Call It What You Want...

This morning, a certain young boy I know got up and held out his last beloved pacifier to me, telling me "Dirt, holes in it. Throw trash. Mark throw trash."

He had been warned that this was the last one, and when it got holes in it (I can't figure out how, when I catch him gnawing on it...), it would have to go in the trash.

Okay, I told him. If it's time, it's time. He took the pacifier and dashed down the hall to the bathroom. I had to deter him from tossing it in the "terlet" (yes, that's how he says toilet) and direct him toward the trash can. He looked into the wastebasket, looked at the pacifier, commented again on the holes, and dropped it in.

Now it's naptime. He asked for pacifier when I put him down, after whining about different music and a different toy. I told him the pacifier was all gone, that he'd thrown it away. He didn't complain about it further.

I had horrors of him going off to college with the pacifier. He's only had it at night for most of his life (not during the day and certainly not when we're out somewhere), but I could imagine the first night in the freshman dorm, Mark pops out the pacifier before bed. All the other freshman boys laugh. Mark earns the nickname "Nuk" or "Binky" or something like that (despite the fact that we've always called it "Pacifier"). When he gets his first engineering job (or bulldozer-driving job, or farming job, depending), the guys all think it's a funny name, and when he retires 50 years later, they're all still calling him Binky.

I do like, though, that it seems to have been his decision. We just have to help him live with it.

We have new pictures posted (get it, newpics on newpics??) of the boys. If you didn't get an email telling you about it...

http://newpics.org/gallery/albums/41.aspx

Come see us!

Adam is six months old today! It has been a very fun half-year. Mark suggested (yesterday) that we should have cake. We did not. Adam did get to try carrots, though. His first outing with the carrots was positive, but then he spit out the rice cereal, then cried. We'll have to wait to see what he thinks of the world tomorrow. But. That crying incident was the only time he cried all day. He had such a happy day. :) He went right to bed for his naps and woke up happy. After his afternoon nap, I left him in his bed, gave him a toy and turned on the light while I did some putting-away (clean clothes, outgrown clothes, blankets) and tidying, and he was as happy as could be. Good kid.

Mark is working on potty training. He's pottying very nicely in the toilet, but #2 isn't going so well yet, which is normal and okay with me, really. We have offered him a "prize" when he goes "poopy" in the potty. He has lots of good ideas about when he should get this prize, and has even made a suggestion about what it should be:

Yesterday:
"Prize. Ladder truck, maybe? Maybe. Ladder truck."

Today:
"Prize. Sixty dollars."

I could not believe my little ears. Did he just suggest SIXTY DOLLARS for going poop in the potty?!?! I asked, "Sixty dollars?" He laughed and laughed and said, "Prize, sixty dollars." I couldn't help it and laughed and laughed. He also laughed and laughed.

Getting this kid to use the toilet for his bodily functions is going to be costly indeed. (I should have agreed to the ladder truck yesterday.)

I don't do "Memes" very often but did this one, found over at the Repressed Librarian's blog, because it went with the alphabet, and I really like the alphabet...

I changed a couple just because. It's my blog.

A- Available or Single? No. Happily married (10 ½ years).
B- Best Friend? Hmm. Outside of family, Anne, Andrea, Linda, Mel
C- Cake or Pie? Cake. Ice cream cake. Or marble cake with fudge icing.
D- Drink of Choice? Hot chocolate with a shot of DaVinci Hazelnut syrup
E- Essential Item? Computer
F- Favorite Color? Blue?
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? A worm in the nose is worth… (No, that was my brother)
H- Hometown? Kokomo, Indiana
I- Indulgence? Dark chocolate and cinnamon ice creams mixed with something to chew on.
J- January or February? Um, no, but thanks for offering.
K- Kids and names? Mark Daniel and Adam Michael
L- Life is incomplete without -- ? Books
M- Marriage Date? July 20, 1996
N- Number of Siblings? 2 brothers, 2 sisters-in-law, 1 brother-in-law, two half-sisters-in-law, 1 half-brother-in-law
O- Oranges or Apples? Apples, fresh from the orchard
P- Phobias/Fears? Many: heights, the stringed instrument in Animusic that strums itself, people behind me…(shiver)
Q- Favorite Quote? For now, “One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purposes, and yours may be that life.” Oswald Chambers

R- Reasons to smile? Mark and Adam

S- Season? Late spring, early fall
T- Tag 3 people? This will give my mom something to do. Mom, here’s an assignment. J (Anyone else who wants to…)
U- Unknown Fact About Me? I am obsessed with alphabetical order
V- Vegetable You Hate? Yes
W- Worst Habit? Talking too much
X- Xrays You’ve Had? Foot, wrist, leg, teeth, and, in a notable exciting experience in a Russian hospital, jaw
Y- Your Favorite Foods? Shrimp.
Z- Zoo animals? Giraffes. Elephants. Rhinos.

Jonathan -- or someone else, since Mark informed me that he is Jonathan -- left his friend Spot here after a weekend visit. Mark (Jonathan? I'm not sure...) was very concerned that his best friend get 'Pot back just as soon as possible (or sooner, really), so we packed the little guy (Spot, not Mark/Jonathan) into a box, and this morning after my allergy shot, went off to the post office to "Mail 'Pot" (which my son had been reminding me all morning).

There was quite a line. Adam sat in his car seat looking around at all the people, and Mark mostly stayed nearby, but sort of edged around people in line to look at some of the cool things the post office has for sale -- little toy mail boxes, mail trucks, pretty packaging, etc.

Mark was exceedingly good as we waited, and glad that we were going to "mail 'pot". Just a little before our turn, a lady who had been at the counter came back toward us instead of heading for the exit. In her hand, she held a toy mail truck -- one of the ones Mark had been admiring earlier.

She handed it to me, saying, "This is for him," and then walked off through the exit as quickly as her surgical-booted feet and cane could take her, but not before Mark said a very soft and awe-filled "Fank you" to her.

We mailed Spot and went on to Grandma Skelly's, and Mark proudly showed her the truck. On the way home, he didn't talk, he didn't point out all the trucks, tractors, diggers, trailers, and other exciting things we passed because he was too busy playing with his new truck. He discovered how to open both side doors and the rear door as well (which Grandma and I thought didn't open). He also took it to bed for his nap.

So. While it cost almost as much to mail Spot as he cost new -- that doesn't count the excessive sentimental value attached, which I cannot criticize, having owned a string of precious stuffed "Baby Brians" -- we were paid back and then some by some nice lady inflicting upon us a random act of kindness.

(Oh, yeah, when we said prayers for lunch, later, we thanked God for the nice lady and asked Him to bless her. Okay, I did, but Mark said "Mail truck". He was thinking of her too.)