Welcome Three Day Weekend

Three day weekend… and we are so ready!  Robert woke up about 6 and was ready to go so Jim took him to the City Market to do some shopping and have breakfast while I got some time to rest and sleep in… except Harley wanted to snuggle and play so the resting part happened but not the sleep.

After they got home I took Harley to the vet’s office for her follow up blood work.  This is the blood work that would either confirm she was suffering from a tick bite or whether she has an autoimmune disease (which would require life long medication and big bucks).  Thankfully she got a clean bill of health.  It was a tick bite and her blood work is now completely clean.  Yeah!!!  Way to go Harley Dog!

Got home and was doing some work in Robert’s room.  He had a good time hanging out in his crib, playing with toys.  Later on Jim set up the portable crib on the deck so that he could join us outside.  Robert really liked that.  Before we even knew I was pregnant I had a dream of us sitting on the deck, drinking our coffee and reading the paper on the weekend.  Looks like that can now happen.

Donald is here now helping Jim in the yard.  Robert is taking a nap and I’m getting ready to start some housework.  Later on we will head out to do some shopping.  There are some things we need at Babies R Us.  Robert needs some shoes so he can go outside at school with the big kids.  We also need to do the weekly Target run.  I need to get some Ziploc bags so that I can start bagging and tagging some of the clothes Robert has outgrown for the upcoming garage sale.  It will be interesting to see just how much we have.

Tomorrow we are taking Robert out to the Children’s Farm that my aunt and I took Robert to earlier this year.  I’m sure he’ll have even more fun now that he’s more mobile. 

Another Weekend Down

Another weekend over with.  It was a full one as usual.  Yesterday we did some shopping.  Old Navy had kids jeans for $7.  Oh my Lord the store was a wreck.  I did manage to get the maximum three pair for Robert along with some new shirts. Then we hit Children’s Place and picked up a few more outfits and some new blanket sleepers.  It’s warm right now but cold weather is just around the corner.  Robert is almost a 2T so that’s what I bought.  I did get one pair of 18-24 month jeans for the interim.  Buying clothes is a crap shoot with him.  Sure as I have the 2Ts he’ll quit growing for a bit.

 

 

Robert is eating a big boy lunch now… ravioli, cheese and apples…. and he’s feeding myself!  He’s getting to be such a big boy.  I wish he’d stay little a bit longer.  But it’s also fun to watch him gain new skills.

This morning when Jim was cooking in the kitchen Robert was helping by being his sous chef.  Eventually he got tired and had to take a nap.

Donald and Erika both came over to do some work for us this afternoon.  Donald worked in the yard while Erika cleaned the entryway and the big bathroom.  They brought along Kyle.  Kyle is Donald’s friend and now Erika’s boyfriend.  I have heard about him for five years now but hadn’t met him.  The boyfriend part is new.  I was very pleased that he was a very nice young man.  Well mannered.  Sounds like a good family.  He has a job and is not afraid of hard work.  Very conversational and really good with Robert.  Erika was holding Robert and Kyle was sitting beside her and I reminded them that babies are fun but they don’t want one anytime soon.  They both agreed.  Erika said, “that’s (having a baby) not my mind set right now”.  I told her that was good but it’s not your mind that makes them.  Not real subtle but not too harsh.

Perhaps A Helmet…

When I picked up Robert at preschool today I had to sign an incident report.  He was cruising around the room and fell hitting his right cheek on some furniture.  The right cheek is also the one that Harley got.  He’s picture perfect on the left… the right… not so much… add a bruise to the scars.  I think I’ll just get him a helmet.  He has no fear.  Could care less if he’s on the edge of something… in his mind he’s going to land just fine.  He has whacked his head on everything imaginable and he simply doesn’t care.  Most of the time he looks at whatever he’s whacked up against like it should have gotten out of his way.  Yes, a helmet is what we need.. he is my son.

I’m trying to get some slow cooker and casserole recipes so that dinner is a bit easier at night and we’re not just eating whatever goes together quick.  I also looked at the budget today and we need to start taking our lunches.. over $400 in lunch expenses in one month… that’s a bit excessive when I think of everything we could get with that money.  So hopefully this weekend I can get some stuff put together and start trying some new recipes.  This also means I will be doing some of the cooking :::gasp:::  I actually can cook, I just don’t enjoy it a whole lot but I figure if I can get into the kitchen, get a week’s worth the stuff ready and get out I should be able to manage.

FINALLY caught up with my best friend today.  We’ve been playing phone tag forever!!!  She’s going to try to fly in for Robert’s first birthday.  I hope she can.  She just sent Robert a new outfit.   A red polo and khaki pants… I joked with her it was his parochial back to school outfit.

Have You Seen This?

This is not exactly the way I hope I’m remembered.  Kinda makes you wonder how awful was this woman really?  This is a real obituary published in a California newspaper.

Dolores Aguilar, born in 1929 in New Mexico, left us on August 7, 2008. She will be met in the afterlife by her husband, Raymond, her son, Paul Jr., and daughter, Ruby.

