Happy New Year! Better late than never...

Well, Christmas has coma and gone. Typically, the ending of the holiday season fills me with a feeling of sadness. I usually feel so sad to see the festive decorations get boxed up until next year, but this year has been different. This year, I relished putting away the intrusive tree, with it's wide branches that hid the bottom left corner of the TV screen. I enjoyed sealing the ornaments into their respective Ziploc bags and I felt relief when all the holiday clutter was packed away once again. Maybe it is because our house is getting ever smaller as our child gets bigger and accumulates more toys. And for some reason, his toys keep getting bigger also. Where before, he happily played with a matchbox car or two, he now drags out tents, ride on vehicles and other crap that serves no purpose other than to make his mother crazy! Now, I am not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination, but even I have my limits! I keep telling myself by this time next year, a new house will be built for us, with so much more space! This little two bedroom shoebox will be a thing of the past! Of course, by that time there will be another child (God willing) with more crap to leave all over the place. But such are the joys of parenthood, I suppose! And now, for the viewing pleasure of the 3 or 4 people who will read this, some pictures of my little man:

this is typical morning behavior. dry cereal and cartoons, life doesn't get much better

a common sight after bathtime, until the towel slips off, then a little naked man runs wild through the house

being silly with dad and his tent

playing with his new toy from Santa

Dumbest. Dog. Ever.

Otis. No, he's not snarling at anything, he just has a funky underbite!

Molly. I am sure she is standing there trying to find something to destroy.

I have two dogs. They are a cross between a shih-tsu and a weiner dog (a shweenie, I learned through the awesomeness that is google). They are brother and sister. Their given names are Molly and Otis. However, they go by many other names as well: the Moron Twins, Dweedle-dee and Tweedle-Duh, Dumb and Dumber, you get the idea. Well, last night (this morning actually) at 3:30, Molly decided to start whining to get out of her room. They are gated into the laundry room at night, we do not trust them to run wild in the house unsupervised. I have made that mistake and woken up to dirty diapers and other goodies strewn about the place. But I digress. So at 3:30 I am laying in my bed yelling shut up, because let's be honest, nice ends at midnight! Molly kept up her frantic whining and scratching, so I figured the poor thing had to go outside to do her business. So I let her out. As I lifted her over the gate, I looked at her brother and said, "You just lay there and stay quiet if you want to live to see another sunrise." Or something along those lines, a naughty word may have been thrown in. He, being the more intelligent of the two, laid his head in his paws and decided to wait patiently for his annoying sister. So I out Molly outside thinking this will be fairly quick, as it was 8'. She took off barking at some imaginary threat! Oh, I have never wanted to harm an animal as much as I did early this morning, standing on my freeszing cold porch BAREFOOT, screaming as quietly as I could (didn't want to wake the kiddo) for her to get back here right now! I finally shut the door and turned off the porch light, fully intending to make Molly sleep in the cold. I lay down and the guilt struck. I knew if I left Molly outdoors till morning, I would wake to find a little furry popsicle on the porch. So I went and got her. She finally came in, with her tail tucked right under her legs! Oh yes, she knew she was in trouble. I think she learned her lesson though, when the sun finally rose, she waited for me to feed her and let her out, rather than scratch and whine incessantly at the gate.

It's days like this when I really can't remember why I wanted dogs so badly? But that is another story, another post.

Baby, it's cold outside!

I really feel if it is going to be colder than 20' it should at least snow! If I can't go outside and play (my body rebels against the cold) then I should get to look at something pretty!

Yesterday I wanted so badly to take my little man outside so we could play until our noses and cheeks were red and then we could come inside and share a cup of hot chocolate. Is there anything better than the taste of hot cocoa after being outside in the freezing cold? I didn't think so. Yet, when I opened the door to test the temp, I about blew over. The wind was awful! Trees were falling apart! Okay, so the trees we have are a bit on the skimpy side and it doesn't take much to knock their branches off, but still. Needless to say, Brody and I occupied ourselves indoors. We did manage to run to WalMart just to get out of the house and I almost slapped a guy silly while we were there. Walking out of the store we passed a boy (man?) about 20 ish years old with two small (I'm talking maybe 1 and 2 years old) with NO COATS on!! And, they were wearing t-shirts!! Seriously guy? And of course, Dad (or whoever he was) had on a nice warm coat. I almost asked if he needed me to buy a couple of coats for his kids. The littlest one broke my heart, his face was all red and his eyes and nose were runny. Honestly, I can't get his little face out of my head! Now, I understand not everyone wants to bundle their kids for a wuick trip to WalMart, but at least grab a blanket to wrap around them on the way in and out! Okay, my vent is over. For the moment.

Brody has been sick with a little cold the last week or so. It makes him pretty whiny which makes me want to scream! He has no desire to try and talk to me when he wants something, he just whines and grunts. Once I figure out what he wants, I say it and make him repeat it, with a please tacked on. I know he is fine, but somedays I worry that he isn't talking like he should be. This could be due in part to the fact that I have three older very talkative nieces with one smaller niece well on her way! He does understand everything I say and follows directions really well (when he wants to) but I wish he would TALK!

Mike left for Quebec yesterday morning. He called last night to tell me his bag was left behind in Detroit. He is pretty ticked off, and I really can't blame him. It's happened to me a few times. Losing your luggage has got to be one of the worst feelings out there! Hopefully, the bag found it's way to his hotel last night!

Pictures and Presents!

My husband is back from the Orient! Is it okay to call China the Orient? He brought back presents as instructed. I got a very pretty silk scarf and he had some guy write mine and Brody's names on some strips of paper (vey cool) and he got two mini marble statues of some lions. Apparently, these lions are all over in China, guarding homes and things. They are pretty cool looking and they were carved from ONE piece of marble!

I am Mommy!

I guess with his father being gone, Brody has decided to (upgrade?) me to "daddy". He says "thanks. daddy" when I do something for him, "here, daddy" when he hands me something and so on. You get the idea. It's a little frustrating, I must say. Oh sure, at first it was cute and I giggled and said, "no, I'm mommy!" Then he would laugh and call me by my proper title. Now I have taken to rolling my eyes and sighing when he does it. I roll my eyes at my two year old! I wonder if he'll call Mike "mommy" when he gets home tomorrow?

Twilight

I caved. I bought the Twilight movie yesterday. I saw it in theaters last year, but I have refrained from buying the DVD. Why? I am sure it has something to do with the fact that having it in my home is sure to result in some child neglect. However, I waited until the kiddo was asleep last night before watching it and I am happy to say that although it was as good as I remember, I don't think I will feel the need to watch it again for a while. I am now ready to see the second movie coming to town this weekend! How sad is it that I, a 30 year old married woman, is so stiniking excited to watch a movie about a teenage girl and her vampire boyfriend? Really, what is it about this story that is so obsessive? It is a question I have pondered since I read the books a little over a year ago.

Sick weekend

Somehow, I stay amazingly healthy when my husband is home. But, the minutes a nasty stomach bugs decides to ruin my day, he is in Romania, or this time, China. Let me tell you, being sick is just not as much fun as it was pre-kid. I remember being sick almost like a little vacation from reality. I would call in sick to work and curl up in bed to sleep, read, and watch movies. Oh, that was blissful! Even when Mike is home and I feel yucky, I can somewhat relax in bed and try to get the rest I need. However, when it's just me and the little man, I have to suck it up and take care of him first. I guess I should feel lucky to have a pretty easy kid. Some matchbox cars and he's happy for hours it seems! I did feel guilty of course for not participating in his play much and I felt incredibly bad with it being the first snowfall and not being able to take him out to play in it! My mom did call later in the day and ask if I wanted to bring him to her house for a while, which I did. I got there and dropped him off telling her "I just feel yucky, but no throwing up or anything". Yeah, spoke a little too soon there. As I was walking back to my mini-van, I doubled over and fouled up the street right in front of my parent's house. I am sure the neighbors were thrilled about that. So I came home and relaxed in relative peace (I do have two small annoying dogs) for about three hours. By the time my mom brought Brody home, it was close enough to bedtime to put him down. And he was so sleepy from playing with his cousins at Mee-maw's house that he went right to sleep! Thank you, Lord! So I did manage to get about 9 hours of good sleep on Friday night and woke up Saturday feeling well enough to properly take care of my child. Now my concern is him getting that crap. I have a stop & shop to do today for the Pampered Chef and I cannot leave my baby with my mom knowing he is sick! I am praying like crazy that he stays healthy. Heck, I'll take a second dose of it all of it means he doesn't have to go through it!