Steppin' Up.. one shoed?

Yesterday was another small milestone for Jonas. We have been playing outside most every day for hours, and one of his (many) favorite things to do outside is step up and down and up and down over and over into the little risen garden-y area in the front of our house. Well, yesterday he went chasing after Brandon and stepped up onto the wood all by himself! He always has needed at least something to steady himself, but yesterday he did it alone... aww, my Boy is getting so big!!

Also yesterday, Jonas and I had a big adventure. It started early, like 6:30 early. Yeah, he got up at 6:30. Awesome. Actually, it was surprisingly ok considering it was 6:30... maybe because I left him to his own devices while I worked up to getting up for 45 min... but still. (PS Jonas is just fine in his crib in the mornings, he is quite happy to kick things and play with his stuffed animal for a long while... thank goodness. anyway...) So yeah. We get up, we eat some breakfast, and I thought it would be a good day to hit the childrens museum since we were already up early.

So I was about to get us ready to go when I got a call from our neighbor, Darlene, saying that she had seen this person driving slowly around our complex for the 3rd time, and she thinks I should get our house ready to be looked at just in case.... so I spent about an hour cleaning up while Jonas grabbed my hand and tried to drag me outside (he has figured out he can 'take' you somewhere now). Needless to say, he was not terribly pleasant. He did perk up when I got out the vacuum, but his excitement quickly turned to trepidation the second the vacuum actually came on. Apparently it was just a bit louder than he thought. That did not stop him from wanting to help though. He happily helped push the vacuum when it was off, and even attempted to turn it on with the foot pedal... lucky for him the vacuum was unplugged when he did though, or he would have been scared! Finally, satisfied that at least the toys were cleaned up, we headed outside.

Feeling like I really should get my cell phone transfer taken care of, I decided to go outside with the wireless landline phone and call Net 10 AGAIN. Amazingly, I got through without a wait. Miraculously, the girl on the other end (while having a slight accent) both spoke and understood English well. My luck had changed for the better! Jonas chose this moment to throw his ball down the hill.

Well, I couldn't hang up with Net 10. The combination of luck was surely not going to happen again, so I had no choice but to hover very close to the house, my howling 1 year old attempting to run after a ball while I spelled my address slowly over the phone to a lady in India. I was not leaving this connection. I finally decided that we would have to go inside, because I just couldn't keep catching Jonas as he tried to run and get his ball (adorbale, but dangeresque). So I scooped him up, and took him inside. Of course, now he is screaming at the top of his lungs (ish), because now he his not only ball-less, but also outside-less. Good move me. Thankfully lady in India was very patient. I decided then that we would just go in the "back yard", so that Joe would be outside, but enclosed. I generally avoid going in the back because we have a very nice fountain back there with rocks and a pretty gazing globe in it. Naturally, Jonas beelines for these, as was the case today. This was still better than him running, so I sucked it up as he played with slimy rocks and tried to break my glass gazing ball, not even thinking about all the birds that bathe in the fountain or what breeds in standing water.

At this juncture, I was really getting somewhere with India lady, but she needed some info that I had written on a paper somewhere inside. Great. Rather than start another meltdown, I left the door open and ran inside, Jonas playing happily in the water. Can't find the paper because I cleaned... sweet. Keep looking... keep looking.... aha! Got it! I ran back in, and Jonas was just where I left him, as was India lady. I gave her the info. She then needed more info, that I needed to call Ken to get. So I call Ken, phone in one hand, india lady in the other, baby now discovering rocks can be thrown.... awesome. He just threw a rock into our house and scratched our new(ish) hardwood floors. Well... long story short, craziness occured, but I did get my phone straightened out and nobody got hurt, unless you count our floors, a couple of rocks, and possibly the ball's feelings.

Sooo, after all of that, it was about 10:30. Not enough time to make the childrens museum worthwhile, but at least enough time to go shoe shopping at the mall, right? Right. Jonas loves the mall, so we packed up and went. Sure enough, Jonas was a happy little clam in the mall, I tried on shoes, walked around, pet some bunnies, whatever. It was about noon, so we headed back to the car. I strapped Jonas in and was about to pull out when I noticed he wasn't wearing his shoe. Remembering the near-loss incident with his shoe of a few days ago with Brandon (Joe threw his shoe off in the walmart parking lot, and we had to drive back and get it). I thought I should check the car. Nope, no shoe. Surely it was close, I know he had them at the last shoe store we went to, which was incidentally on the 3rd floor at the opposite corner from where we were. we would just retrace our steps... it was probably close. I grabbed Jonas, who was now quite tired and didn't care for the stroller, and headed back in carrying my sleepy boy. You guessed it. We walked the whole mall twice (well, I should say the whole length of the mall twice), asked all the store people for stores we stopped at, a security guard, and even the hairdresser I got a card from, but no shoe was to be found =(. very, very sad. Especially since I thought those were the only shoes he had. The sliver lining was that Joe was so sleepy, he was being very, very sweet and cuddly. He kept giving me higs and patting me on the back (he does that when he is sleepy since I pat him on the back before I lay him down). Very sweet!

Defeated, I headed home. Oh crap, I haven't driven back from the mall in ages. Hope I took the right exit. well, I didn't think I did so I turned around. Turns out I did, though, so I turned back around... another 20 min. wasted. Sigh. Finally, we got home around 1 and I laid Joe down (he was pretty much asleep, no lunch =( ). Whew! What a crazy morning! You know, though, even though it was crazy, I kind of enjoyed it in a weird way. I guess I always assumed being a mom would be doing crazy things like that, and it does make for a good story. Well, I'll give it a fond memory at the very least =)