never a good thing.

A burning smell coming from the laundry room is never a good thing.

I think I somehow destroyed our washing machine when I washed our (thin) king size quilt last week. (The "super capacity" is supposed to be able to handle large bedding.) I left the house after I put it in and when I returned home the washer had "walked" into the laundry room a bit. Since then, it has worked fine but I could hear a squeaking sound every now and then.

This morning at around 6:15 I put in a load of towels. (I washed our king size sheets last night no problem.) Well, I that was it. I heard a very loud squeal and walked into the laundry room to see a weird smoke and was overtaken by a horrid burnt smell. I couldn't feel anything hot and I couldn't really tell where the smoke was coming from, but one thing was for sure.....the washer wouldn't spin anymore.

I scheduled a repair appointment with Sears. The service fee is $129. I am pretty sure we got our washer the day after Thanksgiving a couple of years ago for about $400 total. They couldn't come until tomorrow. Even though I found a coupon for 10% off the service fee and repair, I still wasn't liking that the repair will almost definitely cost over 1/2 the cost of the machine itself.

Anyway, I found another repair company online that is local: Mr. Appliance. They only charge an $89 service fee if you choose NOT to repair the machine. They will provide a quote and if you do choose to repair, then the service fee is waived. They can come out today...between noon & 2:00. So, hopefully it isn't going to break the bank...or my heart. I hate doing laundry as it is, this type of thing just makes it even worse.

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The good news is that he was able to come...early. Also, it wasn't anything electrical.

Bad news: $220. It was the belt. That sounds like a lot of $ for a rubber hose. At least it isn't $129 + $200 in parts/labor. I could have bought several quilts for that amount of money. Lesson learned...don't wash bedding, just buy something new. ;)

I will say that Keith, our repair guy was very nice. He didn't have the part he needs on his truck so he said he would have to order it and would be back Monday to install. However, then I think he remembered that I offered him a yummy cinnamon muffin and he called his co-workers around town and was able to locate the part he needs 15 minutes away. He'll be back in about half an hour to do the repair. Another lesson: muffins matter. :)

Determination

This feeder is dangling from our deck...a good 15 feet off the ground and it sways in the wind. Since we are on the water and don't have a lot of trees in the back yard, I really don't mind with our furry friends get a bite to eat. Connor thinks they are fantastic! "firels"

Butterflies are Blooming 2011

the image above is the underside of the wings of the beautiful blue butterfly below. God is an AMAZING designer!

A limp.

So, a week ago Tuesday (9 days ago) Connor was "hanging" from Brian's neck in the living room and I'm not exactly sure what happened, but he ended up falling and landed somehow on his left leg. Of course he cried immediately, but got it together quite quickly. He runs, goes to gymnastics, runs everywhere and lets us manipulate his foot, knee and leg. But he limps. He appears fine when he does all of those things I just listed, but ask him to walk across the room and it is almost like he drags his left leg slightly behind him. Since it hasn't altered his life much, we didn't want to overreact and take him in to the doctor. However, now that it has been over a week since the incident and he is still limping, Brian brought it up again last night and said, "I don't want it to affect his t-ball." Oh, priorities. :)

We had a little time this morning, so I called his pediatrician just to see if I should bring him in or give it more time. They fit us in this morning and also marveled at his ability to run, climb, skip, etc....but also definitely saw the same limp that we've been seeing. So, we had to go across the hall for a full set of x-rays on his left side. They wanted ankle, shin, knee, femur, and left hip. I'll let you use your imagination about how those went. I think I might have lost a little hearing. Poor buddy just kept asking to put his jeans back on.

Since it isn't an emergency, we won't know anything until tomorrow. So, life proceeds as normal. We are planning on going to "open gym" tomorrow, so I fully expect to get the call that he has something broken while he runs down the tumble track. :)

For the Kidz

For the record, I can't stand when companies use incorrect letters...like kidZ. Oh well, that didn't stop us from taking Connor last night!

For the Kidz Gymnastics and Trampoline less than 5 minutes from our house. They have "open gym" on Saturday evenings from 7:00-9:00 and Connor is just $4. It was our first time last night so I wasn't sure what to expect. When we walked in, I didn't see any other little kids. There were a lot of pre-teens and actually a whole bus of teenage special needs kids. The gym was packed and I was actually a little fearful that Connor would easily get lost in the shuffle. I figured we'd be there for an hour if we were lucky.

I was wrong.

It only took Connor about 5 minutes to get used to his surroundings and then he wanted to do EVERYTHING. We started on the little trampolines, then the obstacle course, the foam pit, balance beam, rings, tumble track, big trampoline, water fountain, and repeat.

I took tons of pictures (even though I should have been using my other lens...bummer) and we have some video footage too. I need to get everything off the camera(s).

We ended up leaving at 8:55 and the only reason we were able to get out then was because we told Connor that all the kids were going "night night" and they were going to lock the doors. And we told him he could come back another time.

