A 2 YEAR-OLD WITH A POTTY MOUTH

I promise my children are not "rednecks", or "gangstas". They were not raised in a trailer park or in the hood. They do not walk around the house in their underwear or wear baggy pants to their knees exposing their underwear. We do not have vehicles on cinder blocks in our back yard, or drive a low rider with a jumping suspension around the block. They have no idea who Jeff Foxworthy is, and they've never heard a rap song. So how is it that my 2 year old has the mouth of sailor on leave? It's the minor issue of pronouncing three little words. Imagine the shock when my sweet little blue-eyed angel opens his innocent little mouth to say rock, work or truck and the words magically transform themselves into the number one NO-NO in the English language, the F-bomb! Who would've known that these words are a staple to a 2 year old's vocabulary. So I'll admit it was a little funny the first couple of times it happened, over 3 weeks ago! Then uncle Matt came over for a visit, he got such a kick out of coaxing Silas to say "it" over and over again while he rolled on the floor laughing. Or the time, to my horror, that Silas told our neighbor that mom in dad were in the basement "working" when Logan answered the front door. We were installing electrical and sheet-rock when Logan and Silas came thumping down the stairs. "Maawwooomm, the neighbor's here," Logan yells. "Me say momma and daddy "working"" Silas added cheerfully, bouncing his blond head up and down proudly. Jason roared with laughter, and as I reminded Logan that he's never, ever supposed to open the front door unless Mom and Dad are with him, we walked upstairs. With each step up the stairs I could feel the heat rising to my face. When we reached the front porch, Don laughed and said, "If you're not too busy..."

FROM JANUARY...

January 12th: While I was making dinner, Logan climbed up on Jason's lap to watch the news. Soon, they were both asleep. Must have been a long day at the office/school.


January 28th: We were in the basement installing sheet rock. Jason was vacuuming up dust and decided to have a little fun with the Shop-Vac! Silas is a cone-head,

or he could be from Whoville,
or bringing back the 50's.
Logan laughed so hard at Silas' hair that "my belley's got an ache'n in it mom."

FROM DECEMBER...

December 9th: I put Silas down for a nap and he was not ready to sleep. He cried for about 6 minutes, then I could hear him jabbering away for another 15, then silence. An hour later I went in to check on him half way through his nap, only to discover an empty crib!


After my initial panic, I noticed I could hear him breathing, I just couldn't see him. I quickly followed the faint sound of snoring to find him asleep under the changing table.

I assume he climbed onto the table to get out of his crib, then hopped down. Once he was out he probably realized that he would be in quite a bit of trouble if I found him out of his crib. Since he couldn't climb back into his crib, he did the next best thing, he found a great hiding spot! He crawled under the changing table then pulled the ottoman under the table to hide behind it. All of this must have been a little too much for his tired little body, so he fell asleep. We have since moved the changing table so he can longer use it to climb out of his crib!

December 19th: Dustin, Taska and the kids came for an overnight visit. We ate dinner, played games and watched a movie. The kids were all climbing under the table and up and over the benches. Here are all the cuz'ns just kickin' back!



Christmas morning.

FROM FEBRUARY...

February 5th. Monumental day in the life of a 5 year old. Logan asked for his first mohawk.


Silas had to have his picture too. "Me like Lo-Lo mama, peas."


February 8th, Logan built his first multi-seat motorcycle with Legos.

February 12th. Logan asked for a Robot to hold his treats and cards for his Valentine's party at school. So with a couple cereal boxes, 3 soda cans, 2 empty nut containers, some aluminum foil and duct tape "IT'S ALIVE!"....


February 23rd. Logan's cousin Zailee came for a sleepover. They get along great. They spent a lot of time outside on the swing set, riding bikes and coloring with chalk on the RV pad. They also enjoyed playing with all the Little People sets we have. Logan asked if we could make play dough, so we did that as well.

MOM'S VISIT

While mom was in town for a couple weeks, the whole family stayed at my place for a few days. It was so great to have everyone together again. Andy was here visiting from Star Valley with his beautiful fiance Ember, and their two kids Dyson and Tehya, and Michael and Matthew came from Alpine. The only one we were missing was Michael's son Carter, who now lives in FL. He's coming up for a visit the first week of April and we are all very excited to see him. The picture below: Myself & Michael in the back, Matt in the middle, and Mom, Tehya, Andy in front.


I love the pic below because Silas wanted to come and snuggle with me, so he came and laid his head on my shoulder.
Logan and Silas both love to play with these flat glass marbles I keep in an old jar in the kitchen. They use them as rocks in their dump trucks, they organize them into piles by color, they use them as treasure when they dress up as Pirates, and they make pictures out of them. Here is a sail boat and a horse that Logan made. He's pretty creative.

I HAVE A "KLINGON" BABY

I have diagnosed Silas as a Klingon baby. I've come to the conclusion that he's definitely from another planet. If you'd like to know if your child is one as well, read the symptoms and decide for yourself:

"A syndrome that can transform a child under the age of 3 into a "Cling-On". This condition has no precursors and can occur at any time without warning. The child suddenly develops a strong addiction to the mother and can become attached to this mother at the hip, the leg, the hand, sometimes the shirt or clothing, on rare occasions the hair, but most commonly around the neck. Side effects of this condition are not uncommon. These symptoms may include one or all of the the following when separated from the mother: contract a "shriek" that can break glass, only be heard by dogs or resonate for miles; show signs of tantrums which involve the child to involuntarily spasm, clench, cling, scream, turn various shades of purple, and flail arms and legs uncontrollably; develop acute "my mommy" disease with stages of jealousy and selfishness which may include the inability to share mother with anyone else and may cause the child to become physically violent to anyone who may come within arms reach of mother; and lastly, they may develop the "hanging monkey" disorder, which can increase adrenaline and give the child the ability to contort their limbs to wrap, grab and hold on for dear life, as well as form a "protective ball" where the child hunches to center mass tucking the legs to the chest making the "set down" extremely difficult.

