Jet has been staying in his bed all night long for several nights out of the last week or so.
We bought him a new "big boy bed" with some of our Christmas money, and then let him pick out sheets at Target. He repeatedly stated that he wanted "Transfarmers" sheets. I was a little leery, since he'd really only seen the movie once at that point. I showed him Elmo, Thomas the Tank Engine, and a couple of other options. He was resolute that the Transfarmers sheets were the only ones for him.
I picked up a red, tubular metal headboard, footboard and rails for a song on Craigslist (I pink puffy heart Craigslist, most of the time). My Granny made him this ultra-soft fleece blanket using this fabric that has HUGE blocks with the faces of the Sesame Street characters.
So, Jet has a red bed, Transfarmers sheets, and a Sesame Street blanket. It's a bit tough on the eyes. BUT, if it's not too loud to wake him up in the night, I'm ALL FOR IT! :)
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
I hope I don't jinx it
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Jet's Dictionary, part two
He's really not a toddler anymore, but he still says some really cute things.
Cherry lime-uh-lade: noun a beverage consisting of lime juice, a sweetener, plain or carbonated water, and maraschino cherries; usually obtained from Sonic, but can now be made at home (ex: "Mommy, my throat hurts. Can I have a cherry lime-uh-lade?")
Lasterday: noun the day preceding this day, or anytime a few days in the recent past (ex: "Lasterday we went to Thanksgiving in Oklahoma!")
Squirter-gun: noun a toy gun that shoots a stream of liquid (ex: "Mommy, fill up my squirter gun so I can squirt it!")
Glubs: noun a fitted covering for the hand with a separate sheath for each finger and the thumb (ex: "MOMMY! I can't get my fingers in my glubs!")
DVD clayer: noun a machine used to translate digital images from a disc to a viewable screen (ex: "I wanna watch a movie on my DVD clayer!")
Extercisers: noun a heavy object (in this case, two pounds), such as a dumbbell, lifted for exercise (ex: "Look, Mommy! I'm pushing these extercisers over my head!")
Extercise: noun bodily exertion, esp. for the sake of training or improvement of health (ex: "I wanna extercise wif dose extercisers, too, Mommy!")
Mikerwave: noun an electrically operated oven using high-frequency electromagnetic waves that penetrate food, usually sausage biscuits, causing its molecules to vibrate and generating heat within the food to cook it in a very short time (ex: "I wanna push da but-tons on da mikerwave!")
Fiderajer: noun a box in which food, drink, etc., are kept cool by means of ice or mechanical refrigeration (ex: "Da cheese is in da fiderajer!")
Tri-nangle: noun a closed plane figure having three sides and three angles (ex: "I wanna piece of dat tri-nangle cheese!")
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Why?
They're finally here. The Never-Ending Whys of the Three Year Old.
Jet and I had our first exchange of the whys-and-becauses a few days ago. We were in my room. I can't remember what started it, but I do remember what ended it.
"Because I said so."
Hey, at least I never lied to myself and said, "I'll never say that!".
Friday, August 10, 2007
Can you tell that school started?
I started going back to work a little on August 1st, and we officially started inservice this past Wednesday. It's par for the course for the rest of my life to suffer for this period of about three weeks... family, blog, house... you name it. Several years ago, I finally realized that this is just how it is and I stopped feeling guilty about it.
However, I do have some great news to share. First, I joined Weight Watchers last week. My second meeting was last night and I'd lost three pounds! Yay! This all came about because my Granny usually likes to take me shopping for clothes when we're together. Now, usually, I don't mind one tiny little bit. This time, though, I wasn't ready to buy more clothes in my current size.
I'd been looking at joining WW for a couple of months. (I don't make fast decisions in areas like this. I want to be sure it's what I'm really ready to do before I make the financial and time commitment.) So, I told Granny about it and she offered to pay for my first three-month package. It's been really easy for the first week, even with the new chef at school providing lunch. Of course, I'm a data-driven, form-filling person, so the points system really works for me. Knight has been riding my coat tails a little... we figured out how many points he needs, and he's been paying more attention to how he eats. So, thank you, Granny!
