On Letting Go. Or Not.

Booger Head has been doing a lot of growing up lately. I gotta admit, I am not a fan. In the last few weeks he's started solid foods, cut his first tooth, grown out of all his 3-6 month sized clothes and his infant carrier.

He went from this...

To this.

In what really does seem like the blink of an eye.

And since he's our last little teeny person we've started getting rid of things as we outgrow them. I kept a handful of clothes...my favorites that have survived the three boys who have worn them, but the rest are gone. We listed the carseat in the classifieds at Dad's work this week...he's already gotten a handful of calls about it. For the most part it's not too bad...we are really short on storage space here and four kids worth of stuff piles up pretty fast. The bouncy chair went, the carseat is going...even the swing and the jumperoo will go when their times come.

And then there is what is known as "the yellow chair" at our house.

I can't bring myself to get rid of it. We had planned on sending it to Dad's little brother and his wife, they just had their first baby in September. But they got a bassinet and didn't end up needing it. I could have done that because I know they would have loved it as much as I did...but to just get rid of it? The chair and I, we have a connection...

When I was pregnant with Pinky we bought a bassinet. It was beautiful light wood with ivory bedding. I loved it. Pinky and Ralph both slept in it as babies. And then it sat. If I had had anywhere to put it other than in my room I would have, but like I mentioned...we're short on storage space here.... and so it sat in my room. Where I could see it at night when I wasn't sleeping. Because I couldn't sleep...because we were trying and failing. And because we lost one. I could see it when I laid in bed and cried after Dad was asleep. It was mocking me. Seeing its emptiness made my own so much worse. And so I moved it to the other side of the room so I couldn't see it. And we kept trying. And kept failing. And eventually I made me peace with the three beautiful children I had. Dad had more faith than I did. I told myself we would keep trying until the end of the year. And then I was done. I simply could not do it anymore. And I honestly believed it wouldn't happen. So I sold the bassinet. It had become a symbol of failure and pain for me and even though it was on the other side of the room I still felt it every time I saw it. I needed it to be gone so I could move on. Because I really believed we were done.

And then we weren't. And it was great. Mostly. Booger Head was my hardest pregnancy. The high joys were accented by sometimes terrifying lows when I begged my unborn child not to leave me. But we made it. Then my fabulously amazing friend Sam threw me the most awesome surprise baby shower ever and through a series of events we got the Yellow Chair. I loved it right away. And it sat in my room, next to my bed through the last month of my pregnancy. I finally felt "safe." I knew that it was going to be okay and that we would in fact see a baby in there. When I couldn't sleep because I was miserably uncomfortable, or because I had to get up and pee again and couldn't fall back to sleep, I used to lay there and imagine his teenyness sleeping in it. I could see his little fuzzy head just barely showing over the side. I imagined wrapping and tucking and rocking him to sleep in it. Seeing it there gave me peace. Finally.

So even though he's too big to sleep in it now and even though when I put him in it he cries and arches his back and tries to get out, I can't bring myself to get rid of it. And so I'm not going to. I'm going to take it apart and put it back in its box (which I saved so I could mail it to my SIL) and keep that peace forever and ever and ever. Just like I am going to keep this...

Good Mail

Be prepared to be jealous.

A hair more than two weeks ago I got an awesome box in the mail from a fabulous and talented friend who moved to Germany about a year ago. See? I told you you'd be jealous. My Dad was stationed in Germany when I was a kid, we lived there for four years, and I was so excited to see what she had tucked into this box. I've waited to write it up because it took me a while to get through all these treats...

Oh yeah. Real. German. Chocolate. On the top left we have Kinder Eggs. I remember having these when I was a kid. They've come along way... keep reading.

Next to those are some of those fabulous little Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Wanna hear a fun blonde moment? I've always thought, when eating them, that the filling tastes a lot like Nutella. Yeah. Just last week when I was making Ralph a sandwich I noticed that on the jar of Nutella is says...wait for it...Ferrero Rocher. Ha. That explains a lot. I'll bet that jar has said that my whole life and I just NOW make the connection...nice blondie. Real nice. The filling tastes like Nutella because IT IS NUTELLA!

The candy bars are both amazing. The one in the gold wrapper is a seasonal treat...it tasted sort of like it was filled with pumpkin pie. So good.

