Barbershop

Jody sent me some pics of PaPa cutting H's hair last weekend.

Here is H drinking the water from the squirt bottle.

No! No! I don't want a haircut!

Okay, fine. I like my ears. I'll sit still.

Motivation

Here are some pics of H from today. See if you can find the commonality between them.

Coloring

Working a puzzle

Talking to Mimi
Talking to me

If you guessed his new Thomas hat from Day Out with Thomas, you are a winner! Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding! I don't really have a prize, so just give yourself a nice big pat on the back.

He was super good again today. He had so much fun playing with Mimi. They played on the swingset and in the pirate ship. He ran and ran and ran, and she watched. He was so happy she was home!

H finished dinner before we did, so I excused him. He disappeared into his room and the next thing I knew he ran out stark naked! I told him to stay that way, because he was going to have to take a shower in a minute. He didn't want to take a shower, so he went into his room and put on his pj's, hoping he wouldn't have to take them off once they were on. WRONG. He had been a sweaty little boy today, he was not getting out of a shower! Before we knew it, he came waltzing into the dining room with his pj's on. Backwards. It was so cute. He knew it wasn't right, but couldn't figure out how to fix it. I'm proud of him for trying, whatever his motives may be!

Day Out with Thomas

Today we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine at the Oklahoma Railway Museum with Mimi, Uncle Steve and Kenzie.

They had trains set up for the kids to play with. You could meet Sir Topham Hatt and ride the train. There was a warehouse full of Thomas toys galore. There were a lot of other things that, honestly, H just wasn't that interested in. A lot of it had to do with the heat, some of it was he just wanted to ride the train.

There wasn't much shade available, so it got pretty hot. You can't really tell that H was having a blast. He looks so sad in some of the pics. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

I'll scan the picture of him with Thomas and post it this week.

Here we are on the train... FINALLY!

Kenzie relaxing on the ride.

Harper chanting "Pull Thomas, pull!"

Uncle Steve and Kenzie

Harper cooling off.




















Time to go!

Afterwards, we went to BJ's for dinner, then to Super Target to get H some Cars crocs and check out the Thomas toys they had to see what was missing at the DOWT warehouse. Turns out, A LOT. They had toys that we don't even have in Tulsa!

We finally headed home around 7:15p. I had no idea it was as late as it was. H was being SO good. He was absolutely hilarious, too. I wish I could remember most of what he said. He had me and Mimi in stitches on the way home. I wanted him to sleep on way, but he talked and talked and talked the whole time. About ten miles outside of Tulsa, Harper had to potty. I asked him if he could hold it and he said, 'Hold my pee pee?' So I clarified I needed him to wait to potty til we got home. About five miles outside of Tulsa, Harper started singing, 'Gah, I gotta potty! Gah, I gotta potty!' Hilarious. And no worries... he made it home. Singing all the way.

It was a really long day. Almost 9p before H was in bed. He fell right to sleep, though, and now it's my turn.

School Pics

Harper had his school picture taken last Friday. Isn't he handsome? I'm going to call the photographer and see if he can do anything to that red dot on his face. He'd gotten a mosquito bite and picked at it.

It doesn't matter, though. He's still a cutie pie.

Now if I can just pick one! I'm partial to the top and bottom pics. I guess I'll leave it up to his daddy.

Check Those Chompers!

Buddy's first trip to the dentist was today! We've been talking about it for a couple of weeks so he'd know what to expect when we got there. He's been really excited and he thought he knew exactly how many teeth he had. Ten. (Not quite.)

When we got into the room, he sat down in the chair and checked it out. Then Miss Andrea came in and showed him all the tools they use, the 'sunglasses' he gets to wear and gave him a ride in the chair by moving it up, then down again. He liked the hose that squirted the water and the 'thirsty straw' the best. Then he got to watch a video of two dogs visiting the dentists office. It didn't hold his attention very well. He was too interested in everything else around him.

Dr. Sean came in and introduced himself to Harper and showed him the mask he had to wear. He put the sunglasses on H and reclined the chair. He counted his teeth (20), then told me all about when H would start losing teeth and growing four more molars.



We'll have another visit in six months, then this time next year he'll get x-rays, and six months after that, he'll have his first 'real' visit. Let the fun begin.

All done Mom!

