Sam just LOVED his birthday

Few too many people singing a little too loudly I guess :-)

It's two o'clock in the mo' nin....

Yesterday we had a long anticipated group of visitors arrive to Marshall to see us and spend the weekend hanging out and doing Sam's Christening and Birthday party. The first group was my sister, Monica and my nephews, Drew (5) and Kyle (10). Jack has been so excited about this for a week and constantly asking when they were arriving. He has been sort of friend deprived since we moved from Okinawa which only heightens his insanity level.

They pulled up at about 8:45 pm. Jack's normal bedtime is around 8. He played shy for about 15 minutes and then really turned it on into full hyper activity mode. So, you can only imagine how it went about 9:45 when we told them to get ready to go to bed in the living room all on air mattresses and couches.

I know, I know. You are thinking I am the dumb one for ever thinking this was going to work. But you see, I KNEW they'd probably stay up late. I'm thinking, "Oh, the memories they will make!" Or something equally crazy. But, the child JUST turned four. He'd pass out eventually, right???

Famous last words.

I go to sleep (10:45 pm), Monica goes to sleep (11:00 pm), Nana heads off (11:30 pm), Kyle goes upstairs to sleep with his mom and tells them they REALLY need to lay down and sleep (11:45 pm).

I awake around 1:50 pm. Sam's baby monitor is making CURIOUS noises. They sound A LOT like Jack. I go downstairs.

There they are, surrounded by about 200 crayons and 30 sheets of paper, coloring away. At two in the morning.

Seriously.

So, for a while now I have had a preschooler and a baby. Jack just turned four. He can follow instructions, he understands consequences, he's potty trained, he can get things for himself sometimes, dress himself. No one within a one hundred mile radius of him at any time is going to accuse him of being easy, but he is relatively able to live autonomously from us. We also had this baby. So maybe having two kids was a little more work, sure, but I forgot to add that he was also a very EASY baby. Sam was always very amiable, happy to do whatever you were doing at the moment, content to be still or be on the go.

Seriously, how could I have forgotten this toddler stage?

Toddlers are an ENTIRELY different STORY. They are crazy, and this one is no exception. Sam turns one this weekend. And he isn't even WALKING yet.

You see, my husband has been home to help. Well, he went back to work this week and I suddenly caught the full brunt. Toddlers.

Seriously, how did I forget this?

Please don't let me do it again.

Jack-isms Volume 1

We are outside playing with sidewalk chalk. Jack draws the above snowman.


Jack: Let's play teacher

Me: OK

Jack: Find green chalk and draw a triangle... find yellow chalk and drawn a circle... find white chalk and write dewy (yeah, no idea)... find blue chalk and draw a snowman like mine.

Waits patiently while I fill his commands.

Jack: Your snowman doesn't have legs, a ha ha ha ha.

Me: Wow, real encouraging, teacher.

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Jack (walking toward the dinner table): My leg armpits are sweaty!

Poppy: Your what?

Jack: My LEG armpits (pointing and looking at me dramatically, as if to say "Is this guy an idiot?")

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In Old McDonalds drive thru ~

Alicia: One six piece chicken nuggets and one four piece chicken nugget happy meal, please.

Jack (bordering on full meltdown mode) whining LOUDLY: BUUUUUUUUT I WANT FFFFFIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVEEEEE

Alicia (rolling up the window): Jackson, you will not have a fit or you will eat exactly none of the chicken nuggets and I will eat all of them. I am absolutely not going to listen to you freak out over this.

Jack (stopping immediately but still struggling, tears streaming down his face): Okay mommy, I'll try to take a deep breath.

Anal about chalk?

When Jack was a baby, Keith used to let him sit outside on our back patio and eat sidewalk chalk (and crayons, but that is a whole nother day...). I used to say, "What are you thinking? Don't let the kid EAT that chalk!!"

Now, Jack wants to color with chalk almost every day, but what to do with the little one?

Let him eat it, of course.

Plus... he mostly just chews on it... he doesn't really swallow?!?!

The Cat

Yeah, so Sam totally abuses my parents cat. It is sort of getting to be a problem. The cat is old. Really old. I think it is pushing twenty. That is why it lets an 11 month old abuse it day in and day out. The problem is, that Sam now totally exploits this for his own total amusement. He hits the cat and the cat moves one inch over. So he happily crawls one inch and hits the cat again. A few days ago he grabbed the cats tail while some music was playing in the background. He then basically starts yanking the cat's tail almost totally off in tune to the music. Keith had to dash over to remove him from the cat. The cat STILL just sat there and took it quietly with only a week meow toward the end. Anyway, today I found the boo boo in the above picture on the cat's head.

Yeah...oops.

Guess I gotta watch that kid more closely for possible pet abuse.