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.

Technical Difficulties

**Updated to add that I did get a new dvd player and NO tv. I did look at the tvs but seriously the price tags, even the cheap ones, made me run the other way. I did, however, end up buying a dvd recorder that I can hook up our camcorder to and record onto dvd - supposedly. I will probably use our camcorder a lot more if that is the case.

Frustration is trying to watch a movie on a dvd player that is almost as old as a decade and have it breakdown in the middle of movie. I guess that is what me and the kids are going to be doing today while Jim is sleeping - buying a new dvd player. Of course this comes hours after Jim and I had THE talk about tightening up our purse strings a bit to save for something big. Alright one more purchase this year. I am just going to try to control myself so that I don't come home with a new plasma tv that I have been eyeing for the past few months. Our tv, which is as old as the dvd player, is also on the fritz. We get to watch tv with these big purple balls at the bottom of the screen. I know you are jealous.

I need to be chanting to myself - No New Tv, No New Tv, No New Tv, Just a dvd player!

Bye Bye Christmas

We did the deed today. We packed up the Christmas tree, ornaments, stockings, and all the other various decorations that were around the house. My house has been de-Christmased and it feels good to have it all back to normal again.

Jack, on the other hand is not taking this whole saying bye bye to Christmas very well. As we were packing up the ornaments and the tree was laying down on its side on the floor, he kept screaming "It IS Christmas". I kept telling him that it was over until next year, which was followed by him screaming a big fat "NOOOO". He kept trying to convince me that Santa was coming soon, but I told him that Santa was taking a vacation right now. And so round and round it went. Of course hearing Jack in his little Jack voice say "bye bye choo choo" as Daddy packed up the Christmas choo choo was pretty sad. Even I, who was silently rejoicing putting the stuff away, had to admit that was sad.

Bye Bye Christmas. You were a great one this year. See ya in about 11 months, or so.

That Time of Year Again

It is family picture time again! We usually do this sometime in November, but this year with the move and everything, it just did not get done until today. So here they are. This year's color, as you can see, was black. So that means we have done red, white, and black. Next year Laura says we are doing blue. We shall see.

The "official" Clayton family 2006 picture.

Is it just me or does she look about 18 here instead of 11? Ugh. She is growing up way too fast. I shudder everytime I think of all the boys that Jim is going to have to scare away using his cop tactics.

Okay, all at once "AWWWWWWW".

If I say so myself, we have two extremely good looking children. Yes I am proud.

Yes, they are good looking, but they also can be very mischievous. Can you see it?

Ugh Nights

I hate Jim's schedule. Hate it. It was hard enough trying to keep it all straight when he was on days, but now it is downright impossible. He works two days on two days off three days on and three days off. So basically every other week he has a three day weekend. Everytime I try to plan something, I have to sit and think for about 10 minutes to see where it falls in his work rotation. When he was on days, I actually liked the schedule because it meant more family time, or I should say more relief time for me.

But now he is on nights. And it changes every single thing. Like just now, I tried to schedule to have the pest control people come and spray for the nasty critters we have running rampant in our house. Yuck. And I knew that Jim has Wednesday and Thursday off, so I said that Thursday would be good day. I thought today was Tuesday because in my brain he worked today, as in just got home from work, and it couldn't be Wednesday because he doesn't work on Wednesday. When the lady told me that she had me down for TOMORROW, I actually started to argue with her because I KNEW today was Tuesday. It was only after telling her that I would call back to schedule another time, that it dawned on me that yes indeed it is Wednesday. UGH. My head hurts.

So now I need to find a time when I can get me, Jack, dogs, AND cats out of the house for hours and have it NOT interfere with Jim's sleep time. I need ALOT more coffee before I can figure that major puzzle out!!

Christmas Pictures

Jack and Daddy watching the Christmas choo choo

Wow a big Truck WITH a Dump truck! What more could ya want?

A Tonka Fire Truck with ALL the bells and whistles. Yay!

Thanks Grammy and Papa!

Santa was here!

This is Fun!

Laura playing her "Design World" game. Future designer in the works.

Playing Trucks

The Aftermath

Merry Christmas Night!

It was a good Christmas in the Jackaroo household. I really believed that my in-laws liked us until I saw what they gave Jack for Christmas. Every. Single. Gift. was bigger than he is! Among the list of toys were a Tonka firetruck that stands almost as tall as he is, a Tonka big rig with trailer with dump truck that yes stands as tall as the fire truck, and a Thomas tent that takes up an entire room that he loves to crawl through.

And the "Big Gift" onslaught didn't just come from Jim's side of the family, oh no, my very own parents had to buy the biggest gift of all - a Fire Truck pedal car complete with hose, bell, and ladders!! Now the question of the day is where is all this stuff going to go?

It was a fun day starting off with having to wake up Laura to wake up her brother to get him to go see that Santa had been here. Jim and I laid in bed until 6:30 and couldn't wait any longer and had to enlist the help of big Sissy Laura. We heard them go out to the tree and heard him scream "Toys!". So much fun. Of course, Jim and I had to stumble out and act all surprised and everything. To say that the boy was overwhelmed would be an understatement. He did not know what to play with first and kept going from one to another. This year was definitely a truck theme for him. Santa brought the boy a dump truck and a crane and we bought him a bulldozer. The kid will be the best equipped kid on the beach. He will be able to move major sand all over the place!

Laura made out really well this year also. She got tons of jewelry, pjs, REALLY cute boots (wish they fit me), a fun fashion designer game, a purse, 2 watches, and stuff I can't remember now. I think she is happy.

Jim and I also did quite well. Jim bought me a sapphire and diamond ring that is absolutely beautiful. Not sure I want to hug and kiss him or hit him for spending that much money, but I love it. I am afraid he only got a pair of shoes, shirts, and some small stuff. I am the sensible person of the family hehe.

We had a really lazy day today where we all stayed in our pjs all day long. The kids played with their toys and games while Jim and I watched tv and napped. To be honest, I was so worried about the Christmas Eve dinner we had up with my in-laws yesterday that I really didn't think about Christmas dinner or anything at our own house today. I can chalk it up to being sick the last few days, but I didn't have anything planned special for this morning or anything. And we didn't have a whole lot to eat and/or I didn't feel like cooking at all. At one point I actually tried to call out for pizza, but I guess they let their drivers off for Christmas - go figure. But we survived hehe.

Jim is working nights now and probably will be from now on. I hate him on nights because his schedule is 7 am to 7pm, which means he is home trying to sleep during the day and I have to either get Jack out of the house to keep it quiet or keep the boy quiet (ha!) while we are at home. And I also feel like I can't get anything done because I don't want to disturb Jim by vacuuming or going in and out of the bedroom doing laundry or whatever. But we will just have to come up with some routine and thank goodness he doesn't work more than 2 or 3 days at time before getting 2 or 3 days off.

I will post the Christmas pictures tomorrow when I feel like actually downloading them off the camera.

I hope everybody out there had a very special Christmas with their families and friends.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It was bake day yesterday in the Jackaroo World. Cookies galore and a Choo Choo train cake!

We are heading up to my SIL for Christmas Eve with the entire C clan today. I am very afraid of the entire van load of toys that we will be transporting back down here afterwards.

Merry Christmas

Yuckies

Somehow somewhere, I got the bad puke/fever/diahrea/migraine bug. Yesterday after coming home from spending half the day shopping with my SIL and MIL, I started to feel a bit feverish. By 5pm, I was downright sick with a 102.7 fever and throwing up and the tylenol I took was NOT helping at all because my fever rose from 101.2 to 102.7 in a matter of an hour.

So, Jim took me to the ER. He told Laura that she was in charge of Jack and off we went. One of the perks of having a cop as a husband, he can call one of his buddies to check on the kids while he is at the hospital with his sick wife. The cops here are really great group of people.

