First trip to the dentist and visit in Edgerton

(Monday)
J was a little slow getting up. I have a crossword puzzle book I keep in his room for times like these when he is slowly waking up. Once he was up, he started getting books and I offered to read. Instead, he wanted to go through them on his own. Getting a bit independent! Then the day got all turned around. Once J was up and we had breakfast, the plan was to go grocery shopping. It turns out the dentist wanted to move up my appointment as they had an opening today and I could bring J to introduce him to the office. I was so proud of him, he ended up doing so well from sitting in the lobby with me (doing legos, reading books) to hanging out while I got my cleaning to waiting again for me in the lobby while we figured out insurance stuff. They gave me a pair of glasses to protect my eyes and had a kid's pair for J. The lady was great in directing him, letting him know when he could come up and sit on the chair with me and when he had to stand next to me. The big test was my x-rays when they had him stand outside the room with his back against the wall in the hallway. He stood there quietly for over 3 minutes just watching. I couldn't believe it. One of the ladies wanted to take him home.

After that we headed to the grocery store for the weekly shopping. I'm so into my routine of planning a menu and doing the grocery list right there but ended up being short of time this week to finish that so I had to wing it. J was super antsy toward the end and wanted to help push the cart so I took him out and held him for a bit while he "pushed" with me. When we got home, J wanted his shirt and shorts off so he ran around in a diaper. With having his shirt off, I was teaching him about birth marks. He has one on his tummy that I pointed out and I have one on my leg I showed him. It's funny the shape of mine is like his. It took him a while to say "birth mark" clearly, but then he would point to his tummy and say "birth mark on J's tummy, birth mark on mommy's leg". J was playing really well on his own so I got some reading time in with one of my books. Then he comes over with a black fire helmet saying, "mommy fireman helmet?" and he put on his red fire helmet and then we pretended his little people were stuck in a fire and we needed to rescue them with our fire trucks.

I talked to my youngest sister Amy on the phone and we did some planning for the week J and I will be spending down at her place in the Chicago burbs. J likes saying hi on the phone and will talk a little bit, but hasn't got the hang of how to dialogue yet. I told Amy we were making her meatloaf recipe. Unfortunately, J wasn't too keen on it. He took a bite and says "I spit it out mommy". But he ate his mashed potatoes and cottage cheese. Later, we spent our time at the Y for a workout. When I was picking him up the kids said, "Your mommy's here J." I have no idea how they knew who I was. Again, he was independent when daddy came to read him his book before bed. He'd pick out a book and ask daddy to read but then he'd pick up another and start going through it on his own. We thought maybe he felt more grown up while both of them were reading.

(Tuesday)

Today we took a trip to see my friend Eileen and son Jackson in Edgerton, WI. We've been wanting to do this for a long time. The boys had a lot of fun playing together. Of course, for J it was great since there were all these new toys to explore. So many of them had music and lights which are a favorite. They did a little coloring and went down the little slide. I had to give J a time out because he kept hitting Jackson. Once he made him cry and that was it. He's still struggling with this one (and I'm struggling too!) I hate when he hits kids. I can't tell why he does it. It isn't always clear like someone has a toy or something. Eileen made a great lunch for us which J didn't eat a lot of. Again, his pickiness was showing. What he really wanted was chips. He did eat a lot of grapes which was good. Then after what seemed like a big production getting ourselves and the boys ready, we went to the local pool for swimming.

J loved how shallow it was that he could walk on his own (he can't do that at the Y). He went down the little duck slide once but then would walk up and then come right back down. He was a little shaky a few times and would almost fall over so I had to watch him like a hawk. Eileen was showing me something she learned in swimming lessons, having Jackson swim on her back with arms around her neck. I did this with J and he loved it. There was a little swim break and they had an Edgerton librarian there doing story time so we got to hear a couple books. Then the boys wanted to play in the park a bit. Finally, they were getting cranky so we headed back to Madison and J was sleeping the minute we got on the road. He only slept 1 more hour when we got home so I didn't get to have the nice long quiet time I had planned.


I did get some good prayer walking time when J and I went to the park after dinner. Daddy had gone to a guitar lesson. I noticed at the park J had to build up his nerve again for the slide. First, he went down the little slide a few times and then there are two big slides. He went back and forth for about 5 minutes deciding which slide to go on and finally chose the bigger one and went down alone with a huge smile on his face. On the way home I saw an odd-looking bird that was a bit big to be landing where he did on the bushes of a house. After a closer look, I'm pretty sure it was a green heron. As he flew up into a tree, 3 more came flying out! I was narrating this whole thing to J. There's a pond just beyond the road so I bet this was a brood that made it out of the nest. Once home, it was a bit past bedtime but J didn't want to sleep. He kept wanting another book so I had to cut it short.