Gummy Bear: Smarty Pants Update

Guys, I don't even know what to do this with kid anymore! He is such a smarty pants, and it's because he chooses to be. He tries to be a big kid, and I try to encourage him whenever I can. It's funny how he knows some things but not others, he is so opinionated about everything!

Gummy Bear knows his ABC's, and has for quite some time. He sings the song, knows them on sight, and does pretty well with lowercase letters too. Counting is good too, he can count from one to twenty pretty well and is picking up counting objects (when he chooses to anyways--sometimes he doesn't even try!). Shapes? He's got shapes, from triangles and circles to rectangles and stars. Colors? The entire rainbow and then some. When we are out he'll point out the "orange digger"; this morning he was showing me the blue and red flowers on my comforter. He obviously still makes mistakes--d and b look the same, and he skips four and five/fourteen and fifteen when he's counting, pink and purple are mixed up... but that's probably a good thing hahaha!

He loves construction machines, followed closely by tractors and trains. And animals. He knows the basic parts of a digger and other machines-- "Where's the bucket? Where's the boom arm? Where's the cab? Where's the tracks?" We have been checking out simple nonfiction books about cranes, diggers, bulldozers, tractors, trains, firetrucks, cats, dogs, horses, cows... he loves them, and brings them to me just as often as other stories. He'll come to me and ask me to help him find his tanker truck (cement truck), dump truck, flatbed trailer... When we drive down the road he points out all the "big trucks" (semi trucks). If the firetrucks go down the road he runs up to me and announces it. Sometimes he gets distracted getting into the car and stops to point out the wheels on our car and the cars parked next to us.

 Bob the Builder is his favorite show (the old version... the animated ones are creepy). He liked Thomas the Tank Engine, but Bob trumps all. He fights me on diaper changes, but if Bob will be involved afterwards then he's all over it. (Paw Patrol is a close second.) He sings the theme song while he's playing (whether that's at home or in sacrament meeting...). He picked up his toy remote and pretended it was a phone, and he got a call from Farmer Pickles... later that day we were watching Bob and the scene he imitated came on! When Husband Man gets his tools out, GB is enthralled. He spent half an hour "sawing" his shoes apart the other day.

Husband Man taught him "left foot" and "right foot" when he put GB's shoes on, and GB has latched on to that concept. This morning when I was putting in my contacts he came in and announced that I was poking my left eye. When we go for a walk I can tell him to turn left or right at the corner and he usually goes that direction. He loves it when I narrate where we are going while we drive: "Now we are turning left. Then we will go straight, and stop at the stop sign. Now we will turn right. Oh, the light is red. We have to wait for it to turn green, and then we can turn left." He points out when we are going around a curve, up or down a hill, and under a bridge. The other day he cried because I wasn't going to go up the hill, and another time he cried because I didn't turn left..

 I found some nursery rhymes online that I pull up for him sometimes. It has songs about letters, counting, colors, seasons, etc, but also your standards like Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and Wheels on the Bus. He LOVES them. He cries when they're over. I find him singing the songs on his own, too. Last night he was laying in bed singing Itsy Bitsy Spider; when he's driving his cars across the couch I'll hear him singing "round and round, round and round... wheels a bus... round and round..." He picked them up quickly, and remembers them well. He does the same with books he loves, too. A few of the books I've brought home from the library he's made me read multiple times a day until they go back, and then he tells them himself even after they're gone. He just "read" Train Man and Digger Man to me this afternoon, because he has them memorized.

 "The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout..."

Opposites are also a thing. Up and down, big and small, loud and soft... My favorite is when he is reading a book about diggers or something, and he points out "Small digger... BIG DIGGER!" He has a board book of opposites and he "reads" it to me on his own. He points out when his carseat is hot or cold, that the airplane is hiiiigh in the sky...

I love this little guy. He keeps me on my toes, whether it's chasing after him or amazing me with something else he's picked up, either from us or the other kids we hang out with. He imitates everything and everyone, but only does things when he wants to and not a day sooner. After he picked up his letters and numbers, I tried to keep him going with shapes... nothing, until a couple months later he started pointing them out on his own. His speech is pretty good, I'm sure it'll dramatically increase when we are around family over the holidays, but his stubborn streak goes there too. He still says "nilk" even though I know he can say "milk"--and I'm pretty sure he says it wrong just because I get after him for it! He is such a (smart) little stinker. I love him so much!

What I've Learned About Cleaning

A while back I shared a cleaning schedule I made to help me keep my house tidy and under some semblance of control. I wasn't perfect at following it, but when I did it was great. I knew when the towels and sheets had been washed, when I had dusted, that things were getting taken care of. It helped Husband Man, because when Saturday rolled around he could see what I had or hadn't done. Our small apartment was kept clean! (Or as clean as you can get with a toddler...)

Then it came time for our (yearly) move. We found a cheaper place with a larger living space; it was perfect for our growing family. We could have our kitchen table back, which meant less food was consumed in the living room (and therefore there was less mess). But for some reason the cleaning schedule wasn't working for me anymore. Laundry was taking longer and longer to finish. More floorspace meant more pep-talking myself into vacuuming. And being pregnant means I have even less of a desire to do those things that I already didn't like...

