The last couple days...lots of play and a new train

(Monday)
J woke up and started playing with his Elmo and Big Bird cars. He had one in each hand and was "driving" them around on the chair.
Here's a snippet of what he was saying while he pushed them:
Elmo go to the Y (YMCA)...Big Bird go to the Y.
Elmo go to Elvers Park...Big Bird go to Elvers Park.
Elmo go to Pal Zone...Big Bird go to Pal Zone.
Elmo go home..Big Bird go home.
(My favorite) Elmo take a sleep...Big Bird take a sleep (turns them upside down on the chair).
These are all places that we go to and it was so cute that he incorporated it into his play time. He's getting more creative like that lately.

I continued in Luke 22 today. The reading was of the Last Supper. Beth (in Jesus, the One and Only) shares that by Jesus' words in Luke 22:15 (I have eagerly desired to share this Passover with you before I suffered), we can see Jesus considered this to be enormously profound. He celebrated this Passover with those closest to him. With the first cup of wine he offered a prayer of sanctification. He introduced the new covenant. "I will redeem you with an outstretched arm." From Exodus 6:6. He commanded them to remember him (and what he has done for us) every time we partake of the bread and the wine.

After dinner I got a baby wipe for J and for some reason he wanted to look at it so I showed him and for the first time I noticed little sheep on the cloth. He says, "What's that?" I said, "Looks like sheep." He says, "David's sheep." So he must have remembered the story of David he's heard from us and at church.

Tonight was our Y night. Before we were leaving J saw a box I had tried to hide that contained a new train for him. A friend from L's work gave it to us. He got really upset when he couldn't play with it and wanted to take it with us. Again it was a good workout. When I was done we watched daddy play basketball for a while. I like that we get done about an hour earlier than we used to. As soon as we got home, I got out J's new train and tried setting up the track. It is missing a piece but we were able to get the train moving at least partway down the track.

(Tuesday)
This ended up being a good catch up day. It was nice to just be at home and not have anything planned. We did groceries in the morning. I thought it would be fun to put J in the shopping cart with car attached. He liked it for a while but was saying all done but then he didn't make a deal of it. While J slept I did some house work, cleaning and laundry (domestic fun). It seemed that I had a dozen little things to do that added up to a lot. It was good to get them done.



I got to use my new dinosaur shape cutter for lunch today. I've been visiting this blog (Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler) and she has really creative meal ideas for her daughter. That's where I got the inspiration when I saw the shape cutter. It's not that elaborate, but J loved it. As you can see, he grabbed the dinosaur PB&J while I was still taking a picture!

Since J took a 3 hour morning nap we just played all afternoon. We got out the new train again and J enjoyed playing with it. When I looked over, he had figured out how to hook them together end to end. We haven't figured out the track yet though. He went through a lot of books. While he was reading one of them I heard him say, "bye bye fire truck, see you in the morning". We watched a cute sesame street video with Grover and songs about food. There was one really neat one with three little girls singing and clapping their hands while shouting out various vegetables. J really liked this one and asked to watch it over and over. He liked to repeat the veggie names after them. We spent some time in the sandbox too playing with his sand tower wheel toy (you put sand in the top and it filters down and spins the wheel). We both loved rushing to get the sand in so it wouldn't stop spinning. After dinner (which J ate at least some of) we stopped by the library and then for an ice cream treat.

Wrapping up from the holiday weekend

(Monday) Another lazy morning! Somehow it flew from 7:30am when I was thinking of getting up to 9am. Whoa! J was just quietly chatting in his room. We had a nice morning together with daddy not having to go into work. J's favorite toy has now become his little Thomas trains. I let J watch Elmo and the Firehouse and when Elmo got to wear a fire helmet I gave J his helmet and he was wearing it while he watched. He didn't sleep at all during his morning nap. He went down and was chatting away and then 45 minutes later was still going. He didn't howl or complain at all but I thought I'd get him. I was outside his door and I heard him singing. It sounded a bit like the tune from twinkle twinkle. I quick called L so he could listen and we both stood out there laughing before we went in. It was so cute.

I started Luke 11 during my devotional time. Beth stops to encourage us that God has a specific purpose for this study in our lives. We're about 3/4 of the way through. Jesus teaches on prayer after his disciples ask him how to pray. He teaches us in a simple way to talk to our Father, asking for our daily bread (our daily needs), to forgive our sins and protect us from being tempted to sin. Then he tells a story to illustrate the need for boldness in our prayers. He says, verse 9 So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. It is a reminder that God is ready and waiting to respond to us.

We went to the UW Terrace in downtown Madison and packed a lunch. J sat at the table playing with his Thomas trains while daddy and I caught up on some reading. We had a great view of the lake and there was a slight breeze. Very warm but nice in the shade. We were visited by a pair of ducks which was fun for J since I gave him some bread to feed them. Later, J and I went inside and he was enthralled by their big fish tank. He got really animated when there was another little boy just about his age watching them with him, pointing to the different fish and naming their colors.

I got another night off from cooking and we just had leftovers. Later, we played outside. I don't know why, but J wanted to bring his Elmo shape sorter outside to play with. We said hi to our neighbor Bill when he drove by. Then J kept saying hi and Bill had to go in and J was making a sad face. J wanted daddy to play so we went inside to get him and we all played together. Daddy and I were rolling the ball and playing tag by trying to touch J. He loved it when I pushed him around on his little truck. It was hard to get him to go inside. Sometimes J is really antsy when I'm trying to get his PJ's on. He starts kicking and trying to roll over and he won't stay still. When I notice I'm getting really frustrated and he won't listen, I've started a new thing of tickling him, telling him "tickle mommy" is going to come out. Then I tickle him like crazy and he can't stop laughing. It eases my tension and usually wears him out a bit so I can get his PJ's on.

(Tuesday) This morning we did our grocery shopping. J was a bit cranky which is unusual for shopping. He kept wanting to hold things and when I let him he threw it on the ground so I told him no more. Then he was pouting/crying/whining all at the same time. He would say "I want home" or "I want to walk" (since he'd really love to get out of the cart).

In my devotional time, I continued in Luke 11. Here again, Jesus is healing someone by driving out a demon. some of them accused him of working with Satan (what a joke!) the prince of demons. Jesus rightly replies how this makes no sense - if he was working for Satan he'd do Satan's work. He wouldn't be divided against him and heal someone (from verse 18: If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? He then tells a story about a strong man which Beth says is describing Satan. She wants us to not forget that yes, Satan is strong. We are no match for him. He will try to tempt us in so many ways so that we are pulled away from growing closer to Jesus. But he is no match for God. And the Lord will restore what Satan takes from us. This made me think about my depression. Things were so dark and I now know first hand what it's like for Satan to torment you. I had to fight so many horrible thoughts that I know the Lord didn't place in my head. But even when I struggled just to pray and sometimes couldn't even pray, never did the Lord let me go. I didn't know it at the time while struggling, I couldn't "feel" the Lord's presence and didn't feel any connection, but after I recovered I saw that each and every day through that time the Lord upheld me. It is truly like that Footprints in the Sand poem. (See link).

Around lunch time, J was saying "I want to worship" so I put in his kids worship CD and he was moving along to the music. He was saying "the birds are singing" and I could hear them outside and told him that yes, they were. Then he said "sing to Jesus" and so I said yes, let's sing to Jesus. He was really animated.

After that we just played inside for a while, as I kept asking if he'd like to go outside and he'd say no. Then later he was ready so we played in the sandbox for the first time. I think he really liked it. We created a little game where I would fill up one of his toys that is like a mold (a fish, train, sandcastle) and I'd uncover it and say "ta da" and his job would be to smoosh it down. Then he'd say "again?" and we'd start all over. Then I got some of his little cars to play in the sand and a digger. He had a lot of fun making car/truck noises and pushing them through the sand. I got out a couple times to take his picture and he got upset saying "mommy in the sandbox?".

We stopped at the library to drop off some books and during our ride he somehow brought up PalZone which is the play group we go to on Wednesdays. Well, tomorrow is a special PalZone day where we meet at the zoo and have pizza so I was telling him all about it. Then he'd say "again" and wanted me to repeat it over and over while he'd name all the animals we'd see like saying monkeys-ooh ooh, lion-roar.
Later, I heard him reading to himself and kept hearing him say some word over and over. It turns out he was looking at a fire truck book with lots of firemen on every page and he was saying helmet, helmet, while pointing to each one.

He ate the dinner I made which isn't often the case. He likes rice & ate a little pork chop. After dinner, he said he wants to read the Jesus book. I wasn't sure which one he was talking about and then he pointed to his children's bible. So I found the story of Jesus teaching at the temple when he was a young man. I had to clean up after that and I heard J "reading" and he'd say Jesus about every other word as he went.

We usually have our life group but it was canceled tonight so we took a nice family walk. J saw the park and started asking to go and I was glad we still had some light left. We did the slide and swings. He still wants me with him on the slide which I enjoy, but continue to encourage him to try it. At bedtime, I always have prayer time and tonight J says "pray for so and so?" and started saying all these names of our friends and their kids. So we had several people we prayed for.

Trip to the doctor

This morning was J's 2 year well child visit with our pediatrician. It turned out he needed 2 more shots, but then none until age 5! I always hate that part because he's so trusting of you and then you allow this person to just jab him and it's really upsetting. I'm glad it's quick though. J did really well getting weighed on the big boy scale and sitting through the hands-on exam. He can say our pediatrician's name now, which is cute. He's only 25 pounds and in the 5% range for height. He's so little (but I like that). After that, we did our grocery shopping for the week. He's now saying "I can walk" going into stores and places so I'm doing less carrying. When we got home, I wanted to get out our garden hose and J got the idea to play fire fighter with it so I ran and got his fireman hat and we went around "putting out fires".

Today was our big expedition to get the sand for his sandbox. I had no idea how much to get so I got 7 (50 lb.) bags but only needed 5. I don't have any of the sand toys yet and I won't introduce him to it until his birthday. I just realized today that the sandbox is a purple dinosaur. I thought it was a turtle! We also got a little wading pool today that was only $4. The reality of summer being around the corner is becoming more real. J wanted to go to McKee Farms after the store, and they were setting up for a carnival. The last time J was at a carnival he was only 2 months old! It'll be great if we're around for it. During J's nap, I used his stroller to wheel the 50 lb. bags of sand one by one to the back yard and now the sand is ready.

After dinner, we went to the Y. I did a fast walk for 30 minutes without running today. I don't think I'll drop my run again since I didn't feel like I got a very good workout. J colored a spider man picture. His pictures are getting more and more colorful now. After the Y, daddy and I spent some time outside playing with J. He just can't get enough of being outside and always asks to go out. Tonight, he started a new game saying "1-2-3 go" and he'd start running. I don't know where he got this idea but I liked it. Daddy would slowly chase him and he'd run and laugh. I couldn't believe how much energy he had left to burn off before going to bed. We pulled off the tiny band-aids from his shots (tweety bird and snoopy) and he wanted to take them to bed with him. Kids have such goofy ideas sometimes.