Weird stuff keeps happening

You know how when something not great happens, then more not great things happen? We're kind of in that right now.

We found mold in our house last week, specifically in Baby Plum's room. Baby Plum sleeps in that room, while Cheese Puff's clothes are in the dresser in there. We first found the mold on Cheese Puff's dresser. We also found it on the changing table and in our bedroom in our closet and on a vintage radio that I made into a jewelry cabinet years ago.

We caught it early, and the fixes are not only affordable, it's stuff we can do (mainly Bob can do.)

While dealing with that, our fridge stopped working on Saturday. The freezer still worked. We had to replace our last fridge after 13 months. We bought the warranty with this one. They came out on Tuesday. Dude was not friendly, but he ordered a part, and our fridge is working. It should continue working until the part comes in.

While out shopping for some flexible hose for our french drains, Little Elvis stood in an ant bed. They didn't appear to be fire ants, but he screamed and yelled and broke out in hives. The hives are completely gone now, but one leg is twice the size of the other and his ankle looks awful.

And, I think our playroom TV is about dead. I'm not sure how old it is. But it's having some major issues.

So, frustrating stuff.

Still, we manage to have fun. Baby Plum loves kicking the soccer ball. His love is infectious. This was the best Little Elvis has ever done kicking the soccer ball! And he was barefoot.

The day before, we sat out on the swing. Cheese Puff dozed with my dad while we did that.

Why am I not much help with the house problems? This is what happens when I put Cheese Puff down. In fact, he's screaming right now. Bob's holding him, but I will need to take over. So, I won't be posting much for a bit I think. Maybe he's going through a growth spurt...

Big Wheels

Cheese Puff is ok. I think. The ultrasound doctor said he was. When the doctor's office called, they said we would keep an eye on him. I'm choosing to go with the ultrsound doctor.

Last weekend we went to a local old car show/festival. The boys had fun. Little Elvis brought Hot Wheel versions of an Impala and a GTO. We found a few of the real cars at the show. The hardest part was keeping those little hands off of the cars.

There's one huge pick up in our area. It's bright green with super huge monster tires. I read an article about it last summer. The guy who owns it gets 4 miles to the gallon on a tank of gas!

But our boys were impressed with the height of the tires. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Little Elvis is wearing his "John Lasseter" shirt. Lasseter is the head honcho at Pixar, and we noticed that he wore Hawaiian shirts in all the bonus features with him in them. They must be his "thing." I bought Little Elvis an old car Hawaiian shirt last year. We call it the John Lasseter shirt. Another side note -- Little Elvis had to make a poster about a famous American this year. We did his on John Lasseter. He wore his shirt the day of the presentations. The poster is now hanging in his bedroom.

Baby Plum wasn't wearing his favorite shirt. He loves his shirts with characters on them -- Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny. Baby Plum loves picking out his clothes. And he tends to pick out his jean shorts, so he usually even matches!

Big buildings

Little Elvis wanted to build a garage for his tow truck the other day. I suggested he use the building blocks we got after Christmas. He was fine with that, and even allowed Baby Plum to help us.

Baby Plum kept wanting to make it a very tall skyscraper. I complied. And since he wasn't impeding with the parking of cars in random parts of the building, Little Elvis was fine with it being tall, too.

The tow truck lives in the center hole. And I'm not sure about the other cars. Both boys were proud of their creation, and it lasted longer than I thought it would. Baby Plum loves knocking down his creations, and this one was very tall.

I tried to place myself between Cheese Puff and the building, because I just knew it would tumble his way. It didn't. I had picked him up before Baby Plum accidentally ran into the building.

Tomorrow morning we will be taking Cheese Puff to have an ultrasound on his hip. It apparently pops. We had to have Little Elvis' hip x-rayed at this age, and he was fine. They considered sending Baby Plum, but decided against it. Now, they are concerned about Cheese Puff having dysplasia. I'm trying not to worry, but the doctors are more laid back here. So, if they are sending us, then that is a little more troublesome.

At least this time it will be an ultrasound. I assume we can be there. With Little Elvis, we had to leave the room while they x-rayed him. He did fine, but I hated leaving him alone.

Cheese Puff's puffing out and up

Cheese Puff had his 2 month check up today. He's grown a lot. He's 15 pounds now. I was thinking 13 1/2, so I was a little off. No wonder the car seat is so heavy now!

