Schooled

Lately a lot has been happening in this here household. JD is going from toddler to boy right before our eyes. I am pretty sure at this point he is half my size, which is rather scary considering he is only the ripe age of 2.5 (not even). But I am not just talking about a growth spurt here, I am speaking mostly of Mr. Independent over there sitting by the TV watching his current favorite show, "Movers mommy, Movers" (translates to Imagination Movers).

I mean don't get me wrong, I love it...you know all the talking. I love that his eyes have been widely (understatement) opened to the world of words. Some we have taught him, some school has taught him, some he has just (ahem) heard us say, some I am pretty sure he made up, and some he got from those TV shows I let him watch in the morning.

Lately he has been doing and saying things that P-Daddy and I have found rather shocking because we don't remember ever teaching him such. So I thought it would be fun to do a run through of things we have taught him, and things JD has picked up along the way thus far in his life.

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We DID teach him to say "please" and "thanks" which he does on a regular basis (currently better at the "thanks" than the "please").

We DID NOT teach him to say "mine" and run in the opposite direction as you or you or you when he has something that is not his.

We DID give him Handy Manny tools, and then he has acquired a tool bench and a Bob the Builder tool set...but we DID NOT teach him to use the tools properly or know the names of every tool (and not the Handy Manny names the real ones...specifically "wrench" still gets me. That is kind of a hard word to say and its a freaking wrench?)

We DID NOT teach him to organize his blankets and bear in the exact same way before nap and bedtime but he sure does do that (am thinking though, through osmosis he got this "anal man" straight from his dear old dad).

We DID teach him to dance.

We DID NOT teach him to crump.

We DID teach him to tell people how old he is when asked.

We DID NOT teach him to say that every letter in the alphabet is "E." Somehow even the letters above his bed that spell his name (which does not contain an "E") are all still "E." Work in progress.

We DID NOT tell him that mommy went to not ONE but TWO NSYNC concerts in her "youth" and had a love for boy bands however his current favorite song is Owl City's "Fireflies."




We DID teach him to shake people's hand and say "Nice to meet ya" (which is more like "mee ya").

We DID NOT teach him that cords are okay to play with, plug in, unplug...however somehow he knows how to do all of this AND has since he was about...oh...ONE! At this point we don't fight this obsession, we just supervise. And yes we still have the child safety "protectors" on our plugs, and yes he figured those things out at age one as well. We have tried all different brands and he knew how to get all of them off. *Sigh*

We DID teach him not to stick his finger into plugs (and he never has)...that has to count for something right?

We DID NOT teach him that breakfast is the most important meal of the day (yet) but he sure does eat his best in the morning (typical day=three Nutra Grain bars, 3 bowls of cereal or 3 regular sized Eggo blueberry waffles).

We DID teach him that bathing daily is important as we implemented this into his routine when he was the ripe age of a few months old.

We DID NOT teach him that ADDING a shower to that routine was important yet somehow every morning after breakfast he insists that showering is the next step to his day...so currently he is showering and bathing daily. Not going to meet a cleaner two year old.

We DID give him an old cell phone to play with when he was just a wee little one.

We DID NOT know that this would mean he would snatch our real cell phones and call the same people over and over again without mommy or daddy realizing (sorry Amy), call 911 (once...turns out if you lock your phone there is still a way for babies to press one little button and viala, "911 whats your emergency"...CRAP!), and send random cryptic text messages to people.


We DID teach him what a frog is (as for some reasons frogs are in a lot of children's books), the sound they make and how they move around.

We DID NOT teach him to move around the house just like a frog on a regular basis and scream "RIBBIT."

We DID teach him to give lots of hugs and kisses.

We DID NOT know this would become a form of toddler manipulation each night at bedtime. "More kiss mommy, more hug mommy...MORE KISSSS MOMMY"...I know, could be worse and was funny/cute for the first few nights...now it is just painful to listen to him scream that over and over once I or P-Daddy have given him 10,000 hugs and kisses and oh...ONE LAST HUG to grow on.

We DID say "I love you" enough to him that he now says it back (and I melt like an M&M in a sweaty palm every time).

Speaking of being "schooled"...he teaches me something about myself each and every day too...and what I have found about this motherhood gig is that I still have a LOT to learn.