Owen update from Sara

I just talked to Sara after Owen's dr appts this morning, and EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE!!! She'll update her blog more fully when they stop for the night (they're on their way to Ohio), but she wanted to let everybody that had been praying for them know the good news. They ran 2 different tests, both of which Owen passed with flying colors - his kidneys are working just the way they are supposed to work. He's perfectly healthy! She said they'll go back in 3 weeks for a follow-up test, but the specialist was not worried at all.
PRAISE GOD!!!

Swimming Fun

Happy Animals Play Center from Walmart: 20 dollars



Tarps for under and over Happy Animals Play Center: 9 dollars



Swim Diapers: 6 dollars



Something besides TV that will hold this toddler's interest for at least 30 minutes at a time: PRICELESS

Taterisms

Translation dictionary:

Polly = potty

Nunik = music

My = I (i.e. No Mom, MY do it!)

Tubba Thomas = his "real name" (or as he once told Nana when asked what his real name is, "Tubba Thomas Time-out")

Bunny bonnet = rabbit

Manatanoes = mashed potatoes

and the dog is still Geeko rather than Nico, and Randy is and will always be Daddoo.


Some hilariousness from his mouth recently:

Saturday we made chocolate chip cookies. He was so excited - we pulled the chair up to the counter so he could reach, and he clapped his little hands together and exclaimed, "Let's DO this!"

Yesterday we were coloring with markers and found a dried out one. I told him he could throw it away, and he agreed, "Yeah, this one broken pretty much."

His favorite exclamation: "Holy cow!" Sounds way funnier from his mouth. Sometimes he follows up with "Oh my gosh!"

He got in trouble the other day. As I was fussing at him, he put his hands on his little hips and said. "Excuse me?"

Sometimes after eating, he'll say, "Ok! Now my tummy feel better!"

He teases us with the "high five" then pulling away before you high-five him to go "down low." Must always be repeated at least 3 times.

When you explain something to him, sometimes he'll respond, "OOOoohhh! I see!" Like he totally gets it now!

He lists things in this silly little sing-song voice that is hard to describe in type, but his voice goes up at the end of each item on his list, like, "I eatin' supper, and turkey, and manatanoes, and bean beans (green beans)..." or after the PBR, he talked for days about, " I go rolleo (anything horse or bull related at the coliseum or Spur is rodeo to him), and I see bulls, and see horsies, and see Shiney (Cheyenne Duncan, the love of his life), and see Daddoo..."

The child talks more than any boy I've ever met (of course, I spend most of my days with teenage boys, so they're not a fair comparison). He definitely doesn't have his daddy's quiet demeanor. Randy jokes that he got all my best traits - curly hair, allergies, big mouth...

Oh, I could go on and on. This boy cracks me up daily. He's been living up to the "terrible twos" stereotype quite a bit lately, but he manages to melt away any frustration with one goofy comment or sweet face. And I still just think he's the coolest thing ever. I am so incredibly blessed to be this child's mama.

Never Mind

I hate when I over-plan my day. I decide that I am somehow going to do the 352 things on my list in 4 short hours, even though there is no possible way it's gonna happen. And I know this about myself, and yet, I keep planning too much when I have some time to get things done. And then, I sabotage my own plan by adding even more things to the list~ For example:
Get home from taking Tater to MDO...
"Hey, I love this song! I'll sit in the car and listen real quick."
"Hmm, while I'm listening, I can go ahead and get all the trash out of the door pockets..."
"Well, since I'm cleaing out the trash, I can get all the other stuff out of the truck too..."
"Gee, since I've got everything else cleaned out, I might as well vacuum too - it really needs it..."

... and before I know it, I've lost an hour. An hour of the four hours I should have used to get the house clean. But I've decided that my friends will love me even if I have a dirty and/or messy house, so I wasn't too stressed over it. Plus we ended up postponing our play-date anyway, so never mind.

Ancient Chinese Proverb

for the girls coming to play tomorrow:

The true measure of friendship is how messy a friend's house is when you come over.

