PARTY TIME!!!!

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

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

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

Do ya think he enjoyed his cake?

More toys! Yay!

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

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

Only Five More Hours ...

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

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

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

Potty Training ... Update

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

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

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

SEVEN Days!

Have ya'll seen the ticker above? The one counting down to Jack's third birthday? The one that says it is SEVEN days away? Oh my gosh! How did it come up so fast? We do have plans this weekend for his big birthday party at the indoor playland. We invited the entire family (clan) and all of his class and a neighbor. If everybody shows up, I am thinking we will have over 30 big and small people. We are going with the Tonka truck theme. So I ordered this birthday cake. I also bought the yellow hard hats for all the kids and party favors for the goody bags. We still have a ton of candy left over from halloween, so I will dipping into that to help fill the goody bags. It should be fun and most of it is done, except for filling the goody bags and picking up the cake and pizza the day of the party.

Jack is sooooo excited about the party. It is fun to see him really understand the whole concept of a birthday this year. He even told somebody the other day that he was "almost three" when asked how old he was. He really does understand the year older thing.

I also signed him up for T-Ball starting in April. He is going to be on the same team as his friend Seth from his class. We went to the YMCA today after school to get all signed up and boy was he all jazzed about "playing baseball". I really can not wait to sit there watching him swing the bat and run around the bases. The first game is April 9th, so expect lots of T-Ball action pictures forthcoming.

I have to admit that I am thoroughly enjoying this age. While I do miss the baby stage a little, I am having so much fun looking at everything through his eyes and experiencing things for the first time all over again. Although, I just wish he would sleep a little more. The kid is wearing me out. Again, it was 10:30 last night before he went to sleep. I have given up trying to put him down at 8 because that is a joke. He is wide awake at that time. Now it is closer to 9 and still it doesn't happen. He ends up playing in his room. But the thing is, the kid is up at 6 am like clockwork! Oy! I think he is going to be one of those people who does not need a whole lot of sleep to function. Yay. Lucky me.

Sleep? What is that?

I think the travel day on Thursday made the boy really tired. Yesterday, he was really really needing a nap and went down about 1:30 in the afternoon. I thought it was early enough in the day that it would not affect his sleep time at night. HA. Wrong. In fact, the boy slept three whole hours and did not wake up until almost 5 pm. I tried to wake him up several times before that, but to no avail. He just was not getting up period. At one point, I shook him a bit and he opened an eye, rolled over and muttered something about wanting to sleep. So I gave up.

When 8:00 came around last night, I really tried to get him to go to sleep. In fact, I really NEEDED him to go to sleep because I was fighting sleep myself at that time. Jim was working last night, so it was just half-asleep me and the very wide-awake boy. After bathtime, he ran around in circles all over the house for a good hour. Then he decided it was time to decorate the family room with every single train, car, truck, and tractor that he owns. He was going full steam until 10:30 last night! And I was sitting in the chair literally nodding off. Finally at 10:30, I was granted a reprieve and the boy fell asleep and then 30 seconds later, I was in my nice cushy bed.

Then 5:30 this morning, I hear "MAMA. MAMA Are You There?" I said to myself out loud, "he is sooo not awake". But sure enough, he was. He had gone poopies all over the bed and himself, which required a full change of clothes and sheets. Yay. Love that at 5:30 in the morning.

At 8:30, I RAN out of the house and left Jack and Jim alone so I could go to my bible study at the church. It was the first time in two weeks that I was away from the boy and I NEEDED the time. Thank you Jim for staying awake another couple of hours so I could do that. Now, I am not sure what we have in store for the day. We are supposed to be having some big rain storm today, so getting out of the house isn't very appealing to me. Who knows, we may end up at Barnes and Noble playing at the train store or something. Or the free petting zoo (Petsmart). Or it may just be a very long day of playing trains and cars and tractors. Sigh.

Back Home

The big reason Jack and I went to Michigan was because of Papa's big birthday. He turned 80 years old. He is quite a celebrity in town because he was the first baby born in the local hospital and thus a local hero and part of local history. Here is a link to the newspaper article about him. Of course you can't trust the media these days because they have my age wrong at 32 instead of almost 40 (gasp). Hehe I can take a wrong age that way any day.

We are very happy to have Papa still with us because if we were betting people, we would not have bet 25 years ago, he would still be with us at 80. He has 20% left of his heart after a massive heart attack, but he is still doing great and still able to get out in the snow and play with Jack. He even helped us build a snowman. Happy Birthday Papa!

