Curly Straight

Breakfast was fun today, although the food left much to be desired. TJ tried to pay the waitress in Play Doh. That didn't work out too well.

We played and looked at photos the whole time and I spent about twenty five percent of our total time there picking in Play Doh from the floor.

On our way out, a lady in a brightly flowered muumuu stopped at our table and said to me "you sound like such a good mama."

How sweet is that?

Next year at this time, as my sister so kindly reminded me, we will have a three-year-old and a four-month-old.

I'm craving pickles.

How very very cliche.

TJ will be two on August 9th and we were planning on trying to potty train him after that. He decided to whip off his diaper this morning. I told him, in my motherly wisdom, "you need to pee in the potty if you take off your diaper."

The kid ran to the bathroom, I put the Elmo ring around the bowl, plopped him on it, and he went pee.

Now I don't know what to do.

So we celebrated T's birthday this morning with a beautiful walk through Roger Williams Park on a glorious day. Felt like fall. I wanted to kick the hell out of Georgia only two times, then I followed John's advice to drop the leash. After this advice, my life is turned around. When it was time to pick up the leash, The Rottens came right to me and someone commented on how well behaved they are. You talking to me?

Got home and rested the rest of the day. Growing a baby is hard work.

When John came home from work, the three of us went blueberry picking. The blueberries were slim pickin' but we managed to rustle up a pound and paid our $1.40 and were on our way.

I begged John to stop at Newport Creamery and we did. So now this is our tradition for T's birthday - blueberry picking and Newport Creamery.

As a special treat, T went to bed an hour late after eating one whole big piece of a chicken quesadilla and a spoonful of plain sour cream, he still said "Eat, eat. Crack-ur." as he got placed into his crib. It's all a lie, because we take him to his booster seat to feed him and he'll eat the tiniest little bite ever.

Hopefully he's finally asleep. Oh, no, he's not. I hear the wailing of a two-year-old. Poor thing.

John is at the bar trying to find the painter to paint the house, Amadeus is laying on the mini Sponge Bob couch and Gigi has settled into the futon.

Me, I have a new Real World to watch.

When TJ can't sleep, he doesn't yell out "mommy" or "daddy" - he usually yells out Ah-Nay, Ah-Nay, over and over.

BUT NOW that he has turned two, he's mixing it up a little.

His no nap cry is Ah-Nee, Ah-Nee. I can attest to that fact, because he's yelling it right now.

Ah-Nee.

Currently hearing over and over: Let's do the hokey pokey! Elmo puts his hand in, Elmo puts his hand out, Elmo puts his hand in and shakes it all about. You do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around, that's what's it's all about!

Got back last night from a nice weekend away. All I can remember is a couple of fun parties and TJ not sleeping.

We never let him sleep in our bed with us, but after listening to two hours of crying and screaming with no way to tune it out (very thin walls and ceiling in the cabin we stayed in), we decide to ask him if he wants to sleep with us. "Jesh," he says, with so much conviction and want, there's no denying him. He falls asleep the minute his head hits the pillow only to wake up at 3:30 a.m. saying "piggybatch" (piggyback). The next day he woke up at the crack of dawn and whispered to me "Ready. Go." which I found to be the cutest thing ever.

It was great to spend an extended amount of time back home. It's nice to have so many people around who I have known forever. Friends and family are something that I miss terribly, even though we are only 70 miles away.

Where else would someone leave a giant cucumber on our picnic table with no note and we can immediately figure out who it is from?

T is 2 years old. Almost two years and one month. We started the process of potty training today and are following advice of a book I downloaded, www.thepottytrainer.com. It tells me to put him on the potty every twenty minutes and put him in big boy underwear.

My two observations so far:

Potty training is exhausting.

This would be much easier if I could drink.

Every twenty minutes a timer goes off.

!*****!potty time!!***** woowoowoowoo

You peed in the potty? What a good boy!

Still waiting for the poo.

This is exhausting.

