It's Hard Being the Little Brother

Last night after dinner, Big Man came in the kitchen carrying a Snow White costume dress and a Belle costume skirt. He wanted help putting them on. I asked why he had 2 skirts. He said "in case of emergency", I said, "a princess emergency?" DH piped in with, "buddy, if there is a princess emergency, you need a sword and shield!" K said, "no, a Princess emergency would need the Powerpuff Girls!" Of course...what we were thinking?

Three Year Olds

Big Man is just cracking me up these days. His newest game is Mommy/Little Boy. Except he is the Mommy and I am the Little Boy. We play it in the car, usually on the way home from work/preschool. Basically instead of hearing "mommy mommy mommy" he just asks the same questions starting with "little boy". But he really loves it.

Last night Nana was babysitting so DH and I could go see the Blondie/Pat Benatar show (it was great!). Nana kept seeing Big Man with wrappers, but he would not discuss them or show her where they are from. When we got home there were two boxes of fruit snacks in the trash. 2 boxes we had purchased this weekend, that each had 10 packs. We figured we had used 5 - leaving 15 unaccounted for. When we woke up this morning, I told Big Man he was going to show me the fruit snacks. He immediately said "I not a bad boy!". I said we would see, and he needed to show me the fruit snacks. When he was up and dressed we went downstairs and I showed him the empty boxes. He picked one up and lead me down to the playroom. He kept saying they were in "my house". Turns out he meant the cardboard house he had made at school. Inside were about 12 packs of fruit snacks and several empty wrappers. I thanked him for showing me where they were, and told him he was not to take food out of the pantry without asking. He said "I sorry mommy". Who could resist that face?

In Case You Ever Need To Know

Dish washing liquid works wonders in getting Vaseline out of hair.

gotta love 2 year olds!

If Only We Could Bottle It

Big Man has soooo much energy. All the kids do, but he is really nutso! This is a video of him from about 10 minutes before his bedtime the other night:





Obviously we need to work on the pronounciation of the ABCs, but at least he got the melody right!

(this is from my digital camera. I CANNOT figure out how to get it not to be sideways. Anyone have an ideas??!!)

My Little Boy

Everyday at daycare we get a summary of what the kids today. One day last week, we got the best one EVER.

"Today Big Man and his lady friends had a birthday party in the housekeeping area. They each had a piece of birthday cake, a cup of tea, and celebrated with their babies (dolls) on their laps."

hee hee. Lady friends. I love that. My DH said he agreed it was cute, until he got the baby doll part. Hee hee... i love that.

He is all boy (give him a toy and the first thing he will do is smash it to the ground), but man enough to play with the ladies and their dolls. I love my Big Man.

He Loves Me

So my son, age 2, has a SERIOUS Oedipus complex. According to Wikipedia (that font of all knowledge ;) ) this is supposed to peak between ages 3-5. If Daddy so dares to hug me or God forbid kiss me in front of Big Man, all heck breaks lose. He will start yelling "No Daddy!" "MY MOMMY" over and over and over. Even if we are in the car in the front seat and Big Man sees DH lean over and hold my hand - he goes crazy. I think it is cute and funny. DH - not so much. If we aren't even at the peak yet, this is going to be a long pahse. Anyone else had this? Any suggestions on how to deal with it?

I am Raising a Cave Man

Let me start by saying that I ADORE my Big Man. Really I do. But man, he is such a boy. My first two are girls. And while I will laugh at this 10 years from now, they are pretty easy going. Even as toddlers, they both listened, they could follow simple directions, they could talk. Big Man is completely different.

I knew it from about 3 months. He would happily sit in his car seat cooing and smiling - but at all times his toes and fingers were wiggling and jiggling. Like he had so much energy in there. Well, its out. At 17 months he is a maniac. No really, I mean its not like I expect him to be a gentleman, but it would be nice if he would be a member of the human species instead of some kind of rabid bear.

He climbs, he throws, he grunts, he whines, he hits, he eats. He is, basically, a cave man. He has words, but the only ones he chooses to use regularly are mama and dada. Other than that, you can hear a word one time and not again for 3 weeks. He said MILK on Saturday - a word I have been trying to get him to use for MONTHS. He said it because I apparently gave him a malfunctioning sippy cup. I handed it to him, he tried to drink, then banged on his tray, said Mama - MILK and thrust the cup at me. I was so excited! I was like, yes, Big Man, that is MILK! But he kept banging his tray and I finally figured it out. Its like he will only talk when he wants to. He said Bye Bye clear as a bell to his caregivers at school about 4 weeks ago - one time and never again. He said Blueberries on Saturday night - when he was demanding more. Mostly he grunts and points.

Except when he has a speech to give. Every once in a while he will stop what he is doing and with a lot of gestures and pointing will give a 2 minute oratory. Of course it is in Big Man-ese and completely unintelligible to the rest of us, but I am sure it is the next Gettysburg Address. I particularly enjoy it at 3am.

He climbs on everything. If he can't reach what he wants, he will pull and push furniture around til he can get enough stuff together to climb onto to get to what he wants. He got to a big carving knife around Christmas. And when we saw him with it he thought it was a game to see how far away he could run with it without us catching him.

He likes lifting heavy things and throwing - such a great combination! He lifts chairs, stools, big boxes, etc. Then he usually hurls them to the ground. The other day he kept throwing a stool into the bathtub, while the girls were in it. He throws smaller things too. Its like he thinks if he smashes it on the ground perhaps it will open to reveal the secrets of the universe.

He LOVES the toilet. Seriously. His favorite thing is to grab the extra roll of toilet paper, dunk it in the toilet (which may or may not have been flushed by my 3 year old) and then drag pieces of it around the house. We had to get toilet locks which have resulted in several accidents by my 3 year old, cuz she can't get it off. He also dunks stuff in the toilet and drinks the water. So lovely.

Its a good thing he is such an adorable cave man. How could you not love this face??!!!

Who Knew?

Who knew that a trash can is useful as both a food source and a toybox? Big man, that's who. My little guy loves going through the trash, finding "yummy" treats to eat, and lots of fun stuff to play with. Ewww. If you come to visit you may notice all our trash cans up on top of tables or other surfaces. Now you know why.

First day of school, first day of school!

I will have to post pics later, cuz they are adorable. My oldest, K, started Kindergarten yesterday. She was SOOO excited - she literally ran out the door to get there. I couldn't wait to pick her up to hear how it went. She LOVED her class. Loved her teacher, had a blast with all the activities they did, and was very happy. She HATED before/after care. I guess because we did the pre-visit for her class she was ready for that -- but she didn't have any introduction to before/after care, aside from me talking to her about it. Basically, I drop her off in the cafeteria, and she can play games or do puzzles or the like (and eat breakfast) until the bell rings about an hour later. Then in the afternoon the same thing for about 1 1/2 hours til we pick her up. She said she didn't know anyone (there is nobody else in her K class in the before/after care, I think) and didn't like it. My guess is this will pass in a week once she gets the lay of the land. Meanwhile, DH got the bad end of the lollipop, as he dropped off today while she sobbed. Yesterday she was happy as a clam. Oh well.

Oh yeah, and boys SUCK. Even at 6. One of her best friends who she has known since birth and plays with regularly is in the first grade. He's a great kid really - he's my Godson, and his Mom is K's Godmother. They played at our house 4 days ago, and spent the week at the beach together 2 weeks ago. Anyway -- K says that when she waved and said hi to him on the playground he laughed and ran away. She was heartbroken. Her exact words "he doesn't care about me anymore". Arghhh...I hate cooties. And boys suck. I just didn't think I would have to deal with it for a few more years.