Time to admit it, he's not my baby anymore

*sigh* Josh is not my little baby anymore. I know he hasn't been for quite some time now but now I can't even deny it to myself anymore.

Today he played on the big toy in the park by himself for the first time. He used to insist that I come with him or at least stay within arms reach. He would never go down a slide without me holding his hand or going down with him.

Today started out the same as usual. He needed me right there. I kept telling him how fun it would be to go down the slide and he kept shaking his head "no". Then out of the blue he decided to give it a shot. The slides that are open-topped and do not have a step right before them are the easiest for him to do but he eventually got down the tube slide with the stair right before the opening! Eventually, he didn't even need me to be at the bottom of the slide to go down.

I know this must sound so lame to those of you with children who have been doing this very thing since they were 18 months or whatever but to me this is big. We have been so connected and he has been so dependent on me for so long, it's a little heart breaking...and yet I am so happy that he is doing things other kids do.

Other signs that he is getting to be a "little boy" instead of my "baby":

He has just realized in the last couple weeks that just because I put him in bed at night does not mean he has to STAY in bed. After about 10 minutes I hear the pitter-patter of little feet. After explaining to him that he needs to stay in bed even if he isn't sleeping he normally only comes out if his music stops playing and he wants it back on.

He has started to scale EVERYTHING. He climbs his built in desk/shelves, the counter tops, he tries to get to the top of the refrigerator, everything . And yet, he is still so careful for a toddler. Once on top he doesn't jump off (he won't even jump off the stairs) or even get too close to the edge. This doesn't stop me from being totally freaked out by it.

Signs that other people think he is not a baby anymore:

I get a lot more looks when I am carrying him or when I put him in the seat of the cart when I am at the store. I guess most kids his age just follow their parents around and most parents have a smaller child by now to be carrying and putting in the seat.

Perhaps it is time to stop these and other such things...it is just easier for me to do them. I mean, he can climb into the car and into his car seat it just takes him 45-60 seconds when I can do it in 5 you know? His legs just get in the way a lot....and when it comes to the store and everywhere else he has the nasty habit of not staying with me...I don't know...this is such a normal problem it is kind of nice.

Mini Hitler 'stache?

Look Amber, I do dress him occasionally! No, he doesn't have a mini Hitler 'stache although it looks a bit like it. He tripped and tried to eat Stacey's metal screen door. Blood everywhere coming from nose, upper lip and mouth. The only thing that would make it better was the binky. I don't know how we will ever be fully free of it.

Great, and now he just fell and smacked his temple on a cabinet. Well, not "just now". I didn't write that before I ran to him. I just got finished making him feel better. And of course that started his nose going again even though that happened 8 hours ago.

He is the most off balance kid.

"Home, home on the range!"

Oh, my little cowboy. I have literally spent all day getting ready for my physics test tomorrow. Since I got up until right now. I did pause to take these adorable pictures though. My poor son felt terribly neglected today. He hates it when I do homework so I try to only do it when he is asleep. Today I am studying like a madwoman so that did not apply. It got so bad that he was laying across my lap (on my textbook) looking up into my face and holding my cheeks with his little hands while "talking" lovingly to me. At that point I could not resist and I took an hour break to feed us and play.

Hopefully spending all of this time studying will make a difference tomorrow.

Physics is freaky

So yesterday I learned something totally freaky in class. I am going to try to explain this but it might be unclear without seeing exactly what I am talking about but here goes.

Imagine a wheel. There are 3 ways this wheel can move. You could pick it up and walk it to a new location. You could pick it up and spin it without walking anywhere. Or you could roll it somewhere else.

When you pick it up and walk it, particles( on the top, directly in the middle, and directly at the bottom) all have the exact same velocity.

If you pick up the wheel and spin it, the particle on the top and the particle on the bottom have the same velocity just different directions.

If you roll the wheel: The particle in the middle will have velocity v. The particle on the top has to move with velocity 2v. This is because it has to move fast enough to get past the middle particle. If you really think about it and watch a wheel this part makes sense. But the last particle...the one on the bottom, that is where it starts to get weird. That bottom particle has a velocity of 0. That's right, ZERO!

Insane. It makes no sense at all unless you start thinking about the fact that if it had any velocity it would be spinning (like on ice) without getting anywhere. Does this make sense? It is crazy.

I hope this has made enough sense to blow your mind like it blew mine.

"Am I a pretty girl?" -SpongeBob

He is just so sweet. He is wearing a flower "headband" (it actually came on a See's candies box) and he has green paint on his face. I just love the way his hair is sticking straight up.

Things are well in my little life. Josh is adorable, school is ....well, its school. Actually I am doing very well in school. I had 4 tests last week. I got back 3 of them so far and the lowest grade is a 98%. Nothing to complain about there.

I would like to give a shout out to my sister. She is truly a remarkable girl. She took my son today so I could catch up on my school work. She is always thinking of others even when she is the one who could use the help. I hope when school is out for summer I can be more like her. Right now I do not feel like I have the time to do anything more than school and family. She inspires me to be a better, more caring person. I love you my sister!

"Guns don't kill people...I do." -UHF

My son has found a new obsession. Weapons. He used to like toy guns...to chew on. Now everything is a weapon. The strangest things become swords or (his favorite) guns! It kind of freaks me out. I know most little boys go through this stage and I don't have anything against guns it is just weird to see my innocent little boy pretending to shoot everything. Especially since he wants to pretend shoot people most. He started this after starting preschool so I think I will blame them.

Anyway, even in his freaky-ness he is cute. He scrunches his face up in the most adorable little grimace. I tried to get a picture of it but if I told him to point it at me he had to get up in my face and try to "shoot" the camera point blank. I spent 10 minutes trying to hold him back far enough to get a picture. The only way I found to kind of get a picture is if he was "shooting" himself in the mirror.

Now I get to play gun control. Trying to get him to understand that he doesn't shoot people and what not. Oh well, he's a boy.