Mom's Day Out Drama

So pretty much everyone in Cullman asks me if John Henry is going to go to Mom's Day Out this year. I wasn't going to send him, but I caved into peer pressure and put him on the waiting list. I didn't think he got in, and I was so glad! I could tell people that I signed him up, so it wasn't my fault. :)

Well last night the director of Mom's Day Out called and told me they had some changes and JH got in. I had to decide by today. I called her tonight and left a message that he would be going. She called me back and said that she was so excited he was going to be in her class. It is from 8:30-2:30 everyday. That is a long time! It really freaked me out that he would have to take a nap there.

As soon as I got off the phone with her, I started crying. I cried for 20 minutes while Kurt said that if I didn't call her and tell her John Henry wasn't going, he would. I called my mom and she said that it seemed like a really long time to her too.

So I called the lady back and told her that I had been crying about it, and I just didn't think he was ready. I know she thinks I am a complete nut, but I feel very good about not sending him. I really feel like he needs to ease into school and not just be thrown in for 7 hours when he has never been away from me (much less EVER gone to sleep on his own). Plus, I want to spend as much time with John Henry as possible before March. I think Kurt thinks I am crazy too. Thankfully, he deals with it! :)

John Henry sayings

Ok, so the blog is kind of boring with no pictures, but I am trying to blog all this so I will remember it!

John Henry is 27 months old. Here are some of the things he says.

• He calls me Mom, Mama, and Mommy. He calls Kurt Daddy, Dada, or Dad. I have no idea why he doesn't pick one!
• He always says please and thank you to me and Kurt. Not so much to other people b/c I think he is more shy with them, but at least he knows he is supposed to. I am trying to work on yes m'am (I have no idea how to spell that) and yes sir, but he really doesn't get it b/c he doesn't know there are boys and girls. Right now he says yes sir all the time.
• He has started saying, "Ok Mama" when I tell him no or stop. It doesn't mean he actually stops what he isnt' supposed to be doing, but it sounds really sweet!
• He LOVES Bailey. He wants to hold her, hug her, and boss her around all the time.
• At night when we go to bed, I tell him to tell God what he is thankful for. I didn't know if he really got it at first b/c he didnt' say anything. After I had finished his prayers, he said, "Thank you Bailey. Thank you Daddy. Thank you Mommy." So sweet!
• Now he thanks God for Bailey, Ben and Bec, and Kase every night in that order. Never anyone else, except occasionally for Lily/Lucy, Kase's little sister. (Her name is actually Lily, but JH calls all babies Lucy.)
• Today Kurt asked him if he wanted to ride go-karts and he said, "ride choo choo, feed baby goose, and play golf too." :) We did everything he wanted!
• All he wants to eat is ice cream or junk. He used to be such a good eater, but I swear the kid would never eat if I didn't force him.
• Sleeping is still bad! He sleeps all night, but with us. He likes to lie in his bed now to go to sleep, and it takes at least 1 hr every night, usually more. Tonight from the time we walked back to his room, until the time he fell asleep, it was 1 hr. 45 min! But he did have a screaming fit for daddy, so we came out to visit with Kurt for a while. I'm going to go nuts if the kid doesn't start going to sleep faster!
• He dances all the time.
• He sang the ABC song in the backseat the other day. He didn't miss a letter until H. I was shocked that he knew it. I had no idea!
• He loves the itsy bitsy spider song.

That is all I can think of now. I will add more tomorrow when other people can help me remember.

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Big News!

We're having a baby! I am due March 8th.

We have known for a while but just started telling people a few weeks ago when we saw the heartbeat. I am supposed to be 8 weeks today, and I just started throwing up this morning. I felt horrible all day long today. I am praying it was a freak thing and I'll feel great tomorrow.

We have told John Henry, but he really doesn't get it. We have asked him if he wants a baby to come live at his house and he can hold it, and he always says yes. He has been asking to hold Baby Andrew, the baby that is at the place where I get my vegetables, so I told him that I had a baby in my tummy and he could hold it one day. He said okay, but I know he had no clue what we were talking about. He keeps saying he wants to hold a baby and and a baby can sit in "John Enry's lap," so I told him Laudan had a baby in her tummy too and he could hold that baby soon. He said, "Ok Mommy. I hold baby Bec Bec." I think he thinks that Laudan's new baby is going to be another Bec Bec.

