I Knew Something Wasn't Right

As I mentioned weeks ago, I have been having trouble with my foot.  June 15th was the last time I was able to run and since then I've been having discomfort and sometimes real pain.  After hobbling around for a few weeks and not getting any better J made me call an orthopedic doctor to get it checked out for a second opinion.

Now I am sporting this look:

Disregard all the crap that's hanging on our hall tree - this is the only full length mirror we have in the house.

So yeah, it turns out it wasn't tendonitis. I actually do have a fracture in my foot.  Awesome.  I have been walking around on it for the past three week making it worse and popping ibuprofen like tic tacs.  Ibuprofen is a great anti-inflammatory, but it also impedes bone growth.

The doctor was looking at my foot and pressing on the tendons on either side of where it hurt and remarked that it would be very unusual to have tendonitis in only one tendon.  She also bent the middle toe back and forth and said since that wasn't causing any discomfort that it was very unlikely that it was a tendon issue.

She left to go look at the x-rays they took and when she came back in she said "Yeah, you have a fracture." I had the disk with the previous x-rays and she took them and looked at them. She said she could possibly see it in one of them,  but she also knew where to look since she'd already looked at the new ones. I know stress fractures can be hard to see on x-rays so I'm thinking I've made it a lot worse these last few weeks to make it show up.

I go back on August 22nd for the follow-up.  She said it could be 4 to 6 weeks to heal, but if it feels better before that (no more swelling and no more pain) then I don't have to wear the boot the whole time.  She did caution that people who aren't as aggressive with wearing the boot will take longer to heal.  So I guess that means I will be wearing this bad boy for our vacation next week. Excellent.

On the bright side, I am happy to have a definitive diagnoses and to be on the right path to getting this all fixed.  I just can't believe I won't be able to run for probably another whole month. Ugh.

Wordless Wednesday ~ He's up to something

Munchkin Chair

Ok, it's not actually called a munchkin chair, it's a Little-Furniture Upholstered Personalized Kids Mini Chair, but it's for my munchkin so I'm calling it a munchkin chair.

I had been wanting to get him his own chair for a while now and had been eyeing up the Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair, but I never seem to catch the sales and was having a hard time thinking about spending $140 for one of those things.  I did find the inserts for them on Amazon and could have gotten one for slightly cheaper (after getting the slipcover and all that jazz) but I decided to look around some.  J thought that the Anywhere Chair might not last since it's foam (I know lots of people have them and they probably last just fine) and he sent me the link for the Little Furniture chair.  I ordered it on July 3rd and Amazon had the predicted delivery date by August first, but that was an extremely generous estimate with the shipping time.  I've been tracking it on FedEx and was so pumped that it was delivered yesterday. I couldn't wait to get home to check it out.

Andrew was excited, too:

"Open it mom!"

I opened the box and pulled it out. I hadn't been sure about the brown for the lettering, but I think it came out really nicely.  The chair itself is a navy and white gingham with the wooden feet.

Of course Andrew climbed right on:

And eventually sat in it like an actual chair:

Please ignore the mass of toys behind him - we really need a toy box.

"This chair rocks, mom!"

So hopefully the munchkin will continue to enjoy his new piece of furniture.  Only time will tell with how well it will hold up.  One thing that the Anywhere Chair has over this one is the removable (and presumably washable) cover.  I'm thinking we better scotch guard this thing before he gets to rambunctious with it.

And just because it's hilarious - here is a picture from this morning of him being borderline inappropriate with his bunny in the chair.

He did have a diaper on if that makes it any better  :)

So Many Tomatoes!

Seriously - who is going to eat all of these tomatoes???

And that isn't even all of the ones that I picked on Saturday. I missed some and had to go back down to the garden to get them.  That also doesn't include the bazillion cherry and grape tomatoes that were on those plants.

I seriously think J was smoking crack when he decided to plant the garden this year.  Why else would he plant 8 tomato plants???

Anyway, I'm trying to come up with things to do with our bounty.  I've already given a bunch away to my coworker and J took some down to our neighbors last night.

I've used the tomato press that we got as a wedding gift and we have probably 4 quarts of tomato pulp for use in future sauces:

We've already canned a crapload:

(We have two dozen of these quart jars)

And I already made a big batch of sauce that we used for spaghetti and stuffed manicotti.  So I decided to get creative and find another way to use some of them.

Homemade sun dried tomatoes:

I did two different trays - one with the tomatoes quartered with some basil sprinkled on and one with the tomatoes sliced with oregano:

Popped them in the oven at 175 degrees for the entire day (and 120 degrees overnight):

And voila!

We have some sun (oven) dried tomatoes.

Now I need to find some fancy recipes to use my tomatoes and hope that they taste ok.  And come up with some other uses for the dozens of tomatoes we still have left so J doesn't try to make a tomato pie (barf).

If only the munchkin would eat tomatoes. Or anything for that matter.

Andrew's New Discovery

It goes without saying that the munchkin is constantly finding new things to get in to and more ways to entertain himself.  I'm constantly amazed as his ability to hone in on the one thing in the room that we would rather him stay away from (laptops, fireplace tools, eyeglasses, etc).  This kid definitely has a sixth sense about those things.

Anyway, he has now discovered something that isn't dangerous, but it can be a little annoying.

The wipes.

He loves the crinkly sound of the little travel wipes and I will give him those to keep him entertained when we're out and he's getting ornery. He likes crinkly stuff - always has.

