Jared Says...

The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music

Okay, so maybe not the hills, but the room upstairs in the music store where Jared's preschool class had a field trip sure was! The kids had a blast getting some hands-on time with some different instruments, and they got to see how one might repair the bell of a trombone, etc. It was pretty neat to see their enthusiasm!

Max, Jared, and Allison got to test out the recorders:


Here's Jared (and Teacher Terrie!) testing out a clarinet. I don't think he was ever able to get it to make any sound:


Jared had WAY too much fun playing the little violin. He was going crazy with it!


Here's a little bit of the repair shop demonstration. Jared was VERY interested.


Look at his little face all scrunched up in concentration while he listens/watches!


When the guy finished what he was doing (soldering on a metal piece), Jared's face lit right up and was very impressed. It was pretty funny!

At the end, the kids all got Kazoo's to play and they put on a little show of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (at least, that's what it was SUPPOSED to sound like! ha ha!) Here's Katin, Jared, Amanda, and Cooper:

SEE MOM?!? I TOLD YOU SO!

Dan had the porche minivan the other night, sadly happily on his own. He was quietly LOUDLY listening to 99.9 (a country rock station). When he arrived home with lots of things for the family for himself, he very thoughtfully thoughtlessly left the radio turned up. LOUD. When the kids and I turned on the van to leave for vacation the bus stop, we were happy interested HORRIFIED to hear the words "Just buy her some (gosh darn) boobies already and be done with it!" come blasting from the radio. Which opened up a fun pleasant INTERESTING line of conversation about how people can, in fact, buy boobies, if they choose to. I told them you have to have a lot of money, and you have to go to a special doctor. Jared was insistant I was "joking him", because you don't go shopping at the doctor, you go shopping at the STORE. So today, while having a wonderful HORRIBLE time out shopping for a nice shirt to wear with my slacks to the Nutracker (tomorrow!! yay!), we saw a rack of shirts with the boob portion formed into cup shapes for the "boobies." Jared took one look at the shirts, turned to me with his hands on his hips and said, "SEE MOM?!? I TOLD YOU SO! You CAN buy boobies at the store!" He sure told me!

Sweets for the Sweet

I babysat a friend's little girl yesterday, and she was just the sweetest thing! And Jared was a very doting little boy. At one point, I looked over, and Jared was gently holding her hand and leading her through the house showing her different things. I grabbed for the camera with a melting heart! LOL It's not the greatest picture, but I was trying to capture it before they moved on!


When Connor was at that early walking age, he would SCREAM bloody murder if Emily or Jared tried to hold his hand and help him along. Jordyn just smiled away and followed Jared wherever he took her!

Then last night, Jared came across a giant lollipop Uncle Corey had brought back for him at some point, and Dan let him have at it. He thinks he's pretty cool, eh?

That's How It's Done!

Jared came up to me last night as I was getting dinner ready. He stared at me for a few seconds, then used a deep voice and said, "Pretend I'm your dad, okay?" Figuring this could be pretty fun, I said, "Okay! Hey dad, I want some candy."

J: okay!
me: Dad! you're supposed to tell me I have to have healthy food before I eat candy.
J: Oh yeah. No, you can't have candy, you have to have healsy (that's how he says it!) food first.
me: (throwing a pretend temper tantrum) I WANT CANDY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!
J: Okay! You can have some candy right now. (pause) See mom? That's how it's done!

And there you have it!

Sweet n' Silly

I had to show off Emily's hairstyle from yesterday at it drew TONS of attention for her, and I figured it was worth bragging on myself over. LOL

Isn't she sweet?






And now here's where things got a little silly!

The Calm Before the Storm

Here's Jared, laying pretty much exactly how I left him after tucking him in...
"the calm"


(Except he's not wearing the pajamas I put him to bed in... He LOVES this particular pair of footed zipper pajamas, but they're too small! Notice his feet all stretched funny inside them??? But he'll get out of bed and put them on anyway!)



Here's Connor, pillow at the wrong end of the crib, ON his blanket instead of UNDER the blanket, sippy cup launched out of the crib altogether, stuffed monkey down at the other end...
"the storm"


I honestly think he sat there and just tossed stuff around in his crib until he couldn't stay awake a second longer and then fell over, sound asleep. LOL!

According to Jared

"I don't need to go to preschool anymore, because I know everything."
(me: "Teacher Terrie has LOTS of other things to teach you, Jared.")
"No she doesn't. I know everything she knows."
(so there you have it!)

(said in that very high-and-mighty tone) "Um, mom, I was expecting some yogurt and a drink with my lunch..."

"MOM! Do you hear that sound?"
(me: "what sound?")
"The sound of that mommy and daddy show on the TV; can you turn it to a kid show, please?"(he'd been watching kid shows on channel 9 but at noon, it turns to a cooking show...)

"Actually, I think I need to have some treats after my lunch, okay? Is that a good idea?"

"Mom, I'm being a good boy, so that means I get to chew gum now" (first thing this morning)

"MOM! Heidi (our dog) is trying to eat me!" (she was sniffing him)

"I think our house is a little dirty today." (Yeah, I have 101 reasons WHY it's dirty, too)

"I think my dad wants to be all day home with me today."
(me: "I think so, too")
"Yeah, but his truck drives him to work instead."
(I'm sure his dad WISHES it was the truck driving him to work every day, instead of him having to navigating traffic for two hours one way each and every day HIMSELF)

Future Rock n' Roller?

Forget the stand-up comedian bit, check him out! (LOL!)

(the downside to a smaller-memory-sized memory card is that this is as much of the song as I could videotape of him)

Conversation With Jared

Last night at dinner, we had a very interesting conversation with Jared. It went something like this (I tried to write it down word for word but wasn't quite fast enough, but know that this is pretty darn close, at least!! LOL)

Jared: I like to kiss girls at school.
Dan: You kiss girls at school?
Jared: Yeah, I kiss a lot of girls.
Dan: Like who?
Jared: Um...Audrey
Dan: Does Audrey like it when you kiss her?
Jared: (in a very "duh dad" sort of tone) yeah...she's my friend!
Leah: Do you kiss all your friends?
Jared: No, only Audrey, because she's gonna be my bride someday.
Dan: huh, really? That's nice to know (choking back laughter)

A few minutes go by while we eat and suddenly:

Jared: I'm gonna need to find a house.
Dan: When you're all grown up, or now?
Jared: When I'm a little bit big, like you.
Dan: You're going to have to have a good job to pay for a house.
Jared: Dad! I'm gonna bring the cakes over!
Dan: What is that job all about?
Jared: I bring the cakes over that the girls show people.
Dan: Are you going to bake the cakes?
Jared: NO! I'm gonna bring the cakes over that the girls show people.
Dan: I don't know if that job will pay enough to have a house, Audrey might have to work, too.
Jared: She will.
Dan: What job will she have?
Jared: She'll bring the cakes over.
Dan: You guys will have the same job!
Jared: I know!
Dan: What do you like about Audrey?
Jared: she's gonna be my bride someday

There was some more just general conversation for awhile and then the subject turned to Audrey's mom, who supposedly wears a bow in her hair! Not that I've seen, by the way...

I love having conversations with my children where they are taking themselves really seriously and it's all we can do not to just laugh out loud!!

more from today:

Here's Jared's take on touchdown #2 for the Steelers today!

Future stand-up comedian

We've been saying for a LONG time now that Jared will probably end up being a stand-up comedian at some point in his life. He's just so FUNNY! His observations about things around him, his comeback lines when we're having discussions with him, the little stories he tells, etc, are just hilarious sometimes. A week or so ago, he was being a royal GRUMP and I finally had had enough and told him, "If you would just be happy for awhile, it would make my life that much easier Jared." Without missing a beat, the child put his hands on his hips and said, "Yeah, WELL, if I was the grown-up and you were the kid, that would make MY life that much easier." He's only three! LOL!! PURE SASS, but it was so unexpected and SMART, it totally cracked me up. That's one of those lines you normally think of much later in the day and think, "Oh man, I should have said ____." He's also getting really good at remembering jokes he's heard.

Here's one of them:

Serious Steelers Fan, Future Football Star

I found this costume online at Walmart awhile ago while researching Steelers items that Dan might be able to pick up for Emily and I while in PA for the Seahawks/Steelers game next weekend. It was an online only item, so I asked Dan about it and he LOVED the idea of Jared having it, so I finally got around to ordering it last week. It arrived last night. I checked the website today and they're totally out of stock! Talk about LUCK. I got practically the last one, I guess.

Anyway, you all know that we're Steelers fans in this house and Jared is just taking it to the next level...

HOW CUTE IS HE?????






I decided to go dig through my stash of make-up (which I never wear) and get a black eyeliner pencil to make him look more authentic




I'm making this one be for his rookie card! LOL!!!!!!!!!


The wound on his nose makes him rather authentic as well, don't you think?

Tough Guy

Look at Jared, already getting into brawls... The cupboard door won this round, unfortunately.



He hollered pretty good, that really BAD cry, where after the initial SCREAM, you don't hear ANYTHING. And then he came running to me, hands over his face, sobbing SOMETHING I couldn't understand. I finally pinned him down enough to pull back his hands and found blood and a thick flap of skin. SIGH



It stopped bleeding rather quickly, but the flap of skin kept wanting to curl under instead of laying flat, and being dead-center on his face, I wanted it to heal as nicely as possible, so we packed into the car and headed for Prompt Care to get it dealt with professionally.

Here he is sitting in the big chair just after the nurse cleaned it up a bit. He was SOOO good. Didn't flinch or cry or anything.


The doctor came in and decided the lowest portion of the flap of skin was too far gone to try and lay flat with steri-strips. It would have left steri-strips stuck to the actual wound since the flap wouldn't come down far enough to fully cover it any longer. He decided to stick steri-strips on either edge where the flap of skin DID meet up properly with the undamaged areas to help hold the flap in place. The central part of the wound had to be left uncovered. He will probably have a raised section of skin where the flap reattaches funny, but supposedly scar massage should get it to lay rather flat. He said little kids have such amazing healing abilities that in a few months we'll probably be hard-pressed to see a scar at all, whereas in an adult, it would be rather significant.

Doctor explaining to Jared what was going to happen


(notice Jared's eyes are crossed as he's trying to watch what the doctor is doing!)




doing a strip on the other side...


Good as new. ALMOST!


Picture day at preschool is October 4th. Let's keep our fingers crossed his recovery is DOUBLY speedy! LOL

The Superest Super Hero of all

Meet Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Steeler Guy:








Jared INSISTED on wearing everything all at once, inside or out. Well, I guess I should say the Steeler jersey was my idea, because at least it matched the socks, but once the shirt was ON, it wasn't coming off (per HIM, not me!) and bedtime was a battle over it.

I feel very safe knowing I have the Superest of all Super Heros living here in my house...