My child the drink stealer

John Henry has become very sneaky lately! Yesterday Kurt went to Sonic and got himself a cherry coke and me a chocolate milkshake. When he got home, both were sitting on the counter. John Henry climbed in his Kitchen Helper (which is the best thing ever; I'll make another post about that), and started drinking my milkshake. He knew that it was mine and the coke was Kurt's, but he pointed to Kurt's coke and said, "Mommy's juice." Then he pointed to my milkshake and said, "John Enry's juice."

Then I kind of leaned on the counter near Kurt's coke (after JH had already downed my entire milkshake). John Henry pushed the coke to me and said, "Drink it pease Mom." I took a sip, and he took it away from me, said "All gone!," and started drinking it. It was not even close to all gone!

Last night Kurt was drinking a Mt. Dew in the living room, and John Henry would act like he was playing and go over near the drink, steal a sip, and run away. I was getting ready for bed, so I watched from the other room for a second. When Kurt went to the kitchen, JH went to the door to make sure he was gone, then ran over to get a sip. He is such a little sneak!! You'd think we never give him anything liquds with the way he was acting yesterday!

Another Cute John Henry Story

Yesterday, I needed to take a shower, so I gave John Henry a lollipop. I told him he had to sit while he was eating it and if he stood up, it would hurt him. He sat the whole time I was in the showered and colored.

As soon as I got out, he said, “Stan up Mommy? Stan up?” (Stand up) I told him as long as he had the lollipop he had to sit. I walked out of the bathroom to go get something. A second later I got back, and John Henry was scooting down the hallway on his bottom saying, “I coming too Mommy! Enry coming too!” He was trying to mind me, so he didn’t even stand up to come find me. He is so funny!!

The Thomas Shirt

Recently, Laudan, Trey, Ben, Rebecca, Kurt, John Henry and I went to see Thomas and Friends: Live on Stage at the BJCC. I didn’t blog about it because it was the most boring thing I have even seen in my life. Seriously. If you thought the Thomas shows were bad, you haven’t seen anything yet!

While we were there, Kurt went to the gift stand with a hundred dollar bill. I knew as soon as he told me where we were going that it was going to be a problem! He came back with $70 in Thomas merchandise! A watch, a light up thing, a shirt, and something else that I can’t remember. And on the way out he bought John Henry a bubble gun, and I stopped him buying a balloon, but that is beside the point! The point is the Thomas shirt.

John Henry LOVES the Thomas shirt. I am at my dad’s now, but I will post pictures of it later. It was the smallest one they had, but it is a Youth XS, so it is huge on John Henry. But he loves it. He wears it almost every night to bed. He had forgotten about it, but we were at Monnie’s one night with no pajamas, so I pulled it out of my unbelievable messy car* for him to wear and it was all over. He wants to wear it all the time now. In the mornings after John Henry wears the Thomas shirt, he doesn’t want to take it off. When it is time for him to get dressed, he screams and cries. I feel bad for him, but there is no way he is wearing a 2 sizes too large t-shirt with Thomas on it out in public.

The other day we were getting ready, and I went to John Henry’s drawer where we keep his pjs. He saw me and knew it was time to get dressed. He went running down the hall, then stopped and patted his tummy (where Thomas is on the shirt) and said, “Thomas cute Mommy. Thomas cute.” Then he ran around the living room saying, “Thomas running Mommy. Thomas running.” It was so funny! He was trying to convince us to let him wear it. :) Poor child. Don’t worry, I let him wear it for bed again that night.

*Kurt, my mom, and my dad don’t understand why my car is so messy but it is because of situations like that. I always end up having something useful in my car when I need it! Like the time John Henry pooped all over himself (shoes included) on Mary’s sidewalk in Huntsville. I couldn’t go inside to clean him up because they had a stomach virus, so I cleaned him up, got all the yucky clothes in a bag, diaper in a bag to throw away, and dug up a smocked outfit (freshly ironed) with matching shoes all from my car.

Fun day at Monnie's!

Monnie, John Henry, and I went to an art show at Aldridge's Gardens today. We had to park down the road and take a bus to the show. I was kind of freaking out about John Henry having to ride a bus with no car seat, but I did it b/c he wanted to feed the "bobby goose." (baby goose)

Here he is on the bus ride. He was not so sure about it on the way over. He had fun on the way back to the car. If you look in his hands, you can see some animal crackers. John Henry was eating them in the car when I said we were going to go feed the baby goose. He held on to them for probably 20 minutes- the car, the bus ride, all the way through the park, and finally to the baby goose. It was really cute. :)

Eating a cookie in order to keep him in his stroller. Check out those poor little knees. We were playing outside when Kurt drove up and honked the horn the other night, and John Henry got so excited that he fell down. :(

Afterwards, we went back to Monnie's house so John Henry could take a nap. When he woke up, he helped Monnie in the yard.

Moving dirt from his new bucket to a plant and the trash. He was excited to have his picture taken. He kept saying, "CHEESE!"

We are hoping this picture isn't an indication of what John Henry's college years will be like!!

My kitchen table

Look at my kitchen table. Aren't they so pretty?! The white ones and one blue hydrangea came from Pop and Ri's yard, but the rest are from our yard. I think we will have hydrangeas for a long time considering we have 17 plants and most are just now blooming! I love them!

And some cute pics of John Henry hugging Bailey.

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We have a new pet!

John Henry loves flies. He thinks it is great that he tries to touch them and they fly away every time. I think I could entertain him for hours with one fly and a small room. Anyway, he is obessed with his daddy killing flies as well. Kurt taught him to say, "Smoke it Daddy!" Which he screamed at library story time when there was a stuffed (as in stuffed animal) butterfly hanging from the ceiling. Thanks Kurt!

Tonight John Henry was in the bath and there was a fly in the bathroom. John Henry called daddy in to "smoke it." Well, when Daddy smoked it, it fell in the bathtub. I scooped it out with a cup. John Henry took the cup from me and just cracked up for about 5 min. about the fly. I made him get out of the bath and put the cup on the side of the tub to throw out when he forgot about it.

Later, he asked me for his juice, so I sent him to the bathroom to get it. (He really did have juice in there b/c he drank the bubble bath water and cried that it was "yuck" until Kurt brought him juice.) He came out with the fly in the cup. Kurt poured it into a bucket where John Henry watched it and laughed hysterically. Unfortunately, the fly took a trip down the drain after JH went to sleep. Hopefully he forgets about it by the morning!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but his mouth is open b/c he is so excited about the fly.

\

So proud of the fly!

The fly with 2 pieces of corn that John Henry apparently threw into the bucket during dinner.

Train Table Bullies

Warning: This got long because I am still fired up about it!

Today Laudan and I took the kids to Belk to do some shopping. We promised them that when we were finished we would take them to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table.

When we walked in there were 2 sets of siblings playing with the trains. One set had one train each and the other set had 6 trains each. The mom of the kids that only had 1 train was right there with them. The mom of the bully kids was sitting about 10 feet away reading a book.

Ben and John Henry hung back for a few minutes b/c they were being shy, but it really didn't matter b/c the bully brother and sister wouldn't have shared anyway. Laudan found one train and gave it to Ben. Then the bully sister left and left her train. The other mom and I started grabbing trains to give to our kids. We knew we had to act fast!

The whole time we were there, the little boy had all the trains and would pick up and hold anymore that he saw. I was so angry about it b/c Ben and John Henry only had 1 each, but what can you do? The mom was right there and never did anything besides say, "Share Scott" from her seat. Thanks. That was helpful.

I'll spare you more details, but finally the kids were ready to go (well, we were ready for them to go). Ben and Bec Bec were off looking at books, and I said to John Henry, "Ok, we are about to go to Monnie's." Bully Scott SNATCHED Thomas out of John Henry's hand and said, "He has to leave that; he can't take it with him." So, I replied, "I know. He wasn't going to take it. We have LOTS of Thomases at home, and he doesn't want that one." (mature, I know, but I was mad at a 4 year old) I told the little boy that John Henry could have that one back b/c we were going to stay a few more minutes. (Really, I just didn't want him to have it.) He gave it back, but in the meantime John Henry found another Thomas and picked it up. When Bully Scott saw that John Henry had 2 Thomases, he snatched 1 away and said, "He can only have 1." It took everything I had not to snatch all his trains away (he had 8 at this point) say, "Listen here you little *&@#, you don't snatch toys from MY child, or you will have to deal with me!" But I didn't because his mom would have heard because I would never speak to a child like that.

So the moral of the story is: Don't let you child be a train table bully! If your child has 99% of the trains, chances are all the other parents are looking at each other like you are the worst parent in the world.

I'm getting mad just thinking about it again!!

Here are some pictures of Ben and John Henry playing. The bully isn't pictured in order to protect the guilty. :)

In need of a haircut

This post is to show Schenaye the pics I took today. We are trying to get our pictures to look like http://flythroughmywindow.blogspot.com/. Obviously I have a long way to go.

But before the pics, I would like to document the fact that John Henry was asleep at 8:25, and it only took 10 min to get him to sleep. Of course, he didn't nap today, but that isn't important now. It definitely was this afternoon though. I thought I was going to go nuts listening to a tired, whiny kid. :)

Ok Schenaye, these are my pics. I don't know how she gets her background so blurry. My camera will only go to a 3.8 F-stop. She said she sets hers to 2.something. (I really sound like I know what I am talking about, don't I. :) )

Bathroom Humor

John Henry was playing with the slinky dog today. I walked in and he was pushing the back of the dog down. He said, "Wook Mama. (he's on a mama kick for the past few days.) Dog tee tee again!" Nice.

Now he just told me that the dog went poo poo. Great!

More Beach Pictures

John Henry wanted to hold Brant. He would pat his lap and say, "Sit Bobby (Baby). Sit!"

All 4 of the Apel kids. Tucker was acting silly. :)

Another pic of the kids!

Safari in the JC Penney parking lot!

Today Emily and I took the kids to a random group of animals in the JC Penney, Belk, and Books A Million parking lot. It was fun, but so strange! They say they have a wildlife preserve in Florida, but somehow I doubt that. I would think people who are really concerned about the welfare of animals wouldn't put a tiger in a 5x8 cage with one ball and a bowl of water to live his life, but whatever. The carnies, I mean Zoo Crew (I'd say the average # of teeth per mouth was 15), were very nice and they did let you take pictures of all the animals with your own camera and general admission was free. Emily and I were cracking up b/c we felt like we were at the fair. If you've ever been the to Cullman County Fair, that is saying a lot! I wanted to dress John Henry in a safari themed outfit, but I thought that might be taking it a little too far for the Belk Parking lot. They had a baby tiger, baby lion, baby kangaroo, lemurs, goats, some kind of strange mini-cow, llamas, camel, ponies, donkeys passed off as a ponies, a black leopard, and a white tiger.

The first thing we did was have the kids take a picture with a baby tiger. It was really cute! It cost $12, but b/c Emily and I are so thrify, I brought the pic home to scan and print so we only had to pay once. John Henry and Ava really weren't about the tiger. John Henry just thought it

was a cat. I'll scan the real pic later. It is funny!

Here is the big tiger. We were only like 3 ft away from it. His teeth were huge! The cage seemed secure, but it was a little to close for comfort for me. I was mentally planning my escape route to my car in case it got out.

I got a picture of Ava riding the pony. John Weston was across from her. His pony was a donkey, but the kids didn't know that! :)

We did pay $1 per person to go in the back (a tent with flap that came to the floor) and see the "rare white tiger and majestic black leopard." They stunk, literally.

John Henry, Ava, and John Weston in front of the white tiger. I am pretty sure that is tiger pee that John Henry is standing in. The kids were more impressed with the big fan. :)

This picture cracks me up. Look at that camel in front of those stores! His name was Scooter. We got to watch some kids ride Scooter. John Weston and Ava really wanted ride it, but Emily decided it would be best to wait on Patrick to ride with them. That camel is pretty tall! The workers cleaned up after all the animals as soon as they used the bathroom, so it was a pretty clean place.

Sissy hugging John Henry!

After the safari, we went to Sweet Peppers Deli to eat. We saw lots of students we taught and our kids acted like nuts while we talked to everyone! It was really fun though, and it's not everyday you get to see a kangaroo in Cullman!

John Henry's Favorite Pastime

John Henry loves to cut the grass like Daddy. For a while he was super-obsessed (he wanted to cut the grass rather than go to the pool one day), but he's mellowed out about it some. He does say, "Cut grass. Daddy cut grass" like 100 times a day. I think he thinks it's his job or something. He calls it his "awn more." I think he dreamed that I took it away the other night b/c he woke up screaming for it and saying, "No Mommy! No!"