Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everybody. Jack went to his preschool party today. Of course it wasn't a "halloween" party because it is a church preschool and they don't allow all the scary and evil halloween stuff. Instead it was called "Fall Festival" and the theme was a hoedown, which basically cinched the costume for this year. Unlike last year where I scoured the internet looking at costumes for weeks, this year I really had not given it much thought until a couple weeks ago when I read what the preschool theme was going to be. So all I had to buy was a flannel shirt and a fake US Marshall badge and added his cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a pair of jeans. Voila! A costume! Jim of course actually bought him a holster with six-shooters and I very quickly nixed that idea. Just wrong on so many levels. I don't want him to think they are toys, especially since we have those in the house (locked in the safe of course) because of Jim's occupation. But also there was no way that the church preschool was going to let him in wearing those things.

So I present to you Marshall Jack:

The preschool party was held outside on their playground. And can you tell they were just a wee bit excited about the whole thing? Here they are watching the helpers setup outside.

Jack with the sand. He actually played here for about half the party. At one point another little boy threw sand in his face and smacked the sifter out of Jack's hand. Jack did not take that laying down. He leaned over the table and growled at the boy and then hit the boy's sifter too. I thought we were going to have a sand-table brawl.

Then it was onto the painting table. They had cut up fruits and vegetables for the kids to paint and use them as stamps onto the paper. Very ingenius I thought. Of course Jack walked away with paint everywhere on his shirt, pants, and even his hat.

He also got a pumpkin and a happy face painted onto his face. But that did not last long because by the time we got home, both were smeared all over his face. However, he was quite upset when he saw his hat had paint on it. We were driving home and he exclaims all of a sudden "This Is Terrible!". I asked him what was terrible and he said his hat "was filthy". I also got a pumpkin painted on my face and it is still there, unlike Jack.

And the party ended up with a big fall festival feast of crackers, cheese, goldfish, and rice krispy treats. mmmmm.

Here he is being a smarty pants making funny faces for the camera. Such a silly boy he is.

We are not going trick-or-treating tonight because we have to drive up to Jim's mother's house tonight. Jim is having surgery (finally after a two-year saga) to remove his nasal polyps. But he had to do it in his home town because there were NO ent doctors here who took Tricare Insurance. Sad because there are a ton of military people here and no ent doctors who take their insurance.

But we are going to Grammy C's church for their children's halloween party where I am sure he will be getting some more candy. Just what we need. I admit that I was quite relieved not to have to deal with the whole trick-or-treat thing this year. You know who (me) usually ends up eating way more than I should.

Happy Halloween!

Pregnancies

I just want to congratulate two of my fellow bloggy Mommies on becoming pregnant with their second baby: Erin and Mrs. Flinger. Congratulations you guys. You both deserve happy and healthy babies.

All these pregnancy vibes have got me to thinking. Well to be honest, I have been thinking about a second pregnancy almost since the moment Jack popped out. But it does seem to be a protocol or unwritten rule that when your child reaches the age of two, that it is time to get pregnant again. And I have to admit that part of me would love to get pregnant again and see what other little person we can make.

But the realistic side of me says that I am done. Done. Done. Done with the whole baby business. You see, I am old. Way older than Erin and Mrs. Flinger who still have time to have another baby or two. I am looking at the big 4 OH in less than 6 months! OHMAGAH! How and when did that happen. And while I know that other women have babies at that age (Brooke Shields), they are not me. And I really do not think I could do it all over again. I like having nights filled with sleep and NOT crying/screaming babies. I want to get my body back, or I should say the flatish stomach that I used to have pre-July 2003.

So congrats to those who are venturing onto their second pregnancy. Sorry, I will not be joining you. I think some part of me will always wonder about that other child that could have been, but I think all mothers wonder about that in some sort of way. I am not alone there. But I will be sleeping quietly at 2 am in about 9 months or so while you guys will be sleep-deprived. At least I have that!

Sixty Three?!?

Yesterday my little obscure site here had an invasion. This normally very quiet blog that has on average less than 20 visitors a day, suddenly exploded yesterday. I had over 60 visitors yesterday! A record for sure. And so I had to research where all these people were coming from. And I found out that they were coming from Mindy over at The Mommy Blog. It turns out that Mindy had visited my site and saw the video about the model I posted earlier and used my link to tell people about it on her site.

