Bounce houses

Today my child overcame his fear of bounce houses. We went to MOSI and I made him get in one cause really, it's about time that he suck it up and get over it. These things are just like a giant balloon.

Until he got in it. At first, he was kind of wandering around with a bounce bounce here and a bounce bounce there. Here a bounce, there a bounce... Oh look, a slide!!! Up the rubber steps we go. Sit down and slide. Sit down and slide. Lay down and slide head first. Throw yourself in the air at the top of the slide so as to get maximum bounce when you hit two feet down the slide.

And now that Mommy has gotten her panic and her child's creativity in the giant evil balloon, well let's just say... mommy is gonna think before she encourages any more "getting over it"

I am sooo screwed

My son is 3 years old. That is his number in age. Mentally, he the age of a 34 year old sarcastic female. Well, maybe a 35 year old since he seems to have outdone me and leaves me shaking in my head. His vocabulary is beyond most grown ups. He corrected my mother's grammar the other day. But my absolute favorite part is his sarcasm.

I assume he is being sarcastic. But he usually says things and seems totally innocent. Like the ban on potty words except in the bathroom. And my kid who is sitting in the bath talking about his butt and farts and poop. And when I corrected him, telling me he is IN THE BATHROOM.

Or today when he was laying in his bed "taking a nap" and he kept talking. My mom asked him why he wasn't sleeping. And he said he was. Then she asked how he was sleeping if he was talking. And he replied he was "talking in his sleep, about you.".... lyrics from a song called "Bushel and a Peck"

And on and on it goes. At least once a day this kid does something that makes me wonder what padded room I will be in when he is 15. I love his wit and his weirdness. I love that he says these crazy things and while you are laughing so hard you almost choke, he asks why you are happy. But man, I am soooo screwed!

Time flies

It's hard keeping up with a blog. Having never done one before I guess I didn't realize that your thoughts don't just type themselves up. In the time since I have last been on here, my baby has turned THREE and learned to ride a bike (with super cool training wheels), taken up soccer and has developed such the imagination. Yesterday we went to the beach for the first time to collect shells and see the water... the story below happened on the way home from the beach.

Mommy: okay kiddo, time to go home
Toby: Okay mommy, I'm tired....

then it goes south

Toby: we're going back to the beach, we're going back to the beach (for approximately 30 minutes after leaving the beach he is singing this song)

Mommy: hey kiddo, you want some fruit snacks
Toby: yeeeeaaaahhh! (handed a bag of Toy Stoy fruit snacks)

quiet from the backseat for approx 5 min
then I hear

Toby: (to T-Rex fruit snack) you do realize that if you go in there, you are never coming back?
Mommy: What?!?!?
Toby (now channelling Buzz and Woody): T-Rex, that is a mouth. If you go in there, you will get chomped up into little pieces and you will never come back. Don't do it Rexie, don't do it!

Mommy: silent laughter with tears rolling down her face

Where do they come up with this stuff???

His father's child after all

Tonight you made me so very sad. In a fit of anger because I wouldn't let you do something or another, you tore the growth chart off your door and ripped it up. In that one moment when I opened your door and I saw what you had done, every broken precious thing to me that your father threw and broke, smashed into the wall and broke... it all came flooding back. That little chart means nothing to you. As a child, it's just another piece of paper hanging on a wall. But to your mother it was two years of memories. Two years of tracking your growing and watching you turn from a little pudge ball of a baby into a skinny young little boy. You are on your way to being a man and all I can pray is that mean hearted spirit that inhabited your father does not live strongly in you. And tonight my heart is sad. Because I am afraid that no matter how I raise you, at the heart of you will always lie some of those "sins of the father"... and your father was such an ugly person on the inside. And in the way you showed no remorse for destroying something that meant something to me, oh... so sad

Little boy/man

Toby is changing so much. There is this fierce independence that frustrates me while at the same time makes me proud. He is getting smarter in the ways of adults and can understand many of the little tricks we pull to get our kids to do what we want.

For a long time he has had this little red tricycle. Honestly I think Grammy bought it for him when he just turned 2. He has ridden that little bike by pushing it with his feet. We were starting to think he was like bike challenged or something. Grammy pushed him around with her cane on the back of his little cargo hold which was pretty funny to watch. Now one day I went to pick him up from school and saw the strangest site... there was little ol Toby riding a tricycle around on the bike track. He was not pushing with his feet... oh no, the little trickster had figured out how to ride the bike the right way... but didn't let on at all at home. But he ratted on himself yesterday on accident and now, well, he spent about 8 hours riding in circles in Grammy's house today. And out in the parking lot. And on the sidewalk. Little stinker!

No regrets

There is that moment where we look at our child and realize that they are no longer our dear sweet baby but are now on their way to adolescence. And while I go through some soul searching which will be documented shortly in my other blog, I realize that my life has been so blessed by my son.

Tonight I am very sad. My mom's wonderful friend GayAnn lies in the hospital on life support. Life support that isn't going to change anything... that the end result will still be the end of her life. GayAnn is one of the people who I consider to be an honorary grandparent to Toby. Since Mike is not in my life and his family is long gone too, I have found people along the way who act in the place of grandparents that he won't ever have. As a result of these people coming into his life, my life has been blessed.

I look at how my life has been transformed in the past almost three years. And I look at this sweet precious gift that God has allowed me to have in my life. And I realize that there is no moment of pain, no moment of those years I spent with Mike that I would trade if it meant giving up this wonderful child. In all of that smartness, that smart butt humor, that smile that lights up my world; I have begun to heal.

SNAP!!

Four little monkeys swinging in a tree, flippin and a floppin and a making bleety bleet. SNAP!!! The alligator ate him and now he's in the water.

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree....

Toby's version of Five Little Monkeys while he puts off going to bed. He's getting to that age where he starts to tell stories... you know the kind that are made up of things they see around them in the room. Cracks me up. He also is now telling you the things that CAN'T happen - animals don't talk, we can't ride on bugs... the list goes on and on!!!

And after everything he says he adds on "I told you..." Which is why I have named him Bossy Butt McGee in my head