A couple of weeks ago someone suggested a website called Habitica to us. At first glance it looks silly and stupid... but for us, it worked. I could put daily things to do, like exercise and drink water, but I could also include habits (like housecleaning) and to-do lists, for those chores and tasks that popped up outside of any cleaning regimen. As we've been using this site, we find motivation to complete tasks instead of ending our day in a guilty stupor in front of a computer screen. And as things get done, I've learned some things...

Effort breeds effort.
Husband Man took to Habi like a fish to water. It was pretty much exactly what he needed to motivate himself to have less computer time and more productive time. And I think it's better for him, too-- he can accomplish things that have been bothering him, in a more timely manner, and he feels more immediately accomplished (than his job allows right now). This makes him feel in control, and much better. And when he does those tasks, it makes me want to complete mine so we can both feel proud of what we have done.

Cleaning by example helps.
The dailies list helps me to remember to do little tasks every day, things that shouldn't be difficult and take too much time and effort, but are constantly overlooked. I have things like checking my email, reading scriptures, and tidying the bedroom(s). Husband Man started making the bed every day, but we both have a bad habit of just throwing our clothes on the floor. I would always put off cleaning it up, until it consumed the floor. I added the bedrooms to my dailies list, which meant that the bedroom was always clean AND when I went to put my clothes away at night, I would take the extra two seconds to put them either back in the drawer or in the dirty clothes. Less to clean up in the morning means a free pass on the 'tidying bedroom(s)' task! After about a week of this, I noticed that I was picking up less of Husband Man's clothes, too. As I took better care of the room, he wanted to take better care of it too.

Daily tidying up makes a HUGE difference.
Tidying the bedroom, loading the dishwasher every day, and making a round to just pick up clutter-- if you are ever on pinterest, you've surely come across that ten-minute clean-up tip or the two minute rule I shared in my previous cleaning post. There's a reason it's out there: it works. Picking up clutter helps toward a clean house. It just makes you feel better. And doing it every day keeps it from piling up, so it's easier to accomplish. Couple this with the previous thought, and now you have at least two people possibly working to keep the house tidy. I call that a win-win!

If a task as-written doesn't help you accomplish it, then change how you do it.
Let's talk laundry. On my previous schedule I did it every two weeks. We all had enough clothes, so it worked... mostly. If you counted the fact that after two weeks I had at least four large loads to do, and it took me at least half the week to actually complete it. But I stuck to it. It didn't make sense to me to do a load every day, and weekly laundry seemed even more tedious.
But since we moved to the new place, over the last three weeks I've just done laundry every week. I mean, I kind of have to--I only have about a week's worth of maternity shirts that currently fit. But I find that I actually like it better. Doing a week's worth of laundry means that I have less to wash; less to wash means I have fewer and smaller loads. For the first time in forever I did the laundry in one day. ONE DAY, people. Washed, dried, and folded. The end. And when I crawled into bed that night? It felt really good. (On a side note, we apparently need more hangers.)

Sometimes, you've just got to force yourself to create a habit.
I have always struggled to read my scriptures. That's the chink in my spiritual armor. When we first moved away from college, I begged Husband Man to let us have cable so I could amuse myself while staying home with a baby. The problem was, I would catch myself turning the tv on first thing in the morning... so I told myself I couldn't watch tv until I had done my scripture study. At face value that sounds awful. As a child of God, who is trying to do what is right, I shouldn't need to force myself to read the word of God on a daily basis, right?? But I had to force myself to do it. As I did, I found myself wanting to read, and watching less tv. It built that desire.
The same thing has come with other habits. Placing them on Habi has helped me to just do them. Lately I find myself decluttering as I go--I made GB a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and instead of leaving everything out on the counter, jars open, I caught myself putting them away after using them. (Which is a two-fold blessing... the house is cleaner on a more regular basis, which means Husband Man isn't slightly aggravated when he comes home and cleans up all my messes.)

I'm super happy that this is working for us now. In just a couple of weeks Husband Man and I have accomplished so much. And what makes me even happier is that we are setting an example for Gummy Bear. It doesn't do anything to ask him to put his toys and books away when the kitchen is covered in dishes and the bedrooms in clothes-- that's counterproductive. I'm super excited that we finally have a new schedule under our belts, and that we can continue to progress as a family.
Make a list, find your motivation, and then, as the scriptures say, "Go and do!"

Gummy Bear: 2 Years!

Holy moly, time flies. Especially when you're pregnant and feel yucky. Now that that's passed, I remembered the birthday questionnaire I had. So it's two months late, but at least I remembered!

How old: 2!

Favorite foods: fruit snacks, raisins, cheese

Favorite dessert: chocolate (m&m's, chocolate chips), marshmallows

Favorite color: green (at least, this is the one color he recognizes by name)

Favorite book: ABC and numbers books (at the time of his b-day--now it's Train Man and Digger Man)

Favorite tv show: Paw Patrol, Thomas the Tank Engine

Favorite game: ???

Favorite Song: Follow the Prophet, Itsy Bitsy Spider

Favorite animal: kitty cat

Favorite toy: wooden train set

What do you want to be when you grow up: ???

What do you do really well: scream (ohhh he is SO loud...)

What do you like to do with your family: roughhouse with Daddy!!

