It has been two months since Evie had J.J. I personally think we are rocking this whole single mom thing.
As I predicted the boys love each other.
They are already good friends.
I swear Chester’s first word was J.J.
It took several tries before Chester found a food he liked. Of all the things we tried, including ice cream, it was actually peas that became his favorite food.
Chester continues to unlock milestone after milestone. He can now stand, crawl, and sleep through the night.
He also learned to dance.
Chester and I both make sure to spend time with Rascal. Chester loves petting Rascal. I think they are really cute together.
J.J.. has also reached several milestones including cooing and laughing. He is a sunny infant. Unfortunately, he also reached the “pee on caregiver” milestone which didn’t trill Evie.
Since I also know the Deliciouso spell I rarely cook, so it was a challenge making Chester’s birthday cake.
I am not sure if the guests will want to actually eat this cake. First Rascal walked through the cake.
Then Chester spit all over it while blowing out his birthday candles.
Chester is now an adorable toddler. He was a cautious infant, so it made sense that he would be a clingy toddler.
Mom and the whole Delgato family came to the party. I unfortunately can’t summon dad since I am not a medium like mom.
Sasha’s daughter Abbie is now a toddler too. I spent some time playing with her and then got to meet their newest addition Amelia.
Sounds like Amelia won’t be the newest addition for long as Sasha is pregnant again. I admit I was surprised as Amelia is only a few months old.
The biggest shocker (THANK YOU MCCC) is that my ex Kieran is having a baby with my enemy Freya. I find that absolutely hilarious.
Anyway, back to the party. It was so cute seeing Chester introduce himself to Evie.
In addition to mom, Sasha, and the Delgato family I also invited Sunny. We spent some time during the party flirting.
Before sneaking off for some shower woohoo. I am bound and determined to put that clown’s frown upside down.
After the party, I went into the city for an open mic night. I listened to the other comedians.
Before performing a routine of my own.
Hey, everybody! How’s it going tonight? So, I am a single mom. My son just celebrated his toddler birthday earlier today. As an infant he was very cautious, especially when it came to trying new things. That made for some challenging meal times as he is very picky when it comes to what foods he will try.
I’ve tried every trick in the book to get him to try new foods. “Here comes the airplane!” I’d say, zooming a spoonful of mashed mango toward his mouth. But you know what? That airplane crashed every time!
The first thing I learned about my picky eater is that his taste buds are just plain weird. He has this secret playbook of what’s acceptable and what’s forbidden. Applesauce? Nope. Carrots? Uh-uh. Yogurt? Gross. Ice Cream? TOO COLD! But I gave my son peas, and suddenly he is begging for more! Go figure!
Thank you, everyone! Keep laughing and keep feeding those picky eaters!
The crowd seemed to love my performance. I also earned a promotion to Opening act.
My act was pure comedy gold and I can’t wait to write more routines. Apparently, telling stories/jokes about the challenges of parenthood is a winner.
When I got home I read Chester a bedtime story.
He has the “hates bedtime” and “loves wakeup time” quirks so getting him to stay in bed has been a challenge.
Thankfully, Chester loves his dino rocking horse and can spend hours on that thing.
Which usually has the added bonus of rocking him to sleep.
We have also been working on learning how to use the potty chair.
Evie has been busy doing tummy time with J.J. He can already lift his head and reach for things.
She is such a great mom. She recently reached parenting level three and discovered that she is family oriented.
Chester loves watching Evie and J.J. do tummy time.
Chester just loves his cousin. Chester will give J.J. kisses and let us know the second J.J. needs anything.
In addition to hating bedtime, I also learned that Chester is a picky eater. This should not have been a surprise seeing as the only foods he would eat as an infant were peas.
Eating foods he doesn’t like makes Chester sad. Fortunately a hug from his big stuffed dinosaur makes it all better. Hugging Dino also helped Chester reach level 4 in communication.
Chester has also been working on imagination, potty training, and his movement skills.
Evie and I both recently came home with another promotion. Evie is now a C-lister while I just got promoted to Jokesmith. The nice thing is that our jobs only overlap by three hours meaning the kids only need to be at daycare from 5-8 pm.
Unfortunately, Evie has a work rivalry with Matthew Watson. Those two can’t stand each other. Evie and Matthew have to figure something out or Evie won’t get any more promotions.
When Evie is at work, I have been doing Tummy Time with J.J. while Chester watches. He loves to cheer his cousin on.
We have been working on crawling and sitting.
I do feel a little guilty that he reached all of these milestones while Evie was at work.
J.J. has such a sunny personality. We recently learned that he loves sounds.
And dancing.
I have been inviting Sunny over to the house more frequently. I have fallen in love with this sad tragic clown.
Chester also loves Sunny. They talk to each other and do flashcards together.
Unfortunately, Rascal is not a fan of Sunny.
While many people pick Winterfest, Spooky Day, or even New Skill Day as their favorite holidays mine is Prank Day.
Evie got me first by jumping out and scaring me. Then I got her back with a noxious cloud.
Then later I worked on some more comedy routines.
I wrote one about going on the worst date and another about how crazy children can be sometimes.
Time has gone by so fast that soon we are celebrating J.J.’s birthday. Evie also aged into a young adult.
He is an adorable toddler and no surprise has the charmer trait.
The first thing he did after aging up was give Chester a big hug. Those two are so cute together.
As I watched Chester, J.J. and Abbie dancing to the music I couldn’t help but think how about how happy I am. In fact, it has been a long time since I had a gloomy thought.
I think I am finally ready to go from being a sad clown to a happy one.
Author’s note: Ulla’s comedy routine was written in part by ChatGPT. I work for a university and it is a hot topic right now. As I was writing this chapter I wondered if I could use it to write a comedy routine for Ulla. I just typed in comedy routine about a picky eater. I used some of what it generated and tweaked it a bit to fit Chester. I wanted to be upfront as I didn’t want anyone thinking I wrote that part totally by myself. A comedian I am not!
THE OKAYEST SHOW 