Little Drummer Boy

I don't really know what to say about what happened this morning.  I'm just glad I don't have to show my face here any more.  I heard from a friend about this really fun music class for toddlers.  Sounds great!  Jackson loves music and it was free today.  What in the world could go wrong?  Ella and Emily Youssef came with us.  I just hope this won't affect Ella and Jackson's future.  Let's see...where to begin.  We had to take our shoes off to enter the room, no problem we like going barefoot.  As soon as we walked in to this very small room Jackson went straight for the teacher's ukulele that was sitting on her table.  Perfect.  She was very nice and showed him how to strum it while she held it.  It was all fun because the class hadn't officially started.  As soon as the class started all the other kids, about 10 of them, sat very quietly in their mom's lap and sang along or at least swayed to the music.  Where was Jackson?  Running, yes running, around the room.  Every once in a while he would stop to stare at someone.  I wrangled him from climbing up the cubby holes quite a few times.  Now it was time for the kids to play with instruments.  This has to be better.  He'll have something to play with.  First it was little egg shakers.  He grabbed 2 and so did I.  No problem.  He started shaking them and making music and then threw them and pegged some kid.  Great.  I grabbed him and made him sit.  I let him hold mine while I held his arms.  Whoosh!  Threw the air again barely missing a mom.  Oh gosh.  Ok, time for something new.  All I saw was a box of musical sticks.  Emily just looked at me and said "Oh great, another weapon".  We laughed, but I was scared.  Luckily he held on to his sticks.  One more instrument.  This time it was a lot of different instruments and the teacher said to let the kids pick their own.  I grabbed a bongo thinking that would be perfect.  Jackson came back with what looked like a huge blowpop.  He then stole another mom's drum and started beating it.  That wasn't enough, he apparently needed mine too.  Instruments up, finally.  I guess I got caught up in the music for a minute, or I was acting like he wasn't mine, when I heard a mom say to her son "Well, I'm not his mom but you can't do that."  Where is he?  Oh getting into more trouble and now he had recruited someone else and I was "that" mom who let her kid do "that".  Ok, I grabbed him and sat him back down.  He wiggled back up and went to the baby gate that was keeping us all in and started trying to climb it like a monkey.  Obviously he was done here.  Finally the class was over.  I didn't even thank the teacher.  I just got Jackson and went to the hallway to grab our stuff.  I popped my head back in just to wave and give her the "I'm sorry" look and she said "I'll send you a follow up email".  I thought yeah I bet you will and I'm sure it will be an unvitation to attend any future classes.  Keep in mind all of this happened in 45 minutes.  Obviously we won't be going back.  I don't think anyone could handle that again.

Summertime fun

I think we have officially become the rednecks of the neighborhood.  Last week we had over Jackson's best friend, Reid Omastiak and his mom Caroline.  We were trying to come up with something fun to do that wouldn't cost anything.  So, of course we blew up the baby pool and let the kids splash around.  I guess the thing that made our neighbors stop was not only were we in the middle of the front yard, but the boys were just running around in diapers part of the time.  Oh and of course since Caroline and I are from Montgomery we don't believe in shoes.  I had become "that" neighbor that everyone laughs at but secretly wants to be invited in the fun.  We had so much and so did the boys!

Come visit...

We all know that Jackson loves to be outside and Duke loves to join him.  The only problem is Duke is lazy.  Jackson runs all around while Duke just follows him with his eyes.  He's even too lazy to at least turn his head.  Oh boy.  After a while of running the torment begins.  Jackson always tries to get Duke to play with him and he always strikes out.  There's nothing left to do but give in to the laziness...at least for a little while.  So, this is what you might see if you came to see us.

The welcoming committee