'Ot. Paaah.

It seems like the only exciting things that happen around here involve minor injuries.

Start with yesterday morning: the boys and I were on our way downstairs for breakfast. Drew had made it down two or three steps, so he had about 10 to go. Our cat decided it would be fun to attack Drew's head (which Drew usually finds funny), catching him off guard, throwing off his balance, and sending him rolling down the remainder of the stairs. I wasn't able to get between him and the bottom, so I just had to chase him down and scoop him up when he stopped rolling. He was pretty shaken up (literally), but not actually hurt.

Our afternoon went pretty well, as did most of the evening. We were sitting in the play room reading books, when suddenly my newly enhanced sense of smell* kicked in. Is someone baking a doll? I looked around, and there was our laundry basket, pushed up against the baseboard heater, slowly melting away. So I moved it, glad that I had caught it before it started some kind of fire. I went back to reading with Drew, when Owen started crying. I looked at him, and there he was by that nasty heater, holding his little fingers and saying, "'Ot." (He doesn't do the letter 'h' I guess.) So I picked him up and gave his fingers a little kiss and he blew on them, paaah, paaah, and he was fine.

Now that I think about it, there's more exciting stuff going on than injuries (well, it's exciting for me...'cause I'm the mom...). Last Saturday, David and I left the boys at Grandpa's and went to Salt Lake to watch the Celtics lose to the Jazz (we didn't expect them to win, but we hoped...).

The boys had a lot of fun at their grandpa's. The first thing Owen did when he got there was grab the Christmas tin which held some popcorn. The tin is almost as big as he is, but he hauled it across the room and put it at Grandpa's feet. Then he waited. Grandpa didn't do anything, so Owen hefted the tin up onto Grandpa's lap and yelled, "More!" Who could ignore that? Grandpa obligingly opened the tin so Owen and Drew could dig in.

At dinner time, the boys got pizza, cut into bite size pieces. I guess they just had the pieces on napkins, but that was too uncivilized for Drew. He grabbed a little toy plate, the kind that comes with a kid's tea set, piled all his pizza onto it, and ate off of that.

It's just fun to watch the little things that they learn; things that I've been doing for a quarter of a century, but are so new to them. Fun, fun.

*more on this in a future post; today's is too long already.

How Dare You Give Me a Pretzel?!

Sometimes I have to try so hard not to bust out laughing at Drew; especially when he's having a tantrum for reasons that are beyond me. A lot of times, I can understand why he gets upset; he's just little, he can't help himself to things, he can't walk or talk, can't tell me what he needs and I sometimes don't understand his clues. That can be frustrating. But we deal with the issues as well as we can without too much of an outburst from anyone*.

This afternoon's tantrum, however, seemed a little bit unwarranted to me. The boys and I were having a little snack before nap time. We had some juice and graham crackers, and I decided I needed some salt (what American doesn't need more salt in their diet? most of us...), so I busted out some pretzel sticks. I gave a few to Owen. He was grateful and made some cute eating noises: mmm.mmmm. I handed a few to Drew. He proceeded to throw his sippy cup on the floor, get on his hands and knees, and kick the dishwasher. Oh, and scream. And scream, and scream and scream.

I was stunned. I didn't know what to do for a minute, so I just laughed. Then I came to my senses and decided I didn't want to put up with these kinds of tantrums, so I put the sippy cup in the fridge, grabbed the flailing Drew and put him in his crib. He screamed for about five minutes more, but he's asleep now. I think that's really what he needed.

*3 out of 10 major outbursts have been avoided.

Drew's a tough kid to deal with sometimes. I try not to give him his way if he's having a tantrum, but a lot of times he's tantruming over things I was going to do for him anyway... Like, when I'm serving breakfast, he screams until he gets his food. I don't want to withhold food, because he does need to eat, but I don't want him to think I'm rewarding him either. It's just that I was already going to feed him. Any suggestions from people who've been through this would be great.

*Untitled*

This will be a boring post, not even deserving of a title. I just wanted everyone to know I'm still out here...

The past week seemed to drag on and on. I've been a little un-well lately; just not feeling up to snuff, so it's very hard to be motivated to do anything.

We did get out of the house on Saturday, which was nice. We went to the Simplot Games, which are Track and Field events. The best high school athletes in the country come to our tiny town and compete. I was amazed at how fast they were. And the girls shot put throwers were awesome, too. We didn't get there in time to watch, but I heard the awards ceremony. The girl who got 6th place threw the shot (put the shot?) 39 feet 6 inches. When I did shot put in high school*, I used to get 2nd or 3rd in our local meets, and my personal best was 31 feet. And if I remember correctly, the girl who won state threw around 41 feet. The girl who won the Simplot games? 49 feet, 11.5 inches. Incredible.

Well, that was the highlight of my week, other than the little electronic keyboards the boys got from Grandpa. But I have to have something to write about tomorrow, so I'll save that story.

*Shotput was my "just for fun" sport, especially since I wasn't very good. Diving is the love of my life. And would you believe it? There is not one diving board in our town. Not one. The closest one is 30 miles away.

I Need a Vacation

...You might, too, after reading this.