THE PIRATE LIFE FOR ME!

Friday night we were shipwrecked with our mateys on Pirate Island in Orem to celebrate Caden's (Logan's cousin and good buddy) birthday.

We hoisted sail at 6pm. Grabbed some grub and pizza in The Smugglers Cave.
Journeyed to the "Arrgh"cade at Skull Mountain.
Explored the caves and caverns.
Went hunting for treasure and found it protected by a Pirate who told us quite a harrowing tale of life on the high seas. Ahoy thar! We avoided the pirate in the crow's nest, because he was "too scary". Enjoyed the company of some new friends.
Walked the plank before dusk.Weighed anchor at sunset and headed back to port.What a fun Pirate adventure. The Island had great food, games and atmosphere. Happy Birthday Caden! Thanks for the adventurous Voyage.

MOMMY HANGOVER!

I'm a little worse for the wear today, a little slow and am suffering from what I can only describe as a "mommy" hangover. Ever had one of these? The “I stayed up waaaaaaaaaay too last night” and am paying for it today headache, which also includes sandpaper eyes and overall grogginess! The kids were in bed by 8:00 and so was Jason due to an early morning work meeting. Since the house was quiet, chores were done and I wasn't tired, I took advantage of this rare "manna" of heavenly space to myself and boycotted my comfy bed for “me” time. It was very nice to see my alter ego “Amy” again and spend some quality time with her. Most of the time she’s “Sweetie”, “Mommy”, "Hon", or "MaaaawwwwooooooM!, with kids always underfoot, tripping over toys, food in her hair or on her clothes and running a constant 60 miles an hour as the maid, cook, judge, laundress, playmate, referee, chauffeur, tutor, accountant, gardener, personal shopper, nanny and teacher. So what innocently started out as a little web surfing turned into hanging 10 for a couple hours, one chapter turned into half a book and just a couple episodes turned into a late night marathon. Next thing I knew it was dawn. I have realized several things in the light of day. First, my house is very creepy in the middle of the night, it takes on a life of its own and makes noises I never knew existed; second, chocolate tastes amazing at 2 am; third, I definitely need to take more time for myself during waking hours so I don't binge into the early hours of the morning again, and fourth, for the life of me I can't figure out how on earth I did this routine on a weekly basis when I was in college! What was I made of, kryptonite?

WELCOME TO TO MY BLOG!

I have finally arrived!. Mark this day on your calendars, bring out the christening bottle, confetti and blowers. I am officially a blogger, a blogging mother! Why does that all of a sudden sound like a naughty word! Glad to finally have one place for family and friends to share our life. Hope to see you here!

WHAT THIS WORLD NEEDS IS A LITTLE WONDER...............

"The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph." Please take the time to visit the link below. I love this short!! What a masterpiece. I promise you that it will be the best 20 minutes you've spent in a long time. This is such an incredible message about the power of change, the strength and courage of the human spirit, the metamorphosis that each of us go through as we learn and grow on this earth, and ultimately that within each and every one of us is the grace, beauty and inspiration to become a butterfly. "The worth of souls is great in the sight of God." D&C 18:10.

http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/The%20Butterfly%20Circus/

A PIRATE WITH A BLANKIE....

One of the highlights of my daily routine is Silas' nap time. He naps during the afternoon while Logan is at Kindergarten. I admit that his nap time is my highly coveted "quiet" time since it's the only time during the day that I get a little peace. Although this time is important to me, it's not the highlight. The highlight is getting to spend 15 minutes with my 2 year old without interruption. I look forward to this time with him. I enjoy that he still thinks of me as his "buddy", that we can sit down together and build cities out of blocks, or play trucks and trains, or dress up as superheros together. It's amazing to me how fast he is growing and developing. I see changes to his sweet nature and character everyday, and each day I notice I am beginning to miss my "baby" more and more. Every day after playtime he says to me "Rock mama, rock." I adore that he still wants to cuddle with me. He always grabs his favorite blanket and climbs into the rocking chair to wait for me. As we rock we talk about many things and as most conversations with a 2 year year old, the subjects are sporadic, there's plenty of jabbering and of course, a little singing too. Today I was telling him how thankful I am to be his mommy, and that I am so glad Heavenly Father sent him to me. As we talked about his future and how he can be anything he wants to be some day, his eyes grow big and a smile crosses his face as he tells me, "Piyate Mama, me Piyate." He continued as I laughed, " me 'ave a 'at an sord an beeg ship an teashure teeoo mom." I asked him what would be in the treasure and he replied, "Fave-it bankee, sukrs, an truck Mom." I gave him a big kiss and hug and laughed a little more when I laid him down to sleep. As I closed his door I couldn't help but think of how simple his life is. His treasures were simple childhood pleasures, and although he may still be too young to understand the importance of things, he reminded me of what life is all about. "Riches do not consist in the posession of treasures, but in the use made of them." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte