No PJ's, just pants, thank you!

Twice this week or so Jay has thrown a fit about going to bed when its time. I give him ample warnings ... "Jay, 30 minutes till bed time!" ... "Jay, 15 minutes till bed time!" .... "Jay, 5 minutes to bed time!" "Jay, one minute and then we're going to bed" ... and after every warning "bed time? ok mommy!" and he goes along doing whatever it was he was doing. But once I get him all changed and hes said goodnight to daddy and the doggy, said prayers and read 2 books and get him all tucked into bed, he starts to throw a fit the minute I close his bedroom door.

These last 2 nights that I'm talking about he has thrown a *huge* fit. The first night I finally went back upstairs to put him back in bed. I found him sitting in his little blue chair - with nothing on except his diaper. And holding a pair of pants and a t-shirt. I asked him what he was doing and he responded "pants on. pleeeease" So instead of fighting with him, I saw no harm in him wearing a pair of warm pants to bed. I got him re-dressed, very sweetly he said "thank you mommy", gave me a kiss and then into bed, and he fell asleep within 2 minutes, go figure, lol.

The 2nd night, he once again threw his fit, but this time it didnt last as long. Now I always check on him before I climb into bed myself. Make sure hes IN his bed for one, lol, and that he has his blankets on him or that hes not half in, half out of his bed, lol. On this particular night, I crack open his door and sure enough hes in bed with his blankets on. Just as I'm shutting the door, I see his PJs ... on the floor ... in the middle of the room. "Oh boy" was the first thought that came to mind and then "Oh please have your diaper on" lol. 


Sure enough he had his diaper on ... and a pair of jeans (which were actually put on correctly, surprisingly) and no shirt. I couldn't believe it. I guess he decided to take matters into his own hands tonight! haha!

Candy Snatcher

So today Jay and I hung out with our friend Tami. We dont get to see enough of her it seems like, but Jay *loves* the days that we do get to hang out with her.

Today we made a stop at Globus. For those of you not in Europe, its kind of like a Super Walmart or Target, but I think its actually bigger and then they also have other stuff inside like bakeries and travel stores and clothing stores. But anyways ... we went there to get some small gifts that Tami had seen a few weeks ago that she wanted to get for her nieces and nephews. So we grabbed a cart, and lucky for Jay, Tami grabbed one of the carts that has the little car in front. Jay absolutely loves those carts cuz he gets to drive and honk the horn, lol. So we're walking around the holiday section that is 99.9% candy - candy canes, chocolate sculptures, chocolate of all kinds really and every other holiday candy you could ever want. Jay had tried to grab a couple things but we would catch him in the act and quickly take it away from him and then we started to keep the cart more towards the middle of the isle and when we did have to park it we would park the front in somewhere where he couldnt grab anything, lol.

So we've been walking around in circles for maybe oh ... 10-ish minutes, and we cant find what Tami is looking for. They're all sold out apparently and the guy that worked there had absolutely no idea what Tami was talking about so he was no help in even trying to find what we're looking for. So we decide to just leave and call it quits. I look down to look at Jay and low and behold what does he have? A chocolate sculpture of Santa Clause ... 1/4 of the way eaten, foil wrapper and all. I couldnt believe it! Tami and I just laughed! Sneaky little boy had grabbed a candy and neither of us had noticed and started eating it! And he was so proud of himself. lol. He kept telling me it was yummy and that it was his. 

I guess Jay has a sweet tooth, just like his mommy, lol.

Food Fight!

As I was making one of my all time favorite dinners tonight, (my sister Jessica's Chicken Tater Tot Casserole, just had to throw that in there, lol) Brandon came into the kitchen and started to be a little smart alick to me. I was washing my hands and I warned him to stop or he would be sorry. Of course, Brandon being the man he is, continued to be a smart alick. So since my hands were still wet, I flug a handful of water at him. He just kind of stood there, mouth open, a little stunned that I had done that, so I did it again and just started lightly laughing. Brandon goes into the bathroom, Jayden following him of course, and grabs a cup of water. As hes walking back into the kitchen I tell him he better not throw that whole cup at me since I hadnt thrown a whole cup at him. So he sprinkles me like I had him. 

