Joe & Ash & Spence & Isaac

I'm two!

2012-01-26T23:44:00.007-06:00

"Today is a special day, a special day, it's true. We celebrate the happy day that you became you!"

So begins the Signing Time series happy birthday song, which I've had running incessantly through my head all day. But a happy kind of incessant. Today is Isaac's birthday. He's officially two! We could not have imagined a more adorable, sweet-natured little boy than our Isaac is. Even his stubborn streak is cute. We can't help but laugh at his little scowl and puckered-mouth, "No," even though he doesn't really appreciate the hilarity. There are a million and one things we love about Isaac, but I thought I'd take a moment to name a few noteworthy characteristics that might not last until his next birthday.

We love how Isaac (finally!) started saying Spencer's name, instead of calling him "Mommy." His first attempt (as of like a month ago): "Bunchurch."

We love how devoted Isaac is to rockets and counting down to blast-off: "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seden. Eight. Nine. TEN! Wift-off. Mission. PSHHHHH!!!"

We love how quick he often is to say he's sorry. And we love (though we shouldn't) the times he scowls and refuses because he sees his actions as totally justified, or because he's secretly sorry but throwing up a wall of stubborn protection around his tender little heart. He really is tender hearted.

We love his concern for others. Often when we cough or sneeze or get frustrated or seem out of sorts, he'll say in his sweet little voice, "Kay, Mommy? Kay, Daddy?"

We love how he says "helicopter": Heckababa. :) And how he calls anything that has to do with sports (tennis rackets, basketballs, helmets, etc.) "football game."

We love his love for tools. For Christmas, Isaac got a real drill and screwdriver. He was over the moon.

We love his "tricks." He takes great delight in standing on a springy surface and exclaiming, "See trick, Mommy/Daddy?" until we give him our full attention to watch him jump and land bouncily on his bum.

We love his love for his big brother. We recently tried putting them to bed at the same time in the same room for a couple weeks. It was a total failure, but towards the end, this was because they were having too much fun together. Isaac discovered the joy of making Spencer laugh. Listening to their late-night giggling was as endearing as it was frustrating. At least they're turning into buddies!

We love how he pretends to play "I Am a Child of God" on the trombone, moving his little fist in and out as he "doo doo-doo-doooo doo doooo"s the tune.

We love his dimples. He has the most kissable little cheeks. And his smile brightens the grimmest day. We sure love that little guy.

Happy birthday, Isaac! You're two!

A bump!

2012-01-14T11:42:00.002-06:00

Even though I know I'm going to be totally sick of my small rotation of maternity clothes, I couldn't help trying on a new maternity shirt yesterday. And I discovered in the process, I have a baby bump! Woohoo! :) June 21st, here we come!

Welcome to CA

2012-01-03T21:37:00.006-06:00

On New Year's Eve, we discovered this great little alcove of a beach, not three or four minutes' drive from our apartment. When we visited the first time, it was just us and a handful of people with their dogs. Today, it was pretty much just us. S-weet! Of course, it was nearly dark outside by the time we got there. We just caught the tail end of the sun setting over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline.

I think we'll find ample ways to be happy here. Milk prices notwithstanding. :)

Shopping in Berkeley

2011-12-23T11:15:00.003-06:00

We have arrived. We have moved in. A bit. Working on it. I'll update pictures and apartment opinions later when I can actually see the floor.

Our fridge was of course empty on arrival, so we headed off to the Berkeley Bowl, the grocery store we were told in our new-arrivals packet from the Ward is the place to shop. Summation of the experience:

Sticker shock---
Milk: $5 a gallon.
Bread: $4.00 a loaf.
Cereal: at least $4.00 a box. Mostly $5.00 and up.
Individual Yoplait: $1.00 each.
Eggs: $3.50 a dozen, all free-range. (Apparently they don't put chickens in cages in Berkeley.)
Small bottle pasta sauce: $4.00 each.
Ground beef: $4.19 a pound and up.

But ...
Kiwi: $0.25 each, melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
Apples: $0.99 per pound. Totally reasonable.
Green leaf lettuce: $0.79 each.
Canned goods: totally comparable prices.
And the variety ...! Holy cow. We bought three kinds of gnocchi, just because we could. Sweet potato, whole wheat, and potato. There were at least five other kinds. We bought some delicious French cheese and crusty bread to have with our pasta and brussels sprouts for a fancy celebratory dinner. I feel like I could find any ingredient at that store, from quail eggs to animal body parts I would never consume to cheeses to pastas to chocolates to a zillion different fruits and veggies I have never seen before.

