faces of two

Two-year olds are still so little. Two is not very old, and even though my two-year old

seems so big to me, the reality of his littleness makes me happy. I love that I still have so,

so many years left of him home with me. Here are some recent happenings with our little boy,

along with some pictures I took of him making faces the other morning when the light coming in

through my kitchen window was so lovely I couldn't ignore it.

One day last week I was cleaning out his ears. G was not loving it, so I stopped to explain

what I was doing. I said, "We have to clean out our ears because stuff gets in them. Do you

know what is in your ear?" After a moment of reflection he declared, "A wac." I was

stumped for a second, and then quickly burst into a fit of laughter when I realized what

he meant. A "wac" clearly is the singular form of "wacs." Otherwise known as "wax." Get it?

He's obviously heard me say I was cleaning out "some wax" before, and I think it is just

about the funniest thing ever that he would realize a "wac" was the right way to make "wax"

singular. The way kids just learn and pick up on stuff absolutely amazes me.

G has a really endearing habit of turning words into sweet, diminutive versions of themselves.

He has always called my mom "NeNe" (like "neigh neigh"), and has now started referring to her as

"NeNe-tootski," just because it's funny and playful, I presume. He also used to add "-o"

to the ends of many words (as in, "drink-o" or "Mommy-o"), and now he has changed to

"-io." Getting him out of bed to the phrase, "I just woke up-io!" is one of my favorite things.

I also love getting him "some food-io" and looking forward to when "Daddy-o" comes

"home-io." Tonight we are going to the movie theater to watch a "show-io" with our

"popcorn-io." Love this little talker.

Potty "training" came and went, but I hesitate to even call it "training," because it really

just kind of happened. He started wearing underwear and I took him potty every hour or so,

and that was it. In the first week or so we had a couple of accidents, but he mostly used the

toilet every time. Since then, we haven't looked back. As soon as he started wearing

underwear all day he also started waking up with a totally dry diaper. So we started wearing

underwear at night too, and have had only one accident in almost a month. Anyway, of

course there will still be occasional accidents I'm sure, but it is nice to be at this point. So

the other night I put G to bed, and about 20 minutes later I heard him calling for me. I

went in his room and he asked me to get him his "tiny black pillow." I couldn't find it (he

said he threw it), so I turned on the light. Out of the corner of my eye I just happened to notice

that the pajama bottoms and underwear I had put him to bed in were now on the floor off

to the side of his bed. I had to go look at him just to make sure I wasn't crazy, and yep,

sure enough, there he was laying in his bed completely naked from the waist down. If I

wouldn't have turned on his light to look for his pillow I probably wouldn't have noticed

and he would've slept in the nude. But I can't really blame him-- sometimes (especially

when I am pregnant and waistbands drive me crazy) I would like to sleep naked, too. This

whole getting naked by himself stuff is uncharted territory for us though (he never once

even tried to take off his diaper), so hopefully this doesn't become a habit that ever leaves

the privacy of our home. I can just see him stripping down in nursery.

Speaking of sleeping (sort of), can I just say how nice it is to have a baby that enjoys getting

his sleep? He seems to know that sleep is a good thing, and even though he will sometimes

protest starting in on bed/nap time, once he's asleep, he wants to sleep. If he wakes up

from his nap early and still tired I go in his room and ask him if he wants to get out or if he 

wants to lay down and go back to sleep while I sing him a song. He always wants to go back 

to sleep.

Now that I've made him sound practically perfect, let me share with you the roughest 90 minutes

we've ever had. It happened this week (Wednesday, to be specific), in between the hours of 4:30 

and 6:00 PM. We were at the grocery store. G was sort of restless, but I needed a few more

things, so I handed him a bottle of chicken bullion to look at. Very entertaining, I know, and

apparently he thought so too. Within a minute he threw it across the store and the bottle

shattered into a million tiny pieces and bullion cubes were everywhere. I was a little shocked,

but quickly got him out of the cart and made him pick up the bullion cubes with me. Then

he had to go put back his fruit leather that he had picked out as a treat. A little traumatic, 

but we got through it. We had been home no more than 4 minutes when he took a new bag

of tortilla chips out of the pantry and started stepping on them, smashing them to tiny bits.

