Monday, May 31, 2010

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful & safe holiday weekend.

J & I spent most of it in the car traveling amongst family, but it was great to see Grandma & Grandpa P, and Uncle Jeff, Aunt Kristi, Cam & Mallory...

I have lots of pics, but I've spent most of today, getting us unpacked, laundry done, and grocery shopping for the rest of the week... So pics will have to wait.

But I do have to say... J did great with his sea legs... Although his boat driving skills leave a bit to be desired...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Bits & Pieces

Summer has hit here... Well, at least until this weekend, when we can actually be outside together.  As a result, J has been playing outside a ton.  He even requested dinner at 4 yesterday, while still with Ms. Angie.  I took advantage of this, and got him off to sleep by 8 last night.  That has not happened since the sun set before 8.

Update on his teeth, the two front ones appear to be turning gray.  Mr. M & I both noticed it in the last week.  We hope this is only a sign of his gums being bruised, and not anything more serious brewing.  I know the Ped. Dentist said we'd have to wait 6 months before being in the clear, but I'm not good at waiting...

As for J, he still does not get the concept of not running inside.  I think if I were to stay home with him, I'd become a robot who only says:

"Don't Run"
"Walk!"
"What would you like for "
"Let's sit on the potty"

In pretty much that order. 

That fact that he doesn't listen, well... Here's proof...

Please note, cut on eye, bruise on forehead... Both resulting in J tripping over his own feet running to see me, as Mr. M & I were both saying stop.

Ignore the goofy mugshot looking picture.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

He Likes It...

After the game on Saturday, Mommy needed a caffeine hit... While J napped on the way to the park, he didn't blink an eye lid on the way home.  And we would not be starting dinner until Mr. M got home from work (7:30'ish, it was 4:30'ish).  

So I decided to indulge in Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frap, and try a Vanilla Bean Frap for the Little Man. 

He went in slowly...

Then he went back for more...

J loved it.  A tall (aka - small) was still about twice the amount he could consume (good news, considering the calorie content), but it was a win-win.

And the lids are wonderful... J could not get the top off, a problem we are having when out & about these days.

And put him in the perfect mood for bike shopping, which we did next.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Happy Anniversary, Mr. M!

7 years ago today was a Sunday, and I married Mr. M in front of God, our friends & our family.

Mr. M & I were talking on Sunday how quickly the time has flown.  Come January, we will have been together 10 years.  Oyie.  That means, Mr. M turns 40 next year, and I turn 35.  How did that happen?

And we still like each other, in addition to loving each other.  How's that for lucky?

One piece of advice I'd like to give the future version of J...

It hasn't always been easy.  I'm sure you will recall more than a fair share of raised voices.  You have two very strongly opinionated individuals for parents.  However, while we may not go about it in the same way (hence those loud voices), we both truly want what is best for our family - most especially you.

Mr. M... I love the person you have grown to become, and I'm still looking forward to sitting in that rocking chair with you in our 80's... Hopefully with grandchildren of our own to brighten our days & bring a youthful joy to our hearts.

Here's to another 60+ years...

Monday, May 24, 2010

Cheering Sox to a Win

On Saturday, Aunt Liz (aka Lucy) hosted J, his friend Dottie, her parental units & me (plus Uncle Jon & Kim in seats for away from the toddlers) for a baseball game.

The added bonus was the win secured by the Southsiders.

And the fact this mommy did not pull all of her hair out, a serious concern she had, as it was an emotional morning prior to leaving.  I had to use the promise of seeing Aunt "Lucy" to get J to get dressed.  Little did we know, Aunt Liz would kidnap him & give mom a much needed breather to relax & be ready to tackle buying food for 2 with Toddler on hip upon his return.

Sadly, I forgot to get a pic of Aunt Liz & J... I was thinking she'd be able to rejoin us & I could grab it then.  I did however, get a few other pics...

J & Dottie

J with Uncle Jon & Kim

This was obviously before Uncle Jon turned J loose on the fans at the park.  I apologize to the guy I rudely cutoff in an effort to snag J's shirt... However, I don't think he minded since all I heard was "Wow, great catch".

And one with Mommy...

Thanks again to Aunt Liz for a wonderful day!

Friday, May 21, 2010

pre-bedtime fun...

I call Mr. M most nights before J heads off to sleep.  I think it is important for J to be comfortable talking on the phone & who better to practice with than a parent, right?

Plus, I know how much I enjoy it when Mr. M calls me before school - so I like returning that favour.

Anyway, it is a must to keep J calm when making these calls - or he simply will not talk.  But you cannot be too calm, or he will push buttons - inevitably hanging up on the person being called.  Plus, he likes to hold the phone & since I generally call the store, not the cell, I have to ask for Mr. M.  So I like being in charge of the phone until Daddy answers...

That said... Here was J during distraction time... With Baby Boost in the background.

(gosh, this top pic, makes his feet look sooo big... I'd never noticed that before)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Playoff Time...

ETA:  Aunt Liz (or as J would say "Lucy") sent a much better picture from another game day.
Original Post:
and someone is dressed for the party...

And the finger going to the mouth is him showing how much he is thinking about my request.  I requested he say "cheese" so I could get a good picture & he responded with "uuuummmm, NO!" and took off running.

Sorry for the crap-tastic-ness of the picture, but I was trying to grab the shot from my blackberry before J took off running. 

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mean - or... Just plain funny...

J has a tendency to say the funniest things... Especially when he is not intending to do so...

I wasn't going to post this here because it was one of those not the best Mommy moments, and while I had no problem sharing it with family today - recording it for J to read when he's older...

I mean, do I really need to his ammunition when he is a 13 year old hormonal, most likely sullen, striving for independence teenager?

Right, but because Grandma P said this was one of the funniest messages I've left her - I decided to reconsider... And to the future version of J, remember I love you & one day you will hopefully have kids & understand. 

So... J took a late afternoon nap on Sunday.  I knew it was trouble while it was happening, but it gave me the freedom to get groceries unpacked, table set for dinner & really a few quiet moments.  I took advantage.

And 4 hours later, after we've done dinner, shower & general bedtime.  J announced "Mommy I not sleepy". 

Great!  Fabulous.  Oh, and Mr. M - yeah, he's already asleep, so there was not even help from the peanut gallery.

Anyway, I put J down to sleep.  He needed it, even if he didn't think so.  And he proceeded to annoy the crap out of me.  Fake tickling me, grabbing books to read, doing anything to engage me & distract him from sleep.  By the way, it is really annoying when he uses books to distract from sleep, as it puts me in such a quandary of wanting him to have my love of books, and my immediate desire for him to sleep.  So I asked if he would like me to leave...

He said yes.

I knew he didn't mean it.  I knew it would lead to tears, but I also knew if I held out long enough (~15 mins), when I came back in, he'd settle down & go to sleep. 

So I left.  I went & packed my lunch.  I sat in plain sight of him & read my book.  Okay, so maybe I looked like I was reading, as I counted the seconds until I could go back in there & make the tears stop.

When all of the sudden J stopped fussing and said:

"Mommy.  Don't be mean Mommy."

Then the fussing resumed.

Seriously?  You cannot clearly tell me what you want for dinner half the time, but boy did you get that one out clear as day.

Thankfully, when I did join him a few minutes later - he climbed into bed & was asleep in mere moments.

I on the other hand was left pondering... Am I being mean?  Will he hate me when he is older for this?  All the wonderful self imposed mommy guilt ridden questions we ask ourselves...

So needless to say...  When Grandma P asked me "If this opened my eyes towards giving her some compassion over raising me?", I promptly responded with "Nope".

And that left us chuckling over the whole incident even more...

Monday, May 17, 2010

Quiet Weekend

The M family had a wonderfully uneventful & quiet weekend.  It was spectacular. 

J went to preschool on Friday morning, while I was getting my teeth cleaned, then we came home for a snack.  Okay, mommy's breakfast & J a snack.  Then we went & saw Daddy at work.  J had so much fun running around the car lot touching all the cars.  Daddy had fun showing him off to all his employees.  

Afterwards, we came home & had lunch & a really good nap.  After post-nap snack, J & I played...  He is really getting into playing with you - as opposed to playing around you.  Mr. M & I often hear "Mommy come on..."  or "Daddy come on..."   "...Do it" 

On Saturday, J & I ended up not getting out of our PJs until around dinner time.  Yep.  It was that kind of lovely day. 

