Dreams

My kid dreams about Micky Mouse and Dora the Explorer.  He wakes up in the middle of the night and yells for Micky Mouse! or Dora!  We have to settle him down and tell him they are sleeping and that he is okay before he will go back to sleep.  Now, does this mean he is watching too much of these cartoons or what?  Or should I just be grateful that his dreams are full of happy little cartoon characters and not scary ghosts or monsters.  I used to have terrible nightmares until I was a teenager.  I hope his subconscious can tell the different of what is real or not better than mine could.  I enjoy waking up with him in our bed right now as a baby but I don't want a teenager in our bed later on.

I love my kid.

Just the little things he does.

He wrinkles his nose into a little triangle, smiles a huge smile showing all his teeth and pulls my head to his head and we just sit there, heads touching for a few moments in our own little world....He loves his mama.

He points out Donald Duck in the book, and says Daisy Duck, knowing full well that it is Donald.  He waits for me to say no, that's Donald Duck.  Then he looks at me, squints his eyes, smiles real big, shakes his head and says no, Daisy.  This goes back and forth a few times until finally he says Donald and moves on to the next thing.....He's got a sense of humor.

We thought we lost the cat the other night.  We looked all over.  We went down the street looking for her yelling Joy! Joy! And Jax was right there with me, yelling as loud as he could for the whole 30 minutes until we finally found her laying on the guest room bed.  I've never heard him yell that loud.....He is caring and loves his pets.

He kisses this little elephant in the book that has no friends and gives him pats. He says awe! every time we get to that page.....He's so compassionate.

On the way home from school, when we get stopped in traffic, he says MOVE CARS! MOVE CARS! over and over until we start moving again.....He is a backseat driver.  

He says ishies instead of Fishies.....and he's got the cutest little lisp at the moment.

I love my kid.

22 months

This month you have lived up to the X in your name...EXTREME!  You have pretty much been doing the same things as last month but now you are definitely going extreme.

• Your vocabulary is blowing up. You are saying words I didn't even know you knew.  You are saying lots of 2-3 word sentences and we can pretty much hold a conversation and understand everything.
• We have to watch what we say now.  You are repeating what we say all the time now.  I said dangit yesterday and you just kept repeating it over and over especially after I told you not to say it because it is a bad word.  
• You like to mimic us.  If I cross my feet, you lean on something and cross your feet.  If I put my hands in my pockets, you try to put your hands in your non-existent pockets.
• You understand that things can have more than one name.  For pacifier, Ahma calls it a dummy, so when you are with her, you call it a dummy.  Daddy calls it a nip, so with him, you call it a nip.  I call it a pacifier, so when you are with me, you call it a paci.  You also think it is cute to switch it up with the wrong name to wrong person.
• You have a good sense of humor but when you are all done, you are really all done.
• You like to sit on your potty but you are no where near potty training yet.  We are not pushing it yet.
• You still get a nap and bedtime bottle.
• You love watching Mickey Mouse Club and Dora.  As soon as you see daddy after school, you start begging him to watch it with you.
• You have this A-Z puzzle.  You can empty all the letters out and put them back in the correct slot all by yourself.  
• You can count on your fingers 1-5.  You can count 1-10 all by yourself.  You like to count the animals in your books.  You are counting everything now.
• You know a couple of songs but are not a big singer yet.
• I think you like hip hop, dance music best.  That is what will get you dancing.
• You do pretty eyes.
• You sleep in our bed almost every night right now.
• When we are in the car, you always say Move Cars!  You are an impatient backseat driver.
• You weigh about 30 lbs, have all your teeth except you 2yr molars
• You wear size 2T-3T shirts, 2T shorts, and size 4 diapers.

Your personality is shining through so much lately.  You are such a sweet, happy, playful, fun little boy.  I love you so much.  You are the best thing I've ever done.

Up high

Jax's new obsession is being up high.  

So here he is...UP HIGH.

 He's so proud of himself.

We have such a cute baby. I just love him  :-)

Random things

Last night, Jax asked to say his prayers for the first time.  Usually, as I am feeding him before bed, I look at him and say, "Do you want to say prayers?"  He looks at me and smiles and then says "prayas" (somehow, I have a kid with a northern accent).  Then I begin saying the the prayer and at the end when we are blessing everyone, he has started to say who he wants to bless without me suggesting it.  It is so cute, last night he added Sadie in there.  At the end, right before I say Amen, he gets real excited, smiles, takes a deep breath and waits for me to say Amen.  Then he says AAAMENNNNNNN!.   Cutest thing ever.

For the past few weeks, when we are in the car, in traffic, he has been saying "Move cars!"  I wonder where he got that from?

