A very entertained toddler...

Playing the keyboard...he was obviously too mesmerized to look up at the camera.

Checking Daddy's ears with his new doctor's kit.

He LOVES  his bean bag...watching his new DVDs

Not sure who taught him this pose. :)

Showing off his sun glasses

Watching Daddy fish...and eating a snack

He had just thrown all of his balls in the pond for Jake to fetch....but Jake refused due to the cold water...so Wes had to go "fetch" them in the canoe...either way, Jay had served his purpose

Graduated to the toddler bed! 

what a big boy!

After I found mysterious crayon marks on the walls throughout the house I figured I'd let Jay draw on his teepee...maybe he will be satisfied with this.

Jay kept trying to blow in the otoscope....he was very serious about that being the proper way to use it..???

Showing me what's going on with "choo choo"

playing with his boat...we had to take both of his new boats to bed with him the first night.....now he knows they live in the tub.

I finally got all of his toys organized and have made several of them "outside only" toys since the weather has been so pretty. He has been thoroughly entertained with all of the new stuff around the house. I have tried all week to get pictures of him with all the new toys but he is obsessed with looking at "jay" every time I get the camera out. I made the mistake of showing him the pictures/videos on the camera a few weeks ago and he NEVER gets tired of looking at himself....yes, he is that vain. So I have to be very sneaky with picture taking these days which means I miss a lot. Maybe he will get over himself soon....

Well we are in a toddler bed after he climbed out of the crib the first two nights we got back from Georgia and walked down to our room at 3 am. He loves the bed (same crib, just with a side rail) and laughs every time I lay him in it at night. The problem is that he now wakes up at 6 in the morning. I guess he's always done this but since he was trapped he just went back to sleep. Now he sees no reason to do that when he can jump out and explore. And I really don't care if he plays in his room but that is not his plan....he thinks we ought to be up with him, cheerful and excited about the start of a new day. So we put a door knob cover on his door after a few bedside wake up calls. Now he just knocks on the door yelling, "mama!!" until one of us gets the message. So, as much as I love his sweet little face in the mornings, I am over waking up before the sun. We are going to try to convince him to stay in his bed until his new football alarm clock goes off (since he can't tell time maybe he can learn to wait on the football to make noise)--I'll keep you updated.

He had his 2 year check up yesterday. He is 29lbs, 35 inches tall. 50% for weight and 75% for height. He loves being examined (and why not, with all of the attention on him) so always is a big flirt when we go. They had to give him a shot, which gets sadder and sadder the older he gets. He told me, "no shot, no shot!" before the nurse came in and after it was done he grabbed his pants and said, "bye bye shot."

And for new things this week:

-he loves hopping. he will hop clear across the room for no reason (other to please himself, I guess)

-his favorite words: firetruck, firetruck man, helicopter, papa, tractor, hat, glasses, daddy's truck, choc (chocolate), and of course, candy. He says these all day long and are usually the first words out of his mouth in the mornings and after naptime....so I guess we know what he dreams about.

-he asks for "pass" (pacifier) when it's time to go to sleep and I am supposed to stop that at 2 years old but I just can't bring myself to take it away yet. I am hoping that the closer he gets to three he will be able to understand the concept of "giving it away" rather than mama "taking it away." Once he gets to that point I am going to "mail" all of his pacis to a baby who needs them. If I was smart I would have taken it away when he was around 9months. He didn't really care about it then and would never have known the difference.

-I still struggle with dealing with his meal preferences (and how often they change). He still likes beans and peas, cheese, rice, chicken, fruit, and, more than anything, candy (I cringe every time he asks for it because I know we are about to have war). And loves "choc" in his milk. He will even ask me to put choc in his juice and doesn't understand when I tell him that is gross.

