I Like It

I was surfing the web for all sorts of free patterns and I came across a tee here. I'm not usually a fan of a lot of hearts, but I liked all the little ruffles. I think I'm going to try it, I just need to find a shirt I can do it to!

I Hate Work

I usually love my job. It's probably as close to perfect as a job can get. But there are some days I don't like it. Today was one of those days. I was getting ready to go back in to work when Rowan brought me his jacket and asked "bye-bye?" I told him he wasn't coming with and he hung his head. Last Thursday, he woke up before I left for work. We snuggled on the couch for a few minutes, then I had to go. I bent over to give him a kiss and he patted the couch beside him. "Sit down," he said. I lost it and started bawling. I know I can't always be with him, but it's so hard to leave him when he wants me to stay.

Parenting

Here are a couple interesting/fun things to look at if you've got a few minutes.

Parenting Confessions

http://health.msn.com/kids-health/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100269604&imageindex=1

Unusual Baby Products

http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/moms-coffee-break/staticslideshowparenting.aspx?cp-documentid=28025111

Piggy Says "Mick"?

This week while I'm off work for spring break, I wanted to do a few fun things with Ro. Today, we made some animal masks from craft foam. While we were putting together the pig, he kept saying "mick, mick". I couldn't figure out why he was saying that until I asked him what piggies say and he replied "mick". It's how he says "oink". Take a listen.

We also made a bird

and a frog.

He kept taking them off and putting them on, then when I finally pull out my camera, he decides he doesn't want to wear one. Figures.

It's been a while since I've posted, I know. That was something else I wanted to do while I was off was catch up on a few posts. Most of you know, a week ago, Rowan fell down the stairs. He bloodied his nose and hurt his right leg, though we were having difficulty figuring out just where it was bothering him. Steve and Rory came home and gave him a blessing. We watched him closely, but by evening, he still wasn't putting weight on it, so we took him to KidsCare in Taylorsville. He was a really good patient, letting them check all his vitals without a word of protest. While we waited for the doctor to come in, he sat on the exam table looking at books. I would ask him questions about the pictures and he would whisper the answer back to me, it was so cute. The doctor checked him out and nothing seemed to be wrong except his ankle. They x-rayed his leg to make sure there wasn't a small fracture on his lower leg by his ankle. They didn't see any break, so they wrapped it up and sent us home. We watched him over the following days and started to get a little anxious when he didn't try to put any weight on it. Rory had talked to Kara (Matt Bowen's wife) since she is going into physical therapy and she said don't be surprised if he seems nervous about walking. Sunday, he did stand up a little before church and take a couple steps, but nothing on Monday. Finally, yesterday, he stood and flung his hands out above his head and said "DAH!". He walked on and off through the evening. His foot was still a little stiff so he kind of dragged it. Today he's doing even better.

Nothing Is Safe...

Rowan is growing up and is getting into everything. He can reach things off the counter and get his own drink for the water from the fridge dispenser. He picks out DVDs and put them in the player (we have fingerprints on A LOT of our discs.) The other night, he pulled a chair over to the pantry and opened the door so he could get to his juice boxes. Watch out, Mom and Dad, Rowan is on the move!

Picnic at the Park

Earlier this week, Rowan and Mommy had a picnic lunch at the park. After eating, Ro decided to take his imaginary friend for a walk in his stroller.

Afterward, he walked out onto the playground with a big grin on his face and said "Mine."

He played some Tic Tac Toe. He insisted on climbing this ladder over and over again (I kept a really close eye on him).

He found climbing up the slide didn't work as well as going down .

It was even more fun to go head first!

He really liked the swings.

We finished up the day rocking on the alligator (at least, I think that's what it is).

It was more fun than one little boy could take.

Happy Halloween, Pardner

This year Rowan dressed up as Woody, who is one his most favorite characters from the best movie ever. Grandma had some Woody pajamas she had got him for Christmas, but decided she would let him have them early and I made him a cowboy hat from craft foam. I know, it's not exactly like Woody's, but I wanted to avoid potential copyright issues ;)

Mom and Grandma had to take pictures after we duded him up.

Something tells me he wasn't wild about the idea of a photo shoot.

Wait, there's a sort of smile...

Nevermind.

He was happy about all the candy, however. He's still saying "trick or treat".

We took him to Rory's aunt and uncle's house since they put some fun stuff in their front yard for the holiday.

The kid in the red shirt is Dylan. He belongs to Rory's cousin, Amy. He was running around "taking pictures" with the green lego block.

Saturday night, we went to Grandma Cindy's for a little get-together. Cousins were there as well, decked out in their Halloween finery. Abi was an adorable "Working Out Barbie".

Riley was a cute little pumpkin princess (who really loves candy, but, who doesn't?).

The men and Mel took the little ones to a few houses in the neighborhood to trick or treat. After they got back, we thought it would be cute to take a picture with the pumpkins Grandma Cindy had grown for them.

Obviously, it didn't work out so well.

And, we've lost them.

So, we decided to improvise...

