Ham's First Hair Cut

I took the day off from school work to relax, kick back and enjoy some peace and quiet.

And that would be a lovely idea if that's what really happened.

Instead, I took a break from my school work to clean my house, realize my house is infested with tiny ants again like a bad B movie, do the dishes, do the laundry and cook and over salt some black bean soup.

And to top it off, as I was loading the dishwasher, I realized it had been a good five minutes since I had heard a peep from Hammy. Which could only mean one thing.

With one solid leap from the dishwasher to the living room doorway, I locked eyes with one mischievous little Ham sitting on the floor with my coffee cup in one hand and the other hand swashing around in my cold hours-old coffee.

Hours-old coffee that for the record I wasn't finished drinking yet.

I rolled my eyes, grabbed some wet wipes and wiped him down, while he kept saying "Uh Oh!"

Yep uh oh.

While I started wiping down the floor where he seemed to have splashed it all around, I heard the clanging of dishes from the kitchen. I whipped around and looked for Hammy.

Nowhere.

I jumped up to my feet and rushed into the kitchen and there he was UNloading my dishes.

And if that wasn't bad, about fifteen minutes later Ham face planted into the coffee table seconds after I asked him to please for the love of Pete stop whining. He looked up at me distracted, misjudged where his hand should go when leaning on the coffee table and slammed cheek first into the table, which made me feel real bad.

I could have called it a day but I thought that it would be the perfect day to end the long hair mullet madness going on at the nape of Hammy's neck.

So we ventured to Sally's Beauty Supply and we bought an all-in-one cut your kid's hair kit.

Some kids might have done better with a candy distraction but for Ham, I steamed some corn and some peas and had crackers on hand to keep him cooperative.

We also skyped with Mr. Yardbird who had Hammy laughing so hard I wasn't sure I would be able to cut his hair after all.

In the end we made it work and we ended a chaotic day with a semi-decent cheap because it was free haircut.

Here are some before pictures.......

But I don't need a haircut.

 Side view before

So I was really nervous but with Mr. Yardbird there to cheer me on...... 

I realized I was going to do just fine.

So while Ham chatted it up with his dad, I snipped and snipped. 

 While Hammy laughed, I tried to remember what I saw in all the you tube videos I watched.

Almost finished.

And when I was finally done, I chased Ham all through the house, to get at least one picture of the final look.

Chasing him around the house with a broom, except he has the broom.

 More chasing....

Eating the hair water sprayer

Not so bad!

What a day!

Two Peas in a Pod

A few days ago at the last minute, I decided to take Hammy for a stroll. It had been a while, maybe since my last post about spring flowers, since I had done so. It was getting pretty close to sun down so I tried not to waste anytime getting Ham in his stroller.

We decided to take the more scenic route that day, because the tree with the red hairy flowers that overpowered the sidewalk had been trimmed back, so that path was now perfectly clear for us.

Ham was twisting and turning in his seat. He can't ever decide which view is the best.

We turned the corner by the Baptist church and as we walked along I looked over at our favorite tree across the street. On our last walk it was filled with beautiful white flowers. I meant to take a picture of it but the traffic was so bad on St. Joseph day that I decided I should wait.

I really wish I hadn't. Now only a few flowers were left and from what I could tell hundreds of stringy green leaves that I hadn't noticed before. Looking at it now, it reminded me of the aftermath of a party with streamers and decorations thrown about when only two weeks ago it was a well-orchestrated beautiful event.

It was still beautiful to me though.


I wheeled Ham over the curb and across the street, if we only had a little time before the sun set we might as well spend it here.

I pulled Ham's stroller under the branches and I glanced up to pull some flowers down for him. That's when I realized that the green stringy leaves that I saw were not leaves at all. They were pea-pods. Well I guess not real peas but something similar.

I sat down on the concrete sidewalk and showed Ham the pea-pod and how you could peel it open and see the seeds inside. He said "Oh!?" Because it's his go-to word these days.

And all the times we sat at this tree and we looked at its flowers and leaves. All the times we pointed at cardinals and blue-jays that hopped around in its branches, I never realized until that moment why this tree fascinated me. Why it was my favorite stop.

When I looked at that pea-pod in my hand I remembered that my Aunt Carrie must have had a tree near her house that had pea-pods hanging from it too.

I remember showing them to her when I was playing outside.

"That's like us,"she told me. "Two peas in pod."

I never forgot that or what she meant by it. We were different but we shared a bond because we had the same name.

I smiled thinking about her and thinking about what she might think of Hammy if she were alive today. How she would be crazy about him, I just knew it. And I wondered if maybe she was sitting right there with us when we stopped by our favorite tree.


The sun was finally setting and I crossed the street to take Hammy home.

I glanced up at the sky and I saw a silver lining behind our tree. I smiled again thinking about another memory I had of us in the parking lot of the grocery store. I was maybe five years old. I spotted a silver lining in the sky and I pointed up at it. "Carrie Leigh, do you know how special that is?" I shook my head. "That's a sign from God letting you know that your loved ones in heaven are peeping down on you." she said. "I bet it's my mom and my dad, let's wave to them." So the two of us waved to the sky to tell our loved ones not to worry that we were doing just fine.

And as Hammy and I strolled along and looked up at the silver lining in the sky, I told her we were doing just fine, but we sure do miss her.

Naptime

I'm a stay at home mom.

This doesn't mean I watch Ellen or Judge Judy or Price is Right.

I don't make bon bons. I don't eat bon bons.

I don't sit on the sofa. And ninety percent of the time I have not seen my remotes in days. I blame Hammy.

I have my good days and I have my real bad days. Just like everybody else.

And I have my shining moments too.

A few days ago I had a pretty rough morning.

I had been up until three working on school work. In fact, I had been up for most of the past two weeks doing that. I gave up trying to do it when Ham was awake.

And my Kuerig was broken. As it has been for two weeks.

To top it off, my son who has had no teeth for 12 months is now getting all of his teeth.....at the same time. All of them. And they refuse to surface, just the swollen buds of purplish gums is all that I can see and half of a tooth. The same half of a tooth I have been seeing for the past month.

All this causes my son to whine over and over again. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard. And it would be horrible except that in between these whining "my teeth hurt" fits he shots me a devilish smile.

But this morning it was whine after whine and no smiles. I tried everything to get his mind off of it but it was no use. I was tired, I was cranky and all I wanted to do was whine.

Finally it was nap time. I was elated. I finally got Ham to bed and I thought finally I can relax. Catch up on more schoolwork, load the dishwasher.

And thirty minutes into it, I heard the distinct sound of a man yelling at the top of his lungs.

I stood still for a moment and listened. Sure enough I was right.

My neighbor was having some work done on her roof and it sounded like one of the guys was furious with the other guy for something he had done incorrectly on the roof.

After five minutes of constant screaming I started to worry that he would wake Ham. After a few more minutes, that worry turned into anger. If he woke Ham than I would have a teething TIRED baby. And that's the worst.

Then I did something I'm embarrassed about. I threw my shoes on and I went out the door. I walked around the house and I walked right up to two guys on ladders. One of them was still screaming.

And I said. "Listen to Me!" The both turned to me surprised. "My son's in there" I motioned to the house. "I don't know what you are arguing about. I don't know what you are screaming about. But let me tell you something, if you wake my son up, I'm going to be mad. And you don't want to see me mad." They looked at me with mouths hanging open. They nodded in unison. "Thanks." and I waved as I left.

I didn't hear a peep from them for the rest of the day. But one of the guys came over and thanked me and told me that what I said needed to be said which made me feel a little less crazy.

The truth of the matter is you just can't interfere with a mom and nap time.

R E S P E C T

Sometimes I don't know when to keep My. Big. Mouth. Shut.

This is a reoccurring thing for me. It has nothing to do with keeping confidences. That I can do just fine.

