Merrry Christmas!

John and Jack made sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. Wy made a few pit stops at the cookie making station, but he was only interested in eating cookie dough or playing with the dishes. My other fellas had a great time cutting out cookies and drizzling them with homemade icing. Each of the boys picked out a cookie to leave for Santa. Wy ate most of the cookie he selected while Jack drank all of Santa's milk. They did leave the plate, one and a half cookies and an empty glass of milk on the hearth. I'm sure Santa understood. (And yes,that is a spaghetti noodle spoon that Wyatt is brandishing. He loves large utensils.)



For the last few weeks I have been explaining to Jack that Santa brings presents and kids get to ask Santa for something they want. I told him kids don't always get what they ask for, but it never hurts to ask. I would let him think about this and then ask if he wanted to ask Santa for anything special. He would ignore me or chatter about something I couldn't understand. Well, we were at the grocery on Christmas Eve and the cashier asked Jack what he wanted Santa to bring for him. Without missing a beat Jack whispered "A canny cane!" Wouldn't you know that Santa left a candy cane in Jack's stocking? He also left candy canes on the Christmas tree. Jack thought that was wonderful! Just so you know, he also got a mini "tape wedger" in his stocking. It is the cutest little tape measure on a key ring. The thing even has a belt clip and he can hook it on his pants. He is really funny running around with his tape measure on his waist band. He won't even let me borrow it.

Late in the afternoon on Christmas day, John and Jack were upstairs doing who knows what. I was hanging out on the couch trying to take a nap. Wy started fussing. I didn't think anything of it. The fussing continued. It didn't sound serious so I still didn't think anything of it. The fussing continued and became a bit frantic. After about a total of 5 minutes I finally got up to see what he was fussing about. He wasn't at the computer, his desk or on the stairs but I could tell he was downstairs. I couldn't quite figure out where the fussing was coming from. I opened the bathroom door and there was Wy, precariously perched in the sink. We have a teeny tiny wall-mount sink in that bathroom. The basin is barely big enough for me to wash my hands in it and here is Wy semi sitting in the sink. His feet are in the basin, his knees are hanging over the front edge, his left hand is on top of the toilet and his right hand is gripping the faucet. I can see quite clearly that it is taking everything that boy has in him to keep from toppling out of the sink. Now, if I hadn't been worried about him and his delicate position, I would have grabbed the camera and taken a picture for you. But let me tell you, that baby was in a pickle - so you will simply have to picture it in your mind. I did (only for a millisecond) think about having him recreate the scene...

The biggest hit of Christmas Day was the not so little red wagon waiting in the living room. The boys lined the wagon with the pillows Santa brought for them and had us pull them around the house. Every time the wagon started moving Wy got a great big grin on his face. The fellas spent most of the rest of the day hanging out in the wagon. They sat in there and played with tractors and fire engines. They sat in there and watched movies. Jack even tried to HIDE in the wagon at bedtime. He had been cozied up in the wagon watching a movie when I said it was bed time. He surreptitiously pulled the blankets up over his head to completely cover himself. Then he laid there stock still and silent as if I had no idea where he was. He was very upset when I pulled him out of the wagon to head up to bed.

The boys have not been much for coloring, but I picked up this fun little easle and they have both shown interest in coloring on the oversized Blues Clues pages I have put up for them. Hopefully Wy will become more interested in actually coloring than in just eating crayons...
Ok, dear friends, I am blogged out. Happy late Christmas, Merry New Year and I'll see you all again, next week!

Holy Moses!

STOP THE PRESSES!!! Wyatt ate a vegetable! I repeat, Wyatt ate a vegetable! There was no subterfuge involved. He willingly ate a cherry tomato. I cut it in half. I handed a piece to him. He put it in his mouth. He chewed for a second. He spit it out. He looked at it. HE PUT IT BACK IN HIS MOUTH AND ATE IT. Then he went over to Jack's plate and STOLE a cherry tomato from Jack and ate it too! There is hope!

Wyatt is wearing 24 month clothes now. He is just barely 19 months but the 18 months clothes are just too small. And I swear he was only in those for about 3 months. Fortunately I have Jack's old things or I would have to head out and pick up a new wardrobe for Wy. The weird thing is: I can only find a FRACTION of Jack's 24 mo & 2T clothes. He had an avalanche of clothes - but I can't find half of them. That is making me crazy because I can find ANYTHING. Jack is stuck in the middle of 3Ts and 4Ts. 3T pants are just about too short. 4T pants are too big in the waist. All of his 3Ts had little adjustable straps in the waistband like maternity pants. I haven't seen any 4Ts with those little straps. Argh.

Jack is into burping. He has figured out how to make himself burp by sucking some air into his throat. Suck, burp, suck, burp, suck, burp...it goes on and on. It makes John a little bit insane.

Holy Moses - Jack is going to be a STAR!!! The Rep (where John works) is getting ready to do The Glass Menagerie and they want to have some video segments of one of the characters as a little boy. Well, the Christmas Carol kids were too big so they thought of Jack. The shoot was on Monday. John took Jack to the costume shop at 9:30 where they gave him different boots, mittens, scarf and hat. Then they went over to the location for the shoot. Jack and another actor played around for the director and the camera. They are supposed to look like father and son. I was so sad I couldn't go. (I had shows on Monday.) Anyway, John says it all went off without a hitch and that Jack was great - even when he had to give back his costume. I don't think the video is going to be that long in the show, but I'll report back after we see it!

Speaking of Moses...My 3 fellas went to a Christmas party with me the other week. I took the boys upstairs (we were on a tour of the house). The homeowner was showing us this incredibly huge and hidden closet. Jack stepped inside, took one look and said "Ho-we Moses, mommy!" At first I was mortified. Then I thought I would rather have him repeat "Holy Moses" than a slew of other things that are out there. Later in the week we took the boys out for a drive around town to look at Christmas lights. Instead of putting on coats and shoes, I bundled everyone up in jammies and an armload of blankets. Jack insisted on listening to the soundtrack to The Happy Elf (a Harry Connick Jr. show we did last Christmas). The cd I have is 4 songs long and then 18 tracks of very short incidental music. This means we listen to the 4 songs ad nausium. Anyway, one of the songs is called Bluesville and you guessed it, it is sung in a very blues-y style. From the back seat we hear Jack singing along like some gravelly voiced blues vet. John and I nearly lost it when at the end of the song Jack sang "Bluesville, Bluesville, Bluesville...BLUESVILLE!" It could have been an audition.

The other night I was putting the boys to bed and while Jack was in the bathroom, Wy saw his opportunity. He stealthily climbed into Jack's bed, slipped under the covers and pulled them up to his chin. Then he slipped his arms out so he could be nice and tucked in. He laid there for a second enjoying the moment, then this sneaky little grin spread across his face. He knew Jack was going to come in and find him. Jack walked in, took one look at Wyatt and said "Heyyyy, what have we got here?" Wy snuggled in to show he wasn't going anywhere and grinned. It was too much for me. I had to step out.

Mom crochets and the boys are in love with her yarn. The other day ma cut a super long strand of yarn for Jack and wound it up into a ball. He loves this thing and constantly throws it all over the house then wants it wound up again. It was long enough to wrap around the living room, dinging room and kitchen almost twice. I was tired of being tied up/trapped by the string so I cut it to about 6 feet long. Jack was very upset. "You broke it! You fix it! I get a hammer!"

The other night Jack woke up and had to go to the bathroom. I went in with him and when he was done he asked "Where are we going?" I said "Well, you can go to your bed or you can come to bed with mommy." Jack tromped on back to his room so I went to bed. A minute later I hear the saddest little wail "What did I do?" Pause. Sniffles. Sad crying "What did I do?" It just about broke my heart that he thought I had banished him to his room and he had no idea why. I gathered him up and tucked him in bed with us.

OK - that does it for the week. Gimme another day or so and I will have our Christmas day post up for you! Love to everyone of you from Owenland Park!

Hey! What have we here?

Jack has recently started to wipe off my kisses - and Wy is starting to follow suit. Jack will wipe his cheek and say "Jax has to wipe it off." One day I told him it hurt my feelings when he wipes off my kisses. "NO, mommy. You have to say no." I said "Jack, I have to say 'no, don't wipe off my kisses." He kept telling me I had to say "no." Back and forth we went with Jack getting more and more upset. I finally realized he was upset because I said he hurt my feelings. He didn't want to have hurt my feelings, but he didn't want me to kiss him either.

Wy is totally into stacking things. As soon as I come home from the grocery he is rummaging through the bags looking for cans & jars to stack them up. Then he gets very upset with me if I try to put things away. He used to riffle through the bags looking for something to eat (as if I never feed him), now he just wants to build things.

Wy woke up sick one morning this week. He was standing in his crib crying "Cry, cry, cry, cry..." It was so sad. I picked him up and we sat down in the rocker and he just told me all about it "cry, cry, cry...cry, cry, crrryyyyy." I nearly cried.

On Monday I took the boys to get their picture taken with Santa. We had spent a few days watching Santa movies so Jack wouldn't be freaked out. He was excited to go see Santa and desperate to see a reindeer. Surprisingly, Jack was not afraid of Santa. Although he wouldn't sit with Santa, he told him all about the Santa movies we had been watching. Wy put a death grip on me when I tried to introduce him to Santa. So I thought "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em..." Santa was even kind enough to ask me what I wanted for Christmas!

Before seeing Santa, you can frolic through the little play space of things to climb over, through, under and around. At the very end is a big slide that looks like a box of Crayola crayons. The boys had so much fun going up and down the slide forwards and backwards. I tried and tried to get a picture of the two of them going down that slide together, but these boys are fast. The best shot I got was of their backsides as they climbed back up the slide.

I was wrapping gifts at the table a few days ago and the boys were everywhere. Wyatt wanted everything on the table. OK, he really wanted to be ON the table, playing with everything. Jack just wanted to know the play by play of what I was doing. I finally told him "I'm trying to keep Wyatt off the table and down from the chair so he doesn't fall off, bonk his head and have to go to the hospital for stitches." Jack spent the rest of the afternoon running around telling everyone that we were "not going to the hostipitle."

I had packages to mail over the weekend and asked mom to go with me so I could keep a handle on the packages and the boys. In line ahead of us was an adorable little 3 year old boy named Lyndon. He and Jack made fast friends. Within minutes there was so much chatter going on it sounded like a little hen party. They were talking about mommies, cars, trains, Santa, rocks, snow...they had a blast. I was thoroughly embarrassed over Jack's speech quirks. He loves to play with the cardboard tubes from the center of the roll of wrapping paper. He calls them "tubas." I have not corrected this because I thought it was cute, but that little Lyndon - his speech was so clear and he was so outgoing. Then Jack picks up a large cardboard tube for mailing whatever it is you mail in a cardboard tube and starts talking about tubas. Lyndon was confused, the dad looked at me funny. I have spent the rest of the week trying to figure out how much I should try to correct, if I should correct...

Jack is in love with John's tape measure. He loves seeing how far he can send out the tape without having it bend. He loves to count off the numbers. On the days when John takes the boys to Beth's house, the first thing Jack says when he climbs up in John's truck is "Where's my tape wedger?" He used to ask for his "numbers" and that confused and confounded John and I for a few days. Then John understood what Jack was after. John's 'tape wedger' is a 25 footer I think, so it can be a bit unwieldy. Mom found an adorable pint sized tape measure on a keychain at the Dollar store. So I have told Jack to ask Santa for his very own 'tape wedger'. We'll see if he winds up with one in his stocking!

I thought parents agonized over ethical dilemas, education, how to discipline. Who knew I would agonize over hostipitles, tubas and tape wedgers? Whether we feed him too much cereal or too many hot dogs? How I can get him to poop in a pot - cause tempting him with pizza ain't cuttin it folks. OK - back to the boys...

I often hear Jack pipe up from the backseat "Hey! What do we have here?" as we pass some fun Christmas decoration that he likes. Two of his favorites are an inflatable Santa in a train and an inflatable snowman. We were passing the snowman a few days ago and I thought - 'maybe this isn't where the snowman is?' Then from the backseat Jack holler out "OH NO, MOMMY! HE CRASH!" Sure enough, the snowman was in an uninflated heap on the grass.

