My Tonsils and I Have Parted Ways (along with a portion of my bank account)

My tonsils, the source of much grief, illness, misery and infection are gone from me forever. I had tonsil surgery yesterday, and have been lying around the house in a drug-induced haze whilst my younger sister takes care of TJ and supplies me with popsicles.

This morning I recieved a rather strange phone call from my bank. They were inquiring about some unusual activity on my debit card. Apparently, someone went of a shopping spree at JCrew.com in the middle of the night. Well, JCrew is one of my favorite stores ever, and I DID remember that I was up in the middle of the night, hurting and unable to sleep. But I had no recollection of buying anything.

I told the bank "thanks", I would look into it and let them know if there was anything amiss. So I logged onto my JCrew account, and sure enough, there was a good $350+ order I placed in the middle of the night. I still don't remember doing it. But I figure if that's the worst thing I do while on narcotics, that's not too bad. At least I bought good stuff. And I even got all the right sizes. Just the same, I think I'll give my credit cards to Rob until I'm off the oxycodone.

Mail Call

Dear Secret Admirer,
I'm so sorry we missed you! We were out of town last week buying a house in our soon-to-be home-town, Edmond, Oklahoma. I returned home to find a small pile of very finely shredded... well, I'm not really sure what it was, littered all across my doorstep. The elements, and something with very small sharp teeth (squirrel? possum? mouse?) had reduced it to a messy pile. I could, however still read the name label: To Melanie & Son.
I'm distressed to not only not know your identity, but also that your thoughtfulness was eaten by creatures. Whoever you are, consider yourself thanked for your kind gesture. And allow me to offer thanks on behalf of whatever rodent found my present. I'm sure he/she enjoyed it.
Oh, and we bought a pretty sweet house.
Love Melanie and Son

Florida Family Fun

I am behind. We are having an incredibly busy summer, and the blog suffers. I don't forsee this resolving until roughly late August or September, as our summer is tightly scheduled, often with major life-changing events: buy a first home, move from Arkansas into first home (in Oklahoma), Rob's first job, etc... Smattered amid the major events are smaller things: tonsil surgery, multiple trips across the country, learn about interior decorating, a bigillion sewing projects...

We spent the last week of May in Florida with Rob's family. Despite a nasty forecast, the weather was cooperative and fantastic. We credit Grandpa Tom with this; he had a discussion with the rain, and it did go away. Is it any wonder we named TJ after him? By the end of the week, the ocean was calm and turquoise blue, and the dolphins and sting rays were dancing and jumping in the waves. The sand in Florida is soft, and clean and white. White sugar sand. Mmmmm. What a fun place, and what fun company to be in.

TJ was afraid of the ocean at first and had to be held. But by the end of the week he was an all-star beach bum.

Here we have all of the little cousins together.

TJ took the opportunity to beat up his younger cousin, Hailey, and steal her binky. She was a good sport about it.

Never one to watch other's eat and not demand his due, TJ suckered Grandma Sandy into feeding him the rest of her dinner at the Crab Shack.

And the pool was such a big hit. What a nice way to rinse all that sand off.

Show me the boobs, mom!

Funny Things

TJ+ baba ghanoush = love at first taste+ scary diaper. He ate almost our whole plate, and cried if we stopped feeding him.
More and more, this is what I find when I go in to get TJ after a nap:

I've tried telling him that 7 months is WAY too young to be standing, but he doesn't listen.

So this picture makes me laugh so much. This is the dog's bed (don't worry, I clean it all the time now that TJ likes to lay on it *sigh*). The dog lays here almost all day long and stares out the window, watching the passing cars. Lately, TJ keeps crawling onto Chasqui's bed. Chasqui doesn't always like how rough TJ plays, and so runs away from him, leaving TJ to find other entertainment. One day TJ noticed the cars passing outside. He laid on the bed and watched out the window for almost 30 minutes, just like Chasqui does. I laughed everytime I looked over at him.

And while TJ was on his bed, Chasqui found a pillow that had been left on the floor and cozied up. Ha!

Having a dog and a child is not for the fainthearted. It really is like having 2 little kids. What a zoo.

It All Started With An Apron

A few weeks ago TJ and I went to a local fabric store looking for cotton knits for diapers. Well, they didn't carry anything that I wanted to make diapers out of, but they did have all sorts of beautiful cotton wovens; I felt the latent sewing-bug stirring to life, and decided I needed to make an apron. I didn't love my first attempt, so had to try again. Much better. But I still had lots of fabric. So I made my niece a reversable smockette:



After a visit to the library provided me with a stack of sewing books, I made a kimono-style robe so I can lounge like a movie star whilst TJ scrubs the floors and cooks me dinner.
But my latest endeavor is probably the one I am most pleased with. Take a look at my pretty bag. I'm especially proud of all the cool little pockets and compartments on the inside. And it's all backed with heavy-weight canvas, so I can pile in all those library books without fear.


But I still have lots of fabric, so....

That Baby

I don't know if anyone likes seeing pictures as much as we like taking them; but since it's a parent's perogative to believe everything their baby does is adorable and worthy of photographing, we will continue in our endeavors.
We've had a good week. We're keeping busy trying to coordinate a move to Oklahoma City (early July), tonsil surgery (last day in June), buying a house (June), along with various other projects. TJ is doing fantastic. He has finally finished cutting his first tooth, is crawling like a pro, and tearing the house apart faster than I can put it back together (I hear this lasts for many many years).

The sight of a naked TJ crawling away from me as fast as he could go was an all too-frequent occurance in our house. Everytime I tried to change his diaper, I'd no sooner get the diaper off then away he'd go, free and happy, sometimes with the sprinkler system running as he went.
Then my sister taught me this handy move:
It's also useful for keeping him from grabbing his bottom and rubbing poop all over before I can get him cleaned up. Wow, this kid is into everything.








Happy Mother's Day to all!