Monday, October 13, 2008

Getting Into The Holiday Spirit

Ashley's mother, Laurie Sue, takes care of Jack one day a week.  This began when Ashley went back to work after Jack was born, and has continued despite the fact that Ashley is now home with both kids.  The day off helps Ashley keep things in order and gives her some time to run errands without dragging along The Two Foot Destruction Artist (a/k/a Jack) and Captain Grumpypants (a/k/a Sam).  More on Sam later.  


Laurie Sue was in education for many years, and has a PhD in child psychology.  (Both of my in-laws are PhD's in Psychology.  Yeah, chew on that for a while.  I've developed my share of psychoses arising simply from that fact.)  The great part about that is that she is diligent to involve Jack in activities that develop his maturing mind and allow his adolescent creativity to expand and develop.  

Around the holidays, she uses the opportunity to engage Jack in various art projects.  As Halloween approaches, Jack has painted his own mini-Jack-o-Lantern and made some "scary" signs to hang on the front door.


[Seeing this post, and looking at the picture of himself painting his pumpkin, Jack commented (somewhat embarrassed), "I still have my jammies on there!"]

Turning to Sam, he gets in the holiday spirit by being constipated (latest count: 5 days worth) and passing the worst gas any one can conceive.  I pity Ashley who has to endure it during feedings.  He's going to be a "Chemical Weapons Developer" for Halloween.


I christen thee Captain Grumpypants.  Why?  He cries... an incredible amount. (I believe that is related to the lack of "BMs.")  He's a pacifier baby, which we were excited about at first, but if that little $.02 piece of plastic falls out, he goes ballistic. Put him in his carseat - ballistic. Set him down for 2 seconds to type this blog post - he erupts.  

As hard as Jack's 2 hour feeding rotation was, the constant assault on the eardrums is equally as rough. A Sam scream reaches into the deepest levels of my psyche, grabs a hold and twists painfully. Yay stress!  

1 comment:

Kelly Mo said...

Want some prune juice? Wait, you can't give that to an infant?