Also, I have a cute Jet story (of course). He went back to his playschool on August 1st. I had not slept well the night before, which is rare for me. I had woken up a few times, and, well... everything is so much scarier and more emotional in the dark when you're exhausted, you know? I kept asking God for peace about our decision for me to go back to teaching this year. I was actually worried more about me missing Jet than about his health and safety and well-being at his playschool.
When we walked in the door, all of his friends were jumping up and down and ecstatic!! to see him after the summer. The whole class lined up to hug him. I had tears in my eyes as I watched him embrace each of his friends. There is nothing sweeter than the joyful emotions of three-year-olds, because they don't hold anything back.
After the hugs were done, he and three of his little boy friends stood in a circle and started talking. The conversation immediately turned to who was wearing big-boy-underwears and who wasn't, and, more importantly, what was on those big-boy-underwears. I caught Jet just before he pulled down his shorts to show off his baseball underwears.
I got back in my car and thanked the Lord for showing me what my Mommy-Heart so desprately needed -- that my son his happy and well-loved at school!
One more story before I head to work!! Jet was doing very well with potty-training, but he's had a tough time at school. It seems like he forgets until it's too late and then has an accident on the way to the potty. Last Friday, Mrs. P (the playschool director, who is good friends with my mom and who we know from church) was cleaning him up and had this conversation...
J, pointing: That's my pee-nit.
Mrs. P., seriously: Yes, it is. I heard you had an operation this summer?
J: Yes. The dop-ter fixed it.
Mrs. P: Oh, yes, that's good.
J: How's it look!?!?
Mrs. P, sputtering a little: Oh, um, it looks just fine.
J: Thank you.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Early Sunday Conversation
Me, softly: Jet, sweetie, wake up...
Jet: mmmghmmmpfpmmmm *stretch*
Me: Time to get up and get ready for church.
Jet, sleepy but happy: Yep, time to get up.
Me: Do you want to help me make waffles for breakfast?
Jet: Nope... my tummy has enough waffles in it.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Delicate matters, part deux
Jet had his little procedure today, and he's doing well this evening. I'll post more tomorrow, I hope, but since he stomped on my laptop and cracked the screen, I'm relying on Knight's generosity with regards to his own laptop in order to post. :) He's a pretty generous guy, that Knight, but he may need it at work tomorrow.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Technology Schmechnology and Messes
Color me irritated. I figured out how to do the "Read More" thing and now it's messing everything up. Okay, so KNIGHT helped me figure it out. Anyway, it was working great and now it's not and I'm mildy irritated because he's out of town until tomorrow. :) You can still read the entire post if you click the title of the individual posts.
A friend of ours got some free tickets to Promise Keepers this weekend, so Knight went with him. I think it's awesome that he's going. In the past when he's gone, he comes back really on fire. I've been praying that some of that will be contagious for me.
Yesterday, my sister came over and played with Jet. His room was a mess before they came, and it was trashed by the time we got ready to put him to bed (totally not my sister's fault!). Since he gets up in the night to come to our bed, I try to clear a path for him so he doesn't trip over stuff. Last night though, there wasn't even space to do that. I couldn't see carpet anywhere. So, we cleaned up. He does a great job helping, especially if it's something that delays bedtime. :)
This morning, on the way to the bathroom, I looked in his room, having temporarily forgotten that we cleaned. I was pleasantly surprised and mentioned it to Jet. "Hey, look! Your room is all clean!". He remembered, too. "Yeah, mommy, we cleaned up!"
After the potty, he wandered in his room and said, "I'm gonna make a MESS!" He proceeded to grab a few toys and throw them in the middle of the floor.
Supressing a laugh at his boy-ness (!!), I had a short discussion about how we can get out toys to play with them, but not just to mess up his room. If he wasn't going to play with it, he needed to put it back in the toy box. He tilted his head and kind of looked at me funny, but said "Okay, Mommy."
