Random Tuesday

A little randomness...(I've only written the word random two times and it's starting to look really weird.)

Mornings have been busy and good the last two days.  Afternoons have not.   Casey is using up all my patience and then some.  She is continually hitting Jack or pushing him or touching him when he doesn't want to be touched.  She goes to time out, she gets toys taken away and none of it seems to matter.  I don't think she's being malicious at all...she just thinks it's a fun way to play.  It doesn't matter if I'm sitting here right beside her, she reaches her arm out and bops Jack on the head or swats him on the back.  I'm hoping it's just a phase that will pass like all the other ones, but it is really wearing me down lately.  I'm also wondering about some type of force field that can be put up around her and prevents her from touching Jack.  

Jack was playing with his toy snakes yesterday.  He kept bringing them over to me and showing me them and told me, "Don't worry Mommy.  They can't snap you because I put a band on them."  He took a clothespin and put it around the snake's neck as the "band."  We were looking at a picture of some lobsters in one of his books and I explained that they had bands on their claws so they couldn't pinch you.  I guess he took that information and applied it to the snakes.

I realized on Monday that I actually enjoy riding in the car with Jack and Casey and I don't mind when car rides take a while.  After three and a half years of cringing about any car ride that might take longer than 15 minutes, I now look for reasons to stay in the car a little longer.  I used to worry that they would get bored and start crying and whining hence making the car ride miserable.  Now we're past the crying stage, Jack is pretty well entertained by the DVD player and Casey is fairly content too, especially if I give her something to eat.  But the biggest reason I enjoy the car now, is because they are both strapped into seats and can't reach each other...no hitting by Casey and no whining by Jack that Casey hit him.  Let's go for a ride!

Conversation from the Stroller

Jack:  What is that?

Me:  It's a...RV...a Winnebago...a motor home.  You can go on trips and live in it.

Jack:  We should do that next time.

Me:  That would be nice on our trip to Maine.  (I'm visualizing myself driving a huge RV with Jack, Casey and Tugger wandering around in the back, bouncing off the walls as I hit bumps and swerve to avoid things.)

Jack:  Yeah, can we get one?

Me:  No, it costs a lot of money to buy one.

Jack:  Hmmm...where can we get a lot of money?

(Pause.  I can't wait to hear what he comes up with.)

Jack:  I know!  We can get it out of my piggy bank in my playroom.

He was so proud of himself for solving that problem.  Then I told him he would probably need to fill the whole playroom with pennies and quarters to be able to buy an RV.

Conversation from the Car

Jack:  There's my new school Mommy.

Me:  Yes, you'll start there after the summer.

Jack:  Are you going to work after you're done taking care of us?

Me:  When am I going to be done taking care of you?

Jack:  Ummm...I think eighteen.

Me:  What should I do for work?

Jack:  Well, Daddy is smarter than you.  Maybe Daddy can take care of us and then you can work when you're done taking care of us.

Me:  Okay, just let me know when I'm done.

April Toys of the Month - Jack

Jack has been enjoying everything related to being outside every since the weather got warm.  The Legos have been tossed aside, the cars sit in their bin (until Casey tosses them around the room for fun) and Candyland is taking a little break.

We've been spending hours outside and Jack makes his way through every toy in the garage and then every toy in the backyard.  We play baseball...sometimes Jack hits, sometimes he's the pitcher.  He rides his tricycle up and down the driveway.  He rides his scooter up and down the driveway.  He pushes strollers around.  He gets the hockey net out and plays hockey.  Then it's on to the bubbles and the sidewalk chalk.  There's also the little playhouse outside and Jack and Casey climb in and out the doors and windows.

But Jack's true love (right now) is golf.  In the last month or two, Pat finally convinced him to place his hands correctly on the club and he's been pretty serious about his golf since then.  And Pat likes it even more that Jack is so into it.  They've got a big net set up in the backyard so they can practice without driving balls into neighbors' houses or the woods.  They've gone out to the golf course and played nine holes a few times and they've gone to the driving range.

Jack practices his golf in the driveway, in the grass, in the mulch and even a couple of times out of the sandbox.  He says, "Mommy, I'm trying to hit the ball and Casey is talking.  She's not supposed to talk when I'm hitting the ball."  I told him we have to modify the golf rules he is learning when we are home and that Casey isn't quite old enough to understand that rule.

He says, "Mommy, I'm just going to practice my chipping now and then I'm going to practice my putting."  And he really know the difference.  It's amazing what he has learned in the last couple months.  He is happy every time he hits the ball no matter where it goes.  He told Pat last week, "I like the sound it makes when the ball goes in the hole."

I was just trying to think what he plays with when we are inside and then I remembered all the little pieces of construction paper that are all over the house.  He loves to cut things up with the scissors.  His specialty is making hearts, but he is happy to just cut it into little pieces and give them away to anyone who will take them.  Or to put them in an envelope and ask me to address it to the grandparents.  Or to spread them over the floor.  And then to cry when I vaccuum some tiny shred up from the floor.  He also likes other office supplies like the pencil sharpener and the stapler and the hole puncher.  He's on a quest to sharpen all the colored pencils in this house so that they're weapons-grade sharp.

April Toys of the Month - Casey

Sometimes there are whole cupboards of toys in this house that sit untouched for months, while other toys get used over and over again.  Usually just when I think that Jack and Casey aren't going to play with something and I'm ready to put it in our toy graveyard, it becomes their favorite toy for a while.  It's always interesting to see what they're playing with at any given time.  Since I'm trying to "capture the days" here, I thought I'd try to write once a month about what toys are currently the "in" toys.

For Casey, it's her big bin of dolls and accessories.  She has about 4 or 5 dolls with bathtubs and bath accessories, as well as about 8 pairs of princess heels, some tutus and other girlie stuff in one bin.  It's been sitting in the cupboard since Christmas but apparently April is the month to be playing with it all.  It's so cute watching her play with her dolls and taking care of them.  Sometimes they nap, sometimes they get baths and sometimes they go in the "car cart" to the store.  (She calls her shopping cart and all shopping carts at stores "car carts.")  She has a couple of bags and she fills them them up with all her doll bathtub accessories and carries it around with her.  Sometimes she shoves her "babies" into the bag too.

There is one specific pair of shoes that are Casey's favorites.  She got them for her birthday and they have one of the Disney princesses on them.  She has been wearing them everywhere...she plays in them like they are sneakers while she's out riding her bike, clip clopping down the driveway.

Casey also has a favorite doll and I think her name is Grace or Sarah, but mostly we just call her Baby.  She asked me where Baby was a few days ago and I said I didn't know.  She said, "out there" and pointed outside at the sandbox.  I told her I didn't think baby was in the sandbox.  Sure enough, a couple days later, she said it again - "Baby's in there" and we opened up the sand box to find her, not too worse the wear for a few nights in a sand box.  I think she may also have spent the night out on the lawn and gotten a little shower a few days ago too.

On Monday we went to the "Elmo Store" also known as "Tar-jay" or plain old Target to most people.  Jack and Casey like to walk down the aisles and look at all the toys.  I told them we weren't buying any toys and we did pretty well sticking to that plan.  Then Casey spotted a princess lunch box and I'm pretty sure she wasn't leaving the store without it.  I tried to get her to put it back once, but then I gave in.  I thought it was too cute how much she loved it on first sight despite the fact that she didn't really know what it was for.  She just loved carrying that princess bag around and was so proud of it.  On the way home from the store, she sang, "Bag, bag, bag, bag..." causing Jack to complain that she was too loud and he couldn't hear his movie.  Since then, she's been able to fit Baby, Barbie, a book and her purple ball in her bag and carry them around wherever she goes.  (Barbie is just another baby to her and I think that's pretty funny too.)  The bag is also useful for bopping Jack on the head, another enjoyable pastime for Casey right now.

So Casey's been getting all girly in the month of April and it's fascinating to watch her imagination start to work.  She's also in a bit of a hitting phase...it's so much fun to hit Jack with her hands, feet, lunch box, golf clubs, hockey sticks, or anything else she can get her hands on.  And she's already figured out that the best time to do it is when I am doing something else and not there to stop her.  Hopefully we'll get that out of her system soon and it won't be something I need to write too much about in future months.  

Did I Just Say That?

There was a moment on Sunday morning where I just started laughing at what had just been said and done.

I was trying to clean some spots off the cabinets and was using some spray to clean them.  Once Jack caught sight of the spray he wanted to be my helper and do all the spraying.  I really didn't have a lot I wanted to clean, but we moved on to a few different surfaces so he could do some spraying.  (I'm pretty sure I am still trying to clean little drops of milk off of various surfaces in the kitchen from the days when Casey would toss her bottle off the high chair and splatter milk everywhere.)

