Bobby, how do you spell boo? 

B: "b - o - o - exclamation point"

He keeps saying he doesn't want to cut his hair which would be fine but it is in this horrible bowl shape right now and I don't think we can get to a longer style from here. Maybe I'll tell him batman has short hair. 

Gotta love the Mac. These guys flew up to San Francisco yesterday and apparently were killing time on the iPad while they waited.  So that leaves Jack and I for a long weekend just the two of us. I fluctuate between being lonely and just right. I thought Jack might miss Bobby more, but not yet at least.  We had a nice little morning. We had a great run, real easy feeling with the stroller. Not much of a nap for Jack but good fresh air. Then we stayed at the playground forever, went and got a bagel and some groceries. Then hit up a garage sale in the neighborhood. We got 16 books, 2 puzzles and 2 shirts for $2! It was around noon when we got back, but hey, there was no rush to get home like there normally is on Saturday mornings.  I could tell he was tired so we played for a bit, took a shower and went down easily for a (hopefully long) nap.

He is a really great kid. This is how he I knew he was tired. No fussing or whining, just moving a little slower and getting flat to play.

I must be a little crazy and/or stupid. I can't tell you how many times I put these puzzles together. I try to bribe Bobby or Violet to do it, but otherwise talk about an exercise in futility. He just loves to dump them out over and over. You'd think I would move them, but he is starting to try to put them back together. Watching me do it a million times must have rubbed off.

You saw Jack trying to ride the scooter, well now, the three wheeled one is no good and he wants to get on the Razor.  He also climbs on to any tricycle or bike he can. And I don't know why, I guess because we lived on such a busy street in NC, we don't have a lot of scoot on toys. I'm hoping Carolyn maybe hasn't given hers away yet and I can steal it in a few weeks. My back is getting quite sore walking this child around on toys too big for him. We may have a little adrenaline junkie on our hands.

Jack has also reached his cleaning phase. And his trash phase. He will pick his wet diaper up after changing and march it to the trash can. Same if you give him a scrunched up piece of paper. It's really cute. He also heads over there with sippy cups and legos, so you have to watch him. We also had a close call with the very tiny apple tv remote.

There are somedays I'm not sure if these kids are going to kill each other or I'm going to kill them first.

I know Bobby is only 4, and that is the peak (?) of ego, but I just want him to take the higher road and share! And include the little ones. And fat chance for a while. I feel like I'm losing the battle with him sometimes.

Jack will launch his food if he's done or doesn't like it. Had a good arm too. This freakin carpet is going to cost us a million bucks.

So I moved our upholstered chairs away from the bar/island b/c Jack was climbing from the coffee table to the chair to the countertop. But now he has managed to scale the tall and very tippy stools. He also loves ladders and rock walls at playgrounds and will make a non stop cycle up those and down slides. This does not help my socializing.

Jack will go hang at the front door as soon as he wakes up and pretty much several times a day. And cry and whine until we go outside. We compromise to the backyard. Sorry neighbors. 

I don't think Jack is ever going to sleep through the night. Whenever it gets good (i.e. only waking up twice, usually within 90 minutes of each other- 12:30/2) it will get bad and really bad again. I don't see any teeth and now he has a sniffle, but he is not sleeping well at all. I thought he was getting ready to go down to one nap, but I'm not so sure. Or maybe I'm not just willing to make it at 10am like he wants. A better nights sleep would help move that to after lunch.

Jack loves dogs. Jack loves Halloween decorations. Both of these things cause him to dart into the street as top speed. He will walk down the street and just make noises at the hanging ghosts and witches. He loves them.

Batman and Robin should have a good time this year. I have a feeling there will be a lot of superheroes on our street.

Oh Bobby

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Christmas." I think he has his eyes on new toys and I keep saying maybe for Christmas. Wishful thinking that it's anytime soon. 

"If you watch a lot of tv, your eyes will e bad, and then you can't hit the baseball" wonder where he got that life lesson from. 

Walking

So Jack never held hands when he learned to walk. I never led him around hunched over and all that. He has basically never held hands when walking and pulls away if you try to hold onto him. I actually hope he gets past this as he needs to get led around parking lots or say, hold his hand while he's running down a hill.

All this to say, he walked a good quarter mile today - no stroller or push car. In shoes too! Which helps not have crazy black bottoms of his feet.

