Instead of sitting at home, being completely lazy, I figured it would be a good idea to do something. So, I asked a friend to join me in a trip to the zoo.

Alex had school, so I went back and forth thinking about taking him out of school or not. Should I let him enjoy the zoo for the first time this year? Or should I let myself enjoy taking pictures? It really, truly, was a tough call.

With the zoom lens Zach bought me for Christmas in hand, I made the decision to keep Alex in school. We dealt with the hot day and wandered around the busy, busy, zoo.

I felt some guilt as I looked at all of the animals. “Alex would love this!” I kept thinking. And he would have, but I wouldn’t have had the amazing opportunities to sit and take tons of pictures of animals. Alex never would have been willing to stand still while I click-click-clicked.

And I gotta say, it was totally worth the guilt.

The tigers! I had no idea that we have four tigers and that they do anything other than sleep and pace.

I picked Alex up early that day, and we looked through the pictures I took. He frowned, saying that he wished I had brought him with me. When I explained that literally all we did was take pictures? He was okay with that. “I don’t like when you take pictures. Pictures are boring.”

Now I just have to hope that the next time I go, this time with Alex, the polar bears are in the water. Because the polar bears were awesome.

(I took Alex out for ice cream that day. Any hard feelings were instantly gone.)

Two Thousand and Nine

Two Thousand and Ten

Two Thousand and Eleven

Two Thousand and Twelve

They say the first year is the most change. But every year–every single year–brings about astonishing changes.

Filed under: Alexander, Pictures ]]> http://allisonsays.com/2012/05/27/may-through-the-years/feed/ 2 allisonbarton 2008 2009 2010 IMG_6556 Batman! http://allisonsays.com/2012/05/25/graduation-2/ http://allisonsays.com/2012/05/25/graduation-2/#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 16:53:45 +0000 allisonbarton http://allisonsays.com/?p=2236 ]]> Yesterday morning, Alex and the 20-ish other children in his class “graduated.”

He will stay in the same room, with most of the same children, until the end of the summer.

But in the fall? In the fall he will move on. He will go one class up, to the “K-kids” classroom, with two new teachers and a Kindergarten curriculum. He will, as he is now, be the youngest in the class. And at the end of the year, he will have options. It is that option that makes me know that no matter what, everything will be okay.

After the “graduation ceremony,” he got to spend the rest of the day with his grandparents, with a new toy and the promise to play quietly while they both worked from home.

My little man, the preschool graduating class of 2012.

One last summer to go before I can can feel like I don’t need to put quotations around “school.” It really will be school.

Now, I love the heat. I don’t care that I turn into a sweaty, frizzy, mess. It doesn’t bother me that my face is instantly shiny. Who cares that I am less comfortable wearing summer clothes? I’ll take that over being cold any day.

Alex, however, seems to have taken Zach’s stance on the whole heat-issue: extreme hatred.

I’ve never heard a kid complain so loudly about the heat. “The sun is too hot. I don’t like being outside when it’s hot out. It makes me too sweaty. The sun hurts my eyes!” All in a super whiny, gonna-rip-my-hair-out, voice. He just doesn’t like it.

So, what am I to do on a day when all I want to do is be outside and all Alex wants to do is be in air conditioning?

Run an errand to the hardware store and buy a sprinkler!

Problem solved.

It’s amazing that something so cheap could bring so much joy and hours of fun. Of course, the first thing Alex said after running through it, giggling and smiling, was, “Mommy, this isn’t as fun as Alexis’ water thingy.”

But he very quickly forgot about the existence of the coolest inflatable water slide ever.

Who knew water flying into the sky and then falling back down could be that entertaining?

Eight bucks well spent.

I’ve taken at least 2 pictures every day for the last two weeks now. A few days were last minute “oh-my-god-I-need-to-take-some-picture” days. Many days were just me taking pictures of…life.

Life happens, and it’s pretty cool.

Even the most mundane thing has been on my camera these days. I used to only take pictures of events. Now I just capture.

So, Project 365 is a go. I think I can state that two weeks in I’m pretty happy so far.

Alex, on the other hand, is not. “Don’t take my picture! I don’t want that camera here!”

He really doesn’t enjoy the camera in his face. At best, he will look at me and make a funny face.

At worst, he just runs away each and every time I put the camera up to my face.

But that’s okay.

His butt is pretty cute.

“No, Alex, you can’t have cool whip for dinner.”

“No, Alex, you may not throw your action figure at me. Or anyone.”

He almost always asks. I guess that’s a good thing. Instead of just doing something he knows he isn’t supposed to, he asks first. He generally still does it, and then gives me a look like what are you going to do about it, huh?

His obsession with candy and dessert is no surprise. Not only is he a kid (what kid doesn’t love sweets?), he comes by his love of sugar honestly. My weakness is definitely sugar-laden foods. Brownies, M&Ms, ice cream. If they are in my general vicinity, I have a really hard time not consuming every last drop.

This love of candy and sweets can make it hard to get him to eat anything real, so generally we bargain. Actually, we bargain everything. Or threaten. “If you don’t let me brush your teeth you don’t get to have story time before bed” works like a charm. “If you don’t let me get you dressed for the day I won’t wrestle with you on the bed” convinces him that getting dressed is a good idea.

