His vocabulary just keeps growing!

Little Bit's language devlopment is just growing leaps and bounds. We are also getting better at understanding what he's saying, especially using context to help decode his toddler-speak.

DH (changing Little Bit's diaper): Oooooo!! Stinky diaper!!

Little Bit (questioning whether he has the right word or not): Poo?

DH (LHAO): Yes, poo!

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Another quick scene:

Me (trying to get the breakable pretty out of Little Bit's hands)

DH: Of course he wants it. Mommy wanted it too, but she has a credit card!

The Mommy Track

So, here I am with another of the choices faced by moms who work outside the house. My manager is offering for me to attend/observe a week long training at Kennedy Space Center. I would be coming up to speed, related to becoming a focal for our team on this work. I would love to go observe the training. Seeing astronaut training in person at KSC? Heck, yeah!! But that would mean being away from Little Bit for about 6 days. Before becoming a mom and before marriage, I was all about business trips. I got to travel and stay in hotels and eat out all on work's dime. Plus, I got to participate in usually interesting work. It was great.

Now, though, I can't imagine being away from Little Bit for that many days and nights. He still needs me too much. I need him too much. I need to see him at the end of the day, to hear his laugh, to hug him close.

Last night's "Canterbury's Law" on TV had several scenes of the main character remembering when her son (about 5-7 years old?) disappeared - a mom's worst nightmare. And it was *her* fault, related to work even. (Damn those writers! for playing on a working mother's guilt.) She answered a call from work, looking away from her son playing on the playground. When she finished the call, he was gone, a black van pulling away in the background. The feeling of that scene and its horror haunted me. In last night's dreams, I was, at one point, desperately looking for Little Bit. When I found him, safe with friends, just on the other side of the house, I hugged him tight and kissed his little face.

I want to go to the training for work, but right now, I just *can't*. In the pull between him and work, Little Bit wins.

Check out my cool rides

Awwwww...


Getting a big boy haircut.

Next stop, Hawaii

Happy news, happy news!! We are going to Hawaii for a vacation next month. I happened to be surfing the interweb and found out about some awesome airfare deals (basically half price!). We were planning to go this fall anyway, but we just moved the plans up. I'm a little afraid of the 8 hr plane ride with a toddler, but we will just have to take turns amusing him, walking him up and down the aisle, etc. It's going to be so fun to introduce him to the ocean.

On other news, something I meant to write about and hadn't yet - my doctor had put me on prescription Vitamin D because of the "critically low" levels of Vitamin D in my blood. So far, I have brought my levels up to half (!) what they should be.
My doctor mentioned several other vitamins I'm low on, then (here's the kicker), she said, in passing as we were talking, that I am malnourished. Wow. Nothing like having your doctor call you malnourished to stop you in your tracks. I know I need to eat more healthy food. My body's nutrition has just taken a beating since I've not been eating healthy food much, not taking a multi-vitamin, and still nursing. Now, how stupid do I feel? Little Bit gets all the vitamins first from me; my body keeps the rest (which isn't much right now). How sad is it that I live in America, but I've allowed myself to become malnourished?

Meltdowns and Wildflowers

Little Bit has started having a complete meltdown as opposed to snuggling up to me when he gets home from daycare. He smiles and holds out his arms for me as DH brings him inside the house like usual, but between then and the few seconds it takes for DH to remove his shoes, he just runs "out of good". Lil' Bit throws himself down onto the floor and cries and cries. I ask him if he wants various things to try to find out what's wrong, but he just keeps answering, "No!" I guess he's just tired and overstimulated/overwhelmed from his day. I hope that he starts learning to communicate those feelings soon. It's hard sometimes to see him so overwhelmed and feel powerless to help him.

If he's not too overtired, we can manage to distract him from his meltdown. "Where's your left foot?" I'll ask him. He gleefully holds up a leg, sometimes the correct one, sometimes not. We also discovered that pulling up your shirt and playing your belly like a drum elicits laughs; he will copy you by pulling up his shirt and pounding on his belly. Distraction, distraction, distraction.

On Saturday, DH and I got an afternoon "off". Friends came over for a babysitting playdate. DH and I were going to go to a movie, but couldn't agree on one. Instead, we decided to window shop in old town League City. Before we got there though, we made a quick stop at two children's resale shops. Yes, it was our date time, and we still couldn't get completely away from parenting. *laugh*

League City is very much a small Texas town, even though it's right next to NASA and the big city of Houston. There is a strip of fun little shops in Victorian houses in the old part of town. Browsing the old town shops and buying a few things was wonderfully relaxing. The shops were so *not* child-friendly with all the fascinating and breakable items on every surface. We returned home with our prizes (some yummy Almond Cream coffee and lovely lavender soap for me).

I ordered some Texas/Oklahoma wildflower seeds from Native American seeds. The seeds arrived yesterday. When I told DH that I had gotten several specific kinds of seeds, as well as the "Texas-Oklahoma Native Roadside Mix" of wildflower seeds, he said [thick Southern drawl] "Ah-round he-ah, we call dem weeds." [end thick Southern drawl]

This is an awful lot like work!

It looks like this weekend will have mild weather, so I'm looking forward to doing some more planting, pruning, etc in our yard. Last Saturday, DH , Little Bit, and I met some friends at a nursery. It was gorgeous weather to be outside wandering through rows and rows of bright flowers. Our friends kept an eye on Little Bit so I didn't have to worry about where he was while I picked out plants and flowers for our backyard. Little Bit played "chase me" with them around the rows of plants. He found and lost sticks to poke things with. He jumped up and down. He was a tired, happy little boy by the end of the trip. After we all ate, Little Bit fell asleep on the drive home. I love the sound of his soft snoring.

Then, on Sunday, DH and I worked outside planting and doing yard maintenance. Little Bit kept me company in the backyard. He got to run around, stack and re-stack empty flower pots, paw through the bark mulch, and just generally have fun getting his hands dirty. So, he had a great weekend and so did we.

I'm finding great satisfaction in seeing the colorful flowers I picked out in the backyard - purple, yellow, reddish-pink. I've also got some Texas wildflower seeds on the way through mailorder that I'll throw down around the front trees. I have to keep myself from re-doing all the landscaping *right now* because I'm impatient. But, the costs would really add up. So, for now I need to content myself with what plants I've already bought and what I can grow from seeds (much less expensive than buying 3-gallon grown plants).

In reference to my post title, yes, all the turning over of the flower beds, pulling up dead shrubs, and digging, etc was an awful lot like work, but still fun.

Thursday Ten

1. Dressing an almost 21-month old todder *is* like trying to dress an octopus. I've resorted to bodily holding him down with my leg in full-on WWF* style while putting on his shirt.

Well, it could be World Wildlife Fund style, I guess. WWE for 'rassling just doesn't sound right

2. It's just good time management to go grocery shopping while out together on date night.

3. When a male coworker asks what you have in the bag from the microwave, he doesn't really want to know that you were steam-sterilizing breastpump parts.

4. I don't really remember many childhood nursery songs or have any on CD or Ipod, but Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" is a great substitute. "Sexy Back" is good, too.

5. DVR is a godsend.

6. I went from considering making all his baby food from fresh ingredients (didn't have time to do it anyway) to picking up Happy Meals at McD's for him. It's chicken, right? And if we get the apple slices instead of fries...It's fine. Really.

7. Moving with a toddler means that your house will be unpacked once he's left for college. He needs all our attention when he's awake. When he's asleep, I'm too busy surfing the interWeb making cakes and cookies from scratch to get any boxes unpacked.

8. Rock-paper-scissors is a perfectly fine way to decide who gets up with the oh, man, he's a morning person bouncy toddler and who sleeps in.

9. Once said toddler reaches almost 21 months, he will start to mimic rock-paper-scissors.

10. Running hugs are the awesomest things in the world.