You know your getting old WHEN...

• you find yourself signalling like, 4 blocks before you need to turn
• you said "DARN KIDS" at the teens running and jumping through puddles (Ahem...Brett)
• you can't tell if it's a vein or hair when your shaving your legs

When I was thinking of this, I was like...hey, a lot of these are also "you know your a parent when...". Well, except the DARN KIDS comment. That just means your a grumpy old man! See:

Old or Parent: you find most of your ADULT talk is related to poop. BUT:
Old: your excited when YOU poop
Parent: your excited when your BABY poops

Old or Parent: Your ready for bed at 8pm, because:
Old: your just old!
Parent: cause your up every 2 hours with the baby or toddler through the night

Old or Parent: your excited to shower, because
Old: it's shower day! (ahem, Bob)
Parent: no kid is coming in with you!

Have a "you know your old/a parent WHEN..."? Please share!

AHHHH Bugs!

I am NOT a bug person. But bugs love me. I shudder at the thought of them. I can normally deal with a fly here and there, or a bug near me or flying past me when out and about. But the last week has been bug HELL!

Wednesday, I had the worlds biggest dragon fly hitch a ride downtown with me. ***By the way, if I was driving near you on Wednesday-I am not a crazy driver. I was a little sidetracked by the dragonfly in my car!*** I was stopped at a light and I thought I saw something fly in my car. Looked around quick, and didn't see anything. I start driving and catch this movement in my rear-view mirror. The dragonfly was in the back window behind me. Luckily I didn't have Eric with me, as it would have been right above him head had he been in his seat. With the windows open, I created enough of a breeze that he stayed fairly motionless. As soon as I stopped at a light though (LOL and turned around to take a picture...),

 he flew to the rear driver side window. Ya, he was RIGHT behind my head, flapping away against the window. I have never heard such a noise! FINALLY I get to my destination, and get the back door open, and the thing just sits there. I poke it with me phone. Nothing. I poke it again, knowing at any second it's going to fly up in my face (cause that ALWAYS happens!). I finally had to put my phone under it and kinda push it up. Of course it flys towards me and I scream like the wussy girl I am! Luckily the dragonfly stayed away from the baby...

I have been stalked by wasps, had mega webs built on the deck (covering a deck chair), had a bazillion flys in my house! AHHH I just can't stand it.
I do love grasshoppers though. Eric always gets startled by their sudden jump and fly. We chased one down a street the other day, and I loved watching Eric stalk closer and closer to the grasshopper, only for him to shriek and run the other way when it jumped. Repeat about 10 times, and that's some great entertainment.

 He would only hold the grasshopper with a glove on.

(these are from a few weeks ago, but still) Eric and I with a grasshopper

A sign of things to come?

Brody will be 6 months in two days....where did my baby go?

He's been hitting quite a few milestones lately, and driving me crazy along the way!

He started sitting on his own about 2 weeks ago. I was very happy that the period of "beached whale" was short lived (beached whale: not happy to be on his back on the floor). He has been rolling for a good month, and can wiggle and roll his way to pretty much anything he sets his sights on.

Last weekend, the little monkey pulled himself up to a stand on one of his toys. He hasn't really done it since, until Saturday when I ran downstairs to switch over laundry. I come up and he's giving me a dumbfounded look....he was standing, but really unsure as to what to do next (well that was to look he gave me). Now he's a pull up machine!

Brody has got a tooth (maybe 2-3 weeks ago?), and is working on it's neighbour. I can see the tooth, but it's just not coming up yet....teething babies SUCK, by the way!

We started solid foods a bit early, and he's had a decent variety so far. Cereal, prunes, green beans, squash, applesauce, peaches, pears. He's liking everything so far. But I have to really watch his tummy. Nothing is more frustrating then a baby with an icky tummers.

He's also started babbling. Mamamama, Dadadadada, Babababababa. LOVE it!

He's starting to get his knees under him, and rocking, He's trying to army crawl (this kid is amazingly strong!), and he's working on trying to get to a sitting position from laying down.

Eric was fairly early in all of these milestones as well, and I am certain by at least 9 months, he was zipping around everywhere, getting into everything...and hasn't stopped! I was hoping Brody would be content to just watch his crazy big brother, but I have a feeling it's not going to be too long until Eric is going to have a shadow!

SHHHHHHH!!!! We're huntin' wabbit!

(This really has nothing to do with hunting. Or rabbits. Just a random thought!)

Lately, when I put Brody down for a nap, or bed, or when we come home, and he's asleep, it seems like SOMEONE tries their hardest to wake him up.

Like the other day when I FINALLY got him to sleep, and Eric and I wandered downstairs to switch out his train tracks for car tracks. OF COURSE the dogs have to start playing and barking, and wake him up. GRRR WOOF WOOF, WAH WAH

Or heaven forbid, a dog walks past our house. WOOF WOOF, WAH WAH

Or Eric, who has been quietly sitting playing or watching TV, waits until I close Brody's door to yell at me. Or the dogs. Or himself. Or play with the loudest most annoying toy ever. Right outside his door. WAH WAH.

Or tonight, when we got home really late, and boy kids were asleep. Much hushing and quiet hellos ensued with the dogs, who apparently where really bored as we weren't around for, heaven forbid, 4 hours! ARR WOO WOO WOO WOO. Eye's open. Big smiles. Fuck.

These days, I'm lucky if Brody can get through a nap without being woken up, and, gasp, sleep for more then 20 minutes straight.

Luckily, Brody can get by mostly happy with these annoyingly frequent wake-ups. And seriously happiest baby EVER at, well, any time of the night. Which usually translates to an "it's PLAY time!!!" battle. (for what it's worth, I won the battle tonight, and had him back asleep within 30 mins. Is it that hard to get home and just put sleeping kids in their beds! ARG)

Some of my favorite blogs/websites

Bored? I highly suggest checking out these sites!

http://crappypictures.typepad.com/crappy-pictures/ the pictures are such a great addition to her great blog!

http://thebloggess.com/ seriously one of the funniest things I have EVER read.

(specifically this post. MUST READ! http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/)

http://www.tellingdad.com/

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/ (I want my mom to get a phone with auto correct)

Toddler Tidbits

This is new for me: Driving down the road with my two kids in the back. One is snickering, the other giggling. I look in the rearview mirror, and see Eric shaking his head, and Brody giggling up a storm at him. Love!

Knock knock. Whos there? My friend...My friend who? Ummmm...my friend Duke.
Silly boy! LOL

(overheard, sorta...online) "Baby doesn't want to eat! Baby wants to play!" "the leach on my boob suggests otherwise" (while a toddler is trying to play with their nursing younger sibling)

I swear I am really not that cold hearted

You know when you child does something so stupid, that you can't help but laugh...but at the same time you feel like a cold hearted B cause your laughing? I hate to admit that it's happened a few times.

We went to the zoo last week. What was the most exciting thing for Eric? The train! (of course! DUH). OH, and the planes that pass over every 30 seconds. So we are sitting on the grass waiting for the train to come around. The "train station" has a small patch of grass that is higher up, so it has a wooden half wall. and along the top of the wall, there is a decorative rope along it. Brett and I are sitting on the wall talking, and Eric is playing on the grass. A plane flys over head, and Eric gets so excited, and runs after it, completely forgetting about the rope and half wall. This is one of those times that I wish we had a camera trained on him at all times! He clotheslined himself on the rope (right at his nose), feet kept going, over the half wall, and he fell, catching his head on the half wall. I know, it sounds mean that I laughed. but MAN did I laugh. I picked him up, hugged him, kissed him, and laughed. I laughed as I cleaned up his bloody nose, and wiped away his tears. In my defense, there where other people that were sitting there that saw it too and looked sympathetic, but with a smirk on their face.

I fail at life today

First off yes, I know fail is not a proper...whatever noun/verb/thingy its called. But today is THAT day.

Second, be warned...there is all sorts of nastiness to follow...I just have to share...I warned you! :)

Eric and I were doing laundry this morning and the ever independent child he is, needed to have the baby gate going to the basement open, instead of being lifted over. Well, lets just say there is a reason we lock the dogs upstairs. Fat dog decided to eat cat poop. This is one time I wish I could understand what the dog is thinking (mmmm, smells like cat crap! yum, crunchy!). At the time I just thought he did, but didn't see it happen, so I wasn't sure.

Fast forward a few hours, and I'm sitting upstairs on the floor folding laundry. Duke starts whimpering beside me, and I start to get concerned. I notice he's awfully drooly/foamy. I poke and prod, but nothing seems off. I text Brett, saying I think something is wrong with him. Maybe he has an upset tummy, so I think of getting up and letting him out. I swear he read my thoughts, because he stands up suddenly. And then the noise...you know. The tell tale sign that they are about to puke. I push him towards the stairs and nastiness explodes. Great...And Brody just woke up crying. There is now puke on three stairs. I have pictures, but I think you all get the visual! :)

Baby can wait so I (facebooked! LOL) grabbed bags, towels, and paper towel. Called Brett (please tell me your in the way home). He laughs at me, and tells me "maybe that's why the dogs aren't allowed downstairs..." I am sure you can imagine what I said him about that. He also deserved a picture of dog puke for that comment! >:(
I have a three year old BEGGING to let him help me...UM NO! I finally get up the courage to tackle the mess, which, by the way, not only smells like dog puke, but cat crap as well! And lets just give another visual here....it was like trying to clean up raw eggs....freaking nasty. I wiped up as much as I could *barf!*, and spray it with vinegar and water, and cover with rags, hoping to keep the smell down until I can borrow my mother-in-law's carpet cleaner.

We decided it was outside time after that.

Brett gets home early (yay), and Diesel's outside just standing there....Great....
I think he felt left out, and ate some grass so he could puke, just to make my day. At least that one was outside! (I know he didn't get into the cat crap...so we are good there.)

After supper I headed into town to grab the floor cleaner from my mother-in-law. She had it outside, and was showing me how thing work and all that. I locked my door at some point, but had my window down. We got the carpet cleaner put into the trunk of my car, closed it, then I realized I didn't know where my keys were. I either had them in Brody's car seat or put them in the trunk. Whew, good thing I left my window open. As soon as I opened my door, OF COURSE my alarms starts going off (duh!).  Mother-in-law runs in to see if the keys are in the car seat (brother-in-law took Brody in while mother-in-law was showing me the cleaner), while I attempted to get my trunk open. Apparently, when you set off your alarm, it disables the manual trunk opener button. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* And, of course, there are a bunch of people outside. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* One lady told me to put the key in the ignition...thanks tips. Not really gonna work when I don't have the keys! *BEEP BEEP BEEP*
OK, so how do I get the keys? My back seats fold down. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* Damit, car seat is in the way. I can get the seat down on Brody's side, as it's just the base. BUT the carpet cleaner is in the way. I would have put the keys right at the back (front?) of the trunk. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* Take out Eric's seat. Pull the back down, and squeeze as far in as I can....no beep beep beep? Grab the keys, and push all the buttons to make sure the alarm is deactivated. Start the car to make sure I am not screwed... Well, that was an adventure.

The rest of the night goes by pretty uneventful (except the baby that is STILL awake at 11pm, thinking I could feed him and he would go right back to sleep, and I might get a bit longer out of him...sigh...)

Other things that I failed at today:

• I burnt Eric's waffle. Eric didn't WANT a waffle. Even though he specifically ASKED for a waffle. BUT he finally ate it...at 11 am, then asked for a snack. SIGH, such is the life with an emotionally insane three year old. (and guess what he asked for for supper? a waffle.)
• The laundry I have gone downstairs 5 times to rinse/wash/rinse is still in the washer....cloth diapers kinda suck sometimes...
• Remembering what else I failed at...I know there was something...

At least the night will end on a good note. I just put Brody in his crib, awake, and he is now asleep. YAY

**EDIT I knew there was something else. This isn't my fail really. But it was REALLY funny. The other day, Brody puked on Eric. I laughed. Hard. This morning, Eric was holding Brody, and the position, well it just allowed for the worst (best) pose for getting puked on. Pretty sure that Brody may have puked in Eric's mouth a little. (OK I might be the only one who thinks thats probably the funniest thing that happened today). I think Brody got a taste for puking on his big bro. And Eric was NOT impressed. (haha, taste. Get it?!).