Jo Cool Mama

Sammy is cracking us up! His questions are so pure and his brain is so hungry to learn about everything. Sammy wants to know the answers to the universe and I love that about him! I really hope he never grows out of this inquisitive stage. Sam is also finding himself, and his name is very important to him. I call him Sam often, and he’ll correct me, “Call me Sammy Schrantz!” He won’t talk to me until I back track and say, “Oh oopsie, Sammy Schrantz, where are your socks?” I love that about him too – how could I not? He’s who he is and he has empowered that! Go Sam! Oh… I mean, Go Sammy Schrantz!

Sammy’s question of “Why?” can go on forever, but my favorite “Why?” question is when Sammy sees someone with a baby and asks (every time), “Why do you have a baby so much?” After the targeted person tries to answer that, Sam will hit them with, “I have a baby! His name is Jack!” As the targeted person starts to say something about that being cute, Sam has forgotten what they answered about having a baby so much and will hit them again, “Why do you have a baby so much?” That’s when the targeted person looks to us with “Help me!” screaming in their eyes. I think Sam is trying to figure out why so many people have babies – and not just his own family. Questions for the universe!

Talking about questions for the universe… (cover young eyes) I was in the bathroom, and anyone with little kids knows that is no longer a private place, and Sammy wanted to know if I was going poo – because I was sitting down. He announced to me, “Pee is for standing and poo is for sitting!” So, I came back with the facts, I am a girl and girls sit to pee. I continued with the fact that boys have a penis and girls do not. Sammy, now very intrigued, said, “Boys need a penis to pee standing and girls need a virgina to pee sitting?” I was proud he understood, “Yep.” Then Sammy hit with a one two punch to the funny bone, “Mommy, do you have a hairy penis?” If I wasn’t already peeing – I would have peed my pants! I told him I did not – don’t want bizarre rumors going around if Sammy leaked out that his mommy has a hairy penis! I then told him to go ask daddy – because I wanted to share. He, so proud of himself, goes running out into the living room yelling, “Daddy! Mommy has a hairy penis!”

“I Love You”

(sign)

Sammy is into the “Why?” phase of growing up.

Last weekend we went to visit my cousin who lives way out in Fernley, Nevada. In the car driving out there Sammy asked the obvious, “Why does Mary Jo live way out here?”

*I added the heck in the title for more pizazz!*

My cousin married a guy named, Charlie Green. Sam asked, “What’s your name?” and so Charlie replied, “Charlie Green.” Later Sam said thoughtfully, “Why is Charlie Green?”

Jack was goofing around with Charlie Green and pointed at him as if to say, “You’re not green!”

Charlie found this wild animal roaming their nine acre lot and was wondering if we knew what it was. “Have you ever seen one of these before?”  Then something really weird happened…

Alien dog from the dwarf planet Pluto landed and she wanted to know, “Why is Charlie Green when in fact I can see him with my doggie black and white vision and I clearly see that he is either white or gray. This is a puzzling mystery and I was sent here to find the answer.” My cousin loved the alien dog so much she decided to keep her – never telling the truth behind Charlie Green’s name… (OK – so I know I’m a dork.)

Obbie Goobie – sleepy little fella… He didn’t sleep well the night before. Then we left the house early to get some shopping done, and head out to my cousin’s place. He’d only taken about thrity minutes worth of nap all day! The tiny little itty bitty was pooped! As he zoned out in the car you can see the question still lingering on his little mind, “Why is Charlie Green?”

I knew Sam was going to be a boy the moment I realized I was pregnant. It was meant to be – as a young girl dreaming of my future I predicted having a boy, and naming him Sam. It seemed so real when I would talk about it to my friends and then as I grew up and realized I didn’t want children – I wrote Sam off as a silly childhood fantasy. When, surprise, I got pregnant I just knew it was Sam. Then when we planned a second child and I got pregnant – I got the girl vibe. Probably because I wanted a girl this time. Everyone around me got the same vibe but the ultra sound showed a penis – and once again we were expecting a boy. After the shock that I was wrong, and after freaking out about having two boys and thinking the worst about fighting – we were excited! Jack was born and he’s awesome! I still feel the desire to spawn another like me – a girl to share girl stuff with, someone to bond with in a way only two girls can.

My friend, who has a five-year-old son, gave me the great news that they are expecting their second in July! Then I got the message that the baby was a girl – and instant envy set in. A good envy. I got excited because I knew that finally I would be able to go baby girl shopping! I went, I shopped and both my mother and my husband were forced to cut me off… it was sad. My friend also lives nearly 500 miles away from me…again, sad. So, I bought her a few dresses, a few hats, a sleeping gown, a couple blankets and a few little shoes… I was on a girlie high looking at all the cute little girl things – because the cute factor is all in the girl stuff!

I get to see the bundle of pinky joy a couple weeks after her birth (planned c-section) and I just cannot wait! I am thinking that seeing the cute little female will worsen the desire to create – but I am positive that when I have to deal with the two Boyz at Disneyland that desire will be snuffed for a while… possibly forever…. Who knows…

My four-year-old son, Sam, was walking around the house with a baggie of cereal. Shoving his hand into the baggie and stuffing as much as he could into his mouth. He was doing this for a while, then all of a sudden he looks up at his father and said with mouth full of cereal, “Daddy, can I eat this cereal?”

