Giving My Kid A Complex

Does anyone else think this may come back to haunt me later?

So, Weston and I have been watching parts of Superman Returns as of late (mostly the part with the airplane, as it is in fact Superman + Airplane vs. Gravity, and not Superman vs. Evil Mean Person). Neither Weston nor the 10-year-old trapped inside of me seem to get tired of watching this 5 minute sequence. Oh, we do also watch the scene where he stops the bank robbers who have the big gun. One might think this violates the original postulate of no Superman vs. Evil Guys....One would, however, be wrong. You see, these would-be bank robbers never say anything...(who knows, maybe they were going to give the money to the orphanage) and they also never actually "fight" with Superman. Yes, they do fire their insane gatling gun at him, and one even shoots him point blank in the eye... (which is totally cool to watch)... but is that really "fighting" Superman? Saying they lost that fight with Superman is like saying I lost the Utah Republican Primary to Mitt Romney (It was the hair wasn't it...I knew it).

Where was I? Oh yes, so we watch these parts of the movie a few times a week. I decided we hadn't ever gotten any really good shots of Weston in the cape my mom made for him, and it was high time we did. (This is about as close to naming any of my offspring Kal-El as I think I will ever get, but I am ok with that). So this evening, after getting home from our movie outing (I will let Shan fill you in on the full days events), Weston and I walked over to the park with camera in hand and cape on shoulders. He was pretty good posing for pictures. After we were "done" he kept the cape on while playing on the playground – informing anyone who would listen that he was in fact Superman. He would also then say "To infinity and beyond."

.....To his credit, Superman doesn't really say anything worth yelling right before he flies off in the movie.

"Tee" Ball

Ok, so how ghetto is this? Weston got a little plastic bat and ball set at the dollar store and is in love with it, but he's not that skilled at hitting the ball when I throw it to him yet. So in order to help him play with his new toy with less frustration, Ian made him a "tee." Yes, it is made from a piece of rain gutter attached to a board. Nice. Weston loves it though and it was cheap as free.

I love how Weston is not even looking at the ball he just hit. The whole hand-eye coordination thing isn't really all there yet.
He also loves to throw the bat up in the air. It quite often lands on his head.
Also, Ian set up the new patio table. Yay! I love it and can't wait to eat outside all summer (and to get rid of the old patio table so we have room).

DavCam

Here is a live feed of Davin in his swing.
If he starts crying... Please call us.

Thanks,
The Management

Teeth!

Weston had his first visit to the dentist yesterday. I had kind of been putting off taking him in since he turned 2, but thanks to my sister's blog post about her kids' first visit, I was inspired to bite the bullet and see how Weston's teeth are doing. We made an appointment at a pediatric dentist the day after Weston saw his cousins' pics at the dentist. He was so excited to go too. The night after he had his bad dream I asked him what he was going to think about while he was falling asleep and he thought for a second, then said, "the dentist!" It was so cute.

The office was all nautical themed. Complete with a play boat in the waiting area. Weston had a blast playing in the boat and then when it was our turn to go back they had Nemo playing on the TV screens set into the ceiling. Weston loved that he got his own headphones to listen to the movie. He was not a huge fan of the polishing paste they use to clean your teeth and kept trying to spit it out, but he didn't cry or anything. He was great and sat very still for his x-rays.

The dentist was a little more brusque and a little less gentle than the hygienist and Weston kind of freaked out when the dentist sprayed air on his back molars, but he calmed down pretty quick. I was actually kind of surprised that the dentist wasn't more kid-friendly. He didn't explain anything he was doing to Weston, but I guess his time is more in demand. Just before we left Weston got a flouride varnish treatment. It tasted yucky and all the way home he sucked on his waterbottle and said "bleh bleh." He couldn't eat solid food for 6 hours after his appointment, so we ran a couple errands then picked up a frosty at Wendy's. By the time he woke up from his nap he could have real food again, but that was kind of a pain.

There were no major problems with his teeth. He had a start to a cavity on his back molar, but the dentist said not to worry about it and just brush his back teeth extra good. Weston was very excited about getting a new Eyeore toothbrush and getting to pick a toy out of the treasure chest when he was done. Overall I would say a pretty successful first dentist appointment.

Weston was having an off day as far as smiling for the camera goes, so here's the best we got:

Playing on the boat in the waiting room.
Laying in the "chair" (more like a bench) and watching Nemo with his personal headphones.
Davin was awake the whole time but was a real trooper and didn't fuss much at all.

