touch

i've become quite addicted to a tv show called "army wives"

it's a show about some women who are army wives.

but it's a show that reminds me what it means to be a family.

it's great in that way.

tonight there was an episode about a mother who has an only son who has chosen to go into the army.

the part that got me was this...

....there was a scene where she touched and held is hand.

while jason and i hold hands a lot it's not the same as me thinking about the physical bond i have with cashel.

he touches me.

he touches me freckle.

he is intimately attached to my freckle.

ever since he was a baby he has been so connected to me.

he used to reach his his hand inside my shirt.

i know it was a very innocent thing for him to do.

in the last year and a half or so we've been having the conversation about it being inappropriate for him to do so.

so...

tonight....

she and her son were talking on either side of a chain linked fence.  at one point she put her hand up on the fence and so did he and they had a moment where words just wouldn't do it in the same way that touch did.

i have a feeling that as cashel gets older him holding my hand will become less important to him...

...but it won't to me. 

pictures from my phone

who knows?

great answer

me:  cashel, who's prettier?  me or kaitlyn

cashel: mama, you're both pretty

and here is his self portrait

he was very specific about the ear wax.

i just sent this email...

if I had a daughter I would want to know things like the fact that my son is drawing right now and I asked him what he was drawing and he said "a picture of kaitlyn."

thought that might either make you smile or cringe. hopefully the former. he is smitten by your girl and, i fear, a casanova, like his dad.

robin

sent from cashel's mom :-)

here is the picture:

the great freckle debate

as you all know, cashel is obsessed with a mole on the right side of my face, close to my ear, that he calls a freckle.

i have instilled (or tried to) a rule that he can only touch my freckle at night.

he's sneaky though.

he'll touch my freckle while i'm getting him dressed or bending down to talk to him and he'll say, i just want to touch your hair, and on the way to touch my hair he'll sneak in a freckle touch.

or...if i'm carrying him because he's "too busy walking to walk" he'll sneak a touch and say something like, "it's ok to touch your freckle because it's getting dark, right, mommy?"  then i'll say, "well, cashel, it's 1pm so it's not going to get dark for a long time." and he'll reluctantly stop.

my sister in law told me that her friend's son was obsessed with rubbing her hair through his fingers.  she finally stopped that and found him picking up her hair from the bathroom floor.

ahhhh...such sweet boys to be obsessed with their mommies.

well, this is what happened yesterday morning.

as cashel and i were waking up he reached over for my freckle as usual and said, "mommy, is your freckle getting smaller?" 

i said (seeing an opportunity here), "yea bud - it is."

he says, "maybe it's because i push on it so much."

my response?  "yep.  i bet that's it."

he immediately stopped touching it!

later that afternoon jason and cashel had a conversation about who was reading to him last night.  this is a routine conversation.  cashel usually wants me to read to him because of...you guessed it....my freckle.  i'll often ask him, "cashel, do you want me in the bed with you because of me or because of my freckle, and he'll say it's because of my freckle."  this helps ease jason's ego a bit.  it's not me he wants, it's my freckle.

anyhoo...back to the story.

cashel:  daddy, is it your turn to read to me?

jason: yes, cashel, it's my turn.

cashel:  well, i know that the other day i told you i was ok with that but i'm not.  i want mommy to read to me.

jason: is it because of mommy's freckle?

cashel:  no!  i don't want to touch her freckle!  it's getting smaller and i don't want it going away!

he he he he.....

yeah, i fink so

kaitlyn's mom to me:  kaitlyn says they're married

i ask cashel about 30 minutes later after he's away from kaitlyn:  "cashel, are you married to kaitlyn?"

cashel (nodding his head but not really paying attention to me):  "yeah, i fink so"

me:  "what does it mean to be married?"

cashel:  "it means we're in love"

kernersville

 

 kernersville...

it was great...

did you notice the burned pizza?  lloyd did that.

did you see me and my high school friend ashley?  she hasn't changed one bit!

we went to a museum; we went to a reunion.

we played in the backyard.  cashel showered in the backyard.

hurricane cashel hit the living room every day.

 

i was visited by my bff and her boyfriend.

we had a lovely lunch while mimi and papa watched cashel (aka - gave him all the sugar he wanted).

she's funny and smart and beautiful.

she's and he are also very weird.

 

we waited patiently....in 100 degree 8:30am weather...for the 4th of july parade to begin

 

 

it finally began.

yes...there is a town close to my hometown called horneytown.

 

this is the old car section.

this is the tractor section.

this is the candy section!  look at all he got!

 we traveled to raleigh to see some old friends for a 4th of july cookout.

it was great seeing old friends and seeing our kids play together.

 

i do think it's safe to say that the highlight of the trip was going to tweetsie railroad.

cashel isn't much into trains and cars like some little boys but he is really into riding rides.

tweetsie is like a huge carnival.  

we unexpectedly spent most of the day with an old college friend of mine, nicole and her husband and son, brodie.  

cashel crashed on our way to dinner.

 his favorite ride was, no doubt, the tweetsie twister.  

we rode it three times.

no...four.

just look at his face.  

pure happiness.

his favorite phrase?

let's squish mimi!

we had a great time.

in the last two days we went to feed the ducks.

it also became one of our favorite things to do.

it's so serene back there (behind the neighborhood)

i wished we could have stayed longer and i know cashel does too.

he often asks to go visit mimi and papa now.

yey!

it's mutual

jason took cashel to school today and mentioned to kaitlyn's mom that cashel is in love with her daughter.

she said that the feeling is mutual.

kaitlyn makes her dad pretend to be cashel and play with her.

kristin

cashel has a girlfriend at school.  he doesn't call her that but it's obvious. 

he looks for kaitlyn everyday at school.  they find each other at breakfast.  he helps her throw away her food when she's done eating.  she announces from across the room (for cashel's benefit, it's obvious) that she's done eating. they tickle each other and she says "caaaassssshhhellllll" in that sweet sing songy voice only a 3 year old girl could have and cashel just blushes and tickles her.  they hold hands.  it's adorable

she's super cute.  curly blonde hair with little pink cheeks and the cutest voice.  the little helium balloon voice. 

i asked him once: "cashel, why do you like kaitlyn so much." 

his response was a blushed:  "because she's pretty to look at mom."

he can't wait to turn four so that he can move into the blue whale class with kaitlyn.

i have not gone bonkers.  i realize that i entitled this post "kristin." 

let me tell you about kristin.

she is the wife of my colleague who is running child care for this week for those parents at poly who have to work but who don't have childcare since school isn't in session yet.

cashel can't stop talking about kristin.

cashel:  (on the way to swim class) mom...don't you miss miss kristin?  i miss her.  she's so nice.

later on...

same conversation!

much later on cashel said this during his prayer:  dear god, i want you to know that i'm not very happy right now because i had to leave miss kristin's house.  she is so nice and i really like her and i want you to help me be a good listener at swim class.

so...

he's clearly 3 years old....

but...i did ask him if he loved kristin and he said yes.  i asked him who he loved more...me or miss kristin and...

he PAUSED! 

seriously!

he paused before saying "i love you both"

ode to granddad

granddad...

since i was very young....

you've always been there for me...

you see....

i didn't really like horses, for real, only in books...

but you helped me to see that they are really lovely animals....

as well as all the other animals that are in the zoo...

like snakes...

which...

as we all know...

my mom doesn't like at all...

 you let me wear you out...

you let me make silly faces in pictures... 

