Flashback Friday

January 30, 2007

I put that date in big, bold, red print so no one would mistake this for current news.

January 30th. 2007. The day we found out our lives would be changed forever.

Michael was pretty pleased with his masculinity.

I obviously do not have a picture of the embryo that would grow into Spencer. This is the best I could do. A 3 week old embryo looks a lot like a rooster.
1 year later, January 27, 2008, that embryo had grown into a pretty good looking baby.
And 1 year after that, January 25, 2009, that baby was growing into a darn good looking toddler.

I thought about including a current picture, but didn't because 1) it's a flashback and 2) it's not like I haven't already posted 10,000 recent pictures of Spencer.

Art Corner

Spencer needed a place to do his art. Our kitchen had an empty corner. We hung a bulletin board on the wall, moved his little chair and table set, added some wire baskets for supplies and hung some pictures on the wall.

Voila. A place where he can color and paint all day. (And some days he does.)
Come on. He's obviously an artistic genius. Right up there with Monet. We had a bunch of extra 5 x 7 frames. I think finger painting looks elegant in a silver frame. And scribbles take on a whole new dimension in a gold, gilded frame. Should I start taking orders now? Spencer really cranks out the art and we're running out of space to display it. Don't tell him, but some of his materpieces have been put in the recycle.

Elf

Elf is Spencer's word for elephant. Some kids want to be a firefighter when they grow up. Other kids want to be a doctor. My kid wants to live on the serengeti and eat grass when he grows up.

This is Spencer's current favorite shirt. He asks to wear it every day. It was only appropriate that I buy a $1 face mask from Michael's Arts and Crafts dollar section to match.

Winter

It has been genuinely cold the past couple of days. We had to wait until 11 am to take our morning walk yesterday. Even then it was chilly.

This was on our walk last night. We had to give into several of Spencer's terrorist demands in order for him to agree to keep his hood on and his hands under the blanket. This included singing "The Wheels on the Bus" over and over for the entire walk and taking a certain route.

He wanted us to leave him in the garage when we got home. We did not agree to this demand. Knowing my son he'd figure out how to start the car and drive to the store for some cake, which he begged for all weekend. Spencer has had cake like 4 times his entire life. Where did he get the idea that it's something we eat every day?

Saturday with Elmo

We had a great Saturday. The highlight, of course, was meeting Elmo. This is Spencer waiting for Elmo to make his big entrance. Pretty bored, huh?

As Elmo was coming around the corner.Whenever Spencer gets really excited he covers his mouth with his hand. This is when Elmo was right in front of him.

He was pretty thrilled.

Elmo did the Elmo Hokey Pokey for the kids.Yeah for Elmo! There were quite a few kids who freaked out ala Santa's lap style when their parents put them on Elmo. Not my boy. He marched right up.And let Elmo pick him up.

It's just too bad that he didn't smile until after picture taking was all done.

After Elmo, we got our coffee and all was right with the world.

Elmo, knife skills, the park and a dog bath

I've been a little lazy about blogging this week. I have an excuse- Desperate Housewives. I decided that I want to start watching it again now that Spencer is sleeping on his own. I've had to catch up on a lot of episodes through a combination of reruns on Lifetime, DVD's at Blockbuster and iTunes. I'm almost there. I'm in Season 6. It takes a lot of time to watch several seasons of a TV show in a week.

I'll try to catch you up on some of the happenings of the last week.

Spencer has a new love: Elmo. We now have Elmo books and an Elmo DVD. His great grandparents in Vermont also sent him an Elmo doll. Spencer LOVES it. We're going to a local toy store on Saturday to meet Elmo in person. The toy store happens to be next to a Dunkin Donuts. I don't know who is more excited, Spencer or mommy and daddy.

I was making dinner last week and gave Spencer a little knife (butter- not chef) and let him chop up some zucchini stubs. The kid has mad knife skills.

We went to the park on MLK Jr. Day. Can anyone tell me what this bird is? They live in our neighborhood too. We call them non-duck ducks.
Their feet freak us out.
Spencer had a blast on the tire swing. I think we need to install one in our backyard now. Too bad we don't have a 100-year oak.

The splash pad is shut down for winter, but it was still fun to play on the animals.

My god my hair is frizzy. Somebody help me.

We gave Ginger a bath this week. After it was done she hid under the dining room table to prevent such a thing from happening again. Silly dog. Like I'm going to give her 2 baths in one day.

