Just Like Daddy and other stuff

Jack wants to be just like Daddy in so many ways. It has become a tradition in our house that Jack "shaves" with Daddy when Daddy is getting ready for work. Notice the concentration and technique.

Last Sunday Jack and Daddy dressing alike for church. From their blue shirts, khaki pants, ties, and even both had tie tacks on, to their ...

matching penny loafers. I bought Jim his pair for Christmas and we were at the outlet and saw an exact matching pair in Jack's size on sale 75% off. I couldn't resisit.

This one shows the true mischievous Jack. You can just see him contemplating something that is no good.

And this one shows my angel Jack. The child who started to pray with his little hands folded and everything when our Pastor was visiting us last night.

Here is Jack teaching Foo Foo how to use the big boy (or big dog?) potty.

Coffee Klatch

I went to coffee klatch today and it was so much fun!!! I didn't really plan it. After dropping Jack off at school today (where he proclaimed proudly that he is now using the potty), I decided to run over to my favorite internet cafe to grab a coffee and read a book. So there I was reading and drinking my non-fat, sugar-free vanilla latte, when Katie, another mother in Jack's class, walked in. She sat down in her very social buterfly way and started chit chatting. Now, everybody who knows me, knows that I am so not a social butterfly. In fact, I am pretty much in a coccoon until I get to know somebody or I meet another mother, then I blossom. But Katie, she is the butterfly of the preschool and she knows EVERYBODY.

So while we were sitting there, another woman carrying a very newborn baby walked in and of course Katie being who she is, invites her to sit down with us. And before I knew it, the entire two hours had disappeared along with my yummy latte. It was so much fun to just kick back and not worry about what errands needed running, or the house, or the laundry, or more importantly entertaining Jack. It was fun talking about mommy stuff or just women stuff in general. Katie and I gave Ashley, the new mom of an adorable 2-month-old baby girl, all kinds of advice. Like any new mom, Ashley was a bit overwhelemed with the whole thing. We reassured her it does get easier, but yet harder in different ways (potty training). And boy oh boy was my uterus contracting when I got to hold the little munchkin! I keep having to tell myself, no no no more pregnancies. Of course, I felt incredibly old when Ashley told us that she graduated HIGH SCHOOL in 2002! Oh my word, what a way to feel ancient.

Katie and I made plans to sign our boys up for T-ball starting in April. I can not wait to watch Jack out there with his little baseball helmet running the bases. Good grief WHERE did my baby go?

They're Everywhere!

You know how when you are pregnant, you suddenly start seeing fellow preggos everywhere. Well, I am not pregnant, but the preggos are popping out everywhere around me. Not only is blogland filled with them, but in my real life too. Just last week on the very same day, I had two friends tell me they were pregnant. One of them is a friend from California in my old playgroup. She had a miscarriage right before we moved and I am really happy for her.

The other preggo is my next door neighbor, Erin who is married to Ben. He is deployed right now to Guam, thank goodness not Iraq. But she went to visit him over Christmas and guess what happened. Yep. She was stunned to say the least. It was really funny because she and I were talking outside the day before while Jack ran around like a wild thing that he is and I told her "just wait your turn is coming." Ha! That night she peed on a stick. I guess it really is coming hehe. I feel really close to her, even though I have only known her for a few short months since we moved in. She went to the same small business college outside of Boston that I did, Bentley College. Of course I graduated in 1990 and she graduated in 2001 yielding even more proof to my advanced age.

But as I was talking to her about pregnancy and the joys and sorrows of being preggo, I got to thinking about Mrs. Flinger's post the other day (yes she is a preggo also). It was about the joy of motherhood, or more specifically the lack of joy a lot of days. I wanted to tell Erin that she has absolutely no idea how her life is going to change in September. I wanted to tell her that while being pregnant is so exciting and miserable, that when you hold your child the feelings you are going to feel are not what you think you will feel. I will tell her that the first month is pure hell with no sleep and many tears, both hers and the baby's. And that got me to thinking that motherhood is one huge roller coaster ride. The biggest and longest one of your life and will last till your last day on earth.

By George Again!

I have no idea what triggered in Jack's brain in the last 48 hours, but some light has come on in regard to potty usage. He stayed dry on the hour long car trip up to see Grammy and Aunt Ann for lunch, even with drinking a full sippy of milk on the way. And when we arrived at the restaurant, we went to the rest room where he proceeded to go potty in the toilet! He was a good boy all through lunch and then ASKED to go to the potty where he both pooped and peed!! Miracles do happen!

