Blabber Mouth

Have I mentioned lately that my kid is adorable?  He's turned into quite a chatter box (wonder who he got that from...oops!) and as a result is pretty damn funny to listen to.

He talks to his trains:

"Uh oh Thomas, Percy bump you!  CRASH!  Oh no!  Don't worry Thomas I save you!"

He talks about his friends:

"Mom, Baby Logan loves me."  "He does, why?"  "Because I'm his friend, Mom."

He talks about monsters:

"Mom, there's a monster on the house."  "There is?"  "Yup, it's a green-blue-red one.  It's a red one."

And then he just talks:

"Mom, don't worry about me, I ok."

"WAIT A MINUTE!  I forgot my vitamins!"

"WAIT A MINUTE!  I show you something mom."

"Ben it's time to eat dinner."  "Mom, I caaannnn'tttt waaaannnntt to eat me dinner."

"Mom, it stinks in here."  "I know buddy, it's a bathroom, shhhhh."  "Mom it stinks."  "Shhhh."  "Mom, you pee?  GOOD JOB!!  You want a jelly bean?"  (This conversation took place in a very PUBLIC bathroom.)

"Mom, I'm not handsome.  I'm Ben."


Ok, so I understand if you don't find all of the above the most hilarious things you've ever heard, but I'm telling you, my kid is a riot! 

Yesterday we took him to the Fryeburg Fair to see the animals.  He was pretty excited and pretty impressed.  He loved the cows and the draft horses, he liked the sheep and goats, thought the chickens were cool, but noisy, and loved the little bunny rabbits.  Then we waited for a very, very long time in the line to go in and pet the baby animals.  Which was probably the high light of the afternoon:

 

As you can see, he had a great time!

 

A Lovely Fall Evening

Yesterday I promised Ben we'd go for a hike.  It was one of those "For the love of God child, stop whining and I will do whatever the hell you want" moments.  I promised him a hike up a mountain.

 

Fortunately, two year olds don't know the difference between mountains and hills.  So we walked up the slight incline in the woods behind our house.  Ben was thrilled.

Since it is now technically hunting season, and I happen to like my child alive, we made him wear a "magic" hat during our walk.  I'm fairly confident no one actually hunts on the road behind my house, and we were making enough noise to scare off every living creature in a five mile radius, but just to be safe, Ben got to wear his dad's orange hunting hat.

 

It's a tad large.

 

So we left for our "hike" with Dad and dog in tow.  Don got dressed up in all his hiking gear.

 

 

That's right.  Slippers and pajamas.  It was a pretty intense "hike."  After a few minutes of walking through the woods we discovered we were being followed by some local wildlife.

 

 

Yup, that's our cat Scout.  Now that she's an outdoor cat she decided she'd join us on our walk.  Which was pretty hilarious and cute because she followed Ben around.  Unfortunately, she felt the need to complain the whole time.  Seriously Scout, it was barely a hill, not sure why you needed to complain.

 

How does a cat complain you might be wondering?  Well, it sounds like this:

 

"MROOOOOOWWWWWWW  MERRRRRROOOOOWWWWWWWW  ROWOOOOOOW  MROOOOOOOWWWWWW"

 

The whole damn time we walked!

 

 

Following the leader!

 

 

Someone was getting tired of his hat!

 

The leaves are starting to get pretty!

 

 

And because she wasn't getting in enough of the pictures...here's Scout crashing the picture of Don and Max

 

 

We had a really nice walk, despite the serenade from the cat, and I think we'll try it again next week when maybe a few more leaves have changed colors.  I think we'll probably invest in a bit more orange too, you can't be too safe when it comes to hunting season.  And we'll probably leave the cat in the house.  She really was annoying.

 

 

 

 









Where Has the Time Gone??

Yesssss!  I found a minute to blog!  I think I have roughly three minutes before Ben wakes up from his nap, and I'm giving myself a well deserved break from reading for my computer class (the book actually explains how to click the mouse, and has separate "lessons" on the complexities of "double clicking" and "right-mouse click").

Things have been kind of nutty around here lately!  Lots of changes at both jobs have had me picking up extra hours each week and have left me pretty tired.  Oh, and did I mention SCHOOL started?  So on top of being worn out from work I'm trying to squeeze studying in to every spare second of time.  And when you have two year old, "spare time" is relatively unheard of.

I'm expecting some more job related changes to come soon.  I haven't exactly decided what those changes will be, but hopefully whatever I decide to do will be the best situation for all of us.  Trying to figure out that situation has left me a little stressed though.  Why must everything change all at once?!?

Fortunately I have a pretty amazing husband who has been picking up a lot of my slack, including taking several work-from-home days so that I could pick up these extra shifts.  I'm so glad he's around to keep everyone fed and clean when I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

I also have a pretty amazing two year old who has very successfully, and quickly might I add, potty trained himself!  It was almost over night and he has had very few accidents since we decided to go (almost) diaper free.  We are still struggling a little with using the potty EVERY time at daycare, but hopefully as he gets more comfortable that will all fall into place as well.  Yay for Ben!  Big boys pee on the potty, just ask him, he'll tell you!

The big boys are busy right now too!  Jake has moved to Orono with some friends to get a little taste of the "real world."  With a little luck he'll figure things out quickly, get himself enrolled in school, and move seamlessly into adulthood.  But, there's always a bed here for him should things get off to a rough start.

Marcus started his final year of high school.  WE MADE IT!!!!  I love Marcus dearly, but it has been a long road getting that kid through school!  He's got a really great attitude about things this year and is taking a night class at YCCC in Criminal Law that I hope he finds interesting.  If he can stay focused he's going to have a really great senior year!

It's funny, now that I'm struggling to find spare seconds to blog, I find that I have had all sorts of things to share!  When I had all the time in the world, not a thing would pop into my head.  Oh well, I suppose that's life.

I can hear Ben waking up, thankfully he gave me a nice fifteen minutes or so to write uninterrupted!  We're heading out to explore a little river in Limington now, because we've been severely lacking in Mom and Ben time.  Hopefully he'll have fun splashing around!

Yessssss!!!!!

In the last week my kid has totally figured out this "potty" thing.  I'm very excited.  Today he went the entire day in underpants without a single accident.  Sure we may have had to sit on the potty every ten minutes with "false" alarms, but we have made some pretty serious progress from pooping on the floor last weekend.

Yeah, that's right.  Poop.  On the floor.  Gross.

This morning he woke me up, with a dry diaper might I add, so he could pee on the potty.  He then proceeded to make it to the potty every time he had to go.  He even woke up from his nap with a dry diaper.  Yeeeesssssss!!!!!

I am so ready to be done with diapers!  And I know, one day doesn't mean he's potty trained, but it is definitely a good sign!  So good, that I ordered him a new train for his train set if he can keep this up through the weekend.  (Talking Spencer!  "Bust my buffers"!!!)  I'm so proud of him!

So how did I do it?  Bribery.  M&Ms every time he goes on the potty.  He's having so much fun deciding which color he gets each time.  The only problem is that I'm pretty sure he doesn't pee this often when he's wearing a diaper...he might have already discovered how to manipulate me for candy...

Oh well.  I didn't have to change any diapers today, so I'm kind of ok with that.

What Was I Thinking??

I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.  Now that summer is nearly over and school is about to start, I'm having panic attacks that I have signed up for more than I can handle for the next few months.

As it stands right now, I'm working nearly 40 hours a week.  I'm actually really enjoying this schedule, since I can still be home all day with my son four days a week.  We get to spend time together and we can focus on learning things, like how to pee on the potty, that take some time.  I love my new job in Portland, despite the fact that my gas bill in the new Subaru is a bit high (oops!).  I love my waitressing job at night too.  I love the people there and the excitement.  (The money doesn't hurt either!)

Things are just about perfect right now.  But, in less than two weeks I start school.  Full time.  What was I thinking???  Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited to be going and I think this degree is going to be a great thing to add to my resume, but I'm terrified that I won't be able to keep up with my classes and my two jobs.  The last time I was in college was I was working nearly 60 hours a week at the cookie shop with my mom.  I still managed to make it through with more than respectable grades.  I know it WAS possible for me once.  But I didn't have a kid then.  And I'm not sure how I'm going to handle having study time cut into my Ben time.

The closer it gets to labor day, the more nervous I become.  Can I really do this?  Am I going to be ok not spending as much time with Ben?  Is Ben going to be ok not spending as much time with me?  Am I going to find enough hours in the day to get everything done?

I just don't know.

But I do know this....even if it's miserable, it'll be over by December.  And I can make changes to my school and work schedules then to make things more bearable.  I also know that I still have this weekend and all of next week to spend as much time as I can stand with my kid.  So, with that said, I'm off to the lake!

Little Sis is home!

It has been a very busy couple of days.  Well, busy week, really.  I could probably write a bazillion things about everyone I have seen and the fun I've had, but I'm tired.  Like I said, it's been really busy!

So instead, I'll just say this:

My sister is home.  I haven't seen her in a year and a half.  When she called to tell me she was engaged I was so excited for her.  When someone asked me if that meant I would be picking out a bridesmaid's dress, I was stumped.  I love my sister, and I know she loves me, but we're not close in a cuddly, talk on the phone for hours, share every detail of our day, kind of way.  We're just not.  So I wasn't sure she'd want me in the wedding.  She has friends, lots of close friends, and while she was in my wedding, I didn't want to just assume that I would be included in hers.

Instead of asking me to be in her wedding, she told me point blank that I'd better start working on my speech, because Mark's brother is making one and I have to make one too, and since I'm in the wedding, I'd better be prepared.

Which made me very, very happy.  And just a little bit pissed with Mark for wanting to have a wedding with speeches.  (Public speaking?  Yuck.  Mark you suck.)

So it's been really great seeing my sister, and while we still aren't huggy-cuddly-talk on the phone all day-sisters, I'm still having a great time talking with her, watching her play with my son and just having her around.

So while I might be flying to Utah to make a speech at her wedding against my will, I will be doing it in a bridesmaid's dress, and I'm pretty excited about that!

Yakity Yak

I think my kid talks too much.

We took the cat to the vets today to get a check up and some shots after her foray in the wild.  We walked in the door and Ben became motor mouth. 

"Mom, I sit here.  Mom, now I sit here.  Mom, I read this book.  Mom, that toy scares me.  Mom, that cat napping.  Mom, that a chicken."  Yak, yak, yak.  One of the ladies behind the desk commented on how well he speaks for his age.  She's right, he speaks really well; and an awful lot.

When we went in to the exam room it didn't stop.

"Mom, what Scoutie doing?  Why Scoutie scared?  I count the cats?  Mom, I count the cats again? "

Even when trying to talk to the vet about what happened to Scout and which vaccines to get her now.

"Mom, that a hole in the wall?  What that hole doing?  Mom, I sit up here now?  Mom, I open that door?"

He.did.not.stop.

And in the middle of the administering of Scout's shots, Ben (loudly) announced that he could see "Scoutie's Bum."

And now I know my mother got what she wished for.  I have a kid that's just like me....