Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

Will said “I” for the first time today–with my mom and dad as witnesses!  He was trying to climb to the top of the tree in our front yard.  Granny was trying to tell him that he’d gone far enough. 

It’s Willie’s birthday today.  But he doesn’t like to be reminded of it. 

When I say “happy birthday, Will!” he says:

“NO!  YOUR momma birthday!”

I guess he’s okay with me eating all his cake then.

For the last month, every time I open a box Will has gasped and said “AMAZING” in a totally reverent voice.

I went away for four days, and it all changed!  This morning I grabbed my big stack of mail, which included two Amazon boxes.  Each time I opened them, Will said:

“It’s so beautiful.”

That kid cracks me up.

The Vegas trip was rad.  Totally informative, totally fun.  I already miss the “routine” of Vegas, although I like that I didn’t have to be up at 6, and I love that it’s 10:30 and I’m still in my PJs.  I’m going to miss the nightly foot soak in the suite’s jacuzzi bathtub with the girls, though!!

It was awesome to hang out with my online friends and make new ones.  I need about two days to just sit and think about all the info that was presented, and then a week to sort out all the different conflicting info!

The weather sucked–it was completely overcast for our trash-the-dress shoot, and only got in the upper 50s on the very last day.  Next year the convention is in March, so hopefully it will be a tad warmer!

I miss the crazy long walks that we had to take every day–all of them indoors.  Bizarre that you can walk two miles and never hit the outside!  The convention was at the MGM Grand and we stayed at the MGM Signature–I hope for the exact same set-up next year.  The Signature was even closer to the convention space than the MGM Grand rooms, with the added bonus that you didn’t have to walk through a casino and it felt nicer, newer (which it is by a long shot), and more upscale.  Because I waited for three hours on Sunday morning for our room, they upgraded us to one with a balcony on the 28th floor–talk about a total score!  It was nice to poke our heads out of the balcony after long days inside with no windows–I think we’ll definitely splurge on a balcony next year for our own mental health!

It definitely got me motivated to be a better photographer this year.  I hope I can step it up to the next level!

We booked our fiftieth wedding today!!  We’re really proud–it’s a huge accomplishment because we only just started booking weddings one year and three weeks ago!

I’ve been working with Will on a few sounds that get muddled.  One of them was (and I say “was” because after two days of practice he’s already doing it correctly now!) the “b” at the end of words like “web.”

But trying to get Will to practice something, or play NICE word games, did not work.  No chance in hell.

So I invented a “speech therapy for ornery babies” process that goes like this:

Mom:  “You’re a grub.”

Baby:  “No, YOU’RE a grub.”

Mom:  “No, YOU’RE a grub.”

The ornery child can keep this up all day long.

Will spends a lot of time talking about time machines.  I have no clue where he gets this from!!

In general, it seems that Will understands that Will is his name.  If Nic says “Hi Will,” Will says “Hi Da!”  If I say “love Will!”  he says “Love Mom!”  But when it comes to the negative stuff, Will seems to lose that.  If he wants you to stop, this is what he says:

“Stop it, WILL.”

It cracks us up.  Also hilarious:  “No–YOU stop it.”

We did some video taping tonight to make sure we always have it. 

I’ve gone to Will’s class twice now during preschool in order to either attend a party or help Will with a presentation.  Both times he has totally melted down, almost cried, and tried to hit me.  He HATES when I come to preschool.

This morning was his day to doing a little presentation about Washington.  I taught him that apples come from Washington, which he was going to say, and then I also was going to read to the class a little storybook about Seattle that Joan gave him.  When I went to sit in the little chair the teacher uses for storytime Will totally freaked out.  He got that look like he was going to cry (the Santa face) and tried to push me off the chair.  He was totally freaking out, so I asked the teacher to read the book and Will and I would sit in the circle with everyone else.  Except Will was just losing it.  Totally misbehaving.

Then it was time to share the apples from Washington that we brought in.  Will wouldn’t sit in his place.  He was just laying on the floor.  Time-out didn’t help.  And then all the other kids were asking me questions about Washington and saying thank you for the story and apples and it made Will crazy.  The look on his face when a little girl walked by and hugged my leg summed it all up:  “GET YOUR OWN MOM.”  He came and clung to my leg while all the other kids gave me hugs.  And then he wanted to be held and carried out of preschool (it was time to go), which he never wants.

I’ve never seen him be jealous of when I interact with other kids before.  I wonder if it’s because he never sees the other kid’s parents.  Maybe he just assumes it’s like some sort of toddler store and all those kids are just waiting to snag a mom or dad! 

but I updated pictures today from Jan and Feb. 

Today I woke up, took Will to preschool.  Came home and worked.  Picked Will up (which is always sorta sucks–he loves it there a little TOO much), then drove to see Nic.  Went to lunch with Nic, then we came home, read stories, and went for a walk/bike ride.  Came back and…

…my house was clean.  Sparkling.  Freshly vacuumed.  No pee on the bathroom floor.   No soap scum on the kitchen sink.  No globs of toothpaste on the bathroom counter.

We hired a cleaning lady.  I think it changed my life.  I don’t know when I’ve ever been so happy!

$60 every other week is the cost of perfect happiness as it turns out!

When I dropped Will off at preschool today the teacher said that she was just telling Will’s old teacher how happy she was that Will came to HER class.  “He is the sweetest little boy I’ve ever met.”

