Sunday Thanks

I am thankful for summer flowers and water lilies in the fish pond. I am thankful for vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, eaten in the back yard on a hot afternoon. I am thankful for another day of family together at church. I am thankful to be able to listen to my son's precious little boy prayers. ("'Tank you dear God for my dogs, Sadie and Max, and 'tank you for our food, and for Popsicles. In Jesus name I pway, Aaaayyyy-Man.") I am thankful for an afternoon spent with old friends - I miss them, but that's a good thing. It means they are important - it's always good to hang onto to friends - especially those that make you belly laugh. I am thankful for baby shower games ('I still maintain that I SHOULD have won Annie, however I will refrain from trash talking you since I don't see you enough for you to defend yourself.) I am thankful for Double Stuffed Oreo cookies - they have been instrumental in potty training - and also for Oral B Stages toothpaste that tastes like bubble gum so kids like it. It sure cleans up the Muffin's chompers after he's had an especially good potty day and eaten 300 of those Oreos. I am thankful that this is a four day work week. I am thankful for today.

For Cricket

The funniest, craziest little dog I've ever met. She was loved like mad - and I know she always will be. I'm thinking of you Jess.

God bless ye 'ole Desktop

Right now, I'm typing on the dinosaur - my old desktop HP. I'm sitting crookedly, perched on the end of the couch with my keyboard balanced precariously on the arm, getting a crick in my neck while looking at the monitor on the end table, and trying to be grateful that our blasted laptop is still under warranty. On Thursday, apparently the Muffin was quite happily surfing Playhouse Disney when the thing froze up. Not being able to get it to do anything, BabyDaddy simply turned it off. When he tried to turn it back on, he was faced with the dreaded black screen, and an ominous message reading, 'NO BOOTABLE DEVICES'. After running the system checks, I noticed that all the tests passed with no problem, until we got to the hard drive, whose test results read, 'None'. No hard drive eh? Well, that just MIGHT be problematic. Thank goodness I didn't let BD sell 'Old Iron Sides' here in a yard sale like he wanted. The old girl lasted me all the way through my college years, and she hasn't let me down yet. Guess they just don't make them like they used to. Friday evening BD deserted me - although with good cause - he went with his dad to rebuild some too-steep stairs for his uncle who will be returning home from the hospital this week. Regardless, I found myself on my own with the Muffin and prayed he would be calm and well behaved while I tried to contact the techies at Dell. Now SERIOUSLY Meg, I'm sure you're thinking. The Muffin, WELL BEHAVED when desperately needed? REALLY?! Is that what two-year-olds do? Behave? I think not! Well, my lovelies, you would be quite right in your assumptions. I love my son with the boundless devotion that any mother loves her child, but he is not one to sit idly by while Mommy is trying to do something important. Case #1) Deciding to attempt eating an entire bowl of dog chow while I was trying to show the heating and air man where our unit was last summer. Case #2) Screaming "I WANT A SUCKER! I WANT A COOKIE! I WANT CHOCOLATE! I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE!" repeatedly, although not necessarily in that order, while I tried in vain to set up our cable. Case #3) Jumping off the back of the couch ("I'm a kangaROOOOOOO!") while eating a stolen mini-Hershey's bar - I think he scaled the shelves of the pantry to get to 'Mommy's treats' on the top shelf - leaving little chocolate dribbles everywhere, while I was trying to get the salesman at the door to leave. ("But ma'am, I think you really could get some good use out of the Rainbow Vacuum Cleaning System..." as he eyeballed my chocolate covered banshee hurling himself off the top of the couch again.) Which brings us to the events of the Dell call on Friday evening. I don't even think I can bear to recount the entire conversation - the little Iranian man on the other side of the slightly statick-ey line preening, 'Do you know what 'da batt'ry look like mum?' Can you find 'da two screws to 'da left and right mum?', while Lil' C happily galloped into the bedroom where I had isolated myself - 'OH Mommy! You are working! 'Dere is a ska-rue driver! I will help you Mommy!' Meanwhile little Iranian man is getting perturbed. 'Mum. Mum?! Can you hear me mum?' He walked me through taking out the hard drive and re-installing it, although I found with some dismay that the Muffin had spirited off one of the tiny screws needed to secure the drive back in place. Of course all of the above did nothing, and Mr. Iranian finally came to the conclusion that I had arrived at long ago. 'Mum,' he said sadly,'I believe 'dat your hard drive, eet has crashed.' No really? Thankfully, they are sending me another hard drive at the first of the week, so that is at least something. However, I've been slacking and haven't uploaded pictures or backed up videos in quite a while, so I'm desperately hoping that I can take the bad hard drive into the Geek Squad and they can recover some of my files. *Sigh* Technology - you never realize how ridiculously helpless it makes you feel, and how much you rely on it, until it goes and blows up on you.