I just have to say that using the public toilets is a real pain. Or at least it is for us because the boy literally has to strip down naked from the waist down in order to go potty. The whole idea of just pulling the pants and pull up down half way is not good enough for Jack. No, we have to kick the shoes off, take pants and pull-up completely off and then we are ready to sit on the toilet. Not before.

Since we have been home, he has kept his underwear dry. But geesh that boy has a lot of pee! In the past 3 hours, I swear he has gone at least 5 times and all times he has half filled the little potty! No wonder we were going through diapers so fast! I really should have looked into stock for Pampers over the years.

So maybe, just maybe we can be potty trained by his third birthday. Or at least daytime trained and worry about the night time later. Yay! We are definitely on the right road and I can not wait to stop buying diapers!

By George I think he's got it

It is a miracle. Yesterday Jack stayed dry almost all day long! And went in the potty many times. In fact there was one time that I was standing in the kitchen and I see him run out of the kitchen yelling something that I couldn't quite understand. I thought it had something to do with a train or a truck. But no, he was yelling "I have to go potty!" and before I know it, he is in the family room (where his little potty now sits) and he had his big-boy underwear off and was sitting on the potty going peepee. Big time peepee because the potty was singing to him constantly for about 3 minutes (yes, we have the one that sings).

So yesterday when Jim took Jack out, they went by the train store (aka Barnes and Noble to you and me) and Jack brought home the James train. He was soooo proud. And Daddy even said that Jack went potty at the store! He stayed dry the entire time they were out. In fact there were no accidents at all until I put a pull up on him when we went for a walk. I didn't want to be a half mile away and suddenly the boy have a wet spot and have to walk back with that. And indeed there was an accident. But I do have to say that we might have turned a corner in the potty training department. Of course the weepy, sappy, emotional mother that I am is now mourning the loss of my baby once again.

We are going to be driving up to Hattiesburg to meet my MIL and SIL for lunch and maybe some antique shopping, we shall see how the hour drive and subsequent lunch time goes with the whole potty thing. I am not expecting much, but who knows, the kid might surprise me!

Reprieve and Long Weekends

I got a reprieve today. Jim took Jack out today to go get haircuts and do some guy things. I think those guy things involved going to the police station where Jim works to pick up something, which Jack loves because that is where the "police cars live". Even though we have a police car parked in our driveway every single day, the police station is ultra cool because there are many many police cars. And it is located across the street from the fire department where the "fire trucks live". How incredibly exciting is all that? Yeah. I know. Ooooooooooo.

But I got the afternoon to myself! Let's all say Hooray! I love these days. They come about once every two weeks where I can be alone. I can watch what I want to watch (no Thomas, no Sesame Street, no History Channel!). I can read in peace and no interuptions. Life is wonderful. And I deserve it because we are approaching "THE LONG WEEKEND" weekend. Every other weekend Jim works Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night and sleeps pretty much when he's not working. So that makes for very very very long weekends with the boy. Him and me. Staring at each other expecting the other to do something to entertain us. It usually involves the showing of The Polar Express at least once. Yes, I know it is January. But it makes the boy happy.

So on the agenda this weekend might involve a Mardi Gras parade or two. People, did ya'll know that Mardi Gras happens this time a year? Because when I lived in California, I had absolutely no idea when or what Mardi Gras was. All I knew that a lot of people got drunk in New Orleans and showed a lot of boobs. But who knew that this entire area goes crazy??? I mean there are a few billion Mardi Gras beads for sale in Walmart! In Walmart people! Right there next to the cat food! And parades! Good grief, I think there are about 20 parades in the next 2 weeks within 20 miles of here. No you don't have to go to New Orleans and show your boobs there, it can be done in your own backyard here! From what I hear, that the parades here are very family oriented and no bare-chested anything happens here. But seriously who knew Mardi Gras was practically a major holiday here! Wait a minute, it IS a holiday here. The kid's are out of school for that week!

But the problem is with all the excitement in the air and all the parades and those 500 billion beads being sold by Walmart, I still do not know why it even exists! I think it has something to do with Lent and all that, but do people really need to show boobs?

