This cracked me up. Can you pick out which kid has two older siblings that have taught him that it’s fun to make faces as soon as you see a camera?
For the record, the reason I was taking these pictures was because of my amazement of how easy it was to get six one year olds to sit on a tablecloth for snacktime. As soon as we got it out, they were magnetically drawn to it. If there was ever any question as to what drives a one year old. . .
I will now write a follow-up post to Shower Bugs. I wasn’t going to, but my guilty conscience (for not writing it) was pricked by Jennifer mentioning them again on my sidebar.
(sigh) Why do I have to feel guilty about NOT having written a blog?
Thanks a lot, Jennifer.
Ok. So if you don’t remember my first shower bugs post, you probably should go back and read it for this to make sense. But for a quick recap, we were seeing little, almost pretty flying bugs in our shower – only in the master bathroom, and only a couple.
Our tub is a nice, deep jetted tub – but due to the fact that I spend all of my time chasing a toddler, working two jobs, and, of course, blogging, I rarely find time to soak in the tub anymore. Actually, pretty much never. Which is a shame, since I do love a good soak. So I have maybe taken 2 baths since we moved into this house a year ago.
Since we never use our tub, our jet piping tends to build up some “crud” on the inside, which further prolongs the use, because I’m always afraid that whether I use the jets or not, crud will come out of them when the water rises to that level, and I don’t really know how to keep them clean, since apparently there are miles and miles of jet pipe in the walls of our tub (any tips on this would be helpful).
A few weeks ago, I finally found time to take a bath, and had forgotten about the jet dirt issue. I got in the bath when it was really shallow and just soaked as it filled up. And it’s a very deep bathtub, so that gave me a while.
However, I quickly got out when it got up to the jets, because crud started coming out.
Disgusting.
So then I showered.
Fast forward a couple of nights: For some crazy reason, Chris wanted to take a bath. This never happens.
After his bath, he comes downstairs with a ziploc bag full of water, and says he has a story to tell me.
This can’t be good.
He proceeds to explain that once the tub filled to jet-level, he began noticing crud. No surprise. Then he noticed something moving. And he was able to put together the dots.
Those shower flies? Had laid their babies in our pipes. There were (shudder) shower fly maggots floating in the bathtub. Lots of them. And he had brought some down in the ziploc bag to show me. Thanks, babe.
Although I was disgusted for him, of course my mind immediately went back to the fact that I had taken a bath just two days before.
I. FELT. SO. GROSS.
Once Chris had discovered this “issue”, he of course got out and cleaned out the jets really well (as best as we can clean out jets).
And we haven’t seen a shower bug since.
Nor have I taken a bath since.
Nor will I anytime in this lifetime. Or maybe even eternity.
I’m curious. . . of those 20 and 30-something year old Moms out there. . . do you ever feel (like I do) conspicuous still shopping at the stores you shopped at before you were a mom? Do you feel like all of the workers are staring at you judgementally as you stroll your toddler(s) through their supposed-to-be-hip stores?
Well, I would just like you to know that I changed a diaper in the changing room at Express today. A dirty diaper. I’m sure they really appreciated that added to their “image”. But hey – isn’t that what “Changing room” means??
In other news, I think my daughter is a bit too empathic. Or I need to learn to hide my feelings better. I’ve felt a bit down today – probably a mixture of the weather, the anticlimacticness of my birthday (thanks to my rude stomach bug), and exhaustion from still not being completely recovered, yet trying to get back into the swing of things. Anyway, I went to get Ali out of bed this morning, and we were rocking and cuddling, and she sat up and said, “Mommy sad.” I said, “Mommy’s not sad, Mommy’s happy!” She laid back down, and a few minutes later, sat up again and very authoritatively said, “Mommy sad!!”. I felt bad that I was apparently letting on despite my efforts at cheerfulness, and I said “You’re right. Mommy’s sad. But I’ll be ok!!”.
