Highlights

Here are some of the highlights from our life over the last few months:

• I have been canning like crazy! It all started when we discovered grapes growing on our fence. So, of course, I had to bottle grape juice. Then, mostly because my mom got me a screamin' deal on some apples, I also put up a bunch of applesauce and apple butter. It has been a lot of work, but its very rewarding to have a pantry full of food that was basically free. And, by the way, homemade apple butter is DIVINE. You should try it sometime.
• Little Man is FINALLY using the potty ALL BY HIMSELF! All of a sudden, he's just doing it! I have never been more proud of him!
• Little Man's current obsessions are Buzz Lightyear (Don't let him get started on his "Buzz Lightyear shoes that light up the dark!" He's had them for months now and he stills talks about them nearly everyday.), dinosaurs (more on that later), Spider-man, anything spooky, including ghosts, monsters, skeletons, and jack-o-lanterns (he can't get enough of Halloween, even though its been over for weeks!), and Harry Potter (yes, I'm turning my kid into a total nerd).
  
• Last month, we visited the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah. We made it just in time for the Dinosaur Show. At the end, when the kids got to come up and ask questions, Little Man walked up the guy and asked, "Is that a Utahceratops?", referring, of course, to the skulls that were recently discovered in Southern Utah. The guy looked at him, and said, "Yes, it is. How do you know that?!" Again, my kid is becoming a nerd.
• Little Man dressed up as Buddy the T-Rex from the show "Dinosaur Train" for Halloween this year. I guess it is now a tradition that I make all of L.M.'s costumes. This one took me nearly 20 hours (including much unpicking), but he loved it, so it was worth it. My favorite Halloween-night quote was when L.M. saw a kid dressed up the "Scream" killer, complete with sickle. When he saw him, Little Man pointed and said, "Look, Mom! A paleontologist!"

Besides that, life is pretty much same-old around here. We have enjoyed the fall very much and are now looking forward to the Holidays. Little Man can't wait for Santa to bring him every toy he's ever seen advertised. A kid can dream, right?

Completely Spoiled

Yesterday was my birthday. And, seeing as how I'm no longer 8 years old, I didn't really think the day would be all that spectacular. I was planning on spending the day working, going out for dinner, then having a piece of cake at my mom's house. A good day, but not spectacular. Well, the day completely exceeded all of my expectations. It started with a very early phone call from my mom, wishing me a happy birthday. Then she called back 5 minutes later, telling me to hurry and turn on my radio so I could hear the Birthday Round-up. Oh, geez....
Once I got to school, everyone seemed to know it was my birthday. All day, co-workers and students were very enthusiastically wishing a happy birthday (my 2nd period class even burst into song!). My two good friend at work got me a cake, complete with candles, that we dug into at lunch, and they even ordered me some Harry Potter action figures for my desk. During the last class of the day, an office aide walked into my room with a bunch of balloons and roses and told me that a man with a long white beard had just dropped them off for me. The card was signed Professor Dumbledore. I eventually got my mom to confess that it had been her.
Later, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant (this is the one day of year that James can't veto me, so I went big!). Dinner was lovely and afterward, everyone met at my mom's for cake. I got more presents, more good food, and spent most of the evening laughing so hard with my sisters that I couldn't breathe.
It was such a lovely, lovely day. It really made me take a step back and realize how many truly wonderful people I have in my life, and how lucky I am. I felt intensely loved and very blessed. I'm not sure I deserve any of it, but I am so, so grateful for people that make me feel so special.

Summer Fun

Although summer has been VERY short this year, we have tried our best to squeeze in as much fun as possible. There have been camping trips (well, one anyway), visits to the park and the pool, family get-togethers, and trips to Salt Lake. Here are a few pictures:

For some reason, we keep thinking its a good idea to eat ice cream cones in the car. What are we thinking?!



The highlight of the summer for Little Man (and possibly his life), was our visit the the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point.