Gummy Bear is a VERY busy boy. He keeps me on my toes, like any good two-year-old boy. He's as tall as an average three-year-old (which confuses the other kids, they have trouble remembering he's younger than they are), and still in the top percentiles. Funny story: His normal pediatrician is out on maternity leave, so we saw another ped for his 2yr appointment. She obviously didn't know he has always been in the 95% for weight, because when she saw that she gave me the childhood obesity lecture! "No juice, no 2% milk, lots of veggies, lots of playtime..." Yeah, ok, whatever. Have you seen my child?? He is not fat! Not even close. Thank goodness I was in a great mood that day, or I would have panicked. Just smile and wave, just smile and wave.

I love this picture because it sums him up nicely. Gotta have that binky (but only at bedtime...). Love that kitty. Fuzzy blankets are essential. Bruises, scrapes, and bandaids on his knees, and often on his arms and head. I feel like he's maybe accident-prone like his mama, but I suppose it's still too early to tell what's genetics and what is plain ol' little boy!

This block table showed up at our library and he enjoys playing with it. The first half a dozen times he insisted on sorting the blocks as best he could, and if the other kids came and tried to build on the wrong color, he got very upset. He's doing better about actually playing with the blocks for fun, but this still cracks me up. I have found his own mega blocks laying on the floor, stacked together by size and color. He eats his fruit snacks by color too, if he can see them all.

"Hewo!" (Oh, how I am going to miss that gap-toothed grin!) His speech is finally catching up as well. He says some things goofy, like "nilk", "nore", and "peesh" (milk, more, and sheep) but we're working on it. I can hear him singing songs, and he's steadily getting better at asking for things. I hope the crazy tantrums slow down after we reach a certain point, I think he gets frustrated that he can't communicate everything to me. He'll run up to me and garble a bunch of stuff and end it with a word he knows-- "Mama, aslekaf;skldfjjsdf snack?" Sometimes he sounds like he's oriental or something, when he garbles really quickly!

He knows his ABC's, and numbers 1-12. He knows a few shapes (circle for sure), the color green, and is absolutely in love with trains. We watch a decent amount of Thomas the Tank Engine, and he plays with his wooden train set diligently every day. A step behind trains are diggers and other construction vehicles--there's a bank being built by Husband Man's work and every day when we pick him up we have to drive by so GB can see the diggers. I've been getting him some basic nonfiction books about diggers and trains and they're the first ones to come off the shelf each day. He's definitely a smartie pants!

I love this kid and what he's taught me. I know he's going to be a great big brother!

"A car!"

I think the funniest thing about raising a kid is that you're busy, but not always in a running-around-going-here-and-there-things-to-do kind of way... Instead you're always watching him to make sure he stays out of trouble, trying to remember to teach him words while you are loading the dishwasher ("A boh!" "No, that's a cup." "A kuh!" "Good job!"), and pushing certain chores and activities aside because let's face it--folding laundry while your kid jumps on it and throws it around just isn't very fun. (Well, not for you anyways.)

It also means I forget how long it's been since I posted on here. Not that terribly many people read it, I don't think, but it's still writing practice and typing is much easier than hand writing so I get at least a little journaling in...

I've been hearing a lot about cars over the last couple of days. Every time we go outside he points and says, "A car!" If we're in a parking lot he'll point everywhere and say it over and over again, "A car! A car! A car!" Sometimes he'll stand at our window, and if he sees one go down the street he'll announce it, "A car!" Because of this, I went through his toys and found all his little matchbox cars, and so far he's done a pretty good job of keeping track of them. They usually stay in a pack, mostly, and he'll pick one up, set it on the arm of the couch, and say "Wee!" as he drives them down and parks them next to each other on the cushion.

"A ball!" is the other phrase I hear. He's got quite a few balls in various makes and types, and he'll bring them to me, just like the cars, and announce, "A ball!" Sometimes if I'm not paying attention, he'll repeat himself over and over again until it reaches my radar, and then I'll respond and he'll move on. "A bowl!" is the newest, less used and often confused with a cup (as stated at the beginning of the post).

It's kind of nice to hear him saying words besides animal noises. Cat, puppy, sheep, horse, goat, bear, duck, chicks, tiger, lion, dinosaur, cow-- he knows them all! While visiting my parents at the end of April, I was trying to get him to go ask his Grandpa for help with something, and I said, "Say Grandpa, Grandpa!" and he responded "Appa appa!" We had such a laugh over it, because it sounds like he's calling Grandpa "Appa" like the bison from Avatar: TLA! We joke that maybe we should come up with a corresponding name for Gramma, and then they can match. Momo, maybe? :)

I feel like I have to be careful, sometimes. If I try to get him to say a word and he doesn't get it, I'll repeat it so he can hear it again. Half the time his face says "Ugh..." and he won't respond to me after that. I have to remember to congratulate him no matter how close (or not) he got, and it seems to make him try harder to say words.

The funniest part of all this is that he will still come up to me and babble nonsense, and we'll have conversations like this. Sometimes I'll babble back, and sometimes I'll just try to keep him going with phrases like "Oh really? And then what happened?". Other times he'll just repeat the same sound over and over again. Case in point: As I type this he's standing behind me on my chair and growling "BA BA! BA BA!" over and over again. (Oh, sorry, now it's changed to "DA DA! AH DA!")

I feel like there's so much to remember, so many things he can do now. It's simultaneously amazing, and annoying (case in point: I'm clearly taking too long writing this, and now he's throwing things and yelling). Our apartment is much too small for his busy body, and rainy days don't help. Good thing he's so darn cute, with his disheveled hair, a bruise on his forehead, and his gap-toothed cheeseball grin... 

