Hidden Talent

One hidden talent that I just figured out I had (prepare to be amazed!): I can cook dinner and play cowboys at the same time! Wait, what?! No applause? I'm sure some of you are saying you can do this with your eyes closed! One word: overachievers...(or is that two?) These days, in my world, multitasking is no small feat. It's hard to do most anything around here without Taj tearing something up while I'm trying to do something productive around the house. Playing cowboys is Taj's latest obsession. He chooses which gun I get and then we walk around the house shooting those loud things over and over again. I make it a point not to point the gun at him. I figure it's never too early to start gun safety! Happy Monday everyone!

Big Steps

Taj finally discovered how fun it it to brush his teeth. Usually this process involves me pinning him down on my lap with his arms to his sides and I wait until he cries so that his mouth is open and I can give those little piranha teeth a good scrubbing. Tonight however, he pushed his little stool up to the sink and watched himself brushing his teeth in the mirror. After about 10 minutes I had to pry the toothbrush out of his fingers. I'm hoping this newfound love for dental care lasts!

Another first: he actually kind of liked the camera tonight. He kept stopping and posing for me. The look he gave me was like, "How about this mom? Is this look good? Wait let me do that one more time for you!"
THE latest must-have item of the week: a yellow bullet bike that Taj nabbed from grandma's house. He wouldn't get in the bath without it. In fact, when he couldn't find it in his toy box in his room, he jetted downstairs real quick, naked and all, and came back 20 seconds later, motorcycle in hand. I swear he never forgets where he puts things, which makes me wish even more that he could talk so that when he loses our car keys or the remote he could just tell us where he hid them.
Okay, so every time I glance at this it freaks me out because for a second that leaf looks like a dead mouse on my pillow. Really though, it's just a dead leaf, but it's special to me because Taj hand picked it out of the straggler dead leaves in our yard just for me. My first thought was: Oh how sweet, my first "flower" from Taj! (I'm not being facetious by the way either, I really did think it was sooo cute). Then he picked up his own leaf and we had a sword fight. I forgot that he's soooo in to Peter Pan lately. I'm assuming that I was Captain Hook and he was Peter Pan. I love that little boy!

Latest Project

I took this yesterday at the end of a Taj the Terrible day. It was like the Lord was giving me one moment of peace and beauty to end the day with. It was just what I needed!
This is my latest sewing project. It is the second skirt that I've ever made. It took me about 2 1/2 hours, several pin pricks, an iron burn, measuring once and cutting twice several times, a half hour of picking out a hemline, and it's too small for me! So, my lovely sister is getting it. It's on it's way to AZ, hope you like it sister! It's made out of a cute eyelet material and it's a high-waisted pencil skirt. Very cute, but not on my bottom:)

All in a Day's Work

Believe it or not, he can still melt my heart after a Taj the Terrible day:)
I don't think so mister....sagging our pants is NOT the cowboy way!
This is what my couch also looks like, only in black pen. Looks great against the red microfiber.
You can't see it, but there is at least two inches of water in a three foot spread seeping into my wood floor after Taj toppled the humidifier.
These curtains didn't even last 24 hours in Taj's room. Poor things didn't stand a chance during nap time.
Yeah, maybe I said a little swear word under my breath when I walked in and saw this. Especially since the rod was brand new and now it's snapped to pieces...all I can do is sigh and be glad I didn't pay much for the rod!

*Not pictured, he also peed all over my bedspread today. I think it was the crowning moment of the day. I better just smile right? Someday....someday I will wish I could have these days back again....at least that's what everyone tells me:)

Trouble

Lately this boy has been giving me a run for my money.

Exhibit A: Four nights ago Brannon wasn't going to be home for dinner so I got me some Chinese take-out for dinner. These aren't just any noodles, they are vegetable lo mein, my favorite. The nice lady from the restaurant sent me home with a HUGE take-out box full of these noodles. Lucky for me Taj fell asleep on the way home so I got to eat my noodles in peace while he slept on the couch beside me. A quarter of the way in to these noodles, Taj starts to stir so I thought it would be a good idea to run upstairs and make him a sippy cup. He is soooo ornery when he wakes up from a late nap, I wanted to be prepared. You can't imagine what he did in the two minutes I was gone. I came back downstairs to hear him doing his cranky squeaks and to see him dumping the entire box of noodles, soy sauce and all, on my white carpet. My patience ran out at that point and Taj earned himself a spat on the bottom. I spent the next 20 minutes scrubbing my dinner out of the carpet.

Exhibit B: Three nights ago (one day after the noodles incident) I accidentally left a basket of nice, clean, folded laundry downstairs with the said boy. I come back downstairs not even a minute later and find the contents of that laundry basket strewn all over floor. My reaction: "What?! Why?! How?! That was a week's worth of folded laundry!" Now this is where the pictures come in. For some reason Taj took to the pajama bottoms that I got for Christmas. Whenever I wear them, he runs up and pets my leg because they are soooo soft. Well petting them wasn't enough anymore. He saw them in the bottom of the laundry basket and well, you know the rest of the story. Since then he freaks out if I put them on and he's been carrying them around like a blanket. Not only does he drag them around, but he sneaks off into the spare bedroom to try them on. If I walk in and he sees me seeing him trying them on, he gets really mad at me and takes them back off and runs away to another secret corner in the house to put them back on. Should I be worried?!

