And no, I don’t keep up with your age in months any more.  I had to count it out on my fingers.  Forty three is quite a large number, can it really be right?  I remember in my pre-parent experience with children, 2-3 year olds were always my favorite.  They are still small enough to seem babyish but old enough to be independent, generally speaking.  And now, seeing you at three and a half, I find myself wishing, like many other ages, I could just put you on hold for a bit.  Stop you from getting any older.  Even on the days I feel as if I might pull my hair out, you are just so gosh darn cute, I can’t help but smile.

  1. I love that you separate the heart marshmellows out of your Lucky Charms and save them beside your bowl for last.
  2. I hope that one day you can hear your little boy or girl tell you “Mom and Dad, you are de most perfect parents I ever saw.  I wuv you.”
  3. I love that you run in the bathroom, stripping your clothes off along the way, slam the door closed, only to yell that you need me as soon as you get on the potty.  Privacy is overrated.
  4. I can’t help but laugh when I see nekid buns tearing down the hall!
  5. And when I was outside trying to unload the car at night, you planted your little potty, the one you never use, right smack in front of the full view glass front door to strip and go potty.
  6. You politely turned heiney toward the neighborhood.
  7. And then you held your shirt under your chin (the only remaining clothing) and hollered out the door that you needed help with your underwear.
  8. I love how dramatic you are, the enthusiasm with which you approach everything.
  9. Including bugs
  10. I love that you tell me you love me at least 20 times a day.
  11. And you always give hugs and kisses.
  12. At night, you always have to tell me just one more thing.  “I hafta tell you just one more thing.  Again.” you say.
  13. You understand my neurotic organization of your vehicles by scale and type (Monster trucks, Cars [the movie] cars, Hot Wheels, bigger scale cars, trains, they each have their own container)
  14. Sometimes I think you have ADHD, until I pull out a book. You will sit as long as I will read.
  15. You love the Skippyjon Jones series, thus you regularly refer to people as wittle crumbcakes or bunny boots and my personal favorite, Mr. McPooh.
  16. You like to read books to me from memory.
  17. Your mind works faster than your mouth.  You get so excited trying to get it all out that you trip over your words.
  18. A kiss and some good hugs can still fix most anything.
  19. You look darn tootin cute in a hat.
  20. The last thing you say to me at night absolutely must be “Good night, I love you, sweet dreams.” If you happen to think of something else you just have to tell me, you have to say the good night sentence again when you’re done.
  21. You are thrilled to go outside and play with rocks, sticks, “flowers,” which are actually weeds, and finding a dandelion is like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
  22. You always pick those “flowers” for me.
  23. You aren’t a morning person. You pull the covers over your head fussing that it is too bright! And I think you would stay up well past midnight if I let you.  Wonder where you got that from?  Hmph.
  24. You are still small enough to climb underneath the round ottoman in the middle of your granny’s living room. It is like a little tent or cave that you hide in, squealing with delight whenever someone exclaims “where’s Caleb?”
  25. You take the tires off of EVERYthing.
  26. You never forget anything.
  27. Herbie is a brand of car.  Like Ford, Chevrolet, and Herbie.  Every VW bug is a Herbie.  Scott tries to interest you in high dollar Ferraris, but you really just love a 50 year old car that was $1500 brand spanking new and loaded.
  28. You can spot a Herbie from half a mile.  You even check my mirrors!  I pulled in a parking lot and by the time I was out and opening your door to get you out, you were excitedly exclaiming “Dare’s a Herbie, right dare!!”  When I asked where, you replied “In da mirror!”  Sure enough when I leaned in front of your seat, I could see the back end of a new model Herbie several rows over.
  29. The King Krunch monster truck will be an important stocking stuffer, no doubt.  We’ve been looking for it for eight months or so.  You’ll love it.  But not as much as the Herbies.
  30. You told me a few nights ago that I was ’such a character.’  Then you put your hand over your eyes and tucked your chin down and just laughed shaking your head.  Where do you get these expressions from?  And the ability to apply them in the correct circumstance.
  31. You ran straight up to a little girl, complete stranger, in Kmart last night.  I kept thinking you would stop in front of her.  Nope, you wrapped your arms around her for a big bear hug.  She shied away, and her mom just started laughing, and said “Aw isn’t he sweet?!”
  32. Sometimes you get impatient waiting to get cleaned up after meals and yank your bib off, defeating the purpose of the ‘crumb-catcher’ as it dumps the contents on the floor.  Yes you still wear a bib.  Something to talk about in therapy later.  At least you’ll be wearing clean clothes at our appointment.  Anyway, I give you the dustbuster to take responsibility for your mess.  It turns into more of a reward than a “punishment.”  In fact, you yanked your bib off after breakfast and after the sound of showering cereal crumbs on the floor, you said, “Now I need da dustbuster!”  As it so happens, you are not only content to clean up your mess, but also to vacuum half the house with it.  Which works in my favor anyway.
  33. You correct adults’ English.
  34. You approach everything with a loving heart.  Bugs found inside need to go back outside with their family.  Cars and trucks must be tucked into bed.
  35. I hope I’ll always be able to remember how you say “Oh no no no no” like Petrie from The Land Before Time.
  36. It’s not that I want you to wake up grumpy (you got that honestly), but I do enjoy those extra cuddles before you’re ready to face the world again after sleeping.
  37. In case you didn’t get the memo, putting your hands over your eyes and actually saying the words “Boo Hoo” is not considered crying.
  38. You are keeping the yogurt factories in business.
  39. Milk too.
  40. I think you actually know that you are classic entertainment when we are visiting with family.  I think it is because you like to make people smile.
  41. I love the passionate, caring, and independent big person you are becomming.
  42. I love the needing, gentle, and compassionate little person that you are.
  43. I love you.  With all my heart.

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Last holiday season I was reading another mom’s blog and she was discussing Christmas traditions.  She mentioned that she wrapped up Christmas books and put them in a basket each year.  Books like the Polar Express, captivating stories that can be enjoyed by a wide age range.  Every day beginning on the 1st of December, and through until Christmas Eve, one of her (seven) children would pick a book out of the basket and unwrap it and they all sat around the fireplace reading.  I thought that was such a wonderful idea and tucked it away in the back of my head for this year.  You’re probably thinking the same thing I was though…”But I don’t have 24 Christmas books!”  Yeah me neither.  The library is your friend. I did purchase several to add to our collection, but I figured I’d drop by the library and try to find a few to fill the remaining days.

I’ve found that Amazon in general seems to have the best prices on books (gotta love that free super saver shipping!).  I didn’t focus so much on finding the stories for a wide age range because I just have Caleb, and he enjoys children’s picture books most.  We still need to be flipping pages every 60-90 seconds.  Which, I think, ain’t half bad for his age.  When I was looking for books to order this year, I mostly stuck to the four and five star amazon reviews.  Ones where the review title had words like “endearing” or heartwarming” or “the true meaning of the season.”

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree

How Murray Saved Christmas: According to the reviews, this one is hilarious, so I’m anxious to read it!

We have the Bad Dog Marley book and just love it.  So I knew a A Very Marley Christmas book should be on the list.

Bear’s First Christmas

This is one of the books I purchased last year.  We have every book in the Bear series (they are all adorable, but especially Bear Snores On).  Bear’s friends wake him up for Christmas and all gather in his warm winter den to celebrate the season.

The Polar Express: You knew that would be on the list

Russell’s Christmas Magic: The reviews may end up being right, the story doesn’t have that classic ring, but we have a different Russell book and the illustrations are precious.  I flipped through this book on the Amazon Reader, and again the pictures are adorable, so I bought it since Russell is a recognized book character already, even if the story isn’t a perfect 10.

Santa Claustrophobia

The Snow Angel: Classic Story combined with beautiful illustrations

Merry Christmas Stinky Face: We have the board book I love you Stinky Face, this Christmas version is on a Christmas book display at our Walmart.

Winter’s Gift: I teared up reading through this one at Lookybook.  This one is a story of a man who lost his wife beginning to heal during his first Christmas without her.

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You ever have those moments after you say something to your child you think about what you just said…out of context, it would be one strange sentence.  Like for instance:

“I looked between your legs already, there’s no pudding on your pants.”

If someone was listening in, that would probably sound pretty strange.  Caleb managed to get pudding on his booster seat piece in between his legs that prevents him from sliding out of the chair and under the table (which knowing our meal struggles, he most certainly would do).  Somehow he still managed to climb down from his chair without getting any on him though.

