Did I Birth a Fish?

My mother-in-law told me today that if you give a kid some water, they'll be entertained for hours. She's right. She raised 4 of her own and 2 in day care, so I guess if anyone would know...Brighton got a watertable from Nana Sally and Papa Tom for his birthday. It hasn't been warm enough to use it until today. It was my intention to water the garden then haul the sprinkler out for him to run through, but I figured he wouldn't do that because he cries every time he sees the sprinkler...so then I thought "WATERTABLE!" DUH. He had a blast. He played with it for a solid hour while I sat in the lounger and tossed the ball to Feebee while I listened to a naturally depressing Fresh Air podcast. Nonetheless, I got a little sun, got some sort of quiet time and my boy had a lot of fun. And we cooled off after our long hot bike ride. Another great morning. I sure miss being home as much with my little guy. But that's for another blog.

I had to chuckle today because while Brighton was playing in his table, Feebee came up and got a drink - it's just a big waterdish right? Brighton got this look on his face, much like the one in the photo, gently pushed her face away and said "No no peepee! No no!" Poor Feebee. She really gets the raw end of most deals around here. At least the cat can hide, but he get's his fair share too. But he deserves it, waking us all up at 3 AM with incessant "meow"ing. But I digress...

FLASHBACK TO SATURDAY
I came home Saturday after work (at the clinic) with quite a load that I hadn't started out with. Jennifer told me about city wide garage sales in North Liberty. I'd hoped I could stop at one or two on my way out of town, but really didn't plan on buying anything. I'd no sooner gotten in my car and headed towards corridor coffee when my phone rang. "I found a book bag full of Thomas Tracks for $12 and a case with a handle for $4, do you want it?" "THOMAS" I thought to myself, (it's almost more of an obsession now for me than for Brighton...) "MUST HAVE THOMAS FOR $16!" "Do you want it?! I'll just get it, we have to get going." "Ahhh....yeah ok sure!" So I stopped and got my white mocha (or mocha bianca) got some cash and met her at Mary's house. It turned out to be a great deal! the bag was full of plastic tracks (bright has the wood ones) but there were some trains in the back pack too. Some wood, some plastic, some battery powered, most diecast. All in all, it was a pretty good haul and it made my son very happy!

Then they told me about a sale that had a train table. Have you ever felt the need so strongly to have something that if you were to give up on it, you would obsess over it for days or weeks? That was the case with this table. Even if I decided NOT to get it, I had to give it a chance. I searched high and low until I found this sale. I must have passed the place 10 times before I stopped. I didn't end up getting the table, but they did have a Thomas play board that fits inside the table for $15 (regularly resales for around $85) so I figured even if it was used and a little banged up, it was a good deal and saving me $65! Side note: It's a sad day when the sales clerk at Von Maur Boys section (where we buy a lot of Thomas stuff or Bright goes to play with the toot toot set up) starts calling you by your first name and has a good idea of what things you've purchased...

Finally, I made it home, almost $50 poorer, with lots of new clothes that I'd found, a thomas table board, a bag full of toot toots, a stuffed pooh bear and eyore and a handy little knapford shed storage case. Only to find that the two things (a hand made sock puppy and a hand made wool coffee sleeve) I ordered from Etsy.com had arrived as well. One of those things was for Brighton. So he made out like a bandit on Saturday, but was a bit overwhelmed by all his goodies. I need to learn "little at a time." or "little dab'l do ya."