fisherman's fall festival

after a long and unexpected hiatus i am ready to give this a shot again.  i'm going to try a little different approach, as i have realized that my writing skills suck!  i'm thinking less narrative and more pictures.  that's what everyone wants anyway right???

we are loving our little life here in our new city.  being unemployed in the summertime has proven to be even more fun than i thought it would be.  today we went to the fisherman's fall festival with grandma and pop-mom.  the squirt-tot really enjoyed it and would have probably stayed all day if allowed.

we waited in line to get his face painted - for the first time ever!  when it was our turn, he refused to tell the lady what he wanted on his face!  he kept saying he didn't want a picture, he wanted paint.  finally we convinced him to get a shark.  the lady suggested he get it on his arm, which was the right choice because he couldn't sit still for more than 3 seconds.

we did an art project - painting sea scallop shells.

lunch consisted of carbs...of course.

the best part was probably the bounce house.  he had a great time.  when it was his time to be done, he seemed a little confused.  he decided he needed to exit the same way he got in, so he climbed up the bouncy slide and back down the bouncy climbing wall.  the volunteers seemed very confused by it!

this week we've also been to the locks, the aquarium, and the market.

we're excited to see what the rest of the weekend holds for us!  

by the by, there's a new addition to this craziness...enjoy.

the modified mr t

I was home alone with my Squirtdaredevil the other night and he needed a haircut...bad.  I normally get George to help me with the haircutting, since toddler boys don't enjoy sitting still very long.  But I decided to take that opportunity to cut Squirt's hair the way I wanted to!  See, we normally disagree over how to cut it.  But not this time!

I decided to experiment with a shorter blade guard...which was a little shorter than I thought!  But it gave me the opportunity to give my son a rockstar haircut!  He's a badass.  Yeah, I said it!  He has this modified Mr. T haircut now.  It's freaking awesome!  These pictures don't do it justice!

 

Speaking of Mr. T, I think my Squirtmuscles has the strength of Mr. T also.  I was taking a shower the other day, so he was unfortunately locked in the bathroom with me.  Squirt is basically ok with being locked in the bathroom while I shower.  He finds little ways to entertain himself.  Mostly he does this by taking every single tampon out from the cabinet and throwing them on the floor (he likes to make it rain tampons!).  His other favorite thing to do is steal George's toothbrush and chew on it (hence they were both sick last week!).  To curb this, I put the childproof locks on really tight!  And they worked, he could not open the cabinets.  Until he used his little muscles to break the freaking lock!  He's very crafty.

So yeah, basically my life is awesome!  I'm so proud of my son and so lucky to have such a wonderful husband!  Here are some of my other recent favorites!  Don't be startled by how beautiful my son is!

gee hive

People, we've got hives!  And I mean bad!

My SquirtTot's Monday Night Fever turned into Mama's Wednesday Unexcused Absence.  Translation: Squirt was siiiiiiick last week.  We went to the doctor and the verdict was bronciolitis and a stomach bug.  Which meant that Mama got to chase the baby around for nebulizer treatments and change a lot of diapers.

While I was in frantic mom mode, and not thinking clearly, I decided that I would give my Squirt antibiotics in order to cover all my daycare bases (they really like to see kids on antibiotics before they come back - blah, blah, blah).  He had a virus, but he continued to have green gunk coming from his nose, so I bit the bullet and gave him the remaining week of antibiotics from a previous prescription we had.  I am my worst nightmare (read: DO NOT DO THIS, IT IS BAD).  But...he got better and went to daycare all this week...until Friday.

Thursday evening I noticed Squirt was starting to develop a rash.  It looked like hives.  I called the doctor's office and they said it sounded like hives.  George came home and also said it looked like hives.  Squirt woke up in the middle of the night (he never does that); we turned the light on, and it still looked like hives.

Friday morning, it was terrible.  All his little bumps were growing.  He was red and swollen.  The hives now looked like giant craters all over his little body.  The red bumps were getting so big that they were meeting up with other bumps and creating huge red, raised, swollen patches.  Friday morning, it no longer looked like hives.

George decided to make workplace history and said he was leave work in the middle of the day to take our SquirtItcher to the pediatrician.  Yeah...that's how bad it looked.

It was hives.

Most likely related to the antibiotics.

So now Squirt has a penicillin allergy, which is also not good.  But he's fine.  A little itchy...but fine.

