Fun at the Zoo

The neighborhood pool is closed for repairs, we didn't feel like paying the prices at Rapids, and Poodle is sort of working thru a little upper respiratory virus (although it's not stopping her) so we didn't want to take her riding on her bike.

And, it's hot.

So, out comes the baby pool! Put it at the end of the slide on the swing set, and you have mucho fun. Just add water! ::grin::

Flowers!!!

Our lily pads in the goldfish pond are blooming! The lily pads were placed in there as a result of Robert's suggestion of more plant coverage in order to control algae growth. And this morning, Jmk saw some beautiful blooms!

This one shows the location of both blooms.

Here a close up of the pink bloom.

And, here's the white one!

Follow the Fidget

When I saw this picture of Fidget, besides wanting to eat up her darling little face, I remember thinking "Wow! Neither one of my kids could ever sit still long enough to do that! Or, even if they could, neither one of them would be able to be that tired and NOT be crying his or her head off".

Yep. As is usual with parenting, beware of absolute statements.

For the Cat Lovers

This is a really neat story - something you would normally see written about a dog. But it's about a furry feline instead! Hat tip to MooMoo for this one.

And, an update on Tooter's sleeping: Not nearly as great of a night last night. He woke up very itchy several times last night, and I finally had to just scoop him up and bring him to bed so that we could all sleep. And now, today, Poodle is making noises about her tummy not feeling well. So, I'm not entirely sure that the kids aren't fighting off something or other.

In case you're wondering, I'm not about to start posting a daily update on my children's sleeping habits. Worry not! The above update was only for those mommies or daddies who might read the previous post, think "oh, why doesn't my child sleep all night", and think they should be doing something different. Every child is different, and every night is different with each child!

Go Tooter!

He did it! He slept all the way thru the night last night! He was asleep by 8'ish (later than normal, but he was wound up last night) and I didn't hear from him again until 6!

The biggest deal isn't that he slept all night without assistance getting back to sleep. The BIGGEST deal is that his skin isn't even in top notch shape right now. He is one day started on healing from an eczema breakout, and is still a little itchy.

But he managed to get himself back to sleep every time he woke up last night! Which is a huge, huge thing. Now, I do realize we won't have perfect sleepy nights from here on out. In the worst of a breakout, he needs to know that we will come help him when he needs it. BUT, for him to work thru the little bit of itching that he had last night without any support from Daddy or Mommy is a HUGE step!!!

We still don't do the cry-it-out thing, because it just doesn't suit my personality. So, I realize that getting to this step has taken a longer time than maybe it would have otherwise. But I like for everything related to bedtime to be gentle and pleasant. (or at least as pleasant as possible!)

We're so proud of him!!! (And we're not crying about being able to sleep all night, either!)

Baby Pigtails

This is from August of 2005 - Tooter hadn't even been born yet. sigh..... Amy had put her hair up in pigtails for the first time that day.

Jmk happened to see this picture in the past week, so I thought I'd post it here so we could see it from time to time. I can't quite believe how grown up her face is becoming now, especially when I compare it to this picture. There are times that Poodle still has her baby face, but those times are slowly being outnumbered.

It is hard to see these old pictures without a pang of sadness.... which, of course, is crazy because I should be feeling joy that she is with us, and is growing and is changing and learning. But, I fall in line with about a squillion parents before me. We all see our babies and yearn for just one more moment to hold their warm little bodies and kiss their big squishy cheeks.

I didn't deserve to be given these children - I did nothing to merit the blessing of these never-stopping bundles of precious joy. But, by grace and mercy, He gave them to me anyway.

Now, check with me on a random evening at 5:30, when the kids are driving me crazy and I'm mentally beat from the day, and my retrospection might not be quite so weepy and sigh-filled. But, in the quiet of naptime, my sighs walk hand in hand with my smiles.

The boy who eats.....

Tooter comes up to me and gives me a big ole sloppy kiss, while I'm working thru some emails this morning. The kiss, however, is particularly greasy. As though he had been eating lotion.

Oh horrors.

So, I go on a search. Nope - no offending lotion anywhere. Most importantly, he hasn't gotten into any of his prescription creams that might hurt him if they were ingested.

I know he's gotten into something, but I see no evidence of anything immediately harmful. I figure I'll find it eventually.

I did.

Just opened the pantry door to find a stick of Crisco suspiciously open and smeared on the floor.

U.G.H.

lol... I expect some interesting diapers later today or tomorrow. But, thankfully, the cause of the grease was a benign one.

Yep. He's now the boy who eats Crisco.

Fred. And Bob.

Poodle was "reading" one of her Nutcracker books to me after her nap today, and she informs me of two very important things that, even after all my years of dancing this ballet, I never knew.

#1. The Nutcracker's name is actually Fred.

#2. After the Nutcracker turns into a prince, his name becomes Bob.

I kid you not.

Today's Joke

Installing a Home Security System (Southern Style)


1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 16 work boots.

2. Place them on your front porch, along with copies of the Guns & Ammo magazine and some back-issues of NRA magazine. An American Hunter (from the NRA) won't hurt either.

3. Put several giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazines (Include a deer thigh-bone or two).

4. Leave a note on your door that reads:

Hey Duke,
Big Jim, Bosco, Red, and I went for more hollow-point ammo. (We're in a shootin' mood today). Back in an hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked the mailman this morning and they messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it, thank goodness. It was hard to tell, though, from all the blood. Took Lorreene hours to clean up the sidewalk. Anyways, I locked all four of 'em dogs up in the house. You better wait outside. They're kinda spooked.

Be right back, Bubba

Since we were dressed up...

Jmk and I donned some wedding finery and stepped out last Saturday night, and so, we got MooMoo to snap a picture of us. There usually isn't anyone at the house but one of us to take pictures. BUT, because the kids weren't coming with us, we had someone else there behind the camera.

Anyway, we had the pleasure of going to see Miss Kelli Schutz wed Mr. Brodie Croyle. America's Junior Miss weds the Alabama turned NFL boy. They make such a handsome couple, and both come from beautiful families. Brodie's parents run this camp in Alabama. And Kelli's parents are just precious - I've gotten to know her mom thru Junior Miss stuff, since Kelli started her JM journey at our local program!

The wedding was so sweet, and the reception was fantastic! Unfortunately, the families had a devastating development - Mrs. Schutz's father had a heart attack at the rehearsal dinner the night before and died the morning of the wedding. Kelli wanted to postpone everything, but her mom and her grandmother told her to go on ahead and that they would all enjoy her wedding day. Their composure was unbelievable - and they were able to feel joy for Kelli and Brodie in spite of the pain and shock of losing their loved one.

Please keep that family in your prayers - the emotional rollercoaster has been quite extreme over the past week, and I dare say they can hardly believe what has happened themselves.

As for "celebrity" sightings, I only saw Mike Shula and his teeny, tiny beautiful wife. (And that was only because Jmk pointed him out. I wouldn't have known him. His name, but not him). There were undoubtedly U of A folks there, but I really don't know those players. And, I suspect that the Kansas City folks will be having or have had a separate celebration for Kelli and Brodie. I can only assume that the Chiefs are getting geared up for the pre-season, right?

Despite the fact that I kept thinking about how YOUNG they both were, (they're not that young, but I got married SO much later in life than they did!), they are so much in love with each other. And watching that made the evening so much fun!

Welcome to America. Now, please, shush.

I would like to offer my gracious Southern welcome to Mr. and Mrs. Beckham. They are here legally, with a legitimate reason for being here. Hoorah.

And, now, please, won't you just shush. Despite what you are lead to believe, you are NOT royalty. You are NOT, quite frankly, all that interesting. And, while, I suppose I have to accept Mr. Beckham's being on the cover of SI, since he does kick a mean soccer ball, I really, really don't want to start seeing pictures of both of you every where.

