11 Month Little Man

What the, I was just sitting here about to procrastinate doing his first birthday post when I realized I haven't even done his 11 months.  Well then here goes.

Little Man did indeed hit 11 months!  The room was given a mini-makeover to feel more like his own, and he's done well in his own place.  He's eating a lot and sleeping pretty great and walking around like nobody's business, months earlier than either of the older two.  He has absolutely found his voice and makes it heard often, and often quite loudly.  He's still pretty easygoing most of the time but when he's upset or impatient he doesn't really hold back.

They finally booted me out of Primary but at least the company in EQ is good.

What a change half a room of color can make.

Thumbnail for a video but still so cute!  He approves of the new baby swing.

Such a fun church buddy.  Always keeps me on my toes.  Or on my feet at least.

"Yawn and Back Again," by Milo Baggins

He loves his mommy so much and is looking so big.

Okay then, next time it will be time to ready on birthday the first.  Such a big boy, full of life and personality and sweetness.

4! (And 3*)

(It's not that she's all ashamed of her age, it's just not my place to go splashing it around online and such.  I also realize I did something similar last year.  How old even are we?)

Quick, before it's June!  Um... before it's July?...

We had two more birthdays!  It's tricky how the kids' birthdays fall within just days of our own, but it does simplify things when you get behind on blogging about it, which, let's face it, is the most important thing (it is 2008, right?  People still blog?  Well, I do, now and then anyway).

So this year it was all a big to-do to get things sorted out because The Boy's birthday was actually on Sunday and The Wife's birthday was on Saturday but we wanted to have his party on Saturday, so then do we just switch completely this year?  But then when he goes to church will he be confused when we're like SHOUT HOORAY! and he's like, but it was yesterday??  And then does Julie not get presents on her actual day but then has to wait until HIS birthday and then HE doesn't get any on HIS actual day???  As you can see, it was a web of confusion.  So we ended up just kind of mashing them together -- fun cousins party on Saturday afternoon with delicious car cake, saved a few of his presents for the actual day and did our best to explain, then longsuffering Mommy was just patient and opened hers and had her amazing Lucky Charms marshmallows cake the next day.  It was a fun and busy weekend, but it might make things easier next year when the days are different, but who knows?  Anyway, here are some pictures!  Again in mashed-up style:

So much fun at his (first?) official birthday party!  The KSL sandbox was a huge hit, and the slide from Auntie Jellyfish was even bigger.

Leeeeeet's just get a better look at that amazing cake.

He bought Blaze with his very own birthday money!  I think he was pleased with his purchase.

Cute birthday girl.  I kind of dropped the ball this year, but I will make it up to you!

Leeeeet's just get a better look at that cake too...

And so, just like that our boy is 4.  For some reason this is an age I always remember my younger sisters being, so maybe there's something about this age.  Anyway, he's a great kid and amazes me all the time with how much he knows and retains and grows and loves and shouts.  Here's the Insta slideshow:

One day, Boy... One day.

Having so much fun at the carnival!  He's getting more fearless as time goes by, but he's still pretty cautious about certain things.

He loves Cousin Jack (and not just because of the cars he often so nicely brings) 

His faces!!!  So fun to visit Great-Grandma in Logan.

I kept these Atlantis figures in their boxes for yeeeeears after buying them cheap at the WDW Cast Member store, only to open them up so this guy could enjoy them.  Worth it.

Did I say he's still cautious?

Anything with wheels!

With wheels and lights?  Even better.

He often says cousin Link is his best friend.

Potty training was kind of a fiasco but The Wife (with help from Daniel Tiger) prevailed!  She is amazing, because thiiiiiis was pretty bad at first.

Going to work!

Dressing his friends for nap (which he only very occasionally takes anymore).

Super Boy!  Love those sidekicks.

This might have been the best thing ever for him so far.

Where did our baby boy go???