-We are in a new phase of the terrible twos. The temper tantrums and drama have been toned down a good bit (thanks to "time out") but now he is just blatantly defiant. I say "don't do that" and he stares me in the eye with the most confident look and does exactly what he wants, then stares at me again in victory. He says, "no" and "stop" all day long. If I tell him to slow down he speeds up. If I say "no more candy" he runs to the pantry and starts climbing for it. He refuses to hold my hand in the street and demands to put himself in his carseat. If I dare to help him up he pushes me away and yells, "stop!"  Everyone says this is the first adolescence and if that's any indication of what is to come I may move to another country for about 5-7 years when he turns 13.


- Riding in the canoe is very fun to him but lately he fights his life jacket and thinks that it is so funny to jump around and make the boat shake. The day he causes me to fall in that nasty pond will be the last day we take "boat rides" together!

-he loves giving the credit card to cashiers. he smiles as big as he can and claps after they tell him thank you. He also loves to stand in the grocery cart and unload the items on the counter. I have found that if I give him jobs throughout our shopping errands he is much more behaved, aka pleasant to be around. When we are in the carts with steering wheels I get him to drive for me so about the time he's bored and starts fussing I say, "jay, we have to turn, turn the wheel for mama!" and he usually goes right along with it and is very proud that, thanks to him, we didn't wreck.

-he understands possessiveness now. he loves pointing out what is "mama's" and what is "daddy's"...."mama's glasses, daddy's shirt, mama's drink, daddy's coat, etc". And when we have friends over he goes over and starts showing them what is theirs and what is his.

-he knows what "right back" and 'wait your turn" mean, which cuts down on a lot of unnecessary tantrums that we used to have. If I tell him "mama will be right back" he repeats "right back" and smiles. After I go do whatever I needed to he is always right where I left him waiting patiently.

-Brushing teeth is still a challenge and I just hope he doesn't have 12 cavities the first time I take him to the dentist. We brush every night and I'm trying to get better about brushing in the mornings. He loves his new spiderman toothbrush that lights up but is sure that it is "firetruck man" (I guess because it flashes red) which I don't argue with since the beloved "firetruck man" can get away with just about anything. And he is much more compliant when I say, "firetruck man wants to brush jay's teeth" instead of "let mama brush jay's teeth".

This is a short clip of him talking on the phone after his bath. It is a bar of soap but he is sure that it's really a phone and talks on it every night.

Jay and "Truney"..... Bathtime catch

 

I will post some pics/updates soon but here are a few videos we made.

Look who's TWO!!!

While we were singing...Jay smiled the whole time....

Blowing out his TWO candles!

Checking out his birthday cake....and asking "Turt" if they can start eating.

Showing off his conductor hat

Opening the first present....he is telling me that it is a "teltoptor!"

Getting inpatient waiting for Kurt to get it out of the box.

Apparently he didn't want to share with sweet Ellie Grace.

Praising Jay after knocking over dominos

Jay needed help from Brooks and Ellie in opening the presents...otherwise we would still be there while he slowly played with each and every one.

The rest are taken by Wes' Uncle Chris and they are precious!

We had a great 2nd birthday, especially since Jay understood that the party was all about him this year. We talked all week about how he is turning two and that we are having a party with presents. As soon as he saw them sitting on the floor it was a battle to get him to wait until it was time to open his presents. He was thrilled with all of it and wanted to stop and play with each one before moving on. Thankfully we had two toddlers who had no problem helping Jay open gifts.

He was also so cute when we sang "happy birthday" as he smiled and giggled the entire time, then at the end yelled, "yay!" He knew it was for him and was in heaven being the center of attention. I remember last year he was completely weirded out by us singing to him, probably borderline scared, but it was a different story this time. And of course he had all of his favorite people in one place for his entertainment pleasure.

The party theme started out as a "choo-choo" party but by the time Saturday came we had an assortment of vehicles so I guess it was officially a "transportation" party. With jay's increasing love for all things mobile, I just couldn't resist incorporating any vehicle I could find. Wes and I spent the majority of our date night looking at stores for helicopter and firetruck balloons with no luck. So, in the end, Jay had a tractor/train/cars/dumptruck party. :)

My project this week is organizing all of his new toys so I don't feel like the house has been overtaken!  We had a wonderful time and it wouldn't have been the same without each of you, thank you for a perfect birthday party!

