Hideaway

If we're outside around the house, LM's favorite place to roam is over between the fence and the garage. You can see the fine paint job is holding up nicely on the ol' garage, huh?

OMG, he is Mini-S.

"No I'm not Mommy, I'm LM!"

"Silly Mommy!"

"Pay no attention to the dirt on my hands"

"Cause I'm gonna find some more!"

See you soon.

Lunch with Friends

LM and I went to meet a friend of mine and former co-worker, Kerry, and her granddaughter Abbie for lunch the other day. Abbie is two, so she is an older woman. We met at the kid friendly Chick-fil-a, where LM, upon seeing Abbie sit in a regular chair, refused to sit in a highchair. In fact, he has refused since then a couple of times too. Good times.

Anyway, the kiddos played in the little play area afterwards. Not only was Abbie very nice to LM, there was a brother sister pair, I'm guess about 8 and 6 years old, who would shepherd LM to the top and on the way back down. They were so sweet to him I had to go over to their mom afterwards and tell her what good kids she has. Here are a couple of photos...mostly a bit blurry, done with the purse camera, and on a too low ISO until I noticed way too late:

Abbie in all her cuteness!

Coming down the slide, brother on the right, sister behind him.

Going up, up up!

You can see the slide was, well, a favorite.

It was so nice to catch up, and because we had such good older helpers, we DID actually get to talk for a while! And the kids had fun too. Good fun all around.

See you soon!

An Open Letter to the TSA and Airline Safety Employees Everywhere

Dear Sir or Madam:

I recently received a renewed passport in the mail. I renewed said passport because my job will require me to fly across the Atlantic for work in the near future. Because it is a LOT of moving around for a two week period of time, my husband, S, has graciously agreed to go with me. Because my son doesn't fare well on a two hour flight to Indiana, let alone a transatlantic jaunt, because of the aforementioned pace of travel, and because he wouldn't remember it even if we went to the effort to take him, he will stay in the US. He will be thoughtfully and carefully watched by my mother, who has graciously agreed to come to our home to keep him on his regular routine, and by, I am sure, his Dallas relatives, from time to time, in our absence.

So, here's the deal. This will be the first time I am away from my boy for this period of time. As a mother, this will be really hard. It will be the first time the two of us will be away from him for more than an evening. And, we'll be going across the Atlantic. Now, I realize you all screen passengers and prepare aircraft each and every day to make these flights. And, that they come and go without incident day in, day out. But, sir or madam, I know how things can become routine. How we can get into a rut. How small things can pass us by. I know - it happens to me. However, when it happens to me, someone might be inconvenienced but no one will die. I need to know you will be CERTAIN to be extra vigilant for me.

You see, kind soul, if something were to go wrong on MY flights, my boy would grow up without either of his parents. If something were to go wrong, a boy's life would be irreversibly made incomplete. I really, really need to know you're carefully watching out for the bad guys. And checking the airplane. And making certain - each and EVERY day - that all is well with the airline world. I need to know this.

I do understand the irrationality of my fear. I do understand there is probably greater chance of my winning the lottery than you not doing your job. And, I'm sure each and every day there is some other boy's parents flying the world without him, and they need to make it home too. Of course, I hope we are ALL safe.

But this is MY boy. And I am HIS mother. And I need to KNOW it's going to be alright. 

I know it will be alright.

I know it will be alright.

I know it will be alright.

Because you are professionals and you won't let me down. And for that, for things I don't know and can't fathom and won't ever understand, I am very grateful. Thank you a thousand times over. Thank you. Thank you. And pay no attention to the neurotic woman thinking of her son.

Thank you.

Warmest regards,

A W

See you soon.

First Fort

Last weekend we also built what was, to our knowledge, LM's first fort. We all - yes, all three of us - had a blast with it. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning:

Pay no attention to the crap on the dining room table.
Or the Amazon box on the console..or the...
...OK, nevermind.

You may be wondering, "Forget the mess...what the heck are those things making up the sides of the fort?" Well, my friend, those are two folding cots I bought on Woot recently. They reminded me of a cot we used to sleep on at my grandparent's house, so I bought two. So we can keep our guests in the lap of luxury. (Actually, you think I jest, but that cot of my grandparents was comfy!)  And we can also make a fort in the living room!

A Stalactite

The top of our fort was an old blanket we used to use on our bed when we were first married (and it wasn't so old.) It has been relegated to outdoor concerts and picnics, which isn't a bad fate for an old blanket - and being the top of the fort isn't either! S pointed out our fort had stalactites...

We gathered some pillows from around the house.

For lounging in the fort. LM caught on to that right away.

And, yes, those are Christmas pajamas. He needed new pajamas just about the time the Christmas pjs were hitting the market last fall. So he has quite a few. So he'll be celebrating Christmas each night, all night, until he needs some new ones. Which might be soon...ahem. Hello baby belly!

We read books in the Fort.

Or, LM read books while S counted rock formations.

We drove trucks in the Fort!

The boys, they wrastled in the Fort.

Wrastled - that's not a misspelling. 

It's a technical term.

LM found the Fort's windows...

It was discovered the Fort's walls made an excellent drumming surface!

What doesn't, actually?

Our Fort also has a covered porch, 

from which you can peer underneath at Daddy inside.

We also listened to some Pandora while LM dialed up his friends.

In the Fort.

Echo was not a fan. 

We had a blast. It was so fun! It is so fun to be a kid again with my kid. What are you up to this weekend? We have nothing much planned - I'll be grading homework for my students and getting ready for another round of class presentations. And hopefully finding some downtime with my boys. I hope your weekend is a good one. 

See you soon.