😀

Nic said I should have asked for stories to back up this claim.

Not only do I hear “no!!!!”  a zillion times a day.  It is now “no way!!!!”

But, I will say that in the last week his behavior has been much improved.  I took him to Apple for my genius bar appointment (broken iphone) and he was an Angel for the 20+ minutes we were there.  He stayed right by me, sat nicely right by me–I didn’t even know who that child was!

Because we have been bringing down the hammer on him pretty hard around here.  One of my goals for 2009 is that on 1 January 2010 I better be able to stand in the middle of a store and say “Will, come here.” and he better come.  So apparently my goal for 2009 is to better dog train Will.

The other thing I hear him say constantly is “treasure.”  He tries to sing the backyardigans song “treasure” but all he knows is the one word.  And ocassionally he’ll throw in “find” so over and over and over I hear him sing “treasure.  treasure.  find treasure.  treasure.”

A week or so ago I heard a battle cry from the power room:  “TO INFINITY, AND BEYOND!!!”

I poked my head around the corner and found Will grunting out a giant poo.

Oh if only I had video taped it!

Someone in this house has a shopping problem.  And it’s not me.

Will LOVES to shop.  When I pick him up at preschool, the first thing he says is “store, please?”  “shopping?”  And if he’s not behaving on his way out, I just threaten NOT to take him to the store and then he shapes right up.  The kid loves errands.  I think there’s something wrong with him.

This morning I was upstairs.  Will was downstairs.  And then I heard:

“Tray-cee!”  “Tray-cee!”

All day, whenever I was elsewhere, I would here “Tray-cee!”

About a month ago Will and I were at a nice store.  Will is generally a good shopper, so sometimes to kill time I take him to Briargate for wandering around (and he loves it–when we drive home from preschool he usually says “no home!  store please!”).  So we are at a nice store, and I’m feeling very proud of my well behaved little boy…and then I watch in horror as he sticks his finger in his nose and drags out the most giant green booger ever in the history of the world.

And I stand there, frozen, cursing myself for having nothing other than an iphone, wallet, and garbage in my purse, and try to decide how best to get rid of the booger without actually having it touch me, my clothes, or any of the store’s fancy clothes.  And in my split second of indecision, Will popped it in his mouth.

The words “Eeew!  Don’t, Will!” started to fly out of my mouth before I stopped them in their tracks.  At that particular moment, eating his own booger really WAS the best possible outcome.

I have since seen him do that little trick multiple times.  And each time I start to say “don’t eat it!” but then stop myself.  Until I can be SURE that I can cure him of nose-picking entirely, I flash to Kelly’s various booger stashes and decide that this is the best possible place for those boogers to go.

Moral of the story:  Good moms carry kleenex.  Bad moms look the other way while their children eat boogers.

Sometimes the stories I want to remember aren’t the greatest parenting tales.  But it’s good because when Will has kids I really won’t be able to judge.  Because of mornings like this:

Nic and I are working in the office.  Will is playing downstairs.  And probably getting into ice cream.

We hear him come marching up the stairs and it sounds like he has something heavy.  We assume it’s ice cream.

Will comes into the office and plops of butternut squash on my desk.

With my chef’s knife sticking out of it.

Nic and I exchanged a quick “let’s not give this a lot of attention” glance before launching into the “knives are no touch” lesson.

I pulled the knife out of the squash (he’d stabbed it in there 1.5″ deep and I noted that there were a lot of other stab marks.  He’d given this his all.  I sent Will downstairs (where we would talk about the knife holder being off limits).

“Do you think he was hungry?”  I asked Nic.

“Or it’s a message” he answered.

I went downstairs and handed Will the squash while I washed the knife and discussed who does and does not get to touch knives in this family.

Will cradled the squash to his chest, gave me the world’s sweetest face, and said:

“Pum face?”

And then it all made sense.  He’d been trying to carve a jack-o-lantern (or “pumpkin face”).

It melted my heart.  I wanted to be able to make him a jack-o-lantern, but (a) you can’t carve a butternut squash and (b) I didn’t want to encourage him to go around stabbing gourds.  So I got out the secret stash of markers and we drew dozens of pum faces on that little butternut squash.

And have I mentioned that Will calls the Itsy Bitsy Spider song “washed out”?  Cause he does, and it’s adorable.

Will began watching Christmas movies about two months ago.  So now that the Christmas decorations are going up in retail establishments nation-wide, he GETS IT.

And he is FREAKING EXCITED.

Today I took him out and about and he woke up from a cat-nap in Archivers.  The first thing he said was “Chriss-mas Tree!”  So happy and excited about the “shiny stars” and “snow” and “santee claus”es.  And then we went to the mall and ran from window to window delighting in all of the Christmas items.  “Christmas!” he says.

I feel the same way.

I took him to Hallmark (figured that would probably be the biggest Christmas-to-the-max place) and Will feel head over heels in love with the Buzz Lightyear ornament that says 5 different Buzz things.  We stood there and pressed the button for honest-to-god 15 minutes.  (I looked at the other ornaments.  Will pressed the button 100 times.  No one else was around, so it wasn’t too obnoxious of us.)  So I had to buy it (and luckily, now that Nic has a job, I got to)!  And I gave it to Will and he joyfully carried it around the mall, reciting the words along with Buzz, jumping for emphasis.

