Wednesday, March 24, 2010

My Big Boy

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When did my little baby become such a big boy? It’s a strange thing to watch Huston grow up. Most of the changes are so gradual you don’t really notice them, but some days it seems he wakes up 2 inches taller or we’ll notice him saying things that he has never said before. I took him for a much needed haircut a couple of weeks ago and ever since then he looks a year older to me!

Several weeks ago I saw a random car commercial that had a little boy in the backseat at the beginning and a few seconds later there was a different family with a middle-school aged boy in the backseat. I started crying because it seemed like I was seeing a flash forward of Huston in a few years – all grown up and thinking his mom was annoying and not cool and just wanting to hang out with his friends. You better believe that Clarke laughed and laughed at me for crying at a car commercial, but it still makes me cry just thinking about it!

He is just changing so fast and I’m always thinking of things I want to remember. I don’t write them down nearly as often as I should, but here is yet another attempt to record some of my current favorite things about Huston.

Being in control: Huston has decided he likes to be in control of what he says. He’ll refuse to say good-bye to Clarke in the morning, but after Clarke leaves he’ll say “You didn’t say have a good day. That’s a bummer.” At the store he won’t say hi to people who stop to talk to him. Instead he’ll hang his head and say “You’re being shy,” or after we leave with say, “You didn’t say hi. You’re being rude.”

Quirkiness: Huston is full of little quirks. One that I’ve noticed recently is the order in which he plays Hi Ho Cherry-O (one of his favorite things to do lately). If he’s playing with Clarke, Huston is always blue first and Clarke is green, then Huston is green and Clarke is blue. For the third game, Huston is red and daddy is orange, and for the fourth game, Huston is orange and daddy is red. The order never changes and Huston always dictates it exactly the same way. “Do you want to be blue and you want daddy to be green.” It’s so funny how he developed this all by himself.

He hates “stringy things” on food. I don’t know what started this, but if he perceives that any kind of food has “stringy things” on it, he deems it inedible. It can be a broken piece of macaroni, a rough edge on a piece of cheese, a piece of chicken or a piece of turkey lunch meat that’s hanging down – really, almost anything. Although strangely enough, foods like cookies and chocolate and gummies never seem to have stringy things on them. Funny how that works.

Words: I love how he says “grun-ga-bar” for granola bar. As in, “Do you want a blue grun-ga-bar for breakfast.” I like how he says “mac-a-goni” for macaroni and “uncle donald’s” for McDonald’s.

The Bible: The other day we were reading his Bible and I asked him if he knew what the Bible tells us about. He said "It tells me so," (as in, "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so). Isn't that so adorable? Later when I asked him who the Bible tells us about he said "Jesus." So sweet.

Don't: When he asks for a snack and I tell him no, he’ll say “you don’t want mommy to say no.” Or if I say he has five more minutes to play, he’ll say “you don’t want to say five more minutes.” The funniest thing lately is when I’m getting out a toy for Arden and he says “You don’t want Arden to like it.”

Sharing: A few days ago we were driving in the car and Huston yelled “You don’t want to share!” I said “Share what, honey?” His response was: “The road! You don’t want to share the road!” Ever since then he’s started telling me “You don’t want to share Target,” and “ You don’t want to share the grocery store.” According to him, we should be able to have these things all to ourselves.

His love for Thomas the Tank Engine continues, and he walks around the house singing the theme song in his adorable, mixed-up way. He knows all the engines now and what color they are. Maybe I’ll get sick of it later, but right now I think it’s the cutest thing.

I love you, my big boy.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!


It's a little weird, perhaps, to post pictures for Saint Patrick's Day, but since I managed to get all three of us dressed in green, I thought it was worth a post. Plus, I wanted to share what Huston was doing when I went to get him after his nap (which he didn't take). I found him lying on his back with his feet in the air, playing with his daddy's pocket watch. I said "Huston, are you not taking a nap today?" He said "You're not taking a nap. You put the pocket watch on your toe for it look pretty." He recreated the moment on the couch for me so I could take a picture.
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You heard it here first, folks. Spring trend 2010: pocket watches on the toes.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

4 months

Arden had her four month check up yesterday.  Here are her current stats:

weight: 14 pounds, 2 ounces (75th percentile)

height: 25 1/4 inches (90th percentile)

Needless to say, she’s growing just fine!  :)

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Arden has started grabbing toys like crazy this month and everything goes straight into her mouth.  Clarke was holding her this weekend and she saw the remotes on the couch and kept leaning forward so intently and grabbing at them.  It’s so adorable to watch her try to grab things and eat them!