My new favorite photo:
Can't you just hear him telling us all about the dinosaur he's looking at?


Posing with the brachiosaurus.

A Boy's Prayer

Warning: This story might be offensive and cause intense laughter. Proceed with caution.

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but every time I tell this story, I end up with tears rolling down my face because I'm laughing so hard. And I keep thinking... I need to blog this!

We were saying the prayer at bedtime, and Little Man was repeating the words that James was saying. Here's what was said:

James: Please bless LM to grow big and strong.

LM: Please bless LM to grow big and strong in his wiener.

And now you know the deepest desire of Little Man's soul, and I would venture to guess, the soul of every male on the planet.

Trying to Be Grateful

Some reasons why I am (or should be, anyway) grateful today:

• Even though my car is probably totaled, nobody was injured in the accident I caused today.
• We finally got our deposit back from the old apartment. (But, who charges $165 for carpet cleaning?!? Ridiculous...)
• I got to spend some quality time with Little Man watching Toy Story 3.
• Little Man only had one accident today (and it happened at home), even though we had a couple of long car rides and a long movie we sat through. Yea!
• We were able to visit family today and enjoy a delicious barbecue.
• Tomorrow is Sunday, and I have no plans!

And, just because it has been so very long since I posted anything, here are a few pictures of what's been going on around here.

On the first official day of summer, Little Man fell at the park and broke his nose. He was very swollen and colorful for several weeks and ended up needing to have surgery to set it. He's all better now, and although I don't think his nose looks quite the same, at least it's not crooked.


We've been spending lots of time with the cousins now that summer's here. Here's Little Man and Cousin E, bathing together. This picture will come in handy someday, I'm sure. Mwahaha...


Little Man's favorite activity these days is playing in the water. He loves to play in the canal in front of the house, get sprayed with the hose, and run through the "sprinkles." Here he is with Daddy, running/being dragged through the sprinklers.

Showing Off

Here's a video of Little Man "reading" one of our favorite books at bedtime last night. Enjoy!

Baby Animals and Fighting Dinosaurs

Oh, Spring Break? Where have you gone? This has been the fastest week of my whole life, I think. I spent most of the week scrubbing walls and cleaning out cupboards; after being stuck inside all winter, the house was feeling really yucky. I think having a toddler has something to do with it, because I've never felt the urge to Spring Clean before this year. I just really wish that the whole house could be clean all at the same time. I think I could make a full-time job out of chasing my boy and cleaning the house.

I did manage to get out to do a few fun things this week. On Thursday, my sister and I took our kids to the annual "Baby Animal Days" at the American West Heritage Center. It was much busier than I had anticipated, but we all had a lot of fun petting the animals and eating the greasy food, even if we did have to wait in line for a little while. The only pictures that I managed to get before my camera died were of Little Man petting the baby goats. I really wish I'd had a picture of him holding a chick all by himself. He almost squished the little thing to death, but he was thrilled.

This morning I was feeling like I really needed to DO something, since it's the last real day of Spring Break. At the last minute, I decided that Little Man and I were going to go to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. We drove down, had lunch at Burger King, then proceeded to the Park. Little Man was in heaven! If you've never been there, it's a little museum, plus a huge park full of life-size statues of dinosaurs. They also have a dinosaur-themed playground, which Little Man couldn't have cared less about. He just wanted to keep walking around and looking at the dinosaurs. For the rest of the day, he kept asking when we can go back to see the "fighting dinosaurs." I think we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer.



And one last picture. Tonight, while getting ready for bed, Little Man said, "I do it all by myself." Here's the result:

Did somebody say Easter candy?

I realized today that I made a significant parenting mistake. While we were watching Conference, anytime "Easter" was mentioned, Little Man's ears perked up and he would say, "Candy? Easter candy?" We had a talked about why we celebrate Easter, but I know all he'll really remember is eggs and candy. Any tips on how to teach a little one about resurrection?

