In the blink of an eye

It's funny how our children have those sudden bursts of accomplishment, periods where they seem to learn and grow by leaps and bounds. The growing process in general entails a lot of generation and maturing that goes on unnoticed, even though it's continuous. MR is going through one of these strides right now, he's putting together skills and thoughts that just a week or so before seemed unlikely. Aside from the fact that he is currently growing four (yes four!) new teeth simultaneously, he is throwing new mental and motor skills into the mix. As mentioned before, he is definitely saying dog now. Anytime he see or hears a dog he yells out 'Dah!'. Now today he starting waving, saying what sounds like hi, and while using his 'more' sign he has now started to say the word more (though sporadically).

We recently met up with a friend who hadn't seen MR for several months. She was so in awe of how much boy he was and how little baby. He really is a little boy now, he just has to keep on reminding me.

I'm sure you wanted to know

I've been tagged!

Questions:
1. What were you doing 10 years ago? : Being a 15 year old, I really don't recall what that entailed

2. What are 5 things on your "To Do" list? : Numero uno- Laundry, make hotel reservation for BL's best friend's wedding, find shoes to match the dress I am wearing to said wedding, figure out where all of MR's bottles have disappeared to, wash said bottles (if found)

3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy? (In no specific order) : Cheez-its, string cheese, frozen strawberry fruit bars, guacamole, salt and vinegar chips

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire : put away half (cause I'm boring like that), buy a comfortable (large) new home, take a nice trip... the usual

5. Name some places where you've lived : California, Spain, Washington- the end

6. Name some bad habit you have : I pick at my cuticles, I have done this on and off all my life. It's a nervous (gross) habit.

7. Name some jobs you've had : food server, bank teller, retail sales clerk. All as thrilling as the next.

8. Name those whom you are tagging. (If you want to.)
I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, join in if you feel like it :)

Bubble Bobble

Seriously, how cute is this goober? BL loves to fill MR's bath up as high as (safely) possible, and always makes sure there are lots of bubbles for his boy. Tonight was especially bubbly, as you can tell.

In non-cute picture related news, we have lots going on around here. We have started the liquidation process of our animal stock, which is both very sad and also very relieving. They were our first babies, so it is disappointing that we couldn't see the relationships through, but we also know that this is the beginning of a better path for all of us. One of our dogs has already been placed in a new home with someone who already had a dog of her breed, our other dog is on a waiting list for a shelter. Apparently this is a high volume time of year for shelters. Our kitties too have been taken in.

BL just had a second interview for a promising position with an insurance company. It's a management training position, which would give him exactly the experience he is looking for. Hopefully we will be hearing some good news early next week. Thing good hired thoughts for us.

And finally, me and the mister are going to be flying solo (well as solo as it gets around here) without BL as he is off for his best friend's bachelor party/weekend. So I am looking forward to lots of quality time with the kiddo, though I am sure I will be glad to have the husband back on Sunday.

Things are finally starting to resemble something like normalcy around here.

Wordless Wednesday- Dahg!

*True, this is early again and true there are words where this should be wordless. But, I had to share that I think the kiddo has his first (definite) word: Dog

One quarter

I am officially a quarter of a century old, as of yesterday. Twenty five is not scary to me, it's actually pretty nice. In itself it sounds like a good solid age, and for the place I am in my life twenty five sounds bit more mature than twenty four. Not that I feel more mature, but then that's not that point.

My actual birthday day kind of sucked, which was unfortunate considering how hard BL tried to make it, um, not suck. In truth it really wasn't that bad, it was just one small part that soured the whole day's outlook. Allow me to preface this by saying I have a younger (23) brother who is somewhat lacking in the motivation department. He is still living with my parents, I know I shouldn't throw stones but still- he is here by choice and hasn't left. Ever. He has started and stopped his education with two different colleges and if it weren't for my mom's diligence he would never have graduated high school. Great brother, right? Regardless of his faults, he is still my brother and I want to see him better his life. While we have been living here all under the same roof we have tried to push him to be more interactive (he's a bit of a shut in) and just really make him engage with life. Prior to this we have also encouraged his efforts to move forward with his education, though now it seems he may have been leading us on with his so-called attempt. Now going back to my birthday, we all had plans to go out to lunch for my birthday. This was common knowledge in the house, my brother was aware. Time comes to go and he is nowhere to be seen. The sh*t left twenty minutes prior for no apparent reason, suddenly he had business to attend to. My brother never leaves the house, he has no friends, no job, no outside engagements. He just left because a free lunch on my birthday was too much for him to commit to. This is not unusual behavior for my brother, and I shouldn't have been surprised, but I guess I thought maybe this time it would be different. It left me feeling hurt and embarrassed. Hurt because he dismissed me intentionally. Embarrassed because now I had to go through my day with my family and then BL's family all knowing that this is my relationship with my brother. At least my family expects this, but for BL's family something like this is pretty incomprehensible. It just left me feeling exposed, knowing that this would never have happened to them.

Sorry, I think I rambled a bit there. The point is the whole thing with my brother got under my skin. It plugged in to some deeper issues I have with him and just put me in a dark mood. BL and I did manage to redeem it by getting out for the night and catching a movie (Baby Mama, hilarious!). And today I had a second birthday with his family where I was spoiled rotten with food and gifts (I am going shopping!). So I am feeling better now. The slight is still there, and my "relationship" with my brother has suffered some more damage. Ultimately I came to realize that those who really matter were there for me and made sure I did feel appreciated. I love my family.

Now, the weekend in pictures:

I got to snuggle with this on my big day

Uncle Zach with MR assisting in the sprinkling of my cake

MR took a more hands on approach

Literally

Happy 25 to me, though the cake said 43 (thanks BL)

Wordless Wednesday- So much fun

Erm, not Wednesday...and not a still photo... but I don't think you will be disappointed:)

Baby of the sea

Since coming back to Vancouver we have had the pleasure of far warmer weather than what we had become accustomed to in Spokane. Today and yesterday though were above and beyond, we hit the nineties! This was an entirely new experience for the mister, last summer he was pretty oblivious to the sweltering Spokane heat. Seeing as it's pretty much a rite of passage to own a cheap, plastic kiddie pool at some point before the age of three we decided that today was as good as any bright sunny day and went out to buy one for the MR. Thanks Fred Meyer.

He really enjoyed sitting outside of the pool and sloshing around the contents (sans trunks) and even continued to enjoy the experience one we had (re)pantsed him and plopped him in the water. He crawled around in it and did some cute little splashing, proving yet again that so many children's toys are designed as much for the parents entertainment as for the kid's.

It was great to just relax outside and enjoy the weather and our little kiddo. As MR gets older it's alot of fun to witness these kinds of firsts. Incidentally he had his first taste of Slurpee today as well, he enjoyed the pool much more.

After the pool he spent the rest of the interim before his bedtime lolling around in our laps drinking water. It was a big day for the little guy, I think he and summer will get along just fine though.