Battles

 First, our house is run completely by a two year old.  He wears the pants in this family and we just do what he says.  Most battles are better off not fought.  If he wants pasta for breakfast, he gets pasta for breakfast.  If he wants Cheerios for dinner, he gets Cheerios for dinner.

As I have said, the child hates water.  As my stomach is growing, I am having to let a lot of things go.  I can no longer force him to take a bath or hold him down in the bathtub while I bathe him real quick.  The only way I can get the child clean is to let him bathe in the sink.  He wants to take a bath in the sink, he takes a bath in the sink.  This is another battle I will not fight.  The purpose of the bath is to clean him so he won't stink and wash his hair so his scalp problem won't come back.  All this is accomplished in the sink.  I don't have to hang the growing baby over the side of the tub, so it all works out.  There are no tears.  Before, bath time sounded like war in our house.  Chuck better be glad that mama is starting to lose some steam.

Last weekend, we made a day trip to Dallas since Dr. won't have a weekend off for at least 5 weeks.  We met two of my friends from college there.  Chuck really enjoyed the penguins and was interested in seeing the turtles.  The flamingos were a favorite too.  Tara snapped this picture of Chuck.  This is Chuck's typical pout.  He inherited this from his father.

As you can see, Chuck can't see in the picture above.  The child has refused a haircut for the last 6 months, if not longer.  He tells me "No cutty hair" whenever he sees the scissors.  Again, a battle I have given up on.  I tried so many times, I figured I would just drop it.  The other night I picked up scissors and cut a piece of his hair when he wasn't looking.  He asked what I was doing and I told him there were just a few pieces of hair I needed to cut and he said "OK".  I took the opportunity and chopped it. I had no idea what I was doing.  I just knew the poor kid needed to be able to see!

Chuck is really enjoying school.  We have almost gotten the crying in the morning under control.  The other morning, we left the house a little bit early but I jumped at the opportunity because he said he was ready to go to school.  I just drove around the neighborhood wasting a few minutes.  Chuck realized it was taking longer than usual to get to school (we live about two blocks from school) and he started yelling "I'm coming Mrs. Sam.  Here I come.  I'm coming".  What a character!

Some of the things that Chuck is saying just make us laugh.  Dr. has been really adamant lately that Chuck say "please".  Chuck has pretty much gotten it down.  Occasionally, he will ask for something and forget to say it and I will remind him he needs to say the magic word.  Chuck will respond "Milk, magic word."  Then I have to remind him what the magic word is.  On other accounts,  the child will be  upset and angry with you but there will always be a please at the end.  He will have pretty much just cussed you out but at the very end, he will add a "please" and it kind of just makes everything he just did ok!  I laugh because it is almost like he is giving Dr. a little taste of his own medicine since he is pushing the "please" so hard! When asked if he wants a glass of milk..... "no, please".  Also, just in the last day or so when I have asked him if he wanted juice or if he was hungry, his response was "No, I'm good."  What!  He totally copied that from his father but he really was good.  He didn't want a thing!

On another note, we had a landscaper come and look at the yard this week.  The front of our yard is bearable but could use some changes ( to meet our preferences).  After asking them to tear off the deck in the back when we bought the house, there is now a huge place of just dirt and a huge concrete patio.  We will be getting his plans this week but will be getting some of the patio taken up and replaced with grass so that Chuck and Dr. will have more room to throw the ball, etc.  We will also be fancying up the concrete by covering it with some type of flagstone and adding a wall.  I know Chuck will miss the mud and puddles but hopefully we will have a patio and grass by the time the weather starts cooling.  Trees, shrubs, and flowerbeds may wait until the spring.  I hope our little resident bunny will adapt to the changes.  I have a feeling he is long gone now that the cats are permanently outside ( except for those daily instances when they bribe Chuck to let them in so they can sleep in the AC for a few hours.)

Chuck refused a nap today so I have high hopes of sleeping in tomorrow.  Dr. has been on nights the last three nights so we are looking forward to playing some tomorrow.  He works again on Tuesday and then works a 5 NIGHT streak starting Thursday.  I put "night" in all caps because those are the most painful for me.  You would think that him working while we were sleeping would be great.  But not so much.  Nights means that he is sleeping during the day, which means not only is dad not there to play after school but we also have to be quiet during the day while he snoozes.  So WEEKEND NIGHTS are just plan yucky.  I would love for him to work nights during the week any day.  He would have a quiet house to sleep in!

Well, I am going to count sheep.  I probably won't even make it to the first sheep.  Remember, August 8th is the big day!  Any guesses on the sex of this baby?  We heard the heartbeat again this past week and everything was normal on the quad test ( some kind of protein or chromosomal test, or whatever).

Until next time.... ( and who really knows when that will be!)