Recent Tale of Mommyhood:

This past weekend was very busy and absolutely flew by. Saturday night I had my monthly meeting at church (I'll tell more about this group in a future blog) and then I met with some friends for dinner. It was me and 3 couples. Initially I thought I would be kind of the outcast since I wasn't a "couple". But it turns out I had a really good time. Thinking back on it I kind of feel bad for one of the other women, Felicia, because Kris, Stacy and I talked about our kids ALL NIGHT. I didn't realize it at the time, because I don't think we 1st time mommies realize it when talk of our children dominates the conversation. They are such a huge part of our lives that I guess we still can't think of anything else and I know we can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to hear about our beautiful, brilliant, funny and amazing children. I mean seriously!!! You mean you DON'T want to know what cute thing Zander did today?

We went to church Sunday morning and I packed Z a little 50z bottle. Not because he "needs" a bottle, but its his "security blanket". Hey, don't judge me, we're really working on phasing out the bottle...slowly.......ever so slowly it seems. We're down to naps and bedtime.....and leaving him with someone other than mommy and Grandma at church! So anyway, he cried when I left him. One of the ladies in the class took him to another side of the room so I showed Miss Robin where the bottle was, but by the time I left, he had already pretty much calmed down. After church I went to pick him up and, judging by the huge smile on his face, he obviously had a great time! AND, he didn't need the bottle! It seems to get a little easier for him every time.

After church Grandma and I took Zander to Grant's Farm so he could feed the goats. I used to love to go there as a child. Every time family would come in from out of town, I would go with them to Grant's Farm while my mom cooked us all a huge dinner. So, I have a lot of great memories there and want that for Zander as well. I know he won't remember it yet, but I've got tons of pictures. This is his 2nd time. I took him last year when he was a few months old, but he slept through most of it then.

He loved the train ride. He rode on my mom's lap while I took pictures. He sat back, looked around and kept saying "Wow!" at everything. Its so much fun to see things through a child's eyes that is experiencing it for the first time. You forget how cool some things are! The goats, as goats are, were pretty aggressive, so they kept trying to knock Z down to get to the bottle. So, it ended up being Grandma that mostly got to experience feeding the goats. But, Z got to see lots of different animals and then we capped off this visit with some Dippin' Dots. I love Dippin' Dots!!!

Here are the rest of the Grant's Farm pics!

Here is how my evening ended. Z, Anakin and I got home from Grandma's and started our nightly routine. I notice something that no one ever wants to see.....um....this is not for weak...so consider this a disclaimer before you read the rest of this story.

Ready........................

Ok.........here goes:

There was a brown streak on my carpet! Who did it? It was Demitra....my beautiful, black, long haired cat. He, uh, had a problem with his long hair apparently. So I had to take action because I can't have him leaving brown streaks all over my house. So, I got some plastic gloves, ran some water in the tub and got a towel ready. I picked him up like the big baby he is and carried him to the tub. I don't know if I said a little prayer or not, but I really should have. I then carefully placed my 20+ lb cat in the water. Demitra, like a lot of cats, HATES water. If this had been Gideon, this would have been much easier! I needed to have at least 3 arms it seems...so it was pretty rough to hold him in the tub with one arm, hold his tail up and clean what I needed to clean. Scissors were out too since I didn't have a 3rd arm and DEFINITELY didn't have a 4th! Demitra was making these low pitiful meowing moans. Gideon sat on the toilet quietly watching everything transpire....probably just happy it wasn't him. Anakin was probably sleeping in the other room since this didn't directly affect him or food. Zander, my poor empathetic son, stood in the bathroom doorway BAWLING. I don't know if he thought this was punishment for the mess Demitra had made or if he thought I was killing "his kitty" or what. I was working on cleaning up Demitra, all the while, talking to Demitra and Zander trying to soothe them and convince them that they were both okay. I got through the bath with only a small scratch on my hand. Then I had to quickly dry off Demitra, clean the tub, clean the floor and then clean myself. I think I was running through the house doing all of this and still trying to get Zander to stop crying. He had settled down once I let Demitra go....but still had the big tears in his eyes and was doing that hiccuping breathing thing you do when you are trying to stop crying but can't fully stop! After I got everything cleaned up....I was spent! I then called my Dad and let him know his services would be required later this week.....we have to groom the cats. He holds...I trim! I think I'll have Grandma keep Zander occupied while we do the grooming!!!

So.....this is a nice segway to winning a contest for a Dyson vacuum. Obviously in my house this would come in VERY handy. There is another contest for bloggers to enter to win a new Dyson. Just click on the Dyson Vacuum on the left sidebar for details at An Ordinary Life and check it out for yourself. I LOVE contests and I like them even more when I win!!!

Never a dull moment at our zoo!!!