The fun continues.

Scotty has also become the resident fashion consultant. Apparently he thought Eric would look better as a cyclops or with a monocle.


We tried our best oculus repairo skills but apparently we're all muggles. Now we're just waiting for Eric's new (and cheap!) glasses to arrive from zenni in the mail. I'm also trying to win a $100 gift certificate to Eye Buy Direct to get a new pair of glasses for me--mine are seriously toddler smeared and scratched.


I have had some luck with giveaways recently even though I rarely enter them. In fact, today I found out I won a personalized placemat for Scotty! This will be his second, but I'm glad to get it because he likes to get them out and play with them.


I picked this one because "firefighter" is one of his favorite signs and that just doesn't come up very often in casual conversation. I do think I'll get one that says "Scotty" instead of Christpoher, however...

In other news, Scotty cracks us up and is a lot of fun to be around. Eric and I played a little Rock Band while he was eating a snack and he started singing along so we let him play. He scored a 59% on this song (on easy, but hey, it's a hard song and the kid can barely talk!)

This video's for you, Bekah!

For those who don't recognize the song, it's "That's What you Get" by Paramore, and the chorus (which he sings pretty accurately) is all woahs.

Scotty's Newest Exploits

There's always something to make me laugh and keep things interesting. He finally regained his curtain privileges and so far, so good--they've stayed on the wall where they belong and no stuffed animals have been speared by the curtain rod.

He loves to share his world with me. Constantly. The other day I put on a short video for him to watch after his nap while I finished a school assignment. He kept walking from the front room to the computer to tell me what he would see: "Mama, horse." A minute later, "Mama, dog!" If I didn't pay attention to his explanation, he would put his little hands on the side of my face and turn it toward him and say really slow, "Mama...horse...." like he was trying to teach it to me! Made it hard to get my stuff done but cute, nonetheless.

Yesterday Eric came to the store with us before he left for his CPA class. As we got in the car, I tried to get Scotty to agree to call Eric some goofy nickname...

Meg: "Scotty say, 'yeah!'"
Eric: "Scotty say, 'no!'"
Scotty: ............
Meg: "say, 'yeah!'"
Eric: "no, say 'no'"
Scotty: ......... "uh-oh!"

He's already a pro at not taking sides ;o)

Here's a video of Scotty at his most realistic.

And yes, he does totally nail the camera with the case.

Recent crafts

Last summer I started an ambitious project to make a quiet book to keep Scotty entertained during church. My friend Janae was making one and she made it seem so quick and easy--I should have been wary because that girl can make a gorgeous quilt (including creating her own pattern!) in like a week.

So here it is. Finally finished. Only one year later! I'm glad I made this and I put a lot of time, thought, and love into it. And I'll never make another one as long as I live. Enjoy!

Scotty's newest thing is pointing out people in pictures. To prevent him from breaking anymore of my pictures or pulling them off the walls, and to keep him close to family that's far away, I made him a collage book all his own. Congratulations to all of you who are now a part of his vocabulary :o)

This next one is pretty long, so it's mostly for the grandma's,
but he is getting pretty good at lots of names...is yours one of them?

Daddy Day

Scotty gave us the best Father's Day present yesterday: he slept in till 9am. Of course, I hadn't planned on that miracle, so I hadn't set an alarm. Still, I managed to make Eric french toast breakfast in bed, jump in the shower, mostly figure out how to do my hair without looking like a mushroom, and make it to church to accompany choir practice by 10am. Whew!

Eric didn't want any presents, so I practiced restraint. I finally found a nice bag to replace the duffel bag he currently hauls to the temple :o) Mostly I bought things for Scotty so he could look just like his daddy, including miniature black wingtips and a nice white button shirt.

This picture is a better summation of our day:

Check out that loving face!

We also decided to make a huge Father's Day card for Eric via a candy bar poster. Scotty helped me pick out candy as we walked around the store to write a creative message of love and appreciation.


Of course, Eric really only likes Reese's, and that's a hard word to incorporate, so we improvised.

We love you, Eric!

Complete Randomness

I uploaded the newest pictures from my camera and have decided that there isn't much a storyline to accompany them. So, here you are: complete randomness.

Scotty's friend Marian came over to play.

She "read" a book to Scotty by pointing at the pictures and saying "what is that? what does that cow say?" Hmm...exactly what I do all day! I guess I'm replaceable :o) She saw me taking a picture and asked for a picture of just her--isn't she cute?

We've known her since day one and will really miss the Birk's when we move in a month!


While Eric's been taking CPA review courses all day Saturday in Salt Lake, Scotty and I have taken a few trips up north to visit family. Two weeks ago we got to go to my cousin's wife's baby shower. She's avoided any "belly pictures" so I of course took a few :o) She looks super cute so I don't know what she's hiding!

Scotty had a great time borrowing Kyler's new dog and jumping all over family members. Here he is with my aunt Peggy.



One more picture...tada! I whacked all my hair off again! I'm still learning how to do it because it's been a few years since I had short hair but I LOVE it. Besides, I finally look more than 25 than 16...
I got my student teaching assignment for fall and am excited to get started! I'm a litle anxious about blending in with the 14 year-olds but I'm sure it will be a great experience. I'm teaching with Kris Radamacher-Gorowitz at Desert Vista High School. I graduated from there in 2002 and know Kris by name as she was the cheer coach. Wish me luck!

The Signing Master

So I had an interesting experience the other day. Scotty walked up to me and signed something--and I had no idea what he was saying! I took 2 years of ASL in college so I'm fairly familiar with the basics. He LOVES to watch the Signing Time videos. Every morning I hear him singing in his crib, asking for three things (in order): food, time, and mama. If he's earned enough stickers on his helping chart he gets to watch singing time while he eats breakfast. He's mesmorized. He bounces to the songs. But he never signs. Silly me, I just assumed he liked the movie action but wasn't picking up the language!

To keep him distracted and prevent a serious meltdown on the way home from our walk today I started asking him to say things I knew were on his videos. Sure enough, he knows all the signs! Guess it's time for me to start sitting through the videos again so I can understand my signing boy...

Here are some of his new signs:

motorcycle
bus
peach
pear
strawberry
bean
carrot
lettuce
rainbow
yellow
firefighter
helicopter
swing
march (my favorite! it's totally the BYU star wars march action...)
run
fast
slow
horse
bear
cow
cereal
dance
ice cream
red
orange

He's pretty good at saying all of those words as well as signing them, but baby signs are pretty dang cute. How can you not love this kid?

Scotty's photo shoot

So you're all probably tired of hearing about this, but I realized I never actually posted the pictures! Here are the results from Scotty's photo shoot at Utah Lake. It was free, including 5 images on cd, and Scotty had a blast throwing sticks and rocks into the water and mud.

Personally, I think he's ridiculously adorable.

He's also become a total mama's boy and is very possessive... Thinking back to my newborn squid, I never would have imagined he would be my little shadow hugger. Gotta love it while it lasts!

Anyone else want some great pics for really cheap? I'm going to host a portrait party for this photographer and she's offering a 20 minute slot to each person who signs up without any session fees. Check out my posts on Meg's Magic for more info--and let me know if you want to join in!

More adventures!

We've had some fun adventures in the past week! Thursday we went to the pool for the first time this summer (swim lessons were indoors). Scotty is so much bigger!

I couldn't help but notice that he can now walk anywhere he wants in the kid area, whereas last year he was limited by how long he could hold his breath while crawling under water. He especially loved the slide, though it was a little chilly and he was getting goosebumps. He didn't seem to mind, or even notice, and I finally had to tear him away.


Even better, Eric got to take a few hours off work and come with us! This swimsuit was my birthday present--custom fit to handle toddler abuse.


Friday afternoon we went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. Despite the huge wind/sandstorm, we had a really nice time. Scotty loved to point out Jesus in all the pictures, which was touching for me.

My mom is a picture fanatic and always gets great, artistic temple shots. The sky was grey from the storm and I couldn't walk very far holding my skirt tight around my legs (skirts and winds are not a good combination!) But hey, I tried.

We also got to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, which is a family favorite. It will be nice to have one down the street and not have to drive to Sandy every time I'm craving cornbread!

Saturday Eric had class in Salt Lake all day preparing for the CPA exam, so Scotty and I did fun things around the house like water our "lawn" (though to our credit there are a few bits of green grass coming up!) and refinish the kitchen floor. He was such a good helper :o) We went to the Discovery Gateway museum in Salt Lake for a few hours before picking Eric up. After he got past the tantrum of having to wear something on his wrist, Scotty had a good time.

Scroll the mouse over the pictures to see the captions.

Climbing Monkey

Scotty is a great climber. At the park, he can climb up the ladders by himself--in fact he's never fallen! He's short but stretchy, I guess...He even climbed partway up a chainlink fence trying to get into the waterpark a few days ago. When he realized he couldn't make it all the way, he turned to me and said, "Up! I want up!"


We've started some packing, as we've accumulated lots of stuff and we need to sort out what goes with us and what goes into storage until we have a place of our own. Scotty loves to help by adding his toys to the boxes. Or himself.

Callie loves this table, so everytime she comes over to play the two of them pose for me. I love how Scotty crosses his feet when he sits!

This isn't the best video--it's mostly for grandparents and people with a Scotty addiction. He's starting to talk a lot now and keeps us entertained with his animal sounds. My favorite part is what a cougar says....he really is a BYU baby!

P.S. for those of you who care, I keep track of Scotty's words and signs in the sidebar.