I think I actually took some great pictures of him the other night. Here he's peeking at me from Daddy's shoulder. He looked so cute, I had to run and get the camera.

I believe this one's my favorite. He still hasn't lost any of the hair he was born with. It's lightened up some, but I don't think he'll ever be a shiny cueball like his brothers.

Can you tell how blue those eyes are? They are light! We love that. Some people have commented that maybe they won't change, but I think they will. Baby Plum's were just as light, and his are now dark brown. If anything, they'll most likely change hues if not depths. He might get light brown eyes or green eyes, but I don't think they'll stay blue. The only blue eyes for our family are my mom's father's.

Silly boy does not like to be put in his swing or car seat. Especially if he's not tired. I busted out the Bumbo this weekend. He's a little younger than Little Elvis and Baby Plum were, but Cheese Puff loves sitting up. He was mildly impressed, but does not want to have anything to do with it if he's tired or hungry.

Froggy Friday

We've settled into a routine. Most Friday nights, Little Elvis and Baby Plum spend the night with my parents. Little Elvis says Fridays are special because he gets to spend the night with Gram and Coachpa. He looks forward to Friday night all week. And he seems to enjoy having Baby Plum around.

My dad has a pile of dirt he's spreading around his yard. It's a bunch of fun for the boys. They even try to help him some when spreading it.

Little Elvis found a frog. Or maybe Gram did. I'm really surprised he's holding it. I don't know why, because he's not afraid of bugs and loves to talk about snakes.

We went out to eat before they went to spend the night. Baby Plum ate most of his food, and was happy, though subdued. We got a free dessert, because they lost my order. It was a sample thing. Baby Plum, though I'm pretty sure he was full, dug into the chocolate cake or mousse thing and ate the entire piece. I helped him with a fork for that since it was so messy. I took too long during one bite, and he leaned over and ate the whipped cream off the top.

Little Elvis nibbled his meal, but did a good job with the ice cream part of the dessert.

Cute pictures

Some extra cute pictures. Catching up. I have to attempt to do a real video download this evening -- Little Elvis' school play was today! Maybe not so much a play as a medley of songs about the ocean. He was cute, and so excited to see us when he walked in with his class. I teared up. We want to get him in some community theatre plays -- the child loves to be the center of attention -- but I'm going to have to get a handle on my emotions if we do that.

Baby Plum was smiling and being cute. He stuck out his tongue right when the picture took. Actually, I was taking a picture of Cheese Puff and if one of his brothers witnesses this, then I have to take a picture of said brother.

Happy baby. My parents came by yesterday evening and my dad had Cheese Puff smiling and giggling. My mom always has her phone with her (unlike me) and snapped a picture. Cheese Puff likes it when you talk to him.

You have no idea -- sometimes mothers know best

It's book review time again! For those of you who don't know, I'm a member of the Blog Her Book Club, and sometimes I'm lucky enough to get to review cool books.

Last month I started reading "You Have No Idea" by Vanessa Williams and her mother Helen. It's a biography that they both wrote. So you get a she said/she said version of events.

Normally, I'm not a big fan of biographies. But this was a fun, interesting read. Mainly because Vanessa Williams was very candid. She didn't seem to omit any of the more embarrassing parts of her past. She made mistakes and learned from them.

And her mother seemed to know that her daughter would be one to make those mistakes.

When she was young, her mother told her to never pose for nude pictures. My mother never told me not to do that. (Of course I am, and have always been a bit of a prude.)

The first section of the book covers her infamous nude photos and the Miss America scandal. While I was alive and should, I guess, have remembered that scandal, I didn't. The first time Vanessa Williams registered on my radar was when her song "Save the best for last" came out. I loved that song, and thought she was so beautiful.

Since then, I know that she's been in some movies, television shows and broadway shows. But I had no idea about the adversity she faced. Some of her problems were of her own doing -- she did pose for those photos. But I didn't realize how much hate she faced when she won Miss America. She was the first black Miss America, and she and her parents received hate mail from whites and blacks.

Learning about the behind-the-scenes of the entertainment world was interesting, but my favorite part of the book was when she described what a wonderful man her father was, and what a great job she thought her parents did.

Fun fact: Vanessa's character, Wilhelmina, on "Ugly Betty" was almost entirely based on her mother! I didn't really watch that show, but I knew that the Wilhelmina character was tough as nails.

This was a fun read. I really did enjoy it.

This is a paid review for the Blog Her Book Club, but the opinions are my own.