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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Testing… testing... is this thing on?

Uh… hi. I am going to pretend that it has not been nearly a month since my last post and just proceed as if nothing ever happened.

Except that I can’t do that, because I have to mention the two major childhood events that happened since I last posted. Events like this:

Jack turns 2

And this:

First Trick-or-treating

Yes, that’s right, Jack turned two during my hiatus, and then he went and trick-or-treated for the first time. I should mention that for the actual trick-or-treating, he wore black clothes under the costume, but he refused to let me take his picture then.

He’s actually been getting pretty bossy in general these days, with commands like, “Mommy stand right there. Mommy sit down. Mommy sit down on couch. Mommy put hair down. Mommy put glasses on. Mommy stand up. Mommy stand up! MOMMY STAND UUUUUUPPPPPPP!!!!!”

And my clothes! He’s been really really picky about my clothes. Well, with his clothes too, if you define “picky” to mean “doesn’t want to wear pants,” but with me, it’s not that he wants me to go pantsless, it’s that he wants me to wear pants of his choosing. And shirts, too. In fact, it started with a sweatshirt of Andrew’s that I was wearing because it was handy and I was chilly. Next thing I knew, “Mommy take shirt off! Mommy not wear THAT SHIRT!” He became quite hysterical. At first, I wrote it off to his normal post-nap crankiness, but then it happened again, with that same sweatshirt, and I wondered if maybe, just maybe, the shirt was too nerdy for him. This particular sweatshirt, you see, bears the slogan, “There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

We ultimately decided that it’s not the nerdiness, but the fact that the shirt was Andrew’s that bothered him. But then again, tonight he wanted me to take off my comfy pants and put back on my jeans, so who knows. Maybe he just hates change.

So, yeah. Two. Check out the cake I made! From scratch! I divided the eggs and everything!

2nd birthday cake

Jack was less thrilled by it than I had hoped, but it was still fun. I don’t know that I’d do it again, though. Cakes, as it turns out, are a lot of work.

As for the trick-or-treating, I had been worried that he would refuse to wear the costume, so we’d been talking about Halloween for weeks. He seemed interested when I brought it up, but any time I asked him if he wanted to try the costume on, he declined. I think it all clicked, however, on October 30th, when we were in the car and I told him about trick-or-treating again. “And then they give you candy!” I said. Jack seemed unimpressed. “Do you know what candy is, Jack? M&Ms are candy!”

Well. That got a reaction. Having tried M&Ms for the first time only a few weeks before, Jack was finally on board with this whole trick-or-treating thing. So when, at 5:45 on October 31st, I told him it was time to get ready to go, he threw his hands in the air and cried out, “Yem-ems!”

Thank heavens he got some.

blue jack-o-lantern

4 comments:

Becca said...

How sweet! Yeah, Charlie felt the same way about Halloween until he made the connection. He did love his costume from day one though. That cake is awesome!! Great work!!

Anonymous said...

This is a bossy age, isn't it? Every single morning I am greeted by little hands touching my face and shoulders and a sweet little voice saying, "Mama, get up! Get up! GET UP!" She will yell if necessary.

Also, I think that possessiveness on behalf of other people (like Jack's not wanting you to wear Andrew's sweatshirt) must be normal at this age, because Camilla really hates when I use something of Bryan's or vice versa. In fact, one time recently I had a plate of some snack food (can't remember what) and Bryan grabbed one and popped it in his mouth, and she started SCREAMING. "NO, Daddy! That's Mama's! That's Mama's!" She had a huge meltdown over, like, a piece of popcorn or whatever it was.

Trick or treating was a big hit around here, too. Camilla's not big into chocolate, but the lollipops blew her mind.

Oh, and on her first birthday I made a complex cake (white cake layers, lemon filling, Italian meringue icing) and this year I made a very basic cake (yellow sheet cake and buttercream icing with sprinkles mixed in) and Camilla liked this year's cake way better. Now I know why my mom never wasted time on fancy cakes for us. However, Jack's train cake is adorable; I'm impressed by your skills.

Swistle said...

That cake is SO AWESOME!

Toddlers can be SO BOSSY.

Whimsy said...

I'm scared of the bossy, because I was TOTALLY BOSSY And I just know I'm getting one of me. Luckily, I still have a year or so.