That's new

We are "potty training" the mister. I use that term oh so loosely, because really we aren't doing anything active in this endeavor beyond asking him if he wants to use the potty every hour or so, and assisting him if he assents. He uses it about five times a day, give or take, and hasn't really shown any dislike towards the process. This all leads to my story about how I was just summoned by our sleepy child so that he could use the potty. Now Skyler, and I am sure many other two year olds, uses any number of excuses to avoid bedtime. Saying he needs to potty could likely have been one of them, but since we are trying this "training" I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Sure enough he had to go, and did, and then pulled up his own little pants, flushed the toilet and allowed himself to be put back to bed. That's new.

And so that you aren't left with all story and no pictures. Some other things that are new:

Skyler tries to take pictures of himself, with varying levels of success. Mostly he just holds the (wrong side) of the lens up to his eyeball and says "Skylah cheese!". I helped him with this one.


My child likes to pick things up and hold them with his toes. This lovely and strange trait is sadly inherited from me.

Skyler is getting better at handling, and not eating, play doh. He was rolling out 'snakes' here, which always live a short life before being mauled flat into a birthday cake.

One last "new" thing. Be sure to stop over and congratulate Carrie and family on their new arrival, baby Kyla. She is especially new as she entered this world a bit early. Be sure to leave a nice encouraging comment as they go through this new phase of life.

Happy Der-day to Mom-Me

Hooray! My turn for a birthday serenade. Today finds me turning twenty six years old, and also 36 weeks pregnant. Behold the bigness.

Despite my current size, and general discomfort, I had a wonderful birthday courtesy of my boys. Andy and Skyler went out this morning and found me breakfast and some lovely flowers. The flowers really prove that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Mind you that Skyler had full reign in choosing which flowers Mommy got, so this is what the ideal birthday bouquet looks like to a two year old:

Beautiful, right? I imagine that their being the loudest and most vibrant on display helped to attract his attention. I also think they are perfect.

We then spent much of the rest of the day at the zoo. Again, being in advanced state of pregnancy I had begun to doubt the practicality of my birthday choice of activity, but we just went slow and arrived early to beat the midday heat. Overall we had a great time, especially with Skyler now being able to recognize (and imitate) the animals he was seeing. Exhibit A, below we see him roaring like a bear at the Sun Bear display.

We also enjoyed a small break and some snow cones. Skyler sampled both the red and the blue, leaving the lower half of his face an interesting purple.

He made sure to share with me:

And with Daddy:

We ended the trip with the purchase of some souvenirs and a ride on the big (yellow) shuttle bus. Skyler actually enjoyed this part immensely, as he chose to narrate the entire ride by reminding me that "Skye riding bus", and "Skye sit on bus".

It was a wonderful way for me to kick off this new year of life, and truly happy der-day.

Mini "Maternity" Shoot

This past weekend we had a little mini "Maternity" shoot. I use quotations marks because it wasn't anything done professionally, we don't have any extra funds laying around for such occasions. My mother in law however is pretty handy with her camera and obliged us by taking some pictures of the 3, almost 4, of us. I have loads of pictures of just Skyler, and a few more of myself recently due to documentary purposes, but there is a shocking dearth of photos including the whole family. We have a few attempts from the recent holidays, but not enough to satisfy me. I also wanted to have some photographic evidence to look back upon this particular point in our lives. My MIL took quite a few photos of which we really like just a handful. The blame for this partially belongs on the fact that we ran late and missed the good early morning light. The rest can be chalked up to the difficulty of obtaining a "good" photo of three people, one being two years old. Enough disclaimer, here they are:

Unscheduled appearance of the water toys

We got home from work/daycare/our day and realized it was really quite a nice day outside. Most days getting out of the car Skyler would prefer to stay outside anyways, but today we just had no excuse to go back indoors. He also recently rediscovered a favorite toy from last summer, something unearthed by Andy in the process of cleaning out the back of our car. Before we knew it Skyler was stripped down and in his swimming trunks acting out a scene I really didn't expect to see anytime before July. Not quite summer, but we are getting there.

Veinte y cinco

Dear Skyler-

I can't remember if I had decided that after two we would stop counting your age in months. This might have been something your dad mentioned and I agreed to, then again these last few weeks of gestating your little brother have been thoroughly sapping my mental acuity. Either way, I think we will still continue with these monthly letters...for now.

