Migraines and Oreos

When I was little, I used to get a lot of migraines. In fact, any combination of spending time out in the sun, playing hard, not eating well or drinking enough water meant a guaranteed migraine. Which happened pretty often, particularly when we lived in Kuwait and outside recess was my favorite subject, four square was the best game ever and a bag of chips was a suitable lunch. 

I would come home from school and throw myself on the floor, writhe in pain and scream until my dad got home. He would take me into a cool, dark room, sit next to the bed and tickle my back until I fell asleep. The best migraine advice he ever gave me? Don't move a muscle. Get comfortable and stay very, very still until you fall asleep. It seems impossible, but always does the trick for me. 

Anyways, fast forward to a sunny day in Tucson. A play date at the splash pad. A popsicle for lunch, no time for a sandwich. A skipped nap and a time out for swinging a baseball bat at Ike. That headache that Booker's been complaining about since this morning has morphed into a BIG UGLY MIGRAINE. Booker's very first! Welcome to the family, son- you're officially a Tueller. 

He finally passed out on the couch after screaming bloody murder for 15 minutes straight. Rolling around, twisting, turning, falling over, digging his face into the cushions for any kind of relief. Begging for band-aids only to rip them off as soon as I put them on his forehead (I'm pretty sure Ike swallowed one, should I be worried about that?) I finally had to grab him and hold him in a bear hug until he fell asleep. And then, because my dad used to do it for me, I sat and tickled his back even though he was comatose and drooling at this point. Sigh. I hope this doesn't happen regularly. 

And another first- Ike's first Oreo. I had to give him something to keep him occupied while I was wrestling with Booker. 

Dates or not dates?

These things are growing on the palm tree in our backyard. Clark thinks they're dates and if he thinks those things are dates, then he's seriously missing out. The yellow ones are squishy and slightly sweet, but nothing like the sticky, brown, ultra sweet dates I'm used to eating. What the heck are they?

And while we were arguing about dates and not dates, Ike grew a beer belly and morphed into a grouchy old man. 

Things are looking up...

Our A.C is finally fixed and it's no longer 89 degrees INSIDE my house. 

I made turkey and quinoa stuffed cabbage rolls last night. Sounds gross, right? Wrong. They're delicious. 

On the way home from the pool, Booker was belting out "CHEESE LIKE A RAINBOW" (she's like a rainbow) like a little mini Mick Jagger. I was laughing my butt off. 

My dad is going to bring me back some hobnobs from London. Right, dad? I hear they have orange chocolate ones now. Hint hint. 

Booker is officially potty trained. A little too well in fact. He's been waking up at three a.m. to "go pee pee and make mommy so proud." Sure I'm proud. I'm also really tired and don't really care to hear Elmo say Felicitationes over and over again in the middle of the night. 

And lastly, our passports arrived!!! I may have lost some perks when I gave up my diplomatic passport, but this new one ROCKS because it's going to get me to Cairo and it has my married name on it. 

Suck on that, cancer. You can't ruin my week. 

Blerg.

I can't sleep. 

It's hotter than Hades. 

I spanked Booker hard for the first time today. 

It was difficult for both of us. 

I learned that a lumpectomy is different than a mastectomy. 

And I don't feel like taking any photos. 

Hot Hot Heat

Our A.C. is broken. It can't be fixed until the weather is consistently above 80. Lucky for me, it's going to be in the mid to high 90's next week. 

Looks like we'll be spending lots of time at the pool and the splash parks. 

Don't worry- if anything catches fire, we know a good fireman. 

More from our day at the park here. 

Graduation Announcements

Thanks to a very enthusiastic client, I just added a new section to my website. 

Train Madness

Does every little boy go through an obsession with trains? 

Every major walkway in my house is now home to a train track. I need a house with an actual playroom. It seems like dolls and tutu's would take up much less space. Sigh.

Old Tucson

My quest to tour all of Southern Arizona's major attractions continued today at Old Tucson Studios. Old Tucson is basically a gigantic movie set/theme park set out in the middle of the desert. Tons of movies and shows have been filmed there including Dirty Dingus Magee (tee hee) and Three Amigos. 

I was feeling especially brave/crazy and brought Booker's girlfriend, Rachel. Two toddlers in potty training and not a single accident? I'd say we had a pretty successful day. Rachel was such a delight and wanted to hold my hand all day. Booker, on the other hand, was all over the place. Thankfully, we met up with some of my favorite gals from the ward and they were so helpful. 

The rides were fun, the shows scary and the cowboys friendly. See for yourself. 

Chris, Stop Vicariously Blogging Through Me!

My little brother hung out with the U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball team after they beat the Egyptian Women's team the other night. You can't let something like that go unblogged, right? Now Chris is pretty tall (6' 2'' maybe) so I'm thinking that #4 is a VERY tall young lady. 

So Chris, did the Egyptian team don Nike hijabs like the one below? Because if they did, I just went from being a little jealous, to extremely jealous of your rad Olympian-Schmoozing-Egyptian lifestyle. Hurry up and get a blog already. 

In other news, we just completed passport applications for the boys (so expensive- grumble, grumble). One step closer to making our trip to Egypt a reality! 

A good week, a bad week

Remember these Manjays? Not these ones. These ones. It seems like just yesterday that I found them at a thrift store and ran home to put them on Booker, laughing all the way. My two boys are growing up so fast! 

It's been one of those great/horrible weeks. On the one hand, Booker has done really well with potty training except for a couple of incidents that occurred over at friends' houses. Naturally. He's even been accident free at the gym daycare where they refuse to help kids out in the bathroom. On the other hand, he's been terribly mean to his brother and increasingly violent: 

Booker- "Dad, don't shoot people. Just Mommy." 

and also

Clark- "Booker, we don't shoot people." 

Booker- "But, Dad, I NEED to."

I don't know where he gets it. The other day, I let him watch Mulan and when the Huns arrived, he ran to his room to get his light saber. I blame Disney. He's also having trouble realizing that Teichert likes toys just as much as he does, as seen here. We've suffered through several timeouts a day and Booker still takes everything away from his brother. 

Ike is taking it all in stride. He only cries a little bit when he gets hit and just acts confused when the toy that was in his hand suddenly disappears. He's crawling/belly scooting all over the place, loves gnawing/sucking on stuff (still no teeth though) and is generally a happy little guy. If I need to get something done, I can put him in his high chair with some Cheerios and he'll be content until his supply runs out. 

Other reasons this has been a good week? I got a calling in Young Women's that I'm really excited about. On Friday night, one of my favorite Young Women came over last minute so that Clark and I could go see a movie. We desperately needed a night out. We went and saw Adventureland. I liked it a lot. We also looked at houses this weekend and felt overwhelmed/excited with all of our options. I hear it might be a good time to buy a house. 

And finally, this week we witnessed some signs of Spring (they'll probably be replaced tomorrow with 100 degree temperatures, but oh well.) The weather is awesome and everything in Tucson is yellow, yellow, yellow.