Mother "May" I? Yes, You "MAY!"

There's more than 13 here, but since I'm not doing "Thursday's Thirteen" why limit myself.  So here's what our May was like.

1.  What can a unsupervised 21 mos old do in half the time it takes to microwave a burrito (that's 30 seconds flat)? A LOT!

30 seconds on a Monday? he can: rearrange living room furniture;

30 seconds on a Tuesday? he can climb onto the entertainment center, behind a 50 inch flat screen and down between the back of it and the wall

30 seconds on a Wednesday? he can get wedged between the furniture (oddly enough he loves this)

30 seconds on a Thursday? he can figure out an alternate way to get on the entertainment center and stand in front of 50" flat screen and make a hand print on every inch of TV screen.

on a Friday? Find himself tied to a chair!!! 

There are 168 hours in a 7-day week.  Dax spends approx. 49 of them asleep and the other 119 looking for trouble.  It is inevitable that I will look away for at least half a minute.  When I do, this child knows how to capitalize on just one second of me being unattentive.  Which leads me to No. 2...

2.  Mimi, Dax and I eating out with my Aunt Sherry, her 2 daughters Misty, Brandy and Brandy's 2 daughters Katelyn and Kourtney.  That makes 6 extra pair of eyes to watch over Dax while I ate my fries and enjoyed catching up without so much as even looking over my shoulder to see what Dax was doing.   Ha ha.  j/k  I might have asked the girls, K&K, a couple of times "are you sure you don't mind playing with him"  totally insincere of course. ;o)  My moment to capitalize... and boy did I!!

Katelyn & Kourtney (June 2009)

From Katelyn and Kourtney

Brandy and her husband own an embroidery business.  They can personalize/embroider anything.  Large orders - small orders, anything!!  If you are interested, please e-mail me and I'll send you their info.  I plan on putting up a button in the near future with their business logo on it.  She did the embroidery on his onesie and blanket in the pic below as well as the navy blanket with Dax in orange that's in No. 14's picture.

She also did Dax's crib bumper

3.  Last month I forgot to mention that my parents celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary on April 4.  I have never seen a cuter couple than the two of them.  After all these years they are still in love.

4.  We've decided that we want Dax to call my mother "Mimi."  That's mom's new granny title - "Mimi."  Just get'n rid of them there words that skre-eeems Ima hick.  Though I'm proud to be a "southerner and it's impossible to hide the fact that I'm hopelessly country!

Actually we can't get Dax to say Maw Maw.  He'll say Mimi, but not Maw Maw and the truth is that Mimi fits my mother better.  The other grand kids aren't on board with Mimi at all, but we're determined.  You say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to.  On the other hand, Daddy will remain a "Paw Paw."   One of Dax's favorite words!

5.  One piece of dog food is all it took to finally break the ice after several attempts to get Dax and Eli to play with each other instead of along side each other.  So proud we were of this peace offering that Jac and I could have cared less that they were actually eating dog food. I mean, considering people treat animals as well as their own children, the dog food was probably more nutritious than baby food....  more importantly they seemed to enjoy it and it kept them occupied while Jac and I talked.  I might start bagging dog food for snacks instead of oatmeal cookies.  Whatever works, right?





SIKE!

This is Eli. Isn't he the prettiest little brown eyed boy you've ever seen!

6.  Okay, I always like to think I'm humble enough to admit when I'm wrong so I'm going to confess that Clint was right.  I really do tackle landscaping yard beautification with the same enthusiasm I do my other hobbies.  Only difference is, I usually don't bite off more than I can chew with my hobby projects.  I've definitely stuffed my face on this hobby.  I've started several different yard projects at the same time which means I'm killing myself trying to get any of them to the halfway point.  So, needless to say I spend a lot of time trying to get the dirt out from under my nails only to put them in the same shape the next day.  At this point, meeting a Fall deadline would be AWESOME!  But it might kill me first.  All this landscaping along with the fact that we have a full garden to tend to. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end, however, the yard may be more extravagant than the house.

7.  My child is already practicing his game on the ladies. While waiting to be worked in at the doctor's office one morning a little girl walked in grabbed a book off the shelf and sat down in the chair beside her mother's purse as her mother signed her in.  Dax, without missing a beat, went to the shelf grabbed a book (which he cared nothing about 2 mins. earlier) and climbed up in the chair right beside the little girl on top of the woman's purse and all. Grinning ear to ear staring at her the whole time!  Poor little girl didn't know what to think but she was called back before Dax and so he went about his business until another little girl walked in and sat down.  Dax treated her with the same enthusiasm.  He climbed up right in the chair beside her and blissfully giggled.  I hope he's not going to be a little Lothario!  At the park he chases girls down and does his best to verbalize pick up lines.

little Casanova himself
8.  Our new year resolution is still going strong and it is still the highlight of our day.  Even if Clint or I have already eaten or aren't hungry, we still sit down at the table with Dax while he eats.  I probably should start focusing on teaching Dax table manners instead of doing what we usually do which is laugh our tails off.  Here's why:

Check out those curls!

9.  I'm afraid our walks to my Aunt's house that is approx 1 mile away may be coming to an end.  Dax thinks he's too big for the stroller and wants to walk himself rather than be pushed around.  The only way I can get him to stay in the stroller is by singing to him.  Show tunes from Oklahoma and the Sound of Music are the only ones that work best.  Which is fine, except for the embarrassment I have to endure when I didn't notice someone standing or sitting on their lawn as we walked by.  Just imagine an off-tune "OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain!"... I literally wanted to crawl into the bottom of Dax's stroller and DIE!  So it might be a while before we head back.