Thanks Mindy for visiting and I am flattered that you decided to link to me. I just don't know what to do with all that attention in my little small obscure part of the blog world. :)

The Things He Learns in School

I just have to say that preschool has such a tremendous effect on Jack. He is learning so much that he never would of with just me. Before he went to school, he could not tell me names of colors. He would guess and every now and then guess right. But now, he knows them without even thinking. It shocked me the other day when he was talking about our "new tar" as he does every day. Yes the car is about 8 months old and not so new, but it is still to him and for some reason he is absolutely fascinated with the thing. But anyway, he was rambling on about the "new tar" and while I was driving I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying, as I do a lot when he is rambling. But all of a sudden I heard him talking about his "white new tar" and I thought wow before school he never would have said his new tar was white.

Speaking of rambling, you see that commercial of that little girl with her daddy who is strapping her into her car seat and she is talking nonstop and her father is just nodding his head. Yeah, that is me and Jack. The kid does not stop talking. Ever.

Anyway, back to school and learning. He has music class every week and he now is so into music whereas before he didn't really care about it all that much. In fact for the last hour and a half, we sat on the couch playing with his toy that plays all kinds of songs. And he would say to me "Everybody sing" or "Shake it mama" wanting me to dance. And I guess they play freeze the music because then he would say "FREEZE" and we would have to freeze our dancing. Too funny.

They have also taught him to walk single file and hold his hands in front of him while he is walking the halls of his school. His school is at a church and they teach him to respect "God's House" and to walk that way through the halls. So, this Sunday when we were walking into church that we were visiting for the first time, I caught Jack walking very seriously and holding his hands in front of him. Such a good boy he is.

Speaking of church, I took this picture of the boy just before we left for church on Sunday morning. My handsome boy.

Two AM Ramblings

Hello there. I am sure you are all in bed sleeping right now. Me? Nawww. Jack woke me up about 30 minutes ago screaming "Mama, MY Mama, I want MY Mama". So since he was screaming my name and not oh say DADDY's name (who by the way was snoring next to me and never heard his son screaming), I decided I needed to get up and check on the child.

I guess he was having nightmares/growing pains. He was saying that it was "scary" in his room. And then in the next breath he was saying his legs hurt him, something he has been complaining about recently. My only guess is growing pains and hopefully that is it and not some unknown and dreadful disease. Yes, my mind can wander off to dangerous areas at two am.

So, I sat there on the floor next to him and rubbed his back and head until he fell back to sleep. I realized that the poor kid has his father's sinuses and can not breath through his nose at all. That was a topic of discussion at the pediatrician this last time. Turns out that Jack is highly allergic to whatever happens to be in the air - pollen, dust, cat hair, whatever. I found out that the purple ring that resides under his eyes most of the time is caused by severe allergies. And here I just thought it meant he was tired when the purple ring came out. Sometimes it is so dark that it looks like somebody gave him a black eye. So it seems that I need to put an air filter in his room, make sure I wash his pillow case always, and his hair, and have "indoor-only" clothes. Oy.

So as I sat on the floor watching him sleep, I suddenly realized that he is only about 3 or 4 inches from outgrowing the toddler bed! Granted, I could get him a smaller pillow so he would lay more toward the head of the bed. But still, I am thinking we may need to think about a twin bed within 6 months or so. And here I was thinking that the twin bed would be good until he was 4. Ha! Not Mr. Tall Jack. The kid needs to stop growing. I can't afford it!

And then there is the topic of me. I admit that I have been having a hard time lately trying to juggle between giving Jack enough of my attention and trying to get things done around the house. If it was up to Jack, he and I would be playing choo choos or putting together puzzles every minute of the day. And when I try to break away to do something he throws a fit and goes into his room and cries uncontrollably. I feel like I am pulled into so many different ways. Like yesterday morning, I had every intention of tackling the guest bedroom mess (kinda need to because Grammy and Papa are coming soon). It is bad. Really bad. Can't walk in the door bad. And somewhere in there is Laura's bedding for her bed (kinda need to find that cause she is coming on Thursday).

