Really??

Today I went to the grocery store with Jake. He was so good the whole time until we were walking out the door and he saw the cart that was shaped like a car. You know the carts I'm talking about? They have little seats in the front for your child to "drive" the cart, and it comes complete with a steering wheel and race car sticker on the side. Jake (surprise, surpise) loves this cart, so whenever we get the chance, we take that cart to do our shopping in. This time, the cart wasn't available until we were leaving. After we had gone through the check-out line, he saw the special cart sitting there and started yelling, "CAR!! CAR!!" as loud as he could. I cringed inside because I knew exactly where this was heading. I had a full cart of groceries that I was anxious to get home, and a very, very, very excited little boy who was going to have a meltdown if I tried to leave. So, in order to try to smooth over the situation, I let him take a quick look at the car. He wanted to get inside, but I told him we were going to go home. Jake started shaking his head and said, "No, no, no," and I said, "Yep, it's time to go bye-bye." That's when things started to get out of control.

Jake started crying and I took that as a cue to exit the store as quickly as possible. I put my head down, as to aviod the judgmental looks of the incoming shoppers, and raced out of there. This was easier said than done. By this time Jake was in full-blown fit mode, and I was trying to carry him out of the store while his legs were flailing and push my cart full of groceries at the same time, all the while trying desperately to avoid any eye-contact with those who were staring at us. Eventually Jake stopped flailing and straight up hit me in the face. I about lost it right there. I put him into the cart, strapped him in, told him we don't hit mommy, and listened to his cries of protest all the way to the car.

Once in the car, Jake's cries were not subsiding. Eventually I looked at him and said, in my most threatening voice, "Jake, do you need a time out?"

"Yeah," he quietly replied.

And then, he stopped crying. Just like that. Now, mind you, we haven't put the "time-out" rule in place yet. Some of his friends have been introduced to the time-out chair, but as of yet, we haven't had to deal with it. Therefore, he's seen his friends use it, but we don't have one at our house. But I figured, if that's what he wants, then so be it!

He was silent all the rest of the way home. We got home, and first thing I did was find a chair to use as a time-out chair. Jake was beyond excited about this. I introduced him to the time-out spot, and had him sit down, and he was beaming at me the whole time. We had a (albeit short) discussion about not hitting mommy and throwing fits, he sat there for about 10 seconds, then gave me a kiss and got up as happy as could be.

And so the "time-out" chair came to be. Or, as we say in Montessori, the "control your body" chair. Either way, he seems to be thrilled about it. We'll see how long this lasts!

P.S. I have Christmas pictures coming soon, I just wanted to share this little story with you. ;)

Some Christmas thoughts

You may be surprised to hear this, but I am a thinker. A HUGE thinker. As in, there is always, always, always something going through my mind. Sometimes I get a little frustrated with Joseph because I'll ask him something along the lines of "What's on your mind right now?" and he usually responds with "nothing." Nothing? Really?? Completely empty??? That's absolutely impossible for me. It's taken me a while to simply accept the fact that sometimes Joseph just truly isn't thinking about anything at all...incredibly enough. I, on the other hand, am a constant analyzer, planner, dreamer, thinker. At any given moment I have some story of thoughts swimming in my mind.

Anyway, on Friday evening I was feeling a little bit down with some of the thoughts that were going through my head. I shared some of my feelings with Joseph, and he decided that to cheer me up we would go as a family and drive around town looking at the Christmas lights. As we drove all over Coralville looking at people's beautiful lights while listening to Christmas music, my thoughts started to turn to what this season is all about. As I listened to Jake in the backseat getting so excited about the houses with lights and yelling "Doh! Doh!" (which somehow translights to "Lights! Lights!") and sat next to my eternal companion, I was just filled with gratitude for all of my blessings. I realized that so many of the things that I obssess about are so incredibly trivial. I thought about the birth of Christ and the love of our Savior that fills our hearts this time of year. I thought about how this is a wonderful season that I hope brings out a better side of me. But mostly, I thought about my wonderful little family that I love so much, and that I have a husband who will pick me up and help me see what the season is truly about, and my son who is happy and healthy and a joy to my heart.

And those are just a few of the thoughts that have been going through my head as of late. Just thought I'd share. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. :)

A little Christmas cheer for ya

As you saw in our previous post, Jake loves Santa. We'll go ahead and thank his Nana and Papa for that. The toy that he is holding is a Santa Clause that they gave to him last year for Christmas, and it was never put away in the Christmas decorations box. It has been on his toy shelf all year long. It is often the object of fights between him and his friends because everyone wants to play with the singing Santa. It has also been the subject of more than a few headaches on my part, thanks to the never-ending "Jingle Bells" that seems to be heard around the clock. But really, look at that smile...I could never take it away!

We put up our little tree the other night, and Jake has been surprisingly good about not pulling all the ornaments off. There are a few that are his favorites, like the light-up Frosty and the Bell, that cause him to get a little too excited while trying to pull them off the tree, but other than that he's done pretty well. All of the candy canes that were up on the tree at the time that this picture was taken are all off now...we had one too many sticky fingerprints on the couch.

We are loving this Christmas season. Jake is really starting to understand that this time of year is a little different than other times. More lights, more music, more joy...although I think he just really notices more treats around the house! We can't wait for finals to be over and to enjoy spending more time together as a family. Two more days!! Yay!!

Let it snow

Some of you may have heard about this little itty-bitty snowstorm that covered the whole country! The first day of the snowstorm, Jake and I went outside to explore the white fluff. It was absolutely hysterical to watch him try to walk in it. As you can see from his footprints in the picture, he's pretty unstable in his snowboots. Despite his walking difficulties, he loved being outside! Since this picture was taken, we've had TONS more snow. Enough that they actually cancelled dental school - something that is pretty much unheard of around here. The snowstorm left some frigid temperatures in its wake. We've had highs around 5 and lows around -15 the past couple of days. Needless to say, we've tried to stay inside as much as possible. And the Iowa winters begin...*sigh*

Tanta!! Ho, Ho, Ho.

We had our Christmas party at church last night, and Santa came to visit the kids! Jake was almost beside himself with excitement when he saw him. He kept yelling and pointing, "Tanta!! Ho, ho, ho," over and over. He wasn't going to miss sitting on Santa's lap this time like he did in Texas. In fact, this is what happened:

Mind you, this is the second time that we stood in line to see Santa. We waited until there were no kids left to go up again because he was just beyond excited. The first time was the same, except we also got a family pic.

Jake had a wonderful time running around with his friends, dancing to music, and eating some croutons and craisins for dinner (don't worry, his plate was filled with yummy turkey, carrots, mashed potatos, rolls, etc... we don't have a picky eater around here or anything). Besides Jake's less than par eating habits, a fabulous time was had by all!

Baby Picasso - Take 2

We had a great playgroup yesterday. Jake and I went to a ceramic shop here in town to paint some Christmas surprises for Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa. Jake did it all by himself! I'm sorry, grandparents, if your surprise turns out a little brown. Of course, it was meant to be multi-colored. But that's what happens when a 21-month-old baby paints! Concentrating hard...

When Jake finally put his paint brushes down, I got this little picture. I guess this was his idea of a smile. What the heck?

Jake loved working on his treasures, but we did have a little bit of meltdown when we had to give them back to the store to have them fired and glazed. And by little, I mean huge sobs and drainage coming from all open holes in his face. It was rather pathetic. It was a fun shop, though, and we'll definitely go back sometime!