Category Archives: Our Kid is Cute

December 17, 2015 · 3:34 pm

Christmas Work Lunch

Every year my company tries to do something nice for their employees for the holidays. There’s a lot of work and planning that goes into it, from the “what” to the “where” to the coordination of raffle prizes. The year I had William, they had a fancy lunch at a restaurant… I didn’t get to attend that one. The next year they did a fancy lunch on a harbor cruise boat. The following year they did a fancy breakfast at Disneyland and gave everyone a park hopper pass for the day. I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top that one! The year after that, it was a fancy lunch at a ritzy shopping mall. This year, it was a fancy lunch at a harbor restaurant.

I guess one of the options they explored for this year’s event was renting a theater for a preview of the new Star Wars movie. Sadly, the theater didn’t get back to us timely, so we chose the fancy lunch at a harbor restaurant last Friday. My co-worker told me yesterday that the theater had just called and cleared us for this Friday. But, yeah, too late.

Anyway, we had a good time and the most interesting story I took away from the outing was my parking adventure. So, valet parking was paid for by the company, including gratuity. Except when I got there, the line for the valet was backed up into the street and was 10 cars deep. So I backed out of the line and drove to the next stop light to make a left turn and park at a meter. Except the stop light was malfunctioning, so I had to wait through two cycles and then went against the red light. I finally got parked and started putting my hard earned coinage into the meter and realized that the meter didn’t allow payment over 1 hour, but it still took the money with no option for a refund. Jerk! The meter dude was standing right there and when I asked him about it, he shrugged and said, “Yeah, well, it says right there…” and he pointed through the inch thick, foggy acrylic cover at a minuscule sign inside the meter. Ohhhh-kay. My loss. He suggested downloading their parking app and paying that way, then I wouldn’t have to leave the party to feed the meter. Turns out, it was a good suggestion and was a good topic of table conversation, too.

The best part of all these Christmas events, though, is the early release. After we put in our appearance at the event, and sit through the endless raffle prizes that I never win, despite prayers and hopes to the contrary, I get to leave and go somewhere and spend the rest of the day with my little guy. That is truly the greatest gift my company gives me. Who cares about 55″ televisions? I’d rather see a 45″ tall little guy any day over a 55″ square monster!

Plus, we discovered escalators, Chick-Fil-A, Baking Betty’s (creme brulee cookies… swoon), a gelato store, a koi fish pond and, of course, the super tall Christmas tree that is just perfect for running around like a silly goofball. And when Tony arrived, William told him he needed a second dinner from Chick-Fil-A and a second dessert from Baking Betty’s. Hmmmm.

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Filed under Best Husband, I feel Amused, Our Kid is Cute

December 10, 2015 · 3:50 pm

Letter to our 4 Year Old

Dear William,

On December 8, 2015, you turned 4 years old. You are a smidge below 45″ tall and weigh 48 pounds. You are wearing 5T pants and shorts, and boys 6 in shirts. You are wearing size 7 in footed pajamas and size 13 Wide in shoes.

I’ll give fair warning here that this has been a Very Big Month for you. So if you’re here for a quick read, you may want to either skip to the end for the picture link, or grab a bottle of water and settle in. This is a long letter. 🙂

Things We Did:
Recurring things: KinderCirque; Library and Awanas

11/14 – Day out With Thomas (Reminder for next year to me, BRING YOUR THOMAS USB THUMB DRIVE!!! The photographer gives a $10 discount on pictures & will load them on the drive!)
11/20-11/22 – Weekend in Big Bear
11/22 – swimming w/ Mommy
11/26 – Thanksgiving with family
11/28 – Sea World for Grandma D.’s Birthday
11/29 – Breakfast with Grandparents and a birthday party for family friend
12/05 – Your birthday party
12/06 – Your first performance as an aerialist
12/08 – Disneyland

Favorites this month:
Color: Red, blue, yellow and brown
Song: Siamese Cats
Movie: Frozen
Food: Chicken strips
Snack: Sea World snack (little crackers)
Dessert: Cake
Fruit: Cherry
Vegetable: Carrots
Class: Miss Robin’s class (KinderCirque)
Teacher: Miss Robin
Store: Target
Restaurant: The one with the planes at the hall (Ruby’s at the mall)
Vacation spot: San Francisco
Toy: Big Buzz and Big Woody and Big Jessie and their hats and Big Bullseye and the stand
Park: Awesome park
Theme Park: Zoo and Disneyland
Anything else? Rock, truck, car, restaurant, stop sign… trains, street.

Sleeping:

You have been sleeping with no issues this past month. Falling asleep easy, and despite how you tease me in the evenings (saying, “I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night and call and call for you and tell you that you forgot to do my nose spray and I have a stuffy nose!”), you are sleeping through the night until I wake you in the morning.

You are now of an age where, if we’re doing something exciting the next day, we can’t tell you because the anticipation gives fuel to your imagination and you can’t fall asleep, and then you wake up early and then you’re tired for the exciting thing!

Food:
You have a good appetite and a sense of culinary adventure. You have no issues eating. In fact, one night, you dipped your chicken nuggets into your chocolate pudding. Gross! Your grandma D. tells me that she serves you most of your leftovers cold, which kind of icks me out, but she says you eat it fine. So I shrug and say, “Whatever works!”

Things I want to remember:

How you love sticks and can entertain yourself happily for hours outside with just a stick. I never knew sticks could possibly have so many uses. From being a “digger” to an “ice poker” to being a “shooter” to who knows what tomorrow!

One morning you told me, “I’m going to go upstairs to wake up daddy.” I said, “You can, but you know he’s going to snuggle you.” You replied, “Oh, that’s OK because I like that. But I can’t right now because I’m finishing my hot chocolate.” A few minutes passed, you got up and said, “OK, I’m going upstairs now.” I say, “OK, have fun.” You said, “OK, but I better take my froggy because daddy’s going to try and snuggle me!”

Miss Mary, your Awana leader, has nicknamed you Pastor William because when asked if anyone knows their Bible verse, you blare it out as loud as you can. I admit that I role play with you for the entire 10 minute drive there, just because I think it’s funny to hear you say the verse so loudly.

I took you swimming the evening we got back from Big Bear. It was 5:45 PM when we got to the pool, the sky was already dark and the moon high and bright in the sky. You exclaimed over the wonder of it, and a couple of times you stopped swimming and were staring vacantly and I asked you what was wrong, you said, “Nothing’s wrong, but the moon is following me!” The moon has been coming up in the afternoon, we see it sometimes as early as 3 PM, and sometimes it’s still wandering the sky in the morning. You have determined that the moon is lost!

You told me the Monday morning before Thanksgiving that you weren’t going to enjoy Thanksgiving, that you’re not going to eat turkey or mashed potatoes or ANYTHING at Thanksgiving. Later that day at KinderCirque class you told Miss Robin that Thanksgiving is fun and turkey is your favorite thing to eat. I laughed and laughed when your grandma D. told me that!

You can be a little bit of a contrarian sometimes, One evening, I told you we were eating leftovers for dinner and asked you what you wanted from your leftovers. You replied, “I want broccoli, steamed broccoli. Also, some hot dog that daddy made. And some apple, cut up. Please.” So I go gather these things for you and you say, “I don’t want any of these things. What I really want is a cherry popsicle.” I would be very annoyed with you, except your outlandish requests are couched in such sweetness. As it is, I simply told you that I spent 15 minutes putting all these things together at your request and you need to tell me thank you and my appetite has changed. May I have one or two bites of these things and then have a cherry popsicle, please? See, the thing is, I’ve dealt with “food issues” and “appetite changes” every day of my own life. I understand that sometimes something that seemed appealing 15 minutes ago maybe isn’t anymore. But I’ve learned that showing gratitude before changing my request can make a world of difference to the recipient, so I hope to teach you the same thing. Also, the cherry popsicles are homemade, so they’re just as healthy as the rest of it. And sometimes, we all just want to eat dessert first, because often times I’ve found with you that if I serve your dessert with your meal, that you’ll eat it all at the same time with no issues.

Watching Toy Story 3 over the weekend, you exclaimed, “Andy’s hat is red, just like Jessie’s hat!” The timing of that observation by you is striking because I had just the week prior emailed your father a link to a theory about Jessie’s owner being Andy’s mom, and one of the primary pieces of evidence of that theory is the red hat!

How in the mornings, one of your favorite things to do is to lie in the middle of the walkway and say, “Oh no, there’s a speedbump in your way!” And then you laugh and laugh when we faux trip over you. And then the speedbump moves and we have to trip over it again, and more laughter. Sometimes the speedbump gets really tall as you bear walk, and other times the speed bump gets really long when you stretch out on the floor.

Saying prayers one night, I prayed for Miss Mary at Awanas. You interrupted to clarify, “Excuse me, mommy, we have TWO Miss Marys. One at Awanas and one at library.” I said, “Yes, we’ll pray for all the Miss Marys!”

One morning, you pulled all your toys out and they were strewn all over the living room. I told you I was going upstairs to get dressed and that I would love to be surprised when I came back down to find all your toys put away! About 3 minutes after I was upstairs, I heard you screaming and crying. When I came running down to check on you, you were kneeling on your knees and leaning on the lid of your toy chest. I gathered you up and asked what was wrong, you pointed at your toy chest and said, sobbing, “It won’t close!! They don’t all fit in there!” Oh, dear child. I told you if that ever happens, it is OK, to please just call me and we’ll figure it out together. And I showed you that, if it doesn’t fit, you could just pull something out and set it aside, as long as it’s not in the walkway.

Then when I was going upstairs, you stopped midway to pet the cats. I told you I was going on up and you could come up when you were ready. You acknowledged me and then again 3 minutes later, you were crying because I left you petting the cat. Goodness!

How you love to dance (but NOT in a class) and most of your dancing consists of walking with the crown, like you did in ballet class. Also your KinderCirque training is showing up when we dance, you love to jump up and circle me with your legs, then go upside down, and then legs together and to the floor. You call it “our trick.” In fact, we went to a birthday party for a family friend and there was a live band and lots of people were dancing. You, literally, dragged me out to the dance floor so you could do “our trick!”

At the birthday party, after a particularly rousing dance you went back to the table to take a break. You got up and went over and looked at all the mini birthday cakes that had been set out. After your inspection, you came back, sat down and declared, “I need a beer before I dance again.” I’m guessing you overheard someone say that.

You are also very into “saving food for later.” I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been out somewhere and you don’t finish your food and you tell us, “That’s OK, we’ll just put it in the fridge and save it for later.”

Your Grandma D. couldn’t find her camera for one of your aerial class practices. Unbeknownst to you, I lent her one of mine. You arrived at your class and you told your Grandma D., “You can’t find your camera, I don’t have to do well today!” Grandma D. pulled my camera out and said to you, “I have your mommy’s.” You stared and said, deflated, “Oh.”

At one point during that practice, you declared yourself “tired.” So instead of letting you flop on the floor, Miss Robin escorted you over to sit next to Grandma. She told you that when you were ready to work again to come back over. Your “rest” lasted about 30 seconds and you tore off after Miss Robin and listened a bit better after that.

Miss Robin challenges you to do the things in her class by yourself. You struggle, but you keep trying and I’m grateful to her for encouraging you and keeping you interested, even though it means that sometimes you flop on the floor. I encouraged you to do your TA DA!! when you land. For some reason, that has gone by the wayside in the last few months.

Every morning, after you’ve snuggled awake, you ask me< "Is this a mommy and daddy day?" I've learned that when it's a work day, I simply tell you that we have to go to work, and you cry. If I answer that it's a grandma day, then we go down a path about how you don't like Grandma (although you love her to pieces and you say that you're her sweetheart) and that you don't WANt a grandma day.

At breakfast one morning, your father was talking to his dad and you were trying to talk to your Grandma H. who is a soft-talker. You politely interrupted your father and said, "Excuse me! You're talking to him and I'm talking to her, but I can't hear her when you're talking, so you need to be quiet while she is talking, please."

When we went to Big Bear, there was still some snow on the ground from the week’s prior storm. You had a grand time walking around in the back yard with a stick, digging holes in the snow. We left for the day and came back that evening and there were dog tracks in the yard. We examined them for a minute and you said, in the perfect intonation of a private investigator, “Someone’s been walking in our snow! Who was it?”

We have found that it's really important to pay attention to you and what you're saying. You are really good at entertaining yourself and you generally tell us what you're doing, whether we listen or not. For example, at breakfast one Sunday morning, you were bending over your chair facing your father's direction. He was busy talking to his dad, who was seated on the other side of him, and you were repeatedly saying, "Pbbb pleb pooh! That's disgusting!" You would finish your routine and take another bite of eggs from your plate, and then do the same thing. A lady at a table across from you gave us the side-eye. Curious, leaned around your backside to look at your face. I couldn't really see, I could just hear you, so I nudged your father and asked him what you were doing. He looked at you, not expecting anything, after all, you were playing peacefully. Turns out, you were creatively spraying egg bits all over the floor. "Pbbbb Pleb Pooh! That's DISGUSTING!"

The morning when we got up to go to Sea World, you exclaimed, "I'm William the whale speed bump!" You then told us that you were going to bring your small bucket and you were going to take Shamu home in a bucket. When we told you Shamu was too big to bring home in a bucket, you told us, "Then I'll bring baby Shamu home in my bucket." I had to tell you that even baby Shamu was too big to bring home in a bucket.

Your grandpa tried to tease you by placing your underwear on your head after you went to the restroom. You emphatically told your grandpa, "My underwear goes on my butt, not on my head!"

Driving around, your father was listening to his music. You said, "Excuse me, I want William songs, like Lightning Lost or something, please?"

Talking about Thanksgiving, you explained to us, "So my birthday is way far away, all these other things have to happen first."

One evening you found my Bible sitting on a chair. You made off with it and I asked you where you were taking my Bible. You corrected me and told me it was GOD'S Bible and you needed to read God's word.

You stood on a chair, reached into the bag to pull out dry erase markers and proceeded to write on the white board. You told me, "Mr. William is the teacher today, you are Miss Mary. I am drawing words right now."

Listening to tractor tipping song, you exclaimed, "Frank ate the old William and now you have a new William!" Surprised, we asked, “We have a new William??" You replied, "Yes! Absolutely!"

In Big Bear, you discovered the play kitchen (that your Grandpa made probably 40 years ago) in the storage room under the bunk beds. You spent at least two hours playing with that thing and were sad that we had discovered it the last day there.

You put a pair of sunglasses on and then over it some party glasses. You informed us that you were wearing some "Watch where I'm going glasses and sunglasses."

One evening I was reading a book and you told me, "You're concentrating away from me, I need you to concentrate on ME!"

In Big Bear, you were sitting on the toilet and you exclaimed, "This toilet seat is not very loud." I realized you were banging the lid against the tank and because it's a padded seat and lid, it wasn't making any noise. I then also realized that you bang the toilet seat against the tank a lot at home. I never noticed that before.

At the bar for Taco Tuesday, they have many TV screens. You were watching them and all of a sudden you exclaimed, "That's the Nutcracker!" Sure enough, an advertisement had come on for an upcoming showing of the Nutcracker Suite

After Taco Tuesday, there is a sidewalk that you like to run down. The week prior, your father had freaked out because the sidewalk ends and it's the street. I knew you would stop, as you and I have discussed it many times, but your father did not. So this time, you took off running running and turned back and reassured your father, "I will stop at the end, daddy!"

Going to the bathroom, you intentionally locked the door. I unlocked it to check on you and you ushered me out of the bathroom and told me, "I don't need you in here." Then you locked it behind me. This has it's benefits, because when I'm going to the restroom, you will ask if I need privacy and if I say yes, you turn and leave.

We took you to see the new Peanuts movie. The previews and advertisement were endless. After about 20 minutes, you got up and went to the opposite side of the theater and said, "That's it, I'm going away from you advertisements!"

One of the previews was for the upcoming movie called, The Secret Lives of Pets. You thought that preview was hysterically funny and now you ask to watch it over and over again. You always get my attention before the weiner dog massages himself with the kitchen mixer because you know that’s my favorite part of it.

Speaking of previews, one of the things that you love is to watch the shorts that come on the DVDs of your movies. Recently, after watching Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron, you asked to watch one of the behind-the-scenes shorts. Your father suggested that maybe you wouldn’t enjoy it, but you insisted. So, we sat there and watched how they drew Spirit, and the artist gave a tutorial on how to draw the horses. Halfway through it, you stood up, went to the table, asked for your school supplies and you sat down and started drawing circles on the paper. You then asked for help to draw a horse from the circles, just like you had seen in the “short.”

Driving along in a train, you pretended to stick your hand out the window. You said, "I won't fall out, I'm not like Mr. Potato Head or something."

One morning you went out in the hallway. I could hear you talking to someone and giggling. When I asked you what you were doing, you told me, "I don't want to tell you!" I assured you that if you told me, you wouldn't get in trouble. You looked at me, taking my measure, and then replied, "I'm messing with the bird."

Sitting on the landing of our stairs, where all the cats congregate and our bird cage is hung, you exclaimed in your best narrator voice, "Welcome to Pet Land!"

About a month ago, I bought a Keurig on clearance at Walmart. Now whenever you hear it, you come running and ask for hot chocolate, in your whale mug, with two ice cubes, a lid and a straw. You gather everything that you can reach and group it on the counter so that it's all organized and convenient. How can I turn that down??

From Halloween, you still have tons of candy. You get a piece every day and you get to pick it. You saw the lollipops when they were given to you and I think they're horrible, so I threw them away. I'm silly for doing that, I know, but I can't help it. You still ask for them every day and the way you say "lollipop" is just the cutest thing ever. I'm glad I tossed them, because I would give them to you if I had them anymore.

You say some pretty deep things sometimes without provocation, and I'm always shocked when stuff like that comes out of your mouth. This month, the one that took me aback was when we were Watching the opening scene of Lady & the Tramp, you exclaimed over the cuteness of Lady as a puppy. The scene changed to the night time and Lady being put to bed all alone and the commentary by Jim Dear about being a master and training the puppy from the beginning, and then he locks Lady in the room. Watching all this, you exclaimed, "He locked her in there!!" Then you said, "The thing about being a master is… it's not about locking someone away, it's about loving them." I'm guessing that it's because in Awanas one of their core teachings is that Jesus our master loves us… Plus, you have been very much into loving our pets. Apparently, the way the movie's script is worded triggered this in your mind.

On the eve of your birthday, I put 3 year old to bed. I feel immensely blessed to be able to hold you in my arms as you fall asleep each night. There is some sort of magic that happens when your eyelashes flutter against your cheeks in trust as you fall asleep. On the cusp of sleep, your eyes close slowly, open, close slowly, open, I hold my breath… and your eyes drift closed, your hand twitches, your leg moves, your breathing deepens, your body relaxes. One thousand four hundred and sixty times you have fallen asleep in my arms at night. You say it makes you feel loved and safe and that you like that. I will hold you and let you fall asleep in my arms for as long as you let me. Just as you obsessed yourself into rolling over, crawling, pulling up and eventually walking, I know it is inevitable that, when you are ready, you will pull away and fall asleep on your own, too. However, for as long as we waited for you, dreamed of you, longed for you, and all those nights I would lay in bed and wish that I had a child to hold in my arms. Now you are here. Now I can hold you in my arms. My very own child. Sometimes I still don't believe it. And it seems that time with you goes much faster than the time did without you. So, I hold you for these fleeting moments, and you gently cross into dreamland in my arms, for I know the day is coming all too soon when you will fly far and wide on your own wings, and I will remember with gratitude these times, with no regrets. No regrets ever.

More pictures from this month can be found here — Link

We love you forever,

Momma (and Daddy)

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Filed under Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

November 21, 2015 · 11:02 am

Big Bear Weekend

Despite a rough start yesterday, lots of traffic on the freeway as we drove up here and a tired child who didn’t sleep well the night before, we are managing to have a great Big Bear weekend.

When we arrived in town, they were decorating their Christmas tree!

To tell you how tired William was, I managed to get him down for an afternoon nap (first one in over a year), and his bedtime didn’t suffer for it last night.

Today, it was our usual mountain getaway routine; breakfast at our favorite place and a little bit of shopping in town and then back to the cabin.

Also, the snow that fell a week ago has stayed on the ground. That makes us all very happy!

Bonus? I found these today!!

– Jammie J. Mobile

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November 15, 2015 · 1:43 pm

Letter to our 3 Year 11 Month Old

Dear William,

On November 8, 2015 you turned 47 months old. You are 44 1/2″ tall and weigh 47 pounds 12 ounces. You are wearing boys 6/7 in shirts. You are in Boys size 7 pajamas and 8 footed pajamas. You are in 5T pants and shorts. Your shoes are size 12/13 Wide.

FIRSTS:

THINGS WE DID/HIGHLIGHTS:
Weekly occurrences: KinderCirque class and Library

10/10 – Zoomars Halloween
10/20 – Dentist appointment (2nd)
10/24 – Dr. Werlin’s annual miracle baby reunion
10/24 – Spaghetti Dinner at Daddy’s church
10/25 – Great OC Park Spooktacular event
10/25 – CalElite Silks show (observing)
10/31 – Halloween
11/01 – Catalina Island
11/07 – Decorate for Thanksgiving

LANGUAGE/THINGS YOU SAY:

One night this past month, you had an attitude about something. I took a deep breath, walked away for a few seconds, came back and told you, “You can say, ‘thank you mommy for this, or mommy I’m sorry I hit you, or even mommy I need some space right now. Those are all acceptable things to tell me. What you did was wrong.” You got quiet for a minute, I waited, you looked down at your Froggy that you were weaving the corners of its hanky through your fingers, a long-time soothing behavior of yours. You looked up, with tears in your eyes, and quietly said, “Mommy, would you like a corner?” I sniffled, too, and said, “That will work, too, dude.”

One of your favorite things to tell me if I snap at you for waking up too early is, “Mommy, do you need an attitude adjustment?”

Another night, you were in your bath and you asked for cake, a small cupcake your father had made. I brought it. I pulled a bite of it up on a fork and you started crying. I asked you what was wrong… you said, “I don’t want cake!” I asked if you meant you wanted frosting, not cake. You continued crying. I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking how I could help you understand that I just wanted to help you. So, I intentionally showed on my face how sad I was, empathizing with you. I said, “Why don’t we wash you off and get you out of here so I can hold you?” You replied, “OK… I think I’m just getting tired.” I said, “Yeah, I think you’re definitely getting tired.” I admit that I’m very cautious of telling you you’re tired, because I remember as a child people telling me I was tired and, while it was certainly true, I remember it being infuriating because I felt like it minimized my feelings. Being tired amplifies feelings and small things seem bigger and bigger things seem even bigger, and someone minimizing big feelings makes the bigger things even more big!

Your Grandma D. texted me one day and said, “I told him that vitamin C helps fight a cold etc. He said he would just take medicine for that. So funny.”

One night, holding you on my lap before I flossed your teeth, you stuck your finger up one of your nostrils. I asked if you needed a tissue. You replied, “No. I’m feeling my voice in my nose while I’m singing.” And then you started singing, with your finger up your nose.

Your father and I were talking a about a ladder at my work. You spoke up and said, “We should watch a ladder.” Puzzled, I asked you, “Do you mean Aladdin?” You replied, “Yes, Aladdin.”

A text from Grandma D., “I asked William if he wanted to go on an adventure. He said, let’s go to Nebraska! I said that’s too far. so he says “Asia”?”

You like to get my hand weights from under the bed and lift them. They are 5 pounds each. So, you lift them and then exclaim, “Oh, this is heavy! I need to rest now, because this is hard work!”

When you have your iPod app time, you like to pull up the Thomas app and look at the paid ones. The first time you did it, you got upset that they didn’t work until I explained to you that they cost money. Now you pull them up and say, “I’m just looking at it!!”

We ordered a new automated, programmable feeder for the cats. It sat in the box for a couple days while your father read the manual. It really bothered you that it was still in the box, and anytime Tug (the cat) got near it, you told us, “Tug really wants to set up our new feeder!”

Your father texted me one Sunday morning, “William knelt in church at the candles and thanked God for grandma D. and parks and a whole list of things.”

Watching Frozen movie and your father and I were talking. You watched quietly, no complaints until the Let It Go song came on. Then you interrupted and said, “Excuse me, this is why I wanted to watch Frozen.”

One of the Halloween decorations we set up is an ugly grim reaper thing. It sits by our front door and your father calls it “Grandma’s Boyfriend” just to irritate her. Well, you mixed it up and called it Grandma’s “friend boy” the entire month of October.

Your Grandma D. texted me, “Kids at the park had buckets. Another had little tractors to play in the sand. All William had was a stick he picked up. He wanted sympathy. I said “Thank God he made the tree so you could have a stick.” He said, “No! say ‘Poor William.'” ha

We stopped and got a hot dog at Costco. I took a bite of a hot dog, You made an assumption and said, “Are you making them small for me so they’re just bite sizes now? Thank you!”

When we attended Dr. Werlin’s annual Halloween party reunion, you called it a street party. It is kind of a street party, but more of a parking lot party.

We got to your father’s church for an event one Saturday night and all the Catholic school kids were in the playground. You looked at them, confused, and said, “Why are they all in the park?” I think what you were really asking was, why are they in the park and I can’t be?

Your grandma D. texted, “William is looking at his ink stamp kit and Tug came over and wrapped himself around William. He really does enjoy William.”

You like to sing variations of songs, one of your variations goes, “You got a friend in me, when you get in trouble, you got a friend in me.”

One of stories you learned at library was a “scary” story about clothes in the closet and every part, the boots, pants, arms, go wiggle wiggle and turns out a cat was hiding in the clothes. It was hilarious to hear you retell it! After library storytime, you wore your costume and walked through the library in a “parade” and told people Happy Halloween. It was cute.

You told me one day when I was blocking your view of something, “Your dress is pretty, but it’s in my way.”

Some sage advice from you while driving around, “So there’s traffic… you have to honk your horn!”

Following the advice from our GPS, you reminded us, “Remember to turn left!”

When I drive you to Awanas, every week I cut through a portion of a parking lot to avoid a dangerous turn. And every single week when I do it, you holler, “Oh no! Are we lost??” Apparently your Grandma D. gets lost a lot!

For Halloween, Grandma worked with you on a cowboy song you learned at the cowboy craft. It was perfect with your Woody costume. Instead of saying trick-or-treat to people, you sang to the tune of “I’m a little teapot” … I’m a little cowboy here’s my hat, here are my boots, here are my chaps. When I get up I work all day, get on my horse and ride away. You made out like a bandit with the Halloween candy.

Watching a video clip, it stopped midway and you said, “Oh no, it’s not listening!”

You say “barry” for the word “borrow.” Example, “You may Barry my toy.”

When you go a little silly trying to get you into your pajamas sometimes, you’ll exclaim, “He’s a wild one tonight!”

You went on a community landscape walk with me and our landscaper found a caterpillar in the bark on a tree. He let you hold it. The next day I got a text from Grandma D., “William did the caterpillar to butterfly routine a hundred times this morn. So funny.”

I bought you some Child’s mint toothpaste as you had been using my baking soda mint toothpaste. After a couple days of using your new toothpaste, you told me, “I like my own candy cane toothpaste!”

One morning, you were out in the hallway and I could hear you talking. I asked you what you were doing and you whispered, “I don’t want to tell you!” Surprised, I told you that wouldn’t get in trouble for telling me. You perked up and said, “Oh, I’m messing with the bird…” I asked you to show me what you were doing to her and you happily demonstrated how you were swinging her cage. I helped you come up with an alternative “messing with the bird” that wouldn’t endanger her cage. But I had to laugh at your “secret keeping” skills.

Banging on the table one night, you admonished us, “Get up and march, because I’m playing the drums!”

STORIES YOU TOLD:
William whispers, “Sssshhhh, shhhh! Crawl in my mouth. It’s safe in here.”
In a hushed whisper I respond, “OK, but who are you?”
“I’m a lion. A toothless lion.” He replies.
“Who am I?” I ask curiously.
“You are an ant. So crawl in my mouth and be safe now.”

SLEEP:
You tell me, I don’t want to sleep, I’m afraid of bad dreams. I told you to tell the bad dreams to go away. In the name of Jesus, go away bad dreams. You said, because God is strong.

FOOD & NOURISHMENT:
Your Grandma’s report on your eating habits, “He wants honey sandwich for breakfast and peanut butter sandwich for lunch. i try to talk him into fruit or yogurt. We talk about protein to make his muscles strong and vitamins and how they help. He said today he doesn’t care about vitamins. So funny.”

Your grandma reported this month that now every time she takes you somewhere, even your KinderCirque class that you ask about a snack. She says, “I don’t know that he realizes it’s a class. The cowboy craft has him confused now.” I replied, “Between that and Awanas, now he thinks everything should have a snack… I kind of agree. Plus he has been very hungry lately.” Grandma replied, “I asked him what he liked best after the cowboy craft. “The snack!” was his answer.” It was quite the day… I tried to hide the 2nd marshmallow. Didn’t work. I hid some of the chocolate in the grandma cookies bag and it melted. I tried to pour some of the juice on the plants. He asked, “What are U doing grandma?” He had his eye on me!

When you came to my work for trick-or-treating, one of my co-workers didn’t have any candy for you, and after you finished singing your cowboy song, she felt bad. She tried to slip one of your candies out of your trick-or-treat bag and you watched her and said, “Uhhh, OK, well, I wanted new candy, not candy already in my hat.” After you visited another co-worker for a few minutes you said, “OK, now let’s go get some more candy somewhere else.” I gotta love your honesty!

NURSING:
You told me one day, “I like nah-nahs?” Surprised, I asked, “You do?” “Yes. They taste like cake. Strawberry and coffee.” Interestingly, since the time you could talk, you’ve told me that one side tastes like strawberry and the other side alternates between chocolate or coffee. One morning, we nursed as usual, except after a few seconds, you yelled… curious, I asked, “What’s wrong??” You replied, terribly upset, “I don’t want the coffee side, I want the strawberry side!” Also, the right side is always the strawberry side. Huh.

You were helping me put away laundry over the weekend. You got to the socks area in the basket. One by one you put them in the sock drawer with a commentary. “Black socks, cat socks, whale socks, flower socks…” A small pause as you lifted my bra, and a little smirk as you continued, “Nah-nah socks…”

FAVORITES THIS MONTH:

Color: “Red”
Song: “I love you so much, I love you so much!” I asked, “Is that your own song?” You replied, “Yeah, I like that song.”
Movie: “Frozen… Toy Story…”
Food: “Bacon”
Snack: “Melon Balls.”
Dessert: “Ice cream, with sundae on it.”
Fruit: “Apples”
Vegetable: “Carrots”
Class: “MyGym! The play MyGym now.”
Teacher: Grandma
Store: “Toys R Us”
Restaurant: “Chick Fil A
Vacation spot: “Nebraska” (pronounced Mabraska)
Toy: “Buzz Light”
Favorite theme park: “Disneyland”
Anything else? “Do you want to go to the palace and see the world? Do you trust me?”

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:
How one night, we were watching a movie and I had told you that when it was done it was time to go upstairs for your bath. You acknowledged me and when the movie was done, you proclaimed as you usually do, “It’s done!!” Anticipating you freaking out, I said, “I’m going upstairs now to run your bath.” You replied, suddenly calm, “Oh, I’m listening to music right now.” As you watched the credits roll.

How I separated your Halloween candy and put the items I was OK with you having into a bag that is accessible to you to look at on the counter. One of the items is a bag of pretzels shaped like bats. You excitedly told me one day, “OK, so I want the bag of bats today for my treat.” I told you that was fine and told you it was pretzels. Aghast, you said, “That’s not candy!” I said, “No, it isn’t. Do you want to pick something else?” You chose a marshmallow with chocolate filling. Good choice!

SWIMMING:
The weather has cooled off, so I was only able to take you swimming once this past month. Of course you loved it and spent most of your time jumping off the side into the pool. You also were adamant about bringing along some mini squirt guns. You spent a lot of time underwater watching the bubbles go upwards as they refilled.

KINDERCIRQUE:
You are doing so well in this class. You are cooperative and listen! You are getting braver and stronger and you listen to Miss Robin. The last class you did particularly well and rode the trapeze swing up above Miss Robin! Miss Robin was SO impressed and she told you that you did an awesome job. High praise indeed! I ask you after every class if you want to continue in it and you emphatically say, “YES!”

GYMNASTICS:
You are still in a break from gymnastics. I had them put our account on hold until mid-November. We participated in their Open House event this past month and you were THRILLED to be back there, but still resistant to the red circle time.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:
I have recently found a place that offers basketball lessons to children your age, I will call them to find out if they offer a trial class.

BATH TIME PLAY:
You have been into your Toy Story bath toys this month.

~~~
You talk in your sleep now, you say things that I can’t catch. You curl up into yourself like a kitten in a warm bed and sleep. And I remember wishing that when you cried as a baby you would tell me things instead of crying… And now you do but I find myself missing the smaller you. I wondered when you would switch over the using language instead of crying out of sleep and whether I would notice. I didn’t notice when it happened, because for awhile it would switch back and forth… but now it’s consistent. You use your words most of the time now.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

More pictures from this month can be found here: LINK

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October 17, 2015 · 1:40 pm

Letter to our 3 Year 10 Month Old

Dear William,

On October 8, 2015 you turned 46 months old. You had a growth spurt this past month and grew an inch! You are now 44 1/2″ tall. You slimmed down a bit as you stretched taller and you weighed in at 45 pounds 10 ounces. Your clothes sizing is all over the place — 5T or boys 6 in shirts. You are in Boys size 6 pajamas. You are in 5T pants and shorts. Your shoes are size 12/13 Wide. This past month I’ve gone through your closet and removed all the 4T sizes that were still lingering… they are too small now.

FIRSTS:
Awana club!!

THINGS WE DID/HIGHLIGHTS:
9/16 – Awanas started (weekly)
9/20 – Zoomars
9/27 – Ryan’s house
10/2 – Mountain Cabin
10/9 – Giddy Up Cowboy Craft day
10/10 – Zoomars Halloween visit w/ Grandma & Grandpa H.
10/11 – Irvine Park & Daddy’s basketball

Grandma D. ensures that you get lots of park & playground time.
Grandma D. also takes you to the library to read books.

LANGUAGE/THINGS YOU SAY:

As we start homeschooling you, the curriculum I’ve chosen includes a lot of books from the library. I go online and reserve them, then you and Grandma D. go to the library and pick them up. Grandma D. finds a shady spot in the parking lot, and then you two read these books together. She says she finds that confining you in your car seat minimizes distractions! One day, you had read a Peter Rabbit book, I’m guessing a full story version, not a condensed version. It apparently differed greatly from what you had been reading and seeing on the DVD, because you informed me that, “Mr. ____ put something in the bag and that’s not how the story goes so we just need to erase that part.”

Last night we went swimming at our community pool. About 45 minutes into the swim, William crawled out of the pool using the ladder in the deep end. I thought he was going to walk back over the stairs, or maybe jump in from the side. instead, he pulled his swim shorts off and said, “I’m done.” Uh, yeah, hey buddy. How about a little warning before you drop trow?And… post-pool, trow dropping, Weinerschnitzel-poolside picnic flop over.

You put your Cars tracks together and then said, “This is cabbage, really long cabbage. Do you want to eat it?”

You love the cup we bought you at the Circus and you take it upon yourself to refill it with water from the refrigerator spout every chance you get, even if it’s not empty. Then you explain to us that it’s not water, it’s just tea.

The tractor tipping imaginary running continues in the car when we play that song, and recently with Grandma D. along, you encouraged her to “Run with your legs too, grandma!”

At lunch for your Grandma H.’s birthday, we were talking and you said, “Don’t look up, don’t look up, just keep looking at your dinner.” When I asked what you were going to do, you replied, “Because I’m going to stand up on my chair and reach to the top of the picture and see what’s up there! So just keep looking at your dinner!”

One evening, a siren went blasting by us. You immediately perked up and said, “Uh oh mommy! I heard a woowooeooo!”

Ordering dinner one night, you told the waitress, “I want a hamburger and I want an egg on my hamburger. Between the buns, on my burger.” When she left, you asked, “Will she put my egg on my burger like I asked?” I assured you she would, and she did, and that was exactly what you wanted and you ate it.

Your father and I were talking about gas prices and mentioned how diesel prices were going down after several years of diesel prices being high. From the back seat, you said, “What about Thomas? Is Thomas too expensive?”

How one day you were adamant about wanting to paint, “Please, mommy, please?” I said, “OK, well you go potty and I will get the paints out while you go pee.” You hopped up and with a happy smile on your face said, “Oh, I love to go potty!”

We had been pretending to eat various things. You picked up Froggy and said, “No, no, no, no! You can’t eat him that’s my son!”

Reading a book one day, you pointed at a bird in the book and told me, “I will give food to this bird so he’s not hungry!”

One day, heading to the pool, you were unusually quiet as I towed you in your wagon. You laid your head down on your kickboard. Curious, I asked you what you were thinking about. You quietly said, “I was thinking about Nebraska…”

At the park, with Grandma D., you stood on a big rock like it was a podium and made a speech, waving a stick in the air for emphasis. After a few minutes, Grandma D. whispered to you to say, “Thanks for your attention!” So you repeated it, three adults all turned around and smiled at you.

At Awana one night, they let you manipulate Playdoh. The assignment was to make something God made. You started with a footprint, then turned it into a burrito, then a taco, then an egg, and finally a potato. After awhile you exclaimed, “This is hard work!”

With Grandma D. on a short hike, you walked down the path ahead of Grandma D. with a long stick in each hand. “Where are you going?” Grandma asked. “I’m looking for a badger,” you replied very matter of factly.

Grandma D. shared that one of the days at the library, you got to pull the rope that hoisted the flags up!

I had been using GPS to help me find some place, and when we arrived, you said, “We’re done, lady!”

Driving home with a pumpkin you had picked from Grandpa and Grandma’s house, you were holding them and told me, “The pumpkin is knocking me out of my seat!”

STORIES YOU TOLD:
“Once upon a time there was a lion in the jungle, and the oil was very slippery! I’ll throw a shoe at the lion and he’ll fall and fall.”

Another story you told me one morning, “I found the bird up in the sky. I fixed the bird, but don’t get in the truck, that’s what you have to be careful of. And…. I don’t want snakes and lizards in heaven.”

Another story you told me one night, “Grandma hurt her hand with the bird today. The bird bit her and made her bleed!”

One morning, your father had gone downstairs and when he came back up, he locked the gate at the top of the stairs. You woke and wanted to go downstairs to pet Tug. When you discovered the gate was locked, you were very upset and went into the bathroom and opened the shower door and said to your father, “Now, Daddy that’s not nice, you locked the gate. So what you do, is you don’t lock the gate!”

You really dislike it when we have to leave for work in the morning and various stories erupt out of you. One morning you told me, “I’m going to cut down your work.” I replied and told you, “but my work pays for our home and our food!” You replied and said, “I don’t want a bed. I don’t want a bedroom. I don’t want food. I just want you.”

Another day, you told me, “I’m going to knock down your work and take all the people away and then you’ll stay home with me all day.” You paused and said to yourself,” But then we won’t have a home to live in, food to eat or a place to sleep… I guess I just have to go to work with you!”

You have started talking as if you’re writing a book these days. You’ll finish a sentence and then say, “he said.” So, it sounds like, “I would like my vitamin now, he said.”

One morning, you woke up terribly upset and when I asked if you were OK, you told me, “I don’t like that animal. They were a baby animal, and I couldn’t stop him.” Ahhh, dreams.

Another morning, you told me, “Call me a parrot dinosaur because I’m all different colors!”

When we went to Big Bear this month, we experienced a rain storm! Driving around in it, you said, “This is a Big Bear car wash.” Also, we drove through the town of Deer Lick and you said, “This is Deer Lick!”

You told us, “Movies on weekend nights are OK, but not on school nights!”

I called my mom one day and overheard you in the background saying, “Don’t drop your phone in the toilet, grandma, you’ll have to get a new one.” I quickly got off the phone!

One day you were negotiating for play time and said, “I can play for this much, see my fingers?”

In the bathtub, you had a bucket with water in it and your paint brush. You told me, “I’m painting with water, and now I’m tired. I will take a break.”

SLEEP:
We have had an uncommonly hot summer, combined with my refusal to run the A/C has resulted in regular night wakings or an early morning. At least that’s what I’m attributing it to. Most of the time, I can nurse you back to sleep and then I just stay in your bed and snuggle you.

One night you were so tired, you told me you didn’t even want me to sing to you. All you wanted was nah-nahs. Another night, you told me you didn’t even want to take a bath, you just wanted to nurse and go to bed. It sounds like you’re finally recognizing and vocalizing when you know you’re tired. This is progress!

One morning you went back to sleep, I had asked you if you were ready to start the day and you told me no. Another day you told me you were ready to start the day and then you started snoring.

FOOD & NOURISHMENT:
You are still eating enormous amounts of food and then claiming you’re still hungry. In fact, many mornings when you wake up you will drink an entire cup of water and then beg to go downstairs and eat. I think I’m going to start keeping bananas upstairs for you, because one morning you woke at 4:30 AM and were insistent you were hungry… and I don’t know, but if you had eaten something, might have been able to go back to sleep.

You have changed your preference for sundaes at Weinerschnitzel from hot fudge to caramel.

NURSING:
We continue our nursing relationship. I consider it a blessing, as do you. A couple of times you have told me you don’t want to nurse to sleep, and I tell you that’s OK, we can snuggle or you can go to sleep by yourself. You tell me you want to go to sleep by yourself, so I kiss you goodnight and leave the room. The moment I cross the threshold you cry out and I return and ask you what’s wrong, you tell me you want to nurse. I say, “OK, that’s fine… can I ask what you meant when you said you didn’t want to nurse?” You tell me, “I just wanted to see if you would leave.” I tell you that you can nurse or not nurse, it is entirely your choice.

Often times, at night, you will nurse the left side for a very short period of time and request to switch sides. I asked you one night why that is. You replied, pointing, “This side is the sleepy nah-nah, so I nurse it when I’m ready to go to sleep.”

When we went up to the mountains this past month, one of the waitresses was showing us videos of her two daughters. She explained that her oldest had been in her belly when you had been in mine. You asked her, “Do you still give her nah-nahs or are you all dried out?” She leaned over and asked me what nah-nahs are, and you replied, “Milk, mommy’s milk. So, do you still give her milk or are you dried out?” She replied that she was all dry. You then replied, “MY mommy gives me milk. She’s not dried out.” Several other customers laughed and one lady even said, “Good for you, I love it!”

One morning, you told me you just wanted to keep switching sides, all day long.

FAVORITES THIS MONTH:

Color: “Red”
Song: “Jesus on the cross”
Movie: “Wall.E.”
Food: “Beef”
Snack: “Honey sandwiches”
Dessert: “Cinnamon roll bars”
Fruit: “Apples”
Vegetable: “Carrots”
Class: “The Work MyGym class at Cal Elite, the one where I climb the curtains”
Teacher: “The lady who teaches the Work MyGym class at Cal Elite”
Store: “Sprouts”
Restaurant: “Rubios”
Vacation spot: “Nebraska” (pronounced Mabraska)
Toy: “Buzz and Woody”
Favorite park: “Awesome Park” (Baker Ranch park)
Favorite theme park: “Uhhh, Disneyland”

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:
How when I get home at the end of the day, we sit on the couch together. You say, “Let’s talk about what we did today!” And then I say, “What did YOU do today?” You say, “I went to work, typed on the computer and then came home to see you!” And then you say, “What did YOU do today, mommy?” I’m supposed to reply with what you did, like “I went to the library and made a hat and then went to the park and read books with grandma and then came home to see you.” If I deviate from this script, I get corrected by you.

How when a movie is finished and credits start rolling, you kind of freak out, “IT’S DONE!! TURN IT OFF!”

How you got in your cozy coupe one evening (a toy I thought you had forgotten about) and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t stay. I’m going to work because I’m starving!”

At Walmart one day, we were leaving the bakery section and all of a sudden you shouted, “We need pumpkin muffins!!” Your father said, “Oh, they don’t have pumpkin muffins…” We both turned around and sure enough, there were the mini pumpkin muffins. You remembered the packaging from last year, you remembered what they were and that you liked them. You had the biggest smile on your face when we put a box in the cart!

SWIMMING:
You love swimming with us in our community pool and are so brave and confident! You love to jump in from the side of the pool, and love it even more if either me or your father jump with you! We have done a lot of swimming this past month.

DANCING:
You are still struggling with this class. In an effort to coerce your participation this past month, I let you pick which teacher you want… and that worked for a couple times. Then it was back to the “regular” attitude of you laying on the floor or standing in the corner (your choice) and watching the class, and participating in the “fun” segments. So, I have decided to discontinue this class for now and enrolled you in an aerial acrobatic class. You have been fascinated by aerial acrobatics for a long while now, and when I asked you whether you wanted to take this class, you responded with a big “YES!!” You were a bit overwhelmed with the first class and definitely were not bored. The teacher said you did well overall.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:
I have recently found a place that offers basketball lessons to children your age, I will call them to find out if they offer a trial class.

BATH TIME PLAY:
Bath time one night, you said, “OK, so we need to play a game called bird poop.” You grabbed the foaming bath soap and pumped it in your bath tub and said, “That’s the bird poop game.”

You told me you’re done with the Ghostlight story and now just want to play the yellow engine falling into the sea and getting cleaned up at the Steamworks.

