Hot & Spicy

I forgot to mention that when Scott and Liam went to that jungle gym place last weekend, Scott and Matt (Scott's friend) both "won" pillows for their sons--from one of those games where you press buttons to position the metal "claw" over whatever stuffed item you want, and then the claw drops and, if you're lucky, which you never are, it picks the item up and you win it. There was an entire Spongebob Squarepants episode about it, for those of you in the know.

SO, Matt won a little 8"x8" pillow for his son, and the pillow said something like "Here Comes Trouble." Appropriate, more or less. Scott also won a pillow for Liam, except Liam's says "Hot & Spicy." Inappropriate, but L can't read yet so we're just letting it go. He loves the pillow and used it instead of a regular pillow for a few nights. Now it has been relegated to his stuffed animals' shoebox "crib," as shown here. Frankly, I'm just impressed that anyone won anything. The only person I've EVER seen win something out of those machines is my aunt Joan, and she won every time.

Other than that, there's not much news. It's still February here. It snowed, rained, and sleeted today, which was interesting for a little while. Scott and I plan to watch the primary election returns this evening, go to bed later than we mean to, and then wake up exhausted tomorrow morning. It's such a good plan that we follow it every evening.

Scott was just having a "fight up" with L to tire him out in hopes that he (L) will fall asleep at a decent time tonight (see photo at left). Scott is very good at this and it comes in handy this time of year, when the evenings are cold and dark and we can't go to a park with neighborhood dog owners to give the boy a nice "run." Liam loves running with the dogs almost more than his Hot & Spicy pillow--he laughs and laughs, and so does everyone else.

Fyi: Liam and I are going to plant tomato and pepper seeds tomorrow because we're confident that spring will come in 6-10 weeks, just like the seed packages say it will.

Sounds like Scott and Liam's game of Cootie is over, so I'm on pajama duty now. HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE DONNY! Your card is in the mail--for real. And for the record, I picked it out, which you'll never believe because it's Scott-humor. You'll know what I mean when you see it. There are butts.

Feblahary

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I have no excuse to offer but apathy, and perhaps a lack of news. The past weeks have been up and down--sometimes funny, sometimes yucky, often tedious, but overall I'm pretty sure we'll still glad to wake up in the morning even though it's February.
Liam and I have been enjoying sleeping in our hats. I look like a pale British man in this photo, but I think we've all gotten past that at this point so I'm posting it anyway.
Moving on... Last Monday was warm, so Liam and I took a loooong walk in the woods near our house. It was made especially long by my decision to tempt adventure and try a new trail. I thought for sure it would curve around in a loop and, eventually, it did. Eventually. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to get back to the car, which might not sound like a long time, but it was. L was a trooper--I only had to carry him for 10 minutes (up the big hill). Still, it was fun. We saw deer tracks and deer sign (or "poop" as we simply called it), uprooted trees, raccoon prints by the river, decaying logs, three bridges, and all sorts of "circle of life" things.
Tuesday was our primary election--another adventure. Liam and I walked to our polling place (the nearby elementary school)—I was feeling very worthwhile sharing America with my young son, etc. There were quite a few people there, which was good to see. Liam came into the little booth with me and I barely managed to select my candidate before L started reaching for buttons (despite numerous preceding conversations about NOT reaching for buttons). Mostly out of reflex, I hit the green “vote” button before he could get to it. Simultaneously all the change fell out of my wallet and rolled for miles all over the floor. I was bending over to pick it up when more fell out, some of it into the hood of Liam’s coat. With me distracted, my darling boy immediately darted back inside the booth and went for the buttons again. About four very old men with artificial hips (election volunteers) lurched for the booth making “eh, uh, oop, hey, hey” noises, thinking Liam was going to mess up my vote. I yelled out “no no, I’m done” (done on so many levels, let me tell you), and finished picking up the coins and got the hell out of there as fast as I could. So much for a civics lesson with a pre-schooler. Oh well. When Liam inquired, I told him that the President is like the “line leader” (one of the “jobs” in his preschool class) for the whole United States. Wouldn’t that be funny? He’d go around yelling “no I’M the line leader” and cutting first in line and pushing everyone else out of the way. Hmmm. Perhaps that’s a little too close to the truth these days…
Wednesday Liam and I went to the pet store after preschool/work and got a little 1-gallon aquarium and a betta fish. This is my kind of fish--minimal feeding, minimal tank cleaning. It's quite pretty, in spite of the way this photo turned out. Liam picked out the castle--Swimmy seems to like it.
That night, however, I was out for dinner with a friend, and when I got home Scott was changing the sheets and blankets on Liam's bed and Liam was sitting in the rocking chair making monkey noises. You guessed it! He'd thrown up all over the place and was now feeling pretty good, unlike poor Scott who had just undertaken the bath and laundry routine all by himself. It turned out to be a really mild bug though, because other than a fever that night and the next morning, he wasn't really sick again. Whew. I'll take it. But Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
Liam stayed home the rest of the week and Scott and I took turns watching him and going to work. Scott and his friend Matt took Liam and Matt's son to an indoor climb/crawling/jumping place about an hr away. Apparently they loved it. I'm glad Scott likes taking Liam to this sort of this--I'll stick to the woods. It's probably good for Liam to have a bit of both though...
In the evening Liam and I played out in the yard--it was a really nice evening. I raked some leaves and checked the bulbs I planted in fall (one is poking up), while L worked hard in the sandbox. We came in at five and it was still light out! Poor Scott went in to work for a few hrs Saturday evening--he's working on a huge project right now. He's taking it in stride, but it's still hard to have work hanging over your head all the time
But by this morning (Sunday) we were all going a little nuts. I set up trains for Liam, which he didn't feel like playing with
when I'd finished:
Scott did on more work,
this time at home:
And Liam took a nap:








After his nap, we tried on his suit for
Aunt Jenny's wedding, and I think
"we" like it a lot:




















Especially the shoes:


















And that is it for today. Now we are going to have a "February Party" before bed. I have no idea what a "February Party"--it is one of my many inventions designed to get through the day. I think we will have a little ice cream, but who knows? We're wild...