Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Rest in Peace, Papa Dick. I Love You Forever.

I am so sad to be writing this blog post. The man that I have called "Papa Dick" from the time I could speak has passed away this morning. He was more than a grandfather to me. He was a friend, a father figure, good company, a good man, and someone who adored my baby boy... and my baby boy adored him. Anyone who knew him can consider themselves lucky.

He had bowel ischemia and it was found too late. We did everything we could for him. I found him a primary care doctor, we took him to see specialists, they did every test a man could get and it wasn't until this past Friday that they finally found something. At first, they wanted to treat it conservatively, but in no time at all, his condition escalated and he needed emergency surgery. He came through the surgery OK, but the stress of it all was too much for his body and he was ready to go... but we weren't ready to lose him.

One of the last times that I saw him awake, he was on life support and not without a million other tubes coming out of every opening of his body. I said "I love you, Papa." He tried to open his mouth to say "I love you too." I knew he did. Then I said "I'll see you tomorrow" and he shook his head "no." Nana said "Do you love me?" And he shook his head "yes." so we knew he was ready to go. This world has lost a wonderful man and too soon.... too suddenly.

I have a copy of his license that I have placed in my wallet so I can carry him with me wherever I go. I love you, Papa Dick. Rest in Peace.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Pinterest is the Best Idea Ever!

So for those of you who have been living under a rock Pinterest.com is a website where you can go and create virtual pin boards. If I'm on a cooking website (yeah right) and see a recipe that I really want to try (again, yeah right), I can pin it to one of my virtual pin boards on Pinterest. I can name all my Pin boards whatever I want to... some of my names are Perfect Poses (photography inspired portrait poses), Gifts to Make (Ideas that I see online that I'd like to make someone as a gift), Kids (ideas to do with Eliot) and many, many more! There's a pin board for every area of life.. and then some. It's AWESOME! And what's even better is that you can look through OTHER people's pin boards to get ideas that they have pinned. (I swear I don't get paid to endorse this company-- It's just THAT awesome).

So anyway, this Winter, we've spent some time playing with some of the ideas I've found on Pinterest and other websites. First we did the water beads (see previous post). Then I did colored shaving cream painting:

The shaving cream comes right off. We even left it up there all day so Eliot could show Daddy his masterpiece and we had no problem wiping it right off-- no stains!

And some of Eliot being goofy in the water:




And then just this morning, I gave Eliot some Styrofoam, nails, and a small hammer and let him go to town. This was MESSY. Not the project itself but the aftermath and the toddler that doesn't listen to his mother when she tells him not to break up the Styrofoam. Even the vacuum couldn't get all those tiny white pieces up!


And of course, digging nails back up with (what else?) trucks:


I think that Pinterest is Eliot approved ;)

Saturday, February 4, 2012

"You Made My Day!"

I had read online about an activity that I wanted to try with Eliot. I had never heard of water beads before this and I set out to find them. I found some at Michaels (called water gems). They were teeny tiny little balls in a small package. I bought 4 packages in different colors. I brought them home and the next day Eliot and I (& Ted) had some fun.



We dumped all the water beads in a big Rubbermaid container. Instructions told us to add one liter of water for every 10 grams of beads. We had about 20 grams of beads. Eliot even had fun pouring the water in. Over the next four hours, we watched the beads grow bigger and bigger, and the water level sink lower and lower. I told him that after his nap, the beads would be ready and he could dig in with his trucks-- he was so excited. As soon as he woke up, he RAN upstairs to see the beads and sure enough-- they were all ready for digging..and dumping...and spooning... and playing. I undressed him down to his underwear and set him free!

Waiting...

Daddy wanted to see what happened if you put a few in the microwave. For the record, nothing happened:


After a while of playing he told me "You made my day!" It was the BEST thing to hear. Those water beads sure made me feel like Mom of The Year and he got a great afternoon of sensory play with his Mama and Daddy. Perfect!

If we ever do the activity again, I won't use red. Everything was red/pink. It was easy enough to get off for the most part, but parts of Eliot's toenails still look like he tried to take red nail polish off and failed.

When he sat down to go to the bathroom, he grabbed onto the toilet paper to keep himself steady (as usual)


(turned the bath water pink)
And on more photo for this post of Eliot and his new ride-on excavator. He had a gift certificate from Auntie Frances from Christmas that he had not yet had the chance to use so that, paired with a little bit of his Christmas money bought him a(nother) new truck. Yipee!