CHRISTMAS 2011

I looked at Jynx and told her I felt like I was in the movie a Christmas Story.  Our Christmas this year was wonderful filled with all the wonder and magic of the holiday season.   We decided that with our  crazy schedule, we were not going to put up as many decorations as we have in the past, although we still could not help ourselves and put up quite a bit.

The first part of a Christmas Story came, when we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry.  No we did not go to see the Christmas trees from around the world, although we saw a few as we raced around the museum from train display to train display.  Grandma Ruth came with and enjoyed watching Little Man’s excitement at the trains; she bought him a toy of the Zephyr.  He would take the silver toy train and race it along the floor, just like Randy from a Christmas Story did with his toy.

We then took a night and went Downtown with Baley and her mom and dad.  First we headed to Navy Pier for their Christmas wonderland.  The kids had a great time running around on the inflatables and the rides.  They had a train that would run around the big Christmas tree and of course Little Man had to ride.  From Navy Pier we headed down to State Street for the Kris Kringle Market and to look at the windows at Macy’s.  I know that was Miracle on 34^th Street, not A Christmas Story.  We went into Macy’s and followed the signs up to Santa’s Toyland that was just their toy section.  Little Man noticed a toy train set and his eyes locked right on it and he just stared and grinned.  He was dropping a hint bigger than Ralphie and his Red Rider B.B. Gun.  We saw the tree at Macy’s; (although I still feel its Marshal Fields) Little Man looked but was not all that interested in the tree.  We then braved the cold at the Kris Kringle Market.  The kids had a great time and Little Man slept all the way home.

Little Man got to meet the Big Man, aka Santa, three times this year.  Little Man still was not crazy about him but at least it was not the crying fit we had last year.  The first meeting was after the Johnson Cookie Exchange; Santa was a bit late but made the effort and arrived to find Baley and Little Man still there.  After teaching Little Man that Santa says Ho Ho Ho and hearing him say it, I was very excited by this first meeting.  Little Man would look at Santa but made sure to keep his distance and when Santa did catch up with him Little Man showed him a growling face.  Santa did give him a tow truck and later when you asked where he got the tow truck he said “Ho Ho”.  The second meeting was at Santa’s house, Mimi and Auntie Jea Jea brought him to see Santa and almost the same reaction.  He tolerated Santa but was happy to get away.  Mimi gave him a pin to hand to Santa but after taking two steps towards Santa he thought it was better just to throw the pin, then walk all the way to Santa.  The last meeting was on Christmas Day when Santa actually came over to drop off some gifts and the reception was warmer but he was still not feeling the whole Santa thing.  I’m sure next year will be different.

Just days before Christmas we found ourselves at one of our favorite Chinese Restaurants.  Little Man is a good eater and will eat almost everything including guacamole, he actually loves guacamole.  Occasionally Little Man will not start to eat right away and to get him to eat Jynx will ask who is mommy’s puppy and he gives out a little bark and starts eating.  Once again, like the movie A Christmas Story, where the mom asks who is mommies little piggy?  Now thankfully he eats well off the fork and not like in the movie where the kid shoves his face in the food.  As we finished up our meal the owner stopped by and in her Chinese accent asked what our holiday plans were.  She then went on to tell us how she was planning on going to Chinatown and having goose at a friend’s restaurant.  The scene at the end of A Christmas Story popped into my head FA RA RA RA.

Christmas Eve we headed to Uncle Brett’s house for Christmas with the Johnson family.  After that we headed to Grandpa Jim and Grandma Rosie’s house to pick up the train play table they got him.  We placed it in the back of the van without him noticing.  Then it was off to church for the candlelight service.  Little Man was in rare form and all wound up at church, I even noticed the minister chuckling a few times.  When it came time for Silent Night he began trying to blow out the candles.  I have never laughed so hard during Silent Night. 