 

we always have so much fun together...

thank you for taking me to museums and parks and to get ice cream and donuts... 

even though i don't like it when you park your car backwards i still love you because you know a lot about cars...

thank you for being silly with me...

thank you for visiting me...

thank you for loving me granddad.  i love you too!

speaking of...

when we were in nc cashel really loved the life guards at the westridge forest pool (a.k.a. branchwood pool).  he really enjoyed both mary vef (mary beth) and etta - both young girls (high school and sophomore in college).

cashel: mommy.  is mary vef still on vacation? (mary beth was on vacation for 1 week of our trip and was therefore not at the pool.

cashel:  mommy, i would really like etta to play wif me. 

etta - proceeded to play with cashel at the pool.

cashel:  mommy, do you think mary vef (now back from vaca) would swim wif me?

me:  mary beth?  cashel would like to swim with you.

mary beth:  of course!

cashel was in heaven.....

we're on to you

we went to palm springs this weekend.  we're (cashel and i) just back from a two week trip from nc where we were in the pool for all but two days of the trip.  cashel is a fish.

yesterday jason and i witnessed the following:

cashel had on his swim goggles and was happily swimming around.  then suddenly, a beautiful, exotic, dark skinned, dark haired woman entered the pool.  cashel stood up on the step that he could stand on with no trouble.  he took off his goggles.  he watched the woman as she slowly made her way into the pool and dipped her hair into the pool.

jason:  (i'm also witness to this) cashel?  what are you doing bud?

cashel:  (looking at his dad with a surprised-you-caught-me-look) nofing

city boy

the first night we arrived in nc cashel was so excited to catch lightening bugs.  we had talked about them and mimi had bought him a little cage to put them in.  at dusk we all went outside and mimi and papa proceeded to catch lightening bugs and put them into the cage.  cashel is such a city boy.  he was apprehensive about touching the lightening bugs so let mimi and papa run around the back yard collecting them for him.  he kept saying, "there's one over dere.  go catch it!" 

on the first friday of our trip we went to visit my good, high school friend, lloyd and his son, john.  it was great for cashel to have a little playmate.  cashel did what cashel does and about 5 minutes in said, "i want to go outside."  so we went outside.  john immediately got on his bike and starting riding it.  cashel had no interest in riding a bike (he's not really tried too hard yet to even learn) or to ride a scooter.  he saw the swing set in the back yard (field really, it's 12 acres!) and wanted to go to it but didn't want to go alone.  it was about 50 yards from me and i didn't want to go so i told him he had to go with john.  he finally gave in and went to play on the swing set while lloyd and i attempted to start to catch up on the back porch.  cashel came up and wanted water.  wish granted.  then would not go back to the swing set to play with john.  he kept saying he didn't want to. he didn't like getting sweaty.  he was afraid of the spiders.  well...we have spiders and spider webs all around our house in california and he's never feared sweat before.  john finally came up to the porch and wanted to go watch his cousin clear land with a tractor for a house he's going to build.  lloyd told john to show cashel where to go.  they would be going behind the barn and then some ways down a trail - far out of my sight.  it's the country.  cashel's not used to it so he just watched john race down.  lloyd stood up and told me to relax and said he would walk cashel down.  he did.  about 3 minutes later cashel came back (with lloyd). 

five minutes later three older kids came around the back of the house on a golf cart.  john got on but cashel didn't want to go.  lloyd put cashel on (he surprisingly didn't fight it) and lloyd told the young girl driving, "you've got a city boy here.  he's not used to this so go easy."  cashel sat there and i think he actually had a good time riding around. 

after this we went inside where cashel felt more comfortable.  he and john ended up wrestling a while later.  lloyd was impressed with cashel's skills.  some time later we went outside again where john got back on his bike and instead of cashel riding anything, he decided to show off how fast he could run.  we had about ten races and i think cashel won every one of them. 

it was good boy time for him.  something my city boy really, really needed.

home

where is home?  it's always, for me, been kernersville.  it's what i think of when i say the words "going home."

