Soccer!

Well, today was Boo's first soccer game.  I'd love to tell you he's a natural and just took to it like a fish to water.

But, those of you who know my boy-o, know that would not be my boy.  No, my boy will do things in his own time, and in his own way and only when he's good and ready.  Thankfully, he's not the only one like this in the world and that there are lots of people who understand.

As you can see from the picture Boo is on team Dynamo.  As in the Houston Dynamo.  Yep, the QSC has a partnership with Adidas and they get real, honest to goodness, uniforms of pro soccer teams.  I think he's quite adorable in his orange jersey and black shorts.  Everything is so big on him, but then again, they gave the smallest sizes they had to the 4s and 5s.  But somehow the oversized uniforms make them look even more cute.

Anyhow, on to the actual game.  The first half hour or so is spent in "practice" and the second half hour or so is the actual "game".  Well, the first part of practice is warm-up while waiting for the rest of the team to get there.  Boo loved this part.  He was kicking his soccer ball all around and enjoying himself.  I had to run to the clubhouse to pick up our Red Robin gift cards.  I told him I'd be right back, but he didn't like that idea, and tried to follow me.  Anyhow, by the time I got back, it was the more formal practice.  He didn't want any part of this because he just wanted to play with me.  I almost got him to participate a little bit in the formal practice, but by the time the "game" rolled around, he wanted nothing to do with it.  He just wanted to go.  I convinced him to stay and watch.  The dad who was coach today (his normal coach wasn't there today) was very kind in his trying to get Boo to participate in the game.  The game consists of four-on-four matches between two teams.  There were enough kids on both teams today that there was a four-on-four match and a three-on-three match.  Boo would have made it four-on-three, but he was more than happy to watch.  He almost went onto the field a couple of times.
I think by the end of next Saturday he'll be running around playing with the rest of the team, or maybe the next week.  He's my watcher boy and he's got to take it all in and understand it all before he'll dive in head first.  I bet by the end of the season I won't be able to get him off the field.  Either that or he'll never make it onto the field and we'll never play another season.  Either way is fine.  I just want him to stick out the entire season and give it a fair shot to see if this is something he will have fun with or not.  I want him to have fun.  Any additional skills or friends he gains along the way is gravy.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd give everyone a quick update and some pictures.

Peace to all and may you have fun.

Exhaustion Checkup

Well, today I did something about the exhaustion I wrote about recently.  I said then that if I wasn't feeling back to "normal" by the end of last week, I'd call the doctor.  I haven't been feeling as all out exhausted as I was when I wrote that post, but I definitely have not been feeling my normal self and I've noticed that I just don't have the energy that I should.  I've been sleeping, and for me that's not normal.  Not only have I been sleeping, but it's all but taken an act of Congress several mornings to get me out of bed.  Not the "it's warm and snuggly and I just don't feel like moving" not getting out of bed, but the "I can't open my eyes or even think about moving to actually get out from under the covers" not getting out of bed. 

So, since that's definitely not normal for me and the mere fact that I just haven't been able to get my butt to the gym to swim or get out of my own way in the morning to get an exercise video in, I called the doctor's office on Wednesday and Dr. F. actually had an appointment open this morning.  So, I took it.

I had a very pleasant conversation with Dr. F. like I usually do.  I had actually written a list of "problems" or at least observations on what wasn't quite "normal" with my system lately as well as Dad's recent medical information.    She did say she was thrilled with all the weight I've lost and happy to see it moving in the right direction.  She still hasn't told me what kind of number she'd like me to aim for, but that's OK.  At the rate I'm loosing currently, I'll have another year or so before I even get close to the maximum "healthy range" for my height.  I've got time to figure it out.  (I probably will never set an actual "goal".  My real goal is to be healthy and fit at whatever weight the scale shows...)  She looked me over and listened to my breathing and my heart and said she believed me when I said I was feeling exhausted all the time.  She said that this could be anything from a simple vitamin D deficiency to possibly Lyme or maybe something like an auto-immune disorder like Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus or maybe something else entirely.  She wants me to keep a bit of a journal on how I'm feeling and what's going on (it doesn't have to be too detailed, just something general) to see if there's a pattern I've missed.  She sent me down to the lab to have about 8 vials drawn and a pee test for various tests.  Since none of them had to be fasting, I went ahead and got the blood drawn right then.  We'll see what the results say.  I have a follow-up appointment on 6/5.  I'm sure I'll have more news by then.
I'm just glad to hear that she doesn't think it's all in my head (I knew she wouldn't, but there is always that fear going to doctors...) and that she does take this seriously.  I mean, I know I'm the mom of an almost four-year-old very active little boy, a wife, a full-time employee, a Girl Scout leader and I even have a bit of a social life now and again.  Sure, I expect to have tired days, but when I'm actually sleeping like a rock and still having problems getting out of bed at my normal time, something's not right.