I suppose throwing the toys in the middle of the floor with the express purpose of making a mess may be considered "playing" with the toys in the mind of my three-year-old son. :)
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Delicate matters
Jet has been having... um... boy problems. He's been telling me that his "pee-nit" hurts. Often. And I'm sure that someday he'll appreciate that I've told the internets about his pee-nit. If it wasn't for him, though, I wouldn't ever have anything interesting to write about. Such is the price of being an adorable little boy. :)
I originally thought it was related to swimming. He started complaining about it a few days into the swim lessons. Maybe the chemicals in the pool? Swim diapers? Potty training? Who knew?
I wish it were that easy.
You see, we never really talked about whether or not to have him circumcised. I had read all over the internet the pros and cons about it (because everything we read on the internet is gospel, donchaknow!?!?). I don't have one, so I figured we should just let the boy be. I guess Knight felt the same - I can't really remember -- and when Jet's doctor came to our hospital room after he was born, we politely said, no, thank you to the circumcision. I did ask his opinion, and he sort of shrugged and said it really was a personal preference.
Fast forward a few weeks. For some reason, we changed our minds. Okay, I probably changed our minds (the Royal "Our"). I'd had a horrible kidney infection after Jet was born, so I'd been seeing a urologist. I asked him the circumcision question in passing, and he gave me all the reasons why we should have it done. He said it didn't really matter when boys are young, but there are all sorts of issues that (ahem) arise as men age that can be avoided if they had just been circumcised.
After about five minutes, Nurse Snipthetip (no relation) motioned to me to come back to the room. Dr. Snipthetip informed me that Jet was already "too big" for the instrument that they use. They discovered this after they had strapped him down to the table, numbed him up, and retracted the foreskin.
I felt like the worst mother E.V.E.R., both for letting them do all of this to my sweet, innocent baby, without actually accomplishing the mission, and because my first thought upon hearing about the problem was, "Well, Knight will be proud to hear that his son was too big."
The only way for him to be circumcised at this point was to take him to surgery. That thought was too scary for a six-week-old baby, especially for an elective proceudre. Dr. Snipthetip told me just to leave things alone down there and it would take care if itself.
So, here we are, three years later, and he'll have to be circumcised. I don't know for sure if it was Dr. Snipthetip's fault after not being able to complete the procedure the first time around. Anyway, I'm hoping we can have it done ASAP, both to relieve the discomfort Jet is experiencing and to just get it over with, already.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Clause and wines
Earlier today, I showed Jet how to use the remote to "clause" his DVD while he went potty.
This evening, he had to go potty and picked up the remote. I was curious to see if he would remember which button to push to pause it. He remembered, but he didn't quite point the remote in the right direction the first time, so it didn't work.
For his second try, he pushed the fast forward button, which is just below the pause button. I instructed him to push the play button, and then the pause button. He figured it out, and then proudly told his daddy, "I pushed the trinangle button, and the button with the two little wines!!!"
Yes, I could do with two little wines, myself. :)
Hero
On a trip to Mexico a few months ago, my mom brought back a wooden top for Jet. It consists of a wooden handle, the spinning top, and a black shoestring. Jet and Knight played with it for several days in a row on the the kitchen floor whilst I was attempting to cook dinner. Soon, though, it was relegated to the toy box.
Today, though, Jet rediscovered it. However, the plastic thing had come off of one end of the shoelace, making it frayed and impossible to thread through the hole on the spinning top.
So Jet did what any intelligent young man would do. He brought it to Daddy, Fixer-of-All-Things-Broken.
J, holding up frayed end of shoestring: Daddy, the stick came off of it
K, pointing to the other end of the shoestring on the ground: There's a stick on the other end.
J, turning in complete circles, looking everywhere but the end of the shoestring: Where?
K: Bring it here.
J,toddling over to Daddy and holding up string: OK.
K, lifting the string so that the end with the stick is dangling at Jet's eye-level: Here, this end.
J, eyes wide: *slow, audible, astonished intake of breath* Woahhhhhhhhh.... That's awesome...