She’s still super sweet and full of smiles and coos.  She rolled over from her back to her stomach for the first time on February 20th and does it frequently now, but has yet to roll from her stomach to her back.  She hasn’t had as much practice at that, because tummy time is not her favorite thing.  We broke out the Bumbo seat this month and she usually likes it for short periods of time.

She’s still waking up at night at least once to eat.  Her eating schedule during the day is generally 7, 11, 3, and7 with a late night feeding at 10.  We might try some rice cereal this month to see if that helps her sleep longer at night.

I just love my sweet little girl.  I love the way she inhales sharply when it’s windy or when you fan a blanket over her face.  I love how she grabs my shirt and my hair when I’m feeding her.  I love how she saves her best smiles and coos for when daddy comes home from work.  I love how her big brother can make her giggle and how she always follows his movements and activity with great interest.   I love how she always pulls her pacifier out of her mouth and gets so mad because she can’t get it back in.  (Okay, I don’t love that last one when she’s screaming in the back seat of the car, but it is pretty funny to see). 

Thank you, Lord, for my sweet baby girl.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Splish Splash

Arden’s funny bath time faces

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Drying off

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All clean and happy

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Huston’s face when I asked him to sit by Arden so I could take their picture together.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Recovering…and an update

Today has been exhausting.  Huston and I are both recovering from a nasty stomach virus, the likes of which I have never experienced before.  I have spent half of my day trying to get the kids to sleep and the other half folding the mountains of laundry that have accumulated as a result of this virus.  The house is an absolute disaster and I feel weak and unable to even deal with it.

So, I thought now would be a good time for a little “Huston update.”  My sweet, sweet, boy.  He was so surprised when he threw up in his bed Friday night – he wasn’t sure what had happened.  He just started yelling and saying “You got wet in your bed!”  It was so sad to watch him be sick and not be able to make him better.  I think he’s finally on the mend, though. 

Huston has a new love for Thomas the Tank Engine lately.  We gave him a track and a battery powered Thomas when Arden came home from the hospital, and lately Thomas has been going all around the house – under couches and chairs, on the wall, up different obstacles – pretty much anywhere you can think of.  So far I have only managed to record one episode of Thomas on TV, but I think we’ve watched it 19 times the past five days, as it’s all he has wanted to do.  Thankfully, Thomas is much more entertaining and less annoying than Barney.  And once we’re all better, I imagine I’ll cut down the number of daily viewings of Thomas.  :)

Lately Huston is also obsessed with watching “Hickory Dickory Dock” and “Wheels on the Bus” videos on You Tube.  Unfortunately, these videos are very short, so every 46 seconds to 2 minutes and 25 seconds, I’m required to come click the button to start the next video.  Doesn’t allow for much housework.

He is also lately in love with traffic lights and windshield wipers.  He loves to comment the entire time we’re driving on the state of every traffic light we encounter.  He’ll say things like “It’s already green!” or “Have to wait for it to turn green.  Have to be patient.” or “Uh-oh!  It turned yellow!”  And you better believe that every comment of his requires a response from me in return.  Since it rained a week or so ago, he has also been fascinated with wipers.  He wants to turn them on every time we’re in the car, even if it’s not raining.  This may contribute to his love for “Wheels on the Bus” (he does love to sing “the wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish).

We started trying to play “Hi Ho Cherry-O” with Huston a few weeks ago, and he’s surprisingly good at it, and very into it.  He’s always asking to play “Hi Hi Cherry,” or “the purple game” or “Hi Hi Cherry O.”  Clarke is glad to be developing a love of board games in him at an early age.

There are so many more things I could write, but Arden is waking up to eat now.  I’ll post more pictures soon.