Lifes Ups and Downs

So much going on and I've been so lax in updating my blog. I'm going to try to do a post at least once a week beginning now.

Joey is getting so big, at our last measurements he was 42 inches tall and weighing in at 40 lbs. He seems taller to me now so we already need to measure him again. I think he's going to pass me up in height before he gets out of elementary school at the pace he's going now.

We've been doing all kinds of things lately - swimming, playdates with friends, library each week. He loves to have stories read to him each evening and I've found some great pre-readers that combine words along with pictures so that he can participate in reading with Larry and I. Now I just need to work on getting him to recognize his letters. We've mastered colors and shapes and he can count to 20 (although he always skips 13 and 16 for some odd reason). I was going to enroll him in preschool this year but it's just not in the budget, so I'm going to be teaching him at home. Another of my friends, Jessica, has a boy who is one year older than Joe and we're going to try to get together 2x a week to have our own "preschool".

Joey is back to swimming like a fish and has even begun to swim under water this year. We have him wear a Speedo life vest most of the time but it seems that every time he's in the pool he starts with it on, then has us take it off so he can swim on his own for a little while and when he gets tired, he has us put the vest back on. He's taken to doing cannon balls off the side of the pool with Daddy, and loves to have Aunt Crystal come play with him in the pool. She lets him dive off her shoulders and spins him around in the water. He just loves it. I don't get to play as much with him in the pool because ours is not heated and even though we have a solar cover, it rarely gets above 82 and I need it to be a little warmer or else I get flare ups with my fibromyalgia. I'm so thankful that he has others folks in his life who can participate in this aspect of his life while I sit on the sidelines watching and taking pictures.

I've been having a bad time lately with my health. A lot of flare ups and if that wasn't enough now I've begun having intense symptoms with regard to my pseudo tumor ceribri. In fact it's gotten so bad that I've had to go back on Diamox (which I hate as it has horrible side affects) and am scheduled to have a lumbar puncture (formerly called a spinal tap) next week. None of these things are fun and this situation with my health is really starting to get me down. Thank goodness for Larry who has been so supportive and helpful throughout it all.

Mom is back with us and Joey is so happy (most of the time) to have her back. He's gotten a little sassy lately and it doesn't always sit well with her, or me for that fact. He loves to spend time with her in the backyard and will just sit at the table with her and have conversations. I have no idea what they talk about but they always seem very engrossed in their talks.


Larry is doing great in his job and with his schooling. He's past the halfway point in achieving his AA degree and is on the deans honor list. I'm so proud of him and think he's setting a wondering example for Joey.

Larry's Uncle Brian passed away recently and we're all feeling the loss. He was probably the kindest and gentlest soul I've ever met. And he was so wonderful with Joey and his cousin Elsa, always making time for them. He will be truly missed by all of us.

Well that's about it for now. Will post more next week.

My Water Boy

Daddy took Joey in the big pool with him last night and Joey did just awesome.  He had a life vest on, but he insisted on swimming by himself from one end to the other.  He did the dog paddle and used his legs to kick.  He maneuvered pretty well, only getting a few mouthfuls of water.  The pool was only 74 so it was kind of cold, at least it felt cold to me, but he didn't seem to care at all.

We kept asking him if he wanted to get out and these were some of his responses:

"I'm enjoying being in the big pool"

"No, I like swimming"

"NOOOOO"

When we asked him if he was getting cold, we got the same exact response.  After a while I made him get out cause you could see him physically shaking.  Had to make Daddy get out too, just to be fair.  They looked so cute in the pool swimming together.  Can't wait til it gets a little warmer so that I can join them in the fun.  I'm sure Grandma feels the same way.

Our Boy

This is Larry's favorite photo of Joey to date... and of course it doesn't hurt that he's the one who actually took the photo (lol).

And of course it didn't hurt matters that they were working on a motorcycle engine together, along with Pop Pop, and that Larry has dreams of the day he and Joey will ride together on that long ribbon of roadway.

Out of the mouth of Men

Scene:  Daddy and Joey playing playdough at the table.

Daddy:  "What is this Joey?"

Joey:  "A motorcycle"

Daddy:  "Look Joey Daddy made a cow"

Joey:  "Cow"

Daddy:  "Lets make some turds"

Now I know where Joey gets all his wonderful words from

Daddy's Boy - Pt. 2

Three generations of Monson's all working hand in hand.  Larry and Joe got his grandfather's bike over to Pop-Pop's house without a hitch, unless you call them leaving before Pop got here a hitch.  It was a comedy of errors, all on our end, that caused the communication failure.

Anyway once they got it over there, they began dismanteling it so that Pop could begin the refurbishment process.  I think it will turn out to be a true labor of love, with three generations of Monson men putting their heart and soul into it.  Already they've begun working as a team, even little Joey getting in on the fun.