We went to Victoria’s Secret and Will has his first run-in with slutty mannequins.

I’m pretty sure I can safely say that Will is straight.  Very very straight.

We walked in and there were two mannequins all slutted out for Christmas, draped over one another.  Will stopped and stared.  And stared.  And stared.  His eyes threated to bug right out of his head.  I pulled him farther back into the store, by the bras I was looking for, and there was another mannequin nearby.  She was in underwear and a bra, and Will looked at her, stroked her leg, giggled, and said “leg.”  He does not have this reaction to the mannequins at Macys.  But to be fair, most of the department store mannequins don’t have heads, so maybe that’s the difference.

I am so so so excited about Christmas this year with Will.  I can’t wait to get our own Christmas tree and put out the decorations.  Will is going to be so excited!

NIC GOT A JOB OFFER!

Mark it on your calendars–two days ago Nic got a job offer from Lockheed Martin.  It’s a fantastic offer and we have been partying ever since.  We’re pretty much going to single-handedly prop up consumer spending for the rest of this recession with our celebrating.

So here’s how it all went down.  (Warning–I don’t have a diary or journal outside of this, so this is for me and hasn’t been edited for length, content, or extreme self-indulgence.  All of the stuff and lessons I want to remember from this because I hope it will be one of the biggest challenges of our lives!)

On Tuesday the 4th of November, Obama was elected.  And we were all like “party!”   “Life is awesome!”  “No more Bush!”  “CNN can do holograms!”  (except we are also a little sad not to get to enjoy more of Sarah Palin’s word jumbles and botched interviews. that was pretty decent entertainment.)  That whole hope and change thing that Obama was promising, as it turns out, was not an empty promise.  The very next day Nic went on an interview at Lockheed Martin and Bernadette went on an interview at Chase.  Both of their interviews went well.  And so on Friday, when Bernadette was offered a job, we were all like “serious celebration is needed!  things ARE going to get better!” so we arranged to go out to Red Robin with our friends.  (except the girls were pretty worked up about the crappiness that is prop 8 passing in cali.)

At the table?  Me and Nic (+Will), Bernadette and Haydn, and Laura and Boris.  We were lucky to get that table, because as we made plans to celebrate, no one remembered that it was Friday.  That’s because our entire circle of friends consists of the unemployed.  Bernadette, Nic, and Laura were all unemployed and seeking work.  50% of our table was jobless not of their own free will.  And they didn’t meet at the unemployment office.  These were pre-recession friends.  (This is like our Great Depression II story.  Only it takes place at Red Robin and we all have shoes instead of taking place in a Hooverville where we skin Will to make our shoes.)

That’s the same day that they released the latest unemployment figures.  They were even worse than people thought.  Except a lot better than a poll at our table would have suggested. 

So the weekend goes by and we’re feeling awesome for Bernadette and I’m feeling awesome for us, because I don’t care whether or not Nic gets the job.  Because the previous weekend I’d crunched all the numbers and even if I didn’t book another wedding or portrait shoot, we still had enough money in savings and upcoming contracted weddings to get us to next September (Nic would start teaching school in August).  My friends told me that it was because I no longer cared if Nic got a job that NOW it was going to happen.  “Just you wait” they said.  “I don’t care” I said.  “We’re golden!”

So Monday morning rolls around and Nic gets a call for HR at Lockheed because the compensation department has some questions.  Ummm…I’m pretty sure the compensation department doesn’t have questions for yahoos that they’re not thinking about compensating!  So we started getting cautiously excited.  I started making celebratory plans just in case we had something to celebrate after 11 months of job searching, 6 months of being home, and 4.5 months of official unemployment.

Will and I went to Laura’s house to do some laptop battery charger trouble-shooting (and also to get me away from thinking about possible jobs).  So we weren’t there when Nic got the email.   But when we saw a text, voicemail, and half a million missed calls from Nic I knew it was good.

It was better than good.  Better than we’d dared hoped for!  A great offer with great benefits!  We were rich again!

So we raced home to Nic, called everyone we know, and then kidnapped him for an evening of celebratory adventures.  We began with dinner at PF Chang’s and then scooted over to see Madagascar 2 (Will’s second theater movie, or, as we call them “big shows”).

The next day the boys went grocery shopping and bought fruit, candy, and a big lion throw rug for Will.  I restarted our milk delivery, maxed out our ‘08 IRAs (at a bargain price), researched preschools for Will and reshuffled our money to see how it all shook out and our goals for the immediate future.

And we did a fair bit of victory speech style conversations where we talked about our big win, how we got here, and who we have to thank.

We have been so lucky in our Great Depression II experience.  We had so much support.  From generous gifts from family members in the financial support arena to the emotional support that was always there for us.  I had a fantastic network of online friends who were always there for my stressed-to-the-max breakdowns so that I could keep the worst of it away from people I actually have to see in real life.  They told me what I needed to hear.  Even when what I needed to hear was “We side with Nic.  And PS–it probably wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for you to see a shrink.”  And when I needed someone NOT to say that I was crazy, I got to call Kelly.  And when I needed to escape all together, God brought me the Twilight series.  Because as easy as it all seems in retrospect, as “of course this worked out okay” as it feels, I don’t want to forget that it was terrifying some days.  And overwhelming and all consuming.