my parents live in the house where i was born and raised and i love to come to kernersville and just be in the house.  i love to do what i did today, which is drive around and see things.  i went to my high school and just drove around neighborhoods i would drive to as a kid and teenager.  i have adult eyes now and things definitely look different.  this is not just because they actually have changed, been remodeled, roads have been repaved and in some cases moved, fields are now new (to me) neighborhoods and businesses, but also because i see them differently as an adult.  buildings look smaller than they did when i was a kid, or, not as majestic.
i also just love being at home, in the house where i grew up.  i walk out into the backyard and see the bare grass where my little playhouse was and think about playing "cowboys and indians" with my brothers' and their friends.  i walk down to the pool and take the short cut through the neighbors house.  i pick apples off of the tree down the street knowing the people who live there and who i don't know, don't care one bit.

it's peaceful.

it's fun being around my parents.  they love to have the tv on a news channel all day long and i love the background noise that it provides.  i love having dinner with them in the same kitchen where i had every meal growing up.  i love that they always just let me be me while i'm here.  i love the house although it's recently been remodeled.  it's home.

but los angeles is home too.  it's where jason is.  it's where me, cashel and jason are a family together.

i guess i'm lucky.  i feel like i have two homes.  i have two places where i know i can always go and be wrapped up in the warmth of the people who love me and who i love.

mimi

i can't believe my spring break has come and gone.  it's amazing to me.  i feel like february till spring break was like walking through molasses but now school is almost over and it feels like this school year just started.

i think in terms of school year.  next year to me isn't 2013, it's sept 2012 until june 2013.  not even a fiscal year.

for the last two school years (since we've been in CA) i've treated spring break as a time to clean my house.  this year, i had hopes of going to nc with cashel, but somehow, managed to get mimi to come out here instead.  never fear - we, cashel and i, have a 2 week trip planned to nc in late june, early july.  it was great.  i was so proud of her traveling by her lonesome, well, with her kindle and ipad to keep her company but she did great.  truth be told, i had a feeling, only after the fact, that she might have to change terminals in houston.  she did, but, she also managed to get herself to where she needed to be well before her next flight, and made it here in la safe and sound a full 30 minutes early!

we had a great time.  here is a list of what we did:

saturday:  (the day she arrived): we came home and ate dinner and settled in - jason had a guys trip to big bear, snow boarding, and cavorting with the locals

sunday: easter party at a park in glendale, 6 coffee boxes later, and no nap = one delirious kid + being taken care of by daddy so mama and mimi could go see iris, cirque du soleil at the kodak theater.  it - was - amazing

monday: hung out at home, play date at a park.  it was much warmer than expected.  came home for lunch before heading out to a car nap to meet brendan at another park in la candada

tuesday:  school for cashel.  santa barbara for me and mimi

wednesday:  school for cashel.  hollywood cemetary for me and mimi before heading through beverly hills into brentwood onto the 405 for some sight seeing - more like hedge watching.  it's always fun to pretend to be a tourist!  bonus points for anyone who can tell mimi the name of this flower and that flower and this plant and that plant.  she's clearly asking the wrong girl.  also, did you know that toby loves cemetaries?  well, maybe just the ones of dead actors who i've never heard of.

thursday:  disneyland.  need i say more.  except for this.  it's awesome.  i used to think that people without kids were kind of crazy if they went to disneyland, but i totally get it.  it's an escape from life.

friday:  i planned to keep cashel home but was so exhausted from disney that i sent him to school for a while so i could go do bikram, give mama some alone time, and then we went to pick him up before heading to nana's house to have a sleep over.

saturday: we went to help susan pick out a dining room table in santa clarita then went to a birthday party at my gym in pasadena before heading home to hang out with the seemingly invisible husband.

sunday: mimi had to go home.  booooooooooooo.

it was great seeing my mom on my turf.  i so enjoy our time together.  as much as i love my life here i do miss her so and really wish that we could have had the "mimi down the street" type of life.  she's never given me too much grief about not being near her because she understands that i had to make my own way differently.  thank you mom for being such a great role model to me and we can't wait to see you in early summer. 

here are some pictures to remember this great "vacation" with...

easter party

disney with mimi

santa barbara

flowers that mimi loved

i love you mimi

the brotherhood of the traveling pants

we were at the park yesterday with brendan.

the park is called "two strikes" park in la crescenta but cashel calls it "pinecone" park because it's where he is able to collect a ton of pinecones.

cashel had an accident so we had to change his pants and put on red "soccer" pants.

i'm sure you can guess what happened next.

brendan asked me if i brought "those black pants" for him today.

i laughed, and said, "no brendan.  sorry bud."

later on cashel was kicking a soccer ball and brendan sat down and 30 seconds later said, "are you done with those pants?"

i laughed my way over to his mom and she said that when brendan found out they were meeting us at the park, he said to his mom, "mom, these shorts are ugly.  maybe cashel will have those black pants for me."

c-r-a-c-k-s me up!

"you sure can run fast in those pants!"

that's what jane said.

allow me to explain.

we were at the pirate ship park yesterday with cashel's friend, brendan. 

after 15 minutes or so of cashel poking at a tree to try to catch ants, he proclaimed, "they're too fast!"

both boys then raced each other on their scooters until cashel started to help brendan 'stop' on his scooter by placing a stick as the finish line.  it makes no sense, i know.  but this game went on for a while.  both boys taking turns until it turned ugly and fingers were smashed with the stick and the moms had to intervene, saying, "no more sticks boys"....go run.

well, cashel went into his bag for no good reason and put some spiderman underwear on his head.  this made brendan cackle.  out of the blue cashel got a nose bleed.  i had to use the underwear to clean him up.  cashel proceeded to rummage around in his bag and insisted on changing his pants.  he had on grey shorts and wanted to put on black and white "soccer" shorts.  done.

well....brendan was pretty upset that he didn't have any soccer pants to change in to so cashel said, "i'll share!"

for once, it would have been nice for cashel not to share.  for the next 15 minutes the boys negotiated sharing cashel's pants.  brendan refused to race cashel because he didn't have on running shorts.  we came to the conclusion that it wasn't the pants that mattered so much as the shoes.  he had on the right shoes for running. 

i told the boys that i would say "1,2,3, go!" and they could race. 

cashel got to the starting line (a crack on the sidewalk) and was ready.

brendan sat down on a rock and refused to race because he didn't have on the right pants for the job.  so brendan's little sister raced cashel instead. 

on a side note, cashel has a great run.  he really gets into it but keeps looking back at the person he's racing.  one of these days he's going to run into something.

back to the story.

cashel decides that brendan can wear his soccer pants so he takes them off, puts his grey shorts back on, while brendan puts on cashel's pants.  one note here, brendan is a couple of months older than cashel, and he is much bigger than cashel.  the shorts were a 2t.  his mom said they looked like biker shorts.  oh yeah, less than half way through this situation his mom said "i'm going to chase your sister.  i'm done with this conversation."  i couldn't blame her.  i told the boys that we had to leave in 20 minutes but if they wanted to spend their park time changing clothes they just needed to know that we would be leaving soon.  there was no way around it - they were determined to share these pants.

here is a picture of brendan and cashel with brendan in cashel's pants:

once brendan got those short on they raced and brendan's mom yelled, "you sure can run fast in those pants!" and brendan yelled, "yeah, i can!"

soon after they changed pants again!

then we had to leave the park.  mayhem ensued.  there were temper tantrums.  there was yelling.  brendan's sister was cool as a cucumber the whole time.  it's as though she knew how silly they both were being and said, "i'm outta here boys" as she scooted off on a scooter. 

silly boys.

so you think you can dance

cashel was totally into the madonna half-time show.  we had to keep it on the dvr for a while and had a dance party nightly.

check out this latest video of him dancing.

i especially love the shoulder move at about 58 seconds in.

he's choreographing.  you can tell.

speaking of...

