Busy Weekend

We were busy this weekend around here. This was Daddy's weekend off and we went to the Crawfish Festival in Biloxi yesterday. Now mind you, this northern girl never in her life thought about eating a crawfish, or mud bug as they call it, in her entire life before I met my Mississippi-raised husband. Just the thought of tearing one of those things open and actually eating the flesh makes my skin crawl. And then my husband moved us to Mississippi, the land where they eat anything that crawls, where they have 10-day festivals just devoted to the creatures.

We went to the crawfish cook-off where about ten teams were competing for the prize as the best crawfish cookers or something like that. It was an all-you-can-eat crawfish fest and let me tell you the first one we tasted was by the Jack Daniels team and oh my gosh was it spicy. I was in pain and a day later, I swear I can still feel that spice on my lips. I also am a newbie in the whole crawfish etiquette. I have no idea how to eat the things, but the ones that Jim cracked open for me, I have to admit did not taste that bad (except for the Jack Daniels burn your lips off one).

There were also rides that Jack enjoyed at the festival. He was all smiles after getting off the kiddie roller coaster and the semi-truck rides. He enjoyed the rides a lot. The crawfish? Not so much. He ate a hot dog.

Also, last night we got an impromptu visit from Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill wanted to come down to the coast for fishing (he wanted more marathon fishing like he did a few weeks ago) and Aunt Ann wanted to go shopping, which of course, I was all for. And Jack thinks that Aunt Ann is THE BEST and anytime she is around he is like Mama and Daddy who?

We had a good time with them. Uncle Bill actually was out fishing all. night. long. Yes that is right all night long. He got back here at 7 am this morning. Yes, he is nuts. And Ann and I got to go shopping today after church. And the best part of the whole thing? Jack was not with me! I didn't have to yell at Jack to stop tearing the clothes off the rack or stop running to the other end of the store or to just plain stop doing anything. Loved it!

Alarming

We had an alarm/security system put in our house yesterday. I feel a lot safer now when Jim is at work all night long and it is just me and Jack at home alone. Also Jack has to have his bedside lamp on all night long. He has to. If he doesn't, he wakes up several times and starts screaming. No little night light is good enough for this child. And since his bedroom is at the front of the house, Jim and I have been nervous about people being able to look in at him at night. Yes, he has blinds on his window, but the child will not keep them closed. We play the "he opens them, we close them" game.

So now we have this alarm system that quite frankly scares both of us. It has so many bells and very very loud whistles. There is a bull horn with a 285 db sound that supposedly the frequency can be heard 2 miles away. There are heat sensors, glass breaking sensors, door contacts and alot of little buttons on that fancy dancy keypad. We shall see how many false alarms we can manage to pull off in the next month.

The man who was installing the system yesterday got such a kick out of Jack. Jack kept following him from room to room asking "what are you doing?" and basically talking the poor man's ear off. At one point, Jack decided to "help" and went and got his hammer, screw driver, and wrench off his play tool bench and you could see him bent over a wire with the installation guy trying to fix something. The guy thought Jack was really cute and didn't get mad about having a little shadow follow him everywhere talking a mile a minute. Good thing cause he could of just made that bullhorn go off a few times to make the boy be quiet, but he didn't. Instead, he just put up with chatterbox shadow Jack.

The Ho Hums

It seems that as of lately that I have been reaching to find something to blog about. It isn't that my life isn't exciting (well maybe exciting isn't the word, but full), because I find myself very busy with the daily things of being a stay at home mom, but the content of the daily stuff just doesn't seem that blog worthy. So this is a post about having nothing that big to say.

Jack has been his good self lately. I have started a new discipline/threatening tool that seems to work quite well. I learned it from another mother in the neighborhood where I saw her counting to five and if her son (age 8) didn't do what she wanted him to do by the time she got to five, then something would happen. Not sure what that something was but it must have been a pretty big something because he straightened up by the time she got to three. So I thought I would try that on Jack and will tell him that if I get to five he will either lose a train or get a spanking depending on the severity of the situation at the time. And I have never had to get to five yet! It seems to work. Yay Me for copying another mother's discipline method.

I also started walking three times a night with two other ladies in the neighborhood and probably get a fourth involved soon. Three of us are mothers to toddlers and the other one is pregnant due in September, Erin, my next door neighbor. She also graduated from the same business college as I did near Boston, so we have gotten to be really good friends. She was telling me that she is really having a hard time deciding whether to stay at home or go back to work after the baby. I remember that decision. It is a hard one for every mother no matter what they decide I think.

