2 Hours Down, 12 To Go

The two hours in the day so far have consisted of the following:

• Jack insisting on coming into our bed
• Us resisting
• Us caving in
• Jack leaving our bed
• Jack opening and shutting our closet door (most annoying sound ever)
• Jack bringing his blocks into our room
• Jack dumping blocks on our floor
• Jack licking his hand and rubbing it on my arm (a new favorite tantrum trick)
• Jack hitting me
• Jack being put in time-out
• Jack taking 20 minutes for time-out instead of 2
• Jack picking up blocks while delivering the following monologue: "Me good listener...Me having good day...Me be nice to you ALL DAY...Me like huzmuns (husbands). Yeah, me like huzmuns...Momma, what your favorite part of bull riding?"

Jackson's Version of "Home Alone"

In our attempt to get Jack to stay in bed the other night (yes, we are still dealing with this and yes, it's been 52 days) we decided to try a new tactic. We were going to ignore him. Completely. And be as boring as possible. We're normally SUPER exciting at night, let me tell you, so it was really hard.

So for roughly an hour Chuck folded laundry downstairs in complete silence and I read a book in bed. Jack was left to his own devices.

Here is a list of the things he did, aside from the normal opening and shutting of doors:

• climbed under gate and walked around basement for awhile
• hugged Tugboat - a lot
• played with his spoons and bowls
• came out of his room completely naked, having thrown his diaper in his diaper pail (this was a repeat from the weekend, when he came out to find Grandmommy and he was totally naked and covering his eyes so no one would see him)
• came out later with no pajamas, but this time left the diaper on
• pushed his highchair from the kitchen into our master bathroom
• brought his pillow into our room and demanded to come up on the bed
• came into our room covering his eyes - went to Chuck and gave his legs a hug and then to me to give me a hug (trying to ignore this is really hard because it's actually pretty cute)
• retrieved my yoga mat and took it into the living room

Finally he went to sleep. We were all exhausted.

Then my mom's friends brought up other suggestions for how to keep him in bed. We tried one of the suggestions last night and it worked like a charm (thank you Genie!). I sat on his couch while he fell asleep and then left the room. Nice and easy. So he's sporting a bull riding sticker this morning. Go Jack.

Does he really look THAT big?

Chuck and I had our Babymoon this past weekend. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this recent trend, it is a time that the couple gets to go somewhere to clear their heads before the new baby arrives. We were still in town, just at a swanky hotel with no toddler. It was pure bliss.

Anyway, Grandmommy was in charge of our child and our pets and kept all of them alive and fed. Spectacular. We forget to feed them sometimes, so I'm not being sarcastic. I was impressed.

One of her more interesting moments came when she took Jack to the library. I had forgotten to leave her my library card, so she went to the desk to explain the situation and see if she could still check out some books for him. Jack was standing right next to her as she spoke with the librarian. He said "Sure, that's no problem. We can just give him his own card!" He printed it out, slide it across the desk towards Jack and asked if he could just sign his name on the card. Grandmommy said "He's only 2!" and the guy said "He's TWO?????!!!!"

Sad for my gigantic son. A sign of things to come, I'm sure.

Conversation this morning

Conversation overheard this morning as Chuck got Jack settled with his breakfast. (Note: Marianne is a friend of my family's that is painting a mural in the nursery.)

Jack: (Coming into our room after waking up) Me thought you forgot about me.
Chuck: I would never forget about you!
J: Marianne coming over paint nursery day?
C: Yes, she's coming back to paint today.
J: YEAH!!!!! Me 'cited! (clapping)
C: Good.
J: Ummm...maybe me stay home day.
C: What? No bud, you can't stay home today. Mommy and Daddy have to go to work so no one would be here to watch you.
J: Marianne stay wiff me.
C: No, Marianne has to paint, so she couldn't watch you.
J: Oh....Deese prooms?
C: Yes those are prunes.
J: Deese make me poop?

Enlightened

So the last post didn't draw much interest from people. I'll keep checking the comments, so if you have thoughts, be sure to put them up. Otherwise we'll move on.

Yesterday two strange things happened. Not sure if they are related or not.

1) Out of nowhere, while driving home, Jackson started telling me the months of the year in sequence. I had no idea he knew that. Later he sang a song about all of the months - IN SPANISH. Again, no idea. Still later he said "June, July, August, September until my birthday!" Wow. I know they go over the months at daycare, but I have never heard him use the months at all, much less to state them in order, in Spanish, and as a duration of time between today and an upcoming event. I'm bragging - sorry. I was impressed.

2) He stood at the top of the slide on the playground at daycare and shouted "AMEN!" at the top of his lungs over and over again. And that's weird because we don't go to church (typed as I'm ducking lightening bolts).

Did he find religion and the months of the year all in one day? That's got to be a record.

Gender Stereotyping

Disclaimer: I've stolen topics from my friend Laura's blog before and I'm doing it again. Sorry Laur!

Here's the issue - Laura had a few posts about raising a daughter and a son in an environment where they can feel free to be who they are and not be pressured by the media, toy-makers, etc. to be stereotypically "boy" or "girl." The ensuing discussion on the comment board was awesome. On the last post about it Laur made the point that they have toys that are geared at boys and ones geared at girls, and both kids play with each. That got me thinking about how our house will be different, being that we will have two boys. I didn't want to post that on Laur's blog since it's a problem unique to our family, not hers, so I'm moving it over here.

Our house has a LOT of cars, super-heroes, trucks, balls, and blocks. We do have a baby-doll for Jack, and will be getting another that he gets to bring home from the hospital with him. I got him a pink stroller for his baby, he has dress-up women's shoes that he plays with, and he watches Cinderella. Chuck and I make a concerted effort to let him cry when he needs to, to cuddle with him as much as possible, to have a blankie or animal that he uses for comfort. We aren't the parents who tell him that he's crying like a girl (I've actually heard parents say that to their kids and it makes me cringe).

I worry, though, that since Jack and his baby brother won't be in a house with a little girl, they won't be as exposed to dolls, ballets, kitchen toys, etc.

I'm torn on this subject. I mean, my brother and I are definitely NOT the stereotyped boy and girl. But is that because we were raised with each other and around each other's things? If I had been a boy or Ryan had been a girl, would we have behaved more similarly and more closely along society's images of gender roles? Also, does it really matter? So what if Jack grows up to be a man's man (what does that even mean)? As long as he feels comfortable with that and is being true to himself it doesn't really matter. We'll be supportive and open to whatever happens, but we want to make sure we've established a household that they both feel comfortable exploring who they are and what they are interested in.

Anyway, Chuck and I are always interested to hear what others think about this subject. So fire away!

All he needs is the overbite

Getting ready for a laundry folding party. Aside from my hoarseness, it's pretty cute.

Things No One Tells You

Things No One Tells You About Being Pregnant:

1) You will enter Target with an actual written list: diapers, deodorant, milk. You will come out with: cookie dough, milk, frozen lunches, fruit, ice cream, trail mix, Gatorade, yogurt, chocolates, and diapers. You will somehow manage to leave the paid-for diapers at the store but come home with everything else.

2) You will suddenly despise everyone who can drink beer, even when you weren't a super big fan before.

3) You'll watch credits of movies to see if there is a name you might like for your baby.

4) Products you never liked before (Tums, Mylanta, Tylenol) will become treasured additions to your daily regiment.

5) Your walk into work will require a stop at the bathroom and a drink of water. You will also consider this exercise even when you used to be an athlete.

6) You will develop an uncanny knack for relating anything and everything back to the pregnancy. "I have a cold because I'm pregnant." "I dropped my plate because I'm pregnant." "I look bad in red clothes because I'm pregnant." "You're only saying that because you're not pregnant like me." My personal favorite - "I can't. I'm pregnant."

7) Meetings at work will get a whole lot more fun because even if you're bored, you can always watch your belly move as the baby kicks. This also makes meetings more fun for your coworkers.

Things No One Tells You About Raising a Toddler:

1) It's REALLY hard to not laugh when they ask random questions about anatomical differences between the sexes (especially when accompanied by pointing).

2) Expanding their vocabulary and learning to count SEEMS great, but then the answer to "what do you want for dinner?" turns into "me want FREE (3) pretzels, LOOOOOTTTTSSSSS of pasta, broccoli and bread and milk with lid." (That is a frozen meal, not something we regularly whip up for him each night.)

3) YouTube and slideshows of your family photos become life savers.

4) You'll actually keep watching the children's shows even when the child himself has grown bored and left the room because you HAVE to find out what happens to Piggley Winks.

5) You will never look at a birds nest, flower blooming, or insects the same again. They are fascinating if you actually stop to look at them (which your toddler will make you do).

6) "Because" becomes a completely acceptable way of ending conversations. Lieing helps too.

