A night in the life of...

Knowing that life with 2 young boys is one that never stops, I thought I'd give you all a little insight as to what we go through. Following are a few different stories evolving over the last 2 nights. Now there was nothing special that happened, I just took some time to take a few pictures and a video and thought I'd give some insight.

We spent yesterday morning at Chuck E Cheese meeting up with a couple of other children, Ethan and Sophie, from daycare to have some fun. Go figure that I would forget my camera. I had every intention of taking it, just ended up a little side-tracked prior to walking out the door. Luckily their mother, Misty, brought her camera. I'll have to ask her to send some pictures our way. Ethan and Sophie are such cuties! We look forward to going again in the near future. We ended up at home shortly after noon, ate some chili and took naps. (Well, Kyle napped with the kids while I cleaned up around the house. In his defense, he wasn't feeling the greatest.) Later that evening we had a "summer" meal. Go figure that corn on the cob would be on sale in February. Taking a chance, I picked some up. It seems like it's been forever that we've had some fresh corn and we had a hanker in' for some. Kian didn't get to indulge in the butter-face smear fest that takes place at dinner table each time we served it over the summer last year, so we braved the opportunity and stocked up on the wipes.

He was such a champ as you can see...

This is the greatest!!! He recently discovered saying "cheese" to the camera. This is my new favorite silly picture:

Not wanting to be left out on the action, Jackson posed for a photo-op as well.

Here is a little video clip of a typical night at the dinner table...

If you pay attention in the middle you can pick up a conversation between Jackson and Kyle. That kooky kid always comes up with the silliest things to say!

Moving right along. Here's what I see at almost any given moment:

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!"

Another couple of sightings:

He loves to sit and watch the digital picture frame. He much prefers this over the TV. In fact, he's likely to turn off the TV if it's on. Not complaining! Jackson loves his cartoons and Kian doesn't like the TV on. What a great balance!

He's so anxious to start to use the computer!

And last but not least, Jackson has started reading! We are so proud of the little guy. He has quite a few small books that he can breeze through on his own. There are a few words that he gets tripped up on, but c'mon, he's learning! I am almost certain that I wasn't reading at 4 years old. I recall being super excited in Kindergarten when I was able to recite the alphabet and spell my name. He had the alphabet mastered by age 2 and his name by age 3. I don't know exactly what it is we're doing, but evidently we're doing something right. For now we'll just keep plugging along and teaching the both of them at each and every opportunity.

Here's a shot of Jackson reading to Daddy tonight:

I better get back to my household chores. The laundry is calling my name. Also, I just flipped through some of our recent photo downloads and realized we've missed quite a few pictures that I wanted to share. That'll be another post.

Until next time...lc

Graffitti Artist, 4, Angers and Upsets his Loving Father

Jackson's been a bit under the weather this week. Nothing terribly serious - mostly just a runny nose, bit of a cough, a fluctuating fever, and complaints of a headache (from him, mostly, but we've been calling him one, too).

In light of his feeling cruddy, we allowed him some deviations from his normal routines; namely, he went to bed either shortly after, or in the middle of, our normal dinner time Monday through Thursday. This meant no baths after Sunday night. Now, in the winter time, we know the boys' level of activity decreases compared to the warmer months, and, as such, we go to an every-other-night bath schedule. Even so, waiting until the weekend was simply not going to be an option, so we decided to give him a bath Friday morning. He was feeling better when he woke up that morning, and we incentivized the bath by telling him he could take it in our bathroom, and that he could bring in his bath Crayons for writing on the tub walls until we scrubbed him down.

Well, Jack jumped at this rare opportunity, and we were happy to finally have him agree to a much-needed buttwashing.

So, Laura had taken her shower first that morning, and was well along the way to being dressed and finishing up her sink-necessitating duties as I'd stepped out of the shower and started my morning preparations. Shortly after I'd started the grooming process, Laura drew Jackson's bathwater, got out his Crayons, and let him start dawdling in the water as we finished getting ready. As I'm applying pomade to my hair and brushing it out, Jack asks, "Daddy, how do I spell 'Daddy'?"

I turn to see that he already has a "D" written on the wall, so I say, "Sound it out, buddy. D...Ah Ah Ah..."

"A!"

"Right! D...A...deh deh..."

"D!"

"Yes, D! D...A...D...and, now this is tricky, because there are 2 D's right in a row in 'daddy.' So, write another d."

"3 D's?!?!?"

"Yes, 3 total. 2 of them are right next to each other."

"OK. D...D. What next?"

"EEEEE sound. What letters can make that sound?"

"E? Annd....I dunno what else."

"Right, E. Now, this is another tricky letter. The E sound here is actually made by a 'Y'."

"So, D-A-D-D...Y?"

"Exactly! Great job, Jackson!"

Now, at this point, I'm thinking he's going to ask me how to spell Mommy, or maybe Kian (although, I'm pretty sure he knows how to spell and write both of those names). But, Jack does what Jack does best, next, and surprises the Hell outta me. He asks, "OK, now how do I spell 'STINKS'?"

I just start laughing, as does Laura, who's dressing over in the bedroom. As I'm pretty well done in the bathroom, I walk over to him and feign thinking really hard about the spelling of STINKS; then, I reply, "Well, I think it starts with R, then it's a U, then L." My intention is to trick him into writing "RULES," instead of the insult he thinks he's going to write. Of course, Laura cannot let this well-intentioned misdirection go, so she storms into the bathroom and says, "No, Jackson, Daddy's tricking! STINKS is spelled S..."

Laura proceeds to work with him in sounding out and eventually completing the Crayon-tinted insult adorning our tub wall. To add a bit of salt and lemon juice to my emotional wounds, she helps him add "I RULE," under the missive aimed at the man of the house.

I guess, as a parent, I should be proud of my son for displaying a sense of humor, and for furthering his handwriting skills; however, as a person, I cannot help but feel slighted at the subject matter chosen to foster Jackson's skills that morning. I hope to have a resounding show of support from all those that would read this sordid tale, and help me to bolster my now-shattered senses of self-worth and pride!

In case you were wondering...

Yesterday was a typical day of picking the boys up from daycare. They were happy to see me, but wanted to stay another 10 minutes. Initially Jackson told me that he didn't want to go to Michelle's anymore. He wanted to stay at home with me all of the time. I suppose this was a plea to watch more cartoons at home, but it was one that embarrassed me as Michelle was present. It didn't phase her one bit, she just walked by and bopped him on the head with a stuffed animal she was trying to put away. At the last minute with coats and shoes on and Kian in hand, Jackson decided that he wanted to watch Jeffrey play PS2. I told him that we needed to get going home so we could eat dinner. He looked up and Kian and said, "Do you want to nurse, Kian?" I shot Jackson the most evil glare possible. At this time, Kian is attempting to get into my shirt shouting, "nurse, nurse, nurse" and Jackson is just standing there smiling. What a clever little way to get 5 more minutes out of me. Not knowing what else to do, I just grabbed his hand and started to head out the door. Just before we made it to the door I asked for Kian's binky. Not thinking I could be any more deflated, Michelle told me that Kyle didn't bring one. That was the icing on the cake. I know we are trying to get rid of it, but there are time that it would come in handy. Especially when he's tired. Maybe we should just give it up cold turkey. Maybe we should just loose it. Maybe that will be another day, but not right now.

As we started out trek home, Kian screamed for a couple of minutes while I tried to sing over his cries in an attempt to calm him down. He juse cried "no, no, no mommy." We had just started onto 465 and Jackson looked and pointed out the window saying, "Look Mom, there's heaven." I asked him if he knew anyone in heaven and he responded that Jesus was in heaven. Asked if there was anyone else and he said no, do you know anyone? I reminded him that Papaw Oddie is in heaven and we talked a little bit about him . He asked, "How did he get dead?" I love the pure innocence of children. I asked again if he knew anyone else only to hear, "King Kong is in heaven." So, in case you were wondering, King Kong is in heaven. Evidently he died in a movie. I didn't get any other specifics, but I am sure one day it will all make sense.

I just love to hear him go on and on.

Until next time...lc

Storytime with Jackson

Since it's been a while, and we have some spare time this morning, I grabbed Jackson and headed over to the computer to have a long-awaited storytime with him. Here goes...


I got candy and SpongeBob candy and Matthew bring it to Shells. I love Matthew. I make a box with big valentine's dinosaur. Remember I had a birthday dinosaur in my back yard? It was a card. A card from Nana P and from Nonnie. I love Nonnie and I love Nana Hop and Papaw Hop. I love Nana P and Katy and Bo and Daddy and Mommy and Kian (giggle, giggle), Papaw Bob. Oh, and I love elephants.

Tonight I'm going to play with Matthew when I spend the night, and Erin. And I like to fart. And I like to bring you presents, and Daddy and Kian. And I like to move it, move it (Shakes butt). And I like to drink so much. Uh, playing games all day. And that's it.

jackson

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a valentine to share this day with. Fortunately for me, I had 3 Valentine's. They are all special in their very own way. I love them all dearly and cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with them. I woke up to, "Happy Valentime Day Mom, I mean Mommy." How cute. I've heard him mis-pronounce it all day long, but I don't have the heart to tell him any differently. Kyle was a sweetheart and sent a beautiful bouquet of tulips to me at work along with a very sentimental note. How sweet! After work we shared a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and gave the boys the remainder of their suckers from the photo shoot. Here are a few that we took this evening. You can see that they went straight to the bath after this!

I said sh*t!...and various other stories

One morning last week we were rushing the boys along to get out of the house. It never fails. We struggle to get them to get their shoes on, to get dressed, to stop them from getting yet another snack. The list continues daily. If there's one thing they boys are really good at, it's stalling. Anyway...

I believe it was last Wednesday. We were trying to get out the door and Jackson was messing around with something in his room. Kyle was going around turning off lights and I was putting Kian's shoes on just outside Jackson's room. I thought I heard Jackson saying the "s" word, but wasn't quite sure. By this time Kyle met us in the foyer. I asked Jackson what was going on. He walks out holding the same sweater that he wore the day before and said he was trying to put it on. I reminded him that he can't wear the same thing twice without washing it in between. He turns to walk back into his bedroom and says, "Oh sh*t." Kyle and I exchanged dropped-jaws and I quickly rattled off, "What did you just say?" Jackson walked back out of his room and said (with his head cocked to the side), "I said sh*t" in the most matter-of-fact way possible. We exchanged another dropped-jaw moment and reminded Jackson that he has to choose his words wisely since he's around a lot of smaller children that are developing their vocabularies. Besides, it's not acceptable to use bad words and we wouldn't tolerate it. (If only his dad were on the same page.)

Later on my way into work, I called Kyle to ask him if he shared Jackson's expanded vocabulary with Michelle. Since he didn't I decided it would be best to fill her in. I called and told her that I didn't want Jackson to catch her off guard and told her the happenings of that morning. She said that she doesn't disciple for using bad words at this age and that she would listen carefully to stop him if it happened. She proceeds to tell me, "Oh, that wouldn't catch me off guard. Last week Matt walked into the living room and said, 'What the f*ck?' Now that caught me off guard." How funny! We knew bad words were inevitable, but didn't think they would come this early. I guess we should have known.

We also noticed last weekend that Jackson has started to call us Mom and Dad, not Mommy and Daddy. This has really struck a chord with me and I do not like it one bit. I want to be know as Mommy by him until he goes to kindergarten. Is that too much to ask for? Evidently yes. I know there are many other things he could be calling me, but I prefer Mommy for a little while longer. I told him that I would not respond to Mom, so if he requires my attention he better call me appropriately. I think this all started a couple of weeks ago when we were in the car and I called him Jack. We have used Jackson and Jack interchangeably for his entire 4 years without an issue thus far. He told him that I am only allowed to call him Jackson and Daddy is the only one that can call him Jack. He has also noticed that Michelle will write Jack on his projects and said that she didn't spell his name correctly. Again, I guess I should have known. Yesterday at daycare I went to get my luvin' upon arrival and he obliged, looked me in the eye and said, "I love you Ninny." I love those melt-your-heart moments! Jackson used to call me Ninny instead of Mommy until he was about two. Oh how it bothered me at the time, but whenever he reverts nowadays I get that warm feeling and it reminds me of when he was little. Perhaps he's trying to test me since I tell him that I won't respond to Mom, or perhaps he's just trying to get my attention. He definitely got it then. I love this little guy so dearly.