So anyway, I get up and make my way to the bedroom from hell. I gather up some stuff that needs to be washed. Take it to the washer and start the load. Then I hear Jack is up. So I go in there and say good morning and change his diaper. He wants to play choo choos. So we do for a little bit. Then I go and get breakfast for us. We eat. I load dishwasher with previous night's dishes. I close the dishwasher and because I am losing my mind, forget to turn the thing on. I go take a shower and then we are heading out the door to run errands and get groceries. It is 9 am.

We come back home at 12:30 pm. Jack is hungry. So I fix a PBJ sandwich for him. Sit him at the table eating while I carry in the 6,396 bags of groceries from the van. And while I am carrying the bags in, the running commetary in my head goes kinda like this: the cat box needs to be cleaned out it is looking gross, oh yeah I need to put the clothes in the dryer, oh crap the dog just pooped in the kitchen need to clean that up, uhoh Jack is still hungry need to find something else for him to eat, man this kitchen needs to be cleaned badly, look at that dirty floor, ugh the laundry room needs to be cleaned also, look at the kitty litter all over the floor, man I need to go pee really badly, why does the lady at Walmart have to use so many bags?, can't she put more than 2 things in a bag?, is it a rule only to put 2 things in a bag?, and the trash is overflowing need to take that out also.

At 1:45 after all the groceries put away, Jack fed, and a *few* of the things I mentioned above are done, I decide to put Jack down for a *nap* (Hahahaha). Yeah right. That lasts about 10 minutes before the screaming begins with "Mama come plaaayyyy with me". Oy.

So we play for a bit. We read books. We put puzzles together. We have a grand ole time. It is now 3:30. The doorbell rings. It is UPS with the new bench window seat I ordered. Hurray!

I bring The Biggest Box On Earth into my family room. Study it. Think about it. And then decide to try to tackle the task of putting the thing to together. Haha. Me. Put something together. I usually push the job off on Jim, but he has been working so hard lately, I thought that I would "help" him by putting together the bench that *I* ordered (not him).

Three hours laters and lots of "help" from Jack, Jim walks through the door from work and sees The Biggest Mess Ever in my family room. But the thing was almost completely assembled. Who knew I could put something together like that? Of course, it highlighted just how stupid I can be with stuff like that and Jim would have had it done in an hour, but who cares. And because I spent the last 3 hours on it, no dinner was made. It was a "get-whatever-you-can-scrounge-up" dinner for everybody.

After The Biggest Mess Ever was completed, it was time to get Jack into jammies and into bed. After reading three books, saying "goodnight", "I love you", "See you in the morning". I walk out to the family room. My day is done. After 14 1/2 hours of 'work". The sad thing is, the house looked the same as it did earlier in the morning! Can I just go back to "work" so I don't have to "work" so much? Seriously. This stay-at-home gig is HARD. And the only time I had to myself was the 5 minutes in the shower.

It seemed easier when we were in California. Jack took naps. Nice naps. Two-hour naps. The house was always nice (the trying to sell thing). We had a routine with playgroups, gym class, and the one wonderful day a week he went to daycare/school for the whole day. I had the SAHM thing down. It was managable. I even had time for the occasional nap myself!

Now, I feel like I am going and going and going and nothing ever gets done. I know that Jack is my first priority and I need that time with him, but I also need an organized and settled house which I do not have at the moment. And his school time is not long enough. By the time I take him there and come back, an hour has passed already. So that means I only have about an hour and half before I need to go pick him up. Not long enough people.

All I am saying is that something needs to give. Or I will lose my mind (if I haven't already). Alright now I will try to get back to sleep. Nite Nite. See ya in the morning.

False Advertising

This is really sad and maddening. I think every young girl should watch this and see what the "beautiful" people really are. This is a new Dove Commercial. What do you think?

Yay Pictures!

I can finally post some pictures so here they are.


Jack and the puppy. He was a cute thing and Jack sure loved him. But no puppies until at least one of the other animals in the house dies. That is the rule.