...everytime jason pens me down and tickles me it brings back horrible memories of being held down and tickled as a child by my brothers.

everytime i am yelling out:

"i'm gonna cuss! stop it!"

that is...when i can catch my breath to even yell this.

i wish tickling was more funny, or enjoyable even, to me.

but it's not.

it just reminds me of kelly and jonathan both having a look in their eyes, locking eyes, the both looking at me...and me running for my life.

next thing you know...

kelly is holding my arms down and jonathan is sitting on my legs tickling me.

as much as i love them it was never funny for me.

one of these days i'm gonna tickle them until they can't breathe either.

my ear was attacked

in a nightly ritual in which cashel repeatedly tells jason to "get mommy!" jason managed to teach cashel to stick his tongue in my ear as he (jason) held me down. 

great.

he (cashel) did it and laughed and laughed and was so proud of himself.

a while later, as jason was holding me down again, i was again attacked by cashel's tongue in  my ear.

i'll admit.....it's pretty funny.  

like when cashel said to jason just yesterday as he was 'eating' lunch

"daddy, guess what's under the table"

jason: i don't know bud...your food?

cashel: no....my penis! 

jason looked, and there it was, cashel's penis, out of his pants. cashel just laughed and laughed.

jason told me last night that that was cashel's first real joke that he came up with on his own.

so when i was attacked by cashel's tongue as i was held down by jason and tickled until i couldn't breathe, i really shouldn't be surprised...

...but i was.

boys

• when will he stop using potty words?  it's definitely part of his vernacular with his friends.  i pick him up from school yesterday and find him in a deep, shouting, match with his other boy friends who are all shouting "poopy head"  "poop"  "poop monster!"
• i get kicked out of rooms constantly now because i'm a girl and only boys are allowed.  just last night, before i left for a mom's night out, cashel instructed jason to play soccer (with the beach ball) in our bedroom while he did karate on the bed.  i was banished to the kitchen.
• at the lovely moms night out we discussed boys and their obsession with a certain part of their body.  i don't think it's appropriate for the world wide web to quote anything.
• he is very in to "winning" these days.  in the car he shouts out at another car or a person on a bike or skateboard, if they're in front of us, "mom!  they're winning!  go faster!"  this actually comes in handy when i want him to move faster, like when we get out of the car in the mornings at his school and i'm running behind all i have to say is, "cashel - i'm winning!" and he races me

yey! booooooooo

after two and a half years jason has finally been able to reconnect to work with the editor who brought us out here.  he starts a new job on monday in santa monica.  we always knew that this would happen - that he could very likely get a job on the "west side" as they like to call it here.  what this means?  the commute will probably be horrible on most days.  we've lived in the lap of commuting luxury for the last three years.  his first gig was in pasadena and the others have been either in north hollywood, burbank, or hollywood - a short 15-20 minute drive most days.  it's bittersweet.  i'm super happy that he'll get to work with this editor again because he really enjoyed it the first time but it means he won't be home for dinner like he has been the last 5 months.  so i can't complain about that.  it'll happen again i know and it just makes our weekends together more precious.  he may even get to actually start surfing regularly before work.  luckily, my school year is almost up so any morning craziness won't last too long. 

look what i found!

bam!

