Ethan vocab

I am glad I am blessed enough to be able to spend Ethan's days with him. Sometimes he really pushes my buttons, and I have considered the repercussions of leaving him on the front porch with a sign that says "free to good home", but in the end he really is a great kid and I'm glad God gave him to us. For one, who the heck would translate for Troy when he comes home from work?

Zin = raisins
Na = banana
Lo = yogurt
Boo= blue
Geen= green
Abbo= apple
Dino = vitamins
Doot= fart
Num = yummy food of any kind
Mo num = gimme some more of that!
Minima= peanut butter, mr potatohead, and grandma. Although grandma recently got a new name: Mimi

Well, it's been a little over a month since I decided to use housework as a distraction. Lo and behold it worked. I've been happier, the house has been cleaner, and I get to sleep later in the mornings because I don't have to run to the basement and hurriedly iron a shirt for my husband before he goes to work. (So I wake up at 5 instead of 4:30. I guess that's still considered sleeping in isn't it?

Update on Ethan: he's still learning the alphabet, and knows about half of it. He surprised me two days ago when he pointed to a U and said "u!" He said purple for the first time too. Now if I could just get him to use the potty chair. We have until next fall so he can start pre-school. That should be enough time.

I've been studying Korean for the last few days. 1. I thought it would make my mom happy, and actually I did get to surprise her by telling her that I can speak a little Korean - in Korean. 2. I need to learn it so I can teach Ethan. I think it's important for him to be fluent in another language, and why not Korean since it's part of his heritage? 3. I've been watching a lot of Korean music videos on youtube, and I was curious to know what they are singing about.

I guess the good thing right now though, is that I can enjoy the music without regard to the lyrics. Then again, what if I'm like that German family in the "learn english" commercial???

Operation Rat Bastard: a complete success!

This morning at 5:30 I reached into the silverware drawer to pull out a fork as I was packing my husband's lunch: leftover chicken stirfry. (yum!) Something wiggled in the back of the drawer and caught my eye, so I pulled the drawer all the way open. There it was. The anarchist struggled against the gluetrap. I felt kind of bad for it, because I know it was just succumbing to the temptation of Mo's Bacon Bar, and who doesn't need a little chocolate now and then? I picked up the trap and set it in a plastic bin, and I promised the little mouse that I would release it after I finished packing Troy's lunch.

As promised, I dribbled a little vegetable oil on the mouse until it was free, and it jumped back into the plastic bin. After Ethan woke up and had breakfast, we loaded the bin into the back of my suv and took the mouse for a drive. We released it in a field a few miles from our house. Operation Rat Bastard was a complete success!

Now I must go scrub the hell out of all of the silverware and disinfect the drawer.

Operation Rat Bastard: Part II

The anarchist evaded the trap baited w/MBB. A worthy adversary...the tiny insurgent must be eliminated! I must find a more strategic location. I discovered more mouse-bombs under the kitchen sink, so I believe that is his point of entry. Perhaps I can set up a gluetrap blockade and force him into submission!

Operation Rat Bastard

Further evidence of the anarchist was discovered this morning. A strategically placed glue trap baited with a piece of Mo's Bacon Bar awaits his next visit. I don't care for chocolate with bacon in it, but a hungry mouse might!

Mr. Potato Head Arrested

The peeping tater was apprehended on Saturday after peeping on a local woman in her shower. The spud had reportedly been seen prowling around other homes in Wichita, particularly homes with young children.

He is being held on counts of breaking and entering, peeping, and indecent exposure as he was wearing only shoes and a hat.

Following his arrest, he insisted that his two year old accomplice, Ethan Teegardin, made him do it. Mr. Teegardin declined to comment.

Grab yer brain bucket; we're going in again!

Last week's glue-trap siege was a success; Macgyver was safely released with vegetable oil and escorted away from the premises to an undisclosed location. However, evidence of a second anarchist was discovered under the kitchen sink at approximately 1400 yesterday . Enlisting snipers could get messy. Glue traps FTW!

Dr. Mom cures cabin fever

It's November and it's 74 degrees! I love it, but the weather outside will turn frightful soon enough, and being stuck in the house all winter with a bored toddler sounds even more frightful. Ethan and I have a lot of fun together, but sometimes we get bored with the same old same old so I've been scouring the Internet to come up with new, inexpensive ideas.

FamilyEducation.com had some great ideas on their Rainy Day Activities page. I also liked Kitchen Fun. My kitchen is small, but so is Ethan, and I'm looking forward to surprising him with these activities!

Kids love taking things out and putting them back in. I've been shredding my junk mail and taking it to the Pro Kansas Miller Recycling Center, but I think I'll save a few days worth and give it to Ethan so he can make his own mailbox out of an empty diaper box. My husband needs a new wallet too, so when I buy the new one I will give the old one to Ethan along with a handful of the fake credit cards that come attached to the credit card offers.

