Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Party planning

With the impending birth of Girl Baby, I have been forced to get organized early on Jack's soon-to-be-here second birthday.

Oh my holy hell, my child is turning 2 in three weeks. How did that happen?

So I ordered the big gift (it's a Kettler tricycle! We could have paid our mortgage or gotten this trike; I told Josh defaulting is the new black!), it arrived today and I am so excited to give it to him I don't want to wait.

I also bought some of the smaller gifts last week, the same day I bought his Big Brother presents from us and the baby and his Little Sister present to give to the baby at the hospital.

An aside: if you've never taken your child to a toy store without a cart or a stroller, well then you've never lived. Also an aside: we went to the toy store that Angelina Jolie took her kids to when they were visiting Chicago. We're so cool.

That same day I purchased all the party paraphernalia that I could find with Elmo's mug on it and the invites were sent out this week. I am proud to say the only thing we'll need to take care of is getting cupcakes and pizza the day of the party.

Since I will likely be tired, fat and leaking milk, we decided to just host a small party for kids at our place. For 90 minutes, everyone can eat and drink and play and then everyone is getting the hell out at naptime. That's my kind of party.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

What Jack's up to at 23 months

There have been some great strides made in the world of Jack recently. I have been remiss in sharing them, so let's have us some bullet-y goodness.

* This week, he looked up at the sky while on a walk and said, "Plane?" And I said yes, that's where planes fly, up in the sky, but I did not see any right then. He thought about it for a second and said, "Daddy, go?" I almost jumped up and down. Yes! Daddy did go in a plane last week! The fact he remembered we talked about it a whole week before and that he used a pronoun/verb combo for the first time made me really proud.

* He has peed on the potty every day (except one) for the last 10 days. A few times, he's even gone twice. Although I have never personally witnessed the stream myself, I have taken reliable word for it.

* He is adding new words to his vocabulary in a fast and furious manner. While they are mostly still one syllable of a two-syllable word, it's a start. We're working more on him saying two syllables, in the hopes he will start catching on.

* He has a wicked skin reaction to strawberries. Last week, we started giving him freeze-dried strawberries as a snack because he won't eat any fruit other than applesauce. He loved them, of course, and then broke out in a horrid fit of eczema, the likes of which we have not seen since he had his milk intolerance this time last year. We deduced it was the same reaction his Grandpa gets when he eats too many strawberries, so perhaps this one runs in the family.

* He is getting more interested in the baby paraphernalia covering the house. He saw the bassinette all set up in our room and pointed to it and said, "Baby!" He's never seen one before this, so who knows where he learned that. But he's really into reading his book about a new baby coming home and kissing my belly. He also smacks the hell out of my belly with an evil grin on his face and has to be reminded to be very gentle with Mommy's belly and the baby.

* Our rule of doling out one Christmas gift per day has been going quite well. He doesn't get overwhelmed by too much stuff and it gives him something new each day. We're keeping the toy overload in the house at a minimum this way, by subtracting an old toy for the addition of a new one. Although we still have way too many toys, even after purging a ton of them to Grandma's house right before Christmas.

* He gets so excited when I put him in the car and tell him to climb into his carseat while I open the gate to the alley. By the time I turn around from getting it all situated, he has crawled in and is waiting for me to buckle him with a HUGE grin on his face. This is going to be so helpful when I have an infant seat to load up as well.

* The tantrums are starting to rear their ugly heads. Prime example: if he can't balance 37 pieces of Tupperware at once and carry them the 20 feet from the cabinet to the couch, he falls to pieces and laments his entire existence.

* He's totally into bags right now. He carries a cell phone and a little toy phone and a shape-sorter in an Elmo backpack and then loads various other items into my old Victoria's Secret shopping bags and carries those around too. He picks them up and says "bye" and then waves and announces he is going to "school" or to buy "cheese" with them. He walks around the kitchen island and then runs back to us with a huge smile on his face, waving and saying "Hi" and we welcome him back. It's hysterical. And played roughly 117 times a day.

Of course there are a million funny things I am forgetting, but just wanted to catch up on a few things off the top of my head.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

2008 -- the year of the potty!

So I was all set to post about my husband traveling across the country to see his beloved Illini play in the Rose Bowl, WHEN I AM 36 WEEKS PREGNANT, but we had an outstanding and stupendous development here in Snarky World this afternoon.

Jack peed on the potty!

Last night we were giving him a bath and he started to pee. And then stop. And giggle. And then pee again. Again stop. And giggle. To the tune of about five times. I looked at Josh and said, "That little shit! He totally has bladder control and he's been holding out on us!"

So today when Grandma was changing his diaper, he said, "Pee?" So she ran him downstairs to the potty and he sat down and peed like a champ. I could hear her saying good job so I went in to investigate and there he was, peeing!

We made a HUUUUUUGE deal out of praising him and we let him pour it out into the toilet and flush (one of his favorite things, especially when Mommy is in the shower -- mmmm, chilly!) and he had the biggest the smile on his face. There were phone calls placed to the other Grandma and the Grandpas and his aunt and we even texted Daddy, who was appropriately excited all the way from Pasedena at halftime.

I of course know this means nothing in the grand scheme of potty training, but it was a huge first step. He's been sitting on the potty with no results for a good six months now, so I hope this will jump start a little progress. Of course this also ensures I will go into labor this week because he won't dare keep up the potty training with the baby in the house and all the good efforts will be for naught.

So tomorrow I shall regale you with the tale of my encouraging Josh to fly across the country when I am so close to popping this kid out. I will have plenty of time to post since I am laying around for the three days he is gone in the hopes of staving off any contractions and/or early labor.