1-2-3-4-5

Apart.

Together. We had a cookie for dessert today at lunch. It was a sandwich cookie that had frosting inside. John always wants to take things apart, saying "open, open". And he could do that to these cookies. We've been working on apart and together. This was a good example. Yummy, too!

You can see that his bruise has faded a bit but not enough to not strike curiosity in folks. When we went to Bible study today, everyone wanted to know what happened. I'm sure this won't be the last time I'll have to explain.

This is John brushing, and I use that word loosely, his teeth. The deal is that John brushes his teeth first and then we get to do it. Daddy is waiting his turn. We usually sing the ABC's twice through while we are doing it. But yesterday when I brushed his teeth, I noticed that John was trying to sing while he "brushed". I'm fairly sure it won't be too long before he'll be singing those ABC's by himself.

Tonight at dinner, we were finishing up and John was eating a couple of Nilla wafers to wash his milk down. (I know, I know. I'm not the best Mom for giving him cookies two meals in a row, but it sure makes him drink the milk. He might have actually gotten the 16 oz he was supposed to have. Most days, we'll be lucky if he downs 10!) We asked him how many he wanted (another mistake, I know). He said three but I only gave him one. And then I started showing him my fingers and he counted them. All the way to five! Without John or I prompting him. Only showing him the fingers. It was pretty cool! Daddy continued on and John managed to ten with some help. It always amazes me when he does things like this. I don't expect him to move along so quickly and he always surprises me.

-EBP-

Read more...

Park

Today we played at the playground across the parking lot from the church where John goes to MDO. He's taken to calling it "park" because to him it's like our neighborhood park. We haven't played there since it got too warm at the end of school last year. So it seemed new to him, although I'm sure he remembered it to some degree. Today was cooler than it has been and there was a nice breeze from the north making it wonderfully bearable even in the sun.

John's picking up new words everyday. Today, he pretended to be driving at the playground using one of the steering wheels and told me so. I guess he picked that up from me when we are in the car. I'm always telling him I can't do something for him because I'm driving. And he's starting to put more words together. If I get out of my chair at the table, he almost always tries to get in it and says "mommy's chair". Oh, and his standard response to most anything is "Nooo!" now, especially food-related. I guess it's time to quit asking. He gets what we give him. Period.

As you can see from the picture above, the shiner hasn't changed much from yesterday. The redness that you see in the picture was as a result of him falling on the bruise as he was climbing. He cried quite a bit so it must still be pretty tender.

-EBP-

Read more...

Happy 39th Birthday, John!

This is what a 39 year old looks like when he hasn't cut his hair for too many months! He claims he'll do it next week while I'm gone. Really? After putting it off so long? Anyway, he got the royal treatment except that he had to work. John and I called him this morning and got his voice mail, so we sang Happy Birthday to him. He really enjoyed that! He wants to find a way to save it, he likes it so much. I cooked him a nice dinner of lasagna rolls and salad. And I made him a cake! John colored inside the birthday card he picked out for Daddy. And I stuck a pre-order slip for the newest Harry Bosch novel inside the card I'd gotten for him. All in all, a pretty good day!

He won't have to stress too much next week to make my birthday special. I'll be traveling. All he'll have to worry about is surviving 4 days alone with John! At least two of those days will be MDO days! I asked him if he would blog while I'm gone. I didn't get a real positive response. So, I doubt it will happen. Those of you who are attached to reading daily, be forewarned! I'll play catch up when I get back, I guess.

This is how the shiner looked this morning. And there wasn't too much change during the day. Of course, his teachers wanted to know what happened. And some old guy in the grocery store told John that he hoped the other guy looked worse.

John was excited about school today. As soon as I told him we were going to school today, he started naming his teachers. He handled the drop-off pretty well. And I stayed long enough to see him select his name correctly and put it on the board. I'm so glad he likes his time there. One funny note - there is a kid in his class that actually cries when his mom comes to pick him up. Saw it myself today. His mom said he even tries to run down the driveway when they get home. He loves MDO that much! John's not quite there yet...

The boys were wrestling tonight. Daddy started it, but I think JHP must have finished it. I saw him trying out some of the moves he "learned" over the weekend. I heard lots of laughing, which is one sound I can never get enough of. JHP's laughter is simply the BEST!

I was lying in bed still when JHP woke up. I heard him stir and them I heard, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" That's the first time I've heard that. Thankfully, it didn't go on forever. He must have found his pacifier and settled in with his blankie until I arrived to retrieve him from his bed.

-EBP-

Read more...

Home Again

As I mentioned yesterday, John and I along with SNBNA crammed into my car and took a quick trip over to Lake Charles to see our friends Amy (who is expecting a boy in late January) & Jaime. Our friend Terri from Baton Rouge came over to meet us, too. It's been along time since we've seen them all and I was sad that hubby could not join us. He had to work. After unloading and letting the kids burn some steam we all kind of settled in for lots of visiting. This is not the easiest when you've got young ones around, but the kid at heart Jaime found some things to keep the kids entertained. He took off the kid gloves and grabbed his sparring gloves and the kids (and Jaime and Stephen) had a blast! John even decided that it would be cool to take some shots at Mommy, very gently, of course. The gloves were so heavy it was all he could do to rest them on you.

After a while the males decided to get in the pool and I got a little break from the Momma duty. They both deserve a HUGE thanks from me for that responsibility. John was in good hands and had a great time hanging with the guys. He asked once or twice for me, but once he saw me, all was good. He especially had fun splashing around and hanging out on the step where he could stand in chest deep water and hold the wall. Meanwhile, I got to visit with my girlfriends and enjoy a refreshing drink.

Uncle Stephen decided John needed a new hairstyle! Sometime after this picture was taken and before he got out of the pool for dinner, he got this long scratch across his face (you can see it in the next picture). No one knows quite how he came by it and it didn't seem to bother him. We ate and then played around some more.

It was past normal bedtime before we finally got the kids settled enough for bed. We had a pack-n-play set up for him in the room where I would be sleeping. It took a couple of tries before he finally gave in and slept. Unfortunately, he didn't stay asleep. Around 100am, he woke me. I'd only been in bed for an hour or so as I'd been up late chatting with the girls. He was quite unhappy so I pulled him up into the bed with me and he settle easily. But then I must have woken him when I tried to move him. And he refused to settle after that for very long. He'd fidget in the bed with me, drifting for a little while. Or maybe it was me drifting and not noticing him. So I'd put him back into the pack-n-play and he'd cry. Sometimes just a whimper and sometimes quite loudly. Then I'd put him back into the bed. And he'd fidget. What he really wanted to do was sleep laid out on top of me with his head on my shoulder. It reminded me of how Blue used to sleep on my chest. Sometimes I'd wake up feeling like it was difficult to breathe. Nine pounds was enough to make me a bit uncomfortable. Almost 30 pounds was too much. I could take it for a few minutes and then I'd move him and he would fidget some more. Back and forth from bed to pack-n-play he went. For FOUR HOURS. At some point I changed his diaper thinking maybe if he were more comfortable, he'd sleep easier. Nearing 530am, he actually would cry in the bed with me, saying "Mommy!" over and over. It was almost as if he wasn't sure it was really me. He'd stare at me and blink and then cry loudly. Almost a moaning. All I could do was hold him. I was exhausted so he must have been, too. Maybe that's why he was weeping so. Finally I got him nestled into my arms just right, much like when he was newborn, that we both slept for three hours or so solid. I managed to sneak out of bed. He slept on until almost 1000am.

He was mostly cheerful when he got up, but at times he was just plain resistant to anything I tried to do, especially when it came to food. He grazed through most of his breakfast and lunch eating only what he wanted, like goldfish pretzels.

"Hold me! Hold me!" was the mantra of the day for John. And most of the time, he'd even let someone else hold him. Barbara sat in the back seat on the way home in the not so comfortable seat between the boys' carseats. John did get a decent nap in, but only gave in to sleep after Barbara let him hold her hand. Andrew was so tired he slept almost the whole way, which made for an unusually long nap for him, not that any of us complained about the moments of silence.

As the boys were playing around in the gym today, John tripped over something and fell. He hit something on the way down that left a bruise those rose very quickly and had a nice lump under it. By the time we made it home today, he was showing signs of a black eye as it stretched across the lower part of John's left eye socket. I didn't take a picture with my camera, but my BFF has some that hopefully she'll send my way. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning if it will stay around for a few days.

I think Daddy was happy to see us and I imagine he also enjoyed the quiet as well. I'm sure the only thing that could have made it better was if he'd not had to work. John was happy to see Daddy, although he still showed moments of need-my-mommy. I did step out to go to a baby shower late this afternoon, but all was well when I arrived home. Thankfully! I'm so looking forward to some time to myself tomorrow when JHP goes to MDO. I have to prepare for John's birthday dinner!

There are plenty of pictures from the weekend on the WebAlbum!
-EBP-

Read more...

Quick Trip

Just a couple of pics from this morning. John and I are heading to Lake Charles with SNBNA to meet up with some friends: Amy & Jaime and Terri. Daddy is working. Boo! It will be a short trip and I doubt I'll get to post tonight. So I'll give you a double dose tomorrow!
-EBP-

Read more...