Does that ever happen to you, and you chuckle to yourself about how strange it might sound if someone just overheard the sentence?

I know my son does his fair share of shocking things too.  Like for instance when he found a star sticker at my mother inlaw’s the other night.  I don’t even know where he got the sticker, but when contemplating where to put it, wouldn’t you know he decided on the dead center of her boob?  Before the room could erupt into laughter, he exclaimed “Granny Gooch, you have BIG boobs, just like my mom!!”  *hides in another room*

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Okay, so Val over at Stinky John Jones mentioned in a recent comment that I should do a Christmas List post. I’m always up for discussing this type of thing, because twice a year, it becomes my CIA mission (for those who know us personally, there’s a pun there) to find the most unique items in existence.  Seriously, it is like an addiction.  An expensive addiction.  I will spent countless hours scouring the internet for obscure toys.  I hit all up my major natural and European toy retailers like Oompa, Maukilo, and Moolka.  Let’s face it, everything is prettier in Europe, toys included.  Beautiful long lasting wooden pieces.  Higher toy safety standards to boot.  Take a look around the Haba and Selecta websites.  Why can’t Walmart carry stuff like that?  I might hate them a little less.  And be even more broke than I already am.  But other countries, the US included do manage to make neat things, they are just a bit harder to find.  I like to do a yahoo or google search for natural toys or wooden toys and see what pops up.  I’ve probably been through every toy store in its entirety for the first eight pages of search results.

Now just in case I hadn’t spent enough time finding the toys and games, I then try to research them and see what other parents had to say about them.  I can’t tell you how many games I’ve thought “looked neat” only to find them on amazon.com with terrible reviews.  People saying the pieces broke easily or didn’t work correctly, etc.  (If you haven’t noticed by now, Hi I’m Rachel and I’m addicted to the internet.  It is my best friend. Just ask my husband. He runs to the computer chair if I get up to go pee just so he can check his email!)  So without further ado…

*Tip: I keep up with all this crap using wishlist.com so my bookmarks don’t become overrun.  Okay well they are anyway, but wishlist.com is awesome!*

Neat things I’ve found, but have not gotten/tested:

Baufix: I think these are a neat take on a construction toy.  Sort of like K’nex, only not.  They are wooden (scores extra points in my book!).  Caleb is big on the tool thing.  He likes to feel like he’s using tools just like dad.  He will get his screwdriver out to work on something that needs fixing.  If you are trying to super glue something, he wants to be all up in the middle of what you’re doing, whether you want him there or not.

Cargo train terminal (by Maxim I think): My mom saved all my Brio stuff from my childhood.  I can still remember my ‘train table’ back before they were such a popular thing.  Mine was just a sheet of plywood with rounded corners on top of a table.  We added an eBay lot of trains and tracks to the things from my childhood, and Caleb has been playing with train stuff for over two years now.  I found this train cargo terminal add on that has little magnetic “packages” to be lifted on and off.

Castle blocks: These are incredibly gorgeous.  That’s just all there is to it. Handcrafted in Indonesia, they are made of mahogany, only available at finewoodentoys.com

Lacing Caterpillar Box: Lacing seems to be on the list of toddler skills to be mastered.  But most of the ‘toys’ look so boring.  I found this adorable caterpillar box that seems like it brings a lot of whimsy and fun to the activity though.

Diggity Dog:  It’s no secret, I love kid games.  I made a mission out of finding ones other than Hungry Hippos and Elefun, after asking some other moms about games and hearing that one woman’s daughter beat the crap out of Ele”fun” when she was a little girl.  She got frustrated with it, and the mom just stood out in the hallway secretly snickering to herself!  I was surprised to find what a wide assortment of games you really can play with three year olds once you look past the Walmart shelves

Hugg-a-planet: Bigger is always better, right?  Click the link to see an adult holding this huge Earth.  Caleb loves his map, I think this is a great way to bridge the 2-d flatness of the map to the concept that it is actually a sphere.  find it cheaper here!

Traffic Dominos: I’m always on the lookout for anything car themed.  Because quite frankly, I didn’t know that such a thing existed as “car genes” nor that they could be passed down from generation to generation.

Melody Express Train: Each color track makes a different note when the train rides over it.  Build a song, and start the train moving to hear it.  Comes with a songbook.

