Oktoberfest

We had another very busy weekend. Saturday we went to the Oktoberfest thing up at the fair grounds. The first thing we did was go through the haunted house, you didnt even hardly flinch I was really suprised because you get scared just walking down the halloween isles in walmart. I just knew you were going to be scared to death of it. Then you and uncles went down the huge blow up slide, then we went and watched uncles climb the rock wall then we went through the maze a couple of times and then you guys jumped in the jumping castle and went through the blow up obstacle course thing. Then we went outside and watched the pumpkin chuckin thing uncles launched some pieces of pumpkin a few times, you kept saying you wanted to do it to and then when it became your turn you would run back to me and not do it. After we did that we went and bought pizza for our pumpkin carving party and we came home ate pizza and had some goodies and then started in on the pumpkins. You hated the feeling of the pumpkin guck you didnt want anything to do with it. So you just sat and watched us carve for a few hours. Sunday morning we had to take uncles to lenore to meet grandpa so that they could help him track his buck. You wanted to go track with them you even took your gun. You were sad when they left. You got to have some cake because it was the birthday AA meeting, and it was grandpas birthday, he has been sober for eleven years now. On the way home we stopped out at the motel and visited with grandma sheila awhile. You were more interested in watching charlottes web than talking to her.

Outside

Today it was so nice out so we went outside and played for a couple of hours. I wanted to try out the new camera so I decided to have a photo shoot with you. As showed in a couple of posts before. You loved running in the leaves and sitting in the tree and making all kinds of funny faces at me. Hopefully it is just as nice tomorrow so we can go back out and play some more.

Pic's

Slide Show

Today

The start of the day, breakfast! Forget the spoon my tounge works better! Middle of the day, being a cutie! Notice the devil eyes!!!!!!!
And the end of the day, all tuckered out!! You fall asleep in the weirdest ways!

Rainy days go away!

Its raining again, been raining for a few days now which means we havent made it outside to do anything fun. I have been hoping that we can go out and stomp in the puddles like we did last week but it is either really windy or when the wind is not going it is pouring rain. So here we are stuck inside. We have played your new game HiHo Cherry-O a dozen times, we have played Arthurs birthday on the computer at least that many times and we have played rodeo a million times. I am bored out of my mind and you dont really seem to mind being stuck indoors but I am really itching to get outside. I think we might go up to Petco today to look at the animals and then maybe run over to Ross to find you some new socks. It seems like you never have enough socks and since we are getting ready to head to freezing Alaska I better stock up. I wonder how your going to adjust being away from home for three weeks. I know that when we went to Oregon for two weeks after the first few days you kept saying you wanted to come home and play with your toys. I am hoping that you and Tatiana get along and you enjoy your time there. At least she will have toys for you to play with there. It will kinda be like here though we are probably going to be stuck inside most of the time. At least they have tv there too because you really love your tv time. I am sure you will be fine there, I just need to quit my worrying.

Anyways heres a couple of pictures I took of you yesterday in your "Flint" hat as you call it. Your such a silly kid.

My favorite subject to photograph

Braden,

I sure do love you. Thanks for letting me take tons of pictures of you day after day! You are such a ham!!!

Love Mom

Sleep problems

Your sound asleep right now and have been for several hours. When you sleep you give it your all, sometimes I have to go over to you and watch to see if your breathing. You have always been that way from the day I brought you home. The first couple of days after I brough you home was so hard on me, I drove myself crazy everynight. I just knew that I would wake up and find you not breathing anymore. People put so many crazy thoughts and ideas in my head that I was seriously making myself crazy worrying about you. I was so scared that CJ the cat was going to sufficate you or that you would somehow roll over and suficate yourself. I refused to let you sleep with blankets or toys. After three days of waking up every 10 minutes to check on you and then waking up when you were awake I had drove myself ragged and I honestly thought I was nuts. I ended up going to the doctor and they told me that we should go and stay with grandma that way when she got up early in the morning she could take over with you and then I had to take a pill so that I could sleep. This went on for almost a month when i finally decided that we better try to sleep at home again. On top of not being home very much we were packing all of our crap back and forth everyday and the house was becoming a disaster and I really couldnt take much more of it. So home we came the first night I was back to my old behavior and wide awake every 10 minutes again. I didnt get hardly any sleep so then we tryed sleeping on the couch where you were snuggled right up to me and it worked a little better. That went on until you had gotten to big for both of us to sleep on there comfortably. So back to the bed and crib we went. But then I was still constantly up looking at you so finally I decided to just let you sleep in bed with me after awhile I started to get over my phobia and only woke every hour or so to check on you. You now have your own big boy bed that you really dont mind sleeping in but if I put you in there not only in a different bed from me but also a different room I am in there four or five times a night to check on you just to make sure you are still breathing. My worrying is even worse now that you sleep with pillows and blankets and the occasional toy. I dont know what my problem is, I know that the chances of you being sufficated is very slim but in the back of my head I still have all of those nagging voices telling me to watch the cats, watch the stuff your sleeping with and on and on. Your sound sleeping really does worry me, I think if something really is blocking your breathing are you going to wake up and move it or are you going to sleep so sound that you are not going to notice? This really does drive me crazy and I hope to someday overcome this fear. Dont be suprised though if when you are sixteen, you find me in your room one night starring at you making sure you are breathing. I really am a worry wart I swear!

Please return my child, I sure do miss him.

