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.