John Paul had perhaps his most ridiculous temper tantrum today.  Behold, the ultimate unreasonable toddler:

-  Yesterday we went to the mall and he was VERY happy to be "shopping" because it meant he got to go up and down escalators.  I told him we were going to Costco today.

-  This morning he was convinced we were going to the mall again, because he wanted to.

"We goin...  We goiiiiin...?"  "We're going to Costco" "UNH!  We goin...  to...."  "We're going to Costco."  "UNH!!!" "Okay, where are we going?"  "We goin...  to...  shoppin'!"  "Yes, we're going shopping at Costco."

-  We get in the car and drive to Costco.  We stop at someone's house on the way there to pick up a freecycle item.  John Paul is convinced that is Costco.  We pull into the Costco parking lot.

John Paul starts SOBBING.  "NO!!!  DO NOT WANT TO GO TO COSTCO!!!"

I assumed he just wanted to listen to his CD for longer - he freaks out when we get home from any car ride because he wants to keep listening to music.  So I drove around for a while longer, hoping he'd calm down.  He didn't.

I stopped the car.  Kid is still sobbing.  I get Cecilia out of the car and into the Ergo.  John Paul is still sobbing.   "DO NOT WANT TO GO TO COSTCO WANT TO GO SHOPPIN'!!!"

I tell him it's not his choice, we're going to Costco.  And there are samples!  Maybe they will have candy!  We can look at the pretty flowers!

Nothing is working.  I pick him up and carry him to the carts.  I put him down to get a cart and he makes a run for the parking lot.  How he thinks he'll be able to unlock the car, load us all into it, and drive to the mall is beyond me.

I run after him (Cecilia strapped to me) and pick him up.  He is kicking and screaming.  People are walking by to enter the store and I don't even *want* to know what they're thinking.

He falls to the ground, lying on his back (this is concrete - WHY does he think this is comfortable or appropriate?) kicking and screaming.  I am still trying to reason/bribe.  Samples!  Candy!  We can get french fries!  There is a water fountain!

Wait.  That's what did it?  Yes, he's fine going in because there's a water fountain.

Seriously?

So I load him into the cart and we go in.  The water fountain is on the other side of the check out, so I tell him we'll go get some after we buy our things.

We shop.  He cries about the following things:

1.  Picking out new footie pajamas.  He does not WANT to pick out new footie pajamas.  He does not want ME to pick out new footie pajamas.  Cecilia DOES NOT DESERVE new footie pajamas!

2.  WHERE IS THAT GOSH DARNED WATER FOUNTAIN???

3.  NO Cecilia can NOT get in the cart with me!

4.  WHY will Cecilia not HUG ME AND KISS ME THE WAY I WANT TO BE LOVED???

5.  WATER FOUNTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

We buy our things.  I am thankful that I brought an apple with me - there were no samples out yet, so I kept the kids satisfied with apple slices.  We are on the way out of the store when suddenly he remembers - the water fountain!

We go to the water fountain.  I let him out of the cart.  He pushes the button once, giggles, and starts walking away.

10 feet from the water fountain, he starts whining again...  "Water fountain!!!"

SERIOUSLY, kid?  You were JUST at the water fountain.  YOU started walking away!  WE CAN GO BACK, I DO NOT CARE!

He doesn't want to go back, he just wants to whine about not being at the water fountain.  He is still walking away, tears in his eyes, whining about the water fountain.  I am getting sick of this.  I pick him up and put him in the cart.

I buy us a churro for $1 and we're good.  Why did I not think of this to begin with?

So, while the kid is a super-genius, he has also proven that he is very likely to rival his Uncle Timmy for most ridiculous and unreasonable temper tantrums.  Some of my favorites of Timmy's were the following:

1.  Timmy, it's time to go to school.  You are wearing no underwear and a pair of baby shorts with a hole in the crotch.  You need to change clothes (FREAK OUT!!!  CRY AND SCREAM!).

2.  Timmy, you need to pack something in your lunch besides a moldy orange (FREAK OUT!!!  CRY AND SCREAM!).

3.  Timmy, you need to change your clothes.  You can't wear Rosie's skintight bellbottoms to your first day of high school (FREAK OUT!!!  CRY AND SCREAM!).  *Okay, I exaggerated - he was in like, 5th grade

What do you think?  Typical two-year-old, or sign of things to come?

Snow... In October? In Virginia???

Yes, we had the first snow of the year today.  Apparently there was actual accumulation in many parts of the East Coast.

