john's mom works

john was excited to wear his fireman rain jacket this morning. but (surprise!) he would never hold still long enough for me to get a good picture! this weekend when my husband and i were in the kitchen, john came tearing into the room from his bedroom. he stopped right in front of me, and said, "mommy, have you seen myron?" i said, "who's myron, baby?" he said, "myron!" and turned to his daddy. "daddy, where's myron?" daddy said, "who's myron, john?" and john ran back into the other room. we went back to doing dishes or cooking or whatever we were up to before the strange myron interlude, not thinking much of it -- after all, our little dude is both creative and very impressionable, so who knows whether he invented myron or saw him on tv or what. a few minutes later, a little blur came tearing into the kitchen again.  "mommy ..." he said. "yes, my love?" i said. &

happy hanukkah! my mom's side of the family is jewish, which technically makes me jewish. and although i have never identified religiously as jewish, it is a huge and important part of my culture and heritage. growing up, we celebrated both hanukkah and christmas, and in fact my brother and i attended a year's worth of hebrew school at one point. i've always loved the tradition of the hanukkah menorah, so we've always done one in our house, since long before john was even born. but it's really fun this year, since he's so aware of what's going on around him and is learning things so fast.  saturday night was the first night of hanukkah this year, so we lit the candles, i said the blessing, we said amen, and then john said, "now we sing happy birthday!" i said, "oh, love, i know it's candles, but it's not birthday candles, it's hanukkah candles!" and he said, "no! sing happy birthday!" so i aske

john's mom apparently has an unknown superpower - the ability to disappear off the internet at a moment's notice. here's a little of what that little rapscallion has been doing since last we spoke. mmm, lettuce. when i was a kid, i had a very uneasy relationship with lettuce. i didn't mind vegetables in general, but me and lettuce were not friends. i'd pick the good stuff out of a salad and leave the leaves aside. i specifically remember sitting at the dinner table, having been told i had to finish my salad, and telling my mom that the lettuce was "sticking it's tongue out" at me and i couldn't bear to eat it. i did eventually outgrow my distaste for lettuce, though i'm still relatively picky about it and tend toward romaine and spinach and away from iceberg. not my child. the other day, i was snacking on a leftover lebanese salad - very basic. lettuce, some feta cheese, some tasty garlic dressing. i stepped into my bedroom for a

"i take my pants off!" like so many two year olds, john is going through an "i do it" phase. from getting in and out of the car to removing his clothes before a bath to washing his hands to pretty much anything, he wants to do it. he doesn't usually pitch a fit if you try to help him, he just says emphatically, "i do it by self!" and sometimes i just have to remind myself: you wanted this! when he was too little to help get in and out of his own clothes, you were anxious for him to learn. you were excited when he first held that bottle to feed himself. you wanted him to grow. and i do, i do. i do want him to grow. but the more he can do "by self" the less he needs me. the more independent he becomes, the less likely he is to want to hold and hug and kiss and snuggle, and i love the hold and hug and kiss and snuggle parts of being a mama so much. i'm in luck, though. in between fits of "by self," john loves the snu

my boys watching football. it's one of john's best stall tactics when he doesn't want to go to bed ... "watch football with daddy!" this evening on our way home from grabbing some dinner, we decided to drive through the neighborhood a little bit and check out a few houses that have their christmas decor up. our neighborhood has a couple of truly classy beautifully decorated houses, a couple of deliciously tacky out-there decorated houses, and some basic strings of lights. john is starting to really love "chrisamiss" lights, so it was fun to cruise around with him and talk about the characters we saw and the houses all lit up. we turned on the local christmas music radio station for some background music as we were cruising around the neighborhood. it was on fairly quiet, because we were discussing everything we saw. suddenly, john said, "seeng dognivah! i love this!" i asked, "what do you love, john? the christmas lights?&

little dude with his shades. because "the sun is BRIGHT, mommy." a full box of kleenex emptied on the floor. because "i'm building a CASTLE, mommy!"

for months now, we've been thinking of moving john over by one bedroom and moving him to a big boy bed. the room he's in now makes more sense for a nursery, and when we got pregnant we thought would be the impetus ... but since we're not having a baby now, it sort of fell by the wayside. until this weekend. john had been (reluctantly) down for a nap for about 45 minutes when i heard him squawling in his bedroom. he sometime cries, occasionally yells, but rarely is there quite as much ... umph to his protestations. as i walked down the hallway to check on him, he stopped wailing long enough to yell, "mommy, put me back in my cot!" and i knew: he'd finally escaped from his crib. sure enough, there he was, standing on his bedroom floor. he was hysterical because i think his exit was more tumble than graceful escape. he was, fortunately, unhurt ... and just as fortunately, a little scared. he hasn't climbed out of his bed since. but i still think it

if you know me, you will know why this particular video makes me the proudest mama in town: i'm sorta partial to the cello, you see. that's my ax he's playing, actually. and while i certainly don't know if he'll ever want to pick up my passion and play for real, it's pretty freaking cool to see his little self jammin' on the old girl. too cool.

i have started and abandoned this post about 42 times. it shouldn't be so hard to write - there's no big news or bad news or excitement. just a moderate little apology for disappearing of the face of the planet, and a modicum of catching up to do. but here's the thing: i hate catching up posts. they feel like boring ol' essays on "what i did on my summer vacation." no life, no vim, no vigor, no excitement. so - you get no catching up. what you do get are these fine videos of our crazy monkey dancing to the floats and bands on the macy's thanksgiving day parade. clip 1: breaking it down clip 2: interpretive dance (to the oh-so-striking strains of the native american recognition float)

the difference is night and day: yesterday evening happy on the couch. this morning, miserable leaning on it. i have learned one thing about john: he is not really a morning person. and i can't fault him - he comes by that honest. daddy and i aren't so hot about jumping out of bed either. to be fair, john actually wakes up pretty cheerful. he plays in his bed and sings songs and hangs out. when daddy or i go to collect him, he's usually happy to see us and often greets us with a gleeful "i'm awake!" but it goes downhill from there quickly. he's ok if he can hang out and watch some of a movie, drink some milk, maybe have a snack. but when it's time to get ready to go to school or church or whatever, the tears break out. big. fat. bawling. tears. it's so sad. and it's usually accompanied by repeated use of one phrase: "i want to go back night night." (and i always think, me too, kiddo, but we're out of

left: john outhams santa and steals his throne center: john outhams mama and steals her slippers right: have you ever seen such a well-dressed little monkey? hi, there. it's been far too long since i've shared much of anything. nearly every day i think, oh, i have to tell that story about john! and then nearly everyday the day gets away from me and i never share anything at all. and you know who will be the saddest about that? me in 15 years. so. i'm going to jump back on the blogwagon. one of john's favorite expressions lately is, "i'm going crazy!" this is accompanied by crazy dancing, or running around, or generally acting wild. best i can tell, it traces its roots to 'yo gabba gabba!', where at the end of the dancy-dance segment they say to do whatever you want to and "go crazy!" sometimes buddy "goes crazy" in the backyard. sometimes we "go crazy" in the living room when there's good music

this truck will probably be joined with some boxes to make a train. just wait. one of the most frequently uttered phrases in our house of late has been this: "all aboard!" john has been a big fan of thomas the really useful engine for a while, but just recently he's taken a shine to trains in general. he chugs around the house with his yellow dump truck, which he uses to push boxes and laundry baskets and what ever else around. he loves to chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a chooo chooo.  so when i was in the bathroom this morning - which shares a wall with john's room - and i heard through the wall, "all aboard!" i wasn't too surprised. but there was extra glee when john came running into my room with a train whistle that i'd forgotten he had. he was all excited because it had a train painted on the side ... so imagine his joy when i showed him that it actually makes a train sound.  he struggled with it at first. couldn't quite get the gr

my be-hoodied goof eating strawberries. yesterday after school/work, john and i went to stride rite to get him some new shoes. my husband and i were beginning to suspect that his size 6.5 mediums were getting too small for him, and i just couldn't shake the memory of taking john in thinking he needed a 4.5 to discover he needed a 6. mom of the year moments right there. stride rite is in the next town over in a direction john and i don't travel very often. in fact, i think the last time we were over that way was when we went to the balloon festival back in september. so imagine my surprise as we were getting off the interstate when john said, "i see balloons here, mommy." thinking he saw some balloons flying over a store or sometime, i said, "where, john? i don't see them." and he said, "no, i see balloons here one day." at this point i was a little amazed that he remembered the balloon festival at all. but his next words

is there such a thing as too many pics of a child in grownup shoes? when i was in middle and high school, i was blessed to find a group of friends who shared my ... we'll generously call it a creative spirit. sometimes that manifested itself in high-minded word games and interesting musical compositions. sometimes it was witty jokes and scripts for our student-directed odyssey of the mind sketches. and sometimes we made funny noises at each other for hours on end. grunts, beeps, shrieks - nothing was off limits. i make a noise at you, you make a different noise back at me. ad nauseum. (try it sometime. it's surprisingly entertaining, and passes the time on long bus rides quite nicely.) yesterday, i made perhaps one of the awesomest discoveries of motherhood. john likes to play the noise game. the whole way from daycare back home (ok, that's only 10 minutes but that's a lifetime for a two year old!) we made noises back and forth to each other. john is a

this is perhaps the silliest milestone a mom has ever discussed, but this picture shows the first time john ate a "banbana" without me taking the peel off for him. i have always wanted to be the kind of mom who plays with her child. yes, there are often grown-up-y things that need to be done like laundry and cooking and dishes and the like, but i want john to remember his parents stopping to take time and be silly with him, not just working while he played in the other room. and since john and i drive to and from work/school every day, that time in the car is an awesome opportunity for us to play together. granted, it has to be verbal play that allows me to stay focused on the road. but we talk a whole heck of a lot, and john tells me all about his day and who he played with and what they did. so this morning on the way to school, john informed me that he wanted to go on an airplane, and i saw an awesome opportunity. i told him our truck could be an airplane, an

look! he's (half) dressed! this morning when john woke up, i whisked him into the bathroom so he could go pee pee in the potty. (that's still never happened, but one of these times he's going to accidentally go while he sits there and boy what a potty party that will be!) we've been talking lately about how when he sits on the potty, he needs to make sure his penis is pointing down. (hey, mommy does NOT want to get peed on.) so he leaned forward a little and said, "i point my penis down, mommy!" and he was oh so proud. "great job, baby," i said. "that's good work. can you go pee pee now?" and he looked at me as i leaned against the counter, and he pointed to my crotch. "your penis in there, mommy?" i said, "no, baby, mommy is a girl. girls don't have penises." he looked at me curiously and said, "your booty in there?" and i pointed at my rear end and said, "yep, my bo

mmm, baby for breakfast! every week, like almost every human being i know, i look forward to the weekend. and every week, i find myself so utterly overwhelmed with weekend - mostly awesome weekend stuff! - that i start the next work week less rested than i was on friday. each activity that our family does is wonderful. but the sum total wears me out. this weekend started easy - delicious breakfast cooked by my husband, then off to tailgate at the lsu game. my husband had scored some awesome tickets, my cousin and her husband were in town from new york, lots of family was going to be around, it was going to be AWESOME! close enough to the bench to see that those players are BABIES. infants, i tell you. and awesome it was. but it was also something close to 10 miles of walking, up until nearly 3 a.m. (which even with daylight savings is still 2 a.m. ...) and then up to teach sunday school and do laundry and etc. etc. etc.. so. how do you do it? how do you make sure

such a charming little fellow daddy and john had an awesome afternoon today - since dad gets off early on fridays, he picked john up early and john got to ride his tricycle and stack box blocks up higher than daddy's head and generally hang out and enjoy a fall afternoon. so by the time i made it home from work, there was some snuggling to be had on the couch (we watched yo gabba gabba, which is actually quite entertaining ...) and after daddy picked up some papa murphy's pizza, we were all hanging out when i smelled a certain ... funk. i said to john, "did you poo poo?" he said, "yes mommy." i said, "time for a fresh diaper - you stink!" and john said, "peeeyew." and i said, "that's right -- and john interrupted and said, "no! wait. not pee you. pee me! peeeeemeeee." guess we're getting the hang of those pronouns ...

four little wild ones trick-or-treating -- sorry for the eyeshine, but it IS halloween! last night was john's first time really trick or treating. his first halloween he was only four months old, and last year he came to our halloween event at the mall and had no clue what the heck was going on. but this year we joined some friends for an awesome night of trick or treating and halloween fun, and john was awesome. things i learned: 1) my son calls it "truck or treat" and i don't want that to change 2) trick or treating is VASTLY improved by a go cup of wine in hand. 2a) having a total of six parents for four kids makes you feel not so bad about that go cup 3) ten houses is enough for the under seven set 4) john will be done after about five houses, take off his tigger hat, refuse to carry his bucket, but still want to visit every person he sees at a house and say truck or treat 5) mommies should take far more pictures, and try taking some whe

just a little read while on the pot ... we've not really made a lot of progress on the potty training front. which is actually not a very accurate statement, because really, we haven't been trying very hard. i know in my heart that john won't go to kindergarten in diapers, so it's just not something we've been stressing about. but i have definitely noticed that john is seeming less-than-happy about a poop-filled diaper lately. and he very often tells us he wants to go to the potty (although that very often corresponds with being out in public and him being bored and wanting something to do ... and has very little connection to any actual bathroom-related activity). so last night, when john looked at me and said, "i go poo poo, mommy," i responded, "do you need a fresh diaper?" and he said, "no, i not go yet." so i said, "would you like to go poo poo on the potty?" and he said, "yes ma'am!"

in case you just can't get enough of me (she said knowing you want to put duct tape over her mouth) ... Today I Want To Be a Stay at Home Mom Three Things I Never Thought I'd Say (and Then I Had a Child)

i have two suckers, one for each of you. john is getting taller. how do i know? last night we were having our usual cuddle session in his rocker in his room. he lays on my chest with his head nestled into my neck and we "nuggle" for a few minutes before he goes to bed. only last night, he kept pushing my chin and face and head away, saying, "mommy, get you head out the way!" after a few minutes of struggling, i realized the problem - his body is getting longer, so he no longer fits in quite the same way that he has in the past. so i said, "it's ok baby - you're just getting big." he interrupted and said, "i not big, i very little." i patiently explained, "yes, but you're getting bigger. and we just have to figure out how to fit when we snuggle now that you're getting bigger." he looked at me long and hard before he touched my cheek and said, "mommy? you crazy." *   *   * a litt

first, i have finally culled a few of the awesome pics that nana and her friend l took while john was in town. there were tons to choose from, but here's the cream of the crop: creative trike riding package delivery route watching where he's going daddy's home-made blocks! on the playground at mommy's office awww, what a cute family john's first time swinging alone! a preview of my little tigger the family that reads together ... where's waldo? so why, pray tell, have i been so quiet? i've been writing ... but i've been reworking old blog entries and putting together some new material for my gig over at yahoo! (their exclamation point, not mine - it's cool that i'm writing for them and all, but come on!) some new stuff they've published of mine: First Person: 5 Steps to a "Perfect" Credit Score How Purple Hair Made Me a Better Mom 10 Things No One Told Me Ab

this is the face of glee. don't worry, he's sitting in daddy's lap. on our way home from school last night, john kept saying, "i want to drive!" and he wouldn't accept my answer of "give it 14 years or so, baby." so last night when we got home, the whole family piled into the front seat of daddy's car so john could "drive" us around. he was in rare form, turning the steering wheel, flipping the windshield wipers on and off, and having daddy help him honk the horn. i'm glad we did this now, because he won't be fooled long - we did turn the car on so he could see all the lights, but he obviously didn't go anywhere. and that was ok, except for one moment when he said, "no, i want to drive OUT THERE! go THAT way!" as he pointed over our shoulders and out the garage door. to which i repeated ... "give it 14 years or so, baby." *   *   * the driving interlude was a very pleasant break in wh