Big

Last night I watched my boys work on putting together M’s new big boy bed!

M was so cute carefully tapping each slat with his plastic hammer. He is so desperate to be just like his daddy. It’s just funny because M thinks he is SO big. He doesn’t know his toolkit isn’t Black & Decker; as far as he’s concerned he has the real deal.

It kind of reminds me of those memes that were floating around all over tarnation a few moths ago:

I kind of wondered how M would transition to his big boy bed, and his first night was great! He only popped out of bed and rattled the doorknob once. He was so excited to be able to have his own real bed. After it was all set up in his room he spent much of the remainder of the evening reading books in bed and tucking his stuffed animals in. I checked on him several times to make sure he hadn’t fallen out or anything, and he looked peaceful and content every time. Spencer said he found him on the floor before he went to work, but from what I could tell he had a pretty good night. I can’t believe it! First big boy undies, now big boy bed. What’s next?!   

Update on M (at 21 months)

I just love the age that M is at right now. He’s always been my little buddy, but he is so interactive and has such a cute personality that the time we spend together is especially fun. I mean, of course we’ve always enjoyed each other’s company, but I think it’s kind of a parallel play vs. cooperative play kind of thing. We are to the point where we can enjoy so many activities TOGETHER not just because we’re close in proximity, but because M is able to glean more and more each day from the experiences and adventures we share. 
Like going to the store for example. There are days when it’s definitely more work than when I toted him along in his wrap, but I love that he wants to walk through Target with his hand in mine, pointing out every Elmo that crosses his line of vision. He wants ME to notice the things he finds noteworthy. I love that. Or the times when he helps me bake and gets so excited to pour the ingredients in. He wants to copy just exactly what I am doing as he carefully stirs the batter. Or the other day we were sitting on the floor playing with his Noah’s ark and he was helping me match animals and laughing and laughing when the giraffes fell overboard. I’ve always loved playing with my little boy but it’s so fun for me that he is learning to play back, to understand and make little jokes, and actually communicate with words. I love seeing him turn into a little walking talking human! He amazes me every day with the things he picks up and figures out. We have such fun together. M’s vocabulary is improving so much each day. I love hearing the cute way he says words. He often adds an “ee” sound to the ends of words, which is funny because we don’t really speak that way to “cute-ify” words for him. He just adds it on his own. The exception to this is I do sometimes accidentally call water “watee” because M has called it that for so long that it just kind of pops out. Lately our favorite has been that M calls pajamas, “nammies.” I love that one. He loves to read and we enjoy making trips to the library together. Some of my favorite times of day are when I get to read to him because it is just the best when he will cuddle on my lap. M has been developing a longer attention span for books with more words which is fun for me because I have so many children’s books that I am excited to share with him. It’s so special to share something I love very much with my kiddo. I’m glad he likes reading too. 
(Oh dear, I realize it looks like he’s naked here, but I promise he isn’t)    

M is still a pretty cuddly kid, and will even request multiple times a day to cuddle on my lap. He does this cute thing where he wraps his arms around my neck and pats me gently on the back. He has surprised me in many ways with how gentle and sweet he is for a little boy. When I found out a boy was joining our family I pictured a little rough and tumble kiddo. He does like wrestling with his daddy (and his stuffed animals actually) and he has a good amount of energy for certain. But I never expected that my little boy would be such a cuddle bug. I had no idea he would be so affectionate, but I am soaking it all in before the day comes that he’s too big to want to smooch his mom.
M LOVES football. He has even pointed at the TV and asked, “football?” One time he started cheering in Walmart and it took us a second to realize he could see a football game being played on all of the screens in the electronics department. I think his love for the game mostly springs from his desire to see his daddy hoot and holler. However,he has asked for football on occasions when daddy wasn’t around so I don’t know what it is that appeals to him so much. I would think it would be boring viewing for a toddler, but he likes something about it.   

Big events of note:

Potty Training: We recently started potty training M and he is off to a really good start. It’s a little earlier than I would have expected to start him, but he was so obsessed with potties (and LOVES the Elmo potty song) and wanted to sit on the potty all the time anyway so we decided to just see how he would do. And he’s done great! The first day we started I wondered if we was really ready, but by the second day he had improved so much that I knew he was going to be fine. By the third day he pretty much had it figured out. It is so very, very strange to see him wearing big boy underwear instead of diapers and I kind of miss the way his pants looked all puffy with a diaper bum. But we are proud of him for being such a big boy!

Nursery: M was a little hesitant to start nursery, and we were in there a lot at first while he adjusted. But he loves nursery now! I think this has a lot to do with our family friend being called as a nursery leader. He really liked this friend even before she was his leader, and having her in there made things so much easier and happier for him. Now on the days we have church he is very excited for nursery and even starts asking “nursery?” before sacrament meeting is over. Last Sunday when we dropped him off he even waved to us and said, “bye bye.” Then we came to pick him up, he was running around with some other kids having such a good time that he didn’t want to leave. I’m so glad that he has a fun time in nursery.

