At Home with Grandma

Baylor stayed home with Grandma today. It was just too hot to take him with us, and Grandma wasn't exactly disappointed to be left at home in the air conditioning either. Since he wasn't a part of the family photos shared in my previous report, I figured I'd share a couple of random pictures of Baylor taken this week.

Holiday Weekend

Our Sunday was packed with family fun. We started the day at the beach, but rip currents kept us out of the water. It's okay though. There was still plenty to see. Because of the strong winds every surfer in the area seemed to be out showing off their skills. The kite surfers were especially interesting to watch. There were so many, I don't know how they managed to avoid tangling their lines. At one point, Grandfather asked Jax, "Are you and Baylor going to be surfers?" Jax stared out at all the surfers waiting for their next big wave and loudly proclaimed, "Yes!" Thank goodness we're moving farther North. Our current area is considered the Shark Attack Capital of the World.

Although it was cloudy and windy, it certainly wasn't cool, especially when you factored in the humidity. So from the beach we headed to a restaurant to enjoy cold drinks and appetizers. Yum! After refueling, our competitive spirits led us to mini golf. Rather than our usual round of Pirate Golf, we decided to try somewhere new and headed into the Congo. At the entrance, there was a pen filled with juvenile alligators. For $3 you could purchase "alligator food" (hot dogs) to feed them. You used a makeshift fishing pole to lower the pieces of hot dog down into the pen. We figured the gators would be full after being fed by all of the visitors, but they were fighting for Jax's hot dog. Of course, Jax enjoyed it, but I was surprised how entertaining it was for the rest of us.

Alligator feeding was followed by mini golf. The course design was fun with lots of "trick" holes that involved multiple levels. You'd have to putt your ball into a hole on the first level that then lead to a second level and sometimes even a third level. The elaborate designs meant that our scores were based more on luck than skill. In the end, Grandfather claimed victory with a score of 4+. Anh was one stroke behind. Kelly placed third. I placed fourth, just barely ahead of Jax. Both Anh and Kelly somehow managed to pull off hole-in-ones, nothing short of amazing given the course design.

We ended our day at the go-cart speedway. Jax decided to team up with Daddy for the first half of the race, but during our brief pit stop, he switched to Team Grandfather. Good call too because they captured the checkered flag and more importantly bragging rights until the next challenge.

H-O-T

Today it was just too hot to not take a dip in the pool. At one point, Aunt Kelly offered to teach Jax how to swim, but when she tried to take away his floaties, he quickly lost interest. He cried, "No, I need my woaties!" He enjoys being independent in the water and was not one bit interested in being relient on someone else. It didn't help that there were two slightly older boys also at the pool with their parents. Jax was in an extremely social mood and didn't want to be tied to his family when there were other kids to interact with.

Baylor, once again, enjoyed his time in the pool. He did his best to stay awake, but eventually couldn't fight the urge to take a little snooze in his floatie. We decided to call it a day when the state bird (the mosquito) started bitting. Another little (non-biting) bird told me that Grandfather and Grandma were bringing some new pool toys tomorrow. We'll hope for another hot, dry day so we can have another round of fun in the sun.

Aunt Kelly

Today, Aunt Kelly arrived for the holiday weekend. She met Baylor for the first time, and it was a very similar experience to when she met Jax. Aunt Kelly still doesn't do drool or diapers. I guess my plans to use her as a night nanny aren't going to work out. Oh well! Grandma will be here in a few days!

Saving It For Later

After lunch, Jax asked for the new Oreo snack cakes that I bought for him (and Aunt Kelly, the Snack Queen) at the grocery store yesterday. I agreed, but since there are 2 in each package, I told him he could only have one. The other would have to be saved for later or shared with Daddy. Jax (and Anh who was home for lunch) agreed this was a good plan. Anh opened the package, handed Jax his cake, and then placed the other cake, still in the opened packaging on the kitchen counter.

As if jealous of the special treat, Baylor started fussing from his playmat. I guess he was tired of being ignored so I turned my attention to him. After a few minutes of playing had passed, Jax came strolling back into the family room/kitchen. I didn't even notice that he had left. Nor had I noticed that he left with the opened package containing the 2nd snack cake, but I sure did notice it in his hand when he returned. He looked at me and said, "I want to save it for later," as he climbed onto his chair to put the package back on the counter where Anh had left it. I gave him a "you know better" look and said, "I think that's a good idea."

