FREEBIES!!!!

Anyone who knows me well, knows I am all about the free stuff, coupons and special offers.

Today I received a coupon in the mail for a new store in San Jose that just opened on Tuesday called Buy Buy Baby. I went home from work to get Erik and check it out (and take advantage of my coupon!).

Since the store is SO new they had a core, brand new staff who really had no idea what they were doing. As Erik and I walked in and were browsing, a young woman literally came running over and asked for my help is the photography studio. She had seen Erik from across the store and thought he was gorgeous.....now this was either a very honest young woman (or someone who know how to make sale!).

She said because the photo studio was new and this was the first store of this chain in California that they had no local models (models!) and she would like to use Erik as a model.

I had to sign a release and then she did the rest. He was wearing a terrible outfit for pictures and I didn't want to buy more clothes to add to his already huge collection so I asked her to do naked shots! And she did! JC Penny wouldn't do naked shots after 9 months....and I really wanted some of his cute little hiney. She said as long as he was under 1...........well come on, he's only 20 days over.

I said he was almost 1. What a bad example. Never do what I do. I'm bad.

She wanted me to fill out a ton of paperwork for him to get paid for the session - and then she showed me the price of the pictures and I about fainted. SO instead we did a trade!! He got $300.00 worth of photos - and she got a gorgeous model.

I must say it was the deal of the day!!! Here's a few of the good ones.

I love a bargain!

B-O-O-K

We have a secret language we now speak in our house, it's called S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G. There are certain words we NEVER speak. One of those words is "Book".
Erik is obsessed with books, it's all he wants to do. I probably should edit the amount of books he has. I think it's about 50 now. Hey, I used to work at Barnes and Noble....I stocked up.

When I say he loves books, I'm not kidding. We can't say the word, or we're reading for the next hour. He usually just throws books at us when he wants us to read. Today he added the word "GEN!" (again), as he tossed the book at Mike.

When I came home from work there was a purple package in the mailbox. A new book from Papa and Grandma Liz. Mike couldn't get it open fast enough. As soon as Erik saw it was a book he was chanting, book, book book and flapping his arms.

We read it right away. As you can see - he really liked it.

Zoo

Erik is really into animals. Like really. I spend his waking hours making animal sounds. It's what makes him happy. It makes me want to pluck out my eyelashes....especially the Mooing. He can do most of the noises, and some of the signs that go with them. His favorite animals today are Roosters and Elephants (last week was Cows, he's an equal animal attention giver).
We thought it was now time for his first trip to the zoo.
Going to the zoo in San Francisco in the summer requires ski hats, coats and mittens. It's so very odd to live 50 miles down the road in the regular weather - but San Francisco is like going to the other side of the world - always the opposite season. So we bundled Erik up in his best winter clothes (I know! It's August!) and away we went!

Of course we stopped for the obligatory overpriced "entrance" pictures.

We headed out promising Elephants, Lions and Roosters....Oh My! We found the duck statue...which was cool. But still not a rooster. We did eventually find one weird looking rooster. But Erik was more interested in YELLING...... BAA!! at every four legged animal that walked by at the petting zoo.

We looked every where for the Elephants, finally I asked "Lion Security" ...The Lions have their own security to keep the idiots known as dumb people out of their cages. Lion security told me the elephants were dead....Dead? Yep, like they died a few YEARS ago! If you're the zoo....don't you try to replace the Elephants pretty quickly? I mean aren't they one of the main attractions? Seriously, it's like checking out what rides are closed at Disneyland before you go. If the good ones are closed, whats the point. Had I known there were no elephants we would have gone to another zoo. We went for the elephants!! I felt like there should be a sign on the entrance stating "No Elephants" ....at least save my feet from walking around and thinking...gee they've got to be here somewhere!!! He was very interested in this gorilla who sat stone still and looked pretty pissed off at having to sit on a rock while people looked at him. Erik kept growling at him, and then signing "sleep" I don't think he's as sweet as the little gorilla in Goodnight GorillaHe even went to bed in his "zoo animal" PJ's. All in all it was a fun trip to the zoo, disappointing in the Elephant category, but...fun!

ZZZZZZzzzzzz

Today was Erik's one year check up. The Dr. was thrilled with his vocabulary, especially all his animal impersonations and when I said "what does a Dr. say?" he shook his head and little finger imitating the Dr. from the Monkey song (no more Monkey's jumping on the bed), he won her heart in that moment.

She said he was thriving and she had no worries about his development. So....for all of the people in the world who keep asking "is he walking yet?".......NOPE...and guess what? TOTALLY NORMAL!!! I'm beginning to get a complex about it because as soon as I say "not yet" I can hear the cluck clucking of the tongues.

I know most children walk around a year. But many do not because they are working on their cognitive skills (smarts) so, your child may be walking, but mine is busy reading books and growing his brain. They will all catch up and be on the same plane by kindergarten so everyone please chill out - he will walk, when he's ready to walk. I promise to notify you the second it happens.

He also had to have those one year shots. Mike bowed out of this appointment long ago since he did the last ones and said there was no way he was holding him through that again. I felt so bad for the little guy. Every time the lady came out to call another victim into the injection clinic Erik would blow her a kiss. Blow her a kiss!! He had no idea in a matter of moments she was going to cause him lots of pain.

And she did. There was lots of pain, tears and thrashing about. I hate that part of these check ups. Luckily he didn't cry for too long - but after the first shot in the leg he looked at me and signed "all done!!" with big tears in his eyes, and he was signing "all done" through the next two shots until I could tell him it was all done.

We spent all morning in the Dr.'s office so Erik missed his nap. He slept for ten minutes on the way home which energized him for the afternoon. 5:00pm hit and he was tired, so I decided to feed him dinner, and this is what happened.

One Year

It's been a year, since our lives changed forever. I feel like I was pregnant for YEARS, but this year just flew by in the flash. These are the little things that have made this year move like a speeding bullet. I've heard that once you have children life goes at double speed. It's true.

This year I learned:

• The most beautiful thing on the planet is Erik's smile.
  


• Life is so much more precious now.
  


• The word Mama melts me....especially since Dada is much more common.
  


• Staying up all night and working the next day is possible, not easy, but possible.
  


• People with more than one children who manage to work, and get dinner on the table each night are pretty awesome in my book!



• Sometimes the greatest trials end up being the best situations.



• I love the sweet smell of wet sloppy baby kisses.

I also learned:

• Baby vomit is really hard to get out of your hair - if you forget it's there for a couple days
  


• My child's favorite thing in this world is my....HAIR



• My husband can sing nursery rhymes in a way that cracks me up.



• Wet babies are SO slippery!



• Breast milk stains everything.



• One child's voice can carry through a very crowded restaurant very quickly.



• Yo Gabba Gabba is a very strange thing that babies love.



• 20 years of taking care of children, still did not prepare me for parenthood.

I hope the next years go much slower. I want to soak it all in and remember each little tidbit.

Mike and Erik, thank you for this year of love (and sometimes, tears).

Plaid

I came home today to find Erik in this.

The following conversation happened:

Becky - What is he wearing?

Mike - What?

Becky - He doesn't match, it's like a bad scene from the 70's

Mike - He DOES match, see the pattern of the lines is the same.

Becky - But, um, the colors aren't the same, isn't it hurting your eyes?

Mike - It DOES match.

Becky - Under my breath so Mike doesn't hear.

Not in THIS universe!