Imagine this

Little Elvis' imagination is really growing. He likes to get goofy with his dreamings.

This morning, after Bob left for work, (this is sometimes traumatic) Little Elvis began calling Wally (our big cat) Daddy.

Poor Wally was passed out on a chair, and Little Elvis ran to him yelling, "Hi Daddy!" He hugged his furry father stand-in and began giggling.

I asked him if that was his Daddy. He said yes and kept on laughing.

Bob found this pretty funny. Wally was not so amused.

Swelling is the pits

I'm 26 weeks pregnant now. I'm estimating that's about 5 1/2 months.

A little boy tried to hide behind me and my belly in the park the other day.

Some people say I don't look as pregnant as I am. Others seem shocked that I'm as big as I am.

About two months ago, a super skinny woman in our playgroup didn't recognize me. She told me it was because I was swollen.

She seriously said my arms, back and face were swollen and that's why she didn't recognize me. Let me just say, I was NOT swollen at that time. This woman rarely comes to the playgroup and just didn't recognize me without Little Elvis at my side.

If she had admitted to that, it would have been so much less insulting. This woman then told me to have Baby Plum about 6 weeks early so he would make the pre-school cut. Um, I pretended Little Elvis needed me and left. Weird woman.

I will admit that my belly is swollen at this point. I'm just about to lose my belly button.

The belly isn't all that's swelling -- so are my armpits. The same thing happened with Little Elvis, although it took a while longer this time around.

My armpits are feverish, swollen and itchy and it's embarrassing for me to wear strappy tops or dresses without a cover-up. Even though it's 90 degrees here, I refuse to expose my upper arms. It's just way, way too embarrassing.

The worst part of it is that, according to my doctor, it's my milk glands. Yep, while other women get to enjoy larger chests during their pregnancies, I get to enjoy swollen armpits. Poor Little Elvis was nourished with Pit Juice, and it's going to be the same for Baby Plum.

Too many cars!

It's been a pretty busy and stressful week around here. And it will only get worse I'm afraid. Little Elvis is taking it all in stride.While I'm trying to take pictures of stuff to sell on Craigslist, my little helper wants to make sure I get some great shots of him, and his truck of the moment. We bring in boxes, and he quickly picks out his favorites to make into new garages.
This HUGE box just about holds his entire stash. He doesn't seem to understand that big bellied Mommy cannot fit in there with all of his cars and trucks.

He's gotten into this thing over the past week where he has to have at least 3 to 4 cars in his hands (and under his chin) before we leave the house. And he usually will have to take those 3 to 4 cars with him where ever we go. If I try to sneak one away, he'll look around for it and ask, "Where'd red car go?" "Where'd blue truck go?" "Where'd big truck go?"

He's very quick to catch onto my tricks.

My poor son

Little Elvis needs a nap. He didn't nap on Monday or Tuesday because I was too tired to wear him out in the morning. Today, I took him to the park and let him run around for more than 2 hours.

He happily ate all of his lunch, and seemed ready for nap. But he can't sleep, because there are two men taking the siding off of our house. It's loud. He can't sleep through it.

The men were supposed to be here, oh, two weeks ago. I had no idea they were going to be here today. So, I'm going to have a very exhausted child on my hands who cannot play outside.

I am so not happy. Why didn't they show up when were out of town like they were supposed to? Or last Friday like they were supposed to? Or Saturday? Hell, why not on Monday or Tuesday when he wasn't going to nap anyway?

Up on bed

For some reason, beds are one of Little Elvis' favorite things. We spend lots of time each day playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed.
I like pillows, and obviously he does too. Last week he started rearranging them to create a nice little cushiony den for himself.
He flips and flops and adjusts everything just so until he's got a comfy little cocoon. Then, he demands that Elmo "Rock n Roll." He's got this little Elmo doll that's dressed in a black leather jacket and holds a guitar.

Once Little Elvis is all snug, then Elmo (Mommy) has to dance and sing. It's the only way Little Elvis will even consider letting me sing. At the moment, his favorite song is Elmo's version of Ike and Tina's "Proud Mary."

OK-Day, Fun Day

We celebrated Father's Day a little early this year. Bob works on Sundays, so Saturday was his day.

Although, to be honest, it was more Little Elvis' Day. Since it was a rainy morning, we decided to take our little man to the mall.

In a few years, I'm sure he won't be nearly as thrilled, but he was so happy to actually turn into the mall parking lot. We played with the trains twice, (he now knows they are Thomas trains) looked at catfish, ate in a restaurant and played in the play area.

He had a blast. And Daddy had a blast hanging out with a happy little boy.

The sun came out after his nap, and we headed outside armed with bug spray. The mosquitoes here laugh in the face of bug spray. They kept biting as we sprayed!

Instead of trying to keep bugs off the super-sweet Little Elvis, we decided to go to a car lot. We did this last winter with some success.

It was a huge hit this time. We didn't realize it was 4 or 5 lots in one. He ran from one lot to the next, chattering the entire time. He never stopped at any car in particular, because he had too many to look at.

We walked to Wendy's for a Frosty and potty break in the midst of our trip, and he didn't want anything to do with the Frosty if it was going to keep him from those cars.

While in Mississippi, Little Elvis started saying "Ok-Day" instead of OK.

"Want some ice cream?"
"Ok-Day."
"Want to go play in the truck?"
"Ok-Day."

He's also started telling me that he's had a fun day at the end of most days. I asked him as we were leaving the car lot if he had a fun day. He did.

When we were rocking before bed last night, he told me all of the highlights of the day several times. He told me about the cars, trucks, vans, fish, a dirty waterfall, trains, toyos (no idea what this was) and that Daddy was fun and funny.

All in all, a great day for the whole family.

More garages I say!

Little Elvis has a huge (and constantly growing) collection of cars. He has all sorts of them -- race cars, buses, dump trucks, police cars, etc. And he plays with most of them at least once a week.

Where to put this growing collection when it's not in use has been an ongoing issue. I tried lining them up, putting them in bins, etc. But it just wasn't working.

Little Elvis must have sensed this, because over the past month he's been finding garages all over our house.

It started with his potty. As soon as I relocated it to his playroom, he took out the cup and started storing his favorites under the seat. It's not a bad solution, but he gets really frustrated when he's squeezed in a too big car and can't get it out.

Then I started noticing cars nestled in with potatoes, garlic and apples in our fruit/veggie bin. Each evening I would find a different pair. This bin was super cheap and had seen better days anyway, so I took the doors off and put it in his room. Wow, was he a happy child. He has so much fun parking his cars in his little garage.
Yesterday, he brought his laundry hamper out of his room and began parking cars inside it. Then he ended up parking himself inside as well. This was the best picture I could get, because he scared himself once inside the "garage." I think he was just trying to park his trucks at the back of the hamper and got stuck.

We brought several moving boxes in last night and he loved them. This morning I made him a tower/tunnel with the ones that hadn't been used yet. He decided that made the perfect skyscraper garage. He also parked some inside of boxes, but I used those boxes this morning.

I'm assuming this is a boy thing. And can't wait to find out what will be his next garage.