Bored at home!

Well, he's officially been out of school for only 3 days and it's been awesome having my kind, loving, agreeable, happy little boy back!!
Monday he cuddled in bed for a little while, kissing me on the forehead and telling me "I love you so much."   We tried to pick up toys that had been left on the floor and do some light cleaning around the house. When I told him we needed to clean he asked, "Why? Who is coming over?"  I said no one is coming over - it's just that the house is dirty and I'd like it to be clean.  He still wasn't convinced.  I told him to go get dressed in play clothes. "Why? Where are we going?"  lol  Really? Do we only get dressed because we're going to go somewhere, and only clean house if someone is coming over? Am I that bad??
Last week I let him measure out flour, salt and water to make a dough with. We rolled it out together and made a handprint of his right hand and baked it.  His hand is almost exactly the same size as Ted's was - when Ted was in kindergarten!  This week, I tried making balloon heads. It was an experiment listed in one of his books and I thought they were cute. Ha! I dont know what kind of balloon I was supposed to use, but it was next to impossible to get much flour in the balloons I have. So we ended up with two small balloons with flour in them, I let him paint some cotton balls and glue them on as hair. Then I drew a face on one and he drew a face on the other.  He told me the face he drew was "scary."   You're supposed to be able to squish them and make the face change a little, and it can be a cute paperweight.  I think it was a project fail.  We got flour all over the counter and floor, which was a good excuse to let him vacuum the kitchen.
Soon it was lunch time and we sat at his little table together eating our turkey and cheese, fruit and chips. Turns out he loves Salt and Vinegar potato chips.
After nap, we spent the entire afternoon and evening outside blowing bubbles and riding bikes. He's finally getting the hang of his big boy bike. That if you want to stop you just push backward on the pedals. He hates wearing a helmet so he doesn't like to ride the bike for long, but today was the longest he stayed on it, and the most times he got back on. He only got nervous one time and that was because he took his foot off the pedal and thus lost control of the brake. 
He even got to ride on the lawn mower with daddy Monday evening.  Then we were off to Moe's for a late dinner. Another gentleman there complimented us on how well behaved Andrew is.


This kid LOVES shrimp. Loves it!  One day at Cracker Barrel he discovered fried shrimp was on the kids menu. When it arrived, he didn't realize it was shrimp because he'd never had the breaded shrimp. Half way through my own meal I realized the confusion and had to peel the breaded part off to show him that there was shrimp inside. Then he peeled most of the bread off the rest of the shrimp and ate them happily.

His favorite book, according to him, is Corduroy. He'll even go in his closet and pull out his overall-shorts to wear like Corduroy.

Wednesday night after the meeting, Andrew went up to a group of teenage boys and said, "hey guys! Hey guys!! Hey guys!!!" ... then after finally getting their attention said in a gruff voice, "I'm a pirate!"  They all just blankly stared at him for a moment and then went back to their conversation.
Later I was getting jelly beans out of the bookbag when he came to tell me that he was hanging out and talking with two of the teenagers (who were on the ramp behind the side of the stage). I just smiled and handed him a jellybean. He got all excited and ran back up to the boys and showed them. They even got excited and one took it and pretended to eat it. Andrew smiled and said, "hey! I want to eat it!" The kid gave it back. Andrew came back and told me about it and I gave him three jelly beans and told him two were to share and one was for him to eat. He ran back to the boys who *really* got excited that time!

 Thursday morning he finally slept until 7am which allowed me to get 5.5 hours of broken sleep. I sit up in bed and rub my eyes. "Can I turn the lights on?" Andrew asks. "No I'm not ready for the lights."  "Are you going back to sleep mommy?"  "No. I'm just really tired still and trying to wake up." Then he so sweetly says, "Can I help you get out of bed mommy?"  "No sweetheart, I can do it, but thank you."
  I took a few minutes to myself to check my emails as I usually do in the morning and Andrew said he wanted to work on his train table. Although I knew that meant trying to take it apart, I consented. He's trying to figure out how it works. It's just three big pieces that lay flat across the top together to make a tabletop inside a frame. He recently discovered that that tabletop can come up if he pushes on it from the underside.  He comes back to me a few minutes later and says, "It's a hard day. I need a drink. .... but I need some underwear first."   He wanted his morning milk, but decided he should at least put some underwear on first. He's not quite tall enough to reach the underwear drawer without standing in his bed, but he can't open it from there. Maybe it's time to rearrange the drawers in his dresser.
  Thursday after nap, he crawled into my bed and put his head on daddy's pillow and we chatted for a little bit. Then he sat up, "Mommy, can I cuddle with you?"   When he got settled into me and my pillow, he said, "I love you so much."  He knows how to melt my heart.
   After nap we went outside to play. His favorite thing to do is ride his bike in the driveway. He has three. One is a plastic tricycle, one is a Red Flyer Tricycle, and one is an actual Bicycle with training wheels.  This week is the first week he's shown genuine interest in trying to ride his bicycle. Today I tried to entice him a bit. I told him he could ride it in the road and go up to the creek if he rides his tonka bike. He got excited about going in the road but then said, "I need to change bikes."  I told him no and explained the deal again. He reluctantly consented. I told him it was okay to be scared, but he was being very brave trying to ride it even though he was scared.  Sure enough, he ended up riding it all the way to the creek. Then he stomped through the water barefoot and got to swing on the tire swing (i think for the first time.) He LOVED that!  Daddy ended up coming and picking us up because he had to go to Lowes so the joy was relatively short lived.
 
  Maybe it's because *I* am overtired this week and all he wants is attention, but the last few days he's decided to be more... testy. For example, I open the car door and unbuckle him and he just stays in his seat, "I don't want to get out." I calmly and nicely ask him to please get out of the car. He may or may not consent at that point. If he does, he then stands in the doorway of the car.  I will nicely ask him to get out of the car a couple of times, but it's like he waits for me to lose my patience and snap, "Get OUT of the CAR!" before he'll jump out - and of course be grumpy.  I then hold the keys out and ask, "Would you like to open the front door?"   "No."  "Okay, then I will."   "Noooo!! I want to open it!" as he starts whining and crying.  "Then you should have said yes."  Usually I just hand them back to him at this point, but I'm getting tired of this ridiculous routine he is starting.  So Friday morning I kept the keys and started walking toward the door, with every intention of asking him again when we got to the door if he'd like to unlock it.  But he stood in the driveway declaring that he was not going to come. I repeated, "come."  He came to the edge of the sidewalk, arms crossed, head down, face scrunched up, "I don't want to come to the front door."  I finally yelled at him to listen and obey and that I said to come.  He screamed at me the entire length of the sidewalk and stomped up the steps and turned around and yelled at me some more.  I handed him the keys and very sternly said, "Please unlock the door so we can go inside."  I barely spoke to him as we went in. He did something else that I can't even remember now, but he was being very rude and disrespectful and defiant. I finally went over to him and swatted his bottom. I told him I don't like to spank him but he HAS to learn to listen and obey. I can't protect him in important situations if he's not even willing to listen and react in ones that aren't as essential, and it's certainly not okay to tell mommy and daddy 'no' when we tell him to do something. Anyway, I knew he felt hurt that I spanked him and after talking to him I  encouraged him to cuddle in my lap with a blanket and just held him and reassured him that I love him dearly. It's exhausting though to feel like the simplest task in the world is more like a debate or battle.  
   One day this week I got him ready for nap with no problems, but when he got in bed and I went to put the blanket on him, he kept kicking his feet and laughing. I asked him to stop and he ignored me so I just tossed the blanket onto him without tucking it in and said, "I'm not doing this." and left. He cried out, "noo! Do this!" meaning to tuck the blanket it. I didn't respond since I was closing the door already.  This resulted in a meltdown. He got out of bed crying and yelling like he was reprimanding himself. He'd hit the door and then yell, "You stop that! Don't do that!" and other things.  I gave him a minute then I calmly opened the door and he jumped back in bed and softly said, "don't spank me!"  I told him I wasn't going to spank him, that I don't like spanking him. I asked, "do you like to be spanked?"  He said no and I asked him if it hurts. He said yes. I told him it's much nicer when he just does what he's told to do. I'm too tired to battle him over everything.  I asked him if he'd like a hug and he smiled and wrapped his arms around my neck. I told him I like hugs and kisses much better than yelling and spankings. After that he laid down. I dont recall if that was a day he didnt take a nap or that he did. He's had a couple of days this week where he didn't sleep. Ayeayeaye.

  Which reminds me... Flash will drive us nuts sometimes and I'll say "ayeayeaye.. sheesh."  Andrew now says that a lot. Its funny coming from him.

   He's now responsible enough to feed Flash. So I let him do that. Friday morning when he was going to get some cat food I heard him singing songs about Flash that he's heard me sing. I think this morning it was "Flash-a-roni, Flash-a-roni..." 
   And Friday morning, instead of coming to get me first like he usually does, I heard him go to the front door and let Flash in, and then he was talking to Flash in the office. "Flash kitty (emphasizing the tt's in kitty) Flash kitty!"  who I guess was ignoring him.  "Flash kitty! Stop licking! Stop licking Flash kitty!"  *big sigh*  Then he comes in my room, "Mom, Flash kitty won't stop licking!"  LOL  I explained to him that, although it can be annoying sometimes, that is how cats give themselves a bath.  But then he thought I was suggesting we give Flash a bath.