Beautiful beagle, black eyes and bruised nose, penny loafers and yard work

Beautiful Beagle

I took this picture of Ginger on Sunday. Seriously, get this beautiful dog an agent because she belongs on a box of milk bones.

Black eyes and bruised nose

Spencer was running through the living room on Sunday night. Although we weren't in the room to see exactly what happened, we think he ran into the arm of the chair and then fell and hit his nose on the cinder block step by the doggy door. He got a big gash and immediately started turning black and blue. This is about 5 minutes after the incident. He woke up on Monday morning with two shiners. This picture is not the best but you can kind of tell that he is black and blue across his face. It looks worse in person. I took him to the doctor Monday morning and there are no broken bones or hematomas in his nose. Thank god. Penny loafers and yard work

Spencer was playing with his water table before dinner last night. He was soaking wet within minutes, so we stripped him down to his diaper before we ate. After dinner Michael went outside to mow the grass. Spencer saw this and started freaking out that he didn't have shoes on so he could join daddy. I couldn't find his sneakers, his crocs or his flip-flops and the best I could do with the time limitations imposed by a baby, were penny loafers. He went charging into the backyard (in just a diaper and penny loafers!), grabbed his wagon and started pulling it around the yard. I think he thought he was helping to mow.

Here's a good shot of the penny loafers. This just makes me laugh.

I got his lawnmower out so that the yard work was a little more legitimate, but the grass was too thick to push it.

The rocks got a trim though.

Waddlers

You totally think this post is going to be about a duck, don't you? You're wrong. That's just my idea of some late night humor. Remember, I write my posts ahead of time (usually late at night after Spencer is sleeping) and schedule them to magically appear during the 5 am hour.

Waddlers is actually the name of Spencer's age group/class at My Gym. We have been taking classes there for 2 weeks now. I absolutely love their program and I think Spencer is pretty pleased with it too. I'm a little offended that Spencer is called a waddler, but in another month he'll move up to the "gymster" class.

This is the description of the waddler class from the My Gym website:

This stimulating 1-hour program introduces balancing, tumbling, hanging and agility skills, which helps children develop a love of physical activity and a sense of pride in their achievements. Our highly trained instructors shower the children with affection, as they guide our Waddlers in early social skills through interactive songs, choreographed dances, age-specific puppet shows, special rides, and a variety of swings and other original activities.

This class is exactly what Spencer needs at this age. There is just enough group time and stuctured activities that it feels like a real class. He gets to interact with other babies and I get to talk to other mommies and daddies. There is also plenty of "free time" play because, realistically, 14 month-22 month old babies are not able to stay in a structured activity for very long.

The first time he went on it Spencer was a little hesitant about the trampoline. Now he loves it and goes on it a lot. He loves climbing over things and the gym offers plenty of opportunities for that.
Checking out one of the see-saw toys

Going up the stairs to the slide
Climbing through a tunnel

Enjoying his favorite activity- the ball pit! You can barely see him in there.

There he is!

There are many things that I have done in the past 21 months that have made me feel like a mom. A few that come to mind are: actually giving birth to the boy, breastfeeding, changing a million diapers, bath time, story time, kissing boo-boos, making grilled cheese sandwiches, encouraging milk drinking, cutting the peels off apples and going to 547 (rough estimate) doctor's appointments. However, nothing has made me feel more like a MOM mom than taking Spencer to swim lessons and the waddler class at My Gym.

All of a sudden, with very little warning, I'm writing his schedule in my calendar and having to check it before I can schedule play dates and other such things. The other day I considered buying a big calendar and hanging it in the laundry room as a "family" calendar. Ahhhh! I'm, like, a MOM!

List Friday

Smells that evoke a strong response (good or bad) in me:

#1) Moonlight path lotion

I bought the entire line (lotion, spray, bath gel, etc) of moonlight path from Bath and Body Works because I loved the way it smelled. I started using it and a couple of days later I got the flu. After that the smell of this lotion on me makes me want to throw up. I get nauseous and dizzy. I ended up giving everything to my mom. The smell on her makes me happy.

#2) Pampers Swaddlers

When Spencer was born he was so tiny the only diapers that fit him were Pampers Swaddlers Newborn. The smell of those diapers (new- not used!) makes me feel simultaneously thrilled (I have a baby!) and a little sick to my stomach (Oh my god! I have a baby!).
#3) This Autumn Centerpiece
Every fall I use this dish, these candles and these scented beaded vegetables to create a centerpiece. I had my tonsils taken out in October, 2003 when this centerpiece was out in the house. Everytime I smell it I feel pain in my throat and can taste my pain medicine.
#4) Carnation Instant Breakfast
This is similar to the above smell. When I had my jaw surgery the only think I consumed for about 10 days was carnation instant breakfast. I couldn't chew for a month, but for those first 10 days even yogurt and pudding were too thick. I would gag on them and the muscles involved with gagging would trigger waves of pain over my whole head. I would drink carnation just so I could take my pain meds. I would set the glass on the table in front of me and then debate with myself for half an hour before starting to drink: should I chug it with A LOT of pain to get it over with or should I sip it with slightly less pain that lasted a lot longer? Just looking at this box makes my whole face hurt.
#5) Pert Plus shampoo plus conditioner
It reminds me of the first summer I went to YMCA camp. Apparently I used it while there.

#6) Revlon Moondrops Lipstick

My Gramme wore this kind of lipstick and all her kisses smelled like it. It's a very bittersweet smell to me. I feel sad and happy at the same time.

#7) Rain in the desert

It's a combination of dirt and creosote bushes. It reminds me of every monsoon season I experienced growing up in Tucson. Michael, who grew up in Vermont, hates this smell. I would bottle it and spray it all over my house and my body if I could.

What are the scents and smells that evoke strong responses in you?

James

James is a very good friend that I hardly ever get to see. Although we both technically live in the Valley of the Sun, we both live in "outskirt" cities separated by at least 85 miles. The last time we saw each other was when Spencer was 5 weeks old and a good 20 pounds lighter.

Amazingly James had a meeting for work last week at a restaurant a mile from our house. Of course he came over and of course I took pictures of them on the same couch. Spencer didn't want to sit on James' lap but he was totally fine with sitting on the arm of the couch. The only problem was getting these two turkeys to look at the camera with their eyes open in the same picture.

All four eyes are closed.

Two eyes open, two eyes closed- no eyes looking at the camera.

Four eyes open, only two looking.

Again, two eyes open and two eyes closed but they flip-flopped from the previous picture. Now James is not looking.

This was the best I could do.

If I am a humorous writer at all it is because of James. I met him when I was an intern at the Arizona Senate and he was a Constituent Services Rep. The legislative session is a very busy time, but the majority of the year (interim) is full of looooong, boring hours. James and I would send each other funny emails all day long to pass the time.

Once I become an Assistant Analyst our offices were very close to each other. I would send an email and, if the office was really quiet, I could hear the ding in his office announcing that the email had arrived. I'd listen for him to start laughing before I would walk down there to join in the laughter.

Somehow, we got started emailing each other real articles that we had altered in someway. They started really simple with just a few details changed but after some time we started changing just about everything in the article. We called them "alticles" (for altered article). We actually have two books full of all the ones we wrote. We definitely had our favorite subjects- Governor Hull (and her oven desk), Secretary of State Betsy Bayless (and her mobile command unit), and a certain Republican Staffer who shall remain nameless (because I don't want to get sued and subpoenaed to share all the articles we wrote about him or her.) These alticles are chock full of inside jokes but I'll try to find a few that I could share on the blog. They are golden.

Far from Wordless Wednesday

I was going to make today's post a Wordless Wednesday, but then the events surrounding the photography taken for the post ended up being so funny I had to include words. Remember the pictures of Spencer wearing the Mickey Mouse ears last week? Michael and I were looking through some photo albums on Monday and came across this picture of my dad. It was taken when Kendra gave us this hat when I was only 4 months pregnant. My dad looks like one of those boys from the Lollypop Guild. On crack. With Mickey Mouse ears instead of dwarfism.

