pampers - all done

well, beginning monday griffin is going to start the old potty-training thing. i'm not sure how this will go.
he seems ready is some ways, but not in others.
the last couple days i've been telling him that he's going to be a big boy and going to go on the potty, and he'll say, "pampers all done?" but, when i tried to sit him on said potty...he freaks. then he'll say, "no toilet mama, put pamper on!"
(miss yvonne calls all diapers pampers, and it kinda stuck with us....so its always referred to as pampers...even though he wears huggies)

anyway, miss yvonne thinks he's ready and is wanting to start him, so we're going to see how it goes. dan and i have done no research whatsoever...i guess we just will figure it out as we go along and probably have a lot of headaches, accidents and cleanups along the way. we don't want to pressure him into this, so we'll see.

things have been good but busy. dan has been working quite a bit of long days on a big project at work. i have had a busy couple of weeks with working my freelance stuff for my old job. of course managing to get some socializing in as well.

g and i hooked up with baby mal, laura and her sis and family at a local splash park for a picnic and playing.
my good friend sarah madrid was in town so we went to dinner and caught up. so, so good to see her.

yoga last night with a drink afterwards (way to counter-effect the good of yoga) with pie and jes.

tonight i'm going to the duffy concert with some co-workers. tomorrow night i think we are having a quiet evening at home, and saturday we are going to a bbq/party to see some more good friends, and a friend from england that is in town visiting.

sunday is the st. paul inline marathon...which means i will have to make saturday a pretty tame night. i'm only doing the 1/2...not the full marathon, so not too worried.

my road rash is much better and doesn't look so awful. i haven't been on the blades since last monday when i had my fall, so i'm nervous about sunday.

griffin has been a great little guy. he's expressing himself more every day and saying funny things. he will tell us that food is "really tasty", or he'll tell us that he "was kinda scared sleeping in a different bed". he also told me the other night, (while he was crying about the toilet), "mom, i'm crying here!"

he's been saying "why" all the time now though. not sure if this is going to last the next 5 years or what. i'm sure all kids do it.

miss yvonne told me this a.m. that when she tells him to do something, he'll say "why" over and over. she'll tell him "i'm not going to tell you again".
anyway, yesterday they were out swimming and he told her that he didn't want to go in the pool. she asked him, "why?" and he told her, "i'm NOT going to tell you again. NO"

that's right...put miss yvonne in her place. sometimes she deserves it.

mama ok?

so, i had a little accident. rollerblading accident to be specific.
after months of my co-workers asking me to go blading with them each monday (of course this is after i talk up the fact that i rollerblade and how much i just love it..)...they were probably tired of my excuses, so they said they were coming to my house and we'd go from there. uhhh..crap. guess i can't get out of this. (unless i am going to drop $600 on another last minute trip to boise to get out of yet another sporting event that i don't want to do..)

anyway, we head out. i'm feeling good. we go around lake nokomis a few times. no sweat. we are going to attempt to head down to harriet via the parkway. rather than get onto the path the normal way, i lead them through neighborhoods and finally to a path that leads down to the parkway. very steep, very windy and lots of debris on the path. great. just what i'm so good at...hills, braking and avoiding debris. (all my enemies)

i proceed down with caution...got the brake on. wind up hitting some of the debris in the path, my brake comes up, i start going way too fast and i can't brake in time. i hit some bark/sticks and fall.

trying to put the embarrassment aside, i brush off and say.."i'm good. let's keep going"(hell, i'm pert near down the hill at this point...mission accomplished).
my co-workers take a look at me (shaking, quivering and dirty wounds) and say we better head back. "no, no...really, i'm ok!" uh..we head back. we had already gone about 9 miles so no one felt the need to continue.

this hurts like a total MF. i scraped up my elbow and my shin area pretty bad. total road rash. it looks awful and stings really bad. i'm not able to sleep that well because the sheets iritate it and unless i take a bunch of advil, its quite sore.

now, of course the first thing that crosses my mind after falling: "sweet, now i have an excuse to get out of the rollerblade race i'm doing next sunday!"
but i suppose i just need to get right back up and on them. i could make excuses forever on why i don't want to exercise...but after just getting on the scale...i need to keep this exercise thing going.

the sweet relief in all of this...griffin is such a doll. each time he sees my gross puss-ridden wounds, he says in a sweet little voice, "mama ok?" then he comes over, gives me a hug and says, "there you go mama, there you go". (just like he does when he's putting his penguin "pengy", bunny and bear "maca" to bed.).
he makes the pain a bit more bearable.

weekend updates

haven't posted in a couple weeks. lots of catching up at work and at home from having been gone for 8 days, so haven't had a lot of time.

