Thick as Theives

I've mentioned this before but as an only child I have always been intrigued by sibling relationships and enjoy seeing John and Anna interact and what their similarities and differences are so here is a photo documentary of the past few days. I present to you The Antics of John and Anna:

John taking a break from pulling Anna on her tricycle (by a rope because her legs are too short) to watch the garbage men...

Like brother.....

....like sister....

An important life lesson John has already taught Anna: Always keep a car in your hand, but preferably one in both hands

Planning their next move...CHEERS!

 

Watching the rain outside on the front porch....plans for a family evening walkabout were drenched

Sharing a chair: My two little compadres. Notice the mama is clutching a plastic donut in one hand and a lawn mower in the other. That's how she rolls, people.

After a long day of cavorting and cohorting The (Sweet) Dream(s) Team suits up in their footie PJs...night night....BFFs 4-ev-R

The Party: A Bouncing Success!

Wow! So things have been busy these past few weeks. We've been preparing for John's 3rd Birthday party.

This was a fun birthday because I felt John REALLY knew what was going on this year. Last year was great but this year John was talking about his birthday for about a week. We had gone to 2 birthdays in the previous 2 weekends before so he was jazzed about his very own party and the day before the festivities asked me "Mommy, my friends will sing Happy Birthday to me??" Of course they will, baby!

The morning of the party, John and Kyle made a store run to pick up some last minute items. The bounce house arrived while they were gone.When they returned around 8:30 the bounce house was set up.

Kyle said when John saw the bounce house in front of the real house he definitively stated "I'm going in there".

Let me share John's timeline with you:
8:30 - John starts bouncing
bounce.....bounce......bounce......bounce.....until 11 ish
11:02 - minor meltdown.With a red, hot, sweaty face and big tears rolling down red, hot, sweaty cheeks John asks when his friends will sing happy birthday and asks for cake.
11:10  - after a short timeout we gathered ourselves together, blew out the candle, sang happy birthday, and indulged in cupcakes.

11:15 - more bouncing until all the friends left and Kyle's cousin Jim almost suffered a heat stroke from entertaining John in the bounce house until we finished cleaning up at 12:30

I was a little worried we would never be able to get the little man out of the bounce house. He had so much fun in that thing. We had lots of fun with our friends and neighbors and we are so thankful to everyone who came out to celebrate our baby's Big #3 even though it was so hot!

Happy 3rd Birthday John!!!!

Today was a great 3rd birthday for John. He woke up to a special visitor who came in all the way from California. Mammaw was here and she came bearing gifts....

a big new Chevron car for John's collection....but it wasn't a car....it was a big red fire truck! We've been to 2 fire truck themed birthday parties in the last two weeks and his latest favorite book is about Curious George visiting the fire house so John is very "fired up"  about fire trucks lately. We carried this fire truck around with us all day. We took it to swim lessons, John kept it in his bed at nap time, we took it to the mall. It stayed in the car of course but John wanted to bring it along wherever we went.

John sported this t-shirt I made for him, a knock off of a shirt my friend's son has and I think it is so cute. The store where she bought it doesn't carry it now so I made my own version (the real one is cuter) 

We had a great second day of swim lessons. John refused to blow bubbles for the teacher but I have hope for him.

Then Mimi came by in the afternoon bearing more gifts. A mini hand-puppet theater set (since John loves the puppet scene and song in The Sound of Music) and a new puzzle for the resident puzzle wizard.

We then went to Memorial City to burn off energy at the playcastle and my mom and I marveled at how 1 year ago John wouldn't do anything at the playcastle by himself but instead prefered to sit next to me, eat a snack, and watch the other kids play. Today he was running furiously around the playcastle we could hardly keep track of his whereabouts! He enjoyed watching the train ride through the mall and waving at the conductor. We celebrated with Chic-fil-A dinner and a birthday cookie at the mall. I was struck today by the fact that I don't think John has ever gotten a cookie from the mall? Today was a good "first" for that! So he got to choose his very own special birthday cookie. He chose an M&M cookie.

He got lots of phonecalls and visits from family members and he thouroughly enjoyed the fact it was his birthday. This evening he asked me about his birthday cake and I assured him we would enjoy a cake on Saturday when all his friends are here to help him celebrate.

Happy 3rd Birthday, John!!

The Little Baby Who Grew Into a Little Boy

Today is my first baby's 3rd birthday. The little boy that made me a mommy is now three years old. Wow. It's kind of been an emotional week. I keep catching glimpses of John as such a big boy. This year between 2 and 3 has shown such a tremendous amount of growth in him that just snuck up on me without me realizing it until now!

