Mommy is in Timeout

May always reminds me of meeting my husband. We met on May 1st, or as my husband always says “May Day”, which he still shouts 12 years later whenever I won’t stop talking.A few weeks after meeting, we were on our way to Niagara Falls for a getaway. On our drive there, we stopped by the Royal Botanical Gardens to see all the tulips in bloom.Ever since then, red and yellow tulips have kind of been our thing and always take us back to that trip. Our first little getaway. A weekend I’ll never forget.

*please note: I did not have the Kate Gosselin hairstyle at this time.The Misty Maid is windy, yo!

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This post was linked up for Wordful Wednesday. Please visit some of these fabulous women at their blogs: Project Alicia, Live and Love…Out Loud, Seven Clown Circus and Parenting BY Dummies.

When did your ear start to hurt? (trying to collect information to tell the doctor)

During my nap, when I was s-weeping. I had a bad dream and monsters came and jumped in it.

Jumped in your dream or your ear?

My EAR! Mommy, they jumped in there with the dinos. They were all wiggling around. That’s why it hurt so much. My ear didn’t have enough room! (Part of this explanation was prior knowledge. We’ve had many discussions on how dinos have invaded his body.)

Ok, well what does it feel like? Not the wiggly monsters, but the pain in your ear?

It feels like those trees out there. {pointing out the car window}. The big pine trees. And the dinos. In my dream the monsters were jumping all over them.

Jumping all over the trees or the dinos?

THE TREES! They were playing WITH the dinos and jumping ON trees.

Got it. {shaking my head}. I really wonder how the doctor will diagnose this?

Mommy, Do you think he’ll be able to get the monsters out of the trees?

One would hope, buddy.

The doctor confirmed my typically inaccurate mother’s instinct: Double ear infection.On the way out, the oh-so-clever Lanagan played the sick card, begging for a candy bar. How could I say no? Maybe the tree jumping ear monsters were hungry.

Milky Way candy bar. BBQ chips. Sticker on shirt. Successful trip to the doctor in his world.

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This post was linked up for Wordful Wednesday. Please visit some of these fabulous women at their blogs: Project Alicia, Live and Love…Out Loud, Seven Clown Circus and Parenting BY Dummies.

LJ is 3 1/2 this week and we’re still trying to conquer the beast that is potty training. I say still as though I’ve even tried.I have no idea why I’m waiting. I could say on some level I worry he’s growing too fast and I’m trying to keep him a baby. But that’s not it.Maybe it’s that I’m lazy? Well, not that either. I actually think it takes more energy to lift him up and change his diaper 6-8 times a day than to help him on a potty. (I fully admit, I may change my tune on this once we do train.)I give. I’ll just blame Charlie Sheen. Everyone else is doing it. Obviously, I’m not #WINNING!However, one reason could be LJ’s lack of enthusiasm with using the potty in correct fashion. Instead, he’s found several other great ways to utilize this new toy. I give you…

[caption id="attachment_1331" align="aligncenter" width="682" caption="Example C: The Potty La-Z-Boy. It even comes with an ottoman."][/caption]

Regardless the excuse. We’ll get it eventually. Until then, I can’t wait to see all the ways he uses his non-potty-training-chair.

This post was linked up for Wordful Wednesday. Please visit some of these great hosts at their lovely blogs: A Beautiful Mess, Live and Love…Out Loud, Seven Clown Circus, Dear Crissy Momhood Captured and Parenting BY Dummies.

At 4 p.m. on the last 3 Fridays, the Detroit Science Center has tweeted coordinates for a location where they have hidden a dino egg. Yes, that’s right. A dino egg. The best kind of scavenger hunt LJ could have ever imagined.If you figure out the coordinates and you are the first to find the egg, you get 4 free passes to the Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit. We were on a mission to win.Well, we participated in the first hunt. I say that very loosely.I googled the coordinates. Charlie packed the kids in the car. Off we went to the location I deemed to be the dino egg destination.My poor husband was running around the front lawn of Chrysler World Headquarters, looking like a maniac. Everyone was leaving the building for the weekend and here is this man frantically running around the courtyard. You can imagine the looks. As I sat in the car planning my escape route watching the kids, I gave a shrug to people who passed by, pretending I didn’t know him.Obviously, it wasn’t there. Needless to say, I was off by about 50 miles.  After that little mishap, we decided it was best if Charlie did the googling.This past Friday, he figured out the egg was right on his way home from work. He thought he would give it a shot as a surprise to LJ.Mission accomplished. He walked in the house, dino egg in hand. Actually it was hidden under his sweatshirt. Tomato, tomahto.Daddy gifted his DELIGHTED son with the egg filled with 4 tickets and a stuffed dino. Daddy hugged his delighted wife, who was ecstatic to have free tickets to yet another dino exhibit.

[caption id="attachment_1155" align="aligncenter" width="546" caption="free tickets, yo! (pay no attention to the spaghetti all over his jeans)"][/caption]

p.s. If you live in the Detroit area, follow @sciencedetroit. Maybe you can win too. Just don’t call me for help with finding the location.

p.s.s. Just to be clear – winning these tickets was in no way affiliated with my blog. It just so happens Charlie is an awesome dad & obviously more Internet savvy than I am.

This post was linked up for Wordful Wednesday. Please visit some of these great hosts at their lovely blogs: A Beautiful Mess, Live and Love…Out Loud, Seven Clown Circus and Parenting BY Dummies.

LJ and Charlie love to walk around the house acting and talking like robots. Their character names are “Daddy Robot” and “LJ Robot” – I know – unique right?They are pretty believable and do a great job at staying in character. Even when I taunt them, they don’t fold. There is even a “Mommy Robot” that makes cameos every now and then.They have space missions where they conquer the universe. Apparently these missions are quite intense. LJ Robot is typically out of breath once they are over. Mommy Robot’s observation is that they are also quite messy.They land their spaceship on different planets and check for alien life, the whole nine yards, all the while noshing on a fruit bar. LJ Robot is really great at multitasking.Well, one Saturday LJ Robot felt he needed to dress the part. He takes this all very seriously.He went into my bathroom and came up with an LJ Robot costume. Footy pajamas for warmth. Sunglasses to block the rays of the sun. Toilet paper hands to ward off any predators. And, the piece de resistance, a Kotex box for his helmet. Watch out NASA, he’s ready for takeoff.

[caption id="attachment_906" align="aligncenter" width="764" caption="Robot Action Shot"][/caption]Oh, and please excuse the mess in the background. Daddy Robot was M.I.A. on a space mission this Saturday and Mommy Robot was doing her best to keep it all together.

This post was linked up with Wordless/Wordful Wednesday. Please visit some of these great hosts at their lovely blogs:  Wordless Wednesday, A Beautiful Mess, Live and Love…Out Loud, Seven Clown Circus and Parenting BY Dummies.

My poor little boy is slowly, but surely, inheriting my extremely thick hair.  The type of hair that takes a whole bucket of water just to get wet. The type of hair that takes several handfuls of shampoo just to wash. The type of hair that needs to be cut with thinning shears so it doesn’t look like you’re wearing a helmet preparing for a mission in space.At first, I thought he beat the thick hair gene. That doesn’t seem to be the case. It gets thicker and thicker with each passing day.Today he woke up from his nap and it was, well, amazing.

[caption id="attachment_783" align="alignnone" width="1024" caption="And then he starts his turn...wait for it..."][/caption]

This post was linked up with Wordless/Wordful Wednesday. Please visit some of these great hosts at their lovely blogs:  Wordless Wednesday, A Beautiful Mess, Live and Love…Out Loud, Seven Clown Circus and Parenting BY Dummies.