The kids LOVED all the different cookies. I restrained myself enough to make sure they got to try each one of them. Mmmmm...

And then we have the gummies. I know you can get Haribo gummy bears in the states but they are NOT the same. Trust me. These were soooo good. I ate most of them myself, the Raspberry ones are the best. And the gummy frogs made me laugh because when I was in Jr. High my Mom would give me lunch money and then my Dad would take me to school on his way to work. And I would bum more money off of him and then I would have gummy frogs and Diet Coke for lunch. I know. Soda and candy at school...in vending machines no less! Those were the days...

Along with the treats came a couple other goodies...

I seriously can't wait for him to wear those shorts. Oh my gosh I love them!

So pretty. Love, love, love them. And they came in a cute little jeweled box that Pinky immediately claimed for her own.

I am so excited to put this little guy on my tree. My Mom has a several nutcrackers from Germany... I am jumping up and down at this point. I had to make myself stop to take a picture.

Now remember the Kinder Eggs we talked about a minute ago? It's a chocolate, egg shaped shell that has white chocolate on the inside and milk chocolate on the outside. And inside?

 Nowadays once you've cracked the shell you'll find one of these little, plastic, yellow capsules. When I was a kid they had gummy dinosaurs in them. I was totally intrigued... Open up the little capsules and you'll find fabulous prizes like...

The pieces to make a small sail boat. With sails. That floats! Or...

Pieces to make a REALLY cool spinning top. It has plastic blade type things with stripes that make all kinds of neat designs when it spins around.

But it gets better...most of them had cute little toys or figurines in them. But not Pinky's. Hers had a small USB drive with a game on it. I know! Like I said, when I was a kid it was gummy dinosaurs.

It's all in German...which has slowed us down a bit on figuring out what to do with it but I've got a friend up the street who speaks German, we're totally going to have to have her come over and translate for us.

Thanks Marnie! You are truly the best. No kidding if there is any part of Texas that I can mail to you you had better let me know :)

Wanna be even more jealous? This was my second box of international goodies this year! We got another awesome box earlier in the year from a friend who was stationed in Okinawa. Unfortunately I hadn't yet heard of "Good Mail" and I lacked the foresight to take a bunch of pictures before all the treats were gone. But it was good. Trust me.

The Tens

Time again to wrap up another week of half #$% blogging with the top and bottom ten...

tops
1. Halloween is over and we survived. On to the less stupid holidays.
2. We had an assortment of awesome costumes this year...

There was the Quarterback...

Wait for it...

Bwa haha ha ha, right? Stinky needed no explanation after he saw this costume idea on the interwebs somewhere. He just chuckled and said, "That's awesome." And his mind was made up.

We had our Bad Kitty, from the book Bad Kitty.

She was a little annoyed with me when I picked the white patch off of the front of that shirt...apparently she did in fact plan on wearing it like that forever.

Ralph didn't really get much say in his costume this year. Grandma made these chaps and this shirt when Dad was a little boy...Awwww...Stinky wore them when he was this age and now it's Ralph's turn. We talked him into being a cowboy by buying him a new hat.

Booger Head lucked out and got two costumes this year, because his parents were feeling terribly clever...for the church party-trunk or treat thing he was Jack. In a box. Ha ha.

And when we went trick or treating he wore the lion costume that Stinky wore when he was a baby...awww again...look at us making Halloween all sentimental. Plus Dad's arms were not up to carrying him around in that box all night again.

Okay back to the list...
3. Stinky's eye is better. As far as I know. He goes back in on the 17th...but the days of hourly eye drops and constant eye pain are over.
4. Dad and I got to go on a date. A date where we did NOT get on the freeway that was stopped both directions due to a flaming semi truck on the bridge. Over the lake. We looked at the same cars on the freeway the whole time we were having dinner...people were getting out of their cars and walking down to McDonald's. Seriously.
5. I finally talked Dad into going to the doctor to have his hand x-rayed, the same day that I paid off my gallbladder removal of 2008. YAY! No more medical bills!
6. NO BASEBALL!
7. I cleaned the kids' bathroom. Like on the floor on my hands and knees scrubbing clean.
8. Dad FINALLY fixed some of the crap that doesn't work like it used to since the fancy schmacy upgrades we made to the desktop. "Yay! It's lightning fast to not do what it used to do!" Wives of computer nerds, sympathize with me...
9. I got some down time this week since my kids and Sam's kids were all too cootie ridden to let us go to the school or the library. I only "did" my hair once this week. On date night. The other days I was curly and I didn't care.
10. The big kids and I all got flu shots! No flu at our house this year...unlike last year when we all had the swine flu LITERALLY four days after I found out I was pregnant. And my OB's office told me, no joke, "Well don't come here."