Friends - that does it for me this week. We'll see you all again after Christmas. May God bless you with a safe and happy holiday. Love, from Owenland Park!

Not your average Nativity Scene

Jack has a large plastic fire truck. He came running through the kitchen with his truck and told me "Jax has people in mine truck." I was intrigued. So I fished out one of his people. It looked strangely like one of the Three Wise Men from the Nativity in the dining room. I fished out a handful of passengers and came up with a sheep, a donkey, an angel, the Blessed Virgin and the Baby Jesus. I thought "At least they are traveling in a safety vehicle..."

John and the boys put together the Christmas tree while I was at work on Saturday. He says Jack put the top on the tree and he acted like it is something he has been doing every Christmas.


The grandparents had been gone all weekend and when they came home on Sunday Jack started yelling "Poppy, there is a TREE! IT'S IN THE HOUSE. POPPY, A TREE'S IN THE HOUSE!" The boys helped Grandpa wrap a few lights around the tree. It didn't take long for them to get bored and decide to go downstairs to watch Robin Hood.


A little while later they helped Mommy put ornaments on the tree. (Wyatt was really trying to help take the ornaments off.) Putting ornaments was much more exciting than wrapping lights around the tree. We let Jack put the star on the top. We normally put an angel on top but Jack had an argument with Daddy saying we had to put a star on top. John suggested we make a star out of foil and put it near the top, thus keeping the angel. Gammy just so happens to have a big soft spot for Jack so the star won out.

Jack has insisted that Wy and I hop in bed with him the past few nights. Has anyone ever tried to get comfortable in a toddler bed? Now think about adding 2 children to that picture. The bed is just long enough for me to sit up and stretch out my legs - so I sit down and cover up, then haul Wy up into my lap. Next Jack climbs in beside me, and there is barely enough room across for the two of us. Now the boys start playing with each other, pinching and tickling, giggling and flopping around till I snap at everyone. The boys finally settle down and I manage to play some sudoku while the boys fall asleep. As uncomfortable as this all is, I have somehow managed to fall asleep both nights. I'm surprised I don't have a lump on the back of my head from the tiny headboard.

Wyatt counts to three. I'm not sure he knows he is counting and I don't think he understands the sequence but he counts "one, two, fee". He also drives his trains and makes 'driving' noises or he says "car, car, caaaaarrrrr" as they drive along. I came into the dining room this morning to find Wyatt eating grapes. There is nothing wrong with that. Then I notice he is using a comb/pick combination to stab the grapes and feed them to himself. He is still in love with books. He is currently fixated on a Sesame Street book. He points out the characters when I ask "Where is Big Bird?" Or "Where is Elmo?"

My kids won't eat Mac n cheese. Wyatt actually acts as if we are trying to do him physical harm if we put a plate of mac n cheese in front of him. He screams and claws his way away from the table. Jack simply refuses to eat it. What American children do not eat noodles?

Jack loves to read letters on store fronts. However, he has recently started to read the letters backwards. Instead of reading B*I*G*K on the K-Mart, he reads K*G*I*B. Which makes me think it is some weird Russian store. He also identifies stores by their colors. The Wal*mart is the "Blue store" because their letters are blue. The grocery is the "Green store" because their letters are green. K-Mart is actually "K-Mart" but that is because they have too many colors in their sign. And I think he calls the Dollar Store the "Brick store" even though they have a sign - so I don't know what is up with that. I will tell Jack we are going shopping and he will ask "Are we going to a Blue store?" or he will tell me "Jacks go to a green store, mommy."

OK friends, that does it for me this week. God bless you all and I may see some of you this Sunday at the Burnell family Christmas gathering! Blessings from Owenland Park!

Lions and Tigers and Wong-Bat Bears, oh my!

I don't know how it all happened, but Wy fell on his face and cut his lip open last weekend. John said he took Wy upstairs to clean him up and try to get him settled down. In the 10 minutes John was upstairs, Jack got hold of the camera and took about 100 pictures... This one is called "Self Portrait #83."

