Spencer our main man

Everyday Jane comes storming through the door after school and says "Where's Spencer?"   Once she tracks him down she energetically picks him up and says "Spencer my main man".    Each and everyday Spencer when hearing Jane streaks with delight as he is carted away to some fun adventure with his entertainment/ audience back from school.

It's really hard to believe that Spencer celebrated his first birthday!  The night before his birthday Bart and I were sitting on the couch watching TV with Spencer crawling between, over, on top of and around us.   He was giggling with delight as he pounced on Bart.   I couldn't help but remember how last year at the exact time I was having a little anxiety about my upcoming induction the next day.    I vividly remember sitting in my recliner barely able to move with my feet and legs swollen.    I watched a couple episodes of my 600 pound life until around midnight completely relating to their stories about trouble getting around and complete exhaustion when exerting any effort.    How grateful I was that I survived that horrible time in my life to experience the joy of having this little guy in our life.

Spencer shows his emotions on his sleeve. He's quick to laugh,  smile, giggle, cry and cry out in a loud scream to get your attention.   He's found his pointer finger and is quick to point to things and jargon away about what he sees.  He says mama, dada, and something like A for Jane.

Spencer thinks he's in charge around here and he pretty much is.    He has his 2 older sisters wrapped around his finger and has trained them to jump at any/ all of his requests.  I think they are the reason he seems to believe walking is below him.  He'd rather be carted around up high where all the action is.  He has an older brother who adores "Penco" who in return adores everything Aaron is doing, loves to horse around and is happy to be part of the crowd.   He also has 2 softy parents, especially Bart, who can't enough of his playful smile, laugh and  love he shows all of us.

Spencer may be the most opinionated 1 year old around.  He knows what he wants and can not be deterred.  At his 1 year old checkup he grabbed the doctor's reflex hammer and would not give it back.  The doctor gently unfolded it from his death grip and Spencer let him know how he felt about losing that treasure.  Being a good doctor who understands the distraction game with one year olds took out some tongue depressors thinking he could win his friendship back but Spencer wasn't having anything to do with those and threw them across the room and attempted to get the doctor's hammer back.    I felt like I was with a strong willed 2 or 3 year old.    It's becoming more apparent that my mom is spot on when she once said "The only thing wrong with Spencer is he doesn't think he is a baby"

Happy first birthday my Baby Boy who is often called Spenc, Spencee, cutie boy, or our main man!!!

(photo credit)  Allyson Davis photography!!

The Want Ads

If I were posting in the classifieds it would read something like this....

Wanted:  High Chair or Table booster with 5 point harness.  Something effective at keeping my little guy from wiggling out of his current high chair.  This is my last child and I'm against spending any more money on baby gear so free would be desirable or very cheap!!

If Spencer were to write an ad for the classifieds it would be like this...

Wanted:  A life where I can be completely cage free.    Looking for a place where my mom will stop putting me in a blasted high chair.  Can't she see it doesn't matter if it's attached to the bar, table or standing alone I will wiggle out of it.  I don't care how tight you make the straps.  I might not be able to breath well because the straps are cutting into my stomach but I always find a way to squirm out of it.  I much prefer to sit on top of the table or counter.   I'd also be interested in someone who will come and haul off my crib and car seat  My mom's been putting me in those horrible things for quite some time now and each time I squeal and howl but she never listens.  I'm willing to continue the fight  of screaming each time until she gets the point that I will never happily go to sleep or be strapped in the car.    So if you wouldn't mind just coming to get the darn things I'd happily let them go!"   See picture below.  Car seats and cribs are for babies and I am obviously not one. 

Side Note:  Spencer's successfully learned to be safe on the stairs.  He's so cute when he gets on his belly and turns around and shimmies slowly down until his big toe reaches the next stair.    I got the biggest kick out of him the other day when he crawled over to the heater vent took it off and then plopped onto his stomach turned around and shimmied into it and then sat up.   That's when I took this photo.  I would have loved to read his mind at that point to see why he did that.  Was he thinking the vent would take him somewhere.  Maybe that place would be somewhere without cribs, high chairs and car seats.  If so then I should put a picture of these things inside the vent.  That would scare him away from trying to escape down to the furnace.  

Easter 2017

Here's a few pictures of our Easter weekend fun...

Emily and Jane do not like yellow jelly beans.  Spencer happily accepted their free jelly bean offer

We found the Easter Bunny at Home Depot's easter egg hunt

 One Easter egg hunt was not enough for my girls.  So we ended up at the Draper City Easter egg hunt.

The Easter Bunny gave Spencer this funny sucker pacifer thing.     Since his birth this is the only one he would happily keep in his mouth.  

Happy Easter!!

Spring Break for Collette- Can't stop won't stop

I went into Spring Break thinking of all the things I was going to get caught up on.   Then Emily brought out a present one of her friends had given her.  A 500 piece puzzle.  We sat down on a rainy Saturday and booked it through all of the puzzle except the puppies.  Then all we had left was the dang puppies that were all the same color.    It sat on the table most of the day Sunday with all of us figuring out a piece here and there but we weren't making progress.  Monday came along and it was far from being completed.   Something about me that I've known for a long time is I hate leaving things undone, incomplete, half finished.    It's one of the strengths can be your weaknesses.  Well with puzzles, especially this one it was a weakness thing.  For a couple of days I became so obsessed and stressed about it that was consuming all of my time.

