I am on a blogging roll...
I have one last post for now: George and I have decided to purchase a twin-size bed for Alex (who has actually slept on his own bed in his own room about 4 of the last 7 days!!) because Alex is convinced that his Thomas bed, which is toddler-bed size, is making him shrink. Who am I to argue with my son's logic? According to him, as a big boy, he should be sleeping on a big bed. So George and I have promised him that he will have a big bed soon.
Right now Alex sleeps on a Thomas bed. It uses a crib-size mattress, so it's basically a toddler bed that looks like Thomas the Tank Engine. If anyone is interested in buying it, PLEASE let me know. Your purchase would include the bed and the mattress, as well as a Thomas toy chest, made of that super durable plastic that children's things are made of. These items are Little Tikes brand. If you're interested, make an offer somewhere at or around $100.
While I'm on a "for sale" kick, we are also selling the Thomas train table that appears in an earlier post on my blog. It's the genuine Thomas the Tank Engine play table, and it's in good condition (Alex drew a little on one side, but it doesn't detract from the table's function). It includes the Island of Sodor play board. Unfortunately, the actual train items are not for sale (maybe some will become available as Alex gets more into GI Joe). Again, make an offer somewhere at or around $100.
We also have a brand new Little Tikes Deluxe Cozy Convertible that we will give away to anyone who wants it. My older sister sent it for Alex's Christmas present, but he is not interested in anything that is not his bike, so we're not going to take it out of the box.
Let me know, and please share this info with any interested friends!
11 January 2009
GI Joe and the Gunshooter Daddy
George and I have been diligently working to prepare Alex for various emergency situations. I don't think we made a conscious decision to do this, but given George's line of work, his paranoia because of his line of work, and my worst nightmare ever having to do with something or someone hurting Alex, it makes sense that we should just naturally start.
Alex now knows his full name (and he now acknowledges his middle name, which is a huge thing considering he angrily denied it for almost two years), his father's full name, my full name, what I do for work, and 8 of the 10 digits of his home telephone number. I expect that once he gets his whole phone number, we will teach him his address, his SSN, and the account number of my checking account (just kidding....about the checking account, and possibly his SSN. Does a 4 year-old need to know his SSN?). He also knows how to call Daddy when using Mommy's cell phone, which he used to do often by accident and now does often on purpose (this is a kid who always has a lot to say to his daddy). I suppose we will teach him to use the home phone, though I suspect he already knows how and just hasn't made any long-distance calls to Timbuktu yet.
What is really funny to me is that when you ask Alex what his daddy does for work, he always mentions guns in the answer. This started shortly before his 4th birthday, because before that, Daddy worked at a toy store (if this wasn't an indication that George was bringing home too many toys too often, I don't know what is!). These days, Daddy is a gunshooter (George quickly corrects him, pointing out that the appropriate word is 'gunfighter') who goes to the gun store everyday to get a gun and shoot the bad people like the police. When I point out that Daddy is a police officer (I guess technically he's a detective), Alex says, "Yeah, and he's a gunshooter."
In addition to a connection between his father and guns, Alex has shown a sudden, intense interest in GI Joes and Star Wars figures. Yesterday, George brought out a couple Joes from the stash in his Dungeon (we refer to his room in the house as The Dungeon). George has all kinds of things in The Dungeon, ranging from a treadmill to $70 worth of Star Wars toys that have never seen the light of day and were purchased long before I even became pregnant! So I didn't bat an eyelash when he came out with these dolls (because they ARE dolls! They are called 'action figures' so as to be more appealing to fathers who would otherwise refuse to buy dolls for their sons). He and Alex promptly proceeded to play with these toys, battling each other and making sound effects for the automatic weapon one GI Joe was holding and the swords the other had. They disappeared into The Dungeon for almost an hour, and when I was finally curious enough to see what happened to them, an entire sackful of GI Joes had been released onto The Dungeon's floor and the two boys (because let's face it, George reverts whenever he's playing with Alex) were still battling each other. It was a funny sight that I was not able to photograph, but I did tell Alex that his father had been waiting about five years, from the moment we heard, "It's a boy," at the first ultrasound, to be able to play GI Joes with his son. It kind of makes me wonder what the heck we would've done with a girl!
Alex now knows his full name (and he now acknowledges his middle name, which is a huge thing considering he angrily denied it for almost two years), his father's full name, my full name, what I do for work, and 8 of the 10 digits of his home telephone number. I expect that once he gets his whole phone number, we will teach him his address, his SSN, and the account number of my checking account (just kidding....about the checking account, and possibly his SSN. Does a 4 year-old need to know his SSN?). He also knows how to call Daddy when using Mommy's cell phone, which he used to do often by accident and now does often on purpose (this is a kid who always has a lot to say to his daddy). I suppose we will teach him to use the home phone, though I suspect he already knows how and just hasn't made any long-distance calls to Timbuktu yet.
