A Boy's First Love

Wright LOVES tractors! He gets up in the morning with his "motor" running, says "tatuh" for EVERY motorized vehicle he sees, and pushes his toy tractors, cars, and trucks around most of the day. Wright also loves to ride in real tractors as well as on four wheelers and in big trucks. Books with pictures of vehicles are favorites too. Here are some pics of Wright and Poppy Eugene's tractor. Last is a video of Wright saying "tractor"-it's amazing how he can even make that CUTE!!

WELCOME SPRING!!!!!!!!!

We are so HAPPY to have spring here. Lots of playing in the sand, swinging, and walks! All that fresh air makes for some exhausted kids by bed time. (parents sometimes too) Here are some pics from a little hike into the woods at Jeff's parents' house. Two streams coming together with waterfalls-PRETTY and FUN.

Shower Buddy

Wright has already had more showers in his little life than Journey I think! If he hears the shower go on in our bathroom from any part of the house-he heads that way. Well before he turned one, Jeff was in the shower and Wright was knocking at the outside of the bathroom door saying "DADA, DADA" then pushed it open and headed right in! Yesterday he climbed in the shower with Jeff fully clothed and pushing a tractor! He just sat there and played!! Most of the time he likes to snuggle with Jeff in the shower. With me, he'll want me to hold him some of the time, but most of the time he sits right at my feet and plays with random objects-the ENTIRE shower and I can take a PRETTY LONG SHOWER. If I move a little this way, he moves with me-doesn't ask to be held-just wants his back against me or wants to sit between my feet. Sometimes Journey gets in too and then they play by each other. I actually enjoy those showers greatly!

Before Wright's first birthday when he was feeling absolutely horrible, he couldn't go to sleep due to ear pain. We'd tried all the usual tricks to give him comfort, but at midnight he was still up crying. Finally, (out of desperation), I remembered how Wright liked to snuggle in the shower sometimes. I got him in the shower with me and held him, letting the warm water just pour over him, and he was asleep within a minute. That was a really powerful "Wow I did it!" moment of parenting and soothing my child. I love the shower stall Jeff built in our bathroom if for no other reason than THAT moment!

Little Man

Jeff cut Wright's hair a couple weeks ago. I noticed it immediately after coming home from work-like the split second a walked into Wright's nap darkened room and spotted his outline sitting in his bed! I really like it and I'm glad Jeff took the lead because I would have NEVER tried it myself. Usually I think a first haircut makes a baby boy look more grown up, but for some reason in Wright's case-he seemed smaller to me! Just when I didn't think he could get any cuter! Here you see a before shot and a couple after the fact. . .

WINTER WORKOUT

I am probably in some of the worst shape of my life- just NOT FIT period. I got the bug to start working out again late last October, but started having a lot of hip and pelvic pain (I've self diagnosed this as having something "out of whack") so I saw a chiropractor a couple times and I've been laying off "hard workouts" for a while. The harsh winter hasn't helped me do low impact work-outs like just walking though either. One day in late January I took Wright out walking in the snow in the backpack carrier just for 20 minutes or so. He still wasn't feeling the best and wasn't easy to please in the house. He really enjoys being outside in the backpack so this kept him happy until he got too cold. AND with him on my back and me tromping through the deep snow I got some very enjoyable exercise-crisp fresh air, beautiful evening sky, and Wright babbling in my ear. That's a workout to look forward to in any season!

ART

I LOVE KIDS' DRAWINGS!!!!!!!!!! Journey has been expanding her abilities lately beyond plain "people". Here she was drawing on a card for a friend and started with Winnie the Pooh . She then decided to add Rabbit, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, a honey pot, the sun, and a smiling face!
If you look closely, I was impressed with some of the details. Pooh is on the far left and she put a red shirt on him. Rabbit is to his right, then Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. All the characters are the same color as you see on the show and Tigger even has stripes and Eeyore even has a bow in his tail!!! I'm pretty sure she has already passed up my drawing abilities. Way to go Journey!

Happy Valentine's Day

We made homemade valentines for Journey's preschool classmates, teachers, and her grandparents. Boys got fish and girls got flowers all including a sucker as part of the valentine. You can only glimpse the flowers in this picture, but I was very happy with how they all turned out. Journey did a great job writing her friends' names and her own name on ALL of the valentines! Journey is a good little writer and seems to want to do more of it each day! As you can see behind Journey, we've been having a very "WINTERY" winter! Right after I took this picture and we walked to the car to go to preschool, Journey slipped on the ice, fell on her butt with valentines flying everywhere!! She took it in stride and giggled when I said we needed to tie a pillow on her bottom to protect it!! Valentine's Day was a bit swallowed by our birthday celebrations, but I don't care. I love my sweet kids and wonderful husband!!!!!!!!!!!

"BIRTHDAY-PALOOZA" Part 1

Wright is ONE! Wow. Wright and Jeff share the same birthday, February 13, and they were both born on Fridays-creepy. Delivering Wright last year on Jeff's birthday was pretty cool and seemed like a nice way to celebrate the day. This year Jeff was a little more protective of HIS birthday making sure he had a cake that HE LIKED too and reminding me a couple times that it was "his birthday too" all in good fun. As a twin, who has shared my birthday every year, I had little sympathy for any problems with sharing his birthday:) Wright was a little under the weather around his birthday, but there were high points. He definitely liked the balloons!! He had LOTS of family over to celebrate and with about 10 inches of snow on the ground some of our guests got some fun sledding in even with temps in the low 20s. We ate some yummy soups and salad and had even YUMMIER cake! Wright, like Journey at this age, does a very good puppy dog impression and uses it often (even for other animals) so when I saw a puppy dog cake, it seemed to fit.

"BIRTHDAY-PALOOZA" Part 2

Wright really could not have cared less about opening presents. . .but he sat (with sucker in hand) and let Journey and me open them for him. There was a bit of fussing and crying at times during our chaotic birthday fun, but all in all I'd say we had a crazy, but enjoyable time! Wright didn't dig into his cake right away. Later in the evening he discovered the cake and icing via a spatula and then there was no stopping him! When he finally gave the spatula up, Jeff took his whole chair to the bathroom for clean up!! A bath will almost ALWAYS perk Wright up! A nice way to end a fun day.

He's Baa-aack!

I'm very HAPPY to say Wright returned to "normal" very quickly after my last blog! YEAH!! He is now sporting 10 teeth (6 of which he has gotten in the last 5 weeks or so!) Now. . .maybe it's time for a haircut!!