic tops a few months ago (as I talked about in this post), but he couldn't figure out how to get the liquid out of them and just ended up playing with them like toys. The other day, though, after the umpteenth time of getting my socks wet on the carpet, I bought him a couple of Playtex sippy cups and he figured it out! These sippy cups have some serious leak-proofness so everybody's happy! Yahoo!

I know. It's the little things.

Who Do Ya Love, Baby!!!!

Today was my Rams season opener and they started things off with a win, thank you very much! I have added a new section to my sidebar to your left so you can keep up with their season. 'Cause that's how much I love 'em!

I was able to finally put Aaron in the jersey that I bought about a year and a half ago on the very day I found out I was having a boy. It is the jersey of our most favorite Rams player on the planet - Torry Holt. Love him! I have his jersey too and have proudly worn it to two games now, both here in Seattle at Qwest Field watching the Seahawks play when my Rams come to town. I will wear it a third time when we go home to Missouri for Thanksgiving. It will be good to be back at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis again. I don't like the way I've been treated at Qwest Field! I, of course, had to take several pictures of my sweet boy in his jersey plus a video of him messing with the camera lady.

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Y'all Seen Any Whales 'Round Here?

This past Labor Day Weekend, Bill, Aaron, and I traveled north (way north; like, a county away from Canada north) to Anacortes, WA to go whale watching out in the San Juan Islands. This trip was one of the things on our Washington to-do list and we thought this was probably the last opportunity we would have to do it before the weather started to cool off. We were right about that, because the day that we went, the weather was absolutely perfect. It was sunny with highs in the upper 70's on land which meant the upper 60's on water. The seas were calm as well, which made for great boating and whale watching.

Our boat, the Island Explorer II

I was concerned about taking Aaron out on the boat but I didn't want him to miss the experience, so we decided to chance it. He did great! We made sure he was bundled up and had a hat on so the wind couldn't get to his bald head. He wasn't really interested in the wildlife so much as how his toys would hold up on the boat but I think he had a good time anyway!

He even got his afternoon snooze in! Can you see his little feet?

As for the wildlife, we had some good views. On our way out to where the Orca pods were mainly swimming, we saw a Minke Whale. It happened so quickly, however, that we couldn't get a picture of it. A Harbor Seal also popped its little head out of the water. I got a picture of that! Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see more detail.

We finally reached where the Orcas were and were rewarded with several views. I wasn't sure what to expect and was a little disappointed that we didn't see more of them breaching as in this picture from Wikipedia:

The views we mostly got were of their dorsal fins and backs when they came up to the surface (these are our pictures):

For a girl who grew up in landlocked Missouri, however, it was all very exciting! To see these animals in their natural habitat and not in some zoo was very, very cool. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to see them. This is yet another reason why I'm going to hate leaving this great state.

Maybe I Could Handle This More-Than-One-Kid Thing!

Last week, Aaron's best friends Coley and Jalyn came over to play while their Moma went to have her hair done. Having all three of them together is always interesting, to say the least, but it was made pretty easy for me since Coley and Jalyn came over in the morning while Aaron was taking his morning snooze. By lunchtime, however, they were all awake and hungry! So I strapped them in, turned on some Little Einsteins to keep them distracted and I made lunch. And look how happy they all seem! Yay! I have learned, though, that dealing with more than one kid definitely involves efficiency and organization, but also being O.K. with that fact that you will be pulled in several directions at once and if one kid is wearing mismatched socks while the other one is playing in the dry bathtub (yeah, I totally found Coley in there at one point), THAT'S ALRIGHT! Thanks for yet another lesson in motherhood, Lis.

Update: I have been told by someone very close to me that this post sounds as if I'm trying to tell people in a roundabout way that I'm pregnant again. Let me just clear that up right now - I'm not! We are planning on having another kid, just not for a couple years. Sorry about that, Dad!!