If He Weren't So Cute...

With a toddler you cannot show any signs of weakness. They pick up on that right away and totally use it to their advantage. They prey on the weak and can eat you alive. Jack is what my mother calls a "spirited" child. This just means that sometimes he can be a real jerk.

This past Friday was one of those times.

Weakness #1 Jack had been up in the night several times Wednesday and Thursday so I was tired. After work I decided to take him to Khol's because I was in desperate need of some new bras. I put him in the stroller/cart and off we went to the women's undies. While I was searching for my size, he managed to climb out of the stroller and remove an entire rack of bras. I stuffed him into the cart part and frantically picked up the bras. While I was doing this he was shoving who knows what from the bottom of the cart into his mouth. I fished that out of this mouth, grabbed my bras, and went to check out where I then got the evil eye from another mom in line in front of me like "why can't you control your child?" I held him the entire time we checked out and headed for the car.

Jack's car seat is positioned in the middle of the backseat rear facing. I have been meaning to turn it around, but was stalling as long as humanly possible. Also, my car is a Saturn Ion and the backseat, although a four door, is microscopic. I have to get into the car to put him in the seat and frankly the bigger my belly gets the harder it is to maneuver around back there.

Weakness #2. Because Jack is so "spirited" he doesn't always like getting into his car seat. This day was no exception. With his superhuman toddler strength and wiggling accompanied by loud screaming he managed to get away from me. I chased him around the car for 20 minutes with him staying just out of my reach. What a sight we must have been. Me sitting in the backseat sobbing in frustration and him smiling away in the driver's seat "steering" and occasionally leaning to sip from the straw of my McDonald's coke in the cupholder. At this point I called Spiderman to keep me from either murdering him or leaving him in the parking lot of Khol's altogether. Total Mommy fail. I eventually gathered myself, turned his car seat around, scooped him up, and flung my entire body over him and strapped him into the seat chanting you will get in this seat over and over again.

He has been acting out more and more lately and I know part if it is normal toddler boundary testing, but also part of it is me. I used to play with him more. Lately, I've been so tired or physically cannot get down on the floor for long periods of time to play with him like I used to. This leaves a very busy, curious child to entertain himself more...by climbing on things and getting into anything he possibly can. I feel like all I do is yell at him. He's going to think his name is Jackson No by the time he's two. If I can't handle him now what is it going to be like when Baby X gets here?

I know some of you mom's out there have been though this. Even you non-mom's can offer suggestions! I will try anything at this point! What would you do in my situation?

Has it been that long?

So why haven't I been posting too much lately? Several reasons. The first and most obvious is that I'm 6 months pregnant and tired. Then there was the business of the holidays. Then both my boys came down with the flu and had temps over 101 for a week. And finally my laptop completely melted down leaving me with very limited access to the internet since the other computers in my house were also down.
Since then Spiderman has set up our iMac so that I can use it, and we are looking around to replace our laptop so I will have more opportunities to be online.

That only leaves laziness and lack of anything remotely interesting to post about. I do have a few things roaming around my head that I hope to be able to put down in the next few weeks so bear with me.

In the past I've posted about the scary state of my office/junk room. Now that we have a new addition to the family it is going to be Baby X's (still can't decide on a name) room. That means we not only have to clean out the room, but also figure out where the piles of other shit in there have to go. I have already started to make piles of things to throw away, donate, and sell in my neighborhood's garage sale this summer. I've had to make some hard decisions about what do to with some of my books. It's so hard to part with many of them, but I just don't have the room!
We also put new shelves in our storage areas so that we have more room to relocate some of the things we do want to keep. All this work and I still have SO much I have to do. But in the end it will be worth it because I have kind of a theme decided on.

I'm not buying the whole bedding set because I did that with Jack and didn't use all the pieces. It just feels wasteful plus this room seems kind of busy. I am going to buy some key pieces like the lamp, wall hangings and curtains and use the color scheme. I might also buy the quilt set but for the toddler bed for use later.

What do you think?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Spoonful Family!

I'll Need Frequent Infusions of Estrogen at My House

Thanks to those of you who had suggestions and words of encouragement on my last post. I'm sure inspiration will just hit me someday or I'll just kind of fall into a new job. That's how I ended up in Respiratory to begin with. I don't anticipate it happening soon and even if it does I just might be too tired to notice because....I just found out I'm now going to be the mother of TWO boys.

Yes, I'm having another boy. Like my girlfriend says I'm going to be elbow deep in dick.

It does make things easier since I have all the boy stuff already and I know how boys work. I do have visions of Jack and his little nameless brother bringing home snakes from the woods for their mommy. Have I mentioned before how terrified of snakes I am?

Also there is something appealing about being the only girl in a house full of boys....kinda like the Queen Mum.

But now the hard part starts: Spiderman and I have to agree on a name for this kid. This is going to be no easy feat as Spiderman wants to call him Jack's brother or Not Jack.

What boy names do you like?

Any Suggestions?

What did you want to be when you grew up? That’s a question I’ve
asked myself over and over throughout the years. Actually, I asked
myself that just last week. I’m still undecided. Seriously,
shouldn’t I know by now?

Here’s a list of what I have wanted to be in the past:
1. Wonder Woman
2. Nurse
3. Lawyer
4. Day and Night Barbie
5. Writer
6. Doctor (Cardiothoracic surgeon to be more specific)

Notice what’s not really on my list? Respiratory Therapist. Not
even remotely close to being on my list? Respiratory Therapy
Supervisor.
On my bad days at work I REALLY want to resign but then I think “what
else can I do?”
I mean, I’m not really qualified to do much else. I’m not
exceptionally good at anything in particular that people would go “you
should really do THIS”.

I can’t imagine myself doing this for the rest of my life. It’s
too depressing to think of. I just don’t know what else I could do or
even want to do.

I may have to start asking little children what they want to be…cuz
I’m looking for ideas.

Do you have any suggestions?

I Kinda preferred Zoey Deschanel...

Some of you readers may know about my HUGE addiction to the written word. My crazy need to read everything out there. I do have some favorites though and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is one of them. I even was lucky enough to go to a book signing a few years ago and meet the author herself! I'm currently reading book 17 and anxiously awaiting book 18 out later this month.
So imagine how excited I was to hear they were making the first book into a movie. Anyone who reads a book gets an idea of certain characters in their head. This idea gets especially ingrained when it's a series and the characters become beloved. I recently watched the trailer for the movie and I have to say I'm disappointed with the casting. Katherine Heigl as Stephanie? Seriously? Just because an actress is bankable doesn't mean they are right for a part. I don't have anything personal against Katherine. I like her well enough. I tend to see and enjoy most of her movies....especially ones with my boyfriend Gerry in it. But she is NOT Stephanie.

I will still probably see the movie because I can't help myself, but I cant guarantee that I will like it.

Have any of you read the books? What do you think of the casting? Do you think you'll see the movie?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from my Happy Little Monkey!