Choo Choo Train

Living near a train can be irritating if you trying to get across town and get caught by it or if you live so close to it you hear the horn blowing each and every time it passes.

Fortunately, it's not loud enough to be annoying for us. It is loud enough though to send Ham into a complete frenzy in which he grabs my hand and tries to yank me out the door every time he hears it.

It can be mid-conversation, in the middle of dinner, while reading a story, or in the middle of bath time. It hardly matters. Ham stops what we are doing and we listen to the train with astonishment.

And of course the frenzy begins where Ham attempts to peel us away from the task at hand and launch us into a full-fledge train chase down the street.

It's not happenin'.

Not when he's bathing, not when I'm cooking, not when it's a 100 degrees hot outside.

The one time, we chased the train down and watched the last cart go by, I carried a kicking, screaming Ham home because he wanted to continue to follow the train.

So to keep him happy, I tell him to go see if he can see it through the window.

It feels cruel because I know there is no way he could ever see it from there, but that's the only thing I can come up with for now.

He says, "K!" and takes off for the living room, scales the sofa and smashes his face into the window while he waits in anticipation. Sometimes I wait there with him while it passes and I pretend to be as excited about trains as he is. We sit by the window wondering when it will show up. When it doesn't Ham looks at me and says "All gone choo choo".

When it gets cold outside or I start running marathons, we'll chase that train down I promise.

Wuff you

I planned on organizing my classroom this morning, I even asked my mom if she could watch Ham in the morning so that I could do so in peace. The last time he came with me, he was - at times -  very helpful. But mostly, he was very bored.

Later in the night, I thought better of it and I called my mom to ask her if she would keep him while he napped so that I could spend the whole morning with him. I could always run to school while he slept at her house.

So this morning I woke him early, made a huge breakfast for us, watered the plants and headed to the Children's Museum.

It had been a long while since our last visit.

We shopped in the kiddie supermarket, Ham cooked me brunch in the café, and he made a Father's Day gift for his dad. When we left, he showed little defiance and we headed to the car without any sign of the two year old total meltdown. It was nice.

We talked about all the buses we saw as we strolled down the street. And when one giant truck blocked the sidewalk, Ham yelled at it to "Mof truck!" as if he had some say in where it should be.

It was nice to walk down the same street with Ham that I use to when I worked down there years ago. I remember catching my reflection in the gallery windows as I hurried to grab lunch and staring at my very pregnant belly in those last few weeks of pregnancy.

I hoisted Ham into his seat and started to buckle his straps. While I positioned him in his seat, I told him how proud I was that he didn't cry or scream when we left and that he did a really good job. I told him to give me a kiss before I closed the door. He reached over and planted a kiss on my face and, without hesitation, said, "I wuff you."

"You love me?" I said shocked. He's never said it before.

"I wuff you." He said nodding.

Even though it took him so long to say it and other new words and phrases have come and gone, I'm glad he picked right then to say it the most unsolicited, spur of the moment way, because I knew he meant it.

Frostop

Today, I scheduled two dreaded doctor/dentist appointments for Ham and a trip to the grocery store all in the same day. I figured that all of these situations would be rough because they involved shots, teeth cleaning and a really long grocery list. So I jam packed them all in the same day to get it over with.

Expecting a two year old to behave through all of this is a lot to ask, but I was pretty surprised.

It's only been a recent thing, where Ham shrieks when he doesn't get his way and it doesn't matter where we are. You would think that being the somewhat shy kid that he is, he would avoid making such a statement in public, but on the contrary he's blissfully unaware of everyone who stops what they are doing to stare.

I always act busy like I have no idea that my son's volume has reached an ear drum splitting volume. I calmly scan the shelves like I'm thinking hard about whether we should get organic canned tomatoes or the regular stuff, but I can feel the piercing eyes of those who want me, for the love of Pete, to do something about it. But truth be told, toddlers know they have you hostage when your cart is full and they know there is no real place for time out in a grocery store. It's a hostage situation that can only be remedied with cookie bribery.

Today, when he tried to heave his body out of the cart, I'm ashamed to say I told him that I saw a dog running around the store and we had better go see if we could find it. He sat back in his seat and started looking down the isles. This kept him entertained for quite a while.

