Hell is...

taking an almost one year old with a serious balloon and color red fetish to the supermarket where they are giving away RED BALLOONS.

It started innocently enough, as we entered Ralphs (Kroger to those of you east of CA) last night, the greeter girl gave Alton a red Ralphs balloon. How cute! Look how happy he is as he flashes his dimples and happily bounces his balloon!

The balloon kept him entertained for most of the trip through the market with my dad and grandmother. But when we approached the check stand, trouble loomed. Each check stand had a bouquet of red balloons tied to the open sign as well as an assortment of Congratulations Graduate mylar balloons.

It was as if you could see the balls roll into place in his head. Alton swiveled his head from checkstand to checkstand and took in the sights of red balloon nirvana everywhere. Brains clicks; hand reaches for the balloon display; and "SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

OH MY GOODNESS, the loud pitched squeal of an almost one year old who can't reach what he wants!

"Alton, you have a balloon. Those ones need to stay here for other little boys and girls." At this point, the cashier is laughing. "SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK." "Alton, this is not acceptable behavior, you need to use your inside voice."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK." At this point, the cashier is starting to look alarmed and other people are looking at us. "Alton, you are hurting Pop Pop's ears. You have a balloon."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

Now people are staring and talking behind their hands while they discuss my lack of mothering skills, so I fling my Mastercard at my dad and unbuckle Alton from the shopping cart. He hopefully lunged at the nearest balloon bouquet, and came up empty handed.

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

He kicked his brand new shoe off and had it land on the conveyer belt where our groceries were being checked. I carried him out to the car with as much dignity as I could muster while his face took on the color of his beloved balloons.

I now see why my mom would take a preemptive advil before going to the market with FOUR children.

He WALKED!!!

Today the five of us, (Travis, Alton, Lucy, Jack and me) were in the front yard; I was watering plants when Travis came home from work, so we all stayed out there while I watered. Travis was sitting on the grass playing with Alton while making sure Jackson didn't jump over the fence to eat a neighbor's chihuahua. Alton had been standing next to Travis, waving a spade when Alton took a step and a half and landed on Daddy!

A few minutes later when I finished watering I was walking by them with the hose and Alton took 3 steps towards me!


Previously, he has taken 2 or 3 steps at a time between pieces of furniture or whatever, but this was the first time he walked towards his parents!!!

Where did my little baby go?

Sick Babies Aren't any Fun!

To make a long story short, we had to take Alton to the emergency room last night because he had a fever of 105.4. He'd been to the pediatrician earlier in the day and diagnosed with an ear infection. By the time we got him home, he was screaming his head off and felt like he was on fire.

So we called the pediatric advice line and she said take him to the emergency room. I will spare you the details of that nonsense, but his fever did break while we were there. Thank the Lord for the power of prayer!

His fever was back up this morning, so we went to see his pediatrician who said he most likely has roseola....

Still hot

I know it was only 90 and it can and will get worse, but oh my goodness was it hot today!
We had a nice breakfast with our home group today to celebrate our "dedication".
I really want to blog more an write about my day, but it is still too warm! I'm going to bed.
Good night!

Sunny Spring Saturday

We had a pretty good day today. My dad and I went to Costco, and Alton charmed the pants off of everyone. I got a gorgeous Star jasmine bush for $15. I LOVE star jasmine. Our local Costco was out of the the Fraggle Rock season DVDs, and since my brother mentioned that he wants them too, my dad and I had to venture to the Costco in the ghetto. Inglewood is scary, but thankfully the Inglewood Costco was not as scary as the Inglewood Target was.

After that, I came home and planted my plants, and Alton discovered that he can stand for a long time. He also discovered the hose. I got a cute video of him with the hose and I will post a link to it later. Then we went over to my grandmother's for dinner and to be squatters in her living room because she has air conditioning. I miss our air conditioning. When it got cooler, we took Alton and his cousin John John out to the back yard to play and I gardened for my grandmother. All and all it was a pretty good day.

Our Latest Trip to Disneyland

We started out doing a secret shop of the Carnation Cafe. Alton was a BIG fan of his Junior Mickey Mouse waffle.


He was not as big a fan of the orange slice garnish.

While we walked breakfast off walking along Main Street, we ran into someone famous.
You will notice that Mickey and Alton are holding hands. This was not a loving gesture, Mickey was trying to save his nose from the prying hands of Alton. :)


This visit to Disneyland was special, because it was Alton's friend Angus's first trip to Disneyland.
Here are Angus and Alton in front of the honey pots in Pooh Corner.

I think Alton might know he is cute. :) Look at his grin!

Pop Pop (Grandpa Scott) always takes the best pictures:
I have already been to Costco to have this one blown up. It is framed in our bedroom.

Alton and Pop Pop in the beehive on the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Alton loves his Pop Pop.

