Ribs

Yesterday, we were out running some errands and I had a hankerin' for some ribs. I had a gift card to Chili's, so I figured that was the place to go. In recent months, Jr. has discovered that he is also a fan of ribs. Luckily, Chili's had a kids rib special, which he ordered. His was a half rack and mine was a full rack. Once he got it, he dug in and had polished off all of his ribs, discarded them in the bone pile and started asking me for some of mine, before I had barely eaten 3. There was BBQ sauce all over the place, but he was as happy as could be. I guess he really is my son. I am proud of the boy. I wish I had a picture, but unfortunately we did not have the camera with us.

A Very Merry Christmas!

Way back before we were married, my college roommates and I talked G into taking us in his Jeep to buy a real Christmas tree (in Utah). It turns out he was furious about that (because we got his beloved Jeep dirty) but was so madly in love with me, he couldn't turn us down. Once we got married he pulled the old bait and switch and has REFUSED to let me have a real tree since. It's taken me ten years, but I finally talked him into it. A really good friend was doing a fundraiser selling trees and Buddy really wanted one too. It turns out a 4-year old is a lot more persuasive than an old wife. It wasn't a beautiful tree by any means, but I loved it. We have several sentimental ornaments which Buddy so nicely put all in one place on the lower back area of the tree. (And yes, he notices if I try to move one around. "Hey! I didn't put that there!!!")

Here's Buddy decorating the tree and my sweet boys tonight in their new Christmas PJ's:

Today is my 31st Birthday. This is the first year I've thought to myself, "Oh no. Not ANOTHER Birthday." All the other years it's come around and I've been excited. But although I don't look a day older than 16, I'm starting to feel, well, like I'm in my 30's and I don't like it. Anyway, I bring up the old bday just so I can share my treasured gift from G this year. He got me some Vans, and a sweater and this lovely trophy:

I have a bad habit of telling G, "I really deserve an award for that" when I do something I think is great. Well, by golly he got the hint and had this trophy made and engraved with my name and "World's Greatest Wife." Of course for the past several days he's been anxious for me to open my presents and honestly, this is not what I expected. But I'll tell you, I laughed so hard I literally had tears running down my face.

Never a dull moment or birthday with G and Buddy around. I think I'm the LUCKIEST wife in the world!

Compliments

It's a good thing my self-esteem isn't based on how Buddy feels about me. A few weeks ago I was stressed so I was just planning on staying home all day and doing housework. I did take a shower, but after that I went to the gym and I never did my hair or makeup or anything. Halfway through the day, Buddy looked at me and said, "Mom have you showered today?" I don't really look any too great on a good day, but gosh, that's pretty bad when your son can tell when you haven't gotten ready for the day.

And then today, he asked me, "When did your sweatshirt get too small for you?"

In his defense, he just grew out of his clothes, so I've said that to him a few times lately. But again, that's not good at all when your son notices you're also hitting a growth spurt.

Life as Normal?

Now that we have the baby and we are trying to get into a routine, everything should be getting back to normal, right? Yet for some reason, I have more to do at work, M has more to do at home, and we don't remember the last time we spent an evening together. Despite how crazy things are, we do intend to keep up with the blog and contribute. M will probably continue to make crazy-long entries and I will continue with the same sort of jackassery that you would expect. For all 3 of you who read our blog, keep checking in. We will keep updating.

Welcome Pee-Wee to Our Blog

Since we pretty much only have 4 readers and you all know about Pee-Wee's birth, we thought we'd spare a repeat of the details. Instead, enjoy a few adorable pictures.

Pee-Wee, we love you more than words can say. You have already brought us so much joy and peace to our family. We are so glad you finally arrived!!!!!

Priorities II

I fear that my post is really going to showcase the different levels of maturity of M and me. While she was having all of these great experiences in Las Vegas, it is now my turn to tell what I did. When M decided to go to Las Vegas to visit her friend and see Jr’s birthmom, I though that it would be a great opportunity to get my cousin to come out and keep me company while she was gone. My cousin and I have always been close. We are similar enough in personality that we get along great and different enough in our tastes to keep it interesting. When he got here, I told him that my goal was to make it so that he could hardly stay awake at work when he got back. I think that I accomplished this, but it also had the same affect on me.

The evening my cousin flew in, we decided to go to happy hour at Stanfords. I'd always heard about happy hour, but since I don't drink, I had never had occasion to go. When the appetizers are at most $3 and we could eat a ton of food for not a whole lot of money, I now realize what I've been missing. It was great.

The next day we got up and drove to Multnomah Falls. My cousin wanted to hike to the top of the falls, so that's what we did. As it turns out, I was in a little better shape than him (sorry dude, it's true). We hiked back down and drove to Hood River. We had lunch there and then drove up Mt. Hood to look at some of the local ski resorts. We didn't get a real early start because we were out late the night before, so by the time we got back into Portland, it was getting kinda late. However, because it was later, we decided to hit another happy hour. This time we ate at McCormick & Schmicks. Again another fabulous meal of appetizers for not a whole lot of money.