Christmas morning came and Little Man was able to open his stocking that Santa had hung on his bedroom door.  A tradition, I remember as a kid.  We were allowed to open our stockings when we got up, but not wake mom and dad until the sun came up.  We had to wake Little Man up early and he looked through his stocking and fell in love with a little toy engine.  We then headed over to Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Rick’s house.  There he opened up his ride, a Lightning McQueen car that took us a bit to assemble but once together, he took it outside for a ride.  I think he thought he was going to drive it home until mom chased him down the street and turned him around.  He then brought the car back and parked it right next to our van.  We then headed home and started preparing for the crowd that soon would be arriving at our house.  The turkey was frying and the house was filling up and things were extremely crazy.  Little Man was opening up his gifts when who should appear but Santa with a few more gifts for Little Man.  After Santa left we distracted Little Man while we brought in his train table and quickly covered it with a sheet and a bow.  When he got back into the room he quickly removed the sheet and his eyes lit up.  He has been busy with all the trains and train tracks ever since.

At the end of Christmas day I think we were all exhausted but it was a wonderful exhaustion.  I sat there looked over all the toys and wondered where they were all going to go.  The front room was a complete mess, the kitchen was filled with leftovers and dirty pots and pans, it was a wonderful Christmas mess.  All I could think of at that point in time was the words of Andy Rooney, “One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."

Fall 2011

I remember as a kid dressing up for Halloween and heading to school having a party at school before heading home.  As we walked home from school we would start our trick or treating as we made our way back to our house.  When we arrived home we dropped our school books and the candy we had already gotten and headed back out again for an entire night of trick or treating.  I didn’t think anything could get better than those days, until now.

In all those toy boxes we received from a friend, whose name is John, was a dragon costume.  The costume was a nice one from Disney and I’m sure was very expensive for whoever first bought the outfit.  Little Man took a liking to it right away and ran around the house roaring when he tried it onto see if it would fit. We thought the costume might be too big for him this year but luckily we tried it and Mr. grows like a weed and fit into the costume just fine.  Since he was already an engineer for the Halloween party, we decided he could be the dragon for trick or treating.

Halloween was a very hectic day to say the least.  I had worked the night before and arrived home around 6 am, slept until 11 am and when I got up, the fun started.  After running a few quick errands, we headed over to Baley’s Grandparents house for his first doorbell of the day.  We got Little Man out of the costume and into the Dragon costume rang the doorbell and they were very happy to see him.  Then it was back out of the costume so he could fit in the car seat.  We repeated this at Grandma Rosie’s and Grandpa Jim’s, Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Rick’s, and then it was on to our Church for Trunk or Treat where Auntie Jea Jea and Mimi met us. 

We then headed out to Baley’s house for some good old fashioned trick or treating.  It was just as I had remembered as a kid, the streets were filled with kids running from house to house and people answered their doors with a smile and they loved to see the kid’s costumes.  Walking Little guy around and seeing him so happy as he and Baley went from house to house was truly better than the bags of candy I filled as a kid.

Just before Halloween we started Little Man saying, “BOO” he took to it fairly well and would run around the house scaring everyone.  His talking has started to improve and more words are coming, in, out dar for car and several others and he is now trying to say words.  We’ve started him saying Ho Ho HO and we usually get HO HO and he does point at Santa saying HO HO when he sees him on TV.  Hopefully Santa will get a better reception this year than he did last year.

Little man update / Fall

I know it’s been a bit since my last update.  The reason I have not updated in awhile is the same reason Little Man has so many daddy guilt gifts lately.  A daddy guilt gift is when dad has been traveling and away so much feeling guilty for not being around and buys a gift. 

Just before I had to leave on one of the many trips recently, Jynx was heading to fill in on Aunt Jea Jea’s bowling team.  I was not planning on going with but we were told that John, one of the regulars that   watch his sister Amy, was going to be there.  John is fond of Jame and just cleaned out a friend’s house and we were told he had a few toys for him.  He had his car stuffed with toys including a robot and a mountain construction set with a crane.  The robot is great and I think every little boy should have his own robot.

Little Man is doing great just growing way to fast.  We are continuing with the speech therapy.  The therapist tells us he is very advanced in everything (probably why he was potty trained before he was 2) expect for the speech.  I was able to be home for one of the sessions, he had just received a new truck from John and when the therapist was over he noticed a screw on the truck. He pointed and ran into his bedroom grabbed his toolbox, opened it up and looked through it and grabbed the right flathead screwdriver to fit the screw.  Needless to say I did not let him disassemble the truck but we were both amazed. The words do seem to be coming.  We get the lk from milk, Dog, Oww and he still says the word train but without moving his lips.

Friday September 30, 2011 was our now annual trip to Great America’s Fright Fest.  Our good friends get us in on this private party at Fright Fest the night before it opens.  This year Little Man was actually tall enough to go on a few of the adult rides with a supervising adult.  Not only was he tall enough but they also said that I qualified as a supervising adult (LOL).  We were trying to convince Little Man to go on what looked like a version of the scrambler but he kept shaking his head no until I asked if he wanted to go on those cars then we couldn’t hold him back.  After a quick measurement we were onto the first car and he climbed right in.  I sat there the first few minutes before the ride and started wondering if this was a good idea.  What if he started vomiting?  How do I handle that, do I just keep yelling sorry to all the other people on the ride?  The ride started out slowly and a smile grew on his face as a car moved along and then they ramped up the speed.  As we whipped passed the other cars in Scrambler style, I looked down at Little Man whose mouth suddenly opened wide and a huge laugh came out of his mouth.  Little Man loved the ride and laughed the entire time.  Later that night, we took him on the big tea cups.  Once again Little Man ran in and jumped right in and stated pounding on the wheel like a drum.  Once the ride started, he laughed but then in Fright Night fashion the lights went out and a light show started with strobes and lasers, he was in simple awe of all the lights and sounds that now filled the room.  Fright Night wore him out and we headed to the car with Little Man asleep in his wagon.

Sunday we headed to church some place we had not been to in a while due to hectic schedules.  Our church was having service with several other churches and the service was different as each church had their choir sing and the choirs were definitely taking it up a notch.  Little Man loved the music and even started patting his hands along with the bongo player in one of the songs.  He also now claps at the end of the songs and even at the end of movies now.

Halloween is quickly approaching and since I’ve started writing this post a lot has happened.  We had our annual Homecoming and bonfire.  It was a great success, we carved a trail though the woods around our house, the driveway was repaved, we rented a bounce house from a neighbor and I we even resurrected the Haunted Hunt.  Little Man dressed up as a train engineer and spent a good part of the night in the bounce house with the other children. He also enjoyed scarring people by saying, BOOO! The Haunted Hunt was great fun just to sit back and watch the teams struggle along from clue to clue, only at the end to tell us how much fun it was.

We made what I truly hope is our annual trip to County Line Orchard for pumpkins.  We met Baley and her parents Wendy and Duane, and the kids were filled with excitement.  The Corn Maze was a bit muddy but we got enough of it before we discovered an exit from the maze to the pumpkin patch.  The kids love trying to pick up the pumpkins and it makes for some great pictures.  Little Man did okay with the pumpkins but was more interested in the tractors, pulling wagons of people around the orchard.  Once the tractor headed our way there was no stopping him from jumping on and heading up to the front to watch the tractor. 

 Little Man’s close second favorite was the Moo Choo, a train made from barrels painted like cows and pulled around the orchard with of course, a tractor. I wasn’t sure we would be able to get him off the Moo Choo.  After getting him off the Moo Choo we headed over to the petting zoo, where he was extremely excited to feed the goats and the cows and he loved seeing the other animals but they meant nothing, once he saw the toy tractors to play on.  As we headed out the kids once again had fun playing around all the pumpkins they had for sale and of course, I started snapping pictures again.  I had over 2,000 photos to go through by the time we left.  I don’t think we made it down the street from the orchard when he fell asleep dreaming of all the fun we had.  Just when I think this whole dad thing has been great we have a day like we did at the orchard and it gets even better.  I can hardly wait for Halloween and trick or treating.

Birthday Number TWO!

Here we sit with all the celebrations over, and our Little Man is now TWO!  I think we did his second birthday proud.  On his actual birthday we had a small celebration dinner at his favorite restaurant then about a week and a half later a huge birthday bash.

On Little Man’s birthday we headed for his birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, Tyler’s Tender.  We can hardly contain him as we pull into the parking lot and he notices where we are; all his focus is on getting inside, then he runs around not sure where to go first.  We had a nice dinner and Little Man tore into his gifts.  He loved all his gifts but I think his favorite was his toolbox with a hammer and some play nails to pound.  The next hard part was convincing Little Man to leave Tyler’s Tender.

We spent every spare minute in the next day’s planning and getting ready for Little Man’s party.  Additions to his play set, a sand box, cleaning up the yard and house, and that was only the start.  Then a phone call from Auntie Jea Jea who was passing through Rensselaer, IN and thought she saw a train sandbox but it was actually a train bed.  Of course we wanted it and Little Man loved it.

The day of the party Little Man seemed a bit overwhelmed as guest after guest started to show up.  The grill fired up and hot dogs and hamburgers began to fly off the grill and from time to time I was able to catch a glimpse of Little Man enjoying his day.  I finally was able to take a break from the grill and grab a quick bite, when some guests started saying their goodbyes.  OH NO! You’re not going anywhere until we hit the piñata and sing Happy Birthday!  We got the piñata festivities started, I wasn’t too sure how Little Man would take to hitting a Lightning McQueen piñata but he got right into beating his cartoon hero with a baseball bat.  Each kid got a turn until it fell to the ground one last time and we let them beat open the piñata on the ground.  Next was the cake, a huge monster of a cake with Thomas the train on top.  At some point Little Man had stuffed a piece of candy into his mouth and when he went to blow out the candles, drool came out of his mouth and right down onto the cake.  Everyone had a great laugh.  Little Man finished blowing out the candles then reached for Thomas who he tried to push on the tracks made of icing.

Hard to believe it has been two years since our race down to Florida but what a great two years.  Funny, how we can’t seem to imagine our lives now without him.  Happy Birthday Little Man. We love you so much!

One Down, One to go

I was in the middle of craziness; covering political madness in Minneapolis when my phone buzzed with a text message.  I reached down and grabbed my phone to view the message, I was assuming it was from our producer telling us to get out of there, but it wasn’t.  It was a text message from Auntie Jea Jea “Hey Rog Big guy pooped in the potty.”  All the screaming and yelling around me seemed to melt away as I read the message.  Little Man had just taken one small poop but one giant poop towards potty training.

Thomas the Train potty seat, the truck toilet that makes a start up engine sound when you pee in it, did not compare to simply putting him on a regular toilet seat backwards so he faces the tank. He was able to get a better look at his accomplishments when pooping and peeing. Now he will occasionally want to look at his train magazines while he sits on the toilet normally.  Since the first time he used the toilet he has been wearing underwear during the day and a pull up at night.  We have had a few mistakes, but for the most part, he has made it through with a dry pull up in the morning.

Now I do find it humorous that he is potty trained and yet still not saying much of anything.  When we tell friends of his accomplishment they all tell us how great that is for a not quite 2 year old and for a boy at that.  We are still working on the talking but it is not coming easy, we do our best to get him to ask for things but he always seems to find a way to let us know without talking.  Just this morning, he saw me getting a drink and he wanted some and I knew it, but wanted him to ask.  I waited for him to ask, but instead he walked over to the cabinet where his Sippy cups are kept and he opened up the cabinet, like there was not even a child safety lock on it and brought me not only the cup but the right lid for it as well.  DOH! 

We took Little Man to the Drive-In to see the new movie, Cars 2.  We loaded into the Jeep with the top down, stopped off to pick up a pizza.  Little Man was able to have some pizza, walk around and played with other kids.  When the movie started he sat on my lap and was fixed on the screen as we watched Mater, Lighting McQueen and Pit Stop.  Okay, Pit Stop is my favorite.  He soon started to move around a bit and found his way to his little chair and eventually started walking closer and closer to the screen while holding the chair to his butt.  The movie had to start late because of waiting for the sun to go down and he made it through the movie but was tired after it was over.  The Drive-In lived up to our expectations and we reminisced about when we were first dating and would go to the Drive In.  I’m hoping the Lakeshore Drive-In in Monticello, Indiana is around for years to come,  so that Little Man will one day love the Drive-In as much as we have.              

Off the Yellow Brick Road and on the train

Goodbye yellow brick road; the Wizard of Oz room served us well and one day it will be resurrected again.  The Yellow brick road now has a train track that carries Thomas the Train.  Even though Little Man didn’t seem to mind the Wizard of Oz, we felt it was time for him to have a room that suited him more. Mom was a trooper as she helped pack up all of her Wizard of Oz treasures all for her little Jame Jack.   He now points and smiles at all the pictures of trains that now cover his room and he gets very excited when we hit the train horns on the soundboard I installed in his room.  We even changed the curtain hangers to Rail Road crossing signs.  The room is not finished yet but it seems more like Little Man’s room now.

Little Man’s other love is cars, including the movie Cars and my Jeep that he thinks is his play toy that I get to borrow.  Since we had a hot day, I decided it was time to switch tops on the Jeep but also thought it would be fun to have Little Man out there when I did.  He took right to the hose and started to play with the water and by the end of the wash he was completely soaked but laughing.  I think he had as much fun as we did watching him.  As Jynx gave him a bath and changed him I put his car seat in the back of the Jeep with the top off.  We left later for Grandpa Jim and Grandma Rosie’s house to help them move some furniture.  Little Man wasn’t too sure of the open Jeep at first but then he quickly got used to it.

The move went quickly and Grandpa Jim and I walked Little Man over to the train station to see a train but no luck today, we seem to be on the wrong side for the Metra trains arriving and the freight didn’t come through.  When we arrived back at the house Jynx had started transplanting a few plants and needed the watering can.  Little Man jumped right in helping carrying the watering can and wanted to water every plant in the yard including an empty pot. 

As we headed for home Little Man climbed right up the side of the jeep and into his seat.  He sat back there on the trip home looking over the new train magazines he got from Grandpa Jim.  I glanced back and Little Man fell asleep out in the open air of the Jeep probably dreaming of trains and cars.

National Train Day

Little Man’s love for trains seems to grow as fast as he does.  I’m not sure at this point how much longer I’ll be able to refer to him as Little Man before he starts calling me that.  Our lives have been on quite a roller coaster lately but that’s life.

Jynx has been busy with her cousin Bobby who passed away the other day from Cirrhosis of the liver.  It was a bumpy ride and we will miss Bobby who passed at the young age of 54.  During this time, Jynx has been spending time with Bobby’s parents, Bob and Dorothy, who have enjoyed seeing Little Man and have named themselves Grandparents, we had a good chuckle over the number of grandparents he now has.

Little Man started holding his head like he had a headache, so much so, that we decided to call the doctor.  We took him to his pediatrician who informed us once again that we are raising a giant; Little Man is in the 98 percentile for his height.  She recommended that he see an optometrist to see if everything was okay.  We also asked the Doctor about his lack of talking and what we could do about this.  I know everyone tells us not to worry and when he does start talking a lot we will wish he never started but I do want to get to that point.  The doctor recommended a program called First Steps but they cannot evaluate him for some time yet.  Jynx took him to the optometrist who after learning that his birth mom wore glasses asked to see the adoption certificate.  Yes, we thought that was strange as well.  After the examination, the doctor’s advice was to try and wash his eyelashes.  Wash his eyelashes?  Think we may need to find a new optometrist.  Now Little Man has all but stopped touching his head like he has a headache, we are thinking it was possibly a dog hair or something in his eye.

I received an e mail from Little Man’s great Uncle Brett about National Train Day at Union Station.  Who knew there was a National Train Day?  Of course we had to take him.  We arrived at Union Station and started down those famous steps the words, “I’m not sure exactly where this is at.” Just left my mouth when we saw the massive crowd and knew we had found it.  Not exactly sure what was going on we made our way over and found ourselves in line to tour an Amtrak train.  Little Man was in amazement as we headed down to the tracks and he saw the huge trains.  He could hardly wait to jump up on the train and start our tour.  The only bad part was there is not a lot of room on the train and you are in a single file line for too long for a child that is not quite two.  We did our best to sit every once in a while and kept him entertained.  After we got out of the modern Amtrak, the line then lead us to an older train that we decided to pass on for lunch.

After lunch we headed over to the other trains, once again not exactly sure what we were going to see.  This time we found ourselves on another Amtrak train that gave us a forty five minute ride and tour of the train yard.  Little Man’s eyes lit up as the train surged ahead taking us out of the station and on to a nearby bridge.  The train rumbled back and forth and he pointed out every train in the yard with a big smile on his face.  After forty five minutes and learning exactly where our stimulus dollars went, the train returned to the station.

We started to head back to the car but gave little man a moment to play on those famous Union Station steps and of course I had to take a few photos.  I have been buying hard drives to store all the photos, I now seem to be taking.  I don’t think Little Man was awake when we left the parking garage, hopefully dreaming of all the big and shiny trains he got to see.  For Jynx and me, it was a good distraction from all the stress that life had been handing us.  I know God won’t give us anything he doesn’t think we can handle; I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.