41 Months - November 2010

I'm late posting this again, life is just getting too crazy,and I think these letters might have to become a bimonthly thing maybe at the beginning of the year. What can I say, you just aren't that interesting anymore kid. Obviously I'm kidding about the not interesting part, you are anything but dull. I've always heard about the "why?" stage that kids go through where all you hear all day long is "Why does...", "Why is...", etc. This is not going to happen with you because you know EVERYTHING. You always make me laugh when you ask me to make you a quesadilla and I tell you I can't because we are out of tortillas and you yell back at me "No, we AREN'T." Then I tell you I'll make you one if you can find one in the fridge and you always go look just to make sure I'm not lying to ya. There are some days I could tell you that you are a boy and you'd tell me you were a girl just to have a different opinion than me. It's pretty funny, but 3 going on 13 isn't exactly what I had bargained for.

You're starting to tell little white lies quite often too. Like when I had (stupidly) left the black face paint on the bathroom counter where you could reach and you came out of there looking like something was up. I asked you what happened and of course you said nothing. I just stood there with that "mom look" with my hand on my hip before you finally said "Um, I'm just not going to look at you anymore." and you walked away. Or like the other day when I heard a noise in the hall and you came in to the office where I was and said "Nothing just happened." When I went out to investigate you had dropped a quarter down on to the plug part of the nightlight. It sat there so long the quarter had burn spots and it shorted out that outlet. Yep, nothing just happened.

Preschool is still going good. I think you really like hanging out with all the kids and making fun stuff and learning. Today I sat you down with some letter flashcards to see how you'd do at knowing your lowercase letters and you got just about all of them - I was pretty shocked! We did some other letter puzzles and you said "Mom, this is the best day ever. We are doing so much fun stuff." I'm glad you like learning now, because after you said that my ideas for Christmas toys went out the window in favor of puzzles and flashcards.

You are finally sleeping in your own bed after we put our foot down and used a technique to get you out of our bed that I had read about. Turns out all we had to do all along was tell you that you had to sleep in your bed or on the floor and you'd get the picture pretty quick. You slept on the floor for about a week before you figured out that hey, that's not really fun. We are so proud of you and you even made the transition from the room in our old house which was right next to our room to the room in your new house which is about 3 times the size (your old room was TEENY) and on the other side of the house from us. I'm glad you like your room and hopefully you and Tess will get better at using it as your playroom too.

After a day like today where things have gone so well I feel like I'm the best mom in the world. A day like today came after a day like yesterday though where I felt like all I did was yell and you actually asked your Heavenly Father to help me to be nice to you. Boy kid, that did the trick, and I promise I am going to work harder on being a mom who does her best not to yell. You just have to do your part and be the good, know-it-all kid that I love so much.

Love you bud,
Mom

You weren't sick on Halloween this year - yay! I think that's a first buddy!

You told Dad you wanted to carve a scary pumpkin, then when we got outside to take pictures you decided the one me and Tess carved was scarier so you made her switch places. I win!

We're growing out your hair and while you do have a pretty funky haircut going on courtesy of me, you still look pretty darn cute.

17 Months - November 2010

Tessa, Tessa, Tessa. It's the beginning of the end little bit. I remember Logan was about 18 months old when he hit the terrible two's, which means there's a pretty good chance I've got one more month. Not that you aren't starting to show just how terrible you can be already. I've been lucky so far, and Logan wasn't one of those kids who threw tantrums in public. I'm pretty sure that's exactly the kind of kid you are. There have been a few times in the past month where I have almost had to literally sit on you to get you strapped into your carseat when we leave somewhere and you aren't ready to go, and yesterday at the Halloween carnival you got so upset when Logan got a prize for playing a game and you didn't you screamed the whole way out to the car and continued screaming until we got home. Every time it happens you get so hysterical I'm afraid you're going to throw up! Ugh, you scare me.

When you aren't making me cringe in fear for the next few years you are honestly the funnest baby on earth. You are so smiley and still love to wander around and make us laugh just by being you. I hope you don't lose that completely while you're learning how to be an independent toddler.

Your vocabularly is starting to take off and you will imitate pretty much anything we ask you to. Aunt Lisa brought over this terrible singing Christmas Scooby Doo dog and he says "Happy Holidays" after one of the songs he sings, and suddenly you were walking around saying "Hap-Py! Hap-Py!" It is seriously the cutest thing ever. You call horses "Chatz" after my horse at grandma and grandpas and you love to "moo" at cows whenever you see them. You say mom pretty much all day (wonder who you got that from, Logan?), and every night around dinner time when you hear a truck drive past the house you pretty much scream "Daddy!" It's pretty dang adorable. You say grandpa pretty well but still no grandma. Don't worry though, I'm pretty sure whenever either of you grandmas get you alone they will be drilling you on that word. They might smile when you say grandpa, but they aren't fooling me!

You and Logan drive me nuts! From the time you wake up in the morning until it is time to go to bed the two of you are fighting over toys! Logan claims everything is his, and he is usually right, but he plays with your stuff too. SHARE! It seems right now like the two of you will never figure that concept out, but hopefully by the time you are teenagers you will have it down.

This year was your first year out at deer camp with the Veater's. It was pretty miserable weather but you were such a trooper. You went through all four pairs of pants I had for you on the first day after falling into puddle after puddle! You were out there playing every day with Logan, Quade, Kacen and a few of the older cousins, and you definitely held your own. Grandpa Veater sure had a fun time parading you around and even gave up hunting one night so I could go and he could watch you - then you thanked him by flipping one of Quade's bikes over on yourself in yet another puddle! Even with all the rain and yucky weather we had a good time, and I was surprised you were excited and not scared when we took you to see the deer in the back of dad's truck.

You are at such a fun age right now, and I would give anything to freeze time for you for a few more months. I'm just not ready for you to get to the next step, but even as I write that I know it isn't true either. While you are fun now I know that, even if you do throw horrific tantrums in the future, it's only going to be more fun from here on out.

Love you sis,

Mom

Going hunting with dad and Logan!

Playing in the rainwater with Logan.

I hope you always enjoy vacuuming as much as you do now. You SCREAM if I don't let you "help."

You think you are so cool when you wear daddy's stuff.

Posing with your pumpkins.

For Halloween this year you were a witch at preschool and a cat for trick-or-treating. It was basically the same outfit. I need to remember if we have any more kids that costumes that require facepainting are a BAD idea at 17 months. I had to hold Logan down to draw his whiskers on 2 years ago and had to do the same to you - then you proceeded to wipe your whiskers all over and I had to wipe it all off. You would have been so cute!