We went to the park this weekend.  Last time we went, he was afraid of the slide.  This time, he went right to it, and went down like he had been doing it forever.  Then he got right back up and climbed up and did it again.  He went down ever slide they had.  No fear.  Good boy.

He is a big flirt.  He had 3 waitresses and a bartender come over to our table to flirt with him at TGI Friday's this weekend.  He danced in his chair and talked them.  They all fell in love with him. 

Sleepy baby

Jax skipped his nap, so he passed out at snack time.  Such a sweet baby.

Random freak outs

Here are a few of the random freak outs we have had lately.

The hotel at the beach was showing Happy Feet 2 on the big screen outside while we were there for Memorial Day.  We thought Jax would love it.  Not so much.  The penguins came on the screen singing and dancing and Jax started holding on real tight and looking at me like what the crap is going on.  Soon, he was in full freak out mode, he started crying and he was scared to death of those penguins. We had to leave about 7 minutes into the film.  Oh well, I guess he's not ready for the movies yet.

Yesterday, he was a little moody.  I asked him if he wanted his pacifier.  He said okay.  So I go get it, he follows me into the kitchen.  I decided to be cute and put the pacifier in my mouth so he can get take it from me.  Well, that didn't turn out too well.  He freaked the crap out.  He looked at me like I just killed his puppy and started screaming at the top of his lungs.  So I took it out of my mouth and tried to give it to him thinking he just wanted his paci back.  Well, he took it, put it in his mouth I guess to taste it and then threw it on the ground. like I put cooties on it.  I tried to get him to take it again, but he cried and refused and screamed at me.  So I decided to get him a different one, but he didn't trust me after that.  So I gave up and went into the living room to wait out the episode. I put both of the pacifiers on the entertainment center. He comes in crying such a pitiful cry, so I kneeled down next to him and asked him if he wanted his paci.  He said no.  I asked if he just wanted mommy to hold him, so he said Okay and climbed into my lap.  Then I picked up one of the pacifiers and gave it to him.  He inspected it and decided that the cooties were all gone and put it into his mouth. I just sat there and held him and rocked him and within a few minutes it was like it never happened.
Lesson learned: Never put my kids pacifier in my mouth trying to be cute.  It's not cute.

The fun times of having a toddler. 

21 months

I cannot believe that in 3 months my little bubba will be 2 years old.  That sounds so grown up and non baby to me.  But, even though he has shown us a bit of an independant streak this month, he also has shown us just how much of a baby he still is and how much he still needs us.

This month:

• You vocabulary is off the charts lately.  You are saying phrases now and I can understand about 85% of what you say or what you want.
• You say bless you when anyone sneezes or burps (including yourself) and excuse me when you fart. :-)
• You think farting is funny.
• You can say the alphabet all the way through and you can count to 10.  Most of the time we have to say the letter or number and you repeat it or you say the next letter or number by yourself.  You can say a few in a row all by yourself.
• You went to the beach and got knocked down by a wave.  Now you are scared of the ocean.  You are scared of the pool but once you get used to it, you are fine.
• You played in the sand.
• You played in the rain and now anytime it rains you want to go outside and play.
• You still wake up in the middle of the night and end up in our bed.  Sometimes you won't go to sleep until mommy does.  I don't mind you sleeping in our bed but you need to go to sleep at your bedtime so mommy and daddy can have some quality time.
• You are a wiggle worm when you sleep.
• You still love your bottle time and ask for it before bed.  I love the bonding we have when we do this. 
• You like saying prayers and saying peoples names that we are praying for.  You anticipate saying Amen with a big smile on your face.  You say AMEN! real loud when we are done.  So cute.
• You like waffles and blueberries.
• You can say everybody's name now.
• You are very stubborn.  You think we are joking when we tell you to stop doing certain things and you just keep right on doing them.  We are still figuring out how to discipline you.
• You are such a picky eater.  We have begun the bad habit of bribing you to eat sometimes.  You can't survive on fishies.
• I love the way you say daddy when he is playing with you.
• You are learning to pretend with your toys.  You will feed them and kiss their boo boos.
• You kiss boo boos if you accidentally hurt anyone.  You are such a sweet boy.
• You know how to be gentle.
• You get really animated about the Marley and the Two Kittens book.  You tell Marley No! No! when he is making a mess and being bad.
• You can almost reach the pedals enough to push your tricycle around.  I think by your birthday, you will be big enough.
• We have definitely reached the terrible twos.

You are such a fun lovable stubborn little boy. I love every part of you. You are growing up too fast. 