T is usually really well behaved, attributed to luck and some good parenting, I like to think. Having a kid in my late thirties definitely makes so much more patient than I would have been if I had one in my early twenties.

On that note, I was standing in the kitchen talking to John, when suddenly I had a (literal) pain in my ass - my right butt cheek more specifically, where Little Mister had taken it upon himself to bite a chunk out of my derriere.

OW.

I yelled in pain. John started yelling because he didn't know why I was yelling.

T ran away and left me to tend to my wounded butt myself.

Numchucks are not an age appropriate toy for a two-year-old.

I do not recommend leaving them within reach of your little ninja.

T's culinary delight is Annie's Cheddar Bunnies baked snack crackers dunked in whole milk.

He tickles everything in sight, including this computer, the dog and the window.

This boy is not into sleeping. In the book I'm reading, it says that they are so stimulated by everything they are learning, that they have a hard time getting to sleep.

He's not crying, just chitchatting.

T Bone decided today was the day that it would be best to wear the Pooh Bear hat from his Halloween costume to music class.

TJ and I are playing with a new purchase - a Play-Doh Activity Mat. Although I hate Play-Doh, it's so messy, this is pretty fun - you fill in the blanks with Play Doh - the one we are working on is a birthday scene and it has a birthday cake with candles to be made out of Play-Doh and ribbons on the gifts to be filled in, etc. Right now TJ is making eyes for the children's blank faces.

The only problem is that you have to be of Superman Strength to open the containers of Play-Doh. I'm talking super strong. Being the silly, silly momma that I am, I was making lots of sound effects - grunting and groaning - actually, only half in jest, as it was really hard to open.

It made it all worthwhile when I finally opened it to hear my 2-year(and almost 3 months)-old exclaim "Momma did it!" with a look of pure joy on his face.

Right after, I was about to take his picture and he pretended to eat the Play-Doh! With a big grin on his face, like "Yes, Momma, I'm messing with you, just for the camera."

Little ham.

Seems like TJ has graduated from Elmo to Pooh Bear.

True love is when your little boy hands you his booger snot on his finger and you really don't even think twice about wiping it off of his and onto yours.

It does sound a little bit grosser in writing than when it actually happened.

Something clicked today with TJ - he's talking and yelling out the names of things, one after the other.

My two year old just felt my minus 3 month old move for the first time in my belly.

Southwest Airlines is the only place I know of that considers a two-year-old an adult.

One of my favorite things that TJ says to me is when I sneeze. He stops whatever he is doing, looks at me with concern and says "You ok, Mama?" - he also says it often to me when I'm in the kitchen, usually cooking or cleanig, and he's playing in the living room. I never realized how much I say ow or ouch.

Each time I say it, I hear his concerned little voice, "Mama, you ok?".

Never fails to melt my heart.

TJ was tired today after the gym and after our lunch at Newport Creamery. He slept from about 1:30 until 5:30 or so!

We think he's growing.

TJ ate his peas tonight. I had to eat one, then he would eat one.

He's funny. As of today, he suddenly is laughing out loud at everything. John gave him some jellybeans and he thought that was hilarious.

This morning, TJ took off his pjs and went to the potty all by himself!

He's pretty much been potty trained since late September, but we would still have to physically put him on the commode. Hopefully today, a new road has been crossed!

Will be interesting to see what happens after this new baby gets here.

T is now at the point where he sits quietly and listens to a story as he carefully turns the pages of a 24-page text filled Pooh Bear book. "I do it!" he says if we try to turn the page instead of letting him do this very important task.

Tried to put TJ down earlier than usual this morning, due to a playdate we have early this afternoon.

Went through the entire routine - read, music, cuddles, told him who loves him. "Goodnight, Mama" he tells me, "thank you." Usually that's a good sign.

48 minutes later...

He is in his crib, yelling "Happy New Year!" over and over, with an "Up. Down" thrown in every now and then for good measure.

How can I resist a little party animal toddler like that? 12 more minutes and then I'm calling it a day.

He's eating a fortune cookie for dessert after his breakfast. He wants more fortunes than just the one.

Today, you should spend some time to search in yourself.

Sage advice for a two-year-old.

Today TJ's little friend said "thank you" and Thomas said "You're Belcome!" back to him. Unprompted by me.

So cute and so sweet.

Whenever I make a phone call and hang up after, like if I have to make a doctor's appointment, TJ looks at me with a look of distress because I didn't let him talk.

He says "I want," which means he wanted to talk to the person on the other end.

If we are talking to Daddy or Ali and Bebe and I hang up before he blows kisses, same thing - massive look of distress that warrants a call back, just for the kiss blowing.

When we put T to sleep, we tell him all the people who love him. It's a nice way to end the day and he knows it's his cue to lay down.

Tonight after "the baby in my belly loves you," he added in the following Cast of Characters:

Piggy Bank
Pooh Bear
Owl
Tigger
Eeyore
Elmo

TJ is crying about two hours after we put him to bed, which is unusual.

We both try to settle him down. I succeed, but thirty minutes later, he's crying again.

John's turn. Daddy asks him, "are you hungry?" - which is not the problem. Turns out he has to pee, he tells John. (!)

He's not even 2 1/2 and he's telling us he has to get up in the night to pee! While he's wearing a nighttime diaper!

We definitely did the right thing by potty training him at 2 years old, because I think even now he is getting too stubborn and it would be difficult. I guess that there is also a huge issue with kids pooing in the potty, we somehow managed to avoid that one, too, through no good parenting of our own. I'm thinking we got lucky.

It will be interesting to see if there is any regression once the Little One gets here.

The little boy is still snoozing. I wonder if he feels ok.

He pulled a weird thing at lunchtime - he wouldn't come and eat - he hid behind the couch and I had to pretend I was reading Elmo stories to myself to get him to come out. When I started reading, he poked his little head out and when he finally came over, I told him he needed to eat his pizza before we read Elmo.

He ate seconds and then I put him down for a nap.

He picked the "When is Spring Going to be Here?" book, which I found very appropriate, considering the snow outside.

Sounds like he may be making some waking up noises now.

I have enjoyed these last 2 1/2 years immensely.

xo

TJ and I managed to get through 34 minutes of Singing in the Rain this morning. Then he discovered the space bar is also the pause function on the dvd.

We are still watching it at 50 minutes, although he is in a time out, because he was dancing and I told him it was good so he decided to hit me in the belly.

TJ has started to sing along with his dvds and Sesame Street.

He tries his best to sing along to the "abcs" on the Elmo goes to School dvd and I've been wondering if he would start exercising or jumping when the characters do on Sesame Street.

Today was the day.

Grover was jumping and TJ said "I want to jump too!" so I rewound it (yay for the dvr) and he jumped to his little heart's content.

At least until the sketch ended and Grover fell down and so did TJ.

TJ at naptime, heard through the monitor:

Tigger, Tigger, Tigger, Tigger.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit.

Elmo, Elmo, Elmo, Elmo.

TJ, 2 1/2, today sang the whole "do, ri, mi, fa, so, la, te, do" scale unprompted while playing along on the piano.

Mama or Daddy: Why this or that or why are you acting like that or why do you like that or why do you say that?

TJ's answer every time: Because.

TJ is sitting on the potty with his camera taking photos. Every now and then I hear a little hard breathing so I know he's being productive.

Today TJ woke up sad because he missed his Daddy so I asked John to send TJ a text message via my phone.

I read it to TJ. "TJ, I will see you tonight and we will play hide and go seek. Oooga Booga."

TJ looked at me, smiled, and said "that's funny!"

TJ is getting to be such a big boy. He's still my little boy though but can talk and understand more and more everyday. I just realized today that he hasn't thrown his food from the table in a really long time, something that was a common occurrence not too long ago. On the other hand, I still have him sitting in highchairs in restaurants and sleeping in a crib. I figure as long as he doesn't object, I'm milking it for as long as I can.