St-st-st-studious

Last night I was getting Harper's stuff out for bed and I hear him yelling, 'I need my crayons!' He's all settled in the dining room chair, ready to do his homework. I got out his crayons and asked him if he knew what to do. On one, he had to trace the letters 'T' and 't', then write them freehand. On the other, he had to color the squares marked 'T' green, and marked 't' brown. You can see he takes his studies very seriously. So cute that he colors the actual letters 'T' and 't', and not the full boxes. He's got it down, though. He colored the letters the right colors. Taking a step back to check out his work. He's got the big T down. Before long, he'll know to stay in the lines. Right now, I'm just thrilled he's writing a 'T'! I'm having a harder time getting him to understand when I say 'big T' or 'little t'. He thinks I mean to make the 'T' big or make it little, not lowercase. If there was a picture on the page, he HAD to color it. Here's a short video of H making his T's.

Another Trip to the Doctor

H's school called me about 10:30 this morning and said that he'd been going to the bathroom a lot. He'll go in, come out, and go right back in again. Was he doing this over the weekend? Naturally, he was with his dad, so I had no idea. Jody said that yes, he'd say he had to go, but nothing would come out. I know a bladder infection when I see one, so I called the doctor's office to tell them we were coming in and ran out the door to get H from school.

He was playing outside when I got there. It took him half a second to register that it was me standing there as he was running in my direction. I swooped him up, talked to his teachers for a minute, then we headed to Dr. D's. H informed me during the car ride that it hurts when he tee tees. Lucky for him, we're on our way to get it fixed.

At the doctor's office, he thought it was pretty funny that he had to pee in a cup. I held the cup, while he went potty. When he was done, he said, 'Okay, now let's flush it!' I said, 'No sweetie. We give this to Nurse Sharon and she's going to run tests on it to find out why it hurts when you tee tee.' He thought that was pretty silly.

Dr. D poked and prodded H's kidney and bladder area to see if he had any discomfort. The test on the urine came back clean, but he's going to run cultures on it overnight to make sure there's nothing he's missing. He said if anything is growing on the cultures, then it could be a kidney infection, but he won't know until tomorrow. If there are negative results from the culture, he'll call me in the morning. If they're clean, he won't call.

He said H definitely has a bladder infection, but they're different for boys than for girls. For girls, it hurts constantly. For boys, it hurts when they pee. The constant need to go is the same, that's why he keeps saying he has to go. Dr. D said to give him cran juice (any variation) and it will regulate the ph balance of his urine and help it go away faster. But it will run its course in four to seven days. If it's not improving by Thursday, to call him and let him know. He also said H can take the azo tabs that turn his pee orange, and ease the need to go so much. I don't know if H will take them, but I'll pick some up and try both starting tonight.

We got back to school just in time for lunch. I told Miss Anna that he has the bladder infection and she said she'd put his cot next to the bathroom for naptime, so he can get up and go when he needs to. He was a big boy, though. He gave me a kiss and hug, then ran to the table and sat down to eat.

The Goodbye Boy

Well, it's finally come! For the last three days when I drop H off at school, he doesn't whine or cry for me. He's becoming such a big boy!

Tuesday and Wednesday when I took him, he walked to the breakfast table, sat down and gave me a kiss. He actually forgot to even say goodbye! He realized this when we were home both evenings, so this morning, he made a point to hug me and kiss me and tell me goodbye. Miss Kristina asked him if he'd help her get the table ready for the other kids and he followed her to get the chairs. He didn't even look back!

Snake Oil

Mimi bought Harper some snake golashes at Target on Sunday. They were victims of the Trouble Box, so he didn't get to enjoy them like he wanted to.

Fortunately for the boots, unfortunately for us, H was sick today. He had a runny nose Sunday, and by the time he was in bed, he was stopped up and coughing. When he woke up today, his cough was really chesty. So I made an appointment and took him to see good ol' Dr. D.

The Dr. listened to his chest and was making funny faces, so I knew my instincts to take him in were good. He said he could tell that there's something going on, but he's not sure what, so he wanted to run a test. The nurse came in and pricked Harper's finger so they could run his blood. H was so good when she did it, he didn't even wince! Dr. D came back in and said that normal blood counts are between 6,000-10,000 and H's were 17,000. He said it's normal when your body is fighting an infection. That infections usually start in your nasal cavity, then spread from there, to become strep, or bronchitis, or pneumonia. However, I'd caught it so early, he didn't know exactly what kind of virus it was. He prescribed an antibiotic and told us to stay home for the day. He also said if his symptoms aren't obviously better by Wednesday, to come back and see him. He's never said that before, so I don't know if it's because it's too early for him to treat a specific virus, or if he thinks it could be something worse. We'll just pray his symptoms improve so we don't have to go back in.