Anyhow, Boo's first day of soccer is tomorrow.  I hope to have some cute pictures of him in his uniform.  I'm sure it'll be cute and crazy and all kinds of chaos.  I just hope he enjoys himself and can warm up to the other kids in a relatively quick fashion.  We shall see.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet tonight.  I think I'm going to play with yarn a little bit before I go ker-thud into bed.  Tomorrow will be a busy day and I'm sure Boo will be up bright and early.  He fell asleep before dinner.  (He was upset that I was making macaroni and cheese for dinner along with ham, so I sent him to his room to "settle" himself.  Well, he settled himself right to sleep before I could finish dinner.  I decided the lesser "evil" was to let him sleep and wake up at the crack of dawn instead of waking him and dealing with a cranky, tired boy who didn't want what I made for dinner....)

Peace to all and may you have doctors who listen and hopefully answers to questions.

GS Camping

Well, I have survived my first camping trip as a Girl Scout leader, as opposed to a Girl Scout.  I guess in a way it wasn't really my first as a leader if you count the two summers I worked at Tohi, but I was never the councilor in charge...

But, I digress.  We really did have a great time over all.  Sure, there was the normal teenage drama and at the time it was driving me totally nuts, but I'm over it now that I've had a chance to sleep.

The original plan was for Steph, Billy, Rachel, Zoe and Kat to head up Friday after we finished laundry and shopping.  Well, they were calling for some pretty bad storms to roll through that night.  Kat called Knoebel's and managed to change our reservation for two night and one site to two sites for one night.

Saturday morning the Kat and Steph contingent left around 9:00 and I met the girls and Mrs. D at the church and left around 9:45.  We all made it up to the campground around noon.  After setting up the last of the tents and wolfing down some lunch, we all head into the park.  We all had a good time riding on rides.  I even got to ride on some bigger people rides!  Yes, I actually got to ride the Phoenix.  I love that coaster!

Anyhow, after enjoying the rides until shortly after 6:00 we manage to cook dinner with only a little drama and no one getting hurt.  I managed to get about half the girls hooked on banana boats for dessert.  We got to watch the beautiful huge full moon rise over the ridge.

As usual, I was the first one to bed and the first one up.  Actually, Boo was the first one to bed.  I was so impressed, and a little sad too.  He and Billy shared a tent.  He only got up once when I tried to put him to bed and he and Billy did great.  Boo was soooo excited to be sharing a tent with Billy. *cry* My baby boy is growing up. *pout*  (On the plus side, he did awesome with the potty all weekend.  I'll gladly take that part of growing up!)

Sunday breakfast went fairly well other than the fact that, as usual, the camp stove wouldn't light for me.  I managed to cook most of breakfast over a small fire (we were trying to hoard firewood so we wouldn't have to get more...).  The girls all enjoyed it and we managed to get camp tore down and all but packed in the cars by 10:30!  We headed down to the park a bit after 11, and the rides opened at about noon.  We got about an hour or so of rides in.  Steph, the boys and I headed back up to the site before everyone else to get lunch going.  We actually managed to get lunch fixed and cleaned up in record time and were only about 20 or 30 minutes later in leaving than I thought we might be.  Thankfully, with the advent of cellphones, I had promised the parents their girls would call them before we left so that they'd have a better idea of when we were going to get back.  That way, if we were running late or early, no one would be sitting in a parking lot too long.

I had an enjoyable ride back, since about 15 minutes into the ride all four of my passengers fell asleep.  Yes, Boo actually fell asleep in the car with three girls who thought he was the cutest thing since sliced bread. (Or something like that...)

So, while there was a good bit of drama now and again in the down times, it really wasn't more than should be expected from the age group.  I have such a wonderfully diverse group of girls.  They all bring something unique to the table.  They all have very different strengths, weaknesses and strong personalities.  I really want to foster their sense of individuality while encouraging them to respect each other's differences and learn to work with a diverse group.  And if we manage to earn a bunch of badges in the process, that'll be icing on the cake.  It's hard to measure the real learning that goes on in these groups.

Anyhow, I've been fiddling with this long enough.  The picture at the top are the 7 girls we had with us over the weekend.  They're all wonderfully unique and great girls.  Sometimes they drive me totally insane, but I really wouldn't trade any of them.  Well, at least not forever...

Peace to all and may your camping adventures have dry weather and lots of fun.

Adventures

Well, so much for getting May off to a great blogging start.  Didn't happen.  It is a combination of not much happening and not much to say in general.

Work was work this week.  It was a bit of a challenge to keep plowing through, but I managed to have an OK week.  The bright spot was that I had a half-day vacation day yesterday.

Yep, I actually took a half a vacation day.  Of course, I didn't get to totally just goof off.  Nope, it was so Kat and I could get ready for our camping overnight today.  I'm sure I mentioned it before, but today is Scout Day at Knoebel's and we're taking the troop.  We're also going camping overnight.  We decided on only one night for a variety of reasons.  I'm kinda glad we did.  Sure, I'd love to have gone for the entire weekend, but with my schedule as it is, I would have had to take an entire vacation day yesterday just so we could leave at a decent time yesterday!

So, yesterday afternoon was laundry and running around with Kat buying groceries for the trip and more laundry and more groceries and getting a boy-o from daycare in there somewhere as well.  I think we're just about ready to roll.

And yes, I'm glad we didn't go last night because there was a pretty strong string of thunderstorms that rolled through last night.  I wouldn't really want to spend the next two days damp.  Yes, I'm a wuss these days, but I've done my fair share of camping in the wet.  Remember our trip to DC last August?  Yeah.  (I'm sure I'll do my fair share of camping in the wet yet to come, I'm just glad when I don't have to! *laugh*)

Last night was also the night we picked up Boo's soccer uniform.  Yep, that's right, Boo wanted to play soccer this summer.  Actually, I asked if he wanted to play and he said "Ok!".  His team is the Huston Dynamo and their uniforms are bright orange shirts and black shorts.  I'm sure he'll be adorable in it and you know I'll be posting pictures.  We didn't get pictures last night, but I will.  His first "game" is supposed to be today, but he won't be there because of our trip and the fact that Gak has to work.  It's OK, it's only 4-5 year-old intermurrals, not high-school travel team soccer.  If he enjoys this season, we'll see if he wants to play again, if not, I still say it'll be a well spent $90, just for the exposure and the chance to try.  (Actually, it's only $65 because I get $25 back in Red Robin gift cards, and it's not like we don't enjoy eating there to begin with...)

So, I have an awake boy and last minute things to get done, like breakfast.  Oh, I did upload the rest of the April photos to Flickr, including Zoe's party last Saturday.  Enjoy!

Peace to all and may your camping adventures be fun!

Lightsabers

Well, Boo finally did it.  He went 14 days (in a row even! actually, almost 20 now!) accident free.  In big boy underpants the entire time, even at night.  He has more than earned his lightsaber.  You can't really tell from this picture but he was soooo excited and proud to get it.  He had so much fun showing it off to everyone in the building when we got home as well.

I'm so thrilled!

And a little bit sad.

When we were on our way to the checkout this evening to buy his new lightsaber ("I have to get a green one!") he says in that matter-of-fact tone that young kids do so well "I'm not a baby any more."

No, Bubs, you're not.  My baby Boo is growing up and way too fast.

I was having a conversation with my friend Cynthia at work today.  Her daughter just turned 4 months old yesterday.  We were both amazed at how the time just flies.  And I told her to hang on, because it only gets faster.  I swear, just yesterday Boo was only 4 months old and here he is turning 4 years old in a matter of weeks!

But yes, I'm thrilled not to have to buy, change or otherwise deal with diapers.  It really was getting quite old.  I mean, it's one thing when they're an itty-bitty and just don't have any concept, but I swear, I think it's more been just plain stubborn more than anything the last 6 months to a year.  We finally hit upon the right bribe and I'm pretty sure his best buddy Dominik had something to do with it as well.  Dom is 6 months younger and has been using the potty since December or so.  I'm pretty sure he convinced Boo that it was just plain easier in the long run to use the potty.  At any rate, I'm thankful.

