Please don't let my kid be a 'seer'

Last night Dink woke up crying.  I went in and cuddled him for a bit and layed him back down.  He told me he had a bad dream.  Well, this morning, curiosity got the better of me and I asked him what his dream was about....he said 'You."  -__-  ok.  Me.  "What did you dream about me sweetie?" Dink replied (as I was driving)  "I dreamed you got taken away in a fire truck"  Naturally I pulled over and turned to look at him... I told him mommy isn't going to be taken away in a fire truck....or in any vehicle with flashing lights for that matter...at least I sincerely hope not, well, not if I can help it.  (Do sanitoriums use cars with lights for a pickup?) 

We also held Dink's 3rd birthday party this weekend, it was a complete success!!  Close to 10 kids mostly under 4 + punching balloons and whistles = awesome birthday party!!  I had been asking Dink what kind of cake he wanted for about 3 weeks.  He changes his mind like he changes his clothes. Often.  First it was as fire doggy cake (dalmation) then it was a spider man cake (3 days later) then (the next day) a fire man cake, then a week later he wanted a spiderman/fire man cake....okaaaayyy....

Finally 3 days before his birthday party I ask one more time....he decided an elephant cake and now he immediately loves elephants.  Ok, awesome, I can do that!  I did and it turned out awesome!!  we also did some cupcakes with circus peanuts on them.   Worked out teriffically!!!

I also turned Walmart upside down trying to find an elephant stuffed animal.  Finally found one, and got it for him to open, he did, and immediately tossed it to a friends (super adroable) baby girl.  Now he says he loves it, but it's not his, it's the baby's.  But when he thinks I'm not looking, he snuggles with it and kisses it.  (heart melts)

Oh and just for one more added bit of fun to his birthday weekend, our furnace was on life support the day before the party...goodbye budget!  But at least it's feeling much better now.

Hug your kids & don't ever let go.

Today, a 20 year old 'mother' has been arrested for the death of her 13 month old son. 

The story broke yesterday, that a 13 month old had gone missing from his home, less than a mile from my house, and that it was a stranger that had abducted him while his mother and grandmother slept.  About 4 hours later they found a baby's body near a cemetary less than a mile from the house.  It was the abducted baby.  There were stories of a man walking down the road around 12:30 in the afternoon holding a baby in a blue blanket.

In my racing mind it meant there was a child stealer on the loose in my neighborhood.  That made my work day creep by. 

Finally I got off work and sped over to my in-law's house to pick up Dink.  I hugged him for a long, long time with tears welling in my eyes.  All I wanted to do was hold him and never let him go.  He eventually got tired of me squeezing him and starting batting at my head telling me to 'peas put me down mommy'  I did, and went into the bathroom and wiped my eyes, and splashed some water on my face so Dink wouldn't see.

I then drove him home and had the conversation about strangers.  "If anyone you didn't know touched you or tried to take you, you better scream, bite, kick, & hit; as loud and as hard as you can."  I know he didn't fully comprehend the situation, but it made me feel slightly better.

As we got out of the car to walk into the house, it broke my heart to see Dink so excited by the circling news helicopters thrumming right above our house.  Seeing the joy in his eyes, but knowing why they were there.  It was a very bittersweet moment.

I was terrified to let Dink sleep in his room last night.  I felt like I had OCD, I walked through the house checking, and re-checking the windows and doors, over and over again.  I know the liklihood of someone coming into my house last night was slim to none, but I couldn't stop myself from worrying.  There was still no one arrested, and they didn't have any suspects until this morning. So everyone thought the stranger/murderer was still out there. I went to bed, with his video monitor turned way up, so I was sure I could hear every little sound.  It was a rough sleep, but I slept.  Waking every so often, checking the monitor, seeing him sleeping so peacefully in his bed, falling back asleep...repeat.

I woke to the news that the baby's 'Mother' (and I use that term loosely) had been arrested for 1st degree murder.  While it made me sick to think that there are people in the world who could do such a thing to such an innocent baby, in a way I was glad.  Knowing there isn't a strange man creeping into people's houses to get their kids.

I want to take this time to let you know, if you are having a hard time with your child, please, PLEASE call a friend/relative to come take the kid for a little bit until you cool off.  If you decide you no longer want your child, you can take them to a hospital or fire station and drop them off, no questions asked.  There is also a place here in St. Louis called the crisis nursery that will watch them if you have no one else to do it.  Also, if you should have an unfortunate incodent that results in a child's death, just please, call 911 and let them handle it.  You never know if the child's life could be saved, or yours. (I know that last part is a little sketchy, but hopefully you all understand my meaning) And even if they aren't old enough, start teaching them about stranger dangers & what to do.

