The No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day

We all have them as mothers, right? Well, today was one such day. (This actually happened two weeks ago, but it took me that long to finish the post. Hey, I was busy). But to fully appreciate my no good, terrible, very bad day, I need to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). So, here goes. (Of course, in retrospect, it doesn't seem all that bad. But at the time, it did. Honest, I swear. You try potty-training a stubborn three-year-old).

• As previously mentioned, Will is a potty-training mess. He only wears a diaper at night and he then just waits for that time to go number 2. So in an effort to somehow get him potty-trained, we put him in underwear at night. He can only hold it until about 5:30 in the morning and he gets up on his own, goes potty, goes back to his room, but DOES NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP. So, he's had some insanely early mornings which makes him insanely crabby throughout the day. That is how our day began. Early. Crabby.


• We took Josh to work around 7:20, then went straight to the market to do our grocery shopping. We came home, ate breakfast and the plan was to do a few things (like put away groceries, empty the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen) and then take off for the gym around 10:00.


• We ate breakfast and then, while I was trying to get a few things accomplished, Will cried his desperate, "Mama, Mama, Mama" cry, which means he has to go number 2. Well, he has to go, yet he won't go. So literally 12 pair of streaked underwear, two hours and no number 2 later, he is in tears and my house is still a disaster and it is now 11:30. The childcare at the gym closes at 12:00, so no gym for us.


• Will was driving me bonkers from the crying, so I send him upstairs to watch a show on my bed, so I can please empty the dishwasher, thank you very much.


• A half-hour later, the groceries put away, dishwasher emptied, the kitchen cleaned, lunch made, I went upstairs to get Will for lunch. He is passed out on my bed. He NEVER just passes out on my bed and NEVER at 11:30 in the morning. But hey, I'll take it.


• He sleeps for two hours and wakes up soooooooooo very angry because 1. he is hungry and 2. his show is turned off. Not able/willing to deal with it, I let him eat lunch on my bed, while he finishes watching his show. I just snuggle next to him. (Great parenting, I know).


• After lunch, he is much happier and he proceeds to do "Spiderman dives" off my tall bed. A spiderman dive is where he covers his entire head with his nigh-nigh (darn that nigh-nigh) and jumps with full gusto off the bed, never knowing where he will land. Clearly, this was making me a little nervous so I told him only one more spiderman dive. Well, that last one was the fatal one. He jumped full-speed into my bedside table, where his head landed right on the corner of it. Luckily, the nigh-nigh cushioned his fall, so no stitches necessary, but he did end up with one nasty black-eye and some scratches. Of course, followed were many more tears.


• We watched some home videos to calm him down, went on a walk (a little exercise, yeah!) and I proceed to attempt to make dinner while he plays with his cars in his room.


• Of course, from downstairs, with two burners on, dinner in process, Will is upstairs yelling his special, "Mama, Mama" cry. I book it upstairs, but it is too late. He has messed his pants. I clean him up, give him a bath, and by then it's time to go get Josh from work.


• So we go get Josh and he comes home to a messy house, (smelly house), dinner half-made, an exasperated un-showered wife and a crabby little boy. Luckily, as usual, Josh saves the day by finishing dinner while I shower, then feeding Will and putting him to bed while I went and got some much-needed pampering in the form of a hair cut. And that put an end to the no good, terrible, very bad day where nothing was accomplished except poop and injuries and where I almost pulled out all my hair in utter frustration (potty training is going to kill me) and, once again, Josh saved the day. Here's to hoping tomorrow's better (and that Will will somehow magically be potty-trained. We can dream, right?). What's your terrible, no good, very bad day?

Will's injuries.

The camera really doesn't do it justice.

Josh and Will and their respective battle-scars.

William-isms

I just had to write down a few more William-isms before I forgot all the crazy things he says. This kid. I just love him. And here's a few photos, too, to illustrate the cuteness of said kid.