10.  3 different occasions someone referred to Dax as a little cherub. A cherub??  If I heard that once, it wouldn't be so strange, but 3 different times, by 3 different people.  Maybe he does resemble a cherub...

Hmm... I guess there's kind of is a resemblance.
11.  An interesting or should I say painful trip to Walmart.  The one and only time Clint didn't demand that we all go together (Clint loves going to Wally world with the fam...call us bumpkins if you must).  Matter of fact it was the first time I begged him to go, but he declined due to fatique.  But we were out of milk and growing Daxes love his milk so it was a necessary trip.  Dax fell asleep right as we pulled into the parking lot.  Much to my amazement - unbuckling him out of his seat and picking him up didn't wake him up.  He was so konked out that I had to throw him over my shoulder and carry him - forget trying to put him in a buggy.  He was absolute dead weight.  Even after stopping a few times and adjusting the way I was carrying him he still didn't wake up.  So, we finally get to the dairy aisle, I grab a gallon of milk and try to carry dead weight baby over my shoulder and freezing cold gallon of milk in the other hand.  Both my arms were so numb halfway to the register that I felt as if I was about to drop the milk or the baby or both.  I had to requisition a customer to help me carry the milk to the register.  When we get to the car I can hardly move either of my arms from the pain.  Despite that I manage to get Dax in his seat and buckled up and guess what?  You got it.  Little man wakes up.

12.  Getting up to tinkle in the middle of the night only to have the living nightlights scarred out of me by a door swung open by a baby  announcing his presence with "H-AAAA-Y" while holding every toy his little arms could carry and running to climb on me just to get comfortable and fall asleep on my lap while I'm sitting on the throne.  How did this strange situation come about and what's up with all the toys you might ask? Dax has been going through a phase in which he must sleep as close to me as he can if not on me.  Of course this is uncomfortable and keeps me up so when he's in deep sleep I'll sneak out of the bed and go get on the couch.  This particular night he'd woke  up and followed me to the couch.  30 mins after he'd fallen asleep on the couch I got up to use the bathroom and much to my surprise he actually followed me in there.  It's kind of sweet actually.  I dare not complain because I know I'll miss this one day!!  So, what's up with all the toys???  Well, Dax is slowly turning his crib into a toy box.  The list of things he requires to get settled for a good night's rest are as follows:

1. Binky "pooh"
2. Passy "Paseeeee" (melts my heart every time he asks for it)
3. Brobee
4. "Froggy"
5. AU "cover"
6. Dax "cover"
7. Ball 
8. Football "catch"
9. Car
10. The list is STILL growing!!

Of course when I get ready to get him out of bed in the morning he has to carry all this to the living room. It's hilarious standing there watching/waiting for him to pick it all up.

13.  Clint's not one to quit a garment, hat or even shoes for that matter just because it's worn... No way.  His refusal of letting things go reminds me of my Mom's habit of watering plants a full year after they've died.  She'll say "well, it's still green!"  ha ha ha.  When it comes to shirts and hats, I literally have to dig them out of the hamper and throw them away while he's not looking.  Hats, shirts - you name it.  Shoes is a little more tricky because he wears a size 13 and in some shoes, a size 14.  So it's hard to find exactly what he's looking for in his size.  But still, this is just inexcusable ...

14.  Carrying on with the "Hobby" in someone else's yard at 1am.  For Mother's Day I made a flower bed in in my parent's front yard for Mom's gift.  She loves flowers, but doesn't love yard work (who in their right mind does).  Monetary gifts are fine and I know mom would appreciate anything I got her - even if only a card, but I realized a long time ago that stuff like this means more too her than picking something up at the department store.  Don't know what I'll do next year, how do you top hard labor?


16.  Spending Memorial Day at Grandmother's House

As you can see, it finally fits him.  Awe [whipping a tear from my eye] VERY hard to imagine the difference two years make...

17.  With all the heavy downpours, every bug in town wants to stay at our house.  Spiders and crickets and bears! OH MY! The bug man told me that if I found a bug in the house to kill it and put it in a plastic bag and list what room it came out of.  Nasty... but if I want him to take care of it I guess I better do what he asks.  This note is for the bug man.  I wanted to make sure it got his attention when he walked in the door.  If you remember last months post, you know why we won't be at home... Think he'll see it?

18.  Skinny Jean thief!!

19.  Dax telling Muffin (Our friend's, Jacob, dog) to "sshhh! be quiet!" while his favorite show The Backyardigans was on. Muffin was whining because she wanted on the other side of the gate in the living room where Dax and Jacob were playing. It's amazing what a 21-22 mos old can say. Not only that but that Dax can manage to communicate successfully to getting what he wants or needs, just by saying "pees" please and "tank u" thank you. Watch out if you don't jump when he asks you to. Dax repeats the word for what he wants over and over ... and over again each time getting louder until he gets what he wants. I heard the word "colors" crayons 20 times in a row. By the time I finally got up to go get it he was saying it so loud the neighbors could hear him. I have to keep from laughing. It's a habit he needs to break.

Until Next Month, "Th-th-th-