I might be signing him up for a "You and Me" class to try out on Monday or Tuesday mornings. My only hesitation is that it is for 18 month-3 year olds and although he is only 2.5, he thinks he is 5. He was already jumping off a huge block into the foam pit....backwards, so if the class is too baby-ish, he might lose interest. Once he turns 3, there is a class this fall that is 2 hours for 3-4 year olds over lunch...like a little gymnastics school one day per week, so I will look into that too.

I do have a confession. Growing up in gymnastics (when I was little...about 3-9), being in the gym immediately took me back to my youth and I really had to fight the urge to try something stupid on the equipment. I'm not foolish enough to think that I could ever do anything on the ground anymore, but heck...on a tumble track, I think I could still do a back handspring.... Brian just looked at me and knew exactly what I wanted to do, and thought I was pretty ridiculous. If only there was no one else in there... Hey, he has the same nostalgic ideas about how fast he can run or being able to play minor league baseball. The most ridiculous part is that all while I was thinking about how much I just wanted to try something...anything, I had a weird, inexplicable pain in my knee...without doing anything. Man, I hit 30 and I'm deteriorating already!

And since I'm being completely honest, I'll be a big snob and say that although the gym is very fun and great for Connor (home of the 2010 Trampoline National Champion!!), if we ever have a little girl that is interested in gymnastics, I would want to find more of a gymnastics gym with a full floor, more than one set of uneven bars and a vault...or whatever they call it now. Ok, that is enough of me being an elitist. :)

Oh yeah, one more funny note. Once again, Connor is learning/getting confused by homophones. Two days ago it was the two meanings of the word "train" and yesterday it was "Jim" and "gym". When we left he thought we were going to "Jim's house" which is actually our neighborhood clubhouse. Jim, the developer of the neighborhood offices out of there, so he recently started calling it Jim's house. I think he was pleasantly surprised that we went to the other kind of GYM. :)

Connor....

...just attempted to climb the built-ins next to our fireplace/mantle in an effort to retrieve an assortment of toys that are temporarily housed up there because they were thrown. Also, there is a "potty toy" up there that he has yet to earn because although he did his big business on the toilet once, he now holds it until we put a pull-up or diaper on him for sleeping (I am unwilling to change the sheets daily).

On that note, I thoroughly confused him yesterday when I put in a free potty training dvd that I got in the mail. C was very disappointed when he discovered that there was not an actual potty TRAIN. I never thought about that before, but I just had to watch his excitement fade as he watched an overly perky lady talk about kids using the bathroom....not really a good use of 30 minutes of my time.

He got up super early (for him) at 7:00 this morning. He made his way to our bedroom and got in bed by me. The kid doesn't realize that whispering is appropriate in that scenario, so in his normal voice he says, "mommy walk to friends". He was referencing me going to bunco down the street last night. Glad he still misses me sometimes because when I picked him up from school on Wednesday, he immediately told me to "go away!" and ran to the other side of the room. (sniff, sniff, tear)

So, back to this morning.... he is refusing to eat....even though he helped me make the scrambled eggs. Late night (for me), early start this morning, a tantrum and lack of eating earned him some additional rest time in bed. He soon found his way to his bathroom where he somehow got onto the counter and found some Little Colds Saf-T-Pops (suckers for little ones with colds). We heard him shouting (to himself), "Mine, all mine!" He made his way out to the living room and gave them all to Brian. So, I told him if he ate some eggs, he could have a sucker. That got him back into the kitchen, but I'm not sure if anything was consumed.

Anyway, just a glimpse into our morning. It is 23º outside right now, but I still think we are going to have to make our way to the park to feed some ducks. I am sooooo ready for spring and nice weather. The sun is out so it is deceivingly pretty, but freaking freezing. I am thankful for the tulips that are peeking out from the ground and it is nice to know that it will only get nicer from here....for the next 7-8 months at least.

Oh, and I love his little sentences now. Yesterday he told a squirrel hanging from our bird feeder (helping himself to a snack) to "Be careful, squirrel!" and just now Brian rolled off the couch on purpose and C asked him if he was okay. Other than the tantrums and not listening, I actually really like age 2.5. :)

Here is a quiz for you....comment with your translation guess of this Connor exclamation, "YAY HA!"

Connor earned his potty toy!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our little Irish man decided to make today monumental by earning his "potty toy"! He's been staring at on our mantle for the last 6 days and has asked me to "open it" about 50 times. He hasn't had a wet accident in almost a week (YAY!) and now wears big boy underwear all the time except while sleeping.

Around 8:00 tonight, we caught him headed back to the guest room (Nana/Grandma's Room) where he likes to do his business. So, I went with him and didn't give him the opportunity to tell me to "go in the kitchen, mom" like he usually does. Off with his pants, and on the toilet. It didn't take long and there were no tears or tantrums. Connor's comment, "Mom....look, a big one!"

Here he is, still pants-less with his brand new potty toy: The GeoTrax on-the-go, zoo set. It even came with a bonus back so he got an extra car, a girl figure (the first!) and an elephant, tiger, and lion. Now he can take his trains on the go!

Slainte! And here's to him doing it again tomorrow...and the day after, and the day after that, etc.These pictures were taken on my phone. I took a couple with the good camera, but I don't think he was looking at me in those. I'll take a look after I get them off the camera...eventually.

Connor swimming!