A little time-out, and a stern-talking-to later, he was back in the living room while I was

cooking dinner. Within seriously like 2-3 minutes I went in to check on him and he had totally

broken one of my pumpkin decorations. Bless the fact that at this point his daddy walked in

the door. More stern-talking-tos, disappointed looks and sadness, and then into the bath.

Dad's job (thank heavens) because I was cooking dinner. Pretty soon I hear, "Oh no! That's

not what we do..." etc. coming from the bathroom, only to find out Baby G had decided

to throw his clothes into the filled tub. On the way out of the tub he threw his towel in.

Seriously. This all happened in the span of an hour and a half. Bedtime couldn't come soon

enough. I've been exceedingly grateful that the two days since Wednesday have been relatively

easy and free of any chaos of that kind, but I'm also realizing that there will likely be more

days like Wednesday ahead. He's two. That's part of his charm at this age, I guess, and if

living through days like Wednesday means I get days like today where he grabs my face in

his hands, kisses my lips, and proclaims, "You're my best friend, Mommy-o!" then I will take

them.

teach me about halloween, mama

About 2 months ago Baby G (I really have to come up with a better name for him on here) and I were laying in my bed early one morning. We were chatting about something when he suddenly said, "Teach me about Halloween, Mama." I have no clue where that came from, but I started telling him about what Halloween was like and what we would do for it etc. I told him that he could dress up like anything he wanted and started listing off some ideas. After I had run through a few different possibilities, I asked him what he wanted to be. With almost no hesitation he declared, "A golfer!" He had just recently received a little set of golf clubs from my practically-professional-golfer grandparents, and had been playing with them constantly. I thought his idea was brilliant, and have been so excited about dressing him all up as a spiffy little golfer (Payne Stewart style) ever since. 

I found some pants at D.I. for $2.00 that I cut off and sewed elastic in to make knickers. I found the argyle vest at Kid-to-Kid for $2.25. The argyle socks were a few dollars, and the rest of the costume (button down shirt, loafers, hat, golf clubs) consisted of items we already had. I was pretty happy about the final look, and honestly, I don't think we could've come up with a cuter or more original costume. Every person who saw him made a comment about how stinking cute it was. But do you want to know what is sad? I didn't get ANY good pictures of him in it. He dressed up in it for different parties/events on 5 separate occasions-- I just kept telling myself I would take some good pictures on Halloween before trick-or-treating. Then Halloween rolled around and I was preoccupied making corn chowder for our ward party later that night, rushing it over to the church early since we were going to the ReAl playoff game and were going to be late, rushing to the game, leaving the game 10 minutes early (and missing the winning goal!) to get back to the church in time for the trunk or treat, rushing to get the trunk decorated, and then passing out candy. By the time I remembered to take some pictures, the light was already gone and I sadly had to use my flash. None of the pictures are very cute. But oh well, this is what we have. Maybe I'll dress him up one more time just to take pictures. But let's be honest, I probably won't.

On Thursday we had our Fall Festival at school. I was so happy that my Lucy costume fit even with my growing belly. Here we are all dressed up at school:

This is when I first remembered to take pictures at the trunk or treat. Baby G was much more interested in golfing on the lawn at the church than he was in getting all the candy. He has a pretty awesome swing.

When we went home to drop some stuff off after the trunk or treat and before we went around the neighborhood to trick or treat at a few houses I took a couple of pictures in the bright kitchen lights. They aren't great, but you can get a pretty good idea of what his little costume looked like.

Leaving our house to go get some candy. We didn't get too creative with the pumpkins we carved this year, but at least we did it at all, right?

This was Baby G's favorite house. It is one of our neighbors, and for the past week about 3 times a day he would request to go over with his frankenstein spatula (last picture in my last post) and look at this frankenstein and compare the two.

I thought maybe I could get a spooky Halloweeny picture of him under the street light, but it just looks like the exposure is off. This was my last attempt, and when it failed I gave up :).
Now that Halloween is over I am starting to feel the excitement of the November/December holidays. When I looked at my phone this morning and the date said Nov. 2 I got all excited just thinking about the upcoming season and everything it brings. And the best part? When it is over and people are feeling the post-holiday blues, I will still have a new baby bundle to look forward to! So excited!

signs of the times

I'm pretty sure that autumn gets me in the baking/creating mood more than any other season. Christmastime may be a close second. The freshness in the air and cool temperatures fill me into a homemaking frenzy every year. Here are a few of the things we've done this season that just ooze fall/Halloween.

