Butterflies and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Emma turned to me the other day and asked if butterflies eat butter. So we walked through the logic. I asked her were butterflies live. "The Forest."  Do you see butter in the forest? Nope. Do you think butterflies eat butter? Nope.

John lately tells us that he is tired... a lot. If I didn't know better, he could be diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome. How do I know he doesn't have it? Among other reasons, Aaron asked him if he could hear the birds singing. He replied, "No, I tired!" He uses the phrase to explain his grumpiness and anything he doesn't want to do so I am not sure what he thinks the phrase means. All I know is I hear it a lot.

Prayers

We are trying to teach John to pray. We are attempting, without much success to have him repeat after us as we pray. He does not want to do this however. Instead he would rather tell us what to say. His typical list includes: Grandpa, Katie [John's word for Grandma], and Amanda. Then John lists off every truck he can think of. He is grateful for combines, monster trucks, front loaders, ni no nis [fire trucks] and the list goes on and on. Typically we have to cut him off because he could go on forever.

Also, sometimes when John isn't saying the prayer he will interject "Jesus. Amen." I think this usually happens when he feels the prayer has lasted long enough.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we met with Aaron to go to lunch. We got to look around at Anadarko's new building and see their cool exercise gym and other things. Then we intended to take a trolley ride to a restaurant but the trolley went a different direction than what we thought so we just rode to the next stop and got off. The kids were twitterpated over the trolley ride. I don't know if it was the thrill of riding on something where they didn't have to be in a car seat or use a seat belt. However, they don't seem to get the same thrill over the long term shuttle at the airport. They were disappointed when we didn't ride the trolley back to Aaron's work. Emma would point to the shuttle as we were walking and ask why on earth we weren't riding on it.

We ate a an Irish Pub called Goose's Acre. It was delicious. We got the kids chicken tenders and fries. They ate their fries and were again twitterpated. Oddly enough John didn't like ketchup. That confirmed my suspicion that he is a picky eater. Pickier than a normal 2 year old. Emma on the other hand pointed to her ranch dressing and asked if she could drink it. Negitory good buddy. Aaron and I had shepherds pie and it was delicious. It was fun to see the kids so excited to eat lunch. French fries are a rare treat in our house so they thought they had died and gone to heaven.

We walked back to Aaron's work and then I took the kids home. Emma wanted to stay with Aaron and was confused as to why she couldn't just sit quietly in Aaron's office. I was wondering why she couldn't sit quietly in church but we didn't have that discussion.

After naps we made sugar cookies. The kids loved it. Emma liked pushing the cookie cutters down. John didn't really care about it. However, when it came to frosting the cookies, everyone was on board. John would frost a little bit and then he would lick the knife. He did good though - he didn't eat a cookie during the frosting process. Emma was grossed out by John licking the knife but was totally okay with licking her fingers and then touching the cookies. I giggled. Toward the end, John would frost a cookie, then lick the cookie, then frost the cookie, then lick the cookie, etc.

The next night Aaron and I went rock climbing. Be still my heart! We have been able to comfortably climb 5.9s so this time we worked on 5.10s. My arms were so tired, even the next day. We had a great time though. And we bought a punch card and so that means that we get to go back!

Bees and Flies

John is severely afraid of flies and bees. It goes back to when a fly got in our house and was stuck between the window and the blinds in our study. We have the kids books and toy kitchen in the study so they spend a good amount of time in the study playing. So back to the fly stuck in the blinds. It would bang up against the blinds and make a decent amount of noise. This terrified John. He would come running from the study and tell me that a fly was in there. He wouldn't go into the study for a while even after the fly was removed. This was months ago. Occasionally, he will come running from the study and tell me that there is a fly in there. I tell him that there isn't one and that flies aren't scary.

John is afraid of a lot of things so we are trying to help him be brave. So we tell him flies and bees aren't scary. I am not sure if we are being 100% honest. Ok, we aren't being 100% honest. Flies are gross, but not the stuff horror movies are made of. Bees on the other hand, can sting you but generally the kind that we run into aren't out to get you. So we told him that flies are nice (we leave out the bad hygiene part) and that bees are nice.

