The "F" Word

File this under: "I Have Nothing Else Exciting to Write About."

William's favorite book as of late is Come Rhyme With Me! He calls it his animal book.

The concept is pretty simple. The book goes through the letters of the alphabet. Each page has an animal that starts with that letter and a corresponding rhyme about that animal.

We read this book every day before nap and sometimes it gets combined with the three or so books we read to him before bed in the evening.

As you might imagine, with this much repetition William has the entire book memorized. Which is fun because then I can pretend my boy is a genius and can already read an entire book at the tender age of two years and two months. Ha! The games we play.

I'll say, "A is for..."

And he finishes with, "Alligator snoozing in the sun. If you dare to tickle him you'd better start to run."

And so on and so forth...

...until we get to the letter F.

F is for Fox.

But every single time I get to this page and read, "F is for..."

William responds with, "...skunk!"

I have no idea why this is. It's the only letter he can't get right. After the seventeenth time I started to find his mistake quite comical so I would laugh. And then he would laugh. And now it's just a game.

I'm pretty sure he knows that F is for Fox by now. But I can't be entirely sure.

Anyway. That's all I have for today.

On Finding a Suitable Restaurant for a Girls' Night

Me: On their website they had a drink menu with lots of fufu drinks. That's how I knew it was a good choice.

Morning Yoga

This morning I missed the 10:30 yoga class I had planned on attending.

For three straight days I've been hurrying William through his breakfast routine so that we can run out of the house to get to various meetings and appointments. Every day he's fought me. Either he doesn't want to eat or he doesn't want to get dressed or maybe he just doesn't want to be rushed. Whatever it is, it's been frustrating.

But then I took a look from his perspective. On usual mornings our breakfast routine is done at a leisurely pace. Sometimes we stay in our pajamas until lunchtime. We catch glimpses of Meredith and Matt, Regis and Kelly, Ellen and maybe even an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I sip my coffee and check out the latest happenings on the World Wide Web while he drives his dump trucks in and out of the kitchen. It's a nice thing we've got going.

But on the days when we need to be in the car before 10:00, he is not a happy camper. The thing is though, once we get to where we're going he's always fine. It's just the process of getting him into the car that I find quite maddening especially with below zero temperatures and a burgeoning belly.

And then there was yesterday when I really pushed it. I had a coffee appointment downtown with a friend I've been doing some part time work for. After that we met daddy at his work for lunch. When that was all said and done it was getting close to naptime. But I wanted to squeeze in just one more thing.

A carwash.

Simple enough, right?

Apparently not so in Woodbury, Minnesota.

For weeks the carwash line has been ten cars deep. Brian bought a ticket for the wash but for a week it's gone unused because the line has just been too long. Well, yesterday I realized it was bearable. Only seven cars in line.

[On a side note, do that many people really have an hour to spare to sit in a carwash line? Woodburians need to get a life!]

[Side note number two: If anyone out there wants to open another carwash in Woodbury I'd totally partner with you. It's a sure bet to a gold mine.]

So there I was with a tired two-year-old waiting for a stupid carwash for 45 minutes so that the massive amounts of salt that painted my normally black car white, didn't eat away to the insides.

And so that, my dear readers, is how we ended up having yoga class in our very own living room this morning instead of the fancy dancy gym up the way. I came to realize it wasn't worth fighting with my toddler for the fourth straight day to get out of the house to make my yoga class. I didn't want to put him through it and I thought he deserved a morning break. What a nice mom I am.

Much happier in his pajamas and Cookie Monster slippers.

These days, I think his downward-facing dog pose is better than mine.

The Land of a 1,000 Whys

In the car.

Me: We have to go get a carwash.

William: Why?

Me: Because the car's dirty.

William: Why mommy?

Me: Because there's lots of snow outside and that makes the car dirty.

William: Why snow mommy?

Me: Because it's winter.

William: Why winter mommy?

Me: [Getting exhausted] 'Cause.

William: Oh. 'Cause?

Me: Yep.

William: Oh. Why 'cause mommy?

A Superior Vacation

Finally, pictures.

We're here!

Our cozy room...

...with a view!

And a perfect bathroom accessory for a pregnant mama.

There were a lot of cards played.

And a lot of books read.

And every Scrabble tile was played.

Except for one.

We ventured into the wondrous outdoors.

And Lake Superior rewarded us with breathtaking views.

Baby Bang

During naptime today I took a break and watched a recorded episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The baby started bumpin' and kickin' so I grabbed my camera to see if I could catch any of it. What I captured in the first six seconds is pretty cool if I do say so myself. The rest of the video is pretty boring but I kept the camera running in case it jumped again.

Small Successes

It's 10:30 a.m. and I've already:

1. completed two loads of laundry. OK, so they're not folded yet. So what?

2. cleaned out William's humidifier. Yuck! Note to self: Do that more often.

3. read all my regular blogs and posted this on my own blog.

Bonus item: I'm getting ready to go to the gym. No, I promise. I really am.

To see more small successes from other mothers around the country click here.