When it's time to clean the house, I hand him the feather duster and let him go wild with it. Sometimes I will unscrew the top two pieces from my Swiffer and let him "help" clean the floor, but I don't put a swiffer pad on it because the wet floor is a safety hazard. He also has a toy vacuum and sometimes he will vacuum right alongside me when I'm using the real one.

Here is a link to a recipe for home made play dough that I'm looking forward to making so Ethan can shape and squish til his little heart's content.

For more fun ideas visit
FamilyEducation.com
Toddlertoddler.com
Fun games for toddlers at essortment.com

I will be putting a link section on my blog so I can add new websites as I come across them.

America has decided...

...and I am wearing black today. Enough said.

Ass world?

Troy and I couldn't decide which movie to go see last night, so we opted for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse and then we went across the street to Blockbuster to pick up a rental flick. Troy, being the chivalrous gentleman that he is, came around to my side of the car and opened the door for me to get out. Then he pointed to the east and said "So what do you suppose they sell there?" The drink I had with dinner must have been stiffer than I thought it was, because I giggled like a ten year old the entire time we were at Blockbuster.

W's are not as good as M's

Ethan found a bowl of M&M's on my desk this morning. "M's!" he exclaimed and reached for the bowl. M&M's don't seem like an ideal breakfast food for a two year old, so I whisked the bowl away quickly and said "No, those are W's. They're not as good as M's." He was skeptical but didn't protest too much.

He doesn't like to be called "Nan"

My two year old son doesn't have a speech impediment. I KNOW he can say "dad" because I've heard him say it. So why does he sometimes pronounce his D as N? I have no idea. Sometimes he calls his stuffed T-Rex Dino and sometimes he says Nino. I laughed when I heard him call my husband Nan instead of Dad, so maybe he thinks it's cute. I laughed even harder last night because poor Troy kept telling Ethan "No, it's DAD, with a deeeeeeeee. Can you say DAD? My name is not Nan."


Well, at least he calls me Mama :)

Anti anti depressant

So I've learned that my husband is anti anti-depressants and does not want me to take them. I'm not a big fan of pharmaceuticals myself, but I've heard good things from some people who have taken them. Then again, I have read about all sorts of nasty side effects that anti-depressants may have. It's really strange isn't it? Here, we are diagnosing you with depression, so take this pill. You may gain weight, your libido will disappear, you may also have diarrhea and constipation, heartburn, headaches and dizziness, ulcers, anxiety, tremors, sleeplessness and fatigue, your right arm could fall off and you might even want to kill yourself. But buck up, because you won't be depressed anymore!

Even if I were to get a prescription for something, for the life of me I just can't remember to take a pill every day. Thus, I am on a quest for some other natural way to rid myself of these nasty blues. My experiment begins today. Possible solution number 1: housework. I know it sounds ridiculous, and maybe even counterproductive! I have found though, that I feel significantly better when I'm doing something productive. So I might just be on to something here.

Desperate Housewife

Happy Halloween y'all. I realized today that it has been two years, one month, and two days since my last day in corporate America. On September 29, 2006 I happily forsook my career, and on October 3 I embarked on this journey called motherhood. After two years on the job I have many things to say about it, but first and foremost: I am darn glad that I'm not being formally reviewed!

Don't get me wrong. Stay-at-home-momming is a worthy pursuit, and I love my son with all my heart. I believe that being home with him is making a positive impact on his life, and I wouldn't give this up for anything. After two years, however, I have realized that it is definitely different than I originally anticipated.

When I was pregnant I would share with enthusiasm that I was looking forward to being a stay at home mom, maintaining my home, and spending every minute with my newborn son. I didn't understand why my mommy friends laughed. Then he was born. It seemed like there was not enough time to clean the house, do the laundry, cook dinner, AND spend quality time with my precious baby.

In the last two years it seems that I have managed to develop some semblance of a routine, although the house is not spic and span, and I am rarely entirely caught up with the laundry. I wonder how other moms do it. How do they keep their houses clean, keep up with the laundry, have a nice dinner on the table at a reasonable time, and spend quality time with their kids? Some days I feel like I am playing a role in a movie entitled Indiana Jones and the Coffee Table of Doom: raiders of the lost electricity bill. Or perhaps Groundhog Day: didn't I just clean this room? How did it get messed up so quickly? Am I living the same day over and over? Sometimes I worry that this makes me inadequate, but my husband (God bless him) never complains. He's wonderful.

I have been battling depression off and on for the last couple of years, partially due to the adjustment of going from career woman to stay at home mom. Have you looked at a calendar lately? Winter is right around the corner. When the weather is nice I take my son outside to play of course, but when the weather is less than prime for going to the playground or hanging out in the front yard to watch ants I do tend to isolate myself with the internet as my only portal to the outside world. Fortunately I have been working part time at a local church's Kids Day Out in their toddler room. This means several things: Ethan gets to go with me and socialize with other kids around his age, I get to socialize with other moms around my age, and I earn a little extra money each month for watching kids and changing diapers two half days per week. It's quite a leap from what I used to do for a living, but it's growing on me.