WOW part 2.

Another day in the life of adventure, only this one actually happened a week ago.

Scotty and I flew to Phoenix for some wonderful sunshine, and while he does pretty well on planes, he doesn't like confined spaces and often tries to escape into the aisle. This time his favorite trick was trying to fling himself over the back of the seat to join the cute kids sitting behind us. To distract him from the kids, I decided it was snack time. I was planning on graham crackers but he saw the yogurt I had brought through security for him in case we got stuck in the airport and, being the relaxed mom that I am, I decided we could make it work mid-flight, turbulence and all.

Everything went fine for about two bites, and then Scotty realized something was wrong. Normally, he gets to feed himself, and with thick liquids (cottage cheese, yogurt, applesauce, etc.) he actually does really well. BUT, I draw the line at kids feeding themselved sticky yogurt on a shifting airplane, especially when they're still bouncing all over the place and trying to leap over seats. Unfortunately, Scotty realized that I wasn't going to let him feed himself or even hold the yogurt. He quickly rectified the situation...

What you can't tell from this picture (taken hours later, post-nap and in the wind) is that Scotty came off the plane rocking a GREAT new hairstyle, courtesy of wild berry yogurt. Yes that's right, Scotty made a lunge for the yogurt and managed to dump the entire carton on his head in the middle of the flight. The nice guy sitting on the aisle kept Scotty from leaning back into the purple puddle while I scooped up yogurt with baby wipes as best I could.

In case you were wondering, yogurt makes a wonderful hair gel that leaves hair looking soft but with long-lasting hold. As an added bonus, the flavor never gets old! Also attracts cute puppies...

Scotty and Timbre

Scotty's favorite part of our AZ trip was playing with my parent's puppy, Timbre. My mom took some great video that she posted on her blog--I love it! Scotty was pretty much hysterical and totally wound the entire week. In fact, we're still recovering ;o)

Showing some love

I'm starting to see a lot of this going around so i'm jumping on the bandwagon and paying it forward. Here's how it works:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! But I'll try really hard.
2- It'll be done this year.
3- You have no clue what it's going to be, and neither do I, but I'm sure it'll be great :o)

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win an awesome homemade gift by me! Hope you're feeling the love :o)

Scotty's trip to the zoo

It wasn't the first--he's been to the Phoenix Zoo (check out the link!) before and Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, as well as the Denver Zoo (another link!) for zoo lights this Christmas. Still, this was the most fun excursion to the zoo because he's finally old enough to watch the animals instead of the ground or the people :o)


It was a perfect 75 degrees, blue skies and sunshine. Sorry to everyone stuck here in snow! My favorite part was the Siamung monkeys, who were singing a duet loud enough for the entire zoo to hear! If you watch the large palm tree in the background of this video you'll actually see a monkey climb all the way to the top branches...

I always love the orangutans as well.

The baby is three years old and still feisty, so she's a ton of fun to watch.
Reminds me of my little monkey!

Also, the Phoenix Zoo has a petting zoo, and Scotty LOVED petting the goats. Unfortunately all those pictures are on my mom's camera, so mom, I know you're reading this: send me those pics! I love you! Thanks for spoiling us...

The Newest Larsen--Rock Band 2

thanks for the awesome birthday present mom! We're making very good use of it.

Even Scotty loves being a little drummer boy...

Phoenician Adventures

We had a good week soaking up the sunshine. We went to the park. We played outside. We took Timbre (my parents' 6 month-old puppy) to visit our friend's puppy, and let Scotty chase them both around. We went to the zoo and watched monkeys climb palm trees and brushed the goats at the petting zoo (at least the Timbre-colored ones!). We ate a Baja Fresh and Sweet Tomatoes. We visited my brother and his family. We helped test balloon animals for a YW/YM activity. We watched The Little Mermaid on my dad's huge tv.

And occasionally we slept. Not as much as I would have liked, thank you Mr. I Wake Up At 5:30 AM... Scotty was either too wound from playing with Timbre, too over-tired from refusing to nap, or just not used to the new place. He often woke me up in the middle of the night and had to be convinced that it was still night outside. Can't wait to get home to Eric, our resident morning person. As for me, I think I need a week's worth of naps to catch up!

Eric!

Eric is offically a quarter of a century old, so to celebrate his quarter life crisis we hosted a party at the Nickelcade. Unfortunately I'm in phoenix, so the pictures will have to wait, but we had a great time and thanks to all of you who were able to help us celebrate this weekend! With Valentine's day and a birthday back to back it was quite the party.

Some highlights:

Watching scotty try to play basketball at the nickelcade. he didn't like the driving games, but he loved DDR and skeeball. In fact, he plays skeeball by climbing up the ramp and reaching under the grate to put the balls in. If only we could train him to aim for the 50,000...

Eating banana splits and playing scene it for the first time with the Birk's and the Alexander's. We'll have to keep playing until we all get good!

Eric making breakfast in bed for me and surprising me with roses!

Cuddling up on the couch all Saturday in our pj's while it snowed outside :o)

Going dancing! thanks to our stake for hosting a VDay dance with babysitting.

Having the fam over for a Nerts war (haha, Bekah, better luck next time!) and a rousing round of Clue.

A family scrabble game (which was dominated by ERIC! what a stud! toejam, for 45 points...), homemade food, and great socializing up at the Hepworth's. Eric came home saying "Curtis and Bev are my people!" We hope we get to see lots more of you before we move to Phoenix this summer.

We also had a minor adventure this weekend...waking up Sunday morning and realizing we needed to find an urgent care that was open on the holiday weekend to get Scotty's forearm popped back in place. (yes, again!) they say it's really common, especially once it happens the first time, and will be something he just has to grow out of. It was MUCH less scary this time as we knew exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. Thanks to Martha for answering her phone at such a miserable hour to brainstorm urgent cares with me :o) Eric ended up taking him to the outpatient center at Timp Regional where he was born. After a loud pop, basically no fussing, and a quickly ingested lollipop, both of my favorite boys made it back in time for church. We just have to make sure everyone around him knows not to swing him around!

For now, Eric is suffering through a week of tests and I'm basking in AZ sunshine and trying to convince Scotty to sleep past 6am. If any of you want to spoil my wonderful man with treats/food/company while I'm gone you're welcome to... ;o)

P.S. i'll post some pictures of Scotty bonding with my parents' six month old puppy, Timbre...they are the Batman and Robin of backyard adventuring!

Valentine's Love for my boys

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

18 Months!

So I meant to post something yesterday on Scotty's half birthday but I was trying to make a video and it's not working. Until then, here are the first 18 months of Scotty:


Current stats:

He weighs 22.5 lbs and is tall enough to pull things off of the bathroom counter when standing on tiptoe.

He has 8 front teeth, four molars, and is cutting two (going on infinity).

He is a social butterfly that thrives on fresh air--i.e. we have to get out of the house everyday, even if it's hailing and 20 below.

His favorite toys are his vacuum, food, and the mama jungle gym.

He spends a lot of time with me and thinks I'm hilarious.

He LOVES nursery and has no separation anxiety whatsoever. He looks strangely at the screaming kids from the top of the slide as if to say: "um, hello, they have snacks here. and a slide." He also loves stickers, and protectively guards his sticker all day, even during naps.

He babbles constantly, and occasionally says real words! Yesterday it was "fshhhh" for goldfish crackers, so he's getting there. He also imitates me a lot more--but only if he can makes the sounds. Pretty much he never says a word until he can say it fairly accurately...sometimes I wonder what keeping from me! His newest signs are "toothbrush", "hat", and "car".

Overall he's a wonderful little monkey to hang out with, and I love being his mom. Holding him is holding a tiny piece of heaven for just a moment...and then he squirms away!

Wow.

This is what happens when your toddler's room is actually your closet, he fusses for an hour in the middle of the night so you don't fall asleep until 1:30am, you have to be at Provo High at 7:30am to teach, and you don't want to wake him up earlier than you absolutely have to and you pick out your clothes by cell phone light:

At least no one else noticed.

Ode to Sunshine

I miss my sunshine,
I need my sunshine,
it keeps the craziness at bay.

You'll never know or see,
how much it saves me,
sunshine preserves my sanity.

I'm from Arizona, and I thrive with the feeling of warmth on my skin and the ability to leave my house in December. Every Christmas I wear flip flops to pick out a tree and eat fresh grapefruit from the backyard. There is an outdoor heated pool open year round. Here is a rare picture of me looking happy in the snow:Yes, I'm smiling. One, because I was done with school (or so I thought, haha!). Two, I'm snowboarding. I'm a recreational snow lover. But living in it? Get me to Arizona!

P.S. Thanks mama for sponsoring my sanity vacation! And sunshine--I'll see you next week.