I'm keeping this post short because I'd really love to get to bed a little early so I can actually go for my swim in the morning.  I missed both of them last week because I was just so darn exhausted.  So, I'll just leave you with a few pictures from Saturday.

Zoe blowing out her birthday candles.

Zoe, Boo and Billy on a boat ride.

Zoe, Troy and Rachel on the swing ride.

Party Time!

We're off to see the wizard!  Well, maybe not the wizard of Oz, but we're off.  We're off to Knoebel's for Zoe's birthday party.  Can you believe she's 11 already?  I can't.  It seems like only yesterday Kat was telling me she was pregnant!  Or heck, that I has just met Kat at the airport on our way to Space Academy.  Time really does fly.

Anyhow, it should be a great adventure.  Unfortunately, Gak has to work today so he won't be joining us. *pout*

The rest of the week got a bit better over time.  There's still a lingering funk and the exhaustion has been holding on fast.  And yes, if I feel like this at the end of next week, I'll be calling the doctor.  I'm hoping this crazy hot/cold, dry/wet wacky weather pattern we've been having the last week or two is part of the problem.  Yeah, I know, I'm reaching.

Anyhow, I'd best be getting ready.  So, enjoy a picture from one of our trips last year.  (Actually, looking at this picture makes me realize exactly how much my boy-o has really grown this past year. *sniff*  He really isn't a baby at all any more... well, he'll always be my baby, even when he gets taller than me, probably by age 10.)

Peace to all and may your adventures be fun.

Exhaustion

First off, let me start by saying that I'm feeling better.  Not 100% better and as happy-go-lucky as I usually am, but I am feeling better.

However, I'm exhausted.  I've noticed this trend for a while now.  I go through phases of just being totally worn out and wrung out, and then I'll take a weekend "off" or skip a few workouts or something and I'll be back to "normal" levels of tired.  The last few months it's been getting worse though I think.  I'm not really rebounding to having my full energy levels.  Despite how active I was last week (about 8 days in a row where I either went to swim, rode the bike and/or got an exercise/weight training video in or a hike) I feel even more exhausted.  Well, duh? you may be thinking.  No, when I get 6 or 8 days in a row of being really active, my energy levels actually begin to pick up, I feel better and healthier and in a much better place mentally.  Yep, it's those silly endorphins everyone talks about.  I never get that "runner's high", but I do have a much better outlook and energy level if I keep the activity going.
Not this week.  I'm more exhausted than ever.  Normally when I get over tired I start to get cold and feel like I need another five or six layers on.  I swear it's my body's way of telling me "I'm going to sleep whether you want me to or not!".  Well, most nights that'll hit around 10:00 or so.  (It used to be much later, like midnight on some nights...)  Today I don't think I made it to 4:00.  By the time I came home, I had that cold tired feeling where I want to just curl up in a ball and it actually almost hurts to uncurl.  (So, why am I up and writing this at 8:00 when a boy-o is in bet?  Because I need to think a bit... and I don't want to be waking up at 2 am and not being able to get back to sleep....)

I do know, that unless something has drastically changed in the last year, it's not thyroid related.  I've had two complete sets of thyroid blood work done, one just last year.  And the last time, I swear it would have been easier to donate a unit and let them have it for testing... it took almost the same amount of time!  I know I should get an appointment with Dr. F, but I just don't know.  Every time I go to the doctor about something like this, all tests come back normal and it makes it look like this is all in my head.
But it's not.  I know it's not because Gak has commented on it.  Well, I know some of it is, because mentally I know I'm not at the top of my game and too many little things keep tripping me up and getting under my skin too easily.  You know, how you react when you really could use a good long nap?  Yeah.  Like my almost four-year-old son.

Anyhow, I'm just kinda randomly venting and thinking "out loud" so to say.  I wish I could just email Dr. F and tell her I need to update my family history (and update her on Dad's situation since I'm not sure I've told her yet...) "and by the way, I've been way more exhausted than I should be, even being a mom of a pre-schooler, full-time employee, Girl Scout leader, wife and everything else... any ideas?"  Her office is great about messages, but somehow I'm not sure I'm ready to do that.  I know I should just buck up and do it, it's not just my health that could be affected by whatever may or may not be going on, but Boo and Gak as well... I mean, I am the Momma... and the best way a momma can take care of her family is to take care of herself (same thing goes for daddys too!)  I'm not looking for guidance, just looking to write it all out and go hmmm....

Anyhow, I need to go remind my boy-o that it's lights out and then I'm curling up in bed (yes, it's not quite 8:15) and play with a little yarn.  (I'm still angry and frustrated with myself for my money situation, but that's nothing that I can fix and worrying about it right now really won't help anything at all.  Here's hoping I can get warm and that I can sleep through the night and that I'll either buck up and call the doctor or have an ah-hah! moment and some pieces will fall into place and I'll figure out it really is all stress related and how I can start to fix that.  *shrug* We'll see.

Peace to all and may you not be exhausted.

Angry

I was driving home tonight and I realized I'd been frowning all day.  Now anyone who knows me, knows that this isn't like me.  Sure, I look serious quite a bit, but I usually find something to smile about or at the very least I'm not frowning.  Today I was downright scowling.

And I couldn't pin it on any one thing.

I'm tired.  I feel like I've been going non-stop for months now.  I had an "easy" day yesterday with no actual real physical activity.  I didn't ride my bike, or go for a walk, or find an exercise video "On Demand".  We went shopping at the grocery store and ran to Target and I made sure to wander a bit more than I really needed to, but nothing that most people would qualify as capitol "A" Activity!.

I need a vacation and I'm not going to get one.  I've got a camping trip planned for the first weekend in May, but that's with my Girls and we don't have everything planned (by half) and since I'm a leader it's not exactly like I can take off mentally, these extra girls are my responsibility.  And I'll still have Boo with me.  And he's almost 4, which should be enough to get all parents and anyone with kids in their lives nodding.

Boo's a pretty easy going kiddo but he's hitting a growth spurt and wanting to press his independence but still insists on being clingy and whiny, especially when he's tired (which is a lot right now) and when he doesn't get his way, or thinks he won't get his way.  He's been so very, very good at pushing buttons.  It's a good thing he's cute, and such a good kid most days, otherwise there have been several moments where I've (and Gak's) had to just walk away... or send a boy to his room for his own good.

(On a positive note, we're at about 10 days in a row totally accident free.  6 more and he earns his lightsaber and we're ditching the diaper pail for good!  Oh, that includes overnight... not a requirement for a sticker, but I'm not telling him that!)

So, tonight I'm already grumpy and grousy because I didn't actually accomplish anything at work today despite spending most of the day connected to a customer's site.  All I did was get to a point where I've got half the development team scratching their heads going "huh??" when I show them what's going on.  Oh, and then there's the other site that's been a royal pain for a few weeks because it intermittently stops working, but not really... yeah.

We go to BJ's to pick up a few things for Zoe's birthday party Saturday (I told Kat I'd bring juice boxes and water).  Thankfully Boo is willing to ride in the cart so I can at least keep him from touching and poking at and manhandling EVERYTHING that's within a 6' radius of his current location.  But, he's being a bit on the loud side (but not screeching, I'm so thankful that he doesn't screech) and he's  being obnoxious with Trey and all but throwing him out of the cart.  And then we go to check out.  I'd moved some money around between the checking and savings, since I thought there was a bit to spare in the checking that I wouldn't need, completely forgetting the local taxes hadn't cleared this morning.  (Yes, I waited until the last minute to pay those...)  Well, they cleared between the time I checked the balance this morning and the time I went to check out... so.... we went back through the store and put everything back except the juice, the water and the squeezy apple/strawberry sauce that I promised Boo he could have.  (It is 100% fruit, no added sugar and may be more than the normal single serve cups but is much more mess free and was much cheaper than I could get it at the grocery store... win all around really...) Yeah, that was fun.  I'll pick up the rest of the stuff later.

So, I'm already fuming that I'm the worst person I know to handle money.  I know I've ranted about it before.  Thanks to stupid decision making on my part I'm paying $500/month more than I need to in bills.... and will be for at least another 18-36 months.  I'm angry and pissed and tired about the whole deal.  I really wish I could afford to just sign my check over to someone, they give me a card with the grocery money, a different card with the gas money and write the daycare and other checks and maybe $20/month fun money.  Then I might not be so angry about the whole money thing.

