O-hhh

Just for the record, O has overtaken B as our favorite letter. We can find o's in the most unique places. Here are some of them:

Looking out the window of the car- somewhat suspicious but they are there- whether he is really seeing them is the question.

On the nursery wall- there is a quote on the wall that has a few o's and we can barely get through a diaper change without pointing them all out

On the fridge- at cici's house there is a diet coke magnet that he just pulled off the fridge and pointed to the o

On the curb- fire zone, anyone

Target ad- the target logo looks suspiciously like an o

What do you think it means? That we love o so much? That we get obsessed with one letter at a time.

By the way, two is still the favorite number. We often discuss whether we need one or two crayons, cookies, etc




Blessings!

Happy Easter Week!

He is risen! He is Risen Indeed!


We got out a couple of weeks ago to take some outdoors pictures. Despite a wiggly and somewhat hungry boy, daddy managed to capture a few great shots! I had 60 free photos from shutterfly, so i actually printed these and some others out, so I will be glad to share, as i got two or three of some!

Enjoy!

And, if you are around Tyler this weekend, we are having an Good Friday Garage Sale to remove the clutter from our house. Don't know if this is sacrilegious, but it is the only weekend we have. More details on our busy life to come...

18 mos and counting

Here he is folks! 18 mos today... Of course that means he has to go to the dr first thing for shots, etc. Wish us luck. Hopefully we can go on a mommy son date tonight to celebrate since the daddy has to work.



Blessings!

and then he cried

OK, so I don’t know how many other people have this problem with their child but mine actually likes going to time out. You set him down, and he just sits there, smiling and babbling and looking at everything. THEN, he goes right back to what he was doing before so that you can catch him and send him back to time out. Sometimes, he even just walks over to time out himself and sit down to watch you. What is up with that?

So, last night, we had enough. His main offenses include opening the kitchen drawers and to look for his beloved ‘poons, but finding instead spatulas, medicine bottles, etc.; also on the list includes closing the pantry door on the puppy while she is eating her food (which is inside the pantry). So, both of these are fairly big no-no’s, as both could end badly if not handled right away.

So, finally, we got it through his head (we hope) that time out is not a FUN thing. It is not something to be desired, nor a game, but is truly a punishment. Finally, he cried when we put him in time out. I think he was more startled by the deep, daddy, NO, and more crying to say that he didn’t like being told no, why would we be so cruel, than crying because he was in time out. But it’s a start, right? Not to say that i WANT my child to cry, but to at least acknowledge that something bad has transpired, ya know what i mean?

In a completely different direction, we had a great time with the cousins and other family members at the zoo on Monday. Yay for 2 weeks of only working 4 days, though I have a lot to do and probably need to work 5. But back to the zoo-Spencer was more excited to be able to run around in the fresh air than the animals, but that’s ok. He was so tired he fell asleep in the car after lunch, and slept from around 1:30-3:45-a great nap in our book. But he was still tired, so he actually sat down….in my lap….for about an hour. Granted, he was playing games on my iPhone, but still-he SAT! I knew he was tired when he sat! So, that’s a good memory to put down, and a good activity for a day when I need a long afternoon!

bye!

So, overnight, it seems, Spencer has become a big boy-a big boy who is all too happy to spend his day at daycare, bye bye mom, see you in a bit. Now, in a bit of relapse, I had to go heat up some lunch for him on Wed., because it is bring your own lunch week at school (because it is spring break and they are short staffed). NOT A HAPPY CAMPER! He didn’t want me to make lunch, he didn’t want to eat lunch, in fact, he held my hand while he took bites with the other in an effort to keep me once he finally did calm down. Needless to say, when I left to go make MY lunch, he had a meltdown (sorry to his teachers for that). So, he just got cold turkey and cheese the rest of the week.

 

BUT other than THAT, he has gone from short-lived (I think) meltdowns every morning when I drop him off, to just running in, looking around, and saying “BYE,” in the cutest little southern accent you ever have heard. I have a sneaking suspicion it is because of a new toy in their room-a bunch of soft climbing toys that he can jump around on. The last two days, he has run in and started playing, then ran over to the door when I left to say bye. I have reached my hand over the ½ door and either gotten a kiss on my hand or a high five.

 

I have to say, I am pretty proud of my little man.

Photo blog

My latest cake decorating class




My little cleaner





The garage after cleaning-- yes, after.


The trash bag where I lost my wedding ring.




Office closet




Garage sale/ giveaway pile




Eating our free chick fil a at elmos diner! We were the 100th customer!!



Mr. Potato boy borrow mrs. Potatoe head's glasses
Blessings!

Sorting Day Miracle

So, I took today off to get our house organized! I try every weekend to pick up, vacuum, and clean the bathrooms. Matt takes care of the kitchen. But we have closets (and a garage) full of items that we either don't want or don't want to get rid of but don't have the room for. You know what I am talking about-books, nails, picture frames, outgrown baby clothes. The attic is full and it is getting time to downsize. The rule is, if you haven't used it for its purpose in the 3 years+ that we have lived here, it needs to go away.

So, on to the miracle. Before I could tackle the storage closets, I had to clean up the garage and organize what we want to keep and what we want to sell or give away (and what doesn't really belong to us and needs to go back to its home). THEN, I had to go through all of Spencer's clothes and take out the winter/outgrown clothes and find all of his next size clothes. This included boxing up all the outgown clothes according to whether it belongs to him or not (we had a generous clothing donor, but they have to go back). THEN, i tackled the "office." This includes a huge closet full of all my gift bags, including the bazillon baby bags that came for spencer, Christmas bags, etc. It also includes all the office supplies that we need but don't have a place for. Also, Matt's books that he "hasn't used for their purpose in 3+ years."

Now, as I am just about done doing what I can reach with out a chair, I look down and notice that something is missing...what is wrong with this picture? Oh, no wedding ring?!? How could that be?!? My wedding ring has been loose basically since I got pregnant with Spencer, and this brings back memories of right after he was born. We were having our best friends over, and just before they arrived, I realized I had lost my wedding ring! Spencer was just a few months old, sleeping in his little seat, and I was freaking out! While everyone was busy catching up and chatting, I was trying to descretly tear the house apart. My friend Neta noticed something was wrong and quickly organized a search party. Steven found the ring, under the not-so-sleeping-at-this-point Spencer! Now, he is known as Uncle Steve! But I digress...

I try to think about everything I have touched today-a lot. I am thinking, this is the end of my sorting day. I am going to spend the rest of the day un-sorting. But I tried to keep a calm head. I walked around looking on the floor for a bit, then I just tackled it. I started with my sack of trash, I don't know why, it just seemed like a good idea. I pulled everything out, thinking, "I am probably pulling the ring out with the trash." But just as I got to the bottom, there was a shiny silver, round item.

Can you believe it. The first box of probably 20 that I had dealt with today had my ring in it. Needless to say, the ring is currently in its ring holder for the rest of the day...or at least til I go pick the boy up from day care. Anyway, I had to take a little break to tell you about m y sorting day miracle.

Here is a picture of the day I got my ring:


Now, off to finish sorting day!

Every day, since Spencer's class started going outside to play on the playground, he comes home and wants his "go go." nothing else matters, not pushing the button to close the garage (a source of great pride), not seeing Suzy, the puppy, not even eating. I think they have these cars at the playground, so he has really figured out how to make it go by himself, and he is so proud of himself. He just throws a FIT when you try to get him inside!

Sometimes I let him play, but usually I try to keep him from seeing it. Bad mommy, right? But Daddy let him play last night, while I had meetings. I need to be better about giving him his time, letting him play outside. It has been so cold for so long, we haven't been able to, but now, the weather seems to be warming up, for a little while anyway, and he just has a blast running around and playing outside.

I would rather him want to be outside than inside watching TV (which he is not really interested in), and I am just going to have to allow him to be himself and encourage his independence and activity! I am actually glad he is so active, I just don't always want to be so active!

Anyway, the last two nights, I have had meetings til about 7:30, and when I come home, he drops everything and runs, squealing, to give me a big hug, and not let me out of his sight until he goes to bed. Now that, my friends, is love and devotion!

Climber

Folks, we have a climber on our hands! From shelves to furniture to stairs to anything more than 1 inch tall, Spencer is quite the climber! He wants to get as high as possible. He has a little pottery barn chair that we put in front of the TV when we need him to sit down for a minute (although it only really works when he has a bowl of popcorn). It backs up to the coffee table, and he loves to climb over the back and slide up on the coffee table (and would probably stand up on the coffee table if we didn’t end it sooner). Last night, I moved the chair away from the coffee table and he still tried to climb over-only to tip the chair over backwards. I caught it with my foot before he could splat on the ground, but he thought it was the funniest thing ever and wanted to do it again! NO FEAR!

 

Then, he has a bookshelf with a storage trunk on the bottom (plastic). He can climb on the lid to the trunk when it is closed and reach just about everything he wants, but when the trunk is open, there is only about 2 inches of the side of the trunk to stand on-however, he can do it, then proceeds to try to climb up onto one of the shelves-YIKES! I can only imagine what will be next.

 

He also climbed up on his tractor and stood up on the seat, looking around as if the view was somehow so much better from the 18 inches or so higher he was!

 

What a character! He is definitely going to keep us on our toes!

2b

So, I don’t know if other children have an affinity for certain numbers, but Spencer is particularly fond of 2 and B. If you are counting items, he will count by 2’s- 2, 2, 2,2. He doesn’t really know that means he has 4, but he is counting. Then, we moved his changing table over by a wall decoration that is words, and he calls every letter B. I guess it is good that he is figuring out letters and numbers (although on the wall decoration, he calls the numbers B, but come on, he is only 17 mos). It is just funny that he has caught on to the 2^nd number/letter, not the first. I guess he isn’t paying that much attention when you start, but figures it out by the second.

 

Oh, if I could just read his mind sometimes, though I don’t know if I really want to!