When did this happen????

So in the space of a week, all of a sudden, our son has forgotten how to entertain himself. His daddy and I are his universe and all he wants to do is hang with us. Who can blame him? The other day, he was almost literally up my butt. He was walking around behind me holding on to the seat of my pants. He follows me into the bathroom. Any sort of loud or unfamiliar noise scares him. It's weird. He is also talking....a lot. Sometimes I think I understand what he is saying and other times he will basically say an entire paragraph and I have no clue. It's like Russian or that language they speak when you get your toes done. For all I know, he is calling me a looser or quoting Shakespeare. He also has to be constantly entertained. Any trip longer than five minutes in the car now results in a screaming hissy fit. The only thing that calms him down is if I sing Old Macdonald. You would not believe how may different animals I have had to come up with to keep that song going. Do camels make a sound?
All of these things are just another day in this roller coaster called parenthood. When he is happy, I feel like the best mother ever. When he isn't, I think I need to call CPS on myself. It's scary but it's also a great ride!
Tomorrow night we are going to Cleburne for something called the Whistlestop Christmas. There will be a parade and lots of lights. Who knows what joys the night will bring. I will keep you posted.

My main man..

So I just have to brag about my hunka hunka burning love! Both of us are basically useless when it comes to fixing things. It's much easier just to work around something is broken and procrastinate so much you don't even miss it anymore. Take our vegetable sprayer for instance. I used it about a month and a half ago and the thing would not stop spraying. I took it apart trying to fix it and then couldn't get it back together all the way so we just started using the sprayer every time we needed to use the sink. We had to pull the hose out some because if we didn't, we would forget that only the sprayer worked and shoot water across the room. So I went yesterday and bought a new sprayer. I get it home and realize that they are both different and basically give up. I am already having visions of the awesome new faucet I am going to get. I'm thinking of one of those faucets that you can pull out and it becomes the veggie sprayer.
So anyway, my hubby takes a look at it and gets out his tool kit. It takes him awhile because, who are we kidding, we don't use it that often. I am in the living room and I hear him tinkering around in there and don't really think anything of it because, again, WE JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIX THINGS! Well kiss my grits if my macho macho man didn't fix it good as new? He is so cute! He did crush my hopes of a Kohler faucet but I am so proud of him! Now if he could just fix his garage door opener which keeps opening and closing by itself we will be all set!
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Eli is so freaking cool!

So just this weekend, Eli has started really interacting with us. He is going through a growth spurt wants food all the time so he is really wearing out the baby sign language sign for "more". Today he got in Charles' face and kept doing it until he fed him something. The other day he decided his new favorite passtime was to chase the dog around with either the talking lawn mower or the walker toy. I am not sure Zoey thinks this particular interaction is cool or not but it sure if funny to watch. We invented a game called "Leap Eli" where Eli makes a run for us and we sort of do a hurdle over him. This is so fun to him he could keep doing it all day. Tonight when we were at Garden Ridge, he pointed to one of those inflatable monstosities and said "tats peety" which I assume means "that's pretty". This kid is even more entertaining than my Tivo and that is saying a lot. I can't wait to see what he does next!
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A reason for children...

So Daddy stayed home with Eli all day while mean Boss made mommy work. By the time I got home, Daddy needed to be rescued. Eli was cranky. So I decided to take him to our hometown festival in McKinney called "Dickens of a Christmas". They block off the downtown square and have all sorts of activities for adults and children as well as a big giant Christmas tree that they were going to light tonight. I thought the lighting was at 6:30 but it turned out it was at 6:00 and by the time we got there it was already lit. It took forever to park and the streets were pretty crowded. I was beginning to think this was a bad idea and I was starting to get cranky myself. Then I took Eli over to the Christmas tree. I took him out of the stroller and we stood there staring at this beautiful tree with it's colored lights and ornaments. The look on his face took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. I realized that besides being a miracle brought to you by God, children also help you see things differently and with a fresh pair of eyes. Despite how cranky he was or now tired, all of that was forgotten in that one moment with his mommy standing in downtown McKinney the night after Thanksgiving looking at a Christmas tree. He probably won't remember it but I sure will.
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Redneck baby gate..

This is what my husband came up with:

Short people can't help me.....

So I am at my favorite store, Walmart, and I am grocery shopping. (Don't make fun of Walmart! I love that friggin' store. No matter which one I go in I usually have no trouble finding stuff and it is usually cheaper than anywhere else.) I am in the frozen food aisle and I am looking for Michaelina's formed mashed potato and chicken popper meal that Eli loves. Apparently, every little rugrat on the planet loves it too because the only ones left were on the top shelf way in the back. I tried to reach it but, short from me standing on the side of the freezer and risking certain injury, no cigar. So I figure it's the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the store is filled with people and pretty soon someone taller than myself will wander by and I can ask them to help me. So I wait and wait and pretty soon, coming around the corner and heading right for me is.....a midget(or a little person, a dwarf, a person of short stature or someone who is vertically challenged). No matter what you call her, the only way she was reaching that shelf is if she got on my shoulders(okay, I was ready to go and I did consider it for a minute but then decided against it.) So I waited some more. I am not kidding you. I waited about 5 minutes and then finally went to the end of the aisle and grabbed someone to help me. As we got back to the cooler, there was a guy probably 6 1/2' tall getting something from the bottom shelf! Oh hey, let me get that for you. For all I know, you were just waiting for some short person to grab something from the bottom shelf for you so you don't throw your back out. Nice timing Lurch!
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Manners of men and bad mothering

