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!