Holly's Cross

Parents of young children all know who Thomas is. He's from a series of children's stories about a train engine named Thomas and all his engine friends. The series was created by a British minister for his son. My oldest son Hooper fell in love with Thomas at about the age of three. He didn't just like Thomas. He adored Thomas. He had all the engines and played with them every day while watching the cartoon.

After several months of this obsession he began using some of the British lingo. The most used word was cross. Instead of mad, Hooper would say someone is cross. One night we allowed Hooper to eat a candy bar, which was rare. Hooper devoured it and then requested M&M s. I told him, "No more candy!" very sternly. He walked into the other room where Shiloah was and said, "Holly is cross." Now using cross sounds snotty enough but add calling your mother by her first name, is a whole other category of snotty.

Are we playing games?

This particular story took place when Hooper was 3 1/2 and Boston was six months old. At that age Hooper was asserting his independence in a big way. That is to say, he was a toot. No was his favorite word and he had lots of different ways of saying it. "I not!" "No way, Mommy!" "No I don't want to eat dinner!" These sayings made a daily appearance in our house at this time. When he was in a good mood, no might be followed by "Ah come on!". Bad moods meant you got an old fashioned foot stomping fit.

Boston on the other hand was just getting fun at six months. Colic was over. The first of teething was out of the way and he was very interested in all around him, especially his big brother. If Hooper was in the room, then Boston was happy. Thankfully most of the time Hooper didn't mind Boston and I following him around the house.

During February of 2010 Boston and I following Hooper wasn't just something to occupy time but a necessity. Boston was not only teething but he got RSV and a monster ear infection within two weeks. During the ear infection we did everything we could think of to keep him happy. Being around Hooper kept him happy the longest. One evening Boston and I were sitting on Hooper's bed with Hooper. Hooper was watching a video and playing, happily. Boston began reaching for Hooper so I held him up and leaned him into his brother so he could grab his shirt. Boston wasn't hurting Hooper but of course as brothers do, Hooper refused to play along. He didn't want Boston to so much as lay a finger on him. Boston was laughing and obviously enjoying himself while Hooper whined and moaned every time Boston touched him. Finally, having taken all he could stomach, Hooper turned around and looked Boston straight in the eye and sternly cried, "No Brother! We NOT playin games!"

I laughed so hard, I cried. Of course it was so funny that it would have been wrong to allow it to happen only once. So I then continued to let Boston grab Hooper's shirt and Hooper continued to let us know, he was not playing games. At one point I thought, "is this really why I had kids? To play puppet master in my own comedy show?" My answer: A little bit, yeah.

Let's Count Them!

Potty training Hooper has been one of the most difficult things I've ever attempted to do. Hooper quickly got the peeing part of it down but continued to struggle with the pooping part. Together my husband and I tried every method under the sun. We bribed him to poop on the potty. We tried to guilt him to poop in the potty. I'm sorry to say we even resorted to punishment. In our defense, Hooper was content with pooping everywhere BUT the potty. Underwear, floors, nothing was sacred to this boy. As all the experts said he would, one day it just clicked with him. It was ALL his idea and it didn't take long before he was pooping like a champ.

One of the first days he decided to poop in the potty I was home with him for Christmas break. Hooper asked to go poop early that morning and I thought, "Wonderful! Check that off my to do list!" An hour later he asked to go again and still I thought, "Look how good he's doing. Maybe shouldn't put quite so much fiber in his diet." Then not thirty minutes later I hear those words again, "Mom! I gotta go poop!" So once again we march in the bathroom and prepare to use the potty. I leave Hooper (the child likes his privacy) and when I check on him again he's done and staring into the potty.

I asked Hooper, "Are you done?"

He replies, "Yes! Look at all the poops! Let's count them! One, two, three, four, five, six!

I have never had such a mixture of pride and revulsion in all my life. The thought of standing over a used toilet and analyzing feces was somewhat gross to me. But pride is often the downfall of any parent and I was proud that my son had finally conquered potty training. And darn it, I was proud that he could count his poops.

Monster Baby

As I go travel down the road of mother-hood I have noticed that I can do a lot of things I never thought I could. For instance, I never thought I would be able to entertain two young boys at the same time...until I invented "Monster Baby". While waiting at the doctor's office one day I held Boston up and chased Hooper around the small exam room saying, "Monster Baby! He's gonna get you!" Hooper of course screamed and laughed. Over the next few weeks I often did that to him while we were waiting somewhere or needed a little entertainment.

This particular day I was picking up the boys from Linda. Let me just say here and now that Linda is the boys "daycare provider". However, I do not feel comfortable calling her their "daycare provider" because she is so much more than that. She is the sweetest woman who I know loves and cares for my boys. I feel as comfortable leaving the boys with her as with their own grandmothers, but I digress. This day while picking up the boys I performed the "Monster Baby" trick, expecting a short laugh from Hooper and a smile from Boston. But instead I got from Hooper,

"Ahhh, Monster Baby! He's so fat, he eat me!"

Shiloah and I obviously needed to broaden our vocabulary and use words such as chubby, full or healthy. Fat, just wasn't working anymore.