Monsters!

This is not a cute or funny post - it's a CRY FOR HELP!!!! :)

We are into 'monsters' in our bedroom. Jack is now routinely crying about monsters in his room and being 'scared'. Right now we are using the 'monster spray' (a water squirt bottle) - however, tonight when he started crying, I walked in his room and my socks got wet.... hmmm. Too much monster spray it seems.

Anyone have any ideas? I know part of it is using the 'monster' to get us to come upstairs.

The car is hungry?

Tonight, Matt had to stop at the Auto store to buy some anti-freeze for the SUV. Jack is always curious as to what 'kind' of store we are at. I tried to tell him that we were at the 'car' store, but that didn't satisfy his curiosity. He wanted to know what Daddy was buying at the car store. So, I told him that he was buying some special car 'juice'.

Jack then proceeded to ask if the car was 'hungry' and if the 'car eat lunch?'

The things kids say.....

Cute mispronunciations:

"nawning" = yawning
"nilk" = milk
"ockadon" = octagon
"Arbyn" = Aubryn (our neighbor)
"Lunchbox" = Spongebob (Squarepants)
"peh-gin" = penguin
"grayby" = gravy
"eht-meal" = oatmeal
"popkart" = poptart

Call it something else!

"bicycle" = popcicle

Radishes

This was a story shared by my mom. She was watching Jack this week and they went to check the garden to see if any tomatoes survived the hard frost we had. My aunt shares the garden with my mom, and she had planted a summer garden. She told my mom that she could pick some radishes if they were ready.
Jack loves the garden. He fell in love with it this spring when the strawberries were in season. Since then, he always wants to go to the garden. So, when my mom had picked some radishes he got so excited. He grabbed the radishes from my mom, ran over to my grandmother and told her they were 'raccoons'. "Look Mamaw Dunn, raccoons!" Everyone had a good laugh!

The way to introduce others!

Matt, Jack and I were playing at the neighborhood playground that is near our home. Jack sees a mom and son walking toward the playground. Jack get so excited and starts running, "Friends! Friends!"
As the mom gets closer, Jack begins the introduction process:

J: What your name?
E: My name is Erica. What's your name?
J: I'm Jack.

Then, pointing to Matt, Jack says, "this daddy." and then pointing to me, "this mommy".
We all had a good laugh. I then prompt Jack to ask the little boy what his name is. Jack goes over to the boy and says, "Excuse me, what your name? I'm Jack."

It was so funny to see him introducing us!

Some funny things:

* Jack has a hard time saying his 'L's', so some times I try to have him repeat words and say thing like: "say 'Le-mon'." or "try 'yel-low'." So, yesterday we're playing and he says "say 'green' mommy, 'GR-een'."

*We've also been working on street safety - namely holding hands in the parking lot and as we cross the road. Jack seems to think that running out is perfectly fine! So, we talk a lot about how cars could hurt us and how Mommy and Daddy would be sad, and how we need to hold hands to be safe..... Now Jack brings up how "cars hurt us. hold hands in the road. be safe." Hmm, maybe he IS listening...

Happenings...

Not much exciting things to report.  We're back into a normal schedule, which means no excitement - but that's ok!!  It's been nice to have every day be the same, it's very comfortable.

Matt has been going in to work this week because his company's annual meeting is this week.  It's not been so bad to be with Jack all day with no breaks.  Nights are the hardest, with Jack fighting going to bed.  

Jack has been loving school!  He talks about Mrs. Jennifer and Ms. Carey all the time.  He's also doing VERY will with going potty!  Matt and I are still in shock over the whole thing.

Right now, we are watching Veggie Tales.  What a great series of cartoons!  Matt and I absolutely love them.  We find humor in it, just as much as Jack does.  Our favorite show, so far, is 'The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's'.  We purchased the CD of the show's 'Greatest Hits' and Jack loves it!  We listen to the cd ALL the time!

Well, I wish I had more interesting things to talk about, but this will have to do for now.  Maybe I'm saving some mommybrain cells this way......

Going #2

Be warned.... this post contains the words PEE and POOP!

If you don't want to read about these things, then close this window and walk away!

So, Jack has really taken to going peepee in the potty.  He gets it so well, that he's started to go by himself without telling me.  I hear him say, "I did it mommy! I need candy!!", and when I go upstairs to see what he's talking about, there is pee in the potty and his underwear and shorts strung out on the floor.  I can't believe he's taken to it so quickly.  Anyway, on to the 'poop' of the story.....