Cue Jayden ... he walks into the kitchen, with his own cup of water, and threw it towards Brandon. Mostly the floor got the water, but Brandon's back side got a good amount of it too. I started laughing *SO* hard while Brandon just stood there, mouth open, not moving.

A few minutes later, Brandon was still continuing with his smart alikeness. I of course, wasnt appreciating it too much so I told him to stop. He continues. I tell him that he obviously didnt learn the lesson the first time and he would get another lesson if he didnt stop. What does he do? Continues to be a smart alike. Since at the time I was using a spatula to finish spreading the soup part of the meal into the dish, I flipped off the excess off, and turned towards Brandon. He didnt take the hint, so I flung what was left on the spatula onto Brandon. Again, with the shocked look on his face, more exaggerated this time though, he just stood there. I started laughing again. He leans over, grabs what he can out of the bowl that was left, and flung it at me. I couldnt believe it. Of course, as I'm getting what I can out of the bowl with the spatula, Brandon goes running into the bathroom and locks the door. I walked out of the kitchen to try and catch him anyways, but of course didnt catch him. Jay comes running out a few seconds behind me with his hands outstretched but I didnt think much of it. A few minutes later Brandon comes walking into the kitchen.


Cue Jayden ... he walks into the kitchen behind Brandon, and slathers the soup mix that was on his hands all over the back of Brandon's leg. And then he started to evily giggle.


I was laughing *so* hard. I could hardly believe it. Now I dunno about Brandon's side of the family, But I do know my family is known to have water fights and food fights in the house, and even at the dinner table (and yes, I can think of at least one water fight that was initiated by my mother, lol) so I guess Jay does take after his moms side of the family after all ;) :)

Such A Smarty Pants!

Jay is SUCH a smarty! It seriously amazes me how smart our little 2 year old boy is :) For example:

Jay asked me for juice the other day. He already had a sippy cup out from a previous drink a little while ago so I told him to go get it. He came back and told me he couldnt find it and then proceeded to walk into the kitchen. I quickly whipped out my phone and turned on the camera just to catch his next couple moves. Granted, I also had to hold him back while the camera loaded, but I knew this was something I had to catch and share. Just watch for yourself:

Also, the other day we were driving down some of the back roads through the fields near our house. There are more tractors here in Germany then I honestly think I have seen anywhere - and Jay is very good at pointing ALL of them out. So we were driving down the road and I hear "Mommy! Tractor! Tractor!" I reply with "Yes, I see! How awesome!". A few minutes later I hear "Nother tractor mommy! Tractor!" and again I reply with "Ooooh, yeah! Another one!". Few seconds later he points out another one, "Tractor! Tractor!". "Yup! Look at that! You are so good at finding tractors Jay!". And then, all of a sudden I hear "Tree mommy! Tree tractors!" ... Translation: "THREE mommy! THREE tractors!" I was stunned! I whipped my head around and looked at him and said "what did you just say!?" And he replied "Tree!". I couldnt believe it! All our counting of cars and fish and toes and fingers was finally starting to pay off! I was SO happy!


On the counting note, we were watching "The Blind Side" the other night. If you havent seen that movie you should, its AMAZING. I honestly LOVE it! Anyways, theres a part in the movie where Mrs Touhy (Sandra Bullock) askes Big Mike to tell her everything about him. And when he wont, she says "Ok, just tell me one thing Big Mike. Just one thing about yourself". Jay is sitting on the couch, and looks at me and holds up one finger and says "one thing mommy, one thing. One." Again, I was shocked. SO STINKING SMART!


He is definitely gonna be something else when he grows up, that is for sure!

"I'm A Bird!" "I'm A Bird!" .... Our Lil Parrot

Well it has begun. Jay has started repeating EVERYTHING. It doesnt matter what it is, or if you think he's listening or not. Oh trust me, he's listening! Even when you definitely think hes not, or if hes in another room, or on the other couch ... oh trust me, he's listening!

"Ali, stop it!" ... "Stop it, momma! Stop it!"

"Brandon, dinners ready" ... "Dinner ready! Dinner ready daddy!"

"Say "no no daddy" .. "No No Daddy! No No!"

"I'm gonna go feed the fish" ... "Feed fish? Feed fish!"

"Dang it!" ... "Dag it!"

"Crap!" ... "Cap!"

It seriously *amazes* me how much his vocabulary has e*x*p*l*o*d*e*d* ... even in just the last 6 or 9 months. He went from only saying a handful of words to not being able to get him to be quiet, especially if hes excited about something - which is almost anything and everything while we're in the car - and even holding a somewhat conversation while on the phone.

I can't wait to see what the next 6 to 9 months bring us ... everyday is a new adventure!

Routines

Jayden LOVES his routines. Don't get me wrong, I think routines are very important. But Jayden has taken them to a whole new level! Example:

At night, we get him in his night time diaper and PJs. Then we brush his teeth and head upstairs to bed. We then kneel down next to his bed and say a prayer. Every now and then he'll just jump on his bed and I'll say "no prayer tonight?" and he'll say "ut-uh", but the second I start to put his blankets over him, he scoots his little ta-hooney off his bed and kneels down next to me. So we fold our hands, and mine have to be the exact same way every time. If I try to change it, he fixes my hands for me, lol. During prayer we have a list of people we pray for every night - Mama, Papa, Nana, , Grandpa, Uncle Josh, all the aunts and uncles, Tami, Hannah, Sarah, just to name a few - and if I forget to mention someone, oh heaven forbid, Jay will let me know! Sometimes he even has me pray for someone twice if he thinks I haven't prayed for them yet. After we have finished prayer its time to crawl into bed. I have to put his blankets on him. I have to give him his sippy cup. I have to give him kisses. And then he gives me kisses in return, first a kiss on the lips, then on the cheek, and if I've kissed his forehead, he HAS to kiss mine as well. I have to turn off the bedroom light. I have to turn on "moon" ... the night light. If Brandon tries to do any of these, then he says "ut-uh! Mommy do it! Mommy do it!" And trust me, mommy has to do it again, or he wont go to sleep without throwing a fit, lol.

Gotta love getting kids into routines, right? ;) :)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

So last weekend, we had a couple friends over and Brandon was telling one of them that we've been having problems potty training the dog. Seriously, Jay is picking up potty training a WHOLE lot better then the dog is! Anyways, the friend, who works with dogs, told Brandon that if he peed in the corner of the patio that the dog wouldnt pee in the house or all over the patio, he would pee where Brandon peed, trying to re-mark his property - something to do with being the Alpha male :-/

So, not to be outdone and out-Alpha-maled, what does Brandon do? Yup, you guessed it. So Jay and the dog are watching Brandon mark his territory, being the Alpha male and all, with this look on their faces like "what ARE you doing!?" Brandon quickly finishes up before anyone can see him and walks back into the house. I look out the back door, not 3 minutes later, and see a little pair of butt cheeks. Jay is standing right where Brandon was standing with this underwear down around his ankles and is peeing in the same spot. Brandon and I just stare, mouths open, and watch Jay. When he was done, he pulled his undies back up as far as he could, which was just above his knees, and came bounding into the house with a great big smile on his face! He was so dang proud of himself! lol. I had to explain to Jay that that was a ONE TIME THING and that he is never to do it again - but let me tell you, trying to tell him that without a smile on my face is a pretty hard thing to do!

***Sorry if this embarrassed you Brandon, but it was just TOO funny not to share!! ;) :)