So please, when you next see them, hug your kids, and never let go. 

I'm back...I was busy...not lazy...well, a little lazy...shut up.

Hola.  How I have missed my bloggity blog!! 

So...Let's see.  Alot has happened in the past week, so forgive me if this is a little off, or jumps around.

Halloween; It was a success, it went exactly as planned!!  Dink was, in fact, the most handsome little fire man ever.  He also got Hubby & I lots of candy!  In case you were wondering we did get the little orange and black peanut butter things made in the mid sixties!  My uber cute story from that night is this; Dink, being a literal minded almost 3 year old, knocked on a door, woman answered, he said "twick or treeeat,"  to which she replied, "Smell my feet!" Well...Dink decided that wouldn't be acceptable and told her "No!  That's stinky!!"  Yes, he got candy from her, and she got a good laugh, as did the rest of us. 

Seeing as I haven't had any cakes to do recently you all get to still hear stories about my kid.  Deal with it, he is adorable, sweet, and funny as hell.

The past week or so, he has been doing really good at waking me up if he has to go potty in the middle of the night, well last night he didn't wake up at all.  Thankfully, this meant I didn't have to either!! I got him up and as I was getting him ready today, I said, "Wow buddy!  You slept like a rock last night!" to which I got the 'look' and he proclaimed "Mommy, (2 year old eyeroll) I am NOT a rock."  Ok, time for me to think of how I'm going to explain this to him. "That was an idiom darling. I meant to tell you that you slept without waking for an extended period of time." That wouldn't work I'm sure, so I had to think of a two year old reply...."You slept like a Dink last night."  to which he replied "YUP!" and then tore off across his room before I was able to hold him down to wrangle him into his Mickey Mouse underoos.

Oh, the Apple Butter Festival...

So Dink and I met my cousin, his wife and daughter at the barn, before we headed down to the festival.  We stopped to feed the horses a few carrots.  Dink was in his stroller (no way was I going to let him walk (me chase him) all day in that size crowd) and we stopped near the pasture and a few of the horses came by to see what noms (that's the dork word for food; Noms) we brought carrots and held our hands out flat and they came and ate a few...Dink wanted to give Johnny one.  Now, Johnny is a HUGE black horse...beautiful...I'm guessing 16-17 hands, but I'm also kind of making that up because I don't know much horse lingo, I also don't know how much a hand is...I'm guessing it's the size of my hand...I also don't know where you measure the hands at...ok....to sum up....Johnny = big black horse.  Well, Dink (still in stroller) was looking/talking to me asking for more carrots....Johnny also wanted more carrots, he poked his GIANT head through the fence and got about 8 inches from Dink's face (the side not facing the horse) you can only imagine the "Holy SHIT" face I got from Dink when he turned back around.  Lets just say it's a good thing I decided to stick a pull up on him before we left.  Because I'm almost positive he peed himself.

Ok, that's all until my kid does something else amazing tonight, to which I will shout it out to you tomorrow!!

Literal Minded People....Like, literally...

I have a friend, we shall call her 'anything but Gidget' ABG for short.  Anyway, ABG and I have some of the most fun conversations because we can both be very literal minded.  For instance I say, "Eww!  I almost stepped on that big ass bug!"  to which ABG replies "Wow!  An ass bug?! I've never seen one of those before! Where is it?" FYI, reading Facebook statuses in the future will never be the same for you.


ABG and I also love to pick on people who often use the word literally when they apparently don't know what the definition of literally is.

Just to clear this up, it is as follows;

literally; in a literal manner or sense; exactly, actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy; The city was literally destroyed.

literal; in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical.

Now that you know the facts, start listening to people talk.  They use this/these words quite frequently in exaggerations. "I literally drank, like, 100 shots of tequila last night."  Really? You did? Literally?  Why are you not dead right now?  Or at least having your stomach pumped?    You should be documented for some scientific study somewhere!

You get the idea.  I just want you all to understand how funny life can be when you just pay attention to the subtleties of the English language.

And just one more musing for today...the word like.