I realize that my desire to not see updates of your life on a daily basis is not likely to be fulfilled. So, I hope you understand that I will be ignoring you and your pictures. I really don't care about where you live, who your friends are, and what you think about Los Angeles. I'm not terribly concerned about what clothes you're wearing, where you eat your dinner, or where your initials are on your Bentley. (rolling eyes).
I do have some concern about how your children are handling this monumental change in their life, but I'm sure their multiple nannies will be there for them as you peacock for the cameras.

Good luck with the whole "trying to energize the sport of soccer" thing. I used to enjoy watching my brother play soccer. Soccer is a great game!

Um. You do realize we aren't too far from the NFL pre-season, shortly followed by the commencement of college football, right? Just making sure.

Monkey Pics for today

Poodle working on letters.

Tooter after a "slide into the pool" session.

Monkey pics fix has been handled!

TV Worlds Colliding!!!

So, I'm watching a Law and Order rerun yesterday (L&A is one of my guilty pleasures. Get it? Guilty? Law and Ord...... Yeah. I know. 10 thousand comedians out of work......) Anyway.... so I'm watching the rerun yesterday, and the main bad dude was supposedly a TV chef. They show him on the "set" of his show - and by george, it was Rachael Ray's set!!!

I'm not sure exactly how long good ole Rachael has been doing her 30 minute meals on FoodTV, or when the episode of L&A was filmed. But I'm positive it was her set.

I have a feeling that some of y'all are reading patiently waiting for the "big news". Well, ::cough::, that was kind of it.


I never claimed to be terribly hip or cool, thankyouverymuch. Just amused by off-the-wall stuff, sometimes!

GaGa - I hate to break this to you.....

It's not that he WANTS to like watermelon, he just can't help it!!!
::wink wink!::

For Jmk

I just found the list! (I had forgotten about some of these already, honey!)

Pootar
Dance in your boogie pants
Toolicious
Coos Drop
Can I wanna ___?
Can I talk to you?
May. I. Be. Escuuused pease?
No Way Jose
Boonana
Of Course!
Hmm hmmm hmmm.....
Poosketti
I toogot.
I so saaaaa.
Ta ta!
Pacause
Sip Sops
Siup (Phillip) (Thanks for those two Robert!)
Sosia
Bahbee NoNo
4-Eee Wheel
Kittnen
Lellow

::sniff sniff::
She's such a big girl now, Daddy!

A little humor for today

From Miss Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey:
"She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind, is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing any thing, should conceal it as well as she can."

::cough, sputter, cough::

Miss Austen just throws that stuff in there. It's priceless.

Lost as a goose.

This is a shot of the kids playing "attack the Daddy" before bathtime a few nights ago. We just had the most wonderful past few days! Jmk had Wednesday off, of course, and then he took Thursday and Friday off also. We didn't actually go anywhere, and since we had a lot of gracious rain over the past week, the Zoo was inside the house quite a bit.

And even though you'd think this would be a recipe for disaster, or at least serious cabin fever, we had the best time. A lot of playing, a little bit of shopping, a ton of laughing, too much eating (groan!), and just some wonderful together time.

And I feel so lost this morning, because Jmk had to go back to work! Ugh. Back to reality.
I miss my lobster!

Minor addenda to yesterday's post

The first time you use the Microplane, *just* take off calluses. Don't try to work on regular dry skin. Save that for your foot "sanders". (for lack of a better term) I did get down too far on one of my big toes. It's fine now, but it was pretty sensitive for an evening.

Just a note, in case anyone is thinking about getting one!

Foot Envy

Do you have foot envy? Do you look at flip-flop'd females and see smooth, callous-free feet and wish that yours could look like that? Do you have small children that makes the idea of a pedicure seem more like work than fun? Does your budget prohibit pedicures?