A few more minutes passed, before it dawned on me that I was an idiot. I looked at Anh who was standing in the kitchen and said, "Check that package to see if the 2nd cake is still in there." Sure enough, Jax had snuck off and ate it, and then he tried to play it off, like Mommy and Daddy were fools that would never find out. What a punk!

Dear Husbands/Fathers

If you think you're going to be slick and throw away your child's broken Happy Meal/kid's meal toys while your wife and children are sleeping using the rationale that it's broken and the kids have toys coming out of their ears they'll never notice it's missing, please have the common sense to put some other trash on top of the toy so your wife/Mommy isn't forced to deal with the emotional mess of a 3-year old that has just discovered his "prized" spy toy in the trash when all he wanted to do was throw away his banana peel. Daddies, take a little wisdom from Pooh, "Think, Think, Think."

New Kids

Today Jax returned to his school for what will be his last week. Since school was cancelled Tuesday through Friday thanks to Fay, he was beyond ready to return to his class and see his buddies. When Anh walked Jax into his classroom this morning, two new kids came running over to greet him. One was the Asian kid that Anh noticed sitting in the corner alone on the first day. The second was another new boy Anh also remembered from the first day because his hair was meticulously styled with gel into a faux-hawk. Anh and I both agreed that it was a bit ridiculous to be "styling" a 3-year old's hair, but whatever. If you're that worried about your kid's hair, who am I to fault you.

Anyway, so these two kids come running over eager to greet Jax. The teacher, Mrs. M, introduces the Asian kid as Daniel and the faux-hawk kid as "In-Your-Face" Ethan. Wow! I guess Ethan made quite the first impression. Only 1 day and he's been branded with a less than flattering nickname. Wonder what she calls Jax?

Shoes

Today Baylor got his first pair of shoes, just like his big brother's. I think he likes them!

What's He Got Against Me?

Tonight, I had to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things. As we passed through the bakery department, Jax pointed to the doughnut display and asked, "Can we get some?" I wheeled the cart over to the display case and instructed Jax to pick the ones he wanted. He immediately pointed to a smiley-faced doughnut and said, "I want that one!" Into the box it went. Then, I told him to pick out one for Daddy. He pointed to the glazed cruellers. I asked him, "Do you want to get one for Aunt Nguyen?" He nodded yes and pointed to the cinnamon buns. Finally, I asked him, "Which one is for Mommy?" Jax pointed to the chocolate glazed doughnuts, and said, "That one!"

I had intended to save the doughnuts for tomorrow morning, but Jax begged & begged to eat his as soon as we got home. What the heck! It's Saturday night. Let's be crazy! Then demonstrating zero self-control, I ate my doughnut too. As we sat there, Jax looked at me enjoying my chocolate glazed doughnut and said, "Ewwww, you're eating mud!" So let's see...he thought the doughnut was covered in mud, and he picked it for me? Gee, once again...Thanks, Jax!

Sharing

I think Jax understands the concept of sharing. It's something we've tried to instill in him since he was a baby, but we're trying to reinforce the concept before Baylor is old enough for it to become an issue. So the other day we were eating box lunches from The Honey Baked Ham Cafe. We've become quite obsessed with them, actually. When we opened our boxes, Jax pointed to the cookie inside Anh's box and said, "Can I have that?" Anh laughed and said, "No." Jax stared at him and said, "But, but, we share." As they shared their cookie, Anh realized that while Jax does indeed understand sharing. Sharing equates to 3/4 of a cookie for Jax, and 1/4 for Daddy.

Thanks

School was once again cancelled today, robbing Jax of another day with his buddies before he transfers to his new school. Non-emergency surgeries were also cancelled, which means I have not 1, but 2 restless boys climbing the walls for a 4th straight day. Will this storm ever move on?!

The wind and rain were pretty intense this morning, but now seem to be letting up. I checked the radar, and it appears like we'll have a little break from the intensity. I asked Anh whether we should head out to a restaurant with an indoor playground to let Jax get some energy out. He agreed it was probably a good idea. So we started getting ready to leave the house for only the 2nd time in 4 days. Yeah!

Jax watched as I applied my makeup, at one point even asking, "What are you doing?" I looked at him and said, "I'm putting on my makeup, Silly. You know that." His response, "Oh. So you don't scare people?" What?! Gee thanks, Jax!

