Today, so far

I have a blog in the pipes (meaning: intention; hopefully it will get done) about a couple of cool things we've found in our "neighborhood" or immediate vicinity this week. However, today happened, and I had to share my day.

6:30 AM - Mal wakes up. It's still dark. We go out on the patio for a while to welcome the cloudy day, then come in to get breakfast ready for James.

Mal has this new thing where he makes the sound that the coffee grinder makes because I guess he wants me to use it. But I didn't need to this morning, and he was upset. I handed him the grinder and he played happily with it until he wanted food, so I poured us a bowl of cereal,

We went back on the patio to eat (milk + cereal + my baby = almost guaranteed mess) but he kept wanting to put his hands into the cereal since he usually eats that cereal dry. So I brought him back in, put him in the kitchen floor, and handed him a bowl of the puffs. He not only dumped them into the floor, he started crunching them with his feet. I asked him not to, put the cereal back into the bowl, and held on to it for him while he took a few.

My son has an "interesting" habit right now: He will put something in his mouth, maybe chew it a time or two, and then be done with it. Especially if it's bigger than small-bite-size. I'm having to chop his grapes up because even though he CAN do it with his teeth, he'll often bite it, end up with one piece he wants to swallow, and just put the rest in the floor. He did that a few times, and as I was getting ready to put the lid on the bowl so he couldn't get any more until he finished what he had, he spilled them AGAIN and started smashing them with his feet AGAIN.

I moved him to the living room so I could sweep and mop (sticky floors my bare feet do not love).

Finally, we got James off to work, and we played in Mal's room. We have been reading every single board book he owns twice every day for a while now. We usually read "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" about 12 times per day, thrice to half a dozen times per sitting. He loves it.

Mal actually ended up going to sleep at 10, which is super early. He's been taking his one - and often only - nap at around 1 lately. But I was glad. He was so tired, he needed it!

When he woke up, I invited him on an "adventure" and we went to The Home Depot for sand. He's been playing in his sandbox for over a week with no sand, and he doesn't care. I knew he'd love the improvement.

They have car carts at Home Depot, so that was good times. We got 150 pounds of sand (and no one offered to help us out to our car; just myself and a baby... thanks for the great customer service!), and then went across the street to Chick-fil-A.

Okay, you may have issues with the now-deceased owner's social views, but CFA knows what they're doing with their core customer base. This might have been around for a while, but I'd never seen it before... probably because I didn't need it until recently. But they have the little cups (like that they put the small carrot raisin salad in) at the end of the counter, and they're full of Cheerios. There's a sign that says something like "If your kids are too small to 'Eat mor chickn,' enjoy these with our compliments."

Also, they have books in their kids' meals, but if you have a kid under 3, they have board books! So Mal got a book in addition to his food, and my meal was free (thanks to my cowlendar card).

Then we went into the playground. Mal looked around for a while, then got brave.

After a bit of that, we came back home. I asked Daphne if she'd mind watching Mal so I could bring the three 50-pound bags of sand up to the apartment.

When I'd pulled in, there was a landscaping truck and trailer taking up the 7 or 8 closest spaces to my apartment, so I had to park about half a block away. When I went to get the sand, I decided to pull up very close, unload the sand, then move the car back. "Jerk," I thought, as I realized the truck was running and the landscaping guy was just sitting in there taking his break.

I moved my van, opened the back, unloaded the sand to the grass, then started to close the back door, but decided to lock it first, since it locks separately from the front doors and when I moved back to my parking space, my back doors would be in the bushes so I couldn't go back and do it manually.

Then I went around to move the van and... IT WAS LOCKED. Engine running, parked diagonally and blocking one of the paid covered parking spaces, and also blocking the sidewalk entrance. Ugh.

Just so you know, when I have my car running and Mal is in it, I always open one of the windows about 4 inches, so I can reach in if I happen to do something like this. Or, if my electronics system just messes up (which it does, and has, but usually this just involves the doors NOT locking, though once, the side door just randomly locked).

Anyway, I think I actually slapped my head with both hands like they do in cartoons when they realize they've done something stupid.

I grabbed a bag of sand to take it upstairs and was thinking quickly: James was 30 miles away at work. I could call the office and ask them if any of the maintenance guys could get into an old van. After all, wasn't it their fault because one of their contractors had stinking parked in such a way that their own tenants couldn't use their parking spots?!

Just as I came into the apartment, I remembered: Because my darling daughter has her own speed, and sometimes Mal has last-minute emergencies, I had made copies of our house key, apartment key, AND van key for her to keep, in case she ever needed them. Thank God!

She went and got me her key, and I was on my way downstairs when I saw the two remaining bags of sand at the bottom of the stairs. I walked down and the landscaping guy was standing there. "Thanks!' I said. He asked, "You're upstairs?" I told him I was, and that sweet feller walked the two other bags up to my doorstep while I moved my van back into the parking space further away.

Just think: If that "jerk" hadn't parked where he did, I'd have had to carry three times more sand upstairs than I did!

Apparently wanting to experience stuff with his feet has broad applications. He was trying alternately to scoop sand out onto the patio or put his feet up over the side of the sandbox. I gave him a little help...

After he'd played for a good long while, he was ready to get out. He wanted to come inside, but he was super sandy. So I pulled off his clothes, including his diaper. He still wanted to come in, but went right back out to "sweep" the patio. I thought, "What a great compromise! He likes to be naked, I want to get my security deposit back - so no peeing on the carpet."

He Swiffered in the nude for a few minutes, then, sure enough, peed while sitting on the concrete. Just like with the cereal and sand, he immediately started rubbing his feet in the puddle. Then I remembered my idea I'd implemented the other day with great success: A pan full of water!

I filled up his favorite sauce pan and a bonus cup with water. The bonus cup got dumped on the puddle immediately, and then Mal played in the water for another ten or fifteen minutes.

I have one picture I wish I could share, but the internets don't take kindly to adorbs naked baby pictures, so I won't. He just had an awesome time and was in a great mood when we came inside.

Later, though... Well, I ended up taking a hot and sweaty walk to the mailbox just so he'd go to sleep. Which he did. And my husband should be almost home now, so... It's time for a 4-day weekend!