Random snapshots

Patting baby Joshua.

Putting the plug cover in the outlet....maybe this defeats the purpose?

Running in the park waiting for Truman.

He demanded to bring firetruck...

Posing for me....for once.

I'm not sure why but he loved the little garden statue...

Today after I caught him drawing on the bathroom door...he had to clean it off

We have been busy lately and Jay is learning so much. He was with Wes all weekend while I worked at a youth retreat and, after not seeing him for two days, I came home and noticed so many new things he can do. We are still working on colors...purple, orange, and blue are his favorites. He knows that Daddy's truck is red but that is all he will say red to. When I ask him what color something is he almost always responds with "blue" but will point to the correct color otherwise. He will count to three with me and loves when we go back and forth...I say "one" then he yells, "two!" and I follow with "three."  The other day I swear we counted to six doing that but I really don't think he understands what he is saying.

School is still so much fun to him and he runs in every morning. He is moving to the two year old classroom this week and I expect he will love the new toys. After I received a call everyday he was there for about 3 weeks with reports of him getting bitten/scratched by his friends for taking their toys we decided he had "outgrown his classroom" as his teacher put it. I think it will do him good to be the youngest in the group since he tends to boss kids around when he is bigger than them...maybe he will learn some humility. :)

I can't wait to see how tall he is at his 2 year check up in a few weeks since he is still one of the tallest in his class.  He is a good eater but prefers to shove as much in his mouth as possible and run off to his next project. I do try to get him to sit there for dinner but he is always finished before me and Wes, and he will not sit and wait for us. When he is done, everyone knows it.

I think we are getting closer to potty training. He tells me every time he "poopeys" and when I ask him if he wants to "tee-tee" and runs to the potty and strains as hard as he can. So far, we have not had a true occurrence but he is getting more open to the idea at least. I know boys can take longer to get ready so I'm going to wait until I am sure he is really ready before officially entering potty training boot camp.

We have been out in the canoe a few times and Jay loves riding in the "boat." He asks me to take him out in it during the day and I have to tell a white lie that "mama doesn't know how to use the boat." In fact, I am using that excuse for a lot of things lately. I remember when mom used to tell us that she didn't know how to do whatever it was we wanted her to and I thought, "how does mom not know how to do that??....I thought she was smart!" I guess this is what Jay thinks about me when I tell him that I don't know how to open Daddy's tackle box or open the gate to the fence.

His naps are getting shorter and I'm getting scared about that. I am soooooo NOT ready for him to drop his nap during the day. With the shorter naps he is going to sleep a lot earlier and easier though...so I can't decide which one I'd rather have. Does it make me a horrible mother that I wish more than anything for a 3 hour nap during the day AND bedtime by 730pm???

We babysat Josh and Jane's new baby a few weeks ago and I was a little nervous about how things would go with two little ones to take care of. It was so fun though. Jay loved "baby wa" as he calls him and helped me with diaper changes, burping Joshua, and would sit and talk to him about who knows what. Every time Joshua would cry Jay would walk over to him and rub his head. And when I fed him a bottle Jay cracked up. He thought it was hilarious that "baby wa eat! baby wa eat!"  Maybe he is ready to be a big brother??

As I said before I worked with the youth during Impact Weekend this week. It was so much fun and the speaker was amazing. I worked with the 12th grade girls and we had a great time talking until the wee hours of the morning and eating the entire time. I was a tiny bit worried about my two boys at home though. I decided that as long as the house was still standing and neither had a visit to the hospital, the weekend would be a success. Thankfully, that was the case so I guess I can safely leave the boys without supervision from now own. :)

We are getting excited about our quick trip home this weekend for Jay's 2nd birthday. I will have pictures, I'm sure, and Jay, now with a complete understanding of how presents work, will be in heaven as he is opening fun toys. He has been talking about "papa's tractor" all week so as soon as he realizes we are going to Papa Ross' house he will be beside himself. Oh the fun of seeing the ones who spoil him rotten!