Keeping a Calendar... er, Journal

I'm SUPER excited to talk about this idea because I LOVE it!

One of my friends came up with it, so I won't take any credit for it. She posted on facebook a picture of a calendar, and she had written in each square something that her son had done that day (her son is 2), whether it was going to the park or something silly he had said...

At first I wasn't sold. I would go to the store but every time I was about to grab a calendar I talked myself out of it every time. What on earth would I write every day?? Finally, while shopping with my MIL, I gave in and grabbed a calendar. Even if I didn't write every day, maybe I would at least have some of his milestones written down (or new words, since he is just starting to say stuff).

I am SO glad I did it! It has been so much fun to remember silly things GB did or new words he said as I write them into the squares.

 (It's only pink because of February, I promise... No girly calendars for my boy! Haha)

I picked cats because he learned how to say "meow" over Christmas, and at the beginning of the year he got a stuffed cat that he is absolutely in love with (it went to the library with us this morning, for example.) My friend let her son pick his out, which is kind of a memory to what the kid likes at that time.

Ok, so what I will take credit for is that I took it a step further. I love calendars anyways, and we've always gotten one even though we don't even write birthdays on it. This year, however, that changes. I don't write every day (because let's face it, GB is what happens every day) but when someone comes to visit, or when we take a trip, or when there's a wedding/birthday/anniversary/funeral/etc. or even if one of us does something that just makes us feel awesome... I write it on the calendar.

And it's so easy that there's almost no excuse not to do it. I don't usually write every day, but I make myself do it at least once a week, filling in days past by looking at text messages or facebook posts. If I don't want to forget something funny he said or did, I'll make a note of it.

It doesn't eliminate journaling completely, though. If I have a spiritual experience, for example, maybe I don't want it on the calendar. But it does make it easier, and is also a weird exercise in teaching myself to tell stories in a concise manner...

Gummy Bear: 18 Months

This little boy is simultaneously so funny and so aggravating! One minute he will be running around and having fun, and two minutes later he'll be rolling on the ground throwing a tantrum. He is still just as opinionated as ever, but he's also growing and learning and it is so much fun to watch.

Developmentally he's doing great. For a while I was worried about his speech, since his dad didn't talk until age four, but especially in the last month I'm discovering that he's trying to say things. It really blossomed after both sets of grandparents visited in February, and with each visit I also learned a lot about how to catch on to things he says that mimic actual words. Over Christmas Gma S taught him "uh oh", and since then he's learned "oh no", "mah" (meow), "cack" (quack), "up", "app" (apple), "cah" (car), "ko" (coat), "hi" (or an ultra-squealy version of it, apparently I have a high voice inflection when I say hi to him), and "buh bye" (said only when he feels like it). And last night I think he tried to say "all gone" after he finished his grapes.

He loves to help me with certain chores. When I put clothes in the dryer, I'll drop them down onto the dryer door and he shoves them inside. His current favorite is the dishwasher. He loves to help me unload it, putting the tupperware and his plates and bowls away, and handing the rest to me if he doesn't know where it goes. Lately he's been learning that sometimes we put things inside the dishwasher too, which usually means that when I'm loading dirty dishes he takes all his clean bowls and plates out of his drawer and stuffs them inside too. Its a great lesson to me in patience--they're just bowls and plates, and if they get dirty again then they can be washed again.

It's also super interesting to watch him pick up on stuff that I do every day without thinking about it. He was in the bathroom with me yesterday while I brushed my hair out, and when I put the brush on the counter he picked it up and rubbed it on his head. I found his little baby hairbrush and he refused to let go of it (and so it went to the library with us too). This morning I was putting in my contacts and trying to keep him away from the case, when I caught him sticking a finger in the case and then poking that same finger into one of his scrunched-up eyes. A few days ago he somehow got a hold of Husband Man's thumbdrive, and he took it right over to the computer and was trying to put it in the usb port.

He still loves to run around, and he is all boy for sure. We've managed to get to the park a few times in between winter weather, and he has figured out how to go down the big twisty slide by himself. He always starts with the slides and then begs me to push him on the swings, and I get tired of pushing him long before he gets tired of swinging. We've started volunteering at the YMCA for a free membership, and the nursery has a ball pit that he absolutely adores. He jumps around in it and throws himself into the balls and yells with joy! Then we usually go play in the pool after volunteering, and he has no fear of the water. He splashes and plays and sometimes will beg me to carry him out into the deeper water, where I drag him around and he kicks his feet and makes happy noises until my arms are tired. He hates putting his head back in the water, but mean old mommy makes him try it anyways.

Books are still a favorite, and our library has a small section of board books. He doesn't seem to be very good at branching out to new material unless it has a specific draw (like flaps or touchy-feely stuff) but my SIL says that's a developmental thing. Husband Man and I have been sick of almost every board book we own as GB rotates through which books are his favorites (ie the books we end up reading multiple times a day for a week). He rotates through his toys, too, so even though he has so many he'll find a forgotten one in the corner of his toybox and play with it like he's never seen it before. He also likes the basic matching puzzles; he has already figured out the matching aspect of it and is quickly getting better at working the piece into the space. Sometimes he gets lazy and just sets the piece over the spot, without bothering to put it in properly.

Lately he's been throwing tantrums-- throwing himself dramatically onto furniture or the floor, rolling around, tossing toys as hard as he can, crying, yelling, kicking feet... Yeah. Our tantrum patience wears thin, and he ends up in his room. Sometimes his tantrums make me laugh, because they're just so ridiculous! And he always has to have a tantrum about a quarter to five, every day. That's usually when I'm in the kitchen cutting up stuff for dinner and he decides he has to be held RIGHT. NOW. or else. I think maybe he just wants to see what I'm doing, but it's hard when your kitchen is tiny and you're wielding sharp knives. Sorry kid.

He's opinionated, noisy, fast, and adorable... but this is nothing new to us! We are so grateful to have him in our family!

Gummy Bear: 1 Year!

Gummy Bear is a year old! He weighs 23 lbs 5 oz, and is 31 inches tall. (They forgot to give me percentiles, which is a bummer. Why do I find those so interesting?)

I had this questionnaire thing that I saved to do with my kids as they got older, but as I'm looking over the questions I see they're more for kids who can actually answer the questions... but I'll try it anyways.
Age: 1
Favorite food(s): Grapes, spaghettios, greek yogurt, and hot dogs, especially if that hot dog comes with ketchup. And did I mention he loves grapes?
Favorite dessert: Marshmallows. Hands down. And popsicles.
Favorite color: Yellow? He's always seemed to have a slight preference to yellow.
Favorite book: Any book he can chew on. So, nothing. Punk.
Favorite tv show: Commercials. Without fail. If I'm watching a show and go into another room, I can always tell when the commercials end because that's when he comes running in to bug me. And when the commercials come back on, he disappears and stands in front of the tv. If you block his view, he moves to see it or tries to shove you away. I may or may not abuse this occasionally during mealtimes... 
Favorite game: Probably playing with Daddy. He gets such big smiles!
Favorite song: ???
Favorite animal: I'd go with puppy. He has two stuffed dogs and he loves to carry them around. When you show him the stuffed puppy, he imitates my "woof woof" noise, sort of by making an adorable "ooh ooh" noise... it's hard to explain. But it's adorable.
Favorite toy: It changes. Often. In general, he loves little stuff that he can carry around in his hand.

 He is still just as opinionated as ever. Lately he has entered the meltdown stage, where if something happens that he doesn't like he just melts into a puddle. I try to hold his hand and lead him towards the car or something, and if he doesn't want to then he pulls and collapses... I also don't sit on the floor anymore, because he often forces his way into my lap. That's tough for me, because half the time he's just being annoying but sometimes he insists on giving me a two-second hug... His loving is sweet but vicious! I still don't get to snuggle him to sleep; instead we're often fighting to get him to take naps. Especially at church. Church naps are still the same: he gets cranky during the end of sacrament meeting, Husband Man takes him out during the last talk, and after sacrament I come out to find him sacked out sideways...

Going outside is the BEST to him. He runs to the rock beds around our apartment building and grabs a rock to carry around, and then he's off. Every time we come inside our apartment building he cries and throws a tantrum, even if we just drove to the grocery store and back. Running up and down sidewalks, eating the bark at playgrounds, carrying rocks around... sometimes he'll even play on park equipment, and ride in the swings; there's a bouncy horse at one park that he thinks is pretty cool. But he loves it all. Especially the running. This kid loves to GO.

He's also ridiculously smart... but sort of in his own way. He could care less about silverware, except when he wants to chew on it. He FINALLY learned to tip the bottle or sippy cup up so he can get FINALLY water or milk out unassisted... but at the same time he also knows how to pour milk all over the carpet. Climbing on the couch? Check. Climbing up my leg? Check. I have five-gallon buckets for flour and sugar, and if I don't keep them stacked then he climbs up on the bucket and grabs everything he can reach on the kitchen counters. He knows how to put the wooden rings on the dowel, and gets the idea of the shape sorter but doesn't understand that there are different shapes. He knows how doors open and close, but either doesn't care (and opts to cry every time they close) or is still too short to try again. And the dishwasher was randomly paused the other day, so I suspect he knows about the buttons on the dishwasher. The tv remote is another favorite--buttons!

Talking? Depends on your definition. He's always loved to babble, but I still don't know if he understands what "dadada" and "mamama" can mean. He says "dada" when he's happily yelling and throwing his toys, and "mama" when he's sad or upset... He still signs his version of "all done", which is great when we're feeding him, and a few times he's tried to say it, "ah dah". Sometimes his babbling isn't repeated syllables, and it sounds like he's trying to say things. Maybe he's one of those kids who won't say it unless he can say it correctly? I dunno. He can also sign "please", or his variation of it, but unless he really wants it and isn't throwing a tantrum... "Uh oh" is another one, he'll throw a toy on the floor while saying "Uh-uh ohh".

If you compare this post with the 9 month one,  you'll notice that he's only a pound and 2 inches bigger... but someone decided to cut six teeth in the last three months, and that brought puking and diarrhea like you wouldn't believe. Five of those teeth came in May, the sixth at the beginning of July, putting the grand total at eight. Husband Man and I are more than willing to have a break! (Since I'm late writing this, he's actually 13 months now. I took him to the doctor to diagnose a rash--dermatitis, just needs lotion--and they said he's now 25 pounds and 32 inches.... he grew a lot in a month!)

I also love this stage. It's so funny to watch him learn about his face and make the goofiest expressions. I love watching him show his personality, play silly games with me, babble and squeal while we're in the store or while he's playing with his toys, grin as he shoves his favorite camo blankie in his mouth every time he sees it... And I still think he's so. stinking. cute!

The Clean Factor

All right, confession time:

I loathe cleaning.

But I also love sitting down after cleaning the house, looking around, and feeling light and free. You know what I'm talking about, right?

I grew up in a household that was always busy. It seemed like there was something to do almost every night, whether it was FHE, symphony rehearsal, dance practices, swim lessons, piano lessons, mutual, scouts, this, that, and the other plus school. By the time Saturday rolls around, the last thing any kid--and probably any mother-- wants to do is clean the house. As the song goes, however, Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday... and for my family, Saturday was the only day to clean. So the chore lists were written, complaints were filed and whining was sounded, guilt was passed around until one of us finally did way more cleaning than was fair, and Mom was probably the only one who cleaned anything properly.

Out of habit, I tried to clean on Saturdays. Now, don't get me wrong-- I have an apartment. Apartments are just the right size that you should be able to clean the entire thing in a couple hours if you just buckled down and did it. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, right? For me, apparently not. Things only really got clean when one of us went on a binge, most likely out of annoyance, and the other joined in because we are really good at sharing emotions.

So while on Pinterest (judge me if you want) I saw an idea for a cleaning rotation. It was a two-week setup that got you to clean the house for what looked like less than an hour a day. Half commitment? Sounds like my kind of chore chart! So I took it, and adapted it for our needs in our apartment.

What I loved most about this is that it got through everything. We don't use our shower enough to wash it every week, so instead of have the bathrooms on one square, I just spread it out. The floors get vacuumed twice a week, but the living room gets vacuumed an extra two times because it seems like there are always crumbs everywhere (thanks to a 9-month-old food lover). Rest Days are Sundays, because that is how it should be. And there are the daily things that need to be done, too, such as making the beds, and loading the dishwasher so that clutter stays down in the kitchen.

Now, I realise this is super minimal and probably makes me look lazy. I don't care, because this works for me. As I dusted the surfaces today, I couldn't help but smile because I knew it would help keep my allergies down this summer. When I use the sink in the evening, it's nice to see it clean instead of hairy and dirty. Making my chore list minimal is fantastic, because it gives me time to do the things I want to do, and it makes my "chore of the day" so much less intimidating. Now I can look around and be proud of my house, instead of being embarrassed every time Husband Man comes home from work. Don't get me wrong-- I fall behind. Today I did pretty much everything that I should have been doing all week. Things were busier than usual, and I didn't get to the cleaning. But I took the time, got it done, and now I'm all caught up. And it feels fantastic. I feel more successful as a housewife.

One of my friends recently told me a cleaning trick: If it takes less than two minutes to finish, then just do it. I'm not very good at this, but it's starting to work for me. Instead of looking at my shirts on the floor, I can just hang them up and be done with it. I've noticed that it's the jobs that take less than two minutes that are what keep the clutter off of the floor, and that alone makes your house feel cleaner! If you have a smaller livingspace, such as a dinky one-bedroom apartment, keeping clutter away helps your space to look larger.

Just put your completed chart in a clear sleeve, and you're ready to go!

Oh yeah, the "Don't Forget" part is so I could write in events and appointments that are happening in the upcoming week. That would have been a great place to remind myself that we were feeding the missionaries today... 

Christmas and the New Year!

Husband Man was able to get a whole week off so we could go and visit my native people for the week of Christmas. It was so much fun, and SO CRAZY!

Quick breakdown:

21- arrive in the evening at my parents' house

22- church and a big house party

24- Christmas Eve: feed elders and stay up until 1AM finishing Christmas gifts

25- my baby sister wakes everyone up at o'dark in the morning (I think I literally saw sunrise while I got out of bed), stockings, breakfast, presents, down time, huge dinner......

26- extended family starts to arrive, and our annual day-after-Christmas swimming trip

28- everyone is here (my dad's eight siblings and their spouses and... 38-ish children?), family talent show (an hour and a half long, holy cow), forty minutes to change and turn the church gym into a reception (while I ran to Walmart again), large reception

29- church, packing, family dinner, packing, return home

The wonderful thing is that my baby sister and her fiance, my foster brother, and all my grandparents were there for Christmas. It was amazing for us all to be together! And Gummy Bear enjoyed all the attention he received the entire week. He and Grandma S are besties, and when my aunts and uncles showed up everyone wanted to hold GB and say hello.

So when I got to my parents' house, she heard I had only given GB fruits and rice cereal and oatmeal and told me I needed to get him on veggies. Within the first few days GB had sampled pizza crust, peppermint candy cane, pistachio pudding, cool whip, Cheerios, animal crackers, the crust of french bread, mashed potatoes, ice cream........ and been introduced to beans, peas, squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. At one point in the week I changed no less than 5 diapers in 24 hours. I kid you not. After talking to his dad later in the week, Husband Man informed me that introducing everything like that all at once will cause problems. Nowwww you tell me! My life is suddenly filled with so much poop......

(Sorry if that was a little TMI, but............)

