Home Sweet Home

I had a good time. I miss my nephews and my sis. This picture pretty much sums up my trip and looking at it kind of breaks my heart. I'm not sure why fate saw fit to place these people so far away from me.

My flight was delayed last night so I got in really late. I also caught some kind of head cold which seems to always happen when I travel but oh well. MrPea and I were supposed to go on our own trip this week but we decided to go the week of my birthday instead. Until then I'll be nursing my cold and catching up on my sleep.

Just a few things before I leave on Sat

-I found a Power Ranger Tshirt size 5T. It's a size too big but I had to go on a damn oddessy to find it so that baby is going to have to just wear it anyway. I got souvenir tees for the older two but the little one said he likes Power Rangers so I had no choice. I went everywhere. Two different Targets-no Power Rangers. Walmart-nothing. Bealls-nope. Kohl's-uh uh. Kmart-nyet. Finally I broke down and went to the mall. Luckily, I found a Disney store and they had some. Crisis avoided. Go Power Rangers!

-The Disney Store. Um. Yeah. If you haven't had kids yet and were even contemplating the idea of pushing one out, don't go there. And for the record I feel sorry for/hold the utmost admiration for anyone who is so cursed as to have to bring a child there and doesn't end up in a straight jacket. The employees seem to know the inner demons that will be unleashed in kids upon stepping foot into that store and take advantage of it. I saw one following a poor mother around making all kinds of suggestions while the woman, who BTW was clearly on the verge of some kind of emotional breakdown, just said, "yes yes we'll get those honey," just so her kid would calm down. Yep. It's not going to be a destination for the Pea Family when I push one out. I said it. Write it down.

-The baby birds are gone. Should I be worried about that? I mean they were getting bigger and all but I can't believe they would be big enough to just fly away. Is it possible that the mother moved them to a different nest? Does that happen? Please don't say a cat got them. I mean I know it's a possibility but it would be hard for me to believe since no one in my building owns a cat and I doubt any stray would have found them. Plus I'll be heartbroken so I'll have to pretend they didn't like the noise and just moved. The nest is still there in perfect condition. I'm going to have to investigate. Their location was at the LadyNextDoorWhoHatesMe's front doorway so it's going to be hard for me to get some answers from her. I better not find out that she did something like complain about them living in her wreath.

-My trip(s)! My trip(s)! My nephews don't even know I'm coming. I don't know how my sister and I kept this secret for 3 weeks without slipping, but we have. I think she's planning to load them into the car by saying, it's a nice day, let's go for a drive. Oh man, they're all going to get pinched on the belly. One by one. MrPea's and my trip South was postponed until my birthday so I'll be home Wednesday instead of next Monday. I was dying to look for shark teeth down there, but I guess I can wait. I'll try to post while I'm gone but if I don't I hope everyone has a Great Independence day and a safe week.

Always be our Baby no matter what your age

Happy Birthday Little Jr! 20 years old and this is the way I will always think of you. Is it any surprise that I'm the one who took this picture? We were in my room I told you to make your best Teenage Mutant Ninja pose. I'm so proud of who you grew up to be. As long as I'm breathing, you will always have a cheerleader on your team. All 6 of the grandchildren in our family are loved. No more, no less than each other. But you were the first. And the special thing about being the first is that we loved you the longest. Keep on being who you are.