What is really funny to me is that when you ask Alex what his daddy does for work, he always mentions guns in the answer. This started shortly before his 4th birthday, because before that, Daddy worked at a toy store (if this wasn't an indication that George was bringing home too many toys too often, I don't know what is!). These days, Daddy is a gunshooter (George quickly corrects him, pointing out that the appropriate word is 'gunfighter') who goes to the gun store everyday to get a gun and shoot the bad people like the police. When I point out that Daddy is a police officer (I guess technically he's a detective), Alex says, "Yeah, and he's a gunshooter."
In addition to a connection between his father and guns, Alex has shown a sudden, intense interest in GI Joes and Star Wars figures. Yesterday, George brought out a couple Joes from the stash in his Dungeon (we refer to his room in the house as The Dungeon). George has all kinds of things in The Dungeon, ranging from a treadmill to $70 worth of Star Wars toys that have never seen the light of day and were purchased long before I even became pregnant! So I didn't bat an eyelash when he came out with these dolls (because they ARE dolls! They are called 'action figures' so as to be more appealing to fathers who would otherwise refuse to buy dolls for their sons). He and Alex promptly proceeded to play with these toys, battling each other and making sound effects for the automatic weapon one GI Joe was holding and the swords the other had. They disappeared into The Dungeon for almost an hour, and when I was finally curious enough to see what happened to them, an entire sackful of GI Joes had been released onto The Dungeon's floor and the two boys (because let's face it, George reverts whenever he's playing with Alex) were still battling each other. It was a funny sight that I was not able to photograph, but I did tell Alex that his father had been waiting about five years, from the moment we heard, "It's a boy," at the first ultrasound, to be able to play GI Joes with his son. It kind of makes me wonder what the heck we would've done with a girl!
Another first!
All of the Christmas stuff has been put away at my house! And I didn't swear or cry as I was trying to get the tree into its bag! Last year I believe it was down fairly quickly as well, but not within the first two weeks of January. What an accomplishment for me! It was especially important to get everything down and put away this year since Alex LOVES Christmas and pretty much revolted throughout the entire process. I thought that prolonging his exposure to Christmas-related items might not be healthy, given his obsession. We did end up leaving a tiny Christmas tree in his room so that he can look at it whenever he wants....I put my foot down at leaving The Polar Express and Mickey Saves Santa out to watch all year long! Now we just have to convince him that his birthday only comes once a year...I'm kind of nervous about Tommy's upcoming birthday because Alex will undoubtedly try to steal the show.
The house seems empty without the tree up, but I'm sure I'll get over it. I'm liking that I don't have to be annoyed about Honey knocking ornaments off the tree with her tail!
The house seems empty without the tree up, but I'm sure I'll get over it. I'm liking that I don't have to be annoyed about Honey knocking ornaments off the tree with her tail!
01 January 2009
Some new thoughts for the new year
This holiday season (which, by the way, is NOT over until Tuesday the 6th) has been one of the best ever for me. I certainly didn’t think so as I was living it, but now that it’s drawing to a close, I can say that it really was. I sent my Christmas cards out late. It caused me anguish because I normally send them out the day after Thanksgiving, but in retrospect, it was fine that I sent them when I did. George and I couldn’t agree on a “family outfit” for our traditional night-before-Thanksgiving portrait, and then there was the issue of not having much disposable income- so this year’s Christmas card photo turned out to be a candid photo taken while we were experiencing The Polar Express in Williams, AZ for the first time. I love the picture because Alex is showing his true personality, and George and I look like the happy and adoring parents we happen to be. The tree didn’t quite make it up “on time” either, but the delay this year was due to Alex’s insistence that he help put the ornaments up- and he did a fantastic job. As George says, he seems to have inherited the “Christmas Nazi” gene.
There were other things that didn’t happen as they have in the past: we didn’t drive through the Church of Joy light before Christmas and we still might not get to it this time around; we got to Zoolights early and waited in line (though George would say that this was a wonderful thing); as of right now we haven’t seen the light display at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park; and finally, no lights adorned the outside of our house, though they existed in abundance inside the house. In previous years, that these things were missing would be enough to spoil my holiday. However, this year, I am grateful for everything that did happen, from Tommy spending Christmas Eve with us (and refusing to sleep, which made for a very tired Tantee on Christmas morning) to George unwittingly forgiving me this year’s trangressions so that Alex could have an amazing Christmas experience.
For the first time in a long time, instead of getting caught up in getting things done, I was living in and enjoying the moments. I’m hoping this continues through 2009.
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