But we marched on through.  Both Nic and I had our bummed out this sucks hard days.  Our “when will this END?!” days.  But we did a good job of not letting that dominate this time.  We still enjoyed our time together–and knew even as it happened that years from now we would probably look back fondly on these 6 months of togetherness!  (I frequently used the phrase “I can’t wait to look back on this fondly.”)    The boys went to the pool and the zoo and we had lunch together and got to lounge around as a family on weekdays.  We’re super grateful that we were able to do that.  That we had the kind of support that let us get our crazies out so we could enjoy the parts of this that WERE joyful.

During the last few months there were frequently times when I felt like I understood how it all pieced together and why things had happened the way they did.  Like our big savings account.  When we saw a financial planner to put together our financial plan while I was working, it didn’t seem like we needed all that much in a savings account.  We were both in the Air Force–the usual lay offs and illness that could overwhelm people weren’t a threat to us.  But I wanted a big chunk in savings.  Felt completely compelled to have a big stash of money squirrelled away for a rainy day.  And now I know why!  (This will also be why we will prioritize the rebuilding of savings.  We’ll be like old people with Great Depression II emotional financial scars.)

All the pieces of my photography business made so much sense, too.  Why I was propelled into photography and moved away from scrapbooking.  Why I discovered a love for wedding photography at Heather’s wedding last year.  Why I found a second shooting position so quickly that allowed me to get great experience and hit the ground running.  Why Bernadette found me a matter of weeks after I went live.  And why she was able to provide such an amazing boost to our business.

The “big names” in the industry are famous for booking 35 weddings in their first year.  That is considered AMAZING and completely inspiring.  We haven’t closed out our first year and we stand at 39 bookings.  That kind of success is unheard of, and I know it happened because we NEEDED it to happen.  The business did an amazing job propping up our family, and we are so so so so so so lucky for that success.  I hated the stress of supporting the family through a job where you constantly need to get hired and find more work and more jobs, but now that it’s over I can also love that I was *able* to.  It makes me feel very strongly that I always want to be in a position to financially support us if need be.  I think in the long term I’d like to go back to school in some fashion.

What’s next for us?

Our plan right now is to make the most of the time off that Nic has left.  We’re not sure of his start date, but we estimate around the first of December.  We know we’re all in for an adjustment when he starts work.  I’m incredibly spoiled in that I can run off on an errand at the drop of the hat and leave Will at home, or ask Nic to take Will to the zoo while I finish off proofing a shoot.  And all of that is going to end.  Both Nic and I will be tired and stressed from working.  Nic will often work all week and then photograph weddings or an engagement shoot on the weekend.  And I’ll be managing the house and Will alone on the weekdays, while still fulfilling all of those shoots and weddings I scheduled while we needed me to work as much as humanly possible.  So we know it will be stressful now, but in a new way!

I hope that being aware that it will be tough will be a help.  As will the fact that Papa Murphey’s pizza for dinner will be a financially reasonable option.  And I’m pretty sure that being overworked is better when you can stock beer in the fridge.  We have already reserved Will’s spot at pre school–he will start going two half-days every week when Nic starts work (moving up to three days if he likes it).  I think that will be a tremendous help as we adjust from to another “new normal.”  We visited the preschool today and Will took to it well.  I think he will have a blast playing with the kids (he is so darned lonely and desparate for friends) and I think he also stands to learn a ton.  We’re starting him off at the Montessori school across the street because they will take him before his third birthday, and then we’ll probably be moving him to the other preschool that’s even closer to us once he hits his third birthday.  (I’m not entirely sure that the Montessori method is best for him [that ornery child could use a little less leading and a little more following] and it’s also three times more expensive.) 

Nic is still going to continue his teaching program.  We picked it because it doesn’t interfere with work–it’s a very flexible online program.  But we think that instead of starting to teach this coming school year, he will defer a year.  Give us time to enjoy his salary, build up our savings, give the business time to grow (and feel more confident that this success is for real and not a momumental coincidence), and give me time to consider scheduling some eventual maternity leave (baby #2 will have to be scheduled around wedding and portrait seasons).

We will resume our suspended services.   Starting in January, I’d begun cutting back.  We cut back more and more and more as time went on and kept a good review of our expenditure.  One of the things I did when Nic went on terminal leave was go through our services to see which we could suspend or cancel.  We were spending $60 on television a month, and I wanted to cut that, but didn’t know if it would be worse to breech the contract.  I discovered that with most services, you can suspend them for up to 6 months without paying any penalties.  So we suspended a lot of reoccuring payments and downgraded others.  I am super excited to have our milk delivery again.  There is nothing more delicous in the world than our fresh organic milk.  Thursdays were always my happiest days.  And guess what?  Tomorrow is our first milk Thursday in 6 months!  (Waiting for the milk man is going to feel a lot like waiting for Santa.)  A service that we’re not jumping to re-initiate that is sort of surprising is the tv.  (And no, this is not because we grew less dependent on the tv.  TV is awesome.  Not having tv shows is totally not an option.)  We discovered the beauty of free tv.  Hulu.com, ABC.com can get us 95% of the shows we want to watch (Project Runway isn’t one of those shows sadly).  So we’ll reinstate our tv when we have to, and then we’ll probably get out of it as soon as our contract ends.