She is survived by her daughters Marietta, Mitzi, Stella, Beatrice, Virginia and Ramona, and son Billy; grandchildren, Donnelle, Joe, Mitzie, Maria, Mario, Marty, Tynette, Tania, Leta, Alexandria, Tommy, Billy, Mathew, Raymond, Kenny, Javier, Lisa, Ashlie and Michael; great-grandchildren, Brendan, Joseph, Karissa, Jacob, Delaney, Shawn, Cienna, Bailey, Christian, Andre Jr., Andrea, Keith, Saeed, Nujaymah, Salma, Merissa, Emily, Jayci, Isabella, Samantha and Emily. I apologize if I missed anyone.

Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.

Her family will remember Dolores and amongst ourselves we will remember her in our own way, which were mostly sad and troubling times throughout the years. We may have some fond memories of her and perhaps we will think of those times too. But I truly believe at the end of the day ALL of us will really only miss what we never had, a good and kind mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I hope she is finally at peace with herself. As for the rest of us left behind, I hope this is the beginning of a time of healing and learning to be a family again.

There will be no service, no prayers and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart. We cannot come together in the end to see to it that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can say their goodbyes. So I say here for all of us, GOOD BYE, MOM.

More Birthdays!!!

My niece turned 16 today.  Yesterday we all met at Saddle Ranch Chop House to celebrate both her birthday and my Aunt’s birthday.  We got our favorite waitress, Tricia, she really took good care of us!  I picked up my niece and nephew and Jim was coming in a separate car since Erika and I had some shopping to do afterwards.  When she saw me with my Mom and the kids the first thing she said was, “where’s the baby???”.  Yep, I’m Robert’s mother… my new identity.  Erika and Aunt Barb both really liked their gifts.  Lunch was wonderful and then even brought a huge slab cake for all of us to share at the end of the meal.  Mmmmm. 

 

On our way to the restaurant we stopped into Game Stop to get Donald the new Madden play station game.  He and his Dad always played this together so I make sure that when a new one comes out he gets it.  I tell him his Dad would have expected it.

After lunch the boys all came back to our house while Erika and I went shopping.  We only went to two stores.  Didn’t take her long to run through $150.  She got a bunch of band t-shirts at Hot Topic and a Fox Motorsports jacket at Pac Sun.  She was happy with her purchases so that’s what counts.  We came back to the house and all hung out for a few hours before I took them home.

My nephew is driving to school this year since he decided to stay at his old school when they redistricted.  I told him if he needs gas money I have plenty of projects he could help with to earn extra money.  Today he came over and helped Jim work on the back yard.  He mowed, trimmed until the trimmer battery ran down, did all the sweep up and helped move stuff to the garage.  For his hour or so worth of work he got $10.  I got a yard that looks A LOT better.  They also have a fence row to clean up, a basement floor to lay and some furniture to refinish.  I told my niece the same offer goes for her.

Jim and Robert went to the grocery store this morning and some heinous bitch actually went up to my son in the cart and said, “Did your daddy hit you, is that what happened to your face.”  If I had been there I would have hit her!  Jim just looked at her and said, “No, he was attacked by a gang of toddlers.”

Mixed Emotions

Robert’s preschool teacher called me this morning and asked if I could come upstairs and look at Robert.  When I got upstairs this is what I found.

 

He was over on the big kid side of the room (one year olds) sitting at the table, making ice cream with the other kiddos.  And he looked so old sitting at the table (first time he’s done that).  And he was loving it.  He’s growing up too darn fast!

Tonight I was putting pictures in the photo tray I got for my Aunt’s birthday.  I was looking back at pictures from the first couple of months and can’t believe how much he’s grown and changed.  I miss my little baby but I also love seeing him experience new things.  I just wish it would slow down a bit!

Jim and Robert hung out tonight while I got presents ready for tomorrow and uploaded/ordered a huge order of pictures.  I just finished doing football pot sheets for my nephew so I can take them to him tomorrow.  I sent him a text to let him know they were done and he let me know that Erika’s party tonight went well.  I was glad to hear that.

10 Months and One Year

Robert turned 10 months old yesterday.  He is 27 pounds and 31″ tall.  Truly living up to his nickname of Tank.  Yesterday was also the one year anniversary of me starting at my new company and it’s been an awesome year.

Unfortunately, my day of thinking how great life was got interrupted last night at 6:00 when I was in a meeting and got a call from Jim.  Harley bit Robert.  Apparently they were playing on the floor together like they always do when Jim sat down with a sandwich.  Harley in her steroid induced constant search for food went for the sandwich.  Apparently Robert touched her somehow to where she thought he was going for it too (actually he probably was) and she bit him.  She knew immediately it was wrong.  He didn’t bleed a lot and only cried for about 45 seconds.

It looks horrible but could have been worse.  It hasn’t made Robert scared of Harley at all.  When we let her back in the room with him he went right up to her and was either trying to kiss her cheek or bite her, it’s hard to tell with him sometimes.  Thank God she didn’t get his eye, she came close.  I know she didn’t mean to hurt him, she was being a dog.  We’re so close to our pets it’s easy to think of them as little furry people but she is a dog and instinct kicks in once in a while in even the best trained dog.  The good thing is everyone at preschool today was very understanding.  I of course felt like a horrible person that my dog had bitten my child.  I found out today that it’s happened to a lot of people.

