31 Flavors?

Today's the 31st, and Kiddo turned 31 months old this month. In tribute, here are 31 of his favorite books, in random order.

1. Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
2. Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems
3. Angus and the Cat, by Marjorie Flack
4. I'm a Big Brother, by Joanna Cole
5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
6. Toes, Ears, and Nose, by Karen Katz
7. Arthur's Baby, by Marc Brown
8. Hi, Fly Guy! by Ted Arnold
9. Three Cheers for Tacky! by Helen Lester
10. Clifford's Birthday Party, by Norman Bridwell
11. Hickory Dickory Dock, by Keith Baker
12. The Napping House, by Audrey Wood
13. Hippos Go Berserk! by Sandra Boynton
14. I am Invited to a Party, by Mo Willems
15. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
16. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst
17. The Nursery Manual (Behold, Your Little Ones)
18. The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
19. Celebrate the 50 States! by Loreen Leedy
20. Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson
21. The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss
22. Corduroy, by Don Freeman
23. I am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go to Bed, by Lauren Child
24. Snuggle Puppy, by Sandra Boynton
25. Puppies are Like That, by Jan Pfloog
26. A Charlie Brown Christmas, by Charles Schulz
27. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert
28. Hello Kitty, Hello Numbers, by ???
29. Freddie the Frog, by ??? (I, however, do not enjoy this one!)
30. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
31. Danny and the Dinosaur, by Sid Hoff

A lot of these are classics, but if you haven't read any of these to your kiddos, I recommend them all except #29 (board book about a chubby frog who needs to lose weight-- not really the message I want to send out to my toddler). Hope you enjoy them too!

Excellent Number Eight

I'm sure everyone is sick of reading TAGs about me, but I really feel like I have to do this one in honor of Kiddo. After all, they're all lists of EIGHT things, and EIGHT is his favorite number! Here goes:

8 Favorite TV Shows-- but with just 3 channels, I haven't seen most of them in months/years...
1. Monk
2. Jeopardy!
3. The Cosby Show
4. Gilmore Girls
5. House Hunters
6. My guilty pleasure, which shall remain nameless... but I was rooting for Analeigh last time!
7. Keeping Up Appearances
8. The Office

8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. hold a sick child-- this was most of the day
2. watched 2 episodes of The Office, season 3
3. read about baby names
4. checked Facebook and Google Reader
5. ate an apple with peanut butter, yummy!
6. looked at maps with Kiddo
7. sang hymns with Kiddo
8. unloaded the dishwasher

8 Things I am Looking Forward To
1. holding Rerun for the first time
2. Daddy-O's graduation in May
3. whenever Kiddo decides he wants to be potty-trained
4. watching more episodes of the Office, and of Monk, Season Six
5. Kiddo getting over his yucky cold
6. someday being debt-free
7. Tax refund
8. moving, whenever that happens

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Olive Garden
2. Hickory Park (Ames)
3. Buffet King (here)
4. El Ranchero (IC)
5. Cold Stone Creamery, if you can really call it a restaurant...
6. Fazoli's
7. Cracker Barrel? I've only been there twice, but they serve a delicious breakfast.
8. Ideal fast food meal: Burger King cheeseburger, McDonald's fries, and Wendy's Frosty.

8 Things on My Wish List
1. a healthy baby in May, and a much easier recovery this time!
2. to be debt-free
3. a house with a turret, a wrap-around porch, a nice yard, a Library, and a room for my card-making/crafty junk!
4. To be as organized as Mr. Monk-- yeah, probably never gonna happen!
5. for all my nieces and nephews to be able to finish college
6. find a good school or mentors for Kiddo so that he can achieve his potential
7. On the totally frivolous side, to win thousands of dollars of CTMH stuff!
8. for Kiddo and Rerun's remaining grandparents to live many more years so that they can have many happy memories together.

If you read this, you've been tagged. I can never remember who's done these or not!

The Boy Genius Strikes Again... and Again... and Again!

I guess I haven't posted much lately about what Kiddo's been up to. But really, he's learning so fast that who can keep up with him? I am so amazed by his intelligence, and am as proud of him as I could be, but sometimes I think we're just dreaming it all. And I am becoming increasingly worried about his future education because #1, I am now pretty certain that he would be bored at regular school all day and probably get himself in trouble, and #2 I don't know how I could possibly keep up with him well enough to home-school long-term, especially now that he's got a brother on the way. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it's not. REALLY. Here's just a few reasons why:

I think I eluded to the fact that in November Kiddo showed us that he can read-- for real. He's moved beyond recognizing some sight words to being able to pick up a book he's never seen before and start reading aloud whole sentences, only stopping to ask for unfamiliar words. The first sentence I caught him reading? "I am not a happy pig." Thank you, Mo Willems-- I just love that! :) Now we have to be extra careful what we've got lying around because he's been known to pull our books or magazines off the shelf to read a random sentence or two before moving on to something else!

In December he suddenly became intensely interested in his US map placemat, and began asking us to tell him each state. Within 2 weeks, he knew them all. He can find them on the map, AND recognize the names of each of the 50 states in other contexts: "Daddy's bag says Colorado!" or pointing out "New York" on the title page of a book, etc., etc..

This month Kiddo's learning the state capitals, and already has them almost all memorized. He started with interest in Iowa and Colorado. I had pointed out to him Des Moines in the Road Atlas and told him I was born there. Then one day he pointed at Denver and said, "Is this Des Moines?" so I had to explain that it was Denver. Then we taught him Springfield, in honor of President Lincoln, and he began recognizing the capitals that are actually named after Presidents. Then he learned Topeka, which is an endless source of amusement to him-- who knows why. Then, for about a week, he had no interest in capitals and would say, "I don't want to know them. I want to learn the states." Or, he would want to learn the flags for certain states instead (also on his placemat).

Then in mid-January, Mommy accidentally found this book at the Library called "Celebrate the 50 states" and it has been his constant companion for a week or so. Each page has bright, colorful pictures of 2 states, and the capitals are clearly marked. One night, Daddy-O teasingly said, "I'll bet you don't know the capital of Colorado!" It was like you could see a light turn on above Kiddo's head, or as if he was thinking, "Okay, Daddy-- GAME ON!" because now he is busy learning them all. He actually asks us to say, "I'll bet you don't know..." so he can show us what he does know. If you've got a few minutes, here's a video of one of Kiddo's new favorite "games." I can't figure out why he likes to be quizzed, but maybe he's setting out to beat Ken Jennings' record on Jeopardy and thinks he needs an extremely early start!


By the way, "Scary Nevada" is a term he came up with the day before, all on his own. :)

But, lest anyone think I'm just trying to show off, I really don't take credit for his insane brilliance. Goodness knows the only part of it he inherited from me was just general nerdiness-- meaning that he often sees me looking at atlases and dictionaries and reference books-- NOT the amazing memory, huge brain capacity, or the incredible energy. I will also let you know that he still has ZERO interest in using the potty. I asked him over the weekend how old he thought he'd be when he starts using the potty. His reply? "Fifteen." I guess we're definitely gonna hafta home-school... ;)

"I got nothin'"

The title of this post comes courtesy of one of my Primary kids (all six years old). He had been protesting that certain girls in the class got to say more prayers than he (the only boy) did, so he had requested to give the Opening prayer the following week. Once his turn rolled around, he deferred until the Closing prayer. However, once he had his little arms folded and his head bowed, he sat there for a moment, and then looked up at me and said, "I got nothin'." We tried to give him some suggestions, but in the end he let one of those girls have a turn!

Anyway, that's sort of how I've felt about blogging in the past few weeks. It's not so much that I really have nothing to say, but more that I haven't had the inclination to actually sit down and compose any posts. I have also been very neglectful of commenting on anyone else's blogs, and I do apologize. I have most blogs on Google Reader, so I am reading them every day, but then I generally log off and forget to comment.

So now I could probably write a dozen posts, but I'll spare you. Or maybe, if I can stay awake long enough at some point, I'll write a bunch, and then set them to appear one-a-day or something. We'll see. I have so little energy. I never got the second trimester burst of energy, and nobody knows why because my iron levels are perfect. It occurs to me, though, that I've never been that peppy or energetic even when I'm not pregnant. So generally, if Kiddo is sleeping I am either sleeping too, checking everyone else's blog, sleeping, feeding my horrific appetite, sleeping, or watching reruns of The Office. I had never watched a full episode before, but a friend loaned us the first season on DVD, and now we've been working our way through the second season (from the video store). I think I am hooked, although I sometimes wonder: has a more annoying character than Michael Scott ever been written? My favorite episodes so far are "The Injury" and "Dwight's Speech." I laughed so hard that the Daddy-O was sure I'd wake up the Kiddo!

Speaking of Dwight's speech and the Kiddo, I was taking some snapshots of my cutie last week, and for some reason he came up with the following pose:

Now when I look at it, I am reminded of Dwight unknowingly paraphrasing Mussolini and waving his arms and pounding his fists. Any Office fans out there who remember what I'm talking about? :)

Why I'm Not In Group Therapy...

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/penelope-therapy/926141/

Strictly Amateur

So, I've been trying to convince myself to scrapbook for a few years now. Mainly, I want to record the stories behind all the photos I have-- I've inherited many old photos for which I don't have the history, and it's sadly frustrating to me. Additionally, I have an exceedingly curious toddler who has inherited his Mommy's love for photographs. He loves to tote around albums with his photos in them, and his latest thing is to ask me, "What am I saying? What was I doing? Who is that?" for every single photo. It's adorable, but also making me a little crazy-- how many times will I have to tell him, "You were a newborn, and you were asleep, and you had a binkie in your mouth... so, you weren't saying ANYTHING!!" ? ;) Kiddo just seems like the child who NEEDS to have his life scrapbooked.

But, here's the thing, since childhood, I've been what I call a RAVING PERFECTIONIST. This means that nothing I ever create satisfies me. I always want things to be perfect. I compare myself and my work to others' and I always come up lacking. It's a horrible character flaw. Scrapbooking has fallen under that category of "things I'll likely never be good enough at, so why even try?" along with many other potential interests. But for the last year, my combo of meds and learning to challenge my negative thoughts has been making a big difference in how I view life. Not much has improved in my circumstances, but my feelings and attitudes are gradually becoming healthier and healthier all the time. For instance, at my last therapy session I said, "I know x is stressful, but there's nothing I can do about it. So I've decided not to worry about it. Is that wrong? It feels wrong!" Anxiety, perfectionism, and depression have been my constant companions for well over 20 years, so when they go "on vacation" (or, let's hope, move out-of-state :) ), it feels weird... but, good.

As a sort of challenge for myself, I decided this past week to attempt just one scrapbook page. I picked the photos and the colors, and did some debating-- and bugging my husband for his opinion. And, voila! I completed a page. It's not exactly submission-worthy or anything, but actually not as bad as I thought! I even completed a second page the next day. As the 2nd has Kiddo's "real name" on it, I won't post a photo of that one. Plus, I'm not as crazy about it. But, guess what? I'm keeping it anyway. I'm satisfied that I tried something that was hard for me to do, and it turned out okay. Does that mean I've officially "gone to the dark side" as I heard someone put it, and become a scrapbooking junkie? Well, we'll have to wait and see. But I'm off to some sort of start, anyway!

Warm and Cozy

Is there anything cuter than a little kid in his footie pajamas? If there is, I haven't seen it yet!