We need a bigger house

Allen came to work with me today. And he wasn't really feeling it. By 10:30 he wanted pizza from across the street. And was really annoyed that I couldn't make them be open and get him pizza then. By 1:00 he was over his toys. Apparently his dragons, Leapster, and cars don't have the same appeal at the shop. He wanted to play on the computer. So we did some stuff ... then we looked at an email from Aunt Kristen.

You see, when we go to Chicago (on the 25th), we'll be going to Shedd Aquarium. It will be great fun. But, the show is holiday themed, so Kristen wanted to let us know that. She thought that if we really didn't want to go, we could check this out. Well, once we visited the website of this awesome children's museum, it was all over. We had to go. But Allen also wants to go to the aquarium ...

Fast forward to bedtime. As usual, I laid down with Allen until he fell asleep. He was feeling particularly talkative. So we talked about the aquarium. He decided that he was going to get a pet whale, sea anemone, coral, and fish. Mommy would get a pet shark. And Daddy would get a pet octopus. And they (along with Bailey, our Beta fish) would live in a giant fish tank in his room.

I finally got him to settle down to go to sleep. Then he whispered,
"In the paradise, lions are going to be nice right?"
"Yup," I replied.
"I learned that from you I mean the Bible book I mean the Bible."
I asked him, "And, what do we have to do to get to the paradise?"
"Drive?" he asked?
I laughed, "No."
"Walk?"
(laughing) "No. We have to obey Jehovah. Now go to sleep."
"OK." (silence, then whispering), "I'm playing with your hair so you can feel better."

Five minutes later, he was asleep ...

xoxo,
AHC

PS Allen says, "a long long days ago" when referring to something that happened in the past. I love it.

Quotable Allen

Heard this week:

At school yesterday ...
Miss C -- a teacher at Allen's school -- told me that her son (who just joined Allen's class) told her that he was going to play with Allen that day.
I replied, "Oh Allen, do you have a new friend?"
Allen nodded his head, and then announced, "And I wiped a boogie on him!"

This morning while getting dressed for school ...
Allen (to Daddy): You're Mr. Naked Pee.
Daddy: Well then you're Mr. Naked Poop.
Allen: We have to go get our costumes!

(Do all three-year-olds find bathroom talk hilarious?)


Tonight while explaining why he needed to get in our bed ...
Sometimes when my feet get in bed, they get scared.

xoxo,
AHC

Darling Boy

Allen is displaying is boyish-ness lately. Potty humor -- check. Running around like a crazy person -- check. Sticking his fingers up his nose -- check. 

And in spite of our best efforts to tame him, he still finds it hilarious to talk about pee-pee and poopy and to chase Murphy around the house and to shove his fingers up his nose like there's candy up there.

So the other night we're in the midst of our bedtime routine. Allen is in his pajamas and on my lap, and we're getting ready to say a prayer. But the finger is up his nose. Again. 

"Get your finger out of your nose," I say.

He takes it out.... And then he wipes it on my cheek.

My jaw drops, shocked at such behavior. Brian falls over laughing.

How do I respond to that? 

Tell me, friends, do you have experience with "boy" behavior? How do you handle potty humor? How about fingers up the nose? Please, share your suggestions!


xoxo,
AHC


P.S. He cried tonight at the meeting because he didn't get to "answer into the microphone." He also told me he wanted to say "dinosaurs" and "I like to eat candy" for his answers.

Nighttime negotiations

Allen had been doing a great job sleeping in his own bed until a few nights ago. After we put him to bed, but before we retired, we heard this coming from the monitor ...

"Mommy, I'm OK I'm OK I'm OK ..."

This crescendoed to a frantic call for me. I went to his room, whisked him out of his crib and brought him into our bed. And, so we've heard the above calls each night since.

Monday we decided to put an end to the co-sleeping, and I rocked him to sleep. After two hours, I finally got him into his bed. Last night we got him back to his bed after only about a half-hour. And tonight, I didn't even get him out of his bed. Not that he didn't try. Here are the highlights of his "negotiations."

