Sometimes, when your toddler has been whiney for the past several days, he'll find something to do that finally keeps him quiet.

When that something involves sticking every sticker from the sheet on my arm, I sacrifice the arm hair and allow the few minutes of silence.  It's gotta end sometime...

A phone conversation

John Paul has figured out that if he presses the "Send" button on my phone enough times, it will usually call Dad (generally my most recent call).  I get such a kick out of these calls - they usually happen when Andrew's on his way home from work, and I only get to hear one side of them, which goes like this:

*presses Send button repeatedly, immediately holds phone up to ear*

JP:  "Hewwo?  HI!  HI DAD!" 

"Dad?"

Me:  "You have to wait for Dad to say something first, the phone is ringing."

JP:  "Hewwo?  Hewwo?  Hewwo?  DAD!  Hi Dad!"

JP:  (in a very high and squeaky voice) "Dad!"  (I'm pretty sure Andrew is responding, "John PAUL!", and they repeat the back-and-forth approximately 6 million times)

JP:  "DAD!  Dad!  Dad!  Daaaaad!  Hi Dad!"  *maniacal giggling*

*starts pressing buttons on the phone*

JP:  "Pwess numbah one.  Pwess numbah one.  Pwess numbah one.  Bye Dad."

*closes phone*

Terrible Twos

The Terrible Twos seem to have hit us in full force...  It seems that now that John Paul is good at verbally expressing himself, he expects to have his needs met IMMEDIATELY.

A few of today's ridiculous fusses:

I put two shirts on him - a t-shirt layered over a long-sleeved shirt.  He was at first excited about wearing TWO shirts and then almost immediately FREAKED out yelling, "NO two shirts, shirt OFF, two shirts OFF!"  So I took them both off (he also wants to be naked a lot of the time lately) and he freaked out because he wanted the BLUE shirt (the long-sleeved one) on but not the striped shirt.  Then when we got ready to go to the grocery store a few minutes ago he freaked out because he didn't want the blue shirt on, he wanted the striped shirt on and ONLY the striped shirt.  So he went out in 50-degree weather in a t-shirt.  His choice, apparently he takes after his dad because he wasn't cold at all.

We were getting checked out at the grocery store and he saw these cat cookies that they sometimes have as samples.  Very politely he asked, "May I please have a cat?"  Very politely I told him, "No, because those are not samples."  Instant meltdown, of course.  The cashier was a little bit freaked out and asked what was wrong.  She didn't seem to understand that he would get that upset about not being allowed to have a cat cookie...  Clearly she doesn't have kids!

We got home and he took a box of quesadillas (our treat from Trader Joe's) out of the bag to take it inside.  Then he decided that he couldn't wait until we got inside and started opening it on the front steps.  I told him he needed to take it inside.  Freak out.  I took it from him and put it on the counter.  He took it off the counter and took the bags out of the box.  I told him we could eat it for lunch, but he needed to wait for me to cook it.  He freaked out because he wanted to eat it NOW.  "May I please have some tortilla?"  I broke off a little bit of the frozen tortilla for him to eat.  He freaked out after he ate it, "BIG tortilla!!!  May I please have BIG tortilla?"  He got side tracked while I cooked it and then freaked out when I served it to him and made him stop standing on the chair.  He had moved on and wanted me to tell him whose feast day it is.  Then he freaked out because he wanted to see a picture of St. Cyprian.  And then St. Francis.

***As a side note, he always calms down completely to ask for something politely, then resumes freaking out afterwards***

But then he does things like let Cecilia climb all over him and yank on his hair and take his toys away, all very calmly (although he generally yanks the toys back, proclaiming, "GOOOOOOD SHA-ring!").  And sings songs about babies and goes over to kiss her and pat her head every time the word "baby" comes up.

He got this baby out of the toy box and took it over to Cecilia, very gently bopping her on the head with the baby's head over and over again.  She thought this was GOOD fun.

This was going to be a really awesome picture because he was sitting down playing and she was standing up while holding on to his hair with both hands.  Then he saw the camera and had to post, so she fell in the pile of toys and he looks like a zombie...

I'm really hoping that part of this craziness is just because he went for 4 days without a nap.  Not even a hint of a nap, just raucous playing in his room for upwards of 3 hours a day.  He finally took a short nap yesterday, but he's still not asleep after two hours today...  I miss my cheerful boy!

A flower hat!

I asked my sister to make Cecilia one of those adorable hats with a flower on it.  And it's really freaking cute.  But now Cecilia rips hats off her head the moment we put them on, and John Paul has decided HE wants to wear the hat. 

His head is a little bit larger than Cecilia's.  The hat is stretched out...  Think we can shrink it back?

Okay, not an accurate head comparison shot, but seriously, what is that face he is making?  Oh yeah, the "MAY I PWEASE HAVE A CAMWA???" face...

The Piano

Someone is desperately trying to reach those keys - she can just barely play a few notes on her own before she gets too frustrated.  The low notes are apparently her favorite, I think mostly because they're situated so conveniently.

But Little Miss Ham has to turn around as soon as she hears the telltale click of the camera!