That is something I learned–how much being contracted into luxuries suck.  We were going to have to restart our television service next month, and that was something I was stressed about.  I think I will never dismiss length of service contracts as unimportant in the future.  Because you never know when that luxury will suddenly become too much of a luxury!

We are on cloud nine this week.  Completely enjoying the relief that we made it through the disappointment and financial stress, and full of gratitue for all of the support we had.  It came from so many directions in so many different ways.  We were so amazingly lucky.  When I look back on this year, I know I won’t ever look at it as I did this summer–”how unlucky is it that right after Nic put in his separation paperwork [almost a year out from his separation date] the economy tanks?!”–but as being an incredibly lucky year.  We always had everything we needed.  And most of the time, we got what we wanted, too.

Will’s favorite phrase this week is “of course!”  Except he doesn’t really know what it means.

The other night he asked for water and I said “of course!”

So now he likes to say “of course!”  and “oh of course!”

But tonight when I went in to kiss him goodnight for the 800th time, he asked for “water, of course?”  He likes the sound…doesn’t quite get the meaning…

In the usual place.  And I have pics from Nic’s birthday on our work blog. 

“breakfast” comes out sounding like “breast”

(PS–in fantastic news I had a dream this morning about where to find my halloween pictures memory card…and the dream was right!  my bathrobe pocket.) 

Since I can’t find my memory card (STILL) and I’m trying to fight off the panic, I’m going to write about Halloween.  Like people in the olden days.

Here’s the quick recap:  Will loved it.  LOVED it.  I mean, he liked it last year, but this year he 120% got it and it’s his favorite holiday.  I can tell.  Except I’m pretty sure Christmas will replace it because he is all about Sant-ey Clause and Christmas movies and he is going to be SO excited when we start singing Christmas carols at bedtime every night!  (Puff the Magic Dragon or “Puss Dragon” is sung at every naptime/bedtime right now.)   Anyway, tonight as Will got his last hug/kiss for bed he said “Happy Ween?  A la Trick-Treat?”  And talked to me about doors and presents.  I had to explain that yes, it was the best EVER, but it’s a once a year thing.

It’s tough to get it, but not quite get it.

He was very excited to wear his “chicken suit” (Nic taught him “Happy Halloween” (Happy Ween) “Trick or Treat” (trick-treat) and “Chicken Suit” this week to prepare) and go outside with the kids.  We went trick-or-treating up and down our street with Ems from next door (Casey had said she was too scared to go trick-or-treating and I asked Ems if she wanted to come with Willie and she said yes!) and I got the cutest pictures of the two of them hugging.  It has had me tearing apart the house and I still can’t find the darn card.

We went out just as it was barely getting dark (stupid extended daylight savings time–we went out at 6pm!) because we wanted to be home for the bulk of the trick-or-treaters.  It only took one or two houses and Will GOT IT.  He was having a blast.  He loved running up to the door and getting a piece of candy!  He even seemed to pick up that we were going to the houses with lights and pumpkins.

The only hitch was the house where the guy answered the door in a gorilla suit.  Will JUMPED into Nic’s arms and started whimpering.  He was terrified and shook until we made it to the next house!

He loved it so much that when he heard me ask Nic “think it’s time to head home” he said “NO HOME!”  But when I told him that we had to go home to get ready for the trick-or-treaters he perked right up, grabbed my hand, and rushed me home.

Last year he loved answering the door for trick-or-treaters and this year was no different.  He would run to the door, open it, and say “HAPPY WEEN!” at the kids.   All was good until Nic was upstairs putting through his tuition payment and I ran downstairs to answer the door only to find will come streaking (literally) out of the bathroom to answer the door.  He didn’t care that he was stark naked and had just dropped a big poo–he wanted to see the trick-or-treaters!  (And remember that we have a floor-to-ceiling window right by the door.)  That I have no pictures of anyway. 

Will was good with Nic and I handing out the candy until a little fairy princess came to the door.  I put the candy in her bag and was sending on her way, but Willie was freaking out–trying to grab the candy bowl.  At first I thought he just wanted candy but then I got it–he wanted to be the one to GIVE it to the cute little girl.  (such a ladies’ man)

So I called her back and he gave her a tootsie roll.  And wished her Happy Ween.

It was so much fun to share Halloween with Will!

That’s what Will calls the alphabet.  When he wants to play letters he sings

“a,b,c…ME”

Or occasionally “a,b,c,b,ME”

(because the song ends, of course, with “won’t you sing with ME”)

The song count in iTunes in the purchased folder.  Because in it is every song you’ve ever purchased, and if you’ve been using iTunes exclusively for music for as many years as Nic and I have and you should take a look at the number of songs there and multiply them by $1, it’s enough to make a person start pirating music.

Just a little note that since things have calmed down for us, I’m doing a better job of uploading pictures regularly to the usual spot.   Just posted some of Will playing in the snow.

It snowed for the first time this season last night (last time it snowed: May).  When Will woke up Nic took him to the window to show him, and Will said “cold!  Santy Claus!”

I was so excited!  He equates snow with Santa Claus and we never taught him that!

He also kept calling the snow “cream” as in ice cream.  Which he loves.

This morning Nic and I were upstairs talking about life insurance and we heard some commotion downstairs.  Nic asked me to check on it, and when I did, this is what I found:

Will sitting at the kitchen table with a gallon of ice cream and a spoon, happily eating away.