Boots were not totally hated

I just really messed up with this ones feet/shoes. I skipped the soft sole stage for no reason (socks were fine in winter and then didn't get around to getting any) and now the crocs and sandals are a little too hard to walk in, causing occasional tripping. Today was better though, no real falls. Bobby had some pretty cool shoes so I'm hoping to get Jack into them soon. We'll have to see! 

Bobby got his first real pair of sneakers for school. He had 3 successive pair of those colorful Saucony, but they were a bit more show than support. But now, he is in Nikes. Nothing going to hold this speedster back now!

And now he wants to use a fork! All the time. As if feeding with my wall to wall carpet wasn't bad enough. And I hate useless plastic kids forks, so I've done away with those and now jack is armed with stainless steel points. Awesome. And I'm about to rearrange all my furniture because he just climbs and climbs up to the highest points where he should not be. 

 

Please note the "smoke protector" that B insisted the ghost have in his bedroom. 

At some point I guess I'll have to teach them to share, rather than providing two of everything. 

This would also remedy itself if jack didn't copy EVERYTHING Bobby did. 

Remember when my kids used to go to bed 7/7:30. Wasn't that nice? Then summer happened. Sigh.

School seemed to go well today. Didn't get much out of him, but that's normal. Luckily we have the best teacher there and she actually emailed me 3 photos of him. Not group shots either, Bobby. We met her when she was a substitute for us at the camp before he went last year (summer '12) and she was awesome and nice then and now she's our teacher! You'd think anyone who teaches preschool would be, and they generally are, but we got a good one.

Bobby has names to learn too!

Bobby has a bit of teenager in him. Whoever taught him, "I hate ___" and "I'm bored" at the beach, we need to have some words. He doesn't know how to use either really, but that doesn't stop him. And he seems to have dropped hate, but not before teaching it to Liam. I am pretty mortified at that. He says I'm bored too, with the perfect attitude too, but not at the right times really. Hopefully we can get back to having a sweet four year old. He is obsessed with Candy Land and Lego and that has all made Rick panic that he's lost his baseball skills!

Bobby loves to get a hold of my phone and take pictures of himself, and when I say pictures, I mean about 200 in rapid fire.

Jack is so rad. We are trying to teach Bobby how influential he is. good or bad, he has a mini-me who copies everything, lately, it's been screaming for fun. He has figured out he can sink down sideways and lay down and he is so impressed with himself. I'll put up the video if it's any good, but i was more worried about him going under so it may not be that good.

Swinging fool

Jack continues to be great. All that tip toe walking has made him a very fast runner. The kid can move. Still interesting in toilets and climbing on everything. Does play nicely alone when given a chance.

Boys will be boys

And he has a good arm. Mostly demonstrated with food, but combined with his temper, he can launch things if he's angry. 

Love our evening games 

I know pajamas are supposed to be tight but its been a solid 85-90 here so without air conditioning, out house has been a solid 80-85 too. So loose or no clothing is the norm. And lots of outside time, but that is true for jack regardless. 

Unimpressed at the Lego knight

He wears shoes a little better but still fairly infrequently so it's not helping the situation.

Loves to climb into chairs and sit

He is quite the mimic. He tries to throw the frisbee and swing baseball bats and golf clubs. He will slam his body into the wall after Bobby does and he tries to make noises in the fan like Bobby does. He has figured out how to blow raspberries on my stomach and he cracks himself up doing it.

Jacks first cone ever

He is talking a bit in the words that only we can understand. Bobby, booby, dog. Maybe a few more but not so clear. He does know words like ball even if he doesn't annunciate them yet.

Hanging out watching the gardner

He's a good napper which is nice and will be nice when Bobby goes back to school this Monday.

Selfie.  So big.

We've had a good summer since we got back, lots of playing outside and with friends. Bobby is really into Legos and is building quite the collection. We really need a better storage system, but the kitchen counter is doing just fine. Bobby is really into Candy Land and has some interest in "shoot some ladders."

Just a few of self shots he took 

There's more interesting stuff going on with them but I never bother to write it down quick enough.

My little SoCal dude

One of the dads on our street apparently broke his elbow on our street basketball hoop, so Rick and I were talking about it.

Bobby: So he broke his arm
Us: Yep
B: And now he takes it off
B: And he has to get a robot arm

Hearing the music playing, "Aw, The ice cream truck ran out of ice cream" oops. The lie has been perpetuated.

Put the WHOLE thing together himself. 200 pieces. We pulled the pieces he needed together, mostly dor the sake of time, but he totally clicked them all together. All I said was, look at the picture, and push the piece down harder.
SUCH a big boy.

