Bling Duckie

Meet, Bling Duckie. It was created when three Isaac phenomenon's merged together.

1. Isaac's love of rubber ducks, especially this one of late, who he calls "baby bird."

2. For some reason I had a bag of plastic easter eggs among my Christmas decorations. Isaac found them and started pulling them apart and playing with them of course.

3. Isaac loves to get into my bedroom when I fail to lock it. His favorite thing to do is get into my jewelry box and put things in his pockets.

Thus, Bling Duckie was born. Doesn't the egg make a great rubber duckie helmet?

A Conversation

Andrew: "Where does Santa Live?"

Daddy: "The North Pole."

Andrew: "Does he make little boys?"

Daddy: "No, he makes toys for little boys. But do you remember? Mommy has a baby brother in her tummy."

Andrew: "OH YEAH!"

Daddy: "What should we name your little brother?"

Andrew: "I already named him. His name is Whitey House."

Daddy: "Do you like that name? What about William or Ethan?"

Andrew: "No, I don't like those names, but I do like Happy Yoshi."

Camera Fun

After complaining enough to KC about our camera we started looking at different models and prices. We gravitated towards the SLR-like digital camera group. They aren't true SLRs since you can't fully remove the lens and they are smaller than an SLR but bigger than a typical point and shoot. The reason I like this class is that they tend to have powerful zooms, larger LCD screens, SLR features like hot shoes and the option of getting lens add-ons.

We settled on the Canon S5 IS after reading reviews checking picture and video samples and finding one on sale at Walmart for 50-100 dollars less than anywhere else. It has a flash hot shoe, you can add a wide angle or a telephoto lens to it and a 12x zoom. It has all the point and shoot features plus advanced camera features and a cool super macro feature.

The one thing we love is that the video quality is comparable to camcorder quality. I can even zoom while recording! The great thing for me is that the video is recorded on a memory card so I can just drag and drop the video onto my computer. EASY!

This was supposed to be a Christmas present for me from KC but since it was on sale and it was the last one we had to get it soon. I couldn't see any reason to let it sit in a box while we had family over for Thanksgiving, so we broke it in yesterday.

KC had the idea, after playing with the features of the camera for a while, to make a movie with the boys using their toys. He thought it would be fun to reenact a scene from The Incredibles. I imagined he and the boys would sort of record a play by following the sound and moving the toys around. Boy was I wrong. He went all movie guy on me and started composing shots and scenes to go exactly with the sound of the clip. The boys got bored after a while, but still watched what we were doing. After they went to bed we loaded the video onto the computer and edited it with Windows Moviemaker. So here's the family spoof on the opening scene of The Incredibles.

The IncrediToys


(if the video doesn't work let me know in the comments, it was working fine for me at first but won't play now.)

Happy Halloween and Why I Now Hate November

So this Halloween Isaac must have really been into the spirit. No fake mummy bandages for him. He wanted it to be authentic so he bumped his head on the coffee table so he'd bleed and need a bandage until it stopped.
Actually it wasn't that bad, I didn't put the bandage on until later after it had already stopped bleeding once. A mummy would have been too "scawee" for him any way.

Both boys were really excited to finally get to wear their costumes and go trick or treating. Andrew had to be Tigger this year. I'm not sure why, but I think he thought if he had the costume he'd be able to bounce on the tail like Tigger does. He was a bit dissapointed that he couldn't really do it, but he still loved being Tigger. Don't call him Tigger though, he will say, "No, I'm Andrew." We asked Isaac a few months ago what he wanted to be and we got, Duckie. Big surprise there, although he hasn't been playing with the duckies as much lately. He refused to try on the costume until the time came, but he always said the the costume was, "Aww, cute." We just loved the tail of the duckling costume, it waddled when he walked. Too funny. I think he'll hate us in 10 years for this. Most of my pictures came out blurry, but here are a couple okay ones. ( I hate my camera now, anyone want to dontate one that is newer than 4 1/2 years old?) This is the first house they visited, see the tail?This is on our porch. The pumpkin on the left was painted by Isaac and the one on the right by Andrew. The other side of Andrew's pumpkin had an "ahhhh, scawee" face.

So October was great. Weather was nice and we had fun. November hasn't been fun yet. I don't like November anymore, well at least the beginning of it. Why? Daylight Savings ends. It used to be so cool, fall back. Yes! Another hour to sleep in! Until I had kids who have amazingly accurate internal clocks, who demand cereal first thing. I bet most moms agree. Get rid of it all together. Why mess with our delicate sleep schedules? I used to not like Spring forward, now with kids I can use that time to have a week where they sleep an hour later, YES! But I'd happily give that up to keep it simple. Maybe I can convince KC to move one more time to Arizona? Hey there's one reason to vote for McCain, he's from a smart state.

Here's one last picture, Isaac really likes the suckers.

Baby's Costume

As of yesterday Mystery Baby is not a mystery anymore. HE even had a costume for Halloween. Doesn't he look sort of freaky?
After 4 different checks for gender by the doctor we figured it out. One was a "does that look like a hamburger?", the other 3 were "That looks suspicious." My doctor tends to be vague, can you tell?. KC said, "More like a hot dog then, right." That's more specific. In the end we all agreed, boy #3 is on his way. We are keeping up a tradition as well, since KC grew up in a house of 3 boys as did his father.

There are other important things to check on the first ultrasound besides looking for boy or girl parts. There was the counting of the body parts, (Yup, 2 arms and 2 legs.) checking the head and spine, counting 4 chambers on the heart, and the measurements. I love the measurements part. That was when I first got an idea that Andrew and Isaac would be tall. Their femur measurements were always on the larger side. I worry for this baby though. His measurement was average. Fifty something percentile. Maybe he'll hit a growth spurt the next few months. Keep your fingers crossed for him.

P.S. - Name ideas anyone. I'm fresh out of boy names.

Safely Gathered In

After getting quite a few gems from this oft-updated blog I just can't keep it from my friends and family any longer.

Safely Gathered In is a "Step by step guide to food storage and emergency preparedness." Awesome! I just had to share this after reading a post about making your own oven with a cardboard box. After my sister endured a week or so without electricity after Hurricane Ike I think it would be great to know how to do this so you can still bake in that situation. There are often great recipes for food storage/pantry food items. They also encourage their readers to work on 72-hour kits and on a 3-month supply. If you need a little help and motivation in this area or just want some great tips this blog is perfect.

I am looking forward tomorrow to a wheat bread recipe that looks yummy.

Fine, I Give

My sister Marie tagged me for the Crazy 8's meme. I think I've been tagged for similar things by other friends and family, but I have avoided responding until now, I give in.

8 Favorite TV shows

• Heroes
• Fringe
• House
• Criminal Minds
• Survivor
• My Name is Earl
• The Office
• Lost

8 Favorite Restaurants

• Quiznos
• Bajio
• Taco Bell
• Los Hermanos
• Ottavios
• Ihop
• Fazoli's
• Thai Chili Pepper

8 Things that Happened Yesterday

• Went to Walmart
• Cat almost peed on the floor
• Stayed in my pajama's until dinner time
• Watched Heroes
• Watched market go down the tank
• Cleaned something
• Did some laundry
• Yesterday was pretty boring

8 Things I am looking forward to

• Christmas
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Getting my house organized
• Have a baby in March
• Class reunion
• Winter being over
• Isaac being potty trained

8 Things on my Wish List

• Casey will keep his job at least until after the baby is born
• Casey will keep his job until he finds something else he likes
• Isaac will continue to potty train himself
• I will make some friends in this new area
• Andrew will make some friends in this new area
• We can get the yard done in a year
• We can get a larger vehicle before the baby comes
• This whole financial mess will come to an end and things will normalize

8 People I tag

• 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 people that haven't done this yet and want to.

Day at Lagoon

Last Saturday our little family spent the day at Lagoon. For anyone who may not know, Lagoon is Utah's amusement park. As seen from the pictures the boys had a lot of fun. There were a lot of really cool kiddie rides and a lot of rides that we could go on with the boys. They had a kid type drop ride like at the Stratosphere Tower, I saw kids crying to get off on that one but my boys handled it okay. Isaac screamed for fun at first, and then got a little tense at the end. They loved the rides like this one where they could "drive."
Look at their faces on this one. They are loving it!Here is one ride that Andrew didn't want to go on but Isaac agreed to go. Anyone who has been on this type of ride knows that it can really drop your stomach and be intense if you're on the ends so that's why Isaac and Casey are in the middle.This is a close up of Isaac and Casey on the ride. Isaac has his head up here but the rest of the time his head was in Casey's lap.
Isaac and Andrew are both tall for their age and so they were both able to go on rides that normal 2 and 4 year-olds wouldn't qualify for. One ride Andrew was tall enough to go on with an adult was a ride called The Bat. KC was about to put Andrew on this one for his first ride, but I made them wait and go on some of the other rides to see what he could take. Andrew still wanted to go so they went. I guess Andrew really liked it because as soon as he got off he wanted to go again. This is the second time right before the ride started.
We also went on the haunted house type rides 2-3 times. I was surprised the boys weren't more freaked out from them. I saw a 9 year-old girl come out of one crying. Isaac only said at the end of the second time, "scarrry." At the end of the day we rode the rides that get you wet. There were 4 different rides, including one where you are on a raft going through a tube just like you would at a water park, but we were clothed. At the water rapids ride we all got soaked, but the boys loved it all. After Isaac fell asleep in his stroller we decided to head home, good thing because as we were heading out of the gates it started pouring rain. We were very glad we already had a full day of fun on a beautiful mild day and didn't have to quit early because of rain. We plan on doing this again next year, so let me know if you'd like to join us.

Summer Update

With the selling the house and moving business I never got around to updating about our many summer adventures. We started out with lots of camping. We camped in Mapleton, up Payson Canyon and later, twice in the Brian Head/Panguitch area.

We then had some excitement from our backyard with a homemade water slide and a forest fire on a nearby mountain.

We went bowling and spent some time with family.

Then just before the move we spent 4 days in Park City with the boys. We went on the Alpine slide, which the boys really enjoyed.

New Place and The Injury

So last week we packed up all of our junk, (Seriously, it seems like a lot of it is junk, but we took it with us anyways.) and moved farther north to a place to be kept secret from this blog. (I know you are reading bad blog stalkers.) Anyway with a lot, I mean a lot, of charity from old friends and new friends we were moved in fairly quickly.

One great blessing was that my parents volunteered to take the boys to their house while we moved. They were playing with grandparents and cousins for almost a whole week. They didn't really want to come back, but we made them. I'm mean like that. No, I guess I missed them too.

We are getting everything set up slowly and trying to cover windows with garbage bags so the neighbors won't see us in the shower and changing clothes. Not a good way to introduce yourself to the neighborhood I'm thinking. The boys are really enjoying it here. Andrew has already had a rousing game of 4-square with some neighborhood boys even though they were all 2-4 years older than him and he had never played the game before. He brought the bouncy ball so they let him play I guess. There are a lot of trails and playgrounds for us walk to as well.

Speaking of playgrounds, I now segue to The Injury. Last Tuesday I took the boys for the first time to one of the fun playgrounds. They were having fun on the spinning things when out of the blue, Isaac was on the ground screaming with his hand to his eye. I run up to him, pull back his hand and see a half an inch gash next to his right eye. My first thought was that he needed stitches. The next thought was to pick him up and take him to the house next to the park where I just saw a mom with two boys go in. The last thought was to not get blood all over myself. I ring the doorbell and introduced myself to my new neighbor by showing her my bloody son. She got some paper towels and once Isaac calmed down we were able to put a band aid on the wound since it stopped bleeding quite a bit. When we left to walk back home and go to the doctor, I said thank you to her as did Isaac which made her laugh.

So we went to the quick care place instead of an emergency room. Isaac fell asleep on the way there and stayed asleep until the doctor pulled the band aid off.They agreed Isaac needed stitches but they worried about his age and how it was close to his eye. They almost had me go all the way to Primary Children's Hospital so they could put him under to do the stitches. I decided that we would try it there. Poor Isaac. They couldn't do the topical anesthetic so they wrapped him up like a mummy and held his head still while they numbed the area with a needle. OUCH! He didn't like that one of course. I had to hold his body so he wouldn't squirm and make his head move. Once the doctor started doing the stitching he started calming down. By the 3rd stitch he was answering the doctor's questions about our cat Leo to distract him. After 5 stitches he was done. Once he picked out a sucker for himself and Andrew he was fine and chipper even. I told him to say thank you to the doctor which he did and which the doctor thought was humorous since he had just finished torturing the kid. He ran around and played the rest of the day even though both the doctor and nurse thought he would need to take another nap. What a trooper. He gets the stitches out in 3 more days, hopefully there won't be much of a scar.

Busy, Busy

I was reading a friends blog just now and was looking at her blogroll like I have on the sidebar here. I noticed that it said 3 weeks since my last post. I thought, that must be some technical mistake. I went back to this blog and sure enough, 3 weeks. I can't believe August is already more than halfway through. I guess I've been busy.

For the last 4 months we've been trying to sell our house and figure out what the heck we are going to do if we do. Last week we surprisingly had a family come back for a second visit. Two days later they gave us an offer, we countered and they accepted. They want to close by September 1st. Uhh, yeah. So luckily we already have a loan started on a house that we were still debating on buying, which we think we will buy now. So we may not end up homeless after all.

There, updated. See ya in 3 or so weeks.

The Best of: Confessions of a Sneaky Mom - Part 2

In my post last week I shared the best mealtime and chores confessions. Today I have bedtime, punishments, and just because confessions. What's your favorite?

Bedtime

• Sometimes I put them to bed really, really early. There are days when it's either put them in bed early or completely lose my mind. It works out great because a) I'm not yelling, b) they aren't that great at telling time yet, and c) they're happy as clams playing in their rooms, thinking they've tricked me into believing they're asleep. If I need to walk by their rooms, I just stomp my feet extra hard so they have time to jump in bed and pretend they're snoring. (It almost makes me proud, what good fake sleepers they are. They do the slow breathing and everything.)
• When they were too little to read, and I was too tired to read, I'd turn over the pages of the book two at a time. Somehow, they didn't seem to notice the disjointed plots.
• When they got older I'd say, "Hey! How about reading MOMMY a story? In my bed?" Then I'd keep telling them I was listening with my eyes closed.
• I got so annoyed when they started teaching A. to tell time in kindergarten. It works very much to my advantage that I can tell him, "It's bedtime! That's not the sun still in the sky...they're testing nuclear devices across the bay! G'night!"
• Back in the day, when our kids were little, we would let them watch one episode of RugRats before bath, stories and bed. My cunning husband videotaped several episodes so we could pop one in, say "Hey, RugRats is on!" and get them to bed at 5 p.m. if necessary.
• My children always thought they were pulling one over on me at bedtime. They knew they could stay up later if they got me talking about dating and marrying their father. It did work, but what they didn't realize is that I also got to bear my testimony about the importance of temple marriage and living the gospel. Ha!!! Now, that was sneaky.
• Second off... it is a family TRADITION to mess with the clocks and send your kids to bed early every now and again. My mom did it, and her mother before her, what the heck kind of ingrate would I be if I did not take the superior parenting tools I have been given and USE them?
• We always turn the clock forward on New Years Eve and when the first countdown happens in NYC, we tell them that is it and make them go to bed.]

Punishments

• I "punish" him by taking away or making him do things that we were going to do anyways, like "that's it! you know your not supposed to make your sister cry so now we can't go to Grandpa's to go swimming!" when really grandpa's not expecting us until the weekend.
• I might say something like "Well, since you didn't clean your room, I'm not taking you to the movies!" When I had no plans to take them there in the first place.
• I also confess to early bedtimes, mac & cheese or cereal for dinner on many occasion, going to long between baths, going to bed without brushing teeth, and turning the door handles so I can lock bedrooms from the outside, effectively locking my children in their rooms.
• Sometimes I'm just waiting for the offspring to do something naughty so I don't have to read them a bedtime story.
• Well I once handcuffed 2 of my boys together w/gb (garbage bag) ties. They were fighting terribly and it stopped them cold.

Just Because

• One time, we were really poor and my daughter (13 years old then) had a growth spurt. Needed all new clothes. And she was very fashion conscious. She would die before she'd step into a thrift store. So I gave my sister $20 and sent her to the thrift store and she bought a bunch of clothes, put them in big black bags and brought them over saying they were hand-me-downs from a cousin in another state. My daughter loved them and wore them happily. I waited until she was 20 before I told her the truth.
• K, I'm confessing. When I had 4 kids under 6 and the 1 pm church schedule, I used to give the 2 youngest a spoonful of Triaminic before heading off to church. Primary was first, so by the time they got to Sacrament meeting they were asleep after the Sacrament. All the other moms in the ward would comment on how lucky I was that those two kids slept through the meeting. Little did they know!
• I ate all the good candy from halloween and I still blame them for my gas.
• My kids were really old before they learned batteries can be replaced. The toy would die, and I would say, brightly, "Oh too bad! The batteries are dead." And they would be sad, and the obnoxious piano/crying doll/whatever it was would mercifully be quiet. I was soo annoyed when a well-meaning, childless man said, "But batteries can be replaced!" and ruined it for me.

The Best of: Confessions of a Sneaky Mom

Yesterday, Sue, at Navel Gazing at Its Finest, wrote a blog post about true mom confessions. You know, things that many moms do but don't usually admit to it. I thought a bunch of the confessions were shocking, funny, and good ideas. So I decided to gather together the best ones, categorize them, and post them here. For credit to the original moms I am just going to link back to the original post and comments. The examples below are not necessarily representative of this blog poster's opinion.

Meals

• Last week, everyone wanted pancakes for dinner. My response was, "Fine, but you'd better have vegetables too!" Which is how my family came to have broccoli and buttermilk pancakes for dinner.
• I will confess for a friend, though. She is an obsessively good parent (her kids eat every vegetable known to man and they like it!). However, one morning when her twins were toddlers and she couldn't fathom making breakfast for them, she just poured a pile of Cheerios on the floor under the dining room table and let them help themselves. (I should talk--typical scenario in the van: "Mommy, I'm hungry!" "Find some pretzels in the crevices of your car seat.")
• I used to give them bran muffins and tell them they were cookies.
• Oh, and, like all kids, my girls always want to have a bite of my food, sip of my drink, etc. So, I discovered the only way to keep them from siphoning all my food is to put hot sauce on it - so far so good.

Chores

• When my kids are irritable and bored and at each other's throats, I sometimes like to help them bond by pitting them against me. I tell them to go clean the playroom and not to come out 'til it's sparkling clean. They'll angrily trudge in there, but a few minutes later I'll hear whispering and the sweet sounds of plotting. Every so often I'll bellow out "You'd better be cleaning!" and I'll hear them giggle because they are SO not cleaning. They get along independently for hours because, hey, THEY SURE PUT ONE OVER ON MOM.
• My daughter saves everything too...Trash, candy wrappers, packaging from toys. It's disgusting! So every now and then, I "help" them clean their room. When I clean, I make "piles" of stuff to put elsewhere in the house. When it's about time to be done, I tell the girls, "Wow, you did such a great job helping mommy, why don't you go downstairs and play, and I'll finish the rest" They can't get out of there fast enough, and it gives me time to take the trash outside without them knowing!

That's it for today. I still have 3 more categories to share. As a teaser they are, Bedtime, Punishments, and Just Because. I'm now curious if my mom had any tricks she used on us kids.

Giant Block Letters or Typography for Kids

When our little family is on the road, we are always on the lookout for an exciting GIANT block letter inconspicuously painted on a mountainside. Ever since Andrew learned his letters at 2 years old it has been exciting to spot these letters. First it was the "Y". That is probably the easiest letter to find in Utah Valley. Last year he found the "P".



And then on a trip to the Salt Lake valley we noticed the harder to find "G". Last year he talked often of wanted to touch the "P". He would mention this to pretty much everyone and I had to qualify that it was the letter P not any other kind of P. Anyway on July 4th, 2007 Casey took Andrew and they found a trail that led to the P. So now it was, "I touched the P". I still had to do some qualifying for that one.Andrew at the P.

This last June we took both boys out to Provo and we hiked up to the Y. It was a much more difficult hike than it was to the P. I used the monkey backpack for Isaac so he didn't wander off a cliff, but I ended up carrying him on my back most of the way anyways. Andrew was very exciting about being able to touch the Y. His only comment afterwards was that it was cold.

Andrew at the Y.

We drove past the G the other day and he seriously asked if we could stop and hike to it. So now I think we have a tradition here. We drove past Nephi recently and there is a J there on the mountain. Why a J for Nephi? Does that make sense to anyone else? So now Andrew wants to hike to the J. He told his Grandma all about this recently and she suggested we visit the giant H that is near her house. How many more giant block letters can there be in Utah?

Duckies

So recently Isaac has ended up with his own little family of rubber ducks. He calls them his "duckies." The first ducks to join our family were the blue and the green one. I bought them for the boys for Easter this year since they needed something to play with in the tub other than the shark and the killer whale that doesn't swim anymore. Andrew thought his was okay and played with it, but Isaac stuck with his and soon adopted Andrew's blue one as well.

The next duck to join the little family was the larger yellow one. We were shopping at D.I. when I found the duck for Isaac to play with since he was getting bored. He was attached immediately and I couldn't bear to part him with the duck so we paid the $.50 and took him home.

Than, while we were in Hawaii, Grandma found out about his duck family and how important they were to him. (Even now he's upset because he saw the picture of his duckies and he can't find one.) While at Thanksgiving point Grandma bought him the tiny yellow baby duckie. That same week she brought the black duck which has sunglasses, horns, a puka shell necklace, and the word AXE on his chest. Uncle Rich had this at home and she figured he'd want Isaac to have it. He's on a mission and so doesn't have much say in the matter. Anyway his flock quickly grew in one week. This last week he added one more prize duckie. Grandma bought him a key chain duckie about the size of the baby yellow one. It's not a rubber duckie, but rather it is electronic and brought a big smile to Isaac's face. You press a button on it's side and a LED in it's mouth lights up and it says "Qua-Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack."

At least two duckies accompany him to bed every night. I let him take a ducky on car trips and even let him take the quieter small duckie to church today. His flock is so large that when he tries to carry them all, one inevitably falls and when he reaches to pick it up another falls and so on until he gets upset. So now we have a duckie bucket for him to carry them all together. What a cute little family.

I Won!

I actually won something for once. Actually it's my second time winning something in the last 5 years. The first time was at some crappy website where you click on crappy offers and every time you click you are entered to win a satellite radio. My purpose in subjecting myself to this was to win one for a Christmas present for my big brother. One day I clicked on at least 100 of these and actually won. COOL! I believe my brother enjoyed the present and I was glad I could get him something cool for Christmas.

So recently I did one of those, comment on this blog post and we'll draw a winner for such and such, comments on the Light Refreshments Served website. The blog is a group blog featuring 4 women bloggers talking about life with a LDS twist. The blog is sponsored by Excel Entertainment which has something to do with Deseret Book. So about every month they have a give away. I entered for the Baskin Robbins gift certificate, but didn't win that one. :-( Then I entered for the $50 movies gift card and YES I surprisingly won. We're exciting because the gift card will be for Cinemark theaters. There is a nice theater in Provo we can go to for new movies, but the coolest thing is that Cinemark also has a dollar theater in Provo, cha-ching!

So see ya at the movies this summer!

Don't be Jealous

So a friend from high school told me last Thanksgiving that she was getting married, most likely in Hawaii. I was surprised when KC said that if she did, it would be a good excuse to take a vacation there. I didn't hesitate and we booked the trip. So the first week of June we pawned our kids off on my parents, sorry mom and dad, and flew out to Maui. It was an awesome trip.

Highlights were:

• Snorkeling and snuba diving at Molokini crater
• Spending as much time as we wanted doing nothing
• A Helicopter trip around Haleakala Crater and the rain forest waterfalls
• Sunrise and sunset walks on the beach
• A Sunset dinner cruise, which was also the wedding reception
• Not changing one diaper or wiping one bottom

It was nice to spend some time alone together. I also enjoyed spending some time with old friends and making some new ones. The plane ride home and jet lag wasn't the funnest, but it was worth it. Here are some photos of the trip for you to drool over.

KC on the beach just a bit down the hill from our condo.

Sunset at Kaanapali Beach

Just before we did our snuba dive, like scuba but instead of a tank on your back you have a hose and a tank on a raft at the surface.

Our helicopter trip stopped partway through on this secluded beach where we explored and had some snacks.

The wedding ceremony was held at these privately owned botanical gardens, it was beautiful.

The sunset as viewed from the cruise boat. It was hot but beautiful.

A decent photo taken by me. Aren't we cute?

It's Better!

So I think it was a phase. Not too long after I posted about Isaac's no diaper policy he stopped doing it. That was after he tried it out in church during Nursery. It had to be the day he had new teachers. I bet they regretted taking the calling after Isaac took off his pants and diaper and hid under the table. Thanks for the words of support from my 5 readers. As a mom of two young boys I'll need advice from time to time.

Coming soon: The travelogue of KC's and I's trip ALONE to Hawaii. I repeat, no kids for 1 whole week, it was awesome.

It's Worse!

Before it was just his pants and sometimes his shirt. Now it is the diaper too and he's not very consistent about it either. His desire to remove his pants and diaper are quite random. It makes it worse because I get used to him being good and not taking them off then, SURPRISE! The diaper is off or almost off, as the case was today. I found him in the process of taking a POOPY diaper off while SITTING on the COUCH. That was fun. Earlier this week he took it off while sitting on a carpeted step. I didn't know he had done it until he came to me and showed me his poopy hand. Nice. It was smeared on the step.

I went to get him out of his crib today from his nap. No pants, no diaper. Luckily it was just wet. You might think he was ready to be potty trained. But he's not. I think he's scared of sitting on the toilet. He likes to flush it and pretend to wipe, but when I tried to have him sit in the Blue's Clues potty seat he started yelling and squirming.

The only solution I've been able to think of is putting pants on him that he has a hard time pulling off. Do you other mommies or past mommies have any other suggestions?

Is that a Backpack or a Leash?

So I am very, very tempted to get one of these for Isaac. We were at the park the other day having a nice picnic with friends. He kept running off despite my best efforts to keep him in view. Tired of chasing him I took to watching him play near the fence of the tennis courts at a distance. He's a smart one though and once he figured he was far enough he just started to book it outta there. I had to book it after him myself cause he was headed straight for the little road that cars use to get into the park. After crossing the road safely he then ran straight at an elderly man and grabbed his legs as if he wanted him to save him from his Mom. Later he ran off in the other directing again.. running straight for the same elderly man and hugging his legs. The man may have wondered if Isaac was asking to be saved from his restrictive mother.

Isaac is always looking for a way to run away. One day the boys were in the backyard playing. I let them play out there alone because it is tightly fenced. The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there was my neighbor from across the street with a little boy that looked a lot like my kid. The gate had been left open. Another time we were doing some yard work and the gate was open for about 1 minute before he sneaked out and went to another neighbors house and started pounding on their door.

So a leash.. I mean cute monkey backpack with a long tail and a handle at the end could be a great help in keeping him in line while we are out in public. Is this demeaning?

UPDATE: So I picked up the monkey backpack leash at the store. The boys thought it was a great toy. Isaac wore it around the house for the first day. Last night we were able to use it for the first time outside of the house. It worked pretty well. When he'd run off while I was holding the tail he'd basically pull on it until he fell to the ground, not very graceful. But it kept him near me. Later he wanted it off because he realized I was keeping him from getting into everything. It's not a perfect solution, but at least when I turn my back he can't run off.

Pacifier Gone

Well Isaac is off the pacifier during both day and night. I decided that since he is now 2 years old he shouldn't have it anymore, especially since it was fast becoming his best friend, even when he didn't have it during the day. He has always been a easy child when it comes to going to sleep. This is mostly thanks to the pacifier.

The night I took it away I didn't know what to expect. He asked for it at least 5 times. "Fire?" he'd say. I told him that I couldn't find it, it was lost, it went bye-bye. I guess he accepted my answers eventually. So now at bedtime sans pacifier I give him a bit of milk in his crib and luckily he doesn't protest much. He's been sleeping better at night as well, since he's not waking up needing help to look for his "fire." It has been nice, so pacifier problem solved.

Cold Spring

Spring here in Utah has been quite abnormal. The last month or so has frustrating, especially with two young boys who want to play outside. It has been going like this, 2 days or so of beautiful weather, but maybe a bit windy. Then a warm turning cold really windy day, when the cold front comes though. The next day is cold. The day after that is also cold. Third day is a bit warmer but still chilly then we finally have a beautiful day. The day after is almost summer like weather, then the cycle starts again. We might finally be getting out of this cycle now that it is May.