Anyway, while waiting in the waiting room for hours (not sure how many cause I lost count), I seemed to have formed a migraine that was THE worst I have ever had. The bright lights all over the hospital did not help one bit either. Finally after 3 hours and getting checked over twice by Triage and deciding that I wasn't needing a bed before anybody else, I was finally brought into a room. The doctor was very nice and decided to do a CT scan on my head to see what was going on. And before she did that, she gave me something for my nausea/migraine pain/fever that was unbelievable. I have no idea what she put into my system with that shot, but it took a whole 3 seconds before I felt the effects and another 3 seconds before I was out cold. They woke me up to take me to do the CT and the only thing I remember was getting into the wheelchair and then very faintly hearing the CT machine and then I was out again until the doctor came back into the room to tell me that they found nothing except for a case of sinus infection (duh, I have one of those almost constantly it seems). But I don't remember how I got home or anything until I woke up this morning around 7:30.

I am feeling better, sorta. I did throw up another three times today and the fever is still persistant with the lowest being around 100.5 or so. I am awake right now because the fever spiked up again to almost 102 and I have slept almost all day long.

But I did get out of having to wrap gifts today and shoved that chore off onto Jim and Laura. I just pointed and told Jim which gifts were for which people and he wrapped and Laura put the ribbons and bows on them. Ha! Being sick does have its rewards...kinda.

Does NOT Dance with Bears

I can maybe chalk it all up to him being tired. After all we were on the go a lot yesterday when we went up to see Grammy and three Aunties who spoiled a boy to no end. There was a lot of cookie making at Aunt Ann's house, lots of entertaining to be done, lots of kisses to be given out, and even some Christmas presents to open. Yes, it was a full day yesterday and we were all pooped when we got home last night.

However, not sure if that is the reason why my child woke up as the devil incarnate this morning. We TRIED to go to the playland Bear Cub Club where there is always fun times to be had ... except today. It all started out relatively good by doing a craft. Last week Jack had his picture taken and this week we made pretty Christmas frames to go around the pictures. All was sorta fun. Until I told him that we were going to do the program where we sing and dance and listen to a story and NOT go play with the humungous new train table they just setup. I told him that we would play with the trains AFTER the program, but he had to go play with the other kids right then.

Of course, this was followed by screams and tears. I really tried to get him to do the Reindeer Hokey Pokey (you put your right hoof in hehe) but he would barely even turn himself around. And when it came time to go get a teddy bear to dance with our bears, that is when I threw in the towel. He shoved another little boy out of the way, he told Miss Kathy (the director) a big fat "NO" when she asked him to pick up the mess he created, and then he hit me when I told him to stop what he was doing. So we left. We did not play with the trains. We did not get to climb on the cool climbing structure. And then in the car, there was NO Dora playing on the dvd ... The Horror!

Anybody do excorism on toddlers? We seriously need to get that devil out of the one that lives in our house.

Christmas Programs Galore!

Jack has been in two Christmas programs in the past week. The first was at his school program. Below you can see pics and a short video of the very important proceeding.

Jack all dressed up in his choo choo sweater vest AND a tie. Very handsome.

Jack on stage. Notice the little boy sitting two steps below him. That is Kyle, his best friend and when I mean best friend, I mean he talks about Kyle all the time, everyday. Anyway, Kyle it seems was having a major case of stage fright. His parents were sitting next to us and his Mom asked me if he wasn't the most pathetic thing. And yes he was. In the video below, you will see Jack trying to comfort Kyle. It is the cutest thing.

And here is where all the kids surrounded the manger and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. The cuteness factor was at an all-time high.