I've mentioned before that squash is basically my favorite food ever. I could eat it for every meal. I was so excited to try a recipe for squash soup, and let me tell you, this one did not disappoint. Aside from peeling/gutting/dicing the squash, it was simple to make. And the homemade gruyere croutons? To die for. (Though I did use swiss instead of gruyere-- just couldn't bring myself to spend 21.99/lb. for cheese.) Recipe found here. (Don't have a picture of the finished (blended) product, but this is while it was getting all soft and delicious.)

Oh the joy of fresh apples from trees. Almost nothing is more autumn-y, right? This batch came from a neighbor's tree, and I baked up a new (to me) recipe for apple crisp that turned out really, really yummy. Recipe here. (Again, this is not the finished product. Can you imagine an apple crisp without the crisp? No, of course not. This was just when the apples were getting all juicy with the cinnamon, flour, and sugar.)

My mom gifted me a few old Family Fun magazines that had some ideas for Halloween crafts that I loved. I always get ambitious with plans to create up a storm for holidays, but my follow-through sometimes is lacking. This year I was pleased because I have completed each project on my list. Here are two of them:

For family home evening one night we went out and found a bunch of rocks and then painted them orange. The next day I drew on the faces with permanent marker, glued on some sticks for stems, and voila! A happy little pumpkin family for your mantle (or in my case, bookshelf).

This was my favorite idea initially, but I have to say that the finished product doesn't thrill me quite as much as I thought it would. Perhaps because the fruit peels that are the facial features are continuing to curl as they dry out more (even though I dehydrated them in the oven and left them out overnight at the beginning), and they don't stick to the squash/pumpkins as well as I would like. But they are a pretty cute little trio when their parts are all on, and Baby G LOVES them (which perhaps accounts for some of the features falling off), so I am glad I took the time to make them. The green pumpkin that I used for the witch was the single offering from the enormous pumpkin plant that overtook my front flower bed (ironically enough, this was a random plant that sprouted all by itself (perhaps from a stray jack-o-lantern seed from last year?), and the pumpkin plant that we planted on purpose in the backyard failed to produce anything but pokey leaves).

This wasn't something I created, but it is fallish, so it counts. We love going to Oktoberfest every year and eating all the yummy German food. This year Baby G got his face painted like a pirate and he loved it so much. Please take note of his little bent finger acting as his pirate hook.

I first saw this idea months ago here. I filed it away in my brain to make when Halloween was near, and this past Sunday my mom came over and helped me whip up many dozen of these darling little ghosts.

I wrapped them up, added a fun tag (got the idea from the same blog), tied it with pretty ribbon, and then we went and delivered them to neighbors last night. Baby G really wanted to eat one while we were out and about, but I told them those ones were just for our friends and neighbors. "But I'm a friend and neighbor, Mama," he insisted. We played up the idea of how good it makes you feel to give treats to your friends instead of keeping them for yourself, and after the first two houses Baby G enthusiastically asked, "Can I give a cookie to EVERYONE?"

We were at Williams-Sonoma on Monday. Baby G spotted this frankenstein spatula and fell in love. Since we were with a grandma (my mom), of course it was purchased for him, much to his delight. It has quickly become his favorite thing. He sleeps with it and we have cooked pancakes and eggs for the last two nights just so he can help us "flick" them over. I don't think I would've thought we would've gotten our money's worth out of a spatula for him, but we totally already have.

And lastly, two little stories that you could kind of twist to make Halloween related.

Baby G has a Halloween shirt with a big bat on it that he has been wearing. A few weeks ago he asked to sleep in it. After he was in bed for about an hour he started crying. I went in to see what was wrong and he couldn't stop talking about how scary the bats were. I tried to console him, telling him that bats were nice and wouldn't hurt him, but he protested with tears and, "Bats are NOT friendly, Mama!" I tried to get him to take off his bat shirt so he'd forget about it, but he wouldn't. Anyway, he finally fell asleep and that was the end of it. The next day we were at Costco with my mom. Baby G was standing up in the basket part of the cart and was a little wobbly. My mom said to him, "You are scaring me, G," because of his unsteadiness. He gave her a puzzled look and replied, "I'm not a bat, NeNe!" I cracked up because it was so funny to me to see how his brain was working-- clearly if something is scary is must be a bat.

