Bath Time

I am loving these photos! Talli just uploaded them so I wanted to make sure that everyone saw them. Bob & Talli came for a visit a few weeks ago to meet Liam and hang out with us a little. They helped me out with Murdoch on numerous occasions and one night they helped with Murdoch's bath. Right now Murdoch enjoys taking a bath with someone which is a bit of overhead but he really enjoys it and we have found that he is really enjoying the water. Plus now you can just go in for a little while and then he 'swims' around by himself while you just watch. Anyway - Bob took a bath with Murdoch while I cooked dinner which was such a luxury! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

When the walls come tumbling down...

....literally! Today our dining room, kitchen, front hallway, back hallway, and one of the bedrooms in our renters apartment are being gutted. Though thrilling, because I can't wait for a new kitchen that actually has drawers and counter tops, the process is not a pleasant one and I know it because we have done this before. There is dust everywhere - if you have never taken down a wall made of horse hair plaster it is quite a mess task! So it is going to suck to be without a kitchen for awhile and trying to keep a toddler and a dog occupied in only part of the house, especially when the weather isn't great isn't the easiest task but I am going to try and remain positive. But I have a feeling I am going to reach some lows during this process so there will probably be some entries of whining and self-pity so please bare with me. I took before pictures which I will post and I will be taking pictures along the way and then finally there will be after pictures - the best ones of all!

Enjoy your weekend - we are going to be staying in various venues so I don't think it will be the greatest weekend of my life but in no way shape or form will it be my worst.

How you know you are living with a toddler.....

1) When you go to bed you have brush graham cracker crumbs out of your own bed. Yes I said this would never happen and it is yet another thing that I just said who cares to when I was tired. I got home with Murdoch, Andy was installing trim in the bedroom and he really wanted to watch so I got a box of graham crackers and a cup of milk and Murdoch sat in my lap eating away and making little noises as Andy worked with a big smile on his face. It was worth it! I got to just recline in bed for 30 minutes and he barely moved! Nothing a little sheet change won't take care of!

2) Your dog now has to be on a diet because of the carb comma she is in due to a sudden large intake of crackers, cheerios, cheese, and juice! Deucey needs those curves back!

3) Instead of actually asking your husband for the remote control you make a weird noise that is similar to what your son makes when he is pointing at some thing that he wants.

4) Your husband's response to #3 say please and you have to do that in sign language :)

5) Your child says yeah to every question you ask him. I guess this is better than no but I have found this so funny that I started saying it all of the time - including work and I can't stop!

Changes....

So today is the first day of Spring - though it didn't feel like it walking to work in a down coat and mittens. The days are slightly warmer and longer and I am hoping we have seen the last snow of the season.

Starting next Friday our kitchen and dining room will be gutted to begin the lovely process of kitchen renovation. This is our last large project in this house which is awesome but I know the amount of dust that is created, the extra stress on top of normal life that it creates, and just the general annoyance of living without a kitchen. We will still have a fridge and a microwave which is pretty good but losing the stove is going to kill me! Most of the kid meals are fixed on the stove so that is going to be hard. I think there is going to be a lot of yelling and short fuses in the next month or more.

I will post before, during, and after pictures. We definitely need a new kitchen because ours is pretty much a room with appliances in it but because I know what is coming I am totally dreading it. I think I will go to bed desperately holding onto the picture of the new kitchen in order to get through this ordeal. I know others have a much harder cross to bare in life so this isn't the biggest thing ever but I unfortunately am going down the black hole of pity where I will be feeling very sorry for myself once this project starts. Luckily there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of counter tops, cabinets, and drawers - some very novel ideas to have in your kitchen! :)

Shaving over walking?

I just saw this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/16/hm.shave.childhood.cancer/index.html
I did the breast cancer 3-day walk a few years ago and it was fun and I had a good time - granted the weather was nice and I decided to stay in a hotel instead of camp out with everyone which made it much nicer at least for me. The walk lasted 3-days and there were many weekends before that of practice walks to make sure that I could actually do the 20 miles though I never practiced 20 miles a day, 3 days in a row. But after the summer of training and then the three days it was over. The actually shaving would be easier - there isn't any training you just go in and get it done - but that bald head is going to last more than 3 days! But I think with all of those kids sitting around cheering you on and knowing how it would help them the joy and gratification would last longer than your bald head.

Which one would you choose?

A nice weekend

The snow is just about melted, the days are longer, and it was near 60 and sunny this weekend! It was great. We all got out and did a little bit of outdoor activity which was awesome! Sunday Murdoch and I headed to the park around the corner. This was the first time to a park for Murdoch, and my first time taking my child to the park. At first he wouldn't leave the stroller and just stared at everyone else there. Then after a granola bar he got out and walked around a little bit. We tried the swings - those were okay. Then we went over to the little jungle gym and tried out the 3 foot slide. After about 10 tries on that a little time later we graduated to the 9 or so foot spiral slide that we did about 30 times and then we followed that up with a decent amount of time on the swings. Hopefully this excitement will continue because this is a convenient place to burn off some extra energy and get out of the house. Here are the rest of the pictures.

We have a problem

You never want to pick up the phone from your spouse/significant other or whatever you want to call that person in your life that knows things about you that no one else does or would want to know but still sticks with you. Andy called yesterday morning and said these words. I immediately think of something totally awful though he sounded calm so I figured it couldn't be too bad. Poor Murdoch woke up with hives all over him. We don't know why, we don't know the source. I called the doctor - they weren't particularly concerned. They went away so Murdoch went to daycare and then they were back later in the day. We are crossing our fingers that this isn't a normal occurrence - that can't be comfortable! Andy emailed me this picture so I had to share.

