I was looking for that!

I am sure you have heard how ball pits at places like McDonalds and Chuckie Cheese are not the most sanitary place for your children to play. Things such as crack needles, dirty diapers, feces and anything else you can imagine has been found in them. Well now you can lump our ball pit in there with the rest of them. Bear has a big colorful playpin that my Aunt V. gave him and I thought it would be fun to fill it with balls. Little did I know that it would be a spot for Bear to hide things. This morning he was playing in it and I noticed something shiny in there with him. I pulled out a spoon. Upon further investigation I found a spool of pink thread, one of my books, a CD with no cover, a sippy cup and some clean diapers. So now I add the ball pit to my list of places to go through each day to make sure there is nothing out of place. And just so you know, no crack needles were found in the process.

Is it 8 O' Clock yet?

Oh my soul! From about 6:30 until 8:00 in the evening is the longest hour and a half of my life. We have finished dinner and walks and everyone just sort of loses thier minds. Me included. All I do is run around playing interferance. Duke is into everything, and Bear is going from temper tantrum mode to being fine, but giving Duke everything he shouldn't have. Here Duke, chew on mommies shoe! Okay kid, I think I will! Thanks!
And then Tela becomes my shadow. I am not talking about following me to another room. I move 2 feet to the left, she moves 2 feet to the left. I turn around, there she is, 2 inches behind me. And when I walk into another room, she leads. But she stops every 3 feet or so to see if I am coming which usually results in me smacking right into her butt and almost falling on her.
I think I even get a little cranky too.
What the heck in the world! Tela breathing in my face, Duke chewing on her tail and Bear crying because I won't let him touch the key board. Surely it is bedtime by now...
What did you say? It is only 7:08? Holy cow, its gonna be another long one.

We've got a climber!

About a week ago Bear started to climb up on his piano. He gets to the top and doesn't know what to do. He hasn't figured out how to climb back down, so he whines until I come and rescue him. I have been taking longer and longer to get him, thinking maybe he will get the clue that this is not the smartest thing to climb on. I even keep the lid off the thing, but he still climbs up and stands on the little edges of it. Today I took a picture:

Insert Hallelujah chorus here:

I have really been working hard with Bear on putting away toys before he pulls more out, and helping mommy at the end of play time to clean up. He did FABULOUS all day long. I was getting so tired of always being one mess behind him, as I was cleaning up one, he was in the next room making a new one. I have better things to do with my day for crying out loud. So we have been learning that when you take something off the shelf, you put it back. You don't just drop it and run off for the next item. Tonight right before bed, we did our reading time and I was sitting on the couch and asked him to get me a book. He said "boot" and went and got one. When we were done, I said, "go put it away." Now normally I would have to walk with him while we held the book together, but tonight he grabbed the book, ran to he basket, dropped it in, grabbed another one, said "mow," and ran back. He did it 4 more times too! And of course would clap for himself when he put one away. He is so cute. And when I told him that it was the last one and it was time for bed, he looked at the books and said "bye-bye."
Tonight we were talking to my momma(who by the way has eaten at In-n-Out twice now) and was about to hang up when he said, "bye-bye na-na!" It was so sweet. He hasn't really put words together like that before. He is not just copying us anymore, he is recognizing things and saying them on his own. We were looking at the fridge that is covered in pictures of him and he said "bay-bay!" (baby) And he loves Belle. He will sit and look at that cat and smile even though he can't get close to her and say "Belle." It comes out more of a "w" instead of a "ll" but hey, he is only 13 months. We went to Wal-mart today and saw some rubber duckies and I gave him one to play with. So for the rest of the time, every person we saw he held up his duckie and told them "dut." He can't say his k's yet, so everything that ends with a k comes out sounding like a t. Doot(Duke), dut(duck), and tat(cat). Also in his vocabulary are water(wada), sit, stay(tay), down, no-no, and cheeeeeeessssse. That is how he says it. With a big smile on his face. The kid loves cheese!
He now tells me thank you when he hands me something he shouldn't have. Today he found some dog food and I asked him to hand it to me, and as he was handing it over he said "dank-doo" I guess because I normally thank you when he hands me something. He just cracks me up.

Its just not fair

My momma is on her way to Cali as I type this. She just informed me that for lunch her and my sister will be stopping in Redding for some In-N-Out. I am so jealous. I told her that on the way home she has to stop there and get me a burger. If I thought a milkshake would last, I would of asked for that too.