Sunday, I had my very last mystigoia class.  THANK GOODNESS!  So Daddy kept J so I could attend 9:30 Mass, then my class.  Then we traded off, and I took on J duty.  Unfortunately Daddy had given J to much fun, because our departure from Daddy created a mass of tears.  Overwhelmingly amount of tears.  Mommy ended up having to pull out a total bribe at the bagel shop to stop the tears, and get him in a shopping mood.  We then proceeded to hit Macy's, Costco, and Meijer.  When we got home 3 hours later, J was in nap mode.  And Mommy, who had tried very hard to stay away from the house during the Blackhawks, but arrived during the 3 period with just minutes to go & a tie-game, was able to get the groceries unloaded, J in the house & diaper changed & deposited him next to Daddy so he could sleep. 

And I did not jinx the game, as the Hawks won.  And J slept through Mr. M's shouts & cheers.

After dinner, J went out with Mr. M to help him with the pool.  We are so looking forward to see him swim this summer.  Really getting to enjoy the pool. 

Like I said, it was a really great and uneventful weekend.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Friends...

During my maternity leave with Jacob, I joined a Mommy Group.  It was wonderful, in that I was going a bit stir crazy at home.  I loved being with Jacob, but I needed interaction that went beyond hunger & dirty nappies.

I've since left the group, as working full time just pretty much kills the amount of time required by the group.  However, I've maintained a few friendships from my time within the group. 

One of them is Dottie's Mom, Laura.  And I truly enjoy getting together with here when we do, as our kiddos are close in age (like weeks), and we have a lot in common.

Last Friday, Laura & Dottie kindly hosted J & me for a play date. 

We got lucky & the kids were up for posing... 

Take - 1

Take - 2

Take - 3
Aren't they cute?



J couldn't be bothered with letting me do a Take - 4 of just him... He was too busy playing on the computer...  He was amazed by the large viewing screen...

Friday, May 14, 2010

My Mother's Day Gift

While Mr. M was pretty awesome in his Mother's Day gift for me from him & J, the gift that ranks up as blog worthy is the one from J himself.

Okay, so maybe, it's from Miss Angie.  She had the kiddos create Mother's Day gifts for us in class.  They gift wrapped them and all. 

And best of all, I can't kill the flower...

I was told this is the first of many crafted Mother's Day gifts, and you know what... I'm looking forward to each & every one of them.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Tool Bench

Before our Mother's Day Massacre, we had good times with the tool bench. 

Really!  I have proof!  Look!
I even had trouble putting it together because J was so intrigued by it, that he kept running away with the parts.  He wanted to put it together.  It was truly adorable, if not a bit patience training at times. 

I can't wait to watch him grow to see how he uses the bench. 

Will he try to make things out of bare bones? 

...or...

Will he be more apt to use it as a drink holder? 

So far the electric drill that came with his fake Hummer has him building... Guess we will have to wait & see (much like his tooth) if the interest sticks beyond the battery life span.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A night out...


We recently were able to spend the evening with Mr. M's brother Jon & his girlfriend Kim.  J had so much fun getting spoiled with attention & Uncle Jon's goofiness.

I often see a lot of my brother in J... From his curly hair, to his love of basketball (Mr. M says that's him too, so most likely he was genetically predisposed from both sides), where as, I see Mr. M & me in J being so outgoing, loving to read, and sadly, watching TV.

That said, it was nice to catch a glimpse of J looking like just Mr. M's side too...

And I caught this cute picture...

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

He'll live... His tooth? We'll know in 6 months.

Okay, so being the first-time mom that I am, I called the Dentist just to be sure we were doing all the right things.

Answer:  He needed to see a Pediatric Dentist.

All in all, the end result came back to wait & see. 

According to the Pediatric Dentist, I did the right thing moving his tooth back into place, however, with J being a thumb sucker – it may never tighten back up.

While J would let them in his mouth to look at it & touch it, he would not work with us on doing an x-ray to see what is going on under his gum (which was pretty swollen). So we are in a wait & see mode. He’s back to small bite finger foods & no sippy cup for a week.  Can we say, "Hello spills"?  He cannot have anything that he has to bite into (apple for example) for 3 weeks, and by his next cleaning appt (6 months) – we’ll have a better idea of what is going to happen. He said an abscess could take a few weeks to form, but he thinks the root probably just bent by how much the tooth moved. Which is a good thing. And he said J is so young, that we don’t have to worry about him pushing his permanent teeth upward, as they are as far up as they can go. He also said, while J was not the happiest camper when he was playing with the tooth, he was fussy more because he was unhappy than in pain. All good signs.

