Category Archives: Our Kid is Cute

March 31, 2015 · 1:19 pm

Disney Fan.

I know it’s no surprise to any of you, My People, that we would be raising a Disney fan. We are cautiously picking and choosing which Disney movies our little person gets to watch. Meaning Tony asks with unbridled enthusiasm, “WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT STAR WARS?!?” And I say, “How about Toy Story?”

So, yeah. About Toy Story. Is there any 3 year old who doesn’t jump off of furniture and yell, “TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!” Also, is there any 3 year old in the world who isn’t looking for new, inspired ways to play with his toys? Which, let’s face it, Toy Story is fantastic for that. And doesn’t Toy Story prove that “collections” are ridiculous and that a mish-mosh of toys are far better to play with? For Collection Obsessed parents, like us, this is a good lesson. Ha!

Then, I get this call at work, “Hi, sweetie, it’s me.”

“Well, hello there.” I drawl in reply.

“I’m on Amazon right now looking at Buzz Lightyear. Do you think I should get him the 6″ or the 12″ for Easter? The 12″ does everything Buzz does in the movie, the helmet flips open, his wings pop out, he talks… the 6″ only has the helmet flipping and the wings popping out. He doesn’t talk.”

I ponder this for a moment and think about storage space, and William wanting to sleep with the new toy, and buttons that talk, possible wake ups from that… “How much are they?” He replies with details.

Tony then points out that we also have an 8″ dinosaur (a hand-me-down toy from his cousins, I think), which would be “to size” if we were to get a 6″ Buzz. I point out to Tony, who seems to be a little sad about not getting the Buzz with all the bells and whistles, the time we were at Walmart and William wanted a crappily made police car toy and I told him it didn’t even make sounds… I said, “Remember William looked right at me and started woo-wooing like a police car? I think the smaller Buzz will be better for his imagination.”

For due diligence purposes, I ask, “Is there a 12 inch Woody?” And then realize how that must sound to the guy in the cubicle next to me and start laughing. Tony replies, “No, there’s only an 18″ Woody.” I respond with, “An 18″ Woody? Who needs an 18″ Woody?”

At this point, I can’t resist and I go to Amazon myself. In my search of Woodys and Buzzes, I come across plush toys. I blurt out, “Oh my. You can get a Plush Woody!” This sets off another round of giggles (mine only).

He pauses, and says, “I have a 6″ Woody at home, though.”

“WHAT??? You have a 6″ Woody? I didn’t know you have a 6″ Woody. Isn’t that something you think you should tell your wife about? WHERE do you have your 6″ Woody.” I’m gasping for air between giggles.

Tony pauses, and waits for me to find my maturity, which just isn’t happening, and says, “It’s in my closet.”

And I just can’t stop laughing. BECAUSE, WHO KEEPS THEIR SIX INCH WOODY IN THE CLOSET?? TONY DOES, THAT’S WHO.

I needed that laugh this morning.

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Filed under Best Husband, Our Kid is Cute

March 10, 2015 · 11:20 pm

Letter to our 3 year 3 month old

Dear William,

On March 8, 2015, you turned 3 years 3 months old. You are 42″ tall and weigh 42.8 pounds. You are in size 5T shirts, 4T pants and shorts, 5T footed sleepers (although I think we need to start looking a bigger sizes in pajamas) and wear size 11/12 EW shoes.

Something that happened this month… after only 3 classes, I decided to change your dance class to a different teacher. The first dance class you attended, you were excited. The second dance class you attended, you were looking for a reason to take a break. So, when three other little girls declared they had to go potty (despite them having gone before the class), you said you did, too. The third dance class, you went in and were cooperative, but did so with tears running down your face for 10 minutes and then “had to go potty,” but nothing came out. After reviewing the videos your Grandma D. had taken, I realized that perhaps the teacher’s body language could be viewed as aggressive and I had no idea what she was saying to you. The biggest thing seems to be that Miss O. consistently reprimanded students for talking. You claim that you never talked in class, that “Karis did” … but I wonder… you were “teaching” me how to “make a crown” and then follow through with “opening the sun” and I asked you, “Like this?” And you immediately and emphatically responded with, “We’re opening the sun right now, not talking!” After all that, I decided that perhaps a better “fit” might be in order.

I switched you to Miss N.’s class… and your Grandma D. took you to observe the class the week prior to starting, which was a fantastic idea! The teacher came out of the room for something and you reported to me later that “Miss N. said she had to go back in and I said, ‘HA HA HAAAA’ and Miss N. smiled at me!” The first class you felt you needed Froggy to help you. The teacher said that was fine, and actually encouraged it. By mid-class, Froggy was placed by you at the side of the room and you were interacting and doing your best to keep up. I’m hoping this week’s class brings you laughter and that Froggy will be left at home!

Things you did:

02/09 – first dentist appointment
02/14 – Sea World
02/16 – LegoLand with Mommy
02/21 – Ryan’s 2nd Birthday party
02/28 – Breakfast at Chick-Fil-A with your godparents (a playground where the slide made no noise!)
03/07 – Santa Ana Zoo to see model trains

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, swim class
Tuesdays, pre-school library storytime
Wednesdays & Fridays, gymnastics at MyGym
Thursdays, dance class

Firsts:
02/09/15 – First Dentist appointment (no x-rays, their machine didn’t work)
02/21/15 – Rode tricycle for first time (and pedaled!!) at Ryan’s house
02/23/15 – First Swim class (with Miss Elaine)

Sleep:
You have not taken a nap this past month at all. You now tell us that you can’t sleep when the sun is up. Your Grandma D. still enforces a quiet time, and she rocks you for awhile… but you no longer fall asleep. You refuse to lie down on your bed, instead choosing to have your quiet time on the floor of your room, in the dark.

Nourishment and Nursing:
We continue to nurse, although I’ve noticed a gradual decrease… you love your morning wake-up nursing session and you stretch that out as long as you can. If we’re just hanging out at home, you have a tendency to cluster nurse in the mornings. If we’re out for the day, you’ll usually seek me out in the early afternoon for a nursing session instead… I call it your “quiet time,” because it’s really just you regrouping yourself (instead of taking a nap). We tend to seek each other out around 5 or 6 PM, and then your bedtime nursing is pretty short. Not because you don’t want it, but because you fall asleep so quickly (because you no longer nap). It’s said that child-weaned nurslings generally tend to wean themselves between the ages of 3-4. I guess we’ll see how this plays out with you.

You eat well and continue to be somewhat adventurous when it comes to sampling food. When we have soup, it’s quite adorable to watch you stack your spoon. Every bite has to have a soup cracker and you’ll put nearly anything (except bell pepper) on the spoon with the cracker. You’ll say, “I’m having potato and a cracker… Mmmmm, that’s good. Now I’m having onion and a cracker. Now i’m having a green bean and cracker.” And on and on it goes.

Things I want to remember:

One of the things we tell you (to make you laugh) when you’re having a difficult time after dinner transitioning to the idea that we’re going home is, “I bought you dinner and stuff!” Now you repeat it back to us and laugh and laugh. You just think it’s the funniest thing ever.

You like to ask me about the chores that I do, “Mommy do you have chores to do?” Yes, I reply. “Are they home chores or work chores?” Because sometimes my chores are about getting ready for work the next day, and other times the chores are about keeping our home running smoothly. It’s interesting to me that you are classifying my chores.

When I help you clean yourself up, or help you wash your hands, or even help you with a toy that is challenging you, you tell me, “Mommy, you did a good job helping me.”

