Big News Revealed

I can now share with you my big news ... I am officially a published writer! Check out my new page on Examiner.com. You can also click on the button to the right of my page to view my articles at any time (by the way, I get paid per click, so I'd appreciate it if you would visit often).

Hooray!!!!

xoxo,

P.S. I'm having another celebratory drink tonight :)

Awesome ...

We've been having a fabulous time with the Moyer family, and Allen's loving hanging out with his cousins. I'll have tons of photos to post soon, but for now I just have to share this awesome story.

Tonight Aubrey was looking through the photo album my mom put together for me "to teach her baby about his Mama" while I was getting Allen ready for bed, and here's the conversation that followed:

Aubrey (to me): Awww ... you were cute. Oh wow, look at your mom. She was so hot!

Brian: Allen, what do we call Nana? 'Hot Nana.'

Allen: Hot Nana

Me: I know, she was a fox wasn't she?

Allen: She was a Chihuahua!

Awesome .... I'll post the famous "hot Nana" picture soon (I have to scan it first).

xoxo,

Left and right

Allen is pretty good at identifying his left and right, as shown in this video. And yes, at the beginning he does say, "I'm still frowing up." We don't know why, other than maybe he was trying to get us to let him watch Cars. A few minutes earlier, he told us, "I'm so sick, so I need to watch Cars upstairs."

xoxo,

Peanut butter mustache

We cried tonight for about 45 minutes because we wanted to watch Cars. And we ate peanut butter on a rice cake. Which means we got a peanut butter mustache ...

xoxo,

Celebrating and nostalgic

Brian made me this martini tonight. It's in celebration of the news that I'm going to be sharing with you soon (told ya'll I wasn't pregnant). Gotta love a man who loads a martini up with four olives.

Anyway, I still don't want to share my news with you because it's not yet official. Once it becomes such I assure you that you won't hear the end of it. I'm so excited about it ... it's something that I needed to do for myself, and I'm amazed that it's becoming a reality.

Onto something I can share with you now. As ya'll know, Allen's been having a bit of trouble with bedtime. We've finally gotten to the point where he goes to sleep in his bed, and about half the time stays there all night. But this means more time that Mommy spends with him rocking him before I put him in his crib. And it's made me rather nostalgic.

The past few nights he has put his arms around my neck and his head on my shoulder. Our hearts are near each other. And it reminds me of when he was a little tiny peanut and I would lay him on my chest and we'd nap together. For a while, it was the only way to get him to nap for any length of time. Thinking about that makes me think of when he was still nursing, and when he was still so dependent upon me.

Sometimes I really miss those days ... when he was so little and so babyish. Now he's such an independent boy ... telling us what he "needs" and bringing us the snacks he wants. Negotiating with us (today he said, "I have five skittles and three skittles" ... too much).

It all goes by too quickly. Wish I could freeze the time a little bit ...

xoxo,

Hint ... Sort of ...

I'm not pregnant, if that's what ya'll are thinking.

xoxo,

Close to Me

To paraphrase one of my favorite songs, and bands, I've waited years for this ... I never thought this day could ever be this close to me.

I have some really exciting news (I think) that I hope to be able to share with you early this week.

Stay tuned!

xoxo,

AHC

Sweet Boy Sweet Day

We had a great day today. Allen slept in his bed all night last night (which means we all woke up happy). We got up early and studied our Watchtowers. Daddy made breakfast (yummy egg-in-a-hole). We were only a couple minutes late to meeting. And besides one "take him out" incident, Allen was fabulous at meeting.




Mom and I each had a call we wanted to make after the meeting, so we went in service for almost an hour. I started a Bible Study with the woman I met a few weeks ago at Big Lots (neat story ... but it's a little long for a blog post). Allen was great the whole time, and when my call came to say hello, he said "Hi 'Mommy's call'" (he said her name, but in the interest of her privacy we won't share). And what was most awesome is that despite my call's physical disfigurement, Allen did not react at all. So that takes one of my concerns off my mind. I'll keep ya'll posted on the progress.



After service, we had a great lunch at Plums (he didn't spill any straws this time), stopped at Lulu Burgess (to pick up some hair accessories for me), and went home. During the majority of this time he was great (one minor meltdown at Lulu's).



By the time we got home it was about 3:30, so we decided to forgo the nap. He watched Cars and played with his cars until his bedtime. And while he was not happy about bedtime, he could barely keep his eyes open during the stories. By the time I got to the ABC song, he'd lost the battle and the eyes were closed.



And here's my sleepyhead now ...

Such a sweet boy today ...

xoxo,

Word of the day

Since Allen is no longer going to "school" right now and Nana is back, we've decided to split days. I'm working mornings at the shop, and Nana works afternoons. Nana picks Allen and me up, and we go set up the shop (we're still having our sidewalk sale). Then Nana and Allen go off to do whatever.

Today Allen decided that he couldn't wait in the car while we set up; rather he needed to come in. Nana was bringing in some things from her car, and as she was carrying a box into the shop, she ran into the door. I asked if she was OK, and she replied, "Yes, I'm just an idiot."

A couple minutes later, Allen was running to greet a customer, and tripped and fell on the rug. We asked if he was OK, and he stood up and said, "Yes, I'm an idiot."