Memorial Day Weekend!

Ok, I have to be honest, I thought our Memorial Day weekend could have been better. We didn't do a whole lot and every day this weekend felt like every other day of my life except that Ian was home for most of it. On Saturday I took Weston grocery shopping with me and then Ian went and helped our friends get their front yard ready to be re-seeded. That night they came over for dinner and hung out for a bit. That was pretty fun. Sunday Ian had to speak so he was busy all morning preparing his talk (if you didn't already know, Ian's a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to things like this). Sunday afternoon Ian and I took some pics of just us to send to his sister, Aly, for a project she is working on at school. We didn't have a single picture of just the two of us since our last anniversary, so it was high time we took some more. It was actually pretty fun and felt like doing engagement pics again. :)

Monday dawned rainy and cold. Weston was up at 6:45 and therefore so was I. Ian and I took turns running errands without the kids all morning. Ian went and picked up our new patio furniture set, so that was pretty exciting, but it's not all set up yet. It will be so nice to have actual chairs to sit in instead of camp chairs. I will post pics when we get it all put together and outside. Ian and I both napped while the boys napped in the afternoon, then after naptime we went over to the church and played with Ian's RC truck and Weston brought his soccer ball. Last night we started watching National Treasure, but didn't make it through the whole thing before I decided I'd better get some sleep instead.

WARNING: the following paragraph is about Weston's constipation. If you have a weak stomach, do not read.
Weston was not feeling good all day Monday. Poor kid hadn't pooped since Friday, so every half hour or so he would fuss and say he didn't feel good and go lay down on the couch wanting me to tuck him in with his blanket and Elmo and Duckie. I figured running around at the church would get things moving for him, but he refused to poop. I thought for sure we would be up with him in the night, but he slept all night long. First thing this morning he was crying and curled up on the couch. Luckily late last night Ian went to the pharmacy and got a toddler enema. So we gave it to him this morning and he cried and didn't poop . . . STILL. I was waiting until 8 for the doctor's office to open so I could make him an appointment when he curled up and was actually pushing. After pushing for a few minutes he all of a sudden sat up and threw up all over the throw pillow (luckily only getting a tiny bit on the couch). It was pretty traumatic, but after the pooping and the throwing up he felt almost 100% better and has been fine the rest of the day. I have renewed determination to make sure he eats lots of fruit and fiber. :)

Hubby and me in our living room.
Hanging out on the hammock out back.
Davin loves Mama kisses!
Weston being tickled by and playing with Becca and Alann Saturday night.

Weston making good use of his bubble gun Sunday afternoonPlaying at the church on Memorial Day. This is the best pic I could get in the crappy cultural hall lighting zoomed in from the stage. :)

RIP Camry, or how I stopped worrying about the Toyota and learned to love the Escort

Abridged Version:

Camry Died

Got new Old Car.

Camry 1989-2008
"You were almost a Classic"

(2003 - 2008 for us)

OK dedicated blog readers, this one's for you.

I've had this gut feeling for quite some time now that the beloved Camry was about ready to give up the ghost. It's been a great little car, but like the last week of high school, I just couldn't bring myself to put much effort into it. It really started at the beginning of last summer when the AC died. This made for a pretty miserable drive whenever I had Weston in the car. It just got so hot so fast that I was always stressing about him, even with the windows down. This was back when Shannon was working, so I was picking him up every day at 5:30 from day care. Hopefully the child doesn't have any permanent damage from those car rides (Although, I must admit I enjoyed our rides home together... and on more than one occasion we may have made pit stops at Murray park or McDonalds). Anyway.... Despite the insanely cold and snowy winter, the lack of AC in my car remained in the back of my mind. Also, about twice a month, it just wouldn't start. I would just have to wait a few minutes and it would turn over, but it was an annoyance for sure. Since I couldn't ever re-create it, and it never left me stranded for more than 5 minutes, I never bothered to take this in. Over the past 6 months it had started running louder and louder. The breaks started squeaking again, I replaced both headlights within 3 months of each other and put seemingly endless amounts of oil into the belly of that steel beast.