And with Jack, it's just dealing with a lot of climbing. Napping a lot - too much? 

Good Day

The great summer fun continues and after today, the boys crashed hard. We had friends over this morning after not seeing them for two whole weeks (which when going from 4-5 times a week, that's a long time) then a little rest, a little Costco and a lot of pool time. Bobby is absolutely killing it in the pool. He jumps fearlessly and today dove for a toy 3.5-4 feet down. He hasn't figured out the technicalities of his arms and such, but he can swim far and knows how much air he has and stuff like that.  He's a smartie pants too, so observant and really cool to talk to one on one. We are still working on lots of things (greetings as a manner, being selfless, patience) but he's a good kid and growing up fast. I don't know how it came up but we were talking about more and less, and I couldn't really grasp if he got it. Maybe he was just being silly, but wouldn't say 3 is more than 2. he would just say 2 is less than 3, and, 3 is not less than 2, but never "more". Anyway, brought out some M&Ms and he got it real fast.

Weeeeeee

Jack will make a beeline for the tiniest crack in an open door. Just like Bobby was, he wants to go outside first thing in the morning. He loves to throw balls to himself and swing a bat or club. He was almost to tired to eat tonight at 6:15 (late for dinner, but way early for bed). You would think this would translate to a good nights sleep, but he usually only stays asleep until 11 or 12, then after that never more than 1-2 hours at a time. It's getting a little old.  But despite all that, he continues to be the happiest and smiliest.

One last bit of fresh air before bed

Okay, so not thrilling stuff, but such is our life!

The baby is gone.

Now I have a toddler. With a personality. Nay, with an attitude. All of a sudden, he knows what he wants. And he wants it now. And he has learned that thing they do where he arches his back and throws his body weight back in protest. Almost got dropped a few times. He has learned a good squeal/squawk and is not afraid to let you know that he is MAD about something. Putting a diaper on him is like World War 3. But he is still a ham and a cutie. His new thing is (trying to) crawl under cars. And the little bugger is fast. His favorite thing to eat is crayons. He loves to climb. And can get up on all our chairs, which all seem to lead to another level. I better get him a helmet. And a coat of armor. He is also turning into a real person. He tries to put puzzles together. And shape sorters, and that kind of stuff. He doesn't get it right, but he knows what he's supposed to be doing. Sigh, better freeze time. Also, no one mentions how disarming it is to see #2 in #1s clothes. I'll pull something out and can completely see Bobby in it still - that's Bobbys shirt. Aaah. 12 month appt/shots tomorrow.

Bobby is having a great summer. He is so good at swimming and has gotten really brave, jumping in and falling backward, and cannonballing. He is doing his part at toughening Jack up indeed. He wrote his whole alphabet the other day and only had to ask what the Q looked like. He is really into the chapter books and we are flying through them. He is still a huge talked and very inquisitive. He says I am'nt. - so I'm not, just putting the contraction in the wrong place, and it's too cute to correct.

Devri came to town from Texas for work visit so we got to swing by and see her near 11 month old. He was a cute little chunk. Devri has the most beautiful auburn hair, and you wouldn't think it would get passed on, but little Keaton was another redhead (although a little subtler in real life) and they all played pretty well for being in a hotel room.

Blogging Extravaganza!

Three posts in one day, WTF. Flood after the draught. Plus I realized I could blog from my phone. 8:41pm, Rick isn't home so I'm online looking for books on Amazon (instead of cooking dinner) because we are 13 pages away from the end of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that we got yesterday. We only read 2-3 chapters of 3-8 pages each, but either it's the wording or the story, but I guess it takes a lot longer than picture books (duh). Bedtime including peeing and brushing teeth etc. took 40 minutes tonight. Not that much longer, but it might be totally on me too, you know the book worm I was. And he was begging me at naptime today, Just Read it. And you might be able to hear that near whine if you know Bobby, I just want to watch it - is how it usually comes out. So Roald Dahl and EB White box sets, I hope you have free shipping, my baby is gonna be a reader.

Gimme that strangulation hazard!

This one is going to give me grey hairs. I cannot leave him alone for a second. If I do, he is either outside, in the trash, heading for the bathroom, or trying to climb on something. Eating a lego at this point is the least of my worries. He got up on the coffee playtable way too easily and then proceeded to stand up on it. My pinkie toe is rather balck and blue from stubbing it on my mad dash to save him after he went up the recliner. He does have some sense of the edges of things and sort of tries to put his feet first. 

