Party Horns

Last Tuesday afternoon we skipped Quiet Time to enjoy some time at the (very hot) park for a birthday party.  It was one of John's good friends from last year.  They aren't in the same class this year, but that doesn't stop them from continuing their friendship.  "L" asked her Mom specifically if John could come to her party and we didn't want to disappoint.  He was most excited about her party and seeing her.  And he insisted we bring her a present.  As is normally the case with him, he changed his mind several times, but we finally settled on some nice flowers, a little potted mum.

John was always picking on several of the girls in his class last year.  While I think he thought "A" was the cutest, he always talked about "L".  So this past spring and summer, while John was on his kick about having a baby sister in the spring, like Franklin's mother did (Franklin's a turtle on TV), he decided that his baby sister would be called "L".  And nothing would change him mind.  Several weeks later, he decided he wanted a baby brother.  When I asked what he would call him, John replied, "L, of course!"

I've got a cute photo of the two of them together, but I need to check with L's mom to see if I can post it!  I'll stick it here if I can later.  ETA:  She said yes!

John loved the party horns!  It was his first experience!  And I was so glad we were outside!

He would blow and blow them!

And crack himself up!  It was the funniest thing!

I thought this photo was funny.  He loves this bridge and loves to jump on it.  But obviously, at this moment in time, it was not so fun.  I don't remember, but I'm guessing that he fell down and was just getting up.

-EBP-

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Bat and ball

Gee, these photos are almost a week old.  I'm behind again.  Got at least two more posts in the bag besides this one (and whatever comes up this week!).  But such is life at my house! 

The boys had just been playing around outside and I wandered out with the camera.  Daddy went to go finish something and so John had no one play with.  So he posed.  Totally cheesy!

Here's the normal face, caught in between cheesy grins.

He's ready to play ball.  His eye-hand coordination is getting better.  Maybe if I got him a bigger bat instead of that itty-bitty one he's had forever...

Another pose.  If he wants to act funny he thinks he needs to lift his leg up like a stork and do other "crazy" things with his limbs.  And it seems he really needed to concentrate, hence the tongue on his upper lip.

As a follow up to last post...  I think I've gotten over the hump.  John didn't nap Friday, but he napped Saturday and today.  And his attitude has improved somewhat.  Not so disrespectful.  The weekend was a good one.  More to tell later about our adventures.

-EBP-

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A diversion

If you'd rather not read my sob-story, then just look at the cute photos of John watching his video and move on.  I'm totally OK with that.  I'll likely not read this (again) either.

We are in an in-between stage that I'm beginning to hate.  Really HATE!  Because I can't control it and it's unpredictable.  What am I speaking of?  The end of naps.  Yeah, I've complained about it before.  But I think the end is really near, if not already here.  And you know, I'm not torn up about that, really.  I can live with Quiet Time.  What I'm having trouble with is the unpredictability of what happens when he doesn't rest his body.

I admit I'm a control freak.  And after 3 years and 7 months, you'd think I'd learn that I can't control JHP all the time.  He's becoming his own little person.  And that's a good thing.  We've been down the No-Nap Pitcher road before.  And that's why I'm having trouble today.  I know what to expect.  The unpredictability of it.  OK - so this is kinda being a baby on my part.  But I totally lost it today.  I had the meltdown. 

I'm having trouble with knowing that on any given day that John doesn't nap, he'll be a major roller coaster with his parents in the front seat.  He's always been that way.  It's his MO.  Once he gets past a certain point, he is either really high or really low.  You've heard me describe this before.  The uncontrollable crying and the absolute silliness (I posted about that yesterday).  He's never been the type of kid to fall asleep at the table because he's tired (well, except for that one time when he was around one and had gone on a nap strike).  The only time I've seen him just lay around on the couch was when he had a major double ear infection and ran 102 deg fever for near a week.  He just doesn't do it!  He copes with the tiredness by just going harder at whatever he's doing, forcing it, really.  And if there's a captive audience, the entertainer in him takes over.  And living with that gets old.

I know it's me.  I know I need to learn to cope.  But honestly, today there just wasn't any way I could see to do it.  It's been a long week.  This resulted in less than perfect meal planning (and execution) on my part.  Dinner out was already on my mind.  An impromptu invite for dinner out scared me.  Why?  Because John hadn't napped.  His unpredictability had started when I picked him up from school at 2pm and he melted down because he couldn't carry all his own stuff.  Then when I had to change his plans suddenly, he pulled out his bad attitude and sulked all the way to the car.  Then he proceeded to be rude and disrespectful (a common problem these days!).  Yep, he needed that nap.  And I figured he'd take it.  But he couldn't stop moving long enough during quiet time to allow that to happen.  So dinner out was out of the question after a consultation with Daddy.  And I was disappointed, which led to my meltdown.