2 weeks ago. (july 11-13)
friday i went to crosby, stills and nash concert through work. yes, i know...they are still around and alive? i wondered that too. got comp tickets through a vendor and i like my co-workers, so thought it would be fun.
it was! went for drinks and apps before the show at some fancy pants place and then went to the show. for being about 100 years old, they still were pretty decent! we were about the only people in the audience that didn't have an oxygen tank or walker, but hey...live music is still good.

saturday we hung out, then that night, we headed over to gregg and dawns to celebrate jakes birthday. we gave him his present

then after grilling out, we went to the park for some live music.
trailer trash was playing at an outdoor ampitheater. trailer trash played at our wedding 5 years ago.

it was great fun to see them. they put on a great show. friends dina and lyle were also there, along with lyle's sister and her family.
griffin enjoyed it..




and griffin, jake and sammy wanted to go up front to dance and watch them up close.
jake was totally cute. he told the lead singer that 5 years ago, he danced with his aunt on her wedding day. indeed he did.


sunday i went for a run with dina, and then followed that up with heading to friends beth and jasons to see their new baby, george. a real cutie!
a great weekend, full of live music. what is better than that?


this past weekend (july 18-20):,
i ended up booking a last minute flight to boise. it was my cousin chris' wedding. i didn't think i could make it, due to us having to afford a new roof and flights being so expensive, but i found a last minute deal, and a visit from the insurance adjuster, who told us we were getting a new roof due to some storm damage, allowed me to feel ok paying for the trip.

i left thursday late, after we went to a saints game with dan's work.

had a lovely time. pictures to come (i didn't bring my camera, so have to rely on my brother to upload some for me).
spent friday with my parents and gregg, bumming around bodo (thats boise downtown...not to be mistaken with hobo..which is historic boise). we had a good time exploring around. there are about a million places to eat downtown and not much for shops, but it was fun nonetheless.
we picked up my aunt susan, who is in a memory care unit in boise to take her out for her birthday. met up with my grandma and other uncle david for dinner.
a great evening spending time with my family. my grandma seems to be doing well. she has some leg pain, but she looks great and seems to be in good spirits.

saturday we headed over to my grandmas retirement center for lunch. (options at the home were either turkey divan or veal bird.) WTF is veal bird we all asked! (apparently it's a rolled up piece of veal with stuffing.) i went with the turkey, clearly.
after spending some time talking and catching up, we headed out to a few wineries. had a great time taste testing!
got ready for the evening wedding.

the wedding itself was in a rose garden. it was hotter than hell. but it was nice. the reception was in the hotel that gregg and my parents were staying in.
we had a good time people watching and catching up with our family. great to see my 2 cousins and other aunt/uncle as well.
drank free budweiser and enjoyed watching all the dancing going on. the guy that married chris was his buddy, and was ordained online.
we referred to him as the "hip hop minister". after the ceremony was over...he turned his baseball cap sideways, put his chain on his wallet and the fun began. my goal was to get my picture taken with HHM...and by the end of the night, i succeeded (as well as about 10 cameos when i would go behind him, while he was in the middle of an awesome dance move, or spanking a girls booty while grinding with her). apparently this guys name was "cappy". not sure his real name, but who cares. he ruled.

the other crowd favorite of the evening was "hippy". again, not sure his real name, but this guy was awesome. you weren't entirely sure if it was a girl or guy from a distance, what with his crazy long dreadlocks and funky eyes. but it was a dude and he was sweet to watch. kept us all entertained for the evening.

flew home yesterday getting in around noon. dan and griffin had a great "guys weekend". they took a long bike ride to choo choo bobs, had lunch out, shopped at target and watched movies.
griffin seemed annoyed that i was home. immediately upon picking me up at the airport, he turned super crabby and started crying and saying "stop it momma, stop it"

we went to friend adams daughters birthday party. aelish turned 2 and they had a party at a park. had some pizza and cake, then went home to put mr. crabby pants to bed.
after he woke up, he seemed to like me better.

