Teething bites.

The poor kid walked around with this hanging out of his mouth for a while one morning this week. He's a trooper.

My winnings

I won this outrageously tacky stunning trophy for my triumph as working woman of the week back in August.

Breathtaking, isn't it?

I know what you're all thinking. "With that beautiful plaque, what more could a girl ask for?" But I also won . . .

. . . $20 to a consignment shop called "Second Time Around,"

. . . $20 to a movie theater. This is the only thing that I was really excited about.

. . . $50 to Dusty's wine cellar. I don't drink wine. Maybe I'll be giving a bottle of wine or two for Christmas gifts this year.

. . . $25 gift certificate to Lansing Urgent Care. If I ever am in need of urgent medical care, I'm not sure I'll be visiting the Urgent Care an hour away.

. . . and a party for 50 people at a place called "Rum Runners." Um, I really don't think that I have 50 friends anymore.

I know I shouldn't complain. I should be happy with my winnings. But all I really wanted was a spa package.

Bruiser

Do you see the smudge of dirt on Jack's right cheek?

It's not dirt. It's a bruise. From running into a chair. It's also the reason (along with the scrapes on his forehead and nose from planting his face into our gravel driveway) that we won't take family pictures this week.

Oh, well. That's life with a toddler.

Who needs pumpkins?

I feel as though I'm shirking some sort of parental responsibility by not taking Jack to a pumpkin patch. Is there any blog-keeping parent out there who has not taken their child to a pumpkin patch/cider mill, or is not planning to sometime before the end of October? I'm pretty sure I'm the only one left. And by glancing at my schedule I can tell you that it's not looking like we'll make it there at all this year.

So, instead of seeing Jack picking apples, sitting on pumpkins or drinking unpasturized cidery goodness, you get to see pictures like this:

Because what he's thinking in this picture is "Who would want to go to a pumpkin patch when they can grill with their dad? In their pajamas?"

It turns out that Gloria Estefan was right . . .

. . . eventually, the rhythm IS going to get you.


The rhythm finally caught up with him . . . from Sara on Vimeo.

Blog-world.

Five reasons I like my blog-world (as opposed to real-world) friend, Nicole:
(Did that just make me sound like one of those people who plays virtual, second-life video games in her spare time? I hope not. Because I don't.)

1. She recently posted about a particular episode of a certain tv show . . . one that my sister and I mock lovingly & religiously.

2. She has three boys . . . if I have more children, I'll be praying for more boys. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure this is why I originally subscribed to her blog.

3. We both have one-year-old's named Jack.

4. We both have fears about being pegged as Chicco's customers.

5. She's sent me several etsy customers and is now giving away one of my cards for her one-year bloggiversary.

Yay!

OH! And I was just reminded of #6 . . . we have a mutual real world friend. Which is how I found her blog in the first place.

Jealous?

This video clip pretty much sums up what I'm doing today. ALL. DAY.


It takes a lot of time! from Somerset Beach on Vimeo.

Oh, and if you find yourself succumbing to worrying about the future (like I have been), maybe this will help.

And if you're still feeling down, look on the bright side . . . at least this didn't happen to you.

In five minutes or less . . .

• Life is busy. It's so trite, but it's never been more true for me. I need sleep. I need a few minutes to unwind. I need rest.
• Things are still pretty busy at camp but I honestly love my job. I love what I do and the people I work with and the One whom I ultimately serve through my work. It's crazy and sometimes stressful, but so, so worth it.
  
• Another giveaway here. If you haven't been on this site, you need to stop by occasionally or subscribe to the feed. I'm not one for wanting tons of free samples sent my way, but this site has saved me A LOT of money. I wish I had taken a picture of my Walmart receipt the week that I whittled $47 down to $6.76 using coupons and tips from this site.
• Rumor has it that a gas station 20 minutes south of us has gas priced at $2.99 a gallon. Just in time for the election? I have no idea if the two could be related . . . I suppose this is just my cynicism coming out.
  
• Card orders have been steady and I really love filling them! I have met some fantastic people doing this. I don't know why I continue to feel so insecure about the whole thing. I have this continual "I'm not very good at this and someday everyone else will realize that, too, and will stop placing orders." Anyway, I want to thank any of you who are sending business my way. I had one client tell me that she heard about me through the maternity ward at a hospital in Victoria, British Columbia! Huh? It seems a nurse on that floor has a daughter who used my services and now passes out my info to new moms. I don't know who you are, but I'm grateful!
  
