My Parents went to Paris and I didn't even get a Tshirt

Over the last couple of months Keith and I have been attending "preparation for Paris" get togethers with our friends and travel partners Catharine, David, Esther and Terry, trying to get projects done around the house, and mentally and financially prepare for the dates knowing Seth would not be going with us. That last part, was by far the hardest. At first I was thinking this will be great for Keith and I, can't wait to spend some time with our friends, and Seth will be able to stay with Nana and have a bunch of together time. Around May, panic started to rear it's ugly head. I realized that we would be away from Seth for 10 days, we would be a country away, and gulp!...we didn't have a living will/trust set up should something happen to us. Yeah, that's what the mind starts doing. You start going thru all these "what if" scenarios that will truly mess with your sleep and conscience. I kept telling myself, "this is good. So good for all of us. Keith and I need a vacation, to be healthy functional parents we need "us" time, Seth probably needs a break from us, Nana and Seth are going to have an amazing time, and I haven't taken a big trip since Africa." I started concentrating on what to pack for him to take to Nana's, what should I pack for myself, and made a list of all the things to do in the house before leaving ie taking out the garbage, emptying refrigerator,etc...anything to re-focus the energy. Lucky for us, Catharine was so amazing about planning the entire trip, making living arrangements and basically graciously taking on the role as group leader/tour guide. We had a phenomenol trip, by day 2 I was at peace with having a vacation without our son, realized that he was probably enjoying himself just as much if not more than us, and felt good for finally doing something I hadn't done since the day he was born....relaxed a bit. I've no pics to post of Seth at Nana's while we were in Paris. She has no camera. But I'm sure there were cookies, playing in mud puddles, and all things Nana's will never divulge. Sweet!

Whoo Hoo Look Who Is 2!

Seth had 2 parties this year. One for the 3 of us, the other for family and a few friends. I was was set on the idea of making his birthday cake myself. I remembered all the brilliant cakes my mother made us for our birthdays when we were young with all their complicated pipings, colors, and designs. I had all these magnificent ideas for a Thomas the Train themed cake, how I could make it Thomas by a barn or Thomas going by a mountain,etc.. I would just need some cake mix, icing, food coloring and ta dah. Really?! Not so much. It all started so well as I baked the cake mix in several different mini loaf pans (for the main body, smoke stack, and the other for cutting out wheels with a cookie cutter). Then came the assembly part. Not so good. Maybe I should mention here that I had opted to make boiled icing. Some of you are probably slapping your forehead thinking "what was she thinking?" So if you have never used boiled icing, it's like using natural peanut butter instead of mortar when building a brick wall. Everything kept sliding apart. I had to eventually toothpick parts together to keep them somewhat on the plate. I ended up taking a photo of cake getting ready to blow out the candle. I intentionally took a photo from the back view of the train looking towards Seth since there was no point in showing anyone what a gooey multicolored brick looks like. For his party with family, I finally achieved the look I wanted....by ordering it thru a bakery!

Look Who's Pottying

Is it truly for Seth or was I just thrilled about it? Lately, I find myself purchasing items thinking "This is for Seth. He'll really like a..." (fill in the blank with...) bib that has long sleeves (got to love who thought of this), snack containers, roll of drawing paper (wide enough to prevent someone from drawing all over the surface holding the paper), socks with grippers (perfect for laminate floors), pj's with outer space theme (oh so cute), and .....yep a Cars themed potty that has a handle that when pushed sounds like you're changing gears and going really really fast. As you can imagine most of the items are just so practical that Seth finds them rather dull. But the potty is starting to peak his interest, but not how you would think.

See, Seth is in a phase where he loves to tuck himself into totes, baskets, Tonka Trucks, and any space between an object and a wall that he can wedge himself in. He'll take all the blocks out of his wheelbarrow and climb inside and then proceed to put all the blocks on top of himself. Same goes for the bin that holds his stuffed animals and yet another ditto for the rubber tote holding miscellaneous toys. So is it truly surprising that he would rather stand inside the potty then put his tush on it? Not so much. Is it hilarious? Absolutely. I'm betting some of these photos will prove to be hilarious material to share with his girlfriends....when he's 30 something because it will take me that long to find one worthy enough. Ha!

Go Go Go......Done

Standing still? Not an option. Seth wants to Go Go Go from 6am to 9pm. Bed time is a real problem right now because Little Man thinks that by going to bed, he may be potentially missing out on whatever it is that I do after he goes to bed (yeah he'd be so jealous to know it's when I pack my lunch, put out my clothes for the next workday, take my 5 second shower, and grab something halfway resembling a meal that isn't devoured in 5min or less).
Pretty much each day goes like this: getting up around 6am, demanding a "BahBo" (bottle), followed by a demand for "Choo Choo Dee Dee Whoo Whoo" (translated to Thomas the Train, DVD, and just like it sounds....WhooWhoo because he wants to make sure you are clear on what he wants to watch), fighting and screaming (Seth) because a diaper is being changed (because as Seth thinks "my parents find it's necessary to change me out of my all night soggy diaper, clean/dry me and put something clean on my butt") and that pretty much occurs each time the diaper is changed out throughout the day (silly faces, singing, bribery of toys kept stored just for this event, and other tactics have been used by both Keith and I to do anything to avoid the flailing, screaming, and running off without anything on him but his shirt before a diaper can be applied). The day continues with Seth removing all furniture cushions from their location, emptying of drawers/bins/and any other means of storage, trailing toys from one end of house to the other. Nap time. Oddly enough, doesn't tend to fight it but for a matter of minutes and then....he's down for the count. Groggy from waking up from restful nap, demand for Bahbo, fight change of diaper, and such commence. Yah dee yah dah and now we're up to dinner. This is where you are either really successful with your choices or Seth utilizes the foods set before him to "illustrate" his lack of interest and instead create works of art on his high chair tray, face, hair, clothes, and then.....do his impression of Cookie Monster, chewing and mashing food against his mouth and then letting drop all over the floor.
Some of you may be reading this an gasping or laughing hysterically. Trust me, Keith and I do the same. We could do without the tantrums during diaper change and when put into the car seat (let me just input on this one- the amount of screaming, thrashing, and crying that he does when I put him in the car seat.....gets a lot of people to stop, look, and discretely search for the cellphones in case they need to "call it in"- yeah, it is truly that bad....but one can only hope he will outgrow it. Please outgrow it!) But everything else, priceless. He's only this age once and it just all seems to happen so fast. I'm loving every moment no matter how stressful and exhausting...and it helps to get my hair dyed every so often just to cover the grays! ha ha ha
The posted photo....well it sums up what happens when he Go Go Goes to much and nap time is near...he fell asleep in his high chair as I was bringing him his lunch.

So what does this do?

Time to discover. Emptying drawers, seeing how much tp is actually on a roll, climbing on the couch, crawling under tables, taking all the books off the bookshelf, creating his own music on the piano and drum or navigating the DVD player. If it's within his grasp or enticing enough, he's checking it out. Lately there's a lot of running, banging and then that suddenly quiet sound.....where you find yourself roaming from room to room to find out what he's doing, hence the pic of the tp incident. We have since put a rubber band around the tp roll ( a trick Keith picked up from another parent), donated two of the lower bookshelves to house all his toys and books, and blocked the DVD/stereo system with a portable play yard. That should last us about...hmmmm a week or 2 before Little Scientist figures out how to overcome the obstacles:)