I could hardly keep my countenance

I have a notoriously difficult time keeping a straight face. (Don't even get me started on the girls' camp flag-ceremony fiasco ...) This has not served me well as a mother. It's a daily battle. Like today when I found Spencer emptying the Kleenex box all over the living room. That was a cutesy thing to do when he was, like, eight months old. Not so much anymore. Still, the big grin on his face was hard to resist. I held a stern face until he was securely in time-out, then smiled and shook my head as I turned the corner.

Still, when he says something gross or downright horrible without realizing it (he dropped the F-bomb the other day when I was trying to get him to say something that rhymes with "wish" and starts with F and swims in water ... I think he was stuck on "duck"), it's hard to not crack a smile or to suppress a look of shock.

His current grossness that's hard to not laugh at: Spencer pronounces every word in "I Love to See the Temple" correctly ... except for the last one.
"I'll prepare myself while I am young. This iiiis my sacred tooty."

And a hilariously polite declaration came the other day when Joe and I were at the stove cooking dinner. Spence was trying to cram his little stepping stool between us, and when we didn't budge, he said, "Excuse me, can I please get in the way?"

And in Isaac news: he's walking! Sort of. More than he was before, anyway. He doesn't drop immediately to his knees when we let go of his hands. He walks across rooms without a parent to catch him and without a specific end destination in mind. Exciting!

We sure love our boys.