Santa Parade

Here I am again, stealing photos from Sam's blog! I was a last minute add on to the Santa parade viewing group, so I didn't have my camera.

Every year the town I grew up in puts up a huge tree and has a Santa Parade to light the tree and announce the arrival of the Christmas season. So, Friday night thinking I had plans with my college buddies, I arranged for Sam to take Ian to the parade. It turned out that my plans were for Saturday instead, so I ran home, changed clothes and headed to the parade. We had a great time and fortunately, did not freeze to death!!!

Ian was way more interested in Frosty the Snowman than he was in Santa. For that matter, the horses pulling Santa's carriage were of more interest to him!

Santa headed for his chair at the base of the Christmas tree. Sorry, no pics of the man in his chair as there was a mob scene around him when he finally sat down.

Kieren walked with her dance academy group.

She is one beautiful snowflake!!

I had to include this picture. Alex and Cullen walked around the parade area with Cullen's camera. They managed to track down Frosty for a couple of pics. Bet Alex will hate that picture in a few years?!?!

My Sous Chef, Ian

Ian's newest thing is helping Mommy cook dinner. I was dicing an onion the other night when he decided to 'help' me. So, I gave him the cutting board, his plastic knife (Love that Ikea store!), and a couple of pieces of onion. Sorry for the perspective on the pictures. As you can see he was sitting at the edge of the counter and I was trying to keep a hand on or by him and snap pics too!



Too bad he has the knife turned the wrong way!
He 'chopped' onions for more than 15 minutes.

Mom, I think one of them flew over the edge!
Mom's response: So what, just don't follow it!!

Then, he had to try eating one. Needless to say, he didn't think much of it!

I think I have the best 'sous chef' around.

Ian Pictures

Ian playing in his Exersaucer. He is way too big for it, but still loves to play with it. I have to regularly 'rescue' him from it because once he climbs in he can't get out!



The other day while I was taking a shower, Ian was playing in the family room. I came out to check on him and found this scene. Notice they are lined up facing forward and largest to smallest. It seems that everything these days needs to be lined up, etc. Gotta love those toddler growth/development stages!

After I moved the gate (You did realize I had him confined to one room while taking my shower, didn't you!?!?!), he quickly moved them all into the living room and again lined them up facing forward. Sorry strange post, but it just struck me as funny.

FYI: We have Alex to thank for all the tractors and the barn that they reside in!

A Clean Wash

I received this in an email from my friend, Amy. It contains a very good piece of advice.


A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside."That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap." Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?" The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

~Author Unknown~

I have been struggling with the actions and inactions of others this past week. This struggle, of course, has been playing in my mind along with the million other things I have going on in my life. So, I have been very conflicted to say the least and when I read this this morning, it really hit home. It is advice I will take and I hope that others will do the same.

Say a Prayer, Please

A wonderful friend is going through the worst that life and God can seem to deal out to anyone. She is scheduled for 2 surgeries tomorrow. It's times like these that I have to wonder why does God throw up so many obstacles for our mere human souls to conquer? She has been through so much already, but the pain and suffering seem to be without end. I wish her peace, love, and tranquility. And, I ask that you please offer up a prayer on her behalf.

Was He Supposed To Be A Girl?

Serious mirror time this morning....

Hittin' the bottle while applying his.....

MAKEUP!!!

Taking a Dump?

One of Ian's favorite things to do is to run 'nekky buns house'. He escapes before you can get his pjs on and runs loose in the house. Usually he is flailing his arms and saying 'nekky buns house' over and over while you try to catch him.

Last night he decided to take his dump truck for a ride while naked!!
Gives all new meaning to 'taking a dump' don't ya think?!?!?

Caught Being Bad...

I love the look on his face!

"Let me think about this. Mom, asked if I made this mess. Should I admit or deny? I think I will go with admit this time since I was caught red-handed. But, I will go with cute because who could punish me after I whip out the cute face?!?!"

FYI: The next day, he told Sam he could get his own tissue. He proceeded to pull the toilet paper from the bathroom off the kitchen into the family room! I think I may have to invest in more TP soon.

Caught Being Good

The other day I was busy doing some housework when I realized that I didn't hear Ian. That is a truly remarkable thing! He is a child that can always be heard. There is nothing sneaky about him. It's just all out in the open for everyone to see and hear!

So, imagine my surprise when I found him in his room quietly reading his books!

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE

'Nuff said.

Because I'm Feeling Evil Tonight....

Thank you Left Brain for providing the subject matter for these fabulous pictures. It was truly a memorable "V"acation. I, for one, am really looking forward to next year!


FYI: I couldn't decide which of these to post. So, Beth talked me into putting both of them on here for your viewing pleasure.

Ian Speak *Updated*

I love when I take a really cool picture by accident!
This was at a playground this past summer.
He was on his way up the hill to the top of the Alpine slide.


I thought I would take some time to give a lesson on toddler speech. Why? Well this morning, I was highly amused by Ian trying to make me understand what he was trying to tell me. Some of his words are right on, but others are his interpretation of what he thinks we are saying. And, they are really funny sometimes.

This morning he told me "meath couch Mommy." What!?!?!? After a couple of tries and my laughing, I learned that 'meath' means underneath. He was telling me that his ball was underneath the couch and he wanted me to retrieve it for him.

He likes to put on his 'pacack' to go with Kieren to school. In other words, he wants his backpack.

My all time favorite as I have mentioned is "No Not!" which is always said very emphatically. Apparently, no is just not good enough!

He has been down with a cold the last couple of days, so I have been pushing liquids. He finally settled on 'leming' after he was given all of his choices. That's lemonade for the rest of you. (Cut 50/50 with water so I get less sugar and more liquid in him. Tricky Mommy!)

We also have problems keeping him pooping sometimes. In another Tricky Mommy move, I froze baby food pears into popsickle molds. Ian's word for popsickle: op-cycle. Not sure why because he says pop just fine.

How about 'uchdown'? That's touchdown of course! Which means Ian ran with his football past you and collapsed to the ground.

"Luf oo" is love you. The last week or so, he has been coming up to me at random times while playing to tell me 'luf oo' which of course melts me into a pile of goo.

'Cook corn' is his favorite snack which is better known as popcorn.

"Peas K?" He is asking permission to do something as in "Please, okay?".

He has also started calling me Mommy Heather! If we wants me, he calls out 'Mommy' a couple of times and if I don't immediately come running, I hear "Mommy Heather!". At least he is learned my name, but it's still a little disturbing to hear.

I could go on and on, but those are a few of his top words lately.

UPDATE: I forgot two of my favorites!! I can't believe that I did that.

1) Op, pronounced with a long o. What does it mean? Well, it means 'open'. And, 'op easy' means he wants to watch the movie "Open Season".

2) The best one of all is the word blue. It is clearly pronounced as 'blo'. This is an Ohio State household and so if you ask him to say "Go Blue", he emphatically shouts "BLO". hehehehe

Random Pictures

Standing in the corner.

Oh, the joy of being 2!

We go thru spurts where we spend lots of time in the corner and other days none.

Cullen (aka the Phantom of the Opera) came to visit so he could trick or treat in our neighborhood too.

Jason helping Sami carve her pumpkin.

Alex trying to convince the rest of us that it was really hard to clean out the pumpkin guts. Wimp!!!

Sharing a hot dog with Grandma.

Trick or treating with Mommy.

Looking down the street for more houses to hit for more candy???

"What's in there Mom??"