My conclusion:
I will shop at Costco for milk, eggs, cereal, and meat.
I will continue to bake my own bread.
I will eat a lot more produce.
I will savor this amazing culinary opportunity while I have the chance.
I will shop alone.
I will stop showering and get a nose ring and disown one of my children and put spiky fruits and huge stalks of brussels sprouts and organic everything in my basket so I can fit in with the crowd.
Just kidding.

Moving drama

2011-12-20T11:22:00.005-06:00

This has been the strangest limbo move ever, full of adventures, mishaps, near-death drama, and barfing.

Last Sunday, as we were in the throes of packing the house, Isaac got the stomach flu. I followed soon thereafter, then Spence, then Joe. We were a pretty sorry sight Monday, but we'd generally returned to normal health by Tuesday, which turned into a majorly frantic packing day. Friends came to help us pack the truck and clean on Wednesday. We ate dinner on the floor Wednesday night, and Isaac surprised us, and mostly his Uncle Nate, who was on the receiving end of the explosion, by revealing that he wasn't quite done with the flu. This was worrisome, as we were due to board an airplane first thing the next morning. I brought a dish towel, blankets to spread on our laps, changes of clothing for all of us, and sanitizer on the plane in preparation for another Isaac barfing episode. It's a good thing I did. At least he waited until the plane was coming in for a landing in Sacramento to barf all over himself, me, and the airplane seat.

But my adventures are nothing compared to Joe's and Nate's. Evidently getting barfed on is a good way to catch the flu, because it wasn't long into their drive when Nate realized that Isaac had passed him the virus along with his vomit. So the poor fellow suffered through two days of a rocking, lolling, non-reclining moving truck with a plastic bag in one hand, while Joe did all the driving. And then they reached Parley's Canyon, a very steep descent into the Salt Lake Valley. And the brakes stopped working. On their way down. Luckily they hit a small stretch of flat ground and were able to apply the dying brakes hard enough to bring the truck to a shuddering halt on the edge of the highway. Joe was seriously shaken up. If they'd gone another hundred feet or so, they'd've been on their way down again with overheated, broken brakes. He was contemplating those big piles of sand that truckers use to make emergency stops. Yikes.

Fix-it guys arrived and decided the brakes were fine, just overheated. So they proceeded slowly on their way. The next day, they found themselves literally at the top of the Sierra Nevadas, at Look-out Point, with a broken transmission. I guess when your truck is going downhill, and you're flooring the gas, and the truck is shaking hard and going slower and slower, that's a bad thing. Fix-it guys were called in again. Luckily, Joe was towing our little Toyota truck, so he and Nate hopped in it and drove the rest of the way to Sacramento while Budget towed the moving junk-heap down the mountains.

Now it's sitting in some car garage in Rancho Cordova, full of our stuff, pining away. Budget told us there was nothing wrong with it, and we should just pick it up this morning and continue to Berkeley. But the mechanics called us this morning and said, yes, something is definitely wrong with it (um, duh). So they're working on locating a different truck to transfer our stuff into so that we can finally move into our new home. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, we're having a lovely pre-Christmas vacation with Joe's family here in limbo. Spencer celebrated his birthday on Sunday---four years old! I hope to be able to report tomorrow that we've actually seen and moved into our new apartment, a full week after we set out from Illinois. We shall see.

Stalling

2011-12-13T13:39:00.002-06:00

I thought I'd heard just about every excuse in the book from Spencer where sleep-time avoidance is concerned, but he surprised us with a new one today.

Coming down the hallway, ten minutes after he'd been put down for a nap, Spence declared, "But, Mommy, I just realized that I need to shave my legs!"

I burst out laughing and put him back in his bed anyway, telling him, over his many insistences that he'd realized his legs are "furry," that he is a three-year-old boy, for heaven's sake, and I am not going to assist or allow him to shave his legs.

