Photo Editing in Progress

I swear I am taking pictures of Brian still. I just haven't had a spare minute to edit said pictures, file them, and post them to the blog. Tomorrow maybe. Anyway, here's one to tide you over. This is the face Brian made today and I asked him to say "cheese." He is actually saying it. Clearly he does not understand what it means in relation to taking pictures.


Also, and update from this morning. Baby Martin came home tonight with his adoptive parents! He is so freaking cute! Dreams do come true. Keep praying, please. We all know how scary the process can be for quite a while.

Whirlwind

The last 24 hours have been just insane.

Yesterday was mom's birthday. She also received a pretty huge award from the Madonna Manor, the care facility where both of my grandparents spent the last years they were with us. I helped my aunt Norma sneak into town to surprise her. Fun!

I worked in the morning and on the way home received a text from a very good friend. "It's a boy!" This friend has been trying to adopt for a long time. The birth mom has until 4:30 today to change her mind. Prayers, please. Lots of prayers.

Brian was so good last night at the awards dinner! We have had a rough few days with him. Naps have been short. Sometimes non existent. My patience has been short. Sometimes non existent. Two days ago he dumped an entire pitcher of ice cold water on himself, stuck an important key in the church copier (which we had to take apart in order to retrieve the key), and managed to get himself stuck in a chair. Don't ask.

Yesterday he got a good nap. And then on the way to the dinner he dumped his entire cup of water on himself, his car seat and the diaper bag. I was pretty sure the award dinner was going to be a disaster.

BUT he rallied! He was polite. He was sweet. He was the only child there, so he relished in the attention. He listened. He sat. He whispered. He was charming. He got a little restless toward the end, but what 2 year old wouldn't after 2.5 hours. He was good.

Then this morning, more news. The father of a family I taught passed away this morning after an almost 2 year battle with brain cancer. Prayers, please. Lots of them.

"I Poop in da Water"

I used to babysit all the time for this family in our old subdivision. They have a boy and a girl very close in age. The girl was younger. Let's call her "L."

L had a bit of a problem in the bathtub when she was little. Every time she bathed, she would poo. She thought it was hysterical. I never had to bathe her, so I did too.

I would ask her all the time, "L, what do you do in the bathtub."

She would respond, "I poop in da water."

Freaking hysterical!

Not anymore. Not now. I now realize the disgusting mess "poop in da water" creates. Oh my gross-poop infected toys, poop infected cups...smashed poo in the drain. YUCK.

Yep, Brian pooped in the tub tonight. ICK! Icky!

The house smells of bleach now. And I'm going to bed.

Oh, and there are no pictures of this either Bibber. Sorry to disappoint.

That is all.

PS For those who receive the blog via email, sorry for the early send. I hit enter on accident and couldn't stop it!

A Day in Review

Shawn has this awesome thing that he does with Brian almost every evening. Brian typically throws a fit when it's time for bed because Shawn puts him to bed and not me. This is not a reflection on his feelings for Shawn, but instead an example of him knowing how to play us. Brian rarely falls asleep for me, hence the reason Shawn puts him to bed. Brian knows this, and thus prefers me at bedtime.

At any rate, to get Brian to calm down, Shawn starts reviewing Brian's day with him. He typically knows how the day went because I have told him already. He runs this review in the form of a conversation. He asks Brian questions about the day. Sometimes Brian answers, sometimes he repeats what Shawn says, and sometimes, Shawn answers for him.

It goes a little bit like this:

Shawn: So, Brian, how was your day?

Brian: Silence. Kind of. Tears are calming down at this point.

Shawn: Did you go to school?

Brian: School. (Through the last of the tears.)

Shawn: Did you go to school with mommy? Did you see the kids?

Brian: Mommy. Kids.

Shawn: Did you pick up the boys? Did you see the dogs?

Brian: Dixie. Shavo.

You get the idea. Anyway, I'm always amazed by his patient way of calming Brian down at bedtime. This is a time of day when my patience is long gone. And I know Shawn would rather be playing video games, than rocking a 2 year old to sleep in the dark. Thank goodness for good daddies!

