Weekend In The Country

Was it just a month ago that I wrote a post saying I thought this age should be called the terrific twos?

Humph.

Well, it still would be except that Logan has been disagreeable lately. Absolutely everything I say gets a "no" response. Even what I don't say - for example, life will be silent and out of nowhere he yells "no!" To which I ask, "No what?" He'll yell "No!" again. And again. And again. At first I exhaust myself trying to help, but after awhile I give up because it appears he doesn't even have a "yes" in mind which can get frustrating for me, but then he starts crying because I've stopped playing his game which ends up being no less frustrating to have to listen to that!

I've tried distracting him. Doesn't work. I try to keep my voice happy and calm and sweet but that hasn't worked, either. It's usually just his own doing - Joe & I joke that he's bipolar because like a light switch he'll suddenly be happy and laughing and easy-going again. Thankfully these moments don't last long but they are occurring more & more often - and now include spitting. That's right, instead of the classic hitting which Logan did for one month back when he was 20-21 months, he'll run up to me and spit on me! I don't know where he got that - we haven't been able to stop the behavior yet. Whenever he's mad he'll put his lips together so that when he spits it makes a "mad" sound.

I can't even use the park anymore (that used to always make him happy). He knows when we are in the car and turn on the street with the park - he starts yelling "no wee!" (For those who don't remember, "wee" is what he calls the park because that's what he says when he goes down the slide.) I say, "Okay, we don't have to go to the park." Then we pass it and he starts crying "Please baby go to wee!" So I ask, "You want to go to the park?" "No!" Ahhh!

That's part of this, too - he changes his mind now with everything. He tells me he wants to get into the stroller so that we can go on a walk. But once we head down our driveway he starts pointing back to the house and saying, "Home! Home! No walk!" Yesterday he did this and so I said, "You told me that you wanted to go on a walk so we're going around the block and then we'll go home." Thankfully there were a lot of people outside so that took his attention and we were able to go for about 15 minutes.

That's about the extent of our walks anyway just because of the heat. We only take about two a week, but they are at most a half an hour rather than last summer was an hour every day. I'm not sure what we're doing in place of them - I really don't have much to report of our activities since my last weekly post Hello Summer.Logan went to Babysitter's on Tuesday, June 8th as well as Wednesday, June 9th while I had my eyebrow wax. On Thursday, June 10th we were going to go over to Lisa P's house for a playdate with Lexi & Riley and to meet their puppy that they got last month - but Riley was sick so we are going over there today instead!

I was worried Logan might be sick as well because that week he had slept until 10 am in the morning (the longest he has ever slept in at our house) as well as taken 4 hr naps both Monday and Thursday, and on Thursday had diarrhea for only like the 5th time in his entire life. But, that turned out to be his only diarrhea and he was in a good mood that day, so I'm pretty sure the sleeping in was due to missing his nap that previous Saturday (which I'd written about in Hello Summer) - he needed to catch up at some point! (And the 4 hr naps are often typical.)

On Friday, June 11th we didn't go to the zoo with Brooke & Kaelyn after all because a friend of her's from out-of-state came to visit. I cleaned our house because our neighbors Sean & Brenda came over on Saturday, June 12th & Sunday, June 13th to check on our dogs that we left at our house (they do better at home by themselves than anywhere else and sure enough that was our neighbors' experience) while we went to visit my paternal grandmother in Missouri. She lives about 2.5 hrs from us in a very tiny country town. We had a great time! Joe & I hadn't seen her since last June when just he & I went down for the day. As for Logan, my grandma hadn't seen him since he was 8.5 months old when we celebrated Christmas in January 2009! I could tell how much she enjoyed watching him play. He was so sweet with her, calling her G-G (for great grandma).My grandma is 96 and is doing great. She lives at an assisted living home down the street and does no cooking these days, but insisted she make the peanut butter rice krispy bars that we all love so much. I had tried making them once back at my old house and they hadn't come out very well - but since I helped her I was able to see exactly what she did so I'm motivated to try again! I could never be as good of a cook as her, though - she didn't even have to get out the recipe or measure anything - she just knew! (That's why most of her recipes I can't make, LOL, because they said "a little of this, a lot of that, etc." Um, Grandma. . .Andrea needs measurements :p)

Everything at my grandmother's house is exactly the same as it was when I was a child. Seriously - she has the same things in the same places and so it was very nostalgic to watch Logan explore & discover what I did at two years old! For example, Logan found a bread sack in the front closet. I used to play in that closet but hadn't seen that bread sack in YEARS, yet I knew exactly what was in it before he dumped it out. The sack had the date of 1973 so the stuff inside was pretty icky (Logan didn't play with them). The soap in the upstairs bathroom has been on the sink my entire life. . .my grandpa's shaving cream and cologne, etc. has been on the shelf since before I was born. . .Grandma has the same furniture. . .it was neat to compare pictures of myself in the past with Logan now and see the exact same setting/scene. (These were my grandpa's whisky bottles - Logan was interested in the ones that were cars and "choo choos.")I was relieved Logan did really well on the car ride, despite not wanting to watch any DVDs. I didn't even have to sing :p (Ever since he was 9 months old or so he loves me singing songs like "This Old Man" because I use a funny voice.)

Neighbor Judith came over after we arrived and asked if Logan wanted to slide outside and Logan did very well - he took Judy's hand and went with her by himself, having no idea who she was. A few minutes later they came back in, though - I'd forgotten to tell her that he has never liked to swing. He'll slide a million times and climb on everything else that a playground has - but he stays away from swings. I guess she'd put him on one and he told her he was "done." (But no crying like he would have done with us!) After that, he wanted to play outside non-stop. I always loved my grandparents' yard when I was a kid, too. There's a huge hill with lots of space to run around. But now at thirty years old Joe and I were getting worn out! Judy offered to go with him but he only wanted Mama or Dadda so we took turns (approx. 15 minute intervals) the entire weekend. At one point Logan did go for a walk with Judy - it turned out to be his third walk as we all later discovered Logan had walked a mile three times. He never showed any signs of fatigue - he completely skipped his nap on Saturday. Even though we'd been at home on Friday, he had completely skipped his nap that day, too! I had tried a half a dozen times and would think it was successful, and then five minutes later I'd hear him laughing and bouncing up and down on his mattress. Then he'd start calling, "Mama? Mama!" Not only that - but he didn't go to bed on Friday until 10:30 PM!!!! He'd woken up at 8:30 that morning which meant he was awake for longer than he'd ever been in his entire life (14 hrs). On Saturday morning he awoke at 7:30 and we all went to bed at 9:30 PM (another 14 hrs) -- making a total of twenty-eight!!!! It was definitely a record. (At least he slept well between us through the night - we didn't want to bring any travel bed so we all slept in my grandparents' old bed.)

Since we weren't planning to leave until supper time on Sunday, I was worried he wouldn't take a nap that day, either. My dad, stepmom, and brother - who is back this week from California! - came down to meet us! We went out to lunch at the only restaurant in the area (a town about 15 min away) and had good home cookin'. (I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, and macaroni salad.) You know you're in a small town when you look down at the table (covered with glass) and realize the newspaper clippings underneath are of your family! My dad first recognized his cousin Bill and then next to that one was his brother, my uncle Jim!We went back to the house and played Rummicub and chatted, but Logan was getting crabby so we left earlier than planned, at 4 pm. Thankfully he did sleep an hour-and-a-half in the car. We stopped at 6 pm at a Mexican restaurant (that wasn't very good and even though Logan had taken his nap he was still crabby the rest of the night). We had eaten a buffet at a Pizza Hut on our way there on Saturday for lunch. For supper that night we'd picked up food at the only place in my grandma's town - The DriveInn - which had really good cheeseburgers) and arrived home around 7 pm. Logan went to bed around 9 pm and thankfully has been back to normal with his sleep since. He slept until 8 am on Monday, June 14th and took a 4 hr nap that day.

That evening I had planned to have our carpet cleaned. It needed to be done in January to keep our six month schedule, however it didn't work out that month and so I decided to just do it once a year now (since I still haven't bought my own carpet cleaning machine which is a goal).

I made the appt. for their 3 to 7 pm timeslot which meant Joe had to come home early (when he was busy and doesn't have hours to spare - he still works overtime every week) so that he could be at the house while they cleaned and I could take Logan and the dogs away to make it easier for the carpet cleaners. By 5 pm they still hadn't showed. Usually they come like 15 min. after the first number, so I figured they'd arrive any minute and so there was no point in returning to make supper, even though Logan and my two dogs were getting antsy. So, I picked up a pizza at Johnny Sortino's. . .but by 6 pm they STILL had not showed! I'd gotten a confirmation phone call and e-mail so I knew they were aware of our appointment. Still, I called them and was told they were running behind and wouldn't arrive until 7 pm. I had hoped they'd be DONE by 7, not STARTING at 7, considering Logan's bedtime is 8-9 pm. But I didn't want to have wasted all of that time for nothing so I kept driving around. At 7:30 I called Joe - they still hadn't called or arrived.

I called them again and was told they were on their way to our house right now. They said it would take two hrs to clean the carpet which meant they wouldn't be done until 10 PM! I said only if we get a major discount. They said they could take $20 off of our $300 bill. No thanks. We canceled - forever. The least they could have done was call to let us know they were running behind so that we could have rescheduled back when it was 4 or 5 pm rather than waste AN ENTIRE NIGHT. Very rude and inconsiderate. By the end of the evening I had my first migraine since last August/September - and my carpet still needs cleaning.

I mailed a complaint letter (since they conveniently don't have an e-mail address) and also submitted a complaint to a website.

Back to brighter things: For the past couple of months Logan has loved motorcycles. Every time he sees one he shouts "Motorcycle!" and is mesmerized.

When I do a load of laundry, I usually put it in a pile on my bedroom floor until I get the chance to hang it up/fold it. Well Logan always runs and dives into it like a bunch of leaves. Joe did it once to be funny and it stuck!

Ever since Logan was a year-and-a-half old he puts his hand up to his mouth and his eyes get wide when he hears a noise in the distance (kids playing outside, a car in the driveway, etc.) I used to do this last year as a way to get his attention when there were noises that he normally zoned out, so once again it's cute that now he just does it on his own! :-)

His new thing this month is "fast!" Whether he wants to run fast or he just notices other people going fast (running, driving their car, etc.) - he says that word often!

Whenever the phone rings he yells, "Mama, telephone is ringing!"

When Joe misses a shot at basketball or Logan misses anything, Logan "boos!" It's a fun "boo," though, so hopefully it will always be light-hearted for him. I used to think he was going to be a ham (since he is with us), but he's always so serious around everyone else that I think he's going to be more serious/studious than a comedian.

A few weeks ago I found a sippy cup full of two week old milk. It was lovely. Homemade cottage cheese.

Last week Cosmo was freaking out, I think because we had a wasp nest on our deck (Joe sprayed Raid and thankfully the wasp died and we knocked the nest down). I was holding him and rocking him in the chair, kissing him and telling him it was okay. Logan scowled and came over to me, trying to push Cosmo off my lap. I was like, "What are you doing?" He said, "My mama!"

Oh no, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

I told him that I'm Cosmo's mommy, too, and it was his turn right now - he needed me to comfort him. Logan continued to push Cosmo, saying, "No Cosmo, my mama!"

When Cosmo was ready to get down, Logan climbed onto my lap (he hardly ever does that) and wanted me to rock him! I'm starting to think that whole plan of "try for baby #2 during the month of September, but if it doesn't work wait until May" should be changed to "let's just wait until May :p."

I think the house behind us sold. The "for sale" sign is down and workers removed the salon (I'm guessing that must have been the condition).

I've finally gained motivation to get back into my workout/eating healthy plan that I'd been doing since January (but stopped three weeks ago when I had a bad cold) - I'm re-starting it on Monday. I haven't weighed myself because I don't want to know if I gained back all 16 lbs that I'd lost, so I'll wait until I'm ready for my trip to visit my bff in July - hopefully I'll have reached my goal by then and can keep it there 'til I get preggers with baby #2.

On Tuesday, June 15 and Wednesday, June 16 Logan went to his babysitter's house while I went to my massage therapist's house on Tuesday - but not for a massage. I spent two-and-a-half hours with her and a woman who works for a company called Melaleuca. In the past I mentioned that I was considering becoming a consultant for Arbonne because I loved their body cleanser and have been interested in changing all of my products. However, after trying their other samples I wasn't as "in heaven" as to pay triple the amount I currently do (or double since I'd be getting a discount as a consultant).

Instead, I was introduced to Melaleuca which is another organic company that is even better health-wise and way cheaper (in fact it's cheaper than all brands at stores). After seeing demonstrations, watching their DVD & learning about them, and trying out their products - I decided I was definitely going to become a customer. I couldn't believe I'd never heard of this company that 1) Is the safest stuff you'll find and it actually WORKS 2) Will save you a ton of money on products you have to have 3) You can save time by ordering from their website and having it shipped to your house rather than searching at stores.

Unlike with Arbonne which I wouldn't have felt comfortable recommending to people due to the cost, I will be spreading the word about Melaleuca - so I might as well become a consultant! Once I get my official status I will be writing a blog about them, since my new stay-at-home mom job is going to be a consultant for Melaleuca! I'm not a sales person AT ALL so as long as I don't LOSE money then I will consider it a success. We'll see how it goes. . .

On Wednesday our builder came over to our house because his tip for preventing water in our basement did not work. So, workers will be fixing it in a couple of weeks. (This was the tip Joe had been given)Both evenings Logan asked for Joe every five minutes until Joe got home from work. That's another difference from my Hello Summer post when I said that he's always been a mama's boy. Lately he tells me he only wants to play with daddy. But I know that if I was gone he would say the same thing to Joe about me so I am not taking it personally. He still comes over to kiss me and seems to be enjoying his summer days with me. Despite the stuff I mentioned in the beginning, he is still a happy kid that does the sweetest, cutest things! (I'm ending with these two pics - he wanted me to take a photo of the stickers he put on his leg, and then him standing underneath his basketball hoop.) Even if he is now an official "terrible two," it's all worth it. :-)