One morning a few months ago I got in the car to go to my early morning church meetings and noticed a small crack had randomly appeared. I knew I had to get it repaired, or it would spread. Unfortunately, the next morning I got back in the car to go to work, only to find that the crack had more than doubled and was beyond fixable. So I was going to need a new windshield...great. Shortly thereafter, we actually had a nice day and I decided to drive with the windows and sunroof open. It was fabulous – until I went to shut said sunroof. The normal "seal of silence" that I would experience when closing the window while the car was still in motion failed to happen. The sunroof no longer properly sealed. This made it even louder in the car. Luckily, it seemed to still ward off rainfall, but I never drove it during a downpour, so I don't know how well it would hold up then. The final straw was the week after Davin's blessing. I could hear the tapping inside the engine...it was a death rattle.. I knew from previous experience that anything that far into the engine would be several hundred dollars to replace. So... I just let it go. Now this obviously wasn't the smartest thing to do... where I more pro-active about things like this, I would have stopped driving it immediately and tried to sell it in running shape... I would have been honest with any buyers... really it would have only raised the value of the car a few hundred (if that)...the damage had been done... the fuse lit... it was just a time bomb at this point...

So I started looking on Craigslist, KSL Classifieds, and Autotrader to see what was out there. In the spectrum of cars around $1500 there is quite a bit crap. I found a 94 ford escort for sale from a mechanic who just buys cars in that price range, fixes them up and re-sells them. I gave it a test drive and thought it ran as good as any $1500 car I had ever driven. The AC works great, the interior is clean, and it has power everything.

This was Thursday right after work - the same day Joy got into town. So I started thinking about it as I was home that evening. As soon as the kids were in bed, I decided that Shannon should test drive it. We stopped off at the bank to get a deposit to give the guy if Shannon gave her approval. On this second, longer test drive, I decided that this was about as good of a deal as I was going to get. We gave the guy our deposit and told him we could get the rest of the money to him by Monday (it was in our online savings account, which takes a few days to transfer back). He was a bit leery of this, but since we had the deposit, said he was ok with it.

When we got home I posted the Camry on all of the aforementioned websites (accept autotrader, which costs money) and set in motion the funds transfer.

The next day, I went to meet Shannon and Joy for lunch when the Camry died it's loud painful death on I-215. There was smoke and pieces of metal clattering around and the type of sounds that make mechanics cry. We have roadside assistance, so it only cost $15 to get it back home, but it did ruin our Café Rio plans.

So when we got home I updated my postings to now say that the Camry was dead. This qualified me to put it in the "Car Parts" section of the KSL classifieds. It sold that weekend, and was gone by Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, our money didn't come in until Tuesday. Luckily the guy didn't sell it out from under us (since he legally could have).

During this time between deciding to purchase the car and actually getting it, I went through what can only be described as male-nesting. I cleaned the garage, organized my tools, and installed the new remote kit for the garage door.

We got the car Tuesday evening. I had to get new rear brakes on it to pass safety and emissions, but it was under $200 for the whole deal, so that's not too bad.

The plan is to keep this thing running for at least 2.5 years until the Altima is paid off...

By then we will probably be wanting a larger car I am sure. So we'll see what happens.

Catching Up

Sorry about the blogging break . . .
I'm back now. I would love to say that I haven't posted because I've been insanely busy doing interesting and productive things, but that would not be entirely true. I have had a fairly full week, but nothing major or pressing. The first part of the week was really relaxed and we just cleaned the house, went to the park, visited Daddy at work and finally picked up the new car. Then I took the boys with me to the DMV to get the temporary permit for the car. Friday was Davin's 2 month check up. He is doing great, but isn't as big as we thought he was. He's actually a little on the small side. Apparently that's just how our kids are. Anyway, to those of you who are interested in the details . . .Davin's Stats are as follows:
height: 23.25 inches--55%ile
weight: 10lbs. 9oz.--25%ile
head: don't recall actual centimeters, but 25%ile
So, ya, he's not the huge baby we imagined him to be. I forgot to mention that we did actually sell the Camry last Sunday!!! This is such great news because with it not running we were concerned no one would buy it. We certainly didn't sell it for what we would have if it was running, but we got a little bit from it, and every little bit helps! :)

When we went to Murray Park on Tuesday all the firefighters were there practicing rescues in the river, so there were about 4 fire engines. Weston was in heaven!

Weston had his first experience on a tire swing at the park this week. He is a big fan.

Davin is 2 months old today!!! He is such a cutie with all his big grins and little chuckles. We love him to pieces.Ok, this is a funny story. Weston LOVES to talk on the phone and is always wanting to call people on my cell. This is him talking to Grandma B (I think) last Sunday. He got hot and took off his pants and then was sitting there chatting on the phone bouncing his foot. I am looking forward to comparing this pic with one of him when he is 16 or 17 (I mean, check out the look he's giving us too!).