Red Vs. Black

Wow – I feel like it’s been forever. I am so sorry to leave you all hanging my humble readers. Work has been crazy busy, Jerret’s been traveling, blah blah blah…excuses, excuses. Regardless, I am back and we are doing just great. Baby girl is now 10 months old and started walking already. JJ is a great big brother and is learning that patience is a virtue and he should practice with his sister.

JJ has a ton of energy, like all 3 ½ yr. olds. He wanted to be spiderman for Halloween and that has turned into dressing as spiderman every day since. His Nana bought him the black spiderman costume after the holiday and now he alternates between “good spidey” and the “bad spiderman.” Last night JJ was wearing his costume again and Jerret was trying to get his attention and he kept saying “Jack! Jack!” and JJ just turned around and said – “No dad, call me Spiderman!”   He does these wacky spiderman poses and will strike a pose at any given moment.  (check out the pic to see what I am talking about).

A few days ago was the big Ohio State vs. Michigan football game (Go Bucks!) and Jerret had gone to the game so the kids and I were left at home to watch it on the big screen. JJ was so funny trying to imitate the players. He wore his Ohio State football jersey and suddenly ran into his room and grabbed a buckeye hat and his football, came back into the living room, got down on one knee and said “Blue 16! Hike, Hike!” and would take off running from the living room to the kitchen, around and around. This went on over and over for about 15 minutes.

The next day when Jerret was home the two of them took a trip to the store and when they came home JJ was crying hysterically. I noticed he was holding a brand new Ohio State Buckeyes football and asked what the problem was. He said “My daddy’s mean! I wanted the Michigan ball! We could not believe our ears! I told Jerret to take him back to the store because he obviously brought the wrong kid home by mistake. JJ was so upset and could not be consoled. I told him to go to his bed until he could stop crying and that he was not being nice to his daddy who just bought him a great gift. A couple of minutes later he was still crying, sitting on his bed holding the Ohio State football and saying “I don’t like Ohio State!” Now, let me remind you that this kid has an entire Buckeyes-themed bedroom. Here he was sitting on an OSU comforter, holding the OSU football, wearing an OSU jersey, brutus the buckeye hanging from the bedpost, woody hayes’ words of wisdom speaking to him from the wall, and an Ohio state something-or-other every which way you turn, and the kid is just crying because he wants that Michigan ball. I told him that it was fine if he didn’t like Ohio State, but then I was going to pack up all of his OSU toys and blankets and ship them to the kids in Kyrgyzstan who would love to have such things. This finally quieted him and it was obvious he didn’t want me to touch he beloved buckeye gear. We are guessing that he is equating the OSU (red) vs. Michigan (blue) rivalry with that of the red vs. black spiderman and he just wants to be able to play with both.

Jack and Jadyn

Jerret's work sponsered a day at the local apple orchard this weekend. Of course, the weather didn't want to cooperate and it was cold and rainy but we took the kids and had fun anyway. The baby was sick and we didn't want her out in the nasty weather so she stayed behind and we took my neice Jadyn with us. JJ and Jadyn picked half a bushel of apples, had their faces painted, rode ponies, ate donuts, and both absolutely refused to drink the cider. Why is it that some people don't like cider? I think it tastes just like apple juice (and I am a pretty selective eater myself).

It ended up being a really good day. Having Jadyn helped me to get a glimpse of what I can expect when Lynde gets older. Jadyn had to go potty while we were out there and of course, they were lovely port-a-potties. I went to help Jadyn up on the seat and my paranoia set in immediately...what if she falls in? How deep are these things? Can she fit through that hole in the seat? I'm sure she can.....oh Jadyn, hurry honey....Dont' wiggle around! Use your hands to hold you up...yuck she is totally touching that toilet seat....

Jadyn rode Rusty. The pony "neighed" really loud and Jack suddenly wanted to get off.

Jack was so scary with this spider on his face! He wanted to wear the pirate patch so I insisted that he wear the earing too.

Jack's face broke out in purple dots immediately after rolling in the hay. Is he allergic to hay, or it is just a specific kind that caused this? (Shea???....)

Baby Steps...

