The Myersons Blog

So I took Danny and Jonah back to school this week after their 2 week break!  Jonah practically knocked me down running past me to get in to school.  Danny was a little more cautious, but nonetheless walked right down the hall to the toddler room.  We went in the door, and his teacher, Marcus, said “Danny, good news! Now that you are doing so well with potty-training, you are moving to Becca’s room” (the 2 and 3 year old room).  First, Danny gave Marcus a look like “come again?!?!?” and proceeded to walk right into the toddler room anyway and begin playing with his girlfriend Kate.  I let him be for a few minutes while I chatted with Marcus, but then Marcus said it would probably be best if I just took Danny over to his other room - just start the new year off in his new class, not ease into anything.   After attempting to negotiate with Danny to walk to the new class by himself, I eventually had to pick him up and carry him.  As I carried him the 10 yards down the hallway to the next class, the poor little guy was crying his heart out, reaching his arms behind me, and screaming “KAAAATTTTE”.  I’m telling you, if he had been wearing an undershirt and had a little more finely sculpted physique, he could give Marlon Brando a run for his money!

I said to Jonah the other day, “Hey buddy… you know there’s just one more night of Hanukkah.”

“Awww man!” He was seriously bummed. “Daddy, why is it only eight nights?”

“Well, remember when I told you about the Macabees?”

“The gorillas!”

“Guerillas, yes. Well, after the big fight, they went to their special meeting place and found their holy lamp was almost out of oil! They could only use a very special kind of oil for their lamp, and they found they only had one more tiny bottle of oil. They sent their fastest riders out to go get some more. The tiny bottle they had looked like it would only be enough for one night, but like magic it lasted the whole eight nights that it took for the riders to come back with more oil!”

“Awww man! I wish they’d sent their slowest riders!”

So everyday when we pick up Danny from school we get a little note sent home saying what the kids did that day, what kind of mood Danny was in, whether he peed in the potty at school, took a nap, etc.  Pretty useful information to know.  Two recent notes that have been sent home are now on our fridge, because Ethan and I got such a kick out of them.  We thought we would share them with you loyal readers of this blog.

Note home yesterday - “We are having Danny sit on the toilet 4 times a day.  We want to encourage parents to do the same at home and sit as much as possible. Thanks.”

YEAH, THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION TEACHERS!   I’ve gotten pretty good at sitting on the potty, and depending on how much water I drink during the day, it’s at least 4 times a day! 

A note from a few days ago - “Danny was frustrated when others tried to work with him.  We are working with him to be cooperative and use his words.”

YEAH, IF MY OFFICE SENT NOTES HOME ON ME, THAT’S PRETTY MUCH WHAT IT WOULD SAY MOST DAYS.

Danny peed in the potty twice today - once at school and once at home!

Woohoo!

This means that the end of diapers is just around the corner! Then we enter the realm of looking for potties, potty emergencies, “I-don’t-want-to-wear-pullups-to-bed” arguments, and “I-couldn’t-hold-it-anymore” accidents!

Woohoo.

Feh.

Well, we survived our trip across the county with two kids.   And we all had a great time.  We visited all 4 Disney parks, the Orlando Science Center and the Kennedy Space Center.  Needless to say, Ethan and I felt like we needed a vacation when we came back from this one.

Jonah and Danny are good travelers.  Jonah wheels his own little suitcase through the airports and looks like a pro.  One lady in the gate area was talking to him and asked “so, are all of your clothes in your bag?”.   To which he replied “no, just toys”.  Little does she know that the child would have worn the same clothes for 5 days - his suitcase was full of the really important stuff!  See attached list that he wrote out the night before we left.  He decided it would be a good idea to have an “inventory report” to make sure we came back with everything we went with.

Overall, fun time.   Thanks to Jeremy & Noel (and Emma and Shadow….who Danny is still talking about!) for their hospitality.  We’ll rest up and be ready for another trip in 2 or 3 years!  

We’ve been listening to Bob Dylan in the car on the way to school recently. The first time we listened to “Blowin’ In The Wind”, I could tell Jonah was really thinking about the lyrics. I was so impressed. He was deep in thought about the meaning. Finally he spoke up, “I don’t understand… they’re supposed to be strong. How can they blow in the wind?”

“What’s supposed to be strong, buddy?”

“The ants. Why are they blowing in the wind?”

I discovered why he was so perplexed by the song; he thought Dylan was singing “The ants are my friends, they’re blowing in the wind.”

Here is a conversation I had in the car yesterday morning with the boys on the way to school…

Danny (looking out the window at an airplane): “Airpane, airpane, airpane!!”

Me: “Yes, Danny, that is an airplane.  Airplanes live in the sky.”

Jonah:  “Airplanes don’t live in the sky.  They just fly in the sky.”

