Battle of the Sexes

To my knowledge, no one has told my little Andrew the "typical" gender roles of men and women. He doesn't know that women fill the teaching profession or that men seem to be the only garbage men. He has no reason to think that I am better than Chris or vice-versa simply based on me being a girl and daddy being a boy. He just knows that when he scrapes his knee, he prefers mommy. When he needs to know the "right" way to stand to be the batter, he trusts daddy.

Sadly, he seems to have made another correlation between the genders... although, I honestly don't know how. It all centers around bedtime. When Daddy's away in the evenings for business, school, or sport, Andrew has had a hard time going to sleep. We've been working on this issue for several weeks and have made a great deal of progress. I'm very thankful for that.

However, after three attempts at bedtime (going on an hour and a half tonight), I am saddened for my sweet boy. As I calmed him, I told him that I was very blessed that God gave him to me, and I thank Him nightly for Andrew.

Here's the conversation that followed:
Andrew: Is God in your room at night?
Me: Yes, baby. God is with us always. He's here to give us his love.
Andrew: Are there bad guys in your room?
Me: Nope.
Andrew: Oh. When Daddy's home, he has strong powers to keep the bad guys away. I wish Daddy was here now, so we could have his powers.

At the ripe old age of 3 and a half, he somehow knows that I am not physically strong enough to protect him. My heart breaks... for him to know this already and for me to be reminded of this. I guess it took him verbalizing it to remind me that I can't protect him from everything.

My prayer is that God covers Andrew in peace, so he can rest each night knowing that he is loved and cared for.

My precious, too smart, little boy.

Anne

Potty Training, cont.

Andrew has been potty trained/training since July of last year. We are still working on nights, but I'm fine with pull-ups for now to get us through our slumber. Anyway, my favorite thing about potty training has to be Andrew's urgent need for privacy. He's 3, and we all must afford him the right of privacy when he's going poo... although we still have to assist in the wiping that oh so private hiney.

So, Andrew insists on someone accompanying him to the bathroom if he needs to poop. Once you get there, he turns and says, "I need privacy". We must all wait patiently outside the door for our opportunity to help the king off his throne.

Here's the twist. The other day we went to the mall and had to all share the family bathroom. Andrew mounted his throne and gave his usual request for privacy. I shrugged at the exit to the single stall bathroom and explained that I couldn't leave. What was his response?

"Then, please, just don't look at my eyes."

Oh, my. It was all I could do to hold back the laughter.

:)
Anne

Beauty Shop Guy

Have you ever been to the hair salon, and the stylist left you feeling less than great about your 'do? I think we all have. For example, I once asked for her to trim about an inch to make it look healthy. To which, the stylist held up my abundance of split ends and said with disgust, "It's gonna take a lot more than an inch to make this look healthy." Ouch. That was the harshest comment by someone working with my locks... until now.
Flash forward to beauty shop time in the Shacklett living room. Andrew has started "doing" my hair recently. This time he said he wanted to brush my hair, so I let him work his magic for a few minutes. Then, I asked "Is my hair pretty now?" He sighed and replied, "Well, first I'm gonna need some scissors. Then I will have to keep brushing to get all the bugs out." Double ouch.

Apparently, I have let myself go.

:)
Anne

PS:
Great Auntie M,
Here is the picture proof of the newly mobile Caroline that you requested.

A girl's best friend...

Caroline did it! She finally managed to figure out crawling. We have been modeling, coaxing, pushing, pulling, baiting... but she never could make it happen. (To her credit, she could roll anywhere and wiggle backwards and an alarming pace; however, she never made those sweet little pudgy legs take her forwards.)

Saturday was the day. We sat her in the middle of Grandma Mary's front room in the middle of quite a crowd: Mommy, Daddy, big brother, Grandma Mary, Aunt Heather, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Heather's friends. We offered several "forbidden fruits". We dangled shoes, candy, cupcakes, and puffs, but she just didn't budge. Then I caught her eye-balling my engagement ring, so I took it off and told her to come and get it. And, I'll be damned- she came and got it.




I guess diamonds really are a girl's best friend. Even if the girl is only 8 months old.

:)

Anne

Smooth Talker

In yesterday's post, I forgot to mention the best conversation of all. I witnessed this little gem at the playground the other night. Andrew, Caroline, and I went to the playground to kill time while Daddy tried out for the city's softball team. Two little girls, one 4 and one 7 years old, were already playing. Andrew approached the two of them batting his big blue eyes and flashing his pearly whites.

Andrew: Hi. What's your name?
Younger girl: Yuck! A boy. (She's saying this while running away as fast as she can.)
Older Girl (Cocks her head, slightly annoyed.): I'm Emily. She's Sarah.
(With the way she says this she's obviously way cooler than anything or anyone at the playground.)
Andrew: I'm Andrew. That's Caroline.
Older Girl: So, how old are you?
Andrew: Well, I'm gonna be 4.
Older Girl: So, you're 3 then?
Andrew (clearly defeated): Uh, yeah. I'm 3.
Older Girl: Well, I'm 7, and I can swing on the big monkey bars. There's little kid stuff over there.

Ouch. Nice try, kiddo. I do applaud his attempt, but it's a hard lesson to learn at 3-gonna be 4.  By the way, who taught him to lie about his age to impress people?

:)
Anne

PS: I still think he's a looker. :)

Andrew's To-Do List

Andrew can be very intense and sometimes behaves and speaks as if he were really a young adult. Here are some of our latest gems:

1. I asked Andrew a question at the breakfast a question. His response, "Hold on mommy. I just have to check my email." Then he looked down at the grocery list and wrote something down.

2. Andrew got up from his movie and put his shoes on headed outside. He turned and said, "Mommy, I have a lot of piles to do. I just need to get out there and start raking until all the piles are done." My response, "Good luck".

3. Against the fence, we have an old stump that needs to be ground. I found Andrew out there hitting it over and over with his bat. I asked, "What's up, Bud?" His response, "I'm just 'chinging' this until it goes away. I have to use my strong muscles." (FYI-To ching something is to hit it so hard that it makes a "ching" sound like two swords hitting.)

4. One morning, Andrew found my grocery list pad and pencil. He said, "I need to add some things to the list. We need: vanilla yogurt, milk, granola bars, veggie chips, Reese's cups for Daddy, maybe some lollipops, and oh yeah- we need more pretzels, too." Aside from the Reese's cups, all the rest actually should have or were already on the list.

5. Finally, this morning we ran an errand dangerously close to lunch time. Andrew was starving, so he began to bargain. "Well, Mommy, for lunch today, I think you should make me a sundae ice cream. We have ice cream, walnuts, and chocolate, so I think that means we should eat that."

On a Caroline note, she is still red on top with her sparkly blue eyes. Her 4th tooth popped through this morning. She is eating any and everything you put in front of her, and she's on the verge of crawling! Yeesh. She has also started to talk. Her first word? Bubba. Every time she sees her big brother, she lights up, squeals, and says Bubba, Bubba, Bubba. Then, she said Dada, dada. Grandma Mary and I think we heard a Mama yesterday... Hopefully, she'll be a talker like her brother... and her mother.

Oh, yeah... She also likes to roll under furniture just like her brother used to.

:)
Anne