Lock your doors!!! (unless you'd like some help with that...)

My mischievous little imp of a child has discovered that doors lock. Granted, he knows how to lock and unlock the exterior doors (also a bit of a gray-hair-sprouter!), but now he's discovered what that little button on the back of the interior doorknobs does.. and he enjoys using them! His new favorite pastime is to lock and close all of the upstairs doors. What a stinker! By the time you respond to the first slam and get upstairs, it's too late, and you're rooting around for something to pop the knobs. For the record, a q-tip with one end broken off works really well.
Well, for some time now, I've shared with you the fact that the Woodruffs obviously have something special in that Roanoke Rapids water, which results in James taking long blissful naps and sleeping in each morning. Hehehehe... payback's a pickle, ain't it? While staying with them this weekend, he first demonstrated his new trick for them the first day he was there. When it *really* got interesting was this morning, apparently. Mom W said she heard him come in the room, and could feel him standing beside the bed looking at her while she feigned sleep. He left the room, seemingly to go back to bed, but WAIT! There was a *snick* a *slam*, and a little boy announcing that he could not get back to bed because the door was shut. So Grandaddy had to get up at 5am (sorry, Dad!!) to let him back in his room, and later that morning he completely removed the locking mechanism! LOL... James will probably figure out how to reassemble it before he comes home tomorrow!

Happy Memorial Day, all!

Don't make me wake up!!!

If this is 3, just imagine what 13 is going to be like on school days!

The price of beauty

When James gets a batch, it involves about 5 mins of actually cleaning him, followed by about 20 mins of him splashing happily to himself and playing with tub toys. So I figured, I'll give myself a face mask while I'm hanging out here in the bathroom. James wasn't quite sure what do with this new look. He kept giving me the strangest looks... "Mony, what's THAAAT?". I explained what it was, and he just kept giving me this amused/grossed out look (see pic). I had to wait for it to dry, so I figured I'd finish him up.. drying off, dressing, cutting nails. So I'm hunched over his little toes, cutting his toenails when he says, "Mony? May I see your face? May I touch it?".. and he says it in this totally fascinated voice, like wow... I"m going to TOUCH that! Then he asked like every 2 mins until I washed it off! Boys, they just don't appreciate what we do for beauty!The look of "what the heck is on your face, lady?"

Nutritional footnote

Oh yeah, and just in case you were concerned.. the gelatanous Krabby Patties are FAT FREE! Because that's what I look for in a gummy confection. Just so ya know...

Best incentive EVAH!

Daddy RULZ! He and James came home from BJ's with a new potty incentive... SpongeBob Gummy Krabby Patties. Frankly, we both think they look revolting, but of course James thinks they are totally poop-worthy. Within 5 mins of getting home, James stripped from the waist down, hopped up on that potty, and produced like a champ. If only we'd found these sooner...

This just made me laugh...

... hope it does you, too

The storm after the calm

Every time James gets sick, we have a re-training period that follows. He has to remember how to go back to sleep soundly, and how Mommy and Daddy are not going to join him at random intervals throughout the night. Last night was that period.
For about a good hour (?) last night, we battled the "I won't go to sleep by myself" monster. Several times, Mommy tucked him in, we threatened the gate in front of the door, we put the gate in front of the door... nothing was working. The really pitiful thing is, when we put the gate there, we're treated to these plaintive little inquiries.. "Monny? I want my Monny... you come lay down wif me?". It's pitiful. But it's also so sweet, and I know that he won't want me to lay down wif him much longer, so that makes me want to even more. What do you do? Do you stick to your guns, knowing that he needs to go to bed on his own, or do you suck it up, and acknowledge that so what if he likes some company while he's winding down for bed.. that means he can count on his parents for comfort?
I'd gone downstairs to walk Becky for the night (Daddy KONKED.. hard!), and walked back in to sobbing (standing at the gate). So, rather than let him see me, I sat at the top of the stairs to wait it out. ... then I noticed that the crying had a bit of a doppler effect to it.. it was getting closer. "Monny? What you doin'?". He'd shimmied under the gate and busted me. The jig was up at this point, so I took him back to bed, laid down with him for a while, and we talked. I finally realized he was thinking that I was supposed to go to bed with him! So I reminded him that Mommy and Daddy sleep in their room (which is boring and has no cool stars or planets), but he gets to sleep in the cool room with his friends: Saturn, Lion, Thomas Pillow, Moon, Planets, etc.. I think we finally made a connection, and we parted ways with the agreement that his little bottom would stay firmly ensconced in his own bed! Whew!

wish us luck tonight...

Loooong weekend

Master James fell ill this weekend to some kind of tummy bug, thus we had a pretty long weekend full of caring for the boy and keeping up with the laundry produced. Anyhoo, it really only affected him ALL of Saturday night, and he was mostly back to normal on Sunday. But no nap, a little grouchy, and we were still keeping an eye on him. So it was assumed he was just still a bit out of sorts when he woke us up again last night... at 1:30am. and 2:00am, and at 2:30 I'd had enough and just went to bed with him to get some sleep (that, and I was struggling to explain to him that no, in spite of what he was telling me, bees were not chasing him in his room at 2:30 in the morning). Now, we both slept just great after that! Until I woke up around 7am with a small finger in my nose. I'm sure it will surprise you to hear that this woke me STRAIGHT up! Naturally, I explained to James that I was not enjoying his finger up my nose, at which point he proceeded to shove it up the other nostril. Firmly, I explained that he'd better stop NOW, to which he replied, "but Mooonnnyyy... it's FUUNNN!". And so it was time to get up.

Video Supahstah!

Check out the Woodruff Video Collection (not those kinds of the videos!) link on the left.. have posted more fun vids of LL Cool J*.

*Bethany has decided that this is James' new moniker. Apparently, it originally stood for "Ladies Love Cool James", which is very true. Our super neighbors, Mike and Steph, just moved this weekend (so sad!!! but good for them), and they had a little going away bash, at which James wooed several little ladies with the awesome allure of his bubble-blowing skills. He's quite the little Romeo.

Just gweat!

James did not nap yesterday, which means that the afternoon was especially trying. So yesterday evening, while Daddy was grilling, we made a potty attempt. James decided to hold out, sitting on the lid of the toilet so i couldn't even open it. Every minute or so, he'd stand up a smidge, lift the lid about an inch, then sit back down hard, as if to make sure you knew that he wasn't going to budge on this. At one point, he stood completely up, and I quickly opened the lid... but then he sat back down again and kept going... up to his pits in the toilet! Seriously, the look on his face was truly priceless! I hauled him out, laughing my ASS off, at which point I think finally started to shake off the shock. Then he *lectured* me! He said, "that's not funny, Monny... I'm soaking wet! That's just gweat... I'm alllll wet. I'm soaking wet, Monny, don't laugh". Then I guess it got the better of him and he started to chuckle too. MAN, I have not laughed that hard in a very long time!