we rounded out the evening by meeting friends, beth, jason, jimmy and new baby george at the new park by minneahaha falls. quite a lovely evening. they have a splash pad over there that griffin liked. we finished the night with a little dq.
can't get better than that.

family vacation

we had a great trip. we spent 3 days in waunakee with my parents.
dan and i went to my hometown beer tent (the good ol' dane fest) shortly upon arriving. we saw the love monkeys play. They are a band i used to LOVE when I was in my 20's...and at the beginning of the night, dan and i were both thinking they sucked. "why did I used to love this band?", i wondered.
many pitchers of bud light later...and they were our favorite band! we were front row and center and singing along to all the classics.
it was a fun night seeing a bunch of good friends that i don't get to see that often.
griffin was snuggled tightly in bed and grandma and grandpas.

The next day, we took griffin to the dane parade. (ulterior motive is that we had to pickup the jeep that we left the night before. (see above: too many bud lights)
the parade consisted of about 100 different firetrucks, and kids pelting candy at the crowd.
caught up with some more old friends.


monday we hit the madison zoo with my mom, dan's mom and friends julie, thea and kenn, with all their cute kids. we got a great treat and were able to meet up with auntie wendy and cousins addison and andrew. they were in town while griffins other cousin, alexandra, went to camp. bummer we didn't get to see alex, but griffin loved spending time with his cousins and aunt!
we spent most of the day at the zoo, then headed over to the memorial union to sit by the water and have ice cream.

we saw a few other friends this night, had dinner with my parents and spent the night just hanging out with my folks.

the next day (tuesday) we spent the day with my mom before having to say goodbye, to start the next leg of our trip.
griffin loved his time in waunakee and we were sad to say goodbye!

tuesday we arrived to milwaukee, checked into the downtown hilton and got ourselves ready to walk over to summerfest.
we had a nice 2-3 mile walk, saw the cool art museum and then made our way to summerfest.

we had a great time just walking around, eating, seeing a couple bands and griffin enjoying the playground.
there was NO one good playing the day we were there...but we found a stage that had some good jam bands and just hung out.


wednesday we spent the rainy day inside the hotel, where we had a waterpark. g liked that. we all had a great afternoon nap, then walked around downtown milwaukee again, and found a great brewery for dinner.

thursday we hit the milwaukee zoo. (we certainly got our fill of zoos on this trip).
g loved it. his favorite part was the train that took you around the zoo. he was obsessed with that thing!


we arrived to our 3rd destination of our trip (chicago to see dans brother dave, cindy and cousins aidan and reese) in the late afternoon.
griffin had a great time catching up with his cousins. it was super cute to see him play and interact with them.

we went to the park ridge fireworks this evening and g loved it! he was ooing and ahhing and was fascinated by all the colors and booms.

the next day (friday the 4th) we hit the local waterpark. it was great fun to see aidan and reesie playing around.


g on the other hand, had other plans in mind. he immediately zonked out on daddy for a nap. i think the trip had caught up to him!


we spent the evening grilling out, enjoying hanging with the family. g loved spending time with everyone.

saturday the girls went to get pedicures (aidan and reese got fingernails painted).

we met up with the boys at a choo choo restaurant where g about lost his shit. it was a restaurant where they carried the food from the back kitchen to the counter via electric train. griffin was mezmorized by this and just watched them go around and around.
when we all met up, i was QUITE taken aback. our little boy who had just looked like this:

now looked like this:


dan had given him a buzz cut with the beard trimmer. nothing like a good summer cut. we all called him "patchy" for the first few days, but it's kinda grown in a bit now and looks better.

saturday night grandma lawrence watched all the kids while dave, cindy, dan and i went out to celebrate dave's birthday. it was a great night, full of silliness, friendship and family catching up.

sunday we had to leave. we wished sweet little aidan a happy 5th birthday before we hit the road.
what a great trip...just what we all needed.
we got to meet dan's dad, bruce and wife lucy in the dells for lunch on the way back through, so that really completed our week of family fun.

we made it back to minne to awesome yellow grass, ants and that shitty looking roof that we have to replace. reality i suppose. but, it didn't keep us from feeling great about our weeklong family vacation, full of fun memories, funny moments with our little man, and the realization that our family of 3 rocks.