We did have a fun Easter, though. The Easter Bunny visited us in the night and left eggs to find and a few small presents in Little Man's bucket. We had a leisurely day watching Conference then went to my sister's for dinner, another egg hunt, and, of course, more candy. Seriously, we have more candy in our house than we did at Halloween! And since Little Man is a candy fiend, there have been many temper tantrums at our house today.

Little Man has had a few rough potty day in a row. Tonight, at my sister's, he was playing by himself in his cousin's room. I went to check on him, and walk in to see him with his pants pulled down. Upon closer inspection, I saw that he had pooped his pants. When I asked him what he was doing with his pants down, he pointed to the doll house toilet he was trying to straddle, and said, "I go potty, Mom." Close, honey. How can I even be mad?

Gotcha!

I'll bet that you thought I died, right? Fell off the face of the Earth? Or maybe you just thought that I'm a full-time teacher who is also the mother of a 2-year-old and that maybe blogging rarely makes it to the top of the list anymore?

I realize I haven't blogged in two months, and I really wish I had been. Little Man has been growing tons and tons and I haven't documented any of it. Shoot. Here are the highlights that I can remember:

• He had RSV (we think) at the end of January. James called me at work one morning to tell me that Little Man had thrown up and couldn't breathe. I left work early and ended up spending the afternoon at the doctor's office getting albuteral treatments and x-rays. He was fine in a couple of days, but it was very scary. The best part of the experience was what good boy he was about the whole thing. He wore his dinosaur mask with gusto! And when we got the x-rays, the tech told me all about how Little Man would probably cry, but only because he was uncomfortable and that it would actually make the x-ray turn out better. Little Man didn't even complain at all. I had told him we were on a "Dinosaur Adventure" and made a game out of the whole thing, and it worked. I've got a great kid.
  
  
• Little Man turned two! If you ask him how old he is, he will tell you that he is six. Sometimes he acts more like a six-year-old than a two-year-old. He is very, very smart. He's learning his letters now. And he still loves dinosaurs. At his two-year-check up, he told the doctor that his favorite dinosaur was brachiosaurus, and then she started talking about skipping kindergarten. If he wasn't already small for his age, we might actually think about it.
  
  
• He got a big boy bed! Yea! He's been sleeping in it for almost a month and it still hasn't occurred to him that he doesn't need someone to come get him in the morning. I think this is hilarious.
• 
• He's very nearly potty-trained. In the last week or so, he's only had 2 or 3 accidents. I'm sure he'll regress again, but he seems to be on an upward swing for now.

Also, and this is just for posterity, here is a list of some of Little Man's favorite things right now:

• Favorite Book: Mr. and Mrs. Noah by Lois Lenski
  
• Favorite Color: Green
• Favorite Food: Fruit Snacks (or, as he calls them, fruit candies)
• Favorite TV Show: Handy Manny
• Favorite Thing to Do: Look for airplanes in the sky
• Favorite Word: Mommy (Or any variation thereof. He often refers to me as Mom, Mama, Ma, Mother, Tiffy, and Honey. All of them are getting old.)
• Favorite Movie: The Land Before Time

And, finally, here are a few pictures.
With Daddy.
Reading a story with A and Uncle David. He LOVES his cousins!

He went through a phase where he liked to lay in the pack and play and read stories. Sadly, this was a short phase.
I'm not sure, but I think he's being a T-Rex in this picture.

The Life of Little Man

I have no "news", per se, but thought I'd quickly update you on the world of Little Man these days. This is mostly for my own memory; feel free to skip this one.

• He is still obsessed with cooking. Getting him his own kitchen did not help to get him out of mine. And now he pulls the step stool over to the drawers and takes everything out of there, too.
• He really likes to sing. He personally sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Who Stole the Cookie," and "Mr. Alligator Can't Catch Me." He often requests me to sing "Bee Song" ("I Caught a Little Baby Bumblebee"), "Happy Song" ("If You're Happy and You Know It"), "Child of God," and the "Grumpy Song" (which I made up).
  
