Sentimental

Oh, Jeremiah, you little stinker. I love you bunches. You never cease to amaze me with the ingenious ways you find to get into mishchief. I can hear the wheels turning in that precious little brown haired head of yours, but I never know what to expect. I'm so glad that God chose use to be your parents. You are my favorite little boy aside from the obvious reason of me being your mother. You make life interesting. You are an imaginative little fellow with dreams as big as the universe. Don't ever change. Gosh darn sentimental moments!

He's Baaaaack!

Oh my gravies, have I really not blogged all summer long???? Oh dear, so much has gone on and I don't know if I can recall it all. *Sigh* My blogs have become a casualty of BMS (Busy Mom Syndrome) again.
Do not be fooled by the lack of entries, Jeremiah is still up to no good and has been all summer long, but we did just get over a two week span where he was sick and didn't get into anything. I can't believe I'm actually thinking/saying/typing this, but I missed my rambunctious, curious, mischief making little boy and all of his shenanigans, even the destrucive ones. It was so painful to see him lose the liveliness that has always been, well, him. He was so sick with a stomach virus that he didn't feel like doing anything. Fear not, he is back and getting into more mischief than ever. Praise God!

****News flash: We interrupt this current thought to bring you a blogworthy incident or two that occurred this summer****

I just remembered a few things that I didn't post about over the last 3 months. We had what some might call interior decorating issues with the Mai-Mai this summer. One day, couldn't tell you which day or what month it was in, I walked into my bedroom to put laundry away. I was hit with the overpowering smell of nail polish. Ran to my bathroom to seek out the mess that I knew would greet me. Nothing. No polish anywhere. Huh? I looked under my vanity to make sure none of my polish had spilled. Everything in order. Looked around Peter's vanity area. All clear. Checked our two trash cans. Empty. I was confused. I proceeded to put away the laundry, and began to wonder if I had imagined the smell of nail polish. That kind of stuff can happen, right??? I finish up, head downstairs, and feed the kids lunch. Then it's nap time. My favorite time of day. I shuffle the littles up to their room and get them tucked into their bunks and get Sophia settled into her crib. I usually try to get other househould cleaning or things taken care of when the kids nap, but this particular day, well, I feel like napping too. I head into my room and am again hit with the smell of fresh nail polish and for the life of me can't figure out where the smell is coming from. I move to my side of the bed and am greeted with polish pandemonium...all over my carpet!!! Bright green. Everywhere. I must have let out a strangled cry, because when I turned to leave my room to find the culprit, there was Jeremiah peeking around the doorway into my room. After some questioning, he finally confessed. Gave him a spanking and sent him back to his room for nap. As for me, there would be no nap that day. Only two hours of scrubbing polish out of the carpet by hand and then another 30 minutes of using the carpet cleaner. Did you know that green nail polish leaves a yellow tint behind? So now I have a lovely area of yellow tinted carpet in my bedroom. Time to invest in a runner.

There's more. That same evening, Peter had to run the carpet cleaner again because Jeremiah dumped dishsoap on the spot that was yellow because he was trying to help clean up his mess. FYI, liquid dishsoap and carpet cleaners...they don't do well together.

THENNNN, that same week on Sunday morning, I was called away from my W3 study because Peter had an emergency on his hands. Emergency=Jeremiah getting into Elle's yellow fabric paint in the playroom and painting a 10x10 area of the carpet, the legs of a coffee table, his clothing, and a throw pillow for one of the couches. 3 hours of dilligent scrubbing and carpet cleaning by my hubby and myself managed to pretty much clean up the area. A person probably wouldn't even notice the slight yellow tint to the carpet in some areas unless we pointed it out. An hour after that mess was cleaned up, Jeremiah wrote on my walls, a step stool, and one of Lydia's Build-A-Bear animals with marker.