• rat race to get out of the house as usual
• taught the future of america
• walked a friend's dogs as a favor - i barely walk my own dogs - this is big
• picked up cashel and he proceeded to tell me that so and so's mom is going to die when she gets old - i avoid the issue completely by saying "do you wanna go to the library with me?"
• raced home because he had to "peeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! really badly!!!!!"
• got him out of his car seat so he could race up the stairs to pee on the tree we have outside
• came up to find him pants-less as he jumped out from around the corner and he yelled "boo!"
• brought up about 800 pounds of stuff from the car in one round
• get home and turn on oven for pizza cashel has requested - i am refusing to pay for pizza delivery tonight in lieu of tj's frozen pizza - not sure how this will go with my little pizza snob
• jason's home.  yey!
• cashel proceeds to ask me if an unnamed person distantly related to him is still in jail.  mimi mentioned this when she visited more than two weeks ago.  she did not realize at the time how much this boy is actually listening when it appears he is not.  he often uses the i'll-just-pretend-to-not-be-listening-while-talking-to-myself-in-a-made-up-language tactic.  i explained that he is no longer in jail and had to explain again that he was in jail for not being a good listener
• pizza did not work out - he only likes pizza from tomato pie - had to endure numerous amount of whining over dislike of pizza
• jason proceeds to get a new job amidst pizza debacle
• bath time is late
• my turn to put him down which means the next 1.5 hours in his room
• i notice he was almost asleep at about 8:20 and thought, yey, early night, j and i can watch a show
• fell asleep and walked outta there at 9:15.  foiled by cuddling!  
• watched season 2 finale of luther on the ipad

the mouse

jason (currently working at ABC) shows cashel his id badge.  on the badge is a picture of jason and a picture of mickey mouse.

cashel: dad...when i grow up to be a man i want to go to work with mickey mouse like you

cha cha cha changes

we've noticed that when cashel is about to make a big developmental leap he regresses a bit.  not so unusual from what i've read and heard. 

we've encountered this lately.

a couple of weeks ago cashel kept having poop accidents at school.  he's been potty trained since he was a little older than 2 so this shouldn't have been happening.  and then, he was (for lack of a better term) bullying a little girl at school.  he would put his coat over the head of this little girl and shake her around.  his teacher called me about this and i was mortified but also realized that this was probably a phase that would pass.

it's difficult to think that your child is the bully. 

so we talked about it. and talked about it.  and, luckily, it was jason's last week off of work so he was around to talk to him about it.  in fact, jason picked him up from school the day that it started, which, was probably a really great thing to have his dad talk to him about it. 

i picked him up on friday after school and he said "mama, i didn't pick on anyone today at school.  i gave them space and didn't put my coat over anyone's head."  what else could i say say but "i'm proud of you bud! high five!" 

hopefully we're at the end of this little developmental leap - oh yea - the developemental part?  he's speaking in clearer, more complete sentences now and really gets humor in a more concrete way now.

he constantly wants to kick me out of the house and calls me a slowpoke all this while, laughing about it.  he says that i'm stinky (even after i've just showered) and say's "mom - i love fruit" instead of "i love you"  and just laughs and laughs and laughs. 

hilarous? 

hilarous.

driving

cashel: dad, you're a great driver

jason: thanks bud

cashel: mama is not a great driver

jason:  really?

cashel:  no.  and she gets lost

this conversation was supposedly unsolicited and jason said that he sounded completely sincere. 

i don't believe him.

daddy love

jason has been home a lot lately and it's been awesome.  i've said that before i think. 

cashel has a great daddy.  when he is here he is really here.  he's better than i am at simply being here.  he doesn't get as easily distracted by work or busy himself with cleaning.  ok - wait - this is jason i'm talking about so things are super clean (bonus for me!) but he is really good at multi-tasking.  he can fold clothes and have a sword fight with cashel at the same time. or stop vacuuming to chase after cashel and zerbert his belly.  he can cook something and get cashel to play by himself.  on the other hand, have a hard time with all of that.  i do stop to play but prefer to, as bad as it sounds, kind of "put cashel off" until i'm done with something.  i can't stand to have a sink full of dirty dishes and insist on finishing that before stopping to play with him.  he must think that "one second" is my favorite phrase!  i'm working on it.  jason goes back to work at the end of this week and it remains to be seen how much he'll be here before bed time - we might get lucky like he was on his last gig and he might be able to be home by the end of dinner to do the bad/bed trade off.  if not, that's ok.  regardless, cashel is a lucky little boy with an awesome dad who is really, really there for him.

did you know...

