T-Ball and Preschool ... These Are The Days Of Jack's Life

Well T-Ball practice started last night. I wish I could say that it went well, but I can't. It didn't start out very well when I got there and realized that I goofed and never bought Jack a baseball mitt and he was the only one without a glove. So, in Jack's true spirit, he just took over another little boy's named Brady. As you can imagine, this did not go over well with Brady and subsquently Jack when we made Jack give the glove back to Brady. Much crying and tears.

And then came the actual practice and I can tell right now that Jack is going to want to field more than bat because he loves to go running for the ball yelling "I got it I got it". But there is another little boy named Harper, who also has a love for fielding and is much more shall we say "aggressive" than Jack, which after about fourth ball Jack lost to Harper led to many crying and tears from Jack.

Hopefully Thursday's practice will be a bit better because we went straight to Academy Sports and bought a nice baseball mitt and baseball pants (so cute). His team color is royal blue. Their first game is April 9th and they play team #4.

Coach Heidi teaching Jack how to swing the bat.

Today was Jack's Easter party at school. They are out of school next week for spring break (waaaaaahhhh). I stayed in the classroom for the entire 3 hours to help out and I just have one thing to say - Ms. Kelsey is a goddess! Whatever she gets paid, which is probably next to nothing, it is NOT enough. Oh My GAH! And she handles the entire three hours of chaos with such grace and patience. I do not think that more than five minutes went by between each "crisis". And these kids are fast! I mean before you could blink, there was a fight over the trains and Kyle was smashing Jacob's head causing Jacob to scream. Then you turn around and see Seth climbing on the bookshelf trying to get to his easter basket full of candy. And you turn around again and you see Justin falling and cutting his knee up really badly requiring neosporin and a bandaid.

Seriously people, I came home NEEDING a nap after my three hour stint as preschool class mom. Yowza.

But all in all, it was a fun Easter day for the kids. They started out by having an egg hunt whereby Jack became superhuman egg-picker-upper. I swear he got a good 40% of the eggs crammed into his basket before anybody else. We had to do a bit of making things even later. There were 84 eggs and they were all picked up in a matter of 2 minutes.

Then after playing for a few minutes, the kids went inside and had their bunny rabbit cupcakes (thanks to over achiever super mom Katie) and juice. So cute they were sitting at the table waiting for their cupcakes singing their "bless this food" song. My heart swelled with pride when I saw my precious angelic son (yes I know I was calling him a devil child only days ago) saying his prayers. So So So cute.

I have to give kudos to the teachers and director at Jack's school. The school is awesome and I feel Jack has benefited so much by being there this year. They had music class with Miss Barbara today and it was adorable as they sang Old MacDonald and marched around with eggs filled with stuff shaking them. So So So Cute. Love it.

Ms. Kelsey leading the grace song before the cupcakes came out. Notice my angelic, redeemed-from-his-demon-status son holding his hands together to pray.

Stupid Easter

Why does every single holiday have to revolve around chocolate? And why can I not refuse it?

Here is a perfectly good religious holiday. It is a nice thing to celebrate Jesus being risen. But does it have anything to do with plastic eggs filled with diet-destroying candy? Ugh.

Can you tell that I blew my diet the past couple of days with the candy that I bought for Jack's Easter party at school tomorrow? My big weakness? The solid milk chocolate eggs. Yummm. Love to just let them melt in the mouth. Mmmmmm. Yes. I am pathetic. I know.

I have to weigh in tomorrow for Weight Watchers. Ha! THAT should be interesting since it has been two weeks because of Jack's sickness last week. Yeah. If you don't see the above ticker move, you can guarantee that I didn't lose weight at best, probably the other way. Sigh. Oh well. There is always next week right? Problem is there is still more chocolate in my house. Sigh.

The Night I Wanted To Disown My Child

We went to the church last night. They were having the practice for this coming Sunday's children's program for Palm Sunday. It is actually going to be quite a lovely service. It starts out with all the children carrying palm branches down the aisle to the altar while singing. Then when they get down to the altar, they are supposed to lay the palm branches down on the altar and then line up to sing Jesus Loves Me and another song. All very lovely. All very cute. Until you insert Jack, my devil child, into the picture.

As all the other children who were ranging in ages from 2 to 10, carried their palm branches nicely, my child was hitting the other kid's with his and causing fights. And this did not happen just once, oh no it happened every single time (all 6 times) they ran through the little program. And when I mean hit, I mean he was pretending his branch was a sword and doing some damage to the others.

Now, if that was all he did wrong last night, I might be able to forgive him. But nooooo, that is just the beginning. You see when the other kids went down and laid their branches down, my child did not want to do that. Nope, he had to hang onto his and continue to use it as a weapon on the poor innocent children trying to sing Jesus Loves Me.

And Wait! It gets better. During the second song, he thought exploring the entire stage and choir loft was nifty and was running in circles all over the stage. At one point, I do believe he tried to get up on the piano bench to "help" the lady playing the piano.

Seriously, every other child there was doing what Miss Abby wanted. Even the two-year-old little boy named Maverick. He was doing really good just standing there NOT hitting people and NOT running around. At one point, I wanted to say "who is that wild child? Boy his mother sure needs to control him better". Yes I wanted to not know my child by the end of the evening.

I told Jim about the whole thing this morning and he just laughed and said that he did the same type of stuff when he was that age. He admitted that he marched to his own drummer and not anybody else's. So So So different than I was. I always wanted to do what people told me to do and be good. More proof that Jim cloned.

All I can say is to pray for us on Sunday. We maybe escorted out of the church!!!

Funny

This morning, after a 7-minute battle to get Jack on the potty (love those battles), Jack said something that is sooooo funny and I just had to record it for posterity reasons. And to embarrass him when he gets older and reads these posts.

He was sitting on the toilet finally after the lovely battle to get him there. I had to invoke the big threat of taking the Henry train away, which works most of the time. So he was sitting there whining and just being a major grump. When he looked down at his pee pee and let's just say that it was ahem bigger than usual (hee hee). He looked up at me very concered and said "Look Mama" pointing to his pee pee "there is something wrong with my pee pee". "LOOK MAMA".

At this point I am really trying hard NOT to laugh when he was obviously so distressed over the condition of his pee pee. Instead I said "yeah it is bigger. That is what pee pees do sometimes." I am not sure that made him feel better.

Oh yeah this is one post I will have to show him in a few years hehe. Along the time, when I do NOT want to know when his pee pee gets bigger.

More Amazing Weather

It was a balmy 82 degrees with a nice breeze and the beach minutes away, so we had to go play in the sand today at the beach. Of course, as always, Jack had a blast and I even got him to go wading in the water for about 5 seconds. He doesn't like the surf at all, so for him to put his toesies in the water was a big deal. He also found a couple of other kids to play soccer with, so that was big joy. I really do envy the kid in his social skills, he is far more advanced than I am in that area. Although I am starting to worry about teaching him the stranger danger thing because as it stands right now, he will go off with anybody who says hi to him. And that is a little bit scary. But for now, I know I just have to watch him like a hawk all the time.

And all this fun in the sun prompted a rare afternoon nap. Yay! Problem is, I didn't lay down at the same time like I should have and now, I am absolutely beat. Only a couple more hours until bedtime. Only.

Jack was feeling better ...

... so Jim put the boy to work washing his police cruiser.

On The Mend

Well it seems that Jack is finally on the mend. Yesterday was pretty hard on the little guy. He kept battling a fever all day. As I would give him tylenol every few hours, you could see the effects kick in because he suddenly would be up and playing with his trains about 30 minutes after I gave him the medicine. But after about an hour or so of playing, he would be back on the couch feeling horrible again.

I took him to the doctor yesterday afternoon. He took one look in Jack's mouth and said the word that I have come to hate - "Strep". As he went off to test the swab for strep, I had visions of dousing the house in rubbing alcohol and disinfectant all over again. I still remember very painfully two years ago when Jack, Laura, and myself all came down with strep throat at the same time. Jim and his super immunity stayed clean. It was also how we got our second cat, Sammy, that Jim found on the side of the road when he went to get medicine for all of us. I was too sick to protest keeping the cat. So, yes, I hate that word now.