My new camera does some pretty nifty stuff.

We had lunch together at the Hungry Bear Cafe. Alton and Angus had a good time watching the ducks on the Rivers of America eat random bits of food their mommies kept throwing. Not that mommies would ever abdicate throwing of food.
Both of the boys loved the new Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure. Here is Angus expressing his appreciation of the Magic of Disney Imagineers.

Quick update

We are still alive! I got a new computer FINALLY and I look forward to being able to blog more often. I discovered the great time suck that is Facebook, so if you are on there, look me up with my G-mail e-mail.

Alton is sort of walking. He took three steps yesterday! He is also biting, scratching and pulling hair. He is such a fun age. Le sigh.

Who's here reading? Or did you all give up?

Wonder Woman Underoos

When I was four or five, I had underoos! Who didn't in the 80's right? Well I had them all, Collect all four! But my favorite ones were my Wonder Woman ones. They were blue, the were red. They were sexy! Well as sexy as a kindergartners underwear can be anyway.
My Wonder Woman Underoos were special. My Wonder Woman Underoos were going to make me fly like Wonder Woman!

So one afternoon, my sister and I decided to try out our new underwear. Kristina was wearing the Princess Leah ones, (in case you did not know, Princess Leah does not fly) so she was just there for moral support. We opened our window, pushed the screen over, I balanced on the window sill, pointed my fingers to the sky like wonder woman, bent my knees and jumped.

I landed on the front lawn.

Determined that it was going to work, I went back in the house. Wonder Woman has those arm bracelets right? So I found some wristbands (hey, it was the 80s) and resumed my perch on the window sill.

Hands were pointed, knees were bent, and JUMP!

I landed on the front lawn.

"Maybe you need a cape! Super Girl has a cape, and Super Man has a cape, maybe you need a cape to fly." My sister shouted this to me from our bedroom window.

Undeterred, I wandered back into the house and set out to find the perfect cape.

A ha! The new towels! There was even a red one to match my underoos! I could not tie the towel tight enough on me, so we rubber banded it on. This was going to work!

Back to the window. Hands pointed, knees bent...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" My mom shrieked.

"Mommy, she is going to fly in her underoos! Come watch!"

My mom pulled me back in the window by my newly purloined cape, and slid the screen back into place. She took away my cape (my source of power!) and told me to go play outside with CLOTHES on. Didn't she know that clothes would render the magical powers of the underoos useless? I wonder to this day if that red towel would have been the difference between flying through the sky or once again landing on the lawn....

Another quick update

We have moved and we have internet! But we are still wading through a sea of boxes. Someone packed my digital camera charger, and I have NO idea where it ended up! Of course the digi cam is now suffering from a low battery....

Alton is not sleeping well at all. He has been fighting naps, fighting bed time, and waking up two or three times a night. We have had to drive him around a lot and Travis is accruing several frequent flier miles in the Lazy Boy rocking Alton to sleep.

quick update and roll call!

If you are reading, comment or e-mail or something... a girl likes to get feedback!

We are moving Saturday to a fabulous little house in Gardena.... I am excited becase we will now have a backyard for Alton, Jack, and Lucy. They house even has a dogge door built in. :)

Stress = moving with a mobile 8 month old with a cold when you have a cold yourself....

Did you know candles are tasty? I did not know they were until Alton demonstrated a deep love for them. But then again, his taste buds are not to be trusted as kibble is apparently a delicacy as well. Yum! Liver flavored bon bons!

We get internet in a week.

8 Months!

Alton stood independently for about 10 seconds, twice this morning. Of course this was not long enough to get a picture of him doing it, but still, we saw him do it.
We took 8 month pictures this morning, but we don't have time to post them right now. Mommy will probably do it later tonight.

Chaos: and a quick update

We are moving in a little under two weeks and we just started packing yesterday. :(
Alton insists on growing like a weed and is HIGHLY active.
He is now crawling on his hands and knees and cruises every where he can pull himself up on.
He is over his milk intolerance! WHOOT! But is still intolerant to eggs in mommy's diet.
We also tried the Gerber Puffs, and he LOVES LOVES LOVES LOVES them. Thank you Soren's mommy Kayt for the suggestion. We are going to try Cheerios next.
We have a secret shop at Disneyland today. Wish us luck. :)

Alton; a Girl, a Walker, and a Binkie: A Video

This is Alton "cruising" with one of his girlfriends, Penelope; in his "ride".

Note the charming way they swap spit via the now communal binkie.

Alton and Broccolli: The Video

His mommy won't really touch broccolli, so he must have gotten his love for the stuff from Daddy.

Alton and A Fancy Restaurant

I had to secret shop a fancy restaraunt on my birthday. This is how my son behaved while we enjoyed our pre-dinner virgin cocktails and overpriced crab cakes in the bar.