Just Cuz, Miss. Payton

It was so incredibly awesome to hang out with Miss.Payton today!

Raegan's Getting Better With The Camera

All Original. Unedited.

Artiste'

Handed Raegan my camera, showed her how to point at things she likes and push the button... and these are a few of what came off of the memory card. The talent! Abstract daily life! I just let her go with it for a good 20 minutes till the almost dead battery ran out. We got plenty of the couch and her fingers, but these I thought were the best of the bunch.

Gonna Take Us A Vay-Kay-Shun!

It was a special, fancy day here in the Merritt household. Today, we were taking us a mini-vacation. The destination? Only the newest, fanciest, funnest place in Redmond EVER!!!!!The "wildlife" exhibit left much to be desired, but the children did seem to enjoy the exotic fish display.
"Natures Bounty" was a fun area to explore. Raegan sniffed and smelled just about every flower!


"The World Of Rubber" was an odd exhibit, but they kids sure had a fun time playing in the play area!

Look! We even managed to spend some time in the legendary "Land of Hangers"
And the seasonal display was a favorite of all.
As was the wondrous "Rainbow of Towels" walk through.

A favorite area was the petting zoo. This little pony just couldn't get enough of that carrot!

Then we moved on to the "rides" area. THIS ride was by far the biggest hit!

With this one a close second.

Then it was off to the eatery with exotic, imported apple pies and fried potatoes from France to finish up our fabulous and exciting vay-kay-shun.



All in all, a super duper exciting day. Jealous, aren't you?

Whelp

The Dermabond came off today. He managed to rub it mostly loose in his sleep so we picked the rest off as it wasn't doing anything for his cut anymore... but see how GREAT it looks!! We've been putting Neosporin on it and I'm confident he won't have much of a scar. I'm just so impressed! When it was first cut his skin pulled back so that thin red line was more of a football shape, with skull showing in the middle. That Dermabond sure did it's job!!

Snippetts:

Kael;

Says with frequency and meaning:

Shoe ( while trying to put them on, either my feet or his. I can tell him to go get his shoe or put back his shoe and he does so. )

Pizza ( he knows what the Totinos box looks like, what it means, and where he gets to sit to eat it)

Please ( although he seems to think this means "feed me a cookie"... and i guess so far he's right.)

Bath ( tell him it's bath time, he lights up, says "BATH!!!" and streaks up the stairs. will hop into the tub if he beats me there. )

Apple & Banana ( obviously)

Popsicle ( knows it on sight, asks for it during bath time. )

Night-Night ( says it, knows what it means, waves bye to daddy and/or sister, and goes to his room, attempts to climb in his bed.)

Bottle "Ba Bah" ( requests often)

Will also flop down and hold still when I tell him he needs a new diaper, has on occasion brought me the new diaper and wipes in request.
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Raegan:

Has drawn what she assures me is Spongebob. Complete with shoe.

Tucks her bear into it's own bed, complete with princess pillow and her white boo-ie tucked snug around it's body.

Will only go to sleep with the big light on.

Tells me to be "careful, Kael's owie!" when I'm washing his face.

Initiates tickle fights with her brother.

Knows the letter "O", "S", and "A" on sight, as well as their smaller versions ( the DADDY letter and the BABY letter, they are all in the FAMILY. "Raegan, what letter is this?" T, she says, then she'll ask "where's it's family? where's the (daddy/baby) letter? SO cute.

Also, as a family we have decide, with no hesitation, that we do NOT like Eggplant. Not even a wee little bit. It is just strangely... foamy. And somehwat slimy. And really, without much of a flavor of it's own. Which leads me to announcing that we have had, on several occasions, PB&J for dinner.. when Mama attempts new dishes.

Perfect Ending to a Day? Trip to the ER.

Last Night:
Kael. Fell. Down.

As all boys do, apparently, since there were 2 boys in front of me in line at the E.R last night, and 3 more came in behind us.

Kael, you see, fell down. Hard. Onto the edge of a thick plastic cup. Which popped open his forehead like an overripe orange.

I scooped him up, was tossed my purse and shoes along with a dry diaper and clean shirt for the wee man by Matt, and strapped him into his car seat in absolute record time. Seriously, maybe 30 seconds after he fell we were strapped in and headed off to the hospital, Matt staying home with the dripping wet Raegan ( we were playing in the hose after dinner when the "incident" happened).