Martian Matter: Some people say playdough.  Martian mud sounds cooler though.  This is something you actually can find at Walmart!

Wooden ramps racetrack: Cuter, safer and nicer than their noisy counterparts.

Plan City Deluxe Road System: For those transportation enthusiasts, notice the train crossing piece.  Compatible with most of the wooden train tracks, just make sure you have your railroad crossing signs up for those Hot Wheels!

Sprig Discover Rig: I’ve previously written on this guy.  Sound and lights, but no batteries.  This one is kid powered with interchangeable explorers from different countries, each with their own story to tell.  Read more here.

Hearth Song Memo: I have tried and tried to find this elsewhere, as I don’t particularly care for the overpriced shipping, but it is not to be found anywhere else.  All wood.  Check.  Flexibility.  Check check.  You can start out with just a few pairs if you’re playing with a younger child.  You can substitute other small objects or stickers under the little caps to mix things up.

Spinning tops: Courtesy of Etsy.  Careful, if you haven’t been to Etsy, you will become addicted.  It is a homespun eBay for handmade items.  No big retailers here.  Just skilled crafters and fine craftsmen.  Looks like a great stocking stuffer!

Marble runs: Click the pictures for individual product links There must be 100 different takes on this activity now.  The block and marble set we have, similar to this one, has been a big hit.  I’m partial to the types that allow more flexibility rather than the ones that have little room for variation in set up.  I’ve even seen a few that are ball tracks which I would assume from the pictures are big enough to eliminate the choking hazard if you have younger ones wanting to play also.

I even found a car/city themed one!

Tried and true:

Moon sand: What?  Wait, where are you going?  It doesn’t grind into the carpet like playdough!  Yeah I thought that might get your attention.  We do keep this on our screened porch though, and I ditched the “no mess” playmat it came with and just got a shallow rubbermaid container.  It is really neat too.  Lots of extra molds you can get, one set being a monster truck…molds for crush cars and a monster truck…yeah Caleb loves it!

Froggy Boogie: Don’t poke your eyeballs out playing Candyland.  This is an adorable “green” game.  100% made of wood, and the company, Blue Orange, plants two trees for every one used in their products.  The baby frogs are trying to sneak around the lily pads in the pond without being seen by the  mommy and daddy frogs.  Each frog has one eye with a frog on the bottom, and one without.  It becomes a game of memory trying to recall which eye to pick up, and practices colors, by finding the frog coordinating to your two color dice roll.  The pieces are just adorable too!

Bunny Hop: Another big hit here.  Even Charley plays (which just allows Caleb two turns in a row!).  Roll the dice to see which color to press down and then press your farmer to see if your bunny hops.  First one with all four color bunnies wins.  Of course, when we’re done playing a few rounds, we have to press down all the bunnies at once and squeal with delight when 12 out of 20 of them fly up in the air all at once.  Then repeat seven times.

Books:

If you haven’t tried out Lookybook, head over there and look around.  You can actually preview and read (if you squint) full children’s books before buying them.  It is a reasonably new site, so they are gradually building their book database.  But I found several of these books through Lookybook. Click the books for individual links

The longest book you’ll ever ‘read’ with no words!  We checked a Polo book out from the library and it was an unconventional hit.  Much like your 80 page long cartoon newspaper.  Don’t let that number scare you, it ‘reads’ quickly.  It is just a unique take on a book.  You can look through some of it at Amazon for a better idea of what I’m talking about.

Did I mention a car theme anywhere?

Thanks to Val for introducing SkippyJon Jones.  I absolutely have typed in Stinky John Jones looking for the books and become so annoyed when I couldn’t find them.  Caleb loves Skippy and has taken to calling people Mr. McPooh and bunny boots.  We get some strange looks.

Also available, SkippyJon Jones in Mummy Trouble, which we already have.

Woody Click Sets: We have the fire station and police station sets.  You can also get a construction theme, a farm theme or a hospital theme.  These don’t seem to have been a huge hit (retail wise), as they are a bit hard to find now.  We love them though.  They are similar to Playmobil sets, except they are made of wood.  The vehicles and buildings come into several pieces so you can arrange it any way you want.  A few more pictures here.

Coming up next: More books I’ve found, with a Christmas tradition idea/theme.