Thank goodness, it came back negative. But he did have a very red and inflamed throat and raspy cough. So he is sick with just some bug he caught somewhere. I did a very stupid thing after the doctor's yesterday. The doctor told me that I could give Jack some ice cream or smoothies to help numb his throat. So we stopped at Smoothie King and we both got some smoothies and went home. We were home about 30 minutes and he was laying in the chair and bam, he threw up all over the chair. Strawberry, very pink, smoothie (can you say stain). So I rushed him to the bathroom where he proceeded to throw up some more in the toilet. As I stood there watching him, he seemed like an old pro at throwing up into the toilet, even though this was his first time doing the deed. Poor thing.

But he is doing better today. He managed to sleep the entire night without a fever coming back. And that means I got to sleep the entire night also. I tell ya, I am tooo old to do that middle of the night thing anymore.

It looks like another day at home for us. It is driving me crazy because I have been cooped up in this house since Sunday afternoon, except for the hour trip to the doctor yesterday. I need out! Maybe today, I can get out into the backyard a bit. Jack is not quite so clingy today and needing me to hold him like the last two days. I hate to say this, but I missed my energetic, non-stop little boy. I mean you can watch the same Thomas video just so many times before you go legally insane.

On a sad sidenote, I just wanted to let my family know that I am thinking of them today as they have to bury my Uncle Bill today. He died on Sunday at the age of 78. That makes my father the last surviving sibling from his family, even though he was the oldest. In remembrance to Uncle Bill.

Three AM Sickies

It is 3 am on Tuesday morning and we in the Jackaroo house are all up. The reason for that is because a certain three-year-old is sick. He is quite sick. I was awoken to the sounds of coughing and then gagging and then the ever so lovely sound of puking, which followed by the sound of "MAAAMMMMMAAAA". So after taking the child's temp and finding out it is 103.9, I came to the conclusion that he is a lot sick. I see a trip to the doctor in our future today. Right now he has been filled up with tylenol and is laying on the couch watching the Thomas video AGAIN. How is it that kids can watch the same thing over and over again? And if I dare put another video on, the screaming that ensues can be heard in Alabama.

I guess I better go make coffee. It is going to be a long day. And Jim is working and won't be home for another four hours. Gotta love days like this.

Weekend Fun ... Monday Sickies

On Saturday we took a little excursion to Dauphin Island, Alabama that is right off the coast of Mobile. It was very pretty over there and we had a fun time. It was also fun looking at all the houses where the rich people get to live right on the water. But then there is the threat of hurricanes and such, so I think I will keep my 8 mile inland house, thank you very much. But it was a fun day.

Jack and Daddy playing on a boat on the island.

We went to the little aquarium on the island. Jack enjoyed looking at the fishies.

Pretty picture of the island and the bridge connecting the island to the mainland.


It was a bit chilly that day with the wind whipping around.

Because this is the south and the civil war is still very much alive around here, there is a huge civil war fort on the island. And also because my husband is THE biggest history freak ever, we had to go see the fort. Actually, I have to admit, that it was pretty interesting, despite my lack of enthusiasm.

Daddy and Jack by the cool cannon.

This was a neat tunnel going inside the fort.

But then yesterday, Jack came down with some yicky crud of some sort. He has been fighting a fever all day today and it has spiked up to 103 at times. He also has a bad cough. So no school for him today. He got to stay home and lay on the couch and watch Thomas videos over and over. I know he is sick because he is very content to just lay on the couch and not do anything. Nothing like what he normally is like. I hope it gets better in the next couple of days because he was VERY disappointed to miss school today. Hopefully he can get back to school on Wednesday. We shall see.

Fishing Pictures

Here are a few pictures that were taken yesterday during the fishing trip.

Jack and Daddy with the fish that Jack himself caught.

My little fisherman.

Jack on the phone talking to his Aunt Ann just before the fishing trip. This kid absolutely loves to talk on the phone.

Blissful

Our brother-in-law and his brother have been spending the last few days with us. They are basically using our house as a pit stop while they do some marathon fishing on the coast. These are like really die-hard fisherman, I tell ya. They have been fishing until 2:30 in the morning for the last two nights. I don't understand it at all. There is absolutely no lure (hehe get it) for me to fish. Period.

However, I have a husband and a son who love to fish as well. And today, they both went off fishing at the pier on the beach. And in one word it was Blisful! They have been gone 6 hours now and I have loved every single minute of my alone time. I got some laundry done. I took a nap. I finished painting my hallway. And now I get to relax and blog and maybe go read a book. All. By. Myself.!!! Love it.

I did talk to Jack about an hour ago when I called them to see how it was all going. And Jack was missing me. Awwwww. He said that he was having fun, but he was "too far away." When I asked him too far away from what? He said "from my house". He then said he missed me. Awwww. And now after my day of alone time, I am ready to see my boys again. Well maybe after they shower and get that icky stinky fish smell off. Yuck. Did I say that I hate fishing?

Enjoying The Sunshine

Some pictures I took yesterday when Jack and I were out enjoying the sunshine and warm. Not hard to do with 80 degrees and sunshine both yesterday and today.

Spring Forward

It sounds like such a lovely thing to do huh? Spring forward. I have images of running through the tulips "springing forward". But not so lovely is it huh?

I hate this whole time change thing. People, you just took an hour away from me. Do you not know how precious time is and you just zapped an hour away. Do you not know how hard it is to have a three-year-old adjust to a new time? And the amount of grumpiness happens because of the loss of that one hour? Do you know the fights that ensue because kids do not want to go to bed when it is still light out? Don't you know that is what I use to get the boy to go to bed at times, even if it is only 7pm? "Look it is dark outside. The moon is out. You need to go to bed." Sigh.

I think my husband is the only one happy about the time change last night. Instead of his 12 hour shift, he only had to work 11 hours last night.

New Look

As you can see, I have again changed the look here at the Jackaroo World. I have been really wanting to sit down and change it up, but the time thing with the toddler thing with the projects-to-do-around-the-house thing just has made it difficult to do. But yesterday while the child watched the Thomas video for the 9 millionth time, I worked on my blog.

I added some pictures over on the sidebar. The first is a picture of a sunrise also known as dawn. Hehe my name is Dawn. Get it. Hehe.

The other pictures are stuff that are important to me. The first is coffee. I think I have explained my love of the dark liquid. Yeah I like coffee. In fact, I think I need to go get a cup right now. Be right back.

Alright back. Thanks for waiting. Ahhhh. Yummy. Anyway, the next picture is books. And well my love for books is right up there with my love for coffee. You can just imagine my high that I get when I walk into a Barnes and Noble. Whoever came up with the idea of putting Starbucks together with B&N, I just have one word. Genius. Pure Genius. So yeah, I love books. Any books. I love to just be surrounded with them. I love the thrill of opening a book to find out what adventure or knowledge is inside. Ahhhh. Love em.

The next picture down is a magnolia flower that comes from the magnolia tree. It is the state flower of Mississippi. We had a pathetic little magnolia tree planted in our yard in California that I am pretty sure the new owners tore down. Jim planted it to remind himself of Mississippi and I now understand why he did that. While I have only been here a few months, I have come to love Mississippi. It is beautiful. You have the beautiful coast with the white sandy beaches down here. But you also have the beautiful country up north with the green trees and rivers and lakes. So I guess I am little bit Mississippi now.

And the last picture is a picture of an abbey in Kilmore, Ireland. It is located in County Wexford on the southern tip of Ireland. It is a fishing village mostly with a lot of tourism today. And it is also where my ancestors come from on my father's side. It is where my grandmother's father was born (I guess that would make him my great grandfather) and emigrated to the US in 1849. My great grandfather was the baby of the family that emigrated to the US and somehow found their way to Marshall, Michigan to settle. It has been fun journey researching the ancestory with my father. So I had to put that picture up there also.

So a little bit of me on the website dedicated to my little guy, Jackaroo.

Where did that come from?

This morning was "get some projects done around the house time" for Jim and I. He was outside with the chain saw trimming the really ugly tree in our backyard and doing other yard type projects. I was inside painting the hallway that has been screaming at me to paint for six months. So yes, finally we were getting stuff done that needed to be done.