Well there you have it. I guess, I did have something to write about after all.

Jack and The Girls

We are in trouble. Jack is such a flirt. Last night we had a neighborhood crime watch meeting with my hubby leading the meeting (love being married to a cop). Anyway, while at the meeting we met one of our neighbors who has a 2 1/2 year old little girl who is just as much of a flirt as Jack is. And that, my friends, is trouble. Pure trouble.

The meeting was held at the pool area and the two of them were running around the pool giving both of us mothers heart attacks every time they got close to the edge of the pool. Neither of us actually were listening to the meeting about crime prevention because we were too concerned about jumping in after our wild children. As the meeting was winding up, and everybody was mingling and talking to each other, the two kids were laying on the chaise lounge chairs pretending to sun themselves. It was at this point that the other little girl named Maddie got up and walked over to Jack and planted a big kiss on him. Right there in front of all the neighbors and God. I told Maddie's father, Justin, that he was in trouble when she turns 16 and he was so serious when he turned to me and said "I am frightened." And I could tell from his face that he was really and truly frightened about having a teenaged daughter, especially one who gives kisses to boys at the tender age of 2!

And what did my son do when being kissed? Yes, that is right, he kissed right back. I think that if we are in the same neighborhood as Maddie when they are teenagers, we are going to have to lock up Jack.

The Wood Floor Match Game

Well we decided to bite the bullet and order wood floors for our house. We have the cheapest carpet you can buy (seriously) and the cheapest vinyl in the kitchen and bathrooms. The carpet has absolutely no stain resistant anything to it, so that means when the dogs or Jack have accidents or the cat pukes bright pink something or other, the stain stays there no matter what. Let me say that again, the stain stays NO. MATTER. WHAT. I have used my steam cleaner with no results, and I have used about 3 different carpet cleaners. Nothing works. We have lovely yellow and pink stains everywhere. Not to mention the carpet is so thin, it is starting to wear thin already (after 8 months) in the high traffic places.

So after months of drooling over the possibility of actually ripping up the awful carpet and putting wood floors down in the kitchen, family room, den, dining room, and hallway (basically everything but bedrooms and bathrooms), we decided to go for it. Yes, we are spending Jack's college education just to satisfy my lust for wood floors.

After checking out Home Depot and Lowes and figuring out they are way higher than a lot of people, we decided to go with a local store. We searched their sample inventory and ruled out everything higher than $6.00/sq ft since we have 1100 sq ft to cover. Yeah you do the math. I should start advertising my kidney on ebay I am thinking. We pick out something that we like and we tell them to order that for us. And here comes the frustrating part. When it came in, the color was completely off from the sample. So off, that I thought for sure they made a mistake. We want a Brazillian Cherry color and what they sent was puke orange wood floor. Ugly. So the owner, who is frustrated as well, guided us to another sample that was very similiar and same price. We said sure, we'll take that one. I went this morning to look at what came in for THAT sample and I am truly wondering about the whole flooring industry. This time, what came in was a dark grayish antique barn looking wood floor. I am sure some people like that, but that is not what I ordered!!!

Now it is looking like we are going to have to up our price a bit and go for hopefully our third order. What is up with these people? Is it just because we are ordering fairly cheap stuff as far as hardwood floor goes? Or does everybody have this kind of problem? I was so excited about getting my new floors this week and being able to teach Jack how to slide over them this weekend. Waahhh. Now, I get to wait and see and hopefully win the wood floor match game this time.

Can This Be True?

For the past three days, Jack has not had any pee pee accidents. While that is not that great of an accomplishment, because I would usually force his little bottom on the toilet every hour or two just to make sure there were no accidents forthcoming. And this usually resulted in great crying and saying "No Mama" because the boy did not want to sit on the toilet. I was beginning to think that I would have to remind him to go to the bathroom during first grade.

However, things have changed for the better in the Jackaroo house in the last few days. He will say, out of the blue, "I have to go to the bathroom" and actually go into the bathroom and do his business! He even attempts to put his underwear and pants back on (usually backwards, but I don't say anything because he is so proud of himself for doing that). He is so cute as he runs out of the bathroom yelling "I did it!"