I LOVE THAT KID!

I love that he is such a go-getter.  He doesn’t see obstacles, he sees OPPORTUNITIES.  He wanted some ice cream, so he opened the freezer, got it out, took it out of its bag, took it to the kitchen table, opened the lid, climbed up on the counter, got a spoon, took it back to the table and had himself an ice cream snack.  I know in some households that would probably be naughty behavior, but in this household it’s awesome behavior.  Self-sufficiency and problem solving are way cooler than a diet without ice cream.

Last week Nic and I were listening to the radio as we drove somewhere and as we became irritated with a political ad, Nic said he’s really glad that we don’t have TV right now because we’re protected from the political ads.

I laughed and said it’s a good thing they haven’t infiltrated Hulu.com.  And then said it would probably be pointless for McCain to advertise on hulu because I’m sure the viewers are overwhelmingly young and liberal.

This morning I pulled up Chuck to watch the latest episode with breakfast and was dismayed to hear these words:

“This episode has been brought to you by Barak Obama for America.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

He just lost my vote.

Damn greedy politicians.  Ruining my election-free zone of happiness.

Yesterday Will stuck a dime in my cd player and in my attempt to get it out I pushed it in and now my cd player doesn’t work.  So I spent some time researching how to take the dash off (which isn’t going to be easy).

And then tonight we came out of our wedding reception to find the window smashed, glove box open, and gps gone.

Got lucky, though, because it could have been a MUCH colder night to drive an hour and a half home with no window!

The part that really sucks is that even though we’ve parked by that venue before, I told Nic as we were leaving the car that I didn’t feel awesome about it.  That it made me nervous.

Plus we said some pretty nasty stuff to GPS Girl right before we left her that last time because she gave us slightly wrong directions.  So maybe it wasn’t a theif after all.  Maybe she jumped out of the glove gox, grabbed her charger and stand, and flung herself out the window as a way to get back at us for being so mean to her all the time.

I’m pretty bummed about all the car $$ I’m losing.  But I’m pretty sure I’m going to blame the increase in crime on World Depression II (what Nic and I decided this will be called, based on the naming conventions of The Great War changing to WWI) and just add it to my collection of “back in my day” stories that I will torment future children with while I explain to them how back in the olden days we had to buy the chemical-filled veggies because of the tragic economy and rampant unemployment.

And my story doesn’t suck as much as Bernadette’s (who rode home with us tonight after helping the wedding coordinator [so she suffered from frostbite, too]).  She had a new job lined up at Citi Financial, was all set to start on Monday, got her formal job offer and gave her two weeks notice at her old job, was sitting there at her Last Day at her Old Job yesterday and got a call at 2pm saying that they were taking back her job offer due to market conditions.  And her old job wouldn’t take her back because they won’t reverse resignations.

Now THAT is a World Depression II story.

We took The Boo to Boo at the Zoo tonight and had a great time.  He went as a chicken, and totally got it.  He flapped his arms and everything!  He was very excited about all of the treats (they had lots of trick or treating stations) after he got over the fact that the zoo wasn’t set up like it normally is (that freaked him out enough to make him stay close and hold our hands).

The hippos and lions were so much more active than normal–they put on a great show.  And we had a lot of fun seeing all the kids’ costumes.  There was a homemade costume that was the coolest ever.  It was a dinosaur skeleton.  Tail, scull and everything.

I’ll upload pictures of our little chicken tonight. 

When we were living in England, I teased Kelly mercilessly because she was pretty sure that every black man on television was either Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow (and Star Trek The Next Generation) or Worf (also from Star Trek The Next Generation [and DS9]).  And to be fair, those two men pretty much DID cover every black man we saw on tv.

As the years passed, that joke continued.

Tonight, I was trying out a new-to-us show, Samantha Who (an aside: it’s adorable).  So we’re sitting here watching the show and working (me) and playing video games (Nic) when Nic says “hey–did you see who that was?”

And I said “ummm…no.”  And he said “It was Charlie from The West Wing!”

“No it wasn’t!”  I said.  “That guy is like a million years old!”  And Nic said “No!  It was Charlie!”  And I rewound it.  And it wasn’t Charlie.  “But it might be Levar Burton, KELLY” I told Nic.

And then we went back to watching the show.   And the character came into a new scene.  And tilted his head a certain way and…

HOLY CRAP!  IT’S TUVOK!

It really WAS a black man we knew.  It was Tuvok from Star Trek Voyager.

Which proves that Kelly really wasn’t so wrong after all!  There really ARE only three black men in Hollywood, and they’re all from Star Trek!

Will is sleeping with a pumpkin these days.

When we walked through the Farmer’s Market in Manitou this weekend one of the vendors gave him a little baby pumpkin.  He decided that he needed to sleep with it.  We’re not sure why, since he has a strict No Stuffed Animals In Bed policy…but apparently pumpkins are okay.

Heather tried to teach him to say “Obama” while she was here.  (She tried for “Obama, ‘08”) but Will just kept saying variations of “mama.”  And now when we read books, he keeps pointing out the “O’Mommas” in them.  Clearly Obama has the toddler vote safely locked up, though, since they would all just assume they were voting for a-mama.

