Thrill rides! Or... frogs.

I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. I LOVE roller coasters; I've gone skydiving twice and zip lining once. I've never met a thrill ride I wouldn't try. I remember telling my mom when I was about 13 or 14 that I could never marry a man who didn't like roller coasters.

Guess what? When I met Trey, he didn't like thrill rides. That was absolutely unacceptable. So I'm proud to say that I have reformed his wayward opinions and shown him the light when it comes to the magnificence of hurling through the air upside down at 80 miles an hour.

But given that Trey has a history of bench-sitting at amusement parks, I'm a little concerned that it might be in his genes. So I'm taking precautions to make sure that Perrin develops an early love of thrill rides.

We just got back from Silver Dollar City... and I'm happy to report that Perrin had a blast! He wasn't quite big enough for even the smallest of roller coasters (they actually do have one designed for the 4-8 year-olds), but we had a good time riding the bouncing frogs and the caterpillars.

I think Perrin is well on his way to following in his mommy's footsteps.

The un-picky eater

Perrin LOVES food. He doesn't care what it is; he'll eat it. This has been quite a blessing for us since we've drastically changed our eating habits within the last few months to cut out processed foods, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, GMO foods, fast food, etc. (Not that we manage to keep it up 100% of the time, but we are so so so much healthier than we were this time last year. Also, we're not Nazis about this, so if anyone wants to invite us over for pizza, we're game!) But anyway, it's nice that we don't have a picky eater so we can fill him up with lots of fruits and veggies, beans, homemade soups and broths, plain yogurt, and farm fresh meat (no antibiotics or hormones injected!) He loves kale. He loves spinach. He LOVES lima beans and eats them faster than I can keep them on his plate. Ditto for sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, and squash.

The thing is, he also loves dog food. And acorns. And leaves. And bugs. Maybe it's not that he particularly likes my cooking; maybe the child has a really wonky sense of taste. I guess I can't take it as a compliment when he chows down on carpet lint with as much gusto as when he's eating my whole-wheat banana flax muffins.

Oh, well, I'm just going to enjoy the ride for now because we're not that far off from the terrible twos. And I imagine that when he learns he has the power to reject my food, it won't be so easy to convince him that veggie souffle is way better than mac-n-cheese.

A tribute to Trey

This blog post is a little different from my usual posts. Trey and I are coming up on our 5-year anniversary in just a few days, so I decided to write a tribute to him. But I don’t mind if you read it. Although some of it may not make much sense to anyone but Trey.

To my dear, sweet husband:
Wow, married five years! Can you believe it? That means we’ve been practically inseparable for almost 8 years now. I’ve been thinking a lot today about our special memories together. We’ve been through a lot in 8 years, huh? Mostly good stuff. Some tough stuff. And some fun/silly/crazy/totally-us stuff. So I thought I’d make a list for you of some of my favorite memories.

Memories from our early days:
I still have the fork (somewhere!) that you mangled for me on the day we met. You became known to my family as “the fork art guy.” But don’t worry; they haven’t called you that in a long time.

I loved the nights we spent driving around Conway just talking and occasionally finding something fun to do (like throwing pennies in a pond and making wishes). Or how about the night the cops came after us at the park? Not the best memory... but kind of funny now.

And of course, your proposal will always be a special memory. And yes, I would like eggs with that ring, please.

Memories from our tough times:
You were an absolute rock for me when my parents were in that accident. We were finally officially dating at that point, and I’m glad I hadn’t put you off any longer. I NEEDED you. And you were there.

Your job loss may not seem like such a good memory to bring up. But I’m so proud of the way you handled it. And it’s special to me to remember how we prayed that day that God would take care of us somehow, then we got a check in the mail that exact day for $500. Was that confirmation, or what?! And we did make it through it just fine.

Silly memories:
Four words: Tutti fruity snowflake booty.

I still giggle when I think about the noise you used to make when you were annoyed with traffic. It sounded just like the rattle of your broken glove box. I know you may not have appreciated me laughing at you when you were trying to drive, but it did seem to diffuse some of the tension.

I loved the time we went to Hot Springs and you spoke with an Irish accent all day. I think everyone really thought you were from Ireland!

I really wish you’d do your “happy cave dance” again sometime. It was cute.

Memories from our recent years:
It wasn’t that long ago that you convinced me it was time to start trying for a baby. I was pretty reluctant, but I decided to trust you and go along with it. But I prayed that I wouldn’t get pregnant right away. Two weeks later... well, we know the story. I suppose you and God were right all along.

I have so many good memories of you with Perrin that I can’t even begin to think of just one. I love that you love being a father. You’re a really good one.

It’s been really great to see you growing spiritually. I think you’ve made leaps and bounds in controlling your temper and being a spiritual leader. Thank you for being someone I can follow!

Well, I could go on and on and on... but I think that baby you convinced me to have is wide awake in his crib. (By the way, thank you for convincing me to have him. He’s perfect. Well, not perfect. But you know what I mean. You just might be able to convince me to have another one someday).

