The picture I did take

Mom: "I can't wait to see the pictures of your trip to the zoo!"

Katie: "...we had corn on the cob tonight too! Very entertaining! You took photos right!?"

No, I did not take photos at the zoo. Nor did I take photos of corn on the cob night (which was a hoot). Why? Who knows. Kelly was doing such a great job taking pictures at the zoo I guess I thought I'd just snag some of hers. And I suppose I was busy enjoying my corn, too.

I did, however, take a picture of the big fat split lip FFM received after falling off the porch swing. Poor kiddo. He and dad were hanging out when I heard a thunk and crunch that made my heart stop and leap out of my chest all at the same time. Now, I am the mother of a rather clumsy 20 month old and I'm used to him crashing and bonking in to all manner of things. I'm even used to him getting bloody on a fairly regular basis. But this thunk was BAD. Bone crunching bad. And then there was no noise, which is even WORSE. I dropped what I was doing and dashed for the boys to find a silently screaming, totally bloody FFM and a slightly bewildered looking Travis. Our son took a nose dive and landed flat on his face onto the bricks. It's not the first time he's fallen on his face on the bricks and a mouthful of blood, but it is the first time from any height (oh, and that awful sound when he fell!).

Two ice packs and a quick trip to the after hours GP later and we all were feeling much better. All teeth are fine and accounted for, no strange fluids anywhere they're not supposed to be, and other than several bumps and bruises, scrapes up and down his chin, and a big split in his lower lip, FFM is just fine. He wasn't very hungry for a whole day after his spill, but is right back on track today now that most of the swelling has gone down.

Today the lip has gone from the dark red in the photo to a lovely purply-black color, but is hardly swollen at all. FFM is getting loads of attention, everywhere we go lovely ladies cluck over him and the little charmer is eating it right up.

It's Fat Tuesday

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

It's Mardi Gras and I've been wanting some yankee style food, so I made some muffaletta sandwiches to celebrate the occasion.

yummy. No King Cake, maybe next year.

Pictures of fast moving toddlers are blurry

I took a few photos this week, but after downloading them so many were just pink blurs...obviously I need 1)to learn more about taking pictures 2)more light in the places I take pictures 3)a slower kid.

Although here Mr. Man was pretty slow...but it was quite dim in his room. He's just so cute when he sleeps like this! I finally found a little pillow for him so he can stop piling his blankets/stuffed toys under his head but haven't gotten the pillow case washed yet.

We took the sand out of the sand table this week and filled it up with water and those polymer plant gel crystals. FFM was a little concerned about the polymers, but would gallantly shove my hand into the mix. He eventually got it figured out and then slowly the polymers disintegrated. Then we did plain water, which was a big hit, and he made sure to dump lots onto the bricks to make puddles for his dump truck to drive through.

After water we did shaving cream. I can tell you this is blurry because he was running toward me and I was running away. I'm not entirely sure what to do about shaving cream in a camera so I didn't stick around to find out :) After the slow warm up with the polymers I expected the same with the shaving cream, but he dove right in.

Saturday was a BBQ at a friend's house. It got suspiciously quiet and the hostess and I peeked around the corner to find the two boys (Sam is a bit older than FFM and will be 3 in a couple months) reading each other books.

Today I finished my most recent project, buuuearh. He's so snuggly, and totally overstuffed at the moment per the suggestions I read from other people who have knit the little fellow. Apparently he's quite huggable and overstuffing early keeps him staying nice and plump.

The recipient was thrilled. Yesterday the bear was nearly done and FFM kept lugging the ear-less/eye-less bear around the house saying buuuuuuearh and ruarh! FFM currently loves giving kisses, and here's bear getting a big smack right on the nose.

A growth spurt seems to be on it's way, after finishing his meal FFM tackles whatever edible things are left on the table. Here he is asking nicely for the fruit salad left on Travis' plate (it's a rudimentary "please" that you hear).


I finally caught beepbeep on video. Travis was reading the current favorite car book this morning, FFM was making sound effects, then along came the beepbeep.

Sweet Things

mmm...cupcakes.

Valentine's day is the only time I get to buy sparkly pink dainties for decorating cupcakes. These were the 'rejects' that stayed home from the BBQ on Saturday - the good ones were heart shaped and had better looking frosting.

A group of the older kids decorated Valentine's mailboxes.

FFM was in heaven at the BBQ - the hosts had a yard full of wheeled toys including his all-time favorite...

Sunday morning, french toast day! Beating up some eggs for the batter.

Going out for a ride.

Recently FFM's started asking to color (it's one of his new words) and he'll pull on the desk drawer where his crayons are kept. On days that it's not too hot we hang out in the back courtyard and color some out there, too. We've started drawing around FFM or writing his name and he's really intrigued with the shapes of his legs, feet, or the shapes of the letters that are outlined on the brick.

beepbeep

A few months ago our darling son discovered CARS. Actually, all manner of wheeled transportation but his favorites by far are cars, VERY closely followed by airplanes. One of his consistent words now is car, and given a room full of all manner of toys, he will immediately sniff out any and all cars. Then planes.