And then, also testing her Psychic abilities since Daddy was at work, said “Daddy no-no sad.”
And here are the promised few more pictures from going to the Gulf Coast Zoo yesterday (which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Gulf Shores or Orange Beach – it’s a great little zoo where you get to pet and feed almost all of the animals!).
First of all, we were very obedient and didn’t open our umbrellas anywhere near the tigers.
It’s so interesting to me how babies will do anything, but toddlers get much more timid. For instance, here is a picture of Ali at 10 months old at this zoo, more than willing to and interested in feeding the animals:
But now that she’s nearly two, she is much more afraid of things, and just wants to “observe” others. So pretty much all of my zoo pictures end up being Ali observing.
Observing Mommy feed the goats:
Observing Leo feed the Donkey (although she did love to say “hee haw!!!” to the donkey):
Observing the peacock from afar:
Observing Daddy feed the little goat:
Just plain observing the little goat:
The only thing she got excited about was climbing the stairs.
She loves some original fun. Go figure.
She also loved going in and out of the birdhouse via the plastic chains:
And she begged for the Lion’s red ball.
And finally, a miraculous family picture where we’re all looking in the same direction and smiling! If only Chris and I had thought to take off our sunglasses. But oh well – it’s as good as it gets!
We’re home!! And I am going to go kick my feet up and relax after a long car ride. It’s amazing how exhausting a 5 hour trip can be with even one very-well-behaved toddler. Not bad, just exhausting. I seriously don’t know how my friends with multiple toddlers do it. We must be the biggest wusses on the face of the planet.
However, we had a great weekend. Here are a few snippets:
On the way down, I brought some shiny, silly-eyeballed stickers to give Ali something new and entertaining to play with. I put them on her hands. But apparently this one was of a Piranha variety. . .
Saturday, we went to the shrimp festival. It was fun, but hot and crowded! Here is excited Ali at the beginning:
Ali and Mommy in the middle. . .
And Ali resting in “froggy position” at the end.
Still resting, and glad we’re about to be done!
This was my only purchase at the shrimp festival. I had a pair of earrings like this that I got in junior high in Monterey, California. I loved them, but they broke after a couple of years. I have never seen them again until this weekend. So when I saw them, I just had to use some of my birthday money and get them. They hook into your normal earring hole, and then go UP your ear, like so. . .
Kitty bought some toys for their house, including a Mrs. Potato Head. Ali loved it! I definitely need to find mine somewhere at home. . .
So. . .Ali apparently still has some progressing to do in the area of spatial reasoning. She was convinced that she wanted to sit in this chair.
This happened over and over. . . .
And don’t ask me why Leo was reading the side of the wet wipe box.
Ali became attached to Kitty’s pink fuzzy blanket, and liked toting it around the house with her:
And Saturday night when I told Ali to put up her shoes, I totally couldn’t argue when she put them here:
I have more from today, but I’m going to go rest. I’ll post tomorrow.
Oh – and in case you were wondering, my efforts to convince myself that yesterday was the ninth of October was a complete success!! I fully believed it and had a wonderful birthday all over again! Now we can go back to normal dateage – it is officially the twelfth.
We’re home!! And I am going to go kick my feet up and relax after a long car ride. It’s amazing how exhausting a 5 hour trip can be with even one very-well-behaved toddler. Not bad, just exhausting. I seriously don’t know how my friends with multiple toddlers do it. We must be the biggest wusses on the face of the planet.
