Seeing Everything

Sometimes, when I look into these big beautiful blue eye, I'm amazed how these eyes are seeing everything.

I wonder when is it when we start to see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear.

How soon does it start? When do we start looking around us thinking the grass is greener either here, where we are, or there, where they are?

When we go to Big Poppy's ball game, I want Little Guy to see every thing there.

If Little Guy only sees what he wants to see or hear what he wants to hear, he misses out on a lot of game. That might be a blue sky in the background of the playing field, but you still need to keep your eye on the field of action. If you only look at the playing field, you miss the beauty of the sky.

The world is full of sounds and color. To limit ourselves to only seeing what we want to see and hear what we want to hear limits our playing field.

What we see or hear might not always be great, without seeing or hearing it we cannot do much to improve ourselves. I hope, my Little Guy is able to see and hear all, filter what needs to be filter and love the world around him. It is a beautiful place and most days, people are doing the best they can.

And a great big hug or smile never hurt anyone.

He is a ham...

...and he loves the camera.

Lesson Learned

My girlfriend Les and I were catching up on the phone the other day. We quickly realized our lives are no longer the exciting life and times of college co-ed's (and thank goodness for that!). Safely settled into our lives, we have now come to rely on friends of friends of friends for a good laugh.

Before I share this little tale, there are parts that are not PC. Continue reading at your own risk - there is no adult only content.

This fun little tale begins with Les.

Les: Our lives are pretty dull but Travie (her hubby) heard a good story from a co-worker the other day...the co-worker's son is special needs and lives in an assisted living unit. The mom was talking to her son who kept insisting he had done a good job because he had caught himself a troll.

The next day on the phone, the son was still very proud of himself for catching a troll and was telling his dad about it.

The following day, while on the phone with his mom, the son again was talking about the troll he caught.

Not feeling quite right about her son going on for so long about catching a troll and more than a little nervous for his well being, the mom told her husband to go over and make sure their son was ok.

Well guess what.

The son did indeed catch a "troll".

A midget Jehovah's witnesses had come a knocking and the son caught his "troll" and locked him in a closet for THREE days.

Me: I can't stop laughing. I feel bad for the guy to locked in the closet, but really, that is too funny. He really caught himself a troll...at least in his mind.

Lesson Learned: Don't ignore signs for no solicitors. Those signs are there for a reason.

Lesson Learned: Les and I really need to get out more often.

Hungry or Trouble

Silly Boy

Are you ever silly on a Sunday?

We are.

Good thing phones have built in cameras. How else could we capture such silly moments?

12 Months + 12 Random Thoughts

Last week Little Guy went in for his 12 month check-up.

How big is Little Guy?

He is SOOOOOO big. (Raise your hands over your head while you say it.)

Vitals at Twelve Months:

Height: 32" (97 percentile)
Weight: 23 lbs 12 oz (50 - 75 percentile)
Head: 46.6 cm (50 percentile)
(Want to compare this to the nine months vitals?)

As I thought about how much Big Poppy, Jeter and my life has changed in the last 12 month, I am overcome with emotions. The love I feel for the guys in my life over takes me sometimes. There are times, when I'm thinking about how lucky and happy I am, I become egocentric and truly believe that no other mommy or daddy could care as deeply for their little ones as we do for Little Guy. (In my saner moments, I realize that most mommy and daddy's feel this way - though, to stroke my own ego, I do try to them rationalize how it could not possible be true. Did I mention there are times when I might have a little ego at times? :))

Think I'm going to get all sappy. Wrong.

Instead, in honor of the 12 months, here are 12 random thoughts I had today ok, on Thursday, my writing has crossed the midnight line) (in no particular order).

1. I wonder how many others have thought, in a time crunch, it would be ok to set their child on the floor to have the dog lick clean while they do the dishes.

2. I wonder how many have had the previous thought and then wiped all the food from the high chair unto the floor to have the dog lick it clean.

3. What I need is an alternative world where a dish of ice cream a day keeps the doctor away.

4. I'm a little sad Little Guy slept well last night because now I don't have an excuse for a nice cold can of Coke.

5. Man, this lady can fit into her wedding dress from 14 years ago. I really need to step up the running...and probably forgo the can of Coke even after a night time party with Little Guy.