Jack feeding the ducks on Sunday. Important job and he sure takes it serious with his sunglasses on and all.

The ducks on the lake in our neighborhood. This is not the lake behind our house because we don't own that lake and it is not part of the neighborhood. We need to be really nice to the owner of the lake behind our house and hopefully he will let us use his lake to feed the ducks and maybe Jim and Jack can go fishing. Notice I said Jim and Jack cause I do not fish. Ever.

The big boy before school yesterday morning. He is growing way too fast. Way way too fast. And this morning he was complaining that his legs hurt and I am guessing it is growing pains. Looks like he is going to sprout another inch or so soon. Oy.

Update on Jackaroo World

I realize that I just have not been updating this blog like I should. The biggest excuse for that is the lack of naptimes. My time seems to be divided between Jack and his wanting me to play choo choos or puzzles all the time and the house which is still not settled. I am now tackling Laura's room in hopes to get it all set up for her when she comes for a visit in less than two weeks. I don't want her to feel like she is no longer a part of our family and really want her to have a nice room. But at the moment, her room is full of boxes. So to get back to my point, that leaves little or no internet time. Sad, I know.

I also want to thank everybody for their comments. I really appreciate them and even though I don't always comment back, I always appreciate knowing there are people out there reading my ramblings about motherhood and lack of naps. Thanks Judy for letting me know that there are in fact other mothers out there who have gone through this and have survived and come out the other end successfully. Motherhood sure can feel lonely at times. And Rbelle, yes my husband is the sweetest. He has the kindest heart and I am seeing Jack take after him in that regard.

Speaking of the puppy, I was going to post some really cute pictures of Jack and the puppy, but it seems blogger is not liking my pictures or something and ate them. I will try to post them later. Anyway, we no longer have him. I took him to the Humane Society on Saturday. I had Jack with me and had to tell him that I was taking him back to his Mama and not the real truth. It turns out that he was not a rottweiler like I thought and was probably closer to 4 weeks old and it was quite possible that he was sick. He definitely had worms and possibly Parvo, which makes me very nervous because I have a dog who has not been vacinated in years because she is highly allergic to the vaccinations and could be deadly to her. The lady said that they would do everything they could to save him, but there is no guarantee. I don't really want to know what happens to him to be honest. I think I took it harder than Jack saying goodbye to the little thing. I gave him a bottle just before we left and the maternal instict sure was kicking in with that little puppy. He was a cutie. But I did NOT like the whining and crying that he did all night long. Even though we locked him in the laundry room, he still kept me up most of the night. And I was having flashbacks to the first few months of Jack's life. There are some things that I don't miss about the baby stage and that is one of them.

Speaking of Jack, I took a really cute picture of him this morning (thanks Blogger for not being able to show it). He was dressed for school and looking like the big boy that he is. Jim even combed his hair and everything. When it is up to me, I usually just let Jack's hair do whatever. As long as it is not sticking up all over, I figure that is good.

Another update on the house is we got our built-in office put in about a week ago. We now have a really nice place for me to blog and I just don't have the time to do it. And we have so much storage for books and whatnot that I even have all my books from my childhood stored in there along with college textbooks and we still have empty shelves. How fun is that? Again, picture forthcoming when I can.

Oh and I also had pictures of Jack feeding the ducks at the lake in our neighborhood yesterday. Cute. Sorry y'all couldn't see them yet.

So that is it for the updates. We had a very rainy day here today, but it was hot, which is really weird for me. After living in Seattle for 9 years, I always equate rain with cold and then in California well there was no rain for 11 months of the year. But here, it is just strange to have rain coming down with high winds and sweating.

I have been planning to take Jack to the beach and get some good beach pictures, but it seems like something is always preventing it from happening. They have cleaned up the beaches a lot from the hurricane as far as the debris in the water and sand. But it is just so sad to see all the destruction still around and all the poor people having to live in Fema trailers. Sad, but makes you grateful for what you have.