He loves his cars. This is a perfect picture of what he is always doing with those cars. Playing with his awesome marble run. My sis-in-law scored on this one--she got it for 75% off. Originally $130--she got it for $38. Deal of a century. And it is pretty darn cool. Thanks, Amy. I owe you big time. And here's Will reading scriptures with his Dada. We're reading the New Testament right now and every night, before we read, he insists on looking at this page, page 20, where Joseph is carrying a toddling Jesus on his shoulders. It's so sweet. Now, here's some of the funny things this kid says.

• One day I was getting ready for the day in the bathroom, while Will was playing on my bed. He looks at me and says, "Mama, I love lore (your) bummy." Though this was a high compliment, I didn't want him to think that we go around talking about people's bummies, so I replied, "Thank you, but it isn't appropriate to talk about people's bummies." He thinks about it a minute and then says, "Mama, I love lore legs. Is that 'ppropriate?" Yes, Will that's appropriate.


• Lately, he's been saying "whatever" all the time. It's funny when he uses it, though. It's mostly when I tell him "no". Like, "No, you cannot eat that before dinner," and he just says, "Whatever." I guess I'll take that to a tantrum.


• I'm the horse, dada's the zebra and Will is the cow (last week he was the lion). When I ask him to do something he says, "Okay, Horse." It's a crack-up. And sometimes, if I call him Will, he just tells me, "No, I the lion," or "No, I the cow." Sometimes, he just responds with a moo.


• When we were at the store the other day, the cashier asked Will what his name was. He looked at her and said straight-faced, "Jessy-ca." (That's how he pronounces my full name. And Josh's full name? Joshy-wa).


• We were at the mall and I had to go try on a few things and I said, "Okay, buddy boy, one more stop and then we'll go home." To this he replied, "Okay, Jessy-ca Madsen. Sounds good." I was laughing for a long time--just at the way he said it.


• My mom called right before we started to each lunch one day. I asked her to hold on a second so that we could say the prayer. Will offered the prayer and after he stated loudly, "Good enough." Apparently, that's what he often hears after his prayers: good enough. My mom was laughing so hard when I got back on the phone--she heard the whole thing.


• He asks me all the time, "You 'ppreciating that?" or he says to me, "I 'ppreciate that." Clearly, I say that a lot to him.


• He's been learning the music notes at our music class (do-re-mi). So, I showed him the clip of do-re-mi from the Sound of Music and he looooved it. Now he goes around singing that song all the time. It's the cutest thing.


• After dinner one night, Josh reminded Will to clear his plate. Will complied, stating, "Yes, sir dude."

We Heart Maple Sugaring

We love maple syrup so much (and our Vermont cousins) that for the third year in a row we drove 3+ hours (extra time, due to the closed ferry), braved the freezing cold, endured the mud and suffered the cow smell all so we could eat some dreamy maple donuts, buy a gallon of the best maple syrup (at a bargain price) and enjoy time with the local farm animals (and, of course, our cousins--though somehow we managed only to take pictures with the cows and not the cousins. I guess that shows our priorities). Vermont maple sugaring, how we love you. Until next year! (And Vermont cousins, we love you, too. Thanks for letting us crash your pad for the short trip).

The kissing cows. Will & the cow.

Here he looks so excited to see the cow.

While here he realizes, "Wow, that cow smells."

The tractor.

Cute Will. He clearly did not like the cold that day. He had a major meltdown of epic proportions--like I hadn't seen before and I sure hope to never see again. But we calmed him down, bribed him with donuts and cows and he recuperated. Barely. At least he's cute, right?

3

It's time for a William update. Mostly for my own records.