~~~
I’ve been looking at pictures of you when you were less than a year old, and I cannot believe that the little baby I held then is no more. You are all boy now. I never say anything to you about my mother’s heart mourning that loss, but maybe you sense it, I don’t know. You started crying one day and when I asked what was wrong, you told me that you were crying because you no longer a baby and weren’t cute anymore.

One of my favorite things in the whole world, and it’s what gets me through the days of working during the week, is lying down with you in the morning while we nurse. You are boneless and warm and so very cuddly. I never know how the cuddling and nursing will go, it’s new every day. Sometimes you ask if you can start the day. One morning you asked if I could open your shutters so we could watch the sunrise together. Sometimes you nurse your fill and fall back to sleep. I lay there and hold you and feel the tiny movements of your body as you sleep and dream and it takes me back to those last months that I was pregnant with you and I could feel you move the same, except you were inside my belly. It’s those memories I hold on to when I head out the door, sit in traffic all to go to work. Time goes so fast, and I wouldn’t trade these moments for anything in the world.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

More pictures from this month can be found here: LINK

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October 17, 2015 · 11:25 am

Story of Two Mountains.

Last night, Tony was excited. We had scheduled a day off this weekend to decorate for Halloween. Blow ups! Fog machines! Big scary spiders and webs! Yard stakes (made from election stakes they stuck in our yard a few years ago ha)! He even made the grave error of saying, “Tomorrow we can sleep in!” I gave him the side eye, because with an almost 4 year old in the house, there is no such thing as sleeping in. Sure, the child would love to sleep in on weekdays, but weekends? Nope. He is up at the butt crack of dawn.

As would happen, 5:33 AM I wake up. The house is silent. I have no idea what woke me up. So I rearrange my pillow, lay back down and pretend to myself that I’m sleeping. Tony’s wisdom from years ago echoes in my mind, “Even if you’re awake, if you’re resting it’s kind of like sleeping.” So, I laid there.

6:42 AM, “Mommy? Mommy?” I get up and go to William. “Mommy? Can you lie down with me?” I do.

He’s quiet for a few minutes, I listen to him breathing and feel his heart beating. It’s a peaceful moment, but my mind has been awake for over an hour by now, and the thoughts of a mother run through my head. Remembering how when I was pregnant with him, toward the end of the pregnancy he used to practice breathing and I’d watch my belly move up and down where his lungs were, and how I would listen to his heart with a doppler every day just to make sure he was OK. And I feel inordinately blessed that he loves to snuggle, and I wonder how long he will want me to snuggle him.

His mind was apparently working, too, because he says, “I’m going to tell you the story of two mountains now.”

“OK. I’m listening,” I encouraged him.

“Once upon a time there were two mountains. The first mountain is called Big Bear Mountain and at the top of it is a cabin,” he continues.

“That sounds nice.” I observed.

“In the cabin is movies that you watch.” He pauses, collecting his thoughts, then says, “The other mountain is a SCARY mountain. At the top of that mountain is a scary magician!”

“A scary magician? That sounds frightening!” I grasp William tightly.

“Hey! it’s OK, it’s OK! The scary magician put dried corn in the oven and he made popcorn! He’s not scary anymore! And that’s it. Let’s go see what daddy’s doing.”

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September 17, 2015 · 9:17 am

Awana Club

Last night was William’s first Awana Club meeting. Awana Club was something that my brother and I did when we were kids, we pretty much grew up in Awana Clubs, attending every week, and earned our trophies. I loved the meetings… the games, playing with other kids, even the Bible memorization. It was just so much fun. I hope William ends up liking it as much as I did.