San Diego Safari Park

On Christmas Eve we took a trip to the San Diego Safari Park which was so fun because I hadn’t been in YEARS. San Diego truly does have the most impressive zoo/wild animal park I have ever been to, so I was so excited for my boys to see it (Spencer had never been). What makes the Safari Park unique is it’s huge 300+ acre enclosure where several species of animals roam together. It is truly amazing to see. 

It was fun for me to re-visit a place I had been to so many times in my childhood. In fact, for pretty much every picture we took there, we had taken a similar picture (or twenty) of me and my sisters when we were little. For example, I have tons of pictures of me and my sisters perched on that Rhino in the above photo. I wish I had digital copies so I could post them here, but alas I’ll have to track the hard copies down sometime and scan them in.

We were excited to take the babies to the Lorikeet exhibit. 


I’m fairly certain that my gooberish expression in the above photo has something to do with the fact that I was scared of getting pooped on (a common hazard in this exhibit). A lovely Lorikeet had pooped in Shari’s hair just moments earlier (a moment we captured video of, thank goodness), and we were all on high alert.

M was a bit scared of the birds, poor fellow.   


We tried to visit our favorite butterfly exhibit next, but were dismayed to discover that the butterflies had been replaced with lame ole’ birds. Shari came running out of the exhibit hollering, “Evacuate! Evacuate! Ticking time bombs!”

There’s lots of fun little nooks and crannies for kiddos to play in and explore:


But I’m pretty sure that one of M’s favorite parts of the day was sharing an ice cream cone with Grandpa. It’s the simple pleasures, really. 

Christmas Vacation

We spent the week of Christmas in California with my family. We had such a grand time and, as usual, we are a little bummed to have to get back into the swing of things. How is it that such trips are looked forward to so much for so long and then over so quickly?

We had quite the adventure getting to Califo. With delayed flights, missed connections, change of destination, and lost luggage to boot. We didn’t get to my parent’s house until after 3:00 AM. But it could have been much worse, because at least we made it to CA the next day and at least M was happy the whole flight, even though it was WAAAAAAAAY past his bedtime. I was so worried he would cause a ruckus for the other passengers, but he was very cheerful for both legs. Thank goodness.

We very much enjoyed getting out of the cold and soaking up the eighty degree weather. Prior to our trip we hadn’t seen much sunshine in weeks. We spent a good amount of time just basking like lizards in the backyard/sitting in the hot tub. It’s amazing how much better I feel when the weather is lovely. Of course the dogs all had to join us. They always do:

And the Bug enjoyed getting lots of cuddle time with gramma and grampa and cousin. There is just something so sweet about seeing your parents love on your kiddo.

The highlight of our trip was celebrating Christmas together, naturally. We have this tradition that we always get to open one present on Christmas eve and it’s always pajamas. This year the boys all got matching Superman jammies! Mason’s even had a cape! I love it ever so much:  


Spencer and I had so much fun playing Santa. I have always gotten so excited at Christmas that I can’t sleep, but Christmas has been especially exciting since having a kiddo. I stayed awake for hours just waiting for morning to come. There is something so magical about seeing the holiday through M’s eyes. He was enchanted by all of it.

Christmas morning we got to skype with Sister White! EEE! She looked so pretty and happy and it was so darn good to see her face. It made me so homesick for her though.

We didn’t start opening presents until after we had finished talking with Chelsetto, much later than our usual 6:00 AM or earlier start to the festivities.

In our family, we like to write funny/unique gift tags. I know it’s super weird, but it’s our tradition and I love it so. They often make me laugh.
We also like to wrap in funny boxes and have been known to save a choice empty pampers or tampons boxes for just such an occasion. This one made me laugh because it was for my dad and he is very into manly-type activities like football and cooking outdoors. He loves to talk about man cards. I guess you’d have to know him, but it made me chuckle anyway.

See? Gifts to the boys from Dad:

He very much enjoys picking out manly presents for the men in his life. Tools! ARGGG!

Mason’s Santa presents were this circus tent and popcorn popper. Spencer had a popcorn popper just like that one when he was little and he was very insistent that that was what he wanted to get for M for Christmas. M was rather enamored with his tent. We suspected he would be considering how much he loves hiding in various places around the house.

I love seeing him use his special stocking.


The kiddos loved all of their presents so much that they had to be persuaded to stop playing with their newest toy to unwrap the next present. It was very fun to watch M get excited about each gift he unwrapped.

M playing with a Noah’s ark from Gma&Gpa White:

The kiddos got these horses from Gramma and Grampa as well. These little ponies were definitely a big hit. The kiddos loved bouncing about on them, and I have to admit, I took M’s pony for a spin or two around the living room as well. I must say it was a LOT of fun. I thought about posting a video of me bounding along on one, but perhaps some other day.

The men (including Mason for part of the time) enjoyed watching the BYU bowl game. They so love to watch football together. This picture of Grandpa in his recliner and M in his cousin’s recliner KILLS me. I shall frame it.   

We did a lot of other fun things, but this post is getting fairly long, so I think I’ll break it up. Thanks so much, family, for the good times and fun memories. We love you all lots and lots and lots!