Hi! My name is John!

This is mostly what I saw today when we went to the park. He was everywhere. Running everywhere. I must be getting old because keeping up with him took some effort that I didn't seem to have today.

There were some other kids around, including two little girls who thought John was pretty cool. One tried to hug him and the other tried to give him a kiss. And my little lover boy took it all in stride. "Someone wants to give me a kiss? I'll take it!" It was quite funny to see!

I forgot to mention yesterday a few notable things that my son showed me that he knows:
1. At some point we were in the car and he had his drawing pad. One of the "stamps" is a duck. It took me a while to figure out what the noise was that he was making. I finally realized he was quacking like a duck.
2. We were sitting in the hotel room with Betty and I was trying to engage John enough to show off his knowledge of his body parts. He'd recently learned cheek, so I was touching his cheek and asking him "What is this?" His reply, "Skin." Huh? I was kinda flabbergasted. It's not like we use that word everyday around the house.
And the big one...
3. I was holding him and standing on front of the mirror in the hotel room. I pointed at the mirror and asked, "Who's that?" He said, "Mommy." And then I pointed at him in the mirror and asked "Who's that?". His reply, "John." It was the first time he'd not called his reflection in the mirror "baby." I know that they have been working on his name recognition at school. It's paying off!

-EBP-

Read more...

A favor

I picked John up a little early from MDO today to do a favor for my Aunt Betty. He was asleep when I got to MDO, but since he always seems to sense me when I'm near, he woke as the teacher passed and so she handed him over to me. He was in pretty good spirits after he shook the sleep off. Since we had a long trip ahead of us, I got him situated with a snack and some water. And opened the windows and sunroof. It was nice and cool (relatively speaking) today. And the I grabbed the camera because I saw that sparkle in his eye!

Aunt Betty needed a ride to from the airport to her hotel. Uncle Ed was coming in little later. We were happy to help her out. We picked her up and headed out to make some stops before arriving at the hotel. When we stopped at Central Market, I thought it would be good for John to stretch his legs as he'd been in the car for a long time. I guess I gave him to much credit. He started out OK listening to me, but then he saw some open space and took off running. After I finally caught him and much to the amusement of Betty and a few patrons, I ended up carrying him the rest of the time in the store.

Since I did carry him, John needed to stretch his legs a little more so we went up to the hotel room for a short visit. As John explored the room, he discovered Betty's suitcase, wanting to push it around. Much to our surprise, he was mostly successful in moving it, but he did drop it on his toe, ending the fun. Later, after Betty had emptied it, John did push it around, but I don't think he enjoyed it as much since he quickly moved on to something else.

While rummaging through the drawers (something he's not allowed to do at home), he discovered the Bible. He took it out, opened it up, and started to flip through pages. But there were no pictures and so back it went into the drawer.

I think Betty was pretty impressed by her grand-nephew and his speech capabilities. I'm happy we got to see her and only sorry that we missed Ed and the trip was so rushed, although I think more time with JHP might have just plain wore her out.

He was pretty much a ping pong ball this afternoon. I suspect the the time in the car contributed to the lack of concentrating on any one thing. On the trip home (during rush hour, no less) he wasn't much interested in anything, whined a little, and took both his shoes and socks off. He wanted me to help, but I told him he'd have to do it himself since we was stuck on the 610 / 45 interchange in traffic. He was quite happy to be home and see Daddy, who surprised us by being home. Originally, he was going to be at work late. Thankfully, JHP managed to keep his whine in check until bed. After all the running around today, I'm pretty sure tomorrow will include a leisurely breakfast and maybe a fun trip to the park if the weather holds.
-EBP-

Read more...

Pray

As we were getting ready to go to my Bible Study today, I put John's backpack diaper bag on him because I had my own things to carry. He was quite excited about carrying it himself. It weighs almost nothing, but yet, he still struggled at times. He carried his cup because otherwise he would have been lopsided. He did make it all the way to the car without tripping and without dropping either item. I was pretty impressed.

Of course, once we got there, we had drama at drop-off. I know it's normal at this age, but I feel like he's so Jekyll and Hyde about it. I can kiss him 50 times and give him the biggest hugs and he still screams. I guess the only consolation is that he does not cling to me with all his strength. So I guess that's a plus, right?

I'm just addicted to these pictures with half his face in the shadows. I could probably fill an album with pictures like this. I don't mean to do it, but I love the emotion that it evokes in me. I'm thinking I might really like this one in B&W...

While sitting at the computer today playing ABC's, I found John purposely selecting letters to push. This is really the first time I'd seen him do this. Most of the time, it seems he's just randomly pushing buttons. So I asked him to push certain buttons. Some he had trouble finding, but most he had no trouble. And he knows almost all of the animals that go with the letters, too. Such a smart cookie!

"Pray. Pray." Those are the words we hear most often now that "TaDa!" has slipped off slightly. We have always said a silent prayer at mealtimes. And when we gather with SNBNA, we also do a silent prayer. Now that A is getting older, he has learned the habit and will add an "Amen". JHP has picked that up, as well. Only within the last couple for weeks has he caught on to the idea of what we are doing and so, we have started to directly include him. Now he reminds us. Usually he's in his seat and eating before I am ( or John and I are). But when we sit, he'll say "Pray?" and we'll tell him yes. He'll hold out his hand to each of us and we'll all bow our heads (which he is now doing) and we say a short prayer. Amen. Then he usually asks us at least twice more to pray. And we usually do. I guess I'm feeling a little daunted about teaching John about God and how I should model being a Christian. I'm sure it's because I didn't really experience this as a child (not that I remember much of my childhood). I didn't grow up in a household that went to church or prayed before meals or at bedtime. I never doubted the existence of God, but I didn't know Him either. And now I need to raise my son in His ways. What an awesome responsibility! I hope that between John and I we can teach JHP what he needs to know to make his own commitment to God.

-EBP-

Read more...

All about the letters

This morning as I was busily making John's lunch for MDO he was exploring the fridge adornments. Some of them are his letters for his Fridge Phonics. Others are those cheapo magnets people send you as advertisement. I wasn't really paying attention to him until I started to hear letters and I looked up to see what he was doing. He was pointing out the large letters on this magnet. And he got them all right except for the O which he called P. He usually skips the O when we say the ABC's so it didn't really surprise me. He'll have to learn it since it is an integral part of his name.

It rained all day here. We really needed it, but it limited us to what we might do after MDO today. I decided since there was a good chance of heavy rain this afternoon, we would just go home. It made for a long, dreary afternoon. We had a snack. And we did some reading. I was finishing the morning paper on the couch and John was reading his books. He then climbed over to me and said "no" and tried to pull the paper down. I told him I was reading and he said "no read" and pushed the paper away and shoved a book into my hands. He wanted me to read to him. And so we did. After we were done I went back to reading the paper and John reread some books. When I got up to put the paper away I looked over and he had one of the paperback books I'd left on the side table in his hands, upside down. He looked at it for a few minutes and then left it there on the couch, moving on to something with pictures. He looked so serious while reading it.

We did get an accident report at school today. He tripped on one of the mats and bled from the lip. Looking at him today, he might have actually torn the frenulum with his upper lip a little, but it's hard to tell. He doesn't normally like me poking around his upper lip anyway. Oh, and I'm wondering if he might be teething again because he seems to have his hands in his mouth an awful lot lately. Or maybe he's doing that as a security / nervous thing. I'm not quite sure.

-EBP-

Read more...

Strong Man

This is not where the package of toilet paper started. John carried to over from the hallway. Then took a break before deciding it might be good to stand on. He'll stand on most anything to see what the vantage point is.

I asked him to go put it back where he found it. After some progress and rest (seen here), he succeeded putting it back in the general vicinity from whence it came.

This evening was slightly better than most recent evenings of MDO days. I'm not sure if it was because we went tot eh grocery after MDO and then home so there wasn't much activity to wear him out. Or if it was because he sat for an hour or so and watched Imagination Movers on tape while I prepared dinner. Again, a low-key activity. Regardless, it made for slightly quieter evening.

He didn't eat much for dinner. I'm trying to get him to eat what we are eating (within reason). My approach (I'm reading this book that kind of spells it out) is going to be that he gets to decided how much and how he eats whatever it is the I offer him. Thankfully, he's not quite to the point where he'll whine about wanting something different. So I gave him what we ate tonight, which was roast chicken, stir-fried okra, and long-grain and wild rice. He did take several bites of the rice and he tried the okra, but he refused the chicken. After many minutes, I did feed him some pureed peas and he drank most of his milk. But that was about it. I imagine he'll be hungry for breakfast. While we were cleaning up, he did once run over to the pantry and ask for cookies, then changed his mind and asked for pretzels. I told him no and that was the end of that. I was thankful that no scene ensued. And I'm sure that won't always be the case.

-EBP-

Read more...

Tales from the Red Chair

We were ready early for church today (we must be getting better at this because we are ready early more often these days!). SO i thought we'd take the opportunity to get some pics int eh red chair. And well, let's just say JHP was not really into it. I like this picture just because of his face. It's out of focus, but it's all him.