When we were at LegoLand on President’s day, you accidentally walked under the hand dryer in the restroom. It triggered and a huge gust of air and loud noise burst forth. You jumped and almost cried you were so surprised and you said, “Oh no! Do I still have my hair!” You later told me that Mr. Steve (your teacher at MyGym) doesn’t have any hair. I’m still puzzled over the correlation of those two things in your mind.

You were humming the Cars 2 intro song and you stopped after about the 4th round of it and asked, with an impish grin, “When is the man gonna start singing?”

Driving home from Sea World you were eating raisins. You were bringing them up out of the container and narrating, “These are fishies coming out of the water. This one’s a big whale.” There was a pause and you added, “It’s just pretend, OK? Because they’re really raisins, OK?”

One morning, you said, “I need to go to the bank!” Your father and I looked at each other in confusion. I asked, “Why do you need to go to the bank?” You replied, “To get stickers!” Apparently, when you go to the bank with Grandma D. they give you stickers? I’m still not sure of that one.

On Valentine’s Day, we were heading to Sea World. As part of our conversation driving down there, your father asked you, “Where should we take mommy for Valentine’s Day?” You replied, “To the bank!”

One evening, after a big dinner at Chick-Fil-A, and you not having pooped all day, we took a risk and went to the park. Sure enough, a few minutes of running around and you requested your portable potty. A few minutes later, you were all done, you got up, turned around and looked and exclaimed, “That’s my work!”

Listening to the Route 66 song, you said, “The music is telling you to turn west!”

You still get all excited when you see a semi-truck and exclaim who the trailer belongs to, whether it be UPS, FedEx, McDonald’s, Walmart or Target… those are the most common ones.

One night, I was talking about how tired I was. I jokingly mentioned that I was so tired, I might just fall asleep in William’s bed and sleep there all night. You paused and said, “Mommy? You go sleep in your own bed.” Although, later that night when I was nursing you to sleep, you sleepily and sweetly told me, “It’s OK. You can sleep in my bed.”

On my old iPhone, I’ve downloaded some of your favorite songs and an app called “Bible Stories for Kids.” It’s really a great app and you learn a lot of Biblical details from it. There are animations of characters that you trigger by touching them. I use the app to keep you awake when we have our “reconnect” nursing when I get home from work. One of the animations was a guy sneezing behind another guy and it blew the guy’s turban off. You played that thing over and over and laughed harder and harder every time it happened.

Driving back from LegoLand on President’s day, we were stuck in traffic. There was a guy in a SUV in the lane next to us on the freeway. You stared at him for a good long while and then said, “Is he eating chocolate?” I looked at him and could see his jaw flexing repeatedly and replied, “No, I think he’s chewing some gum.” You replied, “No. He is definitely eating chocolate.”

One morning after nursing, you started singing this song, “When the sea lions get on board, all aboard! May I say scat? The lizards, and cattles, and kangaroos!” You stopped and asked me, “What are cattles?” I still don’t know where the song came from, but you told me it’s about Noah’s Ark.

When getting you cleaned up after going to the restroom, inevitably, your head always ends up in my armpit somehow. Every time, I hear you say, “I love you, mommy.” Which is always nice for a thankless job. Sometimes you’ll sniff and tell me, “Mmmmm, you smell so good.” One evening, you told me that and then added, “Daddy smells good, too. So does grandma, but actually she’s kind of stinky.”

One morning, you woke early and your father went in your room first. After a few minutes, I went in and your father left. You curled into me and stuck your face in my neck and said, “Mmmmm you smell good!” I replied, “Thank you.” You said, “Daddy does not smell good. Does he need to take a shower or something?”

Stuck in traffic on the freeway, we branched off to another freeway and went up a freeway overpass. You yelled, “We’re out of traffic! We’re up high! Yay freedom!”

I bought you a new pair of shoes and you wore them for the first time and said, “I like my new chuggers!”

You like to put a spoon in your mouth and hold on to it with your lips. You then inform us, “I’m an elephant and this is my trunk.”

When you don’t want to do something, you’ll say (for example), “I don’t want to!” Pause. and then you add, “Uhh!”

One morning, coming downstairs with your daddy after I’d left for work, you looked out the window and exclaimed “Oh no! It’s foggy! Mommy might get lost!”

When we were at Ryan’s birthday party, Ryan’s mommy offered to make you a hot dog sandwich, since she was cooking one for Ryan. You were excited to try it and when she served it to you, you took a bite of it and then said, “This is like Weinerschnitzel!” What I forgot to tell Ryan’s mommy is that is a high compliment, indeed, since you LOVE Weinerschnitzel.

At Ryan’s birthday party, you got adventurous and went down his little slide on your belly. You accidentally nose dived at the bottom and had a brown smudge on your nose. After I determined you were OK, I laughed at you and told you that you were Rudolph the Brown Nosed Reindeer. You replied, “Oh mommy. Rudolph has a red nose, not a brown nose.”

The road from your Grandparent’s H. house has quite a steep hill. Somedays you’ll say it’s a roller coaster and put your hands in the air. After we let you see the Disney movie, Lady & the Tramp, you howled “Woo wooowooo!” And said, “That’s what we do down the hill when we are doggies!”

One of the questions you ask me when I transition into “business mode” and am just trying to get stuff done is, “Why are you going so fast?”

One of the songs on Signing Time’s Potty Time DVD is about how you’re supposed to listen to your body. It tells you when it’s time to eat! It tells you when it’s time to sleep, etc. The past month or so, you’ve started talking to your body like it’s a 3rd person… “We’re having a picnic, body. Are you hungry, body?” “My body is telling me it’s running around time!” “My body is telling me it’s time to play with the trains now!”

When we were at Yogurtland, I got you three of your favorite flavors, one of which is “Cookie,” which is a type of chocolate. For myself, I got a different chocolate and I offered you a small taste. This is rare, I don’t normally let you taste my dessert, but for some reason I did that day. You tasted it and then, in turn, you dipped your spoon in your chocolate and held it up to me to taste. I was so pleasantly surprised.

Your father was so impressed one night when, instead of running away from him to go to Sunset Park (our name for the grassy area behind the houses) to see the sunset, you asked his permission to “go watch the sunset, please?”

Your Grandparent’s H. bought you a framed train picture for your 2nd birthday. It’s been sitting in one spot or another the past year while I tried to find a good spot to hang it. I finally found a spot I liked it in and put it up. When I got you ready for bed that night, the first thing you noticed and said was, “You hung up my train picture!”

At the zoo, there was a roped off area for employees only. You told me, “I want to go back there. What’s back there? So many places!” I told you that it was for zoo employees only. Then, every person who went past the rope, you asked, “Are they zoo employees?” There was a little boy who ran past the rope and you asked, “Why is he going back there?” Then his mommy ran after him, you asked, “Is that his mommy? Is she getting him? What happens if she doesn’t get him?” I’m thinking this is your version of the infamous “why?” phase I’ve heard so much about?

Every night during our prayer time, we give thanks to the Lord for all the things that blessed us during the day, or in recent memory. If there’s a special need or something on our minds that needs to be settled, we pray for that, too. The things you like to thank Jesus for are mommy and daddy, Grandma D., Grandma and Grandpa H., MyGym, Swim class and Dance class, the Queen Mary and for precious time spent together as a family. We realize that every moment with you is precious and, even if we’re having a hard time or a rough day… it’s OK, we’re human. I apologize to you if I’ve wronged you and you do the same to me, and we tell each other, “I forgive you.” I tell you that I’m learning how to be a better mommy every single day and you tell me that you’re learning to be better, too.

We’re in this life together. Trying and learning… together. No matter what we face, I am so happy that we are a family.

Love you forever,

Momma

Pictures from this month can be found here: LINK

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Filed under Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

March 4, 2015 · 4:38 pm

Voting Sticker

If I wanted to live on the edge, I suppose I could wear my sticker early.

-Jammie J.

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Filed under Our Kid is Cute

February 17, 2015 · 11:20 pm

Letter to our 3 Year 2 month Old

Dear William,

On February 8, 2015, you turned 3 years 2 months old. You are 42″ tall and weigh 41 pounds 11 oz. You are wearing 5T shirts, 4T pants, 5T footed sleepers and size 11 extra wide toddler shoes.

Things we did this month:

01/17 – Santa Ana Zoo with both Grandmas
01/17 – playdate with Ryan at his house
01/19 – First Soccer Class
01/23 – First Dance Class
01/31 – Mountain cabin for the weekend — it snowed!!!

Tuesdays, Pre-K Library storytime and crafts
Tuesdays & Thursdays, Gymnastics Class

Firsts:

You rode your scooter correctly for the first time this month, keeping one foot on the board and using the other foot to push yourself along. Before, you would have both feet on the board and either just stand there or wait for someone to push you.

Sleep:
The ever elusive nap is rapidly fading. On weekends, I no longer bother offering you a nap. Weekdays with Grandma D., she offers you “quiet time” and I prefer that to be offered around 1pm. If you do happen to fall asleep, I’ve requested she wake you at 2:30pm, and even with that wake time, you aren’t able to fall asleep until 10:00pm at the earliest.

Nourishment:
You do well with your eating, for the most part. You are at least willing to try most any food at least once. Although, you seem to be overly sensitive to “spicy” things. This “sensitivity” is clearly your father’s fault, as I like my hot sauce with a side of food. ha! In fact, you now look at my plate and ask me, “Is that your spicy food, mommy?”

You do well when we go out to eat, although, I’ve noticed you do have a definite “transitional outburst” when we get to the restaurant. I believe this is due to you being hangry, and I try to head it off with an “appetizer” when we get seated. If I forget, then I find myself wondering where the contrary child sitting at our table came from.

We continue to nurse and it is truly one of the joys of my life and one of the most calming and comforting things for you. It is often one of the tools I use to comfort you when you are upset or to help you fall back to sleep if you have an early wake time.

Nursing you before work one morning, you reached over your head and held your other hand. Or so I thought. You looked up at me and held eye contact with a smile curving your lips as you continued to nurse. I asked you, “Are you holding your own hand?” You unlatched and said, “No. This says I… love… you. See?”

What you had been doing was not holding your other hand, but rather holding down your ring and middle finger with your other hand so you could make the ‘I love you’ sign to me.

Things I want to Remember:

Talking of all the places we could go in an airplane, you asked me, “Can I just fly up in the sky?”

You are accumulating a to-do list for when you get older. You tell me, “When I’m older I can scoop cat poop and go to Mommy’s work and type on the computer, and then go to Daddy’s work and type on the computer. And I can fill that (pointing at the humidifier in your room) with water and turn the sound machine on and turn movies on downstairs and drink coffee!

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ve told me that you don’t want to get older and carry daddy around. Then you asked me, “Are you going to get little?”

Getting ready for work one morning, you touched my nylons and asked, “What is this on your leg, mommy?” Apparently, I don’t often wear nylons?

Walking on your knees, you told me, “I’m a snail!” And if you walk with your hands down and butt in the air, you tell us, “I’m a bear!”

You REALLY enjoyed your visit to the Queen Mary and you didn’t want to leave, even though we had seen everything that was there. A couple days later, you told your Grandma D. that you have three homes: Big Bear, the Queen Mary and Home-home.

After our visit to the Queen Mary, I now have to include thanks for that in our nightly prayer. If I don’t, you will speak up and tell me, “Thank you, Jesus, for the Queen Mary. TOOT! TOOT!”

If anyone has a birthday within your vicinity, like at a restaurant, you will say, “I need a birthday too…” What you mean is, you “need” a birthday cake.

When we were out to eat this past month, I asked you if you wanted some steak. You very politely replied, “No, thank you. I’m fine thank you for asking, though.”

When you see a police car or motorcycle with their lights flashing, you say, “Uh oh. Someone’s in trouble.”

How clever you are when I was trying to get you to take a nap so we could stay out late in the evening. You comfort nursed and then put Froggy over your eyes for 10 minutes, then pulled it off and said, “I took a little snooze!”

How hilarious it was to me, one night I was recording you while you sang Away in a Manger. As it happened, you got midway into the 2nd verse and saw the camera and stopped. I told you I wasn’t going to record it if you weren’t singing and turned to walk away. You then followed me all the way down the hallway repeatedly saying the next lyric, which just happened to be, “I want to love the Lord Jesus! I want to love the Lord Jesus!”

Along the same lines, on my old iPhone I have an app called Bible stories for Kids. It tells stories with interactive pictures and, if you haven’t taken a nap and it gets to be evening time and you ask to nurse (like when I get home from work), I use it as a tool to keep you awake. You asked for it one night when it was close to bedtime and I told you it was time for bed. Your response was, “But I want my Bible!”

One evening out to dinner at a restaurant that had plates displayed on the walls, you started pointing at them and then said the little Apostles poem: “This is how the apostles go, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John…” and named every single one of them, pointing at a different plate for each one. I don’t know what the connection was with the plates and the apostles, but it was quite hilarious.

I finally got the Christmas tree undecorated and put away before the end of January. You found an ornament that I had missed and you told me, “What should I do with this? Should I put it on the tree? Daddy go get the tree and put it back up!”

You still love Signing Time, and particularly the TreeSchoolers. Now you tell me, “You’re Rachael, mommy! You sing pretty!”

You love to pretend that you’re daddy coming home from work. You go out into the garage and then come in and tell me, “I’m daddy! I was cleaning cat poop!”

How you found a tiny little fireman hat for a doll and you put it on your head and told me, “I’m a fireman!”

When we had just gotten over being sick, I came home from work and told you that I thought I was getting sick again. You told me, “No, mommy I don’t want you to be sick.” I replied, “I don’t want to be sick either! What should I do?” You replied, “Wash your hands!”

Every day when we were all sick, you would go ask your father, “Daddy? Are you feeling better?”

It’s always to neat to find out what’s on your mind. One night you started laughing while you were nursing yourself to sleep. I asked you what was funny. You replied, “Wood chips on the sidewalk at the park!”

You are now obsessed with germs. So, when you wash your hands, you tell me, “Talk about the germs, mommy!” And I’m supposed to enact the germs going down the drain. Then, if you sneeze, I tell you to cover your mouth and you tell me, “No, I’m spreading my germs EVERYWHERE!!! I’m going to make mommy and daddy sick!”

You like to pretend that your bath toys are shoes. You hold them like you’re putting them on your feet and tell me, “Say ‘That’s not a shoe’ mommy”. You also love the Soap Game, where I put foaming soap on your hands, and you clap them together and see where the soap goes. You love to try to get the soap on me and ask me after every “clap”, did I get you? Where did I get you?

One evening we left the drive-through and I checked the bag and remarked that there was no Splenda in there for my drink. From the backseat I heard you say, “Is the fireman supposed to come?” Confused, I asked you why a fireman would be coming. You replied, “Because Chick-Fil-A forgot to give you Splenda.”