'Yer Age

Whenever I catch myself doing or saying things that when I was a kid I swore I would never do, I feel like such an Old Hagggis. For example, my nephew is nearly 20 and I still treat him like a baby. Since I was the baby of the family I HATED being told I was too young for something or treated like I was a complete idiotic and naive child.(I'm still treated that way and I still hate it BTW) When my nephew was born, I was 12 and felt completely grown up so it seems that I would probably feel more sisterly towards him than like an Auntie but that's not the case. He is to me, the son I would have asked for if I had had the powers. I try very much to regard him as a grown up but it's impossible. Last week, he came over for lunch and I found myself reminding him 3 times not to touch the pan because it was still hot as if he were a total dumbass without the skills to notice that on his own. I still refer to him as "Little B--" which is what we called him as a baby since he shares his father's name and his father was then called "Big B--" Recently I asked him if it bothered him that we(meaning mostly me) still called him that and if he knew that we would most definitely be calling him "Little B--" even when he was 80. Didn't bother him and no, he said he likes it. This was funny for me because I've told my family several times if anyone tries to refer to me in one of the nicknames they came up with, no one would get an answer from me. I will only answer to the name I was baptised with thank you very much. But that's the difference between he and I. If he told me it bothered him, I would make a better effort to stop.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic-that's a post for another day. For sure, one of the things I SWORE, PROMISED, SET IN STONE FOR ALL TIME that I would NEVER do was utter any sentence that began with the words,"When I was your age......." Because when I was young enough to be so cursed as to have to listen to those kinds of sermons I still remember thinking how much I could give a flying rat's ass about "yer age," and what everyone did or didn't do at "yer age." Or what everyone had or didn't have at "yer age." I didn't give a featherweight's care about who had to walk to school, stay after school, clean the school, make dinner, couldn't wear their hair the way they wanted, got slapped if they talked back, got soap in the mouth, had to eat everything on their plate, never wasted anything, had to plow, had to finish chores on time, rode horses, never heard of computers nor needed them.....you get my point. Still, I have begun to catch myself saying those very words to my own beloved eldest nephew. As in, "When I was yer age, we didn't have ipods. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?" Just shoot me now.

Butts and Graduates

Well Peanut had his surgery today on his, guess where. I didn't post about it because I didn't want to think about it. He was supposed to have it last week but I rescheduled for today because I wanted to make sure I would be able to watch my nephew graduate from high school. I sat there trying not to cry over this little boy who sang ABC's and watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who's boo-boos I kissed, diapers I changed, belly I poked, made endless cups of chocolate milk for, earlobes I pinched. I'm so proud of the person he is and wish always happiness for him. I wish he had been my son.

But my gosh I was only 13 when he was born so that would have been a little trashy... :O)
He will always be this little boy to me. I should mention that he's just turned 19 and we still call him Little Bobby. He already knows even when he's 50, my sisters and I will still be calling him that. I wanted to take him out to lunch this week to celebrate but my dern skin had to go and act up.

Now about my Peanut

I just spoke with Peanut's doctor and his surgery went well, although it was more invasive than they were hoping. He thinks he found the funny tissues that were causing my poor Peanut so much discomfort but he's going to have to stay over night and possibly tomorrow night as well. I felt like crying when Dr told me he was in a lot of pain. My poor Peanut. Hopefully when he recovers this will be the last time he has a problem back there, he's been through so much with that. He's been so good natured, nobody would even have guessed he'd been having so many, ahem, painful bowel issues. I can't wait til he gets to come home. I miss him and it's too quiet here without a little friend.


(My skin is much better, I ended up not taking the steroid pills. I don't need it. Still bumpy, but not as bad as last week. Still staying out of the sun and heat though. Also I'm still shy about it so I've only been going out when absolutely necessary which will be today because I ran out of Zyrtec.)

Too quiet

The house is too quiet now. I got used to my nephew's chatter. I tried unsuccessfully to get him to say,"thank you," just so I could tell him in the future that he learned his good manners from me. It was a long shot since one year olds don't normally know how to pronounce double consonants. I did hear,"mama", now and then. I guess that's a more important word and easier to learn.

Surprisingly(or unsurprisingly), Peanut did not attempt to hump anything or anyone during the entire visit and I was very pleased about that. He did attempt some thieving of Nilla Wafers but they were already on the floor and I'm sure I saw him sticking his nose into my sister's backpack looking for something to steal but I'd rather live with a thief than an a compulsive humper for a pet. So I was ok with that. I also was not in any position to have to change any poopy diapers and I was very pleased about that as well. I'm still suffering from PTSD since the last time.

When my nephew was born he was the spitting image of yours truly. Now he doesn't resemble me at all. Is it weird to say that it hurts my feelings? But it's ok since he does look like my Grandpa all the way down to the round, sticking out, Santa Claus belly. This morning I woke up almost expecting to hear giggling and babbling. I wandered into the room where they were staying with a little broken heart because there was no giggling little one holding his arms up to me. My bed cushions smell like baby lotion and corn starch powder and my arms are missing that heavy, fat bellied baby who loved me most when he was in trouble with mommy.

I guess I should mention that I miss my sister too :O)

This calls for an anouncement of some kind!

I took my nephew to get his driver's license the other day. He took driver's ed so all he had to do was bring in his paperwork from class and pass the eye test. Get ready for this though:

There were no lines. We didn't wait our turn for longer than 2 minutes. The receptionist was very nice and smiley. The woman processing him was also really nice and actually remembered him from the last time he was there. His picture came out great. We were out of there in less than 10 minutes. They told us to have a nice day like they meant it and congratulated him on becoming a driver.

HUH?

I was expecting to be there for at least an hour, I even had a mental talk with myself about being patient. It was like the Stepford driver's license workers- and I mean that in a good way. Did something happen I didn't hear about? Did someone give them some free donuts that day?

Aimless and Random

-There's something amazing about a chubby,water-wrinkled miniature hand, clutching my own because owner of hand is afraid of the dark, water park pirate ship and needed someone to accompany him. Especially since 4 year old owner of hand just bragged about how he's not afraid of anything in the whole world, not even sharks or monsters.

-Speaking of water parks, I had to scream at some people who appeared to be 20somethings, but were probably teens, I can never tell. Basically they were old enough to know better and frankly too old to be in the little kids section anyway. They were climbing down some watery, pirate treasure stairs the same time me and my chubby handed little friend were and they were pushing against us so aggressively in their hurry and excitement, my nephew slipped and fell. I'm not an assertive person.... still though. I yelled,"Excuse me, there's a 4 year old child here!" Not that it mattered, I wasn't born on this Earth to teach anyone how to behave and when I was that age, anyone over 18 was lame. And anyway I forgive them, we all act like idiots in those kinds of places. You really have to LOVE your kids a bunch to bring them to any kind of amusement park. I'd rather stick my fingers into light sockets than hang out there but, it's for the kids, how can I refuse?

-My house is a complete disaster. Someone must have snuck into my fridge and ate my cold KitKat dammit. There's string cheese wrappers in corners I didn't even know existed, cookie crumbs under the dining table, chocolate finger prints on my outdoor cushions and any minute now, the pile of dirty beach towels in the laundry room is probably going to come alive and start walking around. There's really no point in telling anyone about this. It just makes me feel better to write it down since I'm too lazy to clean but not too lazy to walk to the store to buy some more KitKat.

-Peanut was NOT a good boy. I'm pretty sure if I could have heard his thoughts it would have gone something like this: "Great! Someone close to my size! I should hump it!"....." Great! Someone close to my size! It's going to be so fun and easy to steal food from it."....."Great! Someone close to my size! I'm going to use it to distract Angel so I can run out the door when they try to leave!"......"Yes! The little ones move around a lot! I'll use them to show off my herding skills!"..... "Who's dropping all these crumbs on the floor? I love you. When Angel's not looking I'm going to jump onto your lap and scare the hell out of you, so when you start screaming I'll steal the rest of your sandwich."....."Why did Angel lock me in the bedroom again? It can't be because I was humping everyone, they want me, they just don't know it yet. They say no but they mean yesssss." I do love an unruly dog, I truly do. He's a little sad and lonely today so I thought we would go for a long walk after lunch.

-Being around my sisters' kids sometimes make me wish I had a chubby-handed little one of my own. But don't tell Peanut lest he think I love him less.

I have been a neglectful blogstress

These photos are my excuse. But I don't feel the least bit of guilt over it.

