Boys are Trouble

And they start young. . . . my son is only 20 months old and he is driving us nuts.

Now lets start with how I dealt with my two daughters years ago. Put up gate - child stopped. Child cries. Put child in front of Sesame Street – all is well and child does not move until show is over. . . Child moves – put in new show. . .

Now for the boy. . . .. This kid should be a combat engineer. He can get over, under, around or through anything we put in his way.

Gate in the door way, scale gate and try to go over. Grunt (thank God he doesn't know sound travels) as you climb and get caught and put in front of the TV (or toy). Wait for parent to go back to doing something and go back to the gate - push the chair up to it and go over. Parent takes chair away - find toy big enough to climb and repeat. . . .

Gate with bars so you can’t get a foot hold? No problem, clime the couch, up to the cat tree and over. . . . Take away the cat tree? Couch to top of gate and over. . . . (smile at parents with look of "you make this too easy"/"that is all you got?")

Telephone out of reach, Pull on cord so you can get handset. Get caught when handset hits floor and put in front of TV(or other toy). Wait for parent to stop watching (see above) and push over chair, toy or other step so you can climb to phone height and bingo! You are at the phone. Tired of Mom and Dad using it? Turn off the ringer so they can’t hear it then you get all the parent time you want. . . .

Have I mentioned that he doesn’t talk yet? No need I guess as he gets most of what he want – on his own if needed. . . .

This is like living a big game of chess. Every road block I have come up with has only been temporarily with him. He comes up to the “new” road block, tries the old trick which does not work. . . OK, sits down and stares at the new problem. You can smell the smoke (and an occasional gear stripping) as he works out how to get over/under/around/through the problem. Finds solution then waits for parent to stop watching. . . .

I am slowly loosing the war of attrition to a 20 mo old. I can’t come up with obstacles as fast as he figures them out. . . . I wish someone had warned me about Boys. . . The two daughters had me totally fooled that I knew a bit about what I was doing as a parent. . . For those of you that watch Family Guy I think I am living with Stuie. . . He even has the "I am going to take over the world" look down.

I am so screwed. . . .

Sleep, who needs sleep?

Well we have reached that point in time where Jack my 18mo old has given up nap time. He was up a lot one night but I think that was a new tooth issue. He has started getting up or at least making noise a few times a night but I hope that fades soon. . . This is day two of no naps

I am too old for this crap.

That and I think my wife will go nuts and kill me if he does not start taking naps again. . . boy can he get cranky when he is tire. . . . .

Jack's big adventure

Jack is again proving that girls are easier to raise than boys, at least at this age. . . than and the fact that he is too smart for my own good.

We have a rather nice stair way up to the second floor that we don’t want him playing on for obvious reasons so we have a gate/fence in front of it blocking off the steps. Well I was informed that Jack has now figured out how to move the gate aside so that he can squeeze through and go up stairs. My wife found this out when she heard him playing in the upstairs hall. . . when she went up to see if it was him or one of the cats he made a break for it to go hid in my oldest daughters room. Quickly realizing that he could not crawl fast enough to avoid getting caught he went to plan B – Turn around, look at mom and give her the best “cute” look he could come up with. Hard to get mad at that big smiling face that screams "Play with me I'm cute!"

For a kid that is just a year old, he is learning too fast for me, he already walks a bit, obviously plans out what he is doing, and even has a plan B for when he gets caught. Thank God he has not figured out sound travels yet or we would really be in trouble. . . Once he comes up with the concept of stealth I think my wife and I will quickly loose the few nerves we have left worrying about him. . .

Birthday Pics

Jack Birthday Pics can be found HERE

Jack is One

Well Jack got through his first birthday party. . . I will get some pics put up this weekend. He did well, you can see the look of confusion on his face when we put the cake in front of him and everyone was singing at him. He thought we had all lost it = )

The cake went over well, and he was good and suggard up for the evening so he got to stay up a bit later than normal to run it off and boy did he ever. All around the living room lap after lap to see everyone and talk to them. May have worked better if we understood him but he gets points for the effort.

Can't believe it has been a year already. . . Time goes by fast and boy has he gotten big over that year. Third kid and it still amazes me.

Jack Is One!

One year ago today I got my son. . . Jack joined us late morning a year ago. He was in a bit of a rush to do so. During the C-Section the little arms popped out as soon as he saw light. Of course he had been kicking mom to get out since he had legs to kick with so this was not as much of a surprise for us as it was for the doctors. . .

Now I have at least one kid on my side. . . . to the two daughters on the wifes side but hey, you take what you get. At one year he has just gotten his seventh tooth and he is starting to feel good walking around. See the walking video a few spots down the blog. . . . He loves to go out side and play in the good weather when we have it, and seems to think the swing set is heaven on earth.

Going to have a quick party for him tonight with the family. I am sure he won't understand it a bit but will love the cake so all will be well.

The only down side is I wish my dad was around to see the grandson he always wanted. . . . I am sure he is watching. . . .

tomorrow will be one year

Tomorrow is Jack's first birthday. . . It has been one year since his escape. I call it that since during the C-section he tried to climb out as soon as he saw light. . . what can I say he obviously has plans. . . . though I am not sure they don't involve taking over the free world if give the chance. I swear he has that Stewie look in his eye some times. . . .

Jack is on the Move

Here is a quick shot of the newest addition on the move. . . .

Jack is walking

Well it had to happen, he is up and walking. Only a few steps at a time but he his mobile. Now he can get into all sorts of stuff, and when you say no he just smiles at you and laughs. . . you have to go get him and pick him up if you want him to stop. Lots of fun now that the TV buttons are in reach. I have to get some clear plastic to block them from him soon.