Driving to our mountain cabin, you started telling us a story that went like this, “The bad guy fought the mice away and then they do dancing… Grandma’s not supposed to stop it, but that’s the whole story… The good guys are soldiers and the bad guy looked like the good guys and he chased the mice away. Then there was dancing.” When I asked you what the story was, you said, “That’s the Nutcracker Suite.”

When we went to the restroom in our mountain cabin, you told me, “This toilet is better than at home.” I replied, “Oh?” You said, “Yes because it’s Big Bear and it’s softer!” (It is softer, it’s a padded toilet seat.)

Watching the Planes 2 movie, every time the music score would come on during the movie, you would ask, “Who’s playing that music?”

When we were headed to the candy store, you said, “I can’t have that! It has sugar in it and sugar is bad for me!”

One day you asked me, “Does a butterfly give me butter?”

When I was sick and trying to sleep, you came in to check on me and then left, you told me, “I’m leaving the door open just a little bit for you, mommy. See that little bit of light? That’s better than turning the big light on, now isn’t it? You go on to sleep now, mommy.”

One morning you woke up with a stuffy nose. You asked me, “If I have booger in my nose, I can blink really hard and that will make it better, right?” I asked you, “Oh, did that work for you?” You replied, “No.”

You stopped by my work one day this past month to nurse on my lunch hour. I took you to the restroom and in our restroom at work, we have poo pourri spray. You spotted the bottle and asked what it was, I told you. You replied, “And WHAT does Poo Pourri do?”

You really notice details, like this story your Grandma D. shared with me, “William saw an “M” on the helmet of the driver of a motorbike yesterday. He started laughing & said that the driver came from McDonald’s. The letter was very small. I didn’t even see it until he talked about it.”

You have become very interested in maps this past month, one night you pointed at a map and said, “I’m going to Egypt where Abraham lives!”

You randomly will stop and pray, for example, if the sunset is particularly beautiful, you’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus, for the beautiful sunset.” Then you report back to me, even though I’m standing right there with you, “I told Jesus about the beautiful sunset. He says it IS beautiful!”

It’s so funny to look at you sometimes and realize that 3 years have gone by in seemingly the blink of an eye. I look at these things I want to remember about you and wonder how you could possibly be any funnier, yet you’ve had this personality since you were a small baby. Every night when we nurse you to sleep, I wonder how my life could possibly be any more blessed, or how my heart could be any fuller. I spend so much of my time when I’m home laughing about something that either you or your father are doing or saying. And another thing I’m so grateful for is that you brought the name “Grandma” to my mom, and she came “home” to be near me, so that she could know you, help teach you, and take care of you when we’re at work.

This is not how I imagined my life could be 15 years ago, 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. No. I couldn’t possibly have imagined how blessed I would be today. Blessed, ten times a William.

Pictures from this month can be found here: Link

Love you forever,

Momma

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Filed under Letter to William, Our Kid is Cute

February 10, 2015 · 12:15 pm

Growing Pains.

Last night William woke, crying, around 10:30pm (after having been asleep since 7:45pm), Tony went to soothe him, but nothing he was doing was working. I was downstairs working on taxes, so I saved my work and turned off the computer. I headed to William’s room to talk to him. He said he wanted to nurse, but he kept flexing his legs and crying, so he wasn’t maintaining a latch.

He continued to cry, sobbing out answers to me as I asked him questions. He told me his knees hurt. I asked him if it felt better if he extended his legs, or curled them up, he said both hurt. I set him on his feet and asked him if it hurt more to stand up, he said it didn’t. I asked, while rubbing his calves, if it hurt there, he said no. I asked if his foot hurt and rubbed the bottom of his feet, he said no. After a few minutes of this, him still crying and flexing his legs, I determined that we should give him some Advil and that I would lay down with him so he could stretch out. I let him know that I would only be staying until he was relaxed and asleep, and then I was going to my bed, so that if he did awaken later, he wouldn’t freak out because I wasn’t there with him. He calmed down after a bit, still flexing his legs, and as the medicine took effect, he relaxed and curled up against me and drifted off back to sleep.

I left his room, concerned, so I started researching on my phone, because I had recently finished a course of Ciprofloxacin, which does transfer to breastmilk in small amounts and one of the side effects of that can be joint development in infants… but my doctor felt that since he’s a nursing toddler he would be OK, and my research at the time of prescription bore that out.

However, in my research last night, I came across an article on this site on WebMD about growing pains vs. childhood arthritis. ( http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/features/growing-pains-or-childhood-arthritis?page=2) It was an informative article, and I felt educated, until I got to the last paragraph. I found myself wondering WHY WebMD decided that paragraph needed to be included… to me, it was such an unexpected inclusion, and was not related to the issues they were discussing at all. In my opinion, it stepped across the line from educating about medical issues to warning about parental choices. I actually felt kind of insulted, because it’s those types of things that lead a parent to not trust your child, to doubt your parenting choices, and can ultimately drive a wedge between you and your child by making a person question whether or not they’re doing the right thing by responding to children when they cry in the night. I have a tendency to look at relationships with a long-term lens and I wonder if these “doctors” factor in the fact that relationship foundations are laid when a child is this age, and what happens when these toddlers are teenagers? Doctors encourage parents to establish boundaries for night time sleep, laying the groundwork for good sleep for the future. I wonder if they ever think about the fact that when kids turn into teenagers, a whole lot of them turn into night owls, and they do the majority of their thinking and emotional growth at night. And what if you, as their parent, are not available? They will find someone to talk to, and it won’t be you.

The way I see it is, at this age children are just learning to communicate, and how on earth does Dr. Vogler know beyond a doubt whether children experience growing pains every single night? They might. And even if they don’t, what is wrong with responding to your child when they cry? Just because it may not be a physical need, but an emotional one, does that make their need less valid somehow? In William’s example, I’m still not sure if it was his knees that were hurting him (joint pain), or his bones lengthening, because I’m not even sure how *I* would describe my bones hurting me to someone, and I have a much vaster vocabulary than he does at 3. So, if we (as parents/ adults), assume that a child is getting “spoiled by late night attention” or “overindulged” and refuse to go to them, doesn’t that cut off the ability to communicate, which is the heart of any relationship?

Anyway, after researching all this and talking to a couple friends whose kids have had growing pains, I think we’ll take a wait and see attitude on this. Although, now, since I was a late bloomer, I find myself wondering if all the knee pain I had when I was a teenager was, in fact, growing pains.

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Filed under Our Kid is Cute, Parental Theory

January 10, 2015 · 7:34 pm

Queen Mary Chill

Backing out of the garage this morning, I went through the list… “Do we have our coats? The stroller? Water? Snacks?” Yes! So, we’re halfway down the hill and I notice sprinkles on the windshield… “Do we have umbrellas in the car?” Uhhh, no. This is California. It doesn’t rain here!

Yet, all the way, as we drove to Long Beach, there was definitely rain on the windshield. And, even if you try to deny it, say, by not using your windshield wipers, it is still rain!

We arrived at the Queen Mary early, like at 9:10 AM (they opened at 10:00 AM), and we wandered around for a little while and then headed over to wait in line to get into the Village. William was anxious with anticipation to get in, so I handed him my watch to keep an eye on it for the last 10 minutes. He told us he’d let us know when it was 10 o’clock. I was surprised when they actually opened the gates about 3 minutes early… thank goodness.

We hustled past the Christmas decorations and bouncy houses so we could be the first in line for the ice sculptures. When we did this event a couple years ago (link), the line was really long to get into the ice sculptures and the workers were really grumpy (to be fair, it was the end of the day). This year, I even went down the ice slide and that was really fun! Overall, this was a far better experience than last time, although, sadly, there were far fewer ice sculptures this year.

Admission to their Chill event included their village (that they decorate for each holiday) (that we had bypassed in our rush to the ice sculptures), and they had a couple bouncy houses (one that was shaped like the Queen Mary… it had a super weird entrance that kind of gave you the feeling like you were being rebirthed haha) and the other was a candy cane obstacle bouncer. William was disappointed that neither of them had anything to climb.

They also had a wave swing ride that came from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. I kind of wanted to go on it, but I knew if I did that William would want to go on it, and we just weren’t confident that he would have been OK with it. William said he wanted to, and he said he’d be fine all by himself and I think he would have been fine, but Tony said the ride looked scary and he didn’t want to be “those parents” with the freaking out kid. Sometimes it sucks to be responsible parents. (sigh)

We self-toured ourselves through the Queen Mary, walked to the bow and then went up top and splashed in puddles. We headed back to the Chill event to find some lunch, because I’m far too cheap to spend $20 on a mere sandwich just to say we ate on board the Queen Mary. So we had a huge chicken skewer in the village with a view of the Queen Mary and rain pouring down on our heads. Because I was in denial at that point, because my iPhone told me it wasn’t raining.

Overall, it was a good event… however, next year, if we do it again, I hope they will have more ice sculptures, like they did when we went in 2012. Although, even with the ones they had, it was impressive. I think I’d like to try to go during the month of December, because in January, there were no performances, no carolers and no Santa.

Link to more pictures, so you can feel like you went with us can be found here: LINK

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, Our Kid is Cute

January 9, 2015 · 2:39 pm

Letter to our 3 Year 1 Month Old

Dear William,

On January 8, 2015, you turned 3 years and 1 one month old.

Statistics and Developments:
You were measured at the doctor’s office as being 42″ tall and weighing 42 pounds. You are in size 4T pants and shorts and size 5T shirts and footed pajamas.

Developments:

I’ve found it very helpful, before we get out of the car to go in anywhere, to communicate in detail what we’re planning to do, and what I expect you to do. For example, we’ve implemented a change this month… before, after we had eaten at a restaurant, we allowed you to run on the sidewalk outside the restaurant, supervised of course, and as long as it wasn’t super busy. However, we realized that was causing an inconsistency in caregivers allowances and causing you confusion, since Grandma D. doesn’t let you do that. So now, I’ve told you, “After we eat, we cannot run on the sidewalk. However, if you need to run, you may tell me that and request to go to a park.” Then when we go to the park, I tell you that when I ask you to leave, I expect you to tell me, “Thank you for taking me to the park, mommy.” And to leave without any troublesome truck shenanigans. Incorporating Thomas the Train lingo has been very useful!

When we went to Walmart, you requested to walk (rather than being carried or put in a cart). You held my hand the entire time we went through the store and really enjoyed walking along beside me. Your father shared with me that he took you to Walmart and you were singing a Christmas song and you stopped mid-lyric, and someone rounded the corner and finished the song for you. Because no one can leave a song unfinished.

Firsts:

First time you rode on a roller coaster!

First time you blew your nose.

First time you blew out your own birthday candles… and wanted to blow out the Advent candles. Before blowing them, you asked if they were birthday candles.

First time you blew your harmonica successfully.

First time having orange juice. We made it freshly squeezed with a juicer!

Sleep & Health:

You were sick earlier this month and spent the night before your birthday party waking up every few hours because your nose was so stuffed up. I was worried about your party the next day, but you were a champ and had a total blast.

Then, you got sick again after Christmas and ended up with a fever, double ear infection, bilateral conjunctivitis and acute sinusitis. That landed you with a doctor visit and a prescription for antibiotics. Even though it was exhausting, because you woke up several times in the night and I ended up sleeping in your bed, it was a treasure to be able to hold you in the night and just by my presence there somehow make you feel more reassured.

Nourishment & Nursing:

Your obsession with candy canes has continued this month. You also were interested in frozen blueberries this month… it’s been awhile for those.

Nursing is about the same as last month. You still really enjoy nursing time and I’m so grateful that we were able to experience a 4th nursing Christmas vacation with you.

Things we Did this Month:

12/13 – your 3rd birthday party
12/14 – day (mostly) with mommy
12/22 – Legoland (with Mommy)
12/23 – 12/26, hung out with family for Christmas

Things I want to remember:

When I asked you if you are you a big airplane? You replied, “No, I’m a little airplane.”

You have become a somewhat emphatic communicator this month, and you told me one night that, “If you don’t give me a candy cane you will be in big trouble!”

You were feeding your father one evening at dinner, and it was so funny because you were an “empathetic eater,” opening your mouth as wide as you wanted him to open his.

We introduced glow sticks in the bath tub this month, and it was fun to see what your imagination made of them. One evening, as you dipped them in and out of the water, they were whales and dolphins.

We also introduced bath salts this month, and you think it’s great fun to dump a tube of epsom salts in the water and then watch them dissolve away.

I love listening to your medleys of Christmas songs, some of them stopping mid-song, others with your invented words and yet others when you get stuck on the lyrics and repeat them over and over again.

How, on all our Christmas musical decoration items, you know just how many times to push the button to get to the song you want to hear.

How when you father got sick and slept on the couch over Christmas, you brought him all your toys and laid them out all over his body. With every toy you placed, you exclaimed, “That didn’t wake him up!” And then you went off in search of another toy. He had quite a pile of toys on him by the time you were done, and he didn’t wake up from any of it.

One of the days in December, I was home sick. Your grandma D. came over to take you to your MyGym class. About 45 minutes in advance, I gave you a heads up that she was coming over. You crawled on my lap and frantically nursed, switching sides and saying every time you switched, “I’ve got to nurse before Grandma gets here.” It was hilarious… and when grandma got here, you (remarkably) left with her with no problem, but asked me several times if I would be here when you got back.

One of my symptoms was laryngitis… so, I was whisper reading your books to you, and paraphrasing them because they are too many words. You started whispering back to me. One morning, in my whisper voice, I told you, “You’re a sweetpea.” You replied, insulted, “I’m not a pee pee, mommy!”

Sitting here, you finished your yogurt. I asked you to hand me your spoon to get the last bits of it out of the container, and you turned your head, spoon still in your mouth, along with a grin and handed your spoon to me with your mouth.

How sweet you are to our cats. We took one of our cats to the vet earlier this month, and all the way there, you were reassuring her, “It’s going to be OK, Buggy. The vet is going to make you better. Do you hear the crickets, Buggy?” We got there, and came in the door and you told the receptionists, “Here’s Buggy. She needs to get better, OK?” I was holding you as you noticed their Christmas tree and you looked at it for a minute and then asked them, “Where are the cats?” It was only dog ornaments. The lady came around to show you their 3 measly cat ornaments and you were slightly appeased, and she reached to hold you, saying “You’re so cute!” You pulled back into me and gave her a frowny face with the imperative statement of, “I’m not the cat.” You pointed at Buggy in her carrier and said, “That’s the cat. SHE needs to get better, not me.”

How when we took you to the doctor, all the way into his office, despite how ill you were, you were dancing along saying, “Yay! Yay! Yay! I’m going to the doctor! He’s going to make me feel better!”

When we went to my doctor, you told him, “Mommy doesn’t feel good. You need to make her feel better.”