He’s figured this bargaining out, though, and now tries to use it on us.

“I know what’s a good idea! I’ll go into the kitchen and eat a carrot, and then I can have the entire container of cool whip.”

More often than not, though, he goes straight for what he wants and doesn’t even offer up an enticing offer. “I know what’s a good idea! Let’s have cookies instead of chicken!”

Yeah, you wish, kiddo.

There is no such thing as them not understanding. They get everything. Alex may not understand the exact words, or get the sarcasm, or even know how to respond, but he still gets it. Everything sinks in.

At some point in the recent past, he heard a swear word. My best guess is that one day at daycare, he overheard one of his caretakers saying the word. It was probably when they thought no kids were around, or maybe they were heading up the stairs and assumed the kids couldn’t hear.

Zach was taking the diapers out for garbage night, and Alex ran up to him while he was walking them out and said: “Let me see the damn diapers.”

Um, what?

After asking him to repeat himself it was clear: he definitely said those words.

Alex talks like the people around him, whether that is good or bad. If someone says the d word, he will, apparently, repeat it. For all I know he heard that word months ago. For all I know I said it without even realizing it.

He absorbs it all, and I’ve definitely learned that I have to be very careful. No swear words. Proper grammar. Correcting any inappropriate pluralization or change in verb tense.

He’s not allowed to say “slippy” just because he hears other people using that word. “It’s slippery, Alex.”

He is, however, allowed to start most of his sentences with “so.” And correct everyone by saying “actually…”

But no more swear words. And definitely no slippy.

(I still love that he can’t say his ‘r’ sound. Cheese boogers are way more humorous than cheese burgers.)

As per usual, I was surprised. Every question that the doctor asked Alex was answered. When the doctor asked Alex to open his mouth, he did. Alex walked up to the doctor and initiated conversations about our plans for the day (playground), what he had for breakfast (waffles, three of them), and, the new favorite topic, farting.

“Wanna hear something?” Alex asked the doctor. He then pretended to fart, sticking his little hip out to the side and looking over his shoulder, laughing at his own humor.

When the doctor was finished checking him out and asking questions, he told me that the nurse would be in shortly with the vaccinations.

The nurse came in and gave Alex his two shots. One in each arm. When she left, Alex cried. And cried and cried.

“Mommy, it huwts. She put two big holes in my awms! Look!”

I tried to tell him that it would be okay. That the “holes” were covered by super! cool! bandaids! and that he would feel better soon. I told him that I knew it hurt, and that it was scary, but that it was all over and the nurse was just trying to make sure he didn’t get sick in the future.

“I don’t wike her. I don’t wike nurses. Nurses are bad. Dey are mean.”

I guess I shouldn’t tell Alex that one day I had to give a baby three shots, and that I will have to be that mean nurse over and over in the future.

Pretty much, I’m bad and mean in Alex’s eyes. Good thing I’ll never have to be his nurse.

It’s not their fault. It’s impossible to prepare someone for it.

I was told, countless times, that having a child would change my life. That having a child would be exhausting. That having a child would be unimaginably difficult. That having a child would bring more joy, and devastation, than anything else ever had or would.

I listened. I nodded. I thought to myself, of course it will be difficult! I get that!

No one can prepare you for the sleep deprivation you face when your baby is a newborn. No one can prepare you for the tears you will shed as you attempt to take care of a small, helpless, being on two hours of scattered sleep over the previous four nights.

I listened to advice. I nodded. I smiled. I get it. I know having a baby is hard, I thought.

No one can prepare you for how quickly your baby will learn to crawl. And then walk. No one can prepare you for the fear that will race through your spine as you see your baby take their first nasty fall.

Over and over people warned me that these things would happen. I listened. I understood. Babies fall. They hurt themselves. They crawl, they walk, and then they run.

No one can possibly prepare you for the joy that you will feel with that the first smile, the first giggle, the first “mama” that comes through their little mouth. “It’s the most amazing feeling in the world!” I heard them say. I listened. I knew that it would be.

Everyone told me that two would be worse than one, and that three would be harder than two. I get it! Three is hard, blah blah blah. Three year olds will fight you to to the death, they told me.

No one can prepare you for the guilt you will feel as you attempt to raise that fighter of a three year old. The awful feeling of knowing you are doing the right thing only to have your child exclaim, “I hate you!” through tears.

I was told it would come. I expected it to come. I get it!, I thought, of course he won’t mean it!

Everyone told me that it would be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, the hardest thing I will ever do. I thought, I get it.

No one prepares you for the laughter. No one can prepare you for how much joy you will take out of the silly things they say. “We weren’t very close,” Alex told me when I asked if he missed one of his daycare friends who had started preschool.

No one can prepare you for how much joy you feel for your child. How what they do is the most amazing thing any child has ever done. How what they say is funnier than another child saying the exact same thing. How when they say they love you it gets stored away forever, and how when they say they hate you it also does.

No one can prepare you for parenthood.