hide and seek

we talk to clay's nanny and granddad on the computer with the webcam, since they are in the u.k. and we are in the states. so now he thinks they are "on" the computer, and thinks they'll be there whenever he wants to talk to them.

we have a gate separating the office area from the living room, but he's just figured out how to get past it. so today, i'm washing dishes and thinking he's in the living room behaving himself and i check on him and he's not there.

he's sitting in the computer chair, at the computer desk looking at the computer saying, "nanny! gradddad!", and waiting for them.

so, i brought him back to the living room and tell him he can't be on the computer without mommy or daddy.

i have to go back in the kitchen and when i come back in to check on him, i don't see him in the living room again. so i go to check the office and he's not there, either.

then i see this little hand under the chair cover. he's crouched under there, hiding, and just giggling. he just thought it was the greatest thing.

this should be fun. i have a kid who has figured out how to get past gates, AND likes to hide.

the joys of parenthood

last night was fun. clay went to bed at his usual time, 8:30, but was upstairs jabbering away for a very long time. finally, at 10:30, i went up to check on him and he was ready to get up. "up, up!" he said, cheerfully, then, "potty!".

so we went potty.

then he wanted to eat. um, no. he cried. so i told him it was bedtime, but he could have ONE more story. so we did that. then he wanted to watch a movie. no. more tears.

well, i finally got him to bed, and i thought, gee, maybe he'll sleep late since he was awake so late.

no...

he was right on schedule.

kids. where do they get their energy?

oh... wait.. guess who's talking upstairs again? hmmmm... maybe this is a sign that afternoon naptime is soon to be no more. wow. don't know if i'm ready for that.

on second thought, daddy's unfinished cup of tea was sitting on the table and while clay was having his snack, i was washing dishes. i caught him taking a big drink from his dad's cup -- maybe the caffeine is keeping him up.

merry christmas!!

i haven't posted in a while -- its been busy over here. i managed to get sucked in to working extra hours this week, and while the paycheck will be nice, it hasn't given me a whole lot of time! but i did manage to get my baking done. i found some pretty simple recipes and stuck to those. i didn't labor hours in the kitchen over sugar cookies this year. although clay and i did make a gingerbread house. i will have to post pictures. clay kept trying to eat it, so it was a little tricky.

but it is finally christmas eve and we are almost ready. i am going to wrap the presents tonight after the clay meister goes to bed. we are having a nice dinner tonight because i have to work tomorrow night. so we'll eat our dinner, then go to the christmas eve service. then tonight we'll have clay put out a snack for santa and after he goes to bed, we'll bring all the presents out.

i'm excited -- this year he's much more aware, so its more exciting.

well, gotta go for now, got to start making dinner. :)

blah

today i've done a rare thing indeed and called in sick. in fact, i am going to make my way back to bed soon. i caught this fantastic cold, and am trying to recuperate. its not your every day common cold... i don't know what it is, but it is of the "nasty" variety.

yesterday, i went in to work. i had absolutely no voice and had to wear a mask when i took care of my patients. but then they couldn't understand me. which is frustrating to no end. after ten minutes of them saying "what?" and me repeating my self with my non-existent voice, i would take off my mask and they would finally understand. and probably get my germs. *sigh*

so last night was fun. i kept having to blow my nose. wash my hands. right after i washed my hands, i'd have to blow my nose again. wash hands... vicious cycle. and so i was taking longer because of that. and then people couldn't hear/understand me, so that took longer.

then i was feeling alternately freezing, then on fire, and then nauseated and dizzy on top of that. my head and neck feel like they are made of lead, and everything aches. and i'm exhausted. when i don't feel well... i don't function well. guess i'm kind of a baby... i dunno.

so i decided to stay home. and i still feel guilty for doing it. ah well, hopefully i'll recover enough today to work tomorrow. right now, i'm going back to bed.

i officially hate my hair...