What a kid. :)

California in two days! YIKES!!! Naturally, we all came down with the stomach flu on Sunday and were totally useless and blargy all day yesterday, meaning there are half a million things to be accomplished today and the house is a disaster. Which is naturally why I'm sitting here blogging. Such is life.

Goodbyes

2011-11-26T13:02:00.004-06:00

The time we have left in Illinois is quickly running out, and our goodbyes began today. Our awesome car, a Toyota RAV4, had to find a new home before we moved to CA. With the oxygen sensor held on by some bailing wire, there was no way it was going to pass California's stringent emissions rules. So I posted it on craigslist yesterday. And in less than 24 hours, we were contacted by no fewer than ten people wanting to buy it. It didn't even occur to me to note that we wanted to keep it until December 14th. I could never have imagined someone would show up at our house, last night, like six hours after I'd posted it, with thousands of dollars of cash in hand, wanting to drive it away. Holy cow! It still had our kids' car seats in it, and our CDs, and the messy contents of our glove box, and our stale Froot Loops under the driver's seat! We weren't ready to let it go! But I guess when people look for cars on craigslist, they want them now! It was really sad to watch it drive away this afternoon. If taking down all the decorations in my house didn't make me feel temporary, being without a car to call my own certainly does. We're not long for this Illinois world! At least we have one worry crossed off our list. Now, who wants to rent a really cute house? Anyone? Any takers? Going once, going twice?

Please? :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T14:55:00.003-06:00

Love, The Bairs

Happy Novembering

2011-11-13T15:34:00.009-06:00

I'd planned to do this on Halloween day itself, but that day was just too busy. So we made the ultra-creepy and fun Gak the day after instead. The boys played and played with it for probably an hour. We finally had to take it away to much pouting and grumpiness when dinner was ready to go on the table. Definitely will have to be a Halloween tradition, especially considering the fact that I now own a giant box of Borax that I have no idea what else to do with (Gak calls for only a single teaspoon of it! If anyone else out there would ever like to make Gak, please call me! I'd be happy to mail you a teaspoon or two, as long as the post office doesn't get worried about an envelope containing a suspicious white powder ... hmm).

And leaf raking. Ah, leaf raking. I won't really miss you next year when we're back to apartment living. But I think my little boys will miss the joy of jumping and rolling and tossing and ring-around-the-rosy-ing with you.
And yes, the brown on Isaac's face is what you think it is. He'd been sampling dirt before Spencer redirected his attention to the joy of a leaf pile. Thanks, Spence. What a good big brother.

Hao-ween

2011-10-31T21:14:00.022-05:00

2 trick-or-treaters + 3 broken pumpkin-carving knives + 2 rounds of tiger makeup + 1 eyeshadow brush sacrificed + 6 pumpkins + 3 patch visits + 2 new words ("Hao-ween" & "treeet!") + 5 pumpkin dissections - 20 rounds of Wee Sing Halloween + 1 pumpkin-carving party + 8 friends + 5 fake spiders + 3 rounds of trick-or-treating + (2 x 3) grouchy sugar crashes - 1 missing Wee Sing Halloween CD (oh darn) + 2 cool costume ideas + 3 homemade jar lanterns - 1 smashed homemade jar lantern + 1 mummy/skeleton/dirt & worms dinner =
31 October, 2011

Happy Halloween!

(I am a tiger tamer. I know I look like I should be hunting foxes in the English countryside. Joe is a fire. Spencer's job is to put him out. Thank you.)

Apple juice and flushing

2011-10-27T21:26:00.005-05:00

Isaac is in love with apple juice. When he wakes up in the morning, one of the first things he cries for is "Apple joooo! Apple jooooooo! Apple joo?" He was upset at the store one time, bored with sitting in the cart, and shouting at the top of his lungs (not a tantrum, just his I'm-fascinated-by-how-much-noise-I'm-capable-of-producing "AAAAAAAHHHHH!"). All I had to do was walk down the juice aisle and put a big bottle of Great Value, no-sugar-added juice in the seat next to him. He snickered and kicked his little feet with joy, then hugged the bottle, resting his little cheek on it, the rest of the trip. We currently give it to him nearly half-diluted with water. I can only imagine how his addiction will intensify the day we give him the pure stuff.

