Wishing someone close to my heart a Happy Birthday!

Happy 10th birthday, to my baby girl, Arwen!

Arwen has been with me, since she was 5 weeks old. Her mom decided she was done with the kittens and placed them in the dog's food dish. I went in to work and found a small, mewing, precious kitten that needed me almost as much as I needed her. I was in a low place in life, my relationship at the time and really needed to feel needed. I fed her kitten formula for a month, manually wiped her with baby wipes for a couple weeks and guarded her from our other cat, Alley.

I didn't name her, but I knew she was going to be my baby. I was convinced I wanted a Bengal cat and had been looking for a kitten, when a co-worker informed my then-fiance (who was going to be paying for the kitten I ultimately chose) that his mom's bangal was expecting a litter of kittens. I agreed to hold off my search until I saw the kittens. Arwen was the most bengal looking of the kittens born and as soon as I saw her I was smitten!

Arwen has been my constant companion. Even when it was just the 2 of us, she was always there for me when I needed to be pulled out of a dark place.

When it was time to bring her into my home with Mac, she was shy and withdrawn. It took her 6 months to adjust to him. Now, she sleeps in bed with us almost every night. She even snuggled with Mac while I was caring for Peanut! She's come a long way.

She's not jealous of Nixon but she's not overly fond of him either. Indifferent, I'd best describe her relationship with Nixon as indifferent. Recently, as Nixon calms down from the crazy, tornado ball of energy he is to a momentarily caring and affectionate animal lover I know he can be, Arwen will nuzzle him and purr when he pets her. It's the closest thing to a sibling relationship Nixon will have and they are learning to love each other.

So happy 10th birthday, baby girl! Thank you for being the cuddly, anti-social, overly loud purring, bundle of fur you are! You've been my baby before I knew I wanted a baby and are as important to me as Nixon is.

....and then I became that mom

   Nixon and I had a playdate today, our second with this particular group from meetup.com. We started in a play area at the local mall, then moved onto the reason we were all there, the bounce house play area! Nixon wanted nothing to do with the bounce houses, but he did enjoy the basketball game and (joy of mommy) the air hockey table! He asked me to play with him and he was actually good, keeping in mind he's almost 4 and it was his first time seeing the game. He was good with the paddle and puck and had decent concept of the game, though he did like knocking the puck into his own goal more than shooting for mine. 
   After the bounce house area we went to the food court for lunch, mostly uneventful time. I really enjoyed meeting a couple other moms and Nixon had fun with a few kids AND he wasn't the tallest kid there! (This is something I'm not familiar with lol)
   When it came time to break up and go our own ways, things went wonkey. Nixon rode a helicopter riding ride before we made the long trek back to the car. I stopped and let Nixon pick a splat toy from one of the kiosks. He had it, in the protective bag, when I entered a lotion store hoping to purchase a new body wash and matching lotion in a scent I've become obsessed with (coconut lime, in case anyone was wondering). While I was looking at the options, I suddenly hear Nixon exclaim "Oh no!" and turn to see that he has popped a hole in the toy through the protective bag and it had leaked all over himself and the floor! I quickly walk over to the sales attendant and apologize for the mess, asking if she had paper towels. She took it as I wanted her to clean it, while that was not my intent I couldn't focus on that because....Nixon had started flipping out over the leak! I took the toy from, apologized again and left the store, with a crying sad child holding my hand. When that stopped, the walking not the crying, I was then carrying a crying child! We, at one point, reached an area with no people around so I took advantage of it and threw the toy out. And the crying got worse! 
   Just about 10 minutes later (but it felt like forever to me!) we reached the exit. Nixon was still crying, now tossing out gems like "But mommy I'll be good!" and "It wasn't my fault" as we walked past strangers. He got put in the car, buckled up, given BeBe and we went home, where he eventually napped for 3 hours and the damned splat toy was never mentioned again.