So after all that, I might just eat up some time this weekend by standing in the cold catching Mardi Gras beads from floats going down Main Street. Weird.

Blogging

With the latest post by Rbelle stating that she is getting out of blogging (I still can not believe that) got me to thinking about blogging in general. I have known some of these women in blogland for over 3 years now. I met a lot of them through the pregnancy message board on iVillage during our pregnancy months, then in the playgroup message board after our babies were born. Rbelle was there talking about her Beaux and she was crazy enough to get pregnant and have another baby, Belle, 13 months later. Yes, I said she was crazy.

I feel like I know these women in blogland better than I know my "real-life" friends. I mean I really don't think I have discussed "hay hay" with my friend Janet as much as I have heard Mrs. Flinger talk about hers. Yes we are talking about THAT. We have gone through happiness and sadness with each other. It was a comfort knowing that I had these group of women who were going through the teething, sleeplessness, sickness, tantrums, and everything else that has happened to us and our children during the years. I have literally cried for Erin when she suffered through two miscarriages in the past year and wishing that there was some way that I could reach out and give her a hug and let her know somebody across the country was thinking of her. I also am waiting impatiently to hear that Jane gets her referral from China so she can go pick up her little China doll, Maddie. I am living vicariously through Carolyn the world of accounting and tax returns. She has my respect for being able to do all that with a little boy who is very much like Jack. I have laughed with Claire and her wit while she deals with two little boys.

Who knew that blogging would bring so much into my life? This little obscure part of the internet that I started just so I could spread Jack's pictures to family easily has turned into a passion for me. Who knew that it would reunite me with old friends from 20+ years ago - Stefanie and Amy. Yes Amy, you should start a blog!

I may not be a big time blogger like Dooce or The Mommy Blog or even you Mrs. Flinger :) but I love it. Thank you all. And Rbelle - Don't Leave!

Internet Cafes

I just have to say that I love em! I am right now at a very cozy coffee shop in Ocean Springs drinking coffee and surfing the internet. Jack is at school around the corner having fun and I am here having fun. Life is wonderful.

Just saying what did we do before the internet and coffee shops?

Parties!

Have ya'll noticed the ticker above? The one counting down to Jack's 3rd birthday? It is only about 6 weeks away?!? First of all, I have no idea how my BABY got to be three years old.

But since he insists upon growing up, we are having a big party for him. I have booked this place for the birthday. This place is a toddler's dream with all the climbing, toys, jumping that goes on there. And we get the run of the place for two hours. We could potentially have quite the crowd if the whole family comes (that is a huge gathering right there) and all 6 kids in his class with their mothers/fathers/siblings and some neighbors. I think I counted close to 30 people IF everybody comes.

So now comes the hard part in the party process - choosing the theme. I have narrowed down the choice to either fire truck or construction trucks. I think I will take Jack to the Party store and let him decide which one. Either one, I have found some really cute party favors on ebay to buy. The kids will get either a fire chief hat or a yellow hard hat depending on the theme. And of course, the personalized candy bar wrappers or personalized goody bags with Jack's name and date on there.

I admit that this is too much fun and I am probably spending too much money for the boy. But he is worth it and he turns three only once. Besides, the cute stuff out there is so hard to resist.

Best Friends

Jack and his best friend, Kyle. These two are so adorable. Every morning at school they give each other hugs when they see each other. Their teacher, Kelsey, tells me that they share the trains and whatever else they happen to be playing with at the time and they also help each other with the crafts. So cute. Jack's first "little friend". Okay everybody go ahead and say it "AWWWWW".

Fleas! Part Two

Yep here we go again. We are spraying yet again today for fleas. Yes it was only last week when we sprayed, but it seems there is a whole new batch of the ugly little critters that evidently hatched in my house over the last week. Ugh! I hate these things.

I went to the vet to get myself armed with the good stuff (read ungodly expensive) to fight the fleas this time. As I was standing there talking to the nice lady about my problem, she tells me "Oh honey you are in Mississippi now, we have every kind of bug known to man". First of all, I have learned that in the south, everybody says "honey" or "bless your heart" to you. If you get the latter of the two, it means they don't like you. Second of all, we didn't have a gazillion bugs to deal with in California. Sure, we had a slight flea problem a couple of years ago and a lizard would show up every now and then, but NOTHING like this place. I do not like bugs! I do not like bugs sharing my bed with me! I was scratching all night last night just thinking they were crawling all over me.