You are one month past your second birthday and just about a month away from officially becoming a big brother. I know that first one has made an impression on you, since every time you see a cake or enjoy an especially event filled day you start to sing the happy birthday song. In fact you serenaded me several times yesterday for Mother's day, I can understand how these "holidays" might all fall under one title for you at this point. As for understanding about baby brother Mason, I am certain you have no real clue what is in store for you. Don't feel bad, I think we all aren't quite sure what we are about to get ourselves into. You understand that Mason has a room, and that these are Mason's clothes and Mason's toys. You have even identified Mason when going through your introductions; my mommy, my daddy, then Mason (points to my stomach). We will see how you do when introduced to the real thing.

It's funny, when you turned one it seemed that you instantly became a toddler. Or at least what I thought of as a toddler at the time, which meant demonstrating more purposeful actions and independent thought than you had previously practiced. Now that you are two, well, you are very two. You encompass all the wonderful highs and frustrating lows we have been warned a two year old is capable of. You are so very sweet, wanting to give hugs and multiple kisses. You even offer to 'fix' our necks for us, which means a five second neck rub. You are funny, you are already developing a sense of potty humor which I can only really blame myself for. You are smart. Your Gamma told you the other day that you couldn't leave in the car because she didn't have the car seat to take you in. Which was true, her car didn't have a seat installed. What she overlooked, but you did not, was that our spare car seat was sitting right next to the front door, and you. Helpfully you pointed this out. You are also stubborn and randomly psychotic, which I truly mean in the most loving way possible. But really, you are crazy sometimes. I know that much of this stems from your frustration with a world that you haven't quite figured out how to put into words. As developed as your verbal skills are you still don't possess all you need to fully communicate all your wishes and desires. This results in some pretty epic tantrums and a dizzying range of emotions from you at any given time. This too shall pass. Fortunately you are also cute.

We love you bug, even your bad bits. Happy 25th.

Round and round

So I am managing to post this from home because I am directly connected to my modem. Nice. Not nearly as fancy as wireless, and still not the desired outcome... but then I haven't broken down and bought a new router, so who's to blame really?

We celebrated and early Mother's Day today for my mom so that I can have tomorrow all to myself. The kiddo managed to deliver flowers to gramma with nary a petal smushed or plucked. Quite the feat really.


He also had his first ride on a carousel. Though the whole experience lasted all of ten minutes it really made the whole day. Which is saying quite a bit because the rest of our day was filled with some very two year old moments. *Sigh*. He really did love the 'horsies' though, he named his own Dan. Not sure why. He enjoyed telling it to "Gi-yup" and shouted a few yee-haws. Who knew that these things became fun again once you were a parent. Once again I am reminded how fun the little things are, of course even more so when experienced for the very first time.

Skyler also made me a lovely Mother's day present, with some assistance, at his daycare. His teacher said he was quite enthusiastic with the paintbrush during the creation process. Now just to see what grows.

Happy Mother's Day!

Showering the baby - 34 Weeks

Today marks the beginning of week 34. Seriously, six more weeks to go. A little over a month for me to get ready for this, number two. Physically I am reaching that point, at some times during the day more than others, where I am ready. Mentally - meh. Looking at my to-do-before-baby-arrives list, also a little meh. We will be needing to make the most of the next five weekends for sure.

Little Mason man had his first baby shower this week, courtesy of my place of work. I have been so fortunate to be on the receiving end of now three showers from this employer (wedding, and for Skyler), I am starting to feel a little guilty for it. Not guilty enough to say no to all of this of course:

Sorry for the poor picture quality, my phone can only do so much. Don't get too excited for me though, I shared a shower with another gal who is due just a few days before me, so only half that loot is mine. Seems that it's not just the blogosphere going through a baby boom, there's something in the water here at work.

Remember, I shared the shower. Only one of the above referenced 'babies' is mine. We took home quite a haul, including this stroller and lots of other things to help us fill in the gaps in Mason's nursery. Very exciting, and needed.

Internet or not

There are some great giveaways going on right now for 5 Minutes for Mom that you should pass up. Lots of great prizes and just a few more days to enter. Definitely go check it out!

Disconnect

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, and likely to come. My internet decided to abandon me last week and the weekend visit from comcast failed to restore it. Apparently my router is the issue and dear comcast only troubleshoots their own equipment, of which my router is not. Thanks for the visit anyways. So until I figure out how to fix my router and/or purchase a new one... I am sans internets for the majority of the time. *Sigh*