Building dining room forts...

Life here in Georgia is going pretty well!
Slade's almost two and is growing to be quite the independant, loving little man. He's learning the thrills of potty training, and refuses to sit in a wet or poopy diaper. He takes his dirty diapers off himself, then plops down on his potty chair. We haven't gotten him to actually USE the chair for its purpose- rather, it's a place to recline while waiting for mom or dad to fetch a clean diaper. I think once he pees in it, he'll catch on immediately, but I'm not sure how to coax it out while he sits.
He's also tall enough to turn on the lights all over the house. Barely reaching, he's up on his tip-toes and 'helps' to also turn them off when asked. He figured that one out yesterday.
I cut his mohawk off cuz it was grown out and looked more like a mullet when we didn't style it, and being in Georgia is bad enough- I don't like my kid to blend in so well, lol.
Here's a few pictures to update everyone!

Working with Dad in the garage, building a speakerbox...


Enjoying the newly constructed (and colored) fort in the dining room...

Always one of action, don't mind the blurry Slade as he's caught eating a crayon

Peekaboo!

A secret hideout for serious truck-playing

And after a long scream-fit on the 4th of July, we find our Slade curled up in his secure fort, asleep...
Blurry, but an adorable picture nonetheless

Goofing around with Dad

Playing with the kitten instead of getting his diaper changed

Don't mind it being sideways- fish kisses!

Brief update

As always, since I wait so long in between posts, there's been a lot going on around here. Medically, my elbow surgery went well and they removed the wires and pins out of my elbow. I had a huge knarly scar (again) stapled up, and I removed the said staples last night myself. I have an ortho follow up tomorrow morning, but everything should be fine as my elbow hasn't felt this good in about a year!
James had an emergency situation on Sunday which landed him in the ER. He ended up flat on the floor in severe pain thinking somehow he pulled his back, but it turns out he had a kidney stone the size of a pea. Patient is recovering well, up and about as he is quite stubborn to take it easy. But it was a scary situation, and made for a LONG day.
Slade is about as cute as ever, impersonating James and I more and more and more. Which, in turn, is making us more and more aware of what we say or do around him. His latest: 'Slade, what does a puppy dog say?' to which Slade pants. 'Slade, what does a kitty cat say?' Slade (while rubbing his wrist against his cheek, impersonating a cat cleaning its face): 'mewmewmewmew!!!' in a soft voice. :)
His speech is a little behind, probably due to his chronic ear infections for so long, but we work with him on clarification. His biggest addition to the vocabulary: going around the room pointing at stuff saying "What's this?" And the dogs aren't allowed to roam around the house when they're inside, so we yell "KITCHEN!" when they push the boundary. Slade, today, after James yelled "KITCHEN!" ran after the dogs and screamed as clear as day, "Get in KITCHEN!!!" much to our surprise. We are left cracking up at his antics everyday.

New Pictures!!!

It's been forever (again) since I last posted an update. There's been a few upgrades around here, namely James' surprising me by getting Slade's haircut...
side view, eating ribs...Sly little smile. The haircut is suitable for a little boy in his terrible two's!
Other new updates include renovation of our master bath (finally!!!) It's been gutted out since July of last year. The bathroom is tiny, about the size of a closet. The original setup was all 80's, all yellowish and stained, vanity, toilet then tub. It's going to now be pedestal sink, toilet, custom walk-in shower, and storage by way of large medicine cabinet (holds toilet paper too!) and a custom in-set shelf James built. Here's some pictures, at least of where we're at right now. I don't have any before pictures to compare the differences- you'll just have to take my word for it being horrible! Top pic is of the shower floor and bathroom floor. Bottom pic is of the seat in the shower.

Shower with inset for shampoo, etc

Our shower! We're going to get an all-glass enclosure door when our funds get straightened out. If you've been to the Hard Rock hotel in Biloxi, you've seen the glass door style we're going for...otherwise, wait for more pictures when we get it done!

We've also added some decor in Slade's room. James painted my old shadowbox that I've had since I was probably Slade's age. It's very fitting to house some of our shell collection, and it works well in Slade's room!

When we left Biloxi during our last trip to LA, we stopped at Dino's gifts and bought some cheap figures to add to Slade's wall....notice anything 3D hiding in the seaweed?

We added the sea turtle and also a vibrant octopus.

Slade on a sick day, with his mohawk down.

All in all we're doing well. Have to go put Slade down for a nap. More later!

Long time, updated post!

