Excitement Abounds

Some days just start out like this. Actually, I'm pretty sure I will NEVER have another day start like this, but it's worth the story.

Yesterday morning I had to take Chuck to work because Honda "dropped the ball," which is code for lieing to my husband about having a loaner car ready for him. For the record, they've dropped at least 4 balls in our 7 year relationship with them. Anyway, we packed everyone into the "Big Van" and had to explain the entire way why we were taking Dada to work. Jack thought it was pretty amusing, and also very confusing. We dropped him at work and headed off to our next stop - Jack's daycare. After a short discussion with Miss Kay about Jack's recent biting rampage (okay, not exactly a rampage), and the cutest hug ever from Claudia, my officemate Rachael's daughter who now attends Chrysalis also, I headed off to work with Rachael right behind me.

Just another day.

I saw a police man and police tape and a cruiser blocking the street I normally park on right outside the museum I work at.

Thought #1: Maybe the Dalai Lama decided to come here, or the president, so they are blocking it off.

I kept going to the next street and went north. From that street you can see through the campus to the street I normally go on - there were ambulances, police cars, etc.

Thought #2: Dalai Lama got sick.

I turned east to come in front of the building - news crews and their vehicles were lined up all along that road.

Thought #3: Slow news day.

Continue to the only parking lot the multitude of cops would let us in to. Notice that about a 6 block radius has been blocked off. Park, get out, walk up the hill towards the museum and see my coworkers all walking straight past the police tape. See National Guard troops and a SWAT vehicle.

Run under sniper fire from my helicopter with Chelsea at my side. Oh wait, no, that's not how it happened.

Thought #4: Someone stole our Van Gogh.

Get inside, coworker walking with me explaining that it's a hostage situation in a residence near our building with a gun that had been fired earlier that morning, etc.

Thought #5: Does this museum EVER close?! I know Minnesotans aren't nearly as liberal with their snow days as St. Louisans are (read - I have not had one thing cancelled in the 11 years I have been up here), but come on - SNIPERS ON THE ROOFTOP?

The negotiators got the suspect to come out peacefully awhile later, ending the standoff.

No harm done, except my car was parked much farther away than I'm used to, and I scared my mom half to death by 1) calling her and asking her to get on her computer and find out why police were barricading the museum off, 2) not picking up my cell when she called back the first time, and 3) picking up the second time but losing the connection and hanging up on her without saying anything. It was exceptionally bad timing considering I called her a few weeks ago when I was REALLY sick with the stomach flu and I feebly said "I'm dying" into the phone, intending to follow that up with an explanation of my awful flu - except my phone cut out and dropped the call right after that. Oops.

Things That We Say

Things we have said in the last 3 days to Jack:

1. "No, the kids from the choir do NOT come from the Mall of America."

2. "That's why you don't get on and off of the potty - because poopies fall out of your butt."

3. "Why do you want to put applesauce on Daddy's back? That's weird."

4. "Yes, our baby will have arms. Two of them."

5. "No you can't have more fruit snacks." (This made the list not because it's funny, but because Chuck and I have had to say it AT LEAST 30 times a day. I'm not exaggerating.)

On a totally different subject - does anyone want to start a boy's clothing store with me? Chuck, Jack and I spent about 5 hours this weekend looking for a pair of shoes for Jack. Nothing special, just a pair of shoes that actually fit. Every store we went to had roughly 3 times as many girls shoes as boys. Also no sales people would help us. We were mad. I still am, I guess.

I think my Monday posts are becoming a forum for me to vent about things. Sorry 'bout that.

Short Update on Farm Babies

The baby chicken phenomenon has escalated in our house. I believe Ryan left with around 2 dozen baby chickens made out of construction paper in his suitcase. Then once he was gone Jack made two more for me and said that they had names. I asked what the first one's name was and he said that he wrote it "right dare" and pointed to the circles he doodled on it. I said "yes, but what does it say? What's his name?" and Jack replied "ummm...Uncle Ry Ry Loves Me." That's the name of the chicken.

Later he made two for Chuck (apparently baby chickens are only born in pairs), who was unsure what to do with them. Jack said for him to pet them, which he did. Then Chuck asked what else he was supposed to do with them and Jack said "be nice my chickens."

Possible careers for Jack based on his interests/obsessions thus far:
bus driver, engineer, piano/hatar player, police man at Mall of America (where he thinks the African children live), and now...chicken farmer.

Jack's new cousins (?)

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I have a ton to say about our latest adventure (and lots of pictures)!

It started when Uncle Ry Ry came. We all hung out before Grandmommy had to head back to St. Louis. Jack made them play a lot of play-doh.

Then Uncle Ry Ry, Chuck, Jack and I loaded up the car and headed to Eau Claire, WI. What's in Eau Claire, you might ask? Ummm, pretty much nothing usually, but last night there happened to be a particular attraction - The African Children's Choir! In Eau Claire - strange, I know.

So for those that don't know, Uncle Ry Ry happens to work with the tour for the choir. He is known to them as Uncle Ryan, and the kids and staff LOVE him (this picture is of Ryan hugging Martin, who is particularly fond of him)...I've heard so much about the choir and the kids, and they finally came within driving distance of the Twin Cities! They performed at UWEC. We got there for the sound check, which means we got to run around the stage (Jack's favorite), look at the props, and meet the kids. Ryan introduced us as "Auntie Jamie, Uncle Chuck and ..... Jackson" because he couldn't figure out what to say about him. I think I'll call him their cousin. Then we sat in the front row and watched them do their run-through. Jack sat the entire time staring at the stage. Then we ran to get dinner, came back and saw the "real" show.

Uncle Ry Ry held Jack for the whole show in the back so he could see better. Chuck and I got to sit in the audience and have the closest thing we've had to a date in a long time! They only came back to our seats for the final song, during which the kids come down the aisles and pick people to dance with. They knew where we were sitting, and Suzan made a bee-line for us. She pulled Jack out, held his hands and danced with him in front of everyone. It was awesome! He was clearly in awe of the entire show.

"Awe" doesn't even start to describe the state I was in the entire time. I don't know if it is my excessive hormones or just the fact that these kids are amazing people who have seen unbelievable tragedies and remain the kindest, most gentle and hopeful people I know (probably it was a combination of both) - but I was profoundly moved.

Here's the website so you can learn more about them and listen to some of their music:

http://www.africanchildrenschoir.com/media/media.php?pageID=97

This link takes you to the page with a lot of the kids that we saw last night, but I highly encourage our dedicated readers to look at the home page, newsletters, etc. to learn about the work they do. I can't possibly summarize it all here.

Suzan is the last photo on the page I linked you to. She loved Jack - carried him around after the show for a long time. We hung out with the kids while they had their post-performance snack. Here are a few pictures...

This last picture has Martin burping his name into Jack's ear (a BIG hit with Jack), Suzan on the floor, and Ruthie sitting right behind me. Ruthie was one of my favorites (okay, I said that about every single child in the choir at one point or another). She's one of the older girls and has a prominent role in the show and in the choir in general - she really is motherly to the other kids. I loved her and she did a fantastic job. I can't remember the name of the child right next to Ruthie - maybe Ryan can help me with that. The one in the background with the pink headband is Travisan. She is both the tiniest little girl in the show AND the biggest firecracker! She went 110% all the time and I have no idea how her arms don't come off of her body while she's dancing - she's flinging them around THAT hard. She cracked us up.

Anyway, the entire experience was amazing - learning about the kids, watching Ry Ry doing what he does best (be an uncle - oh, and a tremendous producer and lighting designer), hanging out with my hubbie, son and brother all together, and being reminded of the fact that kids all around the world are so incredible and we have so much to learn from them all.

Farm Babies

We've had a great week! I'll have to do the recap in 2 posts because there's too much excitement for one post.

First, Grandmommy came up and we went to see the Farm Babies at the MN Zoo. I don't have the pictures on my computer, but I'll post them once I do. It was 65 degrees or something - amazing for Minnesota! Jack had a blast - keeps changing his answer about what was his favorite. So far he's named the baby goat, the cows, the baby cows, the pigs, the tractor, and the baby chickens.

The chicks (which he got to pet) seem to have made the biggest impression on him. He's been cutting the re-introduced construction paper into small pieces, coloring them with red circles, and carrying them carefully over to me saying they are baby chicks and that I'm supposed to "pet their backs."

This visit was much improved over last year's, when he was banned from petting the baby bunnies because he was either hitting them or pulling on their fur, I can't remember (and both are feasible). He was much better this time. The journey came to an end when he started demanding multiple bags of fruit snacks, which has become his signal that he's ready for a nap.

Jack has been saying ever since that he wants farm babies. I hope he isn't serious.

2 years, 6 months, 15 days, 9 hours, 14 minutes

I guess all good things must come to an end, or something cliched like that. This one, though, I was really hoping to avoid.

Guesses?

It took Jack 2 years, 6 months, 15 days, 9 hours and 14 minutes to figure out that he can actually leave his room in the night and come find us. Up until that point, he never once even left his bed. He'd just wait patiently until we came in to get him. We would frequently find him sitting up in bed waiting. Sometimes he would kick his mattress so it made a loud noise, or yell "Momma, Dadda, me want you come in here now!" but he NEVER got out of bed.