I know we have lots more good memories ahead of us! I love you very much! Thank you for putting up with me for all these years!

--Your sweetheart

In search of the perfect (squeaky) shoes

Perrin can officially toddle! What I mean by that is that he can take 3 or 4 steps on his own if he's walking from me to Trey while we're sitting on the floor. But he's still using crawling as his main mode of transportation. I've been trying to figure out how I can encourage him to walk without pushing him into it against his will. I think I know the solution--squeaky shoes!

I've seen tons of toddlers with squeaky shoes, so I figured we could find Perrin a pair over the weekend and try them out. I had no idea that this simple idea would turn into a day-long scavenger hunt. We had already looked at Walmart, not really expecting them to carry them (and we were right). So on Saturday morning, we began the hunt in earnest. After we had visited Target, Babies-R-Us, Rhea Lana, Baby Depot, Dillards, Payless, Gymboree, JC Penney, and Shoe Carnival with not a squeaky shoe to be found, we had pretty much given up hope. Where the heck do you find those things?? We knew of one other place to try--a children's boutique called Over the Moon. We looked them up online and saw that they were located near my parents' house, where we were headed anyway. Awesome! Except... they weren't located at that address anymore. And when I tried calling, the number had been disconnected. Score another 20 points for the fates that were conspiring against us.

I finally gave in and decided to order a pair online. I didn't want to do it because I wanted to have Perrin try them on to make sure we were getting the right size (and to make sure the squeaky sound didn't freak him out). But wouldn't you know it... as soon as I clicked to submit the order, the web page froze. I sat there for 20 minutes, fuming, until I finally gave up. Trey could see that I was pretty much at the end of my rope, so he reordered the shoes for me, and this time it went through.

About 20 minutes later, I received two email receipts for my two pairs of squeaky shoes that were being processed. ::insert highly exasperated mommy noise here::

I think I've finally managed to cancel one of the orders. But these shoes had better be the best thing since sliced bread for all the trouble they've caused.

Birthday boy

On Sunday, Perrin turned a year old. One year!! We had a blast celebrating his birthday over the weekend. The theme of his party was "Perrin's birthday moose-stravaganza." We decorated the tables with stuffed moose wearing party hats and served "moose juice" and snacks. We even had a table of moose-inspired crafts and a "moose trot" (similar to a cake walk). And of course, a moose birthday cake.



Perrin got a wagon for his birthday, so all the babies took turns going for a ride in it. They loved it! And it made for some really cute pictures.










It really didn't take Perrin long to realize he LIKED opening presents!

And here he is demolishing his birthday cake. He had frosting up to his ears and in his hair and eyelashes by the time he was done.

Overall, the party went very smoothly... and most importantly, I could tell Perrin had a lot of fun. I had fun too, but it's been a little bit bittersweet for me to think that he's a year old already. I love the little boy he's becoming, but I miss the tiny baby that he'll never be again.

Bookie monster

Perrin likes to eat paper. I don't know why. He's taken bites out of my grocery lists, magazines, and even a check we got in the mail. Last week, he gnawed on the corner pages of one of my library books. The damage wasn't very bad, so we went ahead and returned the book to the library, not thinking they would say anything about it. Well, they did. We got an email saying that the corners seemed to have undergone "animal damage" and the book would need to be replaced for a whopping $30.

So I was sitting on the living room floor this morning feeling a bit irritated at our little "animal." I mean, $30 is a lot of money! Couldn't he have chewed on some credit card offers or something instead? But then, as if sensing my lack of motherly love, he crawled over to me, pulled himself into my lap, leaned in and gave me a big kiss. ::sigh:: How can I stay angry? At least he isn't out setting fire to our lawn or wrecking our car. Yet.

Baby signing

I've tried to teach Perrin a little bit of baby sign language on and off--simple concepts like more, finished, bath, diaper, etc. Unfortunately I haven't been very consistent with it, so he really hasn't learned any signs yet. Well, I take that back. He has learned one sign. But it's a sign that I didn't teach him. He's learned how to shake his head "no" at me.

The other day, I was trying to get him to walk to me from the coffee table. I held his hands and said, "Walk to Mommy!" He collapsed into a crying heap on the floor, looked at me, and shook his head as if to say, "Stop trying to make me walk!" Later in the week, I took Perrin up to Trey's work to have lunch with him. As we were getting ready to leave, we stopped and talked to a few of Trey's coworkers. "Can you wave hello?" I asked Perrin. Like a perfect, sweet baby, he grinned and waved. Then as we were leaving I said, "Can you wave goodbye?" He got a mischievous smirk and shook his head no. I guess he'd had enough of waving.

I'm still just marveling over the irony that I have never, ever taught him that shaking his head means no, yet he picked it up faster than anything else. Is that just like a baby, or what? Or should it concern me that my child can already tell me no any time he wants?