I'm not good at statistics, but I'm going to throw out some random numbers for you right now.  Like is the #1 over used word in the English language for people in the 12-24 age range.  Go to a restaurant and sit near a group of them (kids 12-24) sometime.  If it is an establishment that has a bar, mores the better.  You could easily turn this into a drinking game, that could easily turn into a hospital stay.  If you did 1 shot for every time you heard the word like being used where it doesn't need to be, you would LITERALLY be drunk within 10 minutes.(5 minutes if it's all girls 14-19).

Please don't point anything out to anyone who falls under either of these categories.  I want to have people to point & laugh at in the future.  I thrive on the failings of others.  It's what keeps me going.

Thanks and I'll annoy you more later....with more rantings...

Halloween + toddler = Mom & Dad on a sugar rush

I asked Dink, today, if I could have a piece of his Halloween candy tonight. I was informed I get a single solitary sucker, of his choosing. (insert frowny face here) I don't like suckers, I like chocolate...and Reese's...and Smarties....and Sweet tarts, and even those dumb cheap little black/orange peanut butter chewy things that, more than likely, haven't been made since 1962, but somehow make it in your bag every year. But alas, I get a sucker. Fine with me. You have to sleep sometime! Granted, it probably won't be in the next 3 days or so, considering how much candy we will let you ingest tonight...

I'm also just now thinking about dinner tonight, which will more than likely be candy, because I'm an awesome (lazy) mom like that!

I am literally getting off work, picking him up from the In-Law's. Taking him home, throwing on his fire man costume. Taking him to the neighbor's to trick-or-treat because they spoil him, picking up daddy, driving back to the in-law's, so they can see him in his costume, then driving 20 minutes south to my parent's neighborhood. It's a smallish neighborhood out in the county, I lived there for about 14 years. All the neighbors know me and saw me grow up, and now they are watching my kid grow up. Quaint, nice. We have been going here for all of his Halloween's. Plus, this way I know I don't have to watch out for razor blades and needles or whatever other sadistic, freak things people do now-a-days. This also lets us 'snack' while we walk. (which makes all calories ingested balanced out.....because we walk faster....because of all the sugar...well you understand)

We will finally get home and somehow convince Dink to go to sleep (this is the plan anyway) and then we will dump out and sort his candy into 'Mommy's pile' and 'Daddy's pile' and whatever is left is 'Dink's pile' We are pretty fair, we do give him the candies he likes....like suckers...he gets all the suckers... (also, you may have noticed, I'm not a fan, but whatever, it works out) Especially, because suckers 1.) make everything better (boo boos, owies, etc) and 2.) they give Mommy & Daddy a few minutes of sweet, heavenly silence, excluding strange slurpy sounds from the aforementioned 2 year old.

I may blog later, provided I'm not on a sugar rush, on a ladder cleaning all the windows outside, or mopping the floors by hand....

Until later my ghostie ghouls!

Today was a good day...Pretty much...

Woke up before the kid. Good start. I laid in bed playing Whirly Word and Words With Friends until I heard the ever so sweet words coming over the monitor, "Mommy, I have to pee!!" I sat up, pulled back my hair into the Sunday ponytail, no brush necessary because 1.) i don't care & 2.) screw it, I don't care! I fully intend on not leaving the house today. I was a woman on a mission. Went up and Dink was dry!!! Woo Hoo moment! So he went in and pottied. (TMI I know, but if you are a parent, you understand.) Then I started dinner in the crock pot. Beef stew. Honestly, best stew I ever made! mmm...

Anyway, like the insane person that I am, I decided last week that I would bring in cupcakes (home made-ish) for our Chili Cook Off at work tomorrow....which happens to be Halloween. So as soon as I got dinner going in the crock pot, I found out we only had 2 eggs left...so threw on a bra (you're welcome) and ran to the gas station, picked up a carton of eggs and a 12 pack of Mountain Dew...because I had a feeling it would be needed (I was right btw).

Got home, made 2 batches of vanilla, chocolate chip pancakes for Dink and Hubby. Hubby can eat between 7-10 a sitting...hence the two batches. Since we have eggs, I decided I wanted scrambled eggs and toast. Sat down for 10 minutes to eat. Then made 2 batches of cupcakes (that's 48 for those who don't know) dyed & piped on two different colors of icing. Black & green with orange and black sprinkles. They turned out super cute. Also, a quick FYI plain black gel foodcoloring tastes like buttholes covered in ass (don't know that from experiance,(the ass) but it's probably a safe bet) after washing my mouth out, thoroughly, with a spoonfull of icing, I learned a good lesson *smile* & my tongue is still a little black...