Fay

She's coming for a visit, but she's 3 days late! She's been on our doorstep, but she just won't come in. The city and county pretty much shut down on Tuesday, thinking that Fay was on her way, but it's now Thursday and we're all still waiting. Schools and offices have been closed because we were warned to expect torrential rain and 65 mph winds, but so far we've just had constant heavy drizzle and the occasional big gust of wind, far less than 65 mph.

We're starting to go a bit stir crazy, afraid to leave the house because they're saying she's making her move into our area, but then she stalls out and refuses to move. Yesterday, I swear I saw these chicks hanging out in the foyer.

With that, I decided it was time to push our luck and venture out. But, where can you go to entertain your beyond restless 3 year old during a pending tropical storm? Well, to the world's largest FREE indoor playground, Toys 'R Us! Uncertain that they'd actually be open, we headed out determined to find something to do that would save our sanity. Yeah, whoever thought a trip to Toys 'R Us would help calm your nerves. The sight of cars in the parking lot was a reassuring sign. As Jax ran up, the electronic doors parted, and he screamed, "YEP, THEY'RE OPEN!" I do believe the whole city heard the announcement.

As we wandered the aisles, actually trying to drag out the time, we laughed at how different our attitude was compared to a normal shopping trip. Usually the strategy is to get in and out as quickly as possible. Knowing that we only had boredom to return home to, we decided it might be a good idea to pick out a game that would at least provide some sort of distraction. Jax has never played a board game. We decided he could probably benefit from a "match" game.

After walking every aisle and convincing Jax that it was not the ideal time to purchase a new riding toy or video game system for the car, we headed home to play our new game. So now we're once again confined to the house. The wind and rain is starting to pick up, but Fay is still looming off the coast, uncertain of where she wants to go. I think our biggest fear is that she'll remain indecisive and keep us all trapped for several more days. How much family time can one really take?! Kidding, sort of!

Home Inspection

The home inspection was completed today despite the rainy conditions. Everything seemed to check out. There were a few minor issues that we'll ask the sellers to address prior to closing, but nothing major. We're just one step towards making it ours. The only thing left to do is count the days until closing. Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I haven't even started dealing with the utilities or booked movers. I guess I better get on that!

3 Months

Baylor is 3 months old! Time is flying! He continues to amaze us with his abilities.

• Baylor can now easily down 7 - 8 oz of milk, and as a result he's about to move from size 2 to size 3 diapers. His wardrobe is made up primarily of 6-9 month items, but there are a few 12 month articles, like his new Brooklyn t-shirt from Aunt Kelly.
• His new favorite snacks are his hands and the occasional bib. Baylor's hand obsession turns him into a big, slobbery mess. Obviously, they're quite tasty. He has recently discovered his feet. I can only imagine the tales I'll have to share about that in a few weeks.
• Baylor's primary form of communication is the squeal. It's quite high-pitched, and I'm convinced that he's trying to summon all of the neighborhood dogs to our doorstep.
• It doesn't take much to make him smile, but he does seem to prefer to share them with his Mommy. The laugh is still something that he saves for special occasions.
• On several nights, he's slept for 8 hours straight, but most of the time he's still waking up for a 3am bottle.
• And finally, yesterday he rolled over (back to belly) for the first time!

His favorite activities:

• Since he's so well rested, Baylor enjoys practicing "walking" back and forth between Mommy and Daddy. He has shown zero interest in crawling.
• Baylor does quite an impressive Weeble Wobble impersonation while playing in his exersaucer. He weebles. He wobbles, but luckily, he CAN'T fall down.
• His all-time favorite activity is swimming. Maybe he'll be the next Michael Phelps.
  
  

No School

Tropical Storm Fay has robbed Jax of 1 of his last 5 days with his school buddies. They just announced that school is cancelled tomorrow thanks to Fay who seems to be taking her sweet time moving across the state. She'll move through our area tomorrow with winds in excess of 65 mph and potentially even stronger gusts. We've been told that we could get more than 10 inches of rain over the next 24 hours which I would think could cause lots of headaches and flooding. I'm not too worried though. We've got a big man made pond in our backyard. Surely the water will flow towards that.