And I am grateful to have my house, Jack, Jim, my family, friends, and all my friends on the internet also. :)

Thanks Jim

It was 7 am this morning. I was in Jack's room dealing with a temper tantrum because he did not want me to clean up his room and I had the audacity to put his Little People farm on the bookshelf. The doorbell rings. I go to answer it and it is Jim. He was on duty and he hands me this:
Yes that is right. He hands me a puppy (looks like a Rotweiler but don't know) who is probably no more than 2 weeks old. He also hands me a can of the puppy formula with syringes. I guess somebody found it on the side of the road and turned it in to the police station. And Jim being the big softie that he is could not let the thing go to the animal shelter where it would most likely be destroyed. So he brings it to our house! And he even prefaced it all by saying "I know you are going to kick my a$$, but I didn't know what else to do." Boy is he right. So I take the puppy in and Jack falls in love with the thing in about 3 seconds. I was holding the puppy and I said that he needed a blanket. Jack up and runs to his room and brings out his comforter from his bed for the puppy. Of course we did not use the Pottery Barn overpriced comforter, but an old towel. And it has been over two hours and the boy has stayed by the puppy cooing and awwing saying that he loves the puppy. Oy.

So now what do I do? I have to go to Petsmart today anyway to buy dog food for the other two dogs that we ignore most of the time. I think I will ask there about giving him up for adoption. I know we can not keep it. We have four animals right now that drive me absolutely insane. We spend a fortune on them with their vet bills and food. But the thing is, it is so cute and cuddly and even *I* are having thoughts about keeping the stupid thing. But no no no we can not keep it. No Way!

Thanks Jim!

The Fake Nap

Since the fateful day of "The End Of Naps", Jack has thrown me a bone a couple times a week and actually will go in his room and play quietly all by himself! Of course, it is all a pretense that he is going to be "taking a nap" when in fact he knows and I know that he will NOT be taking a nap. We do this little ritual every single day. I will say it is naptime. He will say an emphatic NO. I will say an emphatic YES. We will walk to his room and do the laying-down-for-a-nap ritual. I will walk out, blow him a kiss, he will say "nite nite", and then I will close the door. It is all a sham.

The reality of it all, is that in less than 2 minutes he will be up out of the bed and in most cases, screaming "Mama" at the door. He is very smart too because he knows I will ignore the screams for a few minutes, unless he says the words "I have a stinky di di". Then the smart, too smart for his own good, kid knows that I will come to change him. However, in about 50% of the cases, there is no stinky and I will tell him that and then he just laughs and the sham is over. There will be no nap forthcoming that day. Period. Sigh. No time for me to sit in front of the tv and watch the previous nights Gilmore Girls or get on the internet.

However, there are those precious few days such as this one, where he throws me a bone. I think he can sense my level of frustration with the no naps and realizes when I am at my limit with the frustration, he will then say to himself, okay fine, I'll give her what she wants. But he will NOT take a nap, oh no that would be giving up. However, he does not come to the door to scream my name. Instead, he will play in his room quietly for a period of time where I can find myself calming down and losing the frustration of earlier. And today was one of those days. And I got to see Lost that was recorded last night. An amazing 45 minutes of bliss. Just me and the tv and a cup of tea. Who knew that once becoming a mother, such bliss could exist?

Big Big Boy

I took Jack to the new pediatrician yesterday. It was mainly just to get to know the doctor type thing and I was very pleasantly surprised with just how nice and thorough he was. He asked the usual questions about his birth weight and how far along I was when I had him. I told him that I was induced at 37 weeks after a very long 5 weeks of bedrest and then made him laugh when I asked him if there was anyway he could put me on bedrest just for a day or two!

He asked me if he naps and then it was my turn to laugh because the kid will NOT nap. I try everyday to put him down, but he gets up. He said that it was early for him to stop taking naps, that it usually happens somewhere between 3 and 4 - NOT 2 1/2. Lucky me. I get the one who won't nap. Yay! And believe me I have been praying for a nap the last week because of the cold crud that will not leave me.

Then the doctor was amazed at Jack's level of language development. Jack, at one point looked at me and said "I do not like the doctor Mama. I want to go home." right in front of the doctor. He said that he was early for that also. Most kids I guess do not form two and three complete sentences. I told him that Jack and I have full blown conversations about things. Of course those things usually are about his choo choos, trucks, or cars, but they are important to him.

