HUGE Milestone!!!

Yay! Baby Jo Jo went to nursery for the first time yesterday! They let him in a couple of weeks early. One of the leaders has a boy a month older than him, so she doesn't mind. I took him in and stayed a few minutes to see if he was okay. A few minutes later he handed me his bop and went to play with cars so I snuck out. He did really well(even though he saw B check on him once) until almost the end. With about 5 minutes left in RS, I heard a very loud, "MOM!" Yay, he said my name! I guess the other leader had gone to the library and when she came back she accidentally knocked him down because he was in front of the door. So then he and another boy took turns making each other cry. So sad. But I'm so proud of him for doing so well on his first try! Yay! Our last baby in nursery. They really do grow up way too fast.
In other news he's saying a little more
-dat-"that"
-awn for drink had turned into "non"
-Yesterday I had just gotten him out of the shower with B and he heard his brothers and I asked him if he heard brothers and he said, "duh ers."
-He loves doing ring around the rosy at FHE and so every so often he'll say "ahses" (sorry that sounds a little like a swear word ;)
-He also loves to do "love ya," which is a tradition before bed that we stole from B's family. You all put your hands together in the center and as you bounce them up and down, you say, "1, 2, 3" and then yell "love ya" as you let go. So he says, "uh uh."
-He is also jabbering a lot and knows himself what's he saying, but I'm sure it will eventually make sense to us too.
-For awhile he's been saying "ba" for ball. I can't remember if I've mentioned that one before.
-He also says "uh uh" and shakes his head no.. He always uses it in context too.

Oh how I love my sweet baby no no. I mean Jo Jo.

Oh I forgot to mention his latest antics from Sat. night. The boys decided to have a movie party with their friends who live behind us. So B and I decided to play Mario Kart with Peanut. So I heard him in the dining room cabinets. Usually he just takes out the plastic bowl and tin candy cups that are in there. Well, he comes walking in the kitchen and throws our Santa cookie plate on the floor and shatters it. He got so busted for that one. I went and sat him down on the couch and said, "NO!" very firmly so he would get the idea. Boy did I hurt his feelings. There were mostly big pieces, but I had to get the vaccum out for the small, invisible pieces. Oh, how he DAILY tries mama's patience!

Crazy Coconut is at It Again!

Jo Jo has started saying more words:
-He calls me "daw" or "da" which is also what he calls B. He used to call me mom or mama when he was really upset, but not anymore.

-He also says "ow" when he gets hurt, which is also the word for "out."

-He has always used the word "bop" for pacifier, which is the term we have used since JP. When JP was a baby, one afternoon when he woke up from a nap, he pointed to his pacifier on the floor and said "bop," so we have called it that ever since. I have always hated the word "binky."

-Another favorite is "mmm" when he wants food. That one's pretty cute since that's what we say when we're trying to get him to eat.

-Everything else has pretty much been "uh." Which can be hard to interpret unless he's pointing at the same time.

It's funny because sometimes he'll ask B for something and I'll translate because he doesn't quite speak Jo Jo yet. I'm seriously getting sick of having to push all the kitchen chairs around the kitchen so that he won't climb on the table. Because heaven forbid they should be close enough for him to push them over there. We also have to move the computer chair away and put the mouse up or he'll start clicking away. The other night, the computer chair was pushed in still, but the mouse was put up. He climbed in the chair, got the mouse down and started clicking away. Sometimes I think he's too smart for his own good. He also likes to hang on the oven doors now. Hopefully he will stop this before he gets heavy enough to actually open them. We're also just waiting for the day we have to take him to the ER. He likes to jump from the ottoman to the couch and even started to hang over the back to where his body is lifted off the couch. This is NOT good since we have tile behind that couch. B did slap his hand when he did it the last and took him off the couch, and I think it got through because he hasn't done it again. So as you can see, if we weren't already done having kids, he would be very good birth control.

