Hi, my kids’ the biter.

I want a shirt that says that because it’s true.

After biting the lawyers kid every day for a week strait our lovely Ms. Betty had to tell us that she just couldn’t risk Kyle anymore.  Not that I blame her.  I mean, of all the kids to chomp on in the world my kid choose the lawyers kid?  Really?  Of course he does.

Kyle’s biting, obviously, is something that’s a little more than a passing phase of development and both our doctor and the child behaviorist I spoke with at work, hey working at a mental health clinic has to have it’s benefits,   the verdict is he bites because his expressive language isn’t where a 26 month old’s should be.  Jason and I had already have him evaluated to see if there was reason to get him into some sort of program, ironically his first appointment was the Friday after he went Shark Boy at day care.

Our county runs a birth to three program aimed at helping children who have delays prior to them being in the school system.  They consider a child having a speech delay when they have a test score of 25% or lower.  Kyle scored at 27%.  Because he is so border line and because he is acting out they are going to take him into the program, thankfully.  The therapist is confident that he’d be caught up at 3 years old but right now he’s speaking at the level of an 18 to 20 month old.

Oddly he has skills that are way above his age group like the “sh” sound in shoes and the “k” sound.  He also has “color awareness”, as she called it.  Unknown to me that is also something above a 2 year old level.  He’s getting pretty good as recognizing  the letters of the alphabet too, though yesterday he called a “y” “boat”.  Hey you win some you lose some right?

Right now the game plan for him is a summer with grandma and his two oldest cousins during the day and speech therapy every other Friday in the hopes the biting stops.  Ms. Betty has said she’d love to have him back if he’d stop thinking his friends were snacks.  In fact she kept repeating that I should call her first if he stops.  We love Ms. Betty so our goal is that after this summer of intensive work we can call her and ask if she’s got a spot for the fall.

Why I love Holiday weekends

I love long Holiday weekends and it’s not because I don’t have to go to work for three days. It’s because I can accomplish things.

When there are three days when I can take care of the house, play with Kyle and run errands I can actually take a nap and spread the housework love. And hell, I have time for a bath!

And this one was even more productive. Jason’s mom took Kyle over night on New Year’s Eve. I’d love to say we went out and spent the night being crazy and free but I was in bed by 12:30am and slept until 9:30ish. It felt so wonderful to wake up and not feel like I would trade a kidney for another 15 minutes.

Not only did this and last years nominee for Best Mother-in-Law take Private over night but she hung out with him all day. I was able to do laundry, change bedding and clean the kitchen without guilt.

Today started well again. Kyle woke mommy up with kisses and so far I’ve made a pit of turkey noodle soup, cleaned and purged a cabinet and cleaned a counter top. This afternoon Kyle wants to make cookies so the butter is softening.

The older I get the more I understand that there is a lot of joy to be found in just being with no hurry, no pressing needs. I’ve got a little guy dancing to the music with egg and chocolate on his face. It’s not just me showing him new things in life, it’s him reminding me of old thing.

Pumpkin day!

So, in case I forgot to mention, and given it’s been forever and a day, that my father took the muffler off my car, my dad took the muffler off my car.

Mom and dad’s truck has a really nasty habit of not turning over randomly and so dad will often borrow my car to run errands.  I’d rather lend him my car than have to wake Kyle up and go get him when his doesn’t start so it really works out for the best.

Well last week my mom and dad ran to visit a friend out in the country.  Dad’s driven a truck for so long even my Mom Car Sentra is like a “roller skate” to him.  To me it’s a sedan that has no frills and even less thrills.  So there he is, driving along in the dark along a country highway and he hits a dip in the road and the car bottomed out.  My best guess is that he hit at just the right angle that he put enough pressure on the weld that holds my muffler to my exhaust pipe to pop the weld.

I really wasn’t mad and actually a little amused.  My mom kept freaking out and stressing to me that dad hadn’t been driving like a lunatic teenager, I just kept telling her it sorta made up for all those times I’d had to call and say “now, about the car.”  I knew he’d fix it so I wasn’t too worried.  In fact it was drivable so I really wasn’t worried.  In fact, my car mad the really “cool” noise modded cars did.  Well, until Tuesday.  Coming home from work the muffler finally fell off the pipe and the car sounded like a jet engine coming in on emergency approach.  Yep, dad was going to have to fix it quick.

So dad was all set to fix my car today and Jason’s mom (who really, really rocks) took his to the shop to get a tune up and winterized.  Jason’s car got home but I still didn’t have my car.  Turns out the muffler for my car is special order.  Really?!  The muffler for a 2005 Sentra is a special order?!  It’s a fairly popular make and model of car…Really?  Um.  K.

Luckily Jason’s off on vacation so he’s taking me into work Monday and Tuesday morning.  Fingers crossed my car will be mine again on Wednesday.

And given that daddy’s home on vacation Kyle decided today was a great day to get a pumpkin.  Ok, so Jason and I decided that but he went along for the ride.

I’m gonna be honest.  He was not an overly happy camper.  He whined, cried and tried to break free all afternoon.  He just did not want to go along with the plan.  He did end up picking out a really nice pumpkin at The Elegant Farmer, home of the Apple Pie Baked in a Paper Bag, even Bobby Flay had no words for it.  Order it if you can.

Grammie also got his Halloween costume today.  We’re going with penguin.  Daddy loves ’em and so does he.  And all the R2D2 costumes looked like a two year old was not only wearing them but made them.

What a busy week!

It’s finally fall here and I just love fall, it makes me all domestic and stuff.  The last week around the place has been busy.

Last Sunday Jason’s mom took us all to the zoo.  Kyle seemed to enjoy it and we lucked out with him.  He likes to walk and hold your hand and ride in his stroller, not one melt down the whole day.  While many of the animals weren’t all the interesting to him (the people had a lot of appeal though) he did really like the elephants.  I ended up getting one of those plastic ones that you put your money into the machine and it punches out for you.

The Milwaukee County Zoo also has a really neat train that runs around the zoo.  When I was a kid that was the last thing we did for the day and that’s what we did too.  The train he loved.

Monday my dad called me at work and I didn’t fully understand him, I just heard “need car, mom not well, doctor.”  Thankfully I work for a place that actually means it when they say they are family friendly because I didn’t even fully get the words out of my mouth before my boss was telling me just to leave.

It turns out my dad was having a lot of stomach pain and needed to get to the doctor.  My original plan was to pick him up and having him drop me back at work but when he started telling me his feet were numb and his back was bad and that he was in a lot of pain I asked him if he was sure he could drive.  In typical dad he just said that I needed to go back to work.  I pressed him and he just said “well if you don’t have to go back.”  Yeah, that’s dad speak for “I really shouldn’t be driving, can you help.”

Karen took Kyle for the night, her new A/C and heating unit was being installed Tuesday so she was going to have a Kyle day, and I spent the next few hours taking my dad from the doctor to the hospital for tests.  All I can say is St. Luke’s once again did nothing to impress me at all.  I’m so unimpressed by the hospitals around me I’m tempted to move back into Waukesha County again.
At any rate, dad’s doing ok, though they are still not 100% sure what’s causing the issues.  Fact is, he’s had them for years but over the last 12 months he’s only getting worse.  Scares the hell outta me, I even joked with him that he couldn’t die because then mom would have to live with me.  Between her MS and now having a total knee replacement on October 14th and his GI issues it’s hard not to worry.

Friday Jason, Kyle and I went to meet Ms. Betty to see if she was a good fit to watch him 3 days a week.  Her living room is full of cars, trucks and trains.  Kyle was pissed when it was time to leave.  Betty has three children, two grown and one 15 year old at home.  He came out and started playing with Kyle, it was even sweeter when he heard Kyle fuss because we’d taken away a toy and came around a corner to make sure he was ok.

Two family’s Betty has worked with or is currently working with, are in CPS.  Two license foster homes and one licenses day cares.  If that doesn’t make you feel a little more comfortable I don’t know what will.  She was genuinely excited when I called her Saturday night and asked all sorts of questions about what Kyle likes and who the little dude is.

I’ve also been indulging in home making.  I have a little pillow that’s the perfect size for a toddler, that is encased in plastic.  Of course you can’t find pillow cases to fit so I made 3, with a 4th getting there.  I found I actually liked sewing better than I remembered.  Of course, I’m not all that great at it, but it was still nice to make something just for Kyle from his mommy.

Thursday I made Breakfast Cookies .  Some mornings it’s just plain hard to get something together for him while getting myself ready and these seemed way more healthy than store bought bars.  Also a hell of a lot cheaper.  They’re pretty darn easy, though the dough is sticky so I used gloves while rolling them out.

Saturday Kyle and I made Lemon Ricotta Cookies.  He had fun sticking his hand in flour and watching the beaters of my mixer.  In fact, he got mad because I put him back in the living room while I was putting the cookies on the cookie sheet and into the oven.  He really, really, wanted to see what I was doing.  Kyle really likes puttering in the kitchen with me while I cook.  I give him a big plastic spoon and an old coffee can and he’ll ‘mix’ while I cook.  When he’s bored with that he’ll come over to the computer.  Yeah, I know.