Faced with bathing John tonight, I buried my head and Daddy picked up my slack.  I was so overwhelmed that I had trouble even looking at JHP most of the evening.  That should've been my clue that I was the one was overreacting.  But only now is that clear.  At the time I couldn't get past the feelings of hurt regarding the sacrifice of dinner out with friends.  And you know what?  JHP managed to stay on an even keel until the end of bath.  He ate lots of dinner including a whole banana.  I can't even tell you the last time he ate a WHOLE banana.  He cleaned up as he was asked and didn't fuss when told it was time to brush his teeth.  John got in trouble because he didn't listen at the end of bath and that resulted in a flow of tears and calls for Bear and Blankie.  John recovered his emotions well enough that he made it through reading and we only heard from him once tonight, to go potty one more time.  Daddy said John was really tired.

I've got to get a handle on this new reality.  I can't let the unpredictability scare me.  I've got to figure out how to manage my feelings without wigging out.  And maybe figure out a way to manage Quiet Time better to encourage a nap.  Of course, a nap then results in another problem: JHP not wanting to go to sleep at night.  The other day we knew we'd be out all afternoon, so in lieu of QT, we opted to let John watch a video when we got home.  I can't remember now how that evening went.  But maybe we need to consider more out of the box ideas to make him "Be Still."

-EBP-

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Funny Noises

Boys in this house KNOW how to make funny noises.  The bathtub adds a new dimension.  The latest noise JHP has learned sounds like a fart.  Yeah, I know.  Surprise, surprise! Those are the most popular noises, aren't they?  I decided a photo wasn't going to convey what I wanted so I had to post a video, too.  Enjoy!

-EBP-

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Picnic at the Park

I found these on my phone today.  I'd forgotten about them, but they are only a few days old.  On Wednesday when I picked John up from school, it was just too pretty to go home and eat lunch indoors.  I'd been out and about all morning so I didn't have a lunch packed.  There was a light breeze and it was bright, sunny and not too hot yet.  It seemed like forever since the weather encouraged us to picnic, so I didn't pass up the opportunity.  We ran through the drive through and headed over to Bay Area Park.  There were a few folks enjoying the park that day just like us.  Too pretty to resist.

After finishing lunch, John ran and ran moving from one place to the next, totally enjoying the freedom and the weather.  After a while, though, he got a little red-cheeked.

And the water ran out.  We rested for a while and played a bit more, but then it was time to go home.  It's good to know that when he gets hot, he KNOWS he needs to drink water.

-EBP-

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City Park

Today we went to what seems to be John's favorite park, what he calls "City Park".  I'm not really sure what it's proper name is.  It's right across from the library and it's rather old.  But it has a couple of endearing qualities: a clock and space shuttles.  You'll remember this park from this post, although he's grown a bit since then.  Like a foot, maybe.

I'm fairly sure these were custom made for this park.  I can't say I've ever seen anything like them.  They were the first thing John wanted to play on when we got there.

And, of course, he wanted me to take a ride with him.  I really like the point & shoot since the wide angle allows me to be in the photo, too.

I think the last time I took a shot from this vantage point he was considerably shorter and much more interested in exploring the clock.  Today it was like pulling teeth to get him to stand there for the photo. 

It was a pretty day, although the heat is returning.  It's been a beautiful week of teasing weather.  Teasing us with cooler nights, crisp mornings, and a light north wind.  Now I think the tease is over with.  Dry and hot is what we are to expect.  We need another cold front, please!

-EBP-

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Laboring over the weekend

Labor day weekend was extremely productive at our house.  My major project was the liberation of hangers, AKA cleaning out my closet.  The motivation was the church garage sale coming up.  But honestly, it was WAY overdue.  I finally came to realization that my body would never fit back into some of those clothes post baby.  My body shape has changed.  I didn't take a photo of all the stuff I took out of the closet.  I'm ashamed of just how much that was.  A less impressive photo of all the hangers I freed will have to do. 

The other major project for the weekend was the replacement of our garbage disposal.  The old one was stuck and even after we got it free to move, the nickel that was wedged under one of the blades wasn't going anywhere.  It was original to the house and quite loud.  My husband caved to my suggestion and brought home a more expensive replacement.  It is the QUIETEST disposal I've ever hear.  You even really tell when it's running.  And the sink doesn't vibrate. at. all.  I like it and I'm quite proud that my husband successfully installed it himself.  We only had one minor hiccup and that was my fault.  It was easily rectified. We also managed to get the yard mowed and the garage cleaned out this weekend.  All in all, we were quite productive.  I felt pretty good about what we'd gotten done!

The boys got new toys over the weekend, too.  My husband had never been to the Lego Store.  It was hard to believe, but after lunch Saturday, he actually wanted to go to the mall to experience the Lego Store.  We couldn't leave without something.  So each one got a Star Wars battle pack.  And they had a good time putting them together.

Sunday night we met SNBNA for dinner.  We'd gotten a new Lego catalog in the mail on Saturday and John brought it along to share.  It proved just the right entertainment for the whole table.  We've always kept past catalogs, but lately JHP's been obsessed with them.  He's just about memorized all the Star Wars mini-figures.  And his first choice of reading material most days for quiet time is a Lego catalog.

-EBP-

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Sleeping Beauty

Quiet time / naps have been hit or miss lately.  After yesterday, I set some ground rules for John at quiet time today, making it very clear what my expectations were.  While he was a little more rambunctious than I like, he did stay in his room.  And he napped.  This is how I found him, minus the big brown bear blocking his view of anything.  I hadn't turned the fan up, but I guess either he got bored and put the pullover on or he was cold.

Can you see the drool running out of his mouth?

I tried to wake him, but he only stirred a little.

A large stack of reading material scattered at the foot of his bed.

Once he finally woke and moved positions, I tried to get some more photos, but he wasn't much interested.  Daddy came home and John was OK for a short while before he fell off into the abyss of emotions.  He was crying uncontrollably and didn't want to cooperate.  We opted to try a hail mary and decided to join SNBNA at their house anyway.  It only took until we turned into their neighborhood that he stopped crying.  And the rest of the evening was just fine.  I guess he just needed a diversion.

-EBP-

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Twenty-five minutes does not a nap make!

Wow, Thursday night was a rough evening!  After he finally fell asleep at 425p or so, I went in to wake John 25 minutes later.  He hadn't napped and wasn't especially quiet during quiet time.  I'd actually sent him back into his room at 425p and only when I went in to get him a short while later did I realize that it was too quiet for him to be awake.  He woke up fairly easily and was pleasant until bath when things started downhill.  It was the most blatant display of defiance we've seen yet.  Even after a spanking to address it in the tub, it continued resulting in the loss of reading for the evening.  Later, two more spankings led to many tears and lots of time in the rocking chair, just me and JHP.

This was on top of a relatively good day.  School's been great this week.  There's been no adjustment needed to a new classroom.  Each day we've gotten a run down of the "helper" jobs in the classroom.  John was line leader Tuesday, door holder Wednesday, and snack helper Thursday.  But we know exactly what everyone else's job was too.  He told us in great detail.  I've even figured out the rotation already!

Anyway, the day was good.  Quiet time was not too quiet, as I mentioned.  I had to spank him then too.  It always seems that it goes in spurt like this.  We've had to make it clear that routinely leaving his room just to ask questions when he should be having quiet tie or should be sleeping is not allowed.  Mostly because he'll just make up excuses to get out of his room.  Often we have to remind him of the punishment: a spanking.  So when he left the room and told me he didn't want to have quiet time, I told him he had a choice: get a spanking or get back in bed.  He got in bed and then came out a few minutes later and informed me that he wanted a spanking.  I'm thinking, really, are you sure?  So I inform him that a spanking doesn't let him off of staying in bed.  I'm not sure he realized that.  I administered the punishment and comforted him, thinking that it might inspire a nap.  Not really but it was many minutes later that he came out of his room again.  That's when I sent him back and he fell asleep.  At 425p.

-EBP-

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So Cool(er) !

On Thursday August 25, after 24 days of 100 degree+ temperatures, we woke to a gray cloud covered morning.  Could it be that rain was coming?  After breakfast and checking the radar, we waited.  There was some nasty storms headed our way.  Shortly before 930a, the skies opened up and dumped 2.2 inches of rain on our house over the next several hours.  We opted to enjoy the coziness of the house for a while before heading out to Jumpin' Jungle and running some other errands.  The treat of the day was that the rain cooled the earth well enough that even at 2pm, the temperature was under 80 degrees outside.  The high that day turned out to be 95 degrees, a normal high for this time of year in Houston.

Update: The statistics have since been published showing that Houston had an average temperature of 90.4 degrees for the month of August, totally blowing the previous record out of the water by 2.5 degrees.  We finished August with just this one single day below 100 degrees.  Two days later we hit an all-time record high for Houston when we hit 109 degrees.  The scientists think this won't happen again for decades.  We'll see if they are right.

One of our stops on that day was Tuesday Morning.  It's always interesting to browse the toy section there.  You will often find some not so common things on their shelves.  We found a cool one that day.

I'd first seen these "Take-A-Part" vehicles at my friend Jennifer's house.  They had an SUV.  We scored the Bi-Plane.  Just about every piece of the plane comes apart, being held together by these plastic screws.  It even came with a mechanic's tool to repair the plane.  And it's very well made.  Can you tell I think it's really cool?  Before too long, I'm sure John will know "Lefty loosey, righty tighty!"

-EBP-

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