Wordless Wednesday

Isaac watching the sea lions at Pie.r 39. He thought because they were barking that they were "pup-as." Not the best picture, I wish either Isaac or the actual sea lions were more in focus and not so much the fence, but eh. I am learning. :)

Sticky Fingers

The end of last week (Thursday and Friday) and on Saturday, I was in Wetland Science class that I am taking to get my PWS certification. I am such a science geek, I know. :) Anyway, the point is that I barely got to see Isaac over those three days. He was in good hands, but I may have left him stay up a little late and have some extra fruit snacks and Mickey Mouse time in order to win him over again when I got home.

It didn't work. He rebelled.

Yesterday, I met friends G and K in the City for some lunch, shopping, and Pi.er 39 fun. We took Isaac to see the sea lions and the boats and to get some sea food (for us, he had a hot dog). They had a kite store between the Pier and the Wharf (where the seafood markets are) and I wanted to get Isaac a kite and some more windup toys. Why kite stores always have those little windup toys, I don't know. But they do. And Isaac loves them, so much, in fact, that he leaves them in odd places, like under the recliner so that when we rock in it....CRUNCH. We went in the store, and I got him an AWESOME monkey kite where the bottom half of the monkey and his tail actually compose the kite tail. He wowed G and K with his animal identification skills (fishie! ooh-ooh-ah! pup-a!). I chose a few wind up toys and left him with G and K while I paid, happily playing with the vast array of wind up toys. I will say here that one of the toys he has at home is a small seal that spins a ball. He LOVES it.

We left the store and happily continued toward the wafting aromas of delicious fresh seafood. Suddenly, G says "Um, I think Isaac stole a seal...." Sure enough, there in his little sticky fingers is a seal exactly like the one he has at home. Sigh. I distracted him, took the seal away and put in a safe place to avoid breaking of stolen property that needed to be returned. In all fairness, I was convinced that Isaac just thought it was his toy from home. I can forgive that. He is little and doesn't understand that when companies make toys, they make more than one.

I happily continued on, brushing off my son's petty crime. I bought him his hot dog. I ate a crabcake. K got attacked by a rogue seagull who stole a fish stick right out of her hand. As I was cleaning the stray hot dog bun bits, crackers, and raisins from Isaac's stroller, I felt behind his back.

THERE WAS A CONCEALED WIND UP TOY BEHIND HIS BACK.

And this time I couldn't justify that he thought it was his toy from home, because it was this black fish one. And it wasn't even cool. Not the point, I know. But if you're going to steal toys, Isaac, at least steal cool ones.

Anyway, now I had two stolen toys to return. On our way back to the car, I popped back into the kite and in one breath said "MY-SON-AND-I-WERE-JUST-IN-HERE-TO-BUY-A-KITE-AND-HE-HAD-THESE-IN-HIS-STROLLER-HE-IS-ONLY-17-MONTHS-I-DON'T-THINK-HE-MEANT-IT-SO-HERE-THEY-ARE-I'M-SO-VERY-SORRY-THANKS-BYE!" The clerk yelled after me that it was sweet of me to bring them back and thanks for my honesty. Mmmm, yeah, bad juju toys aren't really my style. I am a firm believe in what goes around comes around. And I remember when I was little, I went to the grocery store with my grandma and I discovered the bulk candy aisle. I seriously thought the store was just being nice to kids, so I ate some. My grandma was MORTIFIED when she discovered candy wrappers in my fist and made me apologize to the manager of the store. I remember crying and being afraid I was going to jail. The manager was completely understanding. I never stole anything again.

So Isaac is just to little to understand that we have to pay for things before we take them home right?

Hmmmm....

I think back to some shopping trips to Tar.get when I had my massive diaper bag that I would throw into the cart. When I would pick up a small item, say an eyeliner, I would give it to Isaac because he got a kick out of throwing into the back of the cart and hearing me say how helpful he was being! And then when I would get home and unload the diaper bag, THERE WAS THE EYELINER. Strange coincidence? Or strategic throwing?

After this weekend, I have to wonder....

:)

Batter Up!

Isaac is destined to a life of baseball. Or at least until he is really old enough to truly object. His daddy played baseball, and is fully intending to live vicariously through his son, since his baseball career was cut short by a torn rotator cuff or something.

Isaac has had baseball themed toys since he was old enough to play with them (and maybe a bit before). He swings the bat really well, and he has quite the arm (in my opinion) for a toddler. Right now, he throws with each arm equally, which has Ben hoping for a left-handed pitcher. Apparently they are few and far between, and bank quite the sum in pro ball.

It doesn't matter that he can't hold the bat very well. It doesn't matter that he stands right up close. All that matters is this moment is how his little face lights up when he hits the ball off his new T-ball stand, and hears the cheers and applause from Mommy and Daddy. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Crash Bandicoot

Well, I hope not. :)

Isaac got his first bike helmet yesterday! He screamed when I tried to put it on him last night, but apparently Daddy had the magic touch. I love this picture, even though it is of poor quality due to my husband taking it on his cell phone and Isaac not wanting to stop long enough for a picture. :)

Right Now

I heard that old Va.n Hal.en song the other day. You know, the one from the Pepsi commercial way back when? Right now! And it kinda got me thinking.

Anyway, I am a planner. I like to plan. I plan out the future over and over again. As much as it irritates me when wrenches get thrown in my plans, I secretly like it. I think it's a disease, like washing your hands too much (which I also think I do). Sometimes I do so much planning, I don't enjoy the right now. I catch myself doing it, getting all worked up about something that might happen, hasn't happened, or such.