• My lips have been chapped all day . . . a sure sign that winter is upon us.
• Jack is cutting THREE MOLARS right now . . . which I'm pretty sure is equally painful for everyone living in this household.
• A few minutes ago I was breathing a sigh of relief because I had responded to every message in my inbox and there were no new ones when I pressed "send/receive." However, when I pressed "send/receive" I realized there were 16 messages in my outbox that were still waiting to be sent. Oh well . . . it gave me a nice break here for a few minutes.
• Last week, I tried to send a bulk e-mail to our camp mailing list. Before I did this, I didn't realize that hotmail limits the number of e-mails you can send in a day. At the 178th e-mail in my bulk sending, it quit and shut me down for 24 hours. 24 hours in which I couldn't send e-mail! What a pain! I now have a gmail account in case I again encounter such an emergency.

My time's up . . . but be looking for a video montage of Jack's dance moves that I'll be posting soon!

Dear Jack, Month 16

Dear Jackson,

For your first 15 months of life, I would often jot down little notes along the way so that when it came time to write your letter, I didn't have to recall an entire month in one sitting. I didn't do that this month because, well, life has been too busy. Which is why your letter is three days late. So, my temptation this month is to write:

"You're bigger.
And smarter.
And funnier.
Love, Mama."

Because you did get bigger. Specifically, taller. Pants that fit you in August are too short now. The scale doesn't show that you gained all that much weight, but my arms feel like you did. And you have three molars slowly and painfully pushing their way through your gums . . . which practically makes you a grown man.


And you did get smarter. Your vocabulary is sporadic, but growing. On some days you will clearly verbalize what it is that you want (those days are usually after a good night of sleep). On other days, you revert to grunting and pointing. You're learning to deal with the fact that just because you know how to ask for something doesn't mean you'll always get it. Your two favorite things to ask for are "dide" (to go outside) and "dairs" (to go downstairs). Usually, when we take you one of these two places, you're ready to go back in or back upstairs as soon as we get there. Sometimes I wonder if you're just trying to show off your ability to tell us what you want.


And you're definitely funnier. You are, perhaps, the funniest when you dance. We LOVE to watch you dance. Every time you hear music . . . even faint music from a distance . . . you start bobbing your head up and down and rocking back and forth. If the music's loud, you jump, spin and flap your arms. It seems you've inherited your parents' total lack of rhythm or dancing ability. But you don't care. You just move and you love it. And we love it too. The only thing you like more than dancing is when your dad and I dance with you; though, you will never see any footage of this because your dad and I have made a pact to never to video tape the other dancing with you. On Friday, you were working with dad in the garage and had his ipod. You put the ear bud up to your ear, closed your eyes and started rocking back and forth as if you were "feeling" the beat. You crack me up.



Life is passing us by so quickly and before I know it, you'll be off at college. And instead of jotting down notes for your letter, I'll be jotting down notes of things that I want to ask you or tell you when you call. I know you think I'm exaggerating, but 20 years from now, I'm going to read this letter and say, "It feels like I wrote that just yesterday."

Love,
Mama.

Don't get me wrong

One of the only things that makes the end of summer even remotely palatable is the changing color of the leaves. Don't get me wrong . . . I'd be happier if it were 85 degrees out right now. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't get a little bit of pleasure out of turning the fireplace on this morning. And I guess I did enjoy the cup of hot chocolate that downed a few minutes ago.

I think that fall will always make me think about the time two years ago when I was waiting to find out if I had a viable pregnancy. I was at the end of that journey and at the beginning of another. It seems like that was a lifetime ago. I know it's weird, but I feel like I was so young back then. I'm feeling very sentimental.

Because that kid, who was smaller than a grain of rice two years ago at this time, and was just learning to roll back and forth last year at this time, is running all over the place and is too heavy for me to hold for more than a few minutes at a time.

We are blessed.

Lots of time to think . . .

I got back from TC a few hours ago, and here's the question on my mind:

How many of my friends would I have lost touch with if it weren't for e-mail and social networking sites (like facebook)? Would I use more of my cell phone minutes? Would I be completely friendless? I mean, I've reconnected with a lot of friends through facebook and blogging, but how many of my current friends would be lost if there were no Internet? Even the ones who live close?

Oh, and my two-year bloggiversary (for this blog anyway) was a week or two ago. I guess I missed it. This has been the longest I've kept a blog . . . but in my defense, the other blogs I had were back when no one else had a blog. When I was in junior high, I had a journal on Word Perfect on our computer. I'm pretty sure I kept it saved to a 5" floppy disk. Feeling a little old here. I wonder what ever happened to those journal entries.

Maybe someday I'll open up the vault and post a link to the blog I started when I first graduated from college. Yikes. Maybe I should just post a few selected excerpts from those times instead.

