I'm Thinking...

... I may start writing again. Either here, or on my other blog, I'm not sure which yet. I'd like to do a little journaling about my weight-loss journey... that might be better on the other site. And I guess I'll keep stories about Mac and family life here, in this blog.

Well, getting right down to it... I found out today that Mac somehow figured out how to erase all the game files on our Super Paper Mario Wii game!! Grr. He's now grounded from playing Wii games until further notice. >:\ He keeps asking to play. And I keep reminding him why he can't. He says "Okay." but I don't think he really gets it. Thankful that daddy is home now and can keep him distracted by playing cars and trains with him in his room. :)

Also, Mac still says 'lettow' for the word 'yellow'... he's actually said it that way for as long as I can remember. It's kinda cute. Well... until he wants the big 'lettow' item and I hand him the little red item. Yeah, it can get confusing... but he'll learn it eventually. Although, it's kinda funny that he can say the letter 'W' with no problems but he can't say 'yellow'.

I think we've gained a family member since I've last written. We now have a dog. Her name is Luci. She's about 14 months old and is FULL of energy! When we walk in the front door, sometimes we'll yell, "Luuuciii, I'm home!" ;) And lately, Mac will randomly say, "I love Luci!" It's cute. And he's never seen the show!

Some fun things we've done this summer:
1) Gone to the park. (Several times!)
2) Played in our little pool in the backyard. (Luci especially loves that!)
3) Saw Madagascar 3 in 3D at the theater. (Mac slept through half of it!)
4) Went bowling.
5) Stood under a Fire Truck sprinkler.
6) Played with friends: Nathan and Shaelyn
7) Played under the card table tent that G'ma Jackson made!

Some things Mac likes:
1) Puzzles
2) Coloring
3) Thomas the Train
4) Spongebob Squarepants
5) Taking pictures
6) Cars (The movies and the toys)
7) Superheros (i.e. Spiderman, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Panther, Green Lantern, Batman, etc.)
8) VeggieTales (Although, he's been listening to music cd's more than watching the movies lately.)
9) Mario Bros games

We're not sure whether he'll be Thomas for Halloween again this year, or if he'll go with Mario, or Bob the Tomato... it's a toss-up... but we'll get it figured out. :)

Weather has been quite hot this summer. High 90's and even into the 100's for several days! There have been fires all around us, so it's been smokey too. Yuck. But we're surviving. Autumn is on it's way! Can't wait!

Pantry Perils

Now that the pantry sits near the kitchen, there's easier access for curious little people. And then the contents of said pantry somehow find their way onto the floor. Ho hum. Yet another day in the life of a mom... :)

T.P.

Well, isn't THIS fun?!? I guess moving into a new house gives license to unravel the toilet paper and shred it to pieces. :)

Apparently, t.p. between your binky and your mouth feels pretty good. :)

Bits and pieces on the floor.

Unraveling...

More aftermath...

Caught red-handed. :)

Wednesday.

First up: play time. Sometimes I think he'd rather play with the plastic tote more than the toys that go in there! Of course, when tipped upside-down, it makes for a good climbing bench. ;) I guess there really is proof of having played with the toys that go inside the tote, however, since they're all over my floor. :D

Next up: getting a big, fat lip after falling, no, diving face-first onto the hard wood floor! OUCH!! His first fat lip. He cried and cried. It bled and bled. And bled, and bled, and bled... And bled. Mommy was nervous and called the doctor. Apparently, lip lacerations tend to bleed a lot! Tried to get Mac to suck on a cold wet wash rag. No such luck. He didn't want anything to do with that. Had him drink a little bit of cool water. Drinking is a hard thing to do with a fat lip. It got a little slobbery. I finally just gave him a dose of Tylenol to help with swelling and pain. Talk about a hard day! I hope that doesn't happen again anytime soon! In fact, never would be just fine with me.

Silly Hats .

We went to the party store today. Not only are we looking for some cool, yet inexpensive, New Year's Eve party favors but we're in search of some kind of cute 1st-Year-Birthday-themed supplies! We've got to get ready already for Mac's 1st birthday!! Uff-da. This is gonna be tough. In case you haven't noticed, I'm the one who's barely ready for Christmas when it arrives. How am I gonna be able to manage my kiddo's birthday just 1 week after Jesus' birthday?? Well, it looks like I'm gonna have to figure something out! It's just not kosher to run late for a child's 1st birthday. Right? But. I digress.

The fun thing about our trip to the party store was that we stumbled upon all sorts of party hats! I think any kind of hat you could imagine was there. Well. We just had to grab a few of the cutest hats for Mac to try on! It was fun to be silly together. I think Mac learned how to say "Ta-Da!" that night. :) Brent and I would clap and carry on and say "Ta-Da!" just as soon as we put the hat on him to distract him from reaching up there to pull it off before I could get a picture! Here's what we found:

The New Year Top Hat, of course! Both Dad & Mac with the Top Hats - wait, where's Mac?? ;)

The Lobster Hat!