Jim feels terrible.  I’ll admit at first I was pissed.  He should have been paying more attention, this shouldn’t have happened – it wouldn’t have happened if I was home… then I had to play the bullshit card on myself.  We both get lax with things around here at times.  There are new rules… no more eating on the couch.  We have a bar area and a kitchen table and that’s where we need to eat.  Harley is not allowed in the kitchen when Robert is eating and not allowed in the room when we sit down to dinner.  It’s going to take some work to break our bad habits.  I still love my dog.  She’s a great dog.  She loves Robert, she reacted poorly but she also isn’t totally herself right now so we need to be a bit more vigilant.

Tub Time!!!

We finally got Robert a tub toy this weekend. It’s an octopus and each of his arms holds a toy that will squirt water and stick to the side of the tub.  He had a lot of fun playing with it tonight.

Sunday Shopping

I spent most of the day yesterday in bed.  I was just exhausted.  Luckily today I was feeling a lot better and we had a lot of shopping to do.

First stop was Staples.  They just opened in Kansas City and I thought it was time to introduce Robert to the joy of school supply shopping.  Since he doesn’t actually need school supplies yet we did pick up some new Expo markers for his teachers along with some office supplies for me and this flexible keyboard… we are such geeks – the minute we saw it we had to have it.

Since we were at Zona Rosa we ran to Victoria’s Secret to replace one of my bras that Harley ate a few months ago… that dog has a bra fetish.  It’s insane (and expensive).  We also went to American Eagle and Robert picked out this t-shirt for Erika’s birthday.

I got her this birthstone ring.  And Jim & I’s gift is a shopping spree after lunch next Saturday.

I looked all over to find a picture tray for my Aunt for her birthday but had no luck.  So I found it on Amazon.  It will be here Wednesday and I’ll be able to fill it with pictures of Robert for her.

When we got home Jim worked on his laundry marathon (thanks dear!) and took a nap.  I picked up the living room while Robert and Harley played together.  Tonight we’re kicked back watching the Olympics.  I can’t believe another weekend has just flown by.

Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas???

Every year I say I’m going to start my Christmas shopping early so there is not so much of a crunch in December on the finances.  December has five weeks so that means another week of preschool tuition coming out of my check (ugh).  However I also know that I need to start making lists of what I’ve bought to prevent “overbuying” in the heat of the moment.  Last year I was done with my shopping before Thanksgiving and had withdraw the day after Thanksgiving that I had nothing to go out and shop for.

Tonight when I was at Target picking up a gift card for our niece Ella so I can get it in the mail for her birthday next Tuesday.  I found this on sale for $15… it even has a whammy bar… too cool.  I actually had fun playing with it before it went into the closet to hopefully not be forgotten before his birthday.

Perfect for Robert’s first birthday.  So I put it in the cart.  Then when I got home I started thinking of everything that is coming up.  On the 16th we’ll celebrate my niece Erika’s 16th birthday.  I’m hosting a birthday lunch for her at the Saddle Ranch Chop House (her request) and taking her shopping since we’ll be at the Legends anyway.  I also want to get her a birthstone ring since it’s a big birthday.  I’m bidding on one on ebay and if I don’t get it (auction ends tomorrow) I have a back-up one I’ve found on buy.com.  We will also celebrate my Aunt’s birthday which is August 14th.  Oh yeah, I also need to be sure to get a card for my friend Dianne’s birthday on August 13th… she NEVER forgets to send a card for ANY occasion.

While surfing e-bay I found a great deal on some Dallas Cowboys stuff for Donald and Erika for Christmas (their Dad was  HUGE Cowboys fan, thus they are too).  I got these for Erika…

And this for Donald (I’m also going to get him a personalized jersey)

Then I got to thinking about everything I have coming up for Jim… Anniversary September 18th, birthday November 8th and then Christmas.  I found a shirt that has a personalized cigar band on it… so it will say “Jim Wright’s” Cigars Established 1964.  I also got this shirt because I thought it was funny.

I am also bidding on a Wii… if we get it that will be Robert’s anniversary present to us.  I doubt we get it because I won’t bid over $250… yeah, I’m cheap like that.

Of course all this shopping got me thinking… we threw our Christmas tree out last year because it was in miserable shape.  I was going to have my Mom order us a new one when she went to the Wholesale Gift Market in August but forgot… and now I’m thinking I might want a real tree now that we have Robert.  Mental note… talk to Jim about this in the next few days.

Speaking of Jim… he is home and not a minute too soon.  I swear Robert would not let me put him down the past two nights.  Whenever I did it led to massive amounts of screams in protest.  Last night I HAD to go to the bathroom.  Picture it… I’m on the throne, Robert is on the floor grabbing my leg, screaming, turning 8 shades of red.  Since I didn’t get the door latched good that caused Cosmo and Harley to storm in.  Harley had her head in my lap and Cosmo got up on the tank and was rubbing his head on the back of my neck.  It was quite the production.