Practical Parenting

The economic crisis is real and it is hitting home. Instead of worrying about it, I have decided to just teach my child some practical skills. We are starting out with the "how to sleep on a park bench and stay warm" skill. Please note that he is covered in the Christian Science Monitor...so...it will have to be an upscale park bench.

A boy and his cat

So, I am posting this very, very long video because I am so

full of joy over the amount of empathy my son has. The dialogue

pretty much goes like this:

Sadie : Meow (can I go into the garage?)

Jonas: are you hungry?

Sadie: Meow (of course but..can I go into the garage?)

Jonas: What's wrong?

Sadie: Meow (seriously, can I go into the GARAGE?)

Jonas: Ahhhh

Sadie: Meow (look dude...I just wanna go in the garage!)

Jonas: You're OK

This continues until he remembers that he doesn't really

love cats, he loves Thomas the Tank Engine.

Communication Explosion

So, my boy...he is not just talking, he is communicating. He is also singing a lot. He sings in the car all the way to school. He sings on the potty, he sings while he plays. Its so cool when we can recognize a song. I'll try to get some video of him singing for you.

Tonight, I was filling the tub preparing for his bath; he was in the playroom. I yelled, "Come on Jonas, time for your bath." He responded, "Just a minute mommy." I SWEAR... I almost fell in the tub laughing. I managed to gather enough breath to say, "What are you doin'?". He pops his head around the corner... "I'm fishin'."


This video was taken a month or so ago while we were watching the Spiderwick Chronicles. Jonas was instructing something to "go away". I don't remember what.

Random Shots, your welcome

Yeah, I'm ridin' in the kitchen

MY NEW BIKE RULES!

Uhmmm...yeah, I totally think Obama should be president.

The elusive mommy shot

Holding on tight at the river

I know, more pictures please

Hey, I know! I'll post some yummy new pictures this weekend...geesh, keep your pants on!

Oh, Hai

Last night at 1:45am I heard.... "click" the sound of the baby gate. G asked if I heard it, I told him I would go make sure one of the dogs hadn't gotten past the gate and into Jonas's room. I climb out of bed, pass through the living room and I am greeted with, "Oh"... "Hi Mommy". My child climbed out of his crib, left his room and made his way past the gate. I yell to G, "we have bigger problems than dogs in the boy's room!" I swooped Jonas up and went back into his room. He had thrown his blanket and pillow on the ground. I can only imagine he had the foresight to use it as a landing pad. G made his way into the room. I swear he almost looked proud. He said, "show me how you did that". So I put Jonas back in the crib and he proceeded to lift his leg onto the top rail and hoist himself up. HMPFH. I seriously thought I had another year of this crib thing.

Luckily we have a pack n play set up in our bedroom for hasty storage of a toddler. We got him to fall asleep pretty quickly.

So, today I purchased a toddler bed and another baby gate. I have no idea how he is going to react to this bed. I am going to super duper toddler proof the room. I'll let you know how it goes.

Can you home school for college?

Sleep is upon us. The boy has re-integrated into his old happy "nite nite mommy" mode of retiring for the evening. This is a beautiful thing, in ways I know I will never be able to articulate here.

This child, this beautiful boy child of mine, is awakening into this VERY present, charming, free spirit of a person. There are these moments when Jonas does or says something and G and I look at each other and just shake our heads in wonder. I swear it is other worldly when he does these things..chimes go off and the picture gets all fuzzy like there is a weird filter on the lens of my life. (the following examples may seem trivial to many and glorious to few)

• Sitting at the dinner table, by dinner I mean mcnug's (thanks Jaden) as a snack before going to inflate world G tosses his cup into the trashcan and Jonas says ( I swear to Buddha), "Good throw dawdy!" (Dawdy is the new daddy for those not paying attention.

• Jonas spotted the letter "P" yesterday. G asked, "what letter is this?" Jonas replied, "P". "P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Syndey". UH..What? OH! Yeah, we have watched Finding Nemo one or forty-two billion times, but still!

Ok, so both examples include either terrible nutrition or terrible parenting in the form of watching Disney movies... too bad.

Last night, while watching the Olympics, one of those (you know the kind) commercials came on television. This one showed the mom helping the daughter decorate her dorm room at college...and the mom had to leave the child at the school and go back home. (You mean they don't have the adjoining suite for the mother...uh... huh? Oh na'uh I will SO be living on campus with him.) I looked at G , shook my head and said OH MY.... he wouldn't even let me finish. He said, "we will not speak of this for this is not something we shall speak of." shew. Ok, good. Denial is my favorite form of dealing with the potential/inevitable growing up and growing away from me (that is totally my job to prepare him for and the entire goal of parenthood) that my child will do. UGH

Ok. I have pictures of all sorts of fun things. I'll get to it this week.

Thanks for tuning in.