I Confess

I am an American Idol fan. I particularly enjoy the auditions. I don't know why or what it is, but this year I've decided that Mr. A should get a much more qualified (than his own mother) bedtime song singer - David Cook. I'm a big fan.

His 2nd song on last night's AI was sufficient for me to abandon my fleeting crush after seeing Tim McGraw in concert last year (don't worry, DH, nothing to feel threatened by).

Uhhh...Nobody

Mr. A had a rough day on Tuesday. He woke up way too early in the morning, only took an hour and 15 min. nap (usually it's at least 2 hrs), and by 5:30 he was a disaster. He only wanted to be outside getting in the way of his daddy mowing the lawn. He and I went inside to eat some dinner. It took me about 15 mins to get him to stop crying and start eating (I promised he could watch his dad mow the lawn out the back window while he ate). He did, at one point, move to his chair at the table instead of his high chair to eat some yogurt. While struggling to open the yogurt "by self" (all by himself), the following conversation ensued:

Me: "Would you like me to help you open it?"
A: "Uhhh, NO! Daddy!"
Me: "Daddy's mowing the lawn and not available to help you. It's either Mommy that helps you or Nobody"
A: "Uhhh, Nobody!"
Me: "Well, Nobody is not available to help you either. I'm very sorry"

Crying followed, yogurt went to the floor, and the crying continued until bedtime came at 6:30 pm. It was awesome.

Our Little Family of 3

We won't be this way for much longer, so I thought I'd post what will likely be the last picture of just the 3 of us! I'm not much into posing for the camera these days, but sometimes we do have to capture the moment. DH and I have so thoroughly enjoyed this time in our lives and have appreciated the "transition" baby that Mr. A was - helping us to leave behind life with just the 2 of us and learn that life with 3 can be all sorts of fun, too!

When do you turn 3?

I looked at Mr. A the other day (it was somewhere around the magical witching hour of 7 pm - when bedtime is shortly to come, the bath is done, teeth need to be brushed, and being 2 is really hard) and asked him very sincerely, "When do you turn 3?" In other words, when do the random, I-hope-your-head-finds-a-nice-soft-spot-on-your-way-down-to-your-tantrum-on-the-floor-over-nothing stop? I'm sure they don't completely stop at 3, but I can hope they get better anyway.

However, we have a long ways to go since his b-day was just 3 short months ago. So, for now I just like to say that when he's cute he is SOO cute and when he's not he is SOO not.

And, no, he didn't answer me. He ignored my question. I think it's a sign of things to come.

A Visit from Nana and Papa

DH's parents came out to visit us for the weekend just last week. We had a grand time exploring new parks, eating out at our favorite yummy haunts (Five Guys, anyone?), and just spending time with them - something we don't get to do often enough. Mr. A loved having Papa push him on the swings (so he could go "reayee high" = really high) for a long time, and even got to show off his continually developing potty skills. One of the highlights for Nana and Papa, I'm sure!

Three generations

We're looking forward to their next visit in June to show off Mr. A's newly acquired sibling (not so sure he'll be as excited about that one as he was about his potty skills - ah well). And, the best part is that their trip will be free since they both got bumped from their flights on the way home and picked up some vouchers good for future travel! Love that! Thanks, again, for coming all this way, Nana and Papa! Mr. A hasn't stopped talking about how Nana and Papa "fye air-panes way up in ky (sky)."

Easter

Note the still remaining bunny marshmallow - it will soon be gone (read more below)
Love my new hat
And, my cool glasses

I know I'm way behind on some of my posts, but must record them for posterity sake. We had a great celebration of Easter this year. It was fun to watch Mr. A get in on the action. DH carried on a tradition in our house of leaving a "jelly bean trail" that Mr. A had to follow in order to find his Easter surprises. DH spiced up the trail a bit by interspersing some bunny-shaped marshmallows amongst the jelly beans. I only mention this because Mr. A ate his way through the marshmallows in order to find the basket - he hardly touched the jelly beans! But, when he opened the cupboard where his basket was hiding he looked at the basket for a moment and then went to finish the marshmallows that were still left. I could have saved a lot of time and money just by buying more marshmallows! If only I'd known. Better luck for me next year, I guess. Here are a few of Mr. A's Easter surprises...

A Great Day

I always love the times where you take a step back and look at what is happening around you and realize just how very satisfied you are in the moment. I wish I could live more in the moment. I really do. I tend to be the kind of person who is so driven to accomplish one thing after another that I don't stop to enjoy my accomplishments.

Well, on Saturday, I stopped. And I enjoyed. We were in some of my old stomping grounds in the D.C. area and had some time in the morning to get out of the house and enjoy the spring weather. My DH and I pulled the stroller out of the car and proceeded to think Mr. A would eventually tire out and want to ride in said stroller. Needless to say, I pushed that darn stroller for no good reason and with no child in it all the way to the canal and back. Ah well.

We walked down to the canal path thinking we were going to take a lovely stroll along the canal path. We had walked no more than 5 feet when Mr. A noticed all of the stones and rocks strewn along the path and decided that throwing those stones and rocks would be far more enjoyable than strolling. Go figure. All boy. So, for a long while we threw rocks and stones, chased him a little way down the path, and then threw some more. It had rained the night before so there were puddles all along the path. Don't worry - Mr. A found all of them. He jumped right in and laughed at each one.

Shortly we came upon the marked beginning of the "Billy Goat Trail." I commented to DH about how I used to hike that trail with various youth groups, friends, neighbors, etc. He noted that it must be a great hike and we kept on "strolling." A few minutes later Mr. A saw the water "down below" and said that he wanted to go "down"and see the "wa-wa." DH asked me if I thought I could make it and I said, "Why not?!" So, DH helped me and Mr. A down the steep, rocky entrance and then Mr. A ran as much as he could. We walked along the path of the Billy Goat Trail enjoying the views of the river, the fields of newly-blossomed blue bells, and the budding leaves on the millions of trees. We were all so living in the moment! We had nowhere to be and nothing hurrying us along. We stopped to look at every airplane that flew overhead, admire the "ducks" (geese) taking a dip in the river on their way North for the winter, and didn't even mind too much the mosquitoes starting to gather for a pre-summer feeding. It was great.

Mr. A didn't quite make it back along the trail by himself - he rode on the shoulders of his favorite "giant" and then we all scrambled our way back up to the canal path and proceeded to puddle jump, rock throw, and skip stones all the way back to the bridge that led us back to where we had started. Loved it. Loved the moment. Am so glad we all "stopped" and enjoyed it together!

Last Lecture

I read in the paper on Tuesday about a gentleman who had been a professor at Carnegie Mellon and was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. He has already lived beyond the 6 months he was originally given. When he found out his diagnosis, he put together his "last lecture" and gave it to a crowd of students, professors, friends, etc. The kicker of it all: it wasn't for them, he said. It was for his kids. I was touched by the story in the paper and meant to go online and watch the lecture. I haven't had time, but this evening I turned on the TV and happened upon a television show spotlighting this man and his family. I could not help but sit here and weep. I'm sure it had something to do with my excessive hormones, but I also appreciated so much the willingness of this man to share such profound thoughts with others, even though it was really meant for his children. Maybe I also couldn't help but think of what my own "last lecture" might sound like; or what his wife must have gone through as she sat there and listened to him share his stories. I was deeply touched and can't wait to really go watch that lecture - or maybe read his book, too.

2000 Flushes

Our water bill came today. There seems to be a trend - every month it is higher than the previous month. I showed it to my DH and said, "What's the deal? Why is our water bill getting higher and higher every month. It's so annoying!" He, very insightfully, commented, "Have you noticed how many times a day your son flushes the toilet?"

Ah, yes. That must be it. Part of the joys of getting our little one to go "pee-tee" on the potty and do all of those other things is that he gets to flush his own deeds down the toilet. Even when he "toots" on the potty he thinks he needs to flush it down the toilet. Even when he does nothing on his little Diego toilet, he thinks he needs to flush it down. You get the idea.

So, fewer diapers to change = higher water bill. I think I'll take it. Happy Flushing, Mr. A.

Giddyup, Cowboy!

Mr. A, DH, and Mr. A's cousin, Mr. N, sharing some quality time in an early morning hot tub dip
Playing with the fish in the water at the Aquarium
Jumping on the trampoline - As DH informed me, "Honey, I think there's a trampoline in our future"
And, finally, a little man, his horse, and one proud daddy

We just returned from a fabulous ranch vacation! More pics to come, but the highlight was definitely seeing Mr. A ride his first "ho-ssey" = horsie. It is truly so incredible to see your children do things for the first time and watch their reactions. He loved it, much to his father's pure delight. The days pretty much went as follows (with a few deviations here and there):

1. Wake up and look out at the amazing coastline and say good morning to the horsies in the corral and the rest of the day...

2. Go outside to personally greet the horsies, play with the train, jump on the trampoline, dig sand in the treehouse, go up in the treehouse to look out at the view, play with cousins, ride horsies, stare at the beautiful skyline, eat yummy cowboy food, take naps, etc, etc.

No Internet, no cell phone service, no TV. My idea of a GREAT vacation (although I will admit to sneaking a few peeks at the March Madness games while we were out at dinner a couple of times - love this time of year).

A huge thank you to my mom and our dear family friends for making it all possible and sharing it all with us! We will be back!