The second program was this morning at church. They were having their annual children's play acting out the nativity scene. Again, the cuteness factor way up there. Anyway, Jack was one of the sheep in the flock. However, Jack being Jack, he would NOT wear the little sheep hat with the sheep ears. No, he was the only two-year-old up there who did not look like a sheep. You just kinda had to imagine him being a sheep I guess. Jim could not go today because he was on duty and I seemed to have forgotten the camera, even my camera phone was left at home. So you will just have to trust me in that it was very cute.

Blog Tagging ... Favorite Things

I have been tagged by Stefanie for a MeMe (sorry Stefanie, I copied your pic. I like it. ) This is My Favorite Things:

1. Jack

2. Jim

3. My house

4. Coffee

5. Chocolate

6. Massages/Getting pampered at a spa

7. Diamonds

8. Books

9. Sunday morning coffee and paper (yes coffee is on here twice!)

10. Watching decorating/flipping/selling houses shows

For Jack's favorite things, that is easy. His list goes something like this:

1. Trains

2. Trucks

3. Cars

4. Tractors

5. Ice Cream

6. School

7. His friend Kyle at school

8. His teacher Ms Kelsey

9. His room

10. His Mama and Daddy :)

Okay now Jane, Carolyn and Liesl. Your turns!

School Pictures

We got Jack's school pictures today. For all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc out there wanting one, yes you will get one in your Christmas card. But for those not on our Christmas card list, here they are.

This picture shows his true personality - the mischievous, when-can-I-get-in-trouble Jack.

And this picture shows him plotting something very devious.

No Offers

Well my phone was not ringing off the hook with offers to babysit, so I had to improvise and use another babysitter. The TV. Yep that is right, I sat Jack down in front of The Polar Express movie. It seems however, our dvd of the movie is not working because it kept jumping back to the beginning, so I had to use the tv version that was on Tivo. This worked like a charm until a commercial would come on and the child would burst into tears and start screaming. I, of course, came running from whatever room to fast forward through the commercials. But hey it occupied the child for a couple of hours. Between that and Thomas shows, I was able to get my house cleaned, laundry done, bills paid, and Christmas cards addressed.

The only room that I did not tackle was Jack's room and well that is an all day project that MUST get done soon. I seriously need to go through all his toys and box up the ones he does not play with anymore. I also need to paint his room and hang some stuff up on his walls that have been sitting in his closet since we moved. Jim bought these really cute airplane and train shelves that Jack keeps wanting to play with because he can see them on the top shelf in his closet. The room will be really cute once it is done, or I should say once I get my butt in gear and actually work on it.

So because the rooms were cleaned, I thought I would show off my new window coverings that took TEN WEEKS to get to me. I ordered them the week after we moved in and they promised me that I would have them by Thanksgiving. They were good on their promise, however, they were delivered TWO days before turkey day and that was only because I begged on the phone with the installer. I am really pleased with how the shutters and valances came out, just not sure it was worth the small fortune (college education) that I paid.

Somebody Want to Babysit Today?

I really need a babysitter today. Anybody out there want a two-year-old for the day. He's not TOO much trouble. Well okay, yeah he is trouble, but it is a good kind of trouble. All you have to do is play choo choos with him all day long and he will be happy happy happy. My problem is that I do not have time to play choo choos with him. My house is incredibly dirty. The laundry pile is so high that my poor husband had to search for a clean pair of underwear today. The Christmas cards need to be done and sent out. The bills need to be paid. And the Christmas tree needs to be basically decorated again because the above-mentioned two-year-old has taken every single ornament off from the bottom half. Yeah that is the reason why there has been no picture taken of said tree. It is half naked. Oh yeah and I have a room full of presents that need to be wrapped.

So if you are not doing anything today, wanna come babysit?

Sunday Best

Grammy and Papa bought Jack a cute little suit outfit that he wore to church today. Here are some pictures of us in our Sunday Best.

Doodle Bopping

Today was the big Doodlebop concert day for Jack and I. Here he is posing in front of the ridiculously-priced merchandise ($25 for one of those stupid DeeDee, Rooney, or Moe hats in the background and no he did not get one) booth. It was SOOOOOO cold (yes it was in the 20s) this morning and I think he is still a frozen Jackaroo here.


And here he is with his "mom-approved" Doodlebop merchandise that I bought for him - a $4 kazoo and $12 binoculars. He was happy until he saw the $20 twirling lights that he just HAD to have, but the mean Mom that I am said no.


We saw a TON of little girls with pink hair dressed just like DeeDee, right down to the piano dress and boots.

Bus Driver Bob was there to warm up the crowd - sorta. He basically just introduced commercials for other shows on Playhouse Disney. Pretty lame if you ask me.

And of course there were the Doodlebops themselves. They did a lot of songs that I had never heard of so I was a bit disappointed there. I was trying to figure out if they were lip synching and I honestly couldn't tell. If they were, they were doing a good job. And DeeDee sure was breathing hard after dancing all around a few times. Good workout. I was quite disappointed in the 25-minute intermission. I mean really people, do you really think that trying to keep a packed house full of toddlers occupied for 25 minutes is fun??

I am not sure Jack enjoyed it to be honest. About 15 minutes into the show, he asked me if we could go bye bye now. So I guess that is a good indicator of what he thought. I think he was getting into it at the end when they were doing some of their regular songs. And the finale was Moe pulling the rope and a bunch of confetti dropped from the ceiling. Kinda cool. The mother next to me with her two-year-old was having a hard time of it because her toddler did NOT want to be there at all. He practically screamed all the way through it and they ended up leaving early.

The concert was in Baton Rouge so we drove over last night and stayed in a hotel nearby. Since Jim had today off, he went with us and stayed in the room while Jack and I went to the concert. Afterward, we walked along the Mississippi River a bit (very short since it was only about 30 degrees!). We went to see the USS Kidd museum. I can tell you that Jim and Jack enjoyed themselves A LOT more than I did on the ship. I truthfully did not care, but Jim was in heaven walking around it.

All in all a good day was had by all. We stopped at a mall near New Orleans on the way home and walked around a bit. We did not go to the Mall of Louisiana simply because it seemed too much work at the time. We can do that another non-holiday time!

Mommy and Me Day

Today was Mommy and Me Day at Jack's preschool. It was a day where all the mothers went from classroom to classroom and made christmas crafts with their little ones. It was all so organized too. We had exactly 20 minutes in each classroom to make the specified craft and then it was onto the next.


See what we (ME) made today. We (ME) also made a christmas tree out of painting our hands green and putting them on the paper with red glitter. That was kept at school to show off at the Christmas program next week.

And speaking of Christmas program, how is it that my child is old enough to be in a Christmas program? Rbelle asked the same question on her blog too and I just can not fathom where the time has gone. I was talking to the school director today and she told me that actually the two-year-olds are just going to be on stage for 3 songs and then they will get to come sit with their families. This is to not distract from the older kids, since we all know how well two-year-olds can sit still, especially on a stage in front of a hundred people.

We also had an "incident" today at school. While us mothers were doing the kid's crafts, the kids were playing with the various toys in all the classrooms. Well during the making of the sheep (cotton ball) ornament, Jack got into a fight with another little boy and ended up biting him on the thumb! At first, I could not believe it when the other mother told me (not so nice) that my son bit her son. I mean Jack has never ever ever done anything like that before. But she stuck her son's thumb in my face to prove it and sure enough there was a thumb with Jack teeth marks on it. By this time, Jack is screaming and I go to him quite mad that he would do such a thing and about ready to lay into him about it. But another mother whispered in my ear that the other boy provoked Jack by hitting Jack really hard with a toy and I guess Jack got fed up and reached down and bit. So here I am with this mother very obviously angry with ME about her son's thumb and not knowing how to handle my son biting her son simply because he was defending himself. So I kind of just told Jack that it wasn't nice and made him say sorry to the little boy, but inside I wanted to yell at the other mother that HER son should say sorry to Jack and ME for that matter for her very rude and uncalled for behavior!

I tell ya preschool can get very tense these days!

School Time

Well we did it. Jim and I signed Jack up for a private school today. He will start their Pre-K program in August of 2008. I know that sounds like a long time from now, but when I thought about it, it is only a year and a half away!

This school is awesome. It is a small school where they limit the class size to 16 and in each class they have a teacher with a teacher's aide. The curriculum includes math, social studies, spanish, music, and they even learn latin! They also have band, swimming team, and other sports. All the kids wear uniforms with the school crest on the shirts, which are so cute. I tell ya, I was so impressed with this school, I almost wished that Jack was 4 already so he could go. But then I realized, that I really only have less than 2 years left with him at home until he is off to school in his own world and that got me a little bit sad. The time goes by way too fast. But I feel really good knowing that he will be going to the top-rated school in the state and one of the best in the country.

I was having quite the quandry knowing that the school district we are in is not very good. In fact, it is one of the worst in the city and in the state of Mississippi. It is way too overcrowded, because this is where all the population has moved since the hurricane and they have had nothing but problems. Every time I talked to somebody, they kept telling me that they would not put their kid in that school disctrict. We couldn't really move because Jim has to be in a certain area for his job as a police officer and after that last move, I am not going to do that again anytime soon. So this was our other option. Of course, by the time we get him through 8th grade, we will have paid for the equivalent of a college education at Harvard, but I feel it is worth the sacrifice. He is worth it.

My Turn and a Welcome

First of all, I want to extend a big Welcome to the Blogging World to my friend from High School - Stefanie! She is a brave brave soul who has 3 kids ages 12, 2 and 7 months old. She and her husband adopted their 2-year-old daughter, Sophia, from China and then proceeded to have another baby. I guess she loves to change diapers and chaos hehe. She is even pursuing another adoption again at this time. Jane, you might want to check her blog out also since you are getting closer and closer to getting your own little Chinese bundle of joy. Anyway, Welcome Steffie! It is great to see you and your family doing so well.

And onto other news, it was my turn in the Jackaroo house to get the crud. I woke up yesterday morning and went "uhoh". Of course, it also happened to be on a day when Jim had to work. Twelve very very long hours of just me and Jack and the wonderful joy of dry heaving. I tell ya, dry heaving sure is a workout because my abs right now sure are sore! Thankfully, I got the 24-hour version and not the 5-day version that Jim had. I actually was able to eat something and not have my stomach go into fits. Yay! But I have to say that Jack was soooo good yesterday. He played with his cars, trucks, and puzzles while watching movie after movie. I think he understand that I was not feeling well and at one point when I got up to get something, he told me "just lay down Mama, just lay down". What a sweetie he is! Yes, I know I have the best kid in the world.

I am glad that it hit me when it did because later this week, Jack and I are going to Baton Rouge to go to a Doodlebops concert. Yes, that is right, we are driving 2.5 hours to go see a toddler rock band. But, you see it isn't all for the toddler, because there just happens to be The Mall of Louisiana right nearby. What a coincidence huh?

Internet Shopping, MP3 Players, The Polar Express

My shopping is almost done. I only have a couple more gifts to buy and then I will be done. Love that. I woke up this morning and started shopping on the internet at 5 am while talking on yahoo messenger with a friend in California. Her son was not sleeping and thus she was up while he was watching tv. Sounded familiar because I was doing the same thing only a few nights ago. The things we mothers do huh?

Anyway, I got 6 gifts purchased. I heart Sharper Image. Since there are so many people to buy for this year, I had to get all organized about it. I wrote down everybody's name (12 in all) and then had to fill in the blanks with the gifts I bought. And now I only have 2 blanks! How exciting! Such Joy!