weekend whirlwind

so yes. i was on the dance floor doing the electric slide. and yep, they played i knew the bride when she used to rock and roll, and i think i managed to get out there and shake it a little bit with lisa.
but i dont think any of the others on my list were played! dan and i did cut the rug big time. we spent most of the evening out of the dance floor. it was good time.

the wedding was good, and the reception even better. we dined with a table of blue-hairs and it was awesome. this one woman told dan he was dressed so professional. and it was cool to see these couples that have been married 50 years and still in love (and drinking a lot of straight-up booze). one woman told us the key to happiness was having "happy hour" each night with your spouse. i'm in.

the newlyweds looked happy, the groom got roasted over and over during the speeches, and it was a good evening.
except for the fact that i couldn't track any cheese pizza down afterwards. i bugged the bartender till he threw me a bag of chips to shut me up.

the g-man did beautifully with grandma lynne. the spent a bit of time in the water park at great wolf lodge, then walked around the outdoor mall and griffin enjoyed every ride they had there.































the next day we spent the morning at the waterpark.
My parents came up too to join us for a bit, then we had lunch.

We bid our farewells and made our way to somerset, wi, where we were headed to see mason jennings and jack johnson at the rivers edge ampitheater.
the concert was awesome. i have always been more of a mason fan, but jack was incredible. the sound there was incredible and griffin was incredible. he was so cute. he would sing along to songs and clap around and shake his booty (and of course point at butts and say poop)

oh, that reminds me...when we were in church for the wedding...griffin points at my boobs and kept saying, "mama, whats that? whats that? he got the whole row behind us chuckling. uhh. yeah.

anyway, the concert. it ruled. there were a lot of stoned dudes that would talk to us about the fact that we had a kid at the concert. one guy asked us "so, like, what will you do if you have to change his diaper"? ummm...we respond, "we'll change his diaper". his response..."fucking awesome man. do what you gotta do. he's at his first "jack" show..thats all that matters".
indeed.

another guy came up and said," dude likes him some jack, huh" then we stood awkwardly around in silence for about 2 minutes until he needed a beer or another joint.

anyway, it was awesome. we were worried griffin would be crabby just from all the whirlwind traveling we had done over the weekend, but he loved it.
he drank:

hung with his buddies:

rested between sets:

smiled at the drunkies:

and was just a cute and cool kid.

we have had a crazy week trying to get things done to get ready for our week-long vacation to wisconsin and chicago. we are leaving saturday and will return the following sunday, the 6th.
we are going to spend a couple of days with my parents, go to milwaukee for a couple of days (summerfest, zoo, art museum), and wind up in chicago to celebrate aidan, reese and dave's birthdays. griffin will get to see lots of family...we are all looking forward to that.

and it will be nice not looking at cereal for a week. as much as i'm liking my job...i need a break.
today i'm working on a package of "pirates treasures".

dells bound

we are heading out tomorrow bright and early to a wedding in wisconsin dells.
my friend (and former roomate) lisa walsh is getting married. (she's the 2nd from the right)
should be a good time. we are staying at the good ol' great wolf lodge
dan's mom will watch the little man while we go to the dinner and reception.

we prepped griffin last night for his weekend swimming adventure by taking him to a little kiddie pool. he enjoyed climbing in and out of the pool...over and over, and over.
i was lookin hot in my swimsuit (thus why there will be no pictures of this excursion).

this morning griffin got up entirely WAY too early. it seems he was having a little stomach ache, since he kept crying out "mommy, poopy, stuck, hurts" poor kid.
in addition to griffin waking up and crying, we also have about 5 different bird nests in various locations in our roof vents and other areas, and as pleasant as birds chirping can be...at 5 a.m....it's pretty damn annoying. we need to do something about the state of the roof (and the tropical rain forest that it's become)
so, this morning started off a bit rocky. I DID however manage to get myself over to Julie's and we ran around Lake Hiawatha. it's wasn't as great of a run as it was tuesday evening, but it's getting easier and i'm feeling better about completing this 5k and possibly running the entire thing.

we are looking forward to the weekend. As much as these whirlwind trips can be tiring, it'll be fun. we haven't had a wedding for quite awhile, and we always enjoy some good fun. i just hope they don't play "paradise by the dashboard light".
that song is always played at weddings and its lame. in typical wisconsin fashion, how it usually goes is: all the girls line up on one side of the dance floor, and the dudes on the other. the girls yell over "will you love me forever?" and the guys yell back, "let me sleep on it, blah, blah".
now i'm SURE i have partaken in this at some point, and probably did all the hand gestures and acted all pissy and serious about loving me forever. but, i couldn't have been sober.

the other funny songs that are usually played are:
• mony mony (and of course people add in the "get laid, get fucked part" - it seems to me they actually even add "twice" to the end of the lyrics...cause you really do want to get fucked more than once during that song.