So I have had three experiences in the last two days that lead me to believe that chivalry is dead. I go to Lifetime Fitness to work out and and I have Eli in the stroller because I am about to drop him off at the daycare center. The door opens outward and there was a man coming out of the daycare center as I was going in. So I swing my stroller around because I just know this guy is going to hold the door for me and when I turn back around he has let the door shut and is already sauntering down the hall. I call after him and tell him thanks. No response. Butthead! Then, on my way out, another guy lets the door shut on me. Even though it makes me mad, I just chalk it up to too much testosterone or something somehow must attack the good manner gene. But the same friggin' thing happens when I get to work this morning. I was heading into my corporate office struggling with bags and briefcases and this yahoo doesn't hold the door for me. What is wrong with people? I was raised to say yes sir and yes maam and to give up my seat for old people and to say bless you when you sneeze and excuse me when I burp(or whatever) and most especially, to hold the door for people if they have their hands full. I had a little 6 year old boy hold the door open for me the other day. If he can do it, I am sure the average adult male can be bothered to as well.
On another note...
Parenthood is usually by trial and error. They don't exactly tell you that in the parenting books but I figured it out all by myself. I learned a valuable lesson this evening when I was at home alone with Eli. It was 7:30pm and Charles wasn't home yet. So I decided we would call him and give him a hard time....on speaker phone. Eli heard his father speak and his eyes immediately traveled to the door leading from the garage as if he was just around the corner instead of 30 miles away. When he couldn't find his daddy, he started crying. Very nice, Stacy. Why don't you just shoot his favorite stuffed animal execution style while you are at it? So a word of advice to my loyal readers out there: Do not use the speaker phone on your toddler until you know he understands what it is. After that, I had to give him a bath and put him to bed. Funtime was over. Hopefully mommy won't ruin Thangsgiving and Christmas too. Oh well. Live and learn.
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Rejected....

So Charles came home early today and we decided to go and pick up Eli from daycare together. We parked, went inside and signed him out on the computer, and then went in to his classroom to get him. Now understand that the best part of my day is when I go and pick him up from daycare and he comes towards me with those little arms outstretched and a big smile on his face. I have even seen him knock some little girl out of his way to get to me. Today his father and I walked in together and are standing side by side. He comes towards us, arms outstretched and a big smile on his face and...goes straight into his friggin' daddy's arms. What the H? I carried that child for almost 10 months. I brought him in to this world. Now I am cast aside like yesterday's news. I am trying not to take it personally but it would have been so cool if, given a choice, he would have picked me. Not cool for Charles but cool for me.
I realize something. Eli is fickle. There are some days where Charles will try his best to entertain him(he is, after all, Eli's favorite toy) and he will just cry for me. Is it kind of wrong that something like that makes me feel good? I know he loves us both. It's funny how you can have a crappy day and a smile from your little one can just make everything right.
I guess I will forgive his rejection this time. It's really hard to stay mad at someone with those dimples.
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Sisters Unite!

So what is it about women and their inability to get along? Sometimes a womans first instinct is not to like someone they just met. I love my mom's group I am in and so far, as far as I know, I haven't been on the receiving end of any dislike but I have seen a few catty remarks by a few people and it sort of bugs me. I'm not saying "Can't we just all get along" but can't we at least get to know someone before we decide that we don't like them? Because I tell you, that dislike can spread and before you know it, all of us are uniting and that person is persona non grata. There are just some people who aren't happy unless they are stirring things up. I joined this group to meet people and to make friends, not to intentionally leave anyone out. Come on ladies! Who's with me? Let's channel that negative energy and focus it elsewhere! Hubby's, watch out!
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2nd Time was a Charm...

So I finally decided to make my Louisiana Cream Cheese crab cakes using actual crab this time instead of the imitation. It worked like a charm. With the fake stuff, it looked all stringy and gross and it didn't stick together. This mixed together beautifully. It tasted great! I am set for stardom! I did have to make a small substitution on the sauce because I didn't have any cayenne pepper so I used crushed red pepper instead. I thought it made the sauce too hot but my co-workers thought it was great. Look out Emeril, here I come!
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Method of communication

So yesterday, my corporate office had a halloween shin dig. The kids of employees were invited to come up and go trick or treating. Eli was in his incredible hulk costume and looking cuter than ever and a little girl about his age came up to him dressed as Pochahantas. She walked straight up to him and stuck her finger in his nose. Is this some sort of new way or saying hello? The funny thing was he didn't seem to mind.
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