Jonesie Bug & Freddie Bear: 10 (or so) Stories About My Boys

My phone died.

While that doesn't have anything at all to do with this post, it was the impetus for my finally writing this post that I've been meaning to for weeks. It wasn't until the death of the phone that I realized I'd better post all of those stories I'd been texting myself to write about before I run the risk of losing my texts - and, thus, the stories - altogether (thankfully, my texts are all backed up on my MacBook, but still. It's not worth risking it).

So here you have them - in totally random, as-they-come-to-me order:

1) Freddie said his first three-word sentence last week. While standing at the front door in the den about two hours after Jeremy went to work, Freddie said, "I go Dada!" As you can tell, for as much as Jones is a Mama's boy, Freddie is ALL his Dada's.

2) Every time we take Jeremy to work or go and pick him up, we pass the Bethel football field. The boys always look over, and, most of the time, they'll make some comment about what's happening on the field. One nite last week, we passed it, and Jones said, "Oh, boy! They play football!" Then, he stuck his right fist up in the air and said, "Go, Big Blue!"

3) The week before that, Jeremy and Jones were watching the UNC / USC football game. When I came in to get Jones in his jammies ("jah jah," as Freddie calls them), I said, "Whom are you cheering for?" He said, "We say, 'GO, 'HEELS!'"

How's THAT for passing on both hues of blue?!?

4) Freddie has started calling ALL hats, caps, and helmets "pi-ut hat"s, and most of the time, he'll say, "Pi-ut hat. Arr."

This isn't from Kandi's. It's from outside Jeremy's office
but was taken right after the "Watch step, Freedie" incident.

5) The other day, when we picked up Jeremy's (DELICIOUS) birthday cake at Kandi's Cakes & Bake Shop in Waynesville, I told Jones he'd have to hold Freddie's hand, since my hands were full of the cake box. Not surprisingly, Jones took his job VERY seriously. When it came time to step up onto the platform that led to the door, Jones pointed down and said, "Watch step, Freedie."

6) As soon as we stop at a red light - or anywhere - Freddie says, "Go! Go!" Jones has definitely mastered the concept of what red lights mean versus what green lights mean. Freddie is - ahem - still working on this. In fact, sometimes, Jones will give him the side eye and say, "We have to wait our turn, Freedie," parroting what I said to Jones when he first started learning the ropes.

7) The other day, I came into the den and found some of the boys toys VERY neatly packed into their red wagon. I hadn't told them to do this, so I was surprised to see it. "Jones, did you do this?" I asked. He nodded yes. "You did a great job," I told him. He put his hand on his chest, bowed his head, and said, "My PWEHhhhhhzure."

This was around the same time that he climbed on to his big boy bed from the foot of it. "Good job," I cheered. He bowed his head twice and said, "Sink you. Sink you."

8) Freddie has a weird obsession with Jones's Sperrys. He loves them, for some reason. If I put him in the car with shoes on, they're off - whatever they are - before we're out of the driveway, but Jones's Sperrys, he'll hunt the house to find and put on, so I ordered him a pair in his own size.

When they came in, and I first tried them on him, you'd have thought I'd given him a giant box of Pixie Stix. His face lit up, and he jigged from foot to foot.

All that afternoon, he wanted to wear those shoes. At one point, his diaper leaked, so I took him to change his clothes, which included taking off his shoes in the den before heading back to the changing table in his bedroom.

When he got to the den, his first order of business was to put his shoes back on, and his Nan told me that, while the boys stayed with them last weekend, Freddie wanted to SLEEP in his Sperrys.

What in the world?!?!

9) Speaking of while the boys were at the Pressleys' last weekend - apparently, at one point the boys were outside playing when their basketball rolled down a hill. Jones slumped his shoulders, put his hand on his forehead, and said, "Troubles. We got troubles." Mrs. Pressley asked me if I'd heard him do this before. I absolutely had NOT, but he's continued saying it throughout this week. At one point, I said it to him: "Jones! We've got trouble!" and he lifted his head and looked around, saying, "Trouble? Where? Where?" The way he did that, I knew he was acting something out, so I figured he was emulating a movie.

Then, at lunch that day, he did it again. He added a very excited, "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" and that's when I knew it had to be from "Toy Story." Sure enough, I Googled, "We've got trouble" and "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" and what d'ya know?

Apparently, when Woody tries to off Buzz, one of the toys says, "We've got trouble" and another responds, "Trouble? Where?"

10) One day -- also at the Pressleys' this weekend -- Jones woke up from his nap before Freddie did from his. Jones was playing with his cars on the carpet when he heard Freddie talking to himself. Apparently, the then told his cars something along the line of, "You stay here. I gotta get my Budder."

11) Along those same lines, the boys and I started back to Bible Study Fellowship today. I dropped Freddie off in the same classroom that was Jones's last year, and Jones tried to sneak in with him. "I want my Freedie," he said. As soon as I picked him up after the study, Jones's first remark was that we had to go get Freedie.

Someone loves his Budder.

12) The other day, we were going up to the Pressleys' to drop off the cake for Jeremy's birthday dinner. As we started the climb up their driveway, Jones said, "See trees, Mama?" "I do!" I answered. Jones added, "Dey r bootiful. Dey reary tarrrrr!"

13) We were driving around killing time before picking Jeremy up from work the other day when I happened upon an old Army helicopter "parked" outside of our Waynesville VFW. I didn't even have to think about it - pulling over instantly, knowing GI*Jones would be in hog Heaven.

Of course, he was.

We've since been back.

Of course, we have.

14) Speaking of GI*Jones, this year's Halloween costumes have been set for awhile. Jones is going to be Farmer Jones, which is the title character of one of his favorite books and oh-so-appropriate for a boy who loves tractors and livestock like he does (I love that he loves this book, because I have a picture of myself around his age reading it, too, though I have no memory whatsoever of the book outside of this picture).

I'd planned for Freddie to be Freddie Bear, because, let's face it, how many more years will he (or, more specifically, his daddy) allow me to put him in a bear costume?!

Well, the other nite, I was surfing eBay looking for costumes and randomly entered "Freddie Bear." Up popped this beautiful book (with illustrations by the guy who illustrated one of my childhood favorites) from 1965. Of course, I bought it. It came in the other day, and as I read it to the boys during dinner that nite, it struck me ... "Oh, my gosh! Both of the boys are going to dress up like characters from Little Golden Books whose titles are plays on their names. THIS IS TOO PERFECT."

If you know me, you know how my crazy mind works ... and how important it is that everything have SOME kind of meaning, no matter how ridiculous, so now, the costumes that I was feeling kinda of humdrum about (well, I've been excited about Farmer Jones, but "Freddie Bear" seemed like an easy way out, so I was disappointed in myself for not having something more creative) suddenly have meaning to me.

This discovery of the dual Golden Book connection occurred on the 19th anniversary of my Mayme's death. You will NEVER, EVER convince me that she didn't send me that serendipity, as I missed her even more than usual on that saddest of anniversaries. To her I say, "I love you, Mary Alice. I wish like you cannot imagine that you could meet my boys."