Charlie-in-the-Box

I'm afraid we've got ourselves a misfit toy.  Kind of like, but not exactly like, a choochoo with square wheels, or a water pistol that shoots jelly, or worst of all... a cowboy that rides an ostrich.

Incase it is so much a misfit that you find it hard to identify, it's a rubber swan that can't stay upright.  The real killer is that it doesn't squeak.  It makes the most ungodly of sounds.  Something between honking and the scraping of styrofoam.  If you squeeze it, Levin starts crying.  That isn't an exaggeration.

I imagine we'll be having a flying lion visit us some night and awaken to a missing rubber swan.  On the other hand, I may claim him for myself.  He doesn't float upright because of his crown... I'm a sucker for object lessons.

Ande, where did you find this again?  An island?

The Fountain of Youth

I think I had an ancestor that could still do one armed push-ups when he was 90 years old.  Or maybe it was that he could still out arm-wrestle anyone in the county when he was 95.  Or maybe he was 100 years old.  I can't remember the details, but I think I once heard a story and it impressed me.

I think I'll make my impression on the future by being the grandma that could still do flips on the trampoline when she was 105.  I may only have one child to impress with this awesome feat due to a prolapsed uterus, but impressed they will be.

Then, after I'd done my showing off, I let Levin get on for a turn.

Ray Told Me to Just Post Pictures

We walked around the park this afternoon.  Ray happily pushed Levin and carried him.  I took pictures for a project I'm working on.  Levin sang his way along.  His singing pushed me to make a decidedly formed opinion.  Babies have the most sweetest of voice... it has perfect pitch.  Or, is it just so sweet because he's mine?

I like Ray's rug burned knee because he got it last night crawling on the floor with Levin.
It just feels like something I'll want to remember.

Where's Waldo?

Labyrinth flasbacks.

You know what they say... horizontal stripes aren't flattering on every body type.

At least those are the two thoughts I always have when Levin wears these pajamas.

Last Monday we had dinner.  Then we put Levin to bed.  Then we had Family Home Evening.  I'm pretty sure we did them in the wrong order; but when you're grumpy, you get uninvited to Family Home Evening.

Any idea as to what we did for Family Home Evening last Monday.

Using my good and trusty doll that I got for Christmas when I was 7 years old.

Oh... just a little infant resuscitation.  I gave Ray scenarios afterwards.  He answered "call 911" to all of them, and therefore got an A+.  We then went and knocked-on-wood that we wouldn't have to use our newly obtained skills.

Wellies

How to make it quit raining?  Buy expensive wellies and be very excited to wear them.

At first I called them irrigating boots.

But then I realized there were 5 BIG reasons not to call them that anymore:

1. Irrigating boots don't cost this much.
2. Irrigating boots always have at least a cup of muddy water or muddy sludge sitting at the bottom of them.
3. Irrigating boots are kept in a big bin out in the garage and you have to dig through eight other pairs to find a possible match.
4. Irrigating boots have alfalfa leaves inside them and alfalfa stems wrapped around them.
5. Irrigating boots lose their match immediately after being taken home and are therefore paired up with a lone mate from last year... which probably has a leak.

These are irrigating boots.  Not wellies.

via

66 Degrees

Last night when I went to bed, it was 66 degrees in the house.  This morning it was still 66 degrees.  Not special unless you know that I turned the heat off permanently yesterday and this is Seattle where it could be in the 50's and raining until June.  I guess what I'm trying to say is I think it's Spring in Seattle.

Which calls for one thing only:

A spring mantle.

Turns out it's really hard to take pictures of a mirror.

I decided to have it say "please grow" because for the first time in my life, I own a real orchid (50 bonus points or 10 free guys if you can find the real orchid on the mantle).  I've never seen anyone keep an orchid alive for longer than a few months.  I take that back, I've seen ones "alive," but mostly they are just a stick and a single large leaf in a pot.  So basically, they're not alive.  Tomorrow I'll share how I made it stop raining in Seattle this past week.  I'll give you a hint... two years ago Ray single handedly started the Seattle dry-season when he bought a rain barrel off Craigslist.

Obedient In Deed

I guess Levin's desire to obey was not so burning after all.

Last week I got a call from a scratch-n-dent outlet store that they had a crib come in that day.  I'd asked them 5 months ago to call me when they finally got a crib in-store.

On Thursday I went up to the store, dickered, and bought the crib.

On Friday I put Levin down for a nap and when I went to check on him, found this:

He was crawling manically around the room and laughing.

On Saturday we picked up the crib.  I like to think there is an amazing moral somewhere in there; perhaps that I have impeccable timing... most likely that my Mother's instinct is perfectly calibrated.

He's watching Ray put the bedroom door back on... we had to remove it to fit the crib in the room.

This is the part where we leave the room, close the door, and hear him start jumping on the bed.

Now, my favorite pastime is peeking in while he's napping and seeing what position he decided was comfortable.  His chosen positions assure us all he's Ray's child.

How to Catch a Baby

I got to teach early morning seminary this morning.  Ray played a great trick on me, too.  As I was driving home, I called to see if Levin had woken up.  He gasped, "Oh shoot!  I forgot I was watching him.  I got in my routine this morning and I'm already at the office."  He said it so convincingly that I was... convinced.  He even let out a chuckle when he was telling me; as if he couldn't believe he'd forgotten.  That chuckle was what tricked me.

This got me to thinking, however.  Should we ever lose Levin, how will we catch him?

I think I've found the answer.

How to catch a baby:

With jewels.

At seminary, part of the lesson had us all doing 10 push-ups and you have to wear a dress to teach Seminary.  That's why I wore my heavy-duty black tights.   I figured it would be less traumatizing for the students to see their teacher doing push-ups with them if she was wearing black tights with her skirt... almost like wearing black work-out spandex... kind of.

Today

Levin wanted to practice taking his senior pictures today.  I kindly reminded him that he won't be a senior for 17 more years.  "Practice makes perfect," he said.

And indeed it does.

I don't know if you can see the tears under his eye, but let's just say I was picking my battles at this point.

Also note he is wearing his pajamas.  That's because he is in bed now and it's only 7:00pm.

8:00am

11:00am

11:01am

I'm kind of glad today is over.