After he went to bed I made meatballs for meatball subs this week while talking to Betty on the phone.  You gotta love Bluetooth there.  It’s a weird feeling having a phone conversion while you’re up to your elbows in meat.  In my continuing efforts to try and get more veggies in all of our diets I put some carrots in the mix.  I’ve done it before and it honestly doesn’t change the taste, except to make them a tad sweeter.

Tonight I made chicken pot pie, and crunchy chicken fingers.  The chicken fingers I par-fried and will finish them in the oven this week when we have them for dinner.

Kyle also went to grandma and grandpa’s today for a little of the Packer game.  Dad is really hopeful Kyle will take after him and not his daddy when it comes to the Pack but he’s happy just to have a little guy to watch the game with.

So that’s about it.  Life around my place.  Exciting no?

Why these teeth?

Ok, I’m a lucky mommy.  Kyle started teething at around three months.  The first two weren’t that bad, some drooling, a tiny fever and hardly much fuss.  After that we’d just notice he had new teeth.  No muss, no fuss, no horror stories.  Hell, even his molars were easy sauce.  But his two bottom eye teeth are causing muss and fuss.  He’s not napping, he’s fussy and just a plain bear with them.  Why those two teeth?

A wish come true!

Yesterday Kyle and I packed up the car and drove out to visit Aunt Val’s.  Thursday was Libby’s first birthday and Val and Steph had a few people over to wish her well.  Not that she really noticed except people were gushing over her and giving her all sorts of attention and what 1 year old can hate that?

As I pulled out on the road I threw in the Kids Bop CD that we’d gotten from McDonald’s.  I honestly dislike a lot of today’s bubblegum pop and intensely dislike it sung by kids and done in a weird make your own CD at the mall sort of way.  But I figured it’s geared for kids right, and Kyle is starting to like music.  His reaction was to stare out the window in boredom and since he wasn’t digging it I flipped it off and turned on the radio.  Offspring’s Keep ’em Separated was on and in the mirror I have to see him while I’m driving I watched as he started to bogey in his seat, then he started to ‘sing’ along.

Be still my heart, is he digging Alt Rock?  Joy!  When that song was over I switched to another station, This time Queen’s We are the Champion’s was playing.  The.  Same.  Reaction.  My year and a half year old has good taste in music!  I mean, he still digs Backyardagain’s tunes but, holy moley he likes actual music!  The more guitar the better to his mind.

Next up we’ll try some Skynard.

I’ve lost the card

Last night Jason’s mom took Kyle over night.  We’d planned on going to see Harry Potter when he got home from work.  By the time he got home I was so tired, feeling sickish and I realized the we wouldn’t get home until after mid-night.  I asked if we could skip the movie and have dinner.  I’ve lost my cred yo.

I’ve gotten to a place in my middle aged, mommy, work-out-of-home self that I’ll pass up the chance to see Harry Potter on the big screen to go to bed at 10:30 on a Saturday night.  It’s a tough realization, even tougher than when I found the gray hair (reminder, color hair today).  I’m a soup makin’, deal lookin’, house cleaning, baking, thinking of getting out my crochet hooks, mom.

I need a new computer and a WoW LAN to make me feel better.  Or new dice.  Yeah, new dice.

Are you a mom? Do you work? Do you stay at home? Either way, here are some household ideas

It doesn’t matter if you work 40 hours a week or stay at home, all mom’s are pressed for time.  Hell even if you’re not a mom you probably don’t revel in mopping and dusting.  I must admit, I am a very happy homemaker.  I love to bake, my red velvet cake was a hit at the 4th of July, I like clean and I’d love organized (but that’s not going to happen with 3 people in 1000 sq feet and one of those people having a Toy R Us).  Clean things make me happy.  Cooking makes me happy.  If I had any creative spark I’d probably try and take Martha down.  I don’t though so you’re safe there Martha.

Over time I’ve figured out some things that help me out.  Either keeping things clean or cleaning them the easiest way.  Be it making beef strogonoff that someone who hates it loves or tossing together something at a frantic pace at 5pm.

Vinegar.  I simply think this is something no household should be without. I’m not even talking fancy vinegar, I’m talking about the plain old white stuff.  You can die Easter eggs with it, make a deviled egg or help with your kids volcano school experiment.  You can also clean with it.

