Help! Who is this boy?

And where did he come from?! Do not get me wrong, I absolutely adore John Ross and he's definitely a Mama's Boy, but some days I do not know where the child came from! He is Mr. Attitude and likes to dictate who does what, when and where they do it. This applies to everyone in our house, including the dogs. I had been warned that 3-year-olds are opinionated, but didn't realize that the person who coined "terrible twos" had clearly never met a 3-year-old.

Any advice? I have a feeling that many parents have or are going through this and I'm worried that the advice is going to be "ride it out"... I just hope this ride isn't long!

On a bright note, John Ross was recently discharged from his speech therapy. He made leaps and bounds with his progress and is able to express himself more clearly. We are thrilled with his growth even if it has enhanced his new found sassiness.

Bye, Bye Binky!

We are on day 5 without a pacifier! Judd was still using his pacifier for naps and bedtime and we had been debating when it was time to pull the plug. After receiving a pep talk from our pediatrician on Friday, I was inspired to begin the battle. So Friday night we hid all of the pacifiers and crossed our fingers. Surprisingly it turns out that he wasn't as dependent on it as I thought (or as dependent as I was)! He has a very loved "lovey" that he is using as his crutch. It's just enough to keep him content. While he did fuss in protest at the beginning, he is doing great and I believe he is a fully-recovered paci addict... five days and counting.

I love you, you know

Birthday Boys

Happy Birthday John Ross and Judd! We celebrated the boys' birthdays with a Cowboys & Indians birthday party. Both boys looked the part in their cowboy hats, western shirts, jeans and cowboy boots. Most of the Missouri clan was able to join us in addition to some of our Iowa friends. We had such a fun time playing in the backyard at the Wild West Show (our bounce house) and chasing the Big Chief (Daddy) around the teepee. We even had some pony races on stick horses.

Judd had an eventful 1st year. As of October 7th, he has 8 teeth, is cruising everywhere and busy being a chatter box. His favorite words are "Daisy" (our dog), "Dada", "dog", "ball" and "no". He has learned that squealing gets an immediate reaction out of Mom and Dad since it usually means he is holding his ground with John Ross. He eats anything that you put in front of him, but is no doubt a fruit fanatic. His favorite treats are Dum Dum suckers. I swear he can sniff them out and will do anything in his power to put one in his mouth - wrapper and all. He's most definitely a Mama's boy, BUT won't miss an opportunity to give his Daddy a big grin and hug. After all, Daddy is the one who put his ride-on roadster together that he has driven around the house for miles.

John Ross had a life-changing year. Doctors were able to correctly diagnose his hypoglycemia and our lives have been different ever since. His health is stable, he is feeling great and making huge strides with his speech (which had been delayed). He continues to love music and got a new and bigger guitar for his 3rd birthday. His latest song of choice that he sings and strums to is Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours". He is still a swimming fool. He spent most of the summer in swim trunks, so we are continuing that experience through the fall. He is taking swimming lessons at a local YMCA and doing well. The first class was an absolute disaster... he was the kid that got kicked out for not following directions. Thankfully he is not the afraid and timid child, but unfortunately the polar opposite. He had his own agenda with no fear of the water. His participation has improved immensely.

We are so thankful to have such wonderful little boys. They keep us busy and life is crazy, but we wouldn't have it any other way. The two become closer each day and it's so fun to watch the hugs and kisses and John Ross rubbing his brother's back when he thinks no one is looking. Can't wait to see what next year will bring!

I'm a Big Boy Now!

John Ross and the potty chair have become friends... finally! Kyle and I decided that this past weekend was THE weekend to get John Ross potty trained. We had a rare weekend at home and with Kyle home on Monday, we had 3 days to achieve our mission. Almost two dozen pairs of underwear and a HUGE bag of Skittles later, I can proudly say - Mission Accomplished!

By the third day, it just clicked for him and he's been doing great ever since. He had one accident on Monday. We were nervous about staying on a roll once he went back to daycare today. He's continuing to use the potty at daycare and we're so proud of him.

I promised him about a month ago that he could have a brand new tractor once he started using the potty and he hasn't let me forget. Looks like we'll be hitting Tractor Supply this week!

We Have a Crawler!

Judd is finally crawling! To give the kid some credit, he has been mobile for awhile. He had his own style of scooting on his bottom to where he needed to go. Eventually he turned into a tripod using an inward-pointed leg as his "rudder". As of Wednesday, he has all four limbs parallel and moving in the same direction. It's very exciting, but I didn't realize how much baby proofing we need to do. John Ross is old enough, we've let a few things go and his toys have tiny parts that offer a new challenge.

Judd is also moving on to table food. He wasn't a big fan of the thick-textured baby foods, so we started giving him table food a few weeks ago and he is quite enthusiastic about that. Today he ate everything from meat to several types of fruits and was super excited about peas of all things.

He just cut his 8th tooth and sat through his 2nd haircut. He's growing so fast... it's a little heartbreaking for Mommy!

Pink Eye Almost Leads to Pink Slip

So, yesterday morning John Ross was diagnosed with Pink Eye and was not allowed to attend daycare for 24 hours. I took him to the office with me to do a few things and grab my laptop, so that I could work from home. He behaved so well! He stayed in my cubicle and played with a truck and some ears of corn I have sitting on my shelf. I was getting ready to walk over to a co-worker's cubicle when John Ross bolted down the long row of cubicles. He ran to the end of the row and took a hard right and the chase was on. Before I could grab him, he ran right into the office of our Vice President of North America Sales - giggling the whole way. He ran into the office and jumped into a cushioned corner chair. I kept repeating to myself, "Alejandro (the VP), please do not be there." He was.

I was mortified and the VP was quite surprised. He had a slight grin and puzzled look as if he was thinking, "who is this child and where did he come from?" I apologized and grabbed John Ross. Alejandro then commented how cute he was and got up out of his chair to find out what his name was and how old he was. Either he was charmed or wanted to blackball him from ever getting a job at Pioneer. I continued to apologize as I carried my child under my arm and out the door. He told me not to apologize and that he enjoyed young visitors.

I was so thankful that he had a good sense of humor about the fact that I have no control of my child. I was also thankful that I showed up this morning and there was no pink slip on my desk.