Thank Goodness for Old Friends

So it turns out an old friend, Renee, who I met when I was coaching cheer leading, now runs the babysitting area at the gym. (I would say my gym, but I haven't joined quite yet, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.) Anyway, she heard about Friday and MET ME AT THE DOOR today. It was such a relief to see her smiling face. She apologized for Friday and personally walked me and Brian into the the child care area. She helped me get Brian interested in something, and even though he was still crying, she told me to go on and go workout. She stayed with him until he was playing happily and making friends with another one of the babysitters. And then she came and told me he was okay. She asked me questions about him so that they could do a better job of entertaining him and understanding him. She told me all the words he was saying that they did understand (which was a lot).

When I finished my workout, he was playing happily with his new friend Ms. Brittany. Of course, as soon as he heard my voice, he decided to play me and began crying immediately. BUT, he did not cling to me. He walked out holding my hand, AFTER giving Ms. Brittany a high five. He said he's not going back tomorrow, but his is. Now that I know Renee is in charge we will continue to keep trying until he caves.

It's good for me and it's good for him. He will be okay.

Down on the Farm

Yesterday the Bengals won! WHO DEY! Wasn't the best game offensively, but we'll take a win any way we can get it.

During half time, we headed down to Bibber and Billy's to celebrate Shawn's birthday. We met them at the top of their road and then followed the to the place where they get their hay. (Billy needed help lifting it.) The lady who sells the hay also has a ton of baby animals, so we got to see them all!First Brian held a little kitten! He was so excited, but a little dangerous. He kept lifting it by the neck. Poor thing!

Then we saw all sorts of animals.

Miniature horses and alpacas.

Goats.Bunnies...lots of bunnies!

And more cats and kittens.

And of course some HAY too. (That's for you, Shannon.)

When the hay was loaded up, we headed back to their house for dinner and the birthday celebration. Brian tried out the 4 wheeler and the lawn mower.


He played outside.We got to see their goats.And dogs. Brian LOVES Munchie.

Nana, Pappy and Mari were there, and Jade also came with Candi and Neil! She and Brian are about 4 months apart and they are so cute together.

They played outside.


And fed the goats.Hid in Bibber and Billy's bed. (Which they thought was totally hysterical!)

And rode around in the cozy coupe.

Brian was WORN OUT when we got home. Seriously. He feel asleep in like 3 minutes. Before we left though, he said a sweet good bye to baby Jade.

Super Saver

So, I decided to give the gym a try again. Well, I guess it's not really the gym that's the issue, more the babysitting area. Epic fail. Brian cried before we even got through the door. I decided to stay with him and play for a bit to try to get him calmed down. Every time I made a move for the door he went berserk. Every. Single. Time. It probably didn't help that there was only one staff member on duty and she was holding a little baby. She didn't even get up to try to calm him. I get that she had 3 other charges and a baby in her care, but it would have been nice to see her attempt to get him to calm down.

After a while I got him somewhat distracted, so I snuck out. I stood just outside the door where he couldn't see me, but I could see and hear him. Within 30 seconds, he was crying again. Then he was crying really hard. Then sobbing. The stupid girl just sat in a chair and kept saying, "Brian, do you want to color?" Not once did she walk over to him. It really doesn't take much to calm him down or to distract him. It seemed like she wasn't even trying to be honest. So after the torrential sobbing ensued, I went back in and got him out of there.

I went to the enrollment office to talk to the girl I've been working with and explained the situation. I think I got the girl in the child care area in trouble. Maybe even fired. At first I felt bad, but I really think she deserves to be in trouble. She wasn't doing her job.

They extended the three day pass to Wednesday and said they will continue to do so until I give up, or Brian does. Hopefully he will give up. I really do enjoy getting to workout.

On the way home I decided to run by Kroger to grab something for dinner. What a great day to stop by Kroger! They were "tail gating" in honor of the first home game this coming weekend. Brian got a free football from his Auntie L's place of work, and some free pizza too! He was even more ridiculous than usual with the pizza. He was still sucking sauce off of his arm when we got home.
But the real story here is that I spent 73 cents on dinner. I was a saving machine today! Truth be told I forgot my wallet, so I had to be thrifty. My Dad occasionally gets coupons for free things since he works at Kroger and I had a few in my coupon pouch (which I thankfully always keep in my car). I got one of those already cooked rotisserie chickens FOR FREE, a bag of salad FOR FREE, some really yummy fresh baked bread ALSO FREE and even some gelato for dessert FREE! I scrounged around in my change compartment of the car and came up with about $2.50, so I grabbed that as well. I also had a random $1.00 coupon on any order. So I used the change and that coupon to buy corn and watermelon. Total cost = 73 cents! Even the 16 year old cashier was impressed.