As a Treat

Since John slept in his bed last night for the first time in God knows how long, I offered to get him a special treat, a train from Target. After his nap this afternoon, we went to Target to look for his treat. I tried to steer him toward the cheap Circo trains. For a while there, I thought I was going to be able to pull that off; however, Our John is his mother's son afterall. He decided to choose the expensive Duke and Duke's Coal Car combo. If only Circo would paint faces on the fronts of their trains, my life would have been so much easier. Oh well, he did earn his treat.

Multicultural Fun

Our John loves all cultures. He enjoys learning others' customs and games. He's particularly fond of singing and playing games. One of his favorite games is Dreidel and he loves to sing the Dreidel Song (thanks Caillou and Leo for teaching it to him).

Our Little Drama King

John tends to be quite mercurial just like me. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you are, but he's quite entertaining when he gets in one of his moods. When he gets frustrated, he starts to whine and say things like, "I can't." "It's too hard." I can't do this anymore." He certainly didn't develop that sense of drama from me. I just tend to mutter under my breath and ruminate until I get over whatever it is that is bothering me. John, on the other hand, loves to be expressive and emote. I think he'll have quite a career on stage or screen.

In case you are wondering, he's already practicing to ruin papparazzi shots. He's very good at anticipating flashes and closes his eyes whenever I try to take a photo. He's good at that, but he hasn't quite perfected the Sean Penn hand in front of the face like dear old dad. I'll have to work with him on that one.

First Rain Boots, Now the Rain Coat

Our John has had his raincoat since the end of December and refused to wear it until today. When I went to pick him up, I was told that he'd been waiting for about 45-minutes with his boots and he couldn't wait to put on his coat. Sadly, traffic was miserable, so the poor little guy had to wait until 6 PM. The best part was that he hates wearing head coverings of any kind, so he asked me to remove his hood. As we started to walk toward the car, he said, "Ouch, the water hurts me." I was able to convince him that the hood would shield him from any further damage. He seemed to buy my story, so I think we are good. Tomorrow, I'm sure he'll want to go splashing in the puddles. That's something Mami would never have let us do.

What Did Grammy Do To Him?

John went to visit Grammy and look at the condition he was in right after his visit.

Big Day

Grammy bought John some Thomas the Tank Engine Rain Boots for Christmas. As of yet, he really didn't want to wear them. He liked to look at them. He liked to carry them. He liked to sleep with them; however, he just wouldn't wear them. Imagine my surprise this morning when I heard him ask Maureen for his boots. He walked around in them and even enjoyed his strawberry samples at the farmer's market.

The Hollywood Farmer's Market

We paid a visit to the farmer's market in Hollywood today. We went with our neighbors who have a lovely little daughter, Annabelle (I think that's how it is spelled), who is one month younger than John. I was sold when I heard about story time, so we decided to make a day of it and head out with our neighbors.

That is a really cool farmer's market. There is all sorts of fare. We bought produce. We bought ice cream. John really loved the sample strawberries. And, he even got a balloon from the World Famous Balloon Man!! Best of all, we were fortunate to take part in storytime with some librarians from the LA Country libraries. John was a little too shy to sit on the carpet, but he did enjoy the stories. They read stories, they sang songs, and they played scarf games. It was loads of fun for all.

Our Little Mynah Bird

A couple of months ago, Maureen was driving the boys home one night when John pointed out the window and said, "Look Mama, Cowboys with Hats!!" No, she wasn't anywhere near a dude ranch. She was driving up LaBrea and they were Orthodox Jews. Anyway, it's been a bit of a joke for us to keep on saying "Look Cowboys!" whenever we see them. John will even give a weak little, "Yee-Haw!" when he sees them.

Today, I made a comment about a gentleman in a prayer shawl. I said, "Look he's a super hero. He's Super Jew." Sure enough, I hear from the back seat, "Super Jew". Horrified, I tried to say, "No, that's Super You." John said, "No, daddy. That's not Super You. It's Super Jew." Let that be a lesson to everyone who speaks in front of that boy. His mind is a steel trap and he'll repeat everything you say...much to my chagrin.

Back to Normal

The last couple of weeks have been kind of crappy for our John. He's been sick and he threw up for the second time in his life. He wasn't a fan of the experience, but he's getting back to where he should be. He's tap dancing. He's singing. So, we are pleased with that. Plus, he really loves being a big boy and helping out around the house. He helped carry the new diapers to the car. He helped to sort the laundry. And, he's back to making pizzas. Goodtime Johnny will be back to 100% in no time. And, he likes drinking his milk again. If you look closely, you'll see that he prefers blue milk in the evening. Blue milk makes for very interesting diaper changes the next day.

Big Boy Cup

Our little man is growing up. He's doing very well his his Oxo Tot Toddler Cup. We call it his big boy cup. The nice part about the cup is that there is a vented cover at the top. Thus far, he hasn't spilled as he's drinking. The first time he did use the cup, he discovered that it will spill water unlike his sippy cups. True to his OCD nature, he freaked out when he spilled, but he got over it.

First Movie

John finally sat through his first movie. It actually took two screenings, but he made it through Babies. It's a great documentary that follows the lives of 4 different babies around the world. My personal favorite was the little Namibian baby, Ponijao. It was quite entertaining to see him discover his "special purpose" and how his brother tried to get him to stop looking at it.

I think it helped that there was little to no dialogue to the film. I think we may have to try March of the Penguins with him before we move on to Disney fare. Until then, we can just enjoy Caillou and Max & Ruby.

Johnny's Plant

Take a look at the latest growth on his plant. We had fun with a lady bug playing in there today.

A Future on the Links

While visiting the fountains on the property yesterday, John stopped by his favorite putting green. He could just spend hours running around and playing golf.

Johnny & Nicholas' Bed

I always thought this was Momma and Daddy's bed. The boys have other thoughts on the matter.