Oh and Jack is covered in flea bites. It seems he is allergic to fleas (surprise surprise, he's allergic to most everything) and he now is sporting welts the size of the house and poor thing is scratching almost as bad as the dogs. He now knows what calimine lotion is intimately.

So let's hope this latest round of spraying and treating the animals will rid this house of the fleas and all other disgusting and gross creepy crawlies. Did I mention I hate bugs?

Sigh.

Well it is now noon and Jack has both peed and pooped in his underwear this morning, despite sitting on the potty at least 5 times with no success. Sigh. I do not like this. I even told him that if he went on the potty we would go to the train store (Barnes & Noble) and buy James (Thomas engine). Well I guess he saved me $20, but caused a lot of laundry and clean up time.

And to further frustrate me to no end, the boy gave his entire hot dog that I made him for lunch to the dogs. Piece by piece the dogs were treated to a Ball Park All Beef Frank. And now? The boy says he is hungry. Sigh.

Ya know days like this make me think that working the tax season doing tax returns for hundreds of grumpy people would be a walk in the park. Yeah that is exactly what I was doing 4 years ago right now. Pre-Jack. And I thought working two jobs and working 70-80 hrs a week back then was hard. HA HA HA. Sigh.

Driver's Ed and Potty Ed

I was driving down the road yesterday with Jack in the backseat. He was babbling nonstop about trucks, trains, cars, or boats (pretty much anything that moves) as he usually does. Then out of nowhere I hear "STOP MAMA". This startles me out of making my to-do list in my head and ask why. He said "The light is red!". Sure enough I was coming up onto a red light. Smarty pants. But then he had to go one step further in my driver education and say "You have to use the brakes Mama!". Double Smarty Pants.

We are attempting big boy underwear again today. This is not without major complaining and whining from the boy who tells me every 5 minutes "I don't like big boy underwear". So far no success, but no failures either. I have him watching Garfield right now and hopefully will get his mind off having to be a big boy not wearing diapers. The boy is fighting this transition tooth and nail. And I do not like this part of parenting at all. I was really hoping that he would wake up one day and just start using the toilet, but I guess that doesn't happen eh?

Our Turn

It was only two days ago that Jack and I were running barefoot on the beach. Today is a whole new world here. We are joining the rest of the nation in the artic freeze. Today was a high of 45 and pouring down rain. They are saying that it is going to be near freezing or at freezing and still raining. Ya'll know what that means. Not too sure that Jack is going to school tomorrow. We shall see. This weather has been insane lately.

A Perfect Day

First of all, I just want to say to those who are in the cold part of the world, please don't hate me after you see where Jack and I went today:

It was perfect 72 degrees and sunny today. So after church today, Jack and I drove to the beach to enjoy some of this perfection. He and I had so much fun today. We kicked our shoes off and just enjoyed the feel of the sand in the toes. He had fun dumping sand all over me and thought it was really funny when he dumped handfuls in my hair. I think I will be picking sand out of my hair for days. But it was worth it. Too bad Daddy couldn't come with us, but he was home sleeping because he has just about worked the last 36 out of 48 hours. So he needed his sleep.

When it was time to leave, I literally had to carry Jack off the beach kicking and screaming. I tried to tell him that we now live only 10 minutes away and can come back anytime, but it didn't help with the current situation of kicking and screaming.

Oh and don't be too jealous of us because according to the forecast, we are supposed to be in the 40's by Tuesday.

Hurricane Katrina is still very much alive down here as you can see from the damaged building that is across the street from the beach. It just breaks my heart everytime I drive on this road.

I met some college students on the beach today who were down here from Albion College in Michigan, near where I grew up. They were here on their winter break to help out in the rebuilding efforts. Of course, they were also soaking up the Gulf Coast sun and playing volleyball on the beach today. It is not all work and no play for them.

And this is what happened while I was cooking dinner. I think I figured a way to exhaust a boy.