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This adorable cow pedal tractor from FAO Schwarz has been hanging around at the top of the Christmas list, as it is pretty expensive ($200 + tax & shipping).  Well they just marked it $40 off today AND you can get an additional 20% off using the code SECRET when checking out, making the total $144.94 shipped (plus tax in applicable states)!!!  I am so excited it is ridiculous, so just wanted to share the good deal in case anyone else wanted to jump on it.  The 20% coupon is only good through tomorrow (11/26/08).  If you’re late seeing this, you may be able to get a 20% off -good til the end of the year- coupon by signing up for their email offers at the top of the page.

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And that’s only a third of ‘em!

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Scott (to his boss): So how do you like our little dusting of snow?

Boss: Oh is that what you call it?  I thought it was a heavy frost.

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We made a haunted house today. Happy…errr…Halloween.

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When we went allergist last month, she prescribed Claritin for Caleb.  When the prescription was filled, I picked up the syrup.  I asked as I was leaving if it tasted okay.  The pharmacist said it had a fruity smell to it, so it would probably be fine.  Well of course he didn’t mention the liquor type kick it has to it.  Needless to say, it has become a daily battle and I’ve had it spray back at me more times that one.

So last Tuesday (remember that) I called and asked if it could be refilled in a chewable tablet instead.  Raise your hand if you’ve seen the Children’s Claritin over the counter chewables.  I know, I have too.  So they told me they would fax an authorization to the doctor and once approved they would refill it, just call back later in the day.  Well it slipped my mind for a few days, all along I was telling Caleb, just a few more days of this icky liquid, then we’ll get a chewable like your Flintstones.

So fast forward to Saturday, I send Scott to go pick it up.  They still haven’t heard back from the doctor they say.  So I call the doctor and leave an annoyed message that I’m running out, could they please send the pharmacy what they needed.  So I began trying to chase it down yesterday morning.  The pharmacy says they are waiting on the doctor, the doctor says they’ve sent the info to the pharmacy and once a fax goes through, they shred it!  So they are both blaming the other.  Eventually it turns into this whole big fax war, somewhere in the middle, the prescription gets switched from ClariTIN to ClariNEX.

I called the doctor for the second time this morning, and when the receptionist answered and heard the name, she said, “Oh he is one popular kid over here this morning!  Do you know how many faxes we’ve had about this??  Let me let you talk to Amy, she’s handling this mess!” So Amy said now the pharmacy was saying they don’t have a chewable.  I said, I could have sworn I had seen it over the counter, and she agreed, so she went and got some pill bible off the shelf and located it, the chewable, just like we thought.  So she called the pharmacy back and now the pharmacist is calling his wholesaler to see if he can order the chewable!!  What a HEADACHE!  I was hiding in the bathroom to cut down on screaming and yelling background noise.  When I returned to the table and Caleb has stolen the remainder of my lunch in my absence!!!

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In all actuality, we climbed out of a hole.  The hole that was my husband’s job.  It feels so amazing to be free of all that uncertainty, disrespect and frustration.  Like this huge weight has been lifted.  I tell ya, Friday and Saturday felt like the pits of hell, but I think we both feel like we are finally on the upside of this.  This is the first time in a LONG time I’ve seen Scott happy to go to work.  Excited about a new job, new people, cut and dry hours during the slower season, just security.  Job security.  Meal security.  We can eat dinner together!  Nightly!  That might not seem like a big deal to most people, but for 3.5 years, he has been getting home between 4 and 10pm.  It was anybody’s guess.  Our one drawback is we will probably be moving, again (because of the expenses).  But even that seems like a walk in the park compared to what we’ve been dealing with recently.  If we move close to his new job, he could even come home for lunch!  Caleb would LOVE that!  We still have plenty of things to work through but suddenly, they don’t seem as burdensome as they did a few days ago when all this was in the air.  I won’t get into the gory details, but I will say, I slept so good last night after listening to the conversation that can be summarized with “I quit.”  Although it was worded in a much more appropriate manner for the situation.  Scott’s mom said “Scotty, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  He replied, “Well they’ve done unto me, so now I can do unto them, right?”  She just smiled.

Enough about that.  Tell me how you’ve been.  What’s on the top of your Santa list?  I’m getting so excited about Christmas.  I can’t wait for the wrapping paper to fly!

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