The things you do.

But today there were no screams, just lots of bribery and of course the dog search.

The doctor/dentist visits went smoothly too.

At one point as the dentist cleaned his teeth, she remarked at how good and well-behaved he was. "Whatever you are doing, it works," she said.

"Lots of discipline," I said smiling and thinking of the cookies I gave him a few hours before.

We ended the last doctor visit with a shot that Ham barely flinched for.  The doctor led him down the hall for his sticker. She gave him a Thomas the Train sticker and as soon as she handed it to him, he asked for "Another one choo choo". He placed one on each side of his shirt.

On our way home we made a quick stop at Frostop for French fries and Rootbeer float which made Ham so hyped up on sugar that he walked around dancing to the 50's music that was playing with a big grin on his face.

It was the perfect end to a busy day.

Welcome Summer

Summer started in full swing. It's my first summer as a teacher and my first summer without a single class to take. Thank goodness.

It's also a return to my stay-at-home mom days as I get to spend two months home with Ham.

Everything has been going really well.

Our first week off, Ham and I headed to Home Depot to buy eight Purslanes to plant in the pots outside of the house. As Ham napped, I labored away planting each one. I was a little confused because by the time I finished planting them it was late afternoon and all the flowers had shriveled up. I figured that they were in shock. But as it turns out,  Purslanes are gorgeous morning bloomers and anyone who visits are house in the afternoon will have no idea. That's not really what I was going for but oh well.

Purslanes and Hammy in the morning

I also took the time to blow up the pool. It only took me two hours in the blazing hot sun using my dad's air blower thing. When I was finished, I heaved the giant pool across the yard and set in the shade. A few hours later the top half was nearly deflated. Since then I have had to inflate it over and over again and hope that at some point I can find the leak though I doubt I ever will. It's 100% worth it though because for 45 minutes to 2 hours I pretend that I'm cement pool-side with a margarita.

Also, we started the summer reading program which last year, Ham I was required to read 50 books. This week we returned our paper with the first ten books we read. I asked the young girl who was working the desk for the next list of books. She politely told me that because of budget cuts kids are only being asked to read ten books this summer. Really?

Hammy and his cousins at story time

Disclaimer: This picture lasted 5 seconds before Ham pulled me over to sit with him
and proceeded to attempt to kick the child in the red shirt in the face. We timed out in the bathroom.

And finally I decided that THIS would be the summer that I would potty-train Ham. Let me explain how well this is going for us. I tell Ham he needs to go to the bathroom on the potty every thirty minutes. He tells me, "No." I take him to the bathroom, he refuses to go, and he gives me a thorough explanation of what goes in the potty and where that stuff comes out of. He even flips his toy airplane over and show me where "poo poo" comes out of it. I tried to tell him other wise but I give up because he can be so persuasive sometimes. Who's going to argue with someone who firmly believes airplanes poop.

A few days later, I bring him to my mom's house. Periodically, I catch him telling my mom that SHE needs to go the bathroom. He proceeds to take her hand and lead her to the bathroom. Potty-training Maw-Maw is not what I imagined when it came to potty-training Ham.

More summer adventures to come!

 

 

 

The little tree that could

Yes, one more story about the tree.

I can't help but tell you this.

Sometime around Christmas time, it was cold outside - freezing - which is unsually around here. Most of the time it's the beginning of February before the cold weather sets in.

But at any rate, it was supposed to freeze that night, and I was worried my tree wouldn't make it in the cold. Sheesh, I love that tree too much.

So I lugged it inside. Sliding it across the floor, because I was sure I would end up with a hernia if I even tried to pick it up on my own. I set in next to our fake fireplace and stuck a towel underneath to keep the floor from getting wet. But the most important thing, I forgot to do.

So I went to bed and when I woke up, I meandered down the hall. I rubbed my eyes and as my sight adjusted, my eyes rested on one big old Murphy (our cat) chewing the tiny (less than  pinky size) bark of the tree. While I was busy protecting it from the cold, it never occurred to me that the real danger was in our house. I swatted her away and knelt down beside it to carefully examine it.

It didn't look so good. I could see her teeth marks had nearly cut through it, but it was still holding on.

Thank goodness.

I brought it back outside and hoped for the best. That's all you can do anyway.

A few weeks later, as we were sleeping one night, some bad weather hit. The wind blew like crazy, tipping my potted plants over and sending my neighbor's Mardi Gras decorations onto my porch. The next morning, as I bent down to scoop up her wreath, my eyes caught my little tree bent in half. I knew it  would happen at some point. Not to be a half empty glass person. But it was the reality of it. Who can grow an orchid tree in a pot anyway. Especially one that was half-eaten by a cat.

So as bummed as I was about it, I remembered the seeds Bob had given me and decided in the Springtime I would try to plant a new tree.

For weeks I ignored my pitiful little broken tree stump. At some point, I even considered using the pot for something else while I waited to plant a new tree.

But, while I had so easliy given up on the tree, God had not.

He must have known what the tree really meant to me.

Because one day as I carried groceries up the stairs to our porch, I saw something I did not expect at all.

It was so unreal I dropped my groceries down to get a closer look.

And this is what I saw.

The tiniest hint of hope.

Just when I had moved on from, God had started his new plan for the tree, one that I didn't think was possible.

And the stump that was surely a goner, became a thriving tree again.

And that's fine by me, because I look forward to the Spring time days when this tree will bloom flowers like this:



A Week Off

Ham and I thoroughly enjoyed our week long holiday from school.

We went to the park, we threw a super early Mardi Gras Birthday party for Ham, and we took walks around the neighborhood.

I just relaxed which is not an easy thing for me to do.

Ham on the other hand engaged in his new toddler boy behaviors.

He wreaked havoc on the house putting his toys from one end of the house to the other.

He ripped the paint of our cabinets and he colored my sofa, computer and coffee table with a green crayon in a three minutes span.

He pee-peed on his new car potty twice and thankfully did not poop in the tub once this week. 

He poured his cereal on top of himself and he ripped apart one of his books.

He watched America's Funniest Videos and laughed hysterically whenever someone wiped out. 

It was relaxing for him too.

Here's some pictures from the week gone by.

Our Mardi Gras Crew

Maw-Maw and B hanging out on the porch

Hey Mister!

On one of our walks

Church around the corner

Running from Mom

Getting ready to say "Aw Hammy!"

Beaumont days

I find myself reminiscing about our time in Beaumont a lot lately.

Last year, Mr. Yardbird was living in Beaumont for work for 10 months. Almost an entire year.

Ham and I loaded the car up and spent 4 or five days at a time visiting him, in between going to school and taking care of Ham as a stay at home mom.

The trip was never easy and we started making it when Ham was just about 10 months old in January. We loaded the car up, which took forever, and I always managed to forget something important.

Pretty soon, we developed a system and Ham and I became traveling pros. We had a traveling routine that worked with regular stops on the way and variety of toys and snacks to pass the time on the drive there.

During this time, I spent hours catching up with old friends on my bluetooth as I drove. Time I wish I had more of now.

And of course I got to spend a few days with Mr. Yardbird, even if it was only lunch and dinner time.

Ham and I learned how to navigate Beaumont during the day while Mr. Y. worked, and spent most of the day at their mall which reminded me so much of my mall growing up that it felt like I went back in time whenever we went there.

And when Mr. Y could join us at the mall, we would walk over to the furniture store, pretend to be interested in furniture just to grab some of their never ending supply of keurig coffee.

It was good times.

But perhaps some of the best were the times we spent in the hotel, chasing Hammy down the halls. It was in this hotel that Hammy took those first unsteady steps toward his daddy.

It was in that hotel that he started saying his first words "light" and "hot".

It was there that we played hide and seek with Ham, chasing him around the room while he burst into laughter.

And it was there that he learned how to drink out of a straw and use a fork and spoon.

It might not have been an ideal place for firsts, or even an ideal place to be a family, but we made a home there.

And as time went on, we made family with all of the staff and people like us who also were in the business of extended hotel stays. So it wasn't so bad.

This Christmas, our "family" in Beaumont sent us a Christmas card. Every staff member signed it, which really made me smile.

And, it made me kind of miss those days.

Here's some of my favorite pictures from the Beaumont days......

January.....

 

 

Discussing new furniture

 

February....

March....

 

 

May....

 

 

June...

 

August....

 

 

September...