Conspiracy

They are all ganging up on me. All of them. This morning at 4:30, a meer 4.5 hours after going to bed, the cat started in. He has this way of doing a drive-by shock to my system. He will jump on the bed and then proceed to jump on my head a couple of times and will be gone before I can swat him. He will do this over and over and over again until I get the idea that he is starving to death (yeah right, he weighs almost 30 lbs!). So at 4:30, I drag my butt out of my very nice comfy big bed and went to feed the spazzing and starving cat. Then the dogs are crossing their legs in front of the door, so I let them outside to do their business. After all animals have been made temporarily happy, I decide to go back to bed. But no there will be no more sleeping for me. The dogs, for some reason, start to itch like crazy, even though we just spent a gazillion dollars to get rid of the fleas. The scratching keeps me awake. So after 20 minutes of listening to that, I get up and kick them out of the bedroom and close the door.

By this time, it is after 5 and Jim is coming home from work a bit early. We talk about his day (night) and he goes to bed in the other bedroom because I make him sleep in there now when he is sleeping during the day. Now it is 5:45 and Jack is awake! Never mind that he didn't get to bed last night until after 10 pm. He is wide awake and screaming for me. They are ganging up on me!!! Thank goodness for coffee, after 2 cups, I am semi-functional.

Jack and I went to the Pampered Chef party last night at his friend, Kyle's, house. It was fun and of course I did not see Jack the entire evening because he was playing with Kyle in their playroom. And I was good and only bought $40 worth of stuff, even though I was very tempted by a lot more. Pampered Chef stuff is nice, but pricey.

And now Jack, the biggest part of the conspiracy gang, is telling me that he is hungry.

Crabbiness

I do not want to go anywhere today. I am having the monthly THING today (and a bad one) and I just plain do not want to do anything but sit and veg out today. I had planned to take Jack to the Discovery Center for the weekly Bear Cub playtime. But in all reality, I just do not have it in me to be in a room with 20 other toddlers and mothers playing, singing, and dancing. Yeah I am crabby. So what?

I do have to get out at some point to get groceries because we had to scrounge through the kitchen to find something for breakfast. Jack ate the last of the cereal and I scrambled the last two eggs and plopped them in the last whole-wheat tortilla with the last of the salsa. And did I mention that I HATE the grocery stores here, or lack of. The only real grocery store is Winn Dixie and I hate that place for many reasons, which include ultra rude people and sky-high prices. Then there is WalMart where the entire state of Mississippi shops and they are all there on the day that I am there. Yeah it is fun shopping when you have to say excuse me a thousand times per aisle. Oh and Jack knows exactly where the toy section is in WalMart and whines to go "play toys" during the entire shopping experience. Fun.

I miss my old commissary in California. The one I would go to about once a month and load up for the entire month of groceries. The one that was not crowded. The one that was big enough that I could find everything that I was looking for plus a few stuff that other stores did not have. The one where I knew I saved at least $200 a month just by shopping there.

The commissaries here suck. They are about the size of a convenience store and crowded. And you walk out of there still needing to go to Walmart because they didn't have half what you need. Hate it.

There are not a lot of things that I miss about California, but grocery shopping sure is one of them.

Jack and I are also going to a Pampered Chef party tonight. It is at his best-friend, Kyle's, house. Kyle's mother, Jennifer, and I have formed a friendship strictly because these two boys are such good friends. Everytime they see each other at school, they start running toward each other and give each other hugs. Miss Kelsey, their teacher, tells me they share their toys with each other and help each other out in class. It is so cute to see Jack have his own little friend. And he is beyond excited to be going to Kyle's house tonight. So I guess I have to go to that tonight.

Well I am off to put The Polar Express on for the boy. Yes, I know it is a Christmas movie and it is January. However, the boy LOVES this movie and can not get enough of it. It is the only movie that I can guarantee he will sit through and I can get stuff done. Or in the case today, I can not be bothered and can veg on the sofa. Yes, I know I am using it as a babysitter. So what? Just hush up. I am crabby today!

Fleas!

We have been taken over by fleas. They are everywhere. Or I should say they were. We had to have the pest control people come and spray and hopefully we have seen the last of the little indestructible creatures. Of course, it couldn't be easy. We had the cats boarded overnight to get them out of the house and also get groomed (no I do NOT give cats baths) and de-fleaed. Did ya'll know there are these pills out there now that you can give to the cats and dogs and it will kill all the fleas on their bodies within 20 minutes? That is so cool.

As far as the dogs, we took them with us while the house was flea bombed. Then when we got home, I had the lovely job of giving them baths (the 15th in the last week or so it seems) and then giving them the pills to commit flea murder. And now I am in the middle of doing 1800 loads of laundry. Hopefully with all these efforts, we can be rid of the critters forever. I hate them!