On the down side, if he hurt the root - his tooth could turn gray - or even black.  Sometimes when this happens, it will naturally reverse - otherwise we can have it cosmetically lightened.  But it doesn't need to be done.

Of course, we'd do that... My thought as he was talking was - oh no, all his childhood pictures would be marred by this black front tooth... (Yes, I realize this was a silly thought - all things considered, but I knew at this point he was probably going to be okay)

As for J... He was off to the races when we got home... Leaving me to wonder...

Shouldn't he have learned a lesson?

Monday, May 10, 2010

What's Mother's Day without a little blood?

Yesterday started out so promising.  Really

Okay, so I'm a mom, and I fib a little (or a lot) on occasion.  J did not sleep well Saturday night, which means - Sunday we were operating on sleep deprivation.  AND a whole lot of I.need.to.poop crabbiness. 

However, it was Mother's Day & I was not going to let that slow me down...

We started with a family bagel run, and ended with a Sunny D, which by the way - had miraculous powers to resolve said crabbiness.  Then we were off to my 2nd to last Sunday of Mystigoia.  Then home to meet Mr. M to get ready for hosting Grandma & Grandpa M & Aunt Liz for dinner.

I even took time to cut some of the beautiful & wonderful smelling Lilac to decorate the table.

Family arrives, and we head downstairs to show Grandpa M the new play area for J & his friends.  J takes off across the basement at break neck (literally) speed, tripping over a lump where Mommy did less than perfect job laying the carpet and launching himself front teeth first into his workbench.

I cannot tell you the feeling I got in my stomach. 

And then the blood.  The black on his tooth.  I get him upstairs, and he actually lays on the counter to let me get a good look.  Yes, that answers how serious he was taking this.  While I'm looking at the black (paint) on his tooth, I notice it looks off alignment.  And I touch it, it moved.  And bleed.  Oh my...

Needless to say, J ended up on soft foods for the remainder of the day... 

Although, he did enjoy some cake frosting...(We celebrated Mr. M's birthday, in addition to Mother's Day)


And I'm holding my breath until Mr. M calls with a morning report to update me on how J's doing.  The Dentist told me to wait until he's 3... I really hope I don't end up looking for a Pediatric Dentist today...

As I told Grandma P on the phone last night... I was really hoping, as in already bought some for him to enjoy, that J would not have to wait until he's 7 & getting his permanent teeth before really enjoying corn on the cob.

After all this excitement, Grandma & Grandpa left for home, and Mr. M & Aunt Liz headed off to the Blackhawks playoff game... I stole a moment to pack for J's first big overnight (since he was 6 months old) without Mommy or Daddy... He's headed to Grandma & Grandpa M's while Daddy is out of town for a meeting Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

And how did I steal these moments... Witness for yourself...


Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all Mother's are having a wonderful day with their respective families...

I know this little boy makes mine pretty terrific...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Easter Pics

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email with pictures from Easter Mr. M's Aunt took... However, I only  just got around to looking at them yesterday.  I was so excited to see this pic, as I rarely get any pics with J & me.
Of course, he is not looking at the camera, as that would have been too awesome.

A good one of just him.
J was very excited to play with his new car that Grandma & Grandpa M got to go with the new road map town rug for his room.  He LOVES playing on this in the morning before Daddy gets him up. 
And lastly, a cute one of him & Aunt Liz. 
Although, it would be cuter, if J would not have so generously shared his food with us...

Monday, May 3, 2010

Needs vs. Wants

Jacob is in the "I need" stage...  As a result, Mr. M & I often hear:

"Mommy.  Mommy I neeed that"

"Daddy I need that"

or just...

"I need that.  I need that."

At first, like any mom, I thought it was cute.  Now, however, as the things needed really are not for his consumption at will (cookies, pop, TV remote, etc), I've started saying - "No Jacob, you want this, but you don't need it."  And then redirecting when appropriate. 

By the amount of tears this method has produced, I'm guessing I'm doing something right... However, the concept of needs vs. wants, I think we are a few years from getting that to really stick...