I was so consumed with this darn thing I had no idea my picture was being taken

 I just had to have it done.  Bart helped a little with some begging and the kids were long gone with boredom.    So I worked and worked until around 12:30 at night and finally the last piece was placed.

I looked over my work and thought "What a waste of time,  how dumb am I too stay up this late to complete this puzzle that will only be destroyed."   

Total waste of time those dang puzzles, unless of course your trying to ward off Alzheimers.  My brain really hurt after I was done.  It was just like the time when I was young and we found minesweeper on the 1st computer my parents ever purchased.  Each time I would close my eyes I would see the box I should push that didn't have a mine.  I tried to sleep but each time I closed my eyes I saw a stupid puzzle piece that needed to be placed.  

I also regretted my decision to give Emily a Harry Potter 750 piece puzzle for her birthday.  (She told everyone all she wanted was a puzzle).   I made Emily hold her hand to the square and solemnly promise to not get out this puzzle until at least the end of the school year.  I'm sort of hoping it gets lost but then I'm sort of excited to start it too.  

P.S.  Stay tuned for Bart's Spring Break trip in May!!!

Spring Break for Spencer- maybe a little too much carting around

Spencer was so happy to have all of his favorite audience around for Spring Break.  His sisters were at his beckon call to hold him and cart him around all week.    He also loved having 2 girls practicing to become professional photographers at his beckon call.  They kept showing me all their pictures saying this one should go on the wall.

Spencer's hicup of Spring Break occurred when after church the doorbell rang and Jane while holding Spencer ran to get the door and snagged his poor little head on a stereo knob thing on the wall.    He cried for a second while the blood was gushing out of his head and then he stopped crying as if all was well in the world again. Unfortunately all was not well as he needed staples so it was off to the insta care.  Jane was the most traumatized by the event and kept whimpering sorry Spencer, oh Spencer I'm so sorry is he going to be ok.  She did this all the way to the insta care and while waiting for the doctor so  I finally told her to stop saying she's sorry it's driving me crazy because as you can tell by the pictures below he had obviously moved on.    

I asked Jane to take a couple of pictures of Spencer while we were waiting for the Dr.  I  tried to pull a so sorry my baby is hurt face but Spencer was a barrel of smiles the entire time we were waiting that I couldn't be anything but happy with him.  

The screaming only started while they were holding him down.  I wonder if it was more from being held down, which he hates with every bone in his body, than actual pain because as soon as they released him he happyed right up.

Even writing this I want to say "Poor baby" but it feels wrong considering he hasn't given any hint that he feels at all sorry for his mishap.  He is such a joy in our family.

Spring Break for Emily - It's my party!!!!

Emily, put all those you tube tutorial hours to use as she spent the entire week getting ready for her birthday party.     When she asked me if she could have a party I pretty much said "Sure if you plan it and do everything by yourself. "    She loves it when I give her the reins and stepped up and produced a fabulous party!!

She found this invitation on line and emailed it to Aunt Ally who did her magic and personalized it.

Sunday night Emily gave me a list of materials she needed so we got on walmart.com and placed a pick up grocery order and she took over from there.

She asked for some construction paper, craft sticks, glue gun and string and made a whole bunch of decorations.

She even made ice cream topping bowls out of melted white chocolate and sprinkles.

She found some cute printable "stickers" and made a gallon of fun for take home party favors.

She spent so much time cleaning our house to get it ready and would often capitalize on Aaron's friends being on spring break and whenever the doorbell would ring would say "Aaron your friends are here why don't you all ride your bikes around"  Just to get him out of her clean house.  She knows Aaron well.

We served sloppy joes, chips, carrots and cream soda.

Then Emily brought out a couple fun games she had planned.

One was a game where you had to "add more scoops to the ice cream"  Basically your challenge was to stack these blocks 6 high using 2 ice cream scoops before someone else could roll a six.  If you could do that you got to eat an M&M out of the bowl and the first person with all of their M&M's gone won the game.

The girls had a blast with this fast pace game.

Emily then gave them each a piece of paper and a pen.  She had previously written 25 different flavors of ice cream on her paper.  There challenge was to write down what they thought were her 25 different flavors and for each flavor that was the same as Emily's they got a point.  The person with the most points win.

While Emily was opening her presents she played a game where she closed her eyes and each girl came up and told Emily Happy Birthday in a crazy voice and Emily tried to guess whose voice that was.  If she guessed it right she could open the present and if she guessed it wrong they hid the present somewhere and she had to search to find it.

Finally we brought out the ice cream with waffle cones and all the fixins for an ice cream Sundae!!

I told Emily she's a natural at creating the perfect party.  I'm looking forward to many more great parties planned by her.  

Spring Break for Aaron- Take your kids to work day

This cute boy loved all the extra time he was able to play with his best brother Spencer as well as his friends since most of them are kindergarteners and were home all day to roam the neighborhood.   

He also has been asking for weeks if he could come to school at my school.  So for a couple of days we had a bring your kids to work.   I'm pretty sure I'd win the best place to bring your 4 year old to work considering I work in a preschool.  He got to spend his day with the kids I work with exploring the classroom,  listening to stories, singing at music time and sitting up to a great snack of goldfish.    He did earn his keep that day as he did what Aaron does best interacting with other kids and getting them to talk just a little more.