Hockety Pockety Wockety?

M and I are experiencing The Sword and the Stone together for the first time. Hooray for the library right across the street. Don't hold your breath for R to be taking a trip down memory lane with this movie though. He claims that this movie is lame and that he even thought so when he was a kid. I however love it! For some reason it just makes me happy. And silly. There are lots of silly things in this one. M, who is now getting a sense of humor of his own, is even giggling at things before I pave the way with my own giggles. Happy viewing any parents of 2-year-olds.

An Atypical Exchange

It is the third day of sickness at our house. The croup has struck M for the first time, and his cough sounds horrible! He's my little barking seal. I have to say that I'm glad he didn't get it when he was younger or I would've been more unnerved. His case isn't that bad though, and he seems to be running around like usual for the most part. We're basically running two humidifiers throughout the apartment 24/7.

Because of this ailment we haven't gone to the gym or most other places, since M starts coughing a lot in the air-conditioned, and therefore drier, car. So we've both had a little bit of cabin fever. This results in more-than-usual excitement over mundane things:

M, yelling at the top of his lungs: Bianins! (this means "vitamins")
me: Okay, let's get vitamins!
M, still yelling: Bianins! Bianins! 2 Bianins!
me, dispensing, well, vitamins: Yes, we have 2 vitamins.
M: 3 bianins?!
me: No, just 2 vitamins, here you go.
M, mouth full of vitamins: More bianins?
me: No, we just have 2 vitamins.
M runs off to play with his vacuum.

later that day...

M, saying a bunch of gibberish with real words at the end: gibber gibber blah, with cowors?!!! (the last word is "colors")
me: Do you want to take a bath with colors?
M: Naked a cowors?!!
me: Yes, we're naked in the bath, and we're taking a bath with colors.
M: Cowors!! Cowors!!

So there you go. Lots of enthusiasm for lots of things. This is what comes from having croup at the same time it's 111 degrees outside: you never leave the house and end up bouncing off the walls because of baths with colors in the water and some vitamins.

Finally, a virtual onramp to the information superhighway of my very own.

After much ado, there is now a cheap and slow internet connection available at the house. Remember when things used to actually plug into the wall? That's what this literal connection entails. It's just plain weird. Still, it's worth it to be able to do really productive things like how right now I should be sleeping, but instead I was playing Bejeweled 2 just for fun.

I'm going to a jewelry party tomorrow night at my sis-in-law's house. I've gotten a little carried away with my self-proclaimed catering of said event and made 5 kinds of cookies. They're from new recipes that I've been wanting to try, but haven't had the excuse to use yet. I also threw in a pan of cheesecake brownies for good measure.

In case there are any foodies out there this is the list: lime-glazed cookies, lemon-glazed cookies, cheesecake brownies, checkerboard cookies, linzer cookies, and two-tone peanut butter thins. I think it's a nice rounded out palette of flavors, thanks to my obsessing over the "menu".(However, the linzer cookies aren't very pretty after my poor attempt to roll them nicely this afternoon, so I'm thinking of trying another recipe instead called apricot almond ruglach. They mostly look like little crescent rolls, but they're cookies. These recipes are largely from a book by Nick Malgieri called Cookies Unlimited. I highly recommend it if you ever want some unique recipes for baking therapy.) In other cookie news, I tried some cookies at a small little bakery across the street from the gym. The best of them was some kind of pecan cinnamon-sugar shortbread yumminess that I'm dying to eat again. But anyways, that's enough of my baking nerdiness.

M and I went to the doctor today: he has croup! It's been over 110 degrees most days this week so I wasn't wild about having to go outside to get in the car. But if you heard the barking cough this kid had today, you would've braved the weather too. M did really well, and didn't even cry! It may have had something to do with how we talked all the way there about what would happen at the doctor's office. My poor little sensitive guy. He's got my genes after all, even if he does have blond hair. And blue eyes.

I started a new journal a few days ago. It's for Things M Says. As I think of all the funny things M does say and then admire him again at the end of the day while I write them, I realize that I'm quite baby hungry, but scared that I might irreversibly screw up my little people if I have another one too soon. I've snapped at M a few times in the last few days, and it feels terrible. It's a good thing that I can apologize and he's so accommodating at the forgiveness.

