Friends have birthdays too

James was sad to have missed Grandma Rose's party (we'll have to re-celebrate!) but we did make it to his friend Gavin's party on Sunday. They held it at their development's club house, like a party room.

James and his buddy Luke open their party bags and play with favors.




Gavin's family rented a Tumble Bus and it parked in the lot outside. It's a converted school bus that has tumble mats and obstacles inside. All but two of the bus seats are removed.



James isn't in the picture because he refused to participate. He mostly watched. He did want to jump in the ball pit and they let him. I was disappointed by my shy guy but he makes the most of it.

There was a zip line that went from the back of the bus and has the kids land in the ball pit. The owner was very careful about kids landing and not on top of each other.

James' (former) teacher Kathy got James to wander to the back of the bus. He never jumped on the zip line or climbed on much, but he played with balls and laughed with his friends.

We went back into the clubhouse about 10-15 minutes before the rest of the crew because James became obsessed with cake. He kept asking, "when are we having birthday cake??" Eventually we did. There was also a Spiderman pinata!

James' girlfriend Kailtyn can swing!

I finally convinced James to take a turn but he wouldn't swing without my help. I only snapped this picture of him waiting for me. Oh well :)

Here's the birthday boy, Gavin, in his Spiderman costume. Oh, and "Russell Bustle" (gray sweatshirt) in the background. He's the overactive kid that is EVERYWHERE. They call him Russell Bustle because he's always on the move, always up to something!

CAKE!! Finally. And Russell has a front seat.

As we were leaving James wanted to take cake home. He had his piece and mine, so I just refused to ask for more. You can't ALWAYS have cake. Well, except when you back to our house. We had some plain chocolate cupcakes that didn't make it to ChaCha's. We had one after dinner :)

James was gone from his school for quite a while. He has a folder that we empty out every day with the day's announcements and artwork to go home. I hadn't cleaned it for a while and so we had quite a pile of papers and artwork accumulated and here are some of the Christmas/winter crafts from the daycare displays and walls, I think.

Tissue paper mitten.

James' stocking. It hung at the "fireplace" in his classroom. Sorry, I can't figure out how to turn this picture. ARGH. But at least we made James' Christmas dreams come true :)

Cotton ball snowman.

Handprints. I believe that the bottom set are this year's handprints. All of the kids' handprints were assembled into a "Christmas tree" on the classroom wall. I think the smaller set of prints are from last year? They are noticeably smaller.

That's it for today! Here's hoping to a good week. Jim is going out of town later in the week and I think we're all pretty much recovered. We just need to get James back on track and then it will be a great week :) Oh and we need to get him sleeping through the night. Those three, four, FIVE wake-ups at all hours are not good for our beauty sleep!

What's James Doing NOW?

He's chillin'.


He had a rough night, lots of crying and waking up. Thankfully all five times were before 10pm. We ended up giving him some Motrin when he complained of an earache. He's also pretty sniffly, so we scrapped our Children's Museum plan. Snotty kid = not a good museum guest. We wouldn't want to spread germs on all the touchable/interactive exhibits.

May 19

Bedtime refusal at the top of the stairs. He cried for me, which was unusual, but then happily went with Daddy- his "best friend".

More Spring Fun!

I know it looks like he's riding his bike, but he's really just rolling down the driveway. He loves it though and I catch him before he rides into the street. We've told James that he needs a helmet like the other kids before he can ride in the street. I really don't see him letting us put a helmet on his head for a while still!


Daddy joined us after he finished the dinner dishes. He was smart and brought out the soccer ball! James' teachers told me that he was so happy today, running up and down the lawn at daycare with the soccer ball. He continued that at home.


I got out there too, playing soccer, but I'm behind the camera in these shots. A lot of the neighbor kids and their parents were outside, but they all seemed older than James. James was happy to play with us for now, but I think we'll need to find some kids his age for the summer.

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Here's hoping that James sleeps until his usual 6am, at least. This morning, with the time change, he was up waaaaay too early at 5am. I did manage to get him to sleep with us for another 45 minutes but it was a little restless and crowded!

Confused

Yup, I'm confused. I am wondering how a little boy can be so cute, mischievous and crabby at the same time? He's so sweet and loveable, always. But some times he really makes us speechless. We went to the Children's Museum yesterday and James was very excited when we told him we were going to see the dinosaurs.

I think this was our first outing without the stroller. He's perfectly capable of walking around, but its so nice to have somewhere to put my purse, our coats, his toys/things, and lunch bag. He's a big boy, definitely.

It went very well! He loved the exhibit.

Dinosaur egg nest.


This is James standing a distance away from the dinosaur, it was electronic- moving and making dinosaur noises.


James and Jim crawled through the volcano cave. James caught Jim by the arm and tried to "help" him out. Haha.


We tried to get James to watch the dinosaurs up close, but no. He struggled and then ran away. We tried!


Look behind you!


Digging for fossils.






Jim tried the slide too.


James even liked the ant tunnels. There is a section of the Museum where you can put on an ant costume (James refused that part) and crawl through the tunnels. It was a little scary for me, not being to see James at all times, but a Mom comforted me and told me that there was only one exit and we were sitting right at it.


This looked too much like a spider for Jim's taste!




In the "jungle" James crawled through a turtle shell. He wouldn't look up for the picture.


Exploring a beaver dam/hut.


This was the last play area before the meltdowns. James and a few other boys were working cooperatively to get these play bricks up and down the conveyor belts. There was a crew on the level below who were using a crank to get the bricks up the vertical belt and then James worked fast to get them to the other boys, who were working to get the bricks back down a chute. They were VERY intense.



At one point the bricks got backed up and a boy yelled, very worried, "There isn't anyone downstairs! Stop the bricks!" We took James downstairs to "work" but James had lost interest at this point.



He saw the water tubes, floating balls, and boats. We moved on.

I know we have many pictures of James in these cute little aprons at the water play area, but he's just so cute.


This was the area where we had our first meltdown. I was only slightly embarrassed as I carried James away from the area. The problem was that he wouldn't share or take turns with these boats, so we just left.


I didn't take pictures at the Museum's kitchen/cooking area. James was excited to get in there but then had the same problem of sharing and just being generally happy with what he could play with. We moved on to the Grocery Store. Ahhhh! A cart!


Then came the crabbiness when he told us he was hungry. Fine. McDonald's is (too) conveniently close and its become our routine after visiting the Museum. Well, the food just couldn't come fast enough. Jim had to return to the car for his lunch bag (James needed his regular cup, you see) and it felt like an eternity before we had food in front of James. I sat with James patiently at a table, waiting to order food and trying to keep him entertained. I was really embarrassed by James' behavior- he's not usually the whiny kid who cries and is bratty.

I just know that there are tricks to distract him, or amuse him. My thinking is that I have to be smarter than James, one step ahead of him, predicting and adjusting. I know that he does well with firm boundaries- like at bedtime our struggle is not just taking Blankie to bed now but his insisting that he needs to sleep with an orange, a ball, books, etc too. As we're going to the potty and brushing our teeth, I start repeating with him and laying out a plan of what he's taking to bed and "That's it." And I'll also stress that we're reading "Just TWO books" and usually he'll comply with all this if I put the ideas in his head. Boundaries. I'm always trying to do what's best for James in the long run, and not just give in to his demands or pouts. Giving in is just a quick fix!

We're not perfect parents but we are trying to do the best that we can. I know I have my struggles and Jim has his with James. James acts differently for us. Its like he knows which buttons he can press with each of us! Mischevious :)

Here's a cute part of yesterday-
James pretty much refused his nap. I was going to give up. I had wanted to lie down for a nap myself so I asked James if he wanted to cuddle with me. Yup. So we laid down and looked at each other. I grabbed my iPhone (never too far away these days) and snapped this picture. A few minutes later, after I convinced him to close his eyes too, I saw him drifting off to sleep. I think we got in an hour nap. I think it was the first time we've napped together, since maybe he was a baby? Maybe not even then because I was always afraid of rolling over on him or dropping him.

My Sweet Baby Nene!

Independence

Our boy is much too big lately for naps. He doesn't mess around. On weekends we've been trying to lay him down, but without much success. He gets up almost immediately and stands at the top of the catwalk, with his small little voice he'll say something like, "Mama, I not sleeping." I've tried to put him back in his bed but he'll get up again. We just figure he doesn't want to miss out on the fun!

On Sunday, after a nap refusal, I let James watch his beloved Lazytown show and suddenly the chattering stopped. I looked over and found him slumped over, sleeping!


Still a little boy after all :) I turned down the TV and whispered to Jim to stay quiet. We let him sleep for about 30 minutes and then he just woke up and sat quietly.

So about Lazytown. Its a nonsense show. There is a very sporty character who is always doing flips, push-ups, and activity. He twirls around a room and does his thing. James has started to be like "Sportacus" and runs across a room, does a little attempt at a cartwheel. His daycare teacher even commented, "James just can't cross a room without a little something extra." Yeah :)

While Jim was out of town I needed to update him TWICE that James peed on the potty! I kneel down next to James when he's on the potty to encourage him to pee and the last two nights he actually did! He seemed to look down at his penis and really concentrate and all of a sudden a stream! It wasn't quite making it into the toilet so I did have to use my finger to help umm, point him down. Gladly! Praise! Sticker! Yay!

Today I had a great day with my students. We first went to the Penumbra Theater for "Black Nativity"- it was a play just FULL of gospel, jazz, and dance. It was an all Black cast and I hope my students noticed that. We'll need to talk about it tomorrow. After that we ate our lunches and then headed over to Rice Park for a little outdoor ice skating. I didn't skate but I was happy to watch my students, many of whom had never skated before! I took lots of pictures but here are some of my favorites.


My student Christian (black coat) had never skated before. He was pretty resistant to trying. He sat and watched for a while before he quietly put on his skates and just showed up on the rink. I was so grateful that the other students didn't fuss over this and one boy helped him get the hang of it. Christian declared ice skating "fun" but then took off his skates after only 10-15 minutes. Hey, he tried something new! I was very proud!


Alexis, Rodney, Rachel. Beautiful kids. Truly!


Four more days of school until winter break! I have an especially hard day tomorrow but I just need to get through it.

Blankie

Daycare is buzzing with talk of Santa. Santa is even visiting the daycare on Saturday for a family day!

See what James had to say about Santa-


And his Christmas wish? I've never heard this at home!


When I picked up James on Wednesday he didn't want to leave. He and some buddies were racing around the Great Room on these little cars. Maybe that's what he means by a race car?




In the car, James was very quiet in the backseat. I looked behind me to see what he was doing and he was unwrapping the Hersheys kisses from his treat bag (Arthur's birthday). I didn't know he could unwrap those and he ate them all!


Pretty pleased with himself!


In all of that day's excitement (busy day at work, snow, etc.) I forgot something very important at daycare. BLANKIE. Blankie was left behind and I didn't notice until that night- too late. James has gone to bed without Blankie before with no problems, so I wasn't expecting the meltdown that happened. SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for Blankie or Dada. I'm sure he wasn't happy with ME and wanted his Dada to fix everything. I had to put James to bed crying and screaming. He wouldn't calm down. Dada went in and worked some miracle. James slept until 10:30pm and then Jim had to work his magic again. Luckily, James slept until the morning.

In the morning we "rescued" Blankie. Blankie was hidden deep in the daycare closet with the cots, blankets, and pillows. It wasn't in James' locker, like usual, so no wonder I forgot it!

James is reunited with Blankie.


Classroom decorations. James' snowflake is front and center!


We didn't forget Blankie that night. This Mama learned her lesson. James loves his Blankie!