Weather

I'm a woman on the verge with this weather.  AWFUL.  Tuesday's expected highs and lows are both in the negatives.  I swear, if they don't cancel school, I'll go crazy.  I intend to be a hermit for the next 5 days.  If anyone needs me, you know where to find me.

It's been a slow year so far.  I haven't gotten much accomplished outside of a few small things, nothing of any consequence.  BORING.  One thing I will do next weekend is bring home a cabinet that belonged to my grandparents.  My amazing friend, Cathy, has been storing it for me for years.  I finally got a hitch put on my car, so next weekend, I'll head down there (sans boys) to get it and bring it back.  That's something I've been wanting to do for a while now!

A few weeks ago, we lost one of our dear neighbors.  He'd been battling brain cancer for the past few years, and I'd seen him just a few days before he died, and he was his normal self.  He was one of the first people we met in our neighborhood, and he'll be sorely missed by everyone here.  His funeral service was huge--a testament to the amazing man he was.  RIP Fred. 

Explaining death to a 4 year old isn't an easy task.  I think Jackson gets it to some degree--we did have to use our late cat Daisy as an example.  The evening after it happened, I was rocking him at bedtime and I told him that Mrs. Strauss is very sad because Mr. Strauss went to heaven.  I asked him what we could do to make Mrs. Strauss happy.  His response: "Bring him back down."  I told him that wasn't really possible, and he said, "We can get a BIG airpwane and go up and get him and bring him back down here."  It brought tears to my eyes, the sweetness and innocence of this child.

Outside of that sweetness and innocence, I have a very sassy boy.  OY, this boy.  He has a way of pushing every one of my buttons.  Everyone keeps telling me what he's doing is cute, and one day I'll wish he was doing these things again.  I can't imagine that when he's standing in front of me, screaming his fool head off because his name is Dog Scrat the Squirrel, not Jackson, for the 2008th time this week.  Nope.  I won't miss that.

Stay warm.  I hate this weather.

Goals for 2014

Here are my goals for 2014:

1)  Lose some weight.  'Nuf said.

2)  Work on my office.  I need to clean it, rearrange things, paint the walls, hang some shelves, and make it a beautiful room.

3)  Finish Grandma's cabinet.  Right now, it's in my garage, laden with chipping lead paint.  I need to strip it, repaint it (unless I can get away with not painting it, but I don't think that will work with this), and make it beautiful.  I don't remember much about the cabinet, except that it was in their basement, and I think my grandpa made it.  Whatever its history, I love it.  Except the lead paint...I don't so much love that.

4)  Clean my closet and organize the hidey hole.  I did a decent job separating and organizing all of Jackson's clothes (given to use by family members), but that space needs further organizing.  Maybe some shelves.

5)  SEW!  I have so many sewing projects I want to accomplish.

6)  Be creative.  I'm cleaning out our basement work area, and hope to start doing some of the projects in my head.  Specifically, something with all these French novels I have.  Découpage?  Wallpaper?  Something needs to be done with those, and I'm going to do something fabulous.

I'm typing these out here so I have a list with which to make myself accountable.  I may add to it in the coming months, but these are some pretty big things I'd like to finally get around to finishing!

So much.

It's been almost 2 months since I've updated this blog, and so many times where I've wanted to but just can't sit still long enough to do it.  I'm busy, but not busy.  There are a million things flying through my head at all times, and I can't quiet the cacophony.  Is it depression?  Maybe.  OCD?  Possibly.  Too much caffeine?  Likely.

What's in there?  Thoughts of being room mother and classroom paparazzi.  LOVED IT.  Thanksgiving day stress.  Birthday party stress.  Christmas stress.  Winter blues. 

Winter blues is the worst.  I didn't really have my normal September depression this year, where the entire month makes me so sad that I want to bite the face off of anyone who crosses my path.  No, this year it's been a slow, bubbling, underlying beast that surfaces on occasion, taking out everyone in its path, then retreats.  I've been so consumed with other things that come January, I'm going to want to crawl into a pit and hibernate there until April.

Being room mother in Jackson's class has been incredible!  I cherish those precious 2.5 hours on Tues and Thurs morning to have to myself, but taking that time to spend with a group of 3 and 4 year olds has been more fun than I ever imagined.  It's nice to do once a month, and that's what I'm signed up for until May.  I feel lucky that I have the time to do that because I know that not every parent does.  I love the teachers in his classroom.  And those kids?  WOW.  They amaze me and make me smile every time I'm there.

And my own kid...most days, he drives  me to the brink of insanity (as Paul says, it's a short drive), but at school, he's a different kid.  He thrives on routine, which he has there in spades.  He's GOOD.  He listens and does what he's asked to do, and then some.  Having me in there doesn't really affect him in anyway.  He still does what's asked of him, and goes above and beyond that.  I have no regrets putting him in preschool at age 3 (some people wait until age 4).  Being an only child, he needs this sooner rather than later.

So that's it.  I hear my sweet boy in the next room, and he's about to make his way into my office to curl up on my lap.  He'll ask me what the weather's going to be today, and knows which button to click to look at whether there's a sun or rain clouds in the 7 day forecast.  He'll snuggle into me with his dragon wrapped around both of us, and I'll smell his hair, and get a whiff of his morning breath when he speaks.  The best part of my day, without a doubt.

Oh...THREE!

This age that Jackson's at right now is going to be the death of me.  I swear, he's a raging maniac sometimes!  Example:

This morning (before school), I asked him nicely to clean up some blocks he'd had all over the living room floor.  All he had to do was put them in their big Ziploc bag.  This request of mine led to him standing in front of me, screaming until his little face turned bright red, crying as if I'd asked him to do something so heinous.  He did pick them up, but not after a lot of noise and show.

After school, I went to pick him up.  One of the classroom aids, a nice woman who knows I'm his mom, came out to help load kids into busses and cars.  She came over to say hi, then told me that Jackson was caught doing something really nice today.  At clean up time, he cleaned what he was playing with, then cleaned up toys that others had played with.  I laughed and told her about my morning, and she in turn laughed and said she didn't believe me.

OH...how I wish I was lying.

This is daily, and there are times where I just look at him and wonder what to do as he's standing there throwing a fit.  Do I discipline him, thus making his screaming/crying worse?  Do I ignore it, like I've heard to do, and make him think his behavior is ok?  Do I get in his face, hug him, show tons of empathy?  Do I follow that teeny tiny feeling inside me to slap him into next Tuesday?  (<--don 2="" 5="" 6="" a="" about="" all.="" and="" another="" be="" br="" but="" can="" do="" feel="" for="" freakin="" go="" happen...="" i="" is="" like="" ll="" lose="" many="" me.="" more.="" my="" nbsp="" none="" of="" on="" online="" or="" people="" phase="" re="" read="" really="" say="" scenarios="" seem="" shit.="" so="" t="" them="" they="" this="" to="" tried="" until="" ve="" what="" won="" working="" worry...that="" years="">
The other thing he does that will drive me to an early grave is declaring every naughty behavior as "my favorite trick!"  When I ask him to stop doing something he shouldn't be doing, 99% of the time, I'm met with, "AWW!  But it's my fave-wit twick!"  If I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do, it's "But that's not my fave-wit twick!"  UGH! 

Then there are the times (few and far between as they seem) where he's a total sweetheart.  If I sneeze, it's ALWAYS followed by "Bless you, Mom!"  If I bump into him and say "Excuse me," he responds with "You're excused!"  He snuggles with me every morning and every afternoon after his nap, and if we're on the couch together, he's snuggled in for some warmth and love.  I could eat him up sometimes, and I cherish those moments because I know that someday, he won't want to do those things and I'll wonder where those times went.

Three.  Can't say it's my favorite age right now.  Wondering what four will be like....

JACKSONESE!

I'm going to start this post now, and likely add to it as time goes on.

Sometimes, I think Jackson has a language all his own.  I want to try to remember so many of the funny things he says and expressions he uses, so I'm going to start listing them.  They're in no particular order, though I will try to give approx. times he used these (if I can remember past ones).  Here goes....

--buppin: this is how he says button, and it makes me laugh every time!  He started this probably age 3 and continues it today (3 and 3/4).  Occasionally, he'll correct me if I repeat it, and he'll say the right word, but damn, this one always makes me smile, especially when he says belly buppin.

--big messy: just like it sounds...it's a big mess.  He uses this a lot now, and has for a while.  He may describe something as being big messy.

--hot sauce pool day: this started in early summer 2012, and continues somewhat today, though he's using it less and less like this now.  It's 2 expressions melted into one.  Pool day has always referred to a day spent at the pool, but it's grown into another activity: burying oneself in a pile of stuffed animals.  He pretends he's in water.  In some cases, one must lie down (on a bed, on the floor, on the couch), and he surrounds you with animals (not always burying you in them), then he lays on them.  Still, a year and a half later, it makes no sense, and though I can explain it, someday we'll laugh big about this.  At Waynee World, he just has lake days.  He can tell the difference between a pool and a lake.  :)

--colb: (or cobe...not sure how to spell it).  Basically, this is how he used to say cold.  He's better now at saying cold, and when I say colb, he gets a little irritated, but it's always made me laugh!  This was more an expression he used from about 3 to 3.5 or so.

--din:  Jackson's just started using negatives when he speaks, however a lot of his negatives just take on one word...din.  "Jackson din like that."  This could be don't or doesn't, or didn't, and it's definitely NOT pronounced didn't, but more just din.  He's just started saying, "I din know."  In the past, he always referred to himself in the 3rd person, so for him to use 1st person, it's pretty exciting (probably only for me, having taught language and grammar for so long).

To be continued....

I knew I'd think of more:

--feep: this is how he says sleep, and it makes me laugh!  He's been saying it this way for quite some time now.  I giggle every time he asks us to "Go feep."  He's still having a big problem with consonant blends.

--"What's that all about?"  He just started using this expression, and OH MY WORD I laugh every time!  He uses it appropriately most of the time, too, and it usually indicates he's in a silly mood.

Holy hell, it's almost September.

September has always been a tough month for me.  I get horribly depressed, thinking of the end of summer and arrival of fall/winter, cold weather, long days...  It happens every year, and poor Paul usually doesn't know what to do.  There's really nothing he can do to make it better.  It just is.  I'm trying not to dread it because I know that going in with a more positive attitude will make things easier.  But being the realist that I am, I know it just won't work that way.

We had a great summer!  Jackson learned to swim and that was a HUGE milestone I wanted him to achieve.  He does so well in the water, and it makes it so much more fun to go to Waynee World, the pool, etc.  He took private lessons this summer--just 5 from a high school graduate who taught in her home pool.  She was awesome for those lessons, and I really do think he learned a lot from Courtney.  I don't know if she'll be home from college next summer to teach again, but if she is, we'll be calling her.

We had a couple great weekends away at the lake!  One weekend with my family and another with Paul's sister and her hubs and kids.  Both were so much fun and it was great for Jackson to spend that kind of time with his cousins.  I have that Mom-guilt of only having one child, and him not getting to interact much with other kids his age.  He got a couple good doses of that this summer!

And now, we're embarking on a new adventure--PRESCHOOL!  Jackson started this past week.  He'll go every Tues and Thurs morning from 9-11:30am.  He missed one day this week though--he caught a bug (or it's allergies??!), so I kept him home on Thurs.  But starting next week, he'll go full force.  He seemed to do just fine on his first official day--no tears (at least from him), and he did everything as well as could be expected!  A part of me wants to stand outside the window and watch him all morning, just to see what he does, and if he does ok.  I resisted though.  We took him out to lunch on Tues and tried asking a million questions, but he wasn't giving up the goods.  In time, I'm sure he'll share.

He'll also start back to speech therapy after Labor Day (Friday mornings).  His speech has improved greatly this summer, but there are still some hiccups that therapy will help with.  It's hysterical to hear some of our expressions coming out of his mouth!  The other morning, while laying on his changing table, he asked if he could see a movie.  I gave my standard "We'll see" response, to which he added, "After one more nap, I see a movie.  Ok, deal?"  I nearly wet myself laughing!  My 3.5 year old is negotiating deals with me??!  Help me now.

Hello, September.  Be gentle with me.  We have a lot planned this month--taking Jackson to his first movie in a theater next weekend (Planes), our last weekend at Waynee World, a family wedding...hopefully enough to keep my mind off what's coming up!

WHERE'D MY SUMMER GO??!

I'm definitely NOT a lover of this cool weather, especially here at the end of July.  Seriously, it feels like October some days!  While it is nice for sleeping at night, it's not much fun during the day.  So much of it has included rain, which my garden and flowers love, but that makes it hard to take a certain 3 year old to the pool.  And a boy without his pool days...ooooh, it's ugly.

We've had a nice, low-key summer so far.  Early July saw a great trip to Waynee World!  It's been a couple years since we were ALL together--the B's, the H's, and the Iaco's.  Despite some hiccups, it was a nice weekend, and the kids all had such a great time together!  That's why we do it and all put up with each other there--for the kids.

We're headed up there again in a week to spend the weekend with Paul's family.  That's always a nice, quiet weekend as well.  The K-kids aren't loud and obnoxious, and they aren't demanding of boat time, which is nice for Jack.  And never mind that ME is a sick cook...and by that, I mean sick in the good sense of the word.  Word.  To yo mutha.

Three weeks from tomorrow, my sweet boy will start preschool.  I can't believe we're here already! He'll be enrolled at the local preschool, though I'm not sure which teacher he'll have yet.  There are 3: one who is super lax, one who is middle of the road, and one who is strict and structured.  Of course, everyone loves the most lax teacher, and I've heard my share of complaints about the strict one.  We requested mid or lax, but frankly, I think Jackson would do well in any of the rooms, even the strict one.  But she scares me enough to try to keep him out of her class.  ☺ He'll also continue speech therapy once a week, likely separate from class time.  I don't mind taking him an extra day for speech.  Preschool for him will be 2.5 hours on each Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  What on earth will I do with myself while he's there??!  Seriously, the thought just weirds me out a bit.  I'm sure I'll have no trouble filling that time with something, but dang...that will be the longest he's away from me for any structured time.  Weird.

Now to enjoy my last 3 weeks of my sweet boy before school starts.  I hope to see a few more pool days before then!

Summer...so far

I can't believe we're already well into July!  What the hell happened to June??!

This summer has been quite eventful so far.  We started off June with a family vacation to Mackinac Island.  We drove up to a small town called St. Ignace (on the UP) and stayed there for 5 nights.  We spent 2 good days on the island itself, and it was beautiful!  On our way back, we spent one night in Saugatuck, MI.  VERY nice area!  Overall, a great vacation!

Upon returning, I threw my back out.  That's been a 4+ week ordeal so far.  Just awful.  Then last week, I bit my tongue.  Seriously, the stupidest thing I've ever done.  Both back and tongue are healing, though not as seamlessly as I'd hoped.

Jackson's enjoying his summer so far!  We spend a good number of afternoons at the pool (after nap, and usually only for an hour or so).  It's been nice to do that!  I haven't signed him up for classes through the park district this summer--I kind of wanted to just enjoy HIM without having to shuttle him from one place to the next each day.  Some days are really low key--we might just stay in and watch a movie.  I wanted to relax this summer before he starts preschool in the fall.

The most exciting thing has been that Jackson has started private swimming lessons here in town.  He's only had 3, but we're seeing such a huge improvement in him!  His teacher is a high school student who has her own pool, and she teaches pretty regularly in the summer.  I wasn't sure about her at first, but after only 3 lessons, it's safe to say she's good at what she does!  The lessons are only a half hour each, but it's so concentrated, and there are no distractions, unlike at the pool.  In just a few short weeks, we're now seeing him hold his breath and go under water, and tonight at the pool, he was actually swimming to us!!  It was incredible!  He's not perfect, but just what we've seen in this short time gives us a lot of hope that he's going to do nothing but improve.  I'm so proud of him!

We're headed this coming weekend to Waynee World--the first in several years with ALL of us.  The last couple of years, my brother and his family have had a hard time going up with the rest of us because of sport commitments, etc.  This year, they're really making an effort, in part because we never know how many more of these weekends there will be, and also because the kids have SUCH a great time with one another up there!  It's just not the same without all of them together, and the older they get, the harder it is to get everyone together.  I think we (the Iaco's) will end up with 2-3 weekends up there this summer, and boy do we love each and every one of them!

As I mentioned, Jackson will be starting preschool in the fall.  This will be his first of 2 years in preschool, and he'll go for 2.5 hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  This is it--the start of his school career.  I'm sad about it in a way, but excited for him.  But damn...my baby's growing up!  How did that happen?!

More rain expected this week.  I suppose it's better than having a drought in the area.  My garden is loving it!  Stay cool!

Political rant

I don't like reading political rants from people, especially those that bash our current president and his administration.  I'm not a politically savvy person, nor am I particularly eloquent in my discourse when it comes to discussing politics, but I'm going to state my position here and then drop the whole subject altogether.

I don't identify myself with any one political party or another, however if I had to choose one, I'd probably say I'm a Democrat, and a rather liberal one, at that.  I like Obama--I think he had a difficult position to come into, and while he probably hasn't done a stellar job, he's done the best he can with what he's had to work with.  In 2008 during the primaries, I voted for Hillary for president, but I was elated to see her running against Obama, and was perfectly happy that he won.  In 2016, if Hillary runs, you bet your bippy I'll be voting for her.  She did an exceptional job as Secretary of State, and I don't think anyone, D or R, can refute that.

I believe that abortion should be an option for all women.  It's NOT a path I would ever choose for myself, no matter what the circumstances, but I don't believe that anyone has the right to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body.  No government, no doctor, no man, no other woman.  I've been hearing stories of the abortion doctor out east who committed atrocities on women seeking abortions.  While I would never condone what he did, I couldn't fault him if it was what those women wanted.  I believe in educating women and young girls on the choices available to them.  YES, there are plenty of people out there willing to adopt a baby as an alternative, but asking a woman to carry that baby for 9 months then hand it over...I don't think it's fair to ask anyone to do that, just as it's not fair to prevent a woman from carrying a child if she doesn't want to.

This article is interesting in that it asks the question why abortion is a crime for men and not women.  Simple: men aren't carrying the child. It's not their bodies doing the work.  They did their part, but they had it the easy route.  It's a very tricky road, but ultimately, it's a woman's body and, in my opinion, her decision what happens to it.  In this case, she did not choose to have an abortion, her husband did, and he had no right to do what he did.

I believe in same sex marriage, and equality for the LGBT community.  Again, it may not be a path I'd choose to take myself, but I'm not in love with a woman.  Who am I to tell someone who they can and cannot love and marry?  I'm no one, and no government, in my mind, has the right to tell someone that.  Equality in all things.  It's that simple.  Fifty years ago, African-Americans fought for equal rights.  Today, it's almost a non-issue.  I hope the same for same-sex marriage in time.

I believe in respecting those whose opinions I may not agree with, but ask that those who do not agree with mine respect them just the same.  We don't have to agree, but don't try to convince me I'm wrong in my thinking, and I promise not to make you feel like you're an idiot for feeling the way you do.  Voilà.  /rant.

Mother's Day

This past week, I've been thinking a lot about Mother's Day and how lucky I am to have the best kid on the planet.  Oh, you might THINK you do, but I assure you...I definitely do.

But I've also been thinking about what could have been.  I think about all those embryos we had to go through until we found the PERFECT one that stuck.  But why didn't any of the others?  What was so special about Jackson's that it did?  I mean, I know what makes him so special, but it's these thoughts that creep into my head in the wee hours of the morning when I can't sleep, and lay there thinking.  We had 10 other embryos implanted.  It's safe to say the best one stuck!