(... but i'll keep it, thank you.)

so here's the deal. while in england, i couldn't use my straitening iron, because they have different circuits than we do, and i wasn't going to buy a converter just to do my hair. so i reasoned then.

but then i had this unbelievably puffy hair most of the time i was there!!!! i mean... think... 1970 hair. okay. so that was bad. but then i did something incredibly stupid. i thought, i'll cut my bangs. maybe that will make my hair look better.

right. now i looked like john lennon with red hair.

so i got a little frustrated with it. then... we got home and i went to bed and the next day i got up and.... voila!!! perfect hair. no stupid straightening iron -- nothing.

just... perfect hair. oh, well, i had put the hideous bangs up with a barette; becasuse i do not carry the fringe look well. at all. i just look like i got stuck in 1975. who was that singer? Edie? i looked like her.

but i complain about this mop, but i really wouldn't want to lose it you know. nov. was breast cancer awareness month, and that, along with other cancers, affects many people. there are many amazing women who are survivors of cancer that have lost their hair in the struggle against cancer, and so really, i am very lucky to be healthy and have all my hair. i shouldn't complain at all.

so i really don't hate it. but it does seem like it has a mind of its own sometimes.

who says the british are polite and stuffy?

in all the novels about british people, all the characters seem stuffy and unbearably polite, balancing their tea cups whilst entering into polite conversation.

no one here that i've met however is stuffy at all, although they are polite. well... most of the time.

the other day, we were having dinner, and i was helping clay eat. he got a bit of something he decided he didn't like and spat it back out on his plate. of course, i'm mortified that he's done this in front of my m.i.l, and wonder what she thinks about my parenting (as we all do). trying not to think about it, i concentrate on the issue at hand and tell him he musn't do that, and that its not polite. we go back to eating. he doesn't do it again. however, not two minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, i notice my husband spitting a peice of fat onto his plate with out batting an eyelash.

he sees me glaring at him. "what!" he says, innocently. "it was fat!" as if that explained it all.

i can tell that teaching clay table manners might get a bit interesting.

monkey business

we went to the zoo the other day with clay and his cousins. anyway, we walked into the exhibit called monkey tails, where you walk though the enclosure and this tiny monkeys swing overhead. fascinating, until you realize that monkeys aren't potty trained.

here i was, standing there, oohing and ahhing over the cute little monkeys to clay and nick says, "watch out!" and he's laughing.

instinctively, i stumble out of the way, and then look up to see a monkey peeing on the spot where i had been standing moments before.

now, i'm thinking those cute little monkeys are not so cute at all. nick then grins boyishly and tells me, "i wouldn't put that hood up if i were you," (on my jacket).

confused, i ask, "why?"

looking very much like a naughty little boy about to pull a trick, he tells me, "well, the monkey didn't just pee..." he pauses to let this sink in.

laughing at the horrified look on my face he says, "well, you'ld better check because i didn't see any of it hit the ground."

this very much makes me want to panic and i made him check my hood. then he tells me, "well, its not in your hood; maybe its in your hair."

of course that made me feel muuuuuch better. right.

in the end, there was no monkey business, so to speak, on me at all; but nick had a good laugh over it all. cheeky man!

cheers, mate

well, we are here in the u.k., and clay had a great 2nd birthday. he got a remote control care and a battery powered train set and track from his nan and grandad. he got some england team pyjamas and builder bob books from his auntie, and tomorrow is his party, so he'll maybe even get a few more things. he's having alot of fun. he loves seeing everyone and playing with his cousins. he's totally worn out from playing with his cousins today. will be fun to see everyone tomorrow.

the plane ride wasn't that fun, but we survived. clay was so tired, but wouldn't sleep for the longest time. he woke up a few times, and once he woke up and just started sobbing, and the stewardess thought she could calm him down better than we could and asked to take him for a little walk to calm him down. of course, being that he had woken up and found himself in a strage place and then was taken away by a complete stranger, he cried even harder. she brought him back to me and said, "i don't know why he's so mad!"

