Weekend Fun

On Saturday we took AJ to the BBQ cook-off and carnival. Some of Daddy's colleagues gave us an invitation to one of the tents. We wook AJ over to the carnival to see how he would react to all the noise and lights. He thought that was the most fantastic thing he's ever seen. He got to ride the 150-foot tall ferris wheel (which of course stopped at the top), and the kiddie roller coaster. While he was riding the roller coaster with his Dad, he looked up and said "I 'cared". Daddy: "Are you scared?" "Yes" "Are you having fun?" "YES!" He rode the ferris wheel and the roller coaster twice. He also went through the fun house, which he has deemed "stupid".

On Sunday, we got up at our usual early time and watched PBS kids while getting ready for church. Two blocks from the church we hear an odd sound from the back seat. I turn around just in time to see AJ throw up all over himself. After four waves of it, the poor baby was just worn out. I was set to sing that morning, so they dropped me off at the church since we were so close, and they headed home. I got a phone call a little while later. They had made it home, but Daddy did not have a key to get into the house. And the spare key we keep in the van was not there. They were stuck. I had a key, but no way to get back the 20 minutes to take it to them. A few minutes later, I started getting voicemails and text messages from the alarm company. Daddy had apparently broken into the house.

When AJ woke up from his nap, he was a completely new man. We went outside to pull weeds and work in the yard. He was running around, laughing and having a great time. Until he tripped in the middle of the street and skinned his knee really badly. Daddy took the screaming kid to get cleaned up and bandaged. A little while later, he was outside playing again. Poor kid tripped again! This time he scraped up both knees. Then at bedtime last night he was carrying his pillow to his room and tripped over his Little People Noah's Ark. That left a bleeding scratch all the way down his shin.

We sent him to school this morning and hope they don't think we've been beating him.

Ick

Apparently my family is trying single-handedly to control Betta fish overpopulation. Monday evening on our way home we stopped to buy another Betta to replace our dearly departed Fred. Fred Squared (or F2) was a lovely dark blue Betta. F2 settled into his new home, and would often have staring contests with AJ. Life was good.

Wednesday morning, Hubby noticed that F2 was starting to look "not so good" and was getting little white spots on him. A little research discovered that F2 may have possibly come down with a case of Ick. Seems there's a little parasite that attacks Bettas and shows up as little white spots all over their bodies. I think it looks like he had barnacles.

Anyway, last night we went to Petsmart and got Fred some medicine. Hubby faithfully nursed F2 for the rest of the evening until bedtime. We went to bed hopeful because F2 seemed to be getting a little more active. I am sorry to report that this morning I discovered that F2 had gone on to that big aquarium in the sky.

R.I.P., F2.

Farewell to Fred

Farewell, Fred...seems we hardly got a chance to know each other...

We bought AJ a one-gallon aquarium on Saturday afternoon and let him pick out a male Betta fish to put in it. We got the aquarium all set up on Saturday, but left Fred the Fish in his store container for 24 hours to let the water settle. While I was gone to choir practice yesterday afternoon, Hubby introduced Fred to his new home. Seems Fred didn't eat all of the food that we gave hime Satruday night, so his water was looking quite polluted. Fred didn't seem to like it much, and by the time I got home, had already started looking rather lethargic. By bedtime, Fred was just kind of looking sickly and floating in the corner vertically. AJ wished him a merry "night night Fred" and went off to sleep.

We got up this morning to discover that Fred had passed away during the night. Hubby gave him a proper ceremony in the bathroom. AJ still walked up to the fish-less tank, pointed, and said "fishy".

He's really broken up about it all.

Still Alive

Yes we are still all alive. Just extremely busy. We have 23 shows this month, not counting just the small "one-off's". Many days I'm not exactly sure which way is up!

We got a note from AJ's teacher on Monday asking us to call her. I finally MAYBE figured out what it was about yesterday (Wednesday) when I just happened to find a copy of an Oh-No Report from Monday that no one told me about. Apparently AJ has been aggressive with his friends and consistently tells his teacher "no". This is the same thing we have heard from her since she became AJ's teacher. He constantly says "no" at home, too. We put him in time out -- when that doesn't work, he gets one swat on the butt. Short of beating the child (which I am sure CPS would have issue with) I just don't know what else you are supposed to do with a stubborn two-year-old. His communication skills are still greatly lacking, and I'm sure a lot of it comes from frustration. Most of the time, I can end the meltdowns by distracting him with something else.

As for the "aggressive" behavior, she's just going to have to be more specific. What exactly is he doing? I can't very well punish him for something at home for something he did that morning at school that I didn't see. We won't put the two together.

Offer a suggestion for a solution or stop just complaining to me that you are letting a two-year-old defeat you. The complaints are not news anymore -- he is stubborn at home too.

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

My corns

AJ's speech seems to be getting clearer every day. I can actually understand about half of what he is saying now. When we got home yesterday, I took him out of the car, he grabbed my hand, and said "Come on." Apparently we were going to play outside and I was required to go with him. We wandered down the street looking at kids playing and listening to dogs barking. He wanted to go look at the dogs. And there was one house about midway down the block that he wanted to go inside to play there. I distracted him with a bug crawling across the sidewalk. I was able to get him to walk back toward our house by telling him we were looking for more bugs.

What we found in our yard was not bugs - it was acorns. Or "my corns" as AJ calls them. AJ picked through all of the acorns on the ground to find the cracked ones. Then he would peel them open to get to the "baby tree" inside. Then he had me pick him up so he could put the "my corn" back on the tree. We did this (over and over and over) until it started getting dark.

When we went back inside, I asked him what he wanted to eat for dinner. He went immediately to the table and sat down in his chair. Pointed to the kitchen and said "I wanna eat!" When I asked him what he wanted to eat -- "CHICKEN" (pause) "NUGGETS". Didn't have any chicken nuggets at home (having just returned from vacation), so we went to Wings 'n More where he had fried pickles with ranch dressing (which he calls hot sauce), and chicken tenders and french fried with gravy.

WARNING -- AJ double dips.

Kandoo

This is just the cutest dance and music. AJ really likes to get his groove on with this one:

http://www.kidskandoo.com/en_US/movesDance.do;jsessionid=B12E9AC47D4B4C65A342E6A741AFF5D0