He's three! And at age three, I can officially say, he is the most fun. I think I say this for every stage, but this time I really mean it. He's funny, inquisitive, energetic, independent, smart and full of life. Every day is a wild ride with this man and I wouldn't change it for anything. So, here's a glimpse of Will at age three:

• He's 34 lbs. (75%)
• He's 39.5 inches tall (90%)
• At his check-up, the doctor kept commenting on how tall Will was. So now, that is Will's response to everything: "I not a big boy, I a tall boy." "This is my tall car seat." "These are my tall boy pants," and so on and so forth.
• I've never met a child so darn obsessed with one's nigh-nigh. Still.
• He calls his cat a "coon" ever since we watched part of "Where the Red Fern Grows."
• He loves to be tickled. I will tickle and tickle him until he can't breathe, then stop, to which he responds, "More!"
• He loves to ride his bike. If we're going somewhere and I tell him to go get in the car (which he is perfectly capable of doing), I can guarantee you he is not in the car, but is out riding his bike--even if there's rain or snow.
• He will probably NEVER be potty-trained. He refuses to go number 2 in the potty. Number 1 he has down pat.
• He is obsessed with all things Cars related. He plays cars for hours and hours. His absolute favorite thing to do is to watch the movie, with all his cars by his side and when a particular car comes up on the screen, he holds up that car and yells his/her name. It's a crack-up.
• He always wears his underwear backward, but calls it forward (see pictures below). When I put it on the right way, he says, "I don't want to wear my underwear backwards."
• He loves to play soccer. We play in the living room all the time and I've been teaching him how to be the goalie. I taught him how to dive for the ball when he's goalie. Now, when he's playing goalie, no matter what, he dives for the ball, even if the ball is right in front of him.
• He always says, "Lore" instead of "your". For instance, he always asks his dada at the dinner table, "How lore day, Dada?"
• Since the truck is dead, we've been driving Josh to and from work. One day, when we were picking up Josh, Will asked, "Where all these cars going?" He thought about it a minute and said, "They going to pick up their dadas at their works?"
• He calls the "Friend" magazine the "Boyfriend".
• He's shy in front of strangers and instead of using any of the thousand words he knows, he will talk baby talk to strangers if they ask him questions. Awesome.
• His favorite thing to eat, for any meal, is breakfast--french toast, waffles, pancakes, crepes. He loves it all. He also is a big fan of yogurt and "gola" bars.
• He really doesn't know his pronouns--he calls people "what" all the time--as in, "What that?" pointing at a person right in front of him.
• He loves to sing, though you'd never guess at our music class, where he runs around like a mad child instead of singing. The best is when he sings in church. He opens up the hymn book and sings any other song as loud as you can imagine. For instance, today he sang the "ABC"s song while the rest of us sang a hymn. And during the pauses in the hymn, he still sang with his whole heart and soul the "ABC"s. Everyone around us was just cracking up, as were we.
• We were waiting outside for Josh once when Will said, "Come on, dang Dada."
• He loves to hide and be found by the "Mama Monster". He also loves to seek. When he's looking for me, he says, "Little Mama, where you are you?" It's too funny.
• One morning, we went to eat breakfast when we found all the milk was gone. I said Dada must have drunk all the milk. To this Will responded, "Shame on you, Dada."
• He loooooves nursery. He is by far the oldest in nursery and is way outnumbered by little girls. But all the little girls love him, for some reason.
• He loves the Packs, especially Caleb. He tells me all the time he wants to move in with them.
• The other day we had to go somewhere and he didn't want to come. He told me he would just stay home by himself. I told him he couldn't stay home by himself or else I would go to jail. His response, "Go to jail then. Go!"
• When he doesn't take naps (which is becoming more and more common) he asks to go to bed at 5:30. He'll leave the dinner table and say, "Just go take a nap," and then he will walk up the stairs and bring down his jammies, so that he can go to bed. Then, of course, he is awake at 6:00 on the dot.
• He loves to hear stories--stories about a little boy named William, a little boy named Joshy and a little girl named Jessy. His favorites are the stitches story, how dada got stitches, how dada got in the bathtub with his jammies on and how mama got Vaseline all over.
• He really just is our world. We love him to pieces and can't get enough of him and are so grateful for this little miracle boy.
  

Now for some awesome pictures in his backwards-forwards underwear. He just trotted downstairs like this one morning, and I had to snap some photos.

Stitches

*This is the story of how Will got stitches, the very story that Will demands to hear every night before bed. The italicized words are the words Will always says.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named William who had to get stitches. He got to go on two airplane rides to his Granny & Gus' house. He got to see his cousins and go skiing and swimming, too. One morning, right after breakfast, Will was running and slipped and fell and bonked his forehead on Granny's bench. He cried and cried and there was lots of blood, but his Mama was right there. Then Dada and Gus gave William a blessing and they went to the hospital. There, they checked in and Will got his own bed. Then the nice nurse Michelle came in and the EMT Mark and the doctor. The doctor gave him something that went up his nose and then they wrapped Will tight, like a baby, and put a green sheet over his face. The doctor gave him a shot, then gave him six stitches and they were blue. After, because Will was so brave and so strong the nice nurse gave him a sticker and a Popsicle and it was lellow and it was so gooood. Then he got to see a helicopter and it was red. They went and said goodbye to Michelle, then drove back to Granny and Gus' house and lived happily ever after. The end.

Poor little guy. He was a trooper. His mother, however, was not. It really was slightly traumatic for me. Then again, I really don't like blood. All pictures courtesy of Jane's blackberry. Somehow, I never managed to take a picture of the actual stitches. Again, what kind of mother am I?

B-day

As luck would have it, for Will's 3rd b-day we were in Utah again for our annual ski trip. Lucky, because Will got to spend his b-day with family, and most importantly, his cousins. Since we had to wait for the big boys to come home from skiing, the b-day event was a little chaotic at best, rushed, crazy and filled with one greedy little birthday boy. My festivities were Cars-themed, though my efforts were a tad lackluster (hey--it's hard to have a b-day when out of town). And, of course, my camera died so I have very FEW photos (what kind of mother am I?), but enjoy the few photos I managed to take.

Here's a photo of the decorations with one cute cousin Beth in there:

More pictures of the decorations (the banner was supposed to look like racing flags, though Josh wasn't convinced):

Will opening his soccer ball:

And a photo of the cousins. I told Beth I'd pay her one dollar if she could get the three of them to take a picture together. This is what I got. Not bad, eh? Will's not looking, but it's better than what I could have done.

Will couldn't really handle himself because of all his new presents and he refused, absolutely refused, to share with his cousin Sam, who was also quite excited about all of Will's presents. So, after breaking up fight after fight, I decided to just put Will to bed, where he hoarded all his presents in his bed, the cupboard under the stairs, and had, I daresay, a grand time. At least there's that. Happy Birthday, Will.

January in Pictures

As predicted (see this post), our January was far from enthralling--you know how it is: wintry weather, cabin fever, the post-Holiday let down. However, we did manage to do a few things and even take pictures. So, now for your viewing pleasure: our January in pictures.

Chore-day Monday at our house looks like this: (yes, it is better cleaning the toilet without pants)
Building and playing trains:
Here he's utilizing "Cranky, cranky" as he refers to him:
Snuggling with our nigh-nigh under the table (or anywhere else for that matter. This kid is seriously obsessed with this blanket. It's disturbing). One night, after dinner, Will just brought his nigh-nigh and pillow down and insisted he go to bed under the table.

Sledding, sledding and more sledding.
Every chance we got, when it wasn't freezing, we went sledding. This kid loves it. And our backyard has the perfect hill for him. And notice he had to wear his Thomas back-pack filled with his cars to sled.

And the post-sledding mug of hot chocolate, complete with a hot chocolate mustache.

Preparing for our Utah ski trip, trying on the new/used skis. Looks like he's ready for action!

All right winter--bring on the spring, already.