And random funny Spencer story ... Spencer can get very upset if, in trying to hurry him along in the bathroom, we flush the toilet for him. Possibly this is because we're denying him of one of his favorite bathroom rituals: standing over the toilet bowl and chanting as it flushes, "Whirlpool, whirlpool, where-are-you? Whirlpool, whirlpool, where-are-you?" I have no idea why he does this or what it really means. But it cracks us up every time. What a couple of crazy kiddos. :)

Poor truck

2011-10-16T15:00:00.002-05:00

Someone in Illinois, or lots of someones, seems to have it in for our truck. Since we moved here, the poor thing has been backed into or side-swiped at least three times. The rear-view mirror has been hit and cracked. The weather has stripped it of its shine. One of its tires got slashed. And today, Joe drove it home from church with dog p-o-o-p smeared all over its front and rear windshields. (At least we assume it originated with a dog.) I hope that person's fingers will wreak for days. Many, many days. We left it parked at the church overnight last night, which is when, presumably, the smearing happened. Our truck, at least, will be glad to say goodbye to Illinois. Not that it's likely to lead a better life in Berkeley ... Poor truck. :(

Dreadful nickname

2011-10-12T06:56:00.003-05:00

Isaac and Spencer woke up around the same time this morning and were snuggling in our bed, giving each other hugs and kisses and "wov-ee"s and "love-you-too"s, until Spencer said, "Is this Isaac? I can't remember his name. Let's call him Wogonuggles." I did my best to limit my laughter to a snort, lest I encourage Spencer to remember and continue to apply this awful, hilarious nickname.

Wogonuggles. Oh, wow. Let's hope some cyber bully doesn't dredge up this old blog someday when poor Isaac's in junior high ...

Meet Swishers

2011-10-03T12:02:00.003-05:00

We decorated for Halloween after General Conference ended last night, so out came the spooked black cat we added to our decor last year. Last year, Spencer was pretty scared of it. Not so this year! She is the favorite of both Spencer and Isaac. Isaac points to it, high up on the piano, and says, "Meow? Meow?" (In other words, "Hand me that cat, Mom!") And when I asked Spencer to put the cat back on the piano when he'd pulled it down, he said, "No, Mommy, Swishers doesn't want to be up there. Did you know that's her name?"

Swishers. Got it. I'm torn between wanting Swishers to remain a decoration and wanting to support my children's imaginative play. I turned the corner on a very cute scene after I'd been in the back of the house, using the bathroom. Spence had pulled Swishers down, again, and he and Isaac had her sitting on the DVD case (a little shelf about waist-height to them) and were saying a prayer with her, arms folded, heads bowed. I only caught the end of it:
Spencer: And thank thee that Swishers will have a good day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Isaac: Na!
Swishers: Meow-men!

When Spencer spotted me watching, he explained that they were praying that Swishers wouldn't have any bad dreams. So darling.

Anyway, I guess Swishers is fairly durable, so I'll allow her to be both a decoration and a toy, as long as Isaac can keep himself from pulling her eyes off and chewing her tail. Unlikely at best.

Happy October!

Today, Isaac ...

2011-09-23T21:33:00.005-05:00

... climbed a stroller, tipped it over, and got a bloody nose and a fat lip
... drew on the walls with crayon
... popped the orange tile out of the watercolor tray and nearly ate it (he already ate black)
... tried to unplug the microwave
... pushed a chair to the counter and grabbed a Cutco knife
... drew on the walls with crayon, again
... decided to skip his nap
... killed a bug with his finger and brought it to me
... picked three green tomatoes off of my friend's plants (sorry!)
... fished the ant poison out from under the fridge
... ate and happily spat back out handful after handful of rocks at the playground
... bit Joe's face
... ate purple sand
... drew on the walls with crayon, a third time (I know, time to find and destroy all the crayons)
... emptied Spencer's sock/undies/jammies/shoes drawer all over the bedroom floor
... pulled all the books off their bedroom bookshelf
... poked a finger into the raw chicken on the cutting board then examined that finger in "should I stick it in my mouth?" mode
... seriously contemplated snacking on a handful of raw onion but dumped it across the counter instead
... pushed a stool to the stove and began stirring our simmering dinner, twice (stool's in time-out on top of the drier now ...)
... played "ring around the rosies" to make himself dizzy while five feet off the ground on an open-sided play structure

... apparently decided he doesn't want to live to see age two.
Gotta love that dimpled, busy little boy. :)

Funny, Spencer

2011-09-15T21:15:00.004-05:00

Spencer's latest pastime is telling "jokes." Tonight's was awesome.

