Smorgasbord

My folks took off today for a 2 week vacation to Hawaii, so I figured what better reason for taking off some vacation time myself to spend with my most favorite little guy. I'm off starting today and won't return to my office until next Tuesday, which will be a half day at that (woo hoo!). The following week will be heavily office-time reduced as well (Yay!) Which is the whole reason I actually have a moment to breathe and do this (I swear something clicks over to hyper-speed once they officially turn 2! Keeping up with a full-blown toddler is no joke!)

So what have we been up to the past couple months? Well ...

In May I hosted a baby-shower for my girlfriend Nikki (my sister's awesome diaper cake) ...

And Sully and I have still been busy making flannels for our favorite songs and stories. Its one of his favorite things to do now. He'll say "Mama, sit!" and point to the floor in front of the board, pull out a song and start singing it while he puts it on the board.

God forbid I chime in.

That's cause for a level 10 meltdown. It usually involves lots of hands and fingers wagging in my face, "No's" being screamed and occasionally felt animal cut-outs being thrown around the room until I get the picture and shut up - or stop laughing.

Our cute little "Counting Cupcakes" we made out of small scrap felts pieces and hot glue.

(Sully can count to 14 now - and typically always skips over 11 with me. Poor little lonely number 11. I wonder sometimes if he's tried to sing Speckled Frogs too.)

Sully singing Slippery Fish.

One of my favorite things I've completed so far this month.

I found this pirate fleece fabric in the clearance scrap bin at Joannes, along with some golden-yellow fleece that was scrapped out in clearance and they matched perfectly! They sat in my craft closet for a couple months until Sully spotted the fabric one day and started screaming "PIRATES!" and wouldn't let it go until I agreed to finish it. The fleece was normally $11.99 a yard, and even though it was a awkward size, it fits Sully perfectly and he loves it. The whole thing cost me 8 bucks total and about an hour of my time in front of House Hunters late one night.

Its now his new go-to.

Shaun and I are planning to build a vegetable planter in our yard so Sully and I decided to give our green thumbs a go and give actually growing something edible - a trial run. We planted...

Cilantro, Dill, Garlic Chives, Basil and Onions

And while I have no photographic proof that all are in fact alive and doing well (and not a heap of dirt on my patio) all are thriving and have now been transferred into permanent pots from their seedling homes.

I'm pretty sure in a couple months we'll be eating some fresh basil, tomato and mozzarella sandwiches (yummy!)

Sully decided to water himself

Lately, I've been HUGE into couponing, more so than normal. I'm not 'gonna lie, I love the Krazy Coupon ladies. Its my dream to one day walk out of a grocery store with a full card in tow, having had their establishment pay me.

My family is always giving me crap about how I don't buy anything unless its on sale - or how nobody likes to go shopping with me because I'll spend hours debating and calculating in aisles. And while I haven't quite earned my golden coupon badge just quite yet, I'd like to think I'm pretty saavy, enough so that I get to sport around at least a bronze star.

Here are my bags of dog food I scored for $5 bucks each!

My loot from Target. Before all my coupons the total was $69 bucks and some change. I only ended up paying $32 and some change. Target lets you stack manufactuer coupons with their Target online coupons. Plus every week they seem to have some "Buy 2 get a Target card" promotion going on. Its how I got a 100 count box of Huggies for $4.00! What what!?!

Sully's latest food obsession. French's Fried Onions. If he sees this box he goes nuts like a monkey in a cage for a banana - I swear. So far he's swiped 2 cans. (Relax, they weren't completely full)

I'd like to make the disclaimer that the next series of photographs are truly pitiful.

Embarrassingly

pitiful.

Sully turned the big TWO on April 16th. I was so busy running around like a maniac chicken looking for its head, that I had to resign trying to get the pictures done as well, which I relied on my MIL for. I've yet to get those pictures, so here is what I do have.

And trust me, it ain't much.

Sully cares about two things these days - cars and trains. So we went with a Cars birthday theme. We had a nice little gathering of close family and friends this year. It was fun seeing all of his little boy friends in one place, since usually we play date with just one at a time.

The cake came about in a comedy of errors sort of way. Basically I ran out of time to order the cake, and while making the cake was never on my list of things I wanted to take on, it became one of my favorite things.

It was a collective effort. I baked it, my best friend Sam made the frosting, I slathered it on, Shaun decorated the top of the cake (Yes, my husband did that!) and Sam used her hand-dandy writing skills on it. And wah-lah!

Note: Ignore the photo-bombing bonehead in the background.

Sully's Aunt Sam was able to make it out for his birthday this year. We've been friends since we were 11/12! Dude, thats almost 20 years.

He's only seen her a handful of times, but you'd never know it by how he acts with her. (I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the Target shopping binge she took him on for his birthday.)

Hey, whatever gets it done!

We spent Easter Eve's Eve with my sister and her boyfriend coloring Easter Eggs where we collectively and unanimously decided - that shit was a lot more fun when we were kids. I blame the commercialization of holidays.

Or maybe we just need to come to terms with the fact we're no longer 7.

No yeh, I blame the commercialization.

I had way more fun watching Sully play with the eggs and splash and color and make just, a complete and utter mess. He freaked when the coloring wouldn't come off his hands.

Aah, alas, he is definately my child.

Sully and I spent Saturday afternoon at my folk's house and all of the neighborhood kids for the Easter Egg Hunt. (Shaun had to work, boo.) For being the youngest kid there, he held his own.

He found so much loot that we were stuffing our pockets because he quickly exceeded his baskets allowed capacity.

Yeh, thats right.

I totally make my kid dance for candy.

And no, I don't feel ashamed at all by that fact. Truffle shuffle boy, truffle shuffle.

Sunday morning Sully helped me make deviled eggs for daddy. He's become quite the little chef in the kitchen. The counter is one of his favorite places to be anymore.

Some other fun random tidbits from the past couple months ....

• Senator Dutton pulled his proposed bill that would end my jobs funding. We live to see another year!

• As soon as we found out my job was safe, we found out Shaun would be losing his come July. They're outsourcing their department and laying everyone off. Oh, the irony.

• I've been trying to get Sully's Two Year pictures taken for 6 weeks now. The photography gods are not in our favor. Week One - It rained. Week Two - Sully got really sick with a virus. Week Three - It rained. Week Four - Our photographer got really sick. Week Five - Sully fell off our bed and wrecked his pretty little face. I'm skipping this week in hopes it'll trip up the bad juju.
  
  
• Here's a fun fact. I've killed 5 fish in two months. I'm pretty sure I've become the John Wayne Gacy of Petco fish. Don't worry, I'll keep this lie up as long as he believes fish can transform shape and colors.

• Sully had some x-rays done on his legs at his two year checkup. His bones at his knee stick out a little funny - and the last thing I expected was being sent to the lab for a workup, but rest assured, our little guy is fine. It's just how he is! Everything came back clear.

• We've rescued 4 different lizards from our yard in 1 month. One actually made it all the way inside and took refuge under our couch. Now Sully is obsessed with finding lizards in the yard. And so the dirty boy shoving frogs in his pockets begins ...

• I've been working on this post for 3 flipping weeks. Trains, and chalk and "Mama c'mons!" have taken priority.

I'm pretty sure this is what it feels like when your brain vomits.