These are just a few of the things that I think about during four-hour car trips.

Anyway, we had a great time but I'm so glad to be back in Internet-land.

On . . .

. . . cleaning.
I just vacuumed, swept and mopped all of the floors upstairs. After I post this I'm going to shampoo our carpets (as much as I can without moving furniture) in a last-ditch effort to clean them of dog pee, vegetable oil and dirt before we decide to tear up the carpet and put down something a little more traffic friendly. I'm still warding off bitterness toward the builder who put WHITE carpet throughout our entire house . . . foyer included.

. . . Jack.
He's sprayed himself in the face twice in 24 hours with the stuff that we use to get up carpet stains. This resulted in me stripping him down, plopping him in the bathtub and dousing his face with as much water as possible. This also means that he probably won't willingly take a bath for about a week. He seems to be doing fine. What kind of mother leaves carpet spray left out where her toddler can reach it . . . TWICE IN A ROW?!

. . . Halloween.
I wasn't going to get Jack a costume last year for Halloween, but I did. I found one on clearance at Old Navy the week before the big day. So, I bought it and didn't think much of it. But everyone else made a huge deal of it and thought it was so funny! I'm not sure what to do this year . . . but I do know that I refuse to pay full price!

. . . vacation.
I'm taking senior pictures near Ludington this weekend, so Kyle and I decided to go up afterwards to visit his grandparents in Traverse City. I'm looking forward to seeing them and to the time away, but I'm not looking forward to having no internet access for three days. I mean, I can handle not checking my e-mail. I like being computer-free every once in a while. But I get all stressed out when I get home and have 300 new e-mails . . . 100 of which end up needing a response. Whew. Deep breaths.

. . . camp.
Everyone always thinks that we "wind down" at camp during this time of year. To be honest, when the summer comes to an end, sometimes I get it stuck in my mind that things will stop being so busy and we'll be able to relax. The truth is, the camp doesn't slow down. And we lose a lot of our summer staff, leaving just the full time staff to take care of things. In some ways, it's actually busier now than it is in the summer. We had three different school groups at camp this week . . . two of which overlapped. I'm tired.

My time is up . . . I'll be back on Wednesday!

Miscellaneous

I'm at home alone (which I'm almost positive has happened less than ten times total since Jack was born) and I'm surrounded by the clutter that has built up in our house throughout this very busy week. I should be cleaning . . .

We sold our old clothes washer and our wine cooler today (yes, two people who don't drink with a pretty expensive wine cooler . . . another story for another time) and the lady who bought it saw Murphy peeking her head through the blinds in our bedroom. We brought Murphy out and the lady mentioned that her friend has a puggle and might be interested in having another so to call her if we ever wanted to get rid of her. Hmmm . . . that's something to think about. I know it's weird, but the thought of giving her up makes me emotional and relieved all at the same time.

Yesterday I caught Jack standing on the couch and pointing at pictures of Kyle and I saying "Mama" and "Daddy" and then chuckling like he had just told a joke. It was precious. I didn't have the video camera, but I was able to get one shot.

It's getting personal

I'm beginning to think Murphy's incontinence has less to do about her ability to control her bladder and is more of a personal issue.

While I was changing Jack's diaper last night, she squatted over my foot and peed on my ankle. I'm so not kidding. My sock and pants were wet. I started scolding her and saying, "NO!" and she started walking and peeing at the same time, making a nice little trail out of Jack's room. Before yesterday, there were two areas of our house that were still unmarked by Murphy . . . Jack's room and the spare bedroom. Now we're down to just the spare bedroom.

Why? Why does she do this? She knows how to ring the bell to go outside when she has to.

When I got home last night, I spilled a little diet coke on the stairs and was cleaning it up and she went down to the landing at the bottom of the stairs a few steps below where I was standing and peed again.

I'm thinking this might be some sort of cry for help.

All-the-time prayers

For about a month now, we've been praying with Jack at bedtime every night. And now, he won't let us forget. He knows to fold his hands, but doesn't quite get the closing his eyes part. Then again, closing your eyes and folding your hands while praying really isn't that important, is it?

But he's started to ask us to pray at other times of the day, too. He'll walk up with clasped hands and ask "Pay?" And we'll sit down with him and tell Jesus that we love him.

I just finished praying with him a few minutes ago and I said, "Jack, did you know that you can pray anytime you want to? Even if mom and dad aren't here! You can even talk to Jesus while you're playing with your toys." I know that he didn't understand what I was saying . . . but somehow I think he gets it better than even I do.