Our home inspection was scheduled for tomorrow though. I'm thinking that will probably need to be rescheduled. I doubt the inspector will want to wade through the storm to inspect the exterior, but at least we'll know whether the roof is in good shape!

Long Overdue

Jax with his back to school haircut and new Bulldog monster truck.Baylor admiring himself in the exersaucer mirror.Showing some brotherly love.
Smile! Baylor, you're not smiling.
This is what you get when you ask Jax to make Baylor smile.

Never Say Never

I don't know whether it was Little Johnny or Little Janie, but somebody didn't make the potty-training deadline to start Catholic School! Anh called the school this morning to check one last time on whether there was any chance of Jax being able to attend since we were planning to pay for his tuition at the Episcopal School today. The program coordinator told him that there would potentially be a Monday, Wednesday, Friday slot open because one Mom was uncertain about whether her child was "ready" to attend school.

Anh told the coordinator that even though we really prefer to send Jax to the Catholic School, we can't wait a week for an answer because we'll lose his secured spot at the Episcopal School. The coordinator then said, "Well, I also need to let you know that even if the spot becomes available...Ummm....How do I put this?" Anh interrupted, "You'll need us to pay for the entire year, even though Jax will be starting late." She laughed, "Yes, exactly." "Not a problem," Anh replied, and that was it. Evidently, she decided for the indecisive mom. The other kid isn't ready. Jax is in! We're driving up this afternoon, once Jax is out of school, to pay the registration and tuition.

Not sure what happened to all the kids that were ahead of us on the waiting list. I guess our type-A personlities that led us to call 1 last time on the first day of school really helped out in this situation. Oh, and no uniforms. Can you believe it? A Catholic school that doesn't require uniforms!

First Day of School

Jax started his 3-year old school year this morning, but I guess he was confused about where he'd be going. On the ride to school this morning, Anh asked him if he excited about starting school. Jax asked, "Am I going to my new school with my new teacher and new friends?" Anh explained, "No, you're going to your old school for a couple of weeks and then you'll go to your new school." Jax paused, let out a sigh, and said, "Oh, o-tay." Good to know that at least he's excited about a change of schools.

When they arrived at the school, Anh said it was complete chaos. He weaved through the crowd of parents photographing their kids on the first day of school. As he walked by Jax's 2-year old classroom on the way to the new 3-year old room, Anh looked in the window. He said the room was packed with crying kids, crying moms, and dads snapping pictures for the scrapbooks. Rookies!

Half of Jax's class is made up of new kids. So there were some tears in there too. Several kids were crying for their parents that had already left. One had attached herself to the teacher's, Mrs. M, leg. Poor woman was limping around the room thanks to the added and awkward weight. One boy was pouting and crying, "My mom didn't tell me about school!" Mrs. M said, "Oh, I'm sure she did."

Anh noticed a sad little Asian boy sitting in the corner all alone. He pointed him out to Jax, and said, "You should go say hi to that new little boy. He looks lonely." Jax just ran over to his two buddies from last year, Baylor and Daniel. Oh well. I'm sure he's just waiting to see which of the new kids like balls and running around the playground. Then, he'll be more interested in meeting them.

Spreading the News

Today we shared the news of our impending move with Jax's current school teachers. There was an open house celebrating the start of the new school year next Monday, and since we finalized the financing on the new house this morning, we figured it was time to let them know that Jax would be leaving. I didn't want to deprive some other kid of the chance to attend in Jax's place, but at the same time, I didn't want to give up our spot only to find out that our plans had fallen through. All is coming together though, so it's pretty much official.

Jax's best friend, Baylor, just happened to be there with his mom when Anh shared the news. She looked really sad when she heard the news, and said, "Baylor is going to be devastated. Jax is his best friend and all that he ever talks about." She started to call Baylor over to tell him, but then said, "You know what, I'm not even going to tell him. He'll be too upset." Luckily, Baylor's mom has an office up North too. We're hoping to schedule some play dates so the boys can continue to see each other. We'll see if it works out.

Uniforms

Jax's registration papers for the Episcopal school arrived today, and in the welcome letter it states that his uniform will consist of navy pants or shorts and one of the school's logo white t-shirts or polo shirts. I had no idea that he'd have to wear a uniform. It's not a bad thing necessarily. I wore one until 7th grade. It just caught me off guard. Just the idea of uniforms makes this school seem like it will be more strict and challenging. I want Jax to be educated and disciplined, but I also can't help thinking that he's only 3! School should be educational, but fun too. Is a uniform really necessary? I did say that I wanted a "real" school though, not daycare. I guess the uniform definitely paints the picture that it's a school.

Another thing that caught me off guard was that there's a PTO. PTO for preschool?! They meet monthly to plan events and fundraisers. Fundraisers for preschool? What have I gotten us into?

Olympic Mania

We've come down with the fever, Olympic Fever. We've stayed up way past our bedtimes watching as much of the coverage as we can. The following day, we read all the online news reports analyzing the previous night's events, predicting what will happen in the upcoming competitions, and of course, our favorite, the Olympic gossip.

The media coverage has been very interesting, to say the least. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits and comments reported during the broadcasts:

• Swimmer Michael Phelps ingests 12,000 calories per day. A typical breakfast is 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups of coffee, a 5-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, 3 slices of french toast topped with powdered sugar and 3 chocolate chip pancakes. For lunch, he'll eat a pound of pasta, 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo, and he drinks about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks. At dinner, he gobbles up another pound of pasta, an entire large pizza, and downs another 1,000 calories in energy drinks. HOLY MOLY!
• Volunteers used metal detectors to search the 17,000 tons of sand at the Olympic beach volleyball venue for American Kerri Walsh's wedding band that was lost during her opening round with partner Misty May-Treanor against Japan. Finding the ring was pretty much the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
• There is a Starbucks at the Great Wall of China. Seriously! You can buy a pork bun and a latte while waiting for the cycling events to start.
• And finally, this little piece of wisdom. While watching American synchronized divers Mary Beth Dunnichay and Haley Ishimatsu compete for gold on the 10 meter platform, the commentator shared some background info on the two. Evidently, Haley relocated to Indianapolis to train with Mary Beth because "it's very important for synchronized divers to practice in the same location." Really? Shocking!

Time to Retire the Grill

Tonight we decided to cook dinner on the grill, yummy sun-dried tomato turkey brats stuffed with mozzarella. A simple plan or so we thought. After preheating the grill, Anh headed out with the brats, but as soon as he opened the grill, he realized that the flames were out of control. He came back in to report the drama, and of course, we all ran over to the back door to see how bad it was. The grill was pretty much on fire.

We just kind of stood there with confused expressions, mesmerized by the flames. Then, it occured to me that we should probably try to turn off the propane tank rather than risk an explosion. Since Anh has the larger insurance policy, he was nominated for the job. We briefly debated whether it was wise to use an oven mitt to protect his hand from the flames even though it would likely catch fire itself, but Anh just decided to just stick his bare hand into the flames. Not a good idea in my mind, but it all worked out okay, luckily. No need to go on disability just yet. Thank goodness.

I believe the grill will be officially retired. No ceremony. We'll just wheel that sucker out to the curb for the trash truck. The really crummy thing is that it's just barely a year old. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Jax received a kite a few weeks back from Grandfather. Since it arrived on our doorstep, he has been asking to go fly it. Well, the only time we really have a breeze here at the house is when there's a storm coming, not really the ideal time to go fly a kite. So I've been telling Jax that we need to go to the beach to fly the kite, but I've been really hesitant to take Baylor to the beach because of the extreme summer heat. He gets overheated so easily. I just wanted to wait for the temps to drop a little before taking him on a beach outing.

Yesterday, we finally had a nice afternoon with decent temps and a clear skies. So we packed up and headed to the beach. Everyone was excited about the outing...until we actually arrived. That's when things went downhill...quickly. Baylor had fallen asleep on the ride there so we decided to just carry him down to the beach in his carseat rather than wake him up. Anh grabbed the baby. I grabbed the gear, and Jax carried his kite. We had taken maybe 5 steps on the sand when I heard Anh say, "Oh, no!" I turned to see what was wrong. Baylor was covered in sand. Our walking or the breeze had kicked sand up onto him. It was everywhere.

At first glance, we thought it was kind of funny. He was covered with sand. Seriously, we might as well have just rolled him around in the sand that's how coated he was. We started to laugh, but then I realized that it was all around his eyes which immediately led to panic at the thought that he'd wake up, open his eyes, and then the grains of sand would actually get into his eyes and cause some kind of lasting damage. Not sure whether this was a rational thought, but it's what crept into my mind and then created all kinds of terrible images.