Because of the periodic warmer weather we turned our automatic sprinklers on last week. The first day they went on at 6 am I found this a few hours later. It was very pretty in the morning light.
The sprinklers sprayed the bottom of the tree and since it was a very cold morning we had a tree full of icicles. Sadly the cherry blossoms had just come out so there may not be any cherries growing at the bottom of this tree, but the other blossoms seem to still be fine.

Isaac Turns Two

Last week Isaac officially turned two years old. I can't believe the little guy is already two. My parents, sister and her kids came to celebrate the weekend before his birthday. We had cupcakes, opened presents and played outside with bubbles. The weather was actually really nice that day which has been really hit and miss lately. Here is a picture of the boys and their cousins on one of our rarely warm spring days. The boys sure love seeing their cousins and grandparents.

For more celebrations, the next weekend we met up with some friends at Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove and had a fun two hours playing. Isaac is fearless even with the biggest slides. He could climb up the ladder and go down the steep slide all by himself. He and Andrew LOVED it.

The boys also had their yearly check-up last week and here are the updated measurements for them.

Andrew - 4 yrs old
weight - 37 lbs - 57 %ile
height - 42 in. - 77 %ile

Isaac - 2 yrs old
weight - 34 lbs - 97 %ile
height - 37 in. - 97 %ile

Big 4 Year Old

Andrew turned 4 years old this past week. We were visiting Grandma on the day of his birthday. When we'd say "Happy Birthday" to him he'd say "No... it's not my birthday yet."
"When will it be your birthday Andrew?"
"When I get my cake and blow out the candles," he says. I guess it's gotta be official with him. So after dinner we finally got out the cake and he got to finally be 4. Nevermind that months before he was saying he was 4 already. I guess he was tired of waiting for his birthday, but once he realized his real birthday was getting closer he consented to being 3 again for a while. He refused to even try any of the special ice cream cake we got him. We sorta knew he'd refuse so mommy and daddy chose the flavor.

Five days later we had a real birthday party for Andrew with some of his friends. Surprisingly he ate 3 cupcakes that day, I guess he's willing to eat some cake now. But no ice cream for that boy. He blew out 4 candles again and announced to another mother that he was now 5 years old since he blew out more candles. Nice try buddy.

The birthday party theme was Disney Pixar's Cars. Lightning McQueen was every where. I made a poster size McQueen for the kids to color. They did a good job for a bunch of 3 & 4 year olds. They played with cars of all types and we had a lot of fun with balloons. What's a party without a bunch of balloon wielding sword fighters?

I See London, I See France,

I see Isaac's underpants. I can't keep this boy's pants on. Every chance he gets after I put pants on him he tries to pull them off. If I stop him, he runs to hide and then pulls them off.

When we are out of the house things are a bit more difficult. The problem (for him)... shoes. He can't get his pants past his shoes. While at Andrew's preschool this week, twice I was notified,

"Isaac's taking his pants off."

I look at him. His pants are around his ankles.

We make eye contact.

He starts waddling away as fast as he can.

He doesn't get far.

Is it a sign of bad parenting if he walks around half naked in the winter?

UPDATE: February 11, 2008 - Isaac is now into pulling off his shirt after he's had his pants off for a while. So now he's practically naked (besides diaper of course) part of the day. I'm a great mom.

Life is an Education

Things I've learned this year.

• Take all food and dishes away from toddlers as soon as they are done. Although the sign that they are done is when they (Isaac) start throwing the food. Then it is almost too late.
• Splashing in the tub is no fun if the glass door is shut.
• Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. are much more fun to a 3 year old than educational computer games.
• Learning to walk doesn't make a needy child less independent and needy. They just have an easier time getting into things they shouldn't, and can follow you around crying more easily.
• Forbidden fruit is much sweeter. Toddlers have a 6th sense knowing when a door is open or unlocked that normally isn't. (That is how Isaac disappeared for 5 minutes on a cold Christmas morning.)
• Child proof knobs aren't always child proof.
• Six adults CAN get along for 9 days together in a RV.
• You always have a lot more stuff in your house than you think.
• Two little boys are tough, but a lot of fun to raise.
• Being positive is essential being a happy wife and parent.

I wish everyone a happy 2008 and hope your 2007 was as good as mine.