About a week or two ago my two-year old son (almost three!) told me he wanted more snow. The little bit of snow that we had at the time had mostly melted and there wasn’t enough to make snowmen or even have a snowball fight. I do have control over some things, juice and crayons and whatnot, but precipitation I cannot provide. I told Luke that he would have to take that one up with God. Surprisingly, he took that as an acceptable answer and went on his way.

This morning Luke got up while I was getting ready for work. He came into the bathroom (I’ve gotta teach him about knocking) and told me matter-of-factly that he talked to Jesus. Yes, they had a talk. Luke and Jesus had a talk and Luke asked Jesus for more snow. Now how he knows that Jesus and God are one in the same, I have no idea. We’ve never really explained that to him, but he must have picked up on it somehow.

I’m so proud of my little boy. Daddy took him for his routine checkup and he had to have a flu shot. The boy didn’t cry at all. Not one tear! He didn’t even say owie. What a tough kid.

And not only is he tough, but he can count to ten… tell you what color things are (as long as they aren’t red or green, he gets those mixed up quite often)… says please and thank you and excuse me… and loves to brush his teeth He is two years and four months old and he is just growing up so nicely. We are super proud of our little boy and are sure he’s going to make a great big brother. Now we just need to teach him how to change his little sister’s diapers and we’ll be all set!

This poor kid. He has such sensitive skin. And the bugs love him. He’s had bites on his legs before that have swelled up pretty bad, but never this bad.

I think if the swelling doesn’t go down I’ll give him some children’s Claritin and see if that helps. It doesn’t seem to be bothering him though, so that might not be necessary. We’ll see. For now I’m just enjoying getting a chuckle every time I see that Dumbo ear flopping around.

Luke is not always a big eater. He eats a ton for breakfast, but not usually so much for lunch or dinner. Sometimes we bribe – I mean negotiate with – him in order to get him to eat more. The other day we were using potato chips to get him to eat more of his bratwurst. We told him, “if you eat another bite of your brat, you can get a chip.” And he replied, “No!! Beans!” He wanted to eat his green beans instead. So he ate not one, not two, but fourteen little green beans before he asked for the chip that had been offered to him.

I love this kid.

I saw my niece Charly on Sunday and I asked her for hugs and kisses. She gave me a hug and then backed away. I said, “where’s my kisses?” And she replied matter-of-factly, “I’m off kisses”. Well, good to know. Those kisses can get you in a lot of trouble.

On the same Sunday I was getting dressed and Luke was in the room. Up until this point I had never let him see me topless. It just kinda weirds me out so I avoid it. But this time we were in a rush to get out of the house cuz it was stinkin’ hot and we don’t have air conditioning. As soon as Luke saw me with my shirt off he pointed at my big ‘ole belly, yelled “baby!” and giggled like it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. We’ve been teaching him that this belly is his baby sister. I’m sure it’s very confusing. So then he started walking towards me, moved his eyes and pointing finger a little higher and exclaimed, “another baby?” I’ll just consider that one a compliment and I’ll let the laughing part go. (For those who need interpretation, the other baby was my left boob. Or right boob, I couldn’t really tell which one he was pointing at.)

Okay, your turn! What sort of funny things have you heard kids say?

It’s week two of Luke sleeping in his new Big Boy Bed. It’s not going as well as we hoped, but I suppose it could be worse. Currently he just doesn’t seem to want to stay in it when we first put him down to sleep. Once he falls asleep he stays asleep and doesn’t get up until morning. It is frustrating and exhausting but I am determined that we will get through this. At first we just tried the Supernanny method of continuing to put him back down – over and over and over again. That doesn’t seem to be working. I don’t have two hours every night to go through that ritual and there has to be a better way.

We have had a bit of success with bribing (I like to call it rewarding). We tell him that if he stays in bed then he will get a treat when he wakes up (the kid loves M&M’s, or as he calls them… num-nums). I’ve also tried to step up his bedtime routine. When he was sleeping in his crib we would clean up toys, brush his teeth, and tell him “good night” and he did fine. But I have to remember that it wasn’t always that way. When he was just a tiny baby I worked very hard to “train” him to go to bed. Now that he is in a different bed I believe we need to retrain him. So the new bedtime routine is a bit longer and more involved. We do all the same things but we’re adding book reading and snuggling and praying and sometimes a little rubbing of the head (he loved that as a baby). I’m hoping all of these things will help him prepare mentally for bedtime and hopefully naptime too. I think a big part of the problem is that when we put him to bed he’s still in “play” mode and that’s making it hard for him to just sit still. The kid loves to sleep so I know we will have success in the end. It’s just going to take some patience and creativity.

