This post is just a look at what's been going on around here lately....and there are way more pictures of Andy than Cal because Cal has started refusing to have his picture taken. He will make an awful face, or smile sweetly, but keep his eyes adverted. Drives me crazy. I have to catch him off guard to get a good one....or bribe him. Bribery works too.
Mr. CalBoy is still just as sweet as always...but lately, the crazy 3s, or whatever you want to call them, has been rearing its ugly head. He still listens, but he doesn't always want to do what we are telling him to, and he has started talking back or arguing some. He has more energy than I know what to do with....and that says a lot since I am an energetic person!
Andy is my bipolar two year old. One minute he is happy as can be, and then the second something doesn't go right, he throws himself on the floor in hysterics. While his vocabulary is growing daily, I think he gets beyond frustrated when we can't understand him (and I refuse to respond to grunts) so he loses it. The throw on the floor fits happen around 3-5 times a day. Yes. A day.
He loves the bath and it is a battle nightly to get him out of the tub. In the above picture, the water had been drained of the tub for several minutes, and Andy just would NOT get out of the tub! I finally grabbed his arm to get him out and those smiles above turned into a HUGE fit--- HUGE. It's almost comical how quickly he can switch the moods.
Andy still has his lovie and blankie, with which he is OB-SESSED. But his love objects have grown... he now has a dog which he loves and an elephant, "Baby," that he carries around almost as much as lovie. The elephant is one of those jelly cat stuffed animals-- I love that brand! And you can find them anywhere so they are easy to replace, unlike Andy's lovie, which has pretty much disappeared into outer space. Eddie's sister has made it her life's goal to find another one because Andy's is seriously borderline foul (even though I wash it EVERY week). She thinks she found a match... fingers crossed! ANY way... he now carries with him: blankie, lovie, dog (a gund stuffed dog), and baby (a jelly cat elephant). Occasionally, he will request the giraffe too, "raffe." If we are about to walk down the stairs and he spies one of the above items, he will scream (and scream) until you go get the item. So on a typical day, I am walking down the stairs holding Cal's hand (he can do the stairs by himself but prefers to hold my hand), Andy, Andy's blankie, Andy's lovie, Andy's elephant and Andy's dog. Plus my water bottle. Plus whatever cars Cal wants me to hold for him. Phew!
Nug, snuggled up with his objects:
Another thing about Andy is his love of the iPad...anf football helmets. The kid loves wearing a helmet and 10 times out of 10, he puts it on backwards. We have to take it off EVERY single time to put it on the right way.
For those of you who let your kids use the iPads, the Jake and the Neverland Pirate app is outstanding! We love it...
Cal is still my little buddy. He tells me every day that I am his best friend. But in the same breath, he will start doing something that he's not supposed to be doing. We have been having (lots of) issues with him sleeping at night. The napping during the day is kind of a catch 22-- if he does nap, he has trouble going to bed at night. If he doesn't nap, he is exhausted and ready to pass out by 7:00. Either way, he tosses and turns in the night and kicks his sheets and blankets off, then gets cold and wakes himself up. He has been waking up around three times a night lately. When he wakes up, I just go in, adjust the blankets and then we both go back to sleep-- except for when I can't fall back asleep. Doing this several times a night is pretty tiring. To top it off, he has been getting up before 6-- which we are SOOOO against! He sits in his bed and calls for us asking to get up. We've been just letting him go into the playroom to watch some Mickey so we can sleep a little longer...but he has a little cough right now, which has been waking up Andy! So the whole fam is up and at um around 6. Yikes.
So, a very active Cal, not sleeping well at night, getting up super early...all equals a handful of a 3 year old! I think if you were to remove any one of those things from the equation, he would be back to his wonderful little self.... but with all of these factors, he is like the perfect storm!
Andy is still obsessed with the potty. He wants to watch when Cal goes pee, and when I go pee, he tries to lift up my rear to see in the potty (sorry so graphic). He is not going on the potty, but he loves to pretend to go. Never a dull moment over here!
Lately, when Nug wakes up from his nap, he just wants to be held. And if you put him down, he is a screaming hot mess. I was trying to do my hair for something I had and it was impossible to do it with him. I had to take a picture because he was so sweet on my shoulder.
So, along with that sweet picture above, I do have to share what happened a few nights ago so y'all will be extra careful. I was straightening my hair and Andy was standing at my legs, wanting me to hold him. He had his head buried and his arms wrapped around my legs. He was carrying on and screaming and I was talking to him, trying to calm him down so I could finish. As I looked down at him, the straightener slipped out of my hands and landed on his arm-- straddling it (each side of his arm was burned). It wasn't even on there for 1.3 seconds because I yanked it up immediately, but it was there long enough to burn him pretty badly. I felt AWFUL. Eddie was standing there and saw the whole thing (he's the one who insisted it was only on there for less than a second) and I just burst into tears. Andy, of course, stopped crying immediately because I was holding him. I felt (and still do feel) terrible. I mean TERRIBLE. I had a pit in my stomach the rest of the night. The burn hasn't fazed him in the least. Every now and then he will bump it and you can see him wince, but other than that, you'd never know he had a booboo. I am SO SO aware of it and try to be very careful with that arm-- imagine chasing a toddler and trying to not grab his arm.... for those of you who chase toddlers, you know how hard that is! It is healing, so that's good. I still feel like the world's worst mother.
CalBoy and I on a date to Firehouse Subs-- he still loves his time with just me...and I love that.
After pajama day last week, Cal was not napping-- which was fine with me because I knew he'd crash early. Well, I found Batman on TV and put it on for him to watch while having some "quiet" time. He was talking up a storm, asking me a million questions and then he got super quiet. I walked by to check on him and he was out cold. I panicked because he always pees in his sleep and he didn't have a pullup on (like he does when he naps). Let's just say he peed all over the couch. A lot.
Andy knows what to do to push Cal's buttons. He found Cal's fire hat and put it on. He was thrilled to get away with it...it was brief! These boys are perfecting the art of fighting...
Eddie came home early on Friday to help out with the kids since it had been a FULL week. You can see how helpful he was:
Cal was not done playing with him... so he left the airplane there for him to hold.
We had a fundraiser at Cal's school on Saturday morning and saw the Valentine's book he made:
"Cal loves mommy and Hankers and Summer and River and Ava and Andy and Daddy!"
Here is just a typical afternoon...both boys on top of me-- Andy getting mad and taking the bok he wanted me to read and smashing it on Cal's head. (I just happened to have my camera out right as he was doing it)
That resulted in TIME OUT:
These pictures are out of order, but the day we got home from our trip, we took both boys to get haircuts. This was Andy's first time getting one without me holding him. He wouldn't take his eyes off of mine in the mirror. I mean... how sweet is that??
On Monday, we had a play date with Ava. These two seriously have SO much fun together. Ava realllly wanted Cal to play dress up. She kept bringing him princess dresses--- I think she has close to 30-- and he kept saying "no, thank you!" She finally said, "Cal, I am never going to invite you over ever again!" hahahahah
We spent some time outside this weekend playing. The boys had a ball hitting balls:
On Tuesday, after taking Cal to school, Andy and I went to the grocery store. He insisted lovie come with us and that I buckle him in too. How happy does this kid look?
We came home for lunch and Andy found himself stuck....literally.... ohhhh, this boy....
And one last one... he is obsessed with this duck music box thing... he get so happy when I play it.
Well, I think I have just about re-trained the boys back into momma's ways... it's been a busy few weeks!
Now on to the weekend!
