Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Well friends, I never thought I would dress my boys up in matching outfits. It seems Wy never thought he would have to endure this humiliation!

As crazy as my schedule has been this week, I have managed to get in some fun time with my men folk. Jack loves his songs but I’m getting a little tired of “I’ve been workin’ on the railroad” as Jack sings it ALL – DAY – LONG. Just to shake things up a bit I started singing “Take me out to the ballgame.” Jack LOVES this song. He loves to run a huge circle through the living room, dining room and kitchen while I sing it to him. (He and Wyatt think this is hysterical.) So this morning I was singing the ballgame song but I started to leave off the last word of each phrase in hopes that Jack would fill in the blanks. I sang "Take me out to the..." and without missing a beat, Jack responds "BAR!!!" I told him he had to wait a bit.

We went out to eat the other night and it rained to beat the band while we were inside. As we were heading out to the car, Jack started jumping in the puddles. John said "Not now, buddy." but Wyatt giggled pretty hard. That was all the encouragement Jack needed so he started hopping up and down in this puddle and Wyatt was giggling and giggling. They were so funny egging each other on!

Still no progress on the potty training front, but neither do we have any regression - so I would have to say that holding steady is better than nothing. Wyatt is starting to express some interest in the potty chair though. He likes to sit on it with the lid closed. He actually loves to sit there and brush his teeth. Wy was doing just that the other day when Jack made a move to try and scoot Wy off the chair so Jack could make some water. Wy started shrieking at Jack and shoved him off. I could clearly hear what he couldn't say "MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!!!!"

Little Wy is starting to take a few of Jack's trains to bed at night. It seems his favorite is a yellow train & tender whose name is Molly. I'm not sure why he has latched on to her, but she goes to bed with him more than any of the other trains. We are also making a move toward Wy sleeping the whole night in his own bed. I am the weak link in this department. When Wy wakes up at whatever ungoldy hour(s) in the night - I just think "I'll make him stay in his own bed tomorrow..." and I bring him to bed with me. I just get to sleep so much faster. Finally Wy didn't even want to go to sleep in his own bed. The new routine is that JOHN takes care of Wy in the middle of the night. Wy's crying wakes me up, I wake up John, John goes to Wy and I go to sleep. It may not be fair to John, but Wy goes back to sleep much quicker for John and he stays in his own bed!!! Mama wins all the way around!

What else is new with Wy? He can drink from a cup and a can. He can give "5". You put out your hand and tell him "Give me 5!" He raises his hand high above his head and holds it there so long you think he isn't going to do anything, then he smacks his hand down on yours: smack, smack, smack, smack, smack AND smack! I think he is just reaching as high as he possibly can before he gives "5". He has found and fallen in love with his belly button! He is constantly lifting up his shirt and poking his it. He helps put on his clothes: he can step into his pants, he holds his feet up for socks and shoes, and he puts his arms into the arms of his shirts.

Jack has a new pair of black cowboy boots. They are quite handsome and he LOVES to wear them. He wears them with everything. Thus far my favorite ensemble has been the Lightning McQueen t-shirt and shorts with the black boots and his tricycle helmet. We went for a super long ride earlier in the week. I let Jack pick where we were going while I kept us close to home in case he got tired. That child peddaled around for 45 minutes. Little red, yellow and blue Radio Flyer trike, t-shirt, shorts, helmet and black cowboy boots. Everyone who walked or drove past us had huge grins on their faces.


He loves his trike so much that he has asked me to take it to Aunt Beth's this week. He has insisted on wearing his helmet as we drive out to her place. (Here he is wearing the helmet in the car and watching Thomas on the portable DVD plaery.) As soon as we get there he wants the trike out of the trunk so he can ride it up to her door. Her driveway is about 3 carlengths long. On the outsides of the drive are stamped concrete squares that run the lenght of the drive. Jack treats this strip as his own personal runway. Back and forth he rides. We moved our cars so he could take advantage of the huge drive and he stuck with the narrow stamped strip.

A few other new Jack things: He responds to almost everything with a "Yes, sir." or "No, sir" whether you are a sir or not. I'll ask him if he wants a bowl of cereal and he responds "OK, go ahead" sounding like a dead ringer for Eyeore. He now asks if he can watch "Mr. Brown" and for days I had NO IDEA WHAT he was talking about. Finally John told me that Mr. Brown is what Jack calls A Charlie Brown Christmas. He encourages Wyatt so much. If Wy is trying to do something, Jack says "Come on, Wyatt! You can do it!" And at night as we put the boys to bed, if Wy starts to cry, Jack lies in bed and covers his ears until he or Wy falls asleep.

Before I wrap up for the week, I thought I would share a few stories from Gran's services last week. The visitation was held Thursday night and almost from the moment we arrived Jack was wired for sound. That boy is always so well behaved that anytime he 'acts up' it seems huge to me. He was running around the front of the room, climbing the furniture, squealing and making so much noise. I was on the verge of being so embarrased, but John made a very insightful point: we had just spent days around all these folks and all the kids were running around having fun and everyone had been loud and chaotic. How was Jack to know this time was or should be different? And it had only been a few days earlier that I had worried about how Jack wasn't running around with his cousins having fun. Be careful what you wish for, huh?



We went back to the funeral home early the following morning for a rosary before the funeral services and I knew the kids (mine and others) just wouldn't make it through another rosary. (We had said one the night before.) Knowing full well there might be other services going on at the funeral home, I walked into the communal coffee room, piked up the toy table and toys and hauled them into Gran's visitation hall for the kids. I think it was one of the smartest things I did that day.

And my sweet boy has not forgotten his Great. Do you all remember the animated characters of the California Raisons? Gran loved those things and had a little collection of them at her computer desk. She would sometimes give one to Jack to see if he wanted to play with them. I don't think he ever put a hand on one of them. My mom brought a few of them home yesterday and put them up near our computer and as Jack watched her he asked "Where's Great?"

Finally, I couldn't resist throwing in these two pool time photos. Well friends, I have taken up enough of your time today. Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers and we will share more of our life with you next week. God bless and keep you all! Love, A, J, J & WY Guy