john's mom works

yesterday, i heard a terrible story about a family who were in a car accident at christmas time. both parents were very badly injured, their three-year-old son was mildly injured, and their 18-month-old son was killed. i cried. i cried so hard and my heart hurts so much. their son colum was a precious little tow-headed boy like john. and only three weeks younger than my little man. (if you would like to read their inspiring and heartrending story, click here .) and as i finished reading their blog, all i wanted to do was pick up my john john and hug him and smell him and feel his warm little wiggly body and hear him say "momma" fifty-two times on the drive home. and i had an epiphany. THAT is why i started this blog. to capture those moments, those smiles, those smells, those words. to have some kind of tangible proof of who my bug was when he was small. and, good lord willing, i will still have him when he is big, but oh, how precious that documentation will be. and wi...

how my child entertains himself. i promise it wasn't locked. last night was one of the funniest nights we've ever spent with john. i'm not sure what it is, but he had more energy than i have ever seen, and he was running . nonstop running. ok, he did stop running, but only to spin until he was too dizzy, then fall down. then he got back up to run some more. and he has a stuffy nose, so he was panting the whole time like the little puppy dog he is. did i mention that most of that time, he was naked but for his diaper? i have never laughed so hard. no wonder he is so damn skinny and sleeps so well at night.

from the grin on his face, you'd never know he hasn't figured out how to move forward. only backward. which makes mommy laugh. i am truly baffled sometimes at the development of this little human being who lives in our house with us. and even more baffling is that there are thousands - millions - of little human beings like him, all over the world, becoming their own people, every day. this morning, john was in a fabulous mood. when his daddy changed his first diaper of the day, he decided to hang out and be naked on the changing table. then he picked up his sneakers, looked at daddy, and said, "shoes?" seriously. my kid is talking. how did that happen? but the best part of the morning was him riding around on his little scooter bike while i got ready. he has figured out how to climb onto it, and he loves to ride it around ... but he can't propel himself forward. so he rides BACKWARDS around the house. bumps into walls. laughs. gets off, turns it around, a...

note to self: next time i need a mohawk, try rubbing banana in my hair. the staying power and height are remarkable. this morning, john, his daddy, and i were eating breakfast together. john had nearly finished his banana when i got up to rinse out a glass at the sink. and in the split second that i wasn't actively watching, john decided to give himself a skin and hair treatment using smashed banana. awesomeness, no? so if you encounter my son today and he's oddly sticky and smells slightly sweet ... or if his crusty mohawk just WON'T flatten out ... rest assured he's advertising his very own line of product: banana naturel (by john heid)

 montage of an adorable morning, enhanced by accidental matchy-matchy-ness of frog and shirt.  somewhere around middle school, i heard a joke that was so funny to me, i couldn't even tell without bursting into fits of giggles. it went something like this: what do you do when you're driving through the desert and the doorknob falls off your tornado? it doesn't matter, there's not enough pancakes to cover the doghouse anyway! lest you think i am using this blog as a showcase for my series of cornball jokes (and if you know me, you know they are myriad), i do have a point. how on earth did the 11-year-old girl who couldn't make it past the word "pancakes" without laughing aloud ever become the woman who could say this with a straight face: john, please don't put your goldfish in the laundry basket. you can put them in the bathtub if you must put them somewhere. never fear, i've not lost my sense of humor. it's just that so...

recently, my imaginary friend cjane kendrick wrote a blog entry that inspired me. let me back up a half-step to offer some clarity. cjane is not imaginary - she is a very real mommy, concert organizer, and blogger extraordinaire. the imaginary part is our friendship. i've never met her, and she probably doesn't even know i exist. but if i lived in utah, i like to pretend cjane and i would be besties. along with her cool blogging sister nienie . (are you listening, fabulous sisters? if you ever find yourself in baton rouge i will happily treat you to beignets and cafe au lait or whatever local delicacy tickles your fancy.) do i sound a little like a creeper? read their blogs. you'll be imaginery bffs with them too. but i digress. cjane's blog was about her son, who is a "little barometer" who informs her through her actions when he needs something - particulary her love and attention. that blog rang so true to me. and i thought how special it was that she...

this morning after i had loaded my standard 427 bags into my car and crated the doggie for the day, i made a dismaying discovery. the car seat, it seemed, was not in my vehicle. flash back lo those 12 hours, to a tired family coming home from the camp, extracting a sleeping babe from his harness and carrying him in ... leaving the carseat in situ in the wrong car. a quick phone call to my husband later, it was confirmed: he had the carseat. the good news? we have an extra one. the bad news? the cover was off of it and it was completely unconnected and unstrapped. so i dragged the car seat into the middle of the kitchen where i could work on while keeping an eye on my curiously crawling kiddo. it went something like this: (pull, tug, tuck strap.) "no, no, john, don't eat buddy's dogfood. that's for buddy." (flip the cover, hook the hook, pull the strap around the back.) "john, that's buddy's bone. please leave buddy's bone alone." (p...