However, we had a great weekend. Here are a few snippets:
On the way down, I brought some shiny, silly-eyeballed stickers to give Ali something new and entertaining to play with. I put them on her hands. But apparently this one was of a Piranha variety. . .Saturday, we went to the shrimp festival. It was fun, but hot and crowded! Here is excited Ali at the beginning:Ali and Mommy in the middle. . .And Ali resting in “froggy position” at the end.Still resting, and glad we’re about to be done!This was my only purchase at the shrimp festival. I had a pair of earrings like this that I got in junior high in Monterey, California. I loved them, but they broke after a couple of years. I have never seen them again until this weekend. So when I saw them, I just had to use some of my birthday money and get them. They hook into your normal earring hole, and then go UP your ear, like so. . .Kitty bought some toys for their house, including a Mrs. Potato Head. Ali loved it! I definitely need to find mine somewhere at home. . .So. . .Ali apparently still has some progressing to do in the area of spatial reasoning. She was convinced that she wanted to sit in this chair.This happened over and over. . . .
And don’t ask me why Leo was reading the side of the wet wipe box.
Ali became attached to Kitty’s pink fuzzy blanket, and liked toting it around the house with her:And Saturday night when I told Ali to put up her shoes, I totally couldn’t argue when she put them here:I have more from today, but I’m going to go rest. I’ll post tomorrow.
Oh – and in case you were wondering, my efforts to convince myself that yesterday was the ninth of October was a complete success!! I fully believed it and had a wonderful birthday all over again! Now we can go back to normal dateage – it is officially the twelfth.
We’re home!! And I am going to go kick my feet up and relax after a long car ride. It’s amazing how exhausting a 5 hour trip can be with even one very-well-behaved toddler. Not bad, just exhausting. I seriously don’t know how my friends with multiple toddlers do it. We must be the biggest wusses on the face of the planet.
However, we had a great weekend. Here are a few snippets:
On the way down, I brought some shiny, silly-eyeballed stickers to give Ali something new and entertaining to play with. I put them on her hands. But apparently this one was of a Piranha variety. . .Saturday, we went to the shrimp festival. It was fun, but hot and crowded! Here is excited Ali at the beginning:Ali and Mommy in the middle. . .And Ali resting in “froggy position” at the end.Still resting, and glad we’re about to be done!This was my only purchase at the shrimp festival. I had a pair of earrings like this that I got in junior high in Monterey, California. I loved them, but they broke after a couple of years. I have never seen them again until this weekend. So when I saw them, I just had to use some of my birthday money and get them. They hook into your normal earring hole, and then go UP your ear, like so. . .Kitty bought some toys for their house, including a Mrs. Potato Head. Ali loved it! I definitely need to find mine somewhere at home. . .So. . .Ali apparently still has some progressing to do in the area of spatial reasoning. She was convinced that she wanted to sit in this chair.This happened over and over. . . .
And don’t ask me why Leo was reading the side of the wet wipe box.
Ali became attached to Kitty’s pink fuzzy blanket, and liked toting it around the house with her:And Saturday night when I told Ali to put up her shoes, I totally couldn’t argue when she put them here:I have more from today, but I’m going to go rest. I’ll post tomorrow.
Oh – and in case you were wondering, my efforts to convince myself that yesterday was the ninth of October was a complete success!! I fully believed it and had a wonderful birthday all over again! Now we can go back to normal dateage – it is officially the twelfth.
We’re home!! And I am going to go kick my feet up and relax after a long car ride. It’s amazing how exhausting a 5 hour trip can be with even one very-well-behaved toddler. Not bad, just exhausting. I seriously don’t know how my friends with multiple toddlers do it. We must be the biggest wusses on the face of the planet.
However, we had a great weekend. Here are a few snippets:
On the way down, I brought some shiny, silly-eyeballed stickers to give Ali something new and entertaining to play with. I put them on her hands. But apparently this one was of a Piranha variety. . .Saturday, we went to the shrimp festival. It was fun, but hot and crowded! Here is excited Ali at the beginning:Ali and Mommy in the middle. . .And Ali resting in “froggy position” at the end.Still resting, and glad we’re about to be done!This was my only purchase at the shrimp festival. I had a pair of earrings like this that I got in junior high in Monterey, California. I loved them, but they broke after a couple of years. I have never seen them again until this weekend. So when I saw them, I just had to use some of my birthday money and get them. They hook into your normal earring hole, and then go UP your ear, like so. . .Kitty bought some toys for their house, including a Mrs. Potato Head. Ali loved it! I definitely need to find mine somewhere at home. . .So. . .Ali apparently still has some progressing to do in the area of spatial reasoning. She was convinced that she wanted to sit in this chair.This happened over and over. . . .