And this weeks bottoms
1. Holy sick baby Batman! The kid is so. freaking. ornery. Sick and teething should not be allowed at the same time.
2. And seriously, again I say, teething at under six months? Not fair.
3. Dad's hand is broken. Broken, not straight and the bone has rotated. He's seeing a hand specialist on Monday. Great. That should be cheap. Maybe we should start taking bets...Cast up to his elbow or hand surgery?

4. I saw a super cute idea for an advent calendar made out of Christmas baby socks and thought, "Super cute! Baby socks are cheap! I am totally making one of those!" Yeah. Not so. Cute, holiday baby socks...NOT cheap. Still brainstorming...
5. The bickering. Oh, the bickering. Was it a full moon or something because oh my Ho. Ly. Crap...
6. I went trick or treating with Dad and the kids...I wanted to push Booger Head around in the stroller all dressed up like a lion...and we missed all but six of the kids who came and knocked on our door...and I had not one, but two, buckets of candy to hand out. I panicked and dumped the last quarter of the first bucket in some kids' bag at about 8:15. And that was our last trick or treater. So we still have an entire bucket of candy left. Ugh.
7. Booger Head is nearly six months old and it's time, well past time really, to move the crib out of my room. I REALLY don't want to put him in the room with the boys. I hate that room. It's always a mess. It's occupants refuse to shut up and go to sleep at bedtime...I just don't want him in there. So my other option is Pinky's room. Which is pink. And Booger Head is a baby of the blue variety...I'm getting over it. It really is the best option right now.
8. Booger Head has outgrown his 3-6 month clothes and I went through them and then hauled two garbage bags full of baby clothes he had outgrown that I will never use again to a friend to give to some gals she knows. It was sad. Dang baby.
9. He has also out grown the infant carrier. The next couple of months worth of grocery shopping are going to suck since he is not anywhere close to sitting up yet and I refuse to use those nasty booger covered baby seat shopping carts. I told him to quit growing. Months ago. But no one ever listens to me.
10. The weekend is almost over...and then we start all over again.

Embrace the Camera

Lounging around on the floor with the little monsters.

I Might Be An Idiot

Dear Booger Head,

I promise that I am not really a moron. Really. I've never been very good at math. Putting two and two together got away from me this time. I didn't connect the dots between your rather pleasant demeanor lately and the small razor sharp little tooth that was working its way out of your gums until I felt it for myself and for that I sincerely apologize.

I have, in fact, been through teething with three other children so I am not sure how I missed the signs...the runny nose, the endless whining...the waking up at the crack of dawn screaming. It was all there, you tried to tell me.  I would like to point out that five and a half months is a hair on the early side to be cutting teeth, so I wasn't really expecting it for another month or two but still, come on Mom...get your head in the game.

I promise to keep up on the Tylenol from here on out, stock up on teethers and to throw some ice pops in the freezer.

Sorry. And I love you.
Mom

I Made It! I Hated It! I Made It Again and Then I Fixed It!

Better...and maybe done.

Asking price for one of these custom made for you? Eleventy billion dollars.

No checks please.

I Made It! ...Again...

And I am still not sure I love it.

I like it more this morning than I did when I finished it last night. So that's something...

Remember this?

Ta da!

I think it may need something. Not sure what...but something.

I still hate the white paper in the background, I really wish I had done it on something else. I used more muted papers this time, the turquoise paper from last time was too much.

This one took about twice as long as the other one did... and it will be the last one of these I make.

I really love this little bird.

So the verdict is quilling is a HUGE pain in the butt. I wouldn't try to do it without the tools. Make sure you have a quick drying glue. Sketch your design out before hand and be prepared to spend HOURS cursing at little strips of paper.

I'm thinking maybe some little leaves...or some small green pearls glued in a few places...not sure. Any ideas?