Accomplishments and Aspirations

Accomplishments-
When we were putting the big boys to bed on Monday night, all of us were upstairs and we didn't have the gate up to keep Jo Jo from falling down the stairs. He'd been pretty good lately about not crawling right to the edge since I had let him once to see what he'd do and he went head first off the top step. No, I'm not a bad mom; I was sitting right on the top step to catch him. Anywho, we were caught up in the hustle and bustle of the night time routine when we realized that Jo Jo was crawling backwards down the stairs by himself. We didn't even notice until he was more than half way down. We had been working with him a little to try and show him how to do it and I guess it just finally clicked. So, yay, no more gate worries. Although, sometimes he gets a little whiny half way down, like, hey come get me.

Aspirations-
About a month ago I asked each of the boys what they would like to be when they grow up. These were their answers-Bubba wants to be a guy that works in an office like dad, JP wants to be a zookeeper, and Peanut wants to be a Red Power Ranger. Once upon a time I wanted to be a zoologist. I think it's pretty funny because JP takes after me in a lot of ways and Bubba takes after Butch in a lot of ways which is reflected in their job choices. JP used to want to be a Power Ranger too.

My Super Awesome Cub Scout

My awesome scout turned 8 in May. He's been so gung-ho about achieving his requirements. He completed his Bobcat on his birthday and has now completed his Wolf. Unfortunately, he can't move up to Bear until he turns 9, but he can still continue to work on electives and earn more arrows. He earned his wolf patch and 3 arrows last night at pack meeting. He also performed in 2 skits that the boys were required to do last night. Such an awesome boy! He makes me so proud to be a mom of boys. By the time Cart-man is a Wolf, I'll have that book memorized. I'm an assistant den mom and it's so much fun. JP is already looking forward to the scouting program.

In other news, Peanut has pooped on the "toyet" 3 times today! Hooray! It snowed today too! Well, I should say it slushed because it was between snow and rain, but it was COLD! I found a cute pea pod costume for baby at Savers for $4.99 today. I finally found a coat for Bubba to be Indiana Jones at the DI; it's a little big, but it will work. JP is going to be a ninja and I'm going to make a Tinkerbell costume. I found wings at Savers for $4.99 and I plan on making a skirt out of felt or something cheap like that. Daddio hates to dress up. The only reason he has the last couple of years is because I've threatened to cancel Christmas. I hate decorating for Christmas and it's not really my favorite holiday, but he LOVES it. I'm not going to make him dress up this year. But he's still going to have to be the one to decorate for Christmas.

Yay for School!!

So hooray for school starting! Can I tell you how much simpler my life has gotten this week since school started? It is so easy to run errands with just two kids-especially since they are the mild mannered ones. Peanut only gets out of control when his big brothers are around, so he's been so chill this week just hanging out by himself playing legos and cars and doing puzzles. So Bubba has entered the world of 3rd grade. He came home the first day and said that they're motto is, "3rd graders rule the school." He also has taken to carrying a messenger bag instead of his backpack because it's "cooler." JP is in 1st grade this year. He seemed a little worried that he wouldn't get in the heart at school. The teacher has a big heart drawn on the board and if she catches you doing something nice or working hard, she puts your name in there and gives you a skittle at the end of the day. So he didn't get in on the first day and was convinced he would never get in there. Poor kid got my low self-esteem issues. Anyway, he ended up in the heart by the third day! He was very excited and proud of himself. Bubba also got a character counts award already for offering his teacher some help with opening a water bottle. We also finally found Mario Cart Race for the Wii that we've been searching hi and low for for the last 3 months or so. So that has been the after school activity of choice this week. I've been pulling my hair out today because they already had their first day off for teacher inservice. Luckily, they're going to the farm later today to help out for the weekend and I'll be by myself with Cart-man until late tomorrow night. Don't get me wrong, I love my boys, but sometimes they make me want to bash my head into a wall repeatedly. In better news, my youngest brother just got his mission call to Cebu, Philippines! He is so excited. He really wanted to go somewhere that he could learn an Asian language. I also noticed in my brief online research that a temple will be completed ther sometime in 2010 during his mission. How exciting!