Bottle feeding

I feel conflicted that I still give Jax anywhere from 1-3 bottles of milk a day.  I know most people have stopped bottle feeding by 1-1.5 years old but it is such a sweet bonding experience that we both still enjoy.  Holding him, looking at each other, cuddling, we both just love it.  He takes milk and water from a sippy cup throughout the day but I still put him to bed with a bottle every night.  Maybe that's part of our problem with his sleeping habits but neither of us want to give it up yet.

We have started to do away with the morning and nap bottles but the night time bottle is just so hard to give up.  I don't understand why it's okay to breastfeed your baby all day until whatever age you want to stop, but giving your 2 year old a bottle is taboo.  I get the whole deal that it is bad for his teeth if we don't brush before going to bed.  But we have a good brushing system going on, (knock on wood). For the most part, it is society that is making me feel guilty about doing this.  I think whatever works for your family is all good...to a point.  But I see nothing wrong giving my 20 month old a bottle at night.

I'm going to try to stop beating myself up over it.  He's gonna grow up too fast soon enough, no need to push him faster than either of us are ready to go.

Farts

My mom is gonna love this post.

Jax officially thinks farting is funny.  Farting is funny, but once again, I didn't think he would pick up on that this early.  I don't know when he figured it out or if Tony has been secretly "working on it" with him but every time he farts now, he looks at me and smiles or laughs.  Then he will try to push another one out for good measure.  I can't help but laugh at him when he does this.  Tony thinks it is hilarious and is so proud of his boy.  I have been teaching him to at least say excuse me when he does it so it looks like we are teaching him some sort of manners.  I guess this is what I signed up for when I gave birth to a boy. 
Funny stuff.

ABCs and Rain

Here is jax saying his ABCs.  I think he is pretty dang smart. 

Here he is playig in the rain for the first time.  He enjoyed every sprinkle.

I love watching him discover new things everyday.  It is magical.

20 months

I can't believe that in 4 months, Jax will be 2 years old.  This year has been so full of new and fun experiences for all 3 of us.  Jax has been a busy little boy this month.

You know all the names of your friends in school.

You are a bit of a loner at times but are very interested in the other kids your age and like to play with them too.  You play well on your own and you are beginning to use your imagination with your toys.

You still love to read.  We are reading real stories now and not just pointing at objects on the page.  You listen and are learning patience.

I noticed that I had never heard you sing before.  So I started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and you picked up the next verse and sang the melody in your own little language.  That seems to be the only song you know so far but we are working on others.

You have a very strong and stubborn personality.  I guess we shouldn't expect anything less.  Mommy and Daddy are both very stubborn so we are not surprised to see we passed this on to you. 

We are still trying to figure out the sleeping situation but you have had some good days recently so maybe we are on a roll.

We say the ABCs almost everyday.  You can repeat every letter and sometimes you say 3 letters in a row all by yourself. 

You are running very fast now.  You have also figured out how to jump correctly.  You also like to make yourself dizzy by turning around in circles. 

You love sitting at the computer with me, looking at pictures and videos of yourself or of other babies and kids.  When we are done, you always ask for more.  We do this almost every day.

You really love feeding Sadie any food you don't want or just giving her a treat or some of your snacks.  You guys have become good friends lately.  I think it is because you are sneaking her food all the time.

You are in a big throwing phase.  It's not fun for anybody but you and we are trying to get you to stop doing it.  But, like I said, you are stubborn and want to do what you want to do.

Your vocabulary has exploded.  I can't even keep up with all the new words you are saying on a daily basis anymore.  You are saying lots of 2 word sentences and a few 3 word sentences. 

Your favorite words right now are MINE, NO, and I DON'T KNOW (sounds like ow-no).

You have shown that you are empathetic.  Mommy got a boo boo yesterday and you cried for me and gave me a hug.  You will also kiss boo boos away, just like mama and daddy do.

You know which house is ours and whose car belongs to whom.

You are still a picky eater.  You will eat daddy's pb&j crust but you won't eat a pb&j sandwich.  Weird.

You don't know how to use the word YES correctly.  Your answer is pretty much NO to everything even if you mean YES.  We are working on it.

You have started to become interested in some cartoons lately.  But for the most part, you still don't have much interest in TV.

You are pushing your boundaries a lot lately.  When you are doing something you know you shouldn't be doing, you make sure we are watching and then you see how much you can get away with before you get in trouble.

You are still so sweet and lovable and cuddly and I hope you stay that way for a very long time.  You are showing your independance more and more but you still need your mommy and daddy for so much.  I love you so much.

My crazy haired baby

 Happy

Not so happy.  Look at all those teefies.