In other news, Jack has taken to just running. His favorite thing to do is just run and run and run. So tonight after dinner, Jack and I went out front and just ran and ran and ran all around the cul-de-sac. I love living on a cul-de-sac. We also played the turn-around-and-around-then-freeze game which made him burst into fits of giggles. The boy just cracks me up.

Who Knew?!?

We, in the Jackaroo household, have been having a bit of trouble with the potty training thing. In fact, I was thinking that we were going backwards. We have tried the bribe method. Jim bought two trains (Lady and Scruffy for those in the Thomas know) and put them in our glass cabinet. We kept telling Jack that if he went in the big-boy potty, he could get one of them. But it didn't work. In fact, everytime we mentioned the word potty, he would start to cry and yell "NOOO".

I pretty much given up all hope of having him potty trained by his third birthday. In fact, my biggest hope was by next September so he can go to the 3-year-old preschool in which they require potty training. But, I have to admit, I was not so sure THAT deadline would even happen at our current rate.

Then this morning, I was given a small ray of hope. He had a substitute teacher today because Miss Kelsey was home with her sick son. So I was talking to the sub today when I picked him up and she just very matter-of-factly told me that Jack went pee pee on the potty. Like it was nothing big. I, of course, practically yelled out "WHAT?". I guess he sat on the potty twice and went pee pee! Now my question is does he do this for Miss Kelsey and if so why hasn't she told me?

I now know that I have to get serious about this potty training and take the advice from my SIL who says to spend a day playing with underwear on or even naked and make sure he goes into the bathroom every 15 or 20 minutes. She also said that I might want to be in a non-carpeted place, but I figure, I can just clean the carpets. It will be worth it if I don't have to buy another diaper EVER. What will I do with all that extra money? Oh yeah there's tuition, new shoes, bikes, pants, college, car .......... Sigh.

ABC Tagged

I was tagged by my high school friend, Stefanie. Here goes:

Available or Taken ..... Very taken

Best friend ..... Janet in California - miss ya girl!

Cake or pie ..... Neither. gimme ice cream instead

Drink of choice ..... Diet coke

Essential item I use everyday ..... Hair Straightener

Favorite Color ..... Pink, a little bit of girly girly in me

Gummy bears or worms ..... bears if I HAVE to eat em. yuck.

Hometown ..... Battle Creek, Michigan

Indulgence ..... Guiding Light soap opera that I have watched for almost 30 years

January or February ..... February because spring is coming

Kid's names ..... Jack and Laura (stepdaughter)

Life is incomplete without ..... my husband and my son

Marriage ..... April 13th

Number of siblings ..... two half siblings Corlinda and Tim

Oranges or apples ..... apples

Phobias or fears ..... Heights. Positively Hate em.

Quote ..... "Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of life. -Maureen Hawkins (stolen from Erin)

Reason to smile ..... Jack

Season ..... Spring

Tag 3 people ..... you, you, and you over there or whoever wants to do it.

Unknown fact about me ..... I am a certified scuba diver, but have not been diving in about 7 years and more than a few pounds ago.

Veggie I don't like ..... Lima beans. yuck.

Worst Habit ..... there are so many! not making my bed for days. okay maybe not the Worst, but it is a bad habit.

Xrays ..... Lungs (too many pneumonias as a child) and Back (broken in college from a fall. don't ask. long stupid story and yes there was a guy involved.)

Your favorite food ..... after thinking for awhile, I have to say gyros. yummy.

Zodiak ..... Aries

Sleep Walking

I was sleep walking today. Seriously. Jack and I went out to do some errands and I literally felt like I could fall asleep standing. We were at Free Petting Zoo (Petsmart) looking at the birdies, fishies, and kitties and I was very happy for the cart to lean on, I tell ya.

So I get home and announced to Jack that we are going to do something "fun". We went into Mama's bedroom and laid down on her bed to watch tv! Yay! I actually got about a 15 minute nap while the boy watched Curious George.

Then a light bulb went off in my sleepy head. I realized that because I have been trying to drink more water, that I did not have any coffee today! Gasp! Oh my gosh! Me, No Coffee! I drank a big glass of water this morning and then got busy doing stuff and didn't even bother making any coffee. And that was why I was a sleep-walking zombie with a headache the size of Rhode Island this morning.