Spencer: Uh-ooooh. I'm going to say a dirty word.
Me: (assuming the "dirty word" will be "poop," ignoring Spence in the hopes that he'll think better of getting yet another time out)
Spencer: (after a suspenseful pause) ZUCCHINI!! Hahaha! That was a joke.

I love how at the end of his "jokes" he feels he has to inform us, "That was a joke." He just thinks he's pure hilarity. And when it comes to his jokes, he's pretty much right. :)

Metamorphosis and Trains

2011-09-08T21:21:00.008-05:00

We found two monarch caterpillars in our backyard almost two weeks ago. The shrimpy one, I gave to a friend, and we kept the big fat one who went into its chrysalis about a day and a half after we found it (I mean, her ... Spencer's named her Lynn). This morning when we woke up, the chrysalis was transparent, so we knew today was the day! (Un)Fortunately, we had adventures of our own this morning, so we had to leave Lynn to her hard work while the boys embarked on a series of firsts in their little lives.

First first: Riding in a 15-passenger van. I can count on two fingers the number of 15-passenger vans I've been in in my lifetime. Now three.

Second first: Taking a real train. The 15-passenger van drove us to a train station out of town so that we could ride the rails back into town again. The boys had a seriously good time. Isaac stood in his seat at the window and said "Choo-chooooo" and "Woah, wooooah, wo-wo-wo" almost the whole 15-minute trip.

Third first: Riding a real city bus. The train took us to the train/bus station, where we caught a bus that took us back home. Whew! A travel adventure!

(adorable kids waiting so patiently for the bus to arrive)

As soon as we walked in the front door post-circular adventure, we made a dash for Lynn, who, sure enough, had fought her way out of her little skin baggy in our absence and was basking in the light of a new day. What a bizarre and wondrous thing it has been to watch this change. I'm not big into bugs and didn't really want to touch her as a caterpillar, but as a butterfly, it was magical to have her perch on my finger, and to think that all this was inside her all along. I'm sure there's an overused metaphor in there, but it was as new as Lynn's lovely wings to me today.

(Lynn set free outside. Good luck, Lynn!)

The "Pulling Up Your Pants" Song

2011-09-06T09:47:00.006-05:00

Spencer had just finished using the facilities, and his pants were around his ankles. I asked him to pull up his pants please, and he said, "Can you sing the 'Pulling Up Your Pants' song?"

"Hmm. I don't know a song about pulling up your pants," I answered.

"It goes like this. 'Pull-ing up your pants, pull-ing up your pants,'" he sang in an ascending kind of scale.

"Oh, that's a good song," I said.

"Yeah," he replied, very matter-of-fact. "It's from Mozart. Mozart wrote that song."

Awesome.

The "Pulling Up Your Pants" song, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Classic(al).

And later, another pants-related conversation:

After naptime, I exclaimed, "Spence, guess what! It's time to go to the library!"

"Actually it's time to go to the store," he replied.

"What for?" I asked.

"Because I need to buy a belt," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I like belts."

Totally out of the blue. Never a dull moment with this little dude.

Grandma Bair

2011-09-03T22:03:00.003-05:00

A little over a month ago, a very special woman, a great lady passed away. Joe's mom, Mary, was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the beginning of the year, and it proved to be a very aggressive disease that metastasized before it could all be removed.

Part of our heartbreak is knowing that our children will have no memory of their gentle, loving, always-serving grandma. I want them to know some things about Grandma Bair. And since this is a journal of sorts of their childhoods, I figure this is as good a place as any to record our thoughts.

At Mary's funeral, we heard many of her friends comment about how they felt like Mary knew them better than they knew her. She was the kind of person who is both easy to talk to and genuinely interested in you. I had many chats with her over the years, long and serious and short and silly. She'd laugh in all the right places and even cried with me many times over my own small heartaches and troubles. She was the best audience to tell a story to.

It wasn't difficult to make Mary cry. :) She cried every time we drove away to make the long road trip back to BYU and then every time she dropped us off at the airport for our flight back to Illinois. The kids had a goal each year to make her cry at Christmas. The family gift for Mom wasn't considered a success unless it touched her deeply enough to make her cry.