Bobby, despite this sweet moment, is driving me nuts. I have pulled a few toddler toys back in from the garage and Bobby will not hardy let jack have them. And even when jack is playing super nicely alone, bobby has to intervene. Even when it's just moving things between baskets or boring baby toys.  

B: "Am I five this day?"
Sorry bud, we don't take turns with birthdays. We've got a draught here for a while.

Of course that was at 6:30am and on the one morning Jack slept in, because he had just been up at 5:30. Sigh. I was all set to take him to the doctor, but he is acting so much better, so we'll see...

Jack Turns One

Big Guy

I dont' know what it was, and it wasn't second child syndrome, but I had no desire to celebrate Jacks birthday. I just thought it was not really necessary and was cool to treat it like any other day (sorry little man) And I was the same way with Bobby, had it not been for his baptism, I think it would have been a super quiet day. But, for Jack, people kept asking what I was doing.... uh.... so we had the inner circle over and it turned out to be quite the perfect little party.  I ended up making it more than I had to, but it was hardly a party (no theme, invite, decorations, favors) just sandwiches and cake really. 

The only drawback was that Jack is pretty sick. He is just not himself at all. And it comes in waves, but he is so hard to console and nothing I try makes him happy.  Started a cough and cold, but I bet he has an infection now and may be getting his molars too.  He is sleeping normally, but really not eating so he has a lot of liquid poops and a real rashy butt -his first rash honestly. So he was a trooper and wanted to play, but was a little uncomfortable at times.

Glassy eyed sick guy

I served chicken salad on pretzel buns and caprese salad. Watermelon from the Fourth. And thats it. Some drinks. Ham and cheese for the kids. Strawberry and whip cream white cake. Simple simple. I used our leftover Batman party plates and napkins. It was more just a playdate with my favorite people.   More Pictures.

What do I do with this?

We did the 'cake smash' with a tiny cupcake with a strawberry on top. I'm sure he didn't eat any of it, but it's fine. Just enough of a mess was made. I don't usually get my kids anything much for birthdays or Christmas, but I did find a slide that I wanted used so now I can worry about Jack climbing up on that instead of just the table and chairs. He got a few books, a new toy of his own or two, good stuff.

Blowing it out before Jack grabbed the flame

Done by 1/1:30 or so for naps. Then Bobby headed down to the street to Jakes (his cousin was born at the exact same time/place as Jack), but he was napping so he stayed and played with Violet, which was nice and unusual, but I think nice for her especially

Hanging out the day before (you can tell b/c Batman and Superman are all B wears)

Jack was pretty cranky so he actually got a third nap in, then all the kids ended up here and played as usual. mostly outside, a lot of superhero stuff. It got pretty late, so we scrounged them up some dinner (because I needed more clean up!) But it was great. Rick was ready for the day to be over, but I love it.

Meatballs and Broccoli. Hungry Kids.

It was a busy day and I should go to bed now, but I have some Amish Friendship Bread in the oven (more dishes!) because that had to be done today.

Jack is Walking

He's been putzing around for a few weeks now, but all of a sudden, it's not even special anymore, he just up and does it. Across the room, down the hall, see ya dude.

He is a wild child. And knows it. In the bathtub, he stands up, arms above his head and then drops down is a big slamming splash. Or he tries to walk the length of the tub. Or he drinks the water. And he knows all those things are wrong.

His language comprehension is growing. Not talking, but definitely knowing what words mean.

Bobby is good. Typical jealousy/attention issues. Riding his pedal bike like a boss.

He's been trying. You could see the cogs turning trying to figure out if there was something more. And sure enough, Jack took a few steps today. Or actually he took a step or two a few times. And one time he was in the bathtub.  From the second he learned how to use his hands to crawl, he knew he could use his hands to pull up and he rarely was content playing with a toy while sitting. Recently, he's been standing unassisted more and more, and if you watched him you'd see when he want to go somewhere, it used to be drop and crawl, but lately he got more hesitant to drop down quite as fast. So he today, at 10.5 months, he went right, left, then crawl.

And this one,

10 Months

I am trying to keep a monthly photo of Jack to chronicle the differences, but I'm done. I don't know how people do it, some even weekly.

The latest installation had me get this picture. Don't ask me how. Also don't ask me why I put a pale red head on a couch this color with that wall color and never bother to use the natural light in the mornings.

Standing, or jumping?

Here is his face being forced to sit still.

 Bobby has mastered his scooter, except for the stopping part needs some work. I better invest in some more shoes though.