Lots of new things

A lot has happened in the almost month since I've written. It would seem that, as I indicated in my previous post, I still suck. But, amends are on their way, complete with all kinds of new life changes and digital pictures!

Firstly, R is done with the bar. Woohoo! I know that we don't know if he passed yet, but that's okay. At least he's not still studying and worrying. Also, there's a story to go along with the simple sentence that "the bar is over". I call it "The Stressed Out Days Before the Actual Stressful Two Days that R Actually Took the Bar":

It's the Thursday before the bar (which is the following Tuesday and Wednesday). We get the mail. One is from the Arizona Bar. They haven't received R's proof of graduation from U of M (who had assured him a month prior that they had it taken care of), and so his name was removed from the list of bar applicants and he is welcome to take the bar in February of 2008. They have been little helpers by already signing him up for the February bar. Thanks. We call the Arizona Bar people. We can't call Michigan because it's 7pm there. We call Michigan the next day, and they freak out and call Arizona a bunch of times, only to speak to voice mail. Michigan reassures R that they will fix it. Then they call and say they can't and they're really sorry. R and I cry, and M looks at us curiously as we explain that "we're sad".

We fast and pray that someone in AZ will soften their little heart and take pity on this poor R. In the meantime R checks his email to make sure he's not crazy, but that Michigan really did have his information and sent him an email telling him that they knew the bar application dates and would get his paperwork in. Once he finds it, he feels a little better, gets a little angry, and forwards his Michigan emails to Arizona and his Arizona emails to Michigan.

The weekend drags by, R studies a little bit, mostly out of fear that if he doesn't he'll have to take the bar unprepared and it will be just as awful as not taking the bar at all. Monday comes, we get a call. It's a 602 number! I freak out and run outside to give the phone to R. It's Emily from the Arizona Bar, calling because she read his forwarded email from Michigan and will allow them to fax the missing information and he can take the bar the next day. So basically we cry again because "we're happy", and R drives to Tucson. He takes the bar and comes home Wednesday night. At this point we figure that if he passes, great!, and if not he has the best excuse ever for not passing. Win-win.

So that's the bar story, someone's heart being softened can go a looong way.

Secondly, we have a new apartment. It's in AZ, close to a park and ride area for R, only 30 minutes from other family (a good distance), has 2 pools, 3 huge closets and one regular closet, a larger kitchen with more cabinets than I'm used to, is across the street from the library, and has a general feel of homeyness. It's also within minutes of Target, Walmart, Costco, the Chandler mall, a huge park, 3 grocery stores, and the church building. Church on Sunday, while at the most horrible time of 11-2 (guess what time M takes his nap?), was very fun. I'm hoping we'll like the ward so much that we'll stay even after we outgrow this apartment.

Thirdly, we have a new car. We really loved our little silver Hyundai Accent, but it got totaled. So then we got a check that was worth more than the car was and put it towards a new car that should last us a while, even with one more future child. It's a 2007 Nissan Altima in Dark Slate. It's a little bit fancy, but it looked so much better than the current Civics, Carollas, Accords and Camrys, and cost about the same, that we bought it. My favorite part of the fanciness is the Intelligent Key with pushbutton ignition. I never take my keys out of my purse anymore. The car knows. I can't lock my keys in the car or trunk, even if I tried. It's magic! Basically now we're super cool driving in our new car to our new apartment. Which brings me to...

Fourthly, I got a new phone. Is it hot pink? Yes. Does my new ringtone play "The Final Countdown" when I get a call? Yes. In case you aren't currently as cool as me and watch Arrested Development nonstop, "The Final Countdown" is a song by a Swedish band called Europe that Gob uses in his magic shows on AD.

So, bar, apartment, car, phone. And M is 2 years old (July 7) now and got lots of toys from two different parties, one in AZ and one in CA. The Snake Cake (below, cake courtesy of Ga/Grandma) was in Arizona, and there was a Bird Cake in California (which I drew myself, thank you very much). Hooray for summer! And new things! And cake! And more posts!