Terrible Two's or Three's

Perhaps it hits later for some than others but... Reilly has decided that it's more effective to whine and throw himself on the floor kicking and screaming versus using his new found vocabulary to communicate. Somedays I have the patience for it, and somedays I do not. Ugh. Fortunately when I don't have the patience Shad does, so we complement each other well that way.

Reilly wants what he wants when he wants it. I would imagine it will be magnified even more when Baby Pickles comes into our home.

Ugh.

dot com

I'm not proud of this but... I do find it fascinating... Reilly and I were having breakfast this morning and watching pbs. The theme song for pbs came on and it started out with "pbs kids" and Reilly added "dot com" at the end of it.

Wow... how times have changed.

Easter Egg Hunts

Reilly and Brenna had about 20 eggs to "pick up" yesterday in our annual Easter egg hunt at my parents. It just so happens that Reilly grabbed all the ones with candy and coins and Brenna grabbed all the ones with Matchboxes in them. Lucky me - a candy high - and wanting all of Brenna's cars.

I guess this is the beginning of the always wanting what the other kids have phase. Here come the 3's. :-)

Trucks... trucks... trucks...

Playing trucks with Reilly is fun - however, playing by his rules is not quite as fun. There is only one truck and one person I can play with. The other 26 are his and I'm not allowed to touch them. What's up with that?

Happy Birthday.... oops

Now, we've known it was Daddy's birthday today for quite some time. Reilly's known for several months but since he's a 2 1/2 year old, I reminded him over the past few days. And me, well, I've known pretty much since I met Shad 8 years ago that today was his birthday.

Blame it on pregnancy hormones, my self-centric world these days, or whatever you want but... Reilly and I forgot to say HB to Daddy today.

Fortunately we caught him on the way to work and Reilly was able to sing him a little birthday tune. PHEW... thank goodness for cell phones. (right Deep?)

Black or White in a toddlers world

I am beginning to see that Reilly thinks in black and white and gray is not part of his world yet... many things have reinforced this theory to me, but most recently this is what happened:

"Reilly, ask Daddy if he's grumpy"
"Daddy, are you grumpy"
"No, I'm hungry"
"No, no, Daddy, I said grumpy not hungry"

It's a Floater!

So... picture this... Reilly is taking a bath with his 25 bath toys and Shad is sitting on the edge of the tub reading a biking magazine. I am walking from the laundry room to our bedroom, which passes Reilly's bathroom, I hear a VERY distinct grunt. I say "Reilly, are you pooping in the tub" and he replies with a winded "no mommy". Not more than 10 seconds later I hear Shad with a defeated "oh no". I walk in the bathroom to see Ernie on his waterbike and the rubber duck floating next to one of the biggest "Baby Ruth" bars that has been produced since August of 2002!

I said to Reilly, "if you have to go potty you just need to tell mommy or daddy and we'll put you on the potty". He looks up at me and says, "I have to go potty". He sat there for the next 20 minutes shivering, reading a book and finishing his business.

Naturally I needed to document the moment prior to the disinfecting process! All toys and tubs are clean again. :-)

He loves the big bed...

It was time to transition Reilly from his crib to "the big bed". The only catch was we needed to get him a "big bed". We spent an entire day shopping - I NEVER knew how kid friendly furniture stores could be. He could walk around with cookies, ice cream, balloons, juice, you name it, they had it and it was FREE. Not to mention bean bags strewn all over the place and tv's with kids movies on them. These amenities certainly made the process much more bearable!

By the end of the day we had ordered bunk beds that we be at the house four days later. Four days later Reilly spent his first night with a gate on his door and a new bed in his room. He cried once during the night - but other than that he has slept soundly since.

If asked, he says the crib is for "Baby Pickles".

This has been MUCH easier than I imagined.

Shower Theories

Have you ever noticed that some of your best thinking is done in the shower? Why is that? Have you also ever noticed, that like dreams, they often disappear from the mind once you dry off? Perhaps it's pregnancy, perhaps the solitude is the catalyst for such innovative thinking.

And if I were to describe the "perfect date", mine too would be April 26.

Gone but not forgotten...

So, if you're ever 7 months pregnant and you lose something credit card size or smaller, be sure to check above your stomach and below your chest. It can often be found in that newly created crevasse.

Toddler Logic

It was 6am when Reilly started saying "Daddy, I want some more juice". Shad was getting ready to leave for work and brought Reilly up a cup of 'juice'. Reilly pushed the cup away and said "no, no, no... I want a smoothie". Shad told Reilly he had made him a smoothie and he could have it when he woke up. Reilly said, "Dad, I did wake up".

Tastes like Chicken

Reilly had a tough night last night. I think he's cutting teeth. Poor guy, he's so far behind his peers in this area that I think he's more aware of the pain. I think when you teeth and have the ability to communicate it's a double edge sword. You can identify what hurts and it hurts whereas when you're six months old, it's one of a few things that you can identify as an area that would cause discomfort.

Well, anyway the waffle didn't sound good for breakfast this morning so Reilly pleaded for chicken nuggets and ketchup. ICK. He had a fruit smoothie and nuggets. Since he protested so dramatically I figured it was a battle not worth fighting this time. I don't think I would have won.

Until Next time....

Big Boy Bed

I would leave Reilly in the crib forever if I didn't need to pull him out to make room for Baby Pickles. I think his crib is his comfort zone - as well as ours. We pulled the side off it the other day to make it into a toddler bed and Reilly had a meltdown. He actually hit Shad and yelled at him. That was a nice family moment - one we will treasure forever.

Baby Pickles

Shad and I have been asking Reilly for months if he wants to have a baby - the response is always the same - an emphatic NO. Call it daycare and his classmates having siblings, or just him "coming around", last week he must have had an epiphany. When asked if he wanted a sibling he said yes. When asked what he wanted to name it, he replied with "Reilly, I want a Reilly". When asked if he wanted a boy or girl he replied with "a girl, Baby Pickles". So this child that is kicking me on a regular basis has a new name "Pickles". Thanks for that Reilly!

It's been too long -

So Reilly checked out his new ice skates this weekend. He asked and asked and asked to go play hockey with his cousins Mike and Patrick. After his first experience on the ice, I think the sport must have been overrated in his mind. With the skates and the snowsuit and the helmet and his least favorite, the gloves (aka mittens) - the whole experience was overwhelming. Not to mention that he could not walk nor skate. Poor guy. He asked for his boots the first time his legs came out from underneath him.

Well, we'll put those away until he asks to go again... :-)

Pajamas all day long

Pick your battles I say... so, if Reilly wants to wear his pajamas to day care, why not let him? So today he has on brown leather boots, jeans, and a truck pajama top. He looks great!

The Swinger...

My son... the swinger. When I picked up Reilly from daycare yesterday, he was outside in a sandbox, under the slide with 4 other children. When the teachers told him I had arrived, he said good-bye to each one of them and handed his shovel off. On his way out of the sandbox, he went over and said good-bye to his little friend Madison. She reached for his hand and escorted him to the door in the gate. They said their good-byes. Once on the other side of the fence he walked back over to it and said good-bye to two other little girls peering out the fence at him. He walked to me getting ready to get in the truck and he heard "Reilly, come give me kisses!". Low and behold if it wasn't Madison looking for some more contact. She smiled, he blew her kisses and off we went.

Timeout but not forgotten

"NO" is the word these days and Reilly over uses his freedom to express his ability to use this term. I asked him several times to sit while he was eating and he snapped a succinct "no" back at me. After the third time I asked, "would you like a timeout" (he's only ever had one so I'm not sure he's completely aware) and he replied "yes". About 5 seconds later Reilly was sitting in his chairs facing the wall and crying. Poor guy. I took a photo of it, if you want to check it out. Notice the shadow on the wall - it showcases his pout nicely.

-MOTY I AM!

Oh Deer...

When I pulled into work this morning I noticed there was a truck with it's shell window open. I wondered if they had a dog in the back and wanted to give the pup some air OR if they accidentally left it open. So I deliberately walked around the back of the truck and peeked inside. I saw a set of camouflage and a backpack. In the backpack I saw some antlers sticking out - too big to be zipped shut. Gross....

Here or there

Day Care kids versus kids that stay at home with a parent... for the first time yesterday I decided that Reilly possessed many of the traits I associate with a day care child. Although he is typically well mannered and there are so many positive attributes of day care, there are definitely some negatives as well.

In our Shake Rattle and Roll class I believe he is the only child that goes to day care, all the rest stay at home. In class he shows his independence rather than his ability to follow along. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, BUT I take it personally when he's the only one in the class doing exactly what he wants versus learning what the rest of the class is learning. I would like to say that he knows it all already but that's far from the truth.

My only brush with sanity is that more than half of the class are 6 months older than him, and 6 months is a lot when you only have 30 to work with.

If he didn't talk about the class constantly, I would not return.