The Evolution of Fear

Sunday morning, we went out to breakfast before our friends headed back down to Phoenix. On the way home, Abe decided to stop and get my car washed, since earlier that morning I had commented on its disgustingness.

There is a car wash here in Prescott that is like the gas station car washes, with the addition of guys that scrub your car going in and dry it once you come out (and you stay in your car the whole time). Cole usually loves going to the regular car wash and watching the cars go through, so we thought he would enjoy being in it. As we got closer, I started questioning whether he would really enjoy it.

Here's what happened:

Curiosity

Unsureness

Fright





Sheer Panic and Terror!

At the point of sheer panic and terror, we stopped laughing at him and I put down the camera and reclined my seat back to try and comfort him and calm him down. We felt so bad afterward, although, just now while writing this post, I'm getting a pretty good chuckle from reliving the moment. I do still feel awful about it though, but I can't help but laugh. He is so dramatic!

RCPM!!!

This past Saturday, we had the awesome, awesome opportunity to have a FREE Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers concert, downtown in the courthouse square. Now, to some, this may not seem that exciting, but to us, and our OUTRAGEOUSLY-HUGE-RCPM-fan friends, this could not have been any more AWESOME!!! (did I say that already?)


Cole was not too sure about what was going on. The music was loud (awesome), the crowd was crazy singing and dancing (awesome), and it was getting close to bed time. He was such a trooper though, and hung in there with no complaint (I think that was due to the shock factor!)

Abe put him on his shoulders. I would say he was giving him a better view, but we were only about 30 feet max. from the stage as it was, so he really was just trying to help me out, since after a while, Cole insisted on being held- by me.
Here we are with two of our friends that came up. Another couple of friends of ours (actually it was sort of a Costa Rica reunion- since this was the group we had gone there with) came up too, I just, sadly, didn't get any pics with them. (Dara- if you don't mind, send me all the pics you took too, please!)

I know this picture is blurry (its artistic- and I did it on purpose, not really, lol), but with about 45 minutes of the concert left, we found a spot literally 5 feet off the side of the stage. It was the best!!!

Abe and I have been to a couple of their concerts before (one down in Mexico, even), and our friends have each been to dozens, but this was by far the best! For one thing, the crowd was a fraction of the normal size (about 500 vs. a couple thousand), it was 5 minutes from our house, and it was FREE!!! Plus, with all the concerts our friends have been to, they have never been able to get up that close. We even got our picture taken with the guitarist afterward (we had tried to wait to get a pic with Roger, but there was a pretty good crowd around him and we were cold and hungry and it was getting late.)

Abe and I also realized that earlier that day, we had been stuck on the highway behind their old-smoke-billowing-horses-fighting-painted-totally-befitting-of-them tour bus doing 2mph on a 2% grade! We had zipped around to pass them, all the while making comments about what a junkie old bus it was! We got a good laugh out of it.


Here they are singing a portion of one of my all time favorite songs (this song came out when I was in high school when they were known as The Refreshments) Sorry the video is a little shaky, but I was filming one handed, while I was holding Cole and he was bouncing in my arm.

Just a little thought

This morning at the grocery store, something stopped me and made me think.

Cole has lately taken to sitting in the basket, rather than the seat, in the cart. This is fine with me until he starts dancing around too close to the end (where the sides aren't as high). As I was pleading with him to sit down and stop stomping on the frozen vegetables and to quit squishing and biting at the loaf of bread, an older woman walked by and said "You're a great mom." As I was continuing to struggle with Cole, I thought "Yeah, maybe I'm not so bad".

The rest of the shopping trip I wondered what would prompt this woman to say this. I had not been displaying any exemplary mothering techniques (just quietly begging my nearly 2 year old to sit down, not screaming like other moms I have witnessed). Then I thought, maybe she was being facetious due to the fact I was allowing my young son to stand in the shopping cart (this made me slightly upset and annoyed). Then I thought, maybe she just likes to tell moms, walking through the grocery store, that they are doing a good job because, perhaps, they don't hear it enough, and every mom needs to hear that she is indeed doing a good job (I decided to go with this theory, as it didn't make me want to wait in the parking lot to have a word with her, lol).

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the possibility that this woman is just out there doing a great service to random stranger-moms by boosting their confidence, especially when it appears they may be struggling. I have been asking myself since if I have told a mom that she is great lately. Not okay, or good, or mediocre, but great!

Have you?

BTW- I found more of Cole's beautiful artwork this morning on the top of my nightstand and the front of our armoire. Thanks to a tip from a friend, I was able to remove all traces with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (why hadn't I thought of that?) and it is almost entirely out of the carpet! Yea!

