Weekend With Daddy

Me and the "girls" in Chicago : )

Last weekend was VERY eventful for our family. I was away from JJ for the first time for longer than 10 hours and Brian was home alone all weekend with JJ for the first time. I get together with my college girlfriends at least once a year and this year we got together for the weekend in Chicago. It was hard to be away from JJ, but was really great to be with my girlfriends : )

Brian drove over to Palm Desert to see his mom and grandma who were in town staying at a timeshare. They went over Friday morning and came back Saturday morning, but they got a lot in. They hung out in the pool and went to the Children's Museum and I heard that they all had a great time! Brian's mom got JJ a Cars outfit and backpack which he absolutely loves. Today he cried and begged me to wear the shirt and started screaming and crying when I tried to take it off of him before bed. Needless to say, he's sleeping in the shirt. I explained that he can't wear it again tomorrow but I don't think that he agrees with my decision. We'll see who wins!

We all survived the weekend and Brian said about a million times that it was hard and couldn't believe I cared for JJ by myself for over 6 months. I think that he now has a better appreciation for the long 6.5 months that we were "alone."

PS - 21 months pictures to be posted tomorrow. . .

The Park and More Park

So now that I'm "officially" a stay-at-home mom, we've been spending a lot of time at the park! It's been so great to be outside and play. We've spent a couple days with JJ's girlfriend Avery and also a few days just the three of us (Brian, JJ, and I). I know that we're blessed to live in San Diego where we can go outside every day.

Our friend Chris asked me the other day if I really cry as much as I say I do on the blog, unfortunately the answer is yes : ( Today was no exception since JJ and I both ended up in tears a few times today over split lips. The first was when JJ fell in the park and his head "bounced" off the ground which made him start bleeding in multiple places in his mouth. We both cried : ( Then tonight when we told JJ it was time for bed and I was trying to give JJ a hug, he head butted me which made my lip split open and bleed; more tears from both of us : (

Upcoming - Brian's gone all week and I'm alone with JJ again. Hopefully we'll all survive!

Mine, Mine, Mine

JJ realizing Tristan is reading "his" book!

JJ's new favorite word is "mine" and we hate it!!! Everything is now "his" and it's quite annoying! Michael and Krista and the boys came down for this last weekend and JJ would get upset and make sure that the boys understood that all the toys they were playing with were his. He would grab a toy and look at them and say "mine." Yes, JJ, we understand that all the toys in the house are yours.

I would really appreciate it if someone could explain to JJ that he's not two yet and he can calm down a little! I think that since he's so tall and people think he's older, he feels the need to act older. He's super opinionated, throws tantrums, gets mad and says everything is "mine," and is talking soooo much!

He is really observant and sometimes we forget that he is always watching. Yesterday in the car, Brian said something and I jokingly punched him. JJ then said, "no momma, no hit." Oops, I guess I need to follow the rules too! Then tonight at dinner, JJ put too much food in his mouth and was choking a little. Brian then patted him on the back and JJ looked at me with this puzzled look on his face and said "he hit me." Now, Brian and I are probably the only ones that understand him, but it's crazy that he's putting words together already! I don't want to become one of "those" moms that thinks their kid is super advanced when they're not, so it's good to have Brian home to keep me in check : )

Growing up sooo fast. . .

Hanging with Daddy in the morning before I got up. One of the best parts of Brian being home - I can stay in bed in the morning!

Watching silly Daddy rolling down the hill : )

It appears that we've made it through the week! Brian went back to work and had his first "duty day" away from us. I finished my finals. JJ got to hang out with his friends. We all survived! We went to the zoo yesterday and the park today. It was a hectic week which luckily flew by.

JJ's been talking more and more all the time. He will say the most funny and random things that sometimes only I will understand. He also notice everything. Yesterday we were driving down the road and he started yelling "airplane." Sure enough, there was an airplane. Then about three minutes later he started yelling "trash can." I was a little confused, so I just agreed with him, but then I noticed there was a semi-truck with dumpsters on the back a few cars up from us! He is so observant!

Today, three times he really showed just how old he's getting -

1. We were getting ready to go to the park and JJ was carrying around the case to is favorite movie, Cars. Brian said he needed to put the DVD away and JJ looked at him and said, "why?" to which Brian said "because I said so." Needless to say I decided that he didn't actually ask that because he's too young to start that and JJ didn't put the DVD away.

2. Then, when we were in the car on the way home from the park, JJ was dumping goldfish crackers all over himself and the car. I told him to stop and he looked at me and said "why?" and I answered "because you're making a mess." He then said "um huh" and stopped doing it for a few minutes.