I wish somebody would of told me that when you turn three that everything changes. I know you just turned three five days ago but you are a whole different kid. You have been going to bed around eight and sleeping through the night until about eight in the morning. This is a good thing except that you have gave up on naps which means from about 5 to 8 you are a nightmare child. You get up in the mornings and refuse breakfast of any sorts. You insist on watching alot of tv and playing on the computer more than you did a week ago. You do not want to take a bath anymore. When I finally get you in there you splash water all over the place, fight to get the washcloth when I am trying to wash you, wont let me get shampoo in your hair and then when I get it in your hair its a fight to get it rinsed out. I finally give in to your whining and get you out. I dont know if you are even getting clean enough. Every time I ask you to do something you tell me that you are to tired, I ask you if you would like me to make you a bed and you tell me NO! You constantly ask me to get your hat or get your cup even if the item is a foot away. You have decided that if you dont get sometime your way that you are going to throw yourself down and yell that mom is a "Stupid Freak" at the top of your lungs or you run towards me and try to hit or kick me. Lunchtime rolls around and you would rather not have lunch unless its a cookie. I make you lunch and set it on the table and you go up to it and tell me that you dont like each and every item on your plate. I ask you if you would prefer anytime else and you tell me cookies or icecream. I try to get you to go outside and do something I even offer to take you to the park but you say that you would rather watch tv or play with your rodeo toys. The only clothes you want to wear is your rodeo clown outfit if I wont let you wear the outfit you insit on going without clothes. Ever single toy that comes across a commercial you must have and ask me ten times on each one if you can have it. Snack time rolls around and I make you a plate even though you havent had breakfast or lunch, I of course put a couple of cookies along with crackers, cheese and other stuff and whats the only thing you eat...........the cookies. You run around here acting like Flint Rasmussen your favorite rodeo clown, dancing like micheal jackson, jumping from couch to endtable to chair, you insist on climbing up on your clown barrel and dancing, you run around in circles doing your clown tricks about giving me a heart attack because I just know that you are going to slip and hit your head on the hearth or fall off of the keg crack your head open or worse yet that heavy thing is going to fall on you and break your leg. Dinner time rolls around, I fix your plate tell you to get up to the table, you climb up there look at your plate roll your eyes and tell me that you are not hungry and you want to watch tv. I tell you that if you eat some of your dinner you can have some icecream, you take one bite of whatever is for dinner and tell me that you are now ready for icecream. I honestly do not know how you have any energy to run around like you do when you do not eat anytime.From dinner time on you go back to your wild antics running around here like some crazed lunatic. You pull out every toy I have picked up, you drag a million toys out of the play room, you throw them everywhere and then do not pick them up when asked. If you would actually keep the play room clean and picked up after I clean it up you would have a place to play where I wouldnt be upset that your dragging toys out everywhere. I try to sit you down and read you some books or get you to color but that lasts about 5 seconds and then its back to being wild again. You have gone from a fairly normal child to a wild child all within a week. I dont know what to do with you. I honestly do not know where my sweet child that listened has gone, but if you see him could you please tell him to come back? I really miss him and fear that I am going to go nuts if you keep up acting the way you are!

Picked out your own pumpkin

Its my party...........

Its my party and I will dress like a clown, pout and be afraid of the candles if I want to!!

Three years allready.

Well last weekend was an eventfull one again!!
Lets start with Saturday, if I wasnt busy enough getting everything ready for your birthday party I decided that it would be a great day to take you and Uncles RJ and Chase to the pumpkin patch. We got there and you picked out your pumpkin all by yourself, it is all scarred up and doesnt sit quite right but its the one you wanted, I tryed switching it with a better one a couple of times and you kept catching me and I gave up and decided that you must really like that one. After picking out pumpkins we decided to pay the 25.00 to see what was on the other side of the bridge. What we found was a strawbale maze which you went through about 20 times, a petting zoo which consisted of the peoples two pet dogs, pet chickens, pet goat, pet horse and a couple of wild goats that fought each other the whole time, a couple of baby pigs and a rooster that you wernt allowed to touch. You did get to hold a small chicken which you really enjoyed, you also got to sit on the horses back for a minute or two. There was also two horsedrawn carriages giving out rides that we took advantage of. They were both alot of fun. You and uncles really enjoyed all of the stuff that they had to offer.
Sunday the day of your party we started off the morning with a house full. Aunt weez, miah and Katie had shown up the night before, as well as Chelsey and your uncles were here as well. Papa keith called at seven in the morning and woke the whole house up. We finished decorating for your party and getting everything ready. You had fun running around with all of the kids. Of course you had to dress up like a rodeo clown for the party. It was a cowboy themed party. Everyone that was expected finally showed up and I started the slideshow that I had made for you of all of my favorite pictures of you over your second year of life. After that you opened your gifts, you were really embarresed to be in front of everyone. Everytime someone oohed or awwed you would hide your head and get all bashfull. Your favorite gifts you recieved was your rodeo figurine set from grandma bonnie and you beer keg clown barrel that you got from your grandma sheila. After gifts I got you all ready to blow out the candle on your cake and as soon as everyone started singing happy birthday you were all embarrased again. You wouldnt even blow out your candle. While everyone was enjoying there cake you played with your toys. After that we played pin the tail on the donkey and then we all went outside to hit your cowboy boot pinata that me and uncle rj made for you. Finally after most of the people left you decided that you would have a piece of your birthday cake. Alana, Austin and Cody spent a few hours with you after everyone left, so you really enjoyed playing with them. All in all I would have to say that you had a great birthday even if you were tired and cranky and embarassed most of the time!!!

I really cannot believe that you are three years old. Where does the time go?