moos, sand and time outs

mommy's little rocker!

pics from the farm:

look ma, dirt!

Hi Goat. Say hi to your mother for me. (SNL reference!)

in hot pursuit of some sheep!

tractor!

Mr. Fix It

future musician

our sand man

pick a car, any car:

Last week, we took a "field trip" to a local farm with my friend Janice and her twins Kyra & Dylan. She belongs to a Mothers of Multiples group, and we tagged along to their farm outing. Even though I only had one toddler to keep track of, I had my hands full! Jakey is quite the stubborn little boy lately, and starting to hit the "terrible twos" stage at 18 months! He wants to do what he wants to do, and doesn't always want to listen to mommy and daddy. And usually what he wants to do is run around and exert his independence. Remember when I was upset when he wasn't walking yet? Now he's getting me back by constantly running away from me. Luckily, we were fenced in at the farm, so he could roam somewhat freely and check out the animals, chase a few sheep and get his hands on a tractor! It was cute to see him get so excited about the animals we read about in his books. He loves to "baaaa" like the sheep and goats, and "quack" like the ducks. I did make the mistake of telling him we were going to see cows (I thought they would have cows at this farm!) but unfortunately, there were none. This didn't stop my little man from walking around shouting "mooooooooo" at the top of his lungs! Maybe he thought they would appear if he did this? :)

We have started giving Jakey warnings, and then time outs when he refuses to listen to us. Surprisingly, he actually stays put when we put him in the time out corner, and he knows that he is in trouble. We follow the 1 minute per year of age rule, so he only has to sit there for 1 minute, but so far, so good. We haven't had to give him too many yet (usually the warning is enough), but they seem to work fairly well.

Just when I thought our Kindermusik class was getting easier, they switched rooms on us. Let's just say that sitting still is not Jakey's strong suit, and when there is a new room to explore, "fuhgeddaboudit." At least he doesn't have to sit still too much in Kindergym, so that class is going very well! We are taking another gym class this Summer, and Jake is also going to be taking Saturday morning swimming lessons with daddy. It will be good for Joe and Jake to have some father/son bonding since Joe doesn't normally get to go to any of our classes or playgroups.

Over the weekend we set up Jake's backyard "playground" with his new sandbox (new to him, that is - I bought it at a garage sale) and his fleet of outdoor vehicles! Jakey had a great time playing in his sand and ended up with hair and shoes full of it. He has more fun pushing his cars and trucks around the backyard than riding them. Whatever works, right?

We are looking forward to Jake's second Easter on Sunday. He will actually be able to hunt for eggs this year - it will be so cute to see him filling up his basket. He gets his first chocolate bunny this year, too! I'm sure he will be very excited about that! After the Santa debacle, we decided not to take Jake to visit the Easter Bunny this year. Jakey has smiled and waved to EB at the mall though. Progress? Hopefully. Maybe it helps that EB is a soft cuddly rabbit and not a scary old man :)

Happy Easter!