In Search of Myself

Birds and Squirrels

More Jake randomness: last night we were laying down and I was trying to get Jake to go to sleep.  That child's mind is WIDE awake at 11 p.m., let me tell you.  He is a born night person like me, it's not a result of conditioning.  He says really random things and I try to piece together what he's talking about.  Mostly it's snippets from his day. 

Last night he said "Birds eat bird seed." 
And I said "Yes, they do.  Do you feed the birds?" 
He said "Granddad have birdhouse and put bird seed in 'dere and squirrels [skurls] try an get it.  He say 'get away from there, you skurls!'" 
Laughing I said, "Well maybe the squirrels are hungry, too?" 
and Jake said "Skurls not eat bird seeds. Skurls eat skurl seeds!"

(Ok, that late at night, it had me rolling.  At least *I* get the kid.  LOL.)

"I a big boy."

(again, the pictures don't *really* go with the story, but hey, they're cute)

I love how Jake is gradually piecing things together in his mind.  Last night he was sitting at his little table while I was sitting at my computer desk.  I was kind of typing, but I was mostly hanging out with him.  He said "My birthday already came."  And I said "Yes, your birthday came and we had some parties and you're three now."  Then he said "I was born already."  I said "What?  Oh, you were born?  Yes, you were.  That's how we know when your birthday is."  He was on a roll: "When I was born, I cried and I cried."  (He's watched the video with me before -- doesn't show anything graphic, they were waiting outside and came in after he popped out -- he WAILED for like 15 minutes straight.  Broke my heart, 'cause they were cleaning him up and I couldn't hold him until later.) 

I said "Yes, you cried -- probably because you were cold and you wanted to stay in my tummy!  You were saying 'Put me back in!'"  Then Jake repeated (shouting) "Put me back in!"  (that made me laugh SO hard.)  And I said "You know, most babies do cry when they're born.  It's normal.  But then I held you and hugged you and you were happy.  And Nana held you and you liked Nana."  Then Jake said "I not a baby anymore.  Now I a big boy."

*sigh*  Yes.  And it's happening much too quickly.

Linky-love for 101!

Ok, I've made some graphics for some linky-love!  And you have 5 colors to choose from!  If you want to link DigiScrapping101 on your blog, click on the graphic and wait for it to pop up to full size.  Then right click on it, save it to your desktop, and link away!  (If you need to know how to insert a picture into a Typelist, click here for the tutorial on DigiScrappin with Jen.  The next entry after that will take you through which HTML to type for the link codes -- the "a href" stuff.  Click here for that one.

Here are the 150 pixel wide ones:

       

Here are the 100 pixel wide ones:

       

YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO LINK TO THIS ON YOUR BLOG!!!!

Let me know if you have any problems!!!  Enjoy!

I not go home.

(the pictures have nothing to do with the story.  I just think the pictures are cute.)

We went to Priscilla's new house for a while last night, and Jake just LOVES the place -- there's SO much room for the kids to play, and it's all new and exciting for them.  He really didn't want to leave when it was time to go, so we had a bit of a fight about it.  The ENTIRE way home, he kept saying "I don't want go with you.  I stay with Lana.  I not go home.  You go home by yourself and you don't have any Jake." On and on and on.  I tried to talk him out of it, saying "But there's nowhere at Lana's for you to sleep." He said "I take Spiderman couch.  I sleep on it.  I take it from Nana's house?  I take it to Lana's?  I sleep on it." Then when he wouldn't stop asking I said "Jake, you're coming home with me because I'm the boss and I said no."  He said "*I* boss, I say yes."

A picture I just love

This was at Jake's 1st birthday party (Sept. 2003).  Priscilla took it with her OLD (and I mean ANTIQUE) digital camera . . . so it's only 72 ppi ('doh!  I recommend to people that they bring pictures in at THREE HUNDRED ppi, if they tells you anything!  LOL).  Jake was twelve months (obviously), and Elauna was 6 months old.  (Can that really have been two whole years ago?  Isn't it odd as parents how time seems to stand still but fly by, all at the same time?)  This picture is SO ME.  Two kids in my lap and looking completely hum-dee-dum about it.  I love playing with the kids in the floor, but as I get busier sometimes I have to remind myself that it's ok to just put the work down and forget about it for a while.  Kids remember if you play with them, even at young ages.  Anyway, I've very glad I happened upon this picture, and I'm SO glad that Priscilla snapped it!!!

Jake is SO funny.