Ok, so, dinner, check. Pancakes, check. Cupcakes, check. Bra, check. This was all before 10:30am.

Then I get a bug up my butt and decided today would be a great day to clean out the clusterfuck of a hall closet. Again refering back to my little ol' house, this closet has several purposes, it's a sliding door closet which holds all our towels (bathroom, kitchen, and beach) our medicine cabinet, our pantry, my cake supplies, all the clean bedsheets, dog supplies, cleaning supplies (vacuum, brooms, furniture polish, toilet bowl cleaner etc) Dink's outdoor toys (sidewalk chalk, bubbles...so many bubbles) and also all our Sam's club toilet paper bricks and paper towel bricks...

In order for me to clean this out I decide a trip to Target is necessary, I need a LARGE rubbermaid tub to hold all of my cake stuff because the 2 little ones I have aren't doing it anymore. I guess it's a good thing I already put a bra on, or this would really suck. So I traipse off to Target (which has been freshly remodeled) it took a minute to find the tubs, but I finally found a big ol' pink one. $10 score!! Enter the fun part...finding a lid that isn't cracked, broken, or otherwise maimed in some freak swordfight or something. Finally find one...not pink....blue....whatever it fits, I have an agenda. Then into line, they have 500 people in line and 3 cashiers. Awesome....so I get in line...daydreams, bacon, starfish, bandaids, la la la....oh...old lady in front of me FINALLY figured out the 'library card isn't my Visa..." problem. Got home, hubby is downstairs letting Dink rock out on his drums (yes he's 2, yes he has drums, yes I should be medicated) So I get started attacking the closet when I hear the drumming stop and hubby yell for me...I run over to the stairs and he hands me a sopping wet two year old. Fantastic. Well it's only 1 accident, not too bad...not completely unexpected. I get him all cleaned up and send him to play in his room. Oblivious that this will not be the last oops today.

I start pulling EVERYTHING out of the closet and fill my hallway and most of my kitchen. Dink is scared I'm going to start vacuuming, that's a WHOLE other can of worms I will open in a different blog day. I assure him I'm not and continue plucking away at the closet. Towels all folded uniformly, fitted sheets all...well...balled up to roughly the same size and stomped flat, cleaners all moved to the top shelf so Dink doesn't think they are juice....etc... throw away a 50 gal trashbag full of crap. Bonus, found my Partylite candles!! Got it all put back together, it's almost like playing Tetris. Whatever, it's done. I don't have to do that again for at least another few months!

Then dinner is ready!! Best stew ever!! Unfortunately I had to eat 1/2 of mine cold. Dink decided he had to pee...in his pants....again...he also decided to take his usual 20 minute time...in which I've already explained what he does...finished a cold dinner...mmmm, kinda. I then remember Halloween is tomorrow & start climbing in the few other closets making sure his costume fits (no time like the day before huh?) it fits! he's going to be the most handsome little firefighter ever. Didn't think about the fact that I would have to convince him to take his costume back off...reasoning + 2 year old = mommy wanting a daquri the size of the coffee table. Convinced him that we still need to carve his 'punkin' and he can't get his costume dirty (WIN!) So we (I) drew the face on his pumpkin and we (I) cut the top off and we (I) pulled out all the 'punkin guts' and we (I) cut out all the pieces and made a 'Fooky Punkin.' He LOVES it and asks me to let him sleep with it....um...no. Then I have the brilliant idea that I want to make pumpkin seeds, not thinking that the seeds are actually attached to the pumpkin....duh. FINALLY got them all seperated, coated in butter and salt & baked. I think I overcooked them a teeny bit, but they were still good. Finally convinced Dink it was time to go to bed, sans pumpkin.

So, sleeping kid = chance to update my bloggy thingy.

Until next time.....

Playoffs, Pachyderms, and Postal Workers

As many of you know, the World Series, game 6, between the Cardinals and Rangers was played last night. Any of you that watched the whole thing will also know, it was one of the best (and worst) games ever played. The first half of the game I watched while muttering streams of expletives under my breath & growing profoundly louder. Example, "son of a bi.....you stupid mother... what the name of sweet baby jesus was that?! IF YOU CALL THE BALL, AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO CATCH IT, INSTEAD OF PLAYING BUMPER PEOPLE WITH YOUR TEAM MATES!!!!" Something along those lines...