The Viking Hat The Parrot Hat The Court Jester Hat! He is a funny kid!

I guess all that fun wore him out! ;)

Uh-Ohhh! .

Well, I guess this is what we get for leaving the bag of tortilla chips where Mac can grab them!! Oopsies!! :)

Of course, now they're even more accessible for him to pick up and munch on! "Hi mom, look what I've got!"

"Why, yes, thank you! I don't mind if I do." :D

Tuesday .

Mom (a.k.a. G'ma Linda) is able to be here with us for this whole week of Christmas! What a treat! She's been here for about 4 days now and I think Mac is finally getting used to having her around! Tonight everyone came to our place for dinner and games! We had some wonderful roast beef (that we got from a friend), potatoes, carrots, rolls and jello salad. Sooo tasty! Plus we had lots left overs... which Brent always loves! We'll be able to make two or three good casseroles from all that's left! After dinner, we played Scattergories - that was fun! Jacob (Jodi's youngest) really wanted to play the game but he didn't want to be on a team with anybody and he's not very good at reading by himself yet. So he ended up entertaining Mac! It was so cute! Mac was really giggling! I wish I had gotten some video footage of it. I think it's safe to say, Mac likes his cousin Jacob! :)

Daddy's Bench #.

This is a little bench that daddy made when he was younger. G'ma & G'pa thought it might be nice for us to keep it here for Mac to play with when he gets a little older. And I think some minor adjustments need to be made to it. Well, he found it and was scootin' it around. So, I had to get some pics. :)

More Pics!

We were all wearing red at church this morning so we thought it would be fun to have our picture taken in front of the tree. It actually turned out pretty good! I think we'll use this one for our Christmas card this year. :)

Then we went to the mall to see if we could get a picture with Santa... but they were already closed for the evening. We considered jumping the rope to set Mac in Santa's chair... but we weren't that brave. :) We ended up just setting him on the floor next to a reindeer statue but Mac was too interested in all the fake snow on the ground, he wouldn't look up at me. Concerned that he would start eating that fake snow if I didn't hurry, I settled for this:

Mac, on the mall floor, looking down, and all but the eyes and antlers of Rudolph showing. C'mon, really?? I couldn't even get Rudolph's eyes?? At least I got part of a Christmas tree with the twinkle lights and most of the obnoxious fake snow. :)

Then we went to the book store where Mac and I could play in the kids' section while daddy perused his favorite sections. Mac really enjoyed tinkering with this loop-dee-loop thingy, sliding the little wooden pieces along the metal tracks... until he decided to start munching on the wooden pieces. Then mom put the "plug" in. Better for him to suck on his binky than chew on toys that have been touched by little hands that have been who-knows-where, I say! Here are some pics:

Searching

For what? I don't know. Perhaps for the Christmas gifts that he'll never find... because they're so cleverly hidden... on the floor... in our room... in plain sight. ;) Maybe he can't find Henry, our cat. Who, by the way, has been seemingly warming up to Mac lately. Anyway, I just thought these pictures were so funny. Taken randomly of Mac movin' around the place, of course. But it looks like he's on a wild goose chase with the pictures all in succession like this. :) Enjoy...

Santa's Little Helper

I'm not sure if he's helping me search for the deals... or if he's making his own wish list. But he was certainly having a grand time with the newpaper! Did you know it makes a really cool crinkly sound if you grab hold of it right in the middle and wave it up and down? :) I think at one point he may have even thought it was his shirt - or a cape - because it looked like he was wearing it! Oh what fun it is to play...

Gettin' Around

Mac is so mobile these days... it's downright nerve-wracking! :) He's been doing the "real" crawl (hands and knees) now for a few weeks and he's getting pretty fast at it. He likes to spend as much time as possible on his feet too... which means he's bound to be walking soon! (Too soon, I'm sure.) Even when left to "wander" around the house somewhat aimlessly, he still moves with gusto - like he's on a mission! Perhaps he feels like he's "broken free" and needs to go see everything there is to see as fast as he possibly can before he's in the clutches of someone's arms again. Otherwise, he may never get the chance! So today, I followed him. ... Through the hallway ... To the bedroom ... To the bathroom ... To the high chair. Busy, busy boy!! And I'm, as always, snapping photos along the way. ;)

Where DID I Put That?

This reminds me of a picture that a friend took of his kiddo - sittin' in a pile o' movies! My friend's caption was: The kid can't find what he wants, I guess. :) So hilarious! What I didn't realize was how young they start doing this...

Busy Boy

Here's a little glimpse of Mac's daily "grind." :) Oh yeah, did you notice that he let go of the chair for a brief second?! I think that's the first time I've seen him do that! And I was lucky enough to have the video rolling to catch it! :D Enjoy... it's kind of a long one.