Rainin’ in the bathtub

Good thing the apartment below us is empty right now. Water may very well be dripping from their ceiling, or at the very least a large wet spot may have appeared thanks to our very own Connor James.

He was having a great time in the tub tonight. My mom and I were in the kitchen finishing up making dinner. We were chuckling about his singing and talking. After about 20 minutes my mom went back to get him out of the tub and ready for bed. All of the sudden she comes running down the hall frantically saying something about water and the bathroom floor. I go back, just expecting a small puddle. Oh no, there was nothing small about this puddle! Half of the bathroom was covered with at least a good half inch of water. I quickly removed Connor from the tub and he stood shivering in the hall watching my mom mop up the water and me quickly soak four bath towels.

I started asking him questions about how so much water ended up on the floor. I hadn’t heard excessive splashing. He starts talking about rain from the green sponge that went into the cup. Translation:he was dripping water from my green poof into a plastic cup like rain. I figured he must have been doing that over the side. Nope, he said. He was pouring the rain water into the hole. Translation: he was dumping the full cups of water into the toilet (which is right next to the tub). The only problem is the toilet lid was closed so all that water was just going onto the floor. What a mess!

Luckily my mom was here so the mess was thouroughly cleaned up. My mom is good like that. And Connor and I have had a long discussion about where water stays while we bathe, so hopefully this will the last flood that isn’t related to mother nature.

There’s never a dull moment with Connor around!

Farm Adventure, Take 2

We finally made it to the farm yesterday! We went to a different one with my friend Jessica, her super cute daughter Brooklynn, Jessica’s friend Amber and her daugher Bella. Although I was personally a little disappointed with the farm, Connor had a great time and it was so fun to hang out with Jessica and Brooklynn. Brooklynn is so cute-so sassy and indepedent and I love it! Instead of writing a huge post about the farm, I will just leave you with a photo montage of our day.

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My little monkey

Logan has been getting around the house for about a month now, but in the past few weeks he has just gotten really effecient and really quick. I find him in all sorts of places, chewing on all sorts of things. One of his favorite places to climb is underneath the exersaucer. Unlike Connor, he hates to actually play in the thing. He just likes to play under it.

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Today I was in the kitchen cleaning up the lunch mess when I heard a little grunt from the living room. I went in there and found Logan trying to get under the exersaucer again. Only this time he wanted to challenge himself. See the white bar to the left that looks like an A? He climbed over that into his favorite place. Everyone enjoys a good challenge and Logan is no exception. See how proud he looks?

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I’m not ready for this. I thought I had months before he would be mobile. Connor didn’t even show an interest in moving until he was over 10 months old, so I thought I had time still. I can tell that Logan is definitely going to keep me on my toes!

Swing real high

I have figured out the secret to having a good Saturday. Saturday has always been one of my favorite days of the week because Derek is home so we can tag team with the kiddos. Now that he’s working every Saturday, I hate them. But today I stumbled upon the secret. Pretend it isn’t Saturday. Today I got up and did exactly what I would have if it were a Tuesday. I ate breakfast, cleaned a little, walked to the bookstore and Michael’s, ate lunch, tucked in the boys, cleaned a little more, played around in photoshop, watched Alias, got the boys up, walked to the park, and now I am blogging. Wow that was a long sentence. Anyway, it was a good day.

And the icing on the cake…

At the park I pumped my legs as hard as I could and swung so high I swear I almost flipped all the way around. And then I jumped out. I did it over and over again until a little girl swiped my swing. I really wanted to tell her to wait her turn, but I refrained. I turned back into adult Meg.

So here’s my advice. If you’re having a bad day, find a swing and just go for it. I dare say it is impossible to stay in a bad mood while feeling the wind whip through your hair and getting that funny little flutter in your stomach.

I love swings. And today I love Saturday.

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One for the books

Today was supposed to be our big farm and pumpkin patch day. I decided that since I have so much time with the boys alone I needed to get out and do something really fun. I looked around online and found a great farm-Faulkner Farm. It’s 75 miles away but it really looked cool so I decided to just go. We were supposed to go on Monday, but it rained all day. It also rained all day Tuesday. Today was beautiful-sunny with a high of 68.

It was a rough morning filled with uncooperative Connor, fussy Logan, and grumpy me just because I’m worn out. We made it to the car to begin our great farm adventure. It took just about an hour to get to the farm. We pull up and we are both just so excited. I get everyone and everything unloaded, we walk up to pay the entrance fee and….

The farm is closed. Because of the dad gum rain. It made everything too wet. I almost cried. The nice worker felt so bad. “I hope you didn’t drive far” she says. Yeah, we pretty much did. She let us buy a pumpkin, gave Connor some stickers, and we left the farm. Connor didn’t seem to mind too much. The kid’s never been to a farm before so for all he knows that’s all there is to it. He was happy with his pumpkin and his stickers.

Well, after an hour in the car I refuse to go home defeated! After a few tears in the car I decided to make some lemonade out of our lemon of a day. The farm lady told us about a fish hatchery a few miles down the road, so off we go. Instead of beautiful farm scape and scenic pumpkin pictures, this is what we get.

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A rusty trash can, an old pickup truck, and fish in cement troughs.

But feeding the fish was fun. Even Logan was happy to be at the hatchery.

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I called my mom and through the wonderful world of the internet, she found a park nearby where we could have a picnic and play. It was really a beautiful day and we all enjoyed our time outside. Well, except for Logan who was ready for another nap.