7) Going along with #6 - the "why" game really can go on FOREVER.

8) You have never been as sick as you will be when your kid is:
a) in daycare
b) still putting their fingers in their mouth, nose and eyes
and
c) unwilling to be quarantined.

I'm a big fan of lists right now, I guess.

Sickness, pyrotechnics, and other random thoughts

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. Our house has come down with some version of the cold/flu for the 3rd time in a month. Jack felt so badly on Saturday that he actually requested that we LEAVE the Mall of America. Blasphemy.

I've had a few random things I wanted to share that Jack has said in the last few days. Here goes:

1) Last week he proudly proclaimed that he learned today at school and when asked, said he learned about fireworks. Sweet. I know he's making reference to bull riding (still - hasn't stopped talking about it), but it made me laugh anyway.

2) He came out the blue to say that we should name the baby Isaac (which is on the list, but hadn't been mentioned to him in awhile). Then he proceeded to name his "babies" (i.e. foam letters and numbers in the bathtub) Isaac as well.

3) He told me the other day that he "helped me get Dadda out of my belly."

4) This morning he asked me if the baby will come out of my belly two times.

5) He asked me last week if he can go back into my belly.

6) On Sunday he wanted me to play in the backyard with him and I was not feeling well - still laying in bed. He repeated his request and I said that I was thinking about it and he said "umm, you just say yes."

Also, he's taken to a form of "dance" that looks unmistakeably like Tai Chi. It's awesome. He was doing it in the driveway over the weekend. I'll try to get a video of it.

Even while spending Mother's Day laying in bed feeling gross, it's still remarkable how lucky I feel to have a son as cute and sweet as Jack, and a husband as cute and sweet as Chuck to share it all with.

Prenatal Exercise

I've been feeling badly that I'm not going to the gym or yoga classes or something to keep fit during this pregnancy. I suppose carrying around a 40 lb kid counts for something, but I still have guilt.

Last night I discovered a really good way to stay in shape. Here are the steps:

1) Have your husband go listen to a lecture on Game Theory at Carleton for the evening.
2) Put roving-prone child in bed at seemingly appropriate time.
3) Prepare bowl of ice cream (for the calcium).
4) Decide said-child is asleep and go downstairs to watch Survivor.
5) Catch child sliding under the baby gate to "check on you" because he wants "big sticker."
6) Go up the stairs to put child in bed.
7) Start to come downstairs again - listen carefully and hear dog licking your bowl of ice cream - break into dead sprint down the stairs, around corner to find dog cowering shamefully.
8) Scold dog.
9) Sit down - hear child at top of stairs.
10) Repeat 5-9 for hour and a half.

Playing with Photos 2

I am slow sometimes. I figured out that all I needed was a link to Flickr, and not to go through all the other processes I was trying to do.

Those of you laughing at me can stop now. I'm blaming it on Mommy Brain.

I will get more pictures up on Flickr soon and then I'll play with how to arrange the link(s), but for now it's the bull riding stream again.

Playing with Photos

I'm trying to make some modifications to the blog - namely to have the readers be able to access a stream of pictures. The only way I can figure out is to have a slideshow playing on the right hand side. You can click on it and another window will pop up with the slideshow in a larger format.

If anyone knows a better way to do this (linking to Picasa or Flickr) - let me know!

Nesting Instinct Gone Wild

I was just writing an email to my friend Lisa about how my nesting instinct is going nuts. Then I thought - this is such a fascinating subject that I must share it with everyone! Or I'm bored. Probably just bored.

For those of you who aren't familiar - the nesting instinct is defined on Wikipedia as "an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn(s). It is found in a variety of animals (both mammals and birds) and can occur in human mothers as well."

I thought this was bogus until I was pregnant with Jack and found myself spending long hours in his room folding his clothes, putting them away, leaving the room - then deciding that it was pure insanity to have the pajamas on the bottom shelf instead of the top one. I mean, who is going to want to reach that far down at night to find a set of pajamas? I might fall over and the baby would come crashing down and it would be all my fault since I hadn't given enough thought to the layout of the room.

Well, this pregnancy appears to be no different. The problem is that our nursery doesn't have any furniture in it, and therefore I can't start my endless loop of folding, unfolding, stacking and unstacking. We're waiting to figure out if a friend of the family is going to be able to do the mural and if not, we have to figure out a Plan B. Of course I've spent a lot of time "nesting" over the Plan B. I also have taken out my instinctual frustrations on Jack's room. I have been through his clothes 3 times in the last 6 months - sorting out the ones he's grown out of or I've grown tired of and moving new ones in. I've also insisted on getting more shelving in his room so I can rearrange his books and toys all the time. He frequently asks me why I moved something or put something somewhere new.

