A bunch of Spencer stuff

Classes

We stopped paying our monthly My Gym fee back in May.  Spencer had reached the age where he was doing independent classes and he didn't enjoy them as much as parent participation classes.  We still go to free play, but not every week.

Since we are no longer going to My Gym 3 times a week we have time to do other activities.  On the agenda this fall is an art class with daddy on Tuesdays and Mommy and Me Pottery class on Monday.  We started last week.  We're taking the class with our friends Joni and Oriana, but I didn't get their picture.

We'll work with the clay one week and then paint the next.  We plan on putting M&M's in these bowls.  I hope they are food safe.

Pictures

Spencer had school pictures last week.  I bought the $9 package so I won't be disappointed if they are terrible.

He wore a new shirt, I put make-up on his nose scar and sprayed his hair with hair spray.  Then I called Toddlers and Tiaras to see if we could sign up for a spot on the show.  Yes, I'm recycling my jokes from facebook.

We're headed to JC Penney for 4-year-old pictures this weekend.  I bought this sweater for $6 from Buy Buy Baby for Spencer to wear.  He's going to burn up, but the pictures should be cute.

Shots

Spencer had his 4-year well child check-up on Friday.  He is 32 pounds (a little less than 25th percentile) and 37.75 inches (10th percentile).  He is healthy as can be and developmentally on track (which we already knew).

He got 4 booster immunization shots and his flu shot.  Did you count?  5 shots.  The poor kid.  I think it was our worst shot appointment just because he has not forgotten about it yet.  He was very sensitive and extra whiny that day, but luckily he's never gotten sick or feverish from vaccinations. 

 He's already stressing about what shots he needs when he is 5.  Luckily, he is done with immunizations and just needs flu shots from here on out.  Oh, and weekly allergy shots when we start them, but I have not told him that yet.

Sleep

Even though it is still hot at night Spencer has decided he wants to sleep in pants.  It started when he wanted to wear his new Thomas PJ's, which have short sleeves and pants.  He has a limited supply of pant PJ sets that aren't truly winter PJ's, so we've been combining the pants with white t-shirts.

I just love these woodland character PJ's.  They are from last year.  I wish he could wear them every day, during the day.

Rudeness

I wrote my very first blog post on December 16, 2008.  The title was, very appropriately, A Beagle and A Baby.  You can take a trip down memory lane by reading my very first post ever HERE.

I wrote my second post one day later.  It was called Fat Beagle.  You can read it HERE.

When I first started blogging, and for an embarrassingly long time after, I did not realize that I could get comments emailed to me.  I would write a post and just keep checking it for comments.  I would go back probably 6-7 posts to see if there were any new comments.  Once I was ahead by those 6-7 posts, though, I wouldn't go back further, so I wouldn't see any comments that were written after about 10 days.  It was probably a year and a half later before I realized I could set it up to have comments emailed to me. 

That means that every once in a while, when I can't sleep and I log on to the ol' computer to waste some time and read random old blog posts I run across an old comment that I never saw.  It's happened maybe 5 times. 

A few nights ago was just such a time.  I was actually reading my 1 year anniversary post, from December 16, 2009, called One Year Later (BTW- you can read it  HERE).

Imagine my surprise, at 1 am, when I read this:

Who in the hell wrote that?

And what was wrong with my older "articles"?

And why was this anonymous person never taught correct punctuation or sentence structure?

And why is this insomniac critiquing me at 2:21 am?

And who in the hell wrote that?

Any ideas?

Oh, and I included the link to my first two posts because, also rudely, nobody ever commented on them.  Here's your chance. 

Just don't leave some random B.S. about how I'm so much better now than I used to be.

One more thing.  The last time I wrote a post that had no comment whatsoever was in July 2009.  That's quite a streak.  I think my insomnia is related to the stress I feel about continuing that streak (because it could not at all be due to a baby kicking the crap out of my ribs all night long).  Don't let me down.

Thief

I started reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo back in mid-June.  I loved it.  I couldn't put it down.  I read it in 3 days.  I started The Girl Who Played With Fire the day after.  I also loved it.  I finished it in 3 days.  I had borrowed the first two books, but couldn't find anybody who actually owned the third, so I was forced to order it from Amazon (used).  I've had it since mid-July, but have been hesitant to start it.  #1. I needed to plan around my schedule so that I could get sucked into it and do nothing but read for a while. #2.  It's always kind of disappointing when you finish a series of books because there is nothing left.

On Sunday afternoon I took a 3 hour nap.  I was tired from all the birthday party festivites.  That set me up for a late night on Sunday.  I decided to read in Elliott's room because it is cool in there and the glider is a comfy reading spot.  I started reading after Spencer went to bed.  I read until 3 am. 

At one point I got up to go to the bathroom.  I was gone for less than 1 minute.

This is what I came back to:

Little thief. 

In less than 1 minute she jumped up, made herself cozy and fell asleep.

We're going to have to start leaving that door closed because every time I come home I hear the glider hit the wall as she jumps down.  Of all the places in the whole house (including her 4.2 million beds) this has to be her preferred snooze spot?

Oh, and speaking of the thief known as Ginger.  She developed some sort of cyst on her nipple (I know, really) and it was bleeding, rather profusely, the other day.  We cleaned it, shaved all around it, cleaned it again, put ointment on it and put a band aid on it.  She was not pleased with us.

P.S. I finished The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest in less than 3 days.  It's almost 600 pages.  My head was spinning by the time I was done.  I think there were 800 characters with Swedish names to keep track of.  I'm disappointed that it's done.

Birthday Cake

1st birthday

Vanilla car cakes and vanilla stop light cupcakes

2nd birthday

Strawberry and chocolate train cakes (and unpictured cupcakes)

3rd birthday

Caramel spice Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake

4th birthday

Strawberry Thomas cake

Did you notice that each year the cakes become less and less elaborate and less and less time consuming?

By next year I'll be ordering a cake from the grocery store.  No, really.  I'm going to also have a baby to care for.  I'm giving myself permission to be a slacker next year.  I'm already stressing out about it and trying to figure out how I could make a cake this weekend and save it for close to a year.

Thomas the Train Party

Funny pre-party story:

My friend Laura and her 2-year-old daughter Sara came to stay with us on Friday night.  Laura was a tremendendous help during party preparations.  We put the kids to bed on Friday night.  The hallway light was on.  I assumed Laura needed it on for Sara.  Laura assumed we needed it on for Spencer.  We left it on all night.  The light ruined all of our sleep.  Spencer came in our room at 2:30 am all cheerful saying "good morning!" because it was so light.  Sara woke up at like 3:00 ready to start the day because it was so light.  It wasn't until the following morning, during a hilarious conversation, that we realized nobody needed the light and we were all idiots for not asking each other/turning it off.

Anyway.  I dragged myself out of bed at 7:30. This is what was still occuring in my bed at 9:00.

We managed to pull off a pretty great party though, despite the lack of sleep.

The cupcakes/cake.

I finally remembered to take a picture of the food before it was served.

There were decorations.

And friends.

And hungry friends.

We had presents.

And cake.

We wore party hats once the party was actually over because we forgot about them during the party.

Ginger was exhausted once it was all over.

Thanks to all of our friends for making it a wonderful day!

Yearly photo comparison

Just indulge my OCD for a few moments.  Thanks.

BLOCKS

Birth

1 year 

 2 years 3 years

4 years

YEARS

Birth

1 year 

2 years 

3 years 

4 years