The second half was much better, well it was at least a ball game! The guys I assume were told how much they get paid to do what they do, and if they would like to continue seeing those (rediculous) figures, they may want to play like grown men and not like little leaguers at their very first practice.

Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of the Cardinals, but last night almost made me question what was left of my sanity. So back to the second half of the game. It was, in one word....amazing!!!! I thought I would have to locate my husbands emergency inhaler a few times....down to our final strike TWICE and came back to win in 10-9 in the bottom of the 11th. Just amazing! I am hoping that winning it in the 11th was a sign of things to come tonight....Our 11th world series title in 2011.....I don't think it's a coincidence!

GO CARDS!!!!

on to topic # 2 Pachyderms

This morning I woke Dink up and had to coax him out of bed, as usual. There were promises made that I fully intend to keep. He wanted to watch the Cardinals, not that I blame him. That was easy enough, I fully intend on being in my jammies, on my couch, with a fist full of chips and dip at 7:05 (start time for game 7) tonight. Told him, no problem! I also told him that tomorrow we will go see Miss Mary at the barn where Dink's Maw Maw volunteers (www.rideonstl.org) I reccomend checking it out; beautiful land & sweet horses! He was all for that telling me how he will feed the horses carrots (I don't reccomend doing that without permission from the people that run the place) and told him we could.

Now....the fun part. There is a little, tiny, blip of a town south of St. Louis called Kimmswick. I would say it's a one horse town, but as I previously mentioned, there are multiple horses. Every year Kimmswick has two major festivals; The Strawberry festival in the spring, and the Apple Butter festival in the fall. The entire town is transformed into a GIANT craft fair with booths from everything from gourmet dog treats, to hand made purses, soaps, candles to men with chainsaws making custom artwork for your home! There are also some food vendors that I literally wait all year for! One is the pork chop on a stick. It is totally worth the $5. huge drippy wonderful mess. I also saved the best for last, and I'm sure you will agree; Chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick. (Sticks = portable food). uiahOjpahajioj' vmopgj ae[aeior <~~~me wiping drool off my keyboard. Sorry :)

ANYWAY...they also have inflatable slides and a petting zoo, but what Dink really wanted to see was the train. There is a smallish train that drives around the whole lower half of the village (it's too small to be described as a town) and every year Dink has been a little too small to ride it. Well this year I promised him he could ride it...now return to his bedroom where I'm making all the promises...I reminded him that he could go on the train tomorrow (I swear, he loved trains about 8 seconds ago) he looks me dead in the face and says 'NO'....(at this point I'm wondering where the aliens put my real child) I stammer " 'No', what sweetheart?" thinking my plan to get him out of bed and dressed is unfolding rapidly. He said " I don't want to ride the train....How about......." then stares at me...."How about what baby?" he replies, totally confidant that mommy can make this happen..."How about an ELEPHANT!!!"

Ok, I don't know if you know much about St. Louis...or Missouri....or the United States....but there aren't very many elephants available for wonderous two year old's to go trapsing around on. Well, not legally anyway. And from what I know, the zoo frowns upon such things. I am keeping quiet about the elephant, praying he will forget about it by the time I pick him up today...and hopes he will be happy with the train tomorrow! If not I'll just give him a porkchop (sans stick for safety reasons) to gnaw on so he doesn't whine :)

and if you are still here....#3 postal workers....

Short and sweet....at least I'll try to make it so.

My job requires me to get mail from the post office daily. I love doing it, it gets me out into the fresh air for exactly 2 1/2 minutes each day, but it's nice either way, the ladies at the post office have seen me from pre-pregnancy through now...and they ask about Dink on an almost daily basis. There are very nice people there (except one guy who is a total douche waffle, he gets his own special post one day....) anywho...nice people, but some of the people/machines/elves/hampsters of steriods...behind the scenes worry me. I have recieved the same letter 2 days in a row, after giving it to a different post office than the one that gets our mail, and have received it back....now, don't think I'm new at this, I know to scratch off the barcodes/and zip codes etc, that the machine deemed worty to this annoying chunk of mail. There also wasn't any excess of glue, or ripped seams for it to get caught on. The address on there is 1.) no where near where we are, and 2.) looks nothing like anything we usually get. oh and has NOTHING on it that looks like it could even be mistaken for this place. So finally, I just wrote on the front "Try this address!!!" followed by a small arrow to the intended recipiants address. Hopefully I don't see it Monday. But you will, naturally, be told if I do.

Now go rest your eyes weary followers & pray for a Cardinal's victory tonight!