Then when we went to my doctor a second time, you were playing with your toys and I went to get in my car to leave. You hustled yourself out into the garage, opened my car door, moved my purse off your seat and got into your car seat. You informed me, in no uncertain terms, that you were going with me. I told you I was going to a boring place with a bunch of sick people and that the wait would be long and there would be no toys. You still insisted you were going with me. Helpless, I looked to your father, and he said he would meet us there to watch you. When we got there, you looked around and then asked me, “Are all these people sick?” You actually did really well waiting, but when I went back to see the doctor, you didn’t understand that you didn’t get to go back to see the doctor with me and you got very upset about it. I felt badly that we hadn’t prepared you better for that.

At gymnastics, you were afraid to do a flip up on the high bar. But after the 2nd day, you let Mr. Steve help you and you did it. And the feeling of accomplishment you had in yourself, huge smile every time you saw it on the video that your Grandma took of it.

Then, for the next two days, you created “skill stations” around the house. One of the more hilarious skill stations involved you sitting on a cat scratching post and narrating, “OK, so, COME ON UP HERE, MOMMY! So you sit here, put your head here and your hands here and lean this way. Are you trusting me?” And me, shaking so hard from laughing, because really? You just had a cat post up your butt and did not look comfortable in any way.

You pull out the packaging air bubbles and jump on them and make a huge popping noise.

Conversation: Excuse me, William, why are you holding your penis. You replied, as you moved your hands, I’m not; I’m holding my knees. Me, Oh, excuse me… an obvious case of mistaken identity.

How cute it was that when we went to the pet store for cat food, they gave us a bag of cat toys. Fascinated, you inquired about them. We told you they were Christmas presents for the cats. You proceeded to point at each toy and specify which toy was for which cat. Snuggy (aka Grumpy) rated 3 toys. And, when we asked you later about the toys, you specified the same exact ones for each cat.

You got your first bee sting a couple months ago, and every time we go to that park and you see that slide, you carefully examine the slide and ask, “That bee’s not gonna sting me, right?” This actually makes me sad that you are scared of the slides because of the bees.

You like to tell me when you’re singing songs that, “I’m singing handsome.”

How you informed us one night, “I’m growing taller and taller and soon I’ll be daddy. When I’m daddy, I’ll sleep in daddy’s bed and I’ll be as tall as the fan. And soon I’ll be able to turn on Cars movie!” That last part is especially funny, because we use a projector and the on button for it is way up high above our heads.

You also really enjoy rinsing the dishes off so they can go into the dishwasher, and one evening while you were doing that you told me, “Someday, I’m going to scoop cat poop, too, just like daddy!” This, I’m sure, thrills your father beyond words.

You also love juicing oranges and making orange juice. And then you want to put a banana in it and press the button on the blender. You hear the juicer and come running as fast as you can!

We found board books shaped like vehicles with wheels and everything at Target. You had one of a school bus when you were 12 months old from your godmother, but it disappeared somewhere. We were thrilled to find these and they are one of your favorite toys.

How at the end of Christmas day, you told me, “I’m sad about Christmas, I’m crying about Christmas.” When I asked you why, you said, “Is my train table going away?” I said no, you get to keep it. Apparently, you thought that because Christmas was over, Santa was going to come and take all your new toys away. Also, apparently, Santa isn’t the giver of toys, but the taker of toys.

As we walked out to the car after Christmas, you saw Christmas lights in the distance and asked to go look at Christmas lights… and the big, big snowman. You remembered one of the yards we saw last year had a big snowman in it. It seemed like a good ending to Christmas Day, so we did indeed go look at Christmas lights.

Before your bath one evening, you stood in the hallway, one toy in each hand. You moved one toy up and down and said to the other toy, “You eat your dinner right now!” The other toy wiggled up and down, “No! I don’t want turkey and cheese. I want candy canes for dinner.”

How you’ve been intentionally singing “customized” lyrics to Christmas songs and it’s just hilarious. Like, “Hark the Harold Angels Swing, no, they don’t swing, say they don’t swing, mommy.” They don’t swing, William. You will grin, and then sing more robustly, “HARK THE HERALD ANGELS RUN! HAHAHA Say they don’t run, mommy.” Angels don’t run, William. Then, you switch it up, “The first Snowelle, The angels did say, was to certain poor people, haha, in fields as they lay. Snowelle, Snowelle, Snowelle, Say it’s not Snowelle, it’s NOEL, mommy!”

How you fake sneeze on pictures of tissue boxes in the coupon pages.

When I told you I was sick, you started to cry. You said you were crying because I’m sick. 😦 I think it was because earlier in December when I was sick, I lost my voice. You were so sad that I couldn’t sing you to sleep at night, as was I. it’s one of our favorite things to do, is sing together.

How, after Christmas was over, you keep asking me if you have any more presents. You also wanted to call your cousins to tell them goodbye and tell them thank you for playing with you.

How much you loved seeing and playing with your cousins… we did so many things with them, from running around, to jumping in the bounce house, to sticker pictures, and playing with Christmas presents with them together. The holidays were such a special time this year.

In the bath tub, you started to cry when I told you it was time to clean up. I told you I was sorry, I knew you were having fun, but it really was time. I explained that mommy was tired and not feeling well and I needed to go to bed, too. I gave you a hug and patiently nudged you through the clean up. After we got you out and you were snuggled in your towel on my lap, you leaned into me and kissed my cheek and told me, “Thank you, mommy. I’m doing better now.”

How you love any sort of art project, from painting, to coloring, using animal stamps, and sticker pictures.

How one morning I was nursing you in the dark… I was dressed for work, complete with dangly earrings that clanged softly when I moved my head. You unlatched to ask, “What is that sound?” When I told you it was my earrings, you replied, “No, it’s a train coming!” Apparently, to you, it sounded like the bell at a train track crossing.

One night, after your bath, you stood in front of me with your towel wrapped around you. You put your finger in your belly button and pushed it in. You told me, “It’s going downstairs.” When it popped out again, you said, “It’s upstairs now.”

How one day I told you we were going to try for a nap. I headed upstairs with you following, and on the stairs you walked partially up them and then reached your hands out and slid back down on your belly, telling me while you did so, “These stairs are slippery, mommy, I can’t come upstairs!”

We made mashed potatoes together and you sat on the counter as I told you what I was putting in them. Some salt, some pepper, some butter. You were “so exciting” about them and you hurried over to the table and asked for a fork to eat them with. As you pulled them up from your plate, you looked at them and said, “A little salt, some pepper and a lot of butter because butter makes everything better.” I put a little more salt on them and you said, “To make them sparkley?” I guess the salt sparkled at you. haha

We did our annual tradition of making gingerbread cookies together… and you loved it just as much this year as you did last year.

How sweet you are when you ask me to sleep in your bed with you and I reply that I can’t, you have the sweetest and saddest little “Ohhhhh…” to reply with. And the first morning that we all went back to work after the holiday break, Grandma D. told me you ran into our bedroom, climbed under the covers and buried yourself in them, as if you were seeking a hug from us.

And then, how this morning, when we were leaving for work, you said you wanted to wave bye-bye to us instead of watching a movie when we left. You were so brave, I knew you wanted to go with us, or not have us leave at all. But you went outside with Grandma and watched us leave and I saw your eyes well up with tears. And I thought to myself, that sometimes… sometimes, little boy, it’s OK not to be brave. Sometimes it’s OK to just be 3.

(Link to pictures)

Love you,
Momma

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December 18, 2014 · 3:46 pm

One is Never Enough.

Tis the Season for Santa and, you know us, we like to overkill the whole season (decorating, Santa, snow, events), so we’re pretty much trying to find as many Santas as possible for picture opportunities. Kind of like when we were in Hawaii that one time and tried to swim in as many tropical waterfalls as possible. Yeah, just like that. ANYWAY, it used to be that William was afraid of Santa, the Chick-Fil-A cow, Disneyland characters (or any characters at all, really), so our strategy is to expose him to as many as possible.

We figure either the exposure will help him overcome his fear and he’ll be comfortable with them, or he’ll be seeking therapy when he’s in his 30’s. Probably both. Everyone pretty much needs therapy in their 30’s to deal with childhood traumas, right?

So we visited the Sea World Santa, the California Adventure Land Santa, Mater Santa and Walmart Santa. We’re keeping our eyes open for the homeless Santa, although the Walmart Santa is probably pretty close, don’t you think? And William thinks they’re all great… but only as long as they give him a candy cane.

That’s all he wants for Christmas from Santa, is a candy cane.

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December 9, 2014 · 8:46 am

Birthday Trip.

We had a small birthday party last night for William, we invited his grandparents over for crockpot beef stew, salad and cake. Ice cream cake. Chocolate. Of course.

Before everyone came over, William and I were hanging out playing with things and chatting. His Grandma D. came back in from doing her walk, and we heard the garage door go up. Knowing that meant his daddy was home, Grandma D. said, “I think someone’s home!” William turned and hurriedly took a couple steps and tripped over the base of his rocking motorcycle and fell. On his way down, he bashed his mouth on the handle of the rocking motorcycle. There was a 2 second pause as he landed on the ground and digested just how much it hurt.

By that point I was there to pick him up and then there was blood. Everywhere and immediate. Down his shirt, on his pants, on his arms. The louder he cried, the more blood there was. I’m holding him and feeling helpless. Nothing I did could make it better. He tried to latch to nurse, but couldn’t, leaving a trail of blood all over me. So I just held him and whispered into his neck how much I loved him and how sorry I was that happened to him.

His Grandma and daddy got him some paper towels, some dry, some wet, some with ice cubes in them. He finally started sucking on the one with ice in it. He did that for awhile, alternately sucking and crying. I desperately wanted to look in his mouth to see how bad the damage was, but couldn’t. He didn’t want to let go of the paper towel. So I waited.

He finally asked to nurse, and then after a bit, he wanted to go upstairs to his room and nurse, but he would intermittently just start screaming. Gosh, it was the saddest thing ever. We dosed him with Advil, because the intermittent crying made me think the pain was cycling, like pain can do. About 30 minutes, still nursing, I asked if he wanted to go downstairs to see his grandparents (they had arrived after we went upstairs). He gave me an “Mmmmm Hmmmm,” unlatched for 1/2 second and got a horrified look on his face and lunged back to nurse again, whimpering in pain. It took him 15 more minutes before he was finally ready to go downstairs. Poor kid.

He ate his birthday dinner cautiously and reminded Tony to “be careful with the owie” when he ever so gently brushed his teeth. And now the wait and watching for infection begins to see what damage he did beyond battering up the inside of his mouth… like, if he did any damage to his teeth, if they turn grey or not (like one of them did before and self-healed) from a fall a few months ago.

I figure, at least they’re still in his head. For now. That’s a good thing, right?

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December 8, 2014 · 2:37 pm

Letter to our 3 Year Old

Dear William,

Today you turned 3 years old.

Statistics and Developments:
You weigh 41 pounds 10 ounces. You are 41″ tall. You are in size 4T pants/shorts. You are in size 5T shirts and footed sleepers.

Sleep:
Naps have been hit and miss this month. On the weekends, you don’t take them anymore. Your Grandma D. can sometimes get you to take them.

Your bedtime has necessarily moved to 8pm on those no nap days. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child talks of children dropping their nap, that their wake times should be max of 6.5 hours, otherwise it’s time to go with no nap. And we’re finding it to be true… 7 to 7.5 hours, or longer sometimes, is what you’re needing for wake time, and that just doesn’t make sense mathematically in a day, because if I put you down 7 hours from wake time (7 AM), that’s 2 PM, and if you do manage to fall asleep at 2pm, then you are awakened at 3:30pm and that puts your bedtime at 10:30pm, or sometimes (usually) 11pm before you can fall asleep again. That’s simply too late of a bedtime. So we’re pushing you through and putting you to bed at 7:30 PM or 8 PM. This sucks because there’s really not much time that we get to see you in the evenings after we get home from work, and there’s not really that much we can do together. So we’re constantly trying to make our limited time with you matter.
Nourishment and Nursing:
Nursing has been less this month, usually a longer snuggling/nursing session in the morning. A decent one when I’m trying to get you to take a nap. And then a 5pm session, sometimes, but that one is short. And then before bedtime, another short session, not because you don’t want to linger, but because you’re so tired from not taking a nap that you fall asleep instantly. Those nights, I just sit there and hold you for awhile and reminisce on those nights that you’d nurse forever and ever and how tired I was and just wanted to go to bed myself, and how, now, those are just distant memories.

Things we Did:

11/22, Santa Ana Zoo
11/23, Grandparent’s house
11/24, got a haircut
11/28, visited Sea World, Shamu breakfast and Santa
12/04, California Adventure and Disneyland
12/07, Downtown Disney
Recurring events are MyGym and Library story times

Things I want to Remember:

You have been really interested in “when daddy was a little boy like me.” Your father pulled out some of his childhood photo books when we were at his parent’s house one weekend to sate your curiosity. That night, you said to me, “Mommy, when you were a little boy, did you brush your teeth just like me?”

When you were giving candy canes the once over at Michael’s this past weekend, you told me, “When I was a little girl, I used to eat those pink ones.” (You say the word “girl” with two “r”s in it and its really adorable, “grirl”.)

Earlier this month, you weren’t feeling well due to a bit of a cold. You had a stuffy nose, sore throat, etc. Before bedtime, your father was giving you a bit of Benadryl and a bit of Advil. You sat there and between doses said, “We’re having a medicine party! I’m feeling happy!”

Sitting at Yogurtland one evening with you, an unkempt, long haired and bearded fellow left after paying for his enormous bowl of frozen yogurt. You glanced up from your yogurt and said, “Jesus is going outside to eat his ice cream. Is he going to be cold out there?”

Probably not so cute was you asking a lady who was teasing you that she was going to eat your yogurt (she was kind of invading your personal space), “What happened to your teeth?” (They were crooked in front and went inwards forming a “V” with her two front teeth.) Teach her to tease a 2 year old about his food

We were at Yogurtland and were waiting for the restroom to open up so you could go, and after a long while, you finally piped up and asked into the big, echoing room, “WHY IS HE TAKING SO LONG IN THERE? IS HE GOING POOPY OR SOMETHING?

I mentioned as we passed a Chapstick display in Walmart that they had Gingerbread flavored ones and you nearly came unglued. I kind of wanted it, too, so I grabbed one for me and one for you. You wanted to put some on your lips and smell it. Usually not a problem. At least until you started digging in it and spread it all over your face and up your nose. You then informed me that, “It smells goooooooood.”

Singing your Thomas song, you handed me a clothes roller and said, “Here’s your singer, mommy.” You are also obsessed with learning the Blue Mountain Mystery Thomas song and Cars 2 intro song by Weezer.

How when you hear a song you really like, you’ll run over and grab my hand and start stroking it. The first time you did this, I asked you what you were doing… you replied, “Your hand is my guitar.”

You really took a fancy to Thomas the Train’s Blue Mountain Mystery and learning about Luke and Victor. Now every yellow item in your toys is Victor and Victor is continuously falling into the sea (as you perch the yellow car or bus or whatever on the edge of the couch, table, or whatever and bump it off.)

Your love for getting painted in the bath tub, and yellow is Victor, blue is Thomas, red is James and Green is Luke.

Getting you out of the bath, you tell me, “I have paint on me, you can’t clean me up!”

You tell me, “I’m all shiny! I’m the shiniest engine on Sodor” after you’re finally all cleaned up after bath.

You frequently introduce yourself as Thomas or Luke to people who want to meet you, or at circle time at your MyGym class.

You hold your fingers up, like they’re finger puppets, and declare, “This one is Lightning. This one is Finn McMissile.” And you walk them around and they talk to you.

In your bath a couple weeks ago, you painted one of your fingers red and the other blue. You then informed me, “The red one is Lightning. The blue one is Thomas.” After introducing them to me, you proceeded to tell me a story about Lightning visiting the Island of Sodor. You started with, “It was a beautiful day on the Island of Sodor. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. Lightning fell in the water. Luckily, no one was hurt.” <—All of your stories start that way. haha

You know that you have Take-N-Play sets of Thomas the Train, and that there is another set out there called Trackmaster. You saw a lady checking out at Costco with a huge Trackmaster set and you said, “Is that Trackmaster?” I said, “Yes, it is.” You said, “Some lucky little boy is going to be very happy!”

I’ve been shopping for cameras this past month as my other one has been dying a slow death over the past year. Ever since I dropped it with its lens fully extended a year ago. You have enjoyed being my side kick for those events and love to play with the display cameras. As we waited one evening for a couple to finish their discussion, you said in a loud whisper, “Come on, people!” I whispered back, “It’s OK, we’re not in any hurry!” You whispered back, “Yes, I am. I need to look at Cars after this!”

That same night, though, when I told you it was time to leave the toys aisle and go home, you said, “OK, mommy, thank you for letting me look at the cars and the trains!” I couldn’t believe how polite you were, as you walked out holding my hand and happily “balance beaming” on the curb and crawling into your car seat.

At the park, you told me how to go down the slide and what exactly to do. So amazing how far you’ve come in a few months. You also will say, “Someone is climbing… someone is spinning” as a heads up that you’re going to do that.

How you’ve started to say, “Oh my!” Instead of “Oh my gosh.” Or something similar. I actually prefer the new saying, especially when you drop something, for some reason that is just so cute. I’ve also heard you say, “Oh shoot!” a few times.

Anytime we go somewhere and get in the car, you ask, “Do we have the snackie bag?” If we get into my car, I have a tropical trail mix that is “Mommy’s car snackies.” You love the candied mangos out of there and you ate them all… you’ve dug and dug and shaken and shaken the thing, and they really are all gone. You sighed and said, “I guess I’ll have to eat the pineapples now.” Now I just need you to remind me to bring your shoes, because pretty much every time we leave the house, I have to back track and go get your shoes.

Every time we go past the movie theater, you announce, “That’s where we saw the Planes movie. No movie today, though. We’re waiting for a good one.”

You told us one Saturday morning that you wanted to go to Sea World and see the big birds and the dolphins and Shamu! We ended up at the Santa Ana Zoo, instead, because Sea World is too far away to go to at 11AM. You had fun at the zoo, riding on the train, riding on the carousel, seeing the animals. Most of all, you had fun sliding your feet in the dirt making big puffs of dust and saying you were making steam.

How super cuddly you have been this month. You love having us (parents) around and ask every single morning, without fail, after you nurse, “Do I get mommy and daddy all day?” or a variation of that question. How you’ve then started to ask, “Is Grandma here?” The first time you did that, I answered honestly, “Yes, I think so…” and then you freaked out. Now I know to say, “Oh, I’m not sure, but we still have some time together. What I realized is you were transitioning yourself, hoping that I would say she wasn’t.

Same thing at My Gym. You asked Mr. Steve, “When is circle time starting?” When he answered, “How about now?” And stopped the music, you started to cry… you were really trying to ask him, “Do I have time to play for a few minutes.”

You are really loving the Christmas songs, but your favorites are Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Oh Christmas Tree and Away in a Manger. One night you started singing, “Oh cloudy sky, Oh cloudy sky, How pretty are your clouds…” To the tune of Oh Christmas Tree. And when I sing the second verse of Away in a Manger, when I sing, “The cattle are lowing… ” You immediate do a great big “MOOOOOO!” and keep mooing the entire second verse.

Listening to Joy to the World the words in the second verse “rocks, hills and plains”… You asked, “Is she singing planes?” And we had to explain a homonym to a 3 year old. Then, once you understood, you wanted to hear that verse over and over again so you could learn the words.

You asked to listen to Joy to the World, and Grandma started singing silly and you said, “Nooo, that’s not music!” You now request Joy to the World to be sung by Dolly Parton, and any other Christmas song, too. You apparently like her voice.

The last few days, you’ve been asking your daddy if he is going to put up the Christmas tree… and then, when he said yes, you said, “Don’t forget to put the train around the tree.” Shocked, we asked you “What train?” You said, “The red and black one that goes up in the tree? Yes, that one.” We couldn’t believe that you remembered that from a year ago when you were barely 2 years old.

On Thanksgiving, you confirmed that MyGym was closed, even asked to go there and “see how quiet it is.” You asked if Mr. Steve was home with his family, and a couple other people.

At Sea World, after visiting Santa, you were given your first candy cane, which we let you eat. Now, every time someone asks what you want for Christmas, you say, “A candy cane!”

At California Adventureland, we went on Racers for the first time. For some reason, I thought riders have to be 42″ tall, but it’s really 40″ tall. You could have gone on it in September, I think. Oh well. You were really happy to go on it and loved the intro part of the ride and the racing part, but were terrified of the tunnel part of it. Especially at the start of the tunnel, where Mack is there and afraid and yells. It surprised us all! The ride shutdown at the end of the tunnel, and we were stuck on the tracks for about 10 minutes… and, because of that, we could have just stayed on and gone again, but you said you wanted to get off. Since then, we’ve been working with you to work through it, including watching the video of our ride. Now I think you’ve gone the exact opposite from being afraid to being amused, because every time we go under a bridge on the freeway, you tell me, “Yell at me like Mack!”

Every month, I write these letters to you and I feel like there are about 10,341 things I forget to mention, those things that I talk to your dad about as we go to bed each night. Like, how could I have handled a situation better, or something that makes us laugh like silly kids as we relive it with each other. Or, like when you’re playing in the bath tub and your dad and I are out in the hallway listening to you tell yourself stories and sing songs to yourself… I can’t remember the details of those things, just the overwhelming feeling of rightness about it. That every day with you is so full of joy and silliness and wonder, and though we’re tired at the end of the day, I look forward to being with you as you slip into the magical place of dreaming, safe and secure in my arms. Moments, minutes, days, weeks, togetherness, memories… we love you through all of them, that’s really what I’m trying to tell you.

Last night, I held a 2 year old. This morning, before I left for work, I held a 2 year old. When I come home today, I will hold a 3 year old. But, really, you are just one day older than yesterday, and as I watch your legs lengthen and your confidence in yourself grow, in my heart’s eyes, I still see that precious, perfect newborn that I held 3 years ago today.

I’ll tell you now what I told you then: We are so glad you’re here. Happy Birthday, sweet boy.