Even last night as I was getting him ready for bed, he started to toot toot. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He looked at me, thought for a minute and said very seriously, "yes I do". And sure enough, he went in there and pooped on the toilet - a rarity. He has been waiting until the first minute the diaper hits his bottom to do the poop thing.

Have we turned a corner and can this actually be true? Is he actually day-time potty trained? I think it is time to celebrate!

Next up - night time trained. Not even going to try that one for a few months.

Quandry

I have a quandry. Jack's best friend, Kyle, is a very aggressive little boy. By aggressive, I mean he can be down right mean. He hits, shoves and even bites other kids for no reason at all. It just comes out of the blue. This morning, as I was dropping Jack off at school, I witnessed Kyle come running from across the room and push another little boy (Justin) so hard that Justin fell face forward onto the floor. He started to cry and quite frankly, I would have cried just as hard as Justin, if I had fallen that hard. Kyle's mother, Jennifer, was in the room and all she did was put him in the corner and told him that was not nice and not to do it again.

Kyle was at my house last week and during the two hours that they were here, Jack was in hysterical tears twice because Kyle hit him so hard that left bruises. And again, his mother basically did nothing to stop it. She just sat him down and said that is not nice. No spanking, no nothing. I personally am a fan of spanking if needed. Now mind you, I am not saying beat your kid, but a swat on the butt is needed at times and Jack has had his share of swats. I have found that lately just the threat of a spanking or taking away one of his precious trains is enough to get Jack back into shape. But Kyle's mother does nothing.

So my quandry is this - she wants the boys to get together more this summer after school is out. But truthfully, I am hesitant because every single time they get together, Jack ends up hurt and screaming. But Jack still loves Kyle despite getting hurt by him. He still wants to play with him. So do I let them play together and just sit quietly and not say anything about her bad parenting skills? Or make up excuses not to get the boys together? I really do not know what to do.

Seizing Opportunity

Tonight I had a meeting at the church for the children's council that I kinda got signed up for because I have a child I think. Jim was working tonight and I did something that I have never done before - ask somebody to babysit my child. I know that sounds weird, but it is true. Other than my very good friend, Janet and Jack's daycare provider (saint) in California, I have never had anybody babysit my child until tonight. I asked our neighbors who have a 4-year-old little girl to watch Jack for a couple of hours. And Jack was estatic to go over to Alison's house because he, just the other day, referred to Alison as his "sweetheart". Yes, we are in trouble. It is probably a good thing that her father is in the Air Force and will probably not be in the area when the kids are approaching the teen years. Oy!

Anyway, the meeting was cancelled, but nobody informed me of the cancellation. And I swear that upon hearing the news that I did not have a meeting to go to, but instead had 2 hours of MY time, my heart skipped a beat. What joy! What freedom! I booked it down to Barnes and Noble and sat there for over an hour with a cup of coffee reading and perusing the aisles WITHOUT a toddler pulling me toward the train table. Pure Bliss.

The Week In Pictures

This week has been a pretty busy week with Grammy and Papa visiting from Michigan. So here is the week in review in pictures.


On Monday, Jack had his first t-ball game. Here is the future major league player.

I think one word can describe these games - Chaos.

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Getting batting pointers from Coach Heidi.

During a rare good day on Thursday, we went to the beach with Grammy and Papa while Daddy was sleeping at home from working all night.

Sissy and Jack getting buckets of water. I think they were trying to empty the ocean.

Grammy and Papa - Beach Bums.

Laura looking prettier and prettier every single day.

Papa and Jack playing ball. About 38 years ago, there was a picture taken of me and Papa doing the exact same thing. I need to find that and post the two pictures together.

Grammy and Jack had to get in on the ball playing also.

My Age Starts With What?

Today is my 40th birthday. I remember when that sounded absolutely ancient. I also remember thinking that when you finally get to that age, everything will fall into place. And for the most part, it has for me. I have a wonderful husband, beautiful son, and a step-daughter who is becoming my friend. I have it all and I am blessed.

These past couple of months, I have been thinking back to my thirties. It is inevitable, I think, to review your life as a big milestone of an age is looming ahead. I remember my 30th birthday really well. I remember driving down the road and looking in the mirror only to see this HUGE gray patch of hair. I thought it was fitting on my 30th birthday and drove straight to the beauty shop and got my first of many professional hair color jobs.