After months of listening to brruuuuuuummmmm, vrroooooooommmmmmmn, I taught FFM to say beep beep when his car/truck/plane runs into something (usually my big toe). The last couple of weeks he's really gotten the hang of beep beep and now gives preemptive beep beeps, so I know when my big toe is about to be run into!

Today, sitting in traffic waiting for a red light to change, I heard a noise from the back seat....

'beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.' Apparently the wee one has translated the beep beep idea to non-moving real life cars, too. Laughing out loud I explained we'd get going in a minute, but the rest of the trip the beep beeps continued at every red light.

From one disaster to another

Before the bushfires started, northern Queensland experienced some of the worst floods in history. The rain stopped just as the fires started far to the south in Victoria. A reporter still on that story found this...

Qld flood victims donate to Vic bushfire appeal
By Bruce Atkinson

The clean-up in Ingham begins after one of the worst floods in the region's history.
The flood-affected residents of Ingham in north Queensland are putting their own problems aside the help the victims of the Victorian bushfires.
The clean-up and recovery in Ingham began this morning after one of the worst floods in the region's history. About 200 residents lined up at the community recovery centre this morning to receive financial assistance from the Queensland Government to replace items lost in the floods.
Many of them have lost everything but say their plight is insignificant compared to the loss of life and damage caused by the Victorian bushfires.
Communities Department spokesman Peter McCarthy says many of them are giving their grants to help bushfire victims.
"A lot of people are coming through and while they've suffered loss themselves and are understandably upset at their loss and the damage that their property might have suffered, a lot of them have made comments to our staff that 'we're not as bad off as the poor people in Victoria', 'thank God we're not in Victoria'," he said.
"Some of them have even said that they plan to give some of the money to the Victorian bushfire appeal."
Mr McCarthy says one concerned man in Ingham want his recovery money directly donated to the appeal.
"And he said 'I'm going to give this money straight to the Victorian fire appeal so you may as well write this cheque out to them, not to me'," Mr McCarthy said.

Waxing Philosophic

I've thought a lot today. While I hung laundry in the backyard this evening, listening to strains of Irish music from our backyard neighbor JB O'Reilly's Eating and Drinking Emporium (it was a bit surreal), I thought about the generosity in our world.

I found out today, in a rather roundabout way, that a distant and quite removed cousin just lost her newborn (less than 3 month old) daughter to SIDS. It wrenched out my heart and left me gasping. I still check every night, and probably will for years and years to come, to make sure my son is well in his sleep. Even trying to imagine the grief overwhelms me, living through it would be unbearable. But already the outpouring of love and assistance to my 'cousin' and her family from the rest of my family is trickling through my email inbox...and I'm so far removed from the situation that I'm still not sure how I ended up getting the news so quickly anyway. It warms me to see the love.

I also can't stop thinking about the bushfires in Victoria. I hate the thought of fire. Utter. Destruction. Losing. Everything. I lived in the mountains of Colorado through several hot and dry summers and wondered what I'd do if I ever saw fire. It happened a few years later, my night owl brother was living in the same house and saw flames over the ridge and packed himself and my grandparents into the car and took off. The fires in Victoria are still burning, more than 130 people are dead, and I can tell you it's all over the news, radio, and minds of everyone here. The one bright spot, it seems donations and cash are already rolling in. And people are already out donating blood. One guy had already evacuated, had taken his soon to deliver pregnant wife to the hospital, and decided to stop in and donate blood himself. It's wonderful to see the good. To read some more about what's happening, please click through to the CNN story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/australia.wildfires/index.html

It's not all doom and gloom. This afternoon I prepared an extra dinner to take over to a friend who just had a baby AND anticipates moving away from Australia in less than two months. The baby is tiny and precious, and her big sister is a kick in the pants. The friends are from the UK and after I dropped off the meal (there are several of us doing meals over the next few weeks) I was questioned about the tradition of taking meals to new moms, "Is this an American tradition?" Well, I had to think about that for a second, previously I hadn't thought it was limited to Americans, but I responded that in times of need (birth, death, illness) that yes, Americans take each other meals. It's too bad this tradition isn't universal, but I'm sure glad we were able to provide for our friend and her family during this busy time in their lives.

So, after my brief philosophic moment, I hung the last pair of socks and now will move on with my evening. Travis put F to bed just as I started this post and as soon as I publish I'll pop in and check to make sure all is well :)

Toddler Moment

Having a teething toddler who's pretty sure he knows what's best for him (even though he's not two yet) can often lead to long, frustrating days for both of us. But the days are full of hilarious episodes, too, and I'm putting this one down for posterity because it will make me smile on those days when it's harder to remember...

We're both in the kitchen loading lunch dishes into the dishwasher and I hand FFM some spoons to put into the silverware basket. He likes to put them in handle down, I prefer them bowl down. I take a moment to show him how to turn them around, while saying "See, let's turn it around, F."

He looks at me with total love and understanding in his eyes, smiles at me, gently takes the next spoon from my hand, does two beautiful 360 pirouettes, and places the spoon handle down in the basket.

I fall down on the kitchen floor laughing hysterically at our totally literal son who just turned around and put the spoon in the basket. He responds with kisses and hugs. I love being a mom.

AC

Travis: You've got to see this, F figured out where all that cold air is coming from. Bring the camera.
Me: Really? But he's known about that (portable) AC unit for a while?