Wish us luck and if you have any pointers or empathetic stories to share, please share!

Conversation with my son yesterday:

Me: “Luke, do you want some juice?”

Luke: “Um…. sure!”

He’s been saying this a lot lately. It’s terribly cute. I wonder to myself where he gets this kind of language.

A conversation with my husband later that night:

Me: “A peanut butter and jelly sandwich sounds really good right now.”

Mike: “Do you want me to make you one?”

Me: “Um…. sure!”

Mystery solved.

I have a couple big tasks to complete at my house that can only be done on a weekend. I look at the calendar and realize there are only like 4 weekends per month, can you believe that? And with all the fun I wanna have with friends and family and such, I feel like I have to be very strategic in my planning.

Big task #1 is getting Luke potty trained. He’s just over 2 years old now and he seems ready and willing. It would be fantastic to have him out of diapers before baby #2 (currently dubbed “Squirmy”) comes along. He goes on the potty occasionally but we are going to try the all in one shot approach. The one where you let him run around the house in big boy pants until he gets sick of wetting himself. (I just love putting “big boy” in front of everything. He sleeps in a big boy bed, he wears big boy shoes and big boy hats. He’s a big boy now!) A weekend would be best so Mike and I can team up for the whole messy process.

Big task #2 is clearing out all the crap in our office so we can turn it into a genuine bedroom for Squirmy (admit it, it’s catchy). Most of it is my crap so that’s my job and definitely a weekend project. Cuz dang, I have amassed a lot of crap in that room. Most of it has a place, but not a purpose. It can’t hang in that room anymore and there is nowhere else for it go, so it’s gotta GO. Mostly books. Lots and lots of books. That I will never read a second time. In fact, I haven’t even finished reading many of them the first time.

I know that Independence Day is coming up and that means I get an extra day off from work. A three day weekend would be perfect for one of these projects. I just have to decide which one. I’m leaning towards task #2 because I think that will be more physically draining for me and I’ll need to take lots of breaks. This baby has got my muscles so out of whack that normal things like wiping my bum or sneezing are very risky. I could pull a muscle at any moment.

We’re thinking of tackling the potty training the weekend of Father’s Day. Mike says that would be one of the greatest Father’s Day gifts; to not have to change diapers for awhile! Not your typical Father’s Day request, but he is a stay-at-home dad, so it’s fitting.

Parents, have you ever bragged about your kid being well behaved in some area and then received a response like this?

“Oh, you just wait. That’ll change. You’ll see!”

You’ve heard it, right? “Kids are so much fun at that age. Enjoy it while it lasts.” “Just wait until they are teenagers.” I’m sure I’ve said it a time or two, and maybe you have too. Even with this second baby on the way we find ourselves joking that because Luke is so great, of course the next one will just be a total stinker.

But that’s not fair. Why do we have to be so pessimistic? Why do we need to assume it’s going to get worse or that good behavior won’t last? Luke does a great job of cleaning up his toys and darn it, I will continue to expect him to clean up his toys as long as he lives in our home. I am hereby refusing to take the attitude that we are just lucky that he is so willing to do this task now and that some day the bottom will drop out and we’ll never be able to get him to clean up again. Who’s in charge here anyway? Who’s the boss?

My son is quite the talker. Loves to talk, loves to tell stories. Only we don’t know what he’s talking about 70% of the time. Some words he says really well. Others not as well but we are slowly deciphering them. These are some of the words we have come to understand:

Ahmost = Almost
Pee-ah = Pizza
Appuh = Apple
Meh = Milk
Tee = TV
Boo-boo = Rocky Balboa
Oan = Orange (as in juice)
Oan = Lotion
Ba-ay = Blanket
Ba-ay = Baby
Ba-ay = Banana

There are times he’ll make a request for something and I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. The poor guy, he just looks into my eyes and keeps repeating himself, hoping that one of those times I’ll get it. But I don’t, and I just have to apologize. Ironically, I only have to say sorry once and he totally gets it.