Bob & Talli are coming this weekend to see Liam but I am sure Murdoch will get a little attention and TLC from them as well. I am sure he will eat that up! Hopefully that produces some good pictures and stories - unlike my story from last weekend! :) Enjoy your weekend.

Then and now

There are days when I think why can't I just go back to the way things were 5 years ago, 10 years, ago, etc. Yesterday was one of those days. I was looking through some old emails and I found from pictures from 2005. I was married, but I was in a different house, I didn't have a kid nor was I really thinking about it. I had this job but I had just started and I had just returned from a month-long vacation to Phoenix for wedding and then we traveling along to Fiji and Australia. I can't help but look at myself in those pictures and think god - I was having fun, I was happy!

I am happy now but it is different and after looking at those pictures I had a day where I just wanted that life back. I personally find the lack of vacation after having a kid very hard and right now when it is cold and dark out and there is snow on the ground a vacation for about 2 weeks somewhere warm with boat drinks I think would be my cure. But that isn't happening. So even though I am happy where I am right now - it is really hard not to look back on these pictures and that part of my life and think god I really wish I could have that back right now!

I could go on and on if I stayed on this subject - I am sure you all know what I mean. So here are the pictures:

Halloween 2005

Frye Island 2005 with Scott & Gary

Sarah's 30th Brithday

Catching up on some photos

So we finally got the pictures on the computer and I organized some of them into sets on flickr. Here is what we have so far:


Early pictures of Deucey - that would be B.M.(Before Murdoch) Deucey really gets the short end of the stick these days so I thought I would post these pictures to remind us of when Deucey was the only baby and she got all of the special attention - even when she ripped up and entire bag of potty soil in the kitchen!


Here are a few random pictures of Murdoch from February that I thought were cute. There are a few of him 'playing' the drums from the Guitar Hero game and he had a little fun with his new stroller.


Ellen came up for a visit in January. I realized at the end that I hadn't taken any pictures! So here are a few.


And finally Christmas. Yes Christmas! I realize that we should be getting our green out for St. Patrick's Day by now but we have just gotten around to downloading pictures from Christmas.


Enjoy all of these! Hopefully it won't be as long until the next download.

How was your weekend?

***WARNING - this post is kind of gross so Dad you may not want to read it***

This past weekend held great promise to be a good weekend for the Suthersons. I have no idea what we did on Friday night which means we probably didn't do much because we were tired which is fine. Saturday we had a trip to the dog park with Murdoch's daycare teacher planned followed by errands or house work and then a 2-year-old birthday party. Murdoch decided to sleep in on Saturday which was fine because he was up late the night before. So I got up to make breakfast to make sure there were no tears while waiting for the oatmeal to cool. I made the oatmeal, had my breakfast, watched some tv and it was now after 9. In order to make it to the dog park by 11 people needed to get out of bed pretty soon. So I checked on Andy and he said Murdoch hadn't been making any noise. We decided we should get him up because it was pretty late and I was starting to think something was very wrong. Well I opened the door and the smell that met me said yes something is wrong. Poor Murdoch had thrown up at some point during the night and was sleeping in it. This is the second time this has happened and neither time he cried, he just throws up and goes back to sleep. This makes me feel horrible! Poor guy sleeping in throw-up. So we got him up, he went into the bathtub, and cleaned up the room and we made it to the dog park but it was more like 12. The rest of the day was fine but Murdoch seemed a little out of it and he really didn't want to eat much and I didn't press the issue.

Sunday - we have breakfast/brunch plans with friends which makes it the best day because I love breakfast and Andy was coming which was very nice because he really doesn't like breakfast. We got up and headed out and my car sounded odd on the way over. It was snowing so we thought it just needed to warm up. We got there parked and as Andy was getting Murdoch out of the car I noticed my tired was low - well that accounts for the sound. We decided to eat and then drive two blocks to use the air at the gas station. We get out of breakfast and the tire is totally flat - so much for running the errands right after breakfast! We got to the gas station and the air was out of order. So Andy changed the tire - in horizontal freezing snow! We headed home, changed cars, and headed to the Expo. The store is closing and we needed things for our new kitchen so we thought we would check it out. While in the Expo Murdoch decided to poop. Which is fine but then there was an odor that followed us around. We decided that we would go across the street and change him at Nordstrom - the bathrooms are much nicer and easier for that type of thing. So we pile into the car drive over there, circle for a parking space, Andy loses it, and parks in a handicapped space and tells us to get out so that I can change the diaper and he will meet us in there. Well I pick up Murdoch and as soon as I get him into my arms I hear 'Oh my god!' I have no idea what is going on my I soon do. Murdoch has had diarrhea and it is all over the car seat, all over him, and now it is all over me. Well I guess we aren't going to Nordstrom :) So I put him back in the seat with a towel between him and the seat and I try to wipe myself down. We go home (I think Andy almost threw up on the way home because of the smell) and Murdoch and I went straight into the shower. That caused a lot of crying because he hates the shower but that was just easier. So he got shower, then he wanted the sippy cup. We played for awhile and he went to bed around 4:30. We debated waking him up but decided to let him sleep.

This morning I work up to about a foot of snow and a horrible commute - definitely a day to work for home! But Murdoch slept through the night, there were no accidents overnight, and Andy said that he is eating a ton this morning so hopefully this is past us. Hopefully next weekend is a better one!

Enjoy your week!