6. When I call to schedule an eye appointment, I really need to make sure I know what kind of contacts I wear. That lady does not like it when you say the ones that go on your eye ball.


7. Hmmm, I wonder if in a down economy the staff here should really be walking down the hall responding to text messages (my firm does not provide work phones, it was not work related).

8. Is it weird that my boy likes cottage cheese more than turkey? Can I use this to get Big Poppy to eat cottage cheese?

9. We need a poliy and pro...

I started this post on Thursday night. It is now Saturday morning. Little Guy will soon have another tooth pop through, his sixth, and this one is causing him a little trouble. I was very excited to get a full nights sleep last night. Even though I woke up about 45 minutes ago, I had a relaxing time just laying in bed for another 20 minutes. But then I started to worry. How am I going to finish my 12 random thoughts? I no longer recall what fleeting thought I had on Thursday. Instead, the remaining four come from short time ago.

9. I really need to finish the blog post. Well, really, what I need to do is make time to update how it looks and get back to posting more often. Maybe I should teach Jeter how to type.

10. The scale is your friend in the morning. Not so much at night.

11. Little Guy is going to be so excited for pancakes this morning. Maybe I'll mash up a banana to throw into the batter too. Oh no, I don't I did the dishes last night. Maybe the fairies helped me out.

12. I suppose I better contact the photographer. It's now a week past when she said she would have some sneak peaks ready for me. I hope this isn't a sign of how the pictures turned out. Little Guy was definitely not on his A-game that day.

Here’s What Big Poppy Missed

Little Guy, Jeter, Big Poppy and myself went on a little road trip this weekend. To be clear, Little Guy, Jeter and I were in one car and Big Poppy was in another car. We left our home 15 hours apart, Big Poppy left Thursday night, the boys and I ventured out Friday morning. Our destinations were different but we kept in contact. On Friday we would call Big Poppy and Little Guy would smile and smile when he heard his daddy’s voice. For good (and for bad) Big Poppy has to travel for a work for a little bit. It’s good because Big Poppy and I have not figured out the secret of creating a sustainable income just with our glowing smiles. It’s bad because it means for a little while Big Poppy will be a couple states away. I guess I better look into this skyping thing I hear talked about now and again.

After my 7 ½ hour trip to Grandpa’s was turned into 8 ¾ hours (there was an extended lay over visiting with SoyBoy while we picked up Syd for the final leg to Grandpa’s AND did I mention the lovely road construction, especially the part where the road was down to one lane, where we patiently waited for the pilot car to come back to our side and lead the way) we finally arrived. I must give props to single parents. You take road trips like this all the time. I must admit, stopping for gas, food, bathroom breaks, etc., I wondered how a single parent travels with their kids and pets on a regular basis. I don’t stress out easily and believe I handled everything in stride but…let’s just say Big Poppy is stuck with me FOREVER. It’s a good thing he likes me (he even loves me – school girl giggle – and he makes me smile).

Little Guy was a superb navigator.

After a quick bite to eat, he was right back to helping me with directions.

After picking up Syd, then Little Guy thought he would start to critique my driving abilities and he did so rather loudly. The final 1 ½ hours of the drive may have been the hardest. But who can blame him. I was ready to be to the final destination too.

Despite not painting Grandpa’s house (AuntLisa!), we had a great time. Well, let me clarify, Little Guy and I had a great time. Jeter had an ok time. He was out of his element and not very perky. Jeter even broke in AuntLisa’s carpet with a little upset tummy vomit (AuntLisa, this is what you get when you don’t talk to Grandpa about painting like the plan.)

Here’s a quick review of the weekend:

Little Guy loves to snuggle up with Syd.

SoyBoy came to Grandpa's late because of his baseball game - which they won!

Grandpa how a LOT of quarters. Little Guy liked to use the rolled quarters like dumbells.

Nothing beats looking out Grandpa's window.

Little Guy was confused...are we in Texas?

Jeter catching some relaxation.

Once home, Little Guy was ready to help unpack.