If only it would stay that easy... to set his world to rights and be his forever hero. I imagine, though, that Daddy will always be his hero, even when it's not cool to say it out loud.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Jet's birthday party
... was over a week ago. It was great, even though I chickened out on the cake. I did, however, sell the car mentioned in that same post. I doubled my money on it, too, and bought Jet some Veggie Tales DVD's. I got a heck of a deal on them, I might add. Jet's Aunt Deanna and her family came over, we grilled burgers, opened presents and ate cake. It was perfect!!
First, I had received a 50% off coupon for Veggie Tales DVD's from Family Christian Stores. Go sign up on their website, and you'll get their snail mail newsletter, including some great coupons. I read the coupon carefully -- it didn't have any restrictions, so I thought it could be used for more than one DVD. When I got to the store, they had several of the Veggie Tales DVDs on sale for $8.97 (down from $15.99). I picked up four of them, as well as three bargain books for me (at buy two, get one free), and a $5 T-shirt. I also had a 25% off of one item coupon, and a 50% off of one item coupon. The nice girl at the checkout applied all of the coupons just like I wanted her to... and I walked out with 4 Veggie Tales DVDs, three books and a T-shirt for about $22. Yay!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Toddler Dictionary
The older Jet gets, the less he says things that are toddler-ish and adorable. Let's document them for posterity, shall we?
Bref-tuss: n; the first meal eaten, especially in the morning (ex. "I wanna waffle for breftuss.")
Cooled up: v; the process of lowering the temperature of an object (ex. "I will eat dat waffle after it has cooled up.")
Pee-nit: n; male reproductive organ (Do you really need an example?)
Wif-oub: prep; used to indicate absence of something, best communicated with a whine (ex. "I can't do it wif-oub you, Mommy!")
Thursday, June 21, 2007
To my sweet son
Three years ago today, our lives were changed forever when you arrived.
It seems like this should be a long, loving, detailed entry about how wonderful you are and how enriched our lives are since you've been a part of them.
The truth is, I'm just speechless. You are the reason I have a slight taste of what God must have experienced when He sent Jesus to earth.
There truly aren't words to describe the depth of our love for you, or our unending gratitude to God for giving you to us. So, we'll do our best to show you for the rest of our lives.
I love you, little one. My prayer is for you to someday be excited to follow God and discover His plans and rewards for you.
Happy, happy third birthday, sweetie.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...
Jet is doing, well, swimmingly (go ahead and groan, it's ok) in his swim class. For a kid who was terrified of water, he warmed up to it quickly.
On Monday, the first day, we arrived about 10 minutes early, and his teacher was with another class. The lifeguard said we could go try the kiddie pool. Jet wasn't too keen on it, what with about 8 other kids in it, splashing their little hearts out. He wanted to go to the "big boy pool", which surprised me.
We visited a little with kids and parents that were also there for our class. He is the oldest, by quite a bit. Most of them are in the 18-24 month range, and some of those seem to be born for the water!
When we first walked down the steps into the pool, Jet clung to me. As the teacher talked, he began to relax, and quit digging his nails into me each time I pretended to think about moving deeper into the water.
The point of that first class was just to get the kids used to being in the pool. Miss Anjie even had a bag of toys for them to play with. Jet was really excited about that -- he could hardly wait for Miss Anjie to stop talking so he could get to the toys. He ended up selecting a pink ring that was handy for throwing.
By the end of the class, we had a system down. He would throw the ring as far as he could, and then I would ask him to blow bubbles three times. Then he had to float on his tummy and kick his legs as we walked around looking for the ring (it sank to the bottom of the pool). I would scoop the ring toward the top with my foot, and he would reach down to grab it.
It was quite a transformation -- from screaming, "I wanna go HOME!" at about 10:30 a.m., to screaming, "I don't WANNA get out!!!" at 11:15.
Today, he was a little tense as we waded into the water, but quickly began asking about the ring. We added a new step to the routine because he wanted to climb the ladder at the side of the pool. So, he would throw the ring from the side of the pool, jump into my arms, blow bubbles three times, float on his tummy, and kick as we went looking for the ring. Then he'd kick back over to the ladder and do it all over again. Three hundred times.
I'm just so proud of him!!!
Bonus: two-and-a-half-hour naps both days. Yay!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Planning for Birthday No. 3
My baby boy isn't a baby anymore. He'll be three next Wednesday!
Do you remember this post where I so excited because I bought this really cool car for Jet for his birthday? Well... we're rethinking the brilliance of that purchase. You see, we don't have a paved driveway at our house (it's just dirt and rocks) or sidewalks in our neighborhood. Our house is definitely too small to ride it inside. I just don't really think he would enjoy it all that much because there's not a good place for him to ride it. Getting him something he would enjoy is really the point, right, because it is his birthday and all...?
I posted the car on Craigslist yesterday to see if we could sell it. We've already thought of something else he would enjoy more. Several months ago, we picked up a basketball goal similar to this one at a garage sale for two dollars. Jet loved it! He definitely got his two dollars' worth out of it, but it broke about a month ago. I'm thinking he would love to get a new one.
We'll be having his birthday party next Saturday. It will be small and simple - just family, I think. I really don't understand all of the drama and extravagance of having these huge birthday parties for toddlers. Plus, I figure I'll keep it easy while he's too young to know better. :) To be honest, I don't know that I'll ever "go all out" when compared to some other parents.
Deanna and her family will come up, and my parents, sister, and brother will come over. We'll grill burgers, I'll make some of Mom's yummy baked beans (I'll be happy to provide the recipe if you're interested -- so easy and delicious), and cut up a watermelon. We'll let him open presents, and blow out the candles on the cake. That's about it.
Now, if there's one area that I kind of go all out on, it's the cake. I love to make his birthday cakes. For his first birthday, I made this inchworm cake. It was super easy and really cute. I'm having trouble remembering what I did for his cake last year. I'll update if I do remember. :P
This year, I think I'm going to do either a car or a fire truck. While I was digging, I found a whole page of yummy-looking cake recipes. I bookmarked it to try some of them later.
Now I need to make my list of all the stuff I have to get done between now and then... grocery shopping, housecleaning, etc. I have to admit that it helps to have a deadline. Otherwise, I just let this stuff linger until.... well, until I don't know when. This is the downside of Summer Vacation -- too much time! :) It will feel good to get the house thoroughly clean.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Swim lessons
We're officially enrolled in swim lessons. I went for the lessons for the younger kiddos. He barely squeaks in, since the lessons start on the 18th and he'll be three on the 21st.
As I browsed the options for swim lessons online, I was all excited to see that the parks and rec department had an online registration for the lessons! I also discovered that they had ONE spot left in the class I wanted.
I've come to appreciate the beauty of signing up for things without having to wade through the tedium of recorded phone menus ("For the first circle of hell, press 1. For the idiocy that is the customer service representative, press 2. To scoop out your eyeballs using dull spoons, press 3.", etc.). Plus, I can do it in my pajamas. I figure that organizations put in online registration systems so that they don't have to pay people to man the phones or the front desk registration areas so much. Ultimately it saves money, right?
Wrong. I discovered that, in order to register for programs online, I had to be assigned a user id and password. Fine. I figured I'd enter all my pertinent information and then their auto-emailer would send me a user id and password.
Wrong again. I received an email stating that "someone would contact [me] in 24-48 hours with [my] user id and password". Whaaaat? Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? At least, it does in my mind.
Anyway, I had done all of this on Saturday afternoon. I received an email with the user id and password from an actual person about noon on Monday. So, excitedly, I went to register for the swim lessons. They still had that one spot open!!
Somewhere in all of the small print, I remembered seeing that I would have to add individual members of my family to the account in order to sign them up for different programs. I tried to figure out how to do that, but couldn't seem to get it done. So, somehow, I thought it wouldn't matter that it was my name signing up for the swim lessons instead of Jet's.