We had the opportunity to tour a local fire station while in Michigan, thanks to my 2nd cousin Steve, who is a "real fireman". Oooohhh. WoW! He was so nice to us and we all got to ride on the big fire truck, even Grammy and Papa and Mama! Of course, Jack was all smiles while on the truck. Steve showed us all kinds of neat fireman gadgets that Jack just thought was the neatest things since trains!

Jack, the real fireman, putting on his mask and air tank. Yes, he was very thrilled.

Jack playing with the hoses, just like a real fireman.

Jack and Cousin Steve the Fireman looking at the thermal image camera, which by the the way, was totally cool.


We arrived back home last night. Of course, the plane was late leaving Grand Rapids, which meant we missed our flight out of Atlanta. In fact, as we were pulling up to the gate in Atlanta, I watched my Gulfport bound plane taxi away without me and Jack. So then we had to wait almost 3 hours in Atlanta, during which time, Jack and another little boy crawled all over the floor playing trains. Jack was absolutely filthy by the time we finally got home.

My husband, being the greatest husband in the world, cleaned the house from top to bottom. It was absolutely spotless when we walked through the door. However, Jack could not let it stay that clean for more than a few minutes. It is back to having trains, trucks, cars, and tractors strewn all over the place. But there was a few minutes there where it was clean. I can say that I DID have a clean house at one point in time.

More Michigan Fun

We are still in Michigan having all kinds of Michigan fun. Yesterday Jack had the opportunity to ride Papa's tractor and ride in the bucket. Kind of a full circle moment for me because I rode in that same tractor bucket as a kid many times myself and thought it was more fun than any Disney ride. Jack, of course, thought it was pretty cool also.

Jack also figured out the joys of sledding on snow. We went up and down the hill many many times. Of course, the going down part is lots of fun.

But there is always the proverbial "walk up the hill dragging your sled". Jack had quite the difficult time walking up the little hill beside the house. The snow was almost up to his butt. However, he was willing to do it over and over and over again.

SNOW!

Jack and I arrived in Michigan on Thursday. It was a balmy 15 degrees that day and I think Jack was a bit speechless for a few minutes after venturing out into the cold. However, the boy LOVES snow. Here are a few pictures of him playing in Grammy and Papa's yard.

Busy Days

Busy Busy Busy. That is the Jackaroo House.

Jack and I are going to be going to church this morning. This afternoon, we have to go to a three-year-old's birthday party (don't let me forget to wrap the gift!). Jack's friend, Seth, from school is having a big party. I guess it is going to be a double party. His older brother, Josh, who turns 5 in the same week, is also having his party at the same time. Katie, their mother, is very brave to have all this commotion in her house!

And then an hour after the party ends, we have to be back to church for the new kid's program they are starting up. And yours truly has been recruited to help out with the toddler program! I really don't mind, since my kid will be one of the toddler's. It should be fun. But we shall see how I am after spending two hours at the birthday party and then another two hours with the church's toddlers. Yeah. Insane. Busy. Day!

On top of all this, I probably will not see my husband, except for about 10 minutes, until tomorrow night. He is supposed to be home from work in a couple of hours. He will come in the door, say hello to me and Jack, and then head off to bed until this afternoon. Then he will have to go back to work while Jack and I are at church for the kid's program. Then tomorrow morning, the poor thing will have to come home from work, change his clothes, and then drive an hour for a refresher police course at the police academy all day Monday. He will be back tomorrow night. Thank goodness he has Monday and Tuesday night off. I don't know how he does it!

So I hope ya'll have a good Sunday. See ya tomorrow!

Good Mood Jack

Jack was in a really good mood today. I have no idea what prompted this goodness in my child, but I have to admit that he was fun today. He did however, wake up at 4:30 calling me "Mama! Mama Do You Hear Me?" Yeah I heard him, I just wanted to roll over on my bed for a few more minutes/hours. But no, he was up and raring to go. Unlike most mornings, he was actually in a good mood and funny (he does NOT wake up well). He had me laughing when he told me that there "were fleas all over his room". I told him that you can't see fleas very well because they were so small and besides, I don't think we have any more (knock on wood). To this, he replied "The Dogs had them!" He was just a fun little Jack today from the start.