This morning around 5:20am he decided that enough was enough, and he came into our room to tell me he had a runny nose. I helped him and then put him back in bed and he stayed there until I went in to get him at a normal time. So all in all I shouldn't complain.

Here's what I CAN complain about (right?)...The following in a timeline of my morning so far:

• 5:20am - Jack embraces his independence.
• 6 something - Chuck's phone vibrates forever, waking me up again.
• A few minutes after 6 something - Chuck's phone vibrates to indicate there's a message.
• Maybe 30 minutes later - Chuck's phone vibrates again
• 7 something - Something beeps loudly, waking me up again. My alarm should have woken me up already, but its volume was accidentally turned off.
• 7:40am - Wake Jack up, he's crying and miserable with a cold
• 7:45am - Try to find the missing thermometer to take his temperature. Go to the living room to find it, answer my mom's phone (she's here with us) and talk to Ryan (brother) who says that American Airlines confiscated the computer he's bringing us so it had to be checked instead of carried on. Find thermometer while talking to Ry Ry.
• 7:48am - Hand phone to Mom so I can take Jack's temperature. He wails and later tells me he's sad when I take him temp. It was normal though - victory.
• 7:55am - Chuck calls in sick to work. He NEVER calls in sick, so this is a big deal.
• 8:00am - Get Jack settled into his highchair for breakfast. Look out window to see snow. Fantastic.
• 8:45am - Finally get out door with Mom, Jack and my new box of oatmeal for work.
• 9:00am - Stop at Caribou drive through to get coffee because there wasn't any at home. Ask the man to put it in 2 cups (meant to be double-cupping to keep it warmer). Man misunderstands and splits my coffee into two cups.
• 9:10am - Drop Jack at daycare. Have to tackle him to get a hug.
• 9:20am - Pull into work, Mom starts to switch seats with me to drive car back home while I try to consolidate my two cups of coffee into one cup to carry it in. Notice that the man actually poured me two full cups of coffee. Nice man. But I can't consolidate them. I decide to carry both inside and leave my oatmeal for tomorrow. Squeeze cup #1 too hard and it explodes, spilling coffee all over me and the seat. Decide to leave that cup in the car and only take cup #2 inside.
• 9:30am - Have to get my friend Hannah to Tide Pen me because my coffee is all over the right cuff of my borrowed white maternity shirt. Curse myself for being SO right-handed that I can't do this myself.
• 10am - Notice that my coffee is cold. Decide that I'll blog instead of work for awhile.

Lists

Random lists:

Jack's favorite things to eat for dinner:
1. breakfast bars
2. "chicken yatties with katchup - LOT of them!" (waves his arm in gigantic circles over his tray like he's stirring something)
3. apples
4. craisins (which might mean craisins and might mean raisins so you have to be holding both of them so he can point)

Jack's top questions about our new baby:
1. "Will our baby have potty at HIS house?"
2. "Will our baby know how to dance?"
3. "Will our baby wear my tennis shoes?"

Reasons my officemate Rachael thinks I'm a psychopath:
1. I have 2 tattoos and plans for 2 more (sorry Mom) and according to Rachael there are studies that show that people who have 3 or more tattoos have more psychopathic tendencies. http://www.priory.com/tattoo.htm
2. Spending lots of time on the internet or on computers in general is a manifestation of a psychiatric disorder.
*Rachael wants me to write that she doesn't really think I'm a psychopath, she just wants to share tidbits of information. She has also mentioned that this is just one article but there are others that support this argument.
**I want to mention that these tidbits of information have both come in the last 24 hours.

People who give Jack books, and who he is convinced have written messages in every book he owns that say "To Jackson, Wuv ________":
1. Grandmommy (Grandma Kelly)
2. Gampa (Grandpa Mueller)
3. Uncle Ry Ry (Uncle Ryan)
4. Gamma Body Niece (Grandma Bernice)
5. Uncle Bob (Uncle Bob)

Foods I'm obsessed with this pregnancy:
1. jalapeno poppers
2. fried pickles (you can get these at the State Fair and I haven't had any throughout the pregnancy but I really, really want them)
3. sparkling pear juice

Jack's favorites:
1. Candidate = Barack Obama (he made me read him part of an article in a marketing/technology magazine about Barack this morning)
2. Beatles song = In My Life (it's actually MY favorite but Jack kept insisting it was his favorite too)
3. Part of Shrek = where Donkey and Shrek enter Dulac and the information booth sings to them
4. Accessory = red sunglasses across his forhead or on backwards
5. Nickname for himself = Jackpants (given by either Allison or Andrea at daycare, but he says they both call him that)
6. Thing to make out of play-doh = Miss Norma's husband