Flashback: Going back a year or so ago, my Mom bought wooden letters to spell out the boys' names on their bedroom walls. I picked out an assortment of colors for Jackson's name and we had to order the S, O and N since we couldn't come up with a color combination given the letters in stock. Since we had JACK, I decided to go ahead and put them up on his wall since I was hanging Kian's up as well. Keep in mind he was not quite 3 years old yet and knew how to spell his name. One night when we were reading books before bedtime, I noticed that he was distracted by the letters. He looked at me and said, "Where's the SON?" I told him that Nana P didn't have all the letters and had to order them. He just kept telling us, "There's no SON." It was too cute how annoyed he was that his name was not spelled correctly.

I remember the first day he spelled his name for me....September 11, 2006. If you know one thing about me, it's that I can remember numbers and dates like it's nothing. Besides the obvious association with September 11th, another reason I remember the date is because that was the day on my failed amniocentesis. I was 36 weeks pregnant with Kian, terribly uncomfortable, my gestational diabetes was out of control along with my blood pressure, and I just found out that our baby's lung weren't quite mature enough to be delivered the next day. Telling a miserable pregnant lady she has to wait another week is not acceptable. I was able to stop crying long enough to go and get Jackson from daycare. (I was working from home that week which was a blessing.) For my last couple of months of pregnancy, Jackson would stall leaving Michelle's house and put up quite a fight. He was throwing yet another fit when I tried to get him to leave that day. Michelle was trying to help me along, knowing I was not in the mood to deal with him. She asked if we had heard Jackson spell his name. We tried to get him to spell it over and over again. Bribery got us nowhere. I tried multiple times when putting him into the car and on the start of our drive home to no avail. I eventually gave up and we were quiet for a minute. All of a sudden I hear him whispering, "JA-CK-SON" again and again. He said it as if he was unsure of himself and wanted to make sure he was getting it right. I immediately started crying again, but with tears of joy. If he only knew how unbelievably sad I was just moments before he melted my heart. This could not have come at a more appropriate time. I asked him to spell it again and he did it with such pleasure. We called Kyle to share the moment and his voice mail picked up. Initially I was upset that he didn't answer, but it was so neat to leave such a surprise for him. Jackson spelled his name for his Daddy and was so proud of himself. At B&D, they receive their voice mails as emails with attachments. In hindsight it's nice to have this in electronic format to send on to family and friends. How sweet it was.

My reflection is bringing up so many emotions and flashbacks that I would love to type out. There were a few other recent stories that I wanted to get out as well and haven't. I'll take more time tomorrow to get those out.

Until next time....lc

Another month

It's been almost another month since we've posted. It's starting to feel like we aren't documenting our family. It's not that we sit around and do nothing, or are so busy that we can't take time to make a few notes. I suppose we are just getting caught up in our lives and forget about little things like this blog. I need to treat it more as an online diary for myself, rather than something I feel obligated to tend to, like the dishes for example.

Kyle and I acknowledge the fact that the boys are growing daily and we do what we can to foster them. I want nothing more than for them to grow up to be as happy, healthy and successful as they can be. But then again, I want them to be little boys too. Take for example Kian: The other day I took a few extra moments to give him one-on-one time (like he needs any more from me!) and played with him in his room. I usually play with both boys together, so this was a nice change for me. We were playing with a shape sorter bus and when I started to name colors and he repeated me. For crying out loud, he's only 16 months old and is repeating (and remembering) colors! It seems as though he shouldn't be doing this quite yet. It's not just colors, the kid is labeling everything. I do recall Jackson going through a language explosion, but again, I don't think it was until he was around 18 months of age. Maybe all that mama's milk he's consuming is enriched with much more than I was giving it credit for. I took an extra supplement to help with brain development, but never imagined that I would be shaping the next Einstein. Then again, he is in daycare; spends a ton of time with him brother; we talk to him constantly; teach him at every moment possible; and I'm still amazed at how much he does. Geez. And the kid is as stubborn as all get out. He can protest like none other. Michelle has been saying that once he gets something on his mind, there is no stopping him. Boy was she right! That little guy is more determined at times than a mosquito is trying to find its next victim. I'm not saying he's out for blood, just that he's a baby on a mission and there's no stopping him.

I need to end this post now and get back to what I should be doing. I'll take for example Jackson in my next post. That little guy has been cracking us up here lately. I'll get to his story later and hopefully take some time to add a few pictures.

Until then...lc