I wasn’t going to vote, since both candidates piss me off equally, but then Sarah Palin sorta changed my mind and then I found out that Colorado is a swing state, so now I’m going to vote cause I want to be part of Colorado going blue for the first time in like 100 years.  It will be really exciting for me.  The last time I voted my vote was kicked back because my signature didn’t look remotely like the prissy signature I had when I first registered to vote and still wrote all of the letters in my name.  That sort of put me off voting for a while because I read up on all the small issues to, and then it turned out that my vote really DIDN’T count.

This time I’m going to go in person, just to make sure they don’t spring a “we don’t care how you feel about things, sloppy signature lady” on me again.

Tomorrow I’m hoping we’ll make it to Boo at the Zoo–the zoo’s Halloween program.  I think Will will be going as a chicken, if I can find the chicken suit I picked up for $3 at the end of last October.  Otherwise he’ll go with the age old crap my-mom-doesn’t-have-time-for-this costume of a cowboy hat.  Either way, I’m pretty sure he’ll rock it.

Pictures from our weekend are uploading.  This is the first visit that it felt like Will really “got.”  When we said goodbye, he understood that they were going back to Seattle.  This morning he didn’t ask about them, because we said goodbye yesterday.  He gets it now.  Some highlights:

–  Going to the pumpkin patch that last year turned out to be such a bust and this year turned out to be…closed.  But we called the number on the sign and Heather convinced the lady to let us put some money under a pumpkin.  (Which could just be the start of a hilarious Easter Egg like hunt.)  We went through the corn maze (Heather said she loved corn mazes)…but 15 minutes later we were totally lost and I don’t think Heather loved corn mazes anymore.  I almost peed my pants laughing, Will kept shouting “Gran-PA!” and in the end Tony had to come in the exit, find us, and lead us out.  We were pretty sure we were just going to have to live there and eat corn for the rest of our lives.  Will got sorta scared at the end (I think he knew we were lost) and insisted on riding on my shoulders.  Heather got sorta scared at the end, and insisted on riding on Erik’s shoulders in the hope that she would be able to see over the corn and find a way out.  (She couldn’t.)  I’m thinking rematch next year.

–  Will’s first train ride.  We took the cog railway up to not the top of Pike’s Peak on Sunday (high winds and blowing sand prompted them to only take us to 12000ft).  Like all of the best tourist spots (Disney World…and…Disney World) it put Will to sleep.  He enjoyed the beginning of the ride (was very excited to be on a train) and then crashed out in my lap, which was perfect.  The views were spectacular and we had perfect timing with the fall colors.  We also got to hear the tour guide curse into the microphone when a gust of wind blew someone’s hat into a lightbulb and it burst in the cabin right behind ours.

– The Cave of the Winds!  I’ve wanted to go since we moved here, and two years later, we finally did!  It was so cool to see all of the limestone formations, even if Will was a total toolbag the whole time.  I’m pretty sure everyone in our group went out and bought up a giant bag of birth control after we left.  I know I considered getting an extra Mirena just to be on the safe side. 

– Hiking in Garden of the Gods.  On Saturday morning the grown-up boys got up early and went out for morning light photography (the joke was on them–some low laying fog created a nice barrier to any morning light) and then Heather, Will, and I met up with them to hike Will’s favorite trail.  The moment we drove into Garden of the Gods Will started saying “Trail?  Please?  Trail?”  He loves stomping around, and we noticed a HUGE difference in his stability in his new hiking boots versus the old hikes we took where he wore his sandals!

– Tony’s birthday cake.  One of Heather and my cutest creations.  It was totally adorable.  So what it if was straight out of a box and a can.  It didn’t fall, and that’s always a miracle! 

–  Sarah Palin jokes.  Heather does a really good “thanks, but no thanks.”

–  Will was a huge fan of the rental mini van and its side doors that open and closed via buttons.

Thanks for a wonderful visit, guys!  (We’re holding your face soap hostage so you have to come back.) 

I uploaded August and October pics in the usual place.   Didn’t take any on the big camera in Sept.

Will has nouns, adjectives, the occasional verb, and few all difficult-to-class sounds that he uses to fill in his sentences.

“ishi” (ee-shee) means something like “there it is!” or “got it!” Like this morning in the shower I asked Will to find the soap for me (it was hidden somewhere in the bath water) and Will spotted it and said “ishi soap!” and handed it to me.

“a la” sounds like “I like” (and that’s what Nic thinks it means) but I think it’s more of a “I want to talk about” or “tell me about” catch-all.  He uses it a lot.  As in “a la momma giraffes.  a la dadda giraffes.  a la shark bruce.”

Will also categorizes the world into mommas, daddas, and babies.   Lightning McQueen is Dadda McQueen.  The hoochie lion in The Lion King?  Momma King of course.  His Nan?  Momma Nan.  His Uncle E?  Dadda E.  Girls are mommas.  Boys are daddies.  And anything half the size of the original is a baby.

And today, I was talking on the phone to Kelly and Will wanted to talk.  I told him to say hello Kelly and he said “hi Kell!”  It was VERY cute!!!

“Off” is “oss” and “Puff the Magic Dragon is “Puss.”  But that’s okay.  Cause when I was four I didn’t have the “gih” sound (as in guitar).  In my head it was exactly the same as “kih.”  And I remember it vividly.  So I understand where he’s coming from.  He’ll get it eventually.