Big Dreams

It all ends up okay in the end. After all that (in the wise words of a dear country friend) a-spreein' and a-squawlin' and a-fussin', BabyDaddy went and brought home that rat rod. And let me just tell you, I did A LOT of the above caterwallin' before, during, and after the blasted thing made its arrival in my garage. But, BD couldn't be happier. I've already caught him sitting out on that empty frame, just running his hands over those beat up fenders at least twice. So I said what the heck - if you can't beat 'em, I guess you might as well just go on and join 'em. So we sat out in that old car and I listened to him dream. At the very end, I almost, just almost, saw that car though his eyes. And I must admit that the thought of dressing up as Bonnie and Clyde for Halloween this year and peeling out of a parking lot in that car did perk me up a bit.

Sometimes, you just have to scrape up the poo and go on....

My Muffin. My dear, darling, beautifully sensitive, brilliantly creative, wonderfully inquisitive son. I refuse to write if I'm feeling uninspired - goodness knows I wouldn't want you, my lovelies, to become bored of me. Leave it to the Muffin to bring inspiration and suitably interesting events crashing down around my ballet flats. I'll start forward and work my way back. First of all, J it was simply wonderful to see you and JC tonight. I am reminded how much I enjoy being around you by that little stitch that pokes me in the side after you leave, alerting me that I have laughed too much and too hard. It makes me smile to think of how we have evolved, from college buddies making plans and talking about parties, to settled adults watching movies and having drinks, to harried mothers - conversations now disjointed with staccato shouts at our boys,

"...and so then we decided to -- You put down the gerbil right now! -- go on to the restaurant hoping that we wouldn't have to --I SAID PUT HER DOWN MISTER! -- wait long, but then, can you believe, we walked right into his ex--Do NOT lick that peanut butter off the floor! -- girlfriend! I KNOW, isn't that just madness?!"

And now to add potty training to the mix -- really, what more? Apparently, bladders have a mob mentality -- when one explodes, they all explode.
"I have to pee!"
"Oh! Me too! Need da potty!"
"No I need da potty - wait your turn!"
This phenomenon has also proven itself in other less than desirable areas.
"Um, Meg, do you smell something?"
"Yep, is it mine?" (Gingerly peeling back the side of the Muffin's pull-up with one cautious finger.) Nope, think he's good..."
"Oh crap - JC! It's mine...." (Almost like a really disgusting Easter Egg hunt, only it's not Easter, and these definitely aren't eggs...)
The really unfortunate thing is that immediately after verifying that it wasn't the Muffin who was dirty, he started pulling at his pants and doing the little tinkle time tap dance. I ran over to get him close to the potty, helped him pull down his pants, and out fell our own little chocolate egg. Apparently, I wasn't nearly fast enough and our little hen couldn't wait. It's hard scraping poo off the floor when you are laughing hysterically. Poor little JC, he kept saying,"Oh, C had to go potty. Do you need to go potty Mommy? We should all go potty now..." We give that 'never a dull moment' phrase new life......