Saturday we got up late, once again and headed on down to Saturday's Market. It was fun to see all of the crazies out. After hanging out there and eating, we got on the max and went to Pioneer Courthouse Square. Again, we saw more crazies. After a while we got bored and then drove up to the Rose Gardens. We still had some time to kill and since I have been contemplating replacing our Honda in a year or so, we hit the Acura dealership and I test drove a new Acura TL Type-S. It was awesome. I need to make a lot more money than I do in order to afford it. Later that night we met up with some friends and after we realized that our "free" tickets to a comedy club were not really free, we ended up at Vill.age Inn. We went back over to our friends' house for some Nintendo Wii.

The next day was our coast tour. We drove out to the Tillamook Cheese Factory (one of my absolute favorite places) and sampled some cheese and got some food. Then we drove to Pacific City and hung out at the beach for a little while. When we drove to Lincoln City and messed around there for a while. We had dinner at Moe's and then started back to Portland. My cousin and I had an ongoing bet to see who could go the longest without diarrhea while he was here. Unfortunately for me, around Sheridan, I lost and had to drive into town to find a bathroom. We made it back home and hung out for a bit. Then in one more last effort to go to happy hour, we went back to Stanfords for dessert.





Monday finally came and we didn't get up any too early. Finally we got ready, went to lunch and then drove out to Woodburn. After that we had to stop by the house to get his stuff and we were off to the airport. I dropped him off and then went back to the office. That evening, M and Jr. got back from LV and we resumed life together again.

Patience

I promise our little baby boy will be born by the end of the week. I know I’ve been saying that for a month now, but trust me – you’re not the only one that is losing patience. Our birth mom has been in the hospital since last Wednesday and her doctors are just trying to balance her health and well-being with the baby’s lung development. Today she got an amnio and his lungs were phenomenal. Much better than they expected, so they’re going to start the induction process at midnight with a pill in her uterus. Then they’ll start the drip tomorrow morning. If she’s a “normal” first delivery, she might have the baby Wednesday morning. Her caseworker is leaving out of town on Friday afternoon. We are almost desperate to have him be there for the placement. It’s critical for her AND us. So, could you please keep this situation in your prayers? It would be best if the delivery could happen easily and quickly for many reasons – but especially so we can have placement Friday morning. If we could have our wish, we’d hope that he’d be born tomorrow (Tuesday).

***

I do a co-op preschool with Buddy and three of his friends. It’s really fun, the kids love it, and the curriculum is perfect for these little boys. Last month we learned all about nursery rhymes and Mother Goose and the boys LOVED it. We didn’t want to buy the curriculum for the whole month of December because of Christmas and the baby and everything. So, for the next few weeks we’re just going to teach what we want and let the kids play the rest of the time. So today I taught the kids about Christmas. We read a bunch of books and since we’re all the same religion, I didn’t have to be pc. It was fun to teach them the real story of Christmas. We have a Little People nativity set that is just adorable and I was using that to tell the story. I got to the three wise men part and showed them the little figures and asked them who they were. The kids guessed kings, knights, princes. I said no and gave them the hint: “Three…” Immediately three of the four boys got excited and shouted in unison: “Three Blind Mice!!!!!!!!!”

It would have been hilarious if one boy said that, but the fact that three of them thought of it all at the same time… priceless.

***

Saturday G and Buddy were driving around town doing some errands. Our windshield wipers have been acting up and one had gotten a little loose (sp?) and was making a strange sound. But at first G didn’t know what the sound was coming from, so he was asking Buddy if he could tell what it was. Buddy insisted it was just the radio, but G said it wasn’t. They argued over the sound for a bit until Buddy said, “Dad-You’re freaking out!” (Knowing G, he probably was!)

***

Buddy had his nose cauterized a few weeks ago because he’s been getting frequent nosebleeds for about a year. He was really brave and it seems to have worked! He hasn’t had a problem since. Anyway, when he was getting checked over by the ENT before the procedure, Buddy was curious about his tools and instruments. A few weeks ago Buddy got to test out his uncle Luke’s stethoscope, so when the doctor pulled his out, Buddy asked why he had one (Luke isn’t a doctor, he’s in nursing school). The doctor of course explained that if Buddy goes to medical school, he can have one too. Nine out of ten kids would be thrilled by that response, but not Buddy. He has a trademark look he gives people when he’s giving something a lot of thought, when he’s confused or not convinced – we call it his ‘owl eyes.’ He gave the doctor the owl eyes, and said, “Well, did YOU go to medical school?”

The doctor laughed a little and the more I thought about that later, I just couldn’t help but wonder how if that doctor had ever been asked for his credentials by a three year-old.

And then it happened again. We were at Buddy’s 4-year check-up this time and the nurse brought out the stethoscope to check his bl.ood pressure. Before she could begin, Buddy confronted her: “What are you doing? Are you a doctor?”

Like before, she laughed and again the poor nurse had to explain to a 4 year-old that she WAS qualified, even if she wasn’t a board certified physician.

***

And one more story because I’m on a role. Buddy is pretty typical to our family in that he has NO patience. He finishes his meals and then insists I dismiss him from the table right that second. Today I was typing an email and he had food all over creation, so I told him “just a second.” In about 30 seconds, he repeated about 100 times that he was done, done, done, done, done, done, done! I finally got up and told him that he needed to learn some patience. Without missing a beat, he said, “Well, maybe I’ll learn some patience when I’ve five.”

If he’s anything like the rest of us, I doubt it. Please pray for a baby tomorrow.