One, Two, Three

One.

Our firstborn is busy growing and learning.  But he has yet to catch on to pooping on the potty.  We had one victory while at Nonnie and Poppie's last week.  I was hoping that would be the start of a new trend but alas, he appears to have returned to his old habits since we've been home.  I'm not quite sure what the issue is.  I've heard stories of little boys who took years to finally go poopy on the potty but no one seems to have an explanation as to why.  Fear?  Ignorance?  Foolishness?  He knows what's expected of him, and he also knows he'll get a nice reward if he follows through, which is why he tends to walk around the house all day chanting, "Poopy in the potty, pick out a toy" or "Poopy in the potty, get a big treat!" (add sparkly eyes, big smile and head nod).

Oh the repeating stage, where every phrase I utter gets bounced back to me a few times over.  "No pee pee in pants", "No, no play with toilet paper", "Bee-bee no touch."  Unfortunately, we've also entered the first name stage, where Jack now tries to call his dad "Jon."  I have no idea why he suddenly decided to start doing this, nor why he hasn't tried to call me "Janine" yet.  But the funny part is he's clearly trying to mimic me since his version of "Joooon" sounds exactly like mine, he's only missing the head tilt and hands on the hips.

Yook Mama, Nemo!

The good news is, other than the poops, he remains virtually accident free.  The bad news is this means he now wakes up in the middle of naps and nighttime sleep to go "pee pee 'gain."  I suppose there are worse things a toddler can do, but for now we're going to work on cutting back on the pre-sleep water chugging.

Two.
Our second born is oh-so-close to crawling, but he's just not there yet.  My kids are such late bloomers but I don't mind a bit.  I know what it's like to have a crawler and I'm more than willing to put that off a little bit longer.  He has worked out his own quirky mode of tranportation, particularly when a toy is just out of reach, where he'll scooch and slide his bottom all the way across the room just to get to it.  In the meantime, he's got an excellent trainer.  Jack loves to give Jude crawl lessons and can generally be found crawling circles around Jude saying, "Yook bee-bee, c'mon!" 



Our little guy has also turned out to be quite the eater. We're slowly starting to cut back on pureed food and Jude is jumping at the chance to chow down on some big boy grub. We figured he was ready to move on after we noticed his chipmunk cheeks at Chick-Fil-A a few weeks ago. We pried open his mouth and discovered one of Jack's chicken nuggets in there, whole. Turns out an entire chicken nugget is a bit tough for a little guy with only two half-toothes to manage, but we got the hint and starting letting him sample our food.

In fact, he's been outperforming his brother at the dinner table lately. Last week it was crab cakes, seasoned sweet potatoes and peas and carrots. The next night it was chicken, veggies and rice. Then he tackled a pot roast. While Jon and I are busy trying to bribe Jack with a piece of fruit just so he'll take a bit of carrot, Jude is content to spend at least an hour shoveling his hand to his mouth.

Well, and occasionally brushing that same hand through his hair.

Who needs hair gel when pot roast juice works just as good?

Jude went to bed soon after dinner. I tried to clean up his hair as best as I could, but apparently it didn't work out so well. It only took one whiff of Jude's hair the next morning to kick start my morning sickness.

Three.
Speaking of morning sickness let's not leave out our youngest offspring, who is already making its presence known.  Nausea is in full force, all day ... and all night.  I was sick with both my other boys but this is the first time I've actually woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick.  They say you should eat something as soon as you get out of bed, or even before.  But it's a tough when you have two little ones demanding your attention, and breakfast, before you've had a chance to rub your eyes.  Today was the second time I've actually thrown up, and let me tell you, the only thing worse than vomiting in the toilet is vomiting in the toilet your 2 year old boy has been learning to go pee-pee in.  Ew.

I'm still nursing Jude, I did some research and checked with a few others and from what I can tell it's okay for now.  We're working on cutting back to just two feedings and serving up goat's milk for the rest of the day even though I'm sure Jude would be more than happy to continue.  But honestly, and I won't be surprised if the Le Leche League SWAT team starts banging my door soon, I'm ready to be done.  I'm so nauseaus and exhausted right now and the plain truth is I'll get to start it all over again in about 7 months.  So sorry Jude, but Mommy is reading to move on.

Actually, what I'm really ready to do is lay on the couch all day, watching movies, with my ginger ale and saltines close by and an opportunity to nap at will.  But such is not the life of a mommy of one and two and #3 on the way.