I think about the fact I might have had a 2 year old now, had pregnancy #2 been successful.  DAUNTING, really, but oh how I would have loved to have another.  That's not to say I'm in anyway unhappy with the one I got--nothing could be further from the truth.

But it hurts my heart something awful when I see Jackson fawn all over a baby girl (which he does more often than anyone realizes!), and I wonder what he would have been like as a big brother.  Would he have teased his little sister or brother?  Would he have protected him/her from bullies?  If anyone deserved to be a big brother, it's Jackson, and that's evident when I see him with other little kids.

I have no regrets.  I don't regret donating that one lone embryo early on.  I think about that, too, and can only hope that the embryo that went to Harvard was used to save someone's life from the research that it provided.  Imagine a cure for diabetes, cancer, or any one of the other thousands of diseases that have affected each and every one of us everyday.  Nope.  No regrets.

I think about other things, like all the "mothers" I've had growing up.  I had my own mom, but there were so many other strong female role models I had around me as well, both family and friends, teachers and mentors.  I was truly lucky.

I love being a mother.  I'm not always good at it, but frankly, neither was my mom (sorry, Mom), and I turned out ok.  But I'm doing the best I can, and I love that little boy with my whole life, with every breath I take.  Some days are challenging, but each day brings something new, and I love learning as much as he does.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Trying

The last couple of days in the IacoHouse have been challenging, to say the least!  Jackson has been big into pushing everyone's buttons.  I realize he's at an age where he's going to test every boundary put before him.  He's doing a GREAT job of that.

Today was a really REALLY bad day.  Putting aside Jackson's behavior lately, there were just a string of bad happening--nothing major, just a lot of little things: spilled art project on the floor, broken plates, forgotten appointments.  Add in the orneriness of a certain 3 year old and it's just a bad chemistry experiment.

It's hard for me to put things into perspective when these things are in the midst of happening.  I mean, yes, we have our good health, we live in a beautiful house in a great neighborhood, I get to stay at home with my child.  I know I have a lot to be grateful for, and I AM grateful.

The hard part is remembering all that when I'm trying to wrangle Jackson out the door to go to speech therapy and he's refusing to go potty and we're late and he's mad because he has to wear pants and he's screaming at me....

Ugh.

Top it off with Jackson's injury from yesterday--a split lip.  Fell off his bouncy ball and face planted into the hardwood floor.  It looks like someone beat the shit out of him, and while there are times I think I'd like to knock him to next Tuesday, he'll tell you the story himself about how he fell and needed ice on his lip and got to drink a bottle and it was hard because his lip hurt...

Ugh.

Tonight, he even got to Paul.  Paul, bless his soul, who NEVER EVER EVER gets mad or raises his voice, and has more patience in his little toe than I do in my entire body...he blew his stack tonight and yelled more than once at a screaming child who refused to sit in the bathtub and subsequently had his entire bath while standing up. 

I think we need a break.  From each other, yes, but from this shitty weather, from this house and all its distractions, from the weekly activities, from everyday mundane life.

I guess things can only go up from here, right?  ☺

I'm cold.

Well, well, well.  It's safe to say that Jackson has potty training mostly mastered!  He still wears a diaper or Pull Up at nap time and bed time, but the rest of the time, he's about 95% on target when it comes to going on the potty.  Funny how it's such a RELIEF to have that hurdle jumped!

Spring break has passed.  It was mostly uneventful (a visit to my sis, visits from the neighborhood mothers helpers), and I'm sad to say that spring break isn't really a break after all.  Not like when I was in school.  I can remember counting down the days until break!  I did that both as a student AND as a teacher.  I won't lie.  I used to enjoy it.  Now?  Meh.

Paul had Friday off and it was a nice day out, so we were able to get outside for a while.  Saturday was even warmer and more time was spent outside.  I'm ready for the weather to take that turn into spring--sadly, the last few days, it's just reverted back to winter temps, though it helps that the sun's been out.