After I told Jack that we were all done with the spray, he asked, "Can we do the windows now?  I really want to clean the windows."  And I said no.  What child asks his mother to clean the windows only to have the mother say no?  He asked multiple times and I finally ended up raising my voice to emphasize the answer of "No!"

My raised voice drew Pat into the kitchen and he decided to distract the kids with some cotton candy leftover from the hockey game.  "Who wants cotton candy?" was quickly followed by choruses of "I do! I do!"  They jumped in their chairs and Pat split it up.  Jack had no problem inhaling most of his.  But Casey thought she had been tricked.  She kept saying she wanted "CANDY!" which was obviously not that pink stuff on the table.  We tried to convince her that it was the candy and told her how good it was.

Pat decided if she tasted it, she would see what she was missing.  So he tried to force feed her cotton candy.  She still wanted nothing to do with it...wouldn't even let it touch her lips.

And that was the point where I just laughed.  We became parents who won't let our kids clean the windows and will then force feed them cotton candy.  Stay tuned for the week where we don't let them take baths and only feed them ice cream for meals.
      

Hockey Stick Sadness

On Friday night, Jack went to a Norfolk Admirals hockey game with Pat.  It was stick night so Jack was excited about getting a hockey stick.  When they came into the house, Jack was very excited to show me his tee.  "A tee?  Where's your hockey stick?",  I asked.

He said, "They ran out of them so I didn't get one."  And he said it so bravely but as he finished talking he just looked at me and broke down crying.  It was like he'd been holding it all in and trying to be a big boy about the fact that he didn't get the hockey stick but when he finally got home to his mommy, he let it all out.

It broke my heart.  And I just started crying with him.  Pat came in and couldn't figure out why I was crying.  I just felt so sad for my little 3 year old boy, who only wanted the promised free hockey stick.

A couple minutes later, he was fine but I'll never forget how disappointed and sad he looked and feeling his little body shake as I held him while he cried.

It may have been a little overemotional on both our parts, as I was watching a sad movie before he came in and he was definitely overtired.  But the people who didn't order enough hockey sticks so my little boy could get one should be ashamed!

Moments from a Saturday

I thought it might be a rough day today.  We were lying in my bed at 7:15 am watching the end of Caillou and all Casey wanted to do was put her feet on Jack, who wanted nothing to do with it.  Even while I was physically keeping her from touching Jack, she kept trying to put her feet back over there.  Luckily they were hungry and we went to get breakfast soon after that.  And the day turned out to be pretty nice.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure Jack thinks he is Caillou some days.  He was showing me some quarters from his piggy bank yesterday and kept telling me he got them at his yard sale.  After he told me that a few times, I finally asked, "Jack, did Caillou have a yard sale?"  And he did.

Here are some moments from our Saturday...

• Asking the kids where they wanted to go this morning and hearing Casey pipe up with "to the library!"
• Listening to Casey call me just "Mom" instead of "Mommy" all day..."What u doin', Mom?"  or "I'm goin' to the store, Mom."
• Casey grabbing a bag of barbeque chips, running to the couch and laying down with the bag of chips on top of her, munching away
• Going for a walk for which Jack was wearing a short-sleeved pajama top and shorts, a plaid down vest and Lightning McQueen rain boots
• Casey sitting on the steps at the playground, saying she was in time out (she really wasn't) but when she jumped up and ran away 10 seconds later, saying, "All done timeout."
• Watching Casey pretend all day and use her imagination
• Watching Jack try to teach Casey how to hit a golf ball by putting his arms around her just the way Pat shows Jack how to do it
• How fresh and clean Casey smelled after her bath and how fascinated she was with her wrinkly fingers
• Hearing Jack say, "You and Casey can play dress up or something after we go," as he and Pat headed out to a hockey game
• Hearing Jack ask to eat "some of that stuff that gives me a blue mustache" when he gets to the hockey game...also known as cotton candy
• Listening to Jack and Casey sound so grown up all day

Easter Morning

Three days after Easter - the baskets are put away, most of the green grass has been removed from the carpet and the candy is all gone...which is more than I can say for the Halloween candy that just won't go away.  Actually there are still some jelly beans left, but Jack doesn't know about those, so essentially the candy is gone.

