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!