I stumbled across this blog post I started several years ago (below). I think I may have even seen parts of this somewhere before... but today it made me laugh. Because even at 4 years old... we still have the same moments...only now the weird dog-ish growling is replaced on occasion with real words...and he's pushing the cart. And now you're me. Your baby's ten minute shopping cart limit fuse blew five minutes ago, and he's been making weird dog-ish growling noises in between shrieks that would translate to "Shopping carts SUCK, Mom!" if you slowed them down on a record player. You aren't sure exactly if he ate two - or was it three - bites of cheese for lunch. He's been standing up in his seat attempting to surf shopping cart waves. He claws at your face with an arched back when you try strapping him back in.
It took almost 2 1/2 years for it to happen. And it happened today.
I have such a big boy now.
Jacob has attended the same day care every day since he was 13 weeks old. He knows the building, he knows the kids, he knows the teachers and directors. He is comfortable there. But every day he screams and cries when I leave him there. He grabs my leg and holds on for dear life. Other kids have no problem with drop off. Not Jacob. He doesn't want anything to do with his friends or teachers at 8:30 in the morning. He walks into the building fine, but as soon as he sees the door to his room, he turns around. On the days I carry him in, he clings tighter to me. The teachers pry him out of my arms and assure me every day that when I leave he is fine. He's normally happily playing when I pick him up and sometimes doesn't want to leave in the afternoons.
Today, he walked right into his room. He held my hand all the way to the play area, where he saw a teacher from his last classroom subbing for a few minutes while his teacher ran an errand. He walked right up to Ms. Ashley, handed her his cheese wrapper {we must have snacks in the car on the way to school, don't you?} and started to take off his coat.
She handed me the coat to take to his cubby.
Normally, Jacob follows me crying as I put his items in his cubby.
Not today. Not this morning.
He stayed with his friends.
I walked back to his play area to tell him goodbye for the day, give him a kiss... he walked right up to me and waived at me. With a big smile on his face. And then, walked away before I could bend down to hug him.
I smiled too.
The biggest smile I've ever had when I've dropped him off at "school".
Today was a big day.
Today Jacob was a big boy and decided it was okay for me to leave and he would have fun - and be just fine :)
Since going MIA a lot has happened in the McKew house.
I have taken a firm stance in our house - no dog. I've been successful holding this position for 5 years... and recently Pat has urged me to reconsider this position.
I had rules as we began to consider a "friend for Jacob" because this was completely about Jacob and not about his Daddy wanting a dog : 1 - I wanted an older dog, NOT a puppy 2 - I wanted a dog that would be house trained 3 - I wanted a hypoallergenic dog 4 - I wanted a dog that could be left alone all day while we were at work
5 - I wanted a dog that Jacob fell in love with
Secretly I've known we would never find a dog like this at the humane society and we would not justify the expense of buying a dog from a breeder that met all my qualifications. So, we would remain a no dog family for quite a while longer.
We began to visit the humane society to "walk" dogs. We did this for several weeks and Jacob never made a connection with any dog. One Friday night when we went in there was an older boxer. She had just had surgery but Pat and Jacob were immediately drawn to her. So we took her out for a walk. She calmly walked to the back door, never jumping to get our attention, never barking and never pulling on the leash. When we got outside she let Jacob walk her around.
She waited to go to the bathroom until we were outside and then walked around at Jacob's pace. When Jacob sat down, so did she. We returned her to her cage since it was late in the day and Jacob threw a 2 year old FIT! But I stood firm, no dog, doesn't meet the requirements.
Pat and I called to get more information on her the next day.
Sunday we went back to see her again and see if she was still there. She was. We got her out again and as she and Jacob played they mimicked one another. I was leering that this was a good dog to keep "walking"... she was BIG - 50 lbs and she slobbered a lot. I made a mental note to make a 6th requirement on the list... no slobbery dogs, only neat and tidy ones. She had been a stray and only at the shelter a few days so no one knew how she would really be with kids and so we put her back. Plus she still did not meet my requirements... she was not hypoallergenic.
When we took her to her cage I found a smaller dog I liked... what about this one I asked the boys? They humored me and took him to the "get to know you room" where Jacob would only say "back" and not even interact with the smaller dog. I asked,
"Do you want me to put him back?"
"shoes" {Jacob’s word for yes}
He shook his head yes and went straight to the door, pulled the handle to open the door and let the dog run out... Pat and I chased the dog and Jacob down the halls of the humane society to put the dog back. Jacob walked through the rows of cages and back to the boxer. Where he stood in front of her cage and waived his hand at her.
"Mo mon" {His version of come on}
Pat smirked and asked me how I was going to say no, now?
We have a dog. Her name is Raven. She has a purple collar and we are in search of a Ravens collar.
Jacob LOVES to watch himself on the iPhone in our videos or in pictures. He just loves to watch. I could entertain him for at least 15 minutes with the same 30 second video of himself.
His current favorite is him riding a horse. This was his first horse ride. I missed it!
He's obsessed with horses, and was VERY proud of himself when it was all over. Pat wants me to research pony rides/riding lessons now...
Also, part of enjoying watching himself on the video after the fact now includes watching himself during his performances. Monday night (the night before he played hookey - I'll explain in a second) he enjoyed singing along with his favorite Steven Tyler song :)
Tuesday I'm convinced J played hookey! Monday I missed a phone call from daycare saying Jacob had a fever. I walked in right as they hung up the phone, and was informed he couldn't come to school the next day - you know the 24 hour fever rule. I was slightly miffed that after bringing him inside from playing TWICE in the 95 degree sun that they took his temp so late in the day. My thoughts fell on deaf ears and J stayed away from school Tuesday.
J never had a "fever" again, and spent all morning running around my office and preforming for me at home in the afternoon. I caught this around 3:00.
I was a psychology major in college. While I haven't directly used my degree to obtain a job in the last 5 years I have used several components of my degree in all my previous and current positions. Most recently, in being a mom. There was a class, PSY 361 - Test and Measurements - this class was supposed to teach us how to make effective judgements in our own lives, and be able to better deal with tests we will face in our own lives (and how to apply psychological testing to real life situations). I have felt like my degree has led me to over analyze things... so recently I've attempted to take a more laid back, wait and see approach with many things. Most recently ear wax.
Or, what I thought was ear wax.
A few weeks back J got a cold. It crept up right before his birthday, and earned him a few days at home with Mommy. We got back to good health and had some fun at school, a busy weekend and were enjoying planning for Memorial Day weekend when I began to notice that Jacob had some serious ear wax all of a sudden. I didn't think much of it, grabbed a baby Q-tip to clean up the outside of his ear canal, and moved right along. My new laid back approach allowed me 72 hours of cleaning one ear 3 times a day before I began to google toddler ear wax followed by toddler, lots of ear wax. Google told this Mommy that some kids just have lots of ear wax, and while you might not like it, just clean it up at bath time and move along. Another 36 hours of ear wax and I called the nurse at the pediatrician's office and began our conversation with...
"Should I be concerned..."
She decided since it was a holiday weekend coming up, that J should be seen, just to make sure all was well. That afternoon I picked him up early from daycare and hoped right over to the pediatrician for a quick check of the ears.
The pediatrician checked Jacob's first ear and said everything looked good, tube is still in and clear. And then she checked the ear wax ear...
*gross moment ahead*
Let me tell you, I was nothing short of surprised when she said
"Oh honey, that's not ear wax... that's puss."
EEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
Jacob had his first real ear infection since getting tubes over a year ago. The tubes were doing their job, draining the infection away, not causing Jacob to have any pain... but super mom over here thought she was dealing with ear wax.
You can go ahead and ship me my mom of the year award. I will accept it graciously! 4 1/2 documented days of draining ear infection, which means it had been there a little before that, is a great recomendation for that mom of the year award.
SERIOUSLY?!? What mom does this?
I think I'll take my psychology degree and put it back in force. Laid back, wait and see Mommy is not good for this little guy!
Had to toss in this picture from Chuck E. Cheese too.
He's such a happy little guy. We'll get his stats this afternoon, but he's been growing!
He wears size 4 diapers, 24 month - 2T shirts and pants (as long as the pants have an adjustable waist), 18-24 month shorts, size 7 tennis shoes. I swear he's getting skinnier. We've had to break out the shorts from last summer his waist is so small. He is go-go-go all day long, so I'm sure this contributes to the little waist.
He's been progressing really well in his speech therapy and we're starting to hear him try and string together a few words here and there. His favorite now is, "Mommy (or Daddy) mo mon" which is: Mommy, come on. He waives his hand in the direction he wants us to go with him, or he'll come grab our finger and take us to his desired destination. It's very sweet (and sometimes demaning) but always fun! He's also very good about adding "peas" to his requests. "Milk, peas" , "Nakin, peas", "More, peas". Of course, he just ate his first peas willingly this past weekend, his "peas" is really please. It's the easiest way for us to get him to use two words in rapid succession. He's very polite :) most of the time. He's a stickler for his napkin in his lap at meal time too. If you are sitting at the table with him, be prepared to show him that you have your napkin in your lap - or you'll be putting it there ASAP! What a little gentleman. He's also not shy about his "wuv you"s and gives big hugs and kisses to go with them.
He loves music, as I've posted here. And continues to sing and dance when he hears something he likes. He can entertain any group of people with his head bobbing, stomping, jumping and swinging hips.
Everynight he reads with Daddy before bedtime, and his two favorite books right now are his Bible and The Very Hungry Catipilar. We can't get through too many nights without reading both along with his other books. And then... they say their prayers together. I caught them the other night on the monitor, hope you can see just a bit and hear Jacob's little voice. **turn your volume up to hear it, it's pretty quiet.** Jacob knows the end is comming and starts trying to say amen during the last few lines.
For Birthday weekend, yes...weekend, we went to a friend's birthday party at Monkey Joes,
hung out with Nannie a little bit, did some shopping, had some friends over for a cook out, ate cake,
played in Jacob's new play house,
watched Daddy spend ALL DAY building a swing set, played on the swing set,
ate his first meatloaf with GiGi, Sissy and Nannie, had some cupcakes at school and then topped it all off with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.
It was quite the weekend. The celebrating continues tonight, and tomorrow...birthday week isn't over in our house, it continues tongiht with a pool side dinner with Pappy, MiMi and Gracie and Thursday Night Live on Thursday! WHEW. It's been a fusy few days... and keeps going. But SO FUN!
To say we've been motivated to do some spring cleaning, might be an understatement.
Our activities began Thursday night with some outdoor planting. I had found some hydrangeas {my favorite plant!} at Sam's for cheap-o. Pat enlisted the help of a little guy to dig and plant the hydrangeas {and a few other small flowers} in the back yard.
Jacob kept trying to chase me and give me a hug with his dirty hands and dirty mouth. Apparently, boys do eat dirt.
Friday night we set out to pick up a mattress for Jacob and then moved all the furniture out of Jacob's room to clean the carpets. He was upgraded from a nursery this weekend to a toddler room. Complete with twin mattress and a toy wall. Saturday morning our work began. Before Jacob and I woke up Pat went to Lowe's and picked up some mulch and two trees. They were in the ground and the lawn was mulched before our eyes opened. As soon as Jacob woke up we began the transformation of his room.
First the mattress came in, and then the crib went out. Jacob supervised Pat's progress.
Then we began to put together the new unit for Jacob's toys, books and puzzles. When we were almost done I decided that the dresser in the guest room would be better in Jacob's room, so we had to preform a minor switch-a-roo. After a quick drop off at Goodwill and trip to Target, we were headed back home for Jacob's first night in his new room.
We've got the basics done. Most wall items remained and Pat wasn't about to tackle the stripes he painted so patiently 2 1/2 years ago, so they stayed. A few other items had to be moved, because once Jacob got onto his new bed, he realized that he could reach items that were previously out of reach.
Saturday night was Jacob's first night in a big boy bed, and he did great! I, on the other hand, stayed up all night checking on him. I had purchased a video monitor a few weeks ago in anticipation of this move. I was convinced that Jacob would get up and run around - but I wanted to be able and let him have the opportunity to get back in the bed on his own, without us barging in all the time to redirect him. So, all Saturday night I would roll over and turn the monitor on and make sure he was doing okay. And of course, he was, and he never got up.
Sunday morning we were up with the sun and ready to go! After a big family breakfast Pat used the carpet cleaner machine to deep clean our slick floors (LONG story) and the chair and a half in our room, all before church! After church we came home for a quick change and a quick quick nap and then headed to Keeneland. Jacob's nap went more like I had anticipated when I purchased the video monitor. We were checking to see if Jacob was still asleep and he was NOT in his bed. While we were checking the monitor a little blond hair boy ran from the opposite side of the room towards his bed - he. was. awake. :) Knowing we had big plans for the afternoon we went right on in and got Jacob ready for Keeneland.
Jacob loved Keeneland! We arrived in time to really enjoy most of the very windy but super sunny afternoon. Jacob got to see tons and tons of horses, which thrilled him! He was such a joy to be around and was laughing every time he saw a horse. He loved every minute of our afternoon and zonked out as soon as we hit the car.
What a weekend! I'm motivated to keep moving and cleaning out. WATCH OUT! My next room is the TV room - I'm trying to figure out how to switch the main TV to the complete opposite wall... wish me luck!
Jacob will be TWO! Two months from today!
AHH!
Deep breath... exhale...deep breath....exhale...
How did this happen? How did he get so old? This time last year I was very excited, already had his birthday party planned and details were being ironed out. This year Pat and I are not prepared for a celebration in the least and have pondered just taking the little guy to Chuck E. Cheese for some pizza and basketball playing - maybe let a friend or two know when we'll be there if they would like to join us.
This week, Jacob turned 18 months old - and in the last few weeks Pat and I have really noticed that he has started to not look so much like a baby anymore, and definitely looks like a toddler.
May 31, 2009 - birth day
November 30, 2009 - 6 months
May 2010 - 12 months
November 2010 - 18 months
Jacob still has the same inquisitive blue eyes and mischievous smile he was born with, but the hair doesn't have a single trace of red in it anymore... among many other things that have changed the last 18 months, the hair is just one of them.
He's growing to have quite the strong personality and opinion - (insert sarcastic font) although I can't image where he gets that from - and he does have a flair for a dramatic cry/tantrum once in a while. He is SO curious, and hands on :)
We are enjoying watching him experience the world around him.
