2 Blondes and a Ginger

2 Blondes and a Ginger

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Daddy's Boy

Graham cried as I was leaving the house this morning. You might be thinking,"aww...that's so sweet," but the truth is that he often cries when just anyone leaves the house. Even if he's just met you. As I stepped outside and shut the door, I could hear Jeff scooping him up saying, "It's all right. Come on G! You want to go jump on the bed?" No wonder he's been a Daddy's boy all day long.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Bathroom Jail

"Help! I'm stuck in the bathroom, and I can't get out." These are the words Graham would have told me the other day if he could only speak in complete sentences. You see, Graham has this fetish with doors and has had one ever since he started crawling around the house. He loves to go into a room and shut the door. But his love ends there. After a few minutes, he starts crying because he also loves people, and the door that he can close but cannot yet open keeps him separated from people.

Well, one day Graham went into the bathroom and closed the door. He started whining, so I went to open the door and let him out. Plus, who knows what he could get into in the bathroom? About two seconds later he did the same thing- walked into the bathroom and shut the door. I heard him whimper, but told him, "you're just going to have to wait a second while I find my shoes." I quickly found my shoes and went to open the door, but there was one big problem. I couldn't open it. At first I thought G was holding onto the knob preventing me from opening the door, but soon I realized he wasn't that strong. I turned the knob and turned the knob but...nothing. Somehow my little boy can go into a room, shut the door, and lock the door, but he cannot unlock the door or open the door. I started to panic, but caught myself, slowed down, and made a call to Jeff. Jeff told me to go get a coat hanger and try to unlock the door. Now why didn't I think of that? I got a coat hanger and put it through the tiny hole in the door knob, but still nothing. So then I knew the only other option I had was to take the door knob off of the door. I got the screw driver out and finally got the knob off the door. But the door still wouldn't open because I couldn't get the knob off on the other side of the door. I told Jeff the bad news, and he said he would head home to try and help me. In the meantime, Graham was starting to cry a little more. I went into the playroom and found a coloring book. I ripped a page of Charlie Brown's Christmas out of it, grabbed a few crayons, and slid the page through the crack between the door and the floor. Maybe this would occupy his time? (I'm sure you all are well aware that 15 minutes in bathroom jail is like a life sentence in the penitentiary.) But, every time I slid the paper under the door, G would bend down and slide it right back to me. And I thought it was so clever of me to send him coloring pages under the door! Finally, I decided to try and open the door again. I grabbed some pliers, jiggled the other side of the knob like crazy, and at last was able to get the door open.

Whew! What an afternoon. I had hoped Graham had done a little cleaning while he was in bathroom jail, but the floors and bathtub were just as dirty as when he first went in. Maybe before I teach him to unlock and open the door, I'll teach him how to clean the bathroom. You know, just in case it ever happens again.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Lightning Bugs and PJ's

At 8:15 last night I was just about ready to put Graham down for the night when Jeff came into the room asking for a mason jar. He came back from the kitchen with one in hand and said, "Let's go catch lightning bugs!"
"It's kinda late," I said while looking down at G in his dinosaur pajamas. I myself already had on a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.
"He's just a baby," Jeff said, and to that I smiled and we headed out to the backyard. Graham squatted down in the grass and stared at his parents running around like crazy people grabbing for the air. Once we felt like we had a decent light show, we headed indoors. Jeff turned out all the lights, sat down on the floor, and began giving Graham a science lesson on why lighting bugs really light up. It was apparently a science lesson for me as well as I had never really contemplated the phenomenon. Graham just sat down on the floor next to his Daddy watching and pointing to the bugs in the jar. It was just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I wanted to take a picture, but the house was completely dark. So I'm writing about it now, so I'll always have that mental picture. Graham even learned a new word while he was sitting there last night. It was "bug" of course! Lightning bugs and pj's...such a sweet way to end the day.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Dollar Tree Pregnancy Test?

The night before I found out I was pregnant with #2, I didn't sleep well. That's when I knew something was up. I always sleep well unless of course I'm pregnant. I decided that morning that after the gym, I would swing by the Dollar Tree to pick up some pregnancy tests. A friend of mine who recently had a baby told me they worked, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm not one to hold things in, but I decided to keep my planned trip to the Dollar Tree a secret from Jeff.

So that Friday morning I made my way into the Dollar Tree. I grabbed a baggie of quarters I had in my car and plopped Graham into the shopping basket. I wasn't quite sure where to go. I surely didn't want to ask someone what aisle the pregnancy tests were on, so I quickly browsed the store. I thought about buying a few items so it didn't look like I was only buying pregnancy tests but realized that was ridiculous. Plus, these people didn't know me anyway. So I finally found the tests. With Graham, I would have never dreamed of buying a pregnancy test from the Dollar Tree. If someone told me they worked, I wouldn't believe them. No thank you. I'm sticking with my $13.00 a pop EPT or Clearblue tests. But my how things have changed. One being that we're on a stricter budget these days and buying a pregnancy test for $1.00 sounds like it's worth a try. As I've mentioned before, we are doing the Dave Ramsey envelope system. My dilemma was that we'd never discussed what budget pregnancy tests are going to come out of. Well, it wasn't really that big of a dilemma, but I thought I'd just use the bag of quarters that had been sitting in my car for months.

With a somewhat embarrassed face, I put my 2 pregnancy tests on the counter. I knew if one said I was pregnant, then I wouldn't believe it. I needed two to be sure. The cashier told me the price and I started digging in my quarters' baggie.
"I'm sorry. I know it's annoying, but I'm paying you in quarters."
"Oh honey, we love quarters here," she replied.
I was glad to hear those words because I felt cheap. I felt like a 15 year old who sneaks away from home to the dollar store to buy a pregnancy test with the change she found in the couch all the while hoping her worries will be put at ease by seeing one red line, not two.

"I'm at the Dollar Tree buying pregnancy tests in change," I thought. Being insecure about the whole situation, I wondered what everyone around me thought.
"Look at that poor girl. Too young to even have one baby, and now she's about to have two. Must not know what birth control is. Heaven help her."
But I wasn't that person. First of all, I'm not that young and second of all, this was a baby that we really wanted. Not an "Oops I Did It Again" kind of thing.

Well I hoped I could leave that trashy feeling behind in the store, so I stepped into the parking lot with G in one hand and the fate of my next 8 months in the other. I loaded Graham into the car and wondered if I should really take the test or just save it for another month. "After how long it took to get pregnant with Graham, surely I can't be pregnant now," I thought to myself. But I gave in. I put Graham down for a nap and took the test. "No way," I thought. So I took the 2nd test. Surely two tests couldn't be wrong. I called the doctor and they confirmed it that afternoon for the third time. At least I did better than last time when I took 5 pregnancy tests before going to the doctor.
I thought I was going to go crazy that afternoon waiting on Jeff to come home. I wanted to tell everyone who called me that I was pregnant, but I knew I needed to tell Jeff first. I made a video of Graham as I told him he was going to be a big brother and I made Jeff watch the video of G "doing something super cute" as soon as he got home from work. Finally I could tell some other people! Well, all this to say that yep, we've got a little baby on it's way due December 8th, and yep, those Dollar Tree pregnancy tests really work. Stop wasting your money on the expensive stuff. $1.00 can tell you if your suspicions are true or not.