I am working on getting Wy off the pacifier. It is not going well. We really had no trouble getting away from it during the day. I just made sure he had something to focus on. After a while he only wanted it when he saw it. I think I started the problem by saying "That is for nighttime" and holding out my hand. He would hand it over and I would put it in the crib. Well, Wy is NOT having me take away the bink at nap or bedtime. His life is fine until he is placed in the crib. Once he is in, he starts digging through blankets and under pillows until he finds the bink. The longer the search, the more frantic he gets, blankets and pillows flying everywhere. He will not rest until he finds his dear friend. He and I have gone through more than one prolonged battle. I did not emerge victorious from any of those skirmishes. You would think he would wear himself out, but Wy seems to draw strength from the battle. Then once he has the bink, he is out like a rock in .5 seconds yet sucking so hard you think the front teeth will cave in. I guess I should say I WAS working on getting Wy off the bink, but he wore me down and I gave up.

Jack loves to watch The Rescuers Down Under. Near the top of the "noovie" a little boy is running through the outback. He is being followed by a small throng of his animal friends. For the longest time I thought three of these little furry creatures were funny looking moles. Jack was calling them bears. I knew they weren't bears and I thought surely they must be something more Australian than funny looking moles. One day I suggested to Jack that they might be wombats. Jack exclaimed "YES! WONG-BAT BEARS, MOMMY!!!" A few days later we were watching the show again and I thought, maybe those little guys are wallabies. I must have said it out loud because Jack got very cross and said "NO! Is WonG-bat bears, mommy!" Then we argued over whether or not the little guys were wombats or wallabies. I finally said we were going to look it up on line. Jack is always down for "checkin my e-mail" so he hopped over to the computer with me. It only took a few clicks to figure out that the little furry creatures were indeed "wong-bat bears". Jack doesn't know enough to rub it in when he wins an agument. That is fine by me, because it didn't do much for my ego to lose an argument about Australian mamals to a three year old.

You all know that Wy is a climber. Well, I can't keep that boy off the piano. Every time I turn around he is on the piano bench. This week he has decided it isn't enough to be on the piano bench. I have caught him actually walking on the keys. I step out of the room to fill a sippy cup and he makes a break for it. I turn around long enough to clear the dishes off of the table and he is on top of the piano. We move the bench and he stealthily scoots a chair close enough to climb Mount Piano. He will not quit.

Wy is working on his vocabulary and has discovered the word "cry." He loves to walk into a room, look at you, declare "CRY!" then throw himself on the floor and cry a good fake cry. He has also discovered property and everything is "My my my!" He is the sweetest lovebug. He loves to cuddle and when I ask him for a kiss, more often than not, I get a 5 minute festival of kisses. Kiss and run away. Kiss and cuddle. Kiss and watch some TV, kiss and talk to the cat, kiss, kiss, kiss and another kiss to boot. It is pretty wonderful.

Earlier in the week I told Jack it was time to cut his toenails. He was ok with everything until I took hold of his foot and picked up the nail cippers - then he started twisting and turning (like an alligator dragging their pray into the water) and grunting "I gotta get outta here!"

He is really struggling for independence. Anything we have to do "Jax not do it!" "Jackson say no!" "I not! I not!"

Jack has taken to clicking his tongue. It is rather odd to wake up at 3:00 in the morning because someone is clucking their tongue 3" from your face and staring straight into your eyeballs...

I am trying really hard not to refer to Jack's underwear as panties. They are so small that they qualify as panties - but I don't think Jack should be running around talking about his panties.

Jack is starting to sing along with his cds and to familiar songs on the radio. One of his favorites is on the Jungle Book cd. The song has an easy beat to follow and Jack sings OOH-AH-OOH, OOH-AH-OOH along with the music. He doesn't sing the lyrics of the song, he just throws down the beat. I could hardly drive a few days ago when he was wearing my sunglasses and singing OOH-AH-OOH, OOH-AH-OOH and bouncing his head with the music.

Finally, we love to play "Canny-land". Jack gets excited about his turns and Wy just wants to run trains and trucks along the path on the gameboard.

Until next week, love from Owenland Park!