Circus

Dat Dat dadadada dat dat Circus Dat Dat dadadada dat dat Afro- Circus Afro Circus Afro polka dot polka dot polka dot MOVE IT!   (Ares' favorite song - from Madagascar 3).  OK, so his favorite song is really Taylor Swift's 'Never Ever', but this is the next best thing.

We took Ares to his first ever Circus!!  Who was more excited?  Mommy, Daddy or Ares???  A tie between Mommy and Daddy!  Ares was just excited to see Davis.   But of course, they fought the entire time - as usual!

We started the morning off at Bob Evans, where they fought over the straw colors, bacon and who was first at nearly everything.

The circus was fun too.  We went to Davis' cousins house to pick them up, and the four adults took the four boys to the Circus.    Ares didn't ask for a single piece of food, Adam and I bought him a $22(!!!) toy, which he LOVED!  Possibly more than the Circus itself.

This was Ares' favorite part, the dragon shot green fire out of it's mouth. 

Ares' second favorite part of the Circus.  8 motorcycles in that tiny ball. 

Ares' new toy in light. 

Ares toy lit up.  

Mommy's favorite part of the Circus - The ELEPHANTS!!

And because it's MY blog - more elephants!!  =)

The Start of a Table

Here's in progress pictures of Adam's work on our new dining room table.  This table is SO Massive it takes 4 grown men to move just the top.  Adam's took the week off to work on this.   We still need to get it up on the stand and stained, (men need to help with that) and then once it's stained and poly'd then it needs to get into the house (men needed to help with that too).  

Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rai....

One would think, being in Cleveland, that we would be used to all of this rain.  I mean, we have fewer sunny days than Seattle, for crying out loud.  Last post was after I had an entire 80* beautiful day off last Thursday.  Friday started the low pressure system and rain.  Usually our weather goes West to East (duh), but with Hurricane Sandy, the hurricane caused some massive wind storms (many people in my office lost roofs, trees, furniture, etc) that kept this low pressure system (RAIN) over us for many days.  It hasn't stopped raining but for a half hour in the last. 5.5 days.  Halloween was pushed off another week in any city that didn't do it in the rain on Sunday, and our rain boots have gotten a lot of wear.  I'm SICK. OF. THE. RAIN!  I'm not even going to mention poor little Ballpark.  We bundle him up in a rain jacket, but we still have to endure pushing him out the door, closing it behind him, and watching him give us the sad puppy dog eyes as he begs us to open the door up before he does his duty.  Sorry buddy, just pee and we'll let you inside again.

At least it stopped raining for about an hour Friday night, so we participated in the Trunk or Treat in Streetsboro.  His buddy Lukas met up with us.



On the plus side?!  Adam is building me us me a dining room table.  I am beyond psyched!  I'll try and post pictures soon, along with pictures of the circus that I got.  I can't believe with all of the rain we've had, that I haven't even been blogging much!  Sorry everyone!

A Wish for a Late October Day

It's 80* on a Thursday in late October.  However, unfortunately, my mother is in the hospital for a currently unknown reason, so I had to stay home from work with Ares.  We actually had a pretty nice day, including visiting my mom at Hillcrest. '

Outside, I'm on my work laptop running queries, playing with Ares at the same time.  He finds one of those puffy cotton things that blows around in the wind and asks me what it is.  Obviously, from my description on the blog, I don't know what to tell him. 

Me: Uhm, well, you take it in your hand, and hold it out while making a wish.  *holding it out* I wish Ares to grow up healthy and have a very happy life. *and I let go, it flies away*

Ares: Oh, here's one!  *holds it out*  I wish mommy to grow bigger and bigger and bigger and get so big she's a giant!!  *and let's go*

It sticks to his fingers, so hopefully that doesn't come true. 

Home Depot

This was a pretty interesting stop while in Cincinnati.  We were driving to meet Adam's grandfather for lunch, when we passed Home Depot in Harrison, which had many fire, ambulance, sheriff, cop, tank etc in the parking lot.  My father in law called his dad and told him we'd be late, as he pulls into Home Depot.  

Who's more excited, daddy or Ares? 

Definitely Daddy!!

Ares got to put together uprights for football.  The fire trucks were all gone. 

But the uprights did not use the hammer, so he just hammered some nails into the table. 

He also got fingerprinted.  He thought it was cool, and I now have his prints in case something terrible happens. 

He thought holding the fire hose was pretty cool too.

Mom! I'm Allergic to Cats!

Last night, Ares had something in his eye.  A spec of dust or something was irritating it.  Here's my drama queen:   Mom, something is in my eye.  It's because I'm allergic to cats.  Uncle Justice's cat.  'Pakoda'  (Dakota) made my eyes itch.  I can't go to Uncle Justice's, I'll get bumps.  Mom!  I'm allergic to cats!!

Note: He was not near any cats that day. 

I. LOVE. FALL.

I have always loved the Fall. I always knew I wanted to get married in the Fall (October 25).  It was a 5 minute argument between Adam and myself back then (me: OK, fine, we can have a Spring wedding, but then you have NO say in anything else that goes on.  Adam: OK, a Fall wedding it is).    I love Fall colors (except Topaz, my birth stone).  And, as any gemologist knows from my prior statement, November is my birth month.  
The best thing about the Fall (in the North, at least) is the changing of the leaves!  My favorite pictures of my son, three years in a row now,**update:  Holy hell, it's been 4 Fall seasons for Ares now, where has the time gone?!?** all come from pumpkin patches or playing in the leaves.  This year included.  We went to my in-law's house (which has A LOT of trees) about a week early, but the leaves were still falling.  Instead of having a 10 foot high pile of leaves, the pile was only about 3 feet high.  He didn't know the difference, and neither did the camera.

First came blowing the leaves into a pile.  Grandpa held the blower, Ares was the trigger man. 

 Next came Ares acting like a leaf.  He did this for about 5 minutes, and wanted more, but were afraid it was going to leave some wind imprint on him. (j/k)

 Finally came the jumping into the leaves.  Such fun, such great pictures.

I love the tongue that sticks out!



I wish this one wasn't blurry



 And because there's never any pictures of me...

 I only wish I were wearing lip gloss.

 And last but not least, my mother-in-law and Ballpark. 



Can't you see why Fall is my favorite?  What awesome pictures every one of us took.  These photos are from Adam's camera (hence, no Adam).  I have photos from the other day (walk in the park, Police/Fire Dept/Bomb Squad pics) on my camera. That'll be another post when I get those pictures together.

3-Year Pre-School Pictures

This is totally what I imagine when I think of pre-school pictures.  Does this look like a 3-year old or what? 

I hate long shorts on boys like that, but I had already put most of his shorts away in storage, and we had a hot day in the middle of the week, of course, for fall picture day.  Ah well, he took nice pictures again, even though I can't get him to smile for me.  I love this kid!

Lanterns Light Up Night Skies..

We went to Kent's International Festival this past weekend with Darah, Devon and Davis. There isn't much to it, aside from lighting some lanterns on fire, and seeing if they catch any trees or buildings on fire (no excitement this year).  The photographer from the paper must have taken 60 pictures of our two families, sadly, only two of them made it in.  See pictures below.   If you want to see the article here,  read at your own risk, the grammar is appalling.   I believe this is the 4th newspaper Ares has been in, in his 3 short years of life.

Ares and Davis both chose the purple lanterns.  (They looked blue in the package though.)  It was really cool to see so many lanterns up in the sky at once.  It was only too bad it took 2 minutes to light the lanterns, and very few people had lighters on them.   So it took about 10 minutes to get them all in the air, but it still looked awesome.

My mom still hasn't given me, or uploaded the gymnastics pictures to Facebook. I'll update the prior post once I have access to those.

A picture

I realize I've posted today already (a long post) but it's been 5 posts since I've had a pictures, so here's one of him at gymnastics today.  It was his first day (once a week for 4 weeks).  My mom took this picture with her cell phone and sent it to me, hopefully she took more, as they also did things on the beam and bar too. 

A REAL 2 hours with a 3 year old:

There's been times where I keep forgetting my son is only 3, and times I can't forget my son is only three.  Sorry for the extremely long post.  It might bore you, but it will totally entertain me in a few years, haha.  

Yesterday, he put on his shoes and socks (all by himself), got his jacket on (by himself) and (with our help) got into the car.  He ordered his meal all by himself, specifying he wanted the two cheeseburger meal, side and drink (not the single cheeseburger platter). (He picked fries, where I wouldn't have, and a milkshake, but whatever).  When the meal came to the table, he opened the buns himself and added the ketchup (with no help from us) and proceeded to eat his entire meal.  Every.Last.Bit.   Got into PJ's, read a book and went to bed - whew!  Did he really need me to be anything but a chauffeur or a storyteller?

What really happened:

After fighting for him to do it himself and yelling at him to hurry up, he got his shoes and socks on, complaining and getting distracted multiple times like a dog who just saw a squirrel - or maybe he's like a ferret, either way...  We searched forever to find his jacket, the lightning McQueen one (the one he took off not more than 10 minutes prior)! NOT the yellow shark one, before he put it on, with LOTS of drama (oh? is that where the arm goes? Silly me!).  After 30 kisses and lots of hugs with the dog (why?), he started heading for the door, but first, wanted to know if he could watch TV (What?!? We're leaving!!  *sigh*).  We got him into the car ("Not car mom, SUV.") Sorry, I stand corrected, the S-U-V and we were off to get dinner.

Once at the restaurant, he sits in every direction imaginable, (Adam - what? Hey MIL-Karen, sound familiar? Yes, he's his father's son.) And he does order his own meal, and drink, but forgets to say thank you (worse things have happened).  When another table gets their milkshakes before us, loudly asks 'Where's my milkshake?', thankfully, to no one is particularly close - yet.  Later, when the table behind us orders their drinks, Ares loudly exclaims "Hey! That's what I got too!" in case the 8 year old thinks it's cool to order the same thing a 3 year old has. 

Dinner comes out, and Ares grabs the ketchup to put on his burgers - but only puts it on the burgers after he puts his mouth all over the nozzle for the ketchup-twice. (I've worked at a restaurant, I don't EVER remember cleaning condiment bottles.)   He nearly finishes his whole meal without any problems (aside from the straw coming out of the milkshake and getting melted ice cream all over both of us) before he exclaims to the entire restaurant "*Gasp* I have go to potty!!!!!"  Like, an 'I-may-have-been-sitting-here-staring-at-the-bathroom-door-for the last-half-hour but OMG-if-I-don't-go-now-we-will-all-regret-it' panic.  He sits down after exclaiming "I'm back mommy!" (I'm lucky that Adam now takes him to the restroom more often than I.  Thank goodness he didn't explain what he's back from.) and finishes his meal. (Aren't those meals meant for, like, 6 year olds? What am I going to do when he is 6? Order him an adult size meal? He'll be 100 lbs!)

Bedtime comes, and by the time I convince him that there's no time for TV, if he can get upstairs and dressed we can read a longer book than normal, it's already well past his bedtime.  He turns on the light of his bedroom, out the light, on the light, on the disco ball, out the light, on the light, off the disco ball, and maybe now we can put our PJ's on, oh, the shirt doesn't actually go on my legs?  Huh, odd, I didn't realize that the last 3 years, 6 months 1 week and 3 days of my life - maybe if you do it for me mom...; "Let's read a super long book" says, well, not me. After we read the book he exclaims that he's the princess and I'm the prince (I corrected him, but he didn't want to listen) and he got into bed (I'd like to point out here, that I am the luckiest mommy IN.THE.WORLD for a kid who doesn't fight getting into his bed, naps or bedtime -ever).  I talked very quickly (to his Mousie) about what he did that day and what to expect for the next day (while Ares alligator rolls in his sheets because he can't settle down - in a toddler bed) gave him a kiss and got up.  But then got back down so he can kiss my cheek, then up, then down for the forehead, and chin, and mouth, and hair (yes, my son is odd) and...I think he's stalling, but I don't care, they're kisses! 

I'm so grateful that he LOVES to give kisses still, I know it won't last.  I'll have to go back to his 2 and 3 year old posts to remind myself that he does, in fact, love me. But OMG, just let me go downstairs and sit down.   5 minutes later, I hear his pidder padder of his feet running to the bathroom.  3 hours later, to the bathroom to get a drink, and 3 hours later to go to the bathroom again.  I swear, I check on him often, he sleeps well, and falls asleep immediately after getting back to his bed each time.

Not only am I exhausted from living it, but I am tired just thinking about it.  This is every.single.evening in our household. (Aside from going out to dinner, of course.)

At least bedtime was easy, as he beat everyone up the steps.  If it were the other way around... well, sheesh. 

Welcome to a 2 hour evening with the Millers!  Please, come again  =p

Halloween Costumes

Anyone:  Hey Ares, what do you want to be for Halloween?
Ares:  A princess!!!

**************************************************
Whole Story:
Last month:
Ares looking through a Halloween Magazine : I want to be scooby doo! 
Me:  That scooby costume is $70, how about Jake, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates?
Ares: No, I want to be Scooby Doo!
---
Next week, he's looking through the same magazine:  I want to be Tinkerbell for Halloween!
Me:  I thought you were going to be Jake?
Ares: No, I want to be Tinkerbell.
---
Last week,
My mom after picking him up from school:  Athena, your son wants to be a princess for Halloween
Ares: I want a dress and a wand and a crown!!
Me:  I thought you were going to be Jake?
Ares: No, a princess.
My mom: Let's put on a dinosaur costume (that doesn't fit).  Look at you!  You're a mean dinosaur.
Ares: I'm going to be a dinosaur for Halloween!
---
Four days ago,
Ares: I'm going to be a princess for Halloween!
Me: Why a princess Ares?
Ares: Because I like girls!
Me: but girls are usually princesses, do you want to be a prince?  How about Scooby Doo (My aunt happened to buy a scooby costume last year on sale - for him!  Ironic?!?)
Ares:  Nope, a princess, like at school
Me:  Do you dress up at school?  
Ares: Yes!!
Me: Do you wear pink? 
Ares: Pink is for girls, I want to be a blue princess!
Me: But you can be scooby doo, auntie cindy bought you a scooby doo outfit
Ares: Nope a princess
---
Yesterday to a neighbor:
Ares: I'm going to be a blue princess!

I'm not against him being a blue princess, either A) we'll have a great laugh about it when he's older, or B) we can say "We knew when he was only 3 years old." and still get a good laugh out of it.  Adam:  Not so sure of the princess idea. (And when I say 'not sure', it's more of a 'not having it'.)

Cinci-October

Adam and I changed the date we're going to Cincinnati to next weekend, which kind of bums me out, as now I'm missing Pumpkin Fest and the Cincinnati Book Festival (where one of my favorite bloggers is going to be with their new book).  *sigh*   Oh well, excited that their book is coming out soon, and I have a gift card to a book store burning a hole in my wallet!

Ice Cream

Adam to me: I think I'm going to the store to get ice cream, do you want some?
Ares:  Yes! Yes!
Adam: Should I go?

Me: *almost getting a word in*
Ares: Yes! Ice cream!  I want to pick it out.
Adam to me: *like the sponge bob opening theme song*  I can't heeeaaarrr youuu
Ares:  Ay Ay Captain!
Me: Sure.  Ares,  you stay here with me.
Ares: But I want to go.
Adam: No, you stay here with mom.
Ares: But, I want to go.
Adam: No, you stay with mom.
Ares:  But, well, uhm I already  have shoes on?!
Adam: OK, let's go.

*he totally knows the right things to say.

----they come home---

Ares gets a big ol' scoop of chocolate with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top (Adam really knows how to go out and get ice cream.)  He sits down to eat it and states: I really like ice cream.