I guess, what I mean is not saying anything when I'm mad.

You know how they say count to ten. Well, I have no time for that.

Before I tell you what I did today, I'll paint a bigger picture of myself with an example of this behavior a few years ago.

My husband and I were driving to Sam's. It was your typical Sunday and Mr. Yardbird had been pushing me to get on his Sam's membership.  A membership I didn't end up using for two more years.

He was adamant about it. It just couldn't wait. So off to Sam's we went. I was driving my car and Mr. Yardbird was relaxing in the passenger seat, flipping through my radio stations, which drives me nuts. He finally landed on Aretha Franklin's Respect and I told him to leave it.

And I don't know what came over me but I was singing it and I kind of sat up a little straighter in my seat. I was getting kind of sassy I guess. I don't know, that song will do that to you.

Mr. Yardbird just looked out the window trying his best to ignore me.

I pulled to a four way stop. It was mine turn and just as I was crossing over I noticed that the car to my left didn't look like it was going to stop. And before I could stop myself I pointed my finger, real sassy -like and with the song to back me up I mouthed the words, "You need to stop." But I didn't really just say it plainly, I said it like Aretha would if someone didn't stop at her four way stop.

Oh man.

And just as I finished telling that car it needed to stop. I saw something I had never seen before. The woman, who was driving, leaned forward and........started beating her chest and screaming.

Beating. Her. Chest.

I gulped. My eyes were huge as saucers.

I slowly turned to face forward and I put my weak foot on the accelerator.

What did she do?

She whipped her car around and she started following us. Screaming and yelling....and pointing. Oh, it was very scary.

"What do I do?" I whispered. "What do I do?"

"Oh, had you thought about that?" Mr. Yardbird said flatly. "Did you think that through before you POINTED at her and said stop your car.

I shook my head, "But what now, what do I do now?!" I pleaded.

"You are going to have to get out and fight her." Mr Yardbird said with amusement.

I was not amused.

I couldn't fight her. I couldn't fight anyone. She could have knocked  me to the moon with her pinky. Beat her chest? Who does that?

Instead, I did the only thing I could think of. I circled the parking lot twenty times, until she gave up trying to chase me down. And when I parked, I found a spot a million miles away. And I made Mr. Yardbird wait a good twenty minutes before we ventured out of our parked car.

My Sam's membership? Well I don't think I've ever taken a more terrified picture, which I have to look at every time I hand my membership card to the Sam's door person.

I haven't pointed that pointing finger while driving at anyone since, or any other finger for that matter.

So did I learn my lesson? Almost, but not quite.

I'll post that story tomorrow.

One more to go

A few days ago, Ham and I made the trek over to my school so that I could fill out papers for graduation. Basically, I just needed to sign a few papers to say I had one class left and I was eligible to student teach in the fall. After all of that I could put the old cap and gown on and walk across the stage like I've done twice before.

I never thought that hearing the words graduate and signing a paper would sound so great to me, but it did. This whole process has been anything but an easy one.
Ham should know, he has been right there with me the whole time.

He was in my belly when I sat on the tiny children's chairs while I observed an elementary school the day I went into labor and he was rocking in my mom's arms the week we got home from the hospital when I wrote a fifteen page midterm.

He was in my arms at 2am, at 4am, and at 6am while I fed him, with my Transitions and Students w/Learning Disabilities book propped behind his head and he was cooing in the boppy next to me as I typed up my reflections to articles on children's literacy.

He was learning how to crawl, to stand and to sit back down while I poured all of my energy into a math class from hell and he was crying it out while I sat in his room reading my teaching mathematics text with ear plugs on.

He patiently listened to articles about eduation and paper after paper on theories, methods and best practices. He had little choice in the matter, but he was a good sport about it.

And here we were signing the papers to say just one more round, just one more class.

Yes it was anything but easy, but it was worth it. We made it and survived.