A couple days later, I was writing an e-mail and sinfully chowing down on Girl Scout cookies when Sam came up to me to see what I was doing. He reached into the bag and shoved a cookie into his mouth. As he reached in for a second, and mouth full of food, he looked up at me and asked, “Mommy, can I have a cookie?”

Each time it brought laughter and a response of, “Yeah Sam, go ahead.” I did tell him that he was already eating a cookie, but he simply looked at me without understanding. He shoved the second cookie into his mouth and was able to get out a, “What?” That prompted my response of, “Yeah Sam, go ahead.” He nodded his head in approval and “ummm-ummed” at me before taking off down the hall to his room.

Wouldn’t that be great if adults could get away with the stuff kids do? Driving a new car off the lot; window down, “Can I have this car for free?” and continue driving off. Yeah, go ahead! Walk into the bank; walk around to the back; open the vault and take as much money as you can hold; walk out, “Can I have this money?” Yeah, go ahead! I suppose if Sam came to me with a knife and started cutting up the couch, then asked, “Mommy, can I reupholster the couch?” I might have a few choice words to express other than, “Yeah Sam, go ahead.” For now, if eating is going to be his silly asking after the fact – then I am okay with it.

What kid, in any given time period, did not enjoy playing more with the box “it” came in than the toy itself? The creator of the box, I’m sure, had no idea that he created the greatest toy ever! This toy will never go out of style – NEVER! Parents (us too) are stupid for spending thousands of dollars each year on fancy toys, when a simple delivery from the UPS person will make a kid the happiest creature on the planet Earth. This is common knowledge, and all parents know this – doesn’t mean we won’t stop spending thousands of dollars on the fancy toys… Go figure.

Grandma had bought a few clothing items from Disney and had them sent out. When we got them, Sam was so excited – he hurried us to open the box, reached in grabbed the items and glanced at each one with the comment, “Oh, that’s nice.” Then threw it to the side. Once the box was emptied Sam was like lighting climbing into the box! Jack needed to share in the excitement of the box as well, and the brothers played for a while within the Disney box of joy.

My Boyz hate the car! A simple car ride into town is a nightmare situation for our family. When my first son hated riding in the car, I thought I was going to go insane! We could not drive anywhere without him screaming the whole way! After he was able to be turned around – the awesome 20 pound mark – he seemed to calm down a little. It turned into a gamble because we never knew if he was going to enjoy the ride or not. Then a car ride to Vegas prompted us to buy a portable DVD player with hope that would help, and it did! The nightmare was finally over when my first son was almost two-years-old!

Now, my second son has similar behavioristics when riding in the car! I couldn’t believe it when he too started to scream an entirety of a car ride. I talked to other mothers (including my pediatrician) who also have car hating babies and they all said it drove them nuts too, but after a few minutes their babies would tire out… ummmm, not mine! My Boyz never tire! Nope, an hour car ride means an hour long screaming/crying session. You have to sympathize with me wanting to speed it up in order to get where I’m headed. I have one goal and that’s to get to the destination and be able to get my poor little fella out of the back and into the arms of his mommy. That’s all he wants and that’s all I want to give him. He’s craving freedom from the jail of the car seat and I am craving peace.

I speed – yes I do. I learned to drive in good ol’ Southern California and if you didn’t drive quickly, you got run over! But, I am a safe speeder – I almost never go ten over the posted speed limit and always “safety first” – so I speed when I know it’s not going to cause any harm. With that said – when the baby is screaming and my mommy instinct is freaking out, I don’t pay attention to my speed, I just gotta get there! Let me just add here that I only fly if we’re close to our destination – if we aren’t close then I pull over and try to calm baby in the car. Well, last night we were close to home and it was late and I knew I just needed to get home and get this little fella to bed. I wasn’t watching my speed, but then went to pass a sheriff truck and checked my speed. I wasn’t speeding (much). I was going like five over – no big deal. I went to proceed past the sheriff truck when lights and sirens bellowed behind me…. Really?!

Yep, speeding ticket. I pulled off the main street and stopped. The baby was still screaming in the back and I had always figured any police officer hearing that would forgive my breaking the law… Nope. While he wrote me up, I picked the baby up and nursed him. It sucked and I was stuck there for another fifteen minutes getting the baby to sleep and back into the car seat… Baby slept all the way home and big brother fell asleep too. It was nice, but now I have to pay a ticket…

I want to blog about the one thing I know all about at the moment and with a four-year-old and a seven-month-old I feel that’s my world right now. It’s great and I want to share it with the world! I enjoy being a mommy and I love that’s what I am all about at the moment. I am a working mommy and that’s a whole love hate relationship… Right now the site is not ready – I have cute plans for this site! I don’t have too much time to blog, but I’ll try as much as I can! Please stay tuned and find out what Jo Cool has to talk about….