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.   

Easter 2011

Wow, what a crazy but great Easter.  We had so much to do and so little time but it was great fun.  Little man is at the age now where holidays are becoming fun to spend time with him.  Little man got some quality time with the Easter Bunny and he was a bigger hit than Santa.

A few days before Easter, the Bunny stopped by our house to say hello to Little Man.  When he walked Little Man was unsure at the sight of this huge bunny standing inside the house.  Already it was a big improvement from Santa since he didn’t run out of the room crying.  Little Man walked up and gave the bunny five, but still a bit unsure, we walked over to a chair to see if we could take a few pictures.    The Easter Bunny sat down but he was still unsure until he glanced over to see the picture with him and the Easter Bunny from last year.  His face light up and he pointed with a big smile, the Easter Bunny was golden.  We placed him on the Bunny’s lap and started taking pictures.  After the pictures the bunny went to leave and little man waved goodbye, much to my surprise he ran to the backdoor to see where the bunny went.

The next day we decided to color Easter eggs.  Jynx got a fancy new system to color the eggs, they were q tips filled with dye and when you snapped the end it filled the cotton with the dye.  I went with the traditional method of dye tablets in the cups.  I’m not sure what happened but the dye in the cups did not work too well.  Jynx’s q-tips were a big hit and little man loved using the q-tips to color the eggs.  He made a good mess of himself and the eggs and required a bath that night.

Easter Morning and I was up getting things ready when Little Man woke up, came out and saw the new Cars pajamas the Easter Bunny had brought for him.  He let out a big gasp and ran over to them he looked then quickly ripped them down, I saw pieces of the hanger fly in the air.  Jynx heard the noise and came to help him open the rest of his basket.  Every time he pulled out a matchbox car, he wanted it opened immediately.  Matchbox cars, Thomas Pez, bubbles, bunny and duck candy dispensers, pajamas and peeps are what the bunny brought for little man.  First thing in the morning and already Easter was one of the best.

We got Little Man dressed and headed out for church.  Little Man was very excited at church, I’m sure he had an idea this was a special day.  He was also fascinated by all the butterflies hanging in the sanctuary.  He was very good during church he stayed awake for the passing of the peace and the choir songs but quickly fell asleep during the sermon.  After church the kids went outside for the egg hunt, it was a beautiful day for the egg hunt.  Jame quickly got into the hunt and soon started putting eggs not only into his basket but other kid’s baskets as well.  Little Man got a bit of help from the Easter Bunny during the hunt and took time to thank the bunny with several hugs. 

We arrived home and started to get ready for Easter dinner, Little Man went to play with his new matchbox cars.  As family and friends arrived little man got more Easter gifts all that needed to get out of the package as soon as possible.  He got a Tonka truck from Grandma Rose and Grandpa Jim; it was great to see the Tonka truck was still made out of metal.  He quickly removed everything from the table to give the new truck a spin, soon after the matchbox cars were loaded in the back of the truck for a ride.  He got a block train from his Great Uncle Brett that once again quickly required taking everything off the table so the train could get a proper test. 

At the end of the day he was happy to get into his new Cars pajamas but fought going to sleep since he had so many new toys to play with.  I’m not sure what I expected from this Easter, but with Little Man being so excited about the Bunny, the basket and the egg hunts, our future holidays are going to be great fun.

Easter Egg Hunt

We took Little Man to the town Easter egg hunt this weekend and he seemed to have a great time.  We rushed out of the house Saturday to the park only to wind up at the wrong park.  Doh!  I spun the minivan around and raced to the right park, I was convinced we would pull up to see a bunch of kids walking away from the hunt.  We arrived at the park to find and empty parking lot and a girl standing there in a raincoat who informed us the hunt had been rained out but it would be held at the same time tomorrow.

The next day came and we headed out early to the right park.  We arrived this time with plenty of time which was good since the parking lot was filling up quickly.  We were hoping to see the Easter Bunny just to see how Little Man would react to him but no sign of the Bunny.  We made our way to the two and under part of the hunt, which was located in the tennis courts.  The workers kindly asked us to stay along the fence.  HA!  Good luck keeping an almost two year old along a fence and away from a bunch of candy and plastic eggs blowing in the wind.  We were not alone in or struggle.

After several agonizing minutes of holding Little Man back the siren rang out and off he went.  Little man was not too sure at first but he quickly got the hang of it.  Our first priority was to get an egg; each child was allowed one egg that was turned in later to get a bunny sippy cup.  Little Man loved running around picking up the prizes which were mostly goldfish and cheerios.  He soon began to pick up the prizes and started to place them in other kids bags mostly girls.  As his Mom said “He likes the ladies.”  Of course I had to jump in quickly and remind him to put the treats into his basket.

Little Man finished the hunt and we stuck around for the raffle.  Number after number after number was called. I thought for sure we were going to be the only ones not winning a prize but our number was called and we think everyone got a prize and near the end they announced that if your number had not been called you could come up and they had bubbles for any children that were left.  Little Man fell asleep before we hit the car and took a nice nap.  Later that day he awoke to play with some of the toys and eat the candy from his great hunt.  I’m sure he enjoyed the day but I know we enjoyed the day just as much.   

Potty Time

It’s Potty Time!

We have started to Potty train Little Man.  Yes to all of you who don’t know, it is hard and is a big commitment.  We had to start trying since he has on a number of occasions pulled off his dirty diaper.  Jynx did the research and she briefs me (pun intended) on what might be the best thing to try.  Never thought I would say it but sometimes it is just easier to say pull that diaper back up!

I called home one day just to check in and see how everything was going and I called at a bad time.  Jynx explained to me how she turned around to see Little Man sitting in his toy box with the diaper laying next to it.  She walked over found the dirty diaper and his toy box filled with several dirty toys. She cleaned up Little Man and was starting on the toys when I called.  Please, a quick moment of silence for those toys that lost their battle to the dirty bottom that day.  I must admit I chuckled when I got off the phone with Jynx and thankful to be working and not at home just then.  About a week later Karma bit me and you guessed it, I looked over and saw Little Man grinning from ear to ear and I knew even before I walked over what was happening.

We went to the store and bought a little potty.  We bought a potty designed like a truck that when you went potty, the truck would rumble and sound like it was starting up.  Surely the excitement of getting the truck to start would make the potty training simple.  Little Man quickly hopped off of the truck turned around placed his fingers on the connectors inside the potty and the truck rumbled to life.  Okay so the truck did not work since we spent more time with our fingers inside the bowl then our butt on the bowl.  The truck remains but has been replaced by a Thomas the Train seat that goes on the big potty.  I have to admit its kind of funny using a train for potty training.

Thomas does seem to work the best; he will go in the bathroom with us and sit on the toilet.  We have him tucking his sprinkler hose down, which is great since we usually sit right in front of him.  He has a book Elmo Uses the Potty he would read or rather he would sit there and hit all of the sound effect buttons, but now his favorite is a train magazine that Grandpa Jim gave him.  He will sit on the potty, reading the train magazine, living up to his nickname Little Man.  The next step was teaching him to grunt, while sitting on the toilet all tucked down with the magazine in hand.

Jynx read that if we put him in regular underwear and he wet them, he would not like the feeling and use the potty more.  Well that has not worked out so well, he has wet the underwear a few times and just kept on playing, wet britches and all.  I’m not too sure the whole underwear theory is going to work since little man is so easy going with certain things.

We got invited to a potty party.  Huggies was having a kick off for their new song the potty dance and friends won a party.  It was only Jame and his girlfriend Bayle that attended but they had posters and gifts for the kids.  They put on the video and the kids danced; to me the potty dance has always been those strange moves you do as you run to the bathroom, I don’t think it needs to be choreographed.  The kids were having a great time playing together and were fascinated by the two little potties in the front room.  They of course had to try each one of them and when one pulled down their diaper the other had to as well, maybe this was going to work.

Little Man stood up from the potty turned around and started to take it apart as he usually does to see how it works.  He took the seat placed it on the carpet and peed right next to it.  We all erupted with laughter and I was not sure if that should count or not.  They started to go and clean it up when I stopped them so I could take a picture.  This moment was too funny to forget.

The kids also got the lick’em and stick’em tattoos that were not as easy as I remember to apply.  Jame got Lightning McQueen on his arm.  He loved showing everyone the racecar tattoo.  Now Jynx who loves to worry about everything is now worried he will grow up and have tattoos all over his body.  Not to worry, at finding out this news, his Aunt Wendy has promised to buy him his first tattoo. 

The struggle still continues today and we still seem far from being potty trained.  We had a small victory the other day.  I sat Little Man down on the toilet had him tuck and handed him his magazine.  After a few minutes I got him to try his grunting, we sat there grunting back and forth when all of sudden his eyes light up.  I looked down to see that he had used the potty a bit.  He looked as if he thought he was going to get in trouble but I quickly turned my shock into celebration and his face lit up with that famous Jame Jack smile.      

These Boots are made for Walking

We took Little Man out shopping the other night and as we got out of the car he looked into the sky, pointed and yelled his now famous “Dat”.  I looked up at the big moon in the sky that night; it has been a long and dreary winter with little sign of the sun or the moon.   His eyes light up and his mouth opened slightly with amazement.  We stood there a bit and stared at the moon.  Actually he stared at the moon and I stood there watching his amazement.  I felt bad when we had to go into the store but as we walked in to the store he kept his eyes locked in on the moon repeating “Dat…Dat…Dat”.