I started trying to gently wipe away the sand with the corner of a beach towel, but I wasn't having much luck. We didn't have any fresh water, just flavored bottled water and formula. So I doused him with flavored water and that didn't work either. The only thing I accomplished was actually waking him up which then made us panic even more that he'd get sand in his eyes.

Baylor started crying, probably because I had just doused him with flavored water, but in my mind it was because his eyes were being scratched by the grains of sand. We spotted the shower by the beach access ramp and ran over to rinse him off. Let's just say he wasn't happy to be stripped and then placed under the high pressure, cold shower. Poor baby was absolutely wailing, but as soon as we wrapped him in the warm, dry beach towel, he was happy again.

So with that drama behind us, we made a second attempt to have some fun at the beach. We made our way back on to the sand, carefully shielding Baylor this time from the sand kicked up by our walking and the wind. I sat down with the baby, and Anh helped Jax unpack his kite. Luckily, it didn't require assembly, just unraveling. In a matter of seconds, Jax was flying his kite, and within a few more seconds, it was a tangled mess. Yeah! Fifteen seconds of fun equaled 20 minutes of untangling knots in the line and tail of the kite. Finally, the kite was ready to fly again, but by that point, Jax had moved on to wanting to swim.

After all his effort to untangle the mess, Anh insisted that Jax fly the kite at least one more time. Jax ran over and flew the kite a second time. Now more experienced, he managed not to tangle the line. He seemed to enjoy watching it fly high into the sky, but what he liked even more was having Anh fly the kite low while he chased the tail. Even that grew boring after a while though.

By that point, the sun was setting. Jax wanted to play in the surf, but I told him not to go too deep because it was getting dark, and that's when sharks get confused. As soon as I said it, I thought, "Oops, probably shouldn't have said that." Jax seemed unfazed. He just took off running for the water. As they stood in the shallow surf, Anh noticed Jax scanning the water. He asked Jax what he was doing, and Jax replied, "I'm looking for sharks!" At least he wasn't scared, just aware.

Baylor and I just sat on a towel and watched all the families enjoying the last minutes of their day at the beach. It was nice. Anh and Jax had waded out a little farther into the waves. As I watched them playing, Jax lost his footing when he was smacked by a larger wave. He fell and got a mouth full of saltwater. After coughing up a lung, he turned to Anh and said, "Daddy, I can't swim." Anh just laughed at his matter-of-fact tone, and told him, "Don't worry, buddy. We'll work on that."

What started off rather rocky, ended up being a pretty nice family outing. I have zero pictures to show for it though, and that was actually what I was most looking forward to. Oh well, we live here. I'll have other opportunities.

Torture at the Table

That is what Baylor goes through at dinner. Poor thing wants to eat real food so badly. For weeks, he's been mimicking our chewing at meals, but now that he's perfected the routine, he actually seems to think that we should give him food.

We usually pull his swing up to the table so he can feel like a part of the family even if he can't participate in the meal. He's fine for the first few minutes, but eventually he'll start kicking his feet with excitement. Then, he starts waving his arms, as if trying to signal us that he's there because in his mind we obviously forgot to fix his plate. From there, we move on to whimpering and squealing because that always gets our attention. By the end of the meal, he's wailing and throwing a fit because we are just mean and cruel for denying him a taste.

As a result of this dinner drama, we've learned to pretty much inhale our food. Well, everyone except Jax. He still takes forever, and now seems to enjoy waving whatever he's eating in Baylor's face, taunting him. He'll even say, "Baylor wants some, but he can't eat any. He's just a baby." Yes, Jax, but waving the chicken in his face doesn't help him understand that any better!

Rested

We're all feeling quite rested. Why? Well, because Baylor slept 8 hours last night, from 9pm to 5am. After drinking his bottle, he passed back out until 8am. Clearly he was exhausted, and as a result, we're not.

Silly Mommy

To Baylor, I'm hilarious. Today while I was playing with him, I told him, "I love you," in a silly sing-song voice. He erupted into laughter. So, of course, I said it again and again and again. Each time he heard it, he chuckled a little louder until finally he was giggling with pure delight. It was so incredibly sweet.

I tried calling Anh into the room to witness the moment, but he only caught the tail end of it. Luckily, it wasn't an isolated incident. Later in the evening, I again told him, "I love you," using the same sing-song tone. Again, he laughed. It turns out it's not necessary those 3 words that he finds so entertaining. It's the sing-song tone. I continued talking to him in that tone, and I guess I either sound or look like a big goofball because he just thinks it's the funniest thing.

Regardless, I must admit it felt good to be the one that made him laugh for the first time. Anh had the honors with Jax. One night we were sitting on the couch with him, and out of the blue, Anh turned to little Jax and sang a line from an L.L. Cool J song, "Momma's gonna knock you out..." Jax busted out with a loud giggle. Anh continued singing the song, and it brought an expression of sheer delight to Jax's face and he giggled uncontrollably. Anh and I laughed so hard we were crying. It was quite a moment.

This time there were no tears, but the feeling of delight was the same. If only you could bottle up those feelings and save them forever.

Appraisal

Our home appraisal was today, and we've been told prematurely that the house should come in right at the purchase price. Our realtor was quite nervous when she heard which appraiser the bank was using. I guess he's known for his conservative appraisals. We were okay with that though. It's not that we don't want the deal to go through, but we want an honest opinion of what the house is worth. We don't want to be overpaying in a buyer's market.

One hurdle down. The home inspection is scheduled for next week. Given that the house is only 2 years old, I'm not really expecting there to be any major issues. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Accepted

Jax will be attending the Episcopal school! Yay! A Tuesday/Thursday slot became available. I was hoping to send him at least 3 days a week, but we'll take anything we can get at this point. I can always look into some alternative activities for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm just relieved that he'll have a school and some little friends to play with. He's a social kid. Staying at home all day with Mommy and Baylor would drive him nuts.

Wait Listed

We're back from our school scouting trip, and it pretty much went as I expected. Not well. We already know that it's highly unlikely that Jax will get into the Catholic preschool due to it's insane popularity. We went with the "what the heck" mentality though, and put him on the waiting list anyway. You never know. Since they require the kids to be potty-trained, we could luck out and this year will happen to be the year that a bunch of 3-year olds just couldn't make that milestone in time. So while it's unlikely for this school year, he can probably go there next year for the 4-year old program.

What we really focused on today were the alternatives. First, we drove by an Episcopal school which is located in the historic district. It looked promising, but when we called yesterday for information, we were told that all of the teachers are out this week on vacation. Even though we knew that we couldn't really tour the facility, we decided to go by anyway. We were able to talk to the church secretary again, and she called the school's director at home so we could speak with her. She confirmed that there is a waiting list, but felt like there was a good chance that he'd be able to attend this fall. She didn't elaborate though. So I don't know whether she just said that to be nice or what.

The director said she'd call us tomorrow with more information. Given that there's a chance he could get in, we checked out what we could of the school. We peaked through the windows to see the classrooms and playground. It looked pretty nice. It's clean and nicely decorated. All of the toys looked well taken care of, and it's definitely a preschool, not daycare. The Catholic school told us that is where all of their wait list kids usually end up. A good sign, I guess.

From there we went by 2 additional options. Both of these schools have definite openings. So we toured the facilities, and both had the same reactions. NO WAY! I mean they weren't complete dumps, but they seemed like it compared to Jax's current school and the 2 church schools that we had already looked at. One was huge and was definitely more of a daycare. I kind of felt like Jax would just be another kid there. The last stop was just wrong on all levels. I mean it wasn't a dangerous environment or anything, but it just wasn't good.

So, for now, I guess we're kind of in a holding pattern. Let's hope the Episcopal Director has good news for us tomorrow or sometime in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, home school and play groups are it, assuming I can find a play group!

School Scouting

Today we started collecting information on new preschools for Jax. Next to finding a place to live, this has been what has worried me most about our impending move. I'm very disappointed to be leaving his current school. It has been such a great experience for him, and I worry we won't find something comparable close to the new house.

We started asking for recommendations during our last visit to the area, and everyone said that the two best programs were offered through two of the local churches, 1 Catholic and 1 Baptist. Well, since we're Catholic, the choice seemed obvious. As it turns out, both of these programs are so popular you have to pretty much get your kid on the waiting list as soon as they're born.

Anh called the church office and asked them what kind of "donation" we were looking at to get our kid in, and they just laughed and said that wouldn't work. So then he questioned whether he should pull a "Jeff Gillooly" (You know, Tanya Harding's ex-husband who whacked Nancy Kerrigan's kneecaps.) and take out some other kids so there'd suddenly be open slots. Again they laughed and said that probably wasn't a good idea. As a last ditch effort, Anh then suggested that we line all the kids up and have them race to qualify for school. Jax would definitely smoke them all! Again, just laughter.

They did offer a small glimmer of hope though. They suggested we go ahead and put him on the waiting list because they require the children to be potty-trained and sometimes children do have to leave the program if there's a "problem." So now we're hoping that some kid will have an accident, actually multiple accidents, and get kicked out. Okay, I'm not really hoping that some poor kid will be emotionally scarred for life, but if it happens, it happens, and it works out well for my kid.

So tomorrow we're heading up to check into the 3 other options that also come highly (just not as highly) recommended. I'm sure one of them will work out. Otherwise, we'll just have to home-school and seek out some play groups. We'll make something work, one way or another. As a side note, we did go ahead and put Baylor on the waiting list for the Catholic program. They're certain he'll get in. I would sure hope so. He's 3 months old! Just how many names could possibly be ahead of him for the 2011-2012 school year!

Water Babies

We finally made it to the pool, and the boys had a great time. This was Jax's first time using floaties, and intially he was pretty hesitant about getting in the water. I guess he didn't trust me when I told him that they'd help him swim on his own. Nope, he refused to get in on his own, even in the shallow end. He was clinging tightly to Anh, but after all of 5 minutes, he wanted nothing to do with either of us. He was Mr. Independence swimming around all by himself, and quite proud of it too. Some of our neighbors were also at the pool. So he had an audience feeding his ego too. He was more than happy to be their entertainment.

Since Jax was busy swimming laps like the next Michael Phelps, Anh turned his focus to Baylor. Then it was my turn to feel anxious. I was convinced that Baylor would be scared by this new experience and would start crying, especially since he was overdue for his late afternoon nap. It probably wasn't the ideal time to introduce such a different environment, but I couldn't have been more wrong. He absolutely loved it! He only started crying after I tried to take him out of the pool 20 minutes later. So back in he went for some more splash time. At about the 45 minute mark, he simply couldn't fight it anymore and started to fall asleep.

We decided it was probably best to call it a day. It only took another 20 minutes or so to convince Jax that we would go swimming again tomorrow and that it would be okay to get out and dry off. He reluctantly agreed, but I suspect he'll have his swimsuit on bright and early tomorrow morning.

A Bit of News

We're buying this. The price is set. Documents have been signed. It's official! Well, I guess it's not truly official until we close, but it looks very, very, very promising. Closing is scheduled for mid-September. Anyone want to help me lug my stuff up those stairs? Just kidding! The movers are going to hate us.

Dilemma

Jax faced quite the dilemma today. He was torn between 2 loves, one old and one new. As you already know, he's a big Nascar fan, and today is the Pocono race. It's 200 laps long, and normally Jax would watch every single lap, despite Mommy's protests, like a die-hard fan.

Today, however, he strayed from Nascar. You see, on Friday, Jax discovered the X-games on ESPN. He has been watching all kinds of insanity involving skateboards, BMX bikes, Motor-Cross, and even some Rally car racing. The stunts these guys do are nothing short of amazing, and we've witnessed both the good and bad outcomes. As with Nascar, Jax seems to enjoy watching them crash more than he enjoys seeing them successfully complete their jump or trick.

While watching some highlight footage from one of the BMX stunt competitions, Anh asked Jax, "Can you do that on your bicycle?" Jax immediately blurted out, "Yeah," and then paused for a second and said, "Actually, No!" It was like he had the thought, "Yeah, I can totally do that. Let's go!" Then he realized, "What am I crazy!" I'm a little worried about what he might attempt the next time he gets on his bike.

He's not abandoning Nascar all together though. When the X-game coverage ended, he immediately wanted to watch Nascar. I think Jax might very well turn out to be an adrenaline junkie.

Almost

We have almost witnessed giggling several times over the last few days. So far, Baylor has really only chuckled which is definitely cute, but makes us anxious to witness full on giggling because I know it will be even better. He's made even more progress on sleeping too. He'll know sleep for 6 hours, wake for a bottle, and then sleep for another 3, sometimes even 4 hours! We feel super lucky.