my life is full (and oh so good)

Hello out there. :)

I'll be catching up with my blog this week as I can. Been busy solid, it seems from when I last left off back in January. 

The big news is that the three of us are each showing a painting at a local gallery - we're pretty excited about that! The curator sent me a text to say, they hung our three paintings together, "..in a little family at the gallery." So sweet! Can you believe we've yet to see the show? It opened last weekend, but we were out of town. We're hoping to see them this weekend with a group of friends. :)

It was such a huge push for us (me and my Whimsy Guy) to finish our pieces; when the invite to show arrived, we didn't have much time (esp. as we both work). I finished one hour before the deadline...and we still had to get the paintings to the gallery. It was intense, but we had tremendous flow, and our three-year-old son was in the flow right there with us and we made it to the gallery. 

I've had a few other self-imposed deadlines - to put together two photo books (the kind that are printed) before the coupons expired. I had several late nights and very early mornings, but I finished! I'm looking forward to seeing them as one is our wedding album and the other is of our honeymoon. It only took me 4 1/2 years to get albums made. :) Now...if I can finish Kaemon Ze's One Year Baby Book this year, I'll be "ahead" of schedule, right?

We got in a few date nights; hosted a play date with our friends from Iowa and JoyBoy's Auntie Katie stayed with us for a night! 

Around that time, Kaemon Ze got a cold from his Grandpa, who shared it with Grandma, who gave it to Kaemon Ze, who then finally shared it with us. For a while it looked like us parents dodged the bullet, but no. The first week JoyBoy was sick, he went through 10 boxes of tissues (yes, really). I've never seen so much snot in my life. It was astonishing. We missed a birthday party, two playdates, and postponed our monthly Sunday Waffles due to "the cold." After four weeks...we are through with it. Thank you Jesus. And oh yea...I've had a birthday. We celebrated with Waffles and friends, my birthday twin (Annie) and Sweet Lee sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was wonderful.


I was thinking I'd chill out as much as possible this week (you know...when I'm not at work, not cooking, cleaning, playing, reading, etc.), but then I remembered I'm rather behind on the blog and...I have walls and trim that I need to finish painting (good thing I have a ~very~ patient husband). As a favorite minister of mine would say, "Life is Good...and there is more!"

I got my daily e-mail from Neale Donald Walsh who wrote, "it is time for you to give your mind a respite, a retreat from all the illusions of your Every Day." Amen to that.

Stay tuned...and thanks for your patience, too. :) I'll back-post from January 11th til I'm caught up again.

my s.i.l. (sister-in-law) is funny

a day for love

 Giving Laura a kiss for the special chocolate heart.

 "Tank Chew Laura."

birthday waffles, cake, and paint

Annie is my birthday-twin. :)
Happy Birthday, Girl!

a sculpture for me

My JoyBoy said he built this sculpture for me.
Awww! :) :) I LOVE it!

sick boy...happy boy

He looks like he has a cold, doesn't he?
Finding places to rest a bit
(in this case, a chair in the kitchen).

Auntie Katie is here for dinner, a sleep over, and speed-reading!

joyboy-isms and observations of his world

I've been capturing these little "gems" as they fall out of his mouth...thought you might enjoy them, too.

10/15/11, “Dad? Can you go in the garage with me? I want a tool. To fix something.”

 

11/27, Kaemon Ze: "Mmmmmm!! Help me! I can't see! Mmmmm!  Mmmmmm!" "What's wrong?" I ask. Still he pretends to struggle, eyes closed, holding his mouth closed. I wipe his face with my hands and say, "There! You're okay! What happened?" He said, "I was inside of carrot poop." Ah-huh...

11/27, "Always, no matter what, listen to the woman." (He said that's the most important rule while reading, "Tootle" -- a story about a young train learning to stay on the tracks. I don't think there's a woman character in the story, but I like how he thinks!)

11/30, "Sometimes the hiccup and the throw up, they mix. Sometimes they don't; they come apart."

12/1, "If you don't mind, I'll defeat you now." (Always said with a light saber in his hand)

12/4, *sneeze* "I'm a little bit allergic to fire." *sneeze* "It makes me sneeze."

12/10, "Mom? Will you marry me...for pretends?" (He knows I can't marry him, so he's found a work-around wherein I'll say, "yes." Pretty clever) Once I say yes, he proceeds to adorn me with kisses, hugs, and long looks in my eyes while he gently caresses my face with his hands. Turns me into a pile of goo. I love that this is what he thinks being married is about...we've taught him well!

12/17, After seeing a really funny photo of Daddy, Kaemon Ze hugged him and whispered in his ear, "You are the funniest daddy in the whole wide world."

12/21, Dancing, daddy tells Kaemon Ze, "This," (how he is dancing), "may get you married, but it won't get you a date."

Week of 12/25, JoyBoy's been tossing out "Duh" -- with the sarcastic emphasis -- mostly in the wrong context. I try hard not to laugh. The first time I heard this I said, "You know, we don't tend to say, "Duh" because it means your telling someone they are not smart, which isn't very nice." Still, it keeps popping up every now and then and we try not to let him see us smirking. JoyBoy outed Grandma as the person he heard it from. Ha! They (kids) are such little recorders, aren't they?

12/28, Kameon Ze, 3 years old, just did his first spontaneous math equation: "Hey! 2 cookies plus 1 cookie is 3 cookies!"

12/29, The three of us watching a preview to the movie, "What to Expect When You're Expecting," and two of us (that would be me and Jason) laughing at the jokes/scenes, while one (that would be JoyBoy) was not. Kaemon Ze announced, "This movie is TERRIBLE!" When I asked why, he said, "Cuz why, it's adult jokes!"

12/30, He's been saying, "Yes, Mom" and "No, Mom" quite a bit. Makes me smile.

12/31, Another first: KZ and I went to a bathroom....he went into one stall, and I went into another! (Though I did say, "Don't lock the door!") He came out with his pants around his ankles, but said he was going to pull them up himself. :)

1/1/12, The three of us were at the park, laughing and running, playing tag with each other when an older girl perfectly infused herself into the game. After another laughter-filled 30 minutes of play, it was time for us to go. When we were saying goodbye to the girl, she introduced herself and then JoyBoy said, "I'm Kaemon Ze." Very cool.

1/1/12, Me: "Kaemon Ze, stop killing your dad." (Again, light sabers are involved)

And last but not least, today's gem:

1/2/12, Quietly talking, matter-of-fact, to himself while eating breakfast I caught, "...Yes mom, okay. Fine. Fuck off." I could hardly believe he said that...AND...at the same time it was one of those moments where you try... HARD... to... not... spontaneously... laugh out loud. I said, "Oh! That's a mean and very rude word...we don't say that." Then, with a smile I couldn't help, I asked him where he heard that word. It seemed he didn't know which word was the offending word, so he started to repeat what he'd just said, including the f-bomb. Daddy came into the house right then, completely unaware, to hear me clarify: "Fuck off" is a very rude and mean word and we don't say that. Dad was a little... surprised to hear us discussing the f-bomb. LOL Still not sure where he heard that...

 

Hopefully...he'll forget the word. Alternatively, I'm hoping to not hear it again. Knowing that's not realistic either, I'm hoping to not hear it again until he's at least a teenager. Knowing that's not highly probable...here's hoping that when it does come up again...we're home, it's just us and we're not, say...in a room full of kids. Oye.

Happy 2012! It's gonna be a GREAT year!

playdate in the garden

 "Faster!" "Higher!" "More!"

 Something lurks in the back garden...

Our T-Rex sentry...always on the alert...

No doubt wanting a good snack of toes and such.

Watermelons on the sill.

visiting his great-grandparents

precious temporal moments

photo play

chocolate fabulousness

Today is a good day for chocolate tasting. :)

 

 JoyBoy check out his bag and the solar system.

 Dad, chasing.

 My friend Laura...isn't she just Sublime?

Too much chocolate for JoyBoy? Naw...just a rest. :)

Some of the pretty displays.

JoyBoy bought his own caramel corn. Luckily he doesn't mack out on sweets. After a few bits of the the carmel corn, he passed it along to share (with Laura, too), then forgot about it entirely.

Kaemon Ze thought this guy was pretty weird and wanted to touch his face and eyes, so I held him up so he could. 

 Mr. Wonderful.

I love street art.

Mr. Wonderful is filtering his orange-soaked vodka.

 Rich colors.