Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Baby Carrying 101: This Is How You Do It.


Because there's nothing like a 40 pound kid hauling around a 27 pound one.....






Totally hysterical! Taylor can barely heft him around, but Colt thinks its hysterical!!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Mariners Game!!

OK...Now, isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen???




Bath time!






Colt loves bath time! He has just recently discovered the wonder of "bubble chasing" and "extreme water splash", both of which are hysterical to watch! He'll chase a bubble, grab it and turn his hand around to look at it and it'll be gone. Then he'll do it -over and over and over. So funny. The "extreme water splash" is very new, probably as a result of the bubble frusteration and, although it looks like he's having a lot of fun, it always results in me having to change my sopping clothes.




Colt also took his first spin on his new scooter. He's pretty good at it, although we're still working on the forward motion....





And, we went to our first family Mariner's game last weekend! It was awesome! Colt did really well with the trainride, the long wait before the game, the long game AND the train ride home!


Colt and Grandma take in the game with their new Mariner's hats!!




That's me, my mom and Colt! #1 Fan!!! He's totally decked out in his M's onesie (thanks to Grandma) and his M's hat (freebie at the park!)





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All that baseball is enough to wear anyone out!!

....and you'll notice Todd is starting the brainwashing early with the football chewy...



Friday, June 11, 2010

Your Uncle WHO?

Colt is the absolute cutest thing. (I promise soon, very soon, I will post more pics of him - I've been doing a terrible job downloading them from the camera!)

He is still the marathon sleeper! He is asleep at 5:00pm every evening - any later than that and we're just asking for a meltdown. He wakes up every morning around 5:15-5:30 and has a 20 minute conversation with himself (I think he's mentally preparing for the day, but who knows!) and then he's ready to be out of the crib and on with breakfast! He takes two pretty reliable naps every day - one around 9:00am and the other around 1:00pm - and each usually lasts at least an hour! He's growing like a weed, getting much taller and thinner.

He's trying very, very hard to walk and skip that whole crawling thing. He can pull himself up and hold on to your fingers, but his walking mostly consists of throwing his body side to side and dragging his legs along instead of picking each of his feet up. Yesterday he started doing this thing while sitting where he reaches sideways, plants one hand on the floor, kicks his legs out to the side and scoots sideways like a crab. It's pretty effective and hysterical to watch too! He can move a little! Crawling is just around the corner! Ikes...

He loves to bang things now and make noise. He thinks it's hysterical! Empty bottles, wooden spoons, balls. Anything and everything gets knocked around. I can just see it now: "Can I have a drum set? Please?!" Let's hope not.

By far the funniest thing are his conversations with himself and other people. He understands the concept of talking, but can't really make any words yet. At least I didn't think so....

A few days ago we had the following conversation:

Me: "Momma. Momma. Momma. Momma. Say Momma!"
Colt: "Da da da da da da da."
Me: "Dadda. Dadda. Dadda. Dadda. Say Dadda!"
Colt: "Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma."
Me: "Momma. Momma. Momma. Momma. Say Mommy!"
Colt: "Da da da da da da. Da da da."
Me: (playing along) "Ok. Say Dadda. Dadda dadda dadda."
Colt: "Ma ma ma ma ma."

Still in earshot, but out of visual range, I hear Colt continue the conversation with himself:

Colt: "Ma ma ma da da da duh duh duh ma ma buh buh buh blah blah blah" then, in a voice I've never heard from him - some low, gravelly, poltergeist like voice he goes (and I'm not exaggerating here) - "Uuuuuncle Tedddd." I run out of the bathroom, horrified, and there he is - still sitting there, playing with his toys, mumbling "Ma ma da da duh duh ma ma."

Me: "Uncle Ted?"
Colt: "Da da ma mah mah mah."
Me: "Who's Uncle Ted?"
Colt: "Mah mah ma ma da da da!"

So, we have deduced a few things: Although he can make both the "ma ma" and "da da" noises, he can't put either of them together to say "Momma" or "Dadda" just yet. And, when he does get around to it he may be totally confused about which of us is, in fact, the Momma and Dadda.  The Uncle Ted thing though? Totally unexplainable. We don't know anyone named Ted. There's no one at daycare named Ted. In fact, I've never even met anyone named Ted. Very, very strange.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Patience. Patience. Patience.

If you read the previous blog about the disaster regarding the chickens, smashing my fingers, smearing poop on my head and spilling stuff down my boots you would have noticed that, to top things off, Colt bit the remote control and the TV was stuck on the Blue Screen of Death flashing "No Signal" until Todd came home and fixed it in about two seconds. I have neither the aptitude nor patience for all things electronic. And one of the things I adore about my husband is his seemingly everlasting patience and intelligence regarding electronics. I, on the other hand, just shut the TV off when I can't figure out how to run it.

Yesterday, my day off, was Part Two in my war with the television. 