What is toddler-speak for "Momma is going crazy and needs this friggin' nursery to be done already!?!?"

Expanding our Horizons

Chuck, Jack and I got to see something TOTALLY new this last weekend. Uncle Ry Ry and Grampa introduced us to the world of Professional Bull Riding (PBR). I have to admit, Chuck and I had no idea what to expect! Our verdict? It was fantastic! It was so much fun and extremely entertaining! The bulls were really well-trained and the riders and bull "fighters" (who keep the riders safe) are really good athletes. Plus Ryan and I got a kick out of discussing all the marketing/membership/PR aspects of the whole thing.

Anyway, After such adventures Chuck and I like to ask Jackson what his favorite part was, and he's started reciprocating ("Momma, what YOUR favorite?").

Jack's favorite: "BOOM BOOM!" (accompanying gesture is something like what Florida Gator fans do - clapping hands while they are parallel to the floor)

Chuck's favorite: Rocky the bull blimp

Jamie's favorite: Petting the bull outside! I want to take him home!

Jamie's other favorite was not caught on camera because apparently Chuck (photographer) was not as obsessed with the rodeo clown as I was. He's not your typical rodeo clown - to be clear. He sings and dances (Beyonce moves, no less), and is a comedian as well. Name's Flint Rasmussen (did I just sound like a cowgirl?). Anyway, he's worth the trip to the event all by himself, in my opinion.

Last night I was showing Jack pictures from our weekend. He saw the following one:

This picture is from the opening of the event, where they announce the riders. In Des Moines they had them all come out one by one and shake hands with some local first responders. When they first sent the responders out in the arena, the crowd stood up and applauded their service. So Jack saw this picture and said "Dem peoples say 'taint too firemen!" (thank you firemen). Then he said "don't touch fire! Dat very hot!"

Who knew bull riding would be a civics and safety lesson as well?

Anyway, it was a great weekend! Thanks to Grampa and Ry Ry for showing us the ropes. Pun intended. (What's the matter with me today?)

Kiss of Victory

This post is not meant to be a shameless plug for Art in Bloom, the annual event we put on at the museum. It relates, I promise - keep reading! (Art in Bloom does happen to be fantastic and is free, just like our wonderful museum. There, I did it.)

Per the MIA's website: "Alfred Gilbert's commemorative sculpture Kiss of Victory shows a Roman legionary fallen in battle and embraced at the moment of death by the genius or spirit of victory." The floral arrangement next to it is meant to be that person's artistic rendering of the piece. I loved the arrangement - the photo doesn't do it any sort of justice. Here's the ironic part. I just saw this piece and the arrangement and have been talking about it a lot, when all of the sudden Chuck and I would be given our own kiss of victory, so to speak. We didn't fully FALL in battle, but close enough.Our kiss came in the form of a tiny sticker with a bunny on it. I wish I had taken a "before" shot of our recently added sticker chart - there were stickers all over it with one glaring exception - the "Staying in Bed" category. Jack has been trying to negotiate for us to put a sticker in there when he really earned it for taking care of his toys, but we have refused.

Last night - breakthrough. The kiss of victory was bestowed on us and Jack stayed in his room all night! He didn't touch the door handle once. I have tried to not to post every single day about the on-going frustration that this nightly ritual has become, but those of you close to the situation probably understand why I almost cried when I realized we had gone a full 17 minutes and he still had not come out - 17 turned to 23 turned to 36 turned to 57 and then I fell asleep. Blissful, quiet, door-squeaking-padpadpad-less sleep.

Granted, he might have just done this for one night, and it might have been because he was so ridiculously tired from 3 weeks of staying up until 10. But hey, we need to celebrate the minor victories. And I would like to think that our perserverance through this has finally worn him down.

Perfect timing for this milestone, given that Grandma Bernice is staying with us tonight and then we'll travel to a hotel to see two of the most exciting people in his life - Uncle Ry Ry and Grandpa! Ry Ry has confirmed for us that there are latches on the tops of the doors, so little Jack-dini can't roam the hallways knocking on random people's doors asking "what you doin' in dare?" Wish us luck as we take our circus on the road!