And his newest stats? I knew he was getting big, but when the nurse told me the numbers, I was flabbergasted. He is 34lbs (even tho at the vets he was over 35?) and 38 1/2 inches tall! He has grown 3 inches since his 2 year checkup! No wonder I had to go buy all new clothes for the kid! And he will not let me forget it either. He is telling me everyday "I am a big boy Mama!". Yes he is.

The Things We Do For Our Kids ... Part 1

Despite the fact that I felt like crap and was running a low-grade fever, I managed to take Jack to go see Dora today. It has been on our calendar ever since moving here. There is this awesome children's museum here that was wiped out with the hurricane (it sits literally on the beach). But with a lot of local donations, they managed to reopen about a month ago. They still have to rebuild their kids performing arts building, but at least the main building is back.

And today was the day that Dora was coming to town. So we just had to go - fever and all. Jack had a total blast at the Discovery Center and we ended up spending 3 hours there after the Dora show playing on the climbing structure and the train, boat, and crane. And all that activity? No nap. I think naps are a thing of the past unfortunately.


Miss Dora herself with Boots. She had everybody go through a little adventure using the map from the backpack just like the show.

Jack doing the chicken dance with Dora.

This is Jack's version of the Macarena. Yeah I know. The kid can't dance just like his mother.

They had this climbing structure there that was so cool. It had all these wavy carpeted things to climb all over and it was surrounded by this really strong netting type thing. It was made especially for toddlers and Jack absolutely loved it. In fact, he spent a good hour and a half inside that thing.

Part two

Jack, the hard hat wearing crane operator. And another little crane operator who just happened to be there also.

Turn that crane.

Here he is being a captain of the boat.


Then it was time to play on the train and pretend to be a passenger having tea or shoveling coal into the fire.

The boy shoveling coal or doing something with the coal.

Jack and a little girl preparing for a tea party on the train.

Another picture of the boy looking ever so big. There was once a time when I could not get the boy to stand still long enough to snap a picture, but now, he is practically begging me to take a picture.

Not Long Enough

Jack's preschool is just not long enough. I need more time people. I dropped Jack off at preschool today and then drove home with these big plans of doing more painting and laundry, and organizing Jack's room, and and and.... yeah the list can go on and on. However, since I am trying to recover from a nasty cold I caught a couple of days ago, all I want to do is go to bed and sleep and sleep and sleep. However, I can not do that because I have to leave to go pick up Jack in an hour. Thank goodness Jim was home on Monday and Tuesday so that I could indeed be lazy and sleep off the nasty bug that invaded my body. It was heaven. Especially since he had worked for five days straight before Monday for 12 hours a day. Talk about a long weekend.

Oh and also to update on our house of horrors. I noticed my carpet in front of Jack's bathroom was wet and by the end of that day, it was down right soaked. So the next day (last Thursday) I called the builder about the apparent leak and they sent out a plumber to look at it. He hemmed and hawwed for a few minutes, scratched his head, shrugged his shoulders and said that he couldn't figure it out. The only thing he did do was find where the leak originated, in our guest bedroom closet that we do not open because it is full of boxes. And upon discovering the leak there, we found several boxes soaked. Lovely. So the Chem Dry people were called and they came and tore up the affected carpet and tore out the now ruined pad. I guess they treated it for mold and threw a couple of blowers in my hallway and closet to dry it up. Nothing was done over the weekend, except we had these very loud air blowers going 24/7.

So yesterday, the plumber came back out and tore a big hole in my bathroom wall in search of the elusive leak. They did find a leak from my jacuzzi tub, but that wasn't THE leak since we had not even turned that tub on yet. So after a few hours of having plumbers in my house, the opinion now is that it is a roof leak. So the roofing guy was called and yep sure enough there is a leak in the roof. Yay. So to sum it all up, I still have ripped up carpet with no padding. It is fun to play the game - try not to step on the tack strips. I have a big hole in my bathroom. I have drywall that needs to be replaced. AND I still have a roof leak because they didn't have the right stuff to fix it.

And now I am really wondering about this house and whether it is going to fall down around me in the middle of the night. Now I know why the price was so right.