I was taking a shower and as I step out, I hear lots of commotion in Jack's bathroom.  He then starts with the (I'm going to get hysterical soon - high pitched whine) "uh-oh!! Mommy?!?".  I rush to the bathroom and there is Jack, wiping his hands on his shirt saying over and over, 'uh-oh, uh-oh".  I look in the potty and sure enough.... POOP!  Unfortunately, this scared Jack, and he was in hysterics about the poop and of course, his messy bottom (which is what he was wiping all over his shirt....).  

Being as calm as I can be, (who can be calm when a 2 1/2 year old has poop smeared all over his hands and shirt?!?!) I tell him what a big boy he is and that how you are supposed to put your poop in the potty and how proud I am!  All the while, taking off the poopie shirt, washing his hand 5 times, and using hand sanitizer!  Then comes the fun part of dumping the poop and washing (bleaching) out the potty chair!  

Oh, and did I mention that I'm still naked from my shower during all this!?!?  AHHHH!!!! More mommy brain cells down the toilet....

First Day of Preschool!

TahDahhhhh! We made it through our first day of Pre-school! And I didn't shed one tear!! (ok, my eyes did well up a bit.....) Of course, having your child fight you tooth and nail to get dressed, brush his teeth and get his shoes on helped ease that 'transition'! :)

Jack was very excited once we got into the building. He remembered where his room was and remembered his teacher's name (Mrs. Jennifer). He was running toward the toys..... but NO! Mrs. Jennifer directed him to a chair to color. Oh boy. He looked at me like, "why can't I play with the toys?!". We urged him to color and as we were saying 'goodbye', he started saying "Wait! wait for me!" Uh-oh. Luckily, Mrs. Jennifer saw what was going on and quickly diverted his attention so that we could sneak away. Of course, I had to hang outside the door for a few minutes to see if he was going to be ok (he was).

After 4 hours (!yay!), I went to pick him up. As soon as I walked into the room he starts "crying" about how he fell down. Mrs. Jennifer cleared the confusion by telling me that he had some 'trouble' sitting in his seat and fell down while doing so. She also told me that he did fine today, but he is "all boy". HA!

Since I used to work in the school system, I know all these teacher "sayings". Like "trouble sitting in his seat" probably meant - "I had to tell him 10 times to sit down and then finally we just held him in his seat until he cooperated!" and "what kind of child are you raising! He needs to learn how to listen!" (of course, this is all MY interpretation.... :) )
And the best line: "he's all boy". Which in my post teaching experience usually means. "He's going to have lots of time-outs this year!"

We got home and he didn't even protest about taking a nap! I think this school thing is going to work out alright.

Pee Pee in the Potty!

So, at our pre-school open house, I found out that Jack is the only one not potty trained.... hmmmmmmm. I know that rationally, I should not be concerned with Jack's lack of interest in the potty, but as a superficial human being, of course I was bothered by this!

So, I broke out the big guns. Suckers, M&M's, Jelly Beans, giant Marshmallows.... whatever he even expressed an interest in, I bought it, hoping that he could be bribed. Ugh, no avail. He could care less about that. I then bought some 'big boy' underwear, with Spiderman on it. He liked the idea of running around in just his undies (which soon became running around naked).

But the craziest thing happened...... he started telling me that he had to go potty!!! Usually, he would start to go a bit, then run like crazy upstairs shouting "Mommy, go potty!" So, we had a couple of small messes to clean up and a few pants to change, but I think he's really getting it!

Tonight, before he took his bath he looked at me and said "Peepee!", so we dropped his drawers and jumped on the potty - and his pants were dry! Hooray for Spiderman! :)

Anyway, most of you moms are rolling your eyes and saying, 'duh!', but I'm stoked!! I thought for sure he'd be 4 before he even was INTERESTED in going!

Steel Trap

Ok, so I figured out where my mommy brain cells go.... to Jack! This kid has a steel trap mind.

Today, on our way to church, we passed the road that winds back to where I have worked a few times this past spring. It was a speech-therapy based pre-school and when I worked, Jack would go into one of the classes. I worked there probably 5 times over the course of a couple of months back in April and May.
So, as we're driving by the road (you can't even see the school from where we were), Jack blurts out: "Turn that way, go to school!' I'm thinking, what?!?, he can't possibly remember that!! Isn't that crazy?

And then today, I was on Rhapsody and looking for some Veggie Tales songs to download. Jack loves listening to their songs. I played the song, 'Stand', which is from 'Rack, Shack and Benny'. We had this episode taped on our DVR this spring, but since we have moved, we no longer have that DVR and haven't watched that particular epsiode for well over 4 months now. When I played 'Stand', Jack immediately says: "The bunny song!!" (which, if you've seen the show, you know that he's exactly right!)
Needless to say, we have now listened to 'Stand' about 20 times already today!

I'm getting nervous now.... what will he say to his teachers about things we've said or done at home?!?! :)

More mommybrain cells out the window.....

Ugh. I feel like I've got half-a-brain today.
Jack woke up at 3:30 this morning crying that his foot hurt. When Matt went in to see what was wrong, he discovered that Jack had his foot between the toddler bed rails and had gotten stuck.
I went in after that to take over, since Matt has work in the morning. Of course, Jack wanted to lay in the bed with me (the twin bed in his room). Being 3:30am, who am I to argue....
He then proceeds to toss and turn until 5am!!

Wake up at 8am - I decide we are going to go play at the playground and then take an early nap. We go out and he plays and we come back to take a nap at 11am. I am SO ready for a nap! We lay down and.... wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. He is literally squirming in his bed. At 11:40 he gets up and comes over to me - guess it's no nap today.

So, now I'm Zombie mommy with a headache. ughh......

Pre-school Open House

We just got back from Jack's preschool open house! It was fun to see his classroom and meet his teacher. he is in the Monkey room (appropriate) and his teacher's name is Mrs. Jennifer. Jack really liked the toys in the room - she had dinosaurs, cars, and a kitchen set. I'm sure that will help him transition there well. The open house was at 7pm - which I thought was a bit late for pre-schoolers - so Jack was cranky and didn't want to share anything or leave willingly.
Anyway, it will be fun to see him go and see all the things he is learning - but most importantly - I will have some Mommy Time! Maybe some of my brain cells will return......

Oh, Riiiiight!

The previous post reminded me of another funny habit Jack has developed.

Right now everything is: 'huh?' And then when we re-tell him, he answers with:'Oh, riiiight'.

For example, this happened the other day...

Jack: Mommy, what doing? (I get this question 1,000,000 times a day)
Mommy: I'm folding laundry.
Jack: Huh???
Mommy: Folding laundry.
Jack: Why not? (he says this instead of 'why' and it's usually asked about 5 times before he continues on)
Mommy: Because after the laundry is clean, we fold it and put it away.
Jack: Oh, riiiight. Put it away.

Example #2:

Jack: What's that? (pointing to a picture of a backhoe)
Mommy: It's a backhoe.
Jack: Huh??
Mommy: A backhoe.
Jack: A backhoe? Oh, riiiiight!

My shopping man

This happed a few months ago, but my mom shared a funny story with me after Jack had stayed the night at her house.
This is how the story went (for the most part):

Grandma: Jack we need to get our shoes on so we can go to the store. (meaning the small grocery store in town)
Jack: Store? Oh, riiiight.
Grandma: Ya, to the store!
Jack: Shoes on. Go to Walmart!

Needless to say, Grandma had a good laugh. I guess we go to WalMart too much! :D

Sleeping

Well, as most of you know, Matt and I built a new house this summer. We were very lucky to sell our old home very quickly, but that made us have to find intrim housing over the summer. We ended up staying most of the summer at Matt's parent's lake house. We were very fortunate to have a place to go and that Matt's job allows working from home!

During the 6 week period, all three of us shared a bedroom. Jack was in our room at night, and therefore got VERY used to us going to sleep with him.

Forward to the new house..... we had to put a twin bed in his room, along with the toddler bed, just so we could lay in his room with him at night. It was becoming quite frustrating to lay there at 8:00 in the evening, just waiting for him to fall asleep! We have slowly transitioned to us laying on the floor just outside his door - so it's much easier to 'sneak away'!

He finally found most of his books that we had stored away, so now he's taking a book to bed and that has helped keep him in his room as well.

Anyway, not a funny story, but a story none-the-less.

Wake up mommy!

Jack likes to lay in our bed and pretend he's asleep and then wants Matt and I to pretend we are asleep as well. Whenever we are 'sleeping', Jack would try to 'wake us up' by smacking us! So, I started telling him we need to get a kiss to wake up. (ahh, so much nicer than the smack down!)

The other morning, Jack woke up and was very quiet walking into our room. He walked right up to my side of the bed and gave me a big kiss! He said "wake up mommy!"
What a nice way to wake up in the morning!

Credit goes to Katy

Welcome to my new blog, Inside my mommybrain.

The originator of this blog is my good friend and fellow mom and SLP, Katy. She has a terrific blog that she keeps about all her 'experiences' with her kids. She told me it was a good way to help her to remember all the 'cute' things that her kiddos did - as well as passing along some good humor to the rest of us.
I have wanted for a while to remember some of the things Jack does/says, so I am going to follow in her footsteps! Thanks Katy!

Thanks for reading!
Kriste