...that winnie the pooh lives in africa?

according to cashel he does.

the best moment of the night

jason: robin, i was putting cashel down and telling him how proud i am of him for being such a good boy
cashel: yeah, i take care of kaitlyn (a little girl in his class)
jason: yes. that's very sweet. i'm proud of you for taking care of her.
cashel: dad...i'm proud of you for taking care of me

awwwwwwww

it's been so nice

having jason home at night lately.  normally jason has to work late.  normally, as in, up until last december.  has it really been that long since he's been home at night?  yep.  for the most part.  he had to work in santa monica today and said the commute was a bear.  only today though.  we know at some point he might work on the west side but until then we'll take him being home at night.  cashel actually went to sleep on his own tonight.  i told him that since daddy had to work late i needed to clean the kitchen so i would only be able to cuddle for a few minutes.  he said ok and only requested that the bathroom light be kept on for him.  i had to go check on him a few times and put him back into bed twice but otherwise he went to bed solo!  yahoo!  that's a miracle 'round here!  jason suggested that it's helped that he's been around to do a lot of the night time routine which has helped to tear the strings cashel around me - not sure how i feel about that but the boy needs to grow up at some point and give me some time at night to do things.  i've even been able to get up early this week and do some school work before he wakes up which is another feat.  normally he calls for me around 5am and i have to crawl in bed with him and cuddle...."mama, i wanna cuddle wif you" he says.  how can i resist?  then i'm asleep again...cuddling with the boy....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

more storytime

we went to the rose bowl flea market yesterday.  it's the second sunday of every month and it's huge. 

huge, i say.

seriously.

it's huge.

anyhoo.  we got there before 9am (it's seriously so huge you've gotta get there early).  we were successful in obtaining an end table for our new couches (pic to come when pigs fly).

but on the way here's what our storyteller told us:

cashel:  mama/dada (his new word for daddy lately).  you missed me.

me and jason: we did?

cashel:  yeeyah. (he says it like that sometimes).  i was in the woods and i was a superhero and i fought off the bears and the wolves with a stick.  and i was in the woods and i fought off the bears with the wolves and the wolves with the bears and i had a stick and that's what happened and you missed me. 

us:  really?

cashel:  yeeyah. 

us:  wow.  that's brave.

the best part is the look on his face. 

he scrunches up his nose on one side only and raises his eyebrows and is looking out the window when he says all of this. 

one day i hope to get a good picture of this face. 

but my camera isn't fast enough.  and i'm not fast enough.

until then.

just imagine.

storytime

cashel is quite the story teller.  he certainly doesn't get that from me.  he's not that into legos or building blocks or puzzles (yet).  i know that these things may still come.  he's not that into drawing or painting for more than about 30 seconds and most of that is just wanting to watch.  what he is into is pretend play.  a tone of pretend play.  and story telling.  mostly listening to other people (i.e. me before bed, telling him a story).  i've been able to circumvent this a bit - it's, quite honestly, exhausting for me.  let me give you a good example of why it's exhausting:

cashel: (on the way home from school one day, we're almost home, and Jeilani (our neighbor who rides with us - she's in 6th grade) is in the car) mama, tell me a story

me: ok.  who's in this story (this makes story telling much easier for me)

cashel: a stoplight

me:  ok. "once upon a time there was a stoplight.  and in the town where the stoplight lived there was a boy.."

cashel:   no mama!  there are no people in this story!

me:  um...ok cashel.  "once upon a time there was a stoplight.  and in the town where the stoplight lived there was a bear.."

cashel:   no mama!  there are no animals in this story!

me:  um.  yikes.  ok.  so, i'm not sure what i'm supposed to do in this story (luckily, we're almost home)

jeilani:  (laughing)

me:  ok.  "once upon a time..."  yey!  we're home!

thank goodness.

family

a late post is better than never.  we had a wonderful christmas.  here are some pictures to prove it.

the whole fam

the bryant/barnes clan

the park

the kids' table!

so much fun at the kids' table!

visiting granny

cookie wars 2011

mother and daughter

happy to be home