But we would never have made it this far without a husband and a dad who  sacrificed so much to make it a million times easier for us, a family who has pulled through and helped out in every way that they could and God for putting the idea in my head and making it possible by sending the right people along at the just the right time.

Welcome Spring!

I'm going to interrupt my current Mr. Yardbird story to talk about how excited I am about the springtime and plants. All over our neighborhood, flowers are in full bloom. For the first time, I have succeeded at keeping several of my potted plants alive and some in the backyard garden and I think that I might just have my mums totally figured out.

This spring my flowers are going strong. And my ever faithful discount hydrangea plant that I got for a remarkable $5.99 is starting to come back, after it nearly died this winter. Or maybe it was just resting, I don't know. At any rate, fresh new leaves are starting to take form at the base of it and I'm hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this three-year old plant will have it's first flower. It's been through a lot.

Bless this poor plant's heart. I just love it so much. Even if it won't give me flowers.

Here's a glimpse of what spring has brought us.

Our Mums!

Here's what I've gathered about mums:

• You shouldn't over water them---- maybe a few times a week in the fall, winter and spring, maybe every day in the hot summer scorching heat.
• Definitely don't over water them when they are in full bloom in the fall.
• After the flowers die, prune the dead flowers.
• They really like to bloom in the fall, but sometimes sporadically throughout the year.
• Cut them back after the spring time, let the new leaves grow in over the summer and you should get some gorgeous mums just in time for the fall.
• When your mums' flowers die and it's time to put spring plants in the pots, move the mums to a garden, even if your husband tells you, you are crazy for planting dead flowers. You will prove him wrong. Mums always come back.

Our Wisteria that just won't die and a plant I found on the side of the house. No clue what it is.

"Enough with the Flowers, Mom."



How I Met Mr. Yardbird - Part 6

Dear 18+ year old Hammy,

It would have been the worst time for your dad to show up. I was a mess, running around, taking orders, trying to keep my cool with this very demanding table of a million obnoxious people.

My hair was now in a pony tail, my makeup was not what it should have been and the only thing I had going for me was that I didn't look half bad in my work polo, pink pleated skirt and pink kangeroo tennis shoes.

I know what you are thinking, sheesh mom, really? Did I need to know that? Well Ham that outfit is something your dad still talks about to this very day. And if you don't think outfits are important, just ask your Pops what Maw Maw was wearing on thier first blind-date.

My friend who was working with me that night was kind enough to take all of the other tables in my section. And that was really nice of her because I was so busy with the big table that I couldn't tell you who came in or was sitting where in my section.

I was so busy I didn't even notice your dad walked in with his friends and sat right smack dab at one of my tables which was of course next to the chaotic mess of a table I was dealing with.

As the night went on, I finally caught a break from my table. Even though my friend was waiting on my tables, I still felt like I should go around and see how everyone was doing. Like I should explain myself for not waiting on them, even though I'm sure they had no idea or wouldn't have cared either way.

I ran over to one table, smiled and chit-chatted about how busy it was that night and were they doing all right, yada yada yada...

And then I bounced over to the next table of four guys. They were sitting at one of the tables near the windows and I seemed to feel like I had interrupted some sort of debate about something. They all glanced up at me in my nervous state and I quickly started asking them how they were doing, could I get them anything, and I smiled as I made eye contact with each one.

And just as I was about to leave the table, because they all said they were doing fine, didn't need anything, I made eye contact with the last person at the table, sitting right next to me on my left.

It was your dad, Ham.

He smiled at me and I said......"Oh my Gosh!?! HEY!"

It was so embarrassing. It was over the top, it was full of excitement, it was too revealing.

I said 'oh my gosh, hey' like I was seeing my long lost friend. Like I knew this person my whole life and fancy seeing them here.

Oh, brother.

My face turned beet red. And Mr. Yardbird and his friends sort of chuckled a little bit.

And I fled the scene, without saying anything more.

I went back to work and thought, thank God, my friend is waiting on them, because I can't afford to embarrass myself again.

But you know what, Ham, I changed my mind about that.