My First Accident

I got into an accident this morning while driving to work. First off I have to say that I am thankful for several things. I am soooooo thankful that the boys were not in the car. I am thankful that the driver who hit me has insurance. I am thankful that we have insurance. I am thankful that Eric was able to rush over and handle all the pesky details. I am thankful that I am not seriously hurt. I've got back pain, and I'm heading to the doctor shortly, but I am able to walk.

On the other hand, getting into an accident is a pain in the butt. I was the second car going through the intersection on our green light. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of yellow, and the girl screeched her brakes and slammed into the passenger side of my van near the rear tire. She hit so hard that the sliding door and the front passenger door won't open. She was freaked out...as she should have been, but she said she was fine. She jumped out of her car and began apologizing and saying it was all her fault. Um, yeah, you ran a red light!

I've got my rental. It's a Toyota Rav4. Very different from my trusty van. I want my Honda back.

Confusion

My first child is a bit confused. He is convinced that bees make syrup. Every morning when he eats his five mini pancakes with syrup he announces to me, "Hey Mom, did you know that bees make syrup?" I tell him no, but he argues with me. I guess in his mind syrup and honey are both sticky, so they are one in the same. Sometimes the child is smart. Sometimes he's not.

Baby in the Tub

What is it about a baby in a bath that is so stinkin' cute?!


Ahhhhh!!! Hudson had to climb out of the tub and run up to me when he saw I had the camera. Little cheesy stinker!

I know his face is dirty. His bath wasn't done at this point in the photo taking. I was actually trying to get a shot of him sticking his tongue into the stream of water. Of course he didn't do it once I had the camera. Oh well. I'm sure there will be many more baths and photo op moments.

Yummy!

I've been working on being a healthier person. One thing I've done nearly every night for over 3 weeks is to cut up fresh veggies for my "summer salad." I love the color and look of my salads, so I thought I'd take a photo and share. I forgot to buy purple cabbage, so there isn't as much purple in the salad tonight as usual.

I truly wish I liked cooked vegetables, but I just don't. I've tried. Many times. I can't get past the taste. I am finally coming to terms with the fact that I simply have to be healthy in a way that works for me. This works for me. The only problem with this is that I like my produce ultra fresh, so I've been at the grocery store every other day.

I can't get enough of my cucumbers, red peppers, green peppers, orange peppers, yellow peppers, carrots, red onions, cabbage, tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, almond slivers, oil and vinegar. Besides the healthy factor, another good thing about doing this every night is that I'm not hungry. I rarely need to snack at night because I'm just not hungry.

I just wanted to share my pretty veggie bowl!

Will I Ever Learn?

I have a 16-month-old. That fact alone should keep me involved in some very stringent habits. However, I never seem to learn. Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago, I walked out to the garage from our kitchen. I happened to look down, and lying on the doormat in the garage was my WEDDING RING!!! I think I screamed. I promptly stuck my ring on my finger and berated myself for not putting my jewelry away properly in my beautiful jewelry box.

I had left the ring on the bathroom counter, and the wee one affectionately known as Chicken must have moved it for me. I didn't see this happen, so I have no definitive proof, but there aren't many other suspects in the house who would do that. Evan just didn't touch stuff the way my second child is prone to do. I shudder to think of how I would have felt if I hadn't come across my ring in the GARAGE on the GROUND. I would have felt worse than awful.


Don't believe the innocence of this sweet little face. I think I'm going to rename him Sticky Fingers.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I wanted to wear my sapphire earrings. They were my gift from Eric after delivering Hudson in the month of September (hence the sapphire birthstones. I have opal earrings for having Evan in October). I couldn't find my sapphires. I was a bit panicky, but figured they would turn up.

I didn't think much more about it until this morning when I realized that they weren't in the usual spots: my nightstand, the bathroom counter or the kitchen counter. I honestly could not remember the last time I had them in my ears, but I usually only remove my earrings in the bathroom (I don't like to shower with jewelry) or once I'm in bed (I don't like to sleep with jewelry).

I didn't want to tell Eric, so I asked him, "Hey Honey, have you seen any jewelry of mine in an unusual spot?" I know, I know, real subtle. He asked which jewelry. I said I didn't want to tell him. He asked which jewelry. I told him.

I just had a feeling that the last time I wore them I went to bed and took them out and put them on my nightstand. They weren't there, but then I remembered son #2 and his penchant for grabbing things off flat surfaces over his head. Hmmm, I thought. could he be responsible for this mystery?

I got down on my hands and knees on my side of the bed and proceeded to find one earring. Great. One earring. Better than nothing, but not the outcome I was hoping for. Eric got me a flashlight. I widened the search to the entire side of my bed. After all of us searched for about 10 minutes, I finally found the second earring on the floor down by the foot of my bed.

I was so relieved. For obvious reasons, my sapphires and opals are extremely meaningful to me. I would have been devastated to lose them.

I am hoping I have learned my lesson. Put the jewelry in the jewelry box. ALWAYS. No exceptions. I could wait for Hudson to grow up, but I may lose a lot of jewelry in the process.

Oh, and rest assured. I took the earrings out of my ears to take a picture of them and promptly put them back in my ears. I am not leaving them on the kitchen table overnight. I also took a picture of them in my ears, but I couldn't bring myself to post a picture of my ear on the blog!

No Training Wheels!

Evan learned to ride his bike today with no training wheels. We decided to take a family bike ride this afternoon. I led the line with Hudson in a bike seat on my bike. Evan rode his Diego bike with training wheels behind me. Dad brought up the rear.

At one point in our journey through the neighborhood I suggested to Eric that we head back home and take the training wheels off to see how Evan would do. It turns out he had been thinking the same thing.

We got home, Eric removed the trainers, I gave Evan a few directions, I chased him around the cul de sac one time, and he was off and riding! It was amazing to see him take off and stay upright.

We had to do a few mini lessons on the art of starting and stopping. Evan is as proud as a peacock to say the least. I think it's easier for him riding the bike with no training wheels than it was with them on.

We are really proud of our little monkey.


Here I am pushing Evan along to get him started.


I looked like a complete goober running like a monkey behind Evan as he gained his balance.


I'm just about ready to let go of him.


He's doing it! He's doing it!


Looking pretty confident!

I have a strong suspicion that a lot of family bike rides are in our near future!

Little Chicken keeps getting older

My little Chicken is 16 months old today. I'm not sure how it happened, but it did. He's growing up before our eyes. I usually tell people he's mean, but that's only because he bites his brother whenever Evan gets in his way. In that case, I can't say that I really blame him! His latest trick is to make this face whenever we say the word cheese. It cracks us up every time. We love you Hudson Chicken!