Bowman West

Random things...

1. We got a $900 water bill. It seems there was a leak. I'll need therapy for a while to get over the initial shock. Hopefully we'll work things out and I won't have to sell a kidney to pay the bill.

2. As documented on my blog before, Charlie has a habit of stuffing his face until he chokes and pukes everywhere. The other day we were eating at a pizza place and Charlie started to do this so I quickly grabbed a napkin to catch the mess. It wasn't too bad this time and I was able to wipe things up with a few baby wipes. I washed my hands a few times to get the grossness off but I kept smelling it throughout the day. I finally figured out that there was a tiny piece of puke stuck under the diamond on my wedding ring. Gross. These things just shouldn't happen. It's not right.

3. When we were camping I decided to give Charlie a bath in one of the storage tubs we had brought our gear in. I cleaned it out and took it to the hot showers to fill it with water, but I was only able to get a few inches of water in because the shower head sprayed all over the place. The shower stall was huge so I put Charlie in his tub at one end and I took a shower at the other. When I turned the shower back on Charlie got a few drops on his head and freaked out. He hates showers, sprinklers, or anything that spits water on his face. So there we were, both totally naked, Charlie screaming his head off and me trying to calm him down (read: threaten him within an inch of his life). The entire campground heard the whole episode. It wasn't my most stellar parenting moment.

4. This brings me to my next story...Charlie has this weird habit now of whining "I want my momma" anytime he gets bored and has nothing else to say. The bad thing is that he does this even when I'm right next to him or when I'm holding him. I've tried to explain to him that this doesn't make any sense because Momma's right here. It's especially awkward in public and sometimes I feel like people wonder if I'm trying to kidnap this kid. Anyway, you can imagine how bad it must have sounded when we were in the showers at the campground and Charlie kept screaming "I WANT MY MOMMA!!". One of these days I'm going to get arrested because Charlie doesn't understand how illogical his choice of phrase is.

5. Adding to the campground shower saga, when the shower torture was finally done it was time to dry off. Since Charlie was pitiful and shivering I dried him off first. This meant that I was still naked, and he took the opportunity to grope my chest in curiosity. I calmly removed his hands and explained that those were private and he couldn't touch them. Of course there was the ensuing "why, why, why?". I think I said something about him getting fed as a baby but now he's a big kid...anyway, I bet that was pretty awkward for the other campers to hear as well. When we finally returned to our tent Andy gave me a huge look of pity and said he heard everything but didn't know how to help. I think he'll get to do the showering on the next trip.

Andy and I are both big nerds. I know, shocker since we both seem so outwardly cool. Anyway, we're addicted to all the history around here and were excited when we stumbled upon a free historic tour of the town. We stuck Charlie in the backpack and made him sit through an hour of it. Here's what he thought of the statue of Stonewall Jackson: