Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping for Connor and I is an event. We travel 20 min to Super Wal-Mart and we start out by playing with the elephant ride at the door. I put him in the cart for 3 seconds to get something I need, then let him walk around playing with toys, etc for another 15-20. I then begin the luring to the cart process where I try to get him in with some candy and then go to the baby section to find a duplicate of his own soft blankie in the car (remember we can't bring it into the store because I'm a germ freak). The blankie keeps him content until about the pasta isle where I whip out our second treat of the shopping trip. This keeps him happy until the produce section where I now begin talking about getting to see the elephant again and ultimately, this is where our shopping trip comes full circle. It's a great life for Connor isn't it? The other day, our neighbor brought over some things from her pantry that she no longer wanted. (To us, it was like striking gold! Green beans, pasta sides, yes!) She brought them over in two brown paper bags. Byron and I were finishing eating dinner and we heard Connor just talking and working away. When I came out from the kitchen I found that he had unloaded all the items, placed them in groupings on the stairs, and was choosing his products for purchase and placing them back in the empty bags. It cracked us up! Maybe he likes grocery shopping more than he lets on....

One of My Favorite Things...Cake!

krist

This past Saturday was a wonderful Women's Conference put on by the Durham Stake Relief Society. I was able to attend 3 hour long classes (all were great) one of which was cake decorating. Now, if you know me at all, you know I live for all things sweet, especially cake. I was so so so excited to learn a little bit more about decorating one. (I have visions of many award winning birthday cakes coming our way over the years, right.) There were about 20 of us in the class and the teacher had already baked cakes for all of us in various molds. I happened to stand in front of a football player so I had a great time making a Carolina Blue Tarheel. It was so much for to create and I decided we needed some help eating this cake! Our friends came over and their two boys and Connor loved the evening of cake and ice cream eating (um, was there a birthday we could have celebrated?) and playing. It's not often we get to eat cake for no good reason...let's do it again!

There's A First Time For Everything

Tonight was our first night to leave Connor with a baby-sitter he didn't know. He is 20 mths old and up to this point we have had the luxury of leaving him with aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas he knows and loves. I've been dying to get out of the house with Byron lately (a.k.a. a date) and as Connor was throwing up all of his breakfast Tues morning (a byproduct of teething for us) I think Byron could see a look of desperation cross my face. He said, "How would you like to go on a date this Friday? I'll set it up and find a baby-sitter." I was thrilled at this but also a little nervous about leaving my little guy. A wonderful, sweet girl that Byron goes to school with has been offering to baby-sit so we took her up. She came over tonight and Connor was thrilled to show off his room, his toys, all his "tricks". I'd been trying to prepare him for a visitor all day and it seemed like things were going well. The time came for departure and because I read somewhere that it's not a good thing to sneak out on your kid, a knelt down and told Connor we were leaving and that he was going to stay and have a great time with Amy and that we'd come back home and see him in the morning. Well, as recognition dawned that we were leaving without him, a slight panic crossed his face. We left with our trusty sitter holding crying Connor consoling ourselves that this was a good step for all of us. "There's got to be a first time for everything right?" we kept saying, putting on our brave faces. I'm convinced things would have been OK if our Cavalier hadn't jolted and threatened to break down on us while we were stopped on a hill at a stoplight. We were still close to home, so we decided to turn around and use our other care for the night and worry about the Cavalier another day (we were determined not to let anything get in the way of our rare date night!) My heart sank as we pulled into our parking lot to find Connor and Amy walking around. Connor was thrilled to see us; "They came back! I knew they would!" I could almost see it on his face. He had been crying, it was plain to see that, and he eagerly stretched his arms out for us to hold him. I took him and he looked at my face a few seconds, "Yep, still you" and then started playing with my necklace. I said, "Hi! We love you, see we came back. Now it's time for us to go again." His face lit up and he started reaching for the car. He thought we had come back for him and it was the three of us as usual going out for some fun. I almost called off the whole night right there and said, "Let's go to McDonald's" but I bit my lip and gave him to Amy (he was in hysterics by now) and got back in the car and drove away. I wish this was our first time making a mistake as parents, but we've worn that path well by now, bummer. We kept on saying, "We shouldn't have gone back. But we had to. We should have taken the Lumina first. But who knew?" We determined this may be our first time with our new baby-sitter and our last. We don't know if after the sabatoge she'll want to come to our home again. We tried not to worry and to enjoy our dinner. I really really loved Byron when he took his cell phone out of his pocket and set it on the table so we could know for sure when it rang. We came home to find a sleeping Connor but to also hear that after we had left, he had been inconsolable. He sat down in the grass and cried. He refused to be held, to be comforted. They came inside and he laid down by myself on a pillow with his blankie and sucked him thumb. He mentioned "Daddy" and "Mom" and continued sucking that trusty thumb. I checked on him and he's asleep. He looks so peaceful. I feel so bad for leaving and think I'll give him ice cream for breakfast. He deserves it, don't you think?:)

Tag, You're It!

JOBS I have had(and still have):-

-Mom (this one is by far the best)

-Secretary (various places, some much better than others. BYU being by far my favorite place)

-Kinkos Copy Expert (3 LONG summers)

-Basketball camp coach (love that)

MOVIES that I could watch over and over:-

-Hoosiers

-Anne of Green Gables

-Freaky Friday (the most recent one with Lindsay Lohan--I dont' know what it is, I love it!)

Favorite T.V Shows:

Refer to my list on my blog

Hobbies:

- Scrapbooking

- Blogging

- Reading

- Jogging

-creating anything!

Places I have lived:

- Chapel Hill, NC

-Provo, UT

-Tokyo, Japan

-Carmel, IN

-Grand Rapids, MI

-Indianapolis, IN

Favorite Foods:

-anything sweet

-anything chocolate

-anything fried

-anything barbequed

-pretty much...anything

Places I would rather be right now:

I would like to visit my parents, but other than that, I'm really happy where I am

Websites I check Daily:

-Gmail account

-Blog account

-those linked to my blog

Who I'm Tagging

All who haven't yet been tagged!

Life is Good Man, Life is Good

Like I said, Connor loves anything that's soft. We were in Sam's club on Friday and were just walking around (does anyone else do things like this just to get out of the house?). We were walking down the isle with all the Christmas stuff (yes, it's already come out) and we found two huge boxes with the softest stuffed animals we have felt in a long time. To make it even better, each animal is about 3 ft long--ah, the perfect match for a little boy who loves dogs and softness. I put Connor right in the thick of it. He looked as if he had floated away on a cloud to heaven...float, float, float. He was so happy, he just stuck his thumb in his mouth and gave little contented coos and sighs as he sunk deeper and deeper into his heaven of softness. I tried to pull him out a few times and he resisted. He also resisted me putting him back on top of the pile. Oh no, he wanted to be covered, in the middle. He didn't even want me to hold one of the arms up so he could, oh I don't know, breathe! I called my Mom and talked to her for a while to pass the time. We were there for a good 20 min I would say. My Mom joked that if he fell asleep and took his nap there I could go get a book, a drink, a camp chair and pull up next to him for a little R&R.:) Huh, Sam's really does meet all our needs....

Sneaky, Sneaky

This picture of Connor was taken yesterday by our friend Melissa at the park. It cracks me up because to an outsider I'm sure it looks like an adorable, happy little boy drinking from his sippy cup. But to his mother, this picture captures a mischievous smile as he once again takes someone else's sippy after I've repeatedly told him not to! I'm so glad this was caught on camera. Obviously one of the "snatches" I missed.:)

Hey Provo Peeps!

Even though this picture is from May, I'd just like to give a "shout out" to our friends in Provo. We love you guys and feel so lucky we got to live in Westgate and be with you all for a little bit. And seriously, how cute are our kids?!? Love you all!

The Tale of the Soft Blanket

As I've mentioned before, Connor is a blankie baby through and through. Car rides, grocery store trips, sleeping is all made possible and bearable because of his precious "B". Well on a trip to Indiana this summer to visit my parents, my Mom bought him a new super soft blankie. If I could have this blanket in adult size it would be on the top of my Christmas wish list. One side is the standard soft side and the other side it a lambs wool-like super super soft your want to go to sleep side. Ah yes, this was the blankie to replace all blankies. Of course this new blankie became Connor's favorite instantly. After a few months of washing it and realizing how hard it was to get it away from him to wash it, I decided to buy a second, identical blanket as a trade-off and emergency blankie (in the emergency that we lose the other one, because believe me it would be an EMERGENCY!) I didn't realize though that the first blanket had gradually lost some of its softness due to washing. So when I bought the new one, Connor was with me, and he loved it and wouldn't let it go. Last night while Byron was giving Connor a bath, I took the two blankies in his crib and replaced them with the washed old favorite blankie. As soon as Connor got out the bath, he wanted the blankie. When he got it, he turned it over to find his favorite side. Feeling that it wasn't his super soft blankie, he threw it on the ground and held his hand out and asked for "B". We couldn't help but laugh and go get it out of the laundry basket. I was slightly panicky though because I thought, "Am I going to have to buy a new blanket every time it looses it's softness?" Crazy thought I know, but I was toying with it. When I said this to Byron he gently said, "How about we use fabric softener?" Ah yes! I was able to rest easy that night knowing I wouldn't have to incorporate an extra 15 dollars into the budget every month for a new blanket. My plan to buy fabric softener today and then wash the blanket would have worked great if I hadn't walked into a pile of well, you know, when I went to get him up this morning. Poor thing was pointing to it and holding his hands out to me like ,"Save me mom, get me out of here!" Thankfully Byron was still home, so he took care of Connor while I worked on taking care of the crib sheet, pillow case, blankets and toy dog..it all needed to be washed immediately. However, on my way down to throw it in the wash, I thought, "Oh no, I can't wash the blanket yet, what if it looses its softness, then what am I going to do?" So, totally sweaty from working out, mascara left over from the day before under my eyes, and lovely breathe, I knocked on our neighbor's door to see if they had frabric softener. They didn't but the had dryer sheets, I said I'd take one. I think they think I'm slightly crazy, hey you might think I'm slightly crazy too. So I wash the stuff, throw the blankie in the dryer with the dryer sheet and lovingly give Connor his still soft blankie. But wait, what is this? This blankie is being rejected also? Apparently the smell from the dryer sheets was not satisfactory. As he now had no other alternative, he grudgingly took it. So, then we were at the drugstore later on that morning looking for scent-free fabric softener when the bowels moved once again. (Teething is throwing us off our game at the moment). No problem, I had a diaper and wipes. I find the restroom (it was disgusting by the way) and find there's no changing table. Great. I saw a free-standing roll of papertowel that I grabbed and we went out into the tiny hall (we took up the whole space) while I rolled out the papertowel for Connor the lay on while I changed his diaper. He of course wanted to roll off the makeshift changing table so I offered him, what else? Candy! I pulled out Smarties and gave him one at a time while I quickly tried to change a messy, stinky diaper. Good times, good times. I was however, able to purchase a scent free fabric softener and I have successfully washed and retained the softness to our all important blankie. A mother's love, it's powerful stuff.:)

JOY!

My heart is filled with such happiness at the moment. Why you ask? I love to shop. I love to shop at Old Navy. I got to shop and BUY at Old Navy today. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (that's the sound of one content and happy shopper!) We went to check out some things at Old Navy because I had a 10% coupon that was going to expire soon, and we had had our eye on a few things for Connor for the fall/winter. We looked at the warm and cozy Halloween costumes first. We had a few picked out that we were trying to decide on and Connor came up and hugged the monkey costume and smiled and stuck his thumb in his mouth (HIS sign of contentment), so that was it. He's a monkey, I mean he'll be a monkey for Halloween.:) We wanted to buy the whole boy's section but we limited ourselves to some pants and two tops. Everything was 25% off plus our 10% off. I also LOVE a good deal. Is my happiness making sense to anyone now? Now all we need is for the fall-like weather to actual make its debut--have I mentioned it's still HOT here? I'm still smiling though, I'm still smiling.

A Mother's Love

Should I be concerned? As I was lovingly picking two boogers out of my son's nose so he could breathe (the suction tool wasn't working) he laughed and stuck his finger up my nose. I mean, I guess turn about's fair play, but come on. So there we were with each other's fingers in our noses--what a bonding moment.

Pass the "B" Please!

Connor has been a thumb sucker since he was 6 weeks old and a blankie baby since he was 3 mths. He LOVES his blankies, the super soft ones. He has acquired 5 so far. Until recently, it's been really useful to have 5 super soft blankies because I could change them out for each other to be washed. I've also become a germ freak since becoming a mother, so after a blankie makes a trip to church, or the store, etc. I can throw that one in the hamper and get another one out. A perfect system I thought. My illusions have become dashed as Connor now wants as many blankies as he can find all in the same place, all at the same time. There's been a few times, when I've said it's time to go, and he's gathered up 3-4 blankies and headed for the door. I've had to gently coax him to give them all up except one with the assurance he'll be able to snuggle with them all again when we get back home. He has recently give a name to his blankies too..."B". It's kind of a drawn out "B" too--so cute. One of my favorite things is to see Connor get his blankie and stick his thumb in his mouth. He just looks to darn cute and content. He nabbed all his blankies last night as I was trying to fold the laundry. He completely enjoyed watching some cartoons with wrapped up in his best friends...blankie.