I didn't disappear

I'm not going to say I've been busy. I hate when people say that as in, "Sorry I haven't called/came by. I've been busy." No matter how sweetly or honestly intended someone says that, it just always sounds like,"I've been too busy for you." So I haven't been busy, I've been running a mile a minute with my sister and nephews. The past few days have been a blur of sun, wind, water splashing, water parks, water in my eyes, Peanut, pools, sunscreen, the ocean, little boys running around yelling "Auntie, watch this! Auntie can you fix this? Auntie look! Auntie guess what! Auntie I caught a lizard! " Good times. I say this with all affection and honesty, anyone who is brave enough to have more than one kid should be awarded sainthood right now. They're here for another week so I imagine my posts and visits will continue to be sporadic until then. I only get to see them once a year since she lives a gazillion miles away so we've all been pretty much joined at the hip.

*Miss Ellie bee has honored me with a rockin female blogger award! YAY! Thank you! I have to wait until I have more than a minute to myself to pass it on. Hope everyone has been having as much fun as I have this weekend.

The effect I have on boys

Yep.

Something Sunnier

I don't have time to post or blogvisit but I hated that my last post was so dark. So here are a couple happier pix. I bought this hibiscus plant half dead at the grocery store for practically nothing not even knowing what color the flowers would be and look! A pretty dark peach with a pink center. It didn't really need much nursing, just some morning sun and water.
This one is for Hel, since she's experiencing winter on the other side of the equator . Wishing you a bit of summer!

I'm having so much fun with my nephews. I don't get to see them as often as I'd like to so we're really making the most of it. Oooh they wear me out! In a good way. More pictures later. Hope everyone is a having a beautiful weekend.

Caught Red-Handed!

Exhibit A

An 11 month old awaits trial for a serious crime. He's being charged with domestic-bathroom assault and toilet paper abuse. Witnesses described him as a little, chubby cheeked, brown hair and blue eyed mini-me, wearing blue pants, white socks and a light blue shirt. The head of the household apparently caught the perpetrator in the act and immediately put him under arrest. He is currently behind crib bars and the judge has posted bail at 3 bottles of apple juice. He could receive up to 3 days of no pudding in lieu of incarceration. Officers should be warned that sight of suspect causes overwhelming urge to participate in cheek pinching.


What is the world coming to???

Y-M-C-A it's fun to stay at the......

I went to watch my 10 year old nephew's basketball game today. I have to admit, even though I've heard about parents who are a bit extreme at those events, I was shocked. A lot of the parents were screaming at the kids and getting angry when they made a mistake. I was thinking,"Dude, your kid is 10! TEN ok? Give him a f- break and let him enjoy himself!" Maybe I'm too soft. One lady(if I can call her a lady) was screaming,"Relax! Relax!" while her son was about to shoot from the foul line and then screamed,"Jesus Christ!" when he missed both times. Right in my ear, might I add. Did she really think he could relax with her screaming like that??? They were even screaming obscenities at the referees. How dare they enforce the rules!! Those bastards! And there were a couple moms in the back gossiping and saying some really dirty things about one of the other moms-and oh she's fat and getting divorced haha and ooh can you believe what she's wearing-can her pants be any tighter-slut-she prol'ly has a disease and ooh check her out I heard she was an alcoholic, and look at him you know he sleeps around!(this is the clean version of thier conversation) They knew everyone could hear them too, even the children. I'm not one of those-'Omigosh don't breathe in front of the children-don't blink in the presence of children' type of people either.

We noticed one of the players on the other team happened to be the only girl and we all had a Gloria Steinem moment. She tried to shoot a three pointer and totally missed and someone yelled out to her,"Good try!" Her coach yelled,"NO,That was not a good try!" He was on her ass the entire time-I'm not saying it was because she was girl, but he was encouraging with the others and so hard on her and she was the best damn one on her team!!! Someone fouled her at that moment so she had to go to the foul line. My sister and I, plus the women we were with, jokingly, made fists at the coach. She got both baskets and waved to us, smiling....hey anything I can do for my fellow sister. We saw a chance to embrace female solidarity and jumped on it :o)

I never saw a bunch of children playing a game and looking so stressed out before. I asked my sister if the parents were always so crazed at these things. She said,"I'm used to it-you should see how they act at baseball games, it's worse." Really?