Paci Free...One Week and Counting!!

I'm not sure who missed the paci more, Jake, Nanny or me. One thing I am sure about is, no paci has ever been loved more...LOL It looks like we're going to make it, though, as we've been "paci free" for over a week now and there's no looking back.

For those who weren't here for the paci send off, it was quite an extravaganza. Captured, as always, by our Posse Photographer, none other than Aunt CC (the person responsible for 99.99% of the photos of our boy and 100% of the good ones). We tied 3 balloons to it (initially we thought 2 would do it, but alas, the paci was a heavy weight and required a third...LOL) and sang a song created by CC and Aunt Bear for the special occasion...Bye Bye Paci, Paci Bye Bye, Bye Bye Paci...it's time to say GOODBYE!!! (Hey I thought that was pretty darn good with about 3 minutes notice) Then Jakey took one last suck on the thing and off it went to the Paci Fairy.

Up, up and away!!

We all stood and waved and clapped and cheered (and laughed) as it floated off into the sky. Then, two days later, the Paci Fairy returned the favor by delivering a gift back to our doorstep again using balloons. Leaves you to wonder...just how long will we get away with things like this?

Later that night, Nanny and I were sure that we were in for hours of neck pinching (which was his second favorite thing after sucking on the paci)...but we could not have been more wrong! I'm SOOOOOO happy to report that there has been VERY minimal pinching of the waddle going on. Seems it must be something that goes along with sucking on a paci...sort of like cheese and wine, without the wine, who the heck wants just the cheese? Let's hope anyway, then I can stop saving for my neck lift and put the money back into his college fund...LOL

We're still hopeful that the weather will cooperate for take 2 of his bday party next Saturday. I've decided to stop checking the weather forecast all together because it literally changes daily...one minute it says thunderstorms, then the next day it says it will be sunny and beautiful, then the next day, we're somehow at rain all week...not checking again until Friday!

Montessori school starts up again next Monday and although I was worried he wouldn't want to leave camp (since he never wants to come home at night), he seems to be excited about going back. Personally, I just can't imagine what he's going to learn in his first full year in the primary class?!?!? The things he learned in the first 6 months still blow my mind!

These days, he's very much into planets and can tell you the names of all of them and on the model at school he even knows which is which (yet another thing I can't do). So I ordered him one of those projectors that he can use in his room so he can see the planets and some of the constellations on his ceiling and I'm planning to take him to a planetarium sometime in the near future, because I think he'll get a real kick out of that. Especially since this past week, while driving home from school, he asked me if I could take him to see Saturn because he wanted to see the rings. Try explaining to a 4 yr old why you can't take him to Saturn...trust me, not easy.

The other thing he learned about this week, was that some quarters have states on them (and not the "dragon" which is what he calls the American Eagle...and check it out, it does actually look a lot like a dragon). As I would tell him the name of the state, he would tell me where in the United States that state actually was and what states were next to it. For example..."mommy, did you never know that Arkansas is next to Texas?" Scary smart...that's all I can say.

Earlier today, he was "testing" JJ and I by drawing a line on his chalk board and then using 2 wooden sticks to add onto that line to make different shapes. One was a plus sign, and it was hilarious because he even felt compelled to give me a hint..."mommy, it's the same kind of thing as an equal sign...and starts with a ppppp sound" Then he started on types of triangles and JJ was out of there...LOL

These days it's so funny to hear the little bits of slang that he's picked up along the way...for example, when asked if there were a lot of hornets on the newly discovered nest in our front tree, he proceeded to tell me there were "a ton of them". When I asked him what "a ton" meant he told me it was one hundred one hundred...so I asked if that meant 200 hundred and he told me no, momma, that means one hundred thousand. I stopped asking questions at that point...

He also told his Pops that something was "redilicous" this weekend, which we assumed was his version of ridiculous...was very funny to hear coming from him. Then at the pool yesterday, he told a little boy who insisted on throwing toys at him even after he asked him to stop that Santa was watching and he was never ever getting any toys again. When that didn't work, he pummeled him...was hard to yell at him, because the Santa thing sounded like fair warning to me...LOL

Tonight while eating dinner, he decided he wanted to put his bowl onto a paper towel to keep from spilling anything on the table. (He was eating a bowl of rigatoni with tomato sauce) Well, I guess he didn't realize that I had put it into one of those bowls that has the suction thing on the bottom and when he tried to pick it up to move it...in the spirit of being extra careful not to spill anything...the suction cup gave way without warning (I'm guessing here, because I didn't actually see it happen) and the bowl flew towards him and he ended up wearing all but 2 pieces of the macaroni and all of the sauce. After a shriek, all I heard was... SORRY MOMMY, I'M SORRY!!! I turned to find sauce all over his face, his forehead, his shirt and pants, the floor, the table. Even Quincey, who normally circles the table ready to pounce on any crumb that might fall, ran into the other room and hid.

And although I wanted to scream, and then cry at the thought of cleaning up the mess, I had to laugh. Especially since he was already melting down, sure that he was about to be in HUGE trouble...since minutes before I had said "Jake please eat over the table and be careful, mommy just washed the floor"...LOL If only I had been quicker with the camera, because it was definitely a sight to see!!!!! Ahhh, such is life with a 4 yr old!

Hope everyone had a great long weekend and PLEASE PRAY FOR SUNSHINE ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!

G