Happy Holidays

Chris gets home from WI on Tuesday. He is bringing his dad with him for an extended visit. We have a large list of chores for him to complete. He is aware that he will be singing for his supper.

For those of you who are close family (read: you are as into our kid as we are) be expecting your 2007 Alex movie to arrive in the next week or two. We are waiting for our Christmas cards to arrive because I am too cheap to mail them separately. It's approximately 20 minutes of Alex fun. Lots of naked dancing clips put to great music. I am pleased to note that in his 2nd year of life, I've managed to wear something other than my pajamas for some of the clips and photographs.

Enjoy your holidays. Eat lots of food and spend lots of time on the couch.

Miscellaneous

The boo-boo/boobie confusion has been resolved. It fell out of his head as quietly and quickly as it fell into it.

Last night, after being told there were no more grapes, Alex's usual temper tantrum "HAVE THEM!" response was replaced with......"Oh phooey".

His favorite CD is the personalized one from Henry O. that has his name sung every other verse (or so it seems). Both Chris and I are somewhat mystified at how this is accomplished.

There have been many pee pees on the potty. Some times there have been false alarms. And for those keeping score, still no poo poos.....and get a life.

I found a white coffee maker!!! Unfortunately it came in the mail today and it is VERY small. Like the size to fit in a kid-sized kitchen. I am a little bit worried that will not be good enough for Alex, who has Starbucks taste in appliances. Am trying to figure out a way we can actually buy him the one at Starbucks without anyone outside our nuclear family finding out about it. But that is nearly impossible now that most people can understand what he says. And he WILL rat us out. He rats out the dog on a near-daily basis.

I taught Alex how to say "ferme la bouche" last night, which is French for "shut your mouth". Sounds kind of harsh. I think that is the literal translation though....I think it really just means "be quiet". My french teacher would shout that at us all the time, so it can't be that bad, right? Plus, the word "bouche" cracks him up. As do the words "coat", "Bob", "gong".......

"Zooboomafoo" is still his #1 favorite TV show (and mine). He will watch 2-3 episodes back-to-back if we let him. We are trying not to feel too guilty about how often we "let" him.

His favorite book (and I mean FAVORITE BOOK) is the one Grandpa Jim bought for him called "Yummy Yucky". He LOVES to pretend to be REALLY disgusted when we say "YUCKY!!!" and he pretends to spit yucky things out of his mouth and dances around in circles. He loves loves loves it. But we can't read it at bedtime anymore. Ever. Because he will cry cry cry until I go in there, then brighten up the minute I pick him up and say "Read more silly book?" The earwax page is his favorite. He has firsthand knowledge of just how yucky that stuff really is.

Bump on the Head?

There is some recent confusion between "boo boo" and "boobie". Lately he has been pointing to the scab on his knee and saying "boobie". Despite our efforts to clarify the difference between the two, he remains certain of his own definitions.

Santa Claus

Alex has been asking for a white coffee maker. He is very specific. He wants it white like our cupboard door. And not just any cupboard door in our kitchen - specifically the one next to the sink. THAT cupboard door. Everyday he asks for it, every day I get specific instructions about how it needs to be white. Alex's coffee maker needs to be WHITE. I get it. I've looked online for toy coffee makers. They don't come in white. They come in primary colors, pastel colors, and even just red. But not white. I know if I bought him one of those, he would not like it.....because it's not white, and because the colors so clearly mean it's a toy.....and as much as we pretend not to get it, we all know if it's not a REAL coffee maker, it's not of interest to him.

My mom thinks he might be coveting the white one he sees at Starbucks every day. And yes, I considered buying it for him for about 30 seconds. Then the insanity passed and I went on to Plan B. Which was to tell him about Santa Claus and how he brings toys to boys and girls all over the world at Christmas time and that if we go see him and sit on his lap and ask for what we want, he will bring it to us on Christmas. This is what Alex said to that: "No Santa's lap. Sit on MOMMY'S lap. Alex wants a white coffee maker." Oh well. My mom thinks he'll forget in time. I'm not so sure. She's not there every morning when he wakes up asking for his white coffee maker, and not there when he goes to sleep talking about it and how Mommy is going to buy it at the store. I had hoped Santa would buy me a little more time. But so far that route doesn't seem to be working out too well.

2 Years Old!

Alex had his 2nd birthday party last weekend with many friends and family attending. We had Andy the entertainment guy come and do puppets, balloons and dancing with the kids. They had a blast. And, as if a switch was flipped, Alex is now a TWO YEAR OLD. He insists on doing things HIS way. He prefers to do the opposite of whatever we want him to do. If we need him to move quickly, he slows down. If we want him to eat at the table, he insists on eating in his high chair. It is his attempt to control his little world (and his mommy and daddy) and for the most part, it's working. Our strategy: if it's not a danger to himself or anyone else, let him have his way as much as possible. We are aware that any power struggles we engage in with him we will lose. It's his world and we're just living in it.

Two steps forward, two steps back.

Alex is beginning to use the potty. He went yesterday morning after telling me he had to go, sat on it while we read 3 books, and then peed. We were VERY excited and we could tell he felt pretty great about it. He spent most of the day yesterday without pants on, but didn't go again. This morning we did the same thing - spent lots of time without pants on and sat on the potty and read about 5 books. After the 5th book he decided he was done and asked for a diaper. I put one on him and suddenly he grabbed himself and said "dump dump dump". I took it off, noticed he had JUST peed, and he had been holding it in until I put the diaper on him. He did not understand why he couldn't dump his pee in the toilet like we sometimes do with his poop.

So he has the control.....just not the desire. Let the good times roll.......

Backseat Driver

Sitting at a red light the other day, waiting in a long line of cars to be able to go through the intersection, I hear from the backseat, "GO lady."

Pooking and DiaRAHda

We had a rough end of last week and weekend. Alex started last week off with a pretty strong case of DiaRAHda (his way of saying diarrhea). He was in a great mood, though a little more touchy than usual, between diaper changes. The best part was that he was actually an active and willing participant in the diaper change. Usually when he's got a mess in his pants he will deny it so he can keep playing. But with DiaRAHda, he would alert you immediately ("DiaRAHda! DiaRAHda!"), toddle off to the bathroom door and wait to get "hosed off" in the bathtub. Good times. Sadly, by Thursday, the "pooking" began, and I spent Thursday and Friday cleaning "pook" off of our bed, the carpet, 4 of my shirts, 5 of his, both pairs of my flannel pajama bottoms, the rug and floor in the living room.......it was not fun.

We are learning though that Alex, even when sick with the stomach flu, is a pretty easy-going kid. Between expulsions, he was mostly happy, willing, and cooperative. The hardest part was the quarentine.....not being able to go out to breakfast, to the play gym or the park, or to have our playdate with friends Dana and her triplets in town visiting from Chicago. Having to travel with triplets by air.....it was understandable why they were not interested in being within a 5 mile radius of us.

I think both Chris and I are relieved to be back at work this morning....and of course, Alex is fully recovered in time for another week with Grandma and Grandpa. We're trying not to feel short-changed. It wasn't much of a relaxing weekend for us. But then....when is it ever???

My Men and the Moon

Alex made friends with the moon last night. He had never really noticed it before, but walking home from dinner, sitting in his car being pushed by Chris he stared at the sky and would point and say "There it is!" every time it appeared from behind the trees. Chris's dad has a similar story about Chris when he was a little boy driving to the farm in Black River Falls. It was night time, the boys were in the back seat of the car, and Chris leaned forward and whispered in his dad's ear, "Dad, I think the moon is following us." It's fun to see ourselves appear in him. I'm just waiting for his first easter egg hunt to get a glimpse of myself. Let's give the boy a spoon and a hard boiled egg and see what happens.

A Man of Details

One thing we have learned about Alex is his attention to detail and focus when working. One activity he likes to do is pick flowers off the ground and return them to the plant. He has not yet figured out which flowers go with what plant, but he's big into putting things away. He did NOT get this trait from me. Chris might say he got it from him, but I really think he got it from his Grandpa Gordy. That is a tight ship he runs out there in Green Bay.

Chris comes home today. Alex is very excited, and I am too. He wanted to take Dad's car to work today and when I told him we had to leave it at home because Daddy was coming home and would need it, I thought we might have a meltdown when we drove away. Luckily promises of helping Mommy buy her coffee and eating an apple with Grandma helped him forget for a little while. The whole way over, he repeated "First, Mommy's coffee."

A man who has his priorities straight!

PS - thanks to Grandpa for this great photo!!!!

Bye Bye Daddy

Chris leaves tonight to go home to WI to see his mom who is not doing very well these days. I'm glad he's going, since I think her time is limited. Alex and I can fend for ourselves for a week. I started school today, and Amma and Papa are back on duty full time - whoo hoo! I am enjoying picking Alex up at the end of the day and hearing about all the fun things they did together. We are very lucky.

Alex spent almost 2 hours last night playing with his new blender and cooking us beans to eat. He was so into his project he would have skipped dinner if Chris and I hadn't convinced him his blender would be there after we all ate some dinner. He ate about 4 edamame beans and about 3 noodles before telling us he was all done and needed to get back to work cooking his beans. I'm trying not to worry about his caloric intake and its direct relationship with the total number of night time minutes of sleep I get........

Culiex Live

Well, we've "movie-starred" our names from Chris, Julie and Alex into CULIEX. Apparently it is the new, hip thing to do. And we are nothing if not new and hip.

We had a great summer filled with swimming lessons, gym classes, trips to the park, and lots and lots of time in the backyard playing at our water table and in the baby pool. Alex's obsession with all things electronic continues. We're thinking of enrolling him early in ITT Tech if this affinity continues.

We had a great trip to Wisconsin, where Alex went to his first county fair. We spent a lot of time playing with Grandpa Gordy and Grandma Judy, and listening to Aunt Sarah play the violin. Alex also met his cousins Kaleb and Kennedy for the first time. He enjoyed playing in their police car more than he enjoyed playing with them......so much that we bought him one when we got home. He spends a lot of time servicing it in our family room - with both juice and gasoline.

Chris has been busy working - his move to Keller Williams has really been a good one for him. It's a very motivating company filled with lots of opportunities to grow. He is currently the director of agent education, as well as mentor to a few new agents, in addition to being a full-time agent working 7 days a week. He still enjoys spending Fridays with Alex and is now the master of the sippy cup - getting Alex to drink both juice and milk from it no problem... which is something Julie has not been able to accomplish as of yet.

Julie goes back to work tomorrow for her last year as a mentor teacher. After that....??? Maybe go back into the classroom, maybe pursue other opportunities outside SMMUSD, maybe stay home full time......we'll see what opportunities come our way.

More to come from CULIEX......