That night after arriving home we changed Little Man and placed him in his crib for the night; he got up and quickly scaled up and over the crib.  Yes it was the end of the crib for little man.  The next morning I took one side of crib off turning his bed into a toddler bed.  Where has the time gone?  Our baby was now a toddler. 

Jame putting Dorthy Barbie in his bed

The switch to the toddler bed was not just an easy transition.  Our first problem was Little Man does a lot of tossing and turning in the night and he rolled right out of bed several times.  We had already had pillows down for his fall from the crib when the side was still on and they were still there but he was not happy about rolling out of bed and would wake up crying.  My suggestion was to go and get some sort of netting to stretch across to prevent a fall but Jynx had a better idea to stuff a long narrow pillow under the sheet and so far it has worked well.  The next obstacle was him waking up and walking away, most of the time he just wondered into our room but a few times he got up and started to play with his toys.  We took the gate that used to block the basement and placed it in his doorway, it reminds me of when Kramer from Seinfeld put a screen door on his apartment.  At night we close the gate and in the morning we open it using a bungee cord to keep it open for him.  The last couple of nights Little Man is back to sleeping through the night.

Last night we took Little Man to one of our favorite shops Once Upon A Child, a kid’s resale store.  Jynx picked out a few outfits for him and then went to see about shoes.  Jynx struck out in the shoe department but did comeback with some rain boots she thought were cute, they looked like a dinosaur.  Little Man made it clear that he loved them.  Little Man quickly put them on and did not want to take them off, after they rang them up we gave them back to him and he quickly put them back on his feet .  Yes even after we changed him into his pajamas that night he grabbed the boots again and placed them back on his feet.  Little Man went to bed with them on and after he fell asleep I tried to remove them but he started to cry.  Why was I going to

try and remove them?  I walked away and went to bed.  I’m not sure when he will take them off; in fact he is sitting next to me watching Thomas wearing his pajamas and his boots.

Dinosaur Freak-out

One of our favorite places to take little man is to the Chicago Children’s Museum.  He loves running around and playing with all the great exhibits there and it always seems to wear him out.  We had decided last spring to become members of the museum; it was cheaper that way and also gives us discounts at other museums.  Every time we go to the museum it’s amazing to see what Little Man is interested in this time since it seems to change as he grows.

The museum has several different rooms and we try to get little man into all of them.  The first couple of times we went he could care less about the fire display but this time he found it fun to play on the truck and we even put a fireman’s coat on him to play in.  This time he only wore the coat they did have boots, pants and helmets for the kids to wear but we figured it was enough with the coat.  He played there for some time and he probably could have played there the entire day but his Mimi and Auntie Jea Jea were with us and we wanted to make sure they saw the entire museum as well.

Up to the second floor we headed for more areas for him to play.  The water room is still one of his favorites and I must admit mine as well.  At the entrance to the Water room they have raincoats for the kids to put on before they go play.  I’m not sure why we take the time to put the raincoat on the best thing is just to bring a change of clothes since he always finds a way to get wet.  I think this room will always be fun for him since its fun for us.

Jame inside the shoe

The other rooms include the backyard room that has giant flowers and a big shoe to climb threw.  The backyard sort of reminds me of the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids.  They also have a city area with a car and a bus to play on and a toddler crawling area that used to be his favorite but he has outgrown that area.  The car and bus still get his attention since he loves cars and steering wheels so much.  The other room is an outdoor room that has a tree house and a river threw it and he still likes this room because he still has a chance to play in the little stream.



Fist visit to the Dino Dig



They also have a dinosaur dig room that is the reason I’m writing about our adventure at the museum.  In the past he has enjoyed the room you can go into the dinosaur pit and dig through the rubber mulch and uncover dinosaur bones.  The last few visits to the museum we have spent a lot of time in this room playing in the mulch and using the brushes they give to help on your dig.  In the past we have had to take him out of the room crying because he wanted to stay longer and play but, not this time.  We entered the room and he went right over to the archeology truck they had for kids to play on. I grabbed him and took him over to the entrance to the dig area when I noticed a bit of hesitation and sure enough Little Man freaked out as I tried to get him to go into the dig area.  We all had a good laugh but something had him freaked out.  Before long we discovered it was the rubber mulch for some reason he thought it was dirty and icky, oh boy now what to do normally one of his favorite places to play and he did not even want his shoes to touch the ground.  I did what every dad with my sense of humor would do I picked him up walk right into the middle of the pit and plunked him down walked away and had a good laugh.  Little Man screamed tried to run but the realized how much of it was around then stopped screamed some more until I had my good laugh and I picked him up and carried him out.  I think this was the first time he left the room without crying to go back in, he left and did not look back.  I thought it was kind of cruel to place him in the pit but his Mimi and Aunt Jea Jea carried some of the pieces out just to pull out later to get a reaction.