Tonight, Brian was watching the Stanley Cup game (yay Penguins), and as the players skated onto the ice, Allen starts yelling, "Go go go go go. Go you idiot!"

Grrreeaaat ...

xoxo,

Cry me a river

We've been seeing a lot of crying lately ... I mean A LOT. Every naptime; every bedtime; every time he has to make a decision on whether or not he wants to go with Nana (not to mention the times when he has no choice but to go with her).


Mom's getting really tired of it. Tonight, I threatened the loss of his "Mommy" story if he didn't change his attitude about bedtime and put his toys away (he was throwing a tantrum). He continued to misbehave so he lost the "mommy" story. I should have known that this was a mistake. I should have known not to mess with his bedtime routine, but I was desperate (you'd understand if you'd been at meeting with us tonight), and I didn't know what else to do.


So anyway ... no "mommy" story. All hell broke loose. Hysterical crying. Kicking. At this point, I was at a loss. I had realized my mistake -- you can't take something away from a child that he comes to expect from a routine. But, he was behaving entirely inappropriately. So, I explained that Mommy made a mistake, but I also explained why I had taken the story away. Once I felt he understood, we read a short story (series of poems to be accurate). Then he cried again because he wanted another story.

This morning he opened the pantry door and saw cookies. I need a "spinkle" cookie. Not until you eat breakfast. Allen, you have to eat real food before you have a cookie.
screaming
rolling around on floor
crying, "I don't want weal food. Just cookies!!"

I stopped arguing with him and went back to eating my breakfast. Finally he came over and ate his eggs. After he was done, he said "I a good boy! I ate weal food. I can have a cookie now!"

Does anyone have any words of wisdom for this stage -- the tantrum stage? The crying. The "I need" stage? I've tried reasoning. I've tried hugging. I usually remain very calm. I speak quietly to him. Do I just have to hold on until it passes? Help, please?!

xoxo,

Bedtime Ritual

So, our bedtime ritual is to read one regular story, one Bible story, say prayers and goodnight to Daddy, and the for Mommy to sing. First, I recite the fruitage of the spirit, then I sing the ABCs, and finally I sing "Life Without End at Last," or as Allen calls it, "Can You See."

This week, Allen has decided that he needs to do it with me. It doesn't happen every night, but probably two or three times, he's joined in. Last night, Daddy was able to get some of it on camera. The sound is bad because we already had our white-noise fan on, but I think it's a beautiful show of Mommy-son bonding anyway. So I wanted to share.

xoxo,

Like Father, Like Son

Dad's been picking his teeth a lot lately ... with toothpicks ... with floss. I don't really know why. Maybe because he finally his first dentist appointment since we moved here. Anyway, Allen saw him the other night, and decided he needed to do the same ...

Gotta love my boys ...

xoxo,

Thank you P

Allen got an awesome package full of presents today, from our dear friend P. P and I have known each other since I was about six-years-old. P is a phenomenal woman who adopted a beautiful baby boy from Russia several years ago. Thanks to P, that little boy (he's now 5) has been given a fabulous life with one of the most wonderful moms ever. She's raising one of the sweetest and most well-behaved and polite children I have ever known. I look up to her; treasure her advice; and pray that we can raise our son as well as she's doing on her own (by the way, she documents life with her son over on this blog.)

While Allen and P have not had the pleasure of meeting in person yet (unless you count my baby shower), Allen has heard about her and her son, and we keep up with each other's lives through the wonderful blogosphere. Evidently P has been paying very close attention to the blog, and collected the following gifts over the past months for my Peanut to enjoy:

• Cars fork, spoon, and bowl
• Cars snack container
• Cars flashlight (perfect since he's afraid of the dark right now)
• Cars shirt
• Disney big boy underpants
• Big boy boxers
• Cars boo-boo gel-pack
• The New Adventures of Curious George book
• Football pajamas

Almost as amazing as the fact that she sent all these awesome gifts to us is the fact that he doesn't have any of these things already (nor has Mom seen any of these things before). Considering Allen's extensive Cars -memorabilia collection, that's a pretty impressive feat.

Anyway ... Mom got caught talking to some neighbors on her way back from picking up the mail, so Daddy had the double-duty of taping the present-opening and helping Allen unwrap. He did a pretty awesome job. Enjoy ... (this video is a little over 3 minutes long).

P, we love you, we miss you, and we can't wait to see ya'll hopefully next spring. Thank you so much for these awesome gifts, and more importantly for the lasting friendship and love.

xoxo,

The Negotiator

My son, the future lawyer. With negotiation skills and charm even the most polished litigators would envy ...

Yesterday morning
We're laying in bed just after waking up. Dad's downstairs procuring breakfast. Allen hugs me, and says:
"True friends eat donuts."
He had me at "true".

Last night
We'd just finished watching Toy Story 2, and it was time for bed. So the negotiating began:
Allen: I need to watch Toy Story again in your bed.
Mom: We're going to go upstairs and read a book and sing in your room, and then go to sleep.
Allen: No no no no no. That's not the choice I want. That's a bad choice. Let's talk about it.
After more back-and-forth, he tried again once we were upstairs: "Let's do something. Let's go in your yoom ..."

And here I am typing this post, as Allen sits between Brian and me in bed, eating jelly beans and watching Finding Nemo. This boy's got skills!

xoxo,