Life at the moment...

Happy Monday...This is not a "fun things" post, but more of an "our life at the moment"...

We now (as of a lil' over a week ago) no longer need our alarm clocks. John's lil' world is so exciting these days and there's so much to see & do, his internal alarm won't let him sleep past 5am. Yes, that's a 5 before that am, and it's no joke. We can put him down at 7 or 8:30 - doesn't matter. Wake up time's still the same! We're praying he's just anxious for spring like we are & getting a head start on daylight savings.

When he gets up, we've given up on bringing him to bed w.us b/c he's not the least interested in being still. Instead, we've tried telling him that he can play in his room (we turn on the light) with his puzzles and books. Since we can't physically drag ourselves out of bed this early, we usually try & lay in bed till 5:45-6ish. During this "free time", John runs up & down the hall, moving from our room to his (access to other rooms is off limits). Yesterday morning, being the smart lil' booger he is, Seth gave him the "play with your puzzles" speech, so John brought his puzzles one by one into our room to play with on the bed. We have to be amused at his lil' logic...amused or delirious, hard to decipher at this point :)

As usual, when adapting to a new sleep routine, there's generally a lucky parent who gets to retreat to a couch so as to avoid this 5am whirlwind and catch a few extra winks of sleep. Since I've now started waking up @ 4am in anticipation of hearing our lil' booger, Seth's been gracious enough to let me try for the extra sleep the last few mornings. Bless his heart, really!

I told Seth this morning, that I think John's lil' world is so exciting to him right now that he probably doesn't want to sleep any more than absolutely necessary. He's fully come into his toddler spirit and while frustrating at moments, we are so delighted and amazed at all the lil' things he says & does. I had to laugh when Seth was trying to let John help him feed Chester & Salem this morning. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the whole interaction. As with a lot of our "conversations" w.John lately, they go something like this:

"Hey buddy - wanna help (insert task)?" "Ok, hold this - no, this" "Here, like this" "No, don't touch that...close the door!" "John, close the door" "JOHN, CLOSE THE DOOR" "No, not right there - here buddy, like this" "Ok, that's enough" "JOHN, THAT'S ENOUGH" "Don't do that" "Here, let's put it back" "John, we have to put it back" "Close the door" "John, shut the door" "JOHN, CLOSE THE DOOR!" "John, get out of the trash can" "Do not touch that - it's dirty" "GET OUT OF THE TRASH CAN" (he starts to get a lil' pissy at this point) "Don't hit me" "Don't hit Salem" "That's fine, hit the cabinet" "Do not throw that" "DO NOT THROW THAT" "No Sir!" "Ok, go sit down" "GO SIT DOWN"

Ok, I laughed reading back through that...that's pretty much verbatim :) Strong-willed doesn't begin to describe his lil' tenacity.

For all the repetitive, not fun, conversations like above there are ten times moreover the awesome lil' interactions where he's the one doing the "talking". Seth's favorite thus far, when wrestling or playing, John's started saying, "I dit u" (I get you), which is beyond precious. It's his 1st real sorta sentence/phrase & how appropriate for our lil' dinosaur that it be something so playful, yet aggressive!

Sidenote about dinosaurs: he LOVES them. He loves anything that makes a "RAAARRRRR" sound. I had to buy him a lil' Dinosaur shirt I saw the other day at Target, pictured here. As suspected, he went bananas over it! We let him put it on yesterday after church & I've never seen a lil' boy more enamored/proud to be wearing his green dinosaur shirt! However, when I was folding laundry yesterday afternoon, he saw his yellow tiger shirt & wanted a wardrobe change. He's all about the animals - it's about precious. Of course I let him wear his yellow tiger shirt this morning (as promised) and there he was again, beaming like he'd just won a gold medal (note: the olympic reference).

I digress, back to the cute vocabulary. Another sweet thing, John refers to a lot is "ott-siiii" (outside). He loves to be outside and when he's out there, he likes to keep remarking on the fact that he's "ott-siiii". It's so sweet. He likes to run around the yard, climb around on the back deck, carry his chalk around (never know when you might have some impromptu writing/drawing come up) and he constantly makes "buhh-bil" (bubble) requests. Once he's showed you where they are (in case you've forgotten), he will point out his beach chair, which he likes for you to unfold for him so that he can sit & enjoy the view while you blow bubbles till you make yourself dizzy.

Another thing John says a lot is, "moan" (Come on) with his lil' hand cusped or while tugging at your arm, shirt, etc. He likes company in what he does :) He's been saying this a while, but his adamance increases every day.

I wish I could recount everything, but those are the highlights that come to mind this morning...sorry, lack of sleep deteriorates brain cells! Despite the loss of sleep, we're still enjoying beyond measure this lil' sunshine in our lives. I went to get him from the nursery yesterday at church and I walked from the baby side to the toddler side & there he was w.his buddy Eli (who also goes to his school), just chillin' at the table, grubbin' on some goldfish. He turned & saw me, lit up like Christmas, but had a moment's hesitation as he pushed back from the table..."Mama or the goldfish?!" As he barreled into my arms, I was thankful I'm still a lil' more exciting than a goldfish snack. My arms and heart never feel as full as when they're wrapped around that lil' boy who continues to capture me, both heart & soul.

"Fun things" to follow - possibly tomorrow. Somebody doesn't haven't any pics unloaded yet. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend - looks like more snow's headed our way. I'm beginning to think this winter COULD last forever...maybe this snow will be Jack Frost's last hoorah, here's hoping!

PS. If you're reading/keeping up w.us via this blog, please feel free to leave a comment or click in 1 of those nifty lil' boxes below the posts. It's as simple as clicking (you don't have to log in, identify yourself, etc.) It just lets me know I'm not "talking to myself" - which I'm not above doing, but I wouldn't mind some reassurance every now & again :)