Easter was ok.  We spent the day at my MIL's.  It was nice to see that side of the family, especially for Jackson.  He sees my mom almost every week, but he doesn't see his other grandma very much these days, more so since his park district classes and speech therapy have been taking up so much time in the morning hours during the week.  We do see Paul's dad once a month--he visits on a Sunday afternoon...comes to play with Jackson, and in return, we feed him well.  It's really nice to have him visit like that!  He lives quite a distance from us, and I don't know how much longer he'll be able to make that drive, so we'll enjoy it while he does.

Speaking of classes, Jackson's have started up again.  He's taking a reading readiness class, which is basically just a review of the alphabet, which he does know, but it's never a bad thing to reinforce those lessons.  He'll be starting soccer next week, too.  I'm going to be a soccer mom!!  I've honestly dreamed of doing this my whole life.  I'm so excited to see him learn and play!  Speech therapy continues on Wednesdays, but I'm not sure if they'll continue into the summer.  I think they school has a 6 week time period where they work on speech, but kids have to qualify, and by that, I mean the school has to decide if a student will regress from not having therapy for any amount of time.  All students would benefit from it--that's not the issue.  It's whether or not he'll do worse by NOT having it.  We'll just have to wait to find out what they say.

Other than that, life is nice and quiet.  We're having some work done on the house (mostly roof--replacing missing shingles, replacing our sky light, etc) in the next few weeks.  We're planning a family vacation to Mackinac Island sometime before the heat of summer hits.  That should be a lot of fun!  Oh, and a quick weekend away to Milwaukee for a Cubs game.  We'll stay overnight and possible go to the zoo as well.  FUN!!

Keep your fingers crossed for some warm weather to come this way!!!

Shit for shit's sake

Look out world, WE HAVE POOP on the potty!!!  Holy cow, that was one tough lesson to teach.  Here's the back story....

Tuesday, we were stuck inside thanks to a big snow storm.  About 11:00am, Jackson suddenly asked to be put in a diaper and down for a nap.  Being that I ain't no dumb bunny, I realized immediately that he had to poop (since going in his underpants is a no-no, and he's done that plenty of times before, which makes me crazy, but a diaper at bedtime or naptime is acceptable).  I quickly took him to his little potty seat.  This was NOT in his plan, however, and there was a fit thrown all the way there, but once he was there, he was ok.  I gave him his LeapPad and we settled in for a long sit.

Up to this point, Jackson has never pooped on the potty, except twice in the past by accident, and he was none too happy when it happened.  So...

Back to waiting.  We waited.  I sat with him, I left the room (thinking he might prefer to have a moment of privacy), I came back...but nothing.  For 45 minutes he sat there, and finally insisted he had nothing happening.  Believing him, I took him off the potty and put his undies back on, then we went to the table for lunch.

Well, not 5 minutes after sitting down for lunch, a panicked look came across his face and he stood up on his chair, declaring he had pooped.  What followed was NOT a shining example of good parenting on my part.  I yelled.  He cried.  It got ugly.

Fast forward to Wednesday, same time, same place.  The 11:00 announcement that he needed his pants changed (this just after a trip to pee).  I started to lose my shit again (proverbally) but when I looked in his pants, there was nothing.  Seizing the opportunity to try again, I whisked him kicking and screaming to the toilet.  Again, I gave him the LeapPad to play with.  After about 45 minutes of nothing, and the realization that the beloved LeapPad wasn't really making things better, I took it away and proceeded to BEG AND PLEAD like my life depended on it.  I promised him the world in exchange for a poop on the potty.  He had a little stuffed LGM waiting on the shelf for him if he went.

Tick...tick...tick...tick....

The clock was coming up to an hour of sitting, and I decided to give him a moment, so I left the room.  About 2 minutes later, I heard, "Mom!  POOP!!"  I went running in there to find that yes, FINALLY, my baby had pooped on the potty!  Lordy be, I've never been so happy to see shit in all my life.