It started with the potty training. Seeing him wear big boy undies is just so weird. He looks like a minature man wearing his cartoon undies with those skinny boy legs. Where are the chubby baby legs I used to love to squish?

(John at 1 year old)

The other day he was washing his hands at the sink and he moved his stool to the right spot, turned on the water, and did the soap all by himself. He didn't need my help to do that at all. I watched him perform that simple task with a little bit of sadness that he didn't need my help.

Then, I picked him up from the last day of Mother's Day Out and got all emotional saying goodbye and thank you to his two sweet teachers that have taken care of him for two years in a row (since he was 15 months old!--basically the same age Anna is now). They commented on how much he has grown since that first year and what a funny sense of humor he has developed and how his communication skills have blossomed. They assured me that he has been such a joy to watch grow and although I'm sure they say that to all the parents it made my heart swell to hear that about my little boy. So the tears flowed....oh boy!

John speaks to us in such great complicated and thought-out sentences now that sometimes I just look at him and think "This isn't a baby anymore, this is a real little boy-person talking to me". The other day we were cuddling in his bed before naptime. He was stroking my face, pulled a wisp of hair off my face and said "Mommy, you very pretty". ummmm....MELT!

And then, we tried out a gymnastics class the other day and it was the first time he did a class like that on his own, without me by his side to help him. He participated in the class with other kids and teachers and I just watched. My little boy who generally prefers to observe others from the sidelines was now happily tumbling, jumping, hopping, following directions, and participating in something without me by his side.

Then yesterday we had a paci throwing away ceremony. We've been building up to this for a while telling him that when he turns three there are no more pacis because he's a big boy. He only used the pacifier at nap and nighttime but to see him throw away his last remnant of baby-ness made me cry just as much as he did!

How did this......

.....turn into this?!?!?!

We love you baby boy! It sounds terribly cliche but you really will always be my baby!

Mommy's Super Hero

John has some pajamas that are printed with the text "Mommy's Super Hero". Um, of course I bought those things for him?!

Today John proved that he is situationally aware and vigilant, much to Kyle's satisfaction. Kyle was home for lunch and I was fixing sandwiches. John came through the dining room into the kitchen to wash his hands and had glanced out the window. "Oh there's Ruffie!" (Ruffie is our neighbor's dog we always see when they walk in the evenings with their baby and dog). It seemed weird to me that John would mention Ruffie because our neighbors usually take Ruffie for walks in the evening not in the middle of the day so I asked John "was Ruffie by himself or with Mr. Will?" John assured me Ruffie was by himself so I went to the window and there was Ruffie wandering the street. Kyle went out and led Ruffie back home but no one answered the door. Another neighbor who was out walking their dog offered to take Ruffie home until his owners came home.

All evening John kept saying "I saved Ruffie's life!" Indeed, John earned the title of super hero for saving Ruffie's life! Later in the evening when Kyle and John were out doing some daily flower bed weeding Ruffie's owners came by with their Baby Brooke and delivered some freshly-baked-still-hot-from-the-oven zucchini bread to John as a thank you for "saving Ruffie's life". Wow, that made John's day! A big thanks to Will and Kay for putting a huge grin on this little boy's face!

Side note: Dr. Will, Ruffie's owner, was the one who helped tell us what to do when Kyle unhinged John's big toenail off about a month ago. John is fond of Dr. Will who makes house calls.

The Farmers Bethancourt: A Summer Potato & Carrot Harvest!

We harvested little red potatoes from our garden last week! This was very exciting. Kyle and John planted seeds a few months ago and we have watched these big plants grow. Kyle and I werern't sure when to harvest our potatoes but I did a little googling and discovered that when the top leaves start turning brown it's time to dig for your potatoes. It's actually pretty fun. You find the root of the plant and just start digging around in the dirt and....PPEK A BOO! There's the little red potato hiding just beneath the surface.

John was excited to find the potatoes. It was like an Underground Easter Egg Hunt, but instead a Summer Potato Hunt

Each plant yielded about 3-4 potatoes. We harvested (I like using the word "harvest", can you tell?) 3 plants and had about 12 pototoes of various sizes in our bowl.

And then we made rosemary mashed potatoes for dinner! YUM....with rosemary twigs from the "herb" part of the garden and potatoes from the "veggie" part of the garden. Man, these were delish.

Then, a few days after the potatoes, we harvested some carrots. The carrots were fun to pull out of the ground too. Now I can see why people like to plant gardens. They're pretty fun to watch grow. After we washed off the carrots I tool a bite. They had a very pungent taste. Kind of like they had been sprayed with perfume or something. It was weird so I didn't care for our home grown carrots. I thought they would taste sweeter? Maybe we harvested too soon? Oh well, we'll try it again next year. Here's my little farmer with his prized carrot. Unfortunately John has resorted to a weird smile these days so most of my pictures of him are painfully forced squinty smiles.

Look Who's Walking! (Sort Of)

I started this blog ages ago. I've been busy doing random things: planning for John's birthday party, working on a Blurb Blog Book (don't even get me started how long this is taking me), potty training (again, don't get me started), playing with/figuring out my new nifty laptop, trying to figure out Blogger's new picture uploading method. It is driving me insane.

Anyways, Anna has been able to balance on her own two feet for a few weeks now and takes the occasional 2 or 3 steps on her own. However she is by no means a walking animal. She prefers her SuperCrawl to get her around. It's funny because I've noticed that, usually, after John goes down for a nap and all is still and it's just her and me playing together she'll bust out a few walking paces. It's like her little reward to me for paying some attention to her. "Ok, mom", she must think, "you've been good to me, here are a few steps to get you excited"

 Unfortunately the camera was focusing on my recycling bin instead of the cutest smile of my baby's first steps outside....but you get the picture

And here she is wearing her brother's hat and shoes....

trying to be a big girl and ride a trike....

With these high 90's temps summer is officially here. Trying to stay cool!

Breaking Potty News!

I blogged too soon! John peed in the potty twice yesterday! I never thought I would ever be so excited to see someone use the bathroom. What being a mother does to your brain is interesting indeed.

He really wanted to wear underwear to school today but I was hesitant since we only had one successful day. He went to school in pull-ups which I think psychologically confuse him. I think he thinks they're diapers and he doesn't even attempt going or asking to go to the bathroom. So I'm a bigger fan of undies but they are useful for school and other situations.

Oh, yay! OK, I'll try not to add anymore stories to the "Chronicles of Potty Training" blog. I'm sure it's not as exciting to everyone as it is to me.

Too Hot! Too Hot!

It's just too dang HOT! I believe Houston summer is upon us. It has reached the 90s lately and I think we're in for it. Last weekend we went to the old neighborhood pool we joined last year for a cookout. John, always the observer, sat on a bench and enjoyed watching the big kids splash in the water and dive off the diving board.
After spending a few evenings outdoors with the kids I decided we should just head to the YMCA pool and at least be around water if we have to be outside. This morning we made our first outing in our swimsuits. I hadn't taken the two of them to the pool by myself since last year and Anna certainly wasn't mobile then. Today was a different story. I had two mobile children on my hands. However, John is such a cautious minature adult man that he just sat on the first step in the pool and we tossed a toy back and forth while I held Anna in the water. I wasn't too concerned with chasing him around since I had to really convince him to at least sit on the first step of the pool.

But I discovered a new strength training workout: carrying a 20 pound baby around in the water with one arm. For an extra degree of difficulty I forced John to let me carry him so we could chase his toy in the water. So 20 pounds on one arm, 30 pounds on another....my upper arm muscles were buuuurning. At first John refused to even let me carry him in the water and since I had Anna on my other arm I couldn't force him to get in like I normally would.

Me: "John, come on in. I'll hold you like I'm holding Anna"
John: "No, I don't wanna get in. It's too watery in there"

Yes, the pool is, indeed, "watery".

Another reason we're stuck being outside or close to home is the potty training reinforcement. I'm trying to keep him in underwear as much as possible. He's done really good with peeing. The past few days have shown major improvements. The other day we were showering and he said "I'm going to pee in the drain" and then he proceeded to do just that. So I know he knows how to make it happen. And he is able to stop himself so we haven't had any torrential downpour accidents lately. He knows when it starts coming out and can stop. YAY! We even went to the park yesterday wearing underwear!

Now John talks a lot about his little friend Justin and how he has a shirt like Justin and shoes like Justin and a lunchbox like Justin and recently John told me that Justin pees in the potty. I quickly snatched this piece of info up and used dear ol' Justin as a bargaining chip. Oh. Yes I did. I told John if he would pee in the potty we could call Justin and tell him ourselves! Yes. I have no shame. I will go there if it helps John pee. Then yesterday I was watering the plants outside and John declared he needed to pee. I told him to stand by the fence and "water the plants" himself. He hesitated for a moment but then he was able to do it! Hallelujah! He was so excited and immediately said "Let's call Justin!".

Today John was able to pee on demand in the grass again! Apparently nature frees the man. The sterile bathroom/toilet does not lend itself to such urges I suppose? Next task: using the modern day toilet.....baby steps. Progress is being made.