This morning, 8am:

Will walks over to the freezer and opens it up and begins browsing.  Presumably for ice cream.

Traci: “Are you hungry?  I’ll get you some cereal.  Close that door.”

Will looks at the door and back and me.

Traci: “Will, close the door or you go to the naught corner.”

Will leaves the door open and comes running over to Traci and starts hugging her.  And sighing “hmmm.  hmmm.”

Traci: “Thank you.  But you still have to close the door.”

More hugs.

Traci: “Close the door or you go to the naughty corner.”

Will: “No!” followed by more hugging and snuggles

Traci:  “Naughty corner because you didn’t listen to mommy.”

Will hugs Traci all the way to the naught corner, gripping on tight.

Will called his grandpa on Skype today from Nic’s computer.  I was answering email and the next thing I heard was Tony’s voice over the speaker “Hello!” and Will’s little “hello?  hello?  hello?”

You know that annoying song that goes “i likes to move it, move it, i like to move it, move it”  I replaced the tune/beat with the lyrics “I love my Willie Willie” and do an accompanying dance and now it’s Will’s favorite song.  He gets a giant smile on his face and mimics my retarded dancing.

He now not only plays the “how big is willie?” game, but also the “how cute is willie?” game.  The answer?  “SOOO cute!!”

He occassionally calls Nic “stinky poo da.”  (my greatest accomplishment in life.)

He farts and then looks at me and says “stinky mom.”  (nic’s greatest accomplishment in life.)

He loves to sing the ABCs with me.  He sings the G, K, P, R, S, V, X, and [sing with] ME parts every time and occassionally throws in a few of the other letters.

He likes to play “squish you” games with Nic…which is basically just them sitting on each other and saying “I’m going to squish you!” (or in will’s case “squish, squish, squish!”)

He’s on another one of our ‘you’re banned from ’shows’ for a while” kicks.  We keep kicking him out of the house and forcing him to play in the backyard instead of crawling all over us while we try to work.  It’s working well.

He told me he had to pee while we were at Costco yesterday so I took him out of the cart to run him to the bathroom and when I turned around he was standing next to the cart with his pants around his ankles, trying to get them fully off.  We had to talk about the fact that it’s not okay to take your pants off until you’re actually next to the potty.  The middle of Costco is not the place to drop trou.

He stands up to pee sometimes.  He’s pretty good at it.  I like it when he stands there and holds his weiner in both hands and squeezes it like a toothpaste tube.  It makes me laugh.

His hair is sort of growing back.

He likes to be put to sleep under all three of his main blane[kets]s.  His old number one blanket had to be retired because it was mine first, and we want to have it for the next baby, and Will was loving it to death.  Apparently it takes three blanes to make up for his old main blane.  His yellow blane that Kelly made goes first (this is alternately called “softy blane”), his green blane that my mom made goes next, and his white blane that Nana made goes last.  Keep in mind that it is September in Colorado, which is sort of like August in Seattle.  So inevitably I go in to check on him an hour later and he’s drenched in sweat, but still tucked in up to his chin with his three blanes.  So I take the top two off as soon as he’s asleep.  He hasn’t caught on to my devious ways yet.

He doesn’t like messes.  You don’t have to tell him that it’s a bad mess that he made, you just have to tell him that he made a mess.  He feels almost as strongly about this as I do.  He can’t seem to recognize a mess on his own…but once you label it, he knows: no good.

He is still terrifyed of car washes.  We’ve been doing it the old fashioned way all summer, but I had to take mine in yesterday (someone attempted to do it herself without mature adult supervision and left soap spots all over it) and Will whimpered and covered his eyes the whole time.  It was hilarious.  I mean sad.

We have just one wedding left in our 5 week marathon before a three week break from weddings (not from shoots, but from weddings).  I’m looking forward to that very much.  This last one is going to be a toughie, so I’m ready for Sunday’s “WHEW!”

I got Nic addicted to Facebook.  After three years of listening to him call it stupid.  I figure it will only take another year before he’s addicted to twitter, too.  (sorry, those last two weren’t really about will…but I got sidetracked.)

 Willie just asked me to “fix it, please, mom?!”

First of all, I would like to say that I am a woman under enormous pressure and deadlines and stress.  So sometimes, details like which hair clippers the hair cutter uses on Nic, and which ones the hair cutter uses on Will, get mixed up in my head.

Will needed a haircut BADLY.  I’d been wanting to get his hair cut for weeks and weeks.  He looked like a hippy.  Whose mother was too busy to get his hair cut.

So I finally got him into the hair cut place last week, and I went to a cheap adult place instead of his fancy kid place which has his hair cut all programmed into the computer.  This new place doesn’t know Will, so when I said “#1 on the sides, #4 on top,” they didn’t know that is NIC’S haircut, not Will’s.  And then when she ran the #4 in a strip across his head and three inches of hair fell to his shoulds, it was too late to say “oops!  #4 on the SIDES…SCISSORS on top.”

So now he’s a mini me for Nic.

And I forgot that I wasn’t going to let Joan see any pictures of Will for a few weeks.  I sent her one of Will tearing into a chicken breast last night, and her one line reply totally cracked me up:

“WTF happened to his hair?!”

Ooops.  Sorry.  It will grow back.  I think.