Elmo's Green Thumb

Bret absolutely LOVED the Sesame Street Live show!! It was actually fun and entertaining for me too.

During intermission, Jason took Bret to get an Elmo balloon.....He comes back and says the balloons are highway robbery. He thought that they'd cost a couple of bucks. That's all Jason got back when he handed the guy a $10. The balloon was $8! I guarantee Bret wouldn't have this balloon if Jason would've known that ahead of time!! LOL

After the show we went over to a friend's house for a late dinner. By 8pm Bret was cashed out and letting us know he was ready to leave (whining).

1 Year stats

Today was Bret's 1 year wellness check-up.

20.5 lbs
29" long

That's 25th percentile for both height and weight. His DR said she's not concerned. Ok, I guess I'm not either then. I don't like the curve because it makes me feel like a POS mom. I question if I'm feeding him enough or doing something to stunt his growth......Yes, I'm neurotic.

We have to get his lead level checked any time before he's two. When your kids got checked for lead, how did they get the blood sample?

He cried right when we sat him on the bench. I think he associates the sound of the paper with getting shots. He clung to Jason and me like static. Poor guy.

Other than that, pretty uneventful.

Broke as a joke

Jason and I had a discussion about our next vehicle. We have a 2000 Grand Pr!x and 2006 M!lan We purchased the M!lan knowing that it would be the "family" car; primarily for the carseat, road trips, etc. Well, it's way too damn small. We can barely fit all of our stuff in the trunk for a weekend up north. Forget about putting two carseats in the back. Carseats are a lot bigger than I thought!

We're in the market for a truck (pickup w/ full-sized cab). Nothing against anyone who drives a minivan, but I refuse to. Maybe I will some day, but not now.

Anyway - we have about 24 payments left on the M!lan so we've decided to double up on payments for a year to pay it off. We can't afford two car payments, so this time next year we're going to get a truck. I don't know if we're going to trade in the GP or sell it.

What vehicles do you use for the family?

Belated halloween pics

We (Bret) had a ton of fun. I kind of liked that it was still light out when trick-or-treating started so that Bret could see what was going on. He caught on really quickly and started pointing at the houses with decorations - especially the pumpkins. We took him up to houses and said trick-or-treat but didn't take any candy. Two houses guilted us into taking it though. I let him hold the sucker and the little shit figured out how to take the wrapper off. I didn't realize what was happening until Jason took this picture:

I felt a drip on my hand and was not happy when I saw that he had the sucker in his mouth. He, in turn, was not happy when I took it away from him.

I should've known what was going to happen when I took this picture:

Do you see Bret working the wrapper? LOL

Little twerp.

Speaking of candy - we've started brushing his teeth. It's funny. He doesn't really like it but he'll let me do it for about 10 seconds. I guess that's enough time to quickly brush his 4 teeth. The two teeth next to his front tops just poked through.

Pictures, 1st birthday, Auntie, vote

The last 5 days have been the most stressful, busiest and joyful in a long, long time. The weekend started off with Bret getting his 1-year pictures taken by a friend; the same one who took Bret's 9 month pics. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! If Bret had more hair on his head I wouldn't have minded not having a hat or jacket on, but he's bald. So there are only a few pictures of him without a jacket on. These two are my favorite so far:

You can not tell me that these pics don't melt your heart....Well, ok, maybe they don't melt YOUR heart but they make me love my husband so much more for being a FANTASTIC dad to Bret and a wonderful friend and

"other half" to me.

Although I may be ruining the surprise for a lot of people, the next pic may be the one that we send to friends and family. I wish we could take the credit for getting him to smile so beautifully but we can't. A couple was passing by with their two dogs and Bret just lit up when he saw them

coming. I don't know why but he just *hearts* dogs. I think it's because Caicos bores him now. LOL

His birthday party was awesome. Almost everyone showed up and Bret was in heaven. He played with all the other kids, opened his presents (for about 2 minutes) and then ran around looking at all his new toys. He wasn't too happy when it was bed time!! He was exhausted. I'll post some pics of his party when I have more time - probably tomorrow.

After 22 months, I've started my damn period. I was beginning to like not having one. It's back with a vengence. I started feeling crampy yesterday and then VOILA. DAMN. So now I'm back to "normal".

Bret and I went to vote this morning. It was a zoo. Not because there were a lot of people but because the volunteers weren't too coordinated. The flow of people was terrible and it was very confusing on where to start the process. Maybe I should look into volunteering.....Hmmmm