The Sleepless Wonder is not napping. I can hear him in his crib singing "one two three, Tri-angle! Oh yeah!"

"Mama, I took a little snooze."

TJ just sang "Bye bye poopie, bye bye poopie, bye bye poopie, so nice to have you here," as he flushed the toilet.

How sad.

I never thought I would actually be reduced to tears while putting away tighty whities.

Granted, they are adorned with Elmo and Nemo characters and I am putting them into the "too small" pile because they are too small. The ones that seemed like they would never fit.

Boo hoo.

This poor kid. Does not feel well. Doing artwork now. Drawing many pink circles and if it's not a perfect circle, tells me to rip off the piece of paper. He also likes to peel stickers off the sticker book and stick them into his artwork book.

When TJ acts out, sometimes I put him in Relaxation Time Out, where he goes into his crib and just chills for a while until he calms down. I use it when he seems like he's really needing a rest.

Today he was in there after he threw his artwork book. I gave him his blankie and left him in there for a couple of minutes. When I checked in, he was laying down all comfy and looked at me and said "Mommy, I calmed down."

I find it amazing the things that TJ picks up...he repeats things that I didn't even know he heard.

Today in the doctor's office, he pointed to the scale and asked what it is. I replied "a scale for little babies." He said "I'm a little baby. I'm four months. Not two."

Which means that he knows he is two, knows Julia is four months and knows that a four month old is a little baby.

The doctor also informed me that TJ is somewhat belligerent. Hmrph.

TJ has been sick lately.

During his normal mid-afternoon nap, he woke up crying and I went in and told him to go back to sleep because he needed the rest. He did, sleeping for about another hour.

Woke up upset, sideways in his crib and wouldn't stop crying for about ten minutes. He was telling me what was wrong but I (frustratingly) couldn't understand him.

Finally it came out, with much coercion from me asking him again and again to say it in his big boy voice.

The reason for the scariness?

A giraffe that was tickling him.

I would be scared too.

TJ is FREAKING OUT because there was broccoli cooked in with his pasta. "I DON'T WANT GREEN BEANS IN MY PASTA."

This morning, as TJ and I read the book "Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog?" he pointed out all the things he would rather be. This is a first.

For the record, he would rather be a fat. And he picked dog first then cat the second time.

Yesterday TJ had a breakthrough.

I asked him "TJ, guess who is coming to visit this weekend?"* and instead of his usual "what?" or "where" he actually remembered to say "who?" for the first time ever!

*Shelby

In the mornings when I go in to pick up TJ when he calls me, he doesn't say hi or anything, he says "can I go draw with chalk on the sidewalk?" - he always does that. This afternoon when I went in, he said "you all wet?" which he always says when I take a shower.

We told TJ that when he hears the bell (of the ice cream truck), it is his naptime. He'll hear it and look at us and say that it is time for his nap.

Today what did I google? Mp3s for ice cream trucks.

Thought TJ was napping.

Just walked by his room and I hear him singing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands."

C'mon, how can I tell him to go to sleep now?!

We just got home.

Went to Texas Roadhouse.

When I gave a big Texas Roadhouse yee-hah, (people next to us had a birthday), TJ burst into tears.

Full day.

We had a code when he was ready for me to go, three kisses, a hug and an I Love You.

He was having fun. I beckoned him over and asked him if I should go. He puckered up and got three kisses, a hug and an I Love You.

I walked away and felt proud and a little sad.

I hope his day goes great! They left a message, he's doing great. No hitting. No pushing. No sleeping pants during naptime!

When I picked him up from his first long day at school today, he was under the slide with a bunch of other kids, all hot and sweaty and dirty. He came running out yelling "Mommy, I had fun today!"

TJ was trying to get his lunchbox but it was stuck and he said "it won't budge."

While hiking the other day, he said "Actually, rabbits don't make noise, they just go boing, boing, boing."