How many?

Daddy: How many Xanders are there?
Xander: One
Daddy: How many dogs are there?
Xander: Two
Daddy: How many people are there?
Xander: Two
Daddy: No, there are three people.
Xander: No, no, no. Two.
Daddy: Mommy, Daddy, and Xander. Xander is a "people", too.
Xander: No, no, no, not a person, not a person

I didn't think being embarrassed to be part of the human race happened without a few years of liberal arts school under your belt.

The Butter Battle Book

Did you know Dr. Seuss wrote about politics? I did not. Xander quite enjoyed his first political book The Butter Battle Book. According to wikipedia, the book was even censored during the cold war. How exciting!

It was a little creepy when Xander opened up the book, brought it over to daddy, and pointed out "the bomb." Fortunately, in the end of the book, no one drops "the bomb", but the two warring parties both stand threatening to drop their bombs while their people hide in fear in the ground. Yes, this really is a kids book. Yes, it's from Dr. Seuss with rhyming and art style.

I rank this Butter Battle 2nd to "Green Eggs and Ham" of the Seuss books we've read. The "Cat in the Hat" is just plain annoying, and "Fox in socks" is just torture to read aloud.

Potty training update

Xander is progressing on the potty training. He goes most of the time when he is asked to sit on the potty.

Some of the not so great things. He especially loves to read books while sitting on the potty. While this is great to get him to sit there, he loves books so much that we could really just spend all day with him on the potty. Sitting on the cold tile floor reading books not so much fun. It's sometimes hard to get him off the potty. Then, when he does finally decide to get up, he always seems to want to give me a big hug BEFORE washing his hands. Yucks.

I Want Candy

A conversation from the car today:

Xander whispers very quietly: Can I have some candy, mommy?
Me: What do you want? I didn't hear you.
Xander whispers: I want candy.
Me: No, we don't have any candy.
Xander yells: I WANT CANDY.
Me: No, you don't need candy before dinner. Candy is a once-in-a-while food.
Xander yells: I WANT CANDY. I WANT CANDY. I WANT CANDY.
Me: I know you want candy. I do too, but you can't have any candy.
Xander yells: I WANT CANDY. I WANT CANDY. I WANT CANDY.
Me: No, you can't have any candy because MOMMY SAYS SO.
Xander: [Silence]

How long do you think that "Mommy says so" thing will work?

Dessert vegatables

Yum, is there really a better way to eat your veggies than as part of a dessert? I found this squash recipe on Allrecipes.com. It was so YUM! Xander ate a whole serving, which is pretty good for something that was "new" and a "vegetable".

I think we're done

I didn't really notice it. I mean it's hard to notice something that you are not paying attention to or putting effort into. Xander is really done with nursing though. He still affectionately pats my chest, but he just doesn't ask for it. The process happened over a very long period of time, gradually reducing the number of times per day and the duration, too.

I wish I had paid more attention because then I could have written something useful for other parents in the blog. I guess the only useful things I can say is that it didn't take any conscious effort on my part AND Xander doesn't, thus far, appeared to be scared for life as far as I can tell.

The other thing I remember about this process is how many people seem to have an opinion about how long you should nurse and feel the need to share it. After a while of hearing criticisms, it really made me afraid to talk about it with anyone. Maybe that is why I didn't write down more in this blog.

Progress

I made a dent in preparing a bedroom for kid number #2 this weekend. I moved most of the non-baby related stuff out of the room. Then, moved more baby stuff out of Xander's room into the new baby room. Now, the baby room just looks like a pile of mess, but it's progress.

The best part of all this moving things around is that Xander's room is much cleaner. I organized his closet and everything in it is just for him. He's still got a lot of stuff in the living room since we spend so much time there.

The biggest thing we did to the new kid's room is move the bed out of it and into our office/den. The office is not exactly guest ready though. It's has glass doors so there is no privacy. I'm so addicted to Decorative Films that, of course, I'm going to pus some up on the glass doors. Any suggestions on which film would work best divided pane glass doors?

We've also considered installing a murphy bed system in the den. I haven't found anything that I like yet, but I have only been internet browsing.

The next biggest task is to find a new place for the non-baby stuff that is currently in the baby room closet. It's a bunch of Dolphin hobby project stuff that needs a new home. I'm not sure what that home is, but it can't stay in the closet.

Hoarders

Yesterday, Xander wasn't on his best behavior. He dumped out all of his huge collection of plastic food on the kitchen floor and absolutely refused to pick it up. In the end, it took me about 30 minutes to get him to pick it up. I had to take away other toys and keep pulling him back into the kitchen. Was it worth it? It would have taken me less time to pick them up myself.

Shortly after that, Dolphin put on a TV show called "Hoarders". I had not seen this show before but it is stories about people's whose homes are completely fully of stuff. I was just amazed though how the mother in the these stories was completely to blame for the state of the house. In both of the stories, there were older, school age and even teen age kids. I'm sorry, but it is the whole family's responsibility to keep the house from becoming a garbage dump. Yes, parents need to set good examples. However, the kids were perfectly inclined to complain about how dirty things were and yet, do nothing about it. If you aren't going to help, don't complain!

So, I can tell you...my house is never going to be a hoarders house. I might not have a clean house. No child of mine better ever complain about the statue of the house unless they are actively cleaning.

Need more owies

Yesterday, Xander was SO distraught when he noticed that his two scraped knees were healing. He asserted that he needed more owies. We tried to tell him that he would probably get more owies at school or playing. In the end, we were at least able to calm him down with some new Curious George bandages.

Something new

What is my little explorer's favorite thing to do these days? He likes to search through bags, containers, purses, etc. for "something new". If he finds something that he has never seen before, he is so thrilled to have found "something new". Sometimes he asks "what is it" and sometimes "how works" if it looks mechanical or electronic.

Today, he found my camera cleaning kit. Among the various little "somethings new" inside the kit, is a little lipstick brush. It twists like a tube of lipstick and a little brush comes out. When he found this, Xander proceeded to tell me and show me that he could use this little brush to put "blue on eyes" as he jabbed the brush in his eye. We have a strong suspicion of which teacher taught him about makeup as she is quite facially artistic. He definitely didn't get it from me. I haven't worn eye shadow since many years before Xander was born.

Butterfly House @ Faust Park

Over the Labor Day weekend, we visited several friends in St. Louis, Missouri. While we were there, we also had some time for some touristy stuff. Unfortunately, I only remembered to bring my camera to one of those places, the Butterfly House. About 10 years ago, I used to live just a few miles from this Butterfly House. It's a cute little place for a half-day trip. It has an excellent playscape, the butterfly house, and a carousel.

One of the beautiful butterflies:


Xander climbing with Pooh bear on a butterfly bench:


Xander and Dolphin riding the carousel:

Vent

So, now that the news is out about Xander's sibling on the way, I can finally vent in my blog! If you don't want to hear venting, you might not want to read the rest of this.

My sweet little Xander boy was so kind to me during pregnancy. I had no morning sickness, food aversions. I was tired, but had nothing better to do than lay around back then. Everything about being pregnant and becoming a parent was new and exciting. The excitement in planning for a coming baby kept me in smiles in even the toughest times.

This pregnancy has been quite different. First, I am tired again, but I have a 2 year old to take care off who has endless energy. I feel so bad that I could not keep up with him. We've spent entirely too much time watching TV, reading books, and doing things that involved sitting on our butts. Second, I have had terrible morning sickness for about a month, or should I say all day sickness. I have thrown up a few times though usually it is just miserable nausea. I've had all sorts of food aversions. I've also had a lot of headaches, and have been extremely emotional. Headaches and emotional issues are so bad that they are literally interfering with my ability to do my job.

So, I'm REALLY looking forward to the 2nd trimester. Just this past week, I feel that I'm on the verge of change. I was actually able to have energy to clean the kitchen thoroughly, which I haven't been able to do in over a month. I started to like some of my favorite foods again like Pei Wei Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls. I think I'm gradually starting to have some of that chill-hormone effect kicking in so I can deal with stress a lot better.