Terrible Twos

I hope what I am experiencing is the terrible twos because if it is not then I might as well go ahead and quit! I could post the picture of Chuck sleeping on the way to day care this morning but I am not. It will only remind me of the three times he woke up last night, and make me long for more than 3 hours of sleep. I could post the picture of his dinner the past two nights all over the wall and floor, but I will spare you of those pictures too.

Chuck is picking up more and more vocabulary and feistiness. He can now tell you if something is purple, blue, or yellow. However, he still really prefers pink over any other color even if he can't say it. He is still an adamant bubble blower ( as you have seen in past pics and videos) and is actually a relatively good bubble blower. He also can finally say "outside" but he just calls it "side" instead of "pool" now. This is actually not a good thing because he loves outside and although he spends a gazillion hours outside each day, he still wants to go outside every night. This desire to go outside either A) causes a breakdown because I won't let him go outside or B) causes a breakdown because I let him go outside but won't let him go across the street and knock on Nellie's door.

At one point, Chuck refused to let me put his shirt on him. We are now at the point where he throws a tantrum if the shirt comes off. Oh, the shoes! I am not sure if he just really likes his new shoes but many days he freaks out if I take his shoes off. Some nights, after his bath, if he comes across his shoes somewhere in the house, he insists that they be put on his feet. This is just not a battle that I am even going to waste my time on. I could care less if he sleeps in his shoes and lately, he has done just that.

Well, one a more positive note, as of next week we will have officially made it through the first quarter of school. Only three more of those to go! The big move is getting oh so close. Now that I have finally made some progress with the behavior in my class, I may just miss my job ( not my students) but my job. If I do say so myself, I think I am pretty darn good at it ( even if that means I don't hold up my end of the deal as a mama or wife or maid or banker or trash guy or yard man) but at least I am not in denial.

Hopefully, you will get some pictures soon. It all depends on how you-know-who is behaving himself, so I wouldn't necessarily count on it. I think I might try to take him to a pumpkin patch this weekend for a little hayride, corn maze, and pumpkin picking this weekend though.

Bored

This is what my child does when I don't play with him and he is "bored".

He likes to empty out the dryer and climb in it to play.

And empty out the wipes package to clean his feet. ( Have no idea where he gets this one from).

And this.... asking to play with water in the sink.

and yes, I let him play in the sink.

and then we went to wear ourselves out before dinner.

We also ventured to get me some new black pants. I tried this last weekend but Chuck was strapped in the stroller and yelled and whined the whole time. So, I had to try again today. I decided to take the " I trust you to walk around and not have to ride in the stroller". It did not go much better. Chuck ran around the store and pointed to all the manikins that didn't have shirts on and yelled "uh oh". Then he decided to wave and say hi to all of them while he made sure to point out all of the manikin's toes. In the end, I did get some black pants. I just grabbed a pair off the rack and figured I would just take them back if they didn't work. They did work though. So don't judge me on my style because it is mainly a mad dash to the first rack of clothes inside the door and a mad dash out before Chuck starts knocking anything over. I have many years to come to look pulled together. Now is just not the time.

And last but not least, tomorrow starts the biggest loser competition at school. You know I am one fore competition. In fact, our team lost the most weight when we lived in Hot Springs. I figure I need to lose weight before we move, there is also a cash reward if I win, and of course I need to get my health in check for my baby boy and I always have the fact that I have a strong line of breast cancer in my family so I need to be ready to fight anything! I am going to have to really work at it though. Exercise will not be a tool I can use. The time to exercise is non-existent since Dr. gets home so late when he is working. I will try and do a little Zumba in the den but I only have two hours a night to do everything I need to do ( as in cook, laundry, clean, and school work) so you can imagine exercise comes last on that list. As of tomorrow ( whenever weigh in is) I am going to give up cokes.... you can rest assured that I will guzzle one right before I step on that scale. THe competition is over on May 1st. I am telling you all this so you will hold me accountable.

Night, night....