Picasso

This morning, as we frantically rushed to get out of the house to make it to playgroup on time (it was half an hour earlier than usual and about half an hour away), Cole got a hold of a Sharpie. Cole has, on occasion, gotten hold of Sharpies before, but usually just looks at them. Today, while I checked my email, I told Cole to go watch Elmo and get out of my office. He cooperatively obliged (that should have been my first warning) and traipsed back into my bedroom, where Sesame Street was on.

I finished checking my email, ran out and told Cole we needed to hurry and leave, only to find this

Yes, that is navy blue Sharpie on light grey carpet. There were several more locations of the same AWESOME artwork, but this was all I could stomach to take pictures of.

This is the door frame to our bathroom. Look closely. He even colored in the latch hole.

And this is what he did to himself. These are brand new shorts (literally the first time he's ever worn them). He also got the straps of his tennis shoes (Nikes for little boys aren't cheap!). His hands were also covered in the lovely blue. So far, I have left the marker on his person because it is really bugging him. I don't want him to think that every time he colors on things (including himself) that Mom can just make it disappear. So he will stay blue, at least until it starts to really bother me.

I have also been through a can and a half of carpet cleaner. It has put a pretty good dent in it (surprisingly), but I'm sure I'll go through at least another half can or more before I can call it good (thank goodness we stocked up on carpet cleaner at Costco). As for the door, my fellow moms gave me some pointers, so I'll be (or have Abe) making a trip to Home Depot for the rest of our clean up supplies. I'm just hoping to remove enough color that it blends in. So now,while Cole is still sleeping, I must go and lock the Sharpies up in a location very high!

Just another weekend

Saturday was a very busy day for us! It was a beautiful day (high around 75, light breeze, very sunny) so I convinced Abe to take Cole to the zoo. Here in Prescott there is a zoo, containing no more than 20 exhibits, most of which are animals we see on a weekly basis at home, but its a zoo all the same. The best part is if you get there right around opening, you get to watch the keepers feed all the animals their breakfasts. Here is Abe and Cole watching the lemurs be fed (this is one of the few non-local exhibits). Cole was getting a kick out of the lemurs jumping all over the cage and swatting at each other to keep away from their share of the meal.
Here is another somewhat non-local exhibit. I say somewhat because we know there are bears around this area, just not where we see them. Now understand that we were literally two feet from this 8 foot tall bear scratching himself on the fence. You don't get to see that everyday!

This was after his scratching session. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I am more terrified of this guy than the tiger!

The very best part about this zoo (besides being able to be ridiculously close to the animals), is that it is so small Cole is able to walk the entire zoo by himself! He is such the little explorer!

Here is the zoo's crowning glory- the tiger. She was being pretty grumpy because she was hungry, but if you talk and/or growl at her, she responds! Again, never been this close to a tiger before! (Getting to be so close to the bear and the tiger alone makes the $8 admission fee worth it!- especially growing up going to the Phoenix Zoo and being lucky to even see the animals, let alone so up close!)

They also have a little playground, so Cole had to get in on that action! He wasn't too sure about it though, with the sun out the slide was a little warm. This was actually the extent of his playground romping.

Okay, I had to add this picture because this is a Mexican Gray Wolf. They supposedly have these at the Phoenix Zoo, too. However, in the 20+ years I've been going to Phoenix, I don't think I've ever seen them! I always look, and they are never around. Here, they had several that were running along the fence and looked as if they just wanted to play. They are small for wolves (I think, since I really only have Alaskan wolves to compare them to), not being much bigger than a Husky. It was kind of cool to finally get to see what these things look like.

After the zoo, we decided to go in search of our beef ranchers. A few weeks ago we learned of a nearby ranch that sells organic, free-range beef raised right up the road. The price is reasonable, and they offer several different purchase options (15 lb, 35 lb, 75 lb, half and whole cow). We had seen them at a farmers market at the mall, and knew of a weekly farmers market in Prescott Valley. We decided to swing in and see if they happened to have a booth. What a trip!! This is definitely not a typical farmers market, think more swap meet. It was a very interesting experience, needless to say, and we did end up leaving with a few purchases. Cole got a pair of old binoculars so he can glass with his dad and a new Hotwheel, Abe bought a coyote call made from a bullet shell (AWESOME!) and something else I don't even remember now. I really had my eye on the throwing axes, 4-sided knives, swords and lady daggers, but decided to hold off. Like I said, interesting!

After the swap meet, we decided to drive in search of our beef ranch. We drove and drove and finally found it. It is on the same premises as Orme School (a private, expensive, boarding school in North Mayer), but unfortunately, no ranchers were to be found. We did finally get a hold of them, yesterday, and they will be delivering our beef to us in the next week or so (I'll let you know if its worth it!)