With Todd off to work and the baby down for a nap, I turned on the TV for some background noise/news while I finished cleaning the house.
I pressed "0-4" to tune KOMO news and nothing happened. I hit "Exit", nothing happened. I pressed "Menu" to see our DVR recordings, nothing happened. I pressed "Guide", nothing happened. I pressed every frickin' button on that controller and the only thing I could do was turn the TV off and on again. "Guide", nothing happened. "Guide" quickly again, nothing happened. I pressed the buttons even harder in rapid succession and nothing happened. So, I changed the batteries in the controller (smart one, huh?), nothing happened. I pressed every button on both of the other controllers; nothing happened. I then, in a stroke of genius, pressed the "Reset" button on the receiver, cursed DirecTV over and over, and waited 20 minutes for the stupid thing to reboot. After reboot I pressed "Guide" - NOTHING HAPPENED!!!

So, unable to work even the simplest electronics, I gave up and watched CNN on channel 204 - because that's what it was stuck on. All day. A news loop. Over and over. Until Todd got home.

When Todd arrived home I ran off the laundry list of things I single-handed destroyed that day, which included a lawn mower that wouldn't mow (I chewed up a rock early on in the day and it was never the same..), a busted mailbox (the bagger attachment on the lawn mower is slightly larger than I thought and caught it on a pass-by), and the TV that was stuck on channel 204. Not bad for only being home a 1/2 day?

Todd checks the TV first - because, who wouldn't? - and finds it in perfect working order. Channels change, goes on and off, can see the Guide, can watch DVRs. And then, he very patiently explained to me that had I waited just a moment after hitting each button instead of feverishly pressing them over and over, the TV would have done exactly what I wanted it to. When the TV didn't react instantaneously to my button-pushing I started pushing all kinds of other buttons, which veto-ed my previous selections, thus locking it up on channel 204. All day. If only I had the patience to wait a bit.

Remind me to tell you the story of disassembling the washing machine on the back deck. Geesh.

Monday, June 7, 2010

A Few of My Least Favorite Things...

We BBQed over Memorial Day weekend. And it seems that every year around this time I am, yet again, reminded of a few of my least favorite things.

  1.  BBQ flavored chips. This time of year I'm reminded of these things because it's the big kick-off to BBQ season and seems only appropriate to bust out the BBQ flavored chips. You know what I'm talking about. No one goes to a summer BBQ without having the BBQ flavored chips. But, seriously, let's talk the gross little things for a little bit. BBQ sauce: good. BBQ hamburgers: good. BBQ-just-about-anything: good. BBQ flavored chips? Disgusting. It's like some sweet-flavored attempt to cover up the taste of just having licked the BBQ grill itself. Who can possibly stomach these things? I'm not a quitter though: I try them every year at the first BBQ of the season, just like I did last weekend. And, every year I barf a little in my mouth. Seriously. Yucky.
  2. While we're on the topic of BBQs: Store prepared potato salad. Tops my list as the second worst food known to all mankind. The consistancy and texture are OK, depending on where you get it. Most of the time they use WAY too much goop on it, but what I hate most about all store prepared potato salads is the pimento-y flavor they add to it. It's aftertaste lingers in your mouth like a swig of rotten milk and just talking about it makes me urpy. Icky.
  3. Runny eggs. What's the point? If you're going to cook an egg, cook it, dammit! None of this dunkin' something in the runny yolk. Just imagine biting into a delicious egg sandwich and having yolk drip and run down your chin. In my opinion over-hard is the way to go, but I'll take them boiled, poached (well done), deviled, quiche, in baking, etc. So long as the thing is cooked.
Well, now that I have that out of the way and you all know a little more about me I think we'll be OK - as long as you don't bring BBQ chips to my house. I'm just saying.


Friday, June 4, 2010

Seriously?

This was the series of events that played out last night:

Arrive home from work, put baby in back pack and head to barn. Turn out goats, which start to meander in the "runway" to the field. Release angry, penned-up donkey who blasts, bucking, towards the field and encounters wayward goats. Donkey kicks goat and runs off. I shepard the (unhurt) goats to the field. Pile chicken feed, bucket of straw and bucket of shavings on 4-wheeler and drive to chicken coop. Hit brakes too hard and dump entire contents of straw bucket down my right boot. Remove boot,  swear, shake out straw. Step in cow poop with socked foot. Swear again. Open lid to egg-laying box. Turn, pull goat off 4-wheeler. Nesting box lid smashes into my forehead. Swear, rub head and realize I have just rubbed chicken poop on my forehead and into my hair. Swear again. Swear again. Pull goat off 4-wheeler. Pull goat off 4-wheeler. Open nesting box, chicken jumps out. Cow chases chicken (in futile attempt to squash it) into neighbor's yard. Smash fingers in lid. Swear. Collect eggs, refurbish nesting boxes.
Enter coop to feed chickens. 10 escape, goat runs in and eats chicken food. Pull goat out. Comes back in. Pull goat out, comes back in. More chickens escape. Herd all but six chickens in. Pull goat off 4-wheeler. Fill chicken water and spill ~2 gallons into my other boot.
Return to house where all six chickens have destroyed my herb garden. Chase chickens. Repeat chase. Give up and vow to re-plant herb garden next year. Consider chasing chickens from vegetable garden, but give up and decide to turn on news while preparing baby's dinner. Colt gets a hold of the remote, bites it, and the TV screen goes entirely blue, flashes "No Signal" message over and over.
Attempt to feed Colt. Resulted in full-on meltdown complete with a mashed potato and applesauce facial for baby. Bottle him and off to bed.
Seriously. No more Todd working late..... I am obviously severly underqualified for this farming thing.