Even more important - is the skin on your feet so rough and dry and callused that you get large cracks in your toes or heels or pads of your feet? Cracks that actually make walking uncomfortable at times?

Thanks to an online gift certificate that my sister gave me for my birthday, and a chance google search for something unrelated to this product, I came across this product. Oh my goodness!!!

Y'all - this WORKS. Seriously. The first time I tried it, it removed the calluses from my feet. Gone. It doesn't hurt to use the file, and my feet didn't hurt when it was all finished. My feet are in such a shape that it will take a few more of days of moisturizing and baby'ing to have them looking post-pedicure. But they will!!!

I am impressed - really impressed. If you have this problem with your feet, and can spare the money, go get yourself one. You will really love it. I'm not saying that you must go thru this Amazon vendor, although I had no problems with them. And, I don't know anything more about the various Microplane products. The only one I know about is the one I got, and that's the link I posted.

But, I actually don't have any thick, yellowy, dry skin on my tootsies right now! I'm just thrilled. It works!!!

Twinkies!

From Robert and Megan's wedding.... actually after it was all finished and we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to our cars after the reception. Beautiful SueSue and her Poodle - twinkies forever!

How Much???

I get Allure magazine each month - it's the least political of the fashion magazines out there. It allows me to see what the other makeup and skin care companies are offering, without having to weed thru TOO much political rhetoric. (There's always a little bit, but it's more easily avoidable).

Quite frankly, most of what I look at are the ads. (Mary Kay even has an ad in this month's Allure!) But, I also take cursory glances at the pages of "high fashion" that are available. I was bowled over by a page of thong sandles - the shoes themselves were cute enough. But the PRICES. Oh, for the sake of pete. Here is an example of how much some of these designer shoes go for. Some of them are as much as $1000. For a pair of thong sandles. I kid you not.

Crazy, huh? Now, listen, I admit that I've never had on a pair of designer shoes. And I will readily admit that they probably fit much differently and feel better than one of my pairs of $15 Target shoes. The quality of materials is in a different league. Whatever.

But you know what? $400? Please. lol...... Never gonna happen my friend. Not even close.

I'm gonna go slip on my comfy little brown suede flip-flops that I just got at Tarjay for $6.99 on sale. They're cute. And I won't get heartburn when Tooter picks one up and uses it for strength training without my knowledge.

Of Blueberries and Bug Spray

Saturday morning, Poodle and I went to MooMoo's house to pick her blueberry bushes. They were ready, ready to be picked, and I had to wait until Jmk could watch Tooter.

So, she and I donned our jeans, boots, and bug spray (chiggers, you know), and set off for MooMoo and GaGa's house. Poodle brought a little bucket, and I had a trusty plastic grocery bag to hold our loot. I gave Poodle the rundown on which berries to pick, and which to leave, and we got to work.

I'm usually the one with the camera firmly planted in my hand. So I was a bit irritated with myself that I didn't have it with me. It was an image that I'm sure MooMoo had in her mind as she planted those bushes eons ago. A little granddaughter in a pink tank top, with her long blond hair pulled into a low ponytail, picking berries and putting them into her little white bucket. Her cheeks flushed after 5 minutes in the heat. It was really sweet.

Telling me "uh oh, Mommy. I got some white ones. Can you put them back on the tree for me?"

What was most noticeable to me, though, was what happened a bit later. First, Poodle is a normal 3 year old whose brain filter hasn't been fully engaged. Her communication is often nothing more than her trains of thought that travel directly from her brain to her mouth. And, she has no off switch, so she is always talking. Always.

So, after about 30 minutes of berry picking, Poodle is quiet. I look down at her, and for 2 solid minutes, my little chatterbox is quiet. I realize that she is actually lost in her thoughts for that brief but precious time. It was something that I don't see (or hear) very often. I wanted to ask her what she was thinking about, but didn't want to interrupt this quiet, sweet time.

Picking berries at my childhood home with my child. I don't want to forget that feeling.