I'll quit now. There must be a blog entry length limit, right? Besides, I'll no doubt have something blogworthy happen between now and tomorrow. That's just life with Jeremiah, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Bloggity, blog, blog, blog

Creeping up on a month since I've blogged about Jeremiah and his shenanigans. We've been busy with company and such, but Jeremiah, being the ultimate boy that he is, has not failed to deliver on blogworthy material. The most recent "idea" that he acted upon resulted in a spanking from Daddy. Jeremiah thought it would be a good idea to urinate in the waste basket in his bedroom. I suppose we should be happy that it wasn't the carpet like last time. Yes, he hopped out of bed during nap time one day and wet the floor. He was not asleep nor was he groggy from sleep. He just got out of bed, dropped trouser, and proceeded to wet the floor.

Not everything in the post is toward the negative. And besides, most of the time (once I get over the initial "aaargh!" moment) I have to sit back and laugh. Something positive--Jeremiah started going to summer MDO at Lydia's school. He will start preschool there in the fall. Anyway, he loves it. We have seen a difference in him already. He just seems so much more grown up today than he did three weeks ago when he started. Yes, he still has outlandish ideas and schemes that he almost always puts into action, but he is definitely beginning to mature as a toddler/preschooler. He has always been polite, but he makes more of an effort to say "yes ma'am, yes sir, no ma'am, no sir" and such. He is becoming quite the independent little man which Lydia seems to be having a hard time accepting. They bicker a little more because Lydia is the typical big sister who is a natural born nurturer. She still tries to baby Jeremiah and do things for him. Jeremiah is having no part of it. I must say, he can definitely hold his own.

I'm sure there are more blogworthy things that I'll think of after ending this post. Life has just been so busy with family coming in and out of town during the whole month of June. Swimming! See, I told you I'd remember something. Jeremiah has gotten re acclimated to the pool and has been swimming. He only knows how to swim underwater for now, so we keep him in the shallow end. I'm so proud of him because he has been encouraging Lydia to swim too. And Lydia has been following his lead. She too has been swimming underwater. Time for swim lessons so they can learn how to come up for air and continue swimming.

The house is pretty quiet at the moment as Jeremiah just left to have a "man" date with Grampa. They are going out to lunch and doing whatever it is that men do. I hope he remembers to practice his manners. And maybe he'll say something on their outing that will be rip roaring hilarious so I can blog about it!

My baby boy turned 3 on the 15th of the month. Peter and I joked that his continuous disobedience and rebellious behavior was a big finale to the terrible 2's. And in a sense, that seemed to be true. Aside from slapping Lydia in the face (leaving a bright red Jeremiah's sized handprint across her cheek), his birthday was uneventful...as in he pretty much behaved himself. It was as if he woke up, realized that he was three, and matured in a matter of 24 hours. Is that possible???

We had planned to celebrate his birthday with a zoo outing with friends and family, but the weather threatened to be rainy, so we had a gathering at our house. Everyone ate and chatted and had a grand time. The kids played out in the yard until it was time for the opening of presents. He got another pair of rainboots which he promptly stepped into. Boy was he ever proud of those. He also got some Dr. Seuss books. And silly bandz. Gobs of silly bandz...which I keep finding all over our house. He got a set of super soaker water guns. We immediately told him that those were outside toys. He also got some cars. He loves cars. Peter and I got him a fun little blue t-shirt that had a bright green pea on it that said "Give Peas a Chance". But I think we really hit the mark with the last three gifts. First, he opened up his Toy Story beach towel with Buzz and Woody on the front. The excitement was building. Next, he unwrapped his Buzz Lightyear lunchbag for school. Talk about eyes the size of saucers and a jaw on the floor. And the final gift...a Buzz Lightyear backpack. Within minutes, the backpack was stuffed with his birthday cards, cars, books--pretty much all of the gifts he could fit into that tiny bag. He also proceeded to "pack his lunch". That consisted of a bag of Salt and Vinegar chips, some plastic monkeys from one of his games, and his wallet which contained $3--two bucks from G'mommy and one from Mr. Chris, our mailman. He wore that backpack and carried that lunchbag until he went to bed. Makes me smile.

It's been nearly two weeks since my baby boy turned 3, and today I'm seeing that he's really and truly growing up. This afternoon after lunch, I took note of how carefully he unfolded the kitchen step stool and steadied it in front of the kitchen sink. I watched as he moved the handsoap closer to himself so he could neatly pump one squirt of soap onto his little outstretched hand. I grinned as he turned on the water full blast as usual but then slowly adjusted the water to gentler flow and temp. And I wish I'd had my camera to capture how skillfully he scrubbed his little hands clean of his sticky lunch remains. And how he cupped his hands and gathered water to rinse off the crumbs around his mouth. And how he turned off the water and went right for the hand towel so he could dry off his hands and face so he wouldn't drip water all over the floors. It may seem like a trivial or mundane event to add to my blog. But today, it was a milestone.

And The List Goes On

**Squirted baby bath soap out onto the carpet on one of the bottom steps of the stair.

**Climbed the counters, got the Sam's Club sized Coffee Mate creamer, proceeded to hide and pump out as much as he could into a cup.

**Stuck his tongue out at me when I reprimanded him for his disrespectful attitude towards a scolding received for a previous offense.

**Shoved Lydia to the ground.

**Shoved Sophia to the ground.

And his latest offense tops them all...

**Destroyed a flashdrive full of important info. (Hoping to be able to take it in to retrieve info)

From what I can calculate, Jeremiah will be grounded until he is 30. But if he keeps this stuff up...it will be for life!

Bad Weather Promotes Mischievous Behavior

Last weekend, we got pounded with severe thunderstorms and torrential rains. The power went out on Saturday afternoon, and we were left to entertain ourselves as they did in the "olden days." The kids couldn't really color or read because the skies were dark which left our home pretty dark, even with blinds open. They played with toys most of the time, but eventually the entertainment of toys lost their captivating hold on the sporadic attention span of my children. Jeremiah turned to his mischievous mind which rolls out ideas like you wouldn't believe. During a quiet lull in activities, my little man put into action one of his little thoughts. Once we realized that Jeremiah had been missing from the keepign room for a little too long and was a little too quite, we went on the hunt. Found him sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Covered in sweet-smelling sticky red goo. Bottom three steps were painted with said goo. Our stairs are carpeted! My little artist's medium of choice was my brand new $7.00 tube of Victoria Secret Cherry Bomb lip gloss which was now pretty much empty. I made a beeline towards the dining room closet for the carpet cleaner when it dawned on me that our power was out. Looks like easy clean up was not going to be so easy afterall. I filled a bucket with warm soapy water, grabbed an old toothbrush, and got to scrubbing like Cinderella.
Scrub, scrub, scrub. Still sticky. Still red. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Still sticky. Very hot pink. Scrub, scrub, scrub. No change. What to do, what to do??? iPhone. Safari. Google. How to remove red lip gloss from carpet? Search. Read, read, read. Toothpaste! Toothpaste? Toothpaste. Run to Cynthia and Ashlee's bathroom and borrow their tube of toothpaste. Here goes nothing. Scrub some toothpaste into the hot pink carpet and rinse. Sticky, gone. Carpet, more of a baby pink. Wow, this stuff really works, and the carpet is smelling minty fresh. Half a tube of toothpaste later, the only reason I still notice the barely there pink tint of the carpet is because I have been scrubbing at it for a half an hour. Finish clean up. Jeremiah sentenced to nap time.

Wednesday morning of this past week, Jeremiah decided to make breakfast. Without supervision. Came downstairs to find that he very carefully poured himself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Kudos to the boy. Substituted half a bottle of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup as milk. No kudos for that.

Today, it's rainy out. And Jeremiah has already been at it again. I found him getting into Cynthia's makeup. He had mascara all over his face. Nice, real nice. Didn't have my camera or iPhone to take a pic before I scrubbed his face. What a mess-a-roo!

I'm still here...surviving Jeremiah. Do not be fooled by the lack of entries since the 19th. There have been many "oh-no-you-didn't!" moments. Pouring out a whole bottle of bubble bath into the jacuzzi tub, pouring out several cups of water just because, and punching Lydia...after she kicked him in the "goodies"...which led him to kick her in the mouth. It never ends!

I had to throw my survival instincts into high gear yesterday. I took the kids out front and let them ride the jeep and ATV in the cove. We were out front for probably an hour or so when I called for the kids to park their toys because it was dinner time. Lydia rode the ATV up into the garage like a good girl. Jeremiah was not so obedient. He ignored me and drove the jeep round and round in a circle. I started towards him, and he steered the jeep towards the driveway. I stopped. He continued to make circles. I scolded him as I walked towards him. He jerked the wheel of the jeep and came right at me with a glare. Let's just say that he was rudely jarred and nearly hit the steering wheel when the front of the jeep met up with the heel of my foot. He was shocked and upset. He boohooed as I told him that I would see to it that the jeep would end up in a million pieces in the garbage can if he ever tried to run me over again. I think I actually go through to him because after dinner, he made it a point to apologize and tell me how much I scared him when I was mad at him and that he'd never run me over again. I wonder if he will remember this conversation when he is 16 and gets angry with me. Let's hope!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

On Thursday, Jeremiah and I played outside after dropping Lydia off at school. While we were out, he decided that he would really like to fly his Buzz Lightyear kite. There was not a steady breeze out so I was reluctant to let him fly the kite, yet after much begging and pleading, I gave in. Glad I did, too. With very little effort, I was able to get the kite up in the air. Jeremiah was ecstatic. I kept releasing more string in order to get the kite high enough to catch a steady air current. Just a little higher. And a little more. And before we knew it, the kite was in a perfect current and soaring. Within seconds we had unraveled the full line of string, and Buzz Lightyear was in bird territory. Gpa came out to fly the kite with us. I let Gpa take over helping Jeremiah with the kite so I could snap some shots for memory sake. Gpa is quite the kite flyer and showed Jeremiah how to keep the kite aloft when the air current died down. Jeremiah was a good student and paid close attention. I snagged some cute photos of the two of them. The cutest thing was that Jeremiah kept yelling, "To in-fibby and beyond!" everytime the kite took off in a gust of air. How fitting!

Last night, Jeremiah had a coughing fit while laying in bed. Peter and I were in our bedroom clearing off our bed and preparing to settle in for the night. Over the baby monitor, we hear Jeremiah say, "Daddy, I'm sick! But I don't have to go to the hospital!" We snickered. Gpa was in the hospital overnight last weekend because he was sick. I guess Jeremiah thought that since he felt sick, he was going to have to go, but he didn't want to go. Peter went in to check on him. He was fine. Just a brief coughing fit that caused him to gag once. I'm always curious how children perceive the world or situations going on around them. I guess we will need to explain that only certain sicknesses require hospitalization.