Allen: Mommy, Mommy. I need to ask you something about the animals on the green chair (the glider in his room).
Mommy: I'll sit in the green chair, and you ask me from your bed.
Allen: I'm thinking of an animal that is pink and has a yoooong neck.
Mommy: A giraffe?
Allen: Riiight! Mommy, I need to ask you something about the animals. I'm thinking of an animal that is blue and has a yooong eyephant.
Mommy: Hmm ... It has a long trunk? An elephant?
Allen: Yes!! Mommy, you do this (puts his hands on the edge of the crib, sticks his butt out, and twists his hips back and forth).
Mommy: You want me to shake my butt? (shakes butt a few times).
Allen: No no. Yike this (repeats the above).
Mommy: (twists hips a little more till he's happy). OK. It's time for you to lay down.
Allen: Well, now's not a good time because because (repeat intentional) I'm not syeepy now. I'm too big to syeep in my bed.
Mommy: Should we take some of the animals out? (starts taking the bigger animals out of the bed)
Allen: Hey hey! Syow down. Eyax (relax)! Mommy, I need to sit on your yap and tell you something like this (squeezes his cheeks together with his hands). And Daddy will get the camera and take a picture ...
Mommy: Well, we can do that tomorrow, but now it's time to go to sleep.
Allen: Well, now's a big time (gestures with hands) because the picture (points to the Goodnight Moon picture above his crib) is bwoken, and we need to fix it.

This went on for awhile (I can't remember all he said), but I'm happy to report that we did get him back to bed, and we haven't heard from him in over a half-hour!

xoxo,

Awesome ...

We've been having a fabulous time with the Moyer family, and Allen's loving hanging out with his cousins. I'll have tons of photos to post soon, but for now I just have to share this awesome story.

Tonight Aubrey was looking through the photo album my mom put together for me "to teach her baby about his Mama" while I was getting Allen ready for bed, and here's the conversation that followed:

Aubrey (to me): Awww ... you were cute. Oh wow, look at your mom. She was so hot!

Brian: Allen, what do we call Nana? 'Hot Nana.'

Allen: Hot Nana

Me: I know, she was a fox wasn't she?

Allen: She was a Chihuahua!

Awesome .... I'll post the famous "hot Nana" picture soon (I have to scan it first).

xoxo,

Left and right

Allen is pretty good at identifying his left and right, as shown in this video. And yes, at the beginning he does say, "I'm still frowing up." We don't know why, other than maybe he was trying to get us to let him watch Cars. A few minutes earlier, he told us, "I'm so sick, so I need to watch Cars upstairs."

xoxo,

Bedtime Ritual

So, our bedtime ritual is to read one regular story, one Bible story, say prayers and goodnight to Daddy, and the for Mommy to sing. First, I recite the fruitage of the spirit, then I sing the ABCs, and finally I sing "Life Without End at Last," or as Allen calls it, "Can You See."

This week, Allen has decided that he needs to do it with me. It doesn't happen every night, but probably two or three times, he's joined in. Last night, Daddy was able to get some of it on camera. The sound is bad because we already had our white-noise fan on, but I think it's a beautiful show of Mommy-son bonding anyway. So I wanted to share.

xoxo,

Bathtime; Playhouse Palooza; Sometimes ...

Just had to throw this gratuitous Murphy picture in because he's just so cute. Allen has taken to calling him "Murphy-daters" (which sounds more like "muffydatuhs"). We don't know why. He made it up.
Got some cute shots of Allen getting tubbies tonight. Sometimes he can be so cute. In spite of the screaming and tantrum-throwing ...

In other news ... the playhouses are officially on display as part of Playhouse Palooza 2009. T-Shirts are on sale through the site or through our shop. They are $10 each. Here's Allen modeling an Adult 2XL.

Here's a collage I made for our Joli blog with glimpses of each of the playhouses. I don't want to post full pictures yet because I want to make sure that RCS gets as much benefit from the fundraiser as possible. But I promise to post pictures after May 16th.

Before I leave you this evening, I have an amusing story to share with you. As some of you know, Allen has been having some trouble sleeping in his bed lately. Originally, I think it started as him being scared of a shadow that looked like a fish, or a nightmare involving a fish, but then it just evolved into him wanting to stay up late with Mommy and Daddy and sleep in our bed.

Last night we went through our bedtime routine, and after I sang to him (while holding him) and told him it was time to get into his bed, he launched into this (mostly) monologue:

Sometimes I don't yike my bed. I don't yike my stickahs. I don't want to dwive my bus. I don't yike my door. I don't yike my pictuhs. I don't yike my fan. I don't yike my othuh fan ... stop talking Mommy! Sometimes I can't yike my bed. I can't yike my animals. I can't yike my yamps. I can't yike my cars yight ...

This went on for some time. Other than the extreme detail of the monologue, I found the pauses to yell at me to stop talking most amusing since I uttered not one word. Such a funny boy.

xoxo,

Sickie, Progress

So, by Monday evening, the monkey was feeling pretty lousy. And Daddy was away (long story), so when Allen woke up a second time, and asked to come into Mommy's bed (I walked in and he was holding "KittyCat," all ready to go), I gave in quite easily.

I had been downstairs paying bills, so I brought him into my room, and explained that I had to go back down to finish up some things. He nodded, and closed his eyes right away. That meant I was able to capture him and all of his adorable sleepish-ness.