You'd never know he was sick. He was so sweet and silly all day.

Here he is wearing his boots for the first time:

Oops, we got medicine on the white shirt, so on went the New Mexico shirt:

A bedtime dance:



I told you he wore them all day.

Trouble Box

Today was difficult. To say the least... Part of it was my own fault, I admit it. Hindsight, it could have been worse. Deep breath... here goes...

H woke up in a great mood. He wanted Mimi to feed him oatmeal, like she did when she was home with him during the day. Then we played with trains in the living room and he said he wanted to watch a show. So I asked him if he wanted to watch 'Ice Age' or 'Doctor Who?' semi kidding. But he said he wanted to watch 'Doctor Who?'. His daddy is going to hate me for introducing Harper to sci-fi. I can't help it. I didn't do it on purpose. One day, he was taking a nap, and I was watching DW. I didn't hear him get up and walk into the living room, but before I knew it, we were cuddled on the couch watching David Tennant do his thing.

Anyway... we needed to go to Target for a bit, so I fed H lunch at 11a and we headed out the door. I didn't think we'd be gone that long, so I didn't worry about the time. But H was really whiny when we were there, so we just headed home. When we were in the car, I saw the clock said 1:30p! Holy cow... NO WONDER he's whiny! It's past his naptime! Ugh... I'm such a dope.

So we get home, Mimi goes to work and I lay H down. He fought it so hard. At one point, I thought he was asleep because he was being so quiet, but it turns out, he was just being quiet. About thirty minutes went by and I heard his doorknob jiggle. I went to investigate and he's standing at the door, no pants, no pull up, but with wet underwear and wet shorts in one hand, and a handful of wet kleenex in his other hand.

Me: Where is your pull up?
H: In the drawer.
I walk to the drawer and pull out a wet pull up and put it on the floor.
Me: Where are your shorts that I put on you?
H: Over here Mommy.
Me: What happened?
H: I peed on the rug.
Me: You wha...?

I was completely dumbstruck. I had him sit in his chair and I just called Jody right away. 'What do I do?!' He's never ever ever done anything like that. Ever. J suggested that I have him help me clean it up, so I did. Harper had already tried to, hence the wad of wet kleenex in his hand. Jody said H had done this at his place once, and that's what he had him do.

Here's what I think happened: He had already gotten in trouble several times for getting out of bed. I told him that I didn't want to hear him again... to go to sleep. He had to go potty, so instead of telling me he had to go, he went in his pull up, which obviously, is fine. But he didn't want to continue wearing it (can't blame him), so he took it off and instead of getting another pull up, he got out underwear, and thinking his shorts would be wet, too, he got out new shorts. He puts them on, but he still has to potty, and he thinks he can go like he did in his pull up, so he goes. But this time, it gets all over the rug. He knows this isn't good, so he tries to clean it up. When he goes to leave the room, I hear him and walk in right in the middle of the recovery effort.

It makes me more sad than mad. I've decided that from now on, I'm going to put his potty chair in his room during naptime. Then he can get up and go when he needs to.

Also stemming from today is the 'Trouble Box'. I'm so tired of the whining and the back talk, and the open disobedience, that I've decided to start taking stuff away. The rules of the TB are simple. Any back talk, whining, pushing, or disobedience results in one toy going in the TB. It's gone for the rest of the day and he can take it out the next morning. If it goes in at the end of the day, he has to live without it the whole next day, then he can take it out the following morning. Today I started with newest toys first, then I went for the most important one: Thomas. He had five toys taken away from him in two hours today. That's a lot. But it worked. The last toy was taken away at 5:15p and it was Thomas. Boy howdy, he was good after that.

Busy Bees

Today was such a busy day! And thank goodness H was in good spirits.

I heard him in his room talking around 6:30a, but I didn't get him up til 7a. We snuggled for a bit and watched some Backyardigans... but it's Saturday! That equals donut day at our house. So by 8a we were at the bakery, stuffing our faces with chocolate long johns, donut sticks, glazed twists and sprinkle donuts.

From there, we filled up the car with gas and picked up Mimi in Sapulpa. She was killing time at Atwoods waiting on us. When H and I got there, I took him inside so he could see the baby chicks. I wish we could have held them, they were so cute!

We headed to Bristow from there so we could meet Uncle Steve and fam. Uncle Steve breeds dogs (Great Danes and Mastiffs) and he's looking to expand. So we went to look at the female puppy he wants to get so he can start breeding Euro Danes. This is the biggest dog I've ever seen in my life.
The kids had fun playing on the swings while Uncle Steve talked to the owner of the Euro Danes.
Check out Stevo's hair. I've not seen it this long since he was about three years old.
When we were leaving, Kenzie saw the car, ran up and hugged it and said 'Oh my car! It missed me.'
We asked if there was a nice local restaurant we could go to for lunch, but the guy said 'Nope.' So we set out on our own to explore the town. All we found (so I guess he wasn't kidding) was one Mexican restaurant. The salsa was good, but the chips were stale. The food was okay. The water was horrible. I actually ordered a pop instead. And they didn't even have Sprite. All they had was Pepsi, DP and Root Beer. Gag. Harper had trouble sitting in his chair, but what should I expect? He's 3 1/2! Overall, the kids were good and the company was great.
Here's a video of the kids singing 'Ring Around the Rosy':

Harper sang and talked the whole way home. When we passed the turnpike entrance, he said, 'There's a peep!' Because the pike pass makes a peeping sound when you enter and exit. We got home in time for Mimi to go to work and H to take a nap. Which he didn't. He fell asleep, but was up in 20 minutes. I laid him back down and he slept for another 20 minutes. I struggled with him to nap, but I guess a powernap was all he needed. He was being good and in a great mood, so I just let it slide.

It started raining just as we were heading out the door to go to Jack's for dinner. While we were in the car, I offered H a piece of gum. He took it, chewed it for a few seconds and said he didn't want it. I asked him why not and he said, 'It's kind of disgusting.' Okie dokie then. You can't argue with that. The boys had a really good time. I wish I would have taken pictures. They miss each other so much. They got in trouble a couple of times for jumping on the bed or throwing stuff, but mostly they were great. H ate a great dinner of spaghetti noodles (no sauce), garlic bread, corn on the cob and I caught him picking carrots out of the salad. I'd definitely say that having him in school is paying off nutritionally.

When we left to go home, it was almost 8p and it was pouring outside. I took my stuff out and went back for H, but I had to lean over to buckle him in and my back felt like I'd been standing under the shower head. Harper asked if the sun was down, which it obviously was, and I said, but we can't see the moon tonight because of all the rain. He then repeats it, but in a way to clarify that he knows what I mean, 'We can't see the moon because it's raining. But we can see it when it's NOT raining! Right Mommy?' Right, little man.

He was SO tired by the time we got home. It was way past his bedtime, he'd been up since 6:30a and only napped for about 40 minutes. We got settled in to our chair, drank some chocolate milk and read some Thomas stories. When we were done reading and starting to rock, he nestled his face into my neck and I could hear him smelling me. I told Mimi that night that I can only imagine what my scent will be for him. When I smell Halston, I think of my mom when I was little. When I smell Oscar de la Renta, I am transported to time spent with my Aunt Net. I don't wear much perfume, so all I can think of that will be associated with me is Proactiv. At least it's a nice clean aroma, I guess.

Cutie Patootie

I just snapped a couple of pics of H while he was sleeping last night...

... and in the car on our way to school.

Itchy, itchy eyes

Just kidding! I'm awake, Mommy.

Caught him here in a giggle. He wasn't being cheesy... I just captured that beautiful smile!

'Oy Mom. Put the camera away!'

I was going to take some with his teachers, but it was Miss Anna's day off, and she's his favorite. So it will have to wait til tomorrow.

Do you like his hair? He won't let me fix it. He constantly thinks it's 'crazy' and nothing I do to it helps. I know he's a boy, but we may have to spend some time playing beauty shop so I can figure out how he wants me to fix his hair!

He was such an angel last night, and again this morning. I am a very lucky Mommy... even when I'm growling about owies on teddy bears and I don't have the right 'bear medicine' and we have to call Nana at 7:30 in the morning to find out what she uses when Happy has an owie at her house. (BTW the only kind of 'stick' anything I had? It was Aveda antiperspirant. But it worked! He didn't complain again about Happy.) He's a lovely boy with a great imagination and I can't remember life before him. He truly makes me a better person.

Mimi's Cafe

H and I had dinner with Mimi Tuesday night. They both hate not getting to see each other every day. But Mom has worked out with a co-worker to come up for an hour once a week and relieve her so she can spend some time with us. She treated us to dinner in Sapulpa at Cafe USA. I don't know who had more fun, Harper or Mimi.

Isn't he getting good at coloring? He stays so close to the edges!

Harper relaying a story about school to Mimi. It must have been an exciting story!


On our way home, the moon was half full and high in the sky. Harper saw it and said, 'Look Mommy! There's the moon! It's broken in half."

Wrong Side of the Bed

Oy. This morning Harper slept late, so I had to wake him up. At first, he was fine.

But when I fixed his hair, he SOBBED that it was 'yucky! It looks weird!' He hadn't even looked at it.

Then he's sobbing and throwing a fit because I had him wear jeans and not shorts. 'They're too big!' (Because they're longer than shorts, he says they're too big.)

THEN he's hacked off because I told him he could wear his crocs or his tennis shoes. He wanted to wear his Thomas sandals. I said no way, it's too chilly outside and they're too small anyway.

This went on for 30 minutes.

I don't want to spank him, so I told him to stop crying, or I was going to leave Happy (teddy bear) and Bobbies (blankies) at home. Then I hear him, through tears, 'Bye Happy... I love you so much...' over and over. My heart was breaking. Seriously. I didn't want to leave his lovies at home! So I didn't. I packed them, but he didn't see me do it.

He cried the whole way to school for us to turn around and go get Happy and Bobbies. I knew they were in his bag, so I just kept asking him to stop crying and I'd get them. He would't stop. He gagged four times in the car. Ugh...

So we got to school. By now he's been crying for 45 minutes. He calmed down a little bit when we got there, but started up again before I left. I told his teacher what was going on. I told Harper, if he would quit crying and eat breakfast, I'd go get Happy and Bobbies and bring them to school. I told her, regardless, he can have them at naptime. But I want him to quit crying before he gets them this morning.

I'm so torn on this. Is it wrong for me to withhold his lovies when he acts like that? Or is it appropriate punishment? Part of me thinks that he might have calmed down if I'd given them to him, but the other part of me thinks that it would be rewarding bad behavior. Because it's not like he was just crying. He was screaming and throwing a fit, and talking back to me. It's inappropriate behavior and he needs to learn, he's not going to get what he wants by acting like that.

I called the school when I got to work and spoke to one of the assistant teachers. She said he quit crying and asked if she could give him Happy and Bobbies. I said definitely! He did what I said he needed to do!

I think he just didn't get his sleep out. I'm sure he'll be fine when I pick him up today. I don't like it when my baby bear is sad. :(

New Heights

I measured H tonight and he's 41 1/2 inches tall! According to my calculations, that boy grows 1 1/2 inches every six months.

So he's 3 1/2 years old and 3'6" feet tall. Not too bad.

Internet height predictors (webmd, pediactrics.com, parents.com) suggest that H will be between 6' and 6'3". That's not surprising... I just wonder how soon he'll hit it! At the rate he's going, he'll be 12 years old and 6' tall.

School is in Session

Harper officially likes school! He told me so on Friday morning. He's been MUCH better about going... he still clings to me and begs me not to go, but he's not crying or sobbing for 20 minutes before we leave the house.

He's started talking about the kids in the class and his teachers. I think this is an excellent sign.

Also, I laid him down the other night and he was in bed telling stories to his stuffed animals and pretending. He does this every night, but usually he talks about trains. This night I heard him having a 'conversation' with someone from school. This is, verbatum, what I heard:

"'Do you want to have dinner with me?' said Harper.
'Sure!'
'At my house?' said Harper.
'Okay!'"

So cute!

My Hero

Harper's latest thing is to take the towel I keep on the oven and either drag it around and pretend to be Linus, or he pretends he's a superhero. So I pinned it around his neck so he could have both hands free to save the world.