Of course, then I had to question myself. Am I really THAT addicted to coffee??? Yep, I am. And to think I never drank any of the stuff until I lived in Seattle, the land of the crazed caffeinated people!

Oh and yes I felt sooooo much better after having just one cup of coffee that I even was able to take Jack out for a 45 minute walk. It is my drug and I like it thank you very much.

My Handy Husband

Ever since Christmas brought the mega toys upon our little house, I was wondering what and how to handle all these toys. I did go through his toys the other day and weeded out a large tote and a garbage bag full of stuff. However, it didn't even feel like I put a dent in the mess.

So my husband, who is wonderful, made this:

It holds all the new huge trucks, tractors, jeeps, and other assorted boy toys. Do ya'll think he has enough trucks?

Of course the boy loved it. He also helped Daddy work on it by helping drill the holes and measure. The boy is a whiz with the tape measure. Now I need to paint it. His room, which is only done at the moment, is painted in a gray blue. I was thinking of doing primary colors, but who knows I might get fancy and do coordinating stripes or something.

A picture of the train table also in his room with the cute little shelf that holds his cars and trains. Of course it doesn't hold ALL of them because then we would need something that covers the entire wall! Yeah and this wall is not yet painted. Hopefully I can get his room finished painting in the next week or so and call it done!

Home Alone!

Jim just left with Jack to go get haircuts and do "guy" things as he put it. And me? I am estatic! I get to be home alone for a couple of hours! How exciting is that? What to do? What to do? I could read, internet surf, watch tv, clean my house with NO interruptions from a little "helper". The list is endless. But what I really NEED to do while the boy is out of the house is go through his room and pack up about half of his toys. Seriously people, you can not even walk through there anymore. It is bad. And I can not even blame myself for this toy explosion because over 80% of the toys came from family and friends. People, the boy's birthday is in two months, if you really feel the need to spend money on the boy, I can tell you where to deposit that money into his college fund. HE DOES NOT NEED MORE TOYS!

So here I go off to clean the boy's room on MY TIME. Sigh.

Overweight Preschoolers?

I just read this article about overweight preschoolers. It seems some hispanics are overfeeding their toddlers and letting them have a bottle until they are three years old! And these kids will have a lifetime of medical problems because of their early obesity. Obesity at three!

Now I find all this way too unbelievable based on my own preschooler. First of all I must admit that I let Jack have candy and ice cream about 2 or 3 times a week, or more. He also knows the golden arches very well, I am ashamed to say. And when asked what he wants to eat, 99% of the time he will say french fries. But he is so far from being obese, it isn't even funny. In fact, he has sprouted an inch or so in the last month and has actually lost a couple of pounds. And this is making putting a pair of 3T pants on the kid very very difficult because they just will not stay up. We used to have one good pair of jeans that fit him really well. Now those jeans are getting too short and fall off his little body. He now owns two pair of toddler belts just to keep the pants from falling to the floor.

So my question is what are those parents doing? I know Jack's diet could be better, but he still does get a lot of fruit and some veggies. And milk? The kid can go through a half a gallon a day in 2% milk EASILY. I do tend to believe that Jack is more active than some kids just based on watching him play and the fact that he doesn't sit still for more than 0.5 seconds at a time. But aren't all toddlers active to some degree? I just don't understand HOW you can produce an obese toddler. It is criminal in my opinion.

It Is Starting

I think I have mentioned on here that Jack is taking Chinese lessons every week. His Uncle Bill has been funding the lessons from Miss Ming, a Chinese tutor that he himself takes lessons from. When Uncle Bill asked us if it would be okay for him to do this, I thought sure why not, but really did not know how well two hours a week spent playing with Miss Ming would work out as far as Jack learning to speak Chinese.

Of course there were the usual Ni hao (hello) or xie xie (thank you) that the boy picked up right away. In fact, we were eating in a restaurant one time and there was a Chinese waitress who was serving us and Jack spoke up and said "Ni hao" to her. She was flabbergasted to say the least.

But I do have to admit that I wasn't sure if the boy was going to absorb all the words that Miss Ming throws at him during their two-hour playtime each week. I sure don't remember them, even though I try to single one word out and try to remember it, I usually end up failing miserably.

