Singing

Jackson is on a singing kick lately. He likes to listen to his Veggie Tales CD and sing along. But only to certain songs, heaven forbid we actually listen to the whole CD. Why not listen to track 1 on repeat for an entire 30 minute car ride? That is not annoying at all.

Now I complain about this, but it is truly easy to tune out that CD. The situation gets a little tricky when Jackson starts calling out the tracks that he would like to listen to next. "Buffalo!" "Bebu!" (Bebu, is translated to The Song of the Cebu.) When requests start being demanded I have to be on my A-game. The requests can be changed midway through a track search, so I have to be on my toes and not tuning out what is happening in the car.

The CD demands have now taken a turn to, momma and daddy singing demands.

Take for instance this morning. It was demanded that momma sing Twinkle Twinkle about 125,548 times. I tried to convince Jackson the ABC song would be more fun, but he did not fall for the suggestion. Twinkle, twinkle, little star ... Over and over and over. I could tell that even Buddy was getting annoyed with the song selection. Jackson, not so much.

The only hard part about singing in the car is when Jackson requests an interactive song like The Itsy Bitsy Spider. That is a little hard to do while operating a motor vehicle. I usually have Jackson do the motions and I sing the song on repeat. It is rather cute to see Jackson nodding his head along with the song. But it would be a whole lot cuter if he would sing himself.

Are Weekend Naps a Thing of the Past?

I think we are about done with weekend naps. The past couple weekends Jackson has either not taken a nap or slept for a short period of time. I do not think he understands the importance of sleep ... for his parents. Craig and I love nap time. We look forward to the weekends because we know that a nap will be in our future. Jackson still naps during the week, thankfully. I think a packed full of fun school morning would lead to a very not packed full of niceness 2 year old. He needs his week day naps, and I think his grandmothers still like them as well. I am hoping that Craig and my's persistance of putting Jackson in his room will everntually lead back to naps. Nice two to three hour early afternoon naps. I do not think he is at an age yet where we can bribe him with outside time (his favortie, you know). One day that will work, just not now.

Follow Through

It is hard parenting a 2 year old. They have a mind of their own, and they want to use it. They always want to push boundaries. They want to do things on their own, and they do not want your help. They have mood swings. Crazy, wild, unexpected mood swings. One minute they are bouncing along joyfully through life. The next minute that joyful attitude has ceased to exist. There is kicking, screaming, and flailing body parts. How does a parent stay in control?

One thing that Craig and I always try to have through out the day is follow through. If we say we are going to do something, we do it. I think this one constant is an important parenting tool. If you tell your child you are going to do something, then you should do it. "If you get down from the table, then I am going to put your dinner away." "If you help me clean up, then you can watch Vegg.ie Tales before bed." "If you do not sit in your chair, then I will take your goldfish away." "If you do not leave me alone, then I am going to put you in the dog's crate." Oh wait, that last one is one that I only say to myself. I promise this is the first time I have ever said this out loud. Well, maybe the second.

The other day Jackson had his fireman's hat on, it was a free hat that we got when we went to Fire.House Subs weeks ago. When he sees the hat, he wants to wear it. Otherwise, it is out of sight out of mind.

I was in the bathroom, a place that Jackson loves to be when you are looking for some alone time. He dropped the hat on the floor, and wanted to wash his hands. When we were done washing our hands, he walked into the hall, past his hat, and into the kitchen area. I told him to come back and pick up his hat, it is not my responsibility to clean up his mess. Now we all know that as a parent of a toddler you are doing all the cleaning. But, I like to pretend that Jackson is old enough and responsible enough to clean up after himself.

I'll let you have a good laugh over that one.

Are you done?

Good. Let's continue.

Being 2, Jackson was now distracted by something else. He was not listening to me, or to Craig. So I told him, if he did not come pick up his hat it would be going in the trash. Again, nothing. No response. Not even a look in my direction.

I picked up the hat and put it on the counter, so I could throw it away later. Craig reminded me that if Jackson saw me put the hat in the trash, he would pull it out. So, on the counter it sat for the rest of the evening. Jackson did not even notice, nor did he care that his fireman's hat was gone.

The next morning I went downstairs before the boys and I saw the hat on the counter. I instinctively reached for it to take it into the living room. Then I remembered what I had told Jackson. I stood there, with the hat in my hands, debating whether I should put the hat back on his toy box or throw it in the trash.

I finally chose what I thought was the correct option. Into the trash the hat went.

I really thought giving him the hat back was no big deal. But then, it hit me. If I give Jackson this hat back, what message am I sending him? That I do not mean what I say? Or, that he does not have to listen because I will be there behind him to clean up his messes along the way?