i don't think she has kids of her own. oh well. you gotta love those well-meaning parenting experts who have no kids of their own but think they could do a better job than you. after that i had him sit by me. he wasn't by me before that because that same stewardess told me she didn't think it was a good idea that he sit in the window seat by me because she thought he was "claustrophobic"; because he was fussing in his car seat and trying to kick the seat in front of him. so she had us move his car seat to the seat next to nick, where he got even fussier because he wanted to sit by me. no lady, he's not crying because he's claustrophobic, he's crying because its 8:30 at night, and he usually goes to bed at 7:30, and he's used to having his own bed. he also missed his nap, due to the fact that we had to drive for an hour and a half to get there, and check in early. so he's tired. not claustrophobic. and when he's tired and crabby, he want's his mama, so don't take him away from his mama and then act amazed when he gets even more upset. (of course i didn't say this to her, lest i get banned from NWA for life, but i was thinking it).

so after the "parenting expert" returned my child to me, i held him til he went to sleep and then laid him down on the empty seat next to me. and he was fine. he slept for the rest of the flight. i did not. so i'm still pretty tired and still have jet lag though. its only 8:30 pm here and i'm completely shattered. well, am logging off now; am having problems with this keyboard. this is taking me ages to write, because its not working right.

so, toodles for now!

finally!!

they got the water line put in today! they did manage to get the digger out of the trench they had dug, and also managed to run over a tree. we have piles of dirt in the yard, but the line is done. so what if our yard looks like a war zone.

at any rate, we are going to the u.k. tomorrow and i can't wait! wooot!

so the other day i was at the store, getting checked out by a disgruntled clerk who thought she had the worst job in the world and that her co-workers were all dunderheads.

in honor of her (and people who have those really crappy days at work) i have a little story about my day at work today. it was fun. really.

i was having a great day, until a person showed up who wasn't supposed to be there. i get the job of telling him he needs to leave. the man, who believes he is anointed by God and thinks he is a prophet/healer/spiritual guide, tells me that i had "better not step up against the Lord's anointed", and tells me i can't keep him from seeing those he is guiding spiritually.

i smile and nod and tell him that if he has any concerns or questions, he can share those with the facility manager, and he says that he wants to leave his "testimony" so that we can "understand" him.

whereupon he goes to his car, brings back this 8 page manifesto, telling of how God anointed him... and how his journey led him into the hallowed halls of Mendota mental facility itself.

in fact, he shares how God told him his new name was John, and that he was the modern day john the baptist. he tells how he met a man at Mendota who claimed to be Jesus Christ. he asked the man if he recognized him as John, and the guy said he didn't know he was john. so prophet dude tells the man, "you can't be Jesus Christ, because if you were, you would have recognized me as being John."

now that's rational thinking... you're delusion doesn't jive with mine, therefore your delusion is wrong.

how about thinking, "you can't be Jesus Christ because he flipping lived two-thousand years ago, dude!!!!"

so yeah. in fact, that's about the only thing even remotely funny about this dude. he has a much darker side, far worse than the fact that he's off his rocker. he's got a record, and is a registered sex-offender. apparently, while he was "spiritually guiding" a vulnerable couple who somehow trusted him enough to let him stay in their home, he molested their daughter behind their backs.

it makes me so angry that our justice system allows people like this to walk freely in our communities. why let people like that out of jail/mental hospitals? they obviously haven't recovered! at least he won't be able to show up where i work again, but where else is he going to go to look for victims? or worse, what will it take to get him locked up again? who else will be a victim first, before it happens.

the scary thing is, he's not an exception. if you checked the sex-offender registry for your area, you'ld be shocked to find how many live in your town... and neighborhood. compound that with the fact that many of them have mental illnesses, that they don't take medication for, they're really dangerous.

so do me a favor, and find out who the sex offenders are in your community so you and your loved ones can be safer.