   I'm the mom that had a child make a mess in the store and didn't buy anything from the store. I fully intend to, but next time I'm taking advantage of the in-mall child drop-off area. I won't be making this same mistake twice!    
   If you happened to have walked by my snotty, crying mess of a child while at the Westfield Mall in Annapolis....I'm sorry. But in my defense he wasn't screaming. For that, people at the mall, you are welcome!

more conversations with Nixon

...the following conversation took place Sunday morning, during our Denny's breakfast family date. We try to do this once a week on Mac's weekends off, but lately it hasn't been happening for a variety of reasons. Since it was Sunday we spent some time talking about football, specifically our fantasy teams. While discussing them I had this brief conversation with Nixon about favorite teams: 

me: Nixon, what's your favorite football team?
Nixon: *short pause* the brown
me: The Browns?
Nixon: Yeah, Browns!
me: Seriously? The Browns. *looking at Mac* How did this happen?
Mac: I don't know.
me: Nixon, what about the Eagles? 
Mac: You can't do that! Let him choose his own team. 
me: Fine. Nixon you can like any team you want....as long as its not those damned dirty Cowboys.
Mac: Stop! That's not fair, and you're always telling me to let him be himself.
me: I can tell him not to like the Bills, if it'd make you feel better.
Mac: NO! He can like any team he wants to.
Nixon: Brown, my favorite football is brown. 
me: Wait?? You like the brown football?? 
Nixon: Yeah!
me: What about teams? Like Dolphins or Eagles?
Nixon: Eagles!
me: whew...that was close! *as I hug and kiss this awesome boy of mine*

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In other news, it's not often I get really strong, positive reactions to Nixon's name. So when a woman in the checkout lane at Target did just that, I was kind of taken aback. 


me- Nixon, please stay next to me
woman in line in front of me- Nixon? What a great name!
me- Thanks.
woman- Maybe he's got a future in politics? He has the name for it.
me- Maybe not...not with the current state of our political world. 
woman- maybe he can help change things years from now.

She was very nice and kind about it, and so hopeful for his future. We hardly ever get such a good reaction to his name. Some times we hear a "that's a different name", which usually turns out to be code for "you've ruined his life with your failure to just use a normal name" and other times we've heard "Well it's not the worse name I've heard of", which is followed by but not spoken "but it's on my top 10 worst ever". Family just kind of suck it up at this point, friends were very supportive if only because they like the story of how we chose his name. 

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Finally...I was woken up by Nixon the other day. He came into the bedroom and lightly touched my arm. 
"Mommy, are you awake?"
I rolled over and opened one eye at him, mumbling something totally incoherent, which Nixon took as a sign I was, indeed, awake. 
"Yay! I get grapes now!" 

Apparently, Mac had told him he couldn't have grapes until I was awake. I woke up and found NIxon gleefully waiting for his grapes in the kitchen.

And then he made me coffee....well I watched him as he made me a cup of coffee. He's all about helping me make coffee in my Kuerig. He figured it out before Mac did! haha 

It's like he's a NINJA

Nixon likes to creep around stealth-like. He'll come into our bedroom while I'm sleeping and just stand next to my side watching me. Sometimes, he'll climb into bed and cover my face in kisses while I sleep. Once in a while, he'll come in and tell me "Mommy, I awake now. I even pee peed in the potty and flushed it all by myself", it's like his version of a "good morning". 

His new ninja skills can be a real mood killer! For example, last week. Mac and I were getting to know each other in a carnal way, during Nixon's nap. We were downstairs and Nixon was sleeping upstairs. We thought we were safe because there's no way you can move upstairs without the ceiling creaking. I mean, even the cats walking upstairs sounds like Mac walking up there. 
So, back to the story, we're getting to the best part when all of a sudden, Nixon appears on the stairs all sweet sleepy-faced. Mood over! 

Anyone else living with a secret mood-killing ninja child??

Today was a good day

Nixon and I went on a zoo adventure today. The Baltimore Zoo had their (annual??) free admission day today, everyone got in free!! The meetup group I'm a part of had some members going there, and I made sure Nix and I were going as well. 

There are some photos that you will remember for the rest of your life. Then there are the once-in-a-blue-moon moments that capture the subject's personality just spot-on. Today I got lucky and took more than one of such photos of Nixon at the zoo. I didn't realize what I had until I got home and looked at them. I love 2 of these pictures more than almost any other photo I've taken or had taken of Nixon: 

I couldn't explain this if I wanted too. This is Nixon, being Nixon. This  shows his wacky personality.

Vogue?? I don't know. But I do know I love this kiddo more and more everyday. Because of moments like this.