Happy Easter! Long, LONG time since the last post. First, the important part: PICTURES!!!

Our toothy Easter bunny...

Slade loved his white-chocolate Easter Bunny...

And tasting his bendy-stretchy bunnies...

Not only was Slade fascinated by his chirping Chick, but you can note a cat's ear (behind his shoulder) who started prowling around, then licked the chick

Slade's Easter basket complete with goodies

Not very cooperative during our photo-op

Still grumpy

But it was worth it in the end!
We still have a lot of home maintenance to do (as you can see from our grimy 80's wallpaper and stained laminate floor) but we're all happy and healthy!

I've got to go clean Slade up from dinner but I'll post more soon!

Still sick...

All three of us are still sick. Slade & I are still coughing, but no longer have runny noses, etc. James is starting to get sick, as of Monday. Good times.

On a lighter note, I did all of my Christmas shopping yesterday! Still have about 3 people to buy for, and miscellaneous things to buy (wine bottles, get photos developed, & pay for postage) but plenty of time for all of that. :) Veterans Day sales were going in my favor yesterday!

Food for thought

In recent years, society has increasingly grown a demand to stop using artificial ingredients, saturated fats, fructose, sucrose, and other grosses in the food that we feed ourselves, our children, and (of course!) our pets. We now have 'natural food' stores being frequented by a wider range of people, not just "granolas," and organic foods offered in the everyday shopping experience. Fast food chains have switched to healthier oils to prepare unhealthy foods, and Food Network encourages their television stars to mention their preference of organic ingredients.

There are commercial wars waging, lately with the corn industry defending high fructose corn syrup as a healthy option (I'm sure they've taken a hit since that ingredient is in EVERYTHING) and parents protesting if the schools don't get rid of the vending machines of junk food. In short, society demands we eat healthier! Future generations depend on it!

Speaking of future generations, why are parents fine with their kids' education being full of 'artificial ingredients'? Textbooks are full of abridged versions of the truth, which are then re-abridged as they are re-interpreted for 2nd, 3rd, 4th editions, etc. Additionally, depending on what society (or, in large, the government) deems to be the "truth" that year, certain words are removed (i.e., God) and filled in with countless replacements. I've noticed, there really are no two public school (even private school now) textbooks with the same exact information...publisher #1 states history as going down differently then publisher #2.
American History before 20th century revisionism: a totally different ballgame. But it all stems from somewhere, right?

When I was in high school, my mom had me take four or five versions of the Bible- the Bible! Old-school high-school text book for the masses (pardon the pun), and compare them and the way they changed throughout the years. First, we started with an OLD family heirloom edition (I believe Douay-Rheims) Catholic Bible. No, we didn't get down to the direct translations from Arabic to Greek to Latin. But Douay-Rheims is a direct-from-Latin translation. Anyway, line that up next to a King James Bible, New International Version, Mormon, etc...totally, TOTALLY different interpretations of the truth. And each, as you get further from the Catholic Bible, further from the truth as each has biased translations depending on the person who translated it and their current relationship with the Catholic Church.

Today (literally, 11-12-08) there are at least five alternative Christian versions of the Bible (New American Standard, King James Version, New International revised Version, New Revised Standard Version, and Today's New International Version) in addition to all of the tracts each church deems necessary to leave on your doorstep. BUT, we are still able to purchase the Catholic versions and therefore be that much closer to the truth.

Future generations though...I'm not so sure they'll have this option. With recent elections bringing Barack Obama into the White House, our education system is about to be drastically overhauled worse than it already is. His strong focus on revamping the education system isn't going to improve anything, but rather will increase the indoctrination of our children. History will be written more fiction then ever, unless of course he takes the path of his predecessor and burns all of the schoolbooks to get a fresh start.

There's a positive to all of this though. At least our brain-washed, indoctrinated children will have healthy food to fuel their bodies & minds.

(Sorry for the rant. If I were still in high school I think my mom would have me use this as a research paper topic.)

Sickness

As of Sunday morning, Slade started showing signs of being sick. I thought it was allergies since he stayed with friends Saturday night who have three indoor dogs. Lo and behold, all week long he coughs, sneezes, slimes me out, eats less & is actually cranky. So we finally made it to the Dr's...I wanted to make sure he didn't have pnemonia or anything major. Turns out he has (yet again) ear infections in both ears. I thought we were over that, with having tubes put in and all. But at least now we're getting it treated.

Just in time because now I'm starting to cough & blow my nose. Yay flu season!