Me:  “Ok, you’re right, they don’t live in the sky….I guess nothing lives in the sky.”

Jonah (after thinking for a minute): “Except God.  He lives in the sky.”

Me (almost driving off the road!!!):  “What?!?!?”

Jonah:  “Yeah, Olivia told me that God lives in the sky.”

Me (making a mental note NOT to hang out with Olivia’s family): “Yeah bud, some people think God lives in the sky.”  I was happy to drop it at that…but Jonah kept going.

Jonah:  “I think God must be an astronaut.  He always lives in the sky.”

Me:   “I think you’re right.”  (and then wanting to spark some more thinking in my impressionable 4 year old child…)  “How do you know that God is a boy?  God could be a girl astronaut.”

Jonah:  “Maybe, but I think he’s a boy.”

Danny (seeing a bus outside the window):   “A bus!  Bus! Bus!”

Me (quietly to myself):  THANK GOD!!!!  

Since we haven’t posted in a while, I figured I’d share two funny conversations I have had with Jonah lately, and one funny new phrase Danny has learned.

Conversation #1

Jonah and Danny came to my office for a few minutes today….and several folks in my office came by to say “hi” and talk to the boys.  Then as we were driving home, here is the conversation Jonah and I had:

Me:  Thanks for being friendly to my friends at the office.  They liked seeing you.

Jonah:  They can see me in the pictures in your office.  Why do they want to see me for real?

Me:  Well, I talk about you a lot, and they see the cute pictures of you in my office so they just want to meet you.  They want to see if you are as cute in person as you are in the pictures.

Jonah:  And I am.

Ha!  Well, I guess I can’t argue with him…he is cute!

Conversation #2

The other night before Jonah and Danny were scheduled to go to the dentist the next morning, I was prepping him for it….the dentist will look in your mouth, count your teeth, etc.  No reason to be scared.  We’ve seen her before and she is good with the kids.

So Jonah says to me “I will be brave.  I will tell Danny not to be scared and I will hold his hand.”  Then silence for a few seconds…..then Jonah says “I want to go second.”  Yeah, he talks tough but he’ll send his brother in on the front lines!

New Catchphrase: 

Danny has a new catchphrase….anytime he passes gas, or you ask him if he did, he says “I faahted”.   It is a riot.

Yesterday, to get out of the house in the morning so that we could let Mommy and Danny sleep a little longer, Jonah and I headed up to Fry’s. Sometimes we’ll go up there to get “Donuts”. Those are what we call bagels. (And if any of you want to continue seeing these boys, you’ll happily perpetuate that lie for us).

So as we walk through the parking lot of the grocery store, we notice a police car idling near the front door. Jonah asks, “Where’s the policeman?”

“I dunno, buddy”, I answered as we went in, “Maybe he’s inside getting a cup of coffee”.

“Or maybe”, Jonah said too loudly as we walked in the door and saw the cop, “he’s getting donuts!”

When it comes to kids, we’re told so often that you blink and 20 years have gone by, so I do try to do my best to live in the moment and not look forward too much to things we’ll do when the boys are older; I try to just enjoy them as they are and experience new things with them as they do.

But I really want to go camping with the boys. 

It’s no secret, this is one of those fatherhood things I’ve looked forward to since the day we knew we’d be having kids. Boys or girls, it didn’t matter to me. Camping was always going to be one of the Daddy and Kiddo activities (lest you think I was leaving her out, Susannah has no interest whatsoever in camping… this is one of those things she was VERY happy to have me plan as just a Daddy and Kiddo activity).

So, perhaps jumping the gun a little, Jonah and I rented a tent this weekend and went backyard camping. We’d been talking about it for weeks, waiting for the evenings to stay warm and dry enough for a little outdoor sleeping. Finally the time came. We set up the tent Saturday night, brought the essential camping gear outside with us (that would be a book and flashlight, 4 matchbox cars, a cookie, a granola bar, toothbrushes, and two bottles of water), and got all set up.

I was nervous… if he didn’t like this, it could set us back a year from camping excursions. We ate our cookie, brushed our teeth, said goodnight to Mommy who came out to bring our toothbrushes back inside, and bedded down for some bedtime reading. It all went really well. After the book, we closed our eyes and drifted off to sleep. The only hiccup came just before nodding off. Jonah looked up through the tent window at a tree and said, “Hey, that tree looks like a monster!” - but fortunately it was just an observation, not a fear, and we were soon fast asleep.

I woke up at 5:30 the next morning, with Jonah off of his inflatable bed and in my sleeping bag and on my pillow. He woke up a few minutes later, and told me he loved camping! Woohoo! So it looks like we’ll be able to do it some more soon. We’re already looking forward to our next camping trip, which will probably be Catalina State Park - and we’ll include some campfire cooking this time.