I am pleased to say that my 40's are coming in a lot happier than my 30's did. When I was 30, I was a pretty miserable human being back then. I was in the middle of some serious infertility treatments and attending a support group for infertile women. I had quit my job as an accountant for a bank in downtown Seattle by then and my job became infertility. I was going to the University of Washington fertility clinic at least 2 or 3 times a week for ultrasounds or various procedures depending on what we were doing that month. The drugs that I were on were making me a total hormonal wreck and crying was a daily thing.

And the marriage department was in shambles also. I was married to a complete jerk who thought of himself first and foremost. He did not want kids and was actually quite pleased that we were having trouble. He made a lot of money, but when it came to letting his wife use some of that money or helping his mother out, he almost cried to see it go. However, for him to put in a $17k car stero was nothing. He remarried and is it any wonder that marriage ended in divorce?

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. I am now very very very happy that none of those infertility treatments worked (well one did, but I miscarried) because he would have been the worst father in the world. God knew what he was doing with that situation.

Half of my thirties were spent alone and single. And it was the best thing for me. I had my own little house with my two little dogs as my children and was not unhappy as I had been. But I felt that I was missing something - children. So when I was 34 years old, after talking to my dentist of all people, who had a son by sperm donor, I went to the doctor to see about doing that same thing. I was told by him that it would be very difficult for me to conceive and of course a lot of money and no guarantees. I went home with a list of potential sperm donors with all their family and medical history. Weird way to have a baby and something inside told me that it wasn't right for me.

And it wasn't. About 6 months later, I met Jim during a tax season when I was working two jobs and 80 hours a week. But it was fate and bam 6 months after we met, I was pregnant with Jack. No, I do not know how it happened. I know how normal people get pregnant, but me? It is still a mystery to me to this day. And he was meant to be, I believe. We have not done anything at all to stop from having another little Jack since the day he was born and well, I guess God just wanted me to have the one perfect little boy.

So as I am going into my 40's, I can truly truly truly say that it is my happiest time of my life. Forty is not a scary age for me. And as they say, 40 is the new 30 right?

Happy Easter

We had a nice time on Saturday for my birthday bash. I say for MY birthday bash, but I know the real reason why everybody came to our house was to see Jack. The real reason that Grammy and Papa drove 1000 miles was to see Jack. Because I really do not believe that they have been with me on my birthday for at least 20 years. Half of my life! But when given a chance to see the Jackaroo, they jump in the car and drive 1000 miles and just say that it is for my birthday. Yeah right.




Papa and Jack talking world politics or something while drinking their root beer together.

The Easter Bunny came to our house on Saturday and brought eggs. Jack thought that was a pretty cool thing to have the Easter Bunny in our backyard. When we asked who that was he said "That Rabbit".

Sissy helping Jack find all the eggs.

Easter morning the kids found baskets.

Tonight is Jack's first t-ball game. We shall see how that goes with the weather the way it is. Yesterday was in the 40's on Easter Sunday! What is up with that? They are taking the team picture tonight so of course, we will have to order a picture. I still can't believe that my kid is old enough for t-ball!

I hope everybody had a good Easter and was able to stay warm despite the frigid temps. There is just something wrong with freezing on Easter.

Birthday Bash

We are having a big birthday bash today. It is for me. Jim had first planned this whole thing as a surprise for me because I am rolling over into another decade (oh my gosh!). He was so sweet and sneaky for awhile. He went behind my back and invited my family from Michigan along with his entire side of the family to come down for the big bash today. But I found out in my sneaky way (I was looking over his shoulder as he was IMng my mother) and he had to fess up to his plans. I am glad that I found out because really I don't like surprises. And truth be told, if he had not told me and if we had not been working for two days to get this house clean and in shape and if people just suddenly showed up with no warning to a house that was not "company-approved", I would have been a little bit upset, shall we say.

But anyway, they are all coming for me today and I must say that seems a bit weird to me. I am not used to having a whole alot of attention focused on me. I am a really good wallflower, so to speak. So I am focusing on this being just a great big family bbq at the house and not about my upcoming, looming big FOUR OH as in OH MY GOSH AM I REALLY THAT OLD?! My actual birthday is on Tuesday, so I still have a few precious days left of my thirties.

You will probably see a post or two in the next few days about my thoughts on turning the big four-oh. The good and the bad. Stay tuned.

40 Inches Here We Come

When I took Jack to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for his strep scare, they weighed and measured him. At that time he was 39 1/2 inches and 37 lbs. I looked up online to figure out what percentile that is in the not-so-important growth chart and found out he is in 89 and 90% for both weight and height. Yes, he is big. And he is very proud to tell you that he is going to be "thiiiiiissssss tall" (stretching arm wayyy up) when he grows up.

I do have to make the appointment to take him in for his third year check-up. Please somebody remind me to do that :). However, I really would not be surprised if he grew a half inch by the time he went in for his checkup. The boy has been doing pretty much nothing but sleeping and eating for a couple of days. On Monday, he fell asleep around 4:30 in the afternoon and did not wake up until 6:00 the next morning! Almost 14 hours of sleep! And let me tell you, yesterday the kid was in a great mood all day long after all that sleep. He was hilarious.

And the eating? The boy didn't stop eating yesterday. We picked Laura up yesterday from the airport for her visit here on her spring break and went straight to T-ball practice. The kid had a cookie on the way there, thanks to Sissy and airplane cookies. Then at practice, he had more cookies and two juice boxes. Then we went out to pizza after practice, where the boy ate two pieces of pizza and a brownie! Then after all that, as I was getting him ready for bed about 8:30, he proclaims he is hungry again! Geeze Louise!

So I do believe that 40 inches tall is right around the corner, which in my opinion, sounds soooo tall! I mean it is only 8 inches from being 4 feet! Good grief. The kid is already wearing 4T pants and regular size 4 (as in the big boy sizes) for shirts and underwear! Aye Aye! This growing thing is happening too fast, way too fast.

IT Has Started ...

The IT I am referring to is what every curly-haired girl has nightmares about and dreads with a such a passion. IT is THE HUMIDITY. And IT has arrived. Now you maybe asking why I moved from California, the land of the oh-my-god-is-it-really-that-hot-dry heat to Mississippi, the land of oh-my-god-I-am-going-to-drown-in-this-hot-humid-place. And believe me, when I say that I thought about that very thing many many times as I drove across country to move to Mississippi.

You see, I have curly hair. No, I should say, I have god-awful-unmanagable-curly-frizzy hair that with an armload of hair products, I can manage to actually make look somewhat respectable ... in low humidity. But when the dewpoint goes up, my hair turns into a freak show. And that is what has happened in the last week when the good old Mississippi humidity has moved in for the next few months. Remember that episode of Friends, where they are in the Caribbean and Monica's hair is 10 times her normal size? Yeah that is me.

My husband, bless his unknowing short-haired self, said to me yesterday "isn't there hair straightening stuff out there?" This was in response to listening to me rant about my losing control of my hair. Of course, I dug through my basket full of products and started showing him the products that I already use, which includes shampoo and conditioner "specially formatted for oh-my-god-curly hair" and other various straightening products. At which point, he just looked at me, shook his head, and walked away.

I guess that is what I will have to do too. Just shake my head and embrace my curly, frizzy, freak show of a head for the next 6 months.

Another Busy Weekend

On Saturday, we went to the big easter egg hunt at the elementary school around the corner from us. It was actually three big fields filled with eggs. The man who started the hunt said that they had over 35,000 eggs in the different parks throughout the county and had spent $7,000 on the whole thing. I thought it was pretty nice of them to do this for the kids.

Of course the whole hunt was over in about five minutes on the toddler field, but Jack did pretty good this year. Last year, in California, he was more interested in opening the three eggs he received right then and there instead of actually getting more. This year is was all about quantity for the boy.


A quick adjustment of the underwear situation and he was off.

He saw a break in the sea of people, and went for the eggs on the other side.

Notice the intent concentration of picking up the easter eggs. He was so much faster this year than last where he got a whopping total of three eggs. This year, I think his total was around 18 or 20.

Sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap was NOT Jack's idea as you can see. In fact, he wouldn't even acknowledge the Easter Bunny at the mall the other day. When we walked by him, he covered his eyes with his arm and just kept on walking and wouldn't even talk about the entire subject of the Easter Bunny with me. He just kept on walking.

In church for Palm Sunday. Jack is doing his job of holding his palm branch high for the rehearsal before church actually started. However, during the actual performance, my son was led to the dark side by the little girl, Kaitlyn, in pink standing behind him. She decided to climb over the railing and prompted him to follow. My son hesitated for a half second, and followed her over the railing. Of course everybody thought he was cute, including the Pastor who continued to prompt him to come up on stage with him. However, I think a little bit of our talk we had earlier must of sunk in because he decided he better stay put after that. Gotta love the age of three.