And speaking of exciting, I bought Laura an MP3 player for her birthday when she was here over Thanksgiving. Now, I just have to preface this by saying, I am pretty much NOT hip as to the new and cool gadgets out there. And I know that MP3 players have been out for what 5 years or so? But after playing with hers and downloading songs for her, I just have to say they are cool! I never saw the need for them because I basically am not that music-crazed. I mean I like music in the car while driving and my xm satellite radio fills that need, but am not one of those people who HAS to have music all the time. I know those kind of people. I was married to one at one time and he had easily 1500 cds in his collection. I know excessive. And I believe 5 of them were mine.

But this little MP3 player that Laura got, is totally cool. And even I was getting into it and the possibilities of owning such a thing. Who knew that they were THAT cool? Yeah Yeah I know. I am so behind the times and people were saying they were THAT cool 5 years ago. But I am slow and very unhip!

I just have to mention Jack's latest love/obsession - The Polar Express movie. It was on tv last night, and even though we have it on dvd, we were watching it. The boy watched this movie with such intent and excitement than any other movie EVER. And that includes the movie Cars! He was so into the movie that when a commercial came on, he would get very angry and come to me and tell me to put the movie back on. Like I have control over the networks. When the Santa scene came on, I seriously thought the boy was going to explode with excitement. He was mesmerized! And for that I just have one thing to say to the makers of The Polar Express - Thank You! I now have something that will occupy the boy's attention for a couple of hours! I can internet shop, or read, or gasp clean my house! Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Happy Feet Not so Happy for a Toddler

I ventured out with the potential puke/diahrea bomb also known as Jack today. He seems fine, despite the doctor's warnings about the virus coming back at any time. We went to see the movie Happy Feet. It got great reviews saying it was a good movie for the kids and all. But my kid did not like it at all. There were some really scary places where some seals and whales were chasing the penguin all over the ocean that pretty much traumatized the boy. And if it wasn't a scary scene, it was a preachy message about the environment and how we should not be fishing in the waters where there are penguins. I honestly don't have too much opinion about that issue, but I do not like it in my kid's movie.

It was cute in some parts and the dancing penguins did make me smile a bit, but all in all, I would not recommend the movie for any of the toddlers out there. Jack did end up crawling into my lap during the scary whale scene and then soon fell asleep for the last 30 minutes of the movie. So that was Jack's opinion of it all - a snooze fest.

Rotovirus... Or Maybe Not

Well we took the boy to the doctor yesterday and he thinks that Jack has the rotovirus. Now when he first said that, I thought it was some deadly disease, but my fears were soon calmed when I found out that the disease I was thinking of was the hauntevirus (sp?).

So the doctor went on this big tangent of how I was exposed to the toxic sludge, otherwise known as Jack's puke and diarhea. Seriously people, he scared me! I guess one little drop of the stuff on you pretty much guarantees that you too will be able to enjoy the good times of puking up your lungs or having them come out the other end. Sounds like fun eh? He also told us to get Jack what is called "Rehydrolite". He said that Pedialyte is basically worthless. And went on about the schedule of eating and drinking for the next couple of days.

But, the thing is, the kid is doing great. He has not had any symptoms of the horrible virus since yesterday morning and the "diaper incident". He even snuck 2 cookies out of the pantry while I was not looking and ate those. And when I asked him if he had any cookies, all he said was "huh?" with this face full of crumbs and chocolate. And since he was able to down those with no problems, I am guessing we are over it for the time being. I just hope that I don't get to enjoy all the fun that Jack and Daddy have had in the last few days.

So today was our first day back to just Jack and I together. We had Grammy, Papa, and Laura visiting us and then Jim got sick and was off work for a week since Thanksgiving. He went back to work today, leaving Jack and I to come up with stuff to do together. Of course, I have a pile of laundry a mile high to do and there's always the toilets the clean, but who really wants to do that? I may take Jack to the movie Happy Feet later on if he is still feeling better.

And after trying about 12 times to get a picture of myself that I don't hate too much, I came up with this to show you all my new hairdo.