NJ

3 is the new 13

 

 

Scene: (All of us playing happily in the sun)

Me :  “Joseph, about 5 more minutes and then we are going to go back inside!”

Joseph: “Why?”

Me: “Because Daddy is going to be home soon and I need to start dinner”

Joseph: '”How about 19 minutes?” (He always asks for 19.  Twenty seems to be beyond him)

Me: “No, 5.”

Joseph: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Me: “Joseph!  That’s enough or we are going in right now!”

And I pause from taking pictures of Isaac playing with a ball and swing my camera around to face him, capturing this beauty:

The look I get several times a day.

Yesterday, in fact, I got this look along with “Stop arguing with me, Mama!”

Today it was accompanied with “Don’t take my picture!!!”

And about 3 seconds later he is all sweetness and charm.

“Take a picture of me with my spaceman, Mama!”

“Mama, THANK YOU for this spaceman! (which I got him weeks ago) I LOOOOOVE it!”

“Mama, aren’t I a lucky boy to have this space man?” etc.

The mood swings, I tell you, they are giving me whiplash!

Three is a tough age for me.

The teenage year of early childhood- half toddler, half kid, testing, testing, testing.

“No! I’m not doing it!”

“I don’t think so.”

“That’s a bad idea, Mama.”

Strong willed, smart smart smart, and stubborn, he pretty much makes me crazy every day.

But thank goodness there is still sweetness thrown in to the sour.

Kisses, hugs, and head scratches (his signature combo)

“How you doing, Mama?” asked every hour of the day.

And the rare acts of kindness towards his brother (even if they are just to earn a sticker. Mostly.)

These are the things that get me through the day with a moody, challenging, adorable 3 year old.

Also:

Dear Joseph,

Karma is a b*!#$, baby!!  And I can’t WAIT to meet my 3 year old grandkids!

Love!

Mama

It must be bedtime

 

(Isaac strolling by himself down the Jersey shore on Mother’s day)

I stepped in poop twice today.

Let me rephrase that to clear up any confusion:

I stepped in ISAAC’s poop twice today.

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I would tell you more about these incidents which caused said poop to end up on the floor (and eventually my foot), but trust me, you don’t want to know, and I don’t want to remember it in the future.

Let’s just say that those two bowls of chili, washed down with watermelon that he ate for dinner last night was a mistake.  A BIIIG mistake.

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So now I am finishing the mindless picking up of toys, books, clothes, sippy cups and starting my daily ritual: reflecting on my day.

On the times that I wanted to yell, “is this some kind of a (swear word) joke?!”:

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-Like when I was cleaning up afore mentioned poop from our train table (I told you that you don’t want to know) and Isaac took the opportunity to dump out all of our recycling and my clean, folded laundry.

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-Or when Joseph starts every single sentence with “Mama.” 

And how most of those sentences go like this, “Mama?  Mama? Mama? Mama?”

“Yes Joseph.”

“Oh.  Evermind.”

(or sometimes)

“I was just talking to myself Mama.”

(or often)

“(insert some question/comment about super heroes/astronauts/aliens that he has asked and had answered 59 billion times)”

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And when we were standing in line at Costco after a looong shopping trip and the lady behind me said,

 “Why don’t you take that thing out of your baby’s mouth so I can see his face?” (she meant Isaac’s binky)

So I pulled it out, Isaac starting screaming and frantically trying to climb out of the cart, and I turned to the lady and said,

“That’s why.”

(Actually that moment was kind of awesome.)

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I think of the good times too.  The times that I thought, ‘Man, BEING A MOM ROCKS!’

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Like when Joseph spontaneously tells me that he loves me.

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Or when Isaac leaned over in the Costco cart and gave Joseph kisses.

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When Joseph said,

“Hey!  I have a rhyme Mama!  Pin it to the door, pin it to the whore!”

and I just about spit out my coffee all over the breakfast table.

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Or when Isaac yelled to get my attention in the car and I looked back to see him with his finger ALL THE WAY up his nostril.  Like to his last knuckle!  And the most surprised look on his face.

And how he held it in there the whole way home.

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Next, after the reflecting, comes the nightly self- flagellation of my mistakes.  Times that I should have been more patient, mostly.

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How I probably shouldn’t have forbid Joseph from talking about astronauts for the rest of the night.

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Or told him that Mommy was busy making dinner and would make him a new sticker chart right afterwards. (And I still haven’t.)

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How I got impatient with Isaac for yelling all the time instead of trying to communicate and just gave him his binky and a movie to keep him quiet for a while.

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But when Joseph just got out of bed a minute ago, I gave him a kiss instead of the “trouble” I told him he was going to get in if he came out again.

And I really do plan on making that stinking sticker chart tomorrow.  Assuming I am not so tired.

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And I stepped in poop twice today, for Pete’s sake!!

How about I cut myself some slack!

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Until tomorrow night, that is.

Moments in Motherhood

 

 

 

 

(He needs me like crazy, exactly when I start making dinner.)

Isaac, meet chocolate bunny

 

These were all taken in the span of about a minute.  He is definitely my son.

(not sure why some have flash and some don’t.  Oh well)

 

   

I have no idea how he sits like this, but he does it all the time.

   

 

(I took away a piece when he was drinking his milk because it was so squished and melted and disgusting.  He is looking for it.)

I think they liked each other.

(still looking)

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Just for fun, here is Joseph at Easter 2009 about 2 months older than Isaac is now.

 

And he used to put his foot up too!

Videos

 

Isaac repeatedly stomping my sandcastle:

 

 

Joseph, as himself (but shyer because of the camera.  Usually he won’t stop talking for anything!)

 

It’s not you, it’s me. It’s not me, it’s my immune system.

 

Since we have moved out here, we have been sick…well…most of the time.

I swear that every other week or so one of us will say,

“My throat is feeling scratchy”

and the other one will look at the possessor of the scratchy throat in fear and horror, swallow several times to test his/her own throat’s scratchiness, and then run for the vitamins! neti pot! coldeeze! all to no avail.

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I would like to blame it on my gym’s day care, but really I don’t need one more reason NOT to work out.  So I am blaming it on the entire East Coast.  Seems reasonable, eh?

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Just in case, I am also trying to continue to eat healthy, cutting out lots of processed food and sugar. 

I am hoping that a byproduct of this healthful-eating will be the incredibly svelte figure of years gone by making an appearance before this here birth control fails and I end up pregnant again.

But, also, I am sitting here eating maple syrup off of a spoon. 

Counterproductive? It’s natural, right?  Should I just give up the pretenses and eat the rest of those Starbursts that have been making eyes at me from the top shelf of my cupboard all day long?

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Anywhoo, I am mostly fully recovered from my latest bout and I am hoping to have a good five days of blogging before I am leveled with the next plague.

Which would be great because I have lots to talk about with you.

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Like how my parents came! And it was FABULOUS! 

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Mothers Day!  And how I got a pot that I have seriously been coveting for 2.5+ years. (Dear Caitlin, get a life.)

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Or how I have been wrestling with a bout of mother-guilt today because

a) Isaac doesn’t know his body parts (eyes, nose, ears, etc) even though I KNOW Joseph did at this age, not because he is not as smart as Joseph, but because I have never once tried to teach it to him.  It just didn’t occur to me. Mom-Fail.

b) Isaac had a giant smile on his face the entire time we were at the zoo today because he hasn’t been to the zoo since he was an infant.  The mall?  Weekly.  The zoo?  Annually.  Mom-Fail.

c)  Joseph knows the words to “Superfreak” (a song that I don’t love, but it seems to show up on Pandora quite often) but not “Jesus Loves Me.”  Although,now that I think of it, he does say “Super FEET” and hum a lot, so I suppose it is about even.  Whew.

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Lastly, at the end of my trip to the zoo today, one of the moms from my meetup group that I like told me, “If you ever want to hang out sometime and let our boys play you should give me a call.”

Which,

I don’t want to jinx it,

but I think that I am right,

am I right readers?,

means that someone just got her very first friend in New Jersey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Booyah!

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Now if you’ll please excuse me, I am going to go suck on the boys’ berry flavored kid’s toothpaste.