Wrong again. They had a drop-down menu to select the person who would be participating in the activity. Since mine was the only name available on our account, I selected it. It wouldn't let me register because the class is for children 0-36 months old, and the participant (that would be me) would be -- get this -- 358 months old at the start of the class. If that doesn't make a body feel old, I don't know what would.
I started poking around some more, trying to figure out how to add Jet to the account. I finally found the FAQ's page. In order to add someone to the account you have to... no, really, guess... call them at the office. They even gave two phone numbers. However, the first one they listed didn't work -- I got the "boop-boop-BOOP this phone has been disconnected or is no longer in service..."
After calling the second number and sifting through the phone menu, I connected with someone who, surprisingly, knew what she was doing. She added Jet and Knight to the account with ease and dexterity. As we were ending the conversation, I mentioned that I would be signing up online for the swim lessons. She mentioned that they would charge me a convenience fee to sign up online.
Let's think about this for juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a second, here, while remembering that I thought I could do this the easy way -- without having to call anybody!
I kindly pointed this out to the nice lady on the phone, and she was super-nice and signed us up for the lessons without charging the over-the-phone convenience fee.
Thus ends the story of How Not to Sign Up for Swim Lessons the Easy Way.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Time-Out Dilemma
Last Friday was a rough day. I called our place The House of the Time-Outs and Spankings. I had expected it to be difficult -- just getting Jet used to a new routine, etc.
However, we've run into a couple of issues, and I'm seeking opinions.
First, you should know that I'm more prone to use a time-out (one minute for each year of age) for discipline than a spanking. For starters, it doesn't hurt me as much. I hate spanking Jet. Sometimes I feel like it seems to him that I'm taking my frustration out on him instead of the spanking being logical consequences for his actions (a.k.a. discipline). Time-outs also seems to be more effective with him.
So, here are the problems. When I put Jet into time-out, he takes a swipe at me. He also yells while he's in time-out. He doesn't yell any words. It's more like a cross between a scream and a growl, and it's definitely directed at me. He does that about three or four times during his three-minute time-out.
I know that hitting is wrong, and he should be disciplined for it. I usually just consider the time-out to be punishment for the previous incident as well as the hitting. I do make it a point to tell him a stern "No hitting!" when he hits me, and I address it in our post-time-out pow-wow. I make him apologize for both things. He says he's "Sorry for [fill in transgression-of-the-day here] and hitting and yelling". I tell him that I forgive him and I love him.
My question is this: Should the hit and/or yell escalate the punishment? If so, to what? Spanking? It bothers me to say, "We don't hit - here's your spanking"...Here's Your Sign. I don't think a longer time-out is effective or appropriate, so... ?
Monday, June 4, 2007
Excuse me?
Today has been a good day with Jet. He's a pretty funny kid...
I put him in a T-shirt with a pocket today. To understand the humor, you should know that I've dumped out a ton of dirt from pockets and found countless clean rocks in the bottom of my washing machine. He's definitely ALL BOY.
J: Hey! I have a pock-et!
D: You sure do. What do you put in that pocket?
J, very seriously: Not dirt.
D, stifling a giggle: No, not dirt.
J, still seriously: And not rocks. And not friends. And not peanut budder and jelly samliches.
~~~~~~~~~~
Later, we were looking at pictures on my computer.
J: I wanna be a farmer!
D: Mmhmmm...
J: I'll be a farmer, and you can be.... a COW!!! Yeah, A COW! You be the COW, MOMMY!!
D: ???..... Gee, thanks.
J: You're welcome, Mommy.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
New Frog "Ungrella"
A gift from Aunt Beezneez last weekend:
Jet has carried it everywhere this past week; he was actually able to use it this morning! He carried it (while I carried him) into his playschool this morning, and his friends were all duly impressed.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Big enough, but still little
We went to the library over the weekend. It's so nice -- all big and new and clean!
Jet loves to climb this staircase. Last time we were there, I knew I needed to get a picture of him doing this. The juxtaposition of his little self being big enough to climb this huge set of stairs really does something to my heart.