During this time, Jack kept running between Daddy outside with the really cool chain saw and other assortment of cool tools and me inside with the irresistible paint, brushes and roller. Everytime Jack came inside the house to see what I was doing, I would "encourage" him to go see what Daddy was doing in the backyard. Because, lets face it, three-year-olds and painting just do not mix. Period.

But after about an hour or so of Jack going back and forth between Jim and I, he got a bit tired of doing that and decided that he needed to "help" me with the painting. Oh joy. So I had him to retrieve stuff for me in hopes of keeping him out of the paint. But soon enough, he was reaching for the brush to "help Mama". I told him in a maybe too stern of a voice that he could not help me. It was just a "Mama job". At this point, being the emotional toddler that he is, decided to go running into the family room and throw himself into the chair, exclaiming "YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ME"!!!! Now where in the world did he get that from? I didn't even know that he knew the phrase, let alone use on me. And why did he feel the need to use it? Oh Lordy am I going to have a drama boy on my hands?

Of course, I dropped the roller and went to him and hugged him and told him that I did care about him very much. And then made going outside to be with Daddy while he was fertilizing the lawn would be so much fun. Hehe.

Big News

Well it looks like I am going to be having a baby around September!!!! Now that I caught your attention, it will be a part-time baby and definitely not mine. I am going to be taking care of our Pastor and his wife's new baby when she goes back to her nursing job. They are expecting a baby boy at the end of July and will be needing childcare for only two days a week. She works three days (12 hour shifts) at the hospital and her husband is going to take care of the baby one day. So I piped up and said that I could take him the other two days. When I first offered my services, I was mentally kicking myself. What am I going to do with a baby two days a week? Yikes. That is a lot of work. But now I have to say that I am a little bit looking forward to the experience. It will be fun to have a little baby around again and this time I get to give him back to his Dad for the night! HA! And I can sleep in peace. Good arrangement.

The other big news is news that I am kinda reluctant to even share because it has been known in the blogging world that once you say something about your child achieving something, it comes back to bite ya in the butt. But I am going to go out on the limb and say this. I do believe that Jack is daytime potty trained!!!! That doesn't mean we don't have the occasional accident and he does seem to freak out a bit about the pooping thing, but he knows what he is supposed to do and when he is supposed to do it. He has been staying in his big-boy underwear all day and staying dry for the most part. The key is that I have to make sure the kid goes to the bathroom at least every couple of hours or we are needing a change of clothes, which I carry with me at all times. I talked to his teacher and told her that I was thinking of sending him to school in underwear since he has stayed dry in his pull ups for the last week and she told me to go ahead. So we shall see how that goes next week with underwear at school.

So long story short, I think he is potty trained enough to semi-trust him in his underwear all the time during the day. Of course there is the issue with naps, but since he so rarely actually takes naps, it is a non-issue unfortunately. The problem is that when he does take a nap, it usually is the kind where he just kinda passes out from shear exhaustion and I don't have time to change him into a pull-up, which ends up very messy in the end. And lots of laundry.

The next thing is to get rid of that nasty nasty diaper champ. Yuck. I think that since we are down to one or two pullups a day, it will be going out of his room in the next few days. Of course, come September, I will need it again with that new baby boy coming into our house two days a week.

Weighty Issues

I added a new ticker up there. The one counting down the weight loss that I NEED to do. I started in January on Weight Watchers and as of my weigh in yesterday, I have now lost 10lbs officially. The last few weeks I have not been so good on the diet. There was the trip back to Michigan and then Jack's birthday with the tons of birthday cake (really good cake thanks to Walmart) and tons of pizza left over from the party. But now back on track.

I have to say that I have probably lost in my lifetime a total of 100lbs. But I have gained 130 lbs. Not good math there. This time is the absolute slowest I have ever lost weight. "They" say that it good and that is the way to do it because it will stay off that way. However, it is frustrating. I at least wanted to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight (yes where I was FOUR years ago) before Jack's birthday, but that is another 13 lbs away. So now I am making that a goal before my birthday. The one where my age will start with a 4 and not a 3. I know that this is a long-haul type thing and I am in it for the long haul. Just wish the long haul would go faster ya know.