And then I start to think about the truck.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Durango.  But she's 10+ years old, has over 130k miles on her and has several little quarks that aren't big problems but I really need to fix.  And somehow without paying attention (yet again) I've managed to spend most of either the vacation money or the truck money and the savings are looking leaner than I want them to.  And the truck needs to be inspected by the end of June.  So, more anger and frustration.  Can I tell you how much that for once in my life I want to be able to go into a car dealership of my choosing and tell them what I want, have them order it for me and have payments I can manage and not feel like I had to compromise on anything?  Hell, just the thought of owning a newer car, let alone a new car is something out of my reach.

So, while all of this grumpyness is going on in my head, I'm making dinner.  (Which I didn't ruin, not by a long shot!)  Well, it was a dinner that required several pots/pans and most of the stove top.  Well, only 3 out of 4 burners, but my two small pots... I only own 3...  Boo wanted spaghetti for dinner.  I didn't have any leftovers for him.  I didn't have room on the stove (or pot of an appropriate size) available.  So, I tell him he can either have elbows and "shaky cheese" or mac-n-cheese, but not spaghetti.  Or he could have what Gak and I were having (chicken fried, lightened up a bit, gravy and mashed potatoes... the potatoes were taking forever and tying up the spaghetti pot...).  Well, he looses it and melts down.  To make a long, frustrating story short (too late!) it was a long and frustrating dinner and the boy-o didn't get any dinner and got sent to bed early.
He did calm down by the time I was done cleaning up the kitchen, so I red him a book (of my choice) and took him a half glass of milk.  I also told him no coming out of his room (unless to potty) or else no Muppets this week.  We've been having problems with him coming out of his room every 5 minutes (when he's drop dead tired, you can see it in his face and hear it in his voice) for this, that or the other thing and not actually going to sleep.  Sorry buster, I love you.  I understand you want and need me.  I want and need you to go to sleep, as does your body.  And I need my few minutes of "me" time that I carve out between 8 and 9:00.  (Not to mention try and get some adult conversation in with my wonderful and loving husband, and hopefully not have it be job or kid related...)

So, today I'm angry.  I'm angry at myself for a myriad of things ranging from work performance, money skills, dealing with the stress of an almost-four-year-old-boy badly to the fact that I'm grumpy.  (Yes, vicious circle that...)  I'm trying not to be angry with a boy-child for being almost four and being my son and everything that goes with it.  I'm trying not to be angry about the fact that I'm so freaking busy and that I feel like I'm not getting much help with anything (when in reality I am...).  I'm angry because the cost of gas, and everything else, keeps going up and I got a lousy 1.3% raise this year and none last year and they're finally taking the right local taxes out of my check so I'm actually not seeing any increase in take-home pay.  I'm just fed up and grumpy and trying to stay out of everyone's way.
It's only partially working.

I'm signing off to go take a shower, curl up with a book and hope that tomorrow won't be so gray outside and my mood won't be so black inside.

Peace to all and may anger not overwhelm your better sense.

Still Here...

I'm still here.  The post I've been toying with since Wednesday is being stubborn and not wanting to settle down and behave and get the right words onto the "paper".  So, I just thought I'd post a few quick lines to update on the week.

Let's see here... Sunday we finally had 7 accident free days with Boo, so Monday after a nice ride and a bit of play time at the park, we went and picked up Muppets.  To be honest, he's had way more than 7 days accident free, but this was 7 days accident free after I gave up on having them be all in a row.  Since last Friday actually he's been accident free.  Which means we're well into the 14 accident free days he needs to get his light saber.

Work's been rough this week.  Not from the volume of work, but from the fact that I've been stuck in "hurry up and wait" mode so much, which makes it that much harder to stay busy... especially since there's been a big emphasis on the "wait" part.  Ugh.  The awesome weather isn't helping me any either... Well, the awesome weather Monday and yesterday, Tuesday was pretty nice too....

Two birthdays this week.  Jon's was yesterday and Zoe's is tomorrow.  Since Jon is in California, I have to say happy birthday long distance and Zoe's birthday party will actually be next Saturday.  Should be fun!

This weekend should be fairly low key.  Hopefully we'll get a ride or a hike in tomorrow or Sunday, whichever one decides not to be rainy.  I'm really glad we're supposed to have a few rainy days because we really, really need them, I just wish it was in the middle of the week, not the weekends.

Well, I now have 15 minutes to throw together lunch, figure out breakfast, get dressed and out the door to work.  I'll hopefully post more soon.  Oh, I do have pictures from last week to post, but I just haven't posted them to Flickr yet... Hopefully tonight.

Peace to all and may your weeks keep rolling along.

Fears

No, not my fears, my boy's fears.  You see, for the longest time certain things have pretty much terrified Boo.  But it seems like in the last week or two, some within the last 6 months even, most of those fears have vanished.

For instance, take the fact that our play date with Dominik and his family two weeks ago was at the place with all the inflatable bouncers and that he couldn't wait to go.  At Dominik's party in November, it took him most of the party to warm up to them, but by the end he was OK.  And the time before that in January, forget it!  Screaming fits and tears and clinging onto Momma for dear life.  He's never really liked squishy things or being on unstable ground.  (Which is funny because he used to love being on our waterbed, but no one else's....)

That's impressive enough.
But no, in the last few weeks it's gotten even better!

Last week it was Play-Doh.  Yep, that fun squishy substance that inevitably every mom on the planet has had to try and get out of the carpet at some point... or keep her young kiddo from eating.  Boo wouldn't go anywhere near it.  Or anything squishy for that matter.
In October when we went to the Crayola Factory, we got little packets of the Model Magic.  We didn't open them until a few weeks later at home.  Boo was very happy to tell me what to make out of it, but wanted nothing to do with it himself.  And Model Magic is much more "dry" then Play-Doh.
He got a small container of knock-off yellow Play-Doh in his Easter basket at school.  I figured I would add it to my collection of doh that the boy would never touch, but I could play with.  Well, last Saturday I got a surprise.  He actually asked me to open it and pry it out of the container.  Then he willingly played with it.  And so I broke out the containers I'd been hoarding for a few years (I love the stuff myself...).  We played for a good half-hour with it.  As evidenced by this picture.

And the other amazing thing, Easter morning he was more interested in the canisters we'd left sitting out on the table than the big bucket filled with candy right beside it.  Go figure.  We've played with the doh a few more times in the last week or so.


Last weekend was another first (that I don't have photographic proof of, sadly).  Boo actually climbed a ladder.  Not just any ladder, but the straight up ladder to the platform on Zoe's swing-set.  Actually, I take that back.  He's climbed ladders like that before, but they were only 2 or 3 rungs, this one is 5 I think and pretty big steps too.  He usually needed a lot of encouragement for the little ones on the playground, but he was zipping up this one and sliding down the slide like a real playground pro!  He and Billy were having a lot of fun playing together.

The playground is the scene for several other fears the boy-o has gotten past.  He now will willingly go down the twisty slide all by himself.  Something he would never, ever dream of doing even just a few short weeks ago.  And even more impressive, he actually goes across the "shaky bridge" at out big playground.  You know, one of those things made of wood that is a suspension bridge that bounces and shakes and rattles.  Yeah, he didn't even want me to go across it without him, let alone carry him.  As you can see from the picture, he now handles it like a pro.

Where is my little boy going?  He's growing up too fast in such jumps.  Today we finally got 7 stickers on the board (not 7 days in a row, I relented on that part...) and we can go get the Muppets for being 7 days accident free.  I wasn't sure we were ever going to make it, especially after last week.  Friday he suddenly wanted to not have accidents again, so life is good.  He even made it through a nice hike with some of my Girl Scouts and some of the family without a single problem.  Now if he makes it for another 14 accident free days, we'll talk about getting him that light saber he's been eyeing up.

One fear that is getting better, but will still be a long time in leaving is his fear of anything four-footed and furry.  He now likes to point out dogs and cats and look at them and admire them, but heaven forbid you suggest he go say hi to them or one come within about 5 feet of him.  Superglue has less stick.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that my boy-o is growing up and learning and enjoying the world, but I do miss the itty-bitty Boo that depended on me for everything.  He really is growing into such a wonderful kid.  I can't wait to see where we go next on this adventure.

So, I bid you peace and the enjoyment of watching those that you love grow.