Time

Jack has been having a rough time going to sleep at night. He's discovered darkness. Usually he passes out while reading and I go and clean up the books from around his body and turn off the light. But last night he resisted falling asleep with every little bone in his body. No way was he going to close his eyes while the possibility of darkness was there. Mind you, every light in his room was one.

Finally, I went in and rolled him on his tummy and rubbed his back for him. His eyes were getting so heavy and he was just barely awake.

"Mommy, what time do we wake up?"

"Seven"

"OK, I can count to that."

Sibling rivalry

Alex isn't quite old enough to start a fight with Jack yet. But at 18 months, she knows how to push his buttons.

As we start home from school, I hear Alex from her car seat quietly say "Da-di". Jack hears her and says-quietly-"Daddy's not here."

She looks at him, smiles and says "Da-DI!" with a bit more volume on the second syllable. Jack looks at her and says "No Alex, he's not HERE!" raising his voice to match hers.

Well, now it's just war.

Alex raises the stakes. "DA-DI!"

"HE'S NOT HERE, ALEX!"

"DA-DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"HE'S....NOT....HERE!!!!!!!!!"

If I am in a zen mood that day, I will calmly say, "Hey, let's turn it down. Jack, Alex is just practicing talking. You don't have to respond."

But usually, my brain is oozing out of my ears from the yelling, so I slam on the breaks and say "ENOUGH! EVERYONE BE QUIET!"

Holy shit, when did I become my mother?

Vintage childhood

I was thrilled to get a package today filled with childhood memories that I could pass on to my kids. It was an old copy of Red Tag Comes Back by Fred Phleger. This was one of my favorite books when I was little and I had a great time reading it to Jack. What books do you remember from your childhood?

As the Toddler Turns-Episode 2

"I'm scary."

This is the endless plea we hear from Jack's room once he is in bed. Is he pretending to be a monster?

No. He's scared. He just can't remember the right way to say the word. Which makes the endless, 45-60 minute session of continually walking him back to his room at least bearable as we crack up every time he says it.

The thing is, I can't fault him as I remember being afrid of the dark when I was a kid and sneaking down to my parents room to climb in their bed and feel safe.

We leave the closet light on.
We give him a nightlight.
We give him his bear to cuddle up with.
We walk around the room and let him see us checking for "scary things".

1 minute after we leave the room, a little head pokes into the office.

"Mom, I'm scary."

Alex goes for the gold...

(Cue Olympic theme)

Brimming over with Olympic spirit, Alex has been following a serious training regimen in the "puffy-suit-with-watering-can" relay (it was just accepted as an Olympic sport this year). She'll be captain of Team USA in this brutal race. She's a favorite to medal. Not a surprise as the chubby thighs give her a leg-up (no pun intended) on her competitors.