It is small, and it is silly. But I think if I follow through on the small issues, when it really matters I will be able to follow through on the big ones.

Dreams for Me

During my last post I talked about dreams for the kiddo. Or the lack of dreams for Jackson. Saying that I do not have dreams for him should not suggest that I do not have dreams for myself. It has taken some time to figure out what I am dreaming.

I think besides the normal, happy family dream, the one thing I dream of most is owning my own craft store. I want a quaint little shop downtown, where people can come and socialize while working on their craft. I want to sell yarn and fabric. I want to have handmade wares using the materials that are for sale in the store.

I have the perfect picture in my head of how I want things to look. Being downtown, it will surely have an antique vibe running throughout the place. The antiques in the store would also be for sale. How cute would it be to have an old cradle with a quilt made, from the fabric being sold in the store, sitting by the fireplace? In the fireplace, there could be a little display of yarn. Next to the fireplace an old rocking chair with an afghan and pillow sitting on the cair, inviting you to sit and knit. In my head it all seems so quaint and charming.

In reality, I just want a store that I can sit in and create. A store where people can come and create. Share ideas. Socialize. Learn.

Oh! And let us not forget wine nights ... crafting is always better with wine!

Dreams

A lot of people have asked me about my dreams for Jackson since he was born. I honestly tell them I do not have dreams for Jackson, and they do not understand my answer. They think all parents have dreams for their children. They want their children to grow up to be doctors, lawyers, or something along those lines. Or they dream about the family that their children might one day have. I have never had these thoughts about Jackson. Sure, I would love for him to be any of those things or an artist or a military man (to carry on the tradition of our families). But I do not dream these things for him. I think it is important for him to have his own dreams and aspirations. What I would want for him should not get in the way of the person he wants to become.

From before Jackson was born, I have said my only job is to raise a good human being. A productive member of society. Whatever he chooses to be is a bonus if I can accomplish my "job". Now, how am I to do this? You got me. I have no idea. At this point I am winging it. Right now, we are working on manners. This is very important to Craig and me. Please. Thank you. Being kind to our friends, this includes Buddy. Listening to what is said. Obeying what he is told. These are the constants we stress in our house. I think a lot of people think these things are automatic. That somehow a child just knows that they should be saying these things. But, come to find out, it is the constant use of them that gets a child to use them as second nature.

But I digress. Dreams. I wonder what Jackson will dream for himself. Whatever it is, I want it to be what he wants and not something that Craig and I dream for him.

craftster

Ok so my wife's family and friends started a craftster exchange a few years ago in which everyone draws names and then has to create a crafty present for that person. The rules are simple, you have a small budget for supplies then you make a craft-present to exchange. Well this year i decided to play in the craftster exchange. I am sure that made everyone a little nervous. I took my craftster project very serious however and i am sure that surprises some people. So this blog is devoted to the craft that i created. Back in June we got our exchange person and i drew Andrea. So here is what i created. I wanted to create a custom mosaic, but instead of using a photo of something as the mosaic source i wanted to create a banner using Andrea's name as my source. Of course i didn't want to use a generic font, i wanted something with a smokey feel, so i delved into the Internet and photoshop and created the following as my source.

After getting this just how wanted it, i did some serious facebook stalking to get a great deal of photos in order to create the mosaic. Did some trials and tweaking and the final mosaic is in the photo below.

I think it turned out really well, and i was having a blast zooming in and seeing all the individual photos that made the whole. I then had the photo printed as a 12x18 banner and then framed it in a floating frame. Shown below.

All in all it was a fun thing to do and i hope Andrea enjoys it. I also hope it qualifies me for next years craftster.

update

Just wanted to say a bit about recent events. Well Jackson got somewhere between 6-8 teeth at the same time, then followed that with a couple of canines and once they cut through two more molars decided to make their way to the surface. All this plus a double ear infection and pneumonia made for one cranky kid. Having said that Jackson did pretty well on the trip to Orlando. its was amazing to see him try to be like his cousins, if his cousin was putting together a puzzle he needed to help, when the puzzle became a train and started driving around the house, Jackson made sure he was a part of the action. Likewise while at the zoo, when the cousins were running around, Jackson in no way wanted to be held, but as soon as one of them wanted to be held, so did Jackson. Despite the chaos he did very well for a two year old. Went to the ENT yesterday and after waiting for 2 hours Jackson will be getting tubes in his ears, so hopefully we can reduce the steady diet of antibiotics he gets. Well that's about all i got for now, hope everyone has a great x-mas.