We went to the Discovery Center toddler program today. This usually starts out very bad for us because we have to pass by the BIGGEST train table ever to get to the toddler room. And as you can imagine, it promptly creates a whining, screaming fit because I won't let him play with the trains as soon as we get there, but instead make him go to the toddler program. Today there was NO fit! I was absolutely dumbfounded.

I wish I had my camera with me today because he was absolutely laugh-out-loud funny today. During this program, they have a lot of singing and dancing and story telling. Well today during the Freeze Dance (where you have to freeze when the music is shut off), he was shaking his little booty for all his worth. It was hilarious and I have to say, I was not the only one laughing my butt off at him. And when it came time to "freeze", he would yell "FREEZE" so loud, I would think they heard him in the parking lot. It was hilarious and I wish I had a video of him dancing.

And now with the early morning wake-up call and all the dancing the boy did, he is now granting me the luxury of taking a nap! Ahhhhh! Love days like these.

Sale!

Just thought I would let ya know that JcPenney is having an amazing sale right now. I went there today after I picked up Jack from school. I went primarly to check out the winter coats (as in they don't exist in South Mississippi I am finding out) and had to laugh at the 3 available. They were not winter enough coats to stand up to the Michigan cold where it was 10 below this morning. And why am I going there in the winter again? Oh yeah Papa's birthday. Why couldn't he be born in June?

Anyway since I was there and I am a huge sucker for the clearance racks (ya gotta be to live on a Cop's salary), I found some amazing deals. I picked up a new purse for $6.97 (originally $36) and then I bought 5 new shirts for Jack all in size 4. (Oh my gosh, he is going to be out of the Toddler sizes by next year since he is now wearing 4T.) The sum total I spent was $24!!! I thought I did pretty good.

However, Jack while standing in line for almost 20 minutes just to pay for the stuff was not pretty good. In that short amount of time, he managed to tear down a display full of towels (yes they all came tumbling to the floor and don't ask me how he did it, the boy is good and fast) AND he also managed to make the sign that read "Line forms here" go crashing to the floor. I came thiiiissss close to just dumping my load and walking out the door, but gosh darnit, I really wanted that new purse!

I'm Not Sure Which Is Worse

Jack took a nap this afternoon. The first in a very long time. He needed one. No, he NEEDED one is more like it. He was crying for no reason. In fact, I am pretty sure, if I told him that we were going out for ice cream, the boy would have thrown himself on the floor in a screaming and crying fit. Yeah he needed a nap. And he took a two-hour one.

Fast forward to now. It is 9:00 at night. I am tired. I want to go to bed. I have been up since 4:45 this morning. Jim is working tonight. The boy? Not so tired. Right now he is in his room reenacting rescue scenes with his fire truck. The one that goes "Tonka Rescue on the scene. Tonka rescue on the scene. Tonka rescue on the scene." The same one that goes HONK HONK. I hear him in there tearing off every last truck off the shelf and somewhere somehow "Thomas is in Trouble!" No, the boy is nowhere near going to sleep. And all this activity is with a Benadryl dose!

So which is worse? An incredibly grumpy and impossible toddler with no nap or a toddler who takes a nap but will not go to sleep at night? I am really not sure which is worse at this moment. Maybe I should make a pot of coffee??? I think it is going to be a long night. Sigh.

Ickies

Jack has been a bit sick these days. He isn't really bad, but he does have a persistent cough, especially at night, and very stuffed up. And look out when he sneezes! You don't want to be around for THAT. Ewwwwww. Of course, the cold weather has not helped at all. It has been below freezing here at night, which is cold from what I hear for this area. I know that my friends and family elsewhere in the country are way below what we are and I do feel for ya. I hate being cold. One of the main reasons I no longer live in Michigan.

We are leaving next week to go to Michigan for a week. Papa's big 80th birthday is coming up and Jack and I are going to help celebrate the big event. Jack is so excited about seeing snow that he keeps talking about it all the time now. He says he is going to build a snowman. We shall see how much building we are actually going to be doing with the chill index hovering around 20 below. BRRRRRRR. Yeah I hate the cold.

And now I have to stop blogging and start paying bills. Ick. Hmmm maybe I should go get one more cup of coffee before I start. Yeah that sounds good.

Back from The In-Laws

We went up to Grammy's and Aunt Ann's for the Super Bowl. Of course, it is a chance for Jack to get spoiled, fawned over, and become the center of attention for a few hours. In fact, Aunt Ann gets Jack going so much, that he was full-speed until 10:00 last night when the game ended. We spent the night at Grammy's house, where he did not want to go to bed. Between being totally wired and high on sugar and attention and the coughing from his cold, he did not get to sleep very easily last night.

Aunt Ann put on this HUGE superbowl feast. Seriously, the woman does not know how to scale back on the food. She could have invited the entire county to her party and fed them well. And every last morsel was fattening and way too good. Is it no wonder that I gained 10 pounds since moving here? I am happy to say that I have shed those pounds in the last month doing Weight Watchers, but now I need to shed another 50 or so. I just need to stay away from Aunt Ann's house because she is the devil with all her cooking.

Even though we were only gone for a day, it is always nice to get back home.

Plans

Today was going to be a very busy day. In fact, we had more activities to do than time to do them in. Jack and I were going to go with Kyle and his mother to the Biloxi Children's Mardi Gras parade this morning. We also could of gone to the Discovery Center with a mother's group that I have been wanting to join. This afternoon there was another parade near our neighborhood (yes they go overboard for Mardi Gras here). Just everything in the world was happening today, February 3rd.

And then Jack came down with a nasty cold or allergies. Lots of snot. Lots of red eyes. Lots of sneezing. Lots of complaining that his eyes hurt. And lots of Benadryl. So no parades or playgroups. Just at home today. In fact, I think I got him to take a nap. So that does mean that I get to take a nap today! It is turning into a good day :).

Fun In The Sun

Summer in Gulfport, Mississippi. It is hot. It is humid. It is miserable. I am not looking forward to the humidity. I am really not sure what is worse - the California heat of 110 + degrees (it was 114 the day we moved) or the Mississippi humidity of 90 degree heat with 5000% humidity. I am learning toward the humidity as being worse. We shall see.

I do have a couple of plans in force to beat the heat AND the boredom of having two kids with me ALL SUMMER LONG with NO SCHOOL. (I think I may become a proponent of year-long-school.) The first of these plans is the community swimming pool. It is a short walk away from our house. It is really not that big and I have a feeling that it will be crowded with having over 100 homes in this neighborhood and one small pool. But it is a way to cool off and it is free! Free is always good.

The second of these plans is not so free. It is the water park that is only 10 minutes away. It is a really cool (hehe get it cool) waterpark with all the slides, wave pool, toddler splash area, and my favorite - the lazy river where you just float down on an inner tube. And now we get to go all summer long as many times as we want! I just bought tickets for a season pass for all four of us. I figure if we go more than 3 times, it will pay for itself. I have a feeling that we just might be there more than three times a week!

Where? How?

According to the news, a mother in Cancun delivered a 14.5 baby boy. This is what he looks like next to an "average" 8lb baby:

I just have to ask WHERE did he fit? and HOW did he fit in there? And thank goodness for C-Sections because all I have to say is OUCH! The report also said that her previous baby was over 11 lbs! Jack was 7 lbs 3 oz when he was born 3 weeks early and I thought that he had taken up every last possible square inch in my uterus. I can not even imagine what this poor mother was going through nor the utter relief when he was taken out!

Just Like Daddy and other stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coffee Klatch

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

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

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

They're Everywhere!

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

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

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

By George Again!

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

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

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

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

By George I think he's got it

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

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

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

Reprieve and Long Weekends

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

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

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

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

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

Blogging

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

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

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

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

Internet Cafes

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

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

Parties!

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

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

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

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

Best Friends

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

Fleas! Part Two

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

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

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

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

Sigh.

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

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

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

Driver's Ed and Potty Ed

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

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

Our Turn

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

A Perfect Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conspiracy

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

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

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

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

Crabbiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fleas!

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

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

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

Who Knew?!?

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

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

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

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

ABC Tagged

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

Available or Taken ..... Very taken

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

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

Drink of choice ..... Diet coke

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

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

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

Hometown ..... Battle Creek, Michigan

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

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

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

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

Marriage ..... April 13th

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

Oranges or apples ..... apples

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

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

Reason to smile ..... Jack

Season ..... Spring

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zodiak ..... Aries

Sleep Walking

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

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

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

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

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

My Handy Husband

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

So my husband, who is wonderful, made this:

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

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

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

Home Alone!

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

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

Overweight Preschoolers?

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

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

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

It Is Starting

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

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

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

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

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

Toddler Conversations

Me: Jack look at how foggy it is today.

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


Later in that same day:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compassion - Jack Style

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

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

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

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

Remembering Gerald Ford

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

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

1000 Posts and a New Year

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

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

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

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