However, after this week's playtime, the boy started to say something in Chinese and I do not know for the life of me what he was saying. And Jim, who knows a bit of Chinese, did not even know what the boy was saying. I am amazed how much he can absorb into his little brain.

It is started. Pretty soon Uncle Bill and Jack will be able to talk about all of us and we will just smile and nod.

Toddler Conversations

Me: Jack look at how foggy it is today.

Jack: yeah it is foggy. Mama, did the frogs make the fog?


Later in that same day:

Jack in a very whiney/tired/irritable mood: I want yogurt!

Me: okay (gets yogurt out of refrigerator and hands to him)

Jack: No! I don't want yogurt! I want apple!

Me: (sighing) okay (gets an apple out of refrigerator and takes a bite of it just like he likes and hands to the toddler)

Jack: NO!! I don't want an apple! I want yogurt!

Me: (sighing again picks up screaming toddler and take him to bed, close door and runs looking for wine, decides that my dinner is now going to be yogurt and an apple)

Compassion - Jack Style

Erin posted yesterday a link to a news article about raising compassionate kids. It was an interesting read. But I never thought I would witness such compassion coming from my own kid only hours after reading the article.

When I went into Jack's room this morning trying to dodge the minefield of toys that are always strewn about his room, I happened to step on his Gordon train, which hurt. Alot. As I was limping around trying NOT to step on another landmine with the other foot and trying NOT to say some choice words that would soon be repeated by the boy, I noticed him doing something. He reached down and picked up Gordon and cradled him tenderly while saying "I sorry Gordon she stepped on you" and giving the train a kiss. He then looks up at me with such disdain in his eyes and with an accusatory tone said to me "You stepped on Gordon!". No mention of my poor foot that was throbbing at the time. No, he only had compassion for his little wooden train.

But it gets better. For the next hour, he cradled Gordon in his arms and kept telling him "Sorry Gordon". Or he would tell me "Gordon sad. I need to keep him all warm."

So that proves it. Gordon and the rest of the trains rank higher than me.

Remembering Gerald Ford

I just finished watching Ford's funeral and I have to say that I was quite moved. I remember Ford, especially because he was from Grand Rapids Michigan. Being from Michigan myself, it was like he was "our" president. I remember shaking his hand when I was about 9 or 10 years old and even being on the national evening news for about 0.3 seconds when he came to our town to campaign. I wasn't hard to miss because I had on THE ugliest fake leather yellow jacket with these god-awful gawdy flowers on them. What WERE people thinking back then??? I can say that I was underage and had no idea what I was wearing. But the adults??? They have no excuse.

I remember when Watergate was taking place, even though I was young at the time. I remember when Nixon made his famous "I am not a crook" speech. I remember when Ford took the office and even though I didn't understand what the whole big deal was (I honestly thought the "tapes" everybody was talking about were like music tapes and couldn't understand why people were mad at Nixon for that), I did understand that it was a big deal in history. Maybe that is where I started to form my political thinkings, who knows. But I do believe that Gerald Ford was a good man and not because he was leader of our country, because Lord knows many of our "leaders" are not good men. But because he had his four children there remembering him and tearing up for their loss. Because he stayed with his wife through adversity and she stood next to him through everything. I hope one day, Jack will feel the same way about his parents as Ford's children obviously feel about their parents. THAT is a sign of a good man or woman.

1000 Posts and a New Year

I just saw that this is my 1000th post. Hmmm, because if you add them up on the sidebar, it doesn't come up with 1000, but whatever, it is still a lot of posts in my book. A lot of ramblings. A lot of complaining about Jack, Laura, Jim and the animals with a few posts thrown in about how great they all are every now and then. I started this blog when Jack was 4 months old and I was trying to adjust to my life as a new mother, or I should say trying to survive after that huge train named motherhood hit me full force and never slowed down. How come nobody tells you that first month just plain sucks???? How utterly horrible living on 20 minute naps really is???? They really need to sit you down as soon as you pee on that stick and explain these things to you.

So here I am 1000 posts, 2 years and 4 months later, and in many ways still struggling to cope with that train named motherhood. But I wouldn't take it back for anything in the world.

Happy New Year to you all out there who read my little part of the internet. Hopefully 2007 is filled with 365 wonderful days for all.

Now I am going to take my tired butt to bed because I had to sleep with a certain toddler last night at Grammy's house who kicked me in my ribs and I swear damaged my kidneys all night long.