7 cups water and 5 cups vinegar through your coffee pot cleans it up very well.  After that’s run through just do another cycle with plain tap water.  Beware it smells like hot vinegar but it’s worth it.

2 tablespoons of baking soda and a good splash of the stuff is beyond any commercial product I’ve tried for cleaning the garbage disposal.

A quarter of a cup on the bottom of your dishwasher helps with hard water or not well rinsed dishes.  I figured this one out due to desperation.  All Kyle’s cups were coming out cloudy and yucky looking.  I tossed it in on a whim and wow, sparkle!  I use it with the commercial rinse agent.  Best. Idea. Ever.

My crockpot is also my friend, I love that I can throw stuff in there for tomorrow’s dinner while I’m warming up tonight’s dinner and leave it until the morning.   Tomorrow we’re having pork chops in a cream sauce.

3 large pork chops

2cups hot water, 3 beef bullion cubes

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 medium onion

3 large carrots

mushrooms

pepper,garlic and salt to taste.
Dissolve bullion into hot water, pour into crock pot, stir in sour cream.  Place the  pork chops into the liquid making sure to turn any chop that isn’t submerged.  Add seasonings.  Chunk up the carrots and onion and add mushrooms.  Heat on low while at work.

My mother used to mandate cleaning days were Saturday’s.  I’m not of the opinion if I clean my glass today then the dust tomorrow the world will crash.  I’ve also been known to clean the toilet while Kyle takes a bath.  Relax, I don’t have to turn my back to him at all.  I can clearly see him at all times!

But the biggest tip I can offer?  Take time for your self.  I learned my shortcuts and how to’s because I didn’t like working until 9am then “relaxing” for an hour.

To those about to rock

I’m thinking we need to do a Rock Band weekend.  J and I started a tour but we’ve sorta lost some interest and my band is lonely.  I think part of my problem is that I like to do vocals and Rock Band II, well the songs are just meh when it comes to me wanting to sing them.  I sort of wish we had a second guitar so I could do base and yeah, I realize I could be the drummer but it’s hard and it hard to look cute in the game doing it 😉

Preparations for tomorrows party at Kat and Paul’s are well underway.  The red velvet cake is made and awaiting frosting, the dip is chilling in the freezer.  I’m debating making deviled eggs too but I think someone else might bring those.  My laundry is humming and the kitchen is sorta picked up from the cooking bonanza, I’m waiting to mop the floor until I’m done frosting.

The dip, BTW, is goooood.  It’s a spinach and feta cheese veggi dip.  I hope it sets up well.

Jason and I, for once, are actually home together with our son.  Maybe tonight we’ll play some Mario Party together.  Nothing says quality time like trying to steal loot out from under your loved one huh?

Smile and the whole world smiles with you

I was actually able to get a photo of The Boy smiling.  Usually he sees a camera and he stares at it but I was playing one of his bestest favorite games.  Run down the hall and jump into mommy’s lap.  When he came around the corner I was waiting for him and caught this.

He’s saying daddy now and my mom and Nichole swear he responded to a question with a “yeah”.  I do worry that at almost 16 months he’s not really talking much, but he’s listening.  My mom tells me the other day he hummed part of the Spongbob theme song.

Oh and Nichole dissapointed me greatly the other day.  Kyle was throwing a fit because he couldn’t go outside to play and I started singing “You can’t always get what you want”.  She looked at me and asked if that was a Backyardagains song.   I have much work to do.

The short work week.

What is it about a short work week that sucks all the life out of you? My Monday and Tuesday have sucked giant orbits of suck.

Work is not fun, home is hectic and my omelet just turned into scrambled eggs.  Oh, and my kid hates me.  He clings to daddy, takes grandma his toys and freaks when I try and pick him up.  I’m like a giant kicking post for him lately.

The cats are spitting up hair balls, I spilled coffee on my bathroom rug.  My blueberry muffins taste flat and I burned my hand with the chicken stock.  There is spilled milk on my bedsheets.  Tell me, is it ok to cry about it now?

I’ve had to say the phrases, “stop touching your penis it’s full of poop” “the cats tail is not food” and “for the love of God let me pick that booger PLEASE.”

I keep forgetting to get coffee, my hair color has gone flat and I’ve gotten one of the few periods you get when you have an IUD.

There is a pimple the size of another head just into my hair line.  Yay.  It’s covered up but if I brush my hair it hurts.

My head hurts again, my body is angry at me and my left eye itches.  The right twitches in sympathy.

The monitor has wavy lines.

Short weeks are teh suxzor.