FYI - don't call it an infant rattle. That's actually Peter's wristwatch. He loves mine and always fiddles with it, and when his dad gave him his own today he proudly wore it all day long.So let's see, let's see. You already saw more than enough from the visit with the B-ster and kids. Wanna hear about other fun things going on around here?
I know that I *said* that Pete's birthday invites were almost finished, but alas - when you attempt your own graphic designing (with no prior training), there are bound to be a few... hiccups. Let's just say that Scott took it all in stride and after many many alterations, re-sizing, and several times exporting in different formats: we were able to finish the design successfully. Invitations have now been ordered and should be finished up (and in the mail!) in a week or two. Probably more like two.
.JPG)
Saturday was productive: I embarrassed myself in front of Scott by sobbing uncontrollably while simultaneously doing crafts, learned that I'm on the Liberty Hall Wall of Shame, and tortured my child with guacamole.
Maybe I should start at the beginning.
Early Saturday afternoon Doots and I headed back to KC to pick up Scott... and it started raining as I pulled into a parking space at Paulo's apartment. Blah. We planned on doing some lunch and then shopping at either the Legends or Town Center, but considering both are outdoor malls? Not so much. We just headed back home instead, where later in the day I decided I wanted to rent a couple of movies that evening.
Off we went to find movies. Only, I wanted two in particular (Afghan Star and Dear Zachary), and couldn't find them at any normal rental-type places. We ended up running around high and low looking for them, every time I was denied at another place the more determined I was to find them. I mean hello, this is Lawrence. Independent, critically-acclaimed crap is just up this town's alley. We finally ended up downtown at Liberty Hall's video section. We probably should have headed there first: I used to rent there ALL THE TIME, in fact could not fathom why we stopped going there.
I found the movies in like 2 seconds, then wandered up to the counter wondering just how long, exactly, it had been since I rented there... Well, after much investigation it turns out it had been about 6 years. And the reason was because I had a nice little fine built up, totalling forty-five bucks. Yes. FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS. How does one do that, you may ask? Well, by renting 5 movies, and returning them 3 days late. At $3 per movie per day. Yeah. So needless to say, we opened a new account in Scott's name. And I'm banned from renting on that account. Heh. The nice little hipster at the counter (who probably pitied me because I was tragically unhip and approximately 10 years older than him) told me that if I come in to rent a movie on my birthday, they'll erase all late fees as a birthday gift. I now have a reminder on my calendar to get my butt up there on my birthday.
By the time we found the movies it was too late to start dinner at home. So we headed to a Mexican joint downtown to have dinner. We got margaritas. Margaritas! I forgot how delicious they are, oh yum. For dinner Scott got a pulled pork thing and I, trying to be a good mother, got chicken enchiladas with a guacamole-only topping and rice. Their guac is super-mild, I've had it a thousand times so it would be perfect - I didn't want anything too spicy to share with the babe. He loves all kinds of food, but spicy stuff really gets to him. Kind of a bummer, some babies looooove it, but hey what can you do.
Well, it turns out the chicken in the enchiladas was full of black pepper. While I enjoyed it, it was also a pain to keep wiping the pepper off the chicken to put on Peter's plate for him to eat. So, instead, I fed him a lot of rice and the enchilada-tortilla and a lot a lot A LOT of the guacamole. I know he loves avocados so it was a brainless decision.
At first he was a trooper, he kept eating like there was no problem, but after a bit he started grunting with every bite he jammed in his little mouth. The next thing I knew, his eyes got huge and his mouth was flapping open and closed and arms pumping... The huge group of girls at the table next to us started laughing and very nicely flagged down a waiter for us. I mean, I couldn't exactly give him some margarita, and he already drank his milk... Poor guy was in a bad way, the only thing missing were flames coming out of his mouth and steam out of his ears. The guacamole, it turns out, was chock-ful of jalapeno and was pretty spicy. Oops. Peter drank a whole lotta water the rest of the meal.
So we headed home kinda late, got the baby to bed and settled in to watch our rentals. Both were great, highly recommended. Dear Zachary was so well edited, a fantastic documentary and it really honors a great couple, Kate and David Bagby, who were dealt a couple of heavy blows in life and instead of losing it, worked to make a change. It was also probably the saddest thing I've ever watched, I was pretty much a snotty, ugly-crying mess while I watched it, sitting on the floor and simultaneously worked on some craft stuff for Peter's birthday (I'm a multitasker, what can I say). Awow, I mean every time I thought I was going to be okay and got calmed down, something else happened that made me start sobbing again. I am almost embarrassed at how much it affected me. If you are one of those people like me, you only like to be sad in private, I suggest you still give this film a shot but maybe think about watching it while you are alone...
Mr. Doots is practically a full-blown toddler, minus the walking and talking - he says a few things, and very specifically ('mama' for me and 'om-nom' for food), but he only uses them a few times a day, so yeah take that as you will. It's insane - I've seen all the changes happening and know it's all going on, but when you put them all together, it is crazy how grown your kid suddenly seems.
He understands a lot of what we say, and he'll actually react appropriately to a few learned responses to commands. I know it's very Pavlov's dog-like and not that he has higher learning, but still fun to goof around with it. He'll give kisses when asked, he waves good-bye on command. When you have a child, you learn really quickly what you apparently say a lot: he'll grab on tight when I say "hold on to mama" (as I try to drag 3 bags, my lunch, and a mug of coffee as well as baby out to the car in the mornings). He'll look for people or things when I ask him where they are. So we're cruising right along on schedule to be a toddler soon :)
He's a bit of a tease too. He knows when things bother me, and he'll do them then looks at me just to make sure I just saw that OMG I TOUCHED THE OVEN MOM HAHAHAHAHAHA. Also he knows it grosses me out when he puts my hairbands in his mouth (because I mean, hello. Gross). So when he finds one on the floor, he crawls into the room where I am, plops himself right in my field of vision, and then gives me a grin while shoving about half of it in his mouth. Then he will very loudly start SUCKING ON IT. Sick. He dissolves into giggles when I scold him and pull it out of his mouth.
Also he has a play cell phone (one of my old ones that I still charge up for him). He likes to find the ring tones and play them, then jam out. He's very serious when he does this, no smiling or screwing around I mean hello dancing is serious business yo. It is awesome.
And he crawls. On everything. Drawers, cabinets, furniture, whatever he can reach he tries to scale it. That? Not so awesome.
Finally too, he is starting to grow a bit. His 6-month clothes are starting to get tight, but he's swimming in all the 12-month stuff (he will literally crawl out of those big pants). I think he'll be rocking the onesies and BabyLegs for the next several weeks. But the best part! He's up a shoe size. Or maybe only half a size? He has outgrown is Target and Old Navy size 3s (and the Janie and Jack, but that's no surprise). He's finally into his size 3 Reef and Puma and Gap shoes, however. YAY! He hasn't gone up a (half?) shoe size in like 6 months, so this is a big deal. To me. Yeah. I mean because I've been sitting on those rare gold/black All Stars like, for-evah.
That's pretty much where we stand with everything this week. Hopefully I find enough time in the evenings this week to get a Thursday post up, but can't promise anything. Have a lovely week everyone! See you again soon :)