Pop Pop is teaching him the different names of tools, and Daddy's teaching him how to use them.  It may take them a year to get the job done, but by the time it is finished Pop will have a nice motorcycle to ride and hopefully Joey will have learned some mechanic know-how while getting in some true bonding time with his grandfather.

Daddy's Boy

Joe sure is his Daddy's boy.  It makes my heart happy when he always wants to help his Daddy with whatever he's doing.  Just this morning Larry was loading up a motorcycle to take over to his Dad's and Joey had to be right in the mix.  He lifted and carried one of the ramps to the truck and helped Daddy put it in.  Then he rooted him on as he rolled the motorcycle up and into the back of the pickup.  They really are two peas in a pod. 

I can just imagine in the years to come the projects they'll do together from building birdhouses, to boyscouts, to restoring old cars and motorcycles.  Makes me a little jealous, but at the same time like I said earlier it makes my heart happy... and I know that Joe and I will have our special moments too from hanging out in nature and camping, to getting his first dog, learning to cook and do laundry - you know the things a wife will really appreciate down the road (lol), to just having fun together.

For now though it's all about boys and their toys.

The funny things that Daddy's say

We've all been sick now for days, our nerves are a little worn, not enough hours in the day to get adequate rest to fight this bug and Joey who brought it into our house is on the mend (thank goodness) but that means his energy level is back up while ours are definately still down.

Anyway, I've let him watch way to many cartoons in the last couple days because face it its an easy babysitter that can't catch his cooties.  So tonight he's begging for more Barney, then Elmo, etc. and Daddy says "No" so Joey gets louder and finally Daddy says in response, "Tough, it's my turn" and I burst out laughing.  It came out sounding like he was a little kid himself in competition for TV time.

I just gotta love my guys as they always make my days more interesting and somehow manage to make me laugh at the same time.

Toot Toot All Aboard

I was feeling pretty run down the day after Christmas, and the day after that as well.  Larry saw how exhausted and worn out I was and he and Joey went off on an adventure yesterday.  First they headed out to the California Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.  They toured all the trains, checked out the station, and last but not least played in the Thomas Train children's area.  After doing all that they headed outdoors to take a walk around Old Sacramento.

They grabbed a hotdog or two for lunch and then shared an ice cream from one of the local vendors down town.

Larry determined that it was still to early to return so he stopped off at BounceTown on the way home and he and Joey had a boucning good time of it.  They have a two story slide that Joey just loves going up and then down on, plus all kinds of bounce houses to play in from basic to everything but the kitchen sink.  They stayed and played for quite some time until they'd both worked up a sweat and were worn out.  Once this stage was reached Larry decided it was time to head home and that's what they did.

He did his best to keep Joey awake so that perhaps we could get him back on schedule that night.  He ended up falling asleep at 6:00 only to wake back up at 7:30 pitching little fits.  We tryed to settle him back down, gave him juice and milk so he'd be able to choose for himself, and finally had to give up and just lock him in his room for the night until he crashed out again.  Took about an hour of his crying on and off, but finally he fell back to sleep and slept through the night until 6:00 AM.

Unfortunately he's woken with quite the cold - congestions, cough, and a whole lot of sneezing.  He keeps telling me that his nose hurts, that he hit it, but really it's just bugging him from the congestion.  Poor little guy.  Hopefully he'll get over it quickly and be back to his boisterous self.

Anyway, thank you Larry for giving me that break in time and letting me get some much needed rest.  I'm sure the memories you made with stay with Joey for quite a while.  I love you both.

Larry's got a FEVER

Christmas fever that is.  He went full out first on the lights of our home and our exterior decorations (even stealing some of my thunder by utilizing items I'd purchased to use inside - little sneak), and now with his desk.  I think it's safe to say that he is the first with his decorations up and he did a marvelous job showing his love of all things christmas.  But don't take my word for it, check it out yourselves.

A Fishing We Will Go

For Larry's birthday he rebuilt an aquarium tank that he picked up for a song at a garage sale. My gift to him was the necessary supplies and some fish. He got it up and running, a zillion plants floating in the water, swaying to and fro... it looked beautiful, so who needs fish right? It could just be an underwater garden. NOPE. He had me look at fish online, I picked out a red tailed shark that was just beatiful and Larry had picked out 4-5 other freshwater fish that he particular liked. Okay decision made, right? Wrong. The next day we visit his brother and sister in love and on the way home he says, "Can we just pop in to this pet store I want to check some things out".  An hour later we got the BIG one, or should I say two?, fish that is. He decided on a PaCu (a relative of the pirahna) and a Snook (part of the bass clan). That's it two fish... we have a 50 gallon tank and these fish are so BIG that they are all that it can acccomodate.

They look happy and content in there. Larry looks happy and content too, so I think it was a good birthday choice... much better than the ugly ol' Foo dog tattoo he was going to get. I'm not sure who's happier, him or me.

Anyway we're all benefitting from his present as it's really relaxing to just watch them coast around, frolicking in the bubbles created by the pump, and ripping up Larry's underwater garden (lol).

Happy Birthday Larry!

My hubby, my friend

Yesterday Larry went to help my sister and Jeff move into a different apartment within the same complex. He went to help simply because I asked. No "ah Mannn", or "this is my bum around day", nothing like that. Just whatever I needed him to do, no questions asked. He is such a good man, not only to Joe and I, but to my entire family.

Even my sister called to bragg on him about what a great help he was and that he hustled and got a lot accompolished over there. Plus she wanted me to know that he was the only one that zoomed in on just how stressed she was feeling and did his best to do as she asked, and during that process try to make her smile or laugh as much as possible. Usually they pick on each other, like sisters and brothers are known to do, but today he read her heart and tried to be the kind of brother and friend she most needed.

I feel so honored to call this man my hubby, my friend, the father of our child.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho it's off the Home Brew Festival Larry goes

Yep you read right. Larry is going to the No. CA Home Brew Festival this weekend, from Friday through Sunday and then he'll be taking Monday off to finish recovering from all his fun activities. This year he gets to go for free since his graphic was chosen for this year's logo - a pretty big honor. Me, you ask, am I going? NO! Beer is just not my cup of tea... you see I'd rather have a cup of tea. And I've found it's not a lot of fun to be around a huge group of folks when they're all drinking and you're the only sane one in the group. So I send him with my blessing and hope he has a fun, and safe, weekend.

His brother Chuck and wife Kelli are going as well as a couple of friends. I'll be babysitting their two dogs while they're gone - Soc and Leia. Two really sweet girls that Joey really loves, so I imagine will have a high energy weekend around here with three dogs and two cats running around being chased by Joe.

Larry really loves the camaraderie of this weekend and it's his special "boys" weekend, though each year he tries to convince me to go with him. Perhaps I'll give it a go one of these years, when Joe's a little older. It's held in Dobbins on Lake Francis and is supposed to be just a beautiful location. We only made it camping once this year and I'm bummed about that as I'd hoped to go several times this summer and now it's starting to get to cold in the evenings to be sleeping outside. I think next year I'll mark it on the calendar in January, so then we'll be sure to go.

Anyway, I hope the weekend goes well for him, that he comes away from it safe and with some new brewing ideas for his own homemade beer and mead. I'll miss ya while your gone honey, but just think... I won't have to wear earplugs to sleep while your away (lol). Love you baby.

My WAH Hubby

WAH? What the heck is WAH you're probably asking. Well it's a Work At Home hubby. Larry is test piloting their out of office system for Delta Dental right now and working from home today and tomorrow. They've had a few other folks try it, but not too successfully because they weren't the kind of techno geek that Larry is. So they're having him give it a go to see if 1) the system itself works okay - sound, technical jargon, etc. and 2) if it would be simple to implement with their staff somewhere down the road. Who knows how long that road will be but in this economy I imagine every company is looking to determine where they can cut overhead costs. What better way than moving personnel into their homes to perform their jobs and not have to heat/cool/maintain commercial space.

It was okay, especially since Joey was at day care and I pretty much spent the day in bed. Though I did get caught out on the video monitor once or twice. Thank God I had pajama bottoms on and not just a t-shirt which is my usual sleeping apparel. Plus the few times mom and I ventured out into the common areas we kinda felt like we had to tip-toe around so as not to be heard by his callers. If this were to become a more permanent work routine we'd probably have to set up an office space in our bedroom or the master closet or something.

No worries though, we'd manage somehow and it was kind of nice having Larry around on his breaks. It reminded me of when we were dating and he'd come over to our apartment for lunches. Plus we realized that if this was implemented it would cut down on our overhead costs too - gas, time, vending machine snacks (lol). Oh well no use making plans for something that hasn't happened yet. I guess only time will tell.

My Hubby is a Rock Star

We've been having TV woes the past few months. We bought a huge, old 50+ inch flat screen TV from one of Larry's co-workers who was upgrading to a newer model and after just a few months it went kaput. My in-laws being the sweet, generous folks that they are lent us their 42 inch flat screen out of their bedroom to use until we could afford to buy one of our own. It worked really great, although it generates a tremendous amount of heat and every once in a while would just shut off for no real reason.

Well wouldn't you know it when we were going through our hospital stay with Joey and Crystal was hanging out at our place to keep mom company, it went off for good. Larry being the techno nerd got online when he got home, researched it and determined that it was probably the power board. So he found the most inexpensive one he could find, $150 and ordered it. You'd have thought he was going to die of TV deprivation, having to suffer with a 13 inch screen, while we waited for the part to arrive.

Finally after about a week it got here and as soon as it hit our doorstep, Larry was disassembling the TV and trying to breathe life back into it. Although he'd never done this type of operation before, my hubby is a rock star because within a half hour he had it hooked back up and as good as new.

For all the teasing I do about him being a geek, it sure comes in handy some times. I love you baby.