Saturday morning we were rushing around to leave the house by 10 -- we were FINALLY taking the crib we used for Jake's 1st year back to the lady we borrowed it from.  (She is the mother of some piano students I had at the time, and they live about 40 minutes away.  They've just never had time when they would be home and able to get it back from us, but we finally figured it out.)  ANYWAY, we had slept in and I was rushing to do my hair and put on make-up ('cause we hadn't seen them in two years.  People I see every day I'm ok with them seeing me as I am, but for some reason I feel the need to impress the random people!)  Jake was in the living room while I was 10 feet away, in the half-bathroom.  He said "Mom!  Mom!  Help me!" He was trying to put together the tracks for his trains.  I said "Not right now, honey," and he started saying "Please oh please oh please."  I said "Jake, I can't help you right now.  I have to get ready.  You can put those tracks together."  (Well, he KIND of can.)

He paused for a second, then said "But . . . if . . . you don't help me . . .

. . .

. . . then I be SO SAD."

OMG, it was SO cute, I rushed out of the bathroom and put the train tracks together for him.  (That was an impressive little sentence!!!)

He also told my mom the other day . . . while she was trying to get him to do something and he was in the kitchen with my dad, " Just a minute . . . I'm talkin' with Grand-dad."

Good daddy.

So I pulled a muscle in my back (note to self: don't carry a 41 pound 3 year old, no matter how whiny he is or just because you forgot to bring his shoes with you.  Let the kid walk.)  Anyway, it's hurt since Friday, REALLY BAD (is starting to get better, I think), so I was pretty useless this weekend.  Lou cooked me THREE MEALS yesterday.  Pancakes for breakfast, a roast and potatoes and carrots for lunch, grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup for dinner.  As my mom would say, he gets an E for effort.    Here Lou is reading Jake "The Giving Tree," by Shel Silverstein.  It's one of Lou's favorite children's books.  Jake will sit still much longer for Lou to read to him (and actually be quiet and listen!) than when I read to him.  Later I was trying to get Jake to go to bed, and he grabbed a book and ran toward Lou's office.  (Lou was already in bed.)  I said "Jake, go to bed," and he said "But daddy like this book."  heh.

JenStrange.com! (and new e-mail).

So how annoyed are you guys going to be if I talk about digi-scrapping for a little bit?  (Right now every spare MOMENT is about my digiscrap blog, so you'll have to humor me!)

I broke down and bought my own domain -- which is the first domain I've ever bought.  I threw a quick little something together and figured out (miraculously) how to make it work.  It was TOTALLY exciting (umm, 'cause I'm a dork) the first time I typed in jenstrange.com and it worked.  yay me!  So this will be the uber-easy way to tell people about my Digiscrap blog.

The OTHER cool domain I've got goin' on is a joint effort between me and Shabby Princess.  She is a darling and actually cares enough about my site to think about where I should go with it, and somehow her thought process got around to me having a cool domain that could be typed in.  (This was a few days before JenStrange.com dawned on me.)  "Digiscrapping101.com isn't taken!" she told me.  I loved the idea of getting it -- but not just to be for my site.  I thought a PORTAL site would be cool, an all-in-one, here's what you need to get started in digi-scrapping, with the 5 sites I love the most and am loyal to.  I e-mailed her with a rough description of my idea and she designed this!  And had it up in like 2 days!  I am SO amazed at her.  So now, folks, if there's only one site you remember (or if you are talking to someone in passing and want to tell them where to go), here it is: DigiScrapping101.com.  (There will be blog stickers soon for linky-love . . . if you want one, e-mail me.)

OH, that's the other thing -- I now have gmail!  With Juno I had 2MBs of e-mail storage.  With gmail?  Over TWO THOUSAND.  Holy freaking crap.  So I am WAY excited about this.  My new e-mail addy?  jenstrange AT gmail DOT com.  I will still keep my Juno addresses, but the gmail will now be the best place to get a hold of me.

Love to you all. 

Me today.

How am I feeling today?

Worried about Austin.  I really hope he's ok and that Kelly is ok, too.

Thrilled beyond expression for Priscilla, who now has keys to her first home.  (And it's bigger than mine, but hey -- she's about to have a total of THREE CHILDREN.  She deserves a bigger home.  No hard feelings, just a little jealousy.)

BUSY with mag stuff.  Projects, web-site maintenance, and deadlines all swirling around me.  No really, this is fun.

Wishing I was spending my end of October vacation from work (which I'm taking because my mom and Kathy are hopping off to Montana for a week so I have to stay home with Jake) in Hawaii with Andrea instead of hanging out in good old Tennessee.