R.I.P.

I knew they had sunk her. Two years ago. I decommed her in 03. I knew it was sitting on a pier in Bremerton just waiting out the rest of her life. I saw her sitting in Everett the day my nephew was born and I said goodbye knowing where they were taking her. And then they used her and 4 other old destroyers as target practice. I don't know why I am so emotional about this. I hadn't even given it a second thought until I saw a picture of her being sunk. And I burst into tears. I am still crying right now. I feel like such a fool. I know it is just a boat. I know it is just a big hunk of metal. But it was my boat. It was my hunk of metal. I stood thousands of hours of watch on that ship. I learned how to navigate a 529' boat through the water. I learned how to drive and conn on that ship. I learned how to navigate by the stars on her. I became a Shellback on that ship. I climbed to the top of the mast on her just to hang some stupid flags to impress some stupid foreign dignitaries. I got my ESWS pin on her. I made such good friends on that ship like my Maria and Tatty. I grew up on that boat. I went from a shy quiet little QMSA straight from bootcamp to a QM1 that kicks a$$. I know it wasn't all on that boat, but it laid the ground work for the rest of my time in the Navy. I know I have the memories and I still have the friends, but it still breaks my heart to know that she is now sitting on the ocean floor as a great big reef.

In all her glory off the coast of Chile. If you look hard, you can see me in the bridge windows. I was always trying to get in on these pictures.

Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Oh Tela, my Tela. You are such a good dog. You rarely bark or chase the cats, and you are so patient with Bear. We will work on the patience with Duke. I hope that one day you two will be friends. I think it to be a little bit funny though that you have no problem with him next to you if he is licking your head or cleaning or ears, but if he tries to play with you, you try to kill him. Funny. You are a female though. You are so well behaved. I never have to get on your case about biting Bear or Bears toys or mommy and daddy or the furniture so I really shouldn't complain about this. But I will ask one thing. Now that you have discovered the light switch in the hall, can you keep the light flicking to a minimum? I don't mind it once or twice at a time. But to stand there and turn the light on and off about 50 times with your nose, can be very wearing on a person. I am not sure why as it makes no noise, sound or smell. It is just annoying. So please, wait until I am in another room , asleep or when daddy is home with you. He will appreciate your genius. Thank you.

(Protected) Fun in the sun

I am so scared about Bear getting a sun burn. I know how much I hurt when I have one and it would kill me if he had that pain. So when we went out in the pool today he was covered from head to toe in sunscreen and then covered in clothes. I had the shoes on him so that he could get in and out if he wanted. I set him down in the pool, which was filled with warm tap water, and he would not sit down. Finally I put him down on his bottom, and he played a little, but soon after was standing again. So all of his playtime today in the pool was standing there watching Duke run around the pool. Oh well. It was nice to get out and be in the sunshine for a bit. It was so blasted hot today though that I couldn't be out there too long. You know, give me 50-70 degrees and I am fine. Anything above that and I just want to die. I am miserable. It is gross. I could never live anywhere where there is high humidity. Couldn't. I hate Chicago. During boot camp and "A" school, I was miserable. You walk outside and it is so humid you just get soaked in 5 seconds in your own sweat. That is discusting. I don't know how people do that. Why would you want to be sweaty? Sweat is good when you work out, or if you are in a sauna. But just to stand there outside and sweat? That is gross! Anyways. I am done with my tangent. So in a nutshell, Bear did have a little fun today in the sun and I hate humidity.

I didn't do it...

I have heard of this before

Naked vacuuming is what I am talking about. I just never thought that my 1 year old would be the one doing it.

He has a mondo butt rash again and we were having naked time yesterday morning. Well he immediately went to the vacuum and started cleaning. I thought maybe it was just a fluke but he did it again last night too!
(The leaf was strategically placed after the picture was taken to reserve the privacy of the individual.)

I got the blasted thing figured out!

Okay, actually Daddy Bear did, but who cares! I can download pics now! Woo hoo!

And here are some of my masterpieces(snort):

Who's leading whom here?

Should we of named his Moses?

Bears first time on a swing; not the happy exiting moment I thought it would be:

Bear and Little Man:

Some new arrivals to the carport:

And just because snails fasinate me: