The Santa's Village

We went to Santa's Village for my father in law's birthday. To celebrate his upcoming anniversary of his birth, he wanted the whole Brady Bunch there to be with him. All five grandchildren. It would have been great for him to say  "Hey, I would like all kids to myself on this day. You guys go out and relax!" 

Not this year...maybe next? However I did get a chance to go on the Tilt a whirl this time around. Last time we were here I was pregnant, and therefore the only ride that I had was walking around the horse corral with Jack as he rode a horse. I love that Jack asks to go on the Tilt a Whirl over and over again. I screamed more than he did. Maybe that is because he is braver than I am.

Look at this pic. The three eldest grandchildren. I love that my son is the leader of this pack. 

From left to right; my niece, myself and Jack, waving Hi to our shadows. I love that you can see the excitement in the waving in shadow form. I also love the detail of the shadow captured in my niece's pigtails.

My youngest's first pony ride. Look at that face. Happy and not at all scared. 

The Movie Day

We are always truly thankful to my sister, who is always there when we need her for a few hours or so. For babysitting, for a talk or anything. This time around, she came in and took care of Charlie while Brian , Jack and myself had the rare moment of seeing a movie together. We saw Monsters University, to which Jack loved. As a huge Pixar fan, he would ask months before of when the movie was coming out. As huge Pixar fans, my husband and I gave him a countdown. Three more months! Two more months! Two more weeks til Monsters U!!!! 

After the movie, we got some lunch and hung out at a pretty sweet park by Chicago River. It was nice to just run around with an older kid and not worry if my little chubby bubs that is my 19th month old was going to tumble down the slide or fall over as he walks up the stairs. Yes, these are my worries when I take Charlie to the park. He is in that "I bump my head, gash my lip, have a scratch by my eye" phase. I hate that phase. 

Luckily Jack , you are not in that phase anymore. It was nice just to be the three of us. And it is also nice to know that there is a family member that will come in and be a babysitter every once in awhile,and not because we ask her. But because she wants to. I am lucky indeed.

The Bad Dreams

Jack and I had a very intense night last night. He woke me up around 2 am letting me know that he had a bad dream. On instinct and like a robot, I led him back to his room and went to sleep in the extra bed in his room.  All the while doing this while my eyes half open. Usually this works and he goes right back to sleep.  This time, he stayed awake.  I could tell from his breathing that he was just laying there with eyes wide open.  A mom can tell when her kids eyes are open.  Trust me. 

The whole night was full of interruptions. He would wake up every 10 minutes.  Telling me that he had a dream.  He had a good dream.  He had a bad dream.  It went on and on.  I kept telling him that he can't tell me his dreams any more since it is so early in the morning.  I kept telling him that he needed to sleep and that he needed to stop thinking of whatever was making him feel bad. By the 4th time I told him this,  he  finally started to fall asleep. Now I started to hear his heavy breathing. 
But now I couldn't sleep.  By this point we were doing this whole song and dance for almost two hours and I was just laying there.
My mind was distracting me. It was telling me that I had to go to the bathroom.  I never go in the middle of the night but tonight of all nights I needed to get out of bed.  I kept listening to the sounds outside.  A freight train was rolling non-stop. I think we are about a mile away from the tracks.  But I heard the train as if it was outside right underneath my windows. I kept hearing creaks outside. At this point I was cursing the suburbs.  And all of its creepy noises at night.

He finally went to sleep around 5 am. That was only because I told him that he could sleep in my room with my husband. It was there where he felt safe. I think that was why he finally drifted. That or that he has been awake for three hours in the middle of the night. 

I am not sure what to do now with this new phase in my child's life. Do I let him sleep with us? That will only create a bad habit of which I do not want to encourage. 

I remember when I was little , I would cry out for my parents because I had a bad dream. Sometimes I dreamt of them dying and that I was all alone. I remember crying in my bed and my dad or mom would say "It was just a dream" . They would stay with me until I fell asleep. I remember them leaving the room, but I was so sleepy I was never able to protest for them to stay. My son, however is a fighter. Picking up all my traits of wanting a parent by his side in the middle of the night, and not wanting to let them go as he would go to sleep.                      

The Playground Bully

So what do you do when you are at the playground, you see your kid trying to interact with some kid on the playground, and then said kid goes off to tell other kids that your kid is weird? Yet, your kid hasn't heard this conversation so for all he knows, all is right in the world.

I took my son to the park on Saturday morning and he sees this kid and immediately runs over to him. Hey let me see your shirt!! my son said excitedly. I am not sure what my son's response was to the shirt but he looked and then just ran away at that point. I think the kid was wearing a typical Angry birds shirt. One of the many dozen angry birds shirt that my son doesn't have.
The kid then goes over to his buddies and says " Keep that kid away from me. He will ask to look at your shirt and then he will tell you that he doesn't like it. He's weird."

That last part stung me. My mind told me to back off, this is not the first time that Jack will encounter little snots like this kid on the park, and it will not be the last. My heart however wanted to march right over to the kid, tell him that I am that "weird kid's " mom and tell him he has the worst manners on the planet. I am sure if I did that, then I would become the "weird mom on the park who can't take kids being kids and will hunt your kids down if they say something bad to her kid." Bring it suburban moms. I grew up in the city. That alone should make you back off.

alright, easy there.

My heart broke knowing that this can happen to Jack, but maybe only next time someone might say it to his face. My Jack at this point in life doesn't really care if kids don't want to play with him sometimes, but he will understand someday. I couldn't enjoy myself that morning. I was feeling so sad for my son, and tried at best to keep him away from the park instigator. As we walked home, I did have a conversation with Jack on how to introduce yourself to new people, always say hi first, followed by a "do you want to play?" Maybe saying let me see your shirt is a good intro too, but never tell the kid that you don't like it. Although my kid is a huge angry birds fan, so why would he tell the kid he didn't like it? Park instigator has bad manners and is a liar!!!!

As I told this story to my husband later on, he laughed about it. Which made me feel a little better and also made me realize that I was boiling so much for an incident that Jack never knew took place. It wasn't even an incident, just something one kid said, only once.

I am not sure what to do if this happens again, do I just sit back, watch kids being kids and have my son learn to stand up for himself should such words are thrown at him? Or do I walk over, and tell the kid that has the worst manners in all history and that he should go to charm school?

The Attempt Of The Nice Photo

I thought- what a good chance to have a nice photo with me and my boys.  Then Jack puts this face.  Truly he has his father's sense of humor.

The Star Wars Day

With Brian being sick last weekend, I took the boys on a Metra adventure over to the Joliet library, where it was Star Wars Day.

 Jack has been asking when this day was going to come since he found out about it at the Comic Con convention. Here we were, June 1, it was a sunny and not so humid day.

A lot of favorite moments in this day. I like on the first photo that the evil Emperor was holding Jack's hand in the photo. I didn't notice that til we saw the photos later on that night. To which at first I said, oh that is really cute that they are holding hands. Then I quickly said " They are holding hands? That's creepy. And why would the emperor think that my child would like to join the Dark side? He just wanted to say hi to you, not join your evil team. Stay away emperor.

The fest started with a parade of Stormtroopers. Much thanks to the 501st Legion - they were the ones that put on this show. My sons appreciate you guys going all out and being in costumes 24/7. Although they did give a second glance and were really confused when you guys would take off your helmet. It was like reality sunk in and you are not who you say you are!! 

Pure, pure joy from this kid. This is why I will go to as many Star Wars day as possible. Just to see this face light up.

At one point, we were trapped by Stormtroopers. I just wanted to get out at that point. My son was in Clone/Stormtrooper heaven. At one point, he was asking all the characters if they had lunch yet and if they wanted to join us for lunch. Isn't he the best kid ever?

My littlest was a superstar, and would fist bump Darth Vader and Chewbacca. No fear.

The Beginning Of Summer

Here we are, in the beginnings of what I hope to be a not so hot summer. Jack's preschool graduation went splendid. Of course , I cried. I cried when the teachers told us that they have changed so much since the first day of school. They had such little baby faces back then, and now they are graduating with what I can only say as fully matured kindergarteners. Jack has changed so much too. His face is so grown up now and with the Star Wars phenomena, every day he shows us how much he has grown. He had made it clear of how grownup he is when he said "I liked Thomas the Train when I was little, now I like Star Wars because I am a big kid." No truer words have been spoken.

Speaking of big kids, here is kid #2. Still wanting to be with Mama all the time, but now with a lot more new words. His favorite to say is "outside". Even on a chilly morning at 6:15am, he will just say "outside? outside?" He doesn't nurse anymore, except for those lazy Saturday mornings when I want him to sleep just a bit more. Come on Charlie, I wake up every day at 5am. Can you at least wake up at 7:30 or 7 at least to give me some more shut eye? Maybe next month??? Or even next week? I would like that.