My mom, being experienced in teaching, mentioned to me that as it was the first night it might be a little disorganized. I was glad later that she had mentioned that, because it helped prepare me for the state of disaster that it actually turned out to be. To start, the room was locked. It then progressed to the leader trying to give parents an orientation while 10 kids (ages 3-4) sat at a table with nothing to do. When that didn’t work, the leader gave them their book bags to paint, except the paint markers still had the plastic wrapping on AND the internal stopper. Confusion reigned, and most of the kids had paint all over their hands, so they had to wash them (10 little kids to one tiny sink). They finally went out to the tot playground while the leader “prepared” a snack of half a hot dog/bun and Cheetos (of all things, really?), but she didn’t have plates, cups or a knife to cut things in half. Then the kids had to come in from the playground (but line up first!) and wash their hands again (10 little kids to one tiny sink). And that was it. As William pointed out when we got to the car, “We didn’t get to hear a Bible verse or read a Bible story… or play a game.” Yeah. Kind of the foundation for the whole thing, that Bible verse.

When I saw the issues they were having, I tried to help where I could and quietly made suggestions to the leader, but I felt like it wasn’t enough. So much of the stuff actually needed far more advance planning, i think. Maybe even making one of the crafts ahead of time to troubleshoot problems and then to use as an example for the kids. Awana Club is such a great resource; I pray that next week, and the weeks to come improve.

The quote of the night from William. After he’d finished painting his bag and declaring repeatedly and emphatically, “I’m done!” one of the helpers took his bag. He watched her with great concern, and seeing his concern, she explained to him, “I’m taking this outside for some air.” He replied, “Well, there’s air in here. That’s how you’re breathing.”

Yeah, air, kind of one of the most important parts of breathing.

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September 11, 2015 · 3:33 pm

Letter to our 3 Year 9 Month Old

Dear William,

On September 9, 2015 you turned 45 months old. You are 43 1/2″ tall and weigh 46 pounds, 10 ounces. You are wearing 5T or boys Small in shirts. You are in 5T two-piece pajamas; I don’t know what you are in footed pajamas since it’s summertime, so probably boys Small would be my guess. You are in 5T pants and shorts. Your shoes are size 12/13 (Crocs).

FIRSTS:
You rode the Atlantis roller coaster at Sea World for the first time! Also, the Shipwreck ride, which drenched us.

THINGS WE DID/HIGHLIGHTS:
08/15/15 – Orange County Fair
08/16/15 – daddy’s birthday party
08/23/15 – ocean
08/24/15 – LegoLand
08/30/15 – Laguna Hills mall
09/07/15 – Sea World, including Dinner with Shamu

Grandma D. ensures that you get lots of park & playground time.
Grandma D. also takes you to the library to read books.

–Your favorite ride at the county fair was the Kite Ride, your father called it the Superman ride, but you corrected him and told him it was the Buzz Lightyear ride. Then you told him, “I wish you could go with me, daddy!”

–At the end of your father’s birthday party, you did the cutest little “boo hoo” I’ve ever heard. Not crying, just saying boo hoo to express your sadness at the end of the day. You had played hard all day and it was hot. I guess you are one of those who, if you get overheated, you throw up… while driving home, you expressed that you were hungry. I offered you water, which you drank, and then food when we got home. When I got you home, I set you on the counter to dig some food out of the fridge and you puked all over me and the floor. I felt so bad for you. But, I made you some toast and it settled your tummy.

LANGUAGE/THINGS YOU SAY:
You have been stuttering this past month. The other day, you were trying to get your thoughts out, and you stuttered and stuttered and finally stopped, took a big breath and said, “He is having trouble talking right now.”

You told us one day that you were ready to do the Racers ride at Disneyland again, that you weren’t scared of it anymore. This was news to me, especially since you saying that was not prefaced by anything but you remembering it. I guess we’ll see how you feel when we go in December this year.

You told a waitress at Denny’s that you wanted to go to Snow Land. When she asked you where Snow Land was, you told her it was in Big Bear and that it was there now. Never mind that it was 90° out at the moment.

After we go to the ocean, we always stop at Sonic for a milk shake. It is just one of those things we do. You usually get a chocolate shake, but this month you asked instead for a “hot sarge shake.”

SLEEP:
You have been restless at night and waking up early, or middle of the night. We think it’s related to the awful heat wave we’ve been having, but who knows, really? We just can’t seem to get comfortable at night these days. To be honest, sometimes I get the best sleep when I just lay down with you. At least then I know you’re OK and am not listening for you. There’s another thing in play for me, too, one of our cats yowls at 5 AM and, thinking it’s you, I’ve gotten up and gone into your room, only to find that you are deeply sleeping. But then I have a tough time going back to sleep, because I’m convinced it was you that I heard, even though I know it wasn’t.

You say the funniest things when you’re mostly asleep. Like one night, you told me, “This is a good toy to play with. It’s easy to put together for putting away!” Another night, you declared, “OK, mommy, I’m awake.” Two seconds later, I heard a little snore escape your mouth.

FOOD & NOURISHMENT:
You have been eating enormous amounts of food and then claiming you’re hungry even still! One night, you ate a full dinner, then a half hour later in the bath tub, you said, “I’m very hungry and if I don’t eat I will wake up hungry tonight and I’ll even be hungry in the morning!!” You then proceeded to eat a banana, leftover pancakes, and a homemade yogurt popsicle.

You woke one night and I told you it was still sleeping time. You went back to sleep and a few hours later you woke up and exclaimed, “You were wrong, mommy, it is morning time!” Like no time had passed at all.

After dinner one night, you were excited to go to Walmart for a cookie. We got our cookie and you then said, “We need to go outside to eat it on a bench somewhere.”

From dinner we had leftover salmon, I told you to have it for lunch the next day and also told Grandma D about it so it wouldn’t be forgotten. Grandma D. told me she had a salmon sandwich for her lunch, so that was perfect. The next night I asked you about the salmon. You said it was good! I asked you if you had more salmon than Grandma. You said “No, mine was tiny. Grandma had a lot more salmon than me.” All I can say is Grandma must have had a whole lotta salmon, because you had two fillets in your leftover container!

NURSING:
You have started to tell me, “I’m so hungry! Only nah-nahs can help me feel less hungry!” You seek me out for nursing when you need comfort, or want to go back to sleep. My favorite nursing is the weekend morning nursings… I think they’re your favorites, too. You will ask, “Is this a short nursing or long nursing?” I feel forever blessed that we have this dimension to our relationship.

FAVORITES THIS MONTH:

Color: silver
Song: Buzz
Movie: Spirit (Disney movie, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron); Also, Wall.E.
Food: Grilled cheese sandwich
Snack: Melon balls
Dessert: caramel sundae from Weinerschnitzel
Fruit: Grapes
Vegetable: carrots
Class: MyGym
Teacher: Miss Nicole
Store: Walmart
Restaurant: Outback Steakhouse
Vacation spot: Nebraska
Toy: Toy Story toys
Favorite theme park: Sea World

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:
How I was chewing some gum while waiting in line at Sea World. I picked you up and you stuck your nose in my mouth. Surprised, I asked what you were doing. You promptly replied, with your nose still stuck in my mouth, “I’m smelling your gum.” Like, duh, gum smelling is a normal activity!

How it just seems as if more and more things are imprinting on your brain. For example, we were eating asparagus for dinner one night. You held it up and told us “asparagus grows and grows and then goes to flower and then makes a plant again!”

How you are still reliving your visit to the vet with us from August (a month ago). We took Snuggy in for a dewclaw problem. In the waiting area were two dogs. One of them cowered under the bench with his owner and he had been bitten on the face by another dog at the dog park. The other dog, a golden retriever, had an injury to his front leg. You pretend that you are either taking a pet to the vet, or that you ARE the vet, or that you are one of the injured dogs.

This past month, my laptop’s hard drive crashed. It’s been in the making for awhile. We were without a computer for about a week, and then your father booted up one of his laptops and put it where mine had been. The next morning, you came downstairs, saw it there and said, “Yay! Mommy’s computer is fixed!”

Your father was chair dancing one night at a restaurant. I teased you that he was sitting on the toilet. Aghast, you peered under the table, looked at him, and then looked back up at me and said, “You’re wrong, mommy. Daddy’s not sitting on the toilet!”

How sometimes if you’re playing hard or you’ve been doing something for awhile, you’ll get up, walk over to another chair and say, “I think I need to take a break!” This is an important milestone, I think, that you know your limitations and when you need to stop and regroup!