Well, we've had three poops on the potty this weekend. The first came out of the blue (as everyone said it would). Afterward JJ got a huge smile on his face and said "you happy mom?" and I gave him a big hug and told him I was so proud and that his dad would be proud too. We of course could not flush the toilet right away because we needed dad to see it, and then JJ said he wanted Aunt Cyndi to come over and see it too.
We had been tempting him with a new toy that we wrapped up and put on the back of the toilet [tank] waiting for him to earn the reward. When he finally was allowed to open the gift it was like Christmas for that boy.
Later that day I needed to go to WalMart and the whole family decided to go. Jerret suggested we buy another gift for JJ and try our strategy once again. So he picked out another toy (a big Tonka garbage truck that Jerret thought was on clearance for $10 but was actually on the wrong shelf) and we brought it home. JJ wanted this new truck so bad that he rushed into the bathroom and tried to force himself to go poop on the potty again. He did find it quite difficult since most people are not able to poop on demand, but low and behold, after a few minutes of grunting and squirming, our little guy raced out of the bathroom and made his announcement! We had a minor setback that night when dad and JJ went to rent a movie and JJ told dad he had to go, but dad thought the kid might be able to hold it until they found a toilet. Which is funny, because I do not think they looked for a toilet at the video store, but were going to try and make it back home and all of you parents out there know how this turned out...
The toys were getting too expensive so we are now bribing him with Oreo cookies. So far he is doing well. We even had an accident-free nap today. We're going to take it slow this time. I will not move him back into the preschool class until I am certain he is ready. We don't need another broken heart.

Parent-Teacher Conference Part 2

Well, he's out. They are sending him back to the 2/3 yr. old class and will have to wait until he is accident-free for 2 weeks before we can try again with the big kids. He is going to be so disappointed. He is very aware that he was moved up to the "big kid room" and that the 2/3 yr old class was for little kids who use diapers. But the teacher explained that it is more a health risk/consideration than anything and they are just not equipped to deal with children who are not potty trained. Oh well. In all fairness, he has been really lazy about going #2 and will hold it as long as possible before just going in his pants. What else can we do?

Uh-Oh...He's too young for this...

We have been informed that we need to have a little meeting with JJ's preschool teacher this week. We [they] are having a little problem with his potty habits and it seems he is having accidents daily at this point. I'm not sure if the regression has anything to do with his new baby sister, but he does want to play and pretend he is a baby once in a while. And I, being the new adoptive mommy that I am, am quick to oblige and cradle him in my arms giving lots of hugs and kisses and telling him that he is mommy's baby too. Jerret just looks at me like I am crazy until I remind him that JJ never had this affection that he sees Lynde getting. He needs to feel the same connection that we have with her.

Our nighttime routine still includes prayers for "all the kids in Kyrgyzstan, that they find mommies and daddies and are able to come home." But lately JJ has asked us to tell him the story about Kyrgyzstan, and he now can tell us how it all went down. I think this was all spurred by a book Aunt Jill found called "God Found Us You." It was a great way to start the conversation and he even fills in parts that we left out. His favorite part of the story is "I pooped on the plane" His dad must have told him that part - where I thought 9 diapers would be plenty for the 18-hour trek and sure enough...we needed 10.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the parent-teacher conference!

Our Man

We're making potty progress. Not perfect yet, and still need diapers through the night, but he's gone twice now. He's just getting too big.

Powered Donuts

We've made some huge strides with potty training over the past couple of days. After all of the toys, movies, and trips to the zoo we bought; who knew the magic treat would be miniature powered donuts. I never buy donuts, and don't really keep sweets in the house, but while JJ and I were at the store the other day he grabbed a box of miniature powered donuts and said "I need these mom." So I told him, "Oh, well, these are only for big boys who know how to sit on the potty". When we got home he decided that it was time to figure out how to sit on the potty and totally went, and then had a donut as his reward.

The kid ate an entire box himself over the weekend, but it works for now so we will go with the flow (haha - flow). JJ is now getting up and going to the potty all on his own...and then he immediately runs out into the kitchen and gets out a powered donut, proudly proclaiming "I'm a big boy, I go potty!" Our big problem has been getting him to go #2. We're making progress, slowly.

Other than that we are just enjoying our summer. Here's a pic of Jack at the Hartman pond, and a pic of his "Ninny Jo"

Summertime

Summer is slowly getting here up North. We haven't had many warm days, but last weekend it was finally hot enough for JJ to go swimming. I've been meaning to sign him up for swim lessons again this year, but haven't had a chance yet. He will be in the advanced class this year and able to jump off the diving board..... Oh, and I must tell everyone what a great job my nephews have been doing helping me out a bed time. They will sometimes stop over in the evening when JJ is getting ready for bed. Both Raymond and AJ will take turns reading to Jack - 4, 5, or even 6 books! Thanks boys.

JJ's Ride

Our little town recently had a one-day carnival/parade, complete with those scary, you might read about this-tomorrow type of rides. JJ loved the ponies, but then he insisted on riding on these tin can airplanes. We tried to talk him out of it, really, we did...


The Pony Ride

All is good

Then he wanted to ride these things. He was fine until he realized that the planes not only went round-and-round, they went up as well.

Here the plane is just starting to go up. He was looking around like, "What is happening??"

He stared at the ground until his plane "landed"

Another Bad Eye

This kid is just growing so fast. JJ is loving the nicer weather we've been having and has been spending much of his free time outdoors. He loves his new swing set and curly slide, playing at the "beach" (his sandbox), playing t-ball with dad, and playing basketball on a new hoop that my dad bought him for his birthday. His playing outside so much has resulted in another swollen eye (mosquito bite). We're up to #6 for eye injuries if you're counting. Here is a pic when it was starting to clear up.

We're still trying hard to potty train, but this kid has no desire whatsoever. He will sit in wet, poopy, stinky diapers all night if we'd let him. His teacher thought that we should really start pushing the issue now that he is three, so Jerret wanted to take her advice and force him to go on the potty. I, of course, insist that he will go when he is good and ready and until them we are all just wasting our time. The teacher asked us to send him to school in underpants, no diapers, along with a couple extra pairs of underwear and shorts. On day two of this trial I had a little boy who stood in the driveway crying after school one day because he had wet his pants. He was borderline hysterical and I had enough. I told Jerret I was done trying and not forcing the issue. Jerret still went along with the teacher's idea and at the end of the week, Guess What?! ..................................................................................................................................................Wrong! He is absolutely NOT potty trained and still doesn't care! The only thing we had to show for our (Jerret's) efforts was 5 bags of urine-soaked, death smelling, crunchy nasty clothes. Let's not forget the outfit he pooped in that sat in a grocery bag for 3 days before they reminded Jerret to bring it home. It was awful. So bad I had to throw one entire outfit out. The teacher must have felt bad because the next time I came in she was sure to let me know that she had personally washed Jack's wet clothing. She now realizes that JJ is still not ready.

We'll get there, we will. I just hope it's sooner rather than later!

He's Three!

We have been so busy lately, it seems like I can't even find a second to blog. By the time the kids have had their baths and are in bed each night, I have about 100 things to get done and blogging just gets pushed to the side. Sad for me....

Our little guy turned 3 last week. He is the size of a 5-year-old, but is still our baby boy. We took a cake over to Jerret's mom and dad's house and gave him his birthday present. Here he is waiting for the surprise...

He kept on telling us that he wanted a "Boom A-Chow" cake, which is his code word for anything related to the Cars movie. He had a store-bought cars cake last year, and I didn't want to get the same thing, so instead I went to Cold Stone and bought a yummy yellow cake with yellow cake batter ice cream inside. Then I ran into Wal-Mart and bought about 5 cars to put ontop. It was a chore trying to find cars that he doesn't already own, let me tell ya! He thought the cake was great and didn't even need a present after getting those cars off the cake.

So then we surprised him with his birthday present - a big boy bike!!! The excitement faded quickly after his first spill. Take a look at the video...

Our memorial day weekend was nice. We went out to dinner to celebrate Jerret's new job. I am sure he doesn't want me to mention this or make a big deal about it, but I don't care because we are proud of him. He is still doing glass engineering, which he loves, but is going from making drinking glasses to glass bottles (think beer). He is a technical leader for R&D and excited for the new challenge. So anyway - we went out to dinner at a local Mediterranean restaurant. JJ did very well, which I was a little nervous about because it is not really a kid-friendly atmosphere. This is Jack cutting his Shish Tawook, or chicken and rice...

After dinner we went over to Jerret's brother's new house to check it out. This is Jack playing in the back yard. Uncle Joe bought a 4-bedroom house and is a bachelor, so he said he would make a room for JJ to stay the night.

Lovin' Life

I think we have officially hit the terrible two's. Poor JJ has been pretty temperamental lately and fussy about different things - especially eating. The other day he smacked at Jerret and absolutely refused to apologize. We put him to bed early and I had a talk with him explaining that when you hurt someone or hurt their feelings, you need to say sorry and give hugs. He instantly gave me a hug and kiss, but when I told him that he needed to apologize to daddy, he cried and cried and said "no, no, no". He also squeezed Lynde a little hard (on purpose) the other day and again, would not apologize. It's crazy to think that his little mind understands that the words "I'm sorry" are indeed an apology and something that he didn't want to have any part of.

The Easter Bunny was pretty good to JJ this year except for one minor detail...Our Easter Bunny doesn't bring candy!! Can you believe it? Who is this rotten bunny anyway? I felt bad for the little guy so I gave him an extra pack of m&m's I had left over from helping my brother make baskets for his kids. We also had a good time coloring eggs, but we don't really like to eat the eggs so we just took a couple over to poppa.

Jack is loving his baby Lynde. He wants her to sleep in his bed so bad and every evening when we go to say goodnight, he will scoot over and say "Lynde lay here" so the other night I laid her down to make him happy. He was in 7th heaven getting to be with his sissy - that is until I had to take her back.

This is JJ's new toy at Poppa and Nana's house. He calls his horse swing "Black Beauty."

I'm Still Alive!

It's been a while...and I have the usual excuses.

I am happy to inform you all that it was exactly two years ago that we landed in Detroit with our baby boy - who is now getting so big :( Here is a pic taken inside the airplane. I'll never forget that I tried to calculate how many diapers we would need in our carry-on for the 20-hour trek...I guessed 9 would be enough. Wouldn't you know it, we needed 10. Those poor, poor people sitting around us.

JJ is doing great with his baby sister, Lynde. She is 3 months old now and he is constantly wanting to hold her, kiss her, and just help out with whatever she needs. He really wants her to be able to sleep in his bed with him. She was laying on the ground cooing, just making her baby noises, last week and JJ came running to me in the kitchen saying "Mom - Ninny talk, Ninny talk!" so I acted very excited and said "No Way! What did she say?" and JJ just looked and me and calmly replied "She say ham and cheese."

No clue where that came from.

Here are some recent pics of JJ at our local big blow-up jumpy place...

In Case You Were Wondering...

It's been a while, but if you were wondering what JJ has been up to, then check out this little video. Sorry about the quality, but the photographer was holding the baby in her other arm!

Here are some pics of Daddy and JJ partying in the basement after destroying the castle!

And Mr. Sockhand has returned...This is what I found twice last week when checking on JJ at naptime...

Long Time, No Blog!

We really need to get this kid a tool belt.

Well, as you can imagine, the craziness of a newborn (5 weeks already!) has had me quite busy at home leaving no time to blog. Any free moments have been spent napping, showering, playing with Jack and I can't forget to mention my 5 trips out of the house (4 to the grocery store and one dinner for Jerret's birthday).

JJ has been quite the little helper. He is standing at the ready with a pacifier anytime Lynde makes even a whimper. He wants to play with her so badly. The other day I busted him trying to feed her a goldfish cracker and had to explain that Lynde only drinks milk and doesn' t have any teeth.

JJ is going through a pretend stage and some days acts like a lion (from Lion King, of course), other days he is a puma (Go Diego Go!), and sometimes a mean tiger (Kung Fu Panda). He uses these opportunities to go around the house licking people and will act like he is going in for a kiss and out the tongue comes. Lynde gets licked the most (see below). He has so much energy that we are starting to discuss which activities we should enroll him in when he turns three. The kid is seriously crazy strong and has defined muscles in his arms. The other day he was actually doing push-ups (perfect ones at that) in the living room. I have no idea where he learned this move because I haven't seen Jerret do a push up in a few years and I probably haven't done one since I was 20!

More Pics...

JJ sure loves his sissy. He is constantly wanting to hold, hug, and kiss her. Most recently he has begun licking his hand and wiping it across her forehead saying "Simba!" (a move he learned from watching Lion King).

Our Newest Addition...

She's here! Lynde Josephine was born on Saturday, January 3, weighing in at 8lbs 3oz (exactly the weight I was at birth). She is so so awesome and a true miracle.

It only took JJ about an hour to warm up to her and he was in love too. He gets a huge smile on his face when he gets to help with her and wants to hold her all the time, but is a little rough so we usually do the holding. This morning JJ got put in time out and instead of crying for mommy or daddy he cried for his sister and kept saying "My Ninny, My Ninny." He is going to be a great big brother.