Lovin' every minute of it

Any tiny shred of regret I had over not being able to teach summer school is gone. I have had the best week with my little boy! Even though we haven't done anything monumental, we have done the park thing a few times, gone to the library, watched movies, had fun grocery shopping... and today we made play-dough. For one whole incredible hour he was fully occupied and engaged in the stirring and squishing, followed by the rolling and cutting and balling and more squishing. Too much fun!!
Then while we were eating lunch, it started to rain... a not-so-common occurrence around here lately. I couldn't drag him away from the kitchen window ("Watch that rain, Mom!"), so I pulled his little table over to the window so he could see. I just love watching the wonder in his little face...

Ah yeah... these days are the best.

PLAY-DOUGH UPDATE: Added Tuesday 6-25...
(I love that play-dough is the biggest thing I have to update about!)

If anybody's in search of a quick, easy, no-cook play-dough recipe, here's what we made:

PUFF DOUGH

3 c flour
1 c salt
1 c water
3 Tbsp cooking oil

Just mix it all together and then add food coloring if you want. I split it in half and made 2 colors. Super easy and I like the texture. Keeps awhile too.

Here are a couple of pictures. He decided that blue was his and purple was mine, and not five minutes later took over my purple. Little stinker...

I need to lay off the caffeine...

I can't seem to make myself get tired tonight. Perhaps it's the coke at lunch and 2 glasses of tea I had today. Perhaps it's the 3 chocolate cookies I had after dinner. Perhaps both. But I can't sleep and I can't turn off my brain, so here's a little randomness.

• My son has a new fascination with tattoos. He found some rub-ons and just had to have one. He picked the smiley face wearing headphones. I had to play along and put a butterfly on my foot too.
  

Randy is now worried that he will grow up and be covered in them. A tattooed bull-rider. That should be interesting.

• I went to a pretty cool workshop today about Web 2.0 stuff. I got some really good ideas that I will be able to use easily if I move to writing... will need some creativity to fit it into reading. I really have to integrate more technology though, no matter what I'm teaching. Randy went today too, so that was kinda cool to hang out with him. In the 3 years we've both been in education, there have only been a handful of times we've "worked" together.


• I have a new self-tanner that I really love. It's the Coppertone Endless Summer. It actually doesn't turn me orange.


• Tater was having issues with what blanket to use each night. It has been a toss up between Feet Covers (baby feet blanket from the hospital) and Tiny Covers (thin receiving blanket from Old Navy). Tiny Covers has been the favorite, but it's too short for this growing boy. So I took 2 other of the same type of blanket, cut them both in half, and stitched them back up in blocks. Sounded great in theory, but in reality, it's the worst sewing job I've ever done. Inexperienced me sewing thin, stretchy knit was not a pretty sight. The blanket may be ugly and Suessically long, but it serves it's purpose - for this summer anyway. Hopefully by next summer we can handle an actual sheet.

• This Sunday, Randy and I will have been married for 6 years. Funny, it feels longer than that... :)


• Tater and I are going to the park tomorrow morning. If anybody is actually up and reading this before 8:30 or so, feel free to come join us!


• We decided tonight while watching the news and seeing the forecast that we are moving to Montana. We'll FedEx a snowball.


• My project for next week: cleaning out Sam's room. When she's not here, it becomes the catch-all room (read: place to stash all my crap), and it really needs an overhaul. Plus if I plan to do any scrapbooking this summer, I must unbury my supplies.


• I got a flat tire Monday - evidently ran over a really sharp rock. Since I didn't go anywhere yesterday, it went unnoticed until Randy got home. As Tater watched him putting on the spare, he said, "OOooo, truck broken. Daddoo fix it." Then he looked at me with his brow wrinkled up, pointed his little finger at me and said, "You drive too fast."


• I want to have a play date at my house next week, maybe Wed or Thurs (need cleaning time - I'll be out of town this weekend). Anybody interested? I'd love to see how many kids we can pack in this house.

OK, that's all I got. Here are a few more pics of the boy for your viewing pleasure.