MY DAZE

If one was unfamiliar with my son and his two year old language, they might wonder why a child would constantly shout a demand that sounded something like, "Mickey Batter." What that person would need to be aware of is although my toddler appears to know all of the words to his favorite story, "In The Night Kitchen," by Maurice Sendak and reads along with me each time, he insists on calling it "Mickey Batter" or "Mickey in the Batter." He asks for "Mickey Batter" approximately 3,000,000 times a day. I thought it would make my life easier if I got some support with his obsession with naked children in bread dough by finding a reading of one of our favorite books on youtube. I quickly learned he just asks for it twice as much and I can no longer check my email without desperate pleas of "Mickey Batter."

Eventually, I grew tired of listening to the 7 minute story repeated again and again. I begged him to consider another book. He has not formed an attachment with any of my old favorites. I concluded that since he was such a huge fan of Maurice Sendak, perhaps he would permit, "Where the Wild Things Are." ...and it was a huge success! The kid, he digs Maurice Sendak. Now I hear a constant stream of "Mickey Batter" immediately followed by, "Wild Things."

I had heard that a movie was coming out based on the book, "Where the Wild Things Are" so we also checked youtube for the trailer on that movie. My boy is mystified. He may be the only 2 year old camping outside a theatre in true "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" fashion.

Spring is here. I have had a busy week getting in the gardening spirit. Last week we stopped by the nursery to get the tomatoes and several other plants off to a good start. Dear Megan, your Romas are in there too if you still have a home for them. The other varieties include cherry, beef, and pear. Pear tomatoes are my favorite! I have the best memories of my grandma's garden and her delicious pear tomatoes.

This photo had to be included for the "look, I'm smiling" value.

...and what do we have here? Peas, growing in my own backyard garden. I have planted peas three or four times on a weekly basis, as they continue to sprout all season and we LOVE fresh peas. Today Riok and I put the first lettuce seeds of the season in our garden.

I have many flowers doing a wonderful job growing and blooming also, but today it was all about the veggies, or perhaps, I'm just all about food!

Riok was feeling rather artistic the other day. He got into his sister's desk and talked me into opening up several different colors of paint for him.

After finishing with all of his paintings, he found the playdough. I opened up the containers and set him up at the kitchen table with spatulas, plastic knives, and cookie cutters. However, we did not catch playdough in film, I apologize.

After a fun and creative morning, I felt like a great mom. As I got into the shower, I patted myself on the back for my patience, my flexibility, and an all-around good mommy day. You know what's coming, right? I stepped out of the shower to find a 2 year old boy naked and covered in paint and glitter. It was on his belly, his arms, his hands, his legs, and a few days later I am still scrubbing the purple glitter glue paint out of his hair.
At this point I'm just shaking my head, sighing, and refusing to see anything but the positives. For example, at least the new hair do matched the toe nail polish he picked out the other day.

A few moments ago, my daughter came in my room to give me this.

In case the writing on the skirt is hard to read, I took a close-up photo of it too. My heart is melting.

My two year old, upon hearing all of my sighs and cheers about what a wonderful daughter I had and how talented she was, quickly came running into the room with this.

I love these moments. It's times like these that ensures that my dear children do not get thrown out with the weekly trash.

Spring soccer includes A LOT of rain. A LOT!!! I try to be a good mom. I try to be there for all of the games. I am not the parent that drops her child off at the field, considering sports to be code for "Two Hours Free Babysitting."
My daughter had a game today at 10:30 am. It was cold. It was wet. It was raining sideways. I dropped her off at 10:00 to start practicing. I sat in the car with my toddler for half an hour, then got out to watch the game. My darling 2 year old son ran towards the parking lot full of cars 3,000,000,000 times. When I tried to hold him or convince him to stay near in any way he screamed (or is it screeched) at the top of his lungs non-stop. I couldn't decide if trying to keep him from being hit by a car, listening to his piercing screams, or the looks I was getting from other parents was worse. I eventually gave in and went back to wait in the car as I was losing strength and patience to continue holding down a 2 year old.
When the game was over and it was time to actually drive the car, my sweet little pumpkin reminded me how he felt about being strapped down in carseats. By this point I was ready to explain to him how lucky he was to not be one of the many children on leashes. He hit, kicked, bit, and continued the SCREAMING.
Why am I sharing all of this? To illuminate how excited I am for the next one. Can you imagine the fun of this day with a newborn in tow?!?!? I am imagining an exorcist type of look to overcome me. I imagine I will just go through my days with my head spinning and spewing the fluids of insanity.

...I post photos.
These are some pics of Riok taken when visiting my grandparents for Thanksgiving.



...and my sister with Riok. We were trying to bribe him to take a nice photo with a great background by offering him soda. He ran up grabbed the soda and ran the opposite way. So this was the best shot. Darn uncooperative toddlers!

I recently wrote a post in which my baby boy chose to publish his first on-line critique of non-dairy products. I wondered if there would be more information and reviews of soy, tofu, and rice products to follow. I did not pressure him as the making of a small, vegetarian food critic takes time.
Yet, in a few short days, I heard the lack of noise in the house once again. It was just too quiet.

I could see the battle raging in his mind..."Hmmm, it appears to be some form of milk unattached to my mother's breast?"

He decides to give it a try...

His decision to get the soy milk out on his own, when there is "bee-boo" milk readily available, is not un-like those first realizing their allergy to cow milk. This is a big, brave step.

Look at him becoming a man, drinking right out of the carton like that!!! AWWWWW!

At one point he decides soy milk is so tasty he cannot ingest it quickly enough!! This is when he takes a momentary break.......and comes back with a straw!! Ah-hah.

When a toddler goes to the fridge looking for the yummiest thing they can find, what else would they come out with except for pumped mommy milk?!
My baby boy had been visiting his dad the night before, causing his mommy to pump breast milk. I had not been feeling very well and did not have the energy to clean parts, so I just stuck the entire containers in the fridge. Of course, when baby went to raid the fridge, he was pleasantly surprised! He took his milk to the coffee table, so as not to miss a moment of Max & Ruby.









Mmmmmmm, breastmilk, it does a baby good!!!

If the toddler quacking isn't cute enough, you should hear his sad mama duck voice! It's hard not to giggle at his woeful duck sounds!

As all the older children were doing tricks on both bikes and skateboards, this young lad on his first big boy bike, was not to be outdone.







This AWESOME bike that I got him for his birthday is a Strider purchased at www.RunBikes.com. It is one of many versions of Balance Bikes. It does not have any pedals and the theory is that children move straight from this to regular bikes and will never need training wheels. Not only do I love it, he LOVES it. I would highly recommend this great bike!!!

Riok turned two on November 4th, but I didn't have my photos ready. Better late than never. Happy Birthday Riok!! I hope you are enjoying your new bike! I love you with my whole heart and although things have been challenging lately, I couldn't do it without you. I love you, baby!