The Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar

Saturday Connor found a fuzzy yellow caterpillar, that looked pretty harmless, so we let him pick it up. Really super bad idea. Connor now has hives on his hand (like thirty!), the front and back of one leg, his stomach, his butt, and several on each arm. The caterpillar ended up being an American Dagger Moth Caterpillar and its hairs are like fiber glass. They are microscopic and stick in your skin while releasing a toxin. We went to the doctor today and she recommended applying cortizone and using Zyrtec to reduce the swelling and itching, which we were already doing. I'm not sure how long the hives will last, but we are supposed to be watching to make sure Connor doesn't develop a fever as that would be the first sign that the poison was overtaking his body. I think he will be fine in a few days, but we sure learned our lesson when it comes to caterpillars! So be warned, if you ever see a fuzzy yellow caterpillar with black lashes, do not pick it up! It may look cute and fuzzy, but it is not nice.

Lately

This last week Curt was out of town for work, refreshing his electron microscope skills, so I was in single parent mode. Let me tell you how hard it is to be a single parent. Each day was about surviving and meeting the most basic needs. I hardly had any time to just play with Connor or Vivian as all my time was spent trying to feed them, bathe them, dress them, put them down for a nap, put them down for the night, wash bottles, make formula, wash dishes, and keep the laundry clean. Oh, and chase the chickens all around the backyard in 100 degree heat. Baby Einstein and E.T. were my best friends, as that was the only way I could entertain Vivian and Connor and get some stuff done without two screaming kids. Also, just to mix it up, Vivian is teething and didn't sleep longer than 30 minutes at a time the entire week and Connor desperately missed his Dad and the only way he knew how to express this emotion was through very negative behavior. One night he got mad at me for not letting him ride his plasma car while holding a sharp stick and yelled, "I'm gonna punch you," and proceeded to punch me as hard as he could in the stomach (it didn't hurt at all) while also yelling, "Dad would let me do it!!!" So let me say, we were all so very happy to see Curt on Saturday. Connor and Vivian missed their Dad and I missed my best friend.

Anyway, due to my single parent status, all my projects came to a standstill. But, now that things are back to normal, I plan on resuming the chair re-upholstery project. Also, my neighbor brought by an old school desk one of his renters left in a garage and gave it to Connor. It was really dirty, but in good shape, so we are fixing it up too. I've already started working on it, so I'll post pictures of it soon.

Upholstery Staples...My Evil Nemesis

When Curt and I bought our dining room set we were still two years away from having Connor, so buying six dining room chairs with white microfiber covers did not set off any alarms bells. Today, with two kids, it sets off a lot of alarm bells. Like spaghetti sauce, pizza, grease, chocolate, etc. All food that is dropped by Connor onto the chair cushion. I have cleaned the cushions so many times that they all look dingy. I tried putting a towel in Connor's chair, but this is what I hear from him, "I don't want a towel in my chair. I don't need it. You don't have a towel in your chair. Dad doesn't have one." Eventually he ends up kicking it out sometime during dinner. At this point I am so tired of cleaning them, that if he drops spaghetti sauce on one, I wipe the blob off, but leave the stain. My new goal is to re-upholster all the chairs.

So yesterday I went to Hancock Fabric with my mom and the lady said I would need about two and a quarter yards of fabric for six chairs. I thought I had better get three in case I make a mistake. The fabric I really liked was 30 dollars a yard though. 90 dollars for three yards! Then she said it was forty percent off, so I bought it. I brought my fabric home and went about trying to remove a cushion from the frame of the chair. Actually I gave Connor the screwdriver and he did it. Super easy. Then I examined the bottom. The bottom has about two hundred staples holding the fabric on! Yikes, but I thought, "How hard can it be to remove a staple." Apparently, it is REALLY, REALLY hard. I tried using needle nose pliers to pull them out, but after thirty minutes I had removed twenty staples, my hand was cramped up and I was sweating. All of the staples are practically flush with the wood, meaning I can't even grip them with the pliers. Today, Vivian and I went to Ace Hardware and bought a tool made specifically to pull staples out. It is even worse than the needle nose pliers. So I looked online and found a tool that looks like it could really do some damage to the staples and possibly my finger, but it is twenty dollars plus shipping. I don't really want to spend that much on it, so I am contemplating just removing the fabric with a razor blade and leaving the staples in since they are flush with the wood and covering them with the new fabric. This is probably what I am going to end up doing. I'm taking pictures, but I haven't really accomplished anything yet, so I'll wait to post them.

Ode to Connor

I have to brag: Connor has been such a delightful little guy lately and I'm so impressed. Just five months ago, every day was a struggle. There was screaming, crying, tantrums. I was at my wits end every day. I was seriously considering taking him to a psychologist. Then I read the book "My Three Year Old: Friend or Enemy" and realized his behavior was normal and that he would cycle out of his bad behavior and he has. Lately, he has been using "please" and "thank you" and he communicates with me more instead of just getting hysterical. Every day he tells me the best stories and I look at him and my heart just swells with love and pride. So I would like to share a little bit about Connor.

Connor:
- always, always puts his underwear on inside out or backwards or both.
- loves to collect things, tape measures, chap stick, soap, candles, rocks.
- loves the color blue...if it is blue he'll collect it.
- loves riding razor scooters and plasma cars...so much that he wore holes in his shoes and then holes in
  his socks.
- loves going to Lowe's or Home Depot. He likes looking at everything. Tractors, weedeaters, tools.
- starts off stories with "Back in the old days" or "When I used to be little."
- can make Vivian laugh harder than anyone else, often by just looking at her.
- has eaten more ice cream sandwiches in his life than I have in mine.
- tells me, "I loves you Mom."

I sure loves him too.