How you are so into character playing and imaginary stuff, you put one of your Hot Wheels loops around your neck like a necklace and said, “Look at my new outfit!”

When you sat down to eat lunch, you exclaimed, “Oh, I’m so full of love, I can’t eat anything!”

Your Grandma D. sent me a text saying this: “I read Stinklebritches a book about bats. He asked if they bite you. I said only if you poke your fingers at them, like the bird will. He has been jumping off the couch saying he’s a bat with noises, too! He asked offhandedly if bats go poopy. When I said yes, he dropped his shorts and ran for the bathroom. I thought he was just asking for knowledge, guess it was permission. Wonder what he would have done if I had said bats don’t poop?”

After dinner one night at Red Robin, you were outside running around on a sidewalk loop. A few other older boys came up and joined you. One of them hopped off the sidewalk into the wood chips that surrounded a dried up shrub (drought landscaping). You looked at him and said, “Hey! You shouldn’t be in the landscaping!” They turned it into a game, and it was cute to see you, so small compared to these bigger kids, but they were engaging you in play.

Every time we go into a public restroom that has a child’s seat hanging on the wall, you sit in that seat and declare, “I’m Santa!” and then you point behind you where there’s nothing and say, “And these are my toys.”

Your father was cleaning off the kitchen counter, you started taking the dishes out of the sink and stacking them on the drying mat. You thought they were clean, but your father didn’t understand why you were doing that, because he was trying to put them in the dish washer. I explained to him that Grandma D. hand washes dishes.

You have been learning things about Star Wars this past month. I call it brain imprinting, because you pick stuff up so rapidly. You drew something on your drawing book and declared, “This is the Lemon Falcon from Star Wars. Lemon Falcon has places to go! Do you want to go see the world with me?”

How, when you’re watching a movie, you like to hold the DVD case for the movie and look at the pictures on it while you watch the movie.

When I was taking a shower one morning, you sat outside the shower doors and sniffed your way through my lotion bottles. You’ve liked to do this for over a year now. I emptied a bottle and dropped it over the shower door and it landed near you. Without missing a beat, you said, “Oh! Thank you!” I peered out and you were putting it in the trash can.

We stopped at the pet store one evening to walk around, and you informed us that you will be getting another kitty, and two doggies, and continued, “Then I’m going to put them on top of each other and I am going to feed them.” Interested, your father asked, “How are you going to buy them food?” You replied readily, “With my money, and maybe grandma will give me some money, too.”

How when we were at Sea World, we were at the “instrument” area in the play park, you were asking all the newcomers to play you a song you hadn’t heard before. A dad came up and told his daughter it was time to go. She told him she wasn’t done. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away, she wrestling against him with all her might to no avail. You walked halfway over, I thought you were going to play the xylophone, instead you said to the dad, “Hey, hey! What are you doing to her?? That’s not very nice!!!” All I could think was, out of the mouths of babes…when you asked me about it, I told you that I thought her daddy maybe had to go poopy or something! Sure seemed like had something stuck up his butt!

SWIMMING:
You love swimming with us in our community pool and are so brave and confident! We have done a lot of swimming this past month.

DANCING:
You are struggling with this class. I know it’s not your favorite, and perhaps the “unlimited” part of the enrollment the last two months has used up your tolerance for the class. We have placed you back in the Miss Nicole’s class, however, your first class back with her was her last class. She said she was leaving to spend more time with her kids. We don’t know who will take over that time slot now.

GYMNASTICS:
You are taking a break from gymnastics for awhile. You were doing really well with the athletic part of it, but you loathe red circle time and so we pulled you out of it because your attitude was disrupting the class. We think there may be some unresolved issues from the prior owner leaving and you not getting to tell him goodbye, because that was when your behavior started to decline. Mr. Steve (the former owner) had worked really hard to build a bond of trust with you, we think he may have been your first best friend “teacher.” And then, poof, he was gone! I reached out to him and he has said he will meet up with us for a play date later this month so you can see that he is still around, just not around at MyGym.

BATH TIME PLAY:
You have worked through your fear of the drain issues. I’ve started a game where your toys bump each other off the bath tub ledge and while you don’t like that they are floating in the water, you think the game is hilarious. You also like to make up variations of the Ghostlight story (from Cars movie).

We’ve been implementing water saving measures this past month and one night in the bath tub you took a tiny bottle and filled it up with water and then told me, “I’m saving this water. I will put it in my dump truck and then water the plants with it.”

I suspect that, as you get older, your father and I will have more and more of these “mind blown” moments and I look forward to them. It seems like your brain just absorbs things so quickly. Even when we’re not sure you’re even listening, a couple hours later (usually when you’re trying to fall asleep at night), you will start talking about things that happened or that you heard during the day. I know it’s your way of processing things and making sense of them — i do the same thing — and I am grateful that you are able to share your thoughts with me.

One of the nights this week, we were walking around after dinner. You walked up to a lamp post, tipped your head back and wondered aloud, “I wonder if I can climb this pole?” I replied, “If you want to, you can learn how to climb any pole.” You eyed me for a second and then said, “Not tonight, mommy.”

I hope, more than anything, that if you see something you want to do in life, that you will want to learn how.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

More pictures from this month can be found here: LINK

2 Comments

Filed under Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

August 28, 2015 · 2:46 pm

The Other Side of Real.

I am tired today. I’ve been tired all week, really, but today, the tired is overwhelming. The reasons all relate to a little boy who, for various reasons, is waking in the middle of the night and crying out for comfort, for love. He needs extra in those wee hours of the morning. More than what we give him during the day. It is exhausting for me to be awakened out of my sleep cycles; I struggle hard with getting back to sleep.

Right now, I should be doing this, or that, or the other thing. But I don’t feel like it. So I turn to the internet instead, to hide, to avoid, to read about other people’s joys and their struggles, too, and to write here. I’ve learned over the years that I am not alone. Never alone. There is a world of people out there who struggle with similar things. It’s reassuring.

I did not have the patience for problems this morning, like I should have. I wielded words in an email unkindly. Accurate, yes. Unkind, yes. I could have been nicer. I wasn’t. I didn’t want to be. I’m tired of people being stupid, and I’m tired of people not communicating properly. It’s frustrating. I’m tired.

William has a class he doesn’t like. He tolerates it on a good day, but today he sat down at the door. A little lump of obstinate human boy. He didn’t want to participate. His grandma told him he had to, I told him he had to. He wasn’t rude (progress?), he just didn’t want to do it. He told his teacher he was tired… and when my mom told me that, it rang a bell in my head.

Every time that he has acted out or not acted appropriately, it’s been on a Friday. It appears that he is just like his parents, and maybe the rest of us… Fridays, well, we’re just kind of done.

Here’s hoping for a better week next week. And I’ll give a thought to being kinder then, too. But not today. Today? People need to stop being stupid.

2 Comments

Filed under Best Husband, I feel Irritated, Life Encompasses Me, Our Kid is Cute

August 25, 2015 · 2:03 pm

Sweetness.

The last few weeks, we have had a rough spell with William. His behavior was just very… difficult, for him, for us (his parents) and for his grandma. It *seemed* he was battling us on nearly every single thing. Through the counsel of a very dear friend, she helped me “hear” what he was saying, and we made some adjustments.

Yesterday, we took him to LegoLand and, unbeknownst to me, my former grade school teacher was there with her grandkids. I received an email from her this morning, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me on the heels of such a difficult month.

“My dear girl! My husband and I took two of our grandkids to Legoland today and I had a wonderful time observing you and your sweet family playing in the water. I didn’t want to disturb you so I just loved watching your family interact. Your little guy is adorable. Your husband is very sweet with him. I loved all the selfies you guys were taking. No, I’m not a creeper, I just wanted you to know that I think you’re special.~Love, Mrs. ***”

Some behaviors are phases, other behaviors are children using their actions to tell us something that they may not have the words for, or they may not even know themselves what the problem is, even as they get older. I mean, there are times as an adult when I have trouble discerning the root problem in my own issues. Suffice it to say, William is like a different kid this week. Sometimes, behavior is the only “communication” that children CAN give us.

I’m grateful for having such a wise friend. I’m grateful for having such a wonderful husband. I’m grateful for kind words from a former teacher. Now… if she had just come up to say hello, it might have evened out the score a bit from all the people who know Tony and not me.

4 Comments

Filed under Best Husband, Our Kid is Cute