Diapers, please.

Who would have thought that I would actually wish that my three year old was back in diapers. Go figure!
We were out and about getting acquainted with our new area once again this afternoon. I had a map with me this time, just not very detailed. Had to fill in many blanks and guess more than once. I was driving down a road (I have no idea which one) when I heard, "Mommy, I have to pee". That usually means I still have some time before it's an emergency.
"OK Jameson, we'll go pee when we pick daddy up from work."
"Mommy, hurry up, I NEED to pee!!"
"Sweetie, I told you we will go when we get to daddy's work. Can you wait?"
"OK. Mommy, I need to poo."
This sent waves of panic right through me. This normally wouldn't be such a problem except for the fact that he had, shall we say, the "runs" earlier in the day. Adults can barely control that urge let alone a three year old, newly potty trained boy. I panicked. Here I am in the middle of no where. I'm lost, well, misplaced, and have no idea where a public washroom might be located. Thoughts of having my son squat at the side of the road danced through my head. A right here, a left there and all of a sudden I spotted it; a Dunkin Donuts. (The American equivalent to Tim Hortons.) I made a sharp turn into the parking lot and hastily parked the car. I quickly put on Jameson's crocs (he always insists on taking them off in the car. Contrary to popular belief, you feet can stink in a pair of crocs. Unbelievable but true, three year old feet can stink enough to fill up a mini van with their stench. But that's another story....). We dashed into the DD and headed toward the washroom.
Now, before proceeding, let me remind you that I hate/despise/avoidatallcosts public washrooms.
When we opened the door Jameson freaked out because he's afraid of public toilets. A totally different fear than mine (germs), he's afraid that they're too loud. (He was traumatized by the toilet at Chapter's in Devonshire.) I quickly lined the seat with toilet paper and promised not to flush until he left the room. With much hesitation he hoisted himself onto the seat and did the deed. (I promised myself that he would die even though he touched the seat with his hands at one point.)
Another freak out moment when Jameson thought I was going to flush. We quickly washed his hands and I opened the door with stern warning to wait while I flushed the toilet. After flushing and then washing my own hands, I went out to find that he had wandered toward the door. Little stinker, sure knows how to cause slight panic in his mother.
All was said and done and we were all safe and relieved. We headed back into the van and continued our search for James' work. (A glance at the NJ map told me roughly where to go. I made it with no further problems.)
Once we got to work Stellan was saying he was wet. That was an understatement. I must not have realized how much he had to drink today because he successfully filled a diaper to overflowing. His shorts were drenched along with his recently washed car seat. (That was during our last trip to NJ when he puked in the van, all over the car seat.) I changed his diaper in the back of the van but ended up reneging on a visit to see Daddy in the office. I figured I couldn't present our family to James' new co-workers with a child who wasn't wearing any shorts.
We made it home, had a relatively uneventful dinner (are any dinners uneventful when you have a 2 year old and a 3 year old?!?!), James played basketball with the boys while I did the grocery shopping, and then they went to bed. All in all, a much better day than yesterday. Here's hoping to continue the trend and have an even better day tomorrow.

Play date

Yippee! I'm so excited! I have a play date tomorrow with Jeremey and his mom Trina. We're going to the gigantic sand box at the park on Lover's Lane. Isn't that a great name for a street? Would you love to live there? Imagine putting that on all of your address labels. :)
Glad that I'm meeting new mom friends. Glad the boys are meeting new friends. Hope they'll be friendly. ;)

Exploring

Good idea: exploring our new neighbourhood

Bad idea: not bringing a map

Good thing I have a pretty good sense of direction; I eventually made it back.

Can't wait for the house....

Day one without James.
James officially started work today. Orientation in New York City. Long day for him but he's quite excited to get things going. Long story short; he took the train to New York, jumped on the subway at Penn Station. Missed his stop (World Trade Center). Ended up in Brooklyn. A bit scared for his life. Got back on and went to the right place. Half an hour late for his first day. What a way to start the day let alone his new job.
I took the boys to MOPS this morning. I'm really looking forward to these bi-monthly gatherings. I met a lot of moms and hope to make some friends so we can start having play dates. The boys were babysat for two hours. I'm sure they enjoyed being with other little people and I definitely enjoyed being with other moms. Granted, they really were with "little" people. Someone directed me to the wrong area so Jameson and Stellan got to spend the morning with a group of infants. Oops. Thought the toys looked a little young for my boys. Maybe the cribs should have been a dead giveaway. Oh well, next time they'll go in the right room.
Came home for lunch and a nap. Split the boys up again so they would sleep better. Jameson fell asleep quite well but Stellan decided to be a little stinker. He was upstairs in our room so I decided to lie down for a rest as well. Stellan decided to take the sheets of his crib and throw everything out. Then he started pouting, "I want blankets". Uh, don't take them off in the first place and this wouldn't be a problem son. So, I put them back on. That lasted for a few minutes and then he tossed them out again. After playing with his "tractor ride" (toy tractor that he often calls Grandpa) for a bit, he eventually fell asleep.
Once they got up we went to the basketball net to "shoot the ball". Even though it was sweltering hot and so humid you could practically drink the air, the boys still played for a while. Jameson wanted me to lift him so he could shoot the big ball. He's 34 pounds, I can only lift him so high. Apparently it wasn't high enough. He tried to tell me exactly how to lift him but apparently I didn't quite get it. This resulted in a full screaming and flailing tantrum. Oh how lovely. Time to go. I picked up the balls and headed out. Jameson was a bit upset that he didn't get the attention he was after so he proceeded to crank it up a notch. Stellan was a bit confused by the whole thing but decided it would be best to follow mommy. We eventually made it back to the room in one piece.
The afternoon went down hill, very fast, from that point on. Jameson did the exact opposite of everything I asked. He was running around the room and jumping on the bed. (I'm sure that pleased the complainer on the first floor to no end.) Stellan followed his big brother's lead and started throwing toys all over the place, literally. That includes throwing the room key and some toy discs down a grate. No idea what comes out of that grate or where it leads. Just know that my room key is lost forever. Oh well, replacements are easy to come by. At one point each boy was assigned to a corner of the couch and told to sit. Don't lie down, don't lean, just sit and wait for daddy. That shouldn't have been so bad except James was an hour later than I expected. (Before you jump to conclusions, I didn't make the kids sit for an hour. They were allowed to get off, eventually.) The new rule was to sit and read until daddy got home. No playing, no walking, no running, nothing but reading. Thankfully daddy walked in the door and saved the day.
Dinner, bath, bed. What a glorious combination. Jameson and I had a little mom to son chat and I asked why he was not listening to mommy and daddy. "Because I don't ever want to mommy." How encouraging.
Let's hope sleep straightens him out. That and a new home filled with all of his stuff might help.
Day one without James, when does vacation start?

Housekeeping again

Alright, I thought it through. Poor housekeeping is better than having to do it myself isn't it? I'm still going to complain though.

Housekeeping

Hmmm...doesn't the "later please" tag on our door mean, oh, I don't know, "Later please"? As in, "Not right now", "Another time would be better", "Please clean my room when I'm not in it", "Leave me alone, my kids are trying to sleep". Maybe I should put post-its on the door instead with specific instructions. Here's one, "Maybe you could clean my room in the morning when I'm not here. That way you don't have to interrupt nap time." How about, "Hey, it's really convenient that you leave the cleaning until now. My kids are sleeping and when they wake up housekeeping is gone for the day."
I guess I'll have to call front desk and complain. Wouldn't be the first time, most likely won't be the last.
This is really irritating.

The Weekend....