A lot of my tidying is due to the pollen which is invading our house.  I can't count how many times I wiped things off today.  In order to have fewer things to clean, I did some serious decluttering of surfaces and put a lot of things away where the yellow snow can't get to it.  I refuse to put the air conditioner on because it's only April and it's going to be back to the 60s on Friday so I keep a couple windows open and deal with the pollen.

Even though we put most of Easter away, there are still some cute pictures from Easter morning to show...

As soon as Jack found and egg and stuffed some candy in his mouth, he was all smiles for the camera.  This tendency disappeared an hour later when dressed in his Easter best, as shown in my last post.  Tugger was also interested in what those plastic eggs held.  I think she snacked on a jelly bean or two.

Jack got a new shirt from Nana.  He is very proud of being able to put his clothes on and off by himself lately, as caught in this series of photos.  I could also show you this phenomenon by taking pictures of him at three or four different points during they day lately and you would see him in different outfits each time.  Or, I could show you the floor in his bedroom after he has "gone through" his drawer looking for just the right pair of shorts.  

A new shirt and some candy...worthy of a smile.

Jack checks out Casey's eggs to make sure he didn't miss anything good.  Casey wasn't into the hunt very much so I think Jack found all the eggs.  But he shared.  Casey is sporting her new Dora T-shirt and her purple princess socks.  (It's good that she put on this shirt so you don't see her stained hand-me down pajamas as clearly.)  Jack has on some new Crocs ($10 at Big Lots...I'm proud of the good deal.)

  

I got Jack and Casey each a fold up lawn chair and they loved them.  They have dragged them all over the house and outside.  Casey thought she would move hers right over to the table to have her breakfast.  Notice the change from purple princess socks to blue princess socks.

Overall, we had a great Easter day with baskets in the morning, church where we all got seats and the kids were remarkably good and a great dinner with family.  And Tugger only escaped once, to be caught 5 minutes later.  (Some day I'm going to start a little counter on the side that counts how many days since Tugger has escaped.)  

Easter Finery

Jack doesn't like to smile and pose for pictures any more.  He got all handsome and had a little gel in his hair but could not seem to find his smile or open his eyes for these pictures.  I just uploaded my pictures from the camera to the computer and thought you might enjoy six! pictures of Jack with his eyes closed. I think it must be a talent to have your eyes shut in almost every picture. 

And then I finally got this shot!

And he's so handsome!

 

I also worked hard with Casey to get some good pictures.  She's a little more into smiling, but when she says "Cheese" it doesn't look like a nice natural smile.

To get them to pose together and smile, I told them they were allowed to stand on the coffee table.  This is the best I got:

We had a great Easter...more pictures tomorrow!

Easter Bunny Sewing Project

Just had a nice visit with the Easter Bunny.  He procrastinated a little this year and didn't get his homemade sewing gifts done until about an hour ago.  But they're done and set up on the table for the kids to see in the morning.

Jack helped me pick out some material at Hancock Fabrics a few weeks ago...it had baseballs on it.  He was excited about the prospect of something being made out of it.  In fact, one night he sat and played with his fabric, folding and unfolding it for about half an hour.  I made the mistake of telling him that the Easter Bunny was going to stop by and pick it up some night, make him something and then bring it back on Easter.  So, the Easter Bunny had to work only at night and during naptime to conceal the baseball fabric from peering eyes.  Why I didn't tell him that I would make him something for Easter, I don't know.  The Easter Bunny's got a lot more street cred I guess.  Jack probably thinks the only things I get him are from the dollar store.  But a dollar store toy can make his day...and the price is always right!

The Easter Bunny made little binders for crayons and a notepad for both Jack and Casey, using this tutorial - Airplane Art Binder.  (I'm going to stop with the Easter Bunny references for a little bit.)  I made the first one for our friend's daughter's 3rd birthday present.  It turned out alright but was the first detailed sewing project I've done in years or maybe ever.  I worked on Casey's next and it turned out the best even though I had some problems with the binding.  Jack's was last and was the quickest but I also rushed a little bit and it wasn't the best.  Anyway, it was fun to make them something and get the sewing machine out again.  More projects are in the works.

Here are some pictures, although they're at a weird angle...

Hopefully they will come in handy at church tomorrow.  When Pat told Jack that we were going to church tomorrow, he said, "Again?  Why?"  I guess Christmas still feels like yesterday to Jack.  Pat told him that we were going to church to celebrate Jesus.  Jack said, "Jesus, again?"  Only from a 3 year old. I've been singing him Easter songs all week so he will get excited when he hears them at church or at least recognize them.