Veggie Tales

So working at the treament center has exposed Eric and I to things we never wanted to see--including Pokemon and the Land Before Time IV. Those hardships were all worth it the day we discovered Veggie Tales: King George and the Ducky. It tells the story of King David and Bathsheba, but instead of a girl, the king is coveting a rubber ducky...and it has a glorious song called "The Selfish Song" with catchy lyrics like "but it weren't"...maybe you had to have been there to appreciate it.

Anyway, I stumbled upon Veggie Tales Silly Songs today and had to share this. Makes you appreciate the people behind the animated vegetables that tell bible stories--this is obviously written for the parents who sit through hours of low caliber TV for the sake of their children's entertainment.

My shopping trip adventure.

I caused a car accident yesterday! Eric was working on homework and I needed to pick up lettuce for the PF Changs lettuce wraps I was making (amazing!!!) so I decided to walk Scotty to the store to take up more time.

On our way home I was crossing a busy street where there is a crosswalk but no stoplight. I waited on the corner for a few, planning to cross when the light turned red. Then I saw a cop driving up. He slowed down a long ways before me, but I waited until he was at a complete stop to step into the road because drivers around here don't seem to pay too much attention and I didn't want to get hit--especially with Scotty in a stroller. In the next lane over there were three cars. I wouldn't have crossed then because of the traffic, but when a car stops for you, you feel obligated to cross!

Still, I waited a few more seconds because I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen. The first car was debating about stopping or going through--do you pass the cop and get a ticket for not yielding to a pedestrian in a crosswalk? Or do you stop, knowing the car behind you isn't paying attention? She stopped. Then got rammed by the car behind her. And almost got hit again by the car behind that.

I finished crossing the street. When I got to the other side, I turned around to see if I needed to stay--I had been a witness after all! The cop had already backed his car into the other lane, flicked his lights on, and wandered happily up to talk to the drivers.

Makes me wonder if he did it on purpose...and I almost hope he did, because I'm always nervous as a pedestrian about getting hit by cars that aren't paying attention!

It was the most interesting shopping trip I've ever had.

THE day.

I knew this day would come. From the moment we decided it was time to become parents, I knew this day would come: the day my child would throw up all over me.

I rarely get sick, and I have NEVER seen Eric throw up, not in the 6.5 years I've known him. In the back of my mind, I wondered--would I have the supermom ability to care for a sick child? Would I be too disgusted to ever want to hold him again? Would cleaning it up make *me* sick?

Now I know. I care too much about Scotty to think about it. I just want to make him feel better, even if it gets all over me.

I guess I really am a supermom after all.


P.S. Janae--at least I wasn't at WalMart! We just jumped right in the shower and didn't have to bask in the glory for a walk home.

One Day

One of my facebook friends posed an interesting question (in honor of Groundhog Day this week!): If you could pick one day of your life to live over and over, which would it be?

My first thought would be the day we had Scotty. The feeling of holding my own beautiful and perfect child in my arms...I had waited so long for that day and I remember feeling so content with life and my perfect family. I just wanted to treasure that moment, put it into a bottle on the shelf and keep it forever.--of course, repeating that day would mean LABOR every day...and I don't remember the second half of the day because I was unconscious, so let's pick a different day!

For our first anniversary, Eric and I roadtripped to California for a week and camped on the beach and went to Disneyland and went snorkeling...except for the sunburn that was a wonderful vacation! Of course, it was pre-Scotty, so now it wouldn't feel as complete. Maybe our cruise to the Bahamas? That was great, but again, Scotty-free.

I think it's impossible to have one perfect day. The best we can hope for is a good moment, every day!

What would your one day be?

Rachmaninov

For any of you who play piano, you know that the shape and size of a composer's hands affect the music they composed. I LOVE Chopin, and his music feels natural to me. I honestly believe we must have had similarly designed hands. Debussy or Rachmaninov, on the other hand....must have had much larger hands or super-flexible fingers.

I should have tried this technique when I played this song!

Flamenco Scotty

Scotty's new favorite activity is "Story time". Our library does an amazing little story time with songs, stories, and a puppet show, and he can't get enough of it. When we don't make it there in the mornings, we do out own story time at home and he's getting pretty good at a few of the songs. Sometimes he does the action and sometimes he just dances. His favorites are "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know it"

What a fun little guy! He makes me laugh every day. How can you not love this little guy?
P.S. He weighs 22.5 pounds and is 30 5/8 inches tall. He has all 8 front teeth and all 4 of his one year molars. He's currently working on a few more bottom teeth...but the end is in sight!