My kid could have been a character on Drake & Josh

Do any of you remember the show Drake & Josh? My daughters always enjoyed that show (any maybe I did too) and they compare their sweet little brother William to the little sister, played by Miranda Cosgrove (Megan). You see, the sweet boy in the photo can melt your heart by just one smile.  He can wrap just about anyone around his little finger. He is smart, charismatic and sneaky. He is goood.

Around myself and his dad, William is the good little son... or at least that's how he portrays himself. When he gets around his sisters, he bosses them around and does all the typical, pestering things that little brothers do. As soon as one of the girls try to reprimand him, he runs up to me and tells me (sad face and all) how badly his sisters are treating him and how they need to be in trouble. You should see how pathetic he behaves when he does this. When I go and ask the girls what happened they say he did {insert offense here} and William innocently tries to defend himself. He will plead with me that he didn't do anything and then turn around and make faces at his sisters. He thinks he is so slick too! Funny thing is as I type this post, he is standing at the doorway of my office telling me "My girls are boddering me, they're being bad". I tell ya, boys are a whole different species!!

William's preschool updates

We are in the thick of things around here. Getting William prepared for school takes a great part of the day and sometimes I am ready to give up. He has become obsessed with the idea of going to kindergarten and asks me fifty million times a day if it is time to start yet. It gets tiring, but I guess it's good that he has such an interest in school, having a teacher and making friends. Speaking of friends, I remember about 2 years ago William was very anti-social when it came to being around other children. I was so afraid that he would never like kids his age!

Times have changed and he has become very social. Most people consider home schooled children to be less social but that is not the case here. William is very friendly and loves to be around other children. We went to Monkey Joe's the other day and there was a little boy around his age that was playing alone. William went up to him and introduced himself by saying "Hello, my name is William" and he gave the boy a handshake! The little boy was very shy but eventually warmed up and played with William. His mother was so grateful that William made her son feel comfortable in the environment. She was also very amazed when she found out that William was only four. She said that he was mature beyond his years. I do get that a lot from people. William is very mature and disciplined for his age (and gender). We are so proud of how well he is developing in all areas and can't wait for school to start next year. I think he will do just fine!

Wordless Wednesday | Halloween 2012

William dressed up as a scary dinosaur this year...a Carnotaurus, to be exact! That's what he says he was so we just went with it. We were so lucky to find this great quality costume at T.J. Maxx for only $21! We looked in the Halloween Express store and was not impressed by the cheap quality and marked up prices. If you haven't found a costume yet for you little one, I highly recommend T.J. Maxx!

Such enthusiasm, eh?

Wordless Wednesday | The home school student

Wordless Wednesday

Half-price Tuesday's are back at Monkey Joe's! We are taking advantage of it :)

Wordless Wednesday

When the boy is with his dad, all is well in the world... until they both get hungry at least!

Four year old boys and shopping

Today I took all 3 kids out to do some back-to-school shopping. We had the stores all mapped out and set time goals. One thing I always do before we leave the house is make sure William is well fed and goes to the bathroom. Everything was set. We headed out. The first few stops were simple because we were literally in and out within minutes. The last stop required us to be in the store for over an hour. Belk had a HUGE clearance sale with tons of merchandise to browse through, so naturally it would take some time. Along the way, the girls would try on a few items and add them to the growing stack. William behaved pretty well and kept picking up random strands of thread from the floor. I usually don't encourage picking things up from the floor but made an exception this time. It was just thread after all.

You can tell that he was getting tired of being in the store so I took him to the boy's department. He then tells me how the store was starting to make him sad. He said he wanted to feel happy again, very dramatically at that. So after the long time spent in the store and the even longer time at the check-out, we finally headed for the exit. Of course all you heard was the loud BEEP BEEP BEEP. We went back to the check-out counter to find out why we were beeping. It turned out from the piles of clothes we bought, there was one ink tag that was not removed. We headed  back to the exit and were successful. We made it out of there! William begged to go home and I gave him his wish. After we were home for about 30 minutes I looked down on the couch and saw this. It was a collection of all the thread my boy picked up throughout the store.

All I could do was laugh. Of course, once he falls asleep tonight, I will turn into the mean mom and throw it away. He might have dislike being in a boring old department store but surely found a way to keep himself occupied!

The last two photos are from a recent visit we had at Monkey Joe's. It is hard to get decent photos when your kid is running wild! It is our new once-a-week spot to go to, especially with how hot it has been. You can't beat all the bouncing, jumping, climbing, sliding and screaming fun! I look forward to when school starts back so we can go on 'Half-price Tuesdays'.

Word-full Wednesday

I bought this book on clearance about a year ago for William and it only occurred to me yesterday that the Dr. Seuss "I can read all by myself" logo was upside down. I can't figure out if it was a mistake and put on clearance, or if it was made like that on purpose because of what the book is about. Hmmm, they mysteries of life...

Needless to say, William loves this book and enjoys pointing all the wacky things he comes across throughout the day. It is our special Wednesday book and I found it fitting to share today :-)

Looking back

I came across this photo today and it made me smile. This was taken before Will turned 2.

Happiness

Isn't William the cutest fisherman? He is so content when he is out back with his daddy fishing. Look at the concentration face! They did catch some small fish. Of course I make them throw them back in the water. Mean momma! :)

Is my what nasty?

The other day my son was doing something that really annoys me to no end that I think every member of the male species does... touching his 'man parts'. I told him I thought it was nasty what he was doing and he responds "Is your penis nasty too?". I told him that girls don't have a penis and that our private parts were different. I realized that we have not had the conversation yet about the differences between boys and girls. Being the active, typical boy William is he just sort of moved on to the next thing. My husband heard our brief conversation and starts to laugh at me. He says that maybe it was better I explain that to him since I might handle it better. MEN!

New fish, Happy kid and the Pet Store Mafia

For William's 4th birthday we purchased him an aquarium. He has a slight obsession with fish so we figured it would be a great thing for him to have. We kept it simple and went with a 10 gallon tank but opted to get the better filtration and lighting system. When we purchased everything to set the tank up, the customer service people at the pet store were very knowledgeable and willing to answer questions and give advice. We always had an aquarium for the girls when they were younger and had great success with it. As a matter of fact, the fish would sometimes get so big that we would have to donate them to the classrooms at the school. We went ahead and started off with all of what we needed to set the tank up and get the water ready to add fish. Back in the day we added fish within 24 hours. Nowadays they recommend 3 weeks! 3 weeks?? Try telling that to a 4 year old!

How happy does he look? 

We went yesterday to purchase some fish and boy was William excited. He made up his own song about going to the pet store to buy some fish. Too funny! We decided on a few glofish in cool, neon colors, a couple "Mickey Mouse"platys and a couple fancy tetras. When I asked the person in that area for help in purchasing the fish he immediately had that "look" on his face. This is how the interrogation... um conversation went...

Fish guy: Do you have your tank set up?
Me: Yes.
FG: Are you sure it is done properly?
Me: Yes
FG: How many fish do you want?
Me: 6
FG: What size is your tank? (At this point he is in my face looking at me like he is a prosecutor or something)
Me: 10 gallons
FG: Hmm, okay. But remember the rules... 1 inch of fish per gallon. Then he stares at me all scary.
Me: Uh, okay

If you could have seen his body language and heard his tone you would have been afraid of even breathing the wrong way. Like the husband says, they are like undercover PETA representatives or something! DANG! I mean come on, they are just fish. If I choose to buy 50 of them then I should be allowed to do so.

In the end, our boy is completely happy and enjoying his new pets. He is so curious and asks a lot questions about his fish. We look forward to adding some more fun friends as time goes on. We might have to rethink where to buy them from so we don't feel like we might catch a beat-down from the pet store mafia! :)

William is 4!

Our little guy just had a birthday and he is officially 4 years old! William has hit many milestones in the last year and we are so proud of him.

Some facts about William:

• He has gotten over his shyness and loves to be around other people! This is great since we are trying to get him prepped for kindergarten next year.  
• He is a very compassionate boy. If he senses you are in pain he will ask you if you are okay and offer to rub you or kiss it to make it all better. Sweet boy.
• William shows great discipline. I have to credit having a strong father for that one. It is amazing how well he will listen and pay attention. 
• I get told all the time what a mature little boy I have. Most people are amazed that he is his age and behaves the way he does. That makes me proud.
• William wakes up full of joy. He greets you with "good morning" and a lot of times starts the day singing the "good morning song" that his daddy taught him. 
• William shows how much he retains what you teach him. If you are caught doing something wrong he will be the first one to let you know "That's not a good choice". Trust me, I get told about my bad choices all the time!
• He loves animals, trucks, robots, all things Disney, fishing, playing outdoors and hanging out with his daddy. Daddy is his favorite person. I have becomes alright with that. Sort of.
• He is showing so much more independence and I have been working hard on letting him do things for himself. Operation un-spoil the child is progressing well so far. It turns out that he really likes doing things for himself! Again, I credit his father for that. He helps so much with the boy child. 
• William has become very talkative and asks a lot of questions. I love it! I love helping him learn and understand things. He asks some really good questions too! 
• William is into Scooby Doo, Phineas & Ferb and programs on Animal Planet/ NatGeo Wild. It is amazing how he really gets into some of these shows. He loves to go down to the man room and watch with his dad. The part I don't like... he puts his hand in the front of his pants like most men do. Gross. Of course his daddy is proud of that! 

Overall William is a vibrant and loving little boy. We are so excited to see all the new things he learns over the next year. We are so proud of him!

Wordless Wednesday

One perk of being a review blogger... lots of empty boxes to play in!

Undoing the damage I have caused

This post has been sitting tucked away in my brain for some time now. Perhaps you can call it out of sight, out of mind. You might even call it denial. I have been slowly suffering inside from guilt. I do the best job I can at being a great mother. So far, I have succeeded and my kids are happy, well-rounded individuals. I do have one secret though. I have over-mothered little William. What does that mean? Well I have ruined this child by doing WAY too much for him. I do EVERYTHING for him. It's such a shame. He is a very well-mannered and sweet child but there is one problem... He can't do a lot for himself because I have him conditioned to me doing it for him.

I am feeling so much anxiety as I type this post. I am so embarrassed by how much the average 2 year old can do for themselves and how pampered my boy is. I don't even make him pull his own underwear up. It has finally hit me that I need to get William in a more independent mode if he is going to start kindergarten in Fall 2013. I never thought I would spoil a child like I have with this last one. I am too ashamed to tell you the extent of how bad it is.

Thankfully I have been able to recognize what I am doing wrong and have made a vow to make it right.

Have you ever encountered this type of situation raising your children? 

Wordless Wednesday

Some nights aren't always dry ones

Little William has been fully potty trained for a few months now and it has been going really well. He has graduated to underwear and will gladly show them to little babies since he knows they wear diapers. Funny kid. There is still one issue...nighttime. Some mornings he will wake up wet. I got so tired of washing bed sheets and blankets every day so I had to figure out what to do. I was using Huggies Pull-ups but they seemed to leak. I decided to see how GoodNites underwear made for nighttime would work out. It was a smart move. He has an overnight accident maybe a few times a week and thankfully there have been no leaks at all. We ask him each morning if he is wet or dry and he always says "dry". I am thinking the absorption level is higher than a diaper or trainer since they are designed for older kids. Hopefully he will grow out of this stage but for now I will keep a pack of GoodNites on hand for nighttime.

This is an unsponsored post and I am simply just sharing my thoughts on a product that worked well for us. 

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween 2011

It's that time of year again...the time for silly "holidays" and although I don't believe in the whole Halloween thing, I still let my kid be a kid. Dwayne was in charge of the costume for William and decided on a pirate. Good choice, eh? Good thing Will loves all things pirate so he really enjoyed his costume. I drew on a mustache with eyeliner since I knew there is no way he would keep an eye patch on. Glad I did because the mustache was the hit at the Halloween events we attended!

Check out the mustache! 

One day he will look enthusiastic about getting his photo taken. One day.

He enjoyed yelling out "Trick or treat!" 

The bounce house. He LOVED it! It was so funny how when kids would fall from bouncing too hard William would ask them "Are you okaaay?!" and when William would fall he would yell out "I'm okaaaay!"