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!