Toddler + Trouble = Mess

What lays before you is a progression.

A progression of trouble. 

This toddler of mine can go from room to room in rapid succession for the sheer art of making a mess.

The living room. He realized he could get into the drawer of the entertainment center.

 Dawson's bedroom. He climbed up on a stool and grabbed the fish food which he proceeded to dump all over Dawson's bed.

From the family room to the kitchen with love, from Evan.. where he didn't play with toys. He just got them all out and scattered them, like wheat being planted in a field.

And then he managed to snag the tongs from the dishwasher. 

While I was grabbing the Desitin, he was grabbing the baby powder. We already know what happens when the baby powder is within his reach. 

 And just the other night he had a whim to help mommy by removing all of the dish towels and dish rags from their drawer and placing them in the kitchen sink.

We certainly haven't forgotten the trouble he gets into in his own bedroom.

In actuality, we are finding that the most troublesome habit he has formed is removing his socks. Especially while he's in the car and it's -10 degrees outside which is precisely what happened the other night when we went out for dinner.

We searched the Jeep inside and out looking for one of the socks he took off. When I could stand it no more due to the lack of heat, I told Jason we had to give up and get inside. Suddenly, I was struck with an idea. And we were able to go in and eat our meal in peace.

Yes. My bright pink glove makes a suitable sock.

Traditions.

 Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving we decorate the house for Christmas.
While other families are out taking advantage of Black Friday sales and come home dead, we choose to spend our day at home blaring Christmas tunes while decorating.
You might remember that last year, we decided it was time to sell our old Christmas tree for a new, taller,  pre-lit tree. This would be our first experience with the new tree, seeing it decorated with all its glory.
I had to work so while I was busy, Jason brought the tree up along with our other decorations and set to work on the painstaking duty of assembling the tree and getting the branches properly placed.
Evan thought it was a good idea to help daddy out.

 Jason hadn't quite finished getting the branches situated and I snapped a quick picture of it. Then I began to wonder. Has any family bought a fake tree and not realized they needed to get the branches all situated and just left the tree straight out of the box with no finagling? Because if so, that's dumb.

During this whole preparation phase, Dawson was getting impatient and was chomping at the bit to decorate the tree. Naturally I had to explain that he comes from a mother and father that are OCD and that means there is a SYSTEM in place.

First, I don my I ♥ Presents socks.

Jason took that picture. Just to keep things real, I'll allow you to view my attempt:

Next, we set up the tables to put the boxes of decorations on to keep our carpet from getting dirty.

 Then we open the boxes and get out the ornaments in a certain order. I like a coordinated tree. OCD. We had to go buy more ornaments since we have a taller tree and therefore we also bought some color coordinated ribbon, icicle ornaments and a new tree topper. All of these items were laid out to go on the tree first. Once those items were applied EVENLY SPACED (that spacial coordination is Jason's problem), then we could move on to the "fun" decorations as we termed them. As you can tell, the tree is the first item to be tackled in our decorating tradition.

Picture of the tree once it was completed. This is after I swept up some of the needles that had fallen off. Speaking of needles, is it just me, or does everyone feel the need to wash your hands 33 times once you've finished decorating your tree due to the grimy residue left on them?  If you were to zoom in on this picture, you might notice that I do not vacuum in a straight line. My OCD has its limits.

Take a guess at how many "JOY" ornaments make their way onto our tree.

Here's a picture of our old tree- 

 followed by a picture of our new tree

I love our new tree, but something seemed off. I couldn't pinpoint the problem though, so we moved on.

Next we put the two snowmen in their appropriate places.

 And then the spoon holder goes in it's spot on the stove. I don't collect snowmen, in case you were wondering. If I could collect anything in the whole wide world, I would collect money. So there you go. A great gift idea for yours truly.

 I then set up the nativity which goes squarely in the middle of the mantle over the fireplace. This usually means their is a trail of Styrofoam from the packaging that sticks to everything and drives me crazy, but such is the way of suffering in order to get baby Jesus where he needs to be. Once I'm finished, Jason gets the stockings hung near the chimney with care. We also have a small tree that sits on the left corner of the fireplace but Jason hasn't gotten that brought up from the basement yet. I think he's afraid Evan will eat it.

 Speaking of Jason, the last item that makes it's way into our tradition and out of its box is this "Welcome" sign that he hangs on the inside handle of our front door. I've tried and failed many times to have him hang it on the outside but he refuses. My only guess is that he wants people to know they are welcome once they've made it in.

This is not a tradition (gasp), but I wanted to get out of the house, so later we went shopping at Ross where Jason found a new tree skirt that perfectly matched our coordinated goodness. When we brought it home and got it arranged just so under the tree, I realized that was the missing item I needed to complete the tree. The other tree skirt matched, but it was too small because it was for our old tree. I feel like I can relate to Monk in this way. If you have never watched the tv show Monk, you will have no idea what I'm talking about.

We end our night of traditions by watching one Christmas movie before bed. It's either Elf or Christmas Story. Then I asked Jason to get one final last picture of our tree.

A Thanksgiving Post

 I made caramel apple cupcakes with salted caramel cream cheese frosting for our Thanksgiving day dessert.
The first batch I made had egg shells in them. A discovery made by Jason when he bit into one to see how it tasted. This is important to know because this set the mood for my Thanksgiving day. Jason and I fought because he wanted me to go ahead and serve up the cupcakes and I was upset and wanted to make a brand new batch. I had to run to the grocery store and get more apples and a box of cake mix, and the store was crowded with people buying items which I imagined was due to all of them suffering the same plight as me and they all had egg shells in their cupcakes. I'm certain of it now that I think about it. You will notice that I am not posting pictures of said cupcakes as it goes against my food picture policy. So unless their is a riot in my comments, don't plan to see them.
Dawson was bored because he just wanted to get on with the day and he wouldn't be quiet while Evan napped which upset me too. So I told Jason I wasn't celebrating Thanksgiving this year and to leave me home to wallow in self pity.
But I was hungry so I celebrated anyway. Celebrate isn't the right word. More like endured.
I tried getting a few pictures of Evan and Dawson.
This one would have been lovely if it wasn't so blurry. Just a testimony to my blurry mood.

One picture was enough for Evan apparently. He decided to jet.

While we finished the preparations for the meal, Evan ran amok on the little fire engine with his big brother "Don-Don" aiding him.

Finally it was time to eat and my attitude melted away with Mia's prayer for our meal which began "Good Jesus"... and then just a bit later as we were sharing our "What are you thankful for" observations it got to Gabbi who immediately busted out with "Jesus". And to think,  I was only thankful for my family and my yoga pants.
My sis-in-law Jenessa, is very modest about her holy family.
After the partaking of the meal together, it was time for our traditional picture taking assembly.
I'm going to guess we won't see a perfect family picture until the children are in middle-school and we can use Christmas presents as a threat.

I wanted a new FB profile picture and thought I should have one taken of Jason and I. Only I don't like my hair.  My friend Ashley might recognize the clothes I'm wearing though.

I'm confident we nailed the perfect family portrait with every single picture sporting one family member not looking at the camera.

I'm distressed by the placing of my left arm which served no purpose.

If you'll pay close attention, you'll spy with your little eye a Mia affectionately giving her big cousin Dawson a tap on the leg and then on the arm. Also, the dog's not ours but I was hoping she would deflect attention from the useless placing of my arm.

Although I deeply missed my Indiana family this year, I still have lots to be thankful for. Like a second batch of cupcakes sans egg shells.

Enunciation: Words and Other Toddler Shenanigans

So Evan is talking now. This is important for many reasons.  One of those reasons being that the more he says, the less he'll whine. That's my theory anyway. And since I made a list at one time of the things Dawson said at this age, I think it's only fair that I have a list for Evan. You know both of my boys are created equal.

1. Momeeeee (accent on the e sound)
2. Dadeeee (accent on the e sound)
3. Bopit. (stop it)
4. I-eeeee (ice, accent on the e sound)
5. Bye-Bye (this is very clearly enunciated.)
6. Cahndy! (candy accent on the "ah" sound)
7. Pee-Boo (Peek-a-boo)
8. Tea-kyou (thank you)
9. Don-Don! (Dawson)
10. Goggy (doggy)
11. jooooo (juice accent on the oooooo)
12. Ya (yeah)
13. Gocky (socky)
14. Doo (shoe)
15. Die (outside -good thing we figured this one out or I'd be traumatized)
16. Uh-Oh (fantastic enunciation on this one)
17. Beep (another astounding rendition of enunciation)

 And,

This is what happens when I let Evan play by himself in his room.

Which of course I don't mind, because he's quiet the entire time.
Let's zoom in:

Hmm. Looks like he nearly got his pants stuffed down the register.



Island Living

We just returned from a glorious vacation in South Padre Island, TX. If you're like me, you had no idea that such an island existed in the U.S. of A. We happened upon it as we badgered people for vacation ideas. It was a perfect vacation spot because it's in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's the off season, so condo rentals were half off. As a matter of fact, I was so excited for this trip that the day before we were ready to leave, I painted my toenails and forgot to paint one toe.

DAY 1:

Up at the butt crack of dawn for Evan's first ride on an airplane. I look like a chipmunk.

 Otherwise...50 snacks, 25 meltdowns and 300 lollipops later, we landed to a 90 degree sunny day at a miniature airport in Brownsville where we grabbed a rental car and headed to the island. 