3. During dinner tonight, he refused to drink out of a sippy cup or straw and would only drink out of a "real" cup. Towards the end of dinner he decided it would be fun to put his fork into the cup and then try and drink off of the fork. To me, this was unacceptable dinner table behavior! I told him to stop putting his silverware in his cup or I would take his juice away. He looked at me and said, "why?" to which I said "because your silverware doesn't go in your cup." JJ looked at me and said "why?" I answered "because your silverware is for eating food, not for putting in your cup." He said "why?" to which Brian answered "because Mommy told you so." And again, JJ asks "why?" and I, almost in tears, answer "are we really to this point of asking why?!?!?!?!"

Now I'm sure he is learning by example by watching other kids ask their parents this same question and I also ask him this all the time (i.e. JJ, why are you rolling around on the floor yelling about nothing), but it still surprised me that he is already at this stage!!!!!

More from the weekend. . .

Perfect ending to a nice weekend; ice cream!

A little bad influencing from Daddy : )

JJ loves to run around the playground outside our house. He'll run and say over and over, "I'm fast, I'm fast!" He also loves to make people run with him and when you think you're done, he'll say, "again." The fun never ends : )

Brian's week with JJ and the weekend. . .

Brian was off of work this past week and had a great week with JJ. They played lots and had a great time. I just uploaded the pictures and found lots of good ones from their week : ) JJ also found his new favorite movie, Cars. I shouldn't be surprised given my dad's and Tristan's love of the movie, but it's the first movie he will sit and watch fully, even by himself!

Brian's parents were here this weekend and we had a really nice time. We went to eat, church, the park, played inside, and outside. They figured out that if you have a slide and trains, JJ will be happy; it's truly all he needs! JJ's been talking up a storm lately and they seemed to enjoy that. His new favorite words are definitely "Oma" and "Opa." When we dropped them off at the airport he cried a lot, which then made me cry : ( It's fun to watch him really remember and love his family, but hard when they have to go home.

Upcoming this week - Brian goes back to work, I finish school, JJ gets to hang out with his friends again at "daycare." It's going to be an eventful week!

20 Months. . .

JJ is now 20 months old; officially out of the "teens"! He is talking a ton and makes us laugh and cry every day. Laughing - his funny antics. Crying - today when he bit my chest so hard it broke the skin!!!

One of my new favorite things that he just started doing is telling us when he's happy. We bought him a new bike on Friday and he was so excited at the store. He threw a huge fit when I had to go through the line to buy it and Brian tried to take him out of the store. When he saw it still in the cart on the way out the door, he got really excited. The whole car ride home, all we heard from him was "my bike, mine, mine, bike, bike, my bike, mine, bike" over and over again. When we got home and took it out of the car, he immediately got on it and started saying, "happy, happy, happy, happy, happy"! He really does love his new bike!

I am afraid that he is starting to show one significant "Cook-ism" though. . . apologizing. If you know my dad and I, you know that we apologize for things all the time and are constantly asked, why is it your fault, why are you apologizing?!?! It's definitely a family trait that I appear to be passing on to JJ. I say sorry to him all the time and now he has started saying it. Most of the time it's used appropriately, but this morning I realized how much he really does learn from us. We were leaving church, he was walking and this woman said hi to him. He turned to look and in doing so he fell down. He then looked at her and said, "sorry, fell, I fell"! Why did he feel the need to apologize for this!?!?!?!? He's definitely learning from my constant feelings of guilt!!!

We ended up having a VERY eventful evening today. JJ hadn't had peanut butter yet and I was waiting for Brian to get home to try it out, so this afternoon after his nap, we decided to give it to him. He actually said "no" when we said we wanted to give it to him, but we kind of pushed it on him by dipping an animal cracker in the peanut butter, so then he ate some. He had a very small amount and seemed ok with it. We then got ready to go have a picnic on the beach, pb & j and all. About 10 minutes later we were walking down the stairs to leave and saw our neighbor. I told her we had given JJ peanut butter for the first time and she said it didn't look like it was going well. He had sneezed a few times before we left and had been rubbing his eyes a lot like there was something in them, so Brian had tried to wash his eyes out, but when she said this the light bulb finally went on! We went down to the car and left and JJ continued to get worse, his face got more red, his eyes became almost swollen shut, his legs and arms started to break out in hives, and he couldn't stop scratching. After a conversation with my mom and the on-call nurse at the pediatrician's office we headed to urgent care very fast! He slowly started to get better and we saw the doctor who just confirmed what we thought - JJ has a severe peanut allergy. We are now the owners of 2 epipens and JJ didn't get to eat his pb & j for dinner : ( We'll do a follow-up with his pediatrician sometime in the next few weeks to discuss allergy testing, which won't be fun. Brian was allergic to peanuts as a baby and grew out of it, so hopefully JJ will do the same. Needless to say we didn't get our fun picnic at the beach for dinner, but I was super glad Brian was home today!!!