He's a big kid now!

Holy crap, G's tooth fell out!

We were tossing the baseball around and all of a sudden E noticed that G had blood in his mouth.  "He was probably chewing on his lip."  "No, it's a good amount of blood.  Oh I'll bet it's his tooth."  Sure enough, big hole where his tooth once was and G had no idea it was gone.  Ha.  E found it on the floor of the garage.

And not even an hour later I lost it.  Well G basically did but I'll take the blame because I was having him hold it for me so I could take a picture of him with it...and he dropped it.  This picture in fact, blam, drop, gone.

And we can't find it anywhere.  No really, we were all on our hands and knees petting the carpet and once it got dark I turned off the lights and got out the black light!
E: "Will a black light really show teeth though?"
Me: "Were you never at Skate Plaza on a Saturday night?  Of course it will show teeth!"
E: "Uh...okay."

Oops, my bad.  I would have kept it forever if I'd been able to, ya know, keep hold of it.

He's not too freaked out about the whole he can't leave it under his pillow for the tooth fairy.  I told him that it's her job to collect lost teeth, she's just going to have to find this lost tooth this time.  I offered to help him write her a note explaining the gaffe but he said we'll just look for it again tomorrow.

Look at our baby, growing up!

p.s. when I was inspecting the awesomeness I found that the adult tooth has already broken through his gums behind the now lost tooth.  Dang this boy moves fast!  

I'm the ol' yeller

Why do I always feel like I'm yelling?

It's like I cannot be heard by anyone in this house unless I'm almost screaming.  Siren won't listen until I use my mean voice.  E doesn't hear me unless I use my snotty voice and G, well he has the worst selective hearing of them all.

When we're outside it feels like all I do is yell at G to get out of something he knows he shouldn't be in or to stop doing something that he knows he shouldn't be doing.

When we're inside I have to say something 3 or 4 times before he either acknowledges me verbally or acknowledges me by doing whatever it is I'm saying.

I miss the days when I could speak in a normal tone of voice.  I'm a little soft spoken but not that bad.  I don't want to yell.  I don't like myself when I yell.  How can I get him to listen without having to yell?

what kind of love do you deserve?

I have my own inner demons and struggles with this question but more importantly I want to know what love does G think he deserves?

Unconditional and everlasting.  That's my love for him.

I hope he knows that and will always know that.

then don't wear underwear!

hang me up like God

For some reason this morning G stripped down to his underpants and asked me to put a nail through his hands and hang him up on the wall.  I asked him, "Who do you know hung by nails through his hands?"  "God did!"

Whoa, big fat opening for a discussion.

I asked him why he wanted me to hurt him like that and he said because he wanted to go to Heaven and meet God and Jesus and see Grandpa Alan.  I explained that Jesus was hung on the cross and that he died there.  G got big tears in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong, why are you crying?  "Because I will die on that cross like Jesus and old Garrett will be gone and new Garrett can come here.  Will you miss old Garrett?"

I would die 1,000 deaths before I'd let this child leave me.

Is he/she the right guy/gal?

*Not my work, just an article I wanted to share*

ARE YOU WITH THE RIGHT PARTNER?

During a seminar, a woman asked," How do I know if I am with the right person?"

The author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so he said, "It depends. Is that your partner?" In all seriousness, she answered "How do you know?" Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it's weighing on your mind
replied the author.

Here's the answer.

Every relationship has a cycle… In the beginning; you
fall in love with your partner. You anticipate their calls,
want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn't have to DO anything. That's why it's called "falling" in love.

People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet."Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something happened TO YOU.

Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It's a natural cycle of EVERY relationship.

Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage.

At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you
may begin to desire that experience with someone
else. This is when relationships breakdown.

The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.

People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside for fulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes.

Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it.

I'm not saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few years later.

Because (listen carefully to this):

The key to succeeding in a Relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the Person you found.

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know
WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it.

Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner), Just as there are physical laws Of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know how to apply these laws, the results are predictable.

Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling.

Remember this always: God determines who walks into your life. It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let GO!

Hi, Dad!

Do you read Reader's Digest?  Where do you read it?  I keep mine by the toilet.  Yep, I just admitted that.  I am my father's daughter.  I was sitting there reading and came across this quote and immediately thought, "Well hi to you too, Dad!" because if he'd seen this he would have said, "Yep, that's what I was going for."

"The goal isn't to live forever; the goal is to create something that will." 

~ Chuck Palahniuk

Yep, I think of my dad when I'm takin' care of important business like that.  And apparently I think he's talking to me when I come across something like that.  Bathroom humor my grandma called it.  I has it.

Dr. G

G loves Siren.  Siren loves G.  She's his guardian, he's her attention giver.  She is nine years old which is ancient in human years.  Or at least as old as E, right?  

He was planting a big ol' kiss right on her head.  I tried to talk him into kissing her on the nose but he told me she has snot running out it so he's not kissing her snot.  As you can see, she's not impressed.

Poor Siren had to endure being G's patient today.  He can't say the word veterinarian but by golly he knows how to treat a dog!  She got her bloody nose (imaginary, don't worry) fixed up.  He attached a new wiener on her so she could be a boy and a girl (such a smart boy, isn't that what everyone wants, the best of both genders?), he ran the peel zester (i.e. mini cheese shredder) on her rear end to shave off some of her fat (or in this case hair) and then he covered her butt in Transformers bandaids.  I put the kibosh on him sticking chopsticks in her ears to help her hear better and him taping her eyelids open to he could give her an eye exam.

And yes, she sits patiently through all of it.  She's like the poster child for boxers being the perfect breed for families with children.  And she's all ours!!!

baby teeth are for a reason

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess who has a very, very loose tooth?

My baby.  MY BABY!  He can't be old enough to lose teeth...can he?  When did this time get here?

It's his right front bottom tooth.  His first tooth started to come in within days of turning four months old and then the second one came in a few days later.  It only took about two weeks for them to break through and be seen, check out baby G!  so I should have guessed that he'd start losing them young I suppose?

But I'm not ready!  I love his beautiful little baby teeth.  I'm not ready for my baby to have his adult teeth.  Can you imagine how cute his big smile is going to be with teeth missing?  Oh my!

I was brushing his teeth at bedtime and the last few nights he's been throwing a hissy fit about brushing hurting.  I figured it was just his usual fight against tooth brushing.  He's been doing it since he got teeth, he hates brushing his teeth.  Then I noticed that this tooth seemed to be loose.  I reached in and wiggled it and was shocked at the fact that it will move at least 45 degrees either way when it's pressed on.  So it's loose!

I asked him, "Did you know you have a loose tooth?"
Him: "Yeah" in his duh voice.
Me: "Does daddy know your tooth is loose?"
Him: "No."
Me: "Aren't you excited?  You're going to lose your first tooth, this is cool.  Daddy will be so excited for you!"
Him: "Let's not tell him."

Hahaha, yeah right, I can't keep this to myself, this is big!  He won't even turn five years old until the end of June.  Daaaaang!  He'll lose a tooth before he even starts kindergarten!

Now I'm starting to remember some odd behavior from the last week or so.  He has been doing this thing with his hand where he puts his pointer finger across his upper lip, like he's hiding something or like he's gotten into the big trend of fake mustaches.  Actually I assumed it was the latter.  He's been chewing on things like a toy with a piece of rubber on it or a glowstick (kind of squishy).  Now I get why!

His daddy is on his way home from the Academy (about 8 hours away) so when he called to let us know when he would be home tonight I had G tell daddy his big news.  Then we called Aunty Sarah so he could tell her.  He didn't want to talk to Aunty so he told her dog, Goliath.  Or more accurately he told Aunty Sarah who was pretending to be Goliath so G would talk to her.  Hahahaha.

So what is the going rate for the Tooth Fairy these days?  When I was a kid I'd get a quarter or a pack of gum.  G's never had gum and with his fiddle fart tendencies I'm not about to introduce that.  I wonder if I can just pull his teeth with pliers like my dad used to do for us.  I remember saying, "My tooth is loose," and being told, "Meet me in the shop and let's pull it."  I got to the point where I'd just pull the dang thing myself with the pliers!

That seems like ages ago.  And now I'm the mom of a kid who is losing his baby teeth.

Wow.

I went in to ask him a question while he was in my bed watching TV.  That doesn't even look comfortable does it?

But it gave me an opportunity to poke around his loose tooth and take a picture.  Good thing he's a sound sleeper huh?

Mommy mustache

As I was working out today G is of course watching and he says to me...
G: "Mommy I wanna be just like you."
Me: "Oh yeah? That's a big compliment son, thank you."
G: "I want to have a big mustache like you."
Me: "A big what? A big mustache?"
G: "Yep. Oh wait, I mean muscles. I want to have big muscles like you."
Me: "I'm glad you clarified, I was about to go get the wax."
G: "Do you like guinea pigs?"

Like his scarf?  He came up with that himself.  Why yes, it does just happen to be a pair of his Hanes tighty whiteys.  I just hoped they were clean ones and said, "Great choice, bud."

Dove ad campaign video

http://mashable.com/2013/04/15/dove-ad-beauty-sketches/

I thought, "Yeah, okay I'll use a little bandwidth and watch it, whatever."

I'm glad I did.

I teared up.

My self-described paper would resemble an ogre a la Grimm's Fairy Tales I'm sure.

"Do you think you're more beautiful than you say?"

No, I really don't.  I think people are being kind/polite when they gift me a compliment about the way I look and I tend to brush it off.  I wish I knew how to change how I feel.

I'm so glad that I don't have a daughter to pass my insecurity onto.  I tell my son all the time how handsome he is (because he truly is) but guys/boys don't put nearly as much concern into that kind of judgement (self or otherwise) and I'm so thankful for that.

Well played, son. Well played.

I always wanted to name a son Calvin just because of this ^^ guy right here.  I love that little fart.  And G could be Calvin's twin.

Why must everything be an argument with him?  Why must I repeat myself every time I tell him or ask him to do something he's supposed to do?  Why must he throw my own bad parenting back in my face?

And yet how is it that he can be the one who makes me laugh the most?  The one who makes my heart burst with pride and love?

I'm just glad he doesn't have a pet tiger or I'd wonder about him...

We like Hooters, baby!

We're such good parents.  The first picture is from May 2009 and the second one is from the other day, so April 2013.  G could care less about the hot chicks, he likes the cheeseburgers!

Let me take this opportunity to recommend the shrimp po' boy.  Yum.

Ball pride!

I overheard G having a conversation with Siren (the dog).

G: Gosh I hate my balls.  I hate having balls.  They're always getting in my way.

I went to check on him, expecting him to be playing with some kind of baseball or the sky ball...only I found him naked from the waist down.

Uh...

"What's up small fry?  Everything okay in here?"
"Yep."
"Did you know you forgot to put your underwear back on?"
"Yep."
"Okay, well how about you do that then?"

He got up with a disgruntled sigh, picked up his underwear, pulled them on and grumbled, "I should got a 'gina."

Is G sneaking my Cosmo out of the bathroom?

gotta love family...

 

 

I will not be the next American Idol

G informed me last night that my singing stinks.  I know he got that phrase from Milo and Otis so I won't take it too personally.  Since I can't sing this^^ version of Twinkle, Twinkle to G I'll just keep it to myself and post it here instead.

The only time G doesn't complain about my singing is when I sing Christmas songs.  He still falls asleep to Away In A Manger when I sing it and it's one of the only songs he ever asks me to sing to him, You Are My Sunshine being the first.

Do you know what the other verses of You Are My Sunshine are?  They're not much better than "break your neck and die."  Well, they don't insinuate harm to children but they're a little threatening and a little, "my dog died, my wife ran away with the mail man," kind of country.  Then there's something about shrimp and New Orleans.

So here you go and now you know:

You Are My Sunshine

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are grey.

You'll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away

The other nite, dear,

As I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you in my arms.

When I awoke, dear,

I was mistaken

And I hung my head and cried.

You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are grey.

You'll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

I'll always love you

And make you happy

If you will only say the same

But if you leave me

To love another

You'll regret it all some day;

You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are grey.

You'll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

You told me once, dear

You really loved me

And no one else could come between

But now you've left me

And love another

You have shattered all my dreams;

You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are grey.

You'll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Louisiana my Louisiana

the place where I was borne.

White fields of cotton

-- green fields clover,

the best fishing

and long tall corn;

You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are grey.

You'll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Crawfish gumbo and jambalaya

the biggest shrimp and sugar cane,

the finest oysters

and sweet strawberries

from Toledo Bend to New Orleans;

You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

When skies are grey.

You'll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.  

Partnership with my kid? You betcha!

"Most parenting information out there puts parents in a very narcissistic role. The focus is on meeting the parent's needs only. The parent's needs for quiet, uninterrupted sleep, compliance, and obedience. If children learn what they live, this speak volumes as to why so many in our culture are so self-focused. A culture of peace and respect starts with living in partnership with our children."
~Dayna Martin~

time to melt!

G, Nana, me and the dogs decided to drive down as close to the pond as we could get and see if it had started to melt.  The road to it hasn't melted enough to get the truck down there so we hoofed it in the sunshine.  

 G and I had made a jet pack that morning and he decided it needed to come to the pond...just in case it could help him catch some fish.  

 

Don't mind G's snot rag hanging out of my back pocket.  I'm nothing if not always prepared.

He was so happy to see that the ice is starting to melt.  Ssshhh...don't tell him but his daddy plans to get him a "real" (i.e. not child themed) fishing pole to replace his sad and ghetto Spiderman pole.   

 

Since my mom came with us there are actually some pictures of me and G.  The mom stays in the picture, right?  I kept chanting that to myself when I would see her camera come up and I'd get the urge to hide behind a tree.

Diesel (Nana)'s dog loved fishing.  He's a water dog through and through and in fact he was kind of the catalyst for us going for a walk because he had way too much energy to contain him in the house/yard.

 He is his father's son huh?

Now that's a true Montana girl for you.  There is snow on the ground but the sun is shining so off comes her shirt.  I was watching them and took this picture and singing in my head, "Dontcha wish your Nana was hot like her."  Then I realized that likely no one wishes their Nana was hot.  Sorry G.

Even Miss Siren came out to play.  Diesel bugs the crap out of her but they were running around like puppies playing!

 I love that little fart head.

*Sigh* 

 

I love being a momma to a little boy.  And I love being a momma to a little boy up here in the wilderness!

our subdued Easter

Our sweet neighbors not only had G over to their house to make Easter eggs (that was a disaster because G was not feeling good still and he got in trouble by using clippers to cut his own hair) but then on Easter morning they snuck over to our house and hid eggs for G to find...plus an Easter basket of goodies in the middle of it all of course.

Since G was still sick I opted to skip church.  I'm bummed, I love the resurrection message and was looking forward to the renewing spirit that is typically present at church during this time of year. Plus I'd bought a dress to wear.  Yep.  Me.  In a dress.  Hold back the shock please.

We used a bucket of Lego's as G's Easter basket.  His first big thing of Lego's.  I'm sure I'm going to regret starting the Lego craziness but I can't unring that bell now!  Nana showed up the day before so she helped G search for Easter eggs hidden in the snow and forest (and that crafty EB hid them in Nana's truck fog light wells, the hitch receiver, etc.

We then went over to the above mentioned neighbors house for a ham dinner.  Yummo!  Super subdued holiday in the middle of our version of Heaven.