This morning, Chuck and I went to watch the donuts being made at Krispy Kreme. We really needed something to do by 6:45 so I figured our first donut wouldn't hurt. We walked in and watched the donuts and Chuck immediately signed "eat".




They gave him a free football donut.




The donut was very much enjoyed.







I knew I was going to pay for giving him sugar so we went to the reservoir and watched the ducks, blew bubbles, and ran around.







We then stopped by the store for our Sunday morning grocery trip. It was a different store than we normally go to so the carts were different.




Needless to say we didn't last very long!







My mom says I entertain him too much and I just need to let him be bored and be creative. I have tried that since we got home from the store. It's not going well! Pictures to come later tonight.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Buddies

This afternoon turned out rather well. Besides the little hiccup at naptime, we kept busy. We met my friend Smith and her little boy Greer. Greer is two months younger than Chuck and thought Chuck was hilarious. Chuck would do something and make a sound effect and Greer would just chuckle away. We went to a park that has about 6 soccer fields and then a playground. Chuck started at one end of the soccer fields and walked/ran all the way to the other. He also went to bed an hour late because we played on the playground until 6, so this mama may get to sleep in a few minutes tomorrow!

Here is a pic of the kiddos being goofy.

Animals Galore

It is just plain beautiful here. Chuck usually gets to go outside around 7:30 or 8 everyday so if we haven't left the house at that point, attitudes start flaring ( mine and his). So Chuck and I packed up and went to the zoo today. Does this child look like he wants to go to the zoo?

I think he would rather go to the circus but we went anyway. I was kind of regretting it on the way there because of the face in the picture. I thought "oh no, boy have I got it comin' " We are members but I have never taken him by myself. I know he wants to run some and you can't push a stroller with one hand, it is just so hard. I decided I would brave it and take him with the wagon. I thought if he wants to run, I can easily pull the wagon with one hand or just leave it. I took a bag that goes across the body/shoulders so I could just up and leave the wagon if needed. I have extremem anxiety about taking him places by myself because I know he is going to throw a fit at some point and I feel like people are looking at me like I beat him or something. When really it is the other way around, he beats me.... he is a big hitter.

He sat in the wagon about 50 percent of the time and held my had about 25% of the time and ran the other 25%. It wasn't too bad. He wasn't running away form me like he usually does. His favorite this time were the giraffes and the orangutans. We watched them eat their breakfast. Chuck just kept yelling "hey" to them and them blowing raspberries. I thought for sure they were going to do it back at him. He was really fascinated. That took up a good 15 minutes just watching them eat. We also rode the carousel ( we have to ride on the bench because we cry if we have to sit on an animal... even if the animal is not one that goes up and down). We also rode the train that goes around the big lake there. He was actually very calm and sat in the seat by himself on both rides without trying to climb out.

So our outing was a success.... except for the one instance where he laid in the middle of the walkway and wouldn't get up. Luckily we were the first ones there by a good 30 minutes.

This afternoon when we wake up form our nap we are suppossed to meet our friend Greer at the playground. Greer is two months younger but we haven't even gotten to play with him yet. I think Greer may be a little more subdued than we are. We are going to stop and buy some bubbles on the way since we like to wake up at 2 am and ask if we can blow bubbles.

Chuck watching the giraffes.

Chuck watching the chimpanzees.

We made it!

...without hurting each other. I am not going to say that today was a total success but we only had to sit in time-out once. We made it through our early morning grocery shopping without any hiccups, we did some crafts, went to the playground, and went on a wagon ride. We even took an hour and a half nap ( while mom did school work).

First of all look how high we can jump... I know... so impressive right!

Doped up on Ibuprofen and enjoying the swings.

Decorating a pumpkin with stickers

Making sure the stickers are in the perfect spot.

Apparently this is how we eat grapes now.

Chuck: he is his own person

Stacks of tires..... that's how you entertain an 18 month old at Sams.

This is why mama never gets any rest on the weekends. Chuckaroo always abuses the car rides. We did have a successful grocery trip this morning though! That is not usual.