I used to thrive on drama. Seriously. I think I would look for it. I didn't know how to live without drama because for a while, well yeah...things were dramatic. I didn't know how to be me, a me without the drama. And finally, my head hurt too much. It hurt from all the drama that I fully believe I was attracting into my life. Law of attraction, you know. I decided that drama was preventing me from living in the right now. I decided that that wasn't what anyone needed anymore.

Anyway, I am a firm believer that you allow your life happens as you let it. At least, you choose how you react to things. I think planning helped me try to avoid more drama. Like, I could plan so much that nothing could go wrong. Then it would, and I could plan some more. It was a vicious cycle that I have felt stuck in for while.

I don't want to miss out on what is happening right now. Drama prevents me from doing that. Being unhappy prevents me from doing that. Planning too much for things that don't ever end up happening prevent me from doing that. I am a firm believer in that only you can change your life. Only you can make it what you want it to be.

I want to live more in the right now.

Especially because my son's life is racing past me and he is getting bigger and bigger. He changes so much everyday. If I don't slow down, if I don't live more in this moment, I am going to miss too much.

Love

True love is going out for beer and soda once you have already put on your comfy pants and washed all your makeup off.

True love is taking off work and flying to LA on a whim so your wife can stand 8 feet away from her favorite musician and shrieks in delight everytime he looks her way.

True love is putting the nastiest smelling socks in the hamper time after time, holding your breath the entire time because they really are the NASTIEST smelly things in the world. And then washing the damn things.

True love is leaving your job, family, and friends behind and moving blindly across the country to live in a sardine can you have never seen before.

True love is watching and learning the ins and outs of college football so you can spend time together as a family.

True love is sacrificing value space on your DVR for 8 HOURS of althetic competition to make sure you recorded the WHOLE. DAMN. THING.

True love is staying up late at night, making fun of Crappy Line Caruso, cursing the lawn sprinklers and the annoying as hell rooster that lives down the road.

True love is learning to like The Bachelorette, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy and learning to be absolutely silent during the shows.

True love is asking knowing your wife well enough to know she went on a hunt to make sure the baby possum was not laying dead in your yard.

True love is being comfortable in silence but not being afraid to say what you really think.

True love is busting out into a smile in the middle of a heated argument.

True love is knowing the worst thing about the other person and knowing that it's ok.

True love is still loving someone as much, and more and more each day after 5 years of marriage, 12 years of dating.

Happy 5th Anniversary to my amazing husband, Ben.

Wordless Wednesday

Potty Progress

Isaac has had his potty for about a month and a half now. He does pretty well with it. He sits on it every night before his bath, and uses it about 7 times out of 10. I would say that of the other 3 times, he only pees in the bath 1 time, the other 2 doesn't pee in the potty or the bath at all. I will take it.

I didn't think he understood what the potty was for. During the day when he gets into the bathroom, he dismantles it and plays with the cushion. He throws bath toys into the stand. To get him to associate his potty with the peeing sensation, we do things to make him pee, like putting his hand into warm water and tickling him and startling him (not scary like, peekaboo like). He climbs off the potty by himself alot.

The other night he climbed off the potty and ran towards the tub, naked mind you. I have had issues with running, naked baby, namely because of my husband letting him think it is ok to run around naked before his bath. He pees on things, like my floor, his rug and BOOKS. :( So as the naked baby is running around the bathroom, having not peed in his potty yet, I was preparing for an incident....

HOWEVER!

Isaac stopped in his tracks, turned around and ran back to his potty, climbed on it (which I have never seen him do) and PEED IN HIS POTTY before hopping off again and running back to the tub!

This is a good thing, right?! Like my training is working?! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Isaac "Running Man" Lahman. STORY OF MY LIFE. :)

Surreal

My friend H had her beautiful baby boy this weekend. She sent me a photo of him, like every new mother does for her friends and family. Her texts with questions about nursing and such are bringing back floods of memories. Her baby is so teeny tiny, it makes my uterus hurt. I remember when Isaac was that size, so small that he fit on his daddy's legs with room to spare, so small he fit perfectly in the crook of my elbow. I remember, but I don't.

I put together a box of things for Isaac to have when he is older. This box has all the letters I have written him, cards he received before he was born, birthday and holiday cards from his first year, photos....and it has a newborn diaper, the first pair of booties he received as a gift, and his outfit he came home from the hospital in.

It seems surreal to me that my baby ever fit in one of those itsy bitsy diapers, and that it was actually BIG on him.

It seems surreal that the newborn size sleeper and hat I carefull selected for him to come home in was swimming on him at one point.

For that matter, I nursed Isaac for over 10 months. I don't remember that. I mean, I do. But I read about how milk supply and all that fun stuff from other people, and yeah, that seems surreal too.

Last night, I was laying on the couch watching TV (yep, was totally watching "The Bachelorette") and texting back and forth with my newly mom-ed friend. It made me miss the days, this time last year, that Isaac wouldn't sleep unless we rocked him and sang to him. I kept thinking to myself how I had justed told my friend to cherish every precious fleeting moment.

With that very comment in mind, I went to Isaac's room and pulled my 16 month boy into my arms and cuddled him.

And I am not sorry for one moment because I know that this time next year, this exact moment will be just as surreal.