I like that word. Island.

Speaking of Island....

We arrived at the bridge. We have to watch out for Pelican's (per the sign). PELICANS!

We're just over the bridge and a sign announces our destination:

 We didn't waste time. I mean there are palm trees here. We headed straight to the condo and barged in.

 This is the first view we had upon arrival into the condo:

That picture was taken from the balcony. My hope is that you were able to ignore hairy-chested old man lounging by the pool below. Also, I used dramatic license because technically this is the first view before you get out onto the balcony:

Ahhh. While we're here, let's take a listen, shall we?

Now for the tour of the rest of the condo:

Entryway: Kitchen and living room all in a conglomerated mass.

 The bedroom with the pink bedspread that Dawson threw a fit about because he didn't want to sleep in a bed with a pink bedspread. Oh look! I spy with my little eye an Evan that didn't want to nap and cried his way through it.

The bedroom we kept Dawson from having. You can see that this room has a balcony with a stunning view of the beach. And, more importantly, no pink bedspread.

 This is me. That is my hair deflated by humidity. All of you now know the reason we had to move to humidity-free Colorado. It was all for my hair. 

This is the view from our balcony of our pool. We don't jump from the balcony into the pool because we wouldn't land in water. We'd land on pavement. Although I probably wouldn't use the word land. More like splat.

All of those pictures were taken within mere minutes of arriving. It was time to get to the beach. I couldn't wait to see the reactions from Dawson and Evan since it was their first experience of the ocean. I brought my shark whistle just in case. I would like to point out 2 things first.

1. Because it is the off season, we pretty much had the condo, the pool and the beach all to ourselves.

2. The ocean water was around 80 degrees

I wanted to take a real quick picture outside the door of the condo and you might see a display of annoyance from a certain boy named Dawson because he felt that the 3.2 seconds it would take me to get the picture would waste valuable beach time.

We are about to cross the pier that will lead us to water.

And finally...

THE OCEAN

 I would like to interject here by saying that people who have combovers should consider moving to the beach. It seems to be a permanent and natural occurrence for a combover to occur, as you can plainly see by mine in the picture below.

A nice lady saw us acting like tourists and offered to take our family picture.

If you're my mom and you're reading this: Yes, I did apply sun screen to my feet.

We had dinner out at a seafood place called "Blackbeard's" where I had to shovel in my fried catfish while Evan screamed because he didn't get a nap.

We ended our first night with a moonlight picture of the beach.

The first picture is the one I took which is crap. I call it "moonlight in the raw".

 Jason is the pro and his picture follows. I call his shot "whatever". 

DAY 2:

The second day turned out to be a sunny 94 degree perfect day at the beach.

So we started it off with a sunrise. I took this one from the balcony:

 Jason saw me and took this one. Sometimes he's better than me.

Not long after the sun rose from the east,  I heard Jason yelling at me from the other room: "Honey! Why doesn't Evan have a diaper on?" I came running out of the bedroom and wondered why I on earth I put Evan to bed without a diaper. Was I that tired? Had he learned to take his diapers off? I chased a gleeful, diaper free child through the kitchen and saw that he had a small bulge at the bottom of his pajama pants.

Well would you look at that. A diaper.

I also noticed a stench.

That's not beach sand in his diaper. Is all I'm sayin.

Straight away (that's British talk) we headed for the beach where the boys began the work on a sand castle:

And while they were busy, I went in search of beach creatures where I found him:

Because I'm clever, I named him Sandy. And then I found him:

I named him Sandy as well. So. I guess if I call, they'll probably both come. I went to check on the progress of the sandcastle and found that they finished and went on to play in the beach.

The boy on the left next to Dawson, his name is Logan. I found this out because his family introduced themselves to us yesterday. They are in the room directly above us, and... they are from Castle Rock. Castle Rock is a city only 45 minutes from Colorado Springs and we go shopping there at the outlets which I think is a dumb name for a group of store chains. Other than that, I was quite amazed by the "small world" phenomena.

I had to take this picture of my footprint next to Evan's. For one thing, my print looks like I'm a Sasquatch, but for another, the prints look inverted.

Jason and Evan went exploring.

Doesn't Evan just look like he belongs on the beach?

The afternoon was crouching upon us and Jason set about burying Dawson in the sand while Evan sat upon him and I took a picture of my shadow.

Jason created a sea turtle with a familiar face.

After a short break and a drive to explore the island we went for a late afternoon walk on the beach.

Evan found it intriguing to stick his fingers in the holes made by sand crabs.

Evan can run really fast.

Good Night Day 2.

DAY 3:

This day was overcast and windy so we opted to go to the zoo. The Gladys Porter Zoo which we had all to ourselves. I've never had a zoo all to myself before. It's actually a huge zoo teeming with wildlife and fun things to do. 

 I'm interrupting to show you the car ride to the zoo. Evan tends to make himself at home in rental cars by propping his foot up.

The first thing we noticed is that apparently the sea lions should have had a little performance but we found this guy instead:

 Can anyone tell me, is it normal to put a chicken in a cage with a monkey?

I felt a special connection with this guy. He has hair like mine. Especially now that my hair feels beat up by crashing waves with salt water. I hear ya pal. A little deep conditioning will do you well.

 Aww. It's Evan and I.

 Jason.

 Dawson got to pet his first stingray.

 A nice park centrally located in the zoo.

An aviary where we fed the birds, toppins a bag. (2 snaps and hoo-rah to the person who can tell me what musical I just quoted.)

I hadn't realized yet that Evan was digging in to feed himself. Forget the bird.

 Dawson had a strategy here. He would go in for a sneak attack to pet the dove while I held its attention with a scrumptious paper ramekin of bird goodness.

 Who knows what I was jabbering on about there. But it appears I was mauled by a bird on the left side of my head. I can assure you that I wasn't and that mess is completely natural.

Hmmm. That abruptly ended our zoo trip. We just went back to the condo and thought we could relax until Evan took a spill that landed him smack dab on the pavement nose first.

He got pretty banged up, but after some Motrin and a nap, he perked up and spent the afternoon entertaining himself by coming at me with a broomstick like it was a javelin.

 He got bored with that walked around the condo with a shovel. As you can see, we dressed him up because we headed for dinner at this awesome (voted best on the island several years in a row) Italian restaurant called Gabriella's. Best pizza and pasta I've ever eaten. You will not see pictures of our food posted here because you should all know that's a pet peeve of mine.

 DAY 4:

We got up at sunrise and went for a long walk on the beach and Jason got some pictures of us.

 Then I wanted to try. I give up.

 We spotted a crane.

 The day turned out to be hot and sunny with minimal breeze so we spent a moment in the hot tub and had a picnic at the pool.

Then Evan had an island nap.

 DAY 5:

This day began on the blustery side.

 As a result, we opted to spend our day inside. The first stop was to the Sea Turtle Rescue.

The especially nice thing about the 2 places we visited is that they are paid by donation, with the suggested donation being $3 for adults and $2 for children. Both places are non-profit organizations.

 Don't touch the turtles! They bite. This rescue unit has been on national news and one of the turtles is being featured on PBS coming soon. It's a very small place so I was surprised to hear of it's fame.

The tanks the rescued turtles go into are sponsored by certain individuals. Jason liked this one.

 This turtle's name is Fred and Dawson was allowed to feed him a slice of Romaine lettuce.

Next and final stop: Sea Life Research Center

I want a starfish for a pet. Or a dolphin.

 Hermit crabs seem to have an angry disposition.

 Dawson loves marine life so he was rather enthralled by everything he got to hold. Evan was enthralled with running around wreaking havoc.

We went home and relaxed for a bit, which meant Evan got to have snack in the shower. We're not sure why Evan likes to play in the shower but he stands in there and pushes the sliding doors back and forth for minutes on end.

 We ended the night back at Gabriella's because we liked it so much. Did I tell you that they showed Guys & Dolls? I can totally do the impression of Adelaide.

 DAY 6:

We spent the morning at the beach and left the afternoon for the one thing we were all excited to do: The Dolphin Watch.

Our boat. The blue and white one. Not the one that says "Diver I" which has nothing to do with dolphins.

Look! A pelican! How does he hang onto that sign with his flat webbed feet sideways?

During the first half of the tour, they let down a net and put the catch into a tub to show the children.

 One of the first dolphin sightings. Dawson brought his binoculars. Evan thought the kid next to him was a dolphin.

 Here are 3!

 Toward the end of the tour, we got a great shot of South Padre Island. So Pretty! I felt this place would be particularly suited for Pepsi commercials.

 We ended this day with a sunset dinner at an excellent restaurant called La Hacienda where we got to eat outside.

 And watched the sun set.

LAST DAY (7):

Lost & Found

That night there was a storm that pushed seaweed up onto the shore.

I'm glad we didn't arrive on the first day to this or I would have asked to go to Vegas instead. So we went down to explore and see what manner of treasurers were hidden in the muck. I was hoping for a $100 bill.

Instead, we found:

And how fitting that only a few yards down we found:

 Then I heard Dawson yelling to me about something blah blah and Jason said they found a Portuguese Man-O-War. Venomous sea life! Oooh. I shuddered. Did you shudder?

 We spent the rest of our last day in the pool and packed for home.

I'll leave you with the way we kept Evan entertained in the airport:

Ahh feeling blessed, and happy to be home.