Anyways, after we got home and spent a few days cleaning up it was time for the new year to roll in! Husband Man worked Monday and Tuesday (New Years Eve), but then Tuesday night he had to chaperone a youth activity at church. So I went and played games with a friend in the ward whose husband also had to be at the activity. It was so much fun! We had cake, and sparkling cider, and chatted. Husband Man had New Years Day off (our best guess was that his company didn't want people with hangovers showing up to work, haha) and we had a lazy day doing whatever. It was so nice, to just spend the time together and relax and play games!

The new year is always so exciting, a chance to use the new year as a fresh start to achieve goals and try harder to be a better person. Shortly after New Years, Husband Man and I decided we would write down four family goals and three personal goals each that we wanted to achieve by the end of the year. (And if we post them, then we really have to make sure we achieve them! Hahaha!) We tried to think of goals that would increase health, spiritual health, and financial safety:

1. For a financial goal, we decided that we would try and save up a certain amount each month to reach a goal by the end of the year. Husband Man is on salary, and looking ahead we know that in the next few years we could potentially be looking at purchasing a second car, maybe putting a down payment on a house... We really felt like it would be a good idea to save as much as we can.

2. This is a financial/spiritual combination goal: we are trying to pay our tithing every month. Since we have been married we pay tithing on every penny that enters our home. When we were in college, we even paid tithing on our pell grants, and we definitely felt the blessings of giving that money back to the Lord and His church. What we aren't so good at? Paying our tithing monthly. Instead it gets forgotten, and then suddenly we're using 80% of a paycheck to catch up. It would be much easier on our bank accounts if we just did it every month.

3. For a spiritual goal, we decided we are going to try and have Family Home Evening every Monday. I know, I know, we are already supposed to do that... but we are HORRIBLE at it! Now that Gummy Bear is starting to understand more and more things, we want to set the pattern now.

4. We needed a physical goal, so we set it that we should exercise twice a week at least. I don't feel like either of us needs to lose weight, but I have turned into a weakling pansy since I had Gummy Bear and Husband Man has been talking about trimming up as well. We've tried to set more specific exercise times, such as exercising every Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, but that never seemed to work. So we are going to make it a little more broad, and hopefully it will feel like more of a choice rather than forcing ourselves to do it.

For personal goals, I'm really proud of Husband Man's choices.
1. Read "Miracle of Forgiveness". (He told me it used to be required missionary reading, but they removed the requirement right before his mission.)
2. Finish first draft of The Dream. (That's the codename he's given his novel that he is working on.)
3. 33" waist. (What? You said you weren't worried about losing weight! Don't worry, he said as long as he is fit and active then if his waist never goes back to 33" he'll understand. It's the principle of the goal!)

My personal goals:
1. Maintain a regular journal. (And GB's journal too.) I've been trying to do this, but the longer it goes the more I don't want to spend hours catching up! But I know that it is super, super important, so here it is.
2. Write every day, whether it is on my novel or on the blog(s). (This is coupled by the fact that I was allowed to have cable so long as I worked on my novel, so now I have tons of reasons to write! Haha)
3. Finish at least one project every month. I am one of those people who starts projects or gets all the materials for a project, and then never finishes it... but enough is enough! Time to actually do some pinterest projects!

I am so excited for the opportunities we are offering ourselves. And the best part is that we have chosen goals that will allow us to evaluate how we are doing each month, or even each week. There is always time to improve, and just because you fail at your resolutions in January doesn't mean you have to wait until next January to try again. We figure that if you are doing better by the end of the year, then you have succeeded!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Here is to 2014! Woohoo!

This Halloween Was A Scream

So this year we were SO excited to dress up! We had the perfect costumes lined up. It was going to be awesome.

I wish I could remember to stand up straight... Grr.

Woohoo!! Star wars!

Except you see little Yoda there?

Ok, here's the deal. Our church was having a Halloween party tonight, a pizza potluck and games for the kids and socializing for the adults. Everyone dressed up, it was tons of fun... except for us. I was in the room for about five minutes, and then Gummy Bear decided it was time for a meltdown. A total, utter meltdown, complete with screaming that the ear has never heard from his little lungs. We're talking, SCREAMING.

At one point the Sister Missionary from the older missionary couple came over, and said "I am so glad to know that he cries! I have never heard him cry, ever!" I guess he is pretty well-behaved during church.

So I took my pizza out in the hall and tried to calm him down, and when nothing worked-- no formula, no binky, nothing at all-- I just laid him on the couch and let him scream. After he had stuffed himself with pizza, Husband Man came out and sat with Gummy Bear, and finally he stopped crying and ate a little. We dressed him up and tried to put him in the carrier on Husband Man's back (you know, like in the movie, with Luke and Yoda....) but Gummy Bear sat there for about two minutes and started crying again. So we took him out and managed to chat for a bit, shoving the binky back in GB's mouth, and then after I had talked with a friend about the problems with our apartment I went out and found GB asleep in Husband Man.

So Halloween definitely wasn't as much fun as we thought, but I'm still glad we were able to dress up! It was so fun, and everyone got a kick out of Gummy Bear being Yoda. (I always get some selfish satisfaction when my son draws good attention, I'll admit it.) I'll have my dad check my hearing sometime soon, and hopefully next year will involve a lot less (unnecessary) screaming.

From Idaho to SoDak!

