As I sit appreciating a functional computer and a demanding-living-creature-environment, I ponder to think:  what should I blog?

• How the dog puked three times this morning – just some spitup stuff which my Hubby so kindly took care of – and then two more times later this morning – mounds of food which my Hubby was safe at work so he didn’t have to take care of?

• How my computer is dying:  one mouse button down, a ten-minute minimum startup time, a dying fan, the tendency to shut down on a hot day, a dog-chewed power chord, and this week’s new addition of it dying immediately when unplugged?

• How the oven is broken:  takes multiple times to get it to actually turn off?  Which means turning it on, turning it off, and sticking your hand in the oven to feel if the heat has change.  Very safe and scientific.

• How JJ got out of bed over eight times last night before going down, and how he got out of bed that many times over the period of an hour this afternoon, the last time causing his mama a little frustration in which she went storming upstairs, tripped, and bent her big toe back so that it hurts a lot whether it’s walked on or not?

• How I didn’t go to the beach this weekend with Hubby’s family because we didn’t find a puppy-sitter in time, and I thought at least I’d have a nice quiet productive Monday morning before they came back but instead had nightmares about my brother-in-law being part of a gang and getting his flunkies to beat me up and then waking up to a swollen eyelid, panicking that I had pinkeye because I have a toddler who goes into the church nursery which is just a playground for carrier monkeys, having to wear painful glasses all day (*someone* thought it was fun to pop off the plastic nose comfort things), paying $20 to have the n.p. tell me that it’s probably allergies and to take a claritin, and then this morning to wake up with a forming stye?

• How gas prices and food prices and garbage service and internet service prices are going up, and yet my Hubby’s salary is not?

• How the paper didn’t come this morning?  NO SUDOKU.  I don’t do Monday or Tuesday Sudokus cause they’re too easy.  Saturday and Sunday Sudokus I attempt, but are often too hard.  So I really look forward to ending the Sudoku Fast on Wednesday.  FOILED!

• How the faucet in the bathtub leaks and keeps me awake at night as I think about the experiments that kids did when we were in grade school to show how much water is wasted over a leaky faucet and how I’m contributing to wasting resources even as I sleep, and how the dog chewed a hole in the carpet (oh, Hubby, by the by:  the dog chewed a hole in the carpet)?

Nah:  none of that is fun or nice to share!  What I *should* share is how JJ turns twenty-two months today:  that’s double twos, baby!  When he’s not climbing out of his crib or breaking into my desk to chew half a pack of gum (he thinks he’s a responsible chewer:  he opens a piece, throws away the wrapper, chews, swallows, and begins again.  If he goes through a pack, he throws the pack away.  I sarcastically told him, “Wow, you threw everything away.  Thanks.”  His response:  “Yerelcome.”), he really can be a delightful child.

Dancing:  oh, the dancing.  And not just during So You Think You Can Dance, which is on tonight, but the Gran is down/up/over as well, so we’ll see how that mixes up.  No, he dances to songs in the car, cell phone ringtones, commercials, and Uncle Bubba doing his beatbox thang.  JJ really diggs Cake, Beck, and Elmo’s World in case anyone wants to make him a mix cd.

Eating:  a.k.a. getting into the fridge every two hours because he’s secretly a hobbit (second breakfast, elevensies) which would also explain his large feet and tendencies towards putting everything in its place (Hobbits are very clean, you know, or at least Gregg would know because he’s read all of Tolkien’s stuff, including the Simarilian – now *that’s* dedication . . . or insanity).  Eating is somewhat of an interpretive dance/vocal experience.  “Zheezheezheezhee!”  “Do you want string cheese?”  “Dah!”  Get out the string cheese and unwrap and child reacts as though we have given him a viper and flees wailing to throw himself on the couch.  We try again:  “Zheezheezheezhee!”  “Do you want cottage cheese?”  “Dah!”  We get out the cottage cheese container in which he howls that just parents wouldn’t give their children such foulness, unless it’s right before bed, which is the acceptable cottage-cheese-consuming time:  duh.  Again:  “Zheezheezheezhee!”  “Do you want a Gardenburger Sausage Patty?”  “Dah!”  It’s nuked.  Fleeing and wailing begins again, until we wrestle him down and inject a piece into his mouth (being mindful of the teeth – they leave marks), and then he realizes it’s tasty and saunters over to the table with his four sippy cups to shove all the pieces of the patty into his mouth in a matter of seconds and then brings us his empty plate to request his second course and the interpreting dance/yowling begins again.  Maybe I should just let him in the fridge. . .

Water:   he likes the water.  It’s not uncommon to walk past a closed bathroom and hear a faucet running or to wonder what that noise is outside and realize that the hose has been turned on (obviously he will not be the kid at school who does the water-waste project).  He *loves* his pool and his bathtub times:  he flops around like a whale (which he comes by honestly, at least on his Gerick side).  He has to have four sippy cups:  they must all be on the table when he’s eating, or they should be collected close to him while playing.  No juice or milk, though he’s been sipping my coffee every once in a while, but no worries:  he makes a scrunchy face.

Words:  words are forming more lately, and certainly he thinks he’s using words as this long spew of babblings comes forth in a very animated way, and then he looks at me like, “You agree, yes?”  It’s kind of like the first day of my French class in high school when my French teacher came in and started speaking French  . . . for the entire class.  Oh, the panic I felt as she’d ask questions.  I thought maybe she really didn’t speak English (cause you know, most French people don’t thought the blessed American-centric little girl) and that this was going to be a long year.  She spoke English it turned out, though I’m not sure if JJ ever will:  he’s trying to convert us to his side.  He does say some stuff:

• If you ask him to say “one,” he’ll say “tchoooo.”  If you ask him to say “two,” he says “treeeeeee!”  After that, it’s generally “Aw, no.”  Although his response to “one foot” is “tchooo feeeee” which Hubby thinks is “two three” but I know it’s “two feet” because that’s how we put on shoes.
• If you ask him, “What do you say?” generally he says “dankoo.”  But if you say, “JJ, say ‘thank you’,” he says, “Yerelcome.”  So helpful.
• “KEEKEE” is still a favorite.  As well as “NOOOOO!”  “Sheeshee” is usually string cheese, and “rackr” is a cracker, cookie, or something nice and carby.
• “Get dow?” usually means “get down” but also “get up” and “put this square shape into the square hole now, pleaseandthankyou.”

Last night he was determined he was supposed to sleep in our bed.  I went to bed early (see aforementioned blogging fodder for why I no longer wanted to be awake that day), and he came sauntering into our room.  First he moved things around, and then he put them back.  Hubby came in to take off his shoes, and JJ helped him put them away:  in my shoes.  JJ then crawled up into bed, pulled the covers back, crawled in, covered up, and said “Nigh!”  It didn’t last long before the squirmies came out to play, but every once in a while he’d come back up and pretend to sleep.  He even scooted over so there was room for Hubby.  Ah, my little snuggle monkey.

Double two months.  Who’d know it’d look like this?  Who knew it’d be such a crappy day, but with the occassional sunbursts as the Little Man smothers me with smacky kisses?  I can’t say that I wouldn’t trade nothing (like the hole in the carpet or a crappy computer for an Ibook), but I still appreciate the gift I’ve been given:  the champion of So You Think You Can Dance 2020! 

JJ Jawings, Mama Musings