Love to you all.

Jake-isms, 10-5-05

I've had Jake-isms building up for WEEKS AND WEEKS now.  The longer I wait, the longer the list gets (and the less I want to sit down and write them.)  But I HAVE to write about them, because they totally crack me up and I'm loving Jake's language development as of late.  I'm very excited about the fact that he is finally TALKING.  These are going to be short blurbs, but hopefully you'll find them amusing.

Every Wednesday is outing day for my mom, Jake, and Kathy -- they always go to Fizouli's and Jake eats lasagna.  That's the one day of the week my mom doesn't watch Zoe.  Wednesday evening two weeks ago, Jake was telling me about the day.  "I eat la-yah-yah, I go to Fa-yoh-lees with Jake's Nana and Sadie dog's mama.  I go with Nana and Aunt Kathy.  Little boy there crying and not listening to his mama . . . That make Aunt Kathy BONKERS."

We were laying down trying to get Jake to go to sleep -- and he always wants to talk.  So we were talking about random stuff, and I said "I love you."  He said "You thank you."  (He gets thank you and you're welcome confused -- and when I say "You're welcome," he says "No, YOU welcome.")  Anyway, a few minutes later, out of nowhere, he said "I love you a WHOLE BUNCH."  It was SO SWEET.  Eventually when I can't get him to stop talking and go to sleep, I just turn over with my back to him (hoping that will be a clue) -- he started smoothing my hair down and moving it around and said "I make your hair pretty."  How in the world am I supposed to go to sleep when he's being so silly?!

Jake's new Thomas the Train obsession is doing WONDERS for his language development.  The videos' narration is just like someone reading a story -- so there are "He saids" and descriptions of how a character is feeling.  Jake totally acts out the stories and narrates them to himself.  I've actually heard these things come out of his mouth in the past few weeks: "And he buffered up to Thomas" ~ "And he pulled . . . and he pulled . . . help!" ~ "Help! he yelled" ~ "I'll save you, he said." ~ "That made Diesel very cross."

Sometimes I let Jake play in my (2nd floor) bedroom and run his trains along the window sill while I sit on the bed and chill or I put up clothes or take a shower or whatever.  I pull the drapes back, lift the blinds, and he looks out onto our street while playing with his trains.  Remember how we've drilled it into him that you don't walk in the street 'cause you'll get hit by a car?  Jake noticed someone taking a walk and started YELLING: "Hey man!  You not get in street!  You get hit by a car!  Hey man!" LOL

Oh and ALSO we were leaving my mom's house and walking to my car, there was a little boy walking up the street -- I think he is friends with his neighbors 3 doors up and he was walking up to see them.  Jake got worried and asked me about it, and I told him it was ok because he was a big boy -- little boys can't walk in the road, "but when you're like 8 maybe we'll think about it."  Two days later we were getting out of the car at our house and he said "When I eight, I walk in da road?"

We were at Target about 8 p.m. one night, and I needed to deposit a check in the bank before driving home.  The only ATM that took checks and was open that late was by the mall and not in the safest part of the area -- but I really needed to get that check in the bank.  So I prayed the whole way there, and the entire time I was doing it.  While I was doing this, I said "Jake, can you say 'Jesus, keep us safe?'"  And he said "No, I too little."

Ya know those tank tops with the built-in bra?  I have a blue and red one, and it's SO comfortable.  I wear it a lot (ONLY around the house) when I don't feel like dealing with a bra.  Jake HATES it.  Every time I wear it, he says, "THAT NOT A SHIRT!  THAT A BRA!  YOU NEED A SHIRT!"  (I swear it's not revealing, it's a full-coverage tank top!) When I take a shower, Lou watches Jake -- but the SECOND I turn off the shower, Jake opens the bathroom door, says "There water on the wall" (fog on the mirror) and turns on the bathroom fan, then says "Mama, you done?  You need clothes," and proceeds to pick out a shirt and pair of shorts for me.  He brings them to me and says "I get you clothes."  He's a TOTAL prude.

I still have a few old Charlie Brown dictionary volumes (there are like 10 total and I have 6) from my childhood and we were thumbing through one of them, looking at the pictures.  There was one picture to illustrate the word "Yell," where Lucy was sitting at a table eating cake, and Charlie Brown was standing behind her, yelling.  I asked Jake, "What do you think he's saying?"  Jake immediately very emphatically said "Stop eatin' my cake!  That not yo' cake!"