Respite

Ahhh, finally some rest for the weary. Since my last post, there has been very little Jeremiah induced chaos. Don't get me wrong, he has definitely had his share of moody moments and gotten some scoldings, but there hasn't been anything crazy. However, he has had some fun moments and maybe a couple of embarrassing ones...that Peter and I might have caused. You see, Danielle drove up from Jackson, MS Friday afternoon so she could stay the night and go to Spring Market with me, Mom, Kirsten, and Kelsi. I think Jeremiah was sweet on her. At first he played shy, but before the end of the night he was stuck to her like glue until his bedtime. The next morning, Dani and I were sitting at the island enjoying our coffee when Jeremiah came downstairs. We still put him in Pull-Ups at night since he is such a heavy sleeper, so I told him to go to the bathroom and get ready to change out of his "night-night pants." I got up to get him some big boy britches, and when I came back he was on the barstool next to Dani making eyes at her. He had not gone to the restroom like I had asked him. I held up his big boy pants and told him he needed to go so he could change into his big boys. His face got bright red as he snatched the undies from my hand and ran into the keeping room and buried himself under his blankie. Oh my goodness, I embarrassed my son. Score one for me. Just kidding. I didn't think anything of it when I held up his big boys. I had no idea that he would freak like that. Then I realized that even though I consider Dani family, Jeremiah has only met her twice before now. Once when he was an infant and then last month at Noah's party. I felt bad for embarrassing him, but hey, payback IS kind of fun. Then Peter embarrassed him that afternoon...again, not on purpose. Peter and Jeremiah were washing my car after we got home from Spring Market. They also washed Dani's car. Afterwards, I wanted to see what kind of a tan that Jeremiah had gotten since he had been out all day. Jeremiah pulled the waistband of his shorts down a bit and showed off his tan. Peter then pulled the back end of Jeremiah's shorts and they came down past his butt. Jeremiah instantly frowned and scowled, yanked up his pants, and stomped off. Peter had a puzzled look on his face, and I explained that I thought Jeremiah was embarrassed since that happened in front of Dani. Peter gathered Jeremiah up in his arms, hugged him, and apologized. Dani played it all off by thanking Jeremiah for washing her car. All was fine in the end, but I'm pretty sure Jeremiah will pay us back for embarrassing him. In fact, I'm going to count on it.

I'm Tired So I'll Get To The Point

Tonight at dinner Jeremiah poured his very full glass of water all over Lydia and the floor. I'll leave it at that before some swear words find their way into this blog post.

It's Raining...Food???

Just when I thought today was going to be boring, Jeremiah came through with another incident. This time he waited until dinner. We had meatloaf, rice, and green beans. He devoured the meat and about half of his rice and beans. When I got up from the table to get a second helping of green beans, he demanded more meatloaf. I told him that once he emptied his plate of his rice and green beans he would be able to have a second helping of meat. I returned to the table to finish my green beans ignoring Jeremiah's comments of not liking the rice or green beans. I mean, who is he kidding, I've seen him shovel spoonfuls of rice and beans into his mouth like there was no tomorrow at other meals. Anyway, after I finished my beans, I looked towards the counter to see how Jeremiah was progressing on emptying his plate. Lo and behold, there was Jeremiah shoveling rice and beans into his mouth, chewing a couple of times, and then spitting his food up into the air and letting it rain down on him and the floor. I grabbed a plastic bag out of the pantry, put Jeremiah on the floor, and demanded that he clean up his mess because I was not going to do it. I ranted on about how I thought he was going to empty his plate so he could have seconds on the meatloaf. And of course right on cue as always, my son did not fail to disappoint with a response that stopped me dead in my tracks. He looked up at me and said, "But I did empty my plate, see," as he pointed to his empty plate. What could I say to that???

By the way, I have already had to step away from the computer to handle another Jeremiah induced mess as I type this blog. I kept hearing the toilet flush over and over. I got up to inspect and found that Jeremiah had unrolled the whole toilet paper roll. All I can say is this afternoon there was a full roll, and now there is less than half. You do the math...

DCFC II

I dropped the cake! I thought it would be a good idea to move the cake from the butler's pantry into the the kitchen. I figured I would remove the temptation of the cake from Jeremiah. OPINION: I have great ideas. FACT: I have great ideas that sometimes don't go as planned. As I was moving the cake into the kitchen, I tripped on one of Lydia's tennis shoes that she so irresponsibly left out and that I was too lazy to pick up when I had seen the pair of shoes earlier in the day. Picture this. Cake container soaring through the air. Loose lid flying off. Cake turning upside down. Me diving for cake. SPLAT!!!! I spent the next half hour scrubbing chocolate fudge syrup out of grout, sweeping chocolate shavings off the tile, and scooping chocolate cake off the floor and barstools. Managed to get everything cleaned before heading out to pick Lydia up from school. Happy Tuesday!

