From the mouths of babes

My husband took G on a train ride today at a local park. There was a woman on the train with her son. We are guessing she is pregnant, because she was telling her son "Just think, next christmas you will have a little brother or sister"

What does My son do?

Looks at my husband and very loudly says "Thats not a present!"

I guess we know where he stands on wanting a sibling!

New cousins

G's new cousin was born last week, baby J. she is the little sister of his partner in crime. He is very perplexed about how she will fit in. So the day she was born, I am putting him to bed and we are talking about her.

His first question was "Is she going to take toys away from Jimmy and I while we play". Then he wanted to know if he was still allowed to keep his old cousins even though he had a new one. Oh the workings of a 3 year old mind!

The Air Vent did it

last friday night, while Mommy was out playing with her friends, Daddy and G put a new air vent grate thing up in his room (forgive me for my lack of technical terms).

so a couple nights later, I walk into G's room before bed and it looks like a tornado went thru it. I ask him what happened and he tells me "Well, you see Mommy, my new air vent was blowing the air out and blew ALL my toys all over and knocked over all the toy bins."

Seriously? at age 3 he is coming up with this? The kid didn't even flinch! It just rolled right out!

I'm so screwed.

School, glorious school!!

2 weeks ago, the sun shined upon us and G went back to school. I could not wait, as it was a long, meltdown filled summer and I was ready for the teachers at his new school to whip his mouthy little butt into shape! The first week he stayed half days. The 2nd week, I kept him there full days, 9am-3pm. So i picked him up the first day and this was the conversation:

Me: Hi Baby, how was school? I missed you!

G: Well Mommy, I was at my new school, and I didn't miss you.

So sweet he is. This was the following days conversation:

Me: Hey Kiddo how was school today?

G: There were only 2 cookies in my lunch. Why did you only give me 2, tomorrow I want 3 cookies and bigger ones.

Oh yes, he is such a polite and appreciative 3 year old isn't he?

big boy bed

We recently moved G to his big boy bed. Its a twin bed on his floor, and what once was an easy bedtime is now a 45 minute production filled with questions and threats. If daddy goes in first, I hear them giggling on the monitor and then they discuss how I'm going to yell if I come in and catch them. When I close G's door, he uses this as an excuse to bounce around like a ping pong ball until I come back in. Then he proceeds to ask me a million questions about everything from why the sun comes out to what my bed looks like.

But my all time favorite so far, has been this little quote "The ceiling paint made me get out of bed and come find you".

My son is nothing, if not a creative liar. :)

From the mouth of babes

So while having our weekly "Please be nice to mommy and daddy they do nice things for you so don't be a brat" discussion, G started asking me questions. Here is the conversation that took place:

Giovanni: "how much do you love me Mommy?"
Me: "I love you to the moon and back and to infinity. How much do you love mommy?"
G: "uh, 30 miles, I just love you 30 miles" (All said matter of factly while he played toys)

Nice. Good to know where I stand!

Stitches

So friday night, G banged into the door jam (the metal part) on the bathroom door frame, and cut above his eye, right thru the eyebrow hair. Poor Kid needed 2 stitches and took them like a champ! He was very very brave. He got a toy the next day as a reward, and Mommy came home and had a nice sweet tea vodka with lemonade to calm her nerves! I hope we don't end up back there anytime soon!

Thoughts from a 3.5 year old

G has had some amusing moments of late. Because I am too lazy to spread them out over several posts, and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet, here they are:

We recently got a new car and a new carseat for G. after a week, I noticed some gunk on the arm of his car seat. I asked him what that was, and he told me "Its stuff from my nose Mommy" oh so matter of factly. Lovely. So much for keeping the new car clean!

While flipping thru one of my books last week, he told me "Your books have so many words and no pictures. why are there no pictures?"

Since we started Potty Training, he is obsessed with the self flush toilets. We were using one last week, and he knows now that you can press the button to make it flush. he asked to press it, and I said no (because I skeeve). So he told me "Why not Mommy, its not electricity!" I have no idea how he knows that, but I must say, it was an impressive argument!

Pot, meet Kettle?

Last week, My mom brought her havanese dog, Ralphie, to my house when she came for her weekly Wednesday visit. Ralphie and G are no strangers to each other, G LOVES Ralphie and chases him relentlessly. Ralphie is a neurotic little thing, especially when in someone else house.

So this morning, My boy tells me "Mommy, it really bothers me how Ralphie never stops moving".

Touche kid. Mommy understand all to well the pitfalls of a living being that won't stop moving!

The Joys of Age 3

Since G turned 3 in March, its been a flow of interesting tidbits coming from him. For the first couple of months, he was very mouthy and fresh. Then it calmed down for a while. Now it seems to be picking back up again. The other day while riding in the car, I was telling him not to do something (who knows what, it all blends together these days) and he very dramatically told me "Mommy, your voice hurts my ears."

Damn is he lucky I was DRIVING and could really react much. I have also bee told to leave him alone and not to "Make that face" (My angry face). Its a constant struggle lately of battles of the wills and arguments. The other day he got mad at Daddy for trying to get him to eat dinner and he promptly peed in his pants on purpose (even though he has been in underwear for a while now. I shall not discuss it for I may jinx the whole thing).

The moral of the story and my senseless, late night blabbering? When your child turns 3, have plenty of wine on hand!

Loving too much

We have been staying at my dads for a couple days, and when we are there, G sleeps in the bed with me. The other day, he woke up and I looked at him and said "I Love you".

He let out a heavy sigh, looked at me and said "Mommy, you say that EVERY day".

Oh gee I'm sorry, am I bothering you? Not to self, enough with the I Love you's!

Last day of preschool

Monday was the last day of school for the year. Giovanni didn't know the difference, I on the other hand had a difficult time. Pre-school has been so amazing for him this year, he has grown so much and learned so much and made many new friends. and who are we kidding, it was awesome for me to drop him off 3 days a week for 2.5 hours!

G has always been a social butterfly, he sees a kid of any age and wants to play. When I picked him up Monday, I took him into the bathroom to change his diaper. As we were walking in the building, the 4 year old class was walking out to the playground. Next thing I know every kid is saying "Hi Giovanni" and he is saying Hi back. So when we went outside to say goodbye to his teachers I mentioned it and the assistant teacher told me "Oh yes, he plays with all of them on the playground so they all know him. When we walk thru the building they all say hello and he waves and says Hi back."

Thats my boy, he is like the mayor! I think Politics may be in his future. God knows he is already an excellent debater!

The man in the truck

the other night at dinner, G heard the music of the ice cream truck (yes kids, ours comes around every night at 6pm. nice right?). He asked what it was so I told him "Thats the man in the truck who drives around the neighborhoods and takes toys away from kids who have been bad and not listened to their Mommy that day".

Now let me add, that I came up with that off the top of my head. impressive, no?

So now all the kid talks about is how he doesn't want to truck to come around and take his toys! Its become an excellent discipline tool!

Mean Mommy.

Since my husband is a softie, I've taken the stance of being the strict one. G has been giving me trouble eating dinner lately and trying new things. So I have taken measure such as eliminating snacks and changing meal times. One day, we were in Whole Foods (my happy place) and he BEGGED me for a piece of flounder for dinner. He has had it before and liked it, so after he promised me he'd eat it, I got it. All was fine until we sat down to dinner and he flat our refused to eat it. I took toys away (we tell him the trash man is coming to get them) and he didn't budge. in fact, as I was tossing his trains into trash bags, he informed me that his cement mixer was too big and I'd need a bigger bag for it. FRESH! So he went to bed hungry.

The next morning, he woke up hungry and asked for breakfast. Can anyone guess what he got? Yes thats right, the FISH! It was pretty gross after being reheated in the microwave, but i wanted him to atleast try it. after 1 hour and 37 min, He ate 2 pieces. I knew i had him an hour in when he asked for ketchup. After that he got his regular breakfast, but before he did he looked at me and said "And are you happy now?"

yes, yes I am!

Where do Teachers live?

Earlier today we had to stop at target and get a gift on the way to another kiddie party. Running to target on a Saturday AM is always a dicey proposition with any child. So I hustle him in, rush through and we are about to leave when we see his teacher. I talk to her for a few minutes and he is just staring in disbelief and answering her but in a shocked way. So she walks away, I bring G in the change his diaper, and we start with 20 questions. "Mommy, Why is Miss C in target? Why isn't she at school? Why doesn't she want to be my teacher anymore? Why does she have a car? Why does she have kids?" and on and on. Apparently, G thought his teachers LIVED at school. all the time. I guess that makes sense for a 3 year old mind. So after a long while, he finally got that she didn't live at school, she did still like him and his friends, and she was still going to be his teacher.

Don't, Don't, Don't hit your friends!

G went thru a couple of weeks at school this spring where he was having some "Aggression issues". It all came to a head one day when he smacked one of his friends in the face with a plastic shovel and left a mark. Bring out Angry Mommy. I took away a whole slew of toys and privileges including his new scooter and spent hours discussing why we don't hit our friends and how its not a good response when someone takes your toy.