By the time we got there, maybe 5 minutes later, he was done crying.. he just focused on dripping blood down his face. It sure was neat. I'd grabbed a dishtowel from the pile to be put away when I fled through the kitchen. It was soaked through, and my shirt was doing a pretty good job of backup. Looked like War victims.

We finally got checked in a half hour or so after we got there. He was actually somewhat chipper by this time! Still weeping blood. They taped a big wad of numbing-soaked cotton balls to his forehead to prep him for his stitches. 4, they said. Just the number of stitches I got on my forehead when I bashed it open as a child. But my wee man. My tough little man. He couldn't have cared less about that taped wad of crap on his head. He completely ignored it playing with the hospital equipment and eating all of the graham crackers they could scrounge up for him. 20 minutes later when the doc came back in he gave us the good news. Since Kael was apparently capable of ignoring annoying messes on his head; since he isn't a picker; we could go ahead and try using Dermabond instead of stitches!! YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!! No stitches!!

Things DID get ugly for a few minutes. We had to burrito wrap him and I held him like a wee little baby, tight and close to my body. Apparently the world, for him, ended in that moment. I sang the "ABC" song and made faces at him. They took a good look at that cut, about an inch long and all the way to his skull. Side note; the skin on your forehead is way thicker then you think it is! It feels thin, like your skull is right under there, but really it isn't! It's just very dense! So. I have seen my sons skull. Anyway. Once they were sure there was no damage to the bone and that there was no debris in the cut, they pinched it together and "super glued" it closed. He started weeping blood as they pinched it so now he has a big blob of bloody "superglue" in the middle of his forehead, but the bit of the cut you an see under it really looks good! Looks clean, like it might not even scar! He calmed down in 10 minutes or so when they finished, and soon we were home. He has been chipper and acting like normal ever since; he doesn't seem to even really notice. He HAS slept more, but that's just because I'm under order to keep him current with Tylenol for the next 24 hours.

So anyhoo. First trip to the ER with a bleeding child; CHECK.

Odd. I have a scar in the middle of MY forehead from falling. Matt has a scar in the middle of HIS forehead from falling. Kael will have a scar in the middle of HIS forehead from falling.....


Looks like it's time to start following Raegan around and tripping her randomly.

Gotta' match as a family, ya know?

A Wee Little Big'un

Raegan is growing up. She has taken to sleeping on the floor lately; she's just too wiggly to stay on that little toddler bed. Well that just wasn't right, so.......

We decided we might as well actually "move in" and went out & got her a bed. A real bed. An adult size bed. A TWIN bed! Yes, our means of transport is definitely lacking a wee bit of class... you should have seen me driving down the highway with that mattress strapped to the roof! The little thing is all flapping in the breeze, the only thing holding it onto the car is a bit of twine and sheer pig-headed determination. About a mile from the house the knot I "expertly" tied came apart somehow, so literally the only thing keeping it on the car was will. And my "big guns" ( thanks Kael!). Thank god we drive an automatic. I steered with one hand and grasped that crappy hairy string for all I was worth with the other.

But it was worth it.

Look at that little tiny peanut of a girl in the middle of that BIG bed!!! It was such a moment. She really is growing up. It makes me both happy and sad at the same time. I got up at 4 this morning and crawled into bed with her.. I miss my baby girl so much some times.

And some times I want to throw stuffed things at her head, so she is welcome to my wee moments of sentimentality.

Harney County Fair and Rodeo

Hard to get good carousel pics when you're ON the carousel trying desperately not to fall over.

LOVING the freedom of wide open space to run. NO one was there!

Not TALL Enough??!!!

Raegan enjoys the "truck" ride without him.

We make it up to him by "winning" him a large hammer to hit his tall sister with.

She is oblivious to her impending doom.

They had a great time but it WAS the first day of what is usually a pathetic little fair anyway, so it was even more on the "sad" side as not all attractions were ready. But we got some great visit time in with Matt's family and even had our first experience out at a restaurant together! I figured what the hell. This is Burns. We can't POSSIBLY be worse dining patrons then the cracked-out po-dunk redknecks that go there regularly.

Or can we?

Of course, because we are the best parents EVER, we requested the worlds most perfect and yummy of desserts.

Huge bowl of Whiped Cream.

You may mail our medel to our new address any time.

Raegan was properly impressed.

As was Kael

Speaking of Rednecks; I SO BADLY wanted to get the kids custom airbrushed redneck "trucker" hats from the fair!! Alas, we were just too early. No trucker hats to be found. I settled for regular ol' baseball caps and the kids LOVED them! Kept them on the whole day! Cute, no?