Wanting Independence

My son has made great strides in trying to be independent, some good if not great. For example, he likes to go potty by himself, he likes to pour the fish crackers by himself and he likes to get things for himself by himself. Although on the other hand he can be determined and quite crafty. This afternoon as I was on a help line asking a question about the new tub in our partially remodeled bathroom, he took it upon himself to go into the basement get his Big Red Car (scooter you sit on from the Wiggles) bring up the stairs and ride it around. He has never ventured into the basement by himself (before you freak out, the basement is finished and is where we store some of the toys he has out grown). I talked to him and explained him he needs a grownup with him and he claims to understand. Then at bedtime tonight we followed the same routine and he did not want to go to bed, he threw himself on the ground exclaiming, "I don't get to make choices." We tried to sympathize but then he proceeded to go potty and brush his teeth by himself to get ready for bed. The truth of the matter is we give him choices to make all the time, I guess the ones we give him are not as important as riding the Big Red Car, which he is way too tall for.

Kid in a Box

I am going to marketing a new product that I am sure will be a great money maker:

Kid in a Box

Again, I apologize for the lack of updates but until the bathroom remodel is done I don't have a lot of time. So onwards with this update... Between holidays, teachers days and snow days, my son has not had much school so not much to report on that front although today he decided to play school (more or less acting like he is going and coming home from school). He is very curious about the bathroom remodel, always asking if it is done. The tub and surround are done and my family is once again clean and hopefully we will be putting the floor in this weekend. My son usually proceeds to tell me that I am doing a good job which is awesome, although I don't know if he knows the difference between good and bad work. On another positive note he is going to the bathroom more and more on his own which is great for everyone. He is also becoming quite the "The Price Is Right" expert along with watching the lottery balls in the evening. Just the other day after the pick 3 and pick 4 he said, "Now it is time for the cash five numbers." Sure enough it was next and in addition he now wants to ask Santa for a lottery ball machine for Christmas.

Hopefully soon I will be back to my regular updates but if you are interested in the "Kid in the Box" let me know.

A Week's Worth

Since I have started remodeling our bathroom I have not had as much time to add anything new so I will do my best to give a week update this time. My son is very excited about the new bathroom as he tells most everyone that it is broken. The whirlpool tub has been sitting in my house int he box for almost a month now and Tuesday it finally gets installed, I don't know who will get to use it first my son, myself (most likely choice), or my wife.

My son has become more interactive as we have introduced some more board games amd we found out he really likes puzzles, his favorite game is still Candy Land. This week he set it all up and wanted to play, I was not feeling well and tried to refuse as I wanted to sit and relax as I was feeling nauseated, but he would have none of it. His words, "Daddy, Please!! Don't be afraid it doesn't hurt." How could I refuse that solid logic, well the cuteness of his request. The other thing that has become important is listening to music and dancing, it should be too long until he realizes that his Daddy has no rhythm and can't dance but for now he doesn't care. Although, I have learned some new moves from him. The favorites right now are the Curious George CD (Jack Johnson) and The Laurie Berkner Band, but I have deiced we need to get some new ones as I can only listen to the same music so many times.

In a historic moment, my son opted not to finish eating his french fries from Wendy's. This is shocking as usually I have to urge him to eat his hamburger which he ate all of but let me finish his fries and there was no complaining on my end.

I hope I am not as delayed in my next blog entry but with only one full bathroom it has to get done first or else the EPA might crack down on our family.

Projects at Home

The title is slightly misleading, this is about projects going on in our house and what my son thinks of them. We are currently working on a bathroom remodel although my son's version is that the bathroom is broken. The tub is in a box in our house and my son keeps asking, "Can we use the new bath now?" I have to explain to him that it isn't done yet. So in the process of getting some estimates it is important to him to point out that the bathroom is broken. Then usally after the people that have been by to give estimates leave he sometimes asks, "Is it done yet?" If only the world really worked that fast sometimes. Just this weekend my dad and I ran some wiring up to the bathroom which my son was well aware of, and when my dad left my son assumed the bathroom was done and said, "Let's go see it." It took a lot of convincing that the bathroom wasn't done yet even though we had been working on stuff all weekend.