Bless you and other words

All of a sudden, Jax says bless you every time someone sneezes or coughs.  It is so cute.  I guess he just picked it up from us saying it because we haven't been working with him on it at all.  It sounds like beshoo when he says it.  If he sneezes and you don't say it to him, he will say it to himself. 

What a polite little boy we've got here.

He also started saying I don't know.  I will ask him where his car or train is and he will shrug his shoulders, open his eyes real wide and say I-o-no?  So freaking cute.

He is learning so many new words every day.  He busts out with words we don't even practice, all the time.  It is amazing. 

My favorite word of his right now is fishy, which he pronounces ishy.  His little mouth is so cute, he's got a little lisp when he says it.  And I love you is still wuv woo.  But I don't mind.  As long as he says it.

Rebellion

Does this look like the face of a rebellious stubborn child?

Hmm?

The answer is a big fat YES. I knew we would have a stubborn kid.  There was no way not to.  Tony and I are two of the most stubborn people I know.  I met my match when I met him.  So naturally we would pass that trait down to our lovely little boy.  Not that I have any idea of what is to come with raising a child but I just didn't think the rebellion would start so soon.   Stupid me.

For example:

He knows he is not supposed to climb on the ledge of the fireplace.  But he will look at me as he is lifting one foot up and wait until I see him and say no, get down.  Then he will pull himself up there as fast as he can and he smiles the whole time he is doing it.  Like he is egging me on.  What are you gonna do about it mama?

He know's he is not supposed to eat dog food but once again, he waits until I see him to steal some and put it into his mouth. He thinks it's a treat. It must taste gross but he seems to like it.  Or he will eat Sadie or Joy's food and run to me with a smile on his face and chew really loudly, showing me what is in his mouth.  Like, see what I did?  What are you gonna do about it mama?  When I go to discipline him, his little mouth always smells like dog food.  How can you not smile at these things?  But we must be firm. :-/

As for bedtime, so far, he does own us.  For some reason, he is perfectly fine sleeping in his bed during naptime but when bedtime comes, he refuses to sleep in his bed unless I put him in there already asleep.  And then he still wakes up a few hours later and will not go back into his bed.  So for the past 1-2 months, he has been sleeping in our bed.  Thank goodness we have a king size bed or one of us would have to sleep in the other room.  I don't know how this started or why he refuses and keeps waking up but I really would like to have my bed back.  But once again, we have a very stubborn child and crying it out does not work.  He wins every time.  If we want any sleep, this is how we have had to do it for the past few months.   I don't know if he is having nightmares, or he doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep, or he just misses us but I would really like to fix this issue.  He is such a faker too.  he will be screaming bloody murder to 15 minutes and as soon as you go in to check on him, the tears are gone and he smiles at us and starts jumping on his bed pointing out all his animals to us. 

It's so hard not to smile or laugh at some of the things he does but I know we have to put our foot down and let him know who's boss or he will own us.

Easter in pictures

Life changes

Well, it's been a fun ride but my time of having 4 day weekends and sleeping in with my boys on Fridays and Mondays have come to an end.  As of next week, I have to go back to work full time.  It is bittersweet.  On one hand, I will get all my benefits back and I will be making a lot more money and saving a lot more and it should take some of the burden off of Tony.  On the other hand, I already miss the time I won't get to spend with Jax and Tony and just having time to myself to do what needs to be done and relax.  Part time really was the perfect way to work and have a life.  Now I'll just have to make the most of the weekends.

Hopefully it will be easier this time to work full time and have enough time at home to get everything done without being burned out.  When I went back to work after maternity leave, there just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done and I missed my baby so much.  This time, I just hope it will be a little easier since Jax is more self sufficient and I don't have all those hormones running through my body. 

I was given the opportunity to go full time or quit but I had to make the decision within a 12 hour period.  There really was no choice.  I can't not work.  We make good money but I still need to work.  So I said I would come back on full time.  I really wish I could have had the summer to be home with him but changes at work made the impossible.  I have to learn some new skills and I hope I'm up to the task.  I'm gonna do my best, but who knows if that is good enough. 

Looking back, I am questioning if I used my extra time at home as well as I could have.  But I guess I shouldn't do that because I can't change it now.  It is what it is.

Easter Bunny

We tried to take Jax to see the Easter Bunny last night but he wasn't having any of it.  Grandpa tried to ease him into the idea by putting him on his shoulders and getting as close as Jax would let him, but Jax freaked out pretty quickly.  I tried to show him there was nothing to be afraid of but he still freaked out.  So we stood in line for nothing and ended up taking pictures in front of the display with the little stuffed bunnies and chicks and eggs.  I knew he was gonna be scared of him but we had to try I guess.  Maybe next year.

19 months

19 months, crazy how time flies.  I feel like I just wrote your 18 month post. 
Well, you've had a busy month.

• Those 5 pesky teeth have finally made their way in and you seem to be eating a little better now.
• You went to your first splash park and had a blast.  I wasn't sure how you would react to all the shooting water since you are afraid of the shower but you loved it right away.  You splashed and played for a good half hour.  I had so much fun watching you have such a good time.  Your face just lit up.
• We also went to the zoo. You got to pet a llama, goat and see a rooster up close.  We discovered that you can say cock a doodle doo.  It sounds so cute.  You surprised us all with that one.
• You rode a train.
• You are letting us read actual stories now instead of just pointing things out on the pages. 
• You are learning the ABCs song at school.
• We count to 5 together.
• New words are coming out of your mouth all the time now. 
• No and mine are your favorite words at the moment.
• You have a knack for turning away from the camera as soon as I go to take your picture.  You used to be such a good picture taker.  Now I'm lucky if I get a side view of your face.
• You saw hot air ballons and an air show.
• You rode your first carousel and you loved it.  Too bad we lost our camera with all our pictures on it.
• You are still sleeping in our room most nights.  We don't know how to fix this.  So at this point, we are just going with whatever gets everyone a decent nights sleep.
• We have switched to 2% milk.
• You call bananas - nanas, Aunt Kristi - Isti , Kylee - Ky
• You learned to say Ahma's name.  You are still working on Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Tony and Karrie.
• You can say Mark and Jen when you want to. You are choosy about when you want to show off.

Randoms

Books...we have a ton of books all over the house since Jax arrived.  Tony and I have never been big book readers but I think that will have to change as Jax gets older.  Jax just  loves, loves, loves books.  Screw the toys, games, whatever.  Give this kid a book and he is a happy little man.  Usually we just go through the pages and pick out things for him to identify or ask him where things are.  But recently, I bought a little book about Thumper from the movie Bambi.  I thought maybe this would give him the idea about the Easter bunny.  I was expecting to just do the same old thing we always do but for this book he actually sits on my lap and lets me read every page to him.  He really enjoys it and it is much more fun for me since I'm not just pointing at things.  Hopefully he will start to let us really read him stories now.
Utensils...His new fun thing to do is open the drawers in the kitchen and pick out utensils and run them across the floor and splash them in the water bowl. 

Cuddles...he is such a good cuddler.  He has been running up to me lately and he just wants to sit in my lap and hang with me for a few minutes and give me loving.  He is starting to say he loves me without too much asking on my part. I just tell him I love him and he tells me back. 
Kisses...our bedtime routine ends with me telling Jax to go give daddy kisses before his last bottle.  He's so cute.  He runs into wherever Tony is and stands next to him looking up at him with his mouth open, tongue out, ready to give him kisses.  Tony picks him up, lets Jax kiss him on the cheek and then Tony blows raspberries on Jax's cheek.  I've also added an I love you in there which they are both working on.  Then Jax says bye-bye and leaves the room.  You can see the love they both have for each other.  It' s so cute that they have their own thing just between them.
Grandparents/Ahma...I'm so glad Jax loves them all.  After a day with any of them, Jax will just ignore Tony and I until they leave.  Sucks for us but we understand. They all have their special little something with him too.  Grandpa is fun, fun, fun with his shoulder rides and wagon rides.  Grandma made a special book with her voice to read to Jax.  He knows it's her too because I asked him.  Ahma and her McDonald's parfaits.  I'm glad he gets to know all of them and I hope they are all around long enough for him to remember forever.  I have memories of all my grandparents so hopefully he will too.

Sleeping...I'm really torn on how to feel about our sleeping arrangements.  Jax has been coming into our bed around 11pm almost every night for the past few weeks.  On one hand, I don't know why it's such a big deal.  Families used to sleep in the same bed in the olden days and in Europe.  It's called a family bed, attachment parenting.  It's not the worst thing in the world.  I enjoy being close to him and he obviously likes being close to us too.  He will eventually sleep through the night and in his own bed.  But on the other hand, I don't want him in there forever.  And we need some alone time just to watch tv or whatever else we want to do in our bed.  At least when he's in our bed, we all get some sleep.  So it's a predicament I am not sure how to fix. Or if I even need to worry about at the moment. 

Praying...I've prayed with Jax a couple of times lately.  My mom does it too.  I do it as I'm feeding him before bed.  As I'm doing it, he stops drinking sometimes to listen to me.  I pray every night.  I hope he will learn to pray and know that even when he thinks he's got nobody, he's always got somebody that will listen to him.