Stuff and Thoughts

** We are coming down from the 3-day celebration that was known as Jack's birthday. Between the birthday party on Saturday night and his cupcake party at school yesterday, I do believe the kid had a good birthday.

** I need to get the thank you notes out. I should do that today. I really should.

** I need to call the health insurance company that we finally are on after Jim switched jobs. Hate dealing with that kind of stuff. But all they gave us was the prescription card, no other information regarding doctors, what is covered, or anything. Hate doing that stuff. Hate it. I should do that today. I really should.

** I have been trying to figure out what to do with the boy today. We might go to the Discovery Center or to the library story time or to the train store (Barnes and Nobel), or just to the cool toddler playland area at Chik-a-filet. Who knows.

** If it were up to me, I would stay home and clean my filthy house and do some more painting since the hallway and dining room still need to be painted. But having a certain 3-year-old around makes those jobs downright difficult or impossible.

** I also need to do our taxes. Ugh. Even though I am pretty sure we will be getting a good refund, I just haven't gotten up the courage to do them, nor the time. Again, the 3-year-old issue gets in the way.

** Are we bad parents, if we didn't the boy anything for his birthday yet? I figure he got a ton of stuff at his party and he hasn't missed out on anything. Maybe we will go to the toy store today and let him pick out something. I was thinking of a t-ball setup. Ya know for the practice when those games start up soon. Or maybe the little piano that he sat down at the other day and started playing like a little expert. Even the lady in the store said he was a natural. But again, where are we going to put it?

** Alright, I really need to get into the shower so I can get going and do at least one of the things on my list. Oh yeah and Jack is asking me to "fix" the wheels on his trains with the imaginary screwdriver. I best be getting to that job too.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy - Year Three

Wow. Here you are three years old. I know I will say this a thousand times or more in my lifetime, but where has the time gone? Seriously, I can remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. You were so small and I was so totally unprepared to be a mother. But as they say, it has been a learning experience for both of us. And look at you now. Three years old. Again. Wow.

I first of all want to say that I admire you. I admire the way you look at life and other people. You go about your life without abandon. You love life. You are not afraid of living your life, but instead you jump into it with both feet. When you decide to do something, you do it with 100% conviction. Your grandfather made a comment about you, which I am convinced will be true. He said that you are a born leader. That people seem to look at you and will follow you, be it on the playground today or in the world that you make for yourself tomorrow. Yet, you do all these things with a tender heart and a love inside you for your fellow people. For that, I admire you and want to be just like you Jack.

Family is very important to you. It is important that you know where all your family is at any given time, and this includes aunts, uncles, and grammies and papa. You have learned how to talk on the phone this past year and boy do you love to talk to all of your family. In fact, you often times make your father or I call somebody just so you can "check in" with them and you end up talking to them for quite a long time. I love how you answer "I am doing pretty good" when they ask you how you are.

This past year has been quite an adjustment for all of us. We moved to Mississippi when you were 2 1/2 from California. It means that we are now living in your third house of your short life. I promise, we won't move again for a long time (hopefully) if I have anything to say about it. But, I just have to say that I am so proud of the way you handled the transistion. I could tell when it dawned on you that were not going to be going back to your house in California. We were driving to Mississippi and you were in the van with me and the four animals, while Daddy was ahead of us in his car. I think we were somewhere in Texas and all of a sudden you wanted to go to "your house now". I told you that we were going to our new house and I looked back at you in the rear-view mirror and I could see your face getting totally flushed red and you started to cry. You realized that we were not going to see our house nor your old room ever again. But after about 10 minutes of crying, you calmed down and I watched you start to get excited about the new adventure we were on. In a short time, we were both talking about your new room in our new house and you were all set for the change that was coming up. I hope you are able to take this sense of wonder and excitement with you throughout your life. I wish that I were a little more like you and able to move forward with the awe of change.