Last night Baby G woke up in the wee hours crying (this doesn't happen that often, I swear). I went in to hear him sobbing about the bugs that were stinging him. It was evident that he was having a scary dream about bugs, and he was insisting a gray and black spider had come in his crib and was in his shirt. I felt all around in his shirt and promised him the spider was gone. "The spider left?" he asked. "Yes, it's all gone." He sweetly and enthusiastically cheered, "Yaaayyyy!" and then immediately plopped back down in bed. Before I left he requested that I sing "I am a Child of God" to him, which I of course did. I had been back in my room for 20 seconds when I hear him calling out something to me. I go back in his room and he is saying what sounds like, "Up here. Up here." I thought maybe he wanted his blankets up higher on him or something, but he said, "No, Up here! Up here." Then it clicked. He was actually saying, "A prayer! A prayer!" I said, "Oh, you want me to say a prayer?" "Uh huh," he replied. I said a prayer and then went back to my bed smiling. I love LOVE that when he was scared and having a hard night the two things he wanted were "I am a Child of God" and a prayer. Oh to have the faith of a child!

weekly roundup

I take pictures almost every single day, but I only post about 20% of them on this blog. I like to keep my posts somewhat organized and themed, and it is hard for me to just put up a bunch of random pictures that don't have anything to do with each other in one post. But I've started to re-think my ways. I want to document more of our simple days. I already take the pictures-- I just need to write about them. So I am going to try to do a "Weekly Roundup" post here and there. Maybe they will happen often, maybe they will be sparse, but I am going to make more of an effort to chronicle all the little things that are going on around here. Starting now.

When my husband's dad was going through treatment for brain cancer he often wore those beret-type hats. We have many, many pictures of him wearing those hats, and whenever I see that style of hat in Baby G's size my heart flutters and I can't help but want him to wear it and be like his grandpa. Baby G has a couple of them now, and this past Sunday he wore one to church. He looked so handsome and sweet, and the whole day I could see parts of his grandpa in him. I hope the beret isn't the only thing those two will have in common-- Baby G is so blessed to have some of that incredible man's blood running through his veins.

Baby G insists on carrying his "Book of Mormots" to church like Mommy and Daddy.

Not sure where this face came from, but it makes me smile.

Love his hands in pockets and that his pants are getting flood-ish-- tall boy.

Our nightly routine lately consists of Daddy reading the books and Mommy singing the songs. When I came in the room to start my part (after the reading was done) Baby G was laying on J's lap, looking up at him and they were telling a "Sodo Story." I wanted to remember the way they looked, so I took a picture.

We had to run up Milcreek Canyon on Friday to retrieve the diaper bag that we had left there at a wedding a couple of weeks ago. If you know my husband (and son) you will know that of course we stopped to collect bugs and play in the river.

See Baby G over there in the corner fixing his "fishing pole" while J dips his net thing in the water to collect bugs? I love boys.

One morning last week J stayed home from work and took Baby G to a sporting goods store (to buy some shoes) while I went running with my neighbor. When they got home, Baby G was proudly wielding a real, metal, destructive bat. And J hadn't gotten any shoes. 
We went to a pumpkin patch (along with the rest of the valley) for family night. Baby G seemed to only like the pumpkins that were still green or rotting or really ugly, but we let him choose his own anyway. I love the mountains that we have as a backdrop. 

I had to include this one because it shows how Baby G grabs your face ferociously when giving kisses.

And lastly, this is one of those things that I didn't have any clue that would bring me such delight, but holy cow, folding these little boy underwear and piling them up to go back into Baby G's drawer filled me right up on Sunday night. J and I were folding a load of laundry and I couldn't help but go through and find all those little underwear and stack them up and just look at how cute they were. J thought I was a little crazy, and maybe I am, but doesn't this picture make you fill with happiness, too? It is the same feeling I got when I ironed a tiny church shirt on a Sunday morning for the first time-- something about the realization that I am living this life as a mama to this little boy. Little happy moments in underwear, I know, it's a little silly.

i'm having a really, really good day...