Saturday night, I left to go pick up pizza. One of the drawbacks of this house is no one delivers pizza to us, I think due to the lack of streetlights so its considered a safety issue, WHATEVER! I always tell Abe that Cole never seems to get upset when I leave, like he does for him, however, Saturday he did. Abe said he cried the entire time I was gone and took this picture as proof.

I guess Cole really does care. By the way, that bash on the corner was Abe's doing, just after we told the house contractor that we would not cause or allow damage to the walls like the previous tenants had done. Oh well!

Sunday, we were lucky enough to have Abe's dad come for a visit. Cole loved getting some more attention and we all went to Prescott Brewery for a great lunch. I didn't have my camera, but hopefully I'll get some pics from John. There were some classic moments, as always!

What goes in must figure a way out!

Before Cole had to get ready for bed last night, I told him he could play on his climber for a few more minutes (we gotta try to wear this kid out as much as possible- I figure it might help him sleep through the night, eventually). I left the room for a minute and came back to find Abe crawling into the "fort" through the cargo net! Cole thought he was crazy, but also thought it was pretty cool to have Dad in his climber with him. I had to grab my camera, and as I took pictures Abe mimicked and mocked what I would post today. He's so mean sometimes!

After being ridiculously cramped for 10 minutes, Abe decided it was better to find an alternative way out versus the way he had gone in (plus he had to repair the damage he caused to the cargo net upon entry).

Cole also decided to channel my little brother last night (walking around with his pants sagging and his little booty hanging out.)

After such climber excitement, the two boys (and I mean BOYS) played a rousing game of 'Which hand's it in?

This was Cole's attempt. He didn't have anything in either hand, but whatever Dad does, he has to, too.

See- look Dad, it's empty!


Then it was Abe's turn again.


Nothing in that hand!

Ah Ha! Success!!!

And one last quick trip down the slide! Such fun!

Sadly, my plan did not work. Cole still woke up last night. However, I was only up with him for an hour (it's been 2-3 hours every other night this week, and most of the last few months), so maybe it worked a little bit. I think now he just wakes up out of habit (annoying!!!). He actually doesn't "wake up" but he starts crying and fussing, so I go running in so hopefully he doesn't wake Abe up. What to do? Oh well, I figure it won't last forever (hopefully) and during the night is the only time he will allow me to hold him like he's still my little baby. I've decided to enjoy it while I can, and just try to remind myself I will (eventually) have years to catch up on the sleep this incredible little boy has deprived me of! Until then, excessive amounts of caffeine will do the trick.

Whatta Weekend!

We all had quite a weekend! It started with it snowing the better part of Saturday. Unfortunately, the snow didn't stick, but a few times it looked like it was snowing snowballs, the clusters were so big! We woke up Sunday to an unnaturally (to us, anyway) chilly Easter Morning, but the Easter Bunny did not disappoint (and Cole miraculously slept till 7:45- after I was up with him for about 3 hours in the middle of the night).

1. Cole's Easter Basket
2. Cole seeing his basket for the first time- Eh?
3. Checking out the contents of his basket
4. Still shocked at the new arrival (I should have switched pics 3&4- darn it!)
5. Looking at (and making sound effects for) his new trucks
6. Opening his first Easter egg
7. Collecting his egg hunt bounty
8. In awe of his new material wealth

Little did Cole know that the Easter Bunny would still visit 3 more times that day!

First at Gaga and PG's house:

1. So embarrassed at all the people (John and Paula's friends, Tom and Shirley Hartman were at the Geupel's for Easter, also) Oohing and Awe-ing as Cole checked out his new table, chairs, and cars from the Easter Bunny (aka Gaga and PG)
2. Flattered and proud that everyone was still watching
3. Cole spent most of the day putting golf balls or watching others putt. When we took the club away so he would eat and stop hitting the dog, he took his sterling silver fork and putted with that instead!
4. Hanging out on the steps being goofy
5. Playing with Abe's bronzed baby shoes
6. Feeding Gaga grapes
7. One for you, one for me

After a fun filled morning with Geupel's and watching Mickelson and Woods lose spectacularly at the Masters, we headed to Easter destination #2, and the Bunny's #3 and #4 visits.