You started to go to preschool this year and it was the best thing for you because you absolutely love school. You only go two days a week right now for three hours each day, but during those 6 hours a week, you are in your own world. A world without me. A world with your own friends and your own schedule each day and your favorite teacher Ms. Kelsey. You have a new best friend, Kyle and I just have to say you guys are adorable together. I love how you are so caring to him and so willing to share your toys with your friend. And each morning when you guys see each other, there are many smiles and big hugs amongst you. I love seeing that side of you. The social side. The side that is so free to care about other people and not be shy to show it. You are so completely different than me in that regard, because I was so shy when I was younger, I barely even functioned in public. And even now, I am not as free as you are when it comes to interacting with other people. Again, I admire you in so many ways.

I see you growing up so fast, but I love what I am watching. I love watching you grow into a caring young man that I know you will be. I love having you as my son. I love having the responsibilty to raise a good and decent man. I just hope that I can look at you when you are 21 and be even prouder of you and admire you that much more. But for now, I am just the luckiest Mama in the entire world because I have YOU as my Baby Boy. Even if you don't like me to call you Baby Boy any more.

Love,
Mama

PARTY TIME!!!!

Well we had Jack's third birthday party tonight. I can safely say that it was a success. It was held at an indoor playland where the kids could just run around and burn off the sugar from the cake. Most of the kids from Jack's class were there, as well as all the family. Jack had an absolute ball running around with his friends, so much in fact, that he didn't even want to stop from running around to open presents!

Jack and his friends Kyle, Seth, Kamden, Nick, Jay, and Will. Yes all boys, no girls were at the party.

I have no idea how Jack got dressed up in this outfit, but I saw him walking around with it on and just had to snap the picture. He was playing chef in the kitchen.

Do ya think he enjoyed his cake?

More toys! Yay!

The aftermath. I had to carry him in from the car because he passed out on the way home. I think he will sleep good tonight. And me for that matter. In fact, I just might sleep in tomorrow morning ... all the way until 7 am. Wow!

I will probably post more pictures when I get them from Jennifer, Kyle's mom. She is such a great photographer and she promised me she would send me what she took. But all in all, the boy had a pretty great party.

Only Five More Hours ...

till bedtime if I am lucky. It is one big lazy inside the house kinda day here today. It is raining. A lot. In fact, the rain is going sideways. It is thundering. It is lightening. The wind is going about 200 mph (give or take). The little lake (pond) behind us has white caps. There was something on the tv about a tornado watch. Yeah. The weather is bad.

So that means it is just me and Jack all day and night here by ourselves. With the trains, trucks, tractors, and cars. With the Thomas video we have watched now twice. And the Garfield movie that is playing right now. How many times can you watch Thomas before going insane? Just wondering.

Jim is at the academy today doing a refresher course and then he has to come home in a couple of hours and change and head out for work for the night. I know that he is going to be tired and it will be a long night with this weather the way it is. But, it is going to be a very long night until bedtime here. Okay, back to playing trains. Choo choooooo.

Potty Training ... Update

I haven't had a whole lot to write about these days. It has been same old same old here in the Jackaroo World. He still doesn't seem to need as much sleep as the rest of us human beings... namely me. Most days he goes full steam from 6 am until about 8:30 pm without stopping much. How he does it, I will never know. I keep trying to come up with stuff to do that might wear him out enough to just sit, but haven't found much that will do that. A day of school, playing, an hour walking, and another hour riding his bike doesn't seem to phase the kid. Man do I feel sorry for his Pre-K teacher when he is 4 years old and getting him to take the required nap everyday. Maybe I should warn her?

The other big thing going on is the potty training, otherwise known as "The Major Frustration" in our house. Somedays I think he is about 75% daytime trained, then there comes days like yesterday where he just didn't seem to care that he peed in his underwear 3 times. I have started to venture out of the house with him wearing underwear with a little bit of success. The other day we were gone for about 4 hours and he stayed dry the entire time and went to the bathroom at Barnes and Noble. And yes, I bribed the kid with the Salty train that I bought him that day. It was pretty funny watching him trying to decide which train he wanted. It came down to Diesel and Salty and I swear he took 10 minutes trying to decide. Important things these trains are to the boy. However, I do know that I am going to go bankrupt getting this kid potty trained.

I just have to remember that he will get it and it will be another milestone that he passed, just like crawling and walking and talking. Just those things were fun to watch him learn. Going potty in his underwear and the subsequent clean up is not so much fun. Sigh.