44 Months - February 2011

The other day I was playing with you on the floor and you were doing something super cute like drawing monsters with big bloby circles for the body, eyes, mouth, nose, etc., and I told you that you couldn't grow up and you needed to stay as small as you are right now forever. You got pretty mad when I told you that and said, "No Mom, I need to grow up so I can be a dad someday." I thought about that and then told you that would mean that I would be a grandma and asked if that would be okay. You said it would, but then I told you that you couldn't get married/have kids until you are 24. You seemed okay with that too, so I guess we've got it all planned out. You have even asked me who you are going to marry a few times in the last few months, and I just hope you ask my opinion when you get older. I remember when you very first said Ballentine, and apparently I will write about it in every February letter from now on. Just keeping being my Ballentine buddy and asking me for advice on who you should marry...

It's been cold enough this year that the snow we got back in December stuck around for EVER. You kept begging me to go play in it with you, and one day this month you finally wore me down. You lasted a lot longer out there than I did, but we had fun making snow angels and playing tag...

This probably isn't something you want broadcasted, but it's my letter so I'll write what I want! A few months ago I got tired of buying Pull-Ups for nighttime so I just decided to quit putting you in them. You have only had a few accidents and now go to bed without milk, without a Pull-Up, and you stay there ALL night! It's been lovely and only proves to me more that you have been the easiest kid to break of things, and you've probably totally spoiled and ruined me for when I have to get Tess to start giving up stuff.

You do still have to have your movie when you go to bed though. It's something I would like to replace with a book, but for now your dad or I try to read you a story before we turn on the movie. The other night when I went to turn off your movie after you'd fallen asleep I found you asleep in your room with the light on holding a book. It was pretty dang cute! I hope with all my heart I can teach you to love to read. It's my opinion that loving to read will take you farther than any other hobby you can have.

My friend Taren came down for a couple days this month while dad was out of town. It was pretty funny because you were already asleep by the time she made it here from American Fork and you ended up coming into our room that night to snuggle with me and dad. Imagine your surprise when there was a strange blonde sleeping where mom usually does! I'm not sure who was more surprised!

The morning she was getting ready to leave she let you play with the photobooth on her computer. She taught you how to take pictures and set it up so your face was distorted and did funny things when you moved around, and you played with that for a good hour straight. I bet she's got at least 200 pictures of you now! We did convince you to let us take some normal ones too...

You are such a silly kid and you love to have fun, play with play-doh, torment your sister, TALK, watch Care Bears (your dad did too!), pretend to be the Grinch (still!), and learn. You ask when your birthday almost every day, and I wish you weren't so excited to turn 4. 4! I guess that means I've only got 20 years to shape you into the kind of guy someone is going to want to marry. It shouldn't be too hard, just remember to let your mom have a say in who the girl is!

Love you buddy,

Mom

20 Months - February 2011

This letter is late. This seems to be a recurring theme around here lately. I'm not complaining that I have SO much to do, but really kid, I have SO much to do. The letters are important though, so I'm squeezing this one in at 5:30 a.m. after working for almost 2 hours already. Do you feel bad for your dear 'ol mom yet? I could keep going....

Actually I will keep going on that line because after I finish with your letter I have to go sweep and mop the floors. I have to do this at 6 a.m. today because if I wait until a more normal time of the day to do housework you'll be awake, and there is absolutely NO WAY you will let me do those things on my own. It's a pain in the butt, but I hope you keep some of your OCD cleaning tendencies as you grow up. For now, the fact that you won't let me touch the broom without you screaming at me to give it to you is just a little annoying.

I do love ya though.

You've been a tough one this month. You are finally getting another tooth, which I might cut you some slack for, but overall you've kind of become pretty whiny. You point and grunt at what you want and get really irritated when we can't figure out the caveman-speak. I've been trying to make you actually say what you want, and I love it when you actually do because your voice is so dang cute.

There really hasn't been much going on this month. Daddy finished up his time off, we went back to the preschool routine, and we took some trips to Panguitch and Hurricane to see the grandparents. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but that could be due to my lack of sleep ;)

We did go a on a picnic the other day. We had the usual January warm up last week and decided to take advantage of it. We went out to an area north of Fredonia and climbed around on the rocks and ate lunch. You were actually sick that day but were a pretty good trooper anyway.

I don't have many pictures this month either. I guess that's kind of the way our January went this year, not super exciting. I did find this funny one though. Sometimes at night you decide you aren't ready to go to bed when we think you are and we let you hang out with dad for a while while I work. One night you decided you wanted to hang out with mom and ended up falling asleep under my chair like a puppy. This was fine until you decided to roll over onto you back and ended up holding down the rewind button on my footpedal.

Even with all the whining, caveman grunting, and interference with housework you are still a dang funny kid to be around. Your personality makes me so excited to see you grow up but also scares me too. You should see the way your Grandma Hillier laughs when I tell her something you have done. Apparently she's seen it all before somewhere. I heard a song the other night by Taylor Swift called "Never Grow Up" that makes me think of both you and your brother but especially you, so look it up and really listen to the part where she talks about being nice to your mom, okay?

Love you Sis,
Mom