For some reason, I always come home from a vacation feeling like I need a vacation. I think it has something to do with packing too much fun into too little time. Next time we go somewhere, I think I'd like to go to the beach where I can lay there and do nothing. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

But the Vegas vacation was fun. Here are some of the details:

Friday:

~We dropped the boys off at Grandpa's and headed to the airport. We arrived two hours early, as requested, got our tickets, left for some breakfast, went back to the airport, went through security, and waited 1 1/2 hours to board the plane. It's a very small airport; I really don't know why we needed to be there so early. I had my first experience with air-sickness. I even got to use one of their special baggies. Yuck! Luckily, it was a short flight and we were soon in Vegas and on our way to Caesar's Palace,* where we enjoyed a large room with an equally large bathroom. I wish I had one like it at home.

~We were pleasantly surprised by David's sister, Jen, showing up; it was especially nice for me to have someone else there who doesn't want to just gamble the whole time. Jen also had a bad plane experience: the airlines lost her luggage on a direct flight. So ridiculous. But she finally got it back at about 2 A.M-- a mere 12 hours later.

Saturday:

~We surprised David's grandparents at the bingo hall. We sang "Happy Birthday" as they came out the doors. I thought Grandpa W. was going to cry. He said it was the best birthday ever, and the most memorable day of his life, replacing the previous winner: being circumcised at age 13.

~We just kind of bummed around casinos all day while the Aunts and Uncles gambled**. I played a few penny slots and even won $100 at a Wheel of Fortune machine. After that win, I was back in the black for the trip.

~Went to Margaritaville. I got a virgin Mango Margarita. It was delicious, apart from giving me brain freeze, and I got to keep the glass, which is about a foot tall.

~We met up with our friend Josh, who is the guy that introduced David and me. We had fun hanging out and catching up...

~In the evening, we went to Fremont Street and watched the giant TV. They put on a pretty lame show this time (I've seen better), but it was huge-- 2 blocks long and one street wide. Fremont street has a ton of musicians and artists that are always fun to watch, so that was one highlight.

Sunday:

~Got up way too early, went and played bingo with David's grandparents. I got the second bingo of the day, and won $50, which almost covered the cost of David and me playing.

~Jennifer, Max (a cousin) and I went to the Shark exhibit at Mandalay Bay. Very cool; probably the highlight of the trip for me. I decided that my second favorite animal is Jellyfish. They are weird and fascinating. I hope my pictures turn out.***

~I decided that rather than gamble away the rest of my money, I wanted some ice cream instead. But on the way to Swensen's, I saw a little kiosk with pearls for sale. For $13.99, you can open up an oyster and there's guaranteed to be a pearl inside (the oysters just come from a farm, but they're still real). So I got one. My pearl was very beautiful, and the gal at the kiosk was avery good saleswoman, so for a few extra bucks ($4o, to be precise), I had it mounted to a pendant. It's my favorite souvenir.

~We met up with a good friend of mine, Tina, who I've known since middle school (we were locker partners a gazillion years in a row). She and her husband live in Vegas, and we went out for Thai food with them.

Monday:

~We were supposed to arrive at the airport two hours early, but didn't quite make it. We spent an hour in line to go through security, and had to run to get to the plane in time to board. I made it through this flight with no incident; it helped that I slept, and did not drink any ginger ale prior to going through turbulence.

~I saw a little boy at the airport greeting a relative with a hug and a kiss, and for the first time all weekend, I really missed my boys. They were napping when we got home, and when they woke up and I went to get them, they just looked at me like, "Where have you been?" A trifle disappointing, but we've had lots of hugs and kisses since.

*David's uncle got comped a room at Caesar's, and let us stay there while they stayed at their timeshare. It was so luxurious!

** There really is so much more to do in Vegas than gamble. There are shows (clean ones!) to see: magicians, comedians, musicians; all for any price you're willing to spend, great or small. There are amusement parks, zoos, exhibits (clean ones!) . There is shopping galore, and even if you don't gamble, every casino has such incredible architecture, they're amazing to walk through and just admire. Every time we go, we say, "We should do this or that..." but we mostly just gamble. So sad...

***Would you believe we forgot our camera?? So David's uncle gave us a disposable one he'd gotten for free. I don't think the flash against the glass aquariums will make for great photography, but maybe I'll be surprised.

An Extra Week Will Do That...

My friend Madeline finally had her baby! She was induced yesterday morning and was in labor for somewhere around 24 hours or more; I'm not sure on the specifics because her husband was too tired to go into much detail (Madeline is sleeping, of course). But both Mom and Baby Girl are healthy. The baby weighs in at an astonishing 11 lbs, 1 oz. I guess she had plenty of time to grow, since she was a week late arriving! We're going to go visit later today, when everyone's feeling rested.

Tomorrow, we're off to Las Vegas for a much needed vacation! My Dad is taking Drew and Owen up to the farm to hang out. I expect them to work hard up there just like I always did-- building hay-stack forts and chasing cows is pretty tiring "work." But I imagine they'll probably spend most of their time indoors since Drew still isn't walking (I hope he starts walking before his 18-month doctor's appointment; otherwise, we have to do a bunch of "neurological tests." That sounds less than fun).

I wish I had more exciting news to report, but we're pretty boring around here lately. Hope everyone has a great weekend; I know I will!