We wondered how he would do in Primary... and he did perfectly fine.  I wonder if it helps that I'm in there with him?  Or maybe hinders... Anyway, Kitty is the Primary mascot and usually sits on the piano, and he finally was "ready" and started singing a couple months ago...  Maybe one of these days he'll sing around the house or at bedtime with us.

Helping Mommy with her knitting.

Helping Daddy with the painting!  He's a good helper.

Life changed forever after experiencing Chuck E. Cheese's.

All tucked in for movie night!  We needed to rewatch the original Beauty and the Beast for reasons, and he's loved the books for months so it was time.

Neighbor Renner gave him a turn of his very own!  Again, the best thing ever... until it was time to get off.

A year later and his teeth are looking just great.  Amazing.

Taking a turn at Nana's watercolor station.  He's actually becoming quite the artist.

True to his Asian roots, he knows exactly how to use chopsticks (which of course Hmong people don't even use).

The arts!  The letters!  This boy.

There you have it!  Mostly these are for me/us to enjoy and look back and remember things but if you made it through hopefully you enjoyed it too.  Our boy has some real highs and lows in his toddler emotional roller coaster, but mostly highs, and he's even getting easier to reason with, which is refreshing, since Baby Girl seems to be going just the other way in some respects, ha.  He's handsome and clever and bright and loves life so much, it just makes me want to match his energy and joy and exuberance, which we do our best to do.  He's a great big brother and a good helper around the house and a delight in Primary.  His voice gets increasingly not only louder but also higher the more excited he gets, but I love how he uses words ("we goeded" "I learneded" "I playeded"). He loves visiting aunts and uncles and cousins and always wants to go to a "fun place" (wherever that is, usually anywhere will do) when I get home from work.

Until next time!  We love our boy.

Bathrooms and Easter and Dentist

Things have been happening around here.  These things are closely related.

Thing 1:

When we moved in we had Big Plans to redo our kitchen and add grand wings and expand the basement by 1000 square feet or so (okay, maybe not those last two), but then I lost my job and we had a baby and were distracted and trying to put our money toward other things, so we decided instead to do a few smaller projects along the way and work up to doing the kitchen, maybe piecemeal.  So we've painted a couple bedrooms and artfully arranged some new and old art on the walls, but the latest, just in time for spring, was a freshening up of our main floor bathroom.

Going prematurely green.

It wasn't a full renovation, just a fresh coat of paint and some new cabinet hardware and wall decor, but it was just the thing.  The Wife had just the shade of green in mind (she has a way with color), and even though we were kind of anxious when we had put on the first coat, another time over and a good dry and pulling off the paint and we loved it.  You can read more of the details here.

We worried it was a bit too green but when it was all over we thought it was just perfect

Then when we were finished, because why let a half gallon of Cottage Grove green paint and an afternoon of napping babies go to waste, we decided to do the downstairs one too!  It's only a half bath so it didn't take long, and it sort of took care of the water damage from the Minor Flood of '14, so that's good too.  Lesson learned though: Just tape off the baseboards next time.

(It looks greener in the pictures than it actually is.)

It was fun and quick and pretty inexpensive, which is just how I like my mini-renos.

Thing 2:

Easters!  Hot on the tail of our fresh new springtime bathroom, springtime itself was on its way, which included a really nice Easter Sunday, which fun and candy and baskets and Easter egg hunt practice so that little people might enjoy it more than they did last year.  Nothing could go wrong on a day like this.

Don't they all taste the same??  Apparently they have new "flavors", which sound gross.

The morning was all flowers and sausages, the perfect start to a special day.  I don't understand why the Easter Bunny is kind of like Santa Claus for some people these days, but our little poopsies were thrilled with their jelly beans and chocolate and plastic eggs.  (Baby's featured mostly squeezy pouches of baby food, which she enjoyed very much.)  (Also the new Easter basket grass is just the best thing ever.)

What ho, Easter Bunny!

We went to church and had a very nice time, adorable new clothes and a fun Easterish Singing Time in Primary, and then we plated up our asparagus and headed to my sister's house for the fun and festivities (and to "see cousins"), where there was an amazing dinner and lots of playing in the fun basement and thence to The Hunt!

Me and my little people

The Boy was much more into it just like we hoped, and the practice seemed to pay off, even for adorable adorable Baby, who was very glad to gnaw on the two or three eggs she found (and the Prince Charming she had brought from inside).

C: O, here, Baby.  A: *om nom nom*

I mean, really?!?  (Also, note:  Prince Charming.)

Which leads me to...

Thing 3:

... which I will list separately so as to keep the memories of Easter fun and only dampened by a slightly overcast afternoon.

So as the egg hunting was winding down we decided to go look at the horses on the other side of the backyard fence, and as we were approaching (and it actually occurred to me that he shouldn't get too close in case the horses nipped him or something) The Boy fell teeth-first onto the iron bar of the fence.  Tears, blood, restrained panic, taking him inside, thinking one was broken and the other was gone, not finding any on the ground, calling the emergency number to see if he needed to visit the ER, being asked ridiculous questions (is he complaining about pain??  Didn't I just say he was crying and covered in blood??), texting a picture to the on-call pediatric dentist, calming down, worrying about potential lifetime trauma, hugging and kissing and trying to examine teeth, choking up when a tiny voice says "my teeth are gone...", all aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents being very supportive and helpful and nice (and feeling guilty -- stop it), and eventually...

Putting on pajamas, borrowing toys from aunt and uncle, and heading home, but not before chasing down the kitty to tell it that he bonked.

Phew.

The dentist said not to panic and if he wasn't in pain or bleeding he should be fine and to bring him in in the morning.

So we did!

Here we go...

We hadn't really planned on his first visit to the dentist being under these circumstances, but it could have gone worse...

Show us your teeth.  And don't be afraid of the impending x-ray chair.

He liked the exciting and interesting ocean-themed office and the movies on the ceiling, but when it came time to sit in any chair he was pretty distressed.  But they were quick and professional and gentle and nice, and told us that [AMAZINGLY] baby teeth sometimes just get pushed right back up where they came from and gradually grow back down just like they're coming in for the first time.  He had a few chips, but nothing close to the root and no nerve exposure, and overall we're just so grateful.  I mean, can you even imagine if that happened to an adult?  I think my teeth would just break clean off and I would pass out from the pain.  I tell you, kids are just designed to withstand bumps and bruises and bounce back.  In the end they gave him a token for the toy machines, from which he picked a grow-in-the-water dinosaur (that hardly grew at all), and as we drove away he proclaimed, "That's not so bad!"  It was still a little heartbreaking whenever he realized that things were different, and when -- the ultimate betrayal! -- his binky took some adjusting before he could take comfort in its companionship, but after a long night and some helpful medicine, the long day came to a close.

After that we were worried that he would have some painful association with horses or Easter or cousins or whatever, but it seemed like the lingering feeling of trauma had faded pretty quickly when he wanted to say hello to the horses down the street and visit the cousins shortly thereafter.  We almost had an episode trying to wear his Easter shirt again a couple weeks later (after the blood actually came off pretty easily), but that was more of a sleeves/sleepiness issue.  Phew.

We had a followup appointment this week (which was much less traumatic, though he still didn't care for the x-ray part of the process) and it looks like they're coming in already, which even we could see as the days have gone by, and, especially after the swelling and tenderness wore off, we're used to our boy's new temporary smile.  He's cute enough that he can pull it off.  He even told the doc that "My teeth are coming back!"

(I also learned that you can't just add your kid to your dental insurance for the first time any old day.  Good to know for future.)

(And I realize now that my post is a bit redundant if you've read The Wife's Easter/teeth report, but that's okay.)

What an eventful weekend.  So many things!  But they are all turning out all right, and even if some of them involved some trauma and tenderness and tears, everyone is fine and we are really enjoying spending time out in sunshine.  And really, what a way to be reminded of the true meaning of the holiday.  We felt a lot of love and comfort through the fear and pain, and it's always good to be reminded to have gratitude.

My teeth hurt while I was writing this.