weekly roundup II

This is actually more like week-and-a-half-roundup, but who's counting? Little G and I thoroughly enjoyed the warm spell we had before this latest (and likely constant for the next 4 months or so) cold hit. We went to parks and played in leaves and took walks collecting ants. I brought my camera along on one of the trips to Murray Park and took some pictures of my boy that I love because he is so full of expression in them. I narrowed these way down, but I had to include quite a few so you could see the variety of faces he was making. Oh how I love this little boy.

Surprised, maybe? I'm not sure what this look is, but he does it all the time.

A combination of happy and surprised I suppose.

Love how the hat accentuates his round, full cheeks.

Fishing off the bridge with a weed, of course.

This blank stare is the look I get about 97% of the time when I ask him to look at me for a picture. You'll notice it in many pictures.

See?

And there it is again, though his mouth is a little different in this one.

Oh a smile! A real smile! That doesn't happen very often in pictures of him.

This look was because I was dropping leaves on his face from above to get him to look at me. He was both nervous and happy about it.

And this is when he is sick of me saying, "Look at Mama! Look at me just one more time!" so he covers his eyes which he thinks is hilarious.

And, once again, the blank stare. At least he has big blue eyes to compensate for the lack of expression otherwise.

Then it got cold. G is LOVING the snow and keeps saying things like, "I cannot believe this snow!" in the most excited little squeaky voice. He desperately wants to make a snowman, and has been known to beg for pajamas with snowmen on them at the store on at least 3 separate occasions. He finally got some today. Before church last week I let Baby G eat the caramel apple he got for Halloween outside in the snow. I'm not sure why I did that (dirty, wet, and freezing before church? I must be crazy), but I got a couple of cute pictures out of it.

One of the most distinct memories of G at this age will surely be the deep, monotone, repetative voice that he calls out from his bed to us with. At night he requests more songs, new water, a car to sleep with etc. In the morning it is always, "Moooooooom. I waaakeeedd uuuppp. Mooooom, Iiii'm awaaaaake." When I go in to get him this is what he looks like, and oh how I love it:

Last week also found my dear husband taking the GRE. As he left that morning I giggled that he was wearing his Tony the Tiger t-shirt from high school. When I said something about it he said, "I need a flannel shirt, too." That made me laugh even harder. You better believe that I thought it was pretty cute that he wanted to wear "lucky" clothes to take his test in, and I made him pose for a picture which he was not thrilled about. The picture is bad, but the memory it holds is great. His lucky clothes worked, grad school here we come.

For the weekend we took off to Idaho to visit Kim & Ken's family, watch Josh play in his state final football game, and have an early Thanksgiving dinner. I left G home with my brothers one afternoon to run to the grocery store and gave them very strict orders about not letting him leave their sight because he was going to need to go poop (Mom's know these things about their babies' bowel schedules) and he wouldn't just come tell them. Of course they let him leave and of course he had an accident. Of course they also left it up to my dear 8 year old cousin Emma to clean him up (boys are worthless with these things until they become fathers, I guess). When we got home everyone/thing was spic and span thanks to Emma, and we were very proud of her cleaning up abilities. Then we noticed the pile of SOS and Brillo pads in the sink. And then the line up of cleaning supplies on the counter. We had a very long laugh thinking about Emma scrubbing down my baby's most sensitive spots with Comet (with bleach, of course), glass cleaner, vinegar, and steel wool pads. I think it's safe to say that his bum has never been so clean :).

The cleaning supply lineup.

We loved being there for Josh's last football game of the season and to see them WIN state. So glad we got to be there in person. Here is Grandpa bundling up for the game. His old ski coat doesn't fit so well anymore, I guess.

G's coat does fit.

I loved looking down at the sidelines and immediately always being able to pick out my handsome Joshie. That copper hair is a dead giveaway. 

Best long snap in the history of the world, made possible by Gilliam (AKA Josh) himself. This was the play that got them the win!

Josh's arms up, declaring victory!

The next day was full of Thanksgiving festivities, but I'll post those pictures along with the Thanksgiving pictures I take tomorrow in another post. I love being married and having multiple Thanksgivings with both families. So much food, and you better believe this pregnant girl doesn't turn down any of it.

go on ahead, give it a rub

My six-months-along belly. And the same finger prints on the mirror that were there last time. I did go ahead and clean the mirror after I took this today, though :).

I mentioned before that this pregnancy feels different to me than my last one. I wrote a while ago that this pregnancy I am doing away with any excess “stuff.” Last time was all about the novelty, excitement, and need-to-know-everything-so-I-read-everything frenzy of a first-time mama. I thought about the fact that I was pregnant constantly, and I wanted anyone and everyone’s opinion about pregnancy/childbirth/parenting. I craved information and wanted to be prepared.

This time I haven’t read a single “what to expect this week” update (last time I read them religiously), in fact I haven’t read anything about pregnancy at all. I don’t think about being pregnant constantly. I don’t crave information. I don’t want details. This time isn’t about information from the outside. I didn’t necessarily plan to be this new way of being pregnant, it has just kind of become me. (And perhaps this is fairly common with second pregnancies? I read similar thoughts on cjane’s blog last week, so maybe these feelings are somewhat typical?) Without all the outside stuff, I am feeling this pregnancy more from the inside. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to know the gender of this baby—no distractions of who this baby will be to keep me from savoring the purity of simply carrying a baby within my body. Last time I knew I was having a boy and my thoughts were constantly about what that little boy would be like when he came, rather than what he was like right then, while I was pregnant. This time I have been able to focus more on the fact that there is a tiny, beautiful body growing within my own, and I am loving the simplicity of just knowing that alone, and nothing else.

One thing that’s the same this time?

I still don’t mind people touching my swelling belly (love it, actually). Something about someone (even a complete stranger) being as happy for this most precious blessing of being pregnant as I am. I love it when people want to share it with me.

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!