When not working on it, we play some board games. My son is now an expert Candy Land champion, i am just waiting for him to say "I'll play you in Candy Land for a dollar." He also enjoys his other games Chutes & Ladders and Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. The funniest part is they always have to be played in that order. Today he even set up Candy Land almost completly for us all to play. I think he has derived such love of that game as I used to like it when I was little and was a great player, although my parents will claim I stacked the deck and cheated my way to many victories but that is just jealousy of a great Candy Land Champion.

The Whys and Whats

One thing that certainly makes life interesting with my son is the Whys and Whats. He likes to ask "Why?" and ask "What is...?" a lot. Today for example, he said "It's raining." I responded, "Yes it is raining." then it starts:

Son: Why is it raining?
Dad: Because the clouds are full of water.
Son: Why are the clouds full of water?
Dad: Because water evorpates from lakes rivers and streams and goes up to the clouds. (I know more info than necessary for a 3 year old)
Son: Why water evaporates?
Dad: (trying to simplify) The sun warms the water and causes it to evaporate.
Son: But it is not sunny?
Dad: Well the sun was somewhere else and evaporated the water there.
Son: Is it behind that building?
Dad: Yes!
Son: Why?
Dad: Because it is cold and raining here and it wants to stay warm. (Ha Ha! I got him now)
Son: Why is it raining?
Dad: (thinking, "why did you have to say the word raining.") Because the clouds are full of water.

I think you get the idea. This can continue on for some time. the fun part is trying to explain things so he will understand, but sometimes explaining the rain requires a more technical explaination which may cause him ridicule later in life when his teacher asks him, "Why does it rain?"

FYI - A medicine was added to the medicine chart.

Fat Tuesday

This Fat Tuesday at its finest, nothing like waking up hand having a paczki!

The doctor's appointment went OK, he still has an ear infection and will begin more medication for it (so there will be an update to the medicine taste chart some time soon, I will try to remember to link to it). I really wish he could just be healthy for a bit, although I know this time of year with pre-school and such it is difficult becuase kids don't understand to wash their hands often and not to touch everything thing they see. Maybe I need to invent a Lysol Cologne for kids, spray it on them before school and keep the germs away. He really doesn't complain about it so it is hard to tell if anything is wrong, either he is really tough or he knows he will have to go the doctor, I am going with the first option being a proud daddy and all.

Day with Daddy

My wife had to go out of town for work, so it was just my son and I all day. This can turn into a difficult day depending on how much he wants to test me, but today was different he was a good boy even with his aerosol treatment and his bath, not even a whimper. I don't know why or what caused this unusual three year old behavior, although it is a refreshing change. He is a good kid, he just likes to test us to no end some days. Tomorrow is a follow up doctor's appointment that I hope goes well so that our lives can get back to somewhat normal.

Medicine... YUCK!

My son still loves his medicine, but I can't figure out why. Yesterday a drop was on the counter so I thought I would see what this actually tastes like, it was awful and I had an aftertaste in my mouth for at least 5 minutes. To him though if I say time for your medicine he comes running without question, the current antibiotic he is on I don't think is flavored but I was truly surprised at how bad it tasted. From now it may become common practice for me to taste some of these just out of plain curiosity to see if any of them actually taste good (really I should say which ones tastot bad). I thought I was missing out and was going to start asking the pharmacy if I could the kid version of some of the medicines that are prescribed to me. I may try to keep a running log that may be updated from time to time, I hope I don't have to update it too often as I don't want my little guy to be sick but I shall keep a rating system here.

Medicine		Taste
Liquid Zythromax		Double Yuck
Childrens Advil (Blue)		Yummy
Amoxicyllin (Pink Raspberry-Strawberry)		Yummy
Omnicef (got the generic of this)		Double Yummy
Children's Robitussin Cough and Cold (Cherry)		Yummy

Updated 3/11/08

A New Day

My son is doing much better. He looks as normal as a 3 year old can look, coughing is down significantly, sleeping well, although he still fights the aerosol machine a bit. He really wants to go outside and it is hard explaining to him he needs to get better first because he already feels better than he did. We are both stir crazy and need to get out but with the cold weather it makes it difficult. Hopefully he will be well enough to go to pre-school on Monday.