Fun Pictures

I have found that as time elaspes in the life of a new parent, the less time you devote to taking pictures. The first year of The Boy's life was filled with incessant picture taking, but we have slowed down a bit over the last year. Well folks, as of last week that has all changed. The Boy smiled a lot at the camera over the last week or so. Here are some of my favorites so far. Not all we taken by me or The Husband, but enjoy! More to come, I promise.

Argh! Trick or Treat! I AM Cute! Spiderman in hilarious.

It's a Screaming Banshee...oh Wait, It's Just The Boy

The Boy likes to change things up when it comes to how he wakes up in the morning. He likes to keep things fresh and exciting. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a morning person. The Husband and The Boy both are. I have begun to really enjoy the daily surprise of being roused by the almost 3 year old. This morning was no exception. Five mintues before the alarm was set to go off, The Husband and I hear screaming cries of Momma, Momma, wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

We jostle ourselves awake and hear The Boy get out of his bed, pitter patter down the hall and enter our room, still in tears. We, of course thing something is wrong, maybe he's scared or maybe he peed in his bed. (This doesn't happen very often, but when it does, The Boy seems to believe it is the end of the world.)

The Parents: What's wrong buddy?
The Boy: I don't have my gobbity gook (stream of non-understandable preschooler talk).
Momma: What's wrong?
The Boy: I don't have my right sock.
Momma (making sure I understand): You don't have your sock? Okay, come here.
I pick the boy up and put him in bed with us.
The Boy (screaming): I don't need to be here, I need my sock.
Momma: Maybe Daddy will get your sock.
Begrudingly, The Husband gets out of bed to retrieve said sock.
The Boy: It's my right sock, Daddy.

The Husband brings the sock back to our room and puts it on our child's foot. All is right with the world.

Literal Interpretation

The Boy has been attending Montessori Preschool for about 2 months now and we still aren't exactly sure what all goes on with him and the class during the day. No matter how often or in what way we ask, he isn't very forthcoming with information regarding his daily activities. So, The Husband in all his infinite wisdom devised a nightly ritual during dinner time. At the dinner table, we share all about the happenings of all our days. The Boy has become very accustom to doing this and if we forget and he remembers, we all have to march back to the dining room table and share our days in the proper order...I know, he isn't very into structure or routine at all....The Husband goes first, then me and then The Boy. We still aren't getting very much information, but the information we are getting is worth the routine.

Last night during our nightly routine this was the dialogue:

The Boy: How about your day, Daddy?
The Husband: Well, I went to work and went to some meetings and then I put out a lot of fires.
The Boy (interrupting): Fires, did you see a fire truck with the fires?
Laughter insues much to The Boy's confusion.
The Husband: No, not this time, I handled it all by myself.
The Boy: Ohhh, how about your day, Momma?

To Tube or Not to Tube

Ahh, yes, our household has entered ear infections season again. I cannot tell you how excited I am at the prospect of 8-10 ear infections over a 6 months period. Last year, The Boy had a string of ear infections starting in August and ending in January. We then had almost eight months sickness free and now, it seems as if we are starting the pattern all over again.


We went through the whole madness of trying to decide if The Boy should be tubed. Many of you know what I am talking about. Ear tubes...surgery....unnecessary anesthesia. You can see where I am going with this. Our pediatrician is a very homeopathic, natural all the way kinda doctor. When she suggested that we check ear tubes out, we looked into it because it seemed dire if she suggested it. Being the Web MD fanatic that I am, I started to do research on ear tubes only to find out that there is no real conclusive evidence to suggest that the surgery and insertion of tubes works. For some kids it does and for some it does not. Often times, the tubes fall out and you have to have the surgery all over again. We made it to the ear, nose and throat doctor to talk about the surgery and of course he was all ready to do it. It is not good for fluid to sit on his ears, he may develop hearing and speech problems, etc., etc.

I spent the next few weeks riddled with anxiety over whether or not to go through with the surgery. Lots of prayer and more research and then in a seemingly miraculous way, the ear infections stopped. Completely gone only to reappear in what seems to be full force eight months later. Now, I am positive when I take The Boy back to the doctor today for what is sure to be his third ear infection since August, the subject of tubes will be brought up again. Keep in mind that my son is virtually symptom free when it comes to ear infections. He hardly ever spikes a fever. He still eats, he still runs and plays. He is generally happy and normal. We wouldn't know he was infected unless he told us, which he can do now. Prior to his ability to speak, I would take him in for a check up and the doctor would exclaim, "Holy moley, his ears are infected." Talk about feeling like a bad mom, like I should some how know that his ears are infected. The doctors tone always seem to ask, why didn't you use your x-ray vision to see inside his Eustachian tubes.

Last night, The Boy did in fact tell us his ear hurt and this was accompanied by a slight fever (100.1), so it is off to the Doc we go. I really hate the idea of tubing him, the docs have said he will more than likely grow into his ears by his 3rd year....this is right around the corner. I just hope we can make it through the rest of the year without too many antibiotics and/or doctor's visits.

Wedding Bells

This past weekend a good friend got married. He just happened to be the last close friend the Husband and I have that wasn't married. The wedding was small and quaint. We have a tight circle of friends and everyone's wedding photos look a lot a like with the groom/bride changing out each time and the previous bride/groom moving into an attendant's role. For this wedding, the first since many of us have had children, The Husband wasn't chosen as a groom's man, but the Boy was chosen as the ring bearer. I have to say that I was slightly anxious that disaster was going to strike and my almost 3 year old would not perform as asked (would your young child?), pictures would be ruined and the ceremony disrupted. Thankfully, this was not the case. The Boy did wonderfully. I think in part because his crazy mom made him practice for months and promised him a big treat. Bribery is okay, sometimes, right?

Another Thing I Don't Understand...

I am a parent, but not the parent of a daughter (not yet anyway...hopefully someday). However, I just don't understand how a parent could let their teenage daughter out of the house (hopefully they didn't see her) with a dog collar and chain attached around her neck. I was driving out of my neighborhood tonight and there stood a 15-16 year old girl with a dog collar and chain around her neck and her "boyfriend" was holding onto the chain. What kind of message is the young girl hoping to send and/or receive with that accessory?

Potty Mania

My mom tells me that when I was little, I had a certain fascination with public restrooms. Whether or not I had to go, I had to go; not to use the facilities, but to check them out. It was as if I had a secret shopper job as bathroom inspector. I wonder what my criterion were to determine whether the bathroom was worthy of my deposits. I know that my mom isn't exaggerating, because I can vividly remember going into bathrooms and then walking right back out the door after routinely checking the place out. There were some bathrooms I would use again and some I wouldn't. I am that way to this day and I have my favorites, ask my husband.

We all know that children take on certain characteristics of their parents. Lucky for me, The Boy has inherited the "check out the bathroom" gene. However, at this point, I do not think The Boy has any criterion. He has to go into a bathroom at any place we enter, the grocery store, the restaurant, the mall. In some of our frequented stops, he could walk to the bathroom by himself if we let him because he has been in that bathroom many times. He generally goes when we take him in there, but it may be only a few drops and he may say he needs to visit that area 2-3 times during the duration of our visit. He seems to be most fascinated by port-o-potties. When The Husband plays softball, The Boy considers himself lucky to be able to use the port-o-let whilst attending the game. I would say our last venture to the softball field rendered up to 10 visits to the yellow, somewhat smelly, port-o-john (that is the last name I have for it, so now I will have to reuse previous ones.)

My conclusion that The Boy has a bit of an obsession with bathrooms and more specifically port-o-potties comes from on conversation on the way home yesterday.

The city works office has been working on the intersection by our house for sometime now. Out in front of our neighborhood Kroger sits a port-o-potty and at the end of the day, construction equipment not in use. Yesterday while sitting at the light at the intersection in question, the following conversation takes place:

The Boy: I have to go potty.
Momma: Well, sweetie, you have to hold it in a little while longer we are almost home.
The Boy: But, I have to go...
Momma: I am sorry, but there is no where for us to stop right now.
The Boy: Yes there is.
Momma: No there isn't. We are almost home can you hang on just a minute.
The Boy: There is, I want to go in the blue one over there by the digger.
Momma: Where (I look toward the direction he is pointing)? You mean the port-o-potty?
The Boy: Yes, the blue box potty.
Momma: We can't use that, it is for the construction workers.
The Boy: They will let me.
Momma: Well, we can't stop here. Do you really have to pee or do you just want to use the blue potty?
The Boy: I just want to use the blue potty.

So, goes the cycle of bathroom investigation obsession, passed between generations. At least he is honest.

Public or Private?

As many of you know, The Boy started Montessori preschool at the end of August. He absolutely loves going to school. He also seems to be love with his afternoon teacher, Ms. Becky. He is learning so much so fast. He now knows the days of the week and asked The Husband yesterday what 2+2 was. It is amazing.



The Boy is only 2 1/2, but we have been contemplating what his fate will be once he is school age. Will we send him to public school or fork out thousands of dollars on private school. I am just not sure yet and this is something we talk about at least once a month right now.



As I was leaving the preschool this morning I overheard one of the carpool mom's talking about how relieved she was the her child got into such and such private school. She made the comment that she didn't think it was going to happen because of all the "criteria." I am not sure what the criteria is, I guess I need to do more research.



The Husband and I, plus everyone we associate with (for the most part) are products of public school systems. We all turned out okay in my opinion. But, I also know that we were raised when children could walk to school by themselves, where you weren't bused to a school across town in order to meet a quota and where everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone else. Things just don't seem to be like that anymore. We went to high school before Columbine and Paducah. Public schools seem to have the stereotype of being unsafe and bad at educating, especially in our city.



With private school you deal with battling a sense of entitlement, preparation for college, competitiveness and the all important tuition which in this day in age is masses more than most college tuition. And, if you don't get into the right elementary school, you won't get into the right middle school, etc., etc. But, "they" say it is a better education, there is less to worry about, you can't go wrong with private schools.



I think an important factor to think about is the fact that The Husband and I plan to be appropriately involved parents. I say appropriately involved because I work in Higher Education and have dealt with parents who will not let their child(ren) make any decision's on their own to the point that they are attending internship interviews with them. Maybe public school will be okay if we are involved. But, hey we have another year before we need to seriously talk about it.

He Has a Bit of a Point

Conversation as we drove home from school and work yesterday.

I look in the rearview mirror and the Boy is biting his arm.
Momma: What are you doing?
The Boy (mouth still attached to arm): I am biting off my arm.
Momma: Why are you doing that?
The Boy: I don't know. (sidenote, the Boy has now taken to saying I don't know and I don't care at every turn. I know he has heard us say I don't know, but where did he learn to say I don't care?)
Momma: You shouldn't do that, you need your arm.
The Boy: Why? (also a favorite)
Momma: So you can write your name, throw a football and eat.
The Boy: I don't need my arm to do that, I have my hand.

Oh, I didn't realize.