So mid-August Husband Man was finally offered a job! They only offered it to him a week before the starting date, though...!! I admit that I panicked, and so instead of trying to pack all of our stuff up in four days, we just packed to be away from home for a couple of weeks. I stayed with my parents while Husband Man started work and found an apartment for us to live in. At the end of August, we borrowed a truck and horse trailer from my dad, and in a whirlwind weekend we drove to Idaho, spent a day packing and cleaning our entire apartment, and drove back to SoDak. (Yes, we did it all in three days. It was a LONG weekend. AND we got our entire deposit back! Minus the cost of carpet cleaning, but whatever.)

Once everything was all packed I took a moment to take a picture of our apartment, and then it hit me. We're moving on. We were married during a semester of college, and because we did three semesters a year we did nothing but school and classes for the first two and a half years of our marriage. We spent two of those years in the same apartment, in the same ward, making friends and memories. Gummy Bear joined our family only a couple months before the move. And suddenly, almost without warning, it's all packed in a horse trailer and we're going somewhere else. It was tough. Even writing this, over a month since the move, I still remember those feelings of anxiety, stress, of being sad that we're moving and leaving everything I'd worked so hard to have for those two, almost three years.

And then I turned around and took a deep breath, hugged my husband, and got in the car and drove away. I'm not too dumb to know that there isn't more for us outside of Idaho, more opportunities and people to meet and places to see.

We were so blessed, SO blessed, to find an apartment with almost the same amount of space as our old one, with a washer and dryer (YESSSSSSS), for only about $200 more than we were paying before, utilities all included. The people in our church branch have been so warm and welcoming (reminding me how much small-town mentality is awesome), and the members are still asking how we're doing and if there's anything they can do for us. Husband Man likes his job, he's just finished training and he is waiting to be placed in a project. We're literally three hours from every city in SoDak, and shopping is scarce here, and it's difficult to visit our families or the temple without planning a whole weekend, but I'm still so happy that we're closer to family and have more opportunities throughout the year to see them.

So close to rolling over!

Gummy Bear!

SO MUCH has happened in the last two months! I can't believe it!

On July 7 Gummy Bear was born. I was right--it's a boy!! The labor and delivery couldn't have gone better, and we both did really well. Husband Man was a huge support throughout the entire thing! I had contractions all Saturday, and Sunday morning I woke Husband Man up at 5AM. We were at the hospital around 8, and then Gummy Bear was born at a quarter to three in the afternoon.

Before we left the hospital, the pediatrician looked at him and said in genuine surprise, "Wow, you guys, he looks really, really great for being two days old!"

Gummy Bear LOVED to chew on his fists. He always had his hands up by his mouth! I loved it so much, it was so adorable. Now he just chews on his binky.

Husband Man seemed to adjust pretty quickly--and pretty well--to being a dad!

 Babies fall asleep fast!

 What is that! Woah-- Is that hand mine???

 Gotta love that little bum!

 All clean! And a little chilly...

 Being a goober!

 My mom has this bouncer that lets him sit up. He LOVES it! Gummy Bear loves to sit up and look around and wiggle and squirm. Actually, he loves to wiggle and squirm no matter where he is! He's going to be a very busy boy. I have trouble getting pictures of him where his hands and feet aren't blurry!

I love this little man so much. The last week Husband Man has been at work (he has a job! More on that in another post) and so we've been apart. Gummy Bear went bald on top for a while, and in the last week and a half he's sprouted fuzz on top of his head. He's already going to look so different by the time Husband Man will see us again!

Gummy Bear is almost two months. He had a cold, so we went to the doctor to make sure he didn't have an ear infection (he didn't). The nurse weighed and measured him, and at almost seven weeks old he was just about 12 pounds, and 23 inches long! I love this little guy. He already has a personality. He loves to look around, is starting to talk and coo and make noises, and he wiggles constantly when he's awake. Sometimes he doesn't want to go to sleep, and so he will doze off and then suddenly wake up and wiggle and suck on his binky really quickly as if to say "Just kidding! I'm awake!" and he'll do that over and over again...!! I'm learning to snuggle him until he goes to sleep, and then we put him in the swing and cover him with a blanket so he stays nice and warm, and then he'll finally take a nap.

He's got long arms and long skinny legs, and bright big eyes. He charms EVERYONE! When I went to the dentist the assistants had a blast feeding him and talking to him while I had my teeth cleaned. When I went to dinner with my parents before the rodeo this last Saturday he had a blowout, and when I came back from the changing him in the car I stopped so an older lady could give him googly eyes. I love showing him off--I made an adorable baby!

He sleeps pretty well at night-- 9 times out of 10, if not better, he gives me five hours of sleep at night, eats, and then sleeps at least three more. He LOVES to eat-- I read online that a baby his age, on average, eats about 3-4 ounces. Sometimes he eats 5, even 5-1/2 ounces!! And when he gets really hungry he definitely makes sure to let us know!

I'm so grateful for this little spirit in my life. Husband Man and I love him so much. I love having such a pure, perfect little man. He reminds me to be the best person I can be, and that coupled with the immense support that Husband Man gives me buoys me up and makes me feel so good about myself-- even with the leftover pregnancy chub and clothes that still don't fit. I'm doing an amazing thing. I'm raising a baby. I'm supporting my husband while we move almost a thousand miles. Even when it seems like all I do is feed and change diapers, deep down I'm nurturing and loving two people as much as I possibly can--and then a little more.

Ok, enough of the gushing.

I'm trying to get back into the blogging, but we're moving this weekend and so it's still super crazy! But with the move and Husband Man's birthday coming up there should be lots to talk about!