Clues to Isaac's Future

My retired-kindergarten-teacher MIL likes to tell the story of how, when he was a little boy, my Hubby would take care of the classroom doll when she brought it home for the summer. Which really alarmed my FIL. But, she always adds, it worked out just fine because look at what a wonderful father Hubby has grown up to be. And she's right; he really is an amazing Dad.
Still, we've never given Isaac any dolls. He has definitely NOT been interested. But Gracie got a doll as an early Christmas present and we were playing and I pretended that the doll had gotten hurt. And Isaac decided to hug and comfort her. I started to get warm fuzzies. Until he took her by the hand and swung her around SMASHING her into his block tower while simultaneously hollering, "Don't do that!". Then he did it again. And again.
Sigh... I'm still hoping to be a Grandmother someday. Hopefully not one of those Grandmothers who has full custody because her child is an unfit parent.
On the bright side, he's a smartie. We were eating at the Grandparents house on Christmas Eve. Isaac was drinking some water when, out of the blue he said, "Water starts with W."! What timing! The Grandparents were, of course, quite impressed. And I'm dreaming that my son might be a writer someday. If not Father of the Year.
It's not looking like it's in the cards for him to be a doctor either. Hubby was drying him off after his bath the other night when Isaac suddenly made a wild grab at his own private parts, yelling proudly,
"THAT'S MY PEANUT!"
Clearly anatomy is not his best subject so far.
If all else fails, I guess there will always be a place for him on the back of the trash truck. ;)

Thomasmania

The following is an excerpt from an actual conversation between Isaac and Little Thomas (we have Thomas toys in 3 sizes) who was being played by Isaac.

"Thomas, you're coming?"
"No. I'm not."
"Why not?"
"Because... I'm not."

Once again, a master of logic, that Isaac. Er... I guess that was Thomas, but still. Lately Little Thomas has been Isaac's constant companion. He even takes him to bed at night and at naptime. Which makes for interesting conversations about how Thomas can't settle down and go to sleep because he has work to do.
Then, during the day, it's all
'"Bust my buffers," Thomas cried' and '"Oh no!" Thomas gasped.'
That's right, our 2 year old narrates his playtime with verbs like "cried" and "gasped". Strange, I know. And he sounds exactly like a Thomas story. Or movie. We probably just read to him too much though. I mean, we only watch "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" (Thomas' first full length feature film, FYI) once or twice a day. No biggie right?
At least he's still using his imagination. Since Thomas is the only engine he has, his matchbox cars have been filling in for the other engines. Which gets a little confusing for me. It's hard to remember who the mixer truck is supposed to be and who the station wagon is. So I have to keep asking and Isaac lists them over and over for me.
"This one is Edward, this is Mavis, Henry, James, and James, and oh yeah this one is James."
In case you hadn't guessed, James is his favorite after Thomas right now. We're getting him James for Christmas. Not because he needs it, but because my poor tired brain is not what it used to be.
At least the "Thomas" stories are teaching him all kinds of good values, like how important it is to be "responsible", "reliable", "really useful", and "right on time"! But the question is, do I really want my child to become one of those punctual people? I mean, I'm not sure that being on time really is a virtue. At the very least, it's overrated. I mean, what's up with those people that are naturally on time EVERYWHERE they go? Without even the blood, sweat, and tears that it takes to get us NORMAL people out the door less than 20 minutes late! I mean, isn't it soo much worse when people show up too early than when they show up late? Isn't it???
By the way, if you're one of those FREAKISHLY PUNCTUAL people, you're still welcome to comment (because I'm really open-minded like that) but please be careful what you say. My self-esteem is even more fragile than my memory these days. ;)
Merry Christmas if I don't post again before then!

Never a dull moment

The other night at the dinner table we were discussing Isaac's lips. This was only partly because we're soo interesting and partly because when they're dry he picks them until they bleed. So we were saying how awful they looked and I mentioned that I'd put Vaseline on them that day. The very mention of Vaseline must have panicked Isaac (who HATES having anything on his lips) and he started complaining, "No! Don't want that! That goes on my bum!"
It's hard to argue with logic like that.
Especially when you're laughing to hard to explain that that's a different tube.
We went to story-time again yesterday. Very exciting you know. We made a paper-cup turkey and everything. Then a little boy sneezed all over Grace and me. I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Ugh! I do get sore throats when I'm tired though and Gracie was up about twenty-kazillion times last night so there is still hope that the kids won't get sick. I guess. I probably just sealed my fate by even typing that.
So it's just the same old stuff going on around here. Nothing new or interesting. Woops... I take that back. Isaac is dipping his cars in his applesauce and then driving them on the carpet! That's definitely new. I gotta go...

Sick Days... again

SNOT. It's the only thing I can think to blog about. Actually it's the only thing I can think of at all because I'm up to my eyeballs in it. Yup, the kids have colds. Here we go again! We went to church 2 whole times, got all excited because finally, MAGICALLY after 2 and a half years of being attached to me at the hip, Isaac is perfectly comfortable staying in the nursery by himself. And Grace is okay...I think. Well, to be honest I don't know how she feels about the whole thing but I'm too tired to worry about her soo... I got to sit through a sermon... with my Husband... and NO CHILDREN!!! But I forgot why we had actually stopped going to church last winter. It was because sending your children to a church nursery is about as safe as taking them to the Peditrician and letting them LICK the toys in the waiting room! So my fantasy of becoming a church-going family again may be short-lived. Likewise my ideas about regular story-time attendance at the library (which we did yesterday). Sigh... and I was SO loving the idea of leaving the house a few times this winter. Well, I guess it's a good thing we bought a new remote so we can watch DVDs again. Especially since I'm bound to catch everything they do, what with my full 15 minutes or so of sleep every night.
So my question really is, do my kids have abnormally weak immune systems or what? I mean, I don't think so because Isaac had only had 1 (mild) cold up until last March or so when he was about 21 months old. Then he started catching something literally EVERY SINGLE time we went to church. And poor Gracie gets everything her brother gets even though she's nursing. What do people do that need to send their kids to daycare? I'm pretty sure I'd spend the entire winter working 2 days and then being home for a week with a sick baby and then sending them back to daycare for a day or 2 (just long enough to pick up a monster virus) then being home for a month with a really sick baby. And do other stay-at-home-moms really take care of the kids all by themselves while they have the flu (the mom not the kids) because I just can't do it! A cold is bad enough but to take care of kids while you're feverish and barfing? No thank you! So what am I missing? If you know any secrets, please share them!
I know you'd all love for me to just keep going with this feel-good post but Grace is waking up from her awesome super-long (yeah I'm feeling a little sarcastic :) nap so I better go get her.
Oh! Did I mention that she started pulling up tp stand, cut her first tooth (very painfully), and said her first word (Isaac) all in the same week!? It was a very. very. very. BAD week for sleep. On the bright side, she is totally amazing! Congratulations Princess Grace!

ps. Listen to this song, especially if you need to be lifted up a little! It's my absolute favorite right now and I'm listening to it about 12 times a day!

Confession of the Day

I've been wanting so badly to blog lately and just haven't been able to come up with anything. I think it's because I want my blog to be lighthearted and lately my heart is just a little bit heavy. All the laundry and dishes and unpacking (yes, we're still unpacking) and naps and meals and baths and everyday life are just kicking my butt right now.
I think that every Mom has a story to explain "what I didn't understand about being a parent before I became one". I think for a lot of people, it's just that it's SO hard. And it is. That's not my story though. Even if I didn't know exactly what it would be like, I expected hard. I even expected it to be really really hard. But I was ready. I'm a very hard worker and I'm very devoted to my kiddos and to the idea of being a good Mom. I figured I could handle it. Here's what I didn't expect.
All of me is not enough. All of the energy and all of the patience and all of the creativity and all of the hard work and devotion that I can muster WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH! Which, if you're a parent, you probably knew already.
Here's my dirty little secret. I have guilt. Not the average guilt that every parent probably has but terrible, crushing guilt. I just can't let go of the idea that I should be able to give my kids a perfect childhood. And yet, I know it's wrong. I'm quite sure that God designed the parenthood experience to be this way. I think it's so that we would be forced to give control of our greatest earthly treasures to him.
So now I feel guilty about not trusting the way I should. Figures.

