Growing wise, Growing WELL!

This morning, when I took Gavi out of the bath and was getting him ready, Caleb used my absence as an opportunity to see how far across the bathroom and into the hallway he could splash the water. I came back to the bathroom, and expressed my irritation in a loving way. (“For crying out LOUD!” I believe, was my exact phrasing.) Caleb asked, “Are you frustrated with me, Mommy?”

“I’m just a little frustrated, because you’re doing things that you know are naughty,” said I, as I wrung out the bottom of my pants that were wet to the ankles from the plush carpet pool I’d just walked over. I cleaned up the floor as well as I could with the only dry towel I could find, as Caleb thought on this.

“Mommy?” he said in the smallest voice EVER. “Am I going to jail?”

Talk about breaking a mommy’s heart! Since I was already soaked through, I scooped him out of the tub and cuddled him. “You’re not going to jail, sweetness! Why would you think that?”

It turns out that in our quest to read all of his books by March 11th, I’d been reading for accomplishment and not for pleasure. He hadn’t been asking all the questions he usually does, and so certain fears weren’t being addressed. When Curious George accidentally dialed the fire department in his debut story, he was thrown in JAIL! What kind of lesson are those Rey’s trying to teach our children?!

It taught me a valuable lesson, too. Even though it’s fun to have goals – especially ones that are accomplished when we can’t play outside – I need to leave room for all the little interruptions that keep my little boy confident in his interpretation of the world.

Gavi is really working on some words. There are some that are easily recognizeable – “bah” for bath, “buppoo” for puppy, “fuh” for fish, and “NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH” for gimme milk right now before I chew your leg off. He’s so much fun. He tilts his head to the side and grins for “please.” It’s precious! He’s also so cute when he makes animal sounds – in Gavi’s world, kitties say “oooooow,” without the “me.” He’s seriously adorable! We’re still really having to work with his violent tendencies, though. His hitting, kicking and screaming when he’s thwarted need to cease. He’s biting a lot less, which is a real blessing! As the sole recipient of what bites he still hands out, I’m still crossing my fingers that it’s going to stop all together.

Yesterday, we went to the McDonald’s play place after our playdate was cancelled. We walked in, and there was a little boy about Caleb’s age with his mom. Caleb looks over at me and stage whispers, “He’s a cute boy!” I agreed, laughing, as we made our way to the table. As we sat down, he said even more loudly, “That boy is SO cute!” I was totally cracking up. It got worse though – after the two bigger boys climbed up the whole twisty maze and made their way down the slide, Caleb throws his arms around the boy, and says, “You are SO CUTE!” I was DYING!

Ten minutes after that potentially awkward interlude, the other boy asked Caleb to climb up the slide with him. Caleb didn’t even pause. “My mommy says I can’t climb up the slide.” Then he ran to the stairs and met the little boy at the top. I was so proud of his obedience, even though we hadn’t talked about it that day! Again the little boy asked him to climb up. This time Caleb did look at me, but then looked back to the kid and said, “Nope, my mommy says I can’t.” Granted, I was right there, but in this first public display of peer pressure, my sweet little boy did what was right, and I was so proud of him.

Do they have kiddie rehab?

Caleb comes to me yesterday, and after making sure he had my attention, wistfully proclaims, “Mommy, I love nose candy.”

I was a little taken aback, wondering what kind of druggie agenda PBS is PUSHING these days, when he said, “From Grandma’s sheep cake? I love that nose candy.” I had made my Mom a sheep cake – awesome, by the way, see the pictures here – and the nose was made out of a Dot candy. Thankfully, my son was trying to delicately ask for some sugary goodness rather than the powdered variety.

So things have been going INCREDIBLY well here, these days! It seems like I don’t post when things are going badly, but I also don’t post when things are going well! I’m still not finished with my Christmas thank you notes, but I’m about half done. (I mail them all out at once though, so that no one knows whose I did first. I’m just egotistical enough to assume that my friends and relatives will compare notes on something as important as a missive from me.)

I’m completely nausea-free! I have my moments, but I’m absolutely off the drugs. Ohmigoodness, it’s DELICIOUS! So maybe, since I had about four months less nausea than my other two pregnancies, it’s a girl. But maybe I’m just doing better because I started this pregnancy healthier than my other two. Either way, I’ll take it. Those meds weren’t cheap!

And my boys are absolute angels. All of them! Jonny Fashbaugh posted pictures TWICE in the last two weeks. Please make sure to appreciate them in all of their mass quantities of adorableness. Gavi’s been having a rough time with his health, coughing to the point of puking for a long time, so we had him into the asthma/allergy doc last week, and we’re hoping that some new meds will help get him calmed down. It’s a good thing I’m off mine, since he’s going to be just as expensive!

Caleb is my sweet, wonderful big boy. Man, do I adore that kid. We’ve had to stop watching certain movies, reasons to be explained shortly, but I’ve discovered that Curious George is on PBS in the morning, so he still gets to watch a little tv that I’ve approved every day. (Now that I’m sure they aren’t extolling the wonders of “nose candy.”) So movies: we’re all desperately tired of talking about Wall*E. He is CAPTIVATED by it, even though he’s only seen it three times. It is ridiculous the way he works it into every conversation. It got to the point where I was cursing Pixar and their wonderfulness because it engaged him so much. So to preserve the sanity of all who come into even casual contact with him, it’s been removed from the approved list.

So have Cars and 101 Dalmations, since both of them use the word “idiot,” and he started using it profusely as well. I know little boys are going to spew what they hear, but when his favorite movies say things I don’t want him spewing, they get taken off the list. And Toy Story has been put on a holding list, because he’s a little overly impressed with “Sid, the Bad Kid.” He also loves “Sid the Science Kid” on PBS, so I think it’s just a coincidence of the names, but it’s still disturbing how often he talks about “my friend Sid, the Bad Kid.”

Jonny just got home early – after getting to work by 5:30 this morning! – and he’s having a little trouble with my Gavi, so I need to cut this short. I just wanted to post while I was thinking about it, and to make sure that everyone out there knows how grateful I am for my life, and all that are in it. YOU GUYS ROCK!