As Dora would say...we did it!

We did it! J had his orientation at pre-school this morning. He did pretty well. He got to pick out his shirt this morning. Of course, he chose a Thomas shirt. We had an argument over his shoes, but I won!

Since it was only orientation today, I stayed with him. We were only there for a little over an hour. The teacher let the children play while she talked to the parents. She then asked the children to clean up. J was one of the only ones to clean up the toys. It's like pulling teeth to get the boy to clean up at home, but at school, he just jumped right in. Arrrggghhh!

Anyway, the teacher then did a short Circle Time. J had a hard time sitting. He had to have me sit by him (I was the only parent on the floor with her kid). He kept popping up. The teacher then pulled out a book to read to the class. J threw a fit because he wanted her to read a book he had been looking at earlier. I was so embarrassed.

The kids then did an art project and had a snack. J had a good time and I can tell that he is going to like school a lot. I hope he does well there. I have this fear that he will be "That Kid". As a former pre-school teacher, I can attest that all teachers have "That Kid" in their class. "That Kid" is the kid she dreads coming every day and the one she hopes will be absent. Not that she wishes ill-will on the child. She just doesn't want him/her at school. My mom (a retired pre-school teacher) assures me that J will not be "That Kid", but Gramma is biased.

Here is the best picture I could get of him this morning:



And I can't have a picture of J without including one of my sweet baby girl:



In other news....

Today is Chris and my 5th wedding anniversary! Yay! We got married on a Thursday, the Packers were playing, and it was raining. Today is Thursday, the Packers are playing, and it's raining! My parents are going to watch the kids while Chris and I go out for dinner. I'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow

J starts school tomorrow. I am sad today because of that. I want him to go to school, but I want him to stay a baby! Here is he at two weeks old:
Wasn't he gorgeous?

A night away

So, my parents took the kids for the night last night. Kensie had never spent the night away from me before. J hasn't since I was in the hospital having Kensie. It was nice having them away. Not nearly long enough of a break, but nice.

Guess what Chris and I did on our night off? We went grocery shopping and to Sam's Club. It's so much easier without the kids and we just wanted to get it done. He did, however, take me out to Red Lobster for dinner. That was yummy! We had planned on watching a movie, but only watched a little before getting too sleepy. I now wish we hadn't done the shopping and just relaxed. Oh well.

It's good to have my kids home, but I want a break again!

So furious

I am so furious with Chris right now that it's not even funny.

J did not nap today. We had to leave to early to go to his thing at school. When he doesn't nap, he goes to bed at 8. I had to run my mom home after we got home (she watched Kensie for us). I told Chris to get J going on his bedtime routine.

I got home and J was still up, in his regular clothes, and playing. I told him he needed to start getting ready for bed and Chris fucking undermined me, telling him he could play for a while. J is still up and it's 9:49. Chris and I just had a huge fight. It started with me being pissed that J was still up. J likes Daddy to put him to bed. I would think after being gone all day that Chris would want to put him to bed. Chris can only put him to bed after he has looked at all of his fucking GI Joe message boards. If I want J to go to bed earlier, it's suddenly based on my schedule. Not what's best for J. Chris apparently couldn't get J going earlier because he was feeding Kensie. Huh. Somehow I manage to feed her, feed him, get them down for naps, play, clean, do laundry, do the dishes. Etc, etc, etc.

I have worked so hard to get my kids on decent schedules and he fucks it all up all the time.

So, then the fight turned into how he has to do everything with the kids when he gets home from work (not), how I don't appreciate him, how he doesn't appreciate me, how I don't work anymore, blah, blah, blah. I'm just so angry. Chris has since stomped off upstairs. I called him a fucking loser before he left. I feel bad about that. I don't mean it. I'm just pissed. I do so fucking much around here and he has zero appreciation for that. He has NO clue what it's like to take care of the kids and the house all day long. None. Christ, if he did it, I can't even imagine what the house would look like and what kind of spastic schedule the kids would be on.

An example would be this: Kensie needs a nap. Chris wants to be on the computer. So, he holds Kensie. She naps in his arms for, like, 20 minutes. She is then a bear because she didn't get a decent nap.

I'm tired of him. I'm tired of his stupid GI Joe crap. I'm tired of us having zero relationship. We are headed for a total disaster.

This post probably makes no sense. It is just a rant. I'm still so mad. I am thinking of just dumping J upstairs and going out for a drive.

Back to School Night

Tonight is Back to School Night at J's school. I am excited. I am excited for him to see his classroom, meet his teacher, locate the bathroom, visit the playground, etc. I've been working very hard on manners with him lately. I am trying to coach him to say, "Hi. My name is Jonathan Meyer." when he meets his teacher, but he is being a typical almost three-year-old. He won't do it. Hey, maybe he'll surprise me when the time comes.

J has his first day on the 28th (Chris and my 5th anniversary!). It is only orientation, though. I will attend with him. He officially starts on the 2nd of September. I am so nervous and so excited for him. He might cry. I most likely will cry. It's hard that my baby boy is growing up. Don't let him hear me call him a baby, though! Whenever I do, he tells me, "I not baby. I big boy." Yes, my love. You are a big, big boy, but you will always be my baby.

Killer

Last night was pretty eventful. I let the dogs out before going to bed. I headed upstairs and Chris stayed behind to shut off the lights and make sure the doors were all locked. As I was brushing my teeth, Chris called up to me and told me to get downstairs right away. I hurried down and turned the corner. Laying in the middle of the living room floor was a possum. Apparently, Montana had brought it in with her and I had failed to notice. After I went upstairs, she brought it over to Chris and dropped it by him. He thought it was one of their toys. He was wrong.

An actual photo of the killer dog:

Vicious, eh?

So, it was still alive. It was breathing and "playing possum". Chris and I discussed what we should do. The dogs all circled the poor animal, like hyenas circling their prey. Chris decided to get a shovel from the basement, scoop it up, and take it back outside. My job was to hold the door.

We then vacuumed everywhere Montana had been, just in case the thing had fleas. I noticed a few drops of blood, cleaned those up with Clorox wipes, and sprayed Lysol over the whole carpet. I put Montana's bed in the washer since she had taken it there.

Chris left for work this morning and called to report it was gone. I was pleased. J had a playdate at the park today, so I went out to load up the van with all the junk required to take two kids to the park for a few hours. That's when I saw the possum. It was laying by our hedges. It lifted its head up, wobbled it around a bit, and then laid it back down. Flies were buzzing around it. It was injured and bleeding. I knew I couldn't leave the poor thing to suffer. So, I called Animal Control and was told that they "don't do wild animals". I called a Wildlife Rescue place that is no longer in operation and was given the name of a pest control place. I called them. The guy told me he could take care of it for 50 bucks. I didn't want the poor thing "taken care of". So, I called out vet. They told me to bring it in and their wildlife expert would take care of it. Take care of it, as in try to rehabilitate it or euthanize it if its injuries were too severe.

I called my mom to come watch the kids, canceled our playdate, and once Grandma got here, I had to get the thing captured. It has since then crawled back under the hedges. I took an old towel and a pair of heavy duty work gloves outside. I was able to pull it out from under the hedges. It "played possum" again. I cleaned the leaves off of it shooed the flies away, and wrapped it in a towel. I then put the possum in one of our cat carriers and headed to the vet.

I had to fill out a form and I left the possum there. They will take a look at it, see if it can be saved, and then go from there. With luck, it will be okay and will be released back into the wild.

I still have the heebie-jeebies after having a possum in my house. And that my dog had it in her mouth. Montana has never done anything like that before. You can be sure that I will be looking at my dogs' mouths from now on when they come inside.

So mad

I've been so angry lately. I yell at J all day long. He spends the whole day saying, "Sorry Mommy" even for things that aren't his fault. I am the worst Mom in the world. What is wrong with me?

The last of J's babyhood

J loved his first movie experience. He sat for about the first 40 minutes or so and then stood for the rest of the movie. When he was standing, he turned around and saw the projector. He asked for his sunglasses since the light was so bright. The kid then watched the rest of the movie in his shades. Weirdo. The movie was just, eh. The first was fantastic and I was pretty disappointed with this one.

Remember how I said a few weeks ago that we were breaking the nooch (pacifier) habit? Well, I didn't do it. I finally decided that Thursday was the day. I warned J about what was going to happen and how the nooch was only allowed in his room and in the van. On Thursday morning, J woke up. After I got him dressed I asked him what the rule is now with his nooch. He took it out of his mouth and tossed it on his bed. I was shocked. The rest of the morning was spent playing, eating, watching TV, the usual. Just before naptime, J began raiding my pockets. He found one of Kensie's nooches in one and began asking for his. It turned into a full-blown tantrum when I told him no. He then proceeded to throw his Thomas trucks onto his floor and would not pick them up. He lost them for the rest of the day.

After his nap on Thursday, J whined a bit about leaving his nooch in his room, but was very proud to tell Chris at dinnertime about what a big boy he is. He was good about it today, too, but begged for one after his nap. I know that was only because he was grouchy since I woke him up. However, tonight he drew a picture of his nooch!

I am fine with him having one to sleep. I just hate seeing him walking around with it all the time. We had him cut way back on it, but then when Kensie came along, so did some lazy parenting. I let him have it all the time because I didn't feel like dealing with saying no. Now that he is almost three, it's time to give it up. Well, at least cut back. It's his last babyish behavior. He sleeps in a big boy bed, is potty-trained, eats at the table rather than a high chair....

J asked to hold Kensie yesterday and I took some pics of it. Here is my favorite: