What Did He Say?

Last night Hoby and I are lying in bed talking about the days when I was pregnant and I remembered the time when I went into false labor at Target (read the story here). So Hoby says, "Oh yeah, that time when you got Rickets?" And I say, "That's BRAXTON HICKS, honey, not RICKETS."

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Mariposa Weekend

(Sorry this post is a bit delayed - I wrote it but forgot to publish it...)

Recently we went up to Mariposa (a tiny little rural town outside of Yosemite) to visit with Rory's grandparents. I think these pictures pretty much sum up the trip, which was filled with BB guns, leaf blowers, and Grandma Judy's good cooking:







It may have taken Rory three days to detox from all the sugar he ate while he was there, but it was totally worth it.

Quotes from The Kid

"Hey, dinner was fun, Mom. Now, my tummy is full!"
- Rory's thoughts on our dinner at a sushi restaurant last night - thank goodness he loves it as much as we do or we might have had to trade him in for a different model.

Newsletter 2.6

Dear Rory -

Well, son, you are now officially two and a half, although sometimes I think you are more like a teenager in a toddler's body! You are so full of defiance and attitude, and it is obvious that you enjoy pushing your boundaries just to see how far you can get. I am constantly saying "No hitting, no spitting, no biting and no kicking!" to the point where you have caught on and you now think its funny to chant it and then fall down on the floor laughing. LAUGHING. AT YOUR MOTHER. Oh , the humanity! But even though you find it amusing to come up with new ways to test my patience, at least I can say that you are one creative little bugger!

The other day I was eating a diet bar for breakfast, and you, the King of Curiosity, were right in my face like you ALWAYS are when I'm eating, asking, "Whatcha eatin', Mama? Can I have some? Can I have a little bite? A little, tiny, tiny bite?" (You can now see why I find it hard to eat breakfast in the morning!) So I told you, "No, you wouldn't like this. It's grown up food. Trust me, it's yucky." (And really, kid, those diet bars, they truly ARE yucky!) A few minutes later, I went to the bathroom and left the bar on the counter. When I came back, there you were, with chocolate all over your face and your hands on your hips, and you looked at me in total defiance and said, "Mama, I TRIED it and I LIKED IT!" Every fiber of your being screamed, "Take THAT, woman!" and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud. HARD.

Speaking of laughing, have I mentioned how much I love listening to you laugh? We never know exactly what you're going to find amusing, and then all of a sudden, you'll erupt into a fit of adorable giggles. You recently started an infatuation with the t.v. show "America's Funniest Videos," and I've decided that watching you and your father sit on the couch together laughing your heads off is the perfect way to end the day.

It's rare that you are are ever sitting for more than a few minutes though, and it usually isn't long before you're either running off to the park to show off your newly acquired Big Wheel riding skills, talking someone into making you a fort or cave out of blankets, or grabbing your ever-present guitar and belting out a tune.

Add in starting preschool two days a week, attending your beloved Gymboree classes, going to Sunday School and playing with all your friends in the neighborhood and you, my friend, are one busy little dude! But I know that you love all the buzz of activity - you're so much happier when you are out socializing and keeping busy - and so far it never feels like we've taken on too much. Rambunctious children like you need ways to channel their energy without driving their mommies crazy, and trust me, nobody wants to see this mama go crazy.

But in the midst of all this running around and staying busy, I still try and find time to slow down with you and just savor the little things. Like your newfound love of brushing my hair in the morning for hours while saying, "Nice and gentle, Mama! I'm being very, very, very gentle!" Or how you run around with your camera pretending to take pictures, making me pose my hands or my feet in certain ways and then saying very seriously, "Yeah, that's a good one!" Or how you still reach out to hold my hand when I'm sitting with you in the car, which I secretly hope you'll never stop wanting to do.

We're halfway through those terrible twos which maybe aren't so terrible after all...

Love,
Mama

My Latest Brush With Stupidity...

I'm taking a woman's drink order yesterday and I ask her what size drink she'd like. "Hmmm. I don't want a small one," she says,"What other sizes do you have?" So I hold up our other two cup sizes for her to see and I say, "Medium or large?" She looks at me and says, "Well, which one's bigger?"

On the same day, while I'm working at the bar, I get a drink order for one black iced tea and one green iced tea. So I make the drinks (which are in clear plastic cups), call the guy's name, and then set the drinks on the counter for him to pick up. He walks over, looks at the drinks and asks, "Which one is the black tea?" Ummm, THE BLACK ONE.

Are people really this dumb?