and the oscar goes to....

drawing!

I am so proud of my sons artwork I just have to blog about it! He loves to color and draw and this just impressed me to bits!! I mean the last picture he drew was a circle with stick legs, so this is like a work of art to me!

This morning at 0530 he got up and exclaimed "mommy I want to draw YOU something". I was like, ummm...ok...sure.....so I got some paper and a pencil..and away he went!!

The roof on the house has tile and just above the roof to the left I thought was a car, but was corrected because "it's a truck mommy". oh duh. Above the roof to the right I thought was a tree...WRONG...it's a CARROT (silly me) and below the carrot is a TREE. Below that tree is an umbrella! To the left of the house below the TRUCK is a KID. And at the bottom is a fence. Oh and the squiggly line at the top of the page is water...so we've all drowned basically. LOL.  Just kidding. Isn't this fantastic?

this one below is another one, but it has BIRDS and the SUN and a TREE and a CAT.

It's beautfiul!!!



i heart faces - beautiful eyes

when I saw the theme for this photo challenge, this photo immediately came to my mind. It was one of the first pictures we saw of our son, before we adopted him in Ethiopia. His eyes just captivated me and they speak to me in so many ways, of such hope and such longing...determined yet vulnerable...these are the eyes of my son. Yohannes.

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boys!

Wow I have not blogged in a while, seems like Facebook is getting most of my attention these days with the updates. Ok so blogger doesn't feel left out, thought I'd do a quick (did I say quick?) update on the happenings in our life...

JoJo is fully potty trained! woo hoo!! Pee and Poop! It took a while, and a lot of tears and mostly aggravation (for us) but everything that you read, is right. They WILL do it, but in their own time, and not yours. It's a very VERY frustrating process, and all I can say for anyone going through it right now, is HANG IN THERE....it doesn't matter that your child is 3 or 4 or whatever age and he's not potty trained...they will be soon enough and when they are ready. Oh and there is no magic switch, no magic toy, no magic stickers, no magic song that's gonna work for YOUR child, you just have to wait until they are ready.

Next, body parts. Ah yes. (grrrrr). Ok not so much grrrrr but I wish he wouldn't whip out his penis every 5 minutes to check it out! that's all. I mean really.  I know I know, he's exploring his body, yada yada, but honestly, he plays with it more than his toys lately. He asked what his "eggs" were called the other day, so I told him the real name for them and he asked if there were baby dinosaurs in them. Uh, that would be a big fat NO. I probably told him waaay too much information on what they were for....which reminds me....I need to get a book on body parts as he is at that age where he wants to know EVERYthing...I mean, everything.  What's this called, what's that for, how you spell this, who's that, why why why why why why.....arrghhhhhhh!! He never stops talking....AND he never stops moving!!  But, I like it that way :-)

He is about 38lbs (quarterback material I say) and almost 42" in height.  His shoe size is 11 almost 12, he will be in youth sizes soon! He wears a size 4 pants and size 5 Tops.  He is into Super Hero Squad, copies all the movements on the TV when they do the intro, dances and sings to ANYTHING and is quite a little performer!

We are teaching him patience and likewise he is teaching us patience.  Whenever we get a box from the Post office, he thinks its a TOY for him. Well, when it's NOT for him, he cries, he bawls, he has a little hissy fit and does a WWF on the floor. We are trying to teach him that not everything that comes in the mail is for him and next time if a box comes and its not for him, I told him I want him to say "OK Mommy"...and not cry, otherwise, when a toy does come, he won't get it.  We will see how that goes!

Lately he is into asking about family. About my Dad, my Mom, Clive's parents, his brothers, my sister, he wants to see photos of me as a "squishy baby" *ok so I was little squishy when I was a baby. He wants to see Clive when he was a baby, we have a video of him eating mac n cheese when he was about 18mths old and he LOVES watching that. He sees photos of Clive and I when we first met or after we got married and he says "I was not born yet".  He is just very very inquisitive.  He mentions the fact that "Grandma died" but still not sure if he understands what death is.

So, there's my update! As soon as my husband downloads the video we took of him dancing to Dancing Queen, by ABBA, will most like post that on......yup....Facebook!

Thanks for stopping by!

potty peeves

Just a quick update on the potty training situation.

JoJo will still not do his BM in the toilet, will not sit on the potty, will not sit on the toilet, flat out REFUSES. And trust me when I say this, I have tried everything. He just won't do it. 

So, we are at our wits end.  We have told him, NO MORE (new) TOYS until he goes poop on the toilet. He knows and he understands this perfectly well.  We used to buy him a new toy almost every weekend.

Well, we are saving ALOT of money right now so what does that tell you.

A box came in the mail yesterday, and he knows those AMAZON boxes usually have toys in them, well he wanted to open it. We told him no. He had a meltdown. The box is hidden and unopened. And it will stay that way. We are not budging. He knows where he's supposed to do his poop, and he's not getting a darn thing until he does.

It's on.

Bring it.

independence

you see this?

it's called "attitude"

and it can start as young as 4 years old, if not earlier.

I have no clue how this happened.

I mean, I certainly don't pull my shirt up like that and make a face like "you wanna piece o' me?"

but it happened nonetheless.

my little gettingbiggerbytheday man just wants to do E-V-E-R-Y thing by himself. Which is great, awesome.
....and time CONSUMING!! lol

so in the morning, he goes into his room, shuts the door (you know...for privacy)....and goes into his closet.
He picks out his underwear, his shirt, his pants and his socks.

He will parade around naked for a while, then proceed to dress himself. He can even put his own socks on now, which was a bit of a challenge at first. He can put his jacket on and now do up the zipper.

He goes into the fridge, gets his own juice, or chocolate milk....goes to the "snack:" cupboard to get a snack (he has to ask first though).

We just leave a little (ok double) the time that it would normally take...and we're good to go.

He recently started asking for "money".

That's my boy. He's awesome.
I thank God everyday for him.

i heart faces - innocent wonder

this weeks theme is innocent wonder which is open to interpretation! arrghhh!! SO I went through all the photos and this one jumped out at me....he is sooooo entranced at something! His eyes just melt my heart and the blurry background just makes you gaze at him even more and just "wonder" what he is thinking. Very innocent.

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