365 Days Ago

I took a pregnancy test that told me I was pregnant for the 3rd time. This little man is the result of that test. He was the size of a poppyseed then, and now he's growing and laughing and has changed our lives in so many ways.

Benjamin experiments with sublimation. His first science experiment... first of many. When you have a grandpa that's a physics teacher, you'll be subject to such things often. 

We're so thankful for our boys. Andrew who made us parents, and Benjamin who continues to grow and change before our eyes.

Fourth Festivities

We had a pretty full weekend. We celebrated the 4th a bit early and enjoyed a very full day of excitement on Sunday. I realize I'm writing this as we approach another weekend, but I'm just finding the time and energy to do it. 

The day started off with this little boy practicing his mad skills.

We left our house at 10:30 a.m. and decided to park at one of Ray's office buildings and walk to a festival in our town. Because we're residents, we were granted free admittance until 3:00 p.m. We walked in the insane heat (it's been nearing 100 for nearly 2 weeks in the Midwest and miserable) about 1.5 miles to the festival, just to have them tell us a thunderstorm was coming and they shut the festival down. Here we are, stranded about 1.5 miles from the car, hungry, and frustrated that we couldn't get into the festival free. We insisted they stamp our hands (okay, they didn't mind at all) so we could come back later and walked about 1/4 mile down a street with restaurants. Our first choice was a bakery... closed. Second choice was a Mexican restaurant... closed. Finally, the clouds were rolling in and we had no choice but to find some place to wheel our kiddo to so we wouldn't be found unsafe in the middle of a lightning storm.

Enter, diner on the corner. It's just one of those places I don't dare visit. Vegetarians not only don't fare well in joints like this, but the food is just not that good. It's a last resort type of place, or the kind of place you'd only enjoy eating at if you were in high school or college late at night, preferably with a few beers in you.

The waitress came over and every time she did, B would cry.

Currently working on a sweet blowout. Diners make me wanna poo.

In places like this, I'm always stuck ordering the ever-so-exciting, grilled cheese. And I always know I'll be even more lucky if it comes with peelie cheese. I try to compensate by adding a tomato, but that never does much good to mask the questionable texture of the rubbery cheese. And lucky me! My meal also came with a huge bowl of chicken and rice soup that was larger than the sandwich. Because vegetarians like chicken.

Passed this delicious number off to my husband who will eat anything.

Speaking of husband. He was quite excited to tell me (always the optimist) that {lucky me!} since the diner was a new joint we'd never been to, I had one more place to add to my Yelp reviews. And he also added that I had to give them at least 3 stars. Out of five. I think it was the frosted glass and puke pink decor.

After the storm transitioned into a mere drizzle, we scooted out because B had just about enough of that waitress who wanted to consult me about breastfeeding since her daughter just had a baby. Glad to know I'm considered an expert. We headed 1.5 miles back to our car and toured Ray's work. This is his second office and I'd never been inside, as it's just a temporary facility for their overflow. We decided it would be fun to weigh B again since I'd been feeding him on both sides now. There's obviously a margin of error on scales in general and using two different scales adds another margin of error... but it had to be relatively close to accurate because it was a postal scale (also en route from Amazon to the Wilson casa) after all. We stripped the kid down and used a box as a buffer for the baby in the buff. Hah.

Box was .4 lbs making B 12 1/2 lbs (up over 1/2 lb  in 5 days. Booyah)

Then he promptly peed all over Ray. Subtract an ounce. Hah. We then headed to Michael's for some crafty items for our latest project involving a paper mache moose. Stay tuned for that post.

One the way to Michael's. He wouldn't let go of that ball. I recommend it., btw. It was a gift and they're about $4 at Target. While he's becoming excellent at grabbing things lately (on purpose), this is one of those items you can introduce early as a toy because they have so many areas to grasp that it offers a sense of satisfaction. He was getting frustrated with Sophie for awhile. Now she's a friend.

After Michael's, we headed to a birthday party for a couple hours and then headed back to park at Ray's work and walk another 1.5 hours back to the festival. We were determined! If you're keeping track, that's about 7.5 miles in one day of walking in 90+ degree weather. We didn't say we weren't crazy. We met up with some friends at the festival, ate some surprisingly delicious food (my veggie burrito had asparagus in it! amazing!), listened to a few cover bands, and walked around to see the hot air balloons light up before the fireworks started after dark. It was definitely a long night, but B had plenty of naps at {surprisingly} the times he normally takes them at home. I find that he takes even longer naps when we're out and about.