John was in the car yesterday and started to say, "Bees sting." He repeated this mantra over and over. So we told him bees are nice to help him not be afraid of them. So then he started to say "Bees nice." Over and over. Then it evolved into "Bees hugs. Bees kisses." Over and over. It was adorable. Then he added, "Bees snuggle." At this point Aaron and I started to feel guilty because bees don't give hugs and kisses and snuggles. So we went back to "bees sting." John was confused but is now back to "bees sting." I tell you want though he was pretty cute talking about snuggling bees.

Random Stories

John is a funny kid. He is the does and says funny things kind of kid. In the past 24 hours there have been some stories that I want to remember.

1. Last night I put John on the toilet (yes, potty humor, I know...) and asked him to go pee. He tried and then said, "tooters stuck." Tried again. "Tooters no working." Tried again. "Tooters working."

2. John loves pockets in his clothes. He will stick his hands or toys in them and is thoroughly delighted. He found an old cell phone and stuck it in his hip pocket. He carried it around for a few minutes. Then he took it out. Then he was trying to stick it back in his pocket. He was getting frustrated at his attempts and came to me for help. I tried to stick it in his hip pocket and he yelled/commanded, "No! Cheekies!" I stuck it in his back pocket and he walked off happily.

3. I was relating the story of yesterday when John got into the candy three times and into chapstick to my mom. John said, "candy!" and ran off. Part way through the conversation I noticed that John was quiet again. I went looking for him and sure enough he had managed to get to a bag of candy that I had put up from yesterday. He got a starburst. How I don't know. It really was out of reach. This kid is part bloodhound, part Inspector Gadget (a man with robot arms that extend to reach things far away) and part Pavlovian dog. My dad hypothesized that when my sister Mary was here, John learned that there are yummy treats in bags. Now instead of sniffing them out, he was trained to search them out in bags.

Nose Like a Bloodhound

I was quite proud of myself when I feed John a green smoothie where the predominant ingredient was spinach. I even added sunflower seed butter for protein. I should know by now that whenever I feel proud of myself, it bites me in the tukus.

While I was in the bathroom I could hear John playing with a plastic ziplock bag. I couldn't imagine what he could have gotten a hold of in my bedroom that was in a plastic bag. As it turns out, Aaron had a bag of candy in his church bag. (It was for his primary class.) John had eaten a star burst and was working on opening a lolly pop. I promptly took away the bag of candy and moved on with my morning.

A short time later, Emma called to my attention that John had a bag of candy. So I took away another bag of candy that originated from Aaron's church bag. It hadn't occurred to me that he would have two bags of candy in his church bag. I don't think John was able to partake of his findings this time.

While I was making my grocery list, it was nice and quiet. At one point John came up to me asking me to open a life saver from it's wrapper. I took the candy away and put it on the counter and went back to my list. I figured the life saver dropped out of the bag when John was looking through it this morning. John wandered off and was super quiet. I managed to finish my list and carefully think through everything. It was that quiet. Then it dawned on me... it was that quiet! I went to find John in my room. As it turns out, Aaron had three bags of candy in his church bag. John had eaten several colored tootsie rolls. He apparently tried a chocolate one and spit it out on the carpet. I took that bag away from him and decided that I should search Aaron's church bag for a fourth bag of candy. No fourth bag.

John was quite the happy camper with his raid. I figured that I could laugh off his candy raids of the morning and we were done because I had removed all of the bags of candy. I was getting lunch ready when again John was quiet. I looked for him and he was at our desk playing with a marker. When I picked him up he opened his mouth and pointed inside signalling to me that he had eaten something. I smelled his breath. Fruity. I was struggling to believe that I had left candy on our desk. Then I remembered. I had seen a tube of cherry chapstick on the desk. Yup, I opened it up and the entire container was gone. What was left, were little teeth marks in the remaining chapstick at the very bottom. The remainder of the day, John had his hands in his mouth trying to dig out chapstick from his teeth.

