The First Day at Work

April 28 was take your kids to work day. I was elated to take mine to my work, if only for a couple of hours. From 3 - 5 to be exact.

He was the perfect little gentleman. He sat on my desk, listened to his Pixar music on my MP3, and just watched as I typed away. People came in and would say hi to him. He would say Hi right back, with that cute little three year old wave that he has.
He ate snacks - raisins, bananas, an Arnie Palmer that I made for him from my cafeteria. And being the son of Brian, he drank that right up. My husband has quite the adoration for an Arnold Palmer.

The only little breakdown we kind of had was when he took off the headphones and I put the MP3 player away. Only for him to ask for it 2 minutes later. But he asked for it in that way that he does when he is telling Max the dog a command - I waaaaannnt the music - in a quiet harsh tone. It took the quick reassurance from myself that hey, if you want something, ask for it nicely. He did and all was well.
Jack has always been comfortable as the only kid in an adult room, as there were many times where we would have dinners with friends and he really was the only kid there. Which is why I think he did so well at my work.

After work, I made sure how he would take the whole influx of the 5pm crowd. If you think about it, your POV is just knees and feet. Seeing many knees and feet running around, in the rain, trying to avoid you can be a bit intimidating.

Not our little Jack.

He walked down the street liked he owned Lasalle Street. And rightfully so. He walked down, I held the umbrella over him and he sang his way the whole 6 blocks to the train station. Everyone that looked him did a little "awwwww" . NO joke.

Oh Jack, I am so proud of the little boy that you are becoming. Very mature, and very loving for your age. You certainly were the charmer that afternoon.

The Live Show - A Review

The 1st show expierience was almost successful. Here is why....

When we arrived there, Jack had this cute little smile on his face. He saw that there were a lot of kids his age, all wearing Thomas shirts. He knew what he was getting into.
When the show started, the actors would ask the kids "Are you ready for some fun?" All the kids responded " YYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Except for Jack.
Our son is not one to really get into the moment. He really takes his Thomas seriously. He was very intent on watching the whole show as if it were Shakespeare.
The cliffhanger before intermission left us wondering if Thomas and Percy would be alright in the coal mine.
The whole intermission, Jack was asking if Thomas was going to be ok. We kept reassuring him that yes, he would be fine. But when the show started again, Jack somehow didn't want to see what would happen to Thomas, or if something scarier was going to happen. So he got scared and didn't want to sit in his seat anymore. Brian had to take him downstairs for a bit and for awhile it was just me watching the show.

When Brian and Jack came back , he still didn't want to sit down so we figured that Jack was over the whole show. As we were leaving, that was when the actors were singing the Thomas theme song, and miracle of all miracles, our son stood in the aisle and clapped.That was all we needed to see and made this whole show worth it. When we came home, he took Thomas and Percy and re-created the whole coal mine adventure under the blankets.

And in case you wanted to know - Thomas and Percy came out just fine from the mine.

The 1st Live Show

Mark this as another milestone for Brian and myself - we are taking Jack to his first live kiddie show today. A Thomas the Tank Engine show nonetheless.
We are at this stage now? Where we take our kids to a live show, and they sing songs, and all the kids will be dancing either on their seats ( which could be bad cause they could just fall if it is one of those seats that you bring the seat down ) or the kids are dancing in the aisles ( which is a fire hazard!!! )

I don't know if Jack is one of those two kids. He may just clap around. Seeing that he is also a bit afraid of the character Diesel 10, he may just hold on to one of us tightly.



I hope that there is not a huge cutout of this character that appears in the show. And if he does make an appearance, I hope it's for good, like Diesel wants to help and share with Thomas.
One thing just came to mind - the souvenir stand. What kind of goodies will be there? And how will our child react? If I know my kid, he may just want to hang out with the souvenir table than see the show.

The Greatest Achievement

Jack, you will do great things in your life. Of that , we are sure. But the great achievement that we have had together so far are your manners.
Even though sometimes, you still do not like to share, or you try to pull a toy from someone else, let us talk about your table manners.
You make us proud when you say – Can I have some apple juice please? And then when we give it to you, you say thank you.
You also say “You’re welcome” when we say thank you to you. How wonderful is that?
You say bless you when we sneeze.
You correct us when we say Oh my God. It is Oh my Gosh for anyone reading this. If Jack hears an Oh my God from you, he will correct you , and rightfully so.
You still say ( and this is what warms my heart the most ) “Dios le Pague” after we finish a meal. A refresher for anyone, Dios le pague means “God will bless you for this meal, in Spanish. It makes my parents so proud to hear that. We are the most proud.

As I said, we still need to learn on the sharing a bit. Let’s be more able to play together, yes?

The New Best Friend

Jack has taken to my mother in law's dog, Max, a lot. I can see why kids loves little pets so much.
The dogs put their cute little faces in front of the kids and when they want to be pet, they kind of wiggle around your lap and look up at you until you happily pet them to sleep.
This is what Max does and this is what Jack loves. He has also taken to having Max sleep on the bed with him. Normally I would say gross, that is a lot of dog hairs on the bed and dog slobber on my kids bed sheets. But the way that Jack just caresses Max right before he goes to sleep and gives Max tons of kisses with
Good night Max. I love you.
warms my heart so much.
I thought that having Max on the bed would be a good way to have Jack sleep in his bed all night, but alas, Jack still comes over to our bed at night. Not as early in the night now. But my mind is telling me that any day now, any day, Jack will realize the awesomeness of having his own room. And stay there, night after night, after night.

The New Fascination

This is all my fault. I truly blame myself for this 1,000 %. It all started about three weeks ago when Brian said the magic words of " Maybe we can take a vacation this year."

My mind immediately went to Disney World. It shouldn't have, since we are and always have been planning for the big 5th year birthday bash for Jack at Disney World. We wanted to have that year as his first year there, so he can remember it. So he can go on the rides. With us.

So I said to Jack, wouldn't you like to go to Disney World and see where Mickey Mouse lives?

Well of course any kid would want to go see Mickey Mouse. You want to see him today? Put on your shoes and let's go! My mind is spinning and obviously cannot wait for two little more years to go to Disney. I must, must,MUST STOP telling Jack what a wonderful place Disney World is. Because that is really all he ever talks about now. He wants to see Minnie, he wants to see Mickey, he wants to see Mickey's big house ( the famed castle that you see everytime you pop in a Disney DVD. God, what terrific marketing )

Update - I first wrote this post about two weeks ago. Since then, he hasn't really asked to take a Disney Vacation ( yes, he says it just like that ) but he does ask from time to time to go to the Disney Store. That is free and right around the corner. We can give you that much son.

PS - I wonder with all these Disney mentions, if we can score a great huge discounted trip. The power of the blog and the interwebs. Here's hoping.