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There was a huge slide at this park. I think it was the biggest slide that Connor has ever been on. This picture of him is his first time going down…
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Let’s take a closer look at that classic face…
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On the way home we stopped at a little fruit stand and loaded up on some deilcious apples and oranges and fresh veggies. I made Connor sit by the pumpkins so I could have at least one pumpkin picture today. I would have made Logan pose too, but he was totally out.
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All that fruit buying, fish feeding, and park playing can really wear a fellow out. It was a very quiet drive home.
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And I was happy.
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(I liked the big fat slide, too.)

Rite of Passage

There are many great rites of passage in our lives. First kiss, first roller coaster, first love, first concert, first time staying home alone, etc. Yesterday, Connor had a rite of passage-at least in my book. Derek went hiking really early with one of his friends. When he got home we decided that a breakfast out at IHOP was just what we needed to get the weekend started. Connor sat down with his kids menu and told me he wanted pancakes. After a few more minutes changed his mind. He wanted the face pancake. The face pancake…the childhood rite of passage…the chocolate chip pancake with the whipped cream smiley face and cherry eyes. I couldn’t have been more proud. This is what I ALWAYS ate at IHOP as a kid. I have so many memories of eating the funny face pancake with my dad. It was so special to practically eat dessert for breakfast. I was so disappointed in myself for not bringing my camera with me to capture this moment. Connor loved the cherries, loved the whipped cream, and loved the chocolate chips. But he didn’t love the actual pancake as much as he loved my eggs and regular pancakes. I don’t know if he will order it again, but I am happy that at least one time he got to experience my favorite childhood ihop breakfast.

After breakfast, Derek headed into work and it was just the boys and I for the afternoon. We decided to go on a walk down to Caltech to play for awhile and walk home with Derek. Connor loves the campus. There are fish, frogs, turtles, and crayfish in the many ponds. There are trees to climb, walls to jump off of, and grass to run on. It’s a great place and it was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful afternoon. I feel the need to soak up every pretty thing out here since our time left is so short. I did remember to bring my camera to Caltech and here are a few highlights of our afternnon.

Logan discovered the leaves of fall.
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A spontaneous moment of brotherly love…not Connor putting Logan in a full nelson like Derek thinks.
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Jumping is one of Connor’s greatest livlihoods.
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My little explorer
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“Connor, can I see your eyes just one time, please?”
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Check out those jowls!
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November 29th

That’s the big day. 45 days away. It’s not just a big day because it’s Shauna’s birthday. Over six years of hard work will be over on that day. Derek has his thesis defense scheduled for November 29th. 45 days. I seriously can’t believe it. We’ve both known that this day was coming. But it’s so real now. So final. There is so much to do before then. On Derek’s end, an insane number of hours will be spent writing. On my end, I need to go through stuff. I don’t want to have anything packed up that we don’t want in Houston.

Houston, here we come!

Stressed

I feel like I have nothing to say but I don’t understand how that can even be possible. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to talk. I like to talk a lot. So why is it that I can’t think of one thing interesting enough to say on here? It’s a real mystery.

I should be bursting with things to say. I hardly have any adult conversation these days. Derek is crazy busy trying to finish up the ol’ thesis. He’s been working 10-12 hours a day (which I am really trying not to complain about because I am just ready to be done with this) We both know that it’s just another month of two of life like this and it will all pay off in the end. But, some days it’s still hard. It’s hard to be with the kids by myself that long without any help or any break. It’s hard doing dinner and bath and bed and get the house picked up all alone. I don’t know how single moms do it.

There are three other moms in my apartment complex who have babies that were born within a month or two of Logan. I’ve talked to them outside and I’ve tried to be really nice and friendly since we are all at the same point in life right now-married to graduate students with kids. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed the other moms all in one of their apartments together. And today, when I realized that they do this regularly, it really hurt my feelings, which is just so stupid. I mean, I barely know these people and we are leaving here very shortly, and it’s not like I’ve invited them over or anything. But still, why wasn’t I invited to their little mommy group? Are my kids horrible? Is there something wrong with me? I seriously just felt so insecure today when I saw them all in there and realized that this was a regular thing. It’s so stupid, I know. But I guess I just feel pretty lonely and stressed out lately and sure would have liked to be in there with them today.

And then it just makes me even sadder when I think about leaving here and leaving one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I’m so sad that I won’t get to hang out with Beth every week and our kids won’t grow up together. What if when we move I don’t find another friend like her? What makes it so neat too is that Derek and her husband are really close, too. Not only is it rare to find such a great friend, but it’s even harder to find one where the guys get along just as well.

As excited as I am about the next chapter in my life, the sadness of closing this one is what’s on my heart lately.

This is scary

I was digging through some old pictures yesterday trying to find the perfect one to use in this weeks effer dare. I came across this picture of me at 3 years old.

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I thought to myself wow, that is a Connor face. But then I wondered if I was just being a proud mama or if it really did look like Connor. So I showed it to Derek without saying anything and he said “well, now we know what Connor would look like wearing red tights!”

So then I decided to play around in photoshop a bit…Check this out.

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Pretty scary, huh!

Connor was here…

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Yes, those are pantyliners stuck to the cabinet door. Can you guess who did that? The monster truck, bus, and airplane left behind should give you a clue…

When I asked him what he was doing, his reply was “I found some stickers, mommy.”

Gotta love that imagnination! And really, how could I be mad when it was just so dang funny. Guess that will teach me to leave him alone in the bathroom.