Lucky Me & The Little Things

I have a great kid. We have a great kid. Our little stinker is a good boy, he is a polite boy, he is a loving thing, a snuggle bug. We can take him to a restaurant and he behaves like a cute little prince, telling the staff at El Rodeo “gracias amigo!” at the right time, and ordering “can I have eeehm MILK!” when we first sit down. Most people he comes across seem to instantly fall in love with him, or will soon after. He makes us proud.

Having said that I am often floored with how stubborn and dramatic he can be, and what a tough fight he will put up when I am trying to get him to listen to me. More so I am often surprised at how much it just kills me when he does.
We got through the terrible two’s unscathed, dealt with the ‘terrible threes’ when they came up and time-outs were often the charm. But this time apparently the ‘terrible fours’ are right on time, and they are hitting me like a mack truck. As beautiful and sweet as good as he can be, that’s how hard headed he is most often when I ask him to do anything these days. This is especially tough as we are trying to jump that last hurtle of potty training called pooping on the potty. He pees on the potty like it’s his job, but the pooping bit is a BIG stretch at this point. At bedtime today I had the wonderful pleasure of, while pleading with him to please, please stop pulling his underpants which were lugging a big turd off until I had put down the necessary wet wipes to catch the turd, to instead watch him screaming at the top of his lungs while pulling his underpants up his legs anyways (he was laying down) and see the underwear turn inside out while the turd plopped down onto his belly. As if that wasn’t enough he then in the blink of an eye reached for the poop to take it off this gut. Fortunately I was able to snatch the thing up with a wet wipe before he got a good hold of it. Of course in true composed fashion I was squealing like a panicked baby pig through the whole thing, because I was imagining all kinds of landing places for the poop rocket while it was mid air. The belly was still a gross landing platform, but relatively clean compared to the other options.

After the big clean up both me and Nolan were bawling like babies. Him I am sure because the panicked baby pig squealing sound coming out of his mother, and me because well, that’s whats becoming customary these days after the blunt disobedience Nolan shows me. I try so, so hard to be a parent with authority every minute of every day, and Greg backs me at every move, but Nolan seems to think he’s really the one in charge. Which I guess at this point he really is.

We returned to the arboretum again, this time the weather was much more enjoyable. We took the ‘self guided winter tour’ this time and it brought us past many encouraging blossoms and colors. One of the gorgeous plants I saw a ton of different varieties of, but that I’ve never heard of was the Helleborus. I am definitely going to look for those to add to my garden for some great color so early in the year. Another bed of color I want to get my hands on was the carpets of Georgia Blue. the picture doesn’t do the blue justice. Especially against the green-red foliage the blue just popped with such intensity, almost like little flower black-lights. A few others I want to look out for are the Winter Daphne and this great big red woody spiky bush but I totally forgot to look at it’s name tag. Oh well, next trip!

Another batch of vintage wallpaper arrived and I couldn’t be happier! I can not wait to cut these all to pieces and make tons of gorgeous new pendants

I am also cleaning a bunch of 2×2 glass pieces for a new size pendant. Sometimes the wallpaper is just to cool to only be displayed in the sizes I’ve had thus far, so be on the lookout for some beautiful 2 inch square pendants soon!

We were having friends over, and while us adults were having adult conversation and eating adult pizza in the adult living room Nolan and his buddy Jacob were eating their slices at the table. Well, I suppose they were eating, because the pizza eventually dissapeared from their plates, but it was so funny to be in the the next room, because their cute jibber jabber NEVER stopped. Mostly it was just a buzz of high pitched little boy voices, but occasionally I could make things like “I’m a race car Jacob! Hnnnnggggggggggmmmmmm” and “Here Nolan read this!” (Jacob passed Nolan the pizza menu while he said this). It was especially fun to witness this interaction because Nolan and Jacob have know each other since before Nolan turned one, and they’ve ‘hung out’ often socially and at church, but they used to acknowledge each other more by playing along side one another, and occasionally fighting about the same car, so it’s so cute to actually see and hear them have little boy conversations, even though they make no sense what so ever.

Me and the little stinker braved the cold this afternoon to run out to the Arboretum. Nolan LOVED it, he was running around like a puppy noticing “the rocks!” on the paths, and the waterfalls where the “water is splashing!” and then he ran off yelling “I am going to get those little purple birdies” to a cluster of orange birds that quickly flew off at the sight of him. He made it VERY clear he loves to go there and I am expecting many many requests to go back to “take a walk in the garden again?!”, which is good, because I love going there, but I seem to always forget. I need my boy to help me do the fun stuff.

Today me and the boy snuck out at the end of the day and walked through the Arboretum before it closed for the day. The Arboretum= one-of-the-many-places-I-LOVE-to-go-but-always-forget-to. Though this time of the year there’s not much to look at there it’s still a great walk. The most color I saw there today was the beautiful weather vane one the little bathroom house. I can’t wait to go back lots and see things and colors pop up until everything is in full bloom.

I am to tickled I can hardly think straight. I’ve been aware that my first source for vintage wallpaper, which I use aLOT for my little reminders and one of a kind vintage wallpaper pendant necklaces, was running dry and quick! I just bought the last they had last week and got a little worried. These vintage wallpaper products are my best sellers BY. FAR. you see, so I knew I had to look for another source, and I had NO time to waste. Well, I found another source, and did I ever!!

I received my first batch today and I can’t be happier with the variety and the possibilities. Those vintage wallpaper necklaces are going to look better and with more variation than they ever have before. Hurray!

I am to tickled I can hardly think straight. I’ve been aware that my first source for vintage wallpaper, which I use aLOT for my little reminders and one of a kind vintage wallpaper pendant necklaces, was running dry and quick! I just bought the last they had last week and got a little worried. These vintage wallpaper products are my best sellers BY. FAR. you see, so I knew I had to look for another source, and I had NO time to waste. Well, I found another source, and did I ever!!

I received my first batch today and I can’t be happier with the variety and the possibilities. Those vintage wallpaper necklaces are going to look better and with more variation than they ever have before. Hurray!

Yesterday Beppie and Milko got a great phone call from a new lawyer, one of the leading ones in the country as a matter of fact; Mr Jobarteh, and he is going to take their case!
So they went to the court house today without a lawyer (Milko is meeting with the new lawyer later) and asked for an extension and a new court date given the circumstances. The new court date is the 28th of this month and Beppie and Milko are looking forward to two weeks of rest, at least as far as this madhouse is concerned. My mom did tell me that the judge gave them both a helpless look as he gave them the new date, the man just doesn’t know how to deal with this case, Beppie actually feels bad for the guy and the position he is in.

Tomorrow, valentines day, February 14th is Milko’s court date. Beppie and Milko feel strongly about their case, but here are a few facts that make them nervous:

- The judge assigned to this case didn’t want anything to do with the case, but was forced by ‘higher authorities’ (and we all know who that is)

- Even their lawyer, the one who has been helpful up to this point now claims that “he is really actually too busy for their case, and he has no time for it”. so they are now scampering to find another lawyer that has the guts to accompany them in court tomorrow, as if anybody dares take that position.

It’s evident still, and more every day that people are terrified to have anything to do with this case, and we are hoping that this will not cloud their morality when it comes to judging time.

On a lighter note it’s good to know that business is picking back up for their company. The three weeks of events that brought the business to a screeching halt really hurt, and in addition Milko’s arrest also made it into the paper which doesn’t help client confidence, but luckily everybody they talk to has told them they already knew Milko is innocent.