And don’t ask me why Leo was reading the side of the wet wipe box.
Ali became attached to Kitty’s pink fuzzy blanket, and liked toting it around the house with her:And Saturday night when I told Ali to put up her shoes, I totally couldn’t argue when she put them here:I have more from today, but I’m going to go rest. I’ll post tomorrow.
Oh – and in case you were wondering, my efforts to convince myself that yesterday was the ninth of October was a complete success!! I fully believed it and had a wonderful birthday all over again! Now we can go back to normal dateage – it is officially the twelfth.
We are at Kitty and Leo’s house this weekend enjoying my BIRTHDAY. Yes, we didn’t let that nasty stomach bug keep us from coming to the beach. Nosireee. We are here, enjoying every minute of it!
I will write a more extensive blog about tidbits from our trip later, but since it’s Saturday, October 9th (AKA my BIRTHDAY) and I felt like doing this blog first, I did! Because it’s my BIRTHDAY and I get to pick everything!
(and no, you don’t have to correct me on what day it is. I am well aware that today IS the ninth of October. If YOU’RE confused about what day it is, please read this public service announcement.)
So Ali and I went out and played in the yard this afternoon right before her naptime. The weather was absolutely perfect – the wind was blowing slightly, the clouds were out, but it was still 77 degrees. Perfect.
If you ask Ali what we were doing outside, I am sure that she would tell you that she and Mommy were having a fun playtime, consisting of jumping on Mommy’s stomach (a bit risky considering the last few days), pushing Mommy into the grass and then pulling her back up while stretching out her shirt completely, (over and over), playing “Gittchoo” (chasing Mommy around), and in general frolicking in the yard.
(Yes of course Ali would have used the word “frolicking”. Why do you doubt me???)
If you ask ME what we were doing, I was enjoying playing with Ali, but I was also enjoying a very fun photo shoot. The weather and lighting were perfect for it. Since I know less than nothing about adjusting for lighting / creating good lighting (or photography at all), I have to “happen” into good photo shoots, and today was one of them.
So here are my favorites (some are even – – – ARTSY!!! – – – now granted, that was probably due more to Ali’s wiggling than to my creative abilities, but I am still going to take creativity credit, because, you guessed it, it’s my BIRTHDAY!!). Also, a few more can be found over at B-Sides if you’re interested.
Be sure to head over to 5 Minutes for Parenting today and check out the second edition of my new weekly column, A Dose of Humor!
Today’s story is a good one! It’s from Kate McDonald, wife of Christian singer/songwriter Shawn McDonald.
If you have a humorous post about parenthood/children and would like to submit it to be featured in A Dose of Humor, email me for more details at DoseOfHumor@gmail.com.
I heard a rumor that today was the 10th of October, but that is not true. Today is the EIGHTH of October, which means that tomorrow is my birthday!!
Because, you see, I did not, in fact, spend my birthday laying awake all night with a stomach ache, then puking half my body weight, then passed out all day from an extremely rude stomach bug. Because that would be really depressing. No, it was only a somewhat rude stomach bug for having the nerve to come two days before my birthday, trying to ruin it for me. But I am all better, oh Stomach Bug, and I am going to fully enjoy my birthday tomorrow! And how lucky am I that my birthday falls on a Saturday so that I can spend it with my husband?!
So, if you missed telling me “happy birthday” yesterday, that’s okay! Because yesterday was the 7th, and tomorrow is the 9th!! So tell me tomorrow!! And for all of you, including my husband, who were (for some unknown reason) two days early in telling me happy birthday, thanks for being so prompt!! But try to be more accurate.