Cold water

This is what remains if the paapaa tonight. I took another bit off today. I kinda thought this afternoon that John was puzzled by the change when I put him down for his nap. It's quite obvious that the paapaa doesn't hold the same satisfaction for him, but that doesn't keep him from asking for it. For instance, tonight he got real upset when Daddy yelled at him for being to close to the gas grill (which was on at the time). I scooped him up and took him inside and the first words he uttered were, "paapaa, paapaa" in long drawn out syllables. He hadn't done that in ages. I was able to distract him from the thought and he calmed down on his own. At bedtime tonight, Daddy said John didn't ask for the pacifier at all until he put him in his crib. Then he took it and said, "too broken," holding it nonetheless. I guess he understands that it's not what it once was.

Lately John asks for cold water to drink after bath. We keep a cup in the bathroom just for that purpose. Tonight he started to drink out of the faucet. Daddy turned the water on slowly, he drank, and he found the adventure funny. And cold. His lips were blue when he finished!

-EBP-

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Anatomy of a Time-Out

His deed: Throwing a ball in the house when he was already told not to throw it

His punishment: Two minutes in Time-Out

Daddy sat on the couch and I sat in the blue chair in the den. Daddy would peak around me to see John who was looking at us. When caught, he would quickly look away. The instructions were to sit in the chair looking at the door with his hands in his lap. Two out of three isn't bad!

I guess John was thinking, “If I don’t look at Daddy, then I’m not responsible for what he says, right?”

Looking pretty serious…

Actually I think he was trying to figure out what he could do to “break” Daddy. The cute little squeezed-shoulder, scrunched up smiling face did the trick.

And stinker John knew it!

But Daddy wasn’t done with the discussion and so it continued, quite seriously. And when asked, “Are you going to throw the ball in the house anymore?” John answered, “Yep!” He must do this just to see our frustration!

And of the record, JHP didn’t nap again today. He laid there quietly on his mat while everyone else napped. Maybe he can sleep with his eyes open because he was in a pretty good mood the rest of the day.

-EBP-

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Week 13 - "Dramatic B&W" i heart faces photo challenge

Most of my regular readers have probably seen this picture before. Although I'm pretty sure this wasn't in B&W if I put it on the blog back then. It was taken in August 2009. John was 18 months old here. He looks so much older with the face and the cap on backwards. The photo challenge this week is Dramatic B&W. I think this fits the bill. I find it very moody. What do you think?

For more Dramatic B&W entries, see the huge response over at:




-EBP-

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Time-Out

John's digestive tract improved today, although it's not back to normal. We did not go far from the house, only to the grocery and back. We'd originally planned to go strawberry picking. Maybe I'll try later in the week.

The last couple of days he hasn't eaten much at lunch time. Today I did manage to get him to eat some yogurt, which he needs to fix his system. But tonight at dinner (and last night, too) he made up for it. He woke late from his nap and was getting his "snack" around 500p. He asked for a banana and actually ate it, which hasn't happened in AGES. I mean I've given him banana before only to have him return it to me. I gave him the whole banana and set him at the table while I started dinner. Daddy sat with him when he got home as I continued to work on dinner. And what started as a snack turned into dinner as John slowly ate almost the whole banana, some of his leftover lunch, the potatoes I made for dinner, and part of a roll. I was so shocked that he ate as much as he did and that he sat in the chair for over an hour having a leisurely meal.

He did take a couple of breaks, once to get his diaper changed and another time to sit in Time-Out. The funny thing about Time-Out is that he just doesn't get it. He must have asked me 5 times today if he could sit in Time-Out. "Uh, no, you didn't do anything wrong. Time-Out is for when you do something bad like when you get a spanking. It's punishment." Now, he doesn't like spankings at all, but Time-Out's don't seem to bother him much. As meals wear on, he tends to get a bit animated. Lately he'll get louder than he should or started blowing zerberts (spitting). Tonight, he was quacking like a duck. Daddy told him not to quack like a duck. And what did he do? He bocked like a chicken, flapping his arms to exaggerate his point. Daddy wasn't happy, but we busted out laughing anyway. The kid is too smart! Then Daddy told him not to make any animal sounds. John immediately went back to quacking like a duck, earning him a trip to Time-Out for not listening. The funny thing is John listens and follows the rules for Time-Out (no talking, hands in your lap, facing the wall). Maybe we need to revisit the Time-Out policy. I'm not so sure it's effective.

I should note the reason the picture above is black and white is that my flash failed to go off, leaving me with an awful color and not a lot of detail. I saved it by changing it to black & white. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't.