Happy Birthday John!

John is officially 2 years old. We celebrated his birthday by taking the kids to the Children's Museum. The kids love the museum. John was particularly in love with the fire truck, and the pit of shredded tires and dump trucks. He would run back and forth from one area to the fire truck. The fire truck was definitely his home base.

For dinner we did waffles, yogurt and strawberries, since he prefers all carbs to anything else.  We also had cake an ice cream. I have evolved as a mother. It didn't occur to me to give Emma cake and ice cream for her birthday. We did Happy Birthday Guacamole. Lest I evolve too much, John got secretly healthy cake with zucchini and apple sauce and whole wheat flour. He was quite excited about the cake and ice cream. He did not however finish all of his ice cream. Nor did Emma. Nor did I give them Aunt Mary portions. I was shocked. As a kid, I would stuff myself full of junk food until it hurt. All in the name of treats. Glad my posterity has more self control than I did as a kid.

We got him a monster truck and a sandbox dump truck. He was in love. Emma was very sweet and wanted to wrap up gifts to give John. So she found a book and a toy to give to him. Once she realized how fun it was to cut wrapping paper and use tape without my supervision, she was feeling very generous. She kept finding toys until she had exhausted our wrapping paper supply. She was quite proud of herself. John on the other hand was confused as to why he was unwrapping toys that he already had. It was cute though to watch Emma enjoy giving presents.

John at two is a funny kid. He has a lot of personality oozing out of that little body. He tried to tell jokes and just laughs and laughs. He lives for trucks, trains, and anything with wheels. If he meets someone new, he isn't all that shy and just starts to tell the person all about trucks. Trucks are always a relevant conversation topic. John wants to drive just about anything he can see.

Sometimes when he talks he uses a growl to talk. He has essentially done this since he was a little baby. He has the communication skills of a teenage boy.

John loves to eat carbs, carrots, apples, and he has a 6th sense for junk food. At the grocery store I was purchasing Carnation Instant Breakfast for him. He is a little guy and the doctor recommended getting him some extra calories. He saw the box and knew he wanted it. How I will never know. He held that box throughout our grocery store trip. He held it as soon as we got home. He could hardly stand the anticipation of drinking it. I thought he would take off in flight because his arms were flapping and he was jumping as he was saying, "Drink it! Drink it!" Sure enough he was in love. Emma on the other hand saw the box and asked what it was. She was satisfied with the explanation that it was for John since he needed more food. She hasn't asked for any.

John is a picky eater. He doesn't like pizza (except the crust). We offered him a McDonalds hamburger and he looked at it and wouldn't touch it. The only thing I know he will eat is junk food and carbs. Since there isn't much junk food in our house, it is really carbs. And if John doensn't like a meal that he is offered (think every meal except breakfast) he can wait for the next meal.

John also loves books. He will sit for 20 minutes by himself looking at books. Then he will come to me and say, "Read it! Read it!" He could sit on my lap reading books for at least an hour at a time.

He is just starting into the "I do it" phase. The one exception is walking down the stairs. He wants to be carried.

John wants family and friends with him at all times. However it is insufficient to have just one person. He wants the entire family. If someone is missing he keeps asking for that person. He particularly loves Emma. They play very well together, except when they don't.

John is quite snuggly, particularly when reading books.  He does say, "No Hugs, no kisses, no zurberts!" He hasn't figured out kissing yet though. If you ask him for a kiss he will put his cheek up to yours. He will out of the blue say, "Mommy cute!" or "Emma cute!" 

John also likes animals and the sounds they make. He knows quite a few bizarre animal sounds like a macaw and a sloth. He is afraid of flies and bees. He isn't all that found of petting dogs and cats due to fear as well.

Overall, John is a funny kid. Very sweet, very interested in trucks and reading. Glad you are in our family John! Happy Birthday!