Cars 101

The following are all the cars Teddy recognizes by emblem:































How many could you recognize?? LOL

It's really amazing to me that he recognizes so many and it's been said that riding with him in the car can be an education. He is so fast with calling them out and sometimes when we are walking he'll call out a car before I can spot it. There is no doubt his eyesight is perfect! So, just wanted to share an amazing talent of my son. He loves cars, trucks, buses, trains...anything with wheels attached to it and if he doesn't know what it is yet, he'll ask and remember the next time he sees it.

I am an Etsian!

Hmmmm, not sure if that is really a proper term, but it came to mind.

I had opened an Etsy shop earlier this year without so much as the smallest interest. However, since then I have completely revamped my pictures. I have also changed hosts for my website and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to get the new site up and running. It could be a number of reasons why, mostly that I have a very active almost 3 year old that is demanding of my time and attention so I have very little left for focusing on learning a new language (html). So, for now, I will keep my domain where it is, but also have the Etsy shop. I still have work to do there, with descriptions and such, but if anyone is interested the site address is www.beadsforthee.etsy.com (for some reason I cannot get the link in, even using the 'insert link' tool, so it needs to be cut and pasted into your browser window). I hope I move some of the items I've made so I can justify making new pieces. I so miss playing with my beads!!!

See? He DOES smile!!

Took a long walk to the playground today and got some great pictures of Teddy. It's a cloudy, cool day here but tomorrow is supposed to be very rainy so I figured we'd get out today. I warned him (haha) as we got there that I wanted some pictures with him smiling, he dutifully obeyed (HA!).






These are a couple of really fun ones. The first one is looking up at Teddy while he was looking down through the holes in the metal at the top of the slide. The second is him playing peek a boo through one of the benches.



I know it's been over a month since blogging, for my dedicated blog checkers, my deepest apologies. I'd say I'll do better, but I can't promise anything but I will try. :)

First morning out in awhile.

As previously mentioned, it's been pretty hot and muggy here, so for the most part Teddy and I have stayed indoors. We go to our complex office every morning to see the manager and the maintenance guys (they all like to see Teddy and Teddy likes to visit). So, this morning brought cooler weather and we were gone from the house for the better part of the morning. We had the playground to ourselves for most of the time we were there and then bombarded with 3 Russian speaking nannies and the children they care for. Teddy played the part of the welcoming committee a little too well and his efforts were rebuffed equally as well. No one seemed to care that we were there and very few pleasantries were exchanged. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long after they got there. I did, however, manage to tick Teddy off with the constant camera watching his every move.

Shoo fly don't bother me! Yep, he really was saying that too! He HATES flies and will not go down the slide, even when I tell him they will fly away if he comes near them. Of course, I give him a couple of years and he'll be bringing home all kinds of things for me in his pockets, up to and including snakes, I'm sure.










"DON'T TAKE THE PICTURE MOMMA!!!!" Heard that several times during our outing. *sigh* You'd think by now he's just suck it up and give me a smile from time to time. He's going to wonder, when he looks back on all of his pictures someday, whether he ever smiled or not...

We watched as the waters rose...

Last Saturday was an interesting day for us. We've been dealing with the hot and muggies for about a week solid, storms on and off and it came to a head Saturday, late afternoon. We had been getting flash flood warnings for a couple of days and it began to rain, hard. This was the end result, actually when the pictures were taken, it was during the worst part. Funny thing is, about an hour after the rain stopped, you wouldn't have known this had taken place. I found out today that we got about 3 inches of rain in an hour.

The scene from our living room window.


This was a shot taken from Teddy's bedroom window of the courtyard. There was a crew in that ambulance, bringing someone home, presumably from a doctors or dialysis appointment. They sat there for about 45 minutes with the patient in the back, not sure why they waited so long.


The parking lot behind our building, our van is behind the red car. Thankfully, spared from any damage.


These next two are also from our living room window, I was kind of hanging outside of the window to get these. Our maintenance manager's car got the brunt of the water. We were watching out the window when we saw him come out to move it (again, not sure why since the damage was done). He was waste deep in water!! The second shot was just after he started to move it, that's why it looks closer. A few guys come from the complex came out to help him. They pushed it to our lot, against the current. David just got his car back today from the mechanic.




We are expecting a lot of rain again this weekend. We'll see what happens...it all depends on how fast and furious it comes.

A little about our visit from family.

We had a good time with my sister, mom, and grandmother. We didn't see much of my grandmother really, as she spent the weekend with my aunt. She did treat us all out to dinner on Sunday, which was...interesting. We got there before anyone else and had to wait about a half hour and for a toddler, that is a few eternity's time. Teddy seemed to take to my grandmother, though, and didn't hesitate to call her "Grammy". Once we were seated, he did fairly well, though. But, that is getting well ahead of myself. The really really great part started on Thursday when my sister landed. Teddy knew who she was, however, had the look of "Wait a minute, you live in the computer!" He knows Marianne from talking with her via the web. He didn't waste time, though, making the connection of who she was and talking to her just as he would Garnet, who lives just a few miles from us. We spent a couple of hours walking through IKEA before heading home (IKEA was on the way). We had some dinner at home with the big boys (Ed and my brother-in-law, Joe) and just spent time together catching up. Here's a picture of my sisters, goofing off.

Friday, Marianne and I spent the morning together, in the kitchen actually. She made lemon curd and scones for a few people as gifts and I got my baked ziti together in preparation to have everyone here for Saturday supper. Garnet worked and then came and picked us all up to head to the shore. We had a gorgeous day to head down there, which we weren't sure we were going to get. We spent some time on the boardwalk, Teddy rode the same carousel I did as a child and he rode some of the quarter rides too (although I think they are more like $.50 at this point, which considering isn't too bad). My sisters and I played some games and then we walked on the beach. Let me say, it's quite a workout walking in the sand with a 36 lb. toddler on your hip!! He wouldn't walk in the loose sand, but didn't mind it down closer to the water. He wouldn't let me put him down in the water though, which I suppose I can understand. The ocean can be quite intimidating. Here's a few shots from the boardwalk and beach.





Saturday was spent with my mom, as Marianne took off to visit some old high school friends. We headed to the farm (see a previous post), but found they were closed for the day. :( So, we headed to a Peddler's Village, which is a cluster of boutique-y shops. They also have a place for kids called Giggleberry Fair, which has games and quarter rides as well as a carousel. Yep, Teddy got another ride on a carousel. Mom treated us to lunch and then came home to our house while Garnet and Joe got some things done elsewhere. They came for supper and we all watched a movie. It was a nice night. Just a couple more shots from Saturday.



Sunday we went to church, had a light lunch and then I came home with Teddy, got some things done around here and then we went to dinner. Here are a couple more shots. The first ones are with my mother and grandmother, so it's four generations. God bless my grandmother. She's 85 years old, still has every wit about her and drives like a bat outta hell!! LOL. She drove most of the way here from NC, actually. The second ones are with my mom and sisters. Yeah, we really do look nothing alike. We didn't seem to get it together and get one really decent pic, but they are okay. I did not get nearly enough pictures I wanted to, but I was living in the moment and just didn't think about the camera too much. Bummer, I know, but that's the way it goes sometimes. It was a great time and went by much too fast.