And dear me, if that isn't enough fun for a week, the events of last night! Leave it to my Jess to come through for a girl. (My mother always knew she was a keeper.) After much prodding, I finally got around to putting my weekend pictures on that blasted Facebook. Mind you, it was 11pm after another mind-numbing but wonderful day at work. I am still heartily enjoying myself, but the warnings of 'your brain will be jello' have definitely hit the nail on the head for this busy season. So, I was just shy of complete mental shut down when I uploaded the pictures and then closed my lap top and shuffled off to bed. No sooner had my head found that delicious gap in the pillow that only the pillow you sleep on every night can have, and my phone chirps. BabyDaddy grunted, "That your phone?"
"MMM-Hmmm."
"Are you going to check it?"
"Nah - it's a text, I'll look at it in the morning."
"But, what if it's an emergency?"
"BD - Really! Who is going to TEXT me in a bloody emergency?! If it's important, they'll call!"
"Mm-Kay. 'Night."
"Night."
Then, the phone rings. As Jess's signature song shrills through the dark "We are Fam-i-lee! I got all my sistas with me!" I roll over and grope along the edge of the bedside table, knocking over the skinny lamp, (it looked so fashionable at Garden Ridge, but it's really been quite a bother), sending the TV remote flying, and toppling my wedding picture. But with Jess, as is par for her good judgement, it was worth the late night call.

"Meggie, did you just put up some pictures on Facebook?"
"Yep! They're cute aren't they?"
"Yeah, well, did you look at them?"
"No, just uploaded and closed up...."
"Um, well, there's a picture of the Muffin.... and well, um, he doesn't have on any pants. Like, ANY PANTS."
"CRAP!!! Crapcrapcrapcrap!!!!!"

Thank you Jess, for saving me from being known as the mother who thoughtlessly posted a photo of her son's man berries on the Internet. If I haven't said it before, potty training is a big deal in our house - we're either changing underwear, pulling down underwear, running to the closest potty, taking off underwear, deciding that race car underwear is "not cool - need da 'Piderman ones pwease" and changing underwear. *Sigh* Thank goodness Jess was the only one up and the first one to see it. (By the way, if Jess wasn't the only one up, please don't tell me. I don't want to know. I've already had a bit of a mini-breakdown about the whole thing.....)

Quickly, because my fingers are tired and it's creeping ever so much closer to that 11pm mark, (we KNOW what terrible events happened when I was on the Internet last night at 11pm) a quick summary of the weekend -- Thomas the Train was wonderful. We had a lovely day. The Muffin quite enjoyed the train ride, but I think the mini-golf course was his favorite part. We had a time and a half trying to get him away from the thing, and ended up bribing him with ice cream to force him to surrender his putter. We had nice quiet evening, baked cup cakes, and watched The Land Before Time. Sunday was the slow usual - church, Cracker Barrel, naps, pool time. Even still, it was Monday before I knew it. I wish it would be Friday before I knew it. Ah, the life of a working mother......

Sunday Thanks

I am thankful for SPF 50 sunscreen slathered on the Muffin before hours spent by our back yard pool. I am thankful for Aloe Vera Gel with lidocaine slathered on me after hours spent by our back yard pool. I am thankful for fresh watermelon, even though the sticky-sweet juice stains hands, hair, mouths, and new t-shirts. I am thankful for chocolate pudding cups - excellent as a potty bribe. (Picture me, if you will, scampering down the hall Pied-Piper style to the toilet, with a pudding cup held aloft and the Muffin traipsing along behind me with arms outstretched. Oh yes, I WOULD stoop to such a level. 5,432 pudding cups later, and we are almost potty-trained.) I am thankful for laptops and the Nick Jr. website - also an excellent tool in potty training. I am thankful for being together with family at church and for the scribbled coloring pages handed over with a joyful, "Hi 'dere Mama! I made 'dis for you!" I am thankful for little boy fingers and little boy bargains. "O-Kay, Daddy. I will take jus' 'dis many shock-o-late cookies....Pwease?"(Holding up four fingers on each hand after much studying and effort.) I am thankful for afternoons spent with the men I love - counting and sorting Hot Wheels, playing endless games of tickle monster, tag, boxing, and the Muffin's new favorite activity, thumb wars. I am thankful for today.