Unhealthy Attachments

Wow, am I a slow learner! Why oh why did I tell the whole world that Grace is an amateur fit-thrower? Now (of course) she's morphing into an 8-month-old drama queen! She's learning that thrashing around and kicking her feet makes for a bigger better tantrum. This, combined with her new-found mobility (she's crawling... and she's good at it!) and a brother who doesn't want her to touch his stuff, is making for some interesting days here!
Meanwhile Isaac is developing some weird attachments. On Monday we had to have our truck towed. When the tow-truck arrived at our house, I immediately called Isaac to the window to see. I was expecting extreme excitement since, as you know, the arrival of the trash truck is a weekly cause for celebration. And the tow truck wouldn't just stop in front of our house but it would actually be IN OUR DRIVEWAY! And just as I expected, Isaac was very excited... for a minute. Then he realized that they were going to be taking OUR truck away with them and the whole event became devastating. We assured him that we would be getting the truck back but he wouldn't be consoled.
"Ok," I thought, "this is strange, but we did see an episode of 'Arthur' where Arthur is miserable at the thought that the family car is about to be junked and eventually saves the day by discovering that a baby rattle in in the tail-pipe is the only thing wrong with it (yes, we watch too much TV... so sue me). I guess emotional attachment to cars is just something that happens to little boys as well as grown-up ones."
Then Tuesday (our new trash day) rolled around and the trash truck came and we rushed to the window just like always. And, just like always, it was exciting. Until they started loading our trash into the truck.
"Want our trash back," Isaac said sadly. HUH???
So now I'm living in fear. You've probably heard of the recalls on "Thomas" toys lately. Of the 3 that we own, 2 have been recalled now. And twice I've been able to get away with pretending that I just can't find them for weeks on end while I wait for the new toy to arrive in the mail. But those 2 were just "Red Caboose" and "Toad". I'm terrified that Thomas himself will be recalled because I don't think Isaac could go a day without him and if he gets that upset about the trash being taken, a recall on beloved Thomas could make for a really rough 6 weeks or so! Oh yeah and the lead paint thing is scary too.

Blessings in Disguise

What am I, CRAZY?! Did I actually put it in writing that the discipline issues were just a phase? I'll put it this way; last week I learned for sure that God has a sense of humor!
The one thing that does make it all a little bit easier is that as Isaac's gotten older and more verbal, it's gotten easier to distinguish between real anguish and the times that it's purely for my benefit punishment. Mostly because he tells me. For instance, he spent one of his (many, many) timeouts last week fake crying and saying, "Help me calm down Mama. Help me calm down!" I didn't mean to actually help him calm down but my laughter may have done the trick!
Another time last week, we were in the car and tired, hungry Grace started crying. Not to be outdone, Isaac began the really REALLY fake crying (not to be confused with plain old "fake crying") and when we ignored it he called to us, "We're crying back here!"
I'm afraid that Grace has inherited a very unsympathetic Mama. I find myself daily saying to my sweet 8 month old, "Oh stop fussing. You're fine." I NEVER would have said that to 8 month old Isaac! I guess I can chalk some of that up to experience but honestly, I think that mostly it's because Grace is such an amateur compared to her big brother. Thank the Lord.
Anyway, I do want to just state for the record that even though I know you're not supposed to compare your children, I do it anyway because I really am just so wildly proud of both of them. I love each of their personalities and having them be so very different just makes me feel like I've been given a little bit of everything. They compliment each other perfectly and I wouldn't change a thing!
And in case my very positive attitude this morning is making you wonder...yes, I've just had my coffee! :)