Vacation!!

Much needed get away for us last week.. this was the first vacation we have taken since before Truman was born, somewhere close to 2 years since our last one! Took the whole fam damily to Wallowa Lake (OR), Rodney found an awesome cabin on the lake, packed the kids, our crap-ton of stuff and loaded up the new Bullington family mobile (71 GMC Suburban) and hit the road.

We took a drive through Wallowa valley with Grandma and got to hear her '100 year old stories', caught fish, played scrabble, rode the bumper boats, went to the top of the world in the gondola, did some tubing in the lake (thank you Deckers!) and made some memories (thank you Mom, Dad, Grandma, Evelyn, Henry, Truman and Hubby!)... all you can ask for! (well maybe a little more sleep but I figure I'll get that in about 18years or so)

We've got over 400 pics and about 20 videos (excellent job family!) Rodney is working on putting them all together, when the masterpiece is finished I'll make sure and post it here as well... until then here is a little glimpse into the fun that was had and what I like to call our 'little piece of heaven'!

The evening view from the deck of the cabin...awesome!


A family dip in Wallowa Lake (sans Truman, he'll get his turn next year) Did I mention it's a glacier made lake?


- back to reality mama

The Birthday Quarter!

We are quickly entering the birthday quarter so it is quite fitting that today Truman got excited about a birthday one of his classmates had... when I picked him up he said 'birtday party mama' and then proceeded to sing the first line of Happy Birthday!  I asked him if he had fun.. 'YEAH', did you have a cupcake? 'YEAH', did you sing Happy Birthday? 'YEAH MAMA' with a big ol smile on his face :)  So I think we are no officially ready for the birthday quarter~

Evelyn's bday is 8/26, I hear Benihana's and a family bbq are on the docket.  Grandma LaVerne kicks off September by turning 81 on 9/10 and Hank the big 6 on 9/16,!  Truman turns 2 on 10/8 and Rodney and I have our bday to finish out the quarter on 10/24... how bout that for a busy couple of months? Its a good thing Truman has figured out the first words to the Happy Birthday song, he's about to get really good at it ;)

On a side note I think we have made it over the paci hurdle, he asks for it in desperate times of need, in the car when he's tired, at bedtime if he's struggling to go to sleep he looks in his woobie pocket hoping paci is there... overall I'm very proud of him (and of me for not giving in)... however now he has taken to sucking on his fingers instead, his thumb, 2 fingers, 3 fingers, his entire hand and sometimes two hands! I'm not sure which is worse? I'm pretty sure he's teething so whatever he needs to do to make his mouth feel better cutting those teeth I'm all for it!

- growing up aint easy mama

The beginning of the end of Paci

So tonight we officially lobbed off the head of Mr Orange Paci... this is the same pacifier that Truman got in the NICU at Evergreen hospital some 22months ago... yes the very same one!  We've had a couple of close calls, one specifically at midnight in Target doing some Christmas shopping when he was 2mo old, a few panicked moments during moves, car rides and the most recent one was having it fall out of the car in the Dr's parking lot only to return 30min later and rescue it from its demise!

Why the same paci you ask? Truman wouldn't have any other, he's a one paci kinda guy.. believe me we tried!

Over the past month or so paci had seen better days, the plastic around the outside had come off and he had successfully tore the actual paci!  I started to worry about... what happens if he rips it and then sucks it down his throat? what if.. what if.. so tonight as I'm looking at his paci, hanging on for dear life, I made the decision to rip off the tip and show Truman that his 'paci was broke' :(  it took a few minutes of explaining paci was broke and that mama couldn't fix it and some coaxing to get him to throw the tip into the garbage but he did it.. I told him how proud I was of him and he smiled only to return to the garbage a few minutes later asking to pull the piece of paci back out (having changed his mind).

Now we have whats left of the paci, he tried multiple times to get it to work as his old friend had but no luck.. however it did take its rightful place in the pocket of his woobie to survive another day!

Bedtime went okay, he gnawed on paci, held his woobie and asked a few 10x just to confirm.. 'paci broke?'  so far no tears for the first night - well, at least for him... I can't make any promises for myself ;)

Grandma posted an 'ode to orange paci' on facebook tonight that says it best..."You were the comfort for our little boy during times of discomfort and times of joy. You've accompanied him to places far and near, you have been his best friend for over a year. So now its time to say goodbye, Your work has been stellar we can not lie. Goodbye Orange Paci you've been such a friend, rest, relax your time is at end."

Orange Paci.. 10/08/08 - 08/09/10 you will be missed!

- another step forward mama

Clumsy!

Okay so I talk a lot about Truman's traits and whether they come from me or Dad (Rodney), well one that I'm fairly certain comes from this side of the house is Truman's clumsiness.. I swear a day doesn't go by where that kid falls off a table, a step, runs into a wall or just trips on his own feet.. (guilty as charged on all of those)

Notice the nice purple hue from a few weeks ago smack in the middle of his forehead from falling and hitting his head on a corner.. our little bruiser~

Last night he pulled a new one off the end of the kitchen table bench and you'd think the fact that his highchair caught his fall would have been okay but nooooo he hit his head and neck on the highchair pushing it back away from the bench allowing him to continue to fall backwards all the way to the ground.. needless to say that was the beginning of the end of our evening~

Overall good spirits today, (minus a pretty good coughing spell last night )or early this morning depending on how you look at it.. played with some cars, at some Trix, yes I feed him sugary cereal because its THAT good and we got to see deer eating apples off our trees this morning - I love being home~

- clumsy just like his mama