But now he has discovered the joy of pulling out the wipes.  He has also now figured out the wipes container that stays on the counter in the kitchen and when I put him in his seat he is lunging for that bad boy before I can even get him strapped in.

He likes to press buttons and I watched him with his one pudgy finger poking at the release button on the lid.  I walked over to the sink to rinse something off and the next thing I knew he was sitting there happily pulling wipes out and piling them on his tray.  I don't have a picture of that, but the expression on his face was a little something like this:

I guess on the bright side it wasn't like they went to waste. He is such a mess by the time he gets done eating that I have to use all of the wipes he so "helpfully" gets out for me.

And it could be worse. He could be reaching into his diaper and pulling out poo or getting into the trash can and playing with something equally nasty.  I guess I should be thankful that his current fascination is with something to help clean.

Just makes me wonder what he'll discover next???

(Not Quite) Wordless Wednesday ~ It's Not a Garage Sale!

We just have a LOT of crap!

We cleaned out the garage last Thursday on one of our days off.  We REALLY need to get rid of some stuff.

People would drive by and eye up the stuff we had laying out.

Mostly empty

He let me throw out a few things - like those nasty shoes that had been sitting in the garage for who knows how long. And don't mind the funk on the house - we really need to powerwash it.

Full of our (slightly more) organized crap again

Our organized chaos

My Little Daredevil

This past weekend Andrew discovered a new fun game.  I was in the kitchen and looked over to see him sitting up on the chaise. I had no idea how he got up there since I know he can't climb up there just yet. I didn't realize that my husband had left a pillow on the floor and that's how the munchkin managed to climb up.

He was so excited about this new found ability. He then spent the next 5-10 minutes climbing up and diving off onto the pillow while laughing.

You'll have to forgive the shakiness at the beginning - I was trying to make sure he wasn't going to fall off the side.  And the blackout at the end when I dropped my phone to dive for him to stop him from going off backwards.  This kid has no fear.


Andrew's new game from Kelly Walker on Vimeo.

I'm a Slacker

With  my five day weekend (starting with July 4th) I have been a bad blogger.  I took my computer home and everything, but it never actually made it out of my bag.  In my defense it was a busy five days.  And because I have a crapload of work to catch up on I am just going to do a bit of a photo dump of our extra long weekend:

My cool little dude when I picked him up at the farmer's market on Tuesday:

Some pool time on the 4th with some friends:

A nightcap with mommy while watching the Tour de France:

Having more fun playing with his corn than, I don't know, actually EATING it:

Some more pool time:

And finally, my little weirdo in the tub  :)

It was a fantastic 5 days, but now reality is smacking me in the face with work.  Oh well, at least two weeks from today we'll be in the mountains enjoying a little family vacation.  Let the countdown begin!

Maybe It's a Premonition?

Last night I had a dream that we had left Andrew outside playing while we did something in the house. When I walked back outside to check on him I was shocked to see him go running by me. Then I was upset because he finally started walking and we missed it.

Then I woke up and thought "What the f@&% were we doing leaving our 15 month old kid outside by himself to play???"

Anyway, maybe I'm psychic and he'll start walking soon.  Of course last night when he was being a complete and total spazz as I tried to change his crib sheet and mattress pad my husband commented that we are in trouble once he does decide to walk.

As it stands now he is already getting into enough trouble:

Our own personal Dennis the Menace. And I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world  :)

Hot!

(This week's Toddle Along Tuesday is Summer Fun - I think pools and beaches qualify, right?)

That's really the only way to describe this past weekend.  July and August are my least favorite months because it is just too freaking hot and humid to enjoy anything outside.  This weekend started out July with a bang - temps in the upper 90's and a heat index of 118. Awesome.

On Saturday while J was off doing a 50 mile bike ride (and basically daring heat stroke to get him) I filled up the munchkin's pool in the yard so it could warm up a little while he was napping (the water is COLD when it comes out).  Of course by the time I went to put him in it the water was a little too warm (who wants bathtub-like water in 90+ degree heat?).  A little cool water coming out of the elephant got us to the right temperature, though:

After he finished doing a little work on the boat J decided to climb in to keep Andrew company.  I worried about him getting too much direct sun so I went and got an umbrella to hold up so he'd get some shade.

Gotta love a kiddie pool that's big enough for the parents to get in, too!

He had fun playing with daddy until he was hungry and then it was time for lunch.

Yesterday was another scorcher.  We decided to chance it and head out to the beach instead of getting in his hot tub out in the yard.  I was all set for a cranky munchkin with the heat and humidity, but he was surprisingly cooperative.

I blew up his buggy float and we headed to the tidal pool.  He sat in it for about 5 minutes:

Then he leaned forward and went face first into the water and it was all over:

Don't mind his kabuki dancer look - I didn't rub the sunscreen in very well.

We gave up on the buggy float, put a hat on him and let him sit in my lap in the water for a while.  He was still upset and not wanting to sit by himself, but after a little while he let me sit him in the sand and he splashed in the water for a while.

And ate a shell when I wasn't looking.  Oops.

Anyway, as far as stifling muggy weekends go it wasn't too bad. I just really hope that this heatwave breaks soon and we get a little relief. I'll even settle for some weather in the 80's.  It's sad that I'm rooting for a tropical storm to come through and maybe knock some of this humidity out.

Oh July - how I loathe thee...