I'm not leaving.  Ever.  You can't make me.

Observations

We are taking our annual family trip to Lake Redstone with Travis's brother's family.  The scenery is Wisconsin at it's finest.  Rolling hills, beautiful rock formations, farm fields flourishing with this year's crop, and just so many trees.  I mean we have our fair share of trees in Cottage Grove, but it's different.  While we were driving here, I pointed out a huge hillside completely covered with trees...

Me:  Alex!  Look at all of those trees.
Alex:  Whooooooooaaaaa...They must have the freshest air here.

Yeah, I mean, I guess it's alright.

Dentist

I hate hate hate going to the dentist.  Everything about it.  I hate have them poke that hook thing around.  I hate having someone else floss my teeth.  I hate the gritty taste of the polish/paste crap they use.  I hate the way the suction tube feels in my mouth when it's sucking all moisture from my body.  And don't even get me started on any sort of pain related to dental work.  Blech.  The last time I got a filling, I whined so much the dentist administered enough Novocaine to numb a rhinoceros.  Just the smell of a dentist office, and they ALL smell the same, makes my stomach turn.  I tell you all of this so you will possibly have a shred of understanding left after I tell you that I had yet to take Alex to the dentist.  He's six.  He has a lot of teeth.  A lot of teeth that had never seen the blinding brightness of a dentist's overhead light.  Had never seen.  I finally bucked up and got an appointment for him.

He was so excited.  When I got to daycare to pick him up, he came running to me shouting, "Is it time for my dentist appointment??!?"  Yes.  Calm yourself.  This shit is awful.

But it wasn't awful.  He was great.  Straight from the get go he told me, "I just know it's gonna be a good appointment.  I just know it's gonna go well Mom." OK buddy, I like your positive attitude.  He was very polite, and a little bit shy, but he didn't need any prompting from me to answer any questions the hygienist or dentist asked him.  He sat well and followed all instructions during the cleaning and exam.  And for an extra bonus...no cavities!

He absolutely loved it and is sad he isn't going back until January.  He is not my child.

Two favorite pictures from Gramma and Grandpa Z's yesterday:

Brewer's Trip!

A friend of Travis's had some Brewer's tickets he couldn't use, so he put them in Travis's name at will call for the game on Tuesday.  We had no clue where the seats were, so I told Travis to take Alex instead of us scrambling to get a sitter.  WRONG CHOICE.

Travis made sure he got done with work early, scooped up Alex from daycare, they stopped by my office to grab some chairs from my truck, and were on their way to Milwaukee by 2:30.  The plan was to get there early enough to do a little tailgating but still get into the stadium well before game time so Alex could run around like a lunatic for a while and they could be in their seats for the first pitch.  And it's a good thing they did that, because there were some issues getting the tickets.  But once they did, they found out where their seats were.  5th row behind home plate.  Travis sent me a picture, and after I replied that I hated him a little, he said, "Yeah...we should have gotten a sitter."  Gee, YA THINK?!

Not surprisingly, they had a great time.  Alex got to watch the sausage races from the front row.  "Number 2 won...no wait...contestant number 2 won.  There was contestant number 1, and  contestant number 2, and contestant number 3, and contestant number 4, and  contestant number 5.  Contestant number 2 won though.  He was the hot dog."  Did you happen to learn a new word buddy?

Then he got to sit in the front row with another kid that was near their seats.  And that kid had a game ball.  A game ball that he gave to Alex because he already had one at home.  And then they stayed for the whole game.  A game that started at 7pm.  Yeah...they got home right around midnight.  I was positive Travis would be carrying a comatose asleep Alex straight up to his room, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard them talking on their way in.  Alex climbed up on the couch to tell me all about it.

After he finished his rendition of the day's events, Travis told him to tell me what he had decided his favorite part of the day was.  Quick side note:  Every night at dinner, we go around the table to tell each other what our favorite part of our day was.  As I was mentally running through everything Alex had just told me trying to predict what his favorite moment was, he leaned in, laid his head on my shoulder, and said, "My favorite part was coming to your office to see you."

I only cried a little bit.

So Many Towels Needed

Stinky Snuggle Bug

Alex tiptoed to my side of the bed at 5:30 this morning, climbed in, asked what time it was, and quickly fell asleep snuggled against my side.  When I woke him up this morning, the following conversation took place:

Me:  Just what do you think you're doing coming in here at 5:30 in the morning?
Him:  I just wanted to snuggle you.
Me:  I'm just teasin' buddy.  I love it that you came to snuggle me.  Snuggling you is my favorite thing in the world.
Him:  Me too.  I just want to always snuggle you.  I wish you didn't have to leave to go to work and I didn't have to leave to go to school so we could just always snuggle.
Me:  Me too, buddy.
Him:  (from his butt) FFRRRRBBBBTT....(from his mouth)BAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Me:  You're nasty.