...and I think this is mostly why:

When I got home from my morning run/walk I found these two boys out in the front yard in cowboy hats and boots. I was laughing so hard at the basketball shorts (with paint stains) and boots combo that I couldn't even ask why on earth they were dressed in cowboy attire.
My husband was on the phone, pacing the yard like it was totally normal. I ran in to grab the camera and managed to get the boys near each other for a quick picture, and then they both went back to their business of walking in the front yard looking like crazies. I just laughed. I'm sure there was a reason for this get-up, but I never really did find out what it was (something about getting out a fishing hat, which led to Baby G wanting his hat, then the boots, then wanting Daddy to put on his boots, too). But why, really, were they in the front yard? Perhaps just to make the neighbors laugh.
I can't stop grinning about it whenever I think of it. Oh how I love living with these two people!

dear friends,

Since I've kept you all in the dark for so long, let me answer some of your questions. To be honest, it has been easy to keep this pregnancy under wraps for so long because it hasn't seemed real. My husband frequently forgets I'm pregnant, and I kind of do, too. I have not been sick AT ALL. I kept waiting for that familiar nausea to start, kept bracing myself to wake up and feel miserable, but it hasn't happened this time around. People keep telling me that maybe that means it's a girl? (More on that in a minute.) But really, I have felt so, so great-- been able to keep working out daily, and most importantly, been able to chase after my two-year-old without any ickiness. One of my big fears about pregnancy number two was not being able to take proper care of Baby G because I was too sick and tired. I have felt incredibly blessed that that has not been the case at all. 

Secondly, it has been easy to hide (and forget) because I haven't really shown a whole lot. I noticed a thickening around my waist, but at my last doctor's appointment (16 weeks) I was measuring two centimeters small and had gained less than a pound. I didn't really show with Baby G until I was between 19-20 weeks, and I just chalk it up to being tall and having lots of room for the baby to hide. No worries though, in the last week I have popped out and here is the picture to prove it:

Pretty please try to ignore the smudgy finger prints ALL OVER the mirror from the shortest member of our family. I noticed them when I was taking the picture but was too lazy to go find the Windex. Sorry.

 

And then lastly, to ease your curiosity (though it won't, actually), we do not know if the baby is a boy or girl. And we won't. Not for another 5+ months. We have decided to wait and let this little babe come to us as a surprise and I am really excited about it. Before I got pregnant I just kept thinking about how thrilling it would be to wait and find out the gender at the moment of delivery, but I wasn't sure I could handle the suspense. Now that I am pregnant, it seems easy and natural to not know. I have had an ultrasound, have seen the baby and heard the heartbeat, but I feel content not knowing more. I don't feel the same rush and yearning to know it all with this one. It's hard to explain. With Baby G I literally had ultrasounds at least monthly (usually it was more like twice a month) at my dad's office, just to go take a peek. We'd get in the car on Sundays and go to the office to say hi to the baby. As excited as I am for this little one, I don't feel the same frenzied need to read everything and see everything and know everything. I just feel peaceful about letting it all happen as naturally as possible, with as little extra stuff as possible (including at delivery, but that's a story for another time). Anyway, I know most people think we are crazy (my husband is totally on board with this whole deal), but it feels right and good and we are super excited about it. I don't personally know anyone who is still in their childbearing years who has chosen not to find out the gender while pregnant, but my mom and other relatives who didn't have the option to know with some of their babies have expressed how completely thrilling it is to have the baby and then find out who he/she is. And it sounds too good to pass up, so we are going for it.

i love this shirt

I got this shirt a little over two years ago. I was in search of some cute shirts that flattered my just-barely-gave-birth body, and I fell in love with the color, style, and super soft material of this one. Not to mention that it still had the original tags on (I've told you before that I do almost all clothes shopping for myself at second hand stores, right?), so I bought it without even trying it on. I got it home and tried it on. I still loved the color and material, but the style? Holy moly, the last thing to do when you are trying to NOT look pregnant is to buy a shirt with pleats over the waist. I had hoped that when my flat tummy returned the shirt would work, but no, even with my pre-pregnancy stomach this lovely shirt still managed to make me look like I was at least 5 months with child. So into the deep recesses of my closet it went, with the promises of being retrieved when I was ready to start showing off a belly full of baby once more.

Two years later and the shirt has been pulled out. We're pretty happy about it.

*Baby coming in early March

**Yes, that does make me almost 4 1/2 months along. Don't feel bad, we didn't really tell anyone until I was around 14 weeks.