We're now 3 days later, and each day has brought us more poop on the potty.  There's still poop happening in the bedtime and naptime diapers, but I can happily say, there's been equal amounts in the toilets. 

YAY FOR POOP!!!

Michelle

My friend, Michelle Salerno, passed away last night.  Michelle had been fighting cancer for the past 10 years (Hodgkin's disease) and lost her fight (due to fungal pneumonia).

Michelle and I met in 1988 while students at Illinois College.  She was the polar opposite of me: outgoing, a social butterfly, skinny, beautiful.  I was withdrawn and quiet (though some friends might disagree with that!).  We were in French classes together, and back then, there weren't many of us who were majoring in French, so we gravitated towards each other.  In 1989, we both competed for travel awards to study abroad.  I won the big one, she won a smaller one, but we both got to spend time in France.  It was awesome for each of us and we both became good friends.

After college, we stayed in touch (not hard since we were both from the Chicago area, which at the time was a rarity for IC students!).  I eventually went to work for her dad, who had a hot dog business, and I worked for him for the next 10+ years (part-time spring-fall).  To this day, that job will go down as my all-time favorite job EVER.

Michelle was social and for many years, she and I would gather with a group of her other friends to go to bars and hang out.  It wasn't always my scene, so there were times when she really had to drag me there.  On one occasion in the early 90's, we took part in a dragon boat race in St. Charles.  It was there that I met her friend, Paul.  What followed shortly after that was an incident in a bar where Paul threw a beer on me, and I'll never forget Michelle's face when that happened--she grabbed me and we both ran out to the parking lot, where we were stunned about what had happened.  Hard to believe that was 20 years ago and that since that time, I've married that beer-throwing man.

I won't forget the moment when Michelle told me she had been diagnosed with cancer.  We thought it would be an easy fight, but alas, it wasn't.  We were close for many of those years and I look back now and remember all the hospital and home visits, and adventures Michelle and I took together during her fight.  The last few years, we lost touch and hadn't spoken, though I know she had had some tough times with her health this past year.

Last night, she was reunited with her dad, who passed away just over 3 years ago from ALS.  He was her strongest supporter and I think her heart was broken when he died.  Her mom and brothers also stood beside her every step of her journey.  Please pray for them as they now come to grips with the loss of their beautiful child and sister.

Good night, Michelle.  You fought more bravely than anyone I know.  May you always rest in peace.

VDay

Potty training is getting slightly better.  Fewer pee accidents, but still no poop on the potty.  He'll shit his pants, but scream at the suggestion of going on the potty.  More often than not, he poops while wearing a diaper (bedtime and naptime), so at least it's not always in his underpants.

I feel more and more comfortable taking him out in public.  We've been to restaurants, play dates, the grocery store...all with good luck.  He's better at holding his pee and has yet to poop in his pants in a public arena.  There are still a few times when I'll put him in a Pull Up just in case, but even then, he'll still ask to go pee on the potty.  PROGRESS.

We've been keeping SUPER busy during the week.  He has a sports class on Monday mornings, a preschool-type class on Tuesday mornings, speech therapy on Wednesday mornings, and we do other things like play dates and my mom's meetings the other days of the week.  Most of these outings are only an hour or so each, but taking into account prep time and travel times, they can each last most of the morning.  I can't believe we're 1/4 of the way through February already!  That's what I wanted from all this--to keep busy enough to NOT notice winter outside my door.

Speaking of winter, we finally have snow.  Now, anyone who knows me knows how much I despise winter and all that comes with it.  But Jackson loves the snow--seeing it come down, playing in it, etc.  That alone is worth the price of admission into winter.  He's been out several times to make snowballs (which is hilarious!).  Fun times!!

Other than that, winter has been quiet.  We're getting a new couch this week.  That's LONG overdue and been in our minds for a couple years now.  We spend our weekends at birthday parties, friends' houses, or home alone.  I love being home on a weekend as a family.  Nothing better.

Valentine's Day will be boring the day of, but Paul and I will (hopefully) have a date night the weekend after.  We need it.  It's been a while!

Enjoy Feb!!!