At my parents house Cole got 2 Easter surprises and another egg hunt:

1. An Easter Basket (courtesy of Great Grandparents) including a Basketball! and a bubble blowing lawnmower (courtesy of Grandparents)
2. Someone take my shirt please, so I can really take a good look
3. I assume you push this, but what's a lawnmower? (Poor kid doesn't have a yard, remember?)
4. Who wants to look for eggs, when there is a ball and a basket to be used?
5. Scoring hoops with Grandma and Great Grandma
6. Ok, fine, I'll look for eggs- at least its in grass this time!
7. Grandma and Dad helping him collect (it wasn't like he really had to search, the rest of us-me, Abe, and my siblings- had to really look for our eggs!)
8. Blowing bubbles with his new mower. See, he doesn't know you're supposed to "mow" on the grass. Oh well, at least he won't be disappointed when he gets home and there's no grass to mow.

After a long day, and some good food, we made our way back up the hill. Cole was so exhausted he pulled his coat over his lap (it was still in the car from our snowy Saturday) and passed out
Shortly after he lost his coat, and completely slumped over in exhaustion. Let me tell you, once we got home, getting him ready for bed and down for the night was quite a job and a miserable one at that!

All in all, we had a great holiday and got to spend some good quality time with family and friends (although it seems, now we live away from everyone, its never long enough). And wouldn't you know, the thing Cole wanted the most when he woke up
Of Course!!!

Here's a little video of Cole "hunting" eggs at our house

What a HAM-burger!

After play group this morning I took Cole to the grocery store (he was throwing major tantrums at both places- UGH! Terrible Twos please end soon!!!) and then to Sonic for some lunch. He was being pretty silly and I just so happened to have my camera handy- for once. I let him out of his car seat when we go to Sonic so I can monitor his eating and make sure he doesn't choke. He loved being up front and went through the glove box and cup holders and pushed every button within reach.

This video is a little old, however Abe just finally gave it to me last night. Since I haven't posted a video for a while, here ya' go!

Sorry the quality isn't great. Like I said, Abe did it and his camera/video quality isn't always great, but its still funny all the same! Yes, that is Dozer growling (he had a rawhide chip) and Cole having a blast torturing/teasing him. Abe and I enjoyed it, too!

Oh the Drama!

So we have had another interesting week. It all started with our house drama. We had applied for the house in the woods and out of courtesy called our current landlord to fill him in on the situation. Abe told him that if our current homeowners were willing to match prices ($500 drop!) we would stay. We didn't hear from him for over a week and were literally taking the security deposit to the new PM company when the landlord called. He said our current owners really liked us, wanted to keep us as tenants and they could drop the price $450, and still be able to cover their expenses. After MUCH discussion, we decided to stay put since we still hadn't heard if the house in the woods would be available for purchase. Well, no sooner did we decide that, we got a phone call saying the woods' house was interested in selling. However, after much investigation, our realtor discovered that the woods' house owners were way in over their heads, and estimates their mortgage is about triple what they're asking for in rent. Not wanting to end up in a foreclosure situation on their part, we have decided to just drop our cute little house in the woods all together (although, I'm going to have the realtor keep an eye on it for if -and basically when- it goes into foreclosure.)



This weekend we also got to have my parents and brother and his girlfriend come to visit. We had a great time and are glad they made the journey up the hill to see us. (I've been really bad at taking pictures lately, so unfortunately I don't have any from this weekend.)




I also spoke with AzEIP again. They are coming with the speech pathologist on the 23rd to discuss our future action plan.





Yesterday, Cole and I had our MOMS Club' Spring Fling.' There were a ton of people (prob 15-20 moms, and at least 30 kids!) It was pot luck style, and I brought pretzel butterflies. We also had an egg hunt and each brought 12 eggs for the kids to 'find' (basically they just picked them up off the grass! They're little- what more could we expect!)

I put egg/chick shaped sidewalk chalk in my eggs. And the butterflies were a big hit! (and super easy to make!) The house we were at also had a new toy Cole fell in love with! I'm thinking Christmas this year or maybe even his birthday!

It was all fun and games, and then Cole got his finger smashed in the sliding glass door. OH THE DRAMA!!! Granted, it was bleeding pretty good, and looks like it hurt pretty bad, but the kid is still soaking up all the sympathy he can get!

Now, I know I should feel sorry, and I really do, but he is being pretty pathetic over the whole thing! He has made me kiss that stinking finger about 300 times (at least he correlates kisses with comfort, I wasn't sure if he would at this age). Last night as I was giving him his nightly kisses and putting him in bad he whimpered (pathetically) and held up his finger for me to kiss again, and realized the band-aid wasn't even on that hand! There was a look of confusion on his face, he held up the other hand, saw the band-aid this time, and began whimpering again! This was his first band-aid worthy injury and I guess it truly is just more than his sensitive little soul can handle. Don't worry, we're contemplating ways of toughening the kid up! (Just kidding Grandmas!)

All in all, things are well, and we are currently enjoying the prospect of not having to move and still saving a ton of money a month (things could still change AGAIN, but for now, we're happy where we are)