Kevin's sister Angela came to visit with her little girl Savannah and her new baby. Abi loves Savannah so much; she hardly gave her room to breath the whole time she was there.

Grandma Cindy helped Rowan hold little Karina. He was so excited. How sweet!

The festivities ended with three tired kiddies who had way too much candy, and still wanted more. Regardless, everyone had a good time.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go

I'm beginning my second week at my new job as a playground duty at Whittier Elementary. I finally got a call from them last Monday saying I could start. I say finally because there has been a lot of running around. There was some miscommunication about some paperwork and when I could actually start, then I had to go in to do my fingerprints again because the first set wasn't clear enough. Now I am working on getting my ID badge, which, I found out on Friday, the district will not issue until they have the results of my fingerprints back. So, until then, I'm using a guest teacher pass. At least I'm working.
It's only 4 hours a day, but that's better than nothing and for right now, it's perfect. I have playground duty from 8:00 -9:00, which is easy, since it's only the kids that come early for breakfast until about 10 minutes before the beginning of school. After the kids go in for class, I help in the office until 10:00, checking in late kids, taking lunch money, filing and preparing things to go in the teacher's boxes. I have a break from 10:00 to 11:15, so I come home and spend time with Ro and Rory, get something to eat, read and relax a little. Then I go back until 1:15 during recess and monitor the first graders during lunch. I don't do any office work on Fridays, so I get a 2 hour break. It's pretty easy and I like being at the school. I walk back and forth to work while the weather cooperates, so I get a workout. I'm on my feet the whole time, so that took a little getting used to. It seems a little easier this week.

Take a pic.

Rowan has taught himself to take pictures with our camera. Thank goodness it's digital, or I would be freaking because he would have wasted half a roll of film. The pictures came out like this

...or like this.

And just a side note, the camping trip post is going up tomorrow. I've just got to finish it up. Until then...

Cousin-sitting

Today, Ro helped watch his cousin Abi while Steph was teaching her water aerobics class. We started off the morning with breakfast.

Yummy, Golden Grahams!

Abi was using his booster, so Ro kept standing up on his chair. I repeatedly asked him to sit down, so Abi thought she would help. She pointed her spoon at him and said emphatically "Down! Down!"

Mmm, good to the last drop.

Mommy was only gone for about an hour, so the two spent the rest of the time coloring,

playing with Ro's toys,

and looking at books.

They were playing in a fort when Steph came to get Abi. She was having so much fun, she didn't want to leave! Thanks for visiting, Abi! We'll see you soon!

Christmas in August

On Wednesday this week, the mailman brought a package for Rowan from New York. Usually, Chris tells us to expect one, but it had slipped her mind this time, so this was a nice little surprise. Rowan was excited; somehow he knows when the packages are for him.

He was trying to "cheese" for the camera, even though it looks like he's grimacing.

He liked Mickey on the bag, and seemed to be content with just that, but of course, there was something even better inside. It was a little red car with a Stitch figurine in it that made Ro giggle when he saw it.

He's posing for the camera to show me what he got, though you can't really see either the toy or his face. Chris told us later that Britt had told her about it and it was Paul who picked it out and sent it. Thanks, Paul!

I just found my camera that's been missing for a couple months. Since it was missing, I had not taken pictures of my garden like I had intended to. So I am posting some now. A little explanation before we move on: there are no wide shots of the beds in front of the house because I have not kept up very well on the weeding. In my defense, we have been very busy and there have been a tummy bug and cold circulating through our house. You may also notice the pictures are a little hazy, in fact, it's almost like there was a fingerprint on the lens. Well, there was, and I didn't notice it on the camera's display when I took the pictures and discovered it only just now. Please for give the lack of clarity in the following images.

I planted petunias, begonias, and mums in the front yard and this container did especially well. The temperature on the northside of the porch has been just right and it's right by a sprinkler, so it makes for happy flowers.

In addition to the flowers, I devoted a container to a zucchini and crookneck plants. The zucchini was a little feeble to begin with, then the squash had a wicked infestation of earwigs (I hate earwigs, ugh, those and thistles). We haven't had any zucchini yet (it looks like the blossoms are falling of before the fruit can come on for some reason). We did get one adorable knobbly crookneck and have another growing now.

Last of all, there's the Little Rosebush that Could. There was a dead stump of a bush along the fence, and earlier in the season, it didn't seem to be doing anything. I started thinking it was gone for good and maybe it should be removed. It seems no sooner than I thought that than a few little stems shot up and put out little pink blooms. I deadheaded them when they started to look spent and now we have a couple more buds.

*Apologies that some of the pictures are sideways. I thought I had fixed them, but apparently not. I will try to fix them a little bit later.

Water Fun

Rowan wanted to go outside so bad so we let him play in the sprinkler and he loved it! What kid wouldn't. He ran his hands through it. backed up under the spray and even let the water spray him full in the face. Even Daddy got in on the action.

We don't know who the other kid is. He came over from the neighbor's house and said he likes to play in the water so we let him run through with Rowan a few times.

Of course, he was soaked and gold, but he didn't want to shut the water off.