• He is bilingual! Last night, after helping him with something in the bath, he looked up at me and said, "Gacias, Mom." All of those hours of Dora are really paying off!
• He know his shapes. I discovered this last night at story time, when he rattled off all twelve shapes in the book we were reading.
  
• His new favorite word seems to be "Don't." I hate this.
• He asks for a piece of candy almost immediately after waking up every morning. He even tried to order candy at a restaurant last night.
  
• Our bedtime routine has a new ritual. Instead of laying on the floor very nicely while I rub his lotion on him, he now does a running jump onto my lap, throws his arms around my neck and proclaims, "Tall Mountain!" while I quickly try to slather him up. I'm still not sure if I'm the tall mountain or if he is.
  
• In order to go to sleep at night, he has to has Osie (his stuffed dog, whom he named himself), Duck, Tigger, Froggy, and Mike Wazowski in his bed with him. These stuffed toys must be laying down and be covered with a blanket before I am allowed to leave.
• Every afternoon, he gives us a running dialogue of everything he both said himself and heard others say while at daycare that day.
  
• He loves dinosaurs. He will often "roar" at us while pretending to be a dinosaur. And he can pick out and name T-Rex and Triceratops.
  
• He really likes reading his stories. Most evenings, he will climb up in his rocking chair and read stories to himself for at least half an hour.
• He loves to count. He can count from 1 - 3 and from 8 - 11. I'm hoping he'll get the ones in the middle someday soon.
  

I know I've said it before, but I really think I've got the cutest, smartest, and funniest boy around. I sure love that kid to pieces.

My New Favorite Picture

Little Man and I spent a good chunk of our evening together drawing and coloring. Maybe it's been a long time since I sat down and watched him color, but all of a sudden, he's COLORING! He's concentrating very hard and only coloring certain parts of the picture; suddenly, those lines on the page mean something to him! I was astounded, but you probably aren't. This is a picture right before bath time tonight. The sight of Little Man in big-boy unders makes my heart flutter a little. Also, notice the marker on his belly and the Coco Puff sludge on his face. Does it get any better?

The Evolution of Little Man

Has it really been a month since I blogged?? I won't bother to make excuses... I'm sorry.

In the last month, my Little Man has really grown up. He kicked the sippy-cup habit, and more importantly, he said bye-bye to diapers. Most people think I'm absolutely nuts for trying to potty train so early (including my husband, I found out two days ago) but he had his first accident-free day today, exactly two weeks into the process. Not bad, I say. He still hasn't got the hang of telling us when he needs to go, but as long as you get him to the potty, he'll sit and do his business (and then exclaim, "I did it! Pee-pee potty toilet!"). I'm so, so proud of my little guy.

Christmas has also come and gone since I last posted. I just found out that someone **clears throat and casts a meaningful glance across the room at James** deleted all of our Christmas pictures. I'm feeling pretty devasted about losing the pictures of Little Man's second Christmas. He got a play kitchen which he adores. We had it set up when he walked out into the living room Christmas morning, and he walked straight to it, grabbed the play food, and started "cookin' ". A few days later, I asked him if he liked his new kitchen, and he looked at me and said, "Mom, I lub it!" He also got lots of other presents, including some new blocks (which he uses to build "Gramma's house" and "tall mountains"), a Magna-Doodle, some books, a potty and underpants, and lots of candy. And now that we've lost the pictures, there is no evidence to prove how overboard I went, so there is nothing to prevent me from doing it all over again next year.

I do have a few pictures of life around here from the last week or so. Isn't he a cutie?

Showing me his big smile.
Hugs at bedtime.

One of Little Man's new favorite foods is pudding. He would eat it all day if I let him.

Lookin' sharp in his new Sunday clothes.