Well he seemed to get the hint, because he didn't hit again, and for weeks after that I'd ask him how school was and he'd tell me "It was great Mommy, I didn't hit my friend today"

I supposed thats all I can ask of a 3 year old right?

Wow, I suck at blogging

So Apparently, not only am I lacking in the baby book making department, I suck at blogging too. Since I mostly started this to remember the cute and funny things that my kid does, here is a rundown of the past few months, and I promise to try to blog atleast once a week going forward. really, stop laughing.

-- G's birthday weekend was madness. a fun party with all his cousins and friends at the Discovery museum, after party at Dad and Kims, massive amounts of new toys, too much cake, etc. One of his gifts from my ILs was a drs kit. He loved it, was doing checkups non stop. so my Father in law, being a former pediatrician, decided to teach him the proper terms for the instruments. a few days later, we go for his well visit and imagine my surprised when the Dr goes to check his ears and he asks her "Is that the otoscope?".

--March, April and May have brought us Hockey class, which he loved, cooking class and Tball. Now, if you've never seen a bunch of 3 years olds play T-ball, go do it. Its beyond hilarious. its total chaos and kids running every which way, but they all love it.

-- This spring also brought us 14 kiddie birthday parties, G's first Phillies game, and a Soccer game at red bull stadium (not to self, watching paint dry was more interesting than watching soccer). No one can say my son is lacking in the fun and entertainment department!

Intro and Welcome

so I decided to start a blog for 2 big reasons.

1) I suck. My poor kid is 3 and has no baby book. Not even a photo album. We have taken a ton of pictures but they are all sitting on shutterfly, waiting for me to finally make some photo books. I can vaguely tell you when he crawled, walked, talked, ate peas, etc. but its more of a time frame than a date and its fuzzy. Go ahead, Judge me. The first year is about survival kids, thats it. If you had time to make the perfect baby book, cook gourmet meals and iron your husbands shirts while your kid was an infant then this isn't the blog for you.

2) I have no memory. I am fairly convinced it comes out during childbirth, right after the placenta. If i need to do something and I don't put it in my crackberry calendar, forget it. We do a lot of fun stuff with G, and I wanted to document it somehow. Since I am an internet addict and 30 years from now when my son wants to know this stuff, paper and pen probably won't exist, I figured blogging was the best way.

So today, on G's 3rd birthday, I begin this new adventure. My husband likes to call me the fun police, b/c I am the bad cop (and he, of course, is the good). I'm a tough love, not willing to put up with any crap, determined not to turn her kid into a whiny brat, Mom. Read at your own risk.

Happy 3rd Birthday G man

Dear G,

Today is your 3rd birthday. I can't believe it, time really does fly. We have had a great year. Age 2 had a lot of ups and downs, but we had a lot of fun and did a lot of cool things. Da and I like to keep busy and you seem to benefit from that the most and get to do a lot of cool things.

At age 3, you are everything I hoped for in a child. You are sweet, loving, smart, imaginative, curious, inquisitive (oh the questions, so many questions!), social, energetic, adventurous, outgoing, funny, friendly, loving and oh so handsome. You love your Mommy and your Da equally, but when you are hurt or don't feel good, Mommy cuddles are what you look for. You have so many friends whom you adore, but right now your best friends are Dean, Sophia (aka Phia) and Emma. In school you like to play with Robbie, Hugh, Jay & Andrew. You also have a lot of cousins who you love to play with, including Jimmy, Bella, Cousin Giovanni, Giuliana & Ben. Your favorite foods consist of Pizza (from Whole foods), Dino Nuggets, French Fries, Bread, BBQ potato chips, Veggie Pirate's booty, Tortellini with Pesto, Pasta, Cherry tomatoes, any kind of berries, grapes, Juice boxes, chocolate chip cookies and cake. You definitely got your Da's appetite.

Besides trains and trucks, you also love curious george books, playing catch, airplanes (you have been on 10 airplane rides!), slides and flashlights. Daddy is helping you to develop a love of hockey as well.

Your personality is coming thru more and more each day. The good news is, you are funny and easy to get along with. The bad news is that you got your temper and lack of patience from both Mommy & Da. But we are working on it. This year, we are all going to practice learning patience (and picking up our toys).

We have a very fun birthday weekend planned - first cupcakes at school, then Popi & Lella's house to get ready for your big party tommorow. You are so loved, you are a lucky little boy. Besides Mommy and Da, your grandparents, aunts and uncles and extended family and friends all adore you.

I love you so much little man! I could not be more proud to be your Mommy. Some days I look at you, and I think my heart is just going to explode. I am excited to see what adventures we have this year and what new things Age 3 brings. I promise to make it a fun year!

Love,

Mommy