Chasing Rainbows

Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time thinking of ways to chase rainbows. For the last three or fours years I have been burdened with an insatiable need to figure out who I truly am and what my purpose is in this world. We are all born to play different parts and I know that we will all play many parts in our individual lifetimes. I know there is folly in trying to define yourself with a single label or with a career or talent. Those are just things we do, but not who we are. It's hard to differentiate between who we are and what we do in terms of defining ourselves. The thought that always comes to mind is that I don't want to get to the end of my life and regret not taking some chances or trying things that I never thought I could do. I've only got this one life to live and I hope that I am and will live it to its fullest. So I guess the key is balance. I want to try new things and find out what I'm really passionate about doing. I've got a lot of things that I'm passionate for, but I want to find my niche in life and run with it. I guess most everyone dreams of getting paid for what they love to do. I know it takes hard work and dedication. I also know that it requires one to keep trying again and again. I've already failed at trying to do things that I'm passionate about, but I haven't given up. I think of Abraham Lincoln. He failed over and over again, but he was persistent.

I'm also aware of the fact that I am already living an adventure that a lot of people dream about. I have a good husband, I get to stay home, I have a sweet little boy, I have a house to live in, I have an education, and I have freedom. I don't want to jump off this boat to catch a rainbow....in other words, I don't want to let the most important people and times in my life pass me by because I'm in search of something that I already have. At this point I've resolved to be as adventurous and outgoing as I can be from home and only after I've fulfilled my obligations of the most important parts I play right now: mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend.

Happy 28th!

Brannon turned 28 years old today...I can't believe it, we are almost 30!!! Correction: HE is almost 30 (I still have 5 more years). He always jokes that he is soooo much older than me, but we all know who the mature one is in this relationship;) I married a good man and this picture proves it. You see this is his deer from his highly coveted Paunsaugunt deer hunt. It's like the deer hunt you only get to do once in your life and when I told him there was no way he was hanging dead animals in our house, he kindly accepted my response and painted himself a wall in the dungeon and hung it down there. He puts up with a lot of my female hormones and Taj's two year old antics, but he always does it with a smile and a joke. Thanks for being such an awesome daddy and a good husband, we love you!

Progress...

So since I last posted about Taj sending Spongebob for a swim, he has now gone potty two more times on his own. There is one little hang-up however...every time he does it, I'm not there to see it and when I walk in the bathroom I find him trying to transport the pee pee out of the potty chair into the big toilet with his hands. So the big question here is this: What do I say?! On the one hand I'm supposed to congratulate (jumping up and down, hands clapping, the whole bit) him for going pee pee in the big boy potty and on the other hand, he's got his hands in the pee pee and I don't want him associating excitement and encouragement with putting your hands in pee! I think we're making progress here. Maybe I just need to teach him how to dump his own potty chair in the big toilet. I'm guessing I'm going to need to keep a LOT of Clorox wipes on hand!

I know this photo is totally unrelated to the above statement, but you remember my post forever long ago where I mentioned that I was making my own decorative pillows as a beginner's project? Well, here they are. I actually finished them in November, but I've been so embarrassed by the the misplacement of the buttons that I intentionally neglected to post a picture of the final product. I think my sewing teacher would have given me at least a B- on this project. At least the seams won't tear apart if you tug on them!

Maybe There's Hope

Poor Spongebob...he didn't stand a chance against a two year old boy!
I heard some rustlings coming from the bathroom and found Taj naked, diaper and pajamas on the floor with the step stool pushed up to the toilet and the potty seat in place. I'm thinking he gets the general idea. Now hopefully he will actually go potty one of these days instead of just sending his toys for a dunk!

Sunbeams

I'm going to miss these little people! They were my little rays of sunshine bright and early every Sunday morning:)

New Year, New Bed

This is not your average New Year's post. I haven't even verbalized my goals for the year, let alone write them down! Yesterday, or should I say last night, was a momentous event. The fact that Taj is no longer a baby was solidified when the crib was taken down and replaced with a big boy bed. I have to tell you that I was sure I would get no sleep last night because I thought the little monkey wouldn't stay in his bed. He didn't stay in his bed for the first three hours after I put him down, but lucky for us his is the only door in the house that he can't open yet. So, after tucking him in for the last time at about 12:30 I didn't wake up until I heard a little knock on his bedroom door at about 9:00 this morning.

Nap time is proving to be a little harder to manage seeing as I keep hearing a knock on the door and keep entering to find him riding his little Red Flyer trike around the room with his blanket stuffed in the back of it. He is so excited to have a big boy bed now and can't hardly lay in it without kicking his legs and giggling. This may turn out to be a big year for us. I mean we conquered the big boy bed on the first day of the year! I'll try potty training next. I'm hoping it doesn't take more than a week....yeah right! You know what? There's my New Year's resolution! Have Taj potty trained by next year!