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."

He Can't BE!

He can't be ready to potty train yet...right? I get a phone call early yesterday morning while on my way to work from Dad telling me that Brighton went potty on his potty...WHAT? Dad was sitting on the pot and usually Brighton likes to sit on his potty too. We don't discourage this at this point for potty training purposes. We want him to feel as comfortable as possible on his big boy potty and if that means we sacrifice our toilet time privacy, so be it. It's not like we've ever had privacy anyway, with two dogs a cat and a kid. But I digress. Anyway, Brighton wanted to sit on his potty, so Dad took his diaper off (Brighton's not Dad's) and sat him in his potty. Dad flushed, left the room to get a new diaper and when he came back and lifted Brighton up, Bright had peed on his potty! YAY! He told dad "I POOP" *giggle giggle* I'm not sure it was deliberate, but he is getting really good at telling us when he poops or pees. But "I Poop" can also mean flatulance or urine. So we're working on distiguishing which is which. But it's a good start!

PS. I have been obsessed with etsy.com lately. The gal at the coffee shop, Fuel, told me about this onesie, and even though Brighton is too big for onesies, I still want one for Brighton...because, well, just look at it!! You can find it at Mamamonkey's shop along with a whole host of other cool stuff!!

No Beans for You!

When did my boy become a boy? Well, I know he IS a boy, but he's been a baby. Not a little boy. I had a "moment" today as I was doing some work for the IaGS. I have spent the last 2.5 hours on the computer and the phone and my little boy has been so so patient. Playing with his new toot toots and watching PBS. Well, I am just starting to wrap up my last phone call, and he's laying on the ground in the sunroom fiddling with his nose. Something he doesn't do. So I look thinking there's a boogie in it that is making him itch. So I close my call and look in his nose. I see nothing but what looks like a boogie stuck WAY back up his nose. I try to get it out with my boogerpicker. Nope, nothing. So I switch sides, sit him up and sticking out his nose is a rock. A ROCK!? What would posess a 2 year old to stick a rock up his nose? A ROCK!? I got it out, only minor minor bleeding and he's fine. But it leaves me wondering if there's something else up there or what he will stick up his nose next...And that I need to spend my precious little free time with my son, not on the phone and the computer...

I'm TOOOOO!

Ok, not quite sure why picasa chose this pic to post since I chose a totally different photo. Perhaps it was reading my mind because I'd THOUGHT of posting this. On with the blog.

Brighton is officially TWO! I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in the hospital room waiting and waiting to meet this beautiful child! Just wondering who he would be. Would he be cute? Would he look like mom or dad? Would he be a fussy baby or an easy going baby? Would it matter? Would I notice the difference? What would we do with a baby?! Needless to say, all those questions (with the exception of who he looks like) have been answered. He has really been the most wonderful blessing to both of us. I finally admitted yesterday that I do indeed spoil him...(is 10 thomas the tank engines plus tracks plus tunnels plus extension sets plus a party plus ... for his birthday overkill?) I always said "this baby is not going to be spoiled! We're not going to have our living room overrun with toys!" HAHA! How can you say no to that face? We hadn't expected that he'd be A. so sweet and B. oh so cute! and C. have those puppydog eyes. Yes, my boy is spoiled, but that's OK. He's not rotten just yet. Yet.

He's starting to learn all kinds of new phrases and words. He's picked up the whole "I TOOOO!" thing when you ask how old he is. He will hold out his two index fingers to indicate the number. He can't quite figure out how to make a "V" with his one hand yet. Though I'm sure no one but Grammy, Dad and Mom will believe it because he looks at us like we're out of our everloving minds when we ask him to tell us how old he is in front of anyone else. His other new thing is "Ow!" whenever you're doing something he doesn't particularly like. Like holding his hand to cross the street or picking him up so he doesn't continue to run around the mall making his mom and dad crazy. That's a real joy. I don't know where he picked this up at but I'm sure someone will make sure DHS knows that our little two year old is running around saying "OW!" I can hear the phone call now. He's also figured out that the cat says "MEOW". He used to just kind of make a high pitched grunting noise to imitate the cat, but now it's an all out "MEEEOOOW." Cute as the dickens. And he calls Feebee in for bed "peebee." And "peebee" happily obliges and gives a few extra kisses if Bright is anywhere within licking distance. "I pee" is another new one. You've seen the "I poop" blog, now we have #1 to go along with #2. He tells us all kinds of dramatic stories, complete with pitiful facial expressions, but we just empathize and try to pick out the words that we know. He seems so serious and so affected that you have to control your giggle and say "oh really? Oh that's too bad!!" Or whatever. Gotta switch it up once in a while or he catches on.

Will keep you abreast of all new words and things as we go. But for now, it's 11:30 PM and I need to get to bed. Have a great day.

Rough Start

I'm sitting here reading some of my friend's blogs when honestly, I should be napping. Iw as up all night stressing about my schedule next week and how the heck I'm going to do it. So I got around about 5 hours of sleep. Bright is napping and so I thought I'd try something. Seeing pictures of Amelia, I wanted to be reminded of Brighton at that age. In this photo he's a little younger than Mia but darn is he cute?

Bright and I had an interesting morning. We ended up having to take a stray cat to a vet in Clarence to have it euthanized. The cat had gotten in with Sebastian, our outside dog, and she shook it, first breaking it's back (I could tell because it wasn't moving it's back legs) and then tried again until I separated her. In the meantime while I'm trying to get the poor beast out of the kennel with Sebastian, I hear the door open and out walks mister smartypants. I abandon this poor hurting animal to take my son back inside where I know he is safe. Finally I can get the cat covered and put into a kennel. At this point, the cat is still alive but barely. I put the kennel in the car, get Brighton and load him up, put a bra on myself lest I trip, and off we go to Clarence. Fortunately (or unfortunately - however you want to see it) the cat had expired on the way. I felt really bad. I was hoping that at least the cat could pass without pain, but time did not allow that. But the cat went quickly, thankfully, and finally without fear (safe in a kennel not in Sebastian's kennel). I took the cat to Pet Memories, where we send animals from the clinic to be buried or cremated then we came home and promptly changed our clothes and cleaned up before Bright ate lunch and finally laid down for a nap. We got home just shy of noon. No matter how far removed you are from an animal, you still feel a little twinge when something like that happens. I suppose I'm a little more hardened to it just because of the nature of my job and my environment, but it still sucks.