Anyway, we thought it would be cute to show this picture next to a picture of Spencer wearing the same hat. Last night Spencer and Michael were watching a Baby Einstein video and for the first time all day Spencer was sitting really still. Perfect time to take a picture.

The only problem was that Michael kept on ruining the picture with the presence of his chest and lap.

So I, being only a little bit Type A and perfectionistic, thought I would throw a blanket over Michael so you couldn't see him in the background. Only problem was that now it looked like Spencer was sitting on the lap of someone who was wearing a blanket thrown over his or her head. Either that or he's in front of a VERY LARGE anthill. I was laughing so hard when I took this picture that it came out blurry. The edited/cropped version is somewhat more presentable than the big lump of blanket in the previous version though.

Spencer's eczema on his face flared up today. He ate fresh pineapple for dinner last night and I think that the acidity was a little too harsh for him. We'll be breaking out his face cream tonight and hopefully he'll be rash free in a couple of days.

Dinner at Nathan and Kendra's

Like I said in yesterday's post, we had dinner at Nathan and Kendra's house on Saturday night.

Michael and Spencer enjoyed a little snuggle time on the backyard glider while we were cooking inside. Nathan made a fantastic salmon and Kendra prepared a yummy pork roast salad.

I took a close-up of Nick and told him I was going to put it on the blog. I can't make empty promises/threats.Spencer had a blast playing peek-a-boo with the laundry room door. He also really enjoyed reading the newspaper with Uncle Nick. They have a special bond with each other. Spencer's middle name is Nicholas afterall. When my mom got there Spencer had to take her into the backyard and show her how to work the glider.

Geech looks possessed in this picture. His eyes are seriously glowing.

Ginger kept a close watch on the grill in case any little morsels were to be accidentally dropped. Later in the evening there was a ridiculous amount of lounging going on.

Father's Day Festivities

We had a great weekend in Tucson honoring the dads in our lives. We went to dinner at Nathan and Kendra's house on Saturday night. I'm going to do a separate post about that though.

See, now you have something to look forward to.

On Sunday we started out the day at Michael's parents' house for a deluxe breakfast and some gift opening. My dad was at a conference in Phoenix and didn't get back until Sunday afternoon so he wasn't around for the A.M. festivites.

Remember, this was last year- matching Raiders shirts.

This year was matching U of A shirts and jean shorts.

Ginger didn't get to come to breakfast, so I couldn't force Michael to take a picture with her. He was more than happy to take a picture with his dad though.Raymond just had his ankle operated on, so he's stylin' with a big, blue cast this summer. Just looking at it made my leg itch. After breakfast we went back to my parents house and forced Spencer to take a nap. The dogs, on the other hand, needed no prompting to take their nap. They looked like this all afternoon.

My brother turns 28 today. For the next 10ish weeks it will appear that I am only 1 year older than him. Then, I will turn (gulp) 30 and we'll go back to a 2 year age difference. I made some fancy cupcakes for all the celebrations. Dads and birthday boys got their initials on a cupcake.

My wayward father finally returned in the afternoon and donned an ove glove while manning the grill.My dad is the assistant director of Arizona Boy's State and can be found wearing a Boy's State shirt about 92-96% of the time. We have a family joke about all his Boy's State shirts. My brothers and I bought him some new, non Boy's State shirts. In this picture he is looking at the fake label I added that reads "This is not a Boy's State emblem". We couldn't find a 2 and an 8 candle in the supply of used number candles (and my mom said it was ridiculous to try to make a math problem out of a 2, a 5 and a 3), so Nick got a solitary stick candle on his initial cupcake. Thank god he had the lung capacity to blow it out.
It was a great weekend. Next weekend I'll have to start working on coordinating clothes for Michael and Spencer AND Ginger for next year. I'm thinking a Yankees shirt for Michael and Spencer and a Yankees tutu for Ginger.