See the name on the balloon? Yeah, me too. <3 <3

What a concept. Not iPhone photos = considerably better quality.

B was SO excited at the fireworks. Every one he would chuckle or make an ohh, ahh sound. Precious. So thankful we have him to share the fun things in life with. So thankful, I don't even have words to express.

We walked back to our car at this point and headed home. It may have been an insanely late night, but for the very first time in his life, B slept 8 hours and 5 minutes straight. He must have been exhausted from all the new excitement. Ray and I both agree that it was probably our favorite family day we've had yet-- aside from his birthday, of course. He was just so excited about life.

Fox Update

They're still inhabiting under our deck and we want them GONE.

I know. Far cry different than when my husband wrote this post a few months ago introducing the wild animals. At first, they were lovely. We enjoyed getting a window into their worlds for a bit, but now the time has come to rid ourselves of the beasts.

Why? Well, turns out foxes are particularly good sharers.

They've tried sharing their animal carcasses (rabbits, squirrels & birds have all been devoured and tails/bones left for us). They've shared their feces all over our deck.

And now? Now they're sharing something that is beyond unacceptable. Fleas. We have no pets, nor have any pets been in this home at all as far as we know. So it's definitely not coming from the inside.

We noticed our first flea the other night and ever since then, we've spotted at least 1-2 each day. Both yesterday and today, I spotted a flea on Benjamin's head! I immediately took action and he was never bit, but honestly. Leave my 4-month old baby alone you stupid little biters!

Not okay. Not okay in the least. There are reasons we don't want pets in our home and that's just one of the many. I lay down on B's bedroom floor to nurse him before naptime and today alone I received two bites. In his bedroom! That's especially the room I'd like to be flea-free, if you ask me. I walked in later and stood around with white socks (practically a bullseye for fleas) to be a martyr and sure enough, a flee jumped on. And sadly, he had no blood inside when I squished his guts to death...so the flea that bit me twice must be still lurking. Disgusting.

Most pet owners treat the actual pet when fleas are an issue. We can't actually do that! The boys went on a field trip last night to Home Depot to find some flea traps. Unfortunately, they didn't sell any. Instead, he came home with this:

It's safe for kids and smells amazing, but I'm not sure it's really going to tackle our issue head-on like we want it to. He also purchased something for under the deck to deter the foxes from staying there, but we'll see how that pans out. We really need to get to the root of the problem and kick those foxes to the curb forest preserve. Problem is, we can't physically remove SIX foxes ourselves. They're wild for crying out loud. We contacted the wildlife center and animal control and all they could tell us were tips on how to get rid of animals but refused to physically relocate them for us. We know other tricks we're planning to try if our first attempt proves unsuccessful.

Also I've officially decided the Midwest is disgusting in the summer. Bugs everywhere. There was some flying beetle in my car earlier that I couldn't rid myself of fast enough. And when I got home and took my hair out of the bun it was in? A beetle fell out of my bun onto the ground. OMG. Just typing that makes me all sick to my stomach.

It's ON. Any suggestions in the flea and/or fox ridding department?

Message for California Grandpa

Mystery Shopper

My fashionable and design-forward friend, Alli, started a fun shopping post on her blog called Mystery Shopper. She went shopping at a store and showed items she saw at the store without releasing the name of the place she was shopping at until the end. And of course it was surprising. While I'm not attempting to create such a series myself, I did take a load of photos out shopping recently of fun items at a reasonable price. And the place isn't all that surprising. Sometimes I just go anywhere to get out of the house with B. And most of the time he's a decent shopper because he likes to be entertained and look around at things. Unless he's hungry and then... sound the alarms... we've got a screamer.

Yay, let's go shopping!

I really love these. A little modern, a little traditional.

Any ideas? I can only think of a bathroom.

This thing was also very cool... but where would it go?

Hang jewelry? Other things?

Let the meltdown begin!

This was quite unique. I love re-purposing the outside, inside. {Notice, the photos continue, just taken at a more rapid pace as a meltdown is being delayed by way of Wubbanub. Thank you, overpriced pacifier-animal. And thank you, Alison, for purchasing it.}

What would you do with this?

This one probably gives it away. I'm loving both the chair and the blue hutch-thing.

So did you guess? HomeGoods. But I don't think anyone was surprised. Like I said... not going to be a regular type of post, but I couldn't resist with all the cute photos and neat home decor items.