As is this one. He needed a distraction. And he found this little dog himself. It was in a zippered bag that he extracted from a basket of stuff I've yet to find new homes for. It turns out that my mom actually gave John a little red dog just like it and it now hangs on his ceiling fan pull chain. I only recently discovered that I already had one stuff in my box of beanies.

He finally graced me with a glance in my direction. And then it was time to leave for church. I;m sure he was quite thankful as he went running of in the direction of the door rather quickly.

There was drama at drop-off in the nursery. I just don't understand the ups and downs of it. I thought it was getting better, but then we took a few steps back. Such is life with a toddler, I guess.

"TaDa! " is still ingrained in the conversation here. I hope the MDO teachers don't tire of it this week! It is getting a little old.
-EBP-

Read more...

Uncle, Cousin, and Aunt - Oh, my!

We hadn't seen Jimmy, Jane, and June since her birthday party - in JUNE! SO sad to say that we've all been busy. And even sadder to say that the kids have changed so much, especially John with his vocabulary explosion among other things. Jimmy and June arrived while John was still napping (Jane joined us later). Once he woke, he turned into a shy boy burying his head in Momma's chest. June didn't bother him so much as Jimmy. I guess that's because Jimmy just wants to get a hold of him and love on him so much. Anyway, after a while, I went and sat next to Jimmy with John in my lap. Slowly he came out of his shell and started to interact.

Seeing John and June together was FANTASTIC! She worked so hard to get his attention, talk to him, and play with him. She wanted to play WITH him. And he loved it! Not all other kids pay him that much attention to him. June did keep calling him "Baby Peanut" and got a little frustrated when he wouldn't respond. I gently reminded her that he doesn't know that's what we used to call him. He only knows that his name is John. And, man, I tell you when she said his name, he quickly looked in her direction. I wish I got that kind of response when I said his name!

She even managed to get the both of them in the little car and drive it down the hallway. But that didn't last long. Those cars aren't big enough for two Buckley butts. In some of the other pictures in the car, you'll see him looking very serious. He was actually listening to her every word and following her directions. Get in. No, get out. Now, get in. It was most interesting to see the interaction.

Jane arrived and we went to eat some dinner. June wanted to ride with us to the restaurant and so we loaded up John. Then put in June's booster seat right next to John. And they both had a great time on the way. Laughing, giggling, and making funny noises. It was way late for dinner and that made for less than happy kids. And then we chose a restaurant that wasn't quite suitable for our entourage of kids. We did manage to enjoy our meals and were only an hour late for the kid's bedtime. And we vowed not to wait so long to see each other again!

-EBP-

Read more...

Ta Da!

We went over to our friend J's & B's house (not to be confused with the liquor!) today for a pay date. Some other folks were there and we generally had a good time. Although, I have to say, John was kind of whiny because he seemed to get banged up a bit, mostly of his own accord. He did find a really cool toy to play with - a car that you could take apart. It had big screws that held it together and it's own screwdriver. You can tell from this picture, he was concentrating hard on getting it apart and together with only a little help from Momma. We hurried home for lunch and a nice long nap!

While John slept, I made some zucchini muffins. And when he woke up he saw the large contingent of muffins on the islands and immediately started to point. So he learned the word muffin today. And really enjoyed his two mini muffins that he had for a snack. Good thing I made 24 little ones!

His word for weekhas been "TaDa!". He used it extensively today at the play date and again tonight at SNBNA's house, where we went for dinner. He says it with such gusto. And I can only guess that he got it from me or John. Do I really sound like that?

Also, twice today he launched into part of the alphabet, midstream. He's been singing to himself a lot lately. Today when he was singing, somewhere in the middle he said, "LMNOP" and then sang on with something else. Stopped me and John both when we heard it. So much fun!

-EBP-

Read more...

Park date

The weather here today was actually not too hot, a bit windy, and overcast, which made for a nice afternoon to be outside. So after I picked John up from MDO and we went home for a snack, we ran over to a park that it not far from the house. it's not our neighborhood park, but one right near our house. Normally, i kind of stay away from this park because it has a pond and that means the mosquitoes can carry you off if you aren't careful. The wind did us a favor today, though and I think I only saw one the whole time we were there. YEAH!

We were there almost by ourselves for a while. Then some older kids arrived, having just gotten out of school. It was pretty nice day to be outside. The weather's been unusual the last few days, making me think more of fall than I normally do this early into it. But I'm not complaining. Promise!

We walked around the pond, which John kept calling a pool. He would repeat pond, but he thought it was a pool.

-EBP-

Read more...