Pictures to come

Jack

New Jack Photos -

Jacks first day out in the yard. As I write this he is walking behind the trash can from the kitchen that he is using to hold himself up. At 11 months I think I am in trouble. . . .



Jack seems to like his cheese bones. . . . he spent the better part of the day crawling around like this. I guess he likes cheese. . . .

Jack Photos

I hope to get some time tonight to put up some new Jack photos here and on the family web page for those of you interested in seeing the little monster. . . He is getting big at 11 mo old now. He is doing the furniture walk about the house and crawls all over. He has been real excited now that the warm weather is here and he can go outside. He loves it. I got a swing set up for him last weekend and you should have seen the look on his face - His first time on a real swing and he loved it!

Gotta run, lots going on today. . . . check for pics tomorrow. . . .

Jack News

Well Jack has been causing trouble again. . . . the little bugger just keeps trying to grow up on us = )

He managed to get himself up three steps yesterday so he could surprise his grandmother I am told. For a follow up act he has managed to stand up without holding on to anything.

All I can say is he is off and running. . .or will be soon. He can really move on all fours when he wants to get someplace. That usually means getting from where he is to where Mom or I am if he feels he is missing out on something. . .

On the bright side our luck continues to hold in that he is still a happy little monster and does not give mom or I any real trouble to speak of. Unless you count the fact that he has decided to start getting up at 6:30 in the morning – not so bad during the week but I am not looking forward to him doing this on the weekends. . .

I'm in trouble now. . . .

Yep, he is up and standing on his own now. . . . he climbs people and things no problem. . . . I am guessing he will be walking before he turns one. . . . God help me . . . . and man can he move when he wants to crawl and he only started that a month or so ago. He is growing in leaps and bounds. Up to 21 pounds and 29 inches in 10 months!

Jack Christening Photos

Posted up at the web site if you are interested

for the family

New pics on the family web site of Jack and our trip to Disney.

More posts later

Update on the Home Front

Well, things are moving forward on the home front. I hope that they will be getting ready to break into the main house from the addition by the end of the week. . .

The big news of the week is that Jack has been fine and he has started to flip himself onto his back a night. This is good and bad as it is good he can do it but he does not sleep on his back. . . He ended up waking me up last night at some ungodly hours complaining because he was on his back. I looked at him and though "Oh Crap" as I had put him to sleep on his stomach ( did I say he only sleeps more than 5 min when on his stomach?) so I rolled him over and we were good till morn.

Jack

Well, mom is tired but Jack did good on his tests on Sunday night. Last night they had some folks from Children's Hospital in Boston come in to run another overnight test this time looking for acid reflux instead of sleep apnia. We won't have those results until tonight some time but mom says he slept OK all night. I think they are going to keep him all day today until they get the tests back. He is OK and happy enough but I think he is getting bored with being in there. He is use to having his sisters around and toys to play with.

Mom is getting burned out though, we have to get ready for my oldest birthday tomorrow but that is kind of on hold with Jack in the hospital. We are hoping that he will be home for it. If for some reason they don't like the results from last night they may move him to Children's hospital for more tests but things have gone well so far so I am hopping we are done today. The house isn't the same without him in it.

More Gray Hair

Well, Jack gave us quite the scare yesterday and added to my gray hair. . . . Mom is going to be upset that she had competition in this regard. . .

Anyway I didn't get to work on the web page or blog since I was going to do that last night and Jack decided to have a choking fit and stopped breathing for a few seconds. Enough of a time that we called 911 and went to the hospital by ambulance. And on that note let me say that our Fire and Rescue dept. has the best guys around! They were great in taking care of Jack and calming me and mom before they took Mom and Jack to the hospital. I have to send in a letter thanking them for everything, they were great. Jack is fine now. They monitored him all night (Mom stayed with him) and they are going to run another test tonight just to cover everything but he seems fine and they don't seem concerned at this point.

Anyway all looks well now and Jack should be home tomorrow afternoon after they run all their tests and look at the data. What's a bit more gray hair at this point anyway. . . .

Jack and house update

Well, on the good side Jack is growing like a weed. He was up to 14 lbs last we checked and he broke the three month mark. We have some good pics I will see if I can get posted. I am also trying to see if I can get any video posted too. I will try to work on this over the weekend.

Also getting a lot done on the house this week. The have some of the siding up and most of the windows and a slider door in. Now we need to do the normal doors and one more slider and we will have a weather tight house = ) I need to get a few new pics posted on the house too.

Time Flies

Wow, didn't realize how long it has been since I updated things. . . Been a bit busy. . .

Jack is almost three months old now! he is getting big. He is sleeping all night now, almost 9PM to 7AM most days. And there was much rejoicing!! = )

I have got to get more pictures put up so you can see the changes. He is also getting to the point he reacts more to people. And boy is he a charmer with that smile he has. . . . although he keeps looking at me like he knows something I don't and won't let me in on the joke. . . . oh well. I will just chalk it up to he has an old soul and let it go at that. . .

The house is moving forward again after a few days delays. they have most of the cement blocks up on the first floor and they have just about finished the roofing work. As you would expect Nana is very happy with the progress. She usually is in her best moods when she can see progress on the house. I hope she will be able to move in mid fall. She brought a few of her friends by the other day to show off the progress = ) With a bit of luck we will be able to have the after Christening gathering at the finished house. . . .

The funniest part of things this week has been the brick layers have a puppy that comes with them. The puppy and Dixie are getting along great except that our Dixie is tiring out the poor thing! T tells me the puppy has to take a few naps during the day . . . Dixie loves having a friend around to play with. Now I just have to keep T and the kids from deciding we need a permanent friend for Dixie. . . . one dog is enough in the house. . .