Don't TELL me he's not a baby...

Happy Birthday T. T-Bone, T-Bone Marone, Tistan, Twisty Bread, Twist, Tisty Doodle Little Poodle Schmakka Wakka Lacka Doodle, Baby Boo, Boo Boo, Buddy Bear, Honey Bunches of Oats, Boodley Boo. He's going to love all these names when I meet his prom date some day, dont'cha think?

So, my baby boy is 6. I remember his birth quite well. It was a quick one. About 1/2 hr between the first major bearing down type labor pain and the actual birth. Even the doctor didn't get to come and play with us. Just me, Mom, Jason, nurse and baby boy. It took me awhile to learn the changing diaper tricks of baby boys. I did alot of wash those first couple of weeks. Finally I called my friend, mother of two boys, and she gave me the lowdown. How come no one told me boys were so different? Can't believe that he is six, but he is still my baby. He used to say instead of a (the article) he would say I. So, he would say, "I want I cookie. "I want I new toy." Pretty cute. Plus, one whole summer he called me Mommatoo. "I wan Mommatoo." I spent the whole summer wondering where the heck Mommaone was, because I could have used her dang help. :)

Anyway, he is a joy to my heart. The sweetest little man God put on our planet, but yet still all boy. I am just enjoying his purity before the evils of boy/manhood corrupt him. He's a doll baby. Sweet, kind and pure. He says to me quite frequently, "Mama, you look BEAUTIFUL today." Then I hand him the traditional $20 reward. It's a good system we have worked out. Also, the other day, he made me a 'prize. He snuck out and got my favorite lawn chair, set it all up, got me my favorite diet soda and my novel and had me all fixed up. Then led me out there with my eyes shut for the big reveal. He knows how to treat ladies, I will tell you that. He's going to be such good husband/father material someday. Here are some highlights from the big birthday party. It was a fun day. Fishpond, pinata and transformers. Pretty great day.

Four gun-toting six year olds. Yee Haw!!

Yep, that's an authentic Red Ryder. He was PRETTY 'cited to see that baby. Mom's decision. What do you think? You think he'll put his eye out? :)

Love it that I got the shot at the exact moment the head of the transformer was detached from the body. Good swing you say? Yes, he's a hitter, that one. :)
The manna from Transformer heaven.
Two SWEET angels running the fish pond. Aren't they just darling?

Cupcakes and birthday crown at kindergarten. Love birthdays at school. I will miss these days when they are gone. Such excitement from a little tiny cake and some frosting. The look on his face reminds me of his favorite saying..."That's what I'm talkin' about SWEET MMMAMA!!"

Good old fashioned fish pond. This is how we dooze it. Check out the cameras capturing his every birthday move. Too cute.

This is the cake Mom and I whipped up for him. Mom was not terribly impressed with her own handiwork. I, on the other hand, was. It was Optimus Prime's face, duh. TBone even said so right when he looked at it! Mom so totally rocks at cakes. Thank goodness for her, or my whole THEMED birthday efforts would be a bust.

You see, every year we choose a theme...like every good party should have. Everything matches, and the themes run through the clothes chosen for the kids, the decor, the games we play, etc.. One of our family friends never fails to mention how everything follows the theme. He's a 20 year old man, so it is highly amusing to him. Here's a rundown of the birthday parties to date, if you are looking for ideas:

E:
1-Tweety
2-Elmo
3-Scooby Doo
4-Spirit
5-My Little Pony
6-Cars
7-Barbie
8-Ratatoullie

T:
1-Baby Bears "1" theme
2-Nemo
3-Spider Man
4-Tonka
5-Hot Wheels
6-Transformers

Top Seven Tuesday - Topic Variation

Ok, so since the topic for this week is N/A for me, I decided to pick my own. I loved the Bergopedia I read awhile back...so this is it, the Eggopedia from my crib.

1. Small corrections, Mark! Well, we were at Prineville Reservoir one time, and we were waiting and wating in line to launch (just typed lunch..funny..made me laugh really hard..please notice the time of this post) and this young 16ish young boy was TRYING to back the boat trailer down to load. It was a flipping riot. (I am a very good backer upper now, after years of backing the boat trailer down and getting screamed at, cussed at, being called names and yes, even opening the truck door up while it was under water, allowing a tidal wave of water to flush into the truck. OOPS, DID I DO THAT? Guess you should be nicer. But I digress. ) Poor kid was needing to go to the right, but of course was turning wheels in the wrong direction, and then would punch it like he was John Force off the line in a funny car race. Too dang funny. The Dad was some yuppie Bend idiot wearing frigging Dockers to his campout and politely telling little Marky, "Small corrections, Mark!" Well, I don't think Mark was picking up what Dad was putting down. Good stuff.

2. Actuawwy...E has always had a pretty developed vocabulary. When she could barely talk, you would ask her if she wanted something, and while thinking, she would say Actuawwy....no, I don't want more milk. Too cute.

3. Pain Don't Hurt - One of our fellow cousins has spent quite a bit of time with J. J loves him dearly and I always have. He's just a bit tougher than most. J can hang with the best of them with the pain stuff, he's truly no beootch, but no match for the cousin. He was telling J one day to walk it off when something painful had occurred.....then looked at him seriously and said "Pain Don't Hurt." Uh, yeah it does.

4. No, honey, you SLEEP like a log and EAT like a hog! I was talking with my mom one day and I said geez, I slept like a hog today. She said the quote above and we both nearly died. I think I looked at her blankly and said "Thanks Mom."

5. Don't Burn The Hambfurgers If you can, try to pronounce this statement with a bit of a lisp, especially at the end of the first syllable. Rho and I were downtown at the Buffalo one night, picking up takeout burgers. We were bs-ing our cousin who was cooking down there, and this nasty creature that grew up in our town came staggering out of the bar, went up to the window and blurted that out at him. It struck us as VERY funny, because, ahem, she couldn't frigging tell if she WAS a hamburger at that point. She was pretty bulletproof.

6. You can call me Ray, You can call me "Owww, you poppin sonofabitch! It's late, so these may not be all that funny to you, but I am cracking me up. And darn it, I could use some frigging laughter in my life...so read on. Dad was cooking bacon one day and was going on about the whole "you can call me whatever, just don't call me late for breakfast." Well, the bacon popped right in the middle of his little ditty, so we got this instead. G'head, nest time you see him, call him that.

7. Rawny Scrunt J was ranting and raving about someone that had ticked him off. He was talking about how handily he could kick his skinny little arse. He was getting pretty worked up (shocker) when he blurted out that this punk was just a rawny scrunt. Beauty was, it took a pretty good delay until he realized it.

My Hometown....one week late.

Aight...so I am behind the 8 ball on this one. Baseball. That's all I am going to say. Ok, so what DON'T I love about my hometown? I am a Grant County kid thru and thru and still have deep love for that valley. I am filled with a sense of belonging when I enter, and a sense of longing when I exit. It is very difficult to describe how I feel about it...it's just my home. I know...it's my ZION!! (Thanks Ma and Pa, for the vocabulary lesson.)

1. Homecoming. Spirit Week - students all dressed up to a theme during the week. Hippie Day, farmer day, etc. Too fun. Parade. Snake. Snake is an AWESOME Mt. Vernon phenomenon. All of the high school kids and some of the jr. highers, would all hold hands and run through all of the businesses in town...in a big long snake-like chain. Too fun. We loved the fact that we got to see the inside of the bar. Risky business. The Bonfire. We country kids KNOW how to put on a bonfire. We seriously had fire department volunteers standing by with a pumper truck to douse any problems. Holding hands with your Mr. Right Now, knowing you would be together forever...or at least until the dance was over. Dance - pretty dresses. Big hair. Sore muscles. See, us kids that we athletes, were expected to play harder than average to win the all important homecoming game...and then go glam it up for the evening of partying. Side note: Sports does limit kids getting into trouble! We were too dern tired to raise too much hell. Not to mention being student body president, homecoming court, etc...Fun fun fun.

2. Rivalries. Small towns are all about sports rivalries. Crane. Prairie City. We always had extremely high attendance for those basketball games, and it would be standing room only. Literally. Barn burners as we called them...usually really close games and so loud and amazing for me to watch growing up. We were at the games starting as little tykes...idolizing the players and NOT BEING ABLE TO WAIT for our chance in the sun. You saw EVERYONE you knew. AND, you had to pray that the fire alarm for the town didn't go off, because our fire department is volunteer based (see above). That bell rang, and there went three of your starting five hustling out the door. Love it.

3. Magone Lake - Mecca for Mt. Vernon kids. Close to home. Good times, throwing each other off the docks, swimming out to the log, scoping out the John Day boys. Loud music, ol' beater rigs. I always remember time spent as a child, too with close friends and family....Magone is still with me. A VERY special place.

4. I guess this is pretty arrogant of me, but I loved that everyone knew me. They knew I was smart, they knew I was a "good" kid, and they all had my best interest at heart. The sense of community was VERY strong. I knew all of my parent's friends and most of the community had my back. It all goes back to that old axiom..."It takes a village..."

5. Crazy redneck boys. Our town had a very high percentage of boys that didn't have properly working vehicles, loved to shoot anything that moved, believed a ride in a hay truck was romantic, and felt happy and content just to be in the woods. We were simpatico! That's me in a nutshell! Those type of boys are now hard to find. Most of the time, I was friends with said boys, as I didn't have alot of relationships in high school, but you could easily be one of the guys and you were accepted as their peer. If you could shoot straight and help carry a drive line that had fallen out on the highway.

6. Getting a pop. Mentioned in Rhonda's post. Getting a coke is a long-standing tradition in our town. In retrospect, I should have considered setting up a pop stand on the corner by the post office. Getting a coke was driving around looking for cute boys. Either in one's own town, or the neighboring town. Sometimes I think the whole GETTING of the coke was lost all together.

7. Cinnabar Mt. Rendezvous. This was our little town celebration. Started in the late 80's, I believe, and named by a contest. Laura Lemons won the contest and got to name the event. It was first held as a mountain man style festival up in the woods, with pit barbecue, muzzleloader shooting events, and great fun and hilarity. Kid centered, everyone and their chicken would turn out for it. Later on, it was moved to town....but still a great time for the town to gather and celebrate. We always did saw contests, and it was fun for us kids to cheer for our Dads and bet on who would win the wrapper throw, the sawing events, etc. As I think about it now, it seems like more fun for us....these guys worked in the woods all week, and then had to do this stuff for "fun" and our entertainment on the weekend. Anywho...dunk tanks, two legged races, parade....VERY GOOD STUFF!

8. Most of my family was in the valley when I lived there. I know now how blessed I was to live there with a massive tribe of people who loved me and wanted what was best for me. Dad's side and Mom's side...I was a lucky little girl to have aunts/uncles/cousins around every corner.

9. Damon's Store/Shorty's Gas Station - Two local businesses that we went to all the time. Damon's was the main store in town, and I loved all of the candy Lola had out for us to peruse. Going down to get the mail with Dad was a treat...sometimes he would let me go get some candy. I remember holding his finger. He wouldn't hold your hand, per se, to keep track of you, but would put his index finger down for you to hold onto...I thought that was cool. His fingers seemed SOOO BIG!!!! Shorty was always giving us kids a hard time and teasing us...Dad used to go there to get gas and oil for saws. Shorty was a character, and a long time Mt. Vernon supporter. Good man, he was.

10. Trick or treating. I loved trick or treating in our town. We only had a few unstable places that we weren't allowed to go to. Otherwise, Ma and Pa knew who lived in EVERY house. Can you imagine? Every house, save a few, were fair game, because they KNEW the occupants. Amazing. Trick or treating was cool....because Dad drove the van, left the sliding door open, and he would drive along really slow so you could exit and enter as you pleased. Since we lived out of town, and had no candy handy outy obligations, Mom could be there too, to join in the fun.

Must I stop at ten? I got more. I am sure our little town had it's fair share of problems, but we sure didn't know it. It was Eden for us. :) Loved this topic!!!!!