Sting and Shine

We had a somewhat eventful afternoon yesterday.  James and I were playing on the floor with his ball (shock shock) when he suddenly started crying really loud.  I looked at him and saw a SCORPION running down his leg!!!  I snatched him and realized his finger had been stung; it was really red and starting to swell.  I have to admit I panicked.  I mean, I'm not really familiar with scorpions!  I called Ryan and thankfully he answered.  While he was looking up scorpion info I started trying to smash the nasty thing with my shoe, but he did not want to die.  The funny thing is seeing me stomp the scorpion apparently was funny to James, and he stopped crying to laugh at me.  Ryan told me to call the pediatrician.  The nurse there told me to call Poison Control.  The Poison Control lady connected me to the Louisiana office to "identify" the type of scorpion.  Thankfully it wasn't the lethal type and I have to say I am impressed with how quickly you can talk to a real person when you call the Poison Control Center.  I loaded JT up with benadryl and ibuprofen and praise Jesus he was okay!  However now I feel like everywhere I look I'm going to see another one run across our floor.  Needless to say we are getting the house sprayed tomorrow morning! 

Yuck

After my heart stopped racing I decided to take James to "Shine on Line".  A local school sponsers it at one of our parks.  There are hundreds of decorated pumpkins along with food, music, etc.  Ryan met us there for a little while after conference.

Can you believe my child is in sleeveless clothes at the end of October???

 We  made it back home and it was finally time for bed.  What a day! So thankful my little guy is okay. 

Just the 2 of Us

On Friday Ryan had to leave for a robotics conference in Florida which meant James and I were on our own for the weekend, and to be honest I wasn't looking forward to it.   This is one of those times that I really wish I had friends or family here in LA because it gets soooooo lonely!!!!  In addition Ryan was on call Monday so I figured I might as well be mentally prepared not to see him until Tuesday.  I gave myself a pep talk and decided I needed to make the best of the situation.  So I implemented 3 rules for the time Ryan was gone:

1.  I will not worry about our budget and will eat out without feeling guilty.  There is no reason to have a lot of dishes to do and James needs to expand his dining experiences. :) 

2.  I will be allowed to drink as many diet drinks as necessary.

3.  I will enjoy the little pleasures that come with having Ryan gone such as not making the bed, parking in the middle of the garage, and letting James play with whatever keeps him occupied.

Friday we spent some extra time in our pjs, and did our normal gym, Target routine.  Of course we also had dinner at Chick-fil-a.   

JT has a strange obsession with his socks right now. He insisted on wearing them on top of his footie pjs!

Saturday and Sunday I decided we needed to go as many places as we possibly could to make the day go by fast.  We started off by going to a church where they were selling local homemade items and also fair trade crafts.  I was able to do a little Christmas shopping and love the feeling that I am already ahead! :) After we left there we stopped by the park.

Then we went to a fundraiser for someone who had been hurt that one of Ryan's co-workers wife told us about.  They were selling food for lunch, doing a chili cook-off, and had some activities for kids.  

Adrian and JT

We were going to try out the bouncy house but the big kids in it were scary!

Saturday afternoon I was able to get a babysitter to come for about an hour so I headed to Starbucks.  Yummmmy! 

When I got home someone had "Booed" our house.  We got all sorts of candy and Bath & Body Works goodies.   This also meant that James and I needed to go back to Target so we could spread the "boo" onward.

Sunday began with cinnamon toast for breakfast (not something we normally have) and getting ready for church.  After church I decided James needed to try pizza for the first time.  He seemed to like it but honestly he liked the applesauce I brought him just as much.  I think the people at Pie Works were somewhat surprised it was just the two of us for lunch! Later that afternoon we went to some more random places just browsing around town. 

As a side note, you may or may not know that the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their car seat recommendations and now kids are supposed to stay rear facing until at least age 2 if not longer.  I was surprised to learn when reading about it that kids are 75% less likely to die or be severely injured in a wreck if they are rear facing.  http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/21/car.seat.guidelines.parenting/index.html  Needless to say we are following the recommendations but let me tell you it is a huge pain getting my big ole 95 percentile little boy in that seat rear facing.  I felt like I had gotten a good workout after going so many places with him.  I think I counted that we went to 6 places or more on Sunday which is a lot of getting in and out of the car! 

Cinnamon toast breakfast

Pizza time!

Somehow he escaped the house!

As I was driving around on Sunday I was suddenly struck by how wrong my attitude had been about the weekend.  Yes it is lonely on your own and of course I would rather Ryan be with us.  However I was reminded that I may not have many opportunities to spend this much one-on-one time with James.  One day we will hopefully have more kids and truthfully it will be a rare occurrence to have any alone time with each individual child, let alone several days.  I was also reminded that he is changing so much and so fast; every day is precious to spend with him.  We actually ended up having a great weekend, just the two of us. 

28 Years and 14 Months Old

Yesterday was Ryan's birthday and today James turns 14 months so I figured I would just combine the two into one post. It ended up being a really crazy day but we tried to make the most of it. We started off yesterday with a play date with our MOPS friends at the park.  We were already running late and then it started raining on the way but thankfully  the sun decided to shine.  James LOVES to swing.  He was laughing out loud because he thought it was so much fun.

After the park we ran to get some supplies to make Ryan a special dessert and also to pick up a gift.  While we were leaving Target Ryan called, and we got to meet him for lunch- something that does not happen very often.  I brought my camera and but did I take a picture? Nooooooo, of course I forgot. On the drive home JT feel asleep for 10 minutes and decided that that was his nap for the day.  Needless to say he was a cranky tired mess for the rest of the afternoon.  In desperation I let him play with whatever was in the kitchen so I could make Ryan his chocolate chess pie.  Throughout the course of making this pie just about every single item was taken out of the lower cabinets and James broke my favorite bowl.  Yes it's my fault for letting him play there and Ryan's fault for not putting the locks on the cabinets, but I was still bummed that my bowl is gone! 

One of the only presents I got Ryan was a surprise babysitter so we could go out on a date for his birthday.  Of course that morning I got an email that the babysitter was sick.  Thankfully my back-up sitter came through for us.  I let Ryan pick so we went to Sushi Gen (somewhere I would never chose but I was pleasantly surprised)  I am the first to admit that I like my food cooked so sushi is not my thing.  However I did try the "Monkey Brain."  When Ryan said he wanted to get it I am embarrassed to say that I asked, "Does it really have monkey in it?"  Ryan thought that it was hilarious that I seriously thought that but there are some crazy things in some of that stuff!  The monkey brain was actually really great, but I still ordered something normal and played it safe.

 We realized when we got home that we had no pictures of Ryan and James on his birthday so we decided to just take some this morning.

It is crazy how much James is changing each week.  I can hardly keep up with it!  It feels like he was just turning one and now it's already two months later.  We have hit a huge milestone because he is finally walking!!!  Definitely still prefers crawling but is getting better at walking every day. James, here are some special moments from your 14th month. 

Stats:  18-24 month clothes, just moved up to a size 5 diaper for nighttime.  Not sure exactly how much you weigh, but we tried to weigh you on our scale and we think it's a lot!

Likes:  Being outside, kicking and throwing balls, climbing up stairs, dancing- anytime you hear any music, eating, going to Mother's Day Out, taking strolls around the neighborhood, taking things out of drawers and cabinets, climbing onto the couch and giving your mom a heart attack when you almost fall off onto our concrete floors, playing in our fireplace (a big no no)

Dislikes: Taking Tylenol and Advil for your teeth, getting dressed when you would rather be playing, taking naps (some things never change), being told you have to come inside

  Over the past month your two bottom molars have broken through so you now have 10 teeth.  The main words you say are: Mama, diaper, juice, cheese, bye bye, uh oh,  bubble, and of course ball.  I think you say ball a minimum of 1000 times a day.  It's the first thing you say when you wake up in the morning and probably the last thing you say at night.  We even hear you telling it to yourself on the monitor.  You have started trying to "brush" your teeth by yourself after we have done it for you.  You also have learned to show us your tongue and your nose when asked.  It is hilarious to see you dance- you have more rhythm than either of your parents.  It is amazing how much you can understand and that you do what we ask you to do(sometimes).  The other day I told you to sit down if you wanted me to take your shoes off and I was shocked that you actually did it!  Your dad and I love you so much and you bring so much joy and humor to our lives. :)

Coloring at the library

A masterpiece!  His little friend Bridget "helped" him

Loves to feed Daddy cheerios

Pumpkin Patch

This past Monday we made a trip over to the pumpkin patch.  A local church always has pumpkins to sell that benefit local missions.  We even took a field trip to the "Pumpkin Patch Church" when I was teaching kindergarten here.  James immediately went crazy over all of the "balls" at the pumpkin patch.  We tried to get him to pick out a pumpkin for us to take home, but he just couldn't decide which "ball" was his favorite. :)  Monday was also the first day that we noticed 2 molars coming in, and we have had one fussy little boy ever since. 

One year ago...

My tooth hurts!

Mr. and Mrs. Fincannon

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Fincannon! It was a beautiful day spent celebrating two wonderful people and their new life they are starting together.  We love you both! James was SO good during the ceremony.  He spent the entire time eating cheerios.  As Ryan and I walked back down the aisle together we could see his little face smiling at us- so cute!   

Getting ready

So thrilled to be the matron-of-honor

James stopped by before the wedding to say good luck to Aunt Whitney

I'm very grateful to whoever invented these!

Even Stella came out for the fun

JT was introduced as the "honorary ring bearer".  Unfortunately he was scared of the band!

First dance

The wonderful mom and mother-in-law

 

Yummy spice cake with cream cheese icing (side note: I was cold all night so I borrowed Ryan's jacket.  At the end of the night I found out that it wasn't even his.  I had been wearing some random person's coat all evening. Whoops!)

The getaway "car"