No real accumulation here - it was pretty slushy, but John Paul was pretty excited to see the huge snowflakes!  He didn't want to get in the car at all, he just wanted to wander around looking at all the snow.  I'm looking forward to actual snow, because he can play on his own on the patio for a while and Cecilia and I won't have to stand out in the cold when we don't want to...

What better snowy day activity than baking bread?  I seriously love our bread machine - I don't like the funny square loaves it bakes, so I mostly just use it to make the dough and then I bake it in the oven.  That way I get pretty loaves but I don't have to knead it myself.  This is a modified version of Amish White Bread - I halved the recipe and used a cup of whole wheat flour to replace one of the cups of bread flour.  I think this is about as close to whole wheat as I can go.  Still tastes exactly like Great Harvest, but at a fraction of the price!

Wait, your kid can read?

About a month ago, we figured out that John Paul can read.

I say we figured it out, not that we taught him how to do this...

I suppose we helped, but this kid is SO driven to learn that he really does teach himself a lot more than we do.

It started back before he was even 1 - he learned a couple of letters (I think B, P, and T) before he was even really talking.  I realized that maybe we weren't catechizing him well enough when he saw a cross around a little girl's neck and loudly exclaimed, "T!!!" 

The rest of the letters and their accompanying sounds came by about 14 months.  We would be out and he would see one of his favorites and SHOUT it out! 

Then he got an awesome new toy for Christmas - a Leapfrog Word Builder with magnetic letters that you could use to spell three-letter words!  He was SO excited, but he didn't really figure out the spelling for quite a while.  Around 20 months I showed him how to spell a couple of words - I think "Big, God, Mom, and Dad" or something like that.  He was SO excited.  He would beg me to spell them and then he would dance around while the toy sang the word.  Eventually he figured out how to spell them himself, which was a big help while I was making dinner!  He started recognizing them when we were out, which was pretty adorable (imagine a tiny child in a shopping cart flipping out when he sees the word "Big" on a sign at Target).

I made him a little phonics flip book so that he could figure out how to sound words out, but he wasn't into it immediately (he did eventually come to love it!).  Meanwhile, he was taking longer and longer to go down for naps because he was spending so long reading in bed.  I showed him how you can learn to spell new words by looking at the letters in words you already know.  I started hearing, "F.  I.  V.  E.  Speeeeeeells...  Five!" and so on, during naptime. 

Then one day he starting sounding short words out on his own.  "Puh.  Ah.  Tuh.  Pat!"  I would hear him reading books to himself during naptime and assumed that he had just done a *really* good job memorizing them so quickly.  Then we found one of those "First Reader" books at a consignment store for 50 cents.  John Paul knew almost half the words, even without ever having read it!

It was official.  This kid could read, and he was only about 26 months old.  Much earlier than either Andrew or I, and we were both early readers ourselves.

Now he goes through phases of *really* wanting to learn new words and read all the time and not wanting anything to do with it.  He's not perfect, either - he knows maybe 100 words by sight, and can sound out any simple 3 or 4-letter words, but he makes frequent mistakes (he sees the word "Get" and immediately says, "Great!" because that's a word he already knows.  When I remind him to sound it out, he's fine, but he's still definitely new to this).  I'm not pushing it - he's so far ahead of where he needs to be it's ridiculous.  And definitely shows that he's a great candidate for homeschooling...

Love

Cecilia has paused mid-playing for a desperate nursing session.  John Paul comes over saying, "Nurse like a baby?  Pull down a ladies shirt?"

He has been asking to nurse lately, but I realized that all he really wants is to snuggle with us while Cecilia nurses.  I pull him to me and he snuggles up to my chest, making faces at Cecilia.  She gives a sleepy nursing smile and happily grabs at his face.

John Paul gently takes her hand, kissing each finger and snuggling her hand to his face.  Satisfied, he goes back to his playing.  She too is all done, ready to get back to business with her brother.

It's exchanges like this that seem to be the meaning of life.

Remember this?

My mom is getting on my case about not updating enough.  Life is busy!  I'm sorry!

We have a camera - Andrew's dad never uses his so he's letting us have it, hooray!  Looks like he never clears off his memory card, though - I found these old pictures on there...

Remember when Andrew graduated?  In 2010?  Here's John Paul, only 9.5 months old.

And all the Hill men.

This was right before he started walking, and right before we knew we were about to have #2!  Don't you love that adorable little baby face?  And to think, Cecilia is only a couple of weeks younger than him in this picture: