My baby's growing up...

I can't believe how much Dawson has changed and grown up in the last month... In addition to the 75+ signs he uses, he's starting to use more and more spoken words every day. Most of them are only understandable in context, or when used with the corresponding sign, but they're words! He's also becoming much clearer about what he wants, how he wants it, and how he expects things to be. And, as an early 2nd birthday gift to us (months early, in fact), when these demands aren't met, he has various STRONG (but, unfortunately amusing) ways of showing his displeasure. Tantrums are now a regular event in this household again... (not to imply that Wyatt had completely grown out of them either. They're just less frequent.) And then there's his latest obsession with dropping everything possible over the railing and watching them tumble down until they crash at the bottom. Fortunately nothing's been broken yet.

But, along with the trials, come the treasures. He has FINALLY started saying Mama as more than just a whiny complaint... he's generous with the hugs, cuddles and sloppy kisses... he's extremely helpful and loves to do mini-chores for us, such as throwing garbage away, bringing me dirty dishes, putting the shoes back where he got them from (as bringing them out to us is another of his obsessions)... and watching him idolize Wyatt and learn so much from him, by means of copying, is so rewarding. Two are so much more fun!

I've defintely needed more babyproofing with him than I did with Wyatt, and I'm afraid he'll be a bit of an escape artist, but I'm looking forward to where this new phase of our journey takes us.

Wyattism

"Teeth is kind of like a saw in the mouth"

Wyattism

Today was Mother's Day Tea at Wyatt's preschool. One of the special stations was for them to paint Mama's nails. He did a pretty decent job for a first timer, but there's a fair amount of hot pink polish on the skin around my nails. Tonight was girls night, and I told him I would show off my beautiful manicure. When my nails caught his eye tonight at teethbrushing time, he asked me "Did you show off your nails tonight?" I said that I did. "Did they like them?". Yes, and they were all proud of you for doing such a nice thing for Mama. "Well, they should have come here and told me that!"

Bedtime Story

This is the bedtime story Wyatt told to Kenton when he tucked Kenton in for bed... (told from memory as best as I can)

"Once upon a time, there was a quad. His name was Speed Racer. He had a rider named Wyatt. Wyatt had a family named Daddy, Mama and Dawson. He loved his whole family more than anything, EVEN his quad. And then he grew and grew and grew and grew until he was a teenager, and then he got a dirtbike. Then he got talenter and talenter and talenter until he was big enough and good enough to get a BIG quad. The end."

Wyattisms

This is new "series" of posts, just to get these little phrases down for posterity. Sometimes they'll come with a story, sometimes they'll just "be". (Dawson will have his own series when he gets into sentences too). It's partly to share them, and partly to document them until I get a chance to record them all in a book. I find it easier to type than write...

Today, in the car when Dawson was bugging him, he said ''I'm using up all my patience and I'll never have anymore''

Wyatt's new book-picking method

"Eenie meenie, miney mo, pocket full of po, husha husha, and I love....."

and then of course he usually decides he doesn't want the one he picked with that method and ends up picking whatever he wanted to read anyways, lol.

Goodnight!

My kids

I know I've been HORRIBLE about putting pics up on Facebook, and I haven't sent out a family email since Dawson's homecoming, so I'll make sure to be much better about it here :) (I also intend to put some on FB soon too, for those of you who are friends with me there as well). But here's a couple for starters... they're a few months old, but other than a haircut, they look the same today, so for those who haven't seen them in awhile, these are my monkeys!

My first post

This is my limited access blog, so if you got an email inviting you to read it, then you know I like and trust you to read my more personal thoughts, and details of me and my family. My other blog (http://mamalovesbest.blogspot.com) will only have "surface" info about the family, as well as things I just want to talk about to anyone who will listen, lol ;) This is the one to read if you want to keep up with my family's life :) But feel free to keep up with both of them, as the other one may have a lot of cute and funny "snapshots" (visual and written) of our daily life, particularly things the kids do and say.

I'll start writing for real over the next couple days, on both blogs, so come back and check them out!