• electric slide (and yes...i'm usually out there with all of the 8 year olds doing this and really getting into it.) i think this is an adult only wedding...so maybe it'll just be ME doing it?

• shout (and people all dance down low to the ground when they are doing the "little bit softer now" part.) I KNOW that i've done this...and once i can't go any lower, i'll drop to my knees and kinda shimmy my shoulders all the way back to the ground. I'm sure people are thanking jesus when "a little bit louder now" comes on, because they don't have to watch me shake my stuff any lower.

• piano man (and everyone stands around in a big circle trying to outdo the next guy by proving they know all the lyrics. I certainly have gawhoffed at the person next to me that said that john was the real estate novelist that never had time for a wife. umm..its paul, dummy. john is the bartender. listen to ME sing and you'd get it right.

its funny how i diss, but yet im probably joining in on all of these antics. probably even yelling out to the dj "hey, when you gonna play i knew the bride when she used to rock and roll?" cause you KNOW I need to show everyone how I can still do the splits during my 10 seconds when i get to dance with the bride solo in the middle of the circle, while everyone stands around in amazement.

weddings. good stuff. maybe it's me that needs to class it up, and not our little g-man.

class it up

so, i don't think its any secret that dan and i share the same dirty humor.
we find talking about boobs, poop, burps and farts quite humorous. we all laugh when dan lets out a big burp. we point out the good cleavage shot at the woman pushing the stroller during baby einsteins "on the go", we all make a big "stink" when griffin farts. (of course I don't do any of these things....hehe)

i think its time we may have to start classing it up. griffin is turning into us.

he will proudly exclaim: "i burped", or "i fart" "that's nasty"
we all laugh and high five him.
we have been teaching him to at LEAST say "excuse me" so...don't banish us to the trailer court just yet!

he points at butts and says "poop". we all laugh. our friends have encouraged this and so have we. he now will point at his stuffed animals back side and say "poop", and falls to the floor and laughs. he will point at the butt area of some old woman bent over and say "poop".
he has now started saying "boobs" and pointing to none other than boobs. mine, people on TV, stuffed animals, woman in my "women's health" magazines, etc. i'm sure next up is random folks. (or god forbid...miss yvonne's)

i guess i finally realize why gregg and dawn were so annoyed with us when jake was around 2-3 and we would sub in the word "poop" for everything. jake was fascinated with this word then too. and we just egged him on.
"hey jake, do you want to go the poopground and go down the slides?" (giggles from all of us..glares from gregg/dawn.)
"hey jake, should we make some poopcorn to eat while watching this movie?" (me being quite impressed with myself for my latest poop drop, gregg/dawn escorting us out of the house)
Our favorite one....jake was really into saying aerodynamic to describe airplanes. of COURSE we changed that right away to "aerodypoopie" (dan, jake and i dying of laughter on this one..., gregg and dawn taking away our godparent rights)

anyway....now what do we do! we started this...and i guess we have to end this. while i will always think its funny...it's high time we class it up and teach our kid some manners.

dan and i have a lot of things we say we are going to really start doing when it comes to parenting.
we are going to make healthier meals and snacks for griffin
we are going to start cutting out his evening milk
we are going to start working on the potty training
we are going to start letting griffin play on his own a bit more...let him take more chances and us stop being too overprotective
we are going to start thinking about transitioning him out of his crib

all of these things are really important and we have talked about our strategy on how to start these things.
but what about teaching him manners? why are we still letting him slurp his milk right out of the cereal bowl? why do we let him gurgle his water (at the table no less)? why do i load up a squirt gun with milk and squirt it into his mouth as his lunch-time beverage? and why do we keep saying "poop" and pointing to butts?

ok, now that i got that all off my chest (err..boobs), i feel better (and slightly embarrassed).