Overall, not a very exciting weekend. On Saturday morning we ran some errands and then ended up at the park. This park is actually located in our development. Nice park but no shade. It was around 100 degrees so, needless to say, I was melting. Amazing how the kids can manage to play and run, seemingly unaffected. Although, I wouldn't mind it so much if someone was pushing me in a swing; it does get pretty breezy as you're flying through the air. Met some people from the neighbourhood, good to see that there are other kids around. Although, they were all little girls. Guess the boys will be the neighbourhood studs. :)
We were invited to stay the night at the Zeug's so we wouldn't have to drive so far to get to church on Sunday morning. This was a bit stressful for me because I never know how the boys will behave. We expected about a hour to an hour and a half drive. More like 2 hours..... There was a lot of construction, right in the area where our car broke down the first time we were here in NJ. Such fond memories.
With at least a half an hour to go we heard, "Mommy, I need to pee. Daddy, hurry up. Drive faster". Oh the joys of having a toilet trained toddler. Thankfully he has pretty good control and was able to hold it for the rest of the journey.
We arrived at the Zeug's and, much to Jameson's pure joy, they had a basketball net. Of course, peeing could wait, he wanted to play basketball.
Jameson and Stellan immediately like "Uncle John" and "Auntie Mary Lou". John won huge bonus points by taking the boys to the basement and showing them his train set. I'm not talking Thomas, I'm talking big-boy train set. Guess what the boys wanted to do all weekend?! Guess who had a small heart attack everytime they got near the train set?! Thankfully they behaved themselves and the train remains intact.
Jameson slept in a big boy bed (I know, most 3 year olds are in big boy beds, he just really loves his crib. He'll be out before kindergarten.) At some point in the night I awoke to a thud and crying from the other room. Shopping list: bed rails. He doesn't do so well in a big boy bed.
The boys attended our new church for the first time. Jameson was quite excited, he loves going to church. He was surprised by his new Sunday school, considerably smaller than his class in Windsor. Stellan also got to join in for the first time. Granted, he was more interested in playing with his Elmo train, not sure if he got too much out of the lesson.
We went back to the Zeug's for lunch. We decided to put the boys down for a nap, with the promise of seeing the trains again when they woke up. John heard Jameson about an hour after he went to bed. A bit short but better than nothing. I had a strange suspicion that he didn't actually sleep, just "rested". James brought him downstairs. Before long he quietly slipped away. I was afraid he went to the basement to check out the trains. (Another heart attack.) Went down, no Jameson. (Yet another heart attack.) Quickly figured out where he was; upstairs. I got up there but not soon enough.
"Hehe, wake up Stewan. Stewan, wake up."
I opened the door to find Jameson in Stellan's playpen making sure he was wide awake. If left alone, Stellan would probably have slept for another hour or so.
"OK mommy, we can go play with the trains, Stellan's awake."
Little stinker!!!
We said goodbye to the trains and the Zeug's and headed "home", this time headed down an alternate route. Thankfully we made it to the hotel in an hour. What a relief!
After dinner we got a call from from desk saying that the people in the room below us were complaining about excessive noise, possibly running in the room. Hmmm....let me see. There is a two year old and a three year old in this room, yep, I'd say there was some running. That's just how they get around. It's not exactly running, just really fast walking. Was a bit paranoid for a bit but then decided that the people downstairs either need to live with it or find another room; there is no way I can get my kids to stop running short of strapping them to a chair.
Put the kids to bed, took them forever to fall asleep. So glad they don't have to share a room in the new house. Can't wait to get in.
James starts his new job tomorrow. He's excited, I'm nervous. He's headed to New York City for orientation. Sounds pretty cool but I'm still anxious. He is somewhat familiar with the area, has been there before. The cab comes at 6:15 in the morning to take him to the train station. I'm not going to drive him that early and there is no way he is driving to New York. I hope and pray that all goes well.
The boys and I are off to MOPS tomorrow. I'm excited for this and hope we'll enjoy the group.

It's late, time to go to bed. I'll write more tomorrow.