Patio lights

We FINALLY hung up our outdoor patio lights.

In only took 5 months to get around to it. It was the last box we needed to unpack. Everything else was unpacked by the middle of September.
I like them because they remind me of the lights hanging in the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland. Have you ever eaten there? It's my favorite. 'Cause, you know, I've been there twice.

New shoes

Mommy's new shoes

$4.99 for the blue and $4.99 for the burgundy (size 9.5)

Total= $9.98

Daddy's new shoes

$12.99 for the grey and $11.99 for the white (size 10.5)

Total= $24.98
Spencer's new shoes (Size Toddler 7)

$14.99 for the brown and $12.99 for the blue

Total= $27.98
Glad to see that Spencer has the special distinction of both the smallest and the most expensive shoes in the house.

Chair Evolution

This is the first time Spencer ever sat in his high chair. He was 4 months old. He didn't start eating solids for another 2 months, but we wanted him to be comfortable sitting here before we started putting food in his mouth.

He was (obviously) pretty happy with his high chair. It worked well until he was 18 months. Then we moved him to a booster seat. He loved his booster. Until one week after he turned two. Then he refused to sit in it. So I made this "it's not a booster booster". I used wood, cotton batting and fabric. It took a decent amount of time. Spencer sat on it once and then declared it over. It's been in the garage ever since. Anyone want to borrow it? Since September Spencer has been kneeling on his chair (that's what he was doing in those spaghetti pictures) or using our laps as his booster. We were at Goodwill last weekend looking for some cheap coloring books when I saw this chair for $12. Hmmm. This could work. I painted it glossy white. And added a $1.99 pillow (also from Goodwill).So far, no rejection.

It seems that the amount of time I spend on a project is in direct inverse proportion to how much Spencer likes it. Take a ribbon and tie it around an empty toilet paper roll. He'll play with it for hours. Take a chair and sand, wash, scrape, spray paint 3 coats, brush paint 2 coats and set it up in the kitchen. I give it a week.

Sleepers

Could Spencer and his daddy be any more identical when they sleep? Could I sound any more like Chandler Bing on Friends?

( In defense of my earlier post about Spencer sleeping independently- this was at like 8:30 am and he had been in his own bed until about 8:10 am. And really, why wouldn't you want to cuddle with daddy on Saturday morning when Daddy has to get up in the 5 am hour during the week)

A hideous day

Monday was the worst day we've had in a long, long time. It was a normal, lovely day prior to 5 pm. Then it fell apart. Fast. Here's a recap:

4:00- Spencer and I went outside to move a huge pile of stuff from the back yard to the front yard for a "big item" garbage collection. We were almost done. The only thing I couldn't move by myself was a 200+ pound kitchen countertop. I was just trying to shift it a little when, a little after 5 pm, it fell on top of my foot. OUCH!

5:22- the phone rings. I hobble inside to get it. It's Michael explaining that on the way to work he got hit with a rock and the windshield cracked (OK, that was prior to 5 pm but I didn't know about it) and now on the way home he got a flat. He put on the spare and the spare went flat.

6:00- Spencer and I, freshly showered, get in the car to go get Michael who has been picked up from the side of the road by our friend Josh.

6:40- We get to Josh and Amy's and decide to just have the car towed to their house.

7:00- We leave to go get some dinner before we have to meet the tow truck.

7:30- We get our food just as the tow truck driver calls to say he is at the car. The car that is 10 miles away. Michael, who has started to feel nauseous and lightheaded, leaves me and Spencer at the restaurant.

8:00- Spencer and I are done eating. The tow truck driver decides Michael needs to stay with him until the car is done being towed. I pick up Spencer, the leftovers, 2 sippy cups and my purse and, on my broken and bruised foot, hike across the world's largest parking lot to Wal-Mart.

8:30- Michael and I are talking on our cells about his ETA when he suddenly has to go. To puke. Out the window. I add "cheap bucket" to the list of things we can waste our time buying at Wal-Mart.

9:00- Michael finally gets there to pick us up. I drive home while he pukes in a mop bucket and Spencer whines in the back seat.

9:40- Finally home. We discover that Ginger has knocked over the trash. The trash that contained a cup of white paint. White paint is all over her and the floor.

It's nice to think that in 5 years or 5 months or even 5 days we might check the blog archives and read about yesterday and laugh. But I doubt it. It was truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.