On a more positive note, tonight Allen went poopy in the potty for the first time! Yay Allen!!!

Goodnight all! I'll try to post more from Disney (we leave Saturday morning)!

xoxo,

Murphy Day!!!

The waiting is finally over. Murphy was delivered today. We had prepped Allen, so all morning he kept saying, "Muphy Henicks comin' !" He couldn't wait to see him. As soon as Lori and Carol arrived, Allen wanted Murphy to sit on his "yap." Here they are getting to know each other a little bit.

(Notice the lovely quilt, made by Carol. She made one for each of the pups. Isn't that sweet??)

Here are some other lovely shots of the little guy ...

Sleeping on Lori

Sleeping on Daddy (he does a lot of this)

The happy family

Cute little face

Bedtime Story ... both boys so sleepy!

Playing next to Mommy

So far, he's a perfect little pumpkin. The perfect puppy for Allen because he is very content to sit on someone's "yap" and sleep. He's done some exploring, but I think he's pretty worn out from such a big day.

Thank you so much to the Clark family for such a wonderful puppy. And thank you Lori and Carol for driving him up here to us today. We love you all so much!

xoxo,

Payer Pease

I'm proud to be able to blog that today was a meeting with absolutely no taking Allen out (except when he leaned back and cracked his head on the corner of the arm of the chair). He did not need to be disciplined once! We have not had a meeting with such good behavior in some time now, so Mommy and Daddy were extremely proud of him!

Brother Marconi ("Coni") was wrapping up the Watchtower, and he said that the speaker would give the closing prayer. Allen said, "payer?" And I whispered, "Yes, after we sing the song." Well, when he heard the music, he started to cry, and he said, "Payer pease!" I thought that was so sweet until I realized that he knew the meeting was over after the prayer, and that's why he wanted it. As soon as we said, Amen (and before Allen said it), Allen said, "Cars pease. We go now?"

At lunch, he overheard me telling Nana that Nyomi was bringing mac and cheese for dinner. So he started yelling (and yes, I mean yelling) "Mac and cheese pease! Mac and cheese pease!" We were at a Mexican restaurant for lunch, so mac and cheese wasn't really an option, but he did devour the quesadilla that we gave him.

It's Sunday, so that means that it's Eagles day, and it also means that the Easleys/Stokes came over. Once again they provided dinner (fried chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread with blueberries, macaroni salad, collard greens). Once again it was delicious. And once again, I was extremely happy because I didn't have to cook (we did, however, provide beer and wine). It also means that "Baby Cai" was here.

Allen stood at the door when they arrived. "Baby Cai! Baby Cai!" he said. Unfortunately, Baby Cai was sleeping, so Allen very sweetly went off and played by himself (I have to say that he was so good all evening playing by himself with his cars). When "Baby Cai" woke up, Allen asked to "care" him. So we went over to the sofa so he could hold him. Allen stroked his hair and kissed him. It was so sweet I could have cried. Sadly, I have no pictures of this because I was sitting with them (to make sure Allen didn't drop him), and Daddy was totally engrossed in the game.

I did get some other cute shots of Micai though. There were probably 16 or 17 fabulous shots of the cutie, but I will only post my two favorites tonight.

I wish ya'll could have seen Micai at the meeting today. Boy was he dressed to kill! He had on a vest, a red tie, and a madras plaid blazer. He was so unbelievably cute. His mommy got a picture of him all dressed up, so if she sends it to me I'll post it. He was ridiculously handsome!

As I mentioned earlier, Allen was such a little trooper this evening, letting Daddy watch the game and Mommy gab with the girls. But at one point, he came to me and said, "Mommy change." So I took him upstairs, and indeed he had a dirty diaper. And it had irritated his skin. So we put "ceem" on it, and we gave him some Motrin, and we took him downstairs in his jammies. And again, he was such a good sport, playing by himself, until he started fidgeting and told daddy, "Change pease." Poor baby ... but as long as he got some "ceem" he was good to go.

We took the camera upstairs to bed with us, and took some pictures of the new photos adorning his room. Here are a couple shots of Mommy's "creativity" (Aunt Kissy requested that I post these):

That's the extent of my lame attempt at being all cute and scrapbook-y and creative. Anyway, we snapped a couple shots of the bedtime routine as well (there was a picture of a crying baby in the book Allen was "reading"; he said "Amy cying. Amy cying." All babies are "baby Amy" at the moment).

Mommy and Allen snuggle (you will notice a picture where Allen has "Mommy hair.") while Daddy reads (one book of his choice, and then a "Bible Book" story).

That's all for tonight, folks. Love and miss those of you I know. Those first time readers out there, let me know who you are, so I can love you too! XOXO.