Let's hope he can stay healthy for at least a whole week.

Friday Morning

  

Friday Evening

(Don't worry, this is fake crying)

Saturday

At least he got to play in the snow, hives and all!

monday night fever

Wanna know how to feel like the worst parent ever?  Take your kid to an indoor playground in the middle of the winter, and then wait 4 hours.  Your child will inevitably become feverish and clingy (and whiny)...and you will feel like crap!

That is precisely what happened on Monday.  We had a lovely family day planned.  No work for Mama.  No work for Daddy.  Just fun.  Daddy felt like the baby was getting cabin fever (side note, I don't think babies get cabin fever) so we ventured out to play in a new location.  There's an indoor playground about 40 minutes away which gets rave reviews.  So we went.

I was ready to leave about 4 minutes after we got there.  George was ready to leave about 15 minutes after we got there.  And Squirt, well Squirt was having a good time playing...the same good time he would have had a home playing.

I'm not joking, there were kids everywhere.  And not in a duh kind of way, I mean everywhere.  It was actually a lot of fun (read: chill with a reasonable number of children) while we were in the toddler area.  The Squirttoddler learned how to climb up the blocks and go down the slide by himself.  It was super cute!  But when he got bored there we went over to the baby area and then it was all over!  There, he just wanted to put things in his mouth and all I could see were little germs crawling all over everything (hence the fever). 

I'm also not so good with having to watch my child share/steel other kids toys.  I want to smack the kids who take his toys and I want to corral my kid when he tries to take other kids' toys.  I mean they're only doing what they're supposed to, I'm just not so hot on standing by quietly!  At least he made a little friend!

Squirt seemed like he had a good time.  He was slightly overwhelmed by the place but overall it was good.  However, it was not good enough to outweigh the looks he was giving us in the evening.

At least it made him slow down long enough to focus on something.  He must be the smartest baby ever!  He can remove and restack the rings!  It's amazing.

We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.  And we hope you're getting back into your routine better than we are!

i should be sleeping but...

I had to tell you that I taught my son to turn the lights off (he thought it was hilarious)!  And he figured out how to use his index finger to flip through pictures on my iPhone.

These must be signs...he's obviously a genius.

 Last Friday

Today

Ok, good night!

hello again

OMG!  If this blog weren't about my kid I would change the name to The Blog of Shame.  But that seems inappropriate to describe my Squirtjoy!  

We are loving life here.  Squirt is walking, refusing to eat baby food, and learning a million new things everyday!  I can't wait for him to talk.  There is a definite change in his speech pattern but no words yet.  I'm thinking it's going to be a while still.  We'll just have to love the crazy faces and noises in the meantime.  Maybe when he learns to talk he'll also learn to listen!

Unfortunately, George and I have been super busy the last couple of months (hence the hiatus), but Squirt is resilient.  He comes to hug us every night when we get home, gives us a huge smile and wipes snot all over our clothes.  He is completely amazing.

I can't wait for a break from school so I can focus more on my family.  But in the meantime, when we have family time I dedicate my whole focus to them.  It was hard at first, because my mind goes a mile a minute.  But I've gotten pretty good at ignoring homework...and dishes...and bills so I can put all my energy into my energetic boys!

This is what we focused on today...

summertime...

...and the livin's easy!

This has been a fantastic weekend!  Even with the rain, the weather has been all wonderful and summery.  Warm in the day, cool in the evening.  It's just perfect!  And I'm so glad we had this amazing weekend, because school is going to start again and life is going to get crazy again very soon.

Here's what we've been up to this weekend (obsessing over Instagram is a given!)!

Yesterday we went to the food carts!  I'd heard about them from a few friends but let me tell you, it's all I want to do now!  Delish!

Today we went to the park!  Let me just tell you about the parks around our house...there is no ONE good park.  Each has something to offer, but unfortunately they can't all be in the same place.  The one in our neighborhood has baby swings, but they're the bad kind.  The one to the left of our house has slides but no baby swings.  The one to the right of our house has the good baby swings, and a rock climbing wall, but no slides!  I mean, come on people!  We visited the rock climbing park today.  Clearly, fun was had by all!

I was just complaining that I felt like summer was almost over and we hadn't had any fun family weekends.  Then this weekend happened!  Thank you, it was memorable!