Who Wants Cake???

I can't believe I'm attempting to manage another blog, but I felt compelled after this morning's "incident." This blog is going to be all about Jeremiah and his antics. He is my only boy in the mix of 5 children. He is outnumbered by 3 older sisters and a baby sister, yet he holds his own and at times I have to wonder if he doesn't have several clones of himself running around. I say this because he is my child who makes a mess or gets into something and by the time I have found that mess and beginning cleaning it, he has already made 4 more. I love my son, but God knew what He was doing to have given us another girl this last time around.


Anyway, today is the first day of recording all of Jeremiah's schemes and such. At the moment, I do not find this funny...which is usually how I initially feel about all his other incidents when they first occur. However, after an hour, a few hours, a few days, or maybe even a few months, I have to chuckle when I think of some of the things he has said or done. I'm still "cooling" down from this morning's escapade. And the story goes...

Today is Tuesday--Lydia's school day. It is also a day that Nana works so instead of being able to leave Jeremiah and Sophia with someone while I take Lydia to school, I have to get all three munchkins ready and loaded up for the 6 minute drive, 2 minute drop-off, and 6 minute return drive. I'm usually pressed for time on these mornings because let's face it, getting 3 children (under the age of 5) diaper changed/pottied, fed breakfast, and dressed doesn't always go smoothly when each child has their own agenda. This morning was going well, in fact so well that I shouldn't be surprised when what I'm going to tell you happened.

I had all three kids dressed and pretty much ready to go. I had Sophia all buckled into her carrier, and Lydia and Jeremiah were watching Sesame Street. I ran upstairs to change clothes. When I came back down, I noticed that Jeremiah was gone from the keeping room. I heard the sink running in the restroom and figured he had done his morning "business." I was slipping on my flip-flops as he came skipping out of the restroom. I looked up and noticed that he had chocolate around his mouth...and before you let your imagination wander, it was definitely chocolate. I asked him where he got the candy, and he just gave me a shrug. Lydia piped up and reminded me that I had not put her bows in her pigtails. She's my diva. I told Jeremiah that I would clean him up as soon as I got back down with Lydia's bows. Up the stairs I ran again. By the time I got back down with the bows, in less than a minute's time, Jeremiah had more chocolate on his face and hands. I was puzzled because I knew we had gathered all the candy out of baskets and ziplocked them. In fact I could see all the ziploc bags accounted for on the counter and not a single one was opened. As I headed down the back hallway towards the restroom with Jeremiah in tow, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a wooden stool in the butler's pantry as we passed. We don't keep a wooden stool in butler's pantry. That's when I discovered the source of chocolate. My sister Cammie had brought over a Double Chocolate Fantasy Fudge cake for our Easter Sunday gathering. There had been roughly a quarter of the cake left. It was on the butler's pantry. Cover gone. Sliver of cake had been cut. Crumbs and frosting...EVERYWHERE. Counter. Stool. Floor. Wall. Door moulding. Jeremiah's face and hands.

I whirled around and asked Jeremiah what he was thinking when he got into that cake. "Mommie, I love chocolate cake! It's good," he replied. I struggled between blowing a gasket and rolling laughter. Mad because we had to get out the door to get Lydia to school on time which left no time to clean the mess until I got back home. On the verge of laughter because hey, I love chocolate cake too...and it WAS good. And it was a priceless, honest answer from my soon to be 3 year old son. Needless to say, we got Lydia to school on time, and I had a big chocolate mess waiting to be cleaned when I got home. It has been 45 minutes since the Invasion of DCFC (Double Chocolate Fudge Cake) 2010, and there are no longer any signs of the incident. The only recording of the incident is now tucked away in my memory (and maybe Jeremiah's), and once that is long gone, I'll be able to read about it in this blog.