-EBP-

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Car Basketball

The latest rage at our house involves the Garage that John got for Christmas. We call it Car Basketball. Line the cars (or anything else that rolls down the ramp) up and let them go.

Watch and wait.

The object is to get them in the bucket. Sometimes a whole slew of cars go down the ramp at once. Sometimes plastic Easter eggs get called for duty. Elmo even took a slide today once we put it on the ground (sans bucket). We even discovered that the small potato heads fit without their shoes on.

And when JHP gets distracted moving on to something else, JNP continues to play. Notice that both cars are airborne here.

It was not a normal Sunday here. I slept in. By the time I got up, Daddy and John had both had breakfast and TWO dirty, messy diapers had been changed. A short while later, number 3 arrived. After that I quickly decided that JHP was not going to church and sharing whatever was going on. I opted to stay home with him, and Daddy went to church. I should note that JHP's BM's haven't been normal for a week or so, but they've been nothing like today's episodes of diarrhea. I didn't think much when we set off for the park on foot. It sure is a good thing John was OK until after we returned. It just appears that his system is processing things pretty fast. And Daddy and I were both thankful that he wasn't vomiting, too. He didn't eat much for lunch but went down pretty easily for his nap, albeit a tad later than usual. We'd hoped to see the Jim Buckley's for dinner, but certainly didn't want to share any illness. So we passed and ate takeout instead. His appetite returned for dinner but so did the soon to follow BM. The rest of the evening was pleasant and uneventful. John and I were supposed to go strawberry picking tomorrow, but I'm not sure we will given his condition. I'll just see how it goes overnight.

-EBP-

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To Remember:

Last summer's sandals are too small, but John insisted on wearing them around the house today.

It wasn't until late afternoon that John finally had a cup for water today. He drank out of a cup & straw in the bathroom after we came in from outside and washed our hands. When I was trying to take this picture, he just kept walking towards me...

I had to goad him into smiling for me. He finally gave in and gave me a funny, laughing smile.

Our marigold seeds started coming up yesterday. I had to turn them twice today. They are drawn to the light. We keep them covered (I took it off for the picture) and on the same windowsill that sprouted John's beans. Also, we planted John's beans in a big pot today. Hopefully, it's warm enough, but not too hot outside.

It was date night tonight. John and I went to dinner and then did a little shopping. Our only purchase was some more RAM for the computer. (Hopefully we'll notice a difference once I get it installed!) We had a new sitter come tonight. It's one of the girls that John sees in the nursery on Sunday mornings. She's taken a liking to him and he to her. We purposefully didn't tell him she was coming until late this afternoon (after the nap he DIDN'T take - second day in a row...) for fear he'd get all whiny like he did with the previous sitter. But he was fine and seemed happy to see her. She said he didn't fuss much at all, even when she left him in the crib. I'm thankful because I was afraid with no nap that he'd have a major meltdown. But she obviously had it all under control. Sweet!

-EBP-

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No nap Pitcher

My Wednesday Bible study group had a little Easter egg hunt today. John did pretty well this year as compared to last. He easily found eggs and enjoyed putting them in his basket. After the hunt ,we snacked and played before coming home for lunch. He spent lots of time this afternoon playing with the eggs once we emptied them out. He was interested in the contents, but the eggs in the basket was what he carted around the house and was quite proud of.

My friend Alissa asked if I'd been in any of the pictures. Of course not! She rectified that by taking this great picture of us together.

You wouldn't guess that this happy face did not take a nap this afternoon. He had about two hours of "quiet time" in his crib, not that he was quiet for most of that time. I finally gave in when it became obvious there would be no nap and got him up.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were pretty pleasant. But when it came time to start the bedtime routine and he didn't get his way to watch more TV, the meltdown began. With much drama and resistance, I managed to get him bathed, dressed and in bed by myself. (Daddy went to watch Purdue in their Sweet Sixteen game tonight!) He did cry a little, but soon quieted down. He was super tired and so ready for bed. I hope he sleeps well.

-EBP-

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Building Blocks

For the second time this week, this is how I found my son when I went to pick him up from MDO.  Today he had another time-out at lunch time for yelling and spitting.  As a result, he didn’t eat much and took forever to fall asleep, leaving him short on nap today.  And he wasn’t too happy when he woke up.  So we went to the small playground to eat some of his leftover lunch and play a little.

 

He did play for a little while and then started to whine about going home to watch Veggie Tales.  It was a nice day, but he was cranky and I didn’t want to rock the boat.  But I guess the boat was going to rock regardless of what I said because we hadn’t gotten 10 feet out of the playground before he started to pitch a fit about wanting to stay.  Ugh!  I was committed to what I said we’d do and he didn’t like it.  I actually had to pick him up and carry him to the car.  He cried the whole way home.  He ate some more once we got home and then we watched Veggie Tales.  All was good.

We had a frozen pizza for dinner.  John usually asks for crust and he did tonight.  The pizza was a very thin crust with a white sauce, garlic and chicken on it.  I broke off a piece of crust for him and he ate it right up.  Without making a scene I decided to take a piece off the rest of the pizza and see how that went.  By golly, he ate it too.  And asked for more.  So, I went to cut him a really thin slice and handed it over.  He handled it a bit and then turned it around and started eating from the crust end first.  And ate it all plus most of another piece (same way).  Of course, he didn’t eat much else after that.  He did put the raw spinach that was on his plate in his mouth.  Then he took it back out.  I’ll take the small triumphs.

The last two nights we’ve worked on stacking wood blocks.  Last night, more than once John made a stack taller than he was.  He was quite proud.  Tonight, he and Daddy made a stack using all 28 blocks.  I should note that the block towers don’t last long on the carpet.  That’s why you see they were using the block cart as the base.

Of course, most of the fun of stacking blocks is getting to knock them down.  John excels at this task!  Very slowly, they pushed this stack in hopes I would catch the fall in action.  I did!

It’s after 9pm and JHP is still not asleep.  He’s been in his bed for over an hour.  I guess the short nap this afternoon is really rearing it’s ugly head.  He seems so tired, but not yet ready to give it up for the night.  Rest, baby, rest!

-EBP-

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Wordless Wednesday: Potato Head Edition

-EBP-

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Pasta

It was another lovely day today. So we spent lots of time outside. We played for quite awhile after MDO. He enjoyed trying to be all cute for some of the other mothers who were present today at the playground. Then, after an early-ish supper, we had plenty of time to enjoy the evening before bedtime and the mosquitoes! Daddy actually saw one yesterday. Today we just saw a slew of mosquito hawks, which JHP is NOT a fan of. We've told him over and over that they won't hurt him, but I guess their size spooks him.

I don't know what it is about this facial expression that I love. Maybe it's just that he still does it when he's trying to do something. One day he won't, and I guess I'll be sad.

John's throwing is getting better. Most of the time it's pretty straight when he throws it correctly (as opposed to when he flops his wrist). But he can't catch to save his life. I know this is developed much later, but it's so funny to watch him just stand there when the ball bonks him on the head. He doesn't duck or react hardly at all. Thank goodness, he loves to chase the ball.

One other thing I'd like to note is that John ate pasta today for the first time. I was cooking some fusilli to go into our Italian shrimp pasta toss. John asked for some and so I gave him a raw (dried) piece, thinking he'd just hand it back to me. But he didn't. He bit into it and asked for another. I told him we were cooking some for dinner and he could have some then. I reserved some for him and we sat down to eat. And he ate the pasta. All of it. I'd had the forethought to reserve a little more and he ate that too. And asked for more. I won't hold my breathe that this will happen again soon, but I'm still happy. It's been a frustrating several days. It seems that he's hardly eaten some days. And once again, things that he would always eat won't pass muster now. So we've gone back to feeding him some pureed veggies after a two week plus hiatus. He's not thrilled, but he'll eat them. If only a few more things would become possible fare...

-EBP-

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Big Bubbles

It turned out to be a lovely day. Full sun and a light breeze with temperatures near 70. After MDO we went to play. It was just us. We took turns sliding and then I played around with the settings on my point and shoot. I like my point and shoot, but it's not my dSLR. Today I think I might have found some settings that make it difficult to tell the difference. Of course if you look closely, you'll see this is not as sharp as my dSLR is capable of shooting. But I like the picture anyway.

After supper, we went in the backyard and played with some bubbles. I'd bought this large ring that makes really big bubbles a few weeks ago and we'd yet to try it out.

It has a tray where you put the solution. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I'd given the wand to John he managed to spill most of the solution on his pants and his shoes. But he had fun anyway. It took a while to convince him to blow gently for these large bubbles. He kept wanting to just shake the wand around furiously. This worked well for the small bubble wand, but not this large one. (Can you tell what Daddy's doing in the background? Pulling weeds! He didn't start this immediately. It was only after he'd given the camera back to me.)

John did finally get a hang of the bubble blowing. He was able to make some nice large bubbles. There are lots more pictures from today on the WebAlbums.

I'm finally feeling almost back to myself. My nose is considerably more clear today than it has been in the last couple of days. John's nose is still running a little, but it's nothing that can't easily be kept in check by a tissue. Daddy, this far, has managed to escape the runny nose. Lucky him!

-EBP-

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