Mary was always doing. I am amazed when I think of all the things she was involved in, even in the short time I knew her. Organizing an orchestra and all their music for Valley Choral Society, politics, teaching junior high (pretty much for fun, it seemed like, because she was asked to and was bad at saying no :), keeping all the books for her husband's automotive repair business, reading, writing an entire book, running the temple laundry in Sacramento, serving as Stake Relief Society president, taking care of her family and home, and the list goes on. She was always in and out and working hard, so cheerfully too. And it didn't seem like she had to work at being cheerful. It just came so naturally to her. It's like it didn't occur to her to complain.

She loved her family most of all. I have been so impressed by this special lady since the very first time I met her (which is a story in itself ... maybe I'll tell it here another day). We miss her every day, but her passing has only strengthened, deepened, and made more real our faith in the hereafter. We'll be so happy to see her again someday, to see what she's been up to in heaven. I have no doubt she's working hard, and doing it with a smile.

Car conversation

2011-08-29T14:06:00.003-05:00

I had to scribble down this conversation when we arrived at the store so I wouldn't forget it. Isaac started the conversation definitely tired and grumpy, but he ended it laughing. Way to go, Spence!

Spencer: Isaac, are you tired?
Isaac: Uh-uh.
Sp: Are you grumpy?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you happy?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you sad?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you angry?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you confused?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you squishable?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you ticklish?
Is: No.
Sp: Are you sleepy?
Is: No. (giggling)
Sp: Isaac, say "no."
Is: (grunty, belly giggle, but a refusal to comply)
Sp: Isaac, say "I love you."
Is: Wov-ee!

Awww! I love these little boys!

And I have to add a little dinnertime declaration. Spencer said, "Jesus likes us to eat healthy foods." I nodded. "And toys are good for our bodies. They give us energy so we can talk. And swallow."

Way to go, toys!

Bathroom words

2011-08-22T13:09:00.002-05:00

I keep thinking Spencer has fallen asleep (I put him down for a nap about twenty minutes ago), but periodically about every five minutes, he calls out to me from his room, "Sorry, Mom, for saying poop."

So apparently he's in there saying "poop" into his pillow and then apologizing for it, even though I can't hear the transgression itself.

Conscience is coming along quite nicely. I guess it's time to focus my attention a little more on the obedience aspect of good behavior ...

I think the naptime apologies were just excuses to call out the word "poop." I know this because our pre-naptime conversation went something like this:
Spencer: Poooo ...
Mommy: Spencer ... (warning tone)
Spence: I'm not saying poop. I'm saying "poof."
Mommy: Oh. (willing to give him the benefit of the doubt) That's good. Because that is a bathroom word.
Spencer: (giggling, moments later) Pooooop.
Mommy: That's not a silly word. It's a word we only use in the bathroom. You're welcome to sit in the bathroom for a bit if you need to.
Spencer: Okay, Mom. Sorry for saying poop.
Mommy: Thank you.
Spencer: I won't say poop anymore.
Mommy: Spence ...
Spencer: Because we shouldn't say poop.

(Time-out, yada yada, then the ensuing shouted naptime poop apologies. What is it about bathroom humor that little kids find so universally hilarious?)

Imagination

2011-08-15T12:00:00.002-05:00

Spence: Mommy, what's a mip?
Me: A mit?
Spence: No, a mip.
Me: Hmm. I've never heard that word before.
Spence: A mip is a thing that hops around and breathes fire and breath. And it sneezes and sneezes and makes bogies go flying all over the grass.
Me: (trying not to, but laughing my head off at the imagery of a little hopping, fire-breathing animal with a cold and a mucous problem)

Why, why, why?

2011-08-12T21:16:00.007-05:00

Before I had children, I was one of those naive people who thought, "I don't understand why parents get frustrated with their kids for asking so many questions. The poor things are just curious! When I'm a mom, I'm never going to be impatient with all the questioning. I'll just cherish that magical phase of learning and exploring and do my best to explain the world in all its wonder to my budding Einsteins."

Ha.

I don't think Spencer pauses for breath, except to eat and sleep, and sometimes not even then. Talk, talk, talk! Why-why-why?! If he was just asking such lovely and creative questions as I'd imagined in my naivete, like "Why is the sky blue?" I think I'd be okay. But he asks unanswerable things all the time, like, "Why is this a broom?"

???

How am I supposed to answer that? "Because it was made that way"?? Which answer he inevitably follows with "Why?"

We've just returned from California, where we spent two weeks with my husband's family. My poor father-in-law, who has helped raise eight children, was a bit overwhelmed by Spencer's interrogations. Grandpa Bair was trying to install a shelf in the laundry room, which Spencer found completely fascinating, of course, and Spence asked so many questions, he wasn't even giving Grandpa enough time to answer one before inserting another.

And tonight's questioning:

(Joe and I were talking about a lunch he had today with a lab mate, Rahoul.)
Spence: Who's Rahoul?
Joe: A guy at my lab.
Spence: Who's the guy?
Joe: Rahoul.
Spence: Who's Rahoul?
Joe: He's a guy at my lab.
Spence: Who's the guy?
Joe: Aaaaah!

(And later)
Spence: Why do chickens have legs?
Me: (very tired) Because they do.
Spence: Why?
Me: So they can walk. What would you do without legs?
Spence: I'd somersault all the way down the hall.

Okay, at least his own response was creative. Maybe I should work on returning the questions to him more often. I do cherish this phase. Really, I do. I just wish it involved less ... just less.

A budding photographer (and big brother)

2011-07-19T20:51:00.013-05:00

Isaac woke up crying in his Pack 'n' Play simultaneously with a knock at the door. Spence had been wandering around taking pictures with our camera (a very rare privilege for him---i.e., Mommy was desperate to entertain him at the moment), and to my surprise, he happily volunteered to "go make Isaac happy." Off he went to Isaac, and off I went to answer the door. To my surprise, Spencer effectively stopped Isaac's crying right off the bat, so I didn't think much more of what they were doing for ten minutes or so, since I could only hear chattering, happy noises coming from the room. Eventually, I had to peek, and I found them both in the Pack 'n' Play together, happy as could be.

I'd forgotten that I'd armed him with a camera.

I'll just let Spencer tell the photographic story of how he made his little brother cheer up from those post-nap blues.

1. The ceiling (and forehead) on the way to Mom and Dad's room.
2. Wakey, wakey, sleepy baby!
3. Chin.
4. C'mon. Nap time's over!
5. Hmm. Bar of crib is blocking my shots. Guess I'll just climb in ...
6. Much better! (And Isaac): Arrgh! I can't believe you keep flashing me in the eyes in this darkened room!
7. Belly shot. (There were lots and lots of these)
8. Cute blurry baby.
9. (My personal all-time favorite) Happy now!
10. My turn!
11. And one last belly shot.
There were over fifty new pictures on my camera by the time I intervened. I love, love, love that I have captured this happy play moment between my two boys. They're really growing into being brothers---pals---lately. Needless to say, not much makes this mommy happier.

When all is unnaturally quiet ...

2011-07-07T14:28:00.004-05:00

... this is my favorite way to find Isaac.
Now, if only he didn't have to pull all of the books off the shelf to find the one he wants to read ...

Spencer funny

2011-07-06T09:36:00.003-05:00

Spence was playing with his police car on his bed. This was our conversation:

Spence: Mommy, the policemen are saying hi to you.
Me: Hi, policemen.
(Policemen): Hi. We just have to go to where some kids are fighting over toys.
Me: Oh. What are you going to do to help them stop fighting?
(Policeman, a wicked gleam in his eye): Maybe we'll have to bring the firetruck and spray the kids over.

I can just see the firemen blasting children down with water to get them to stop fighting over toys. I'll have to remember that one and put the garden hose to good use next time Spencer won't share ... :)

Fireworks

2011-07-05T08:47:00.002-05:00

We were really unsure, heading to the fireworks last night, how either of our boys were going to react to repeated loud, bright, semi-close explosions. Isaac is terrified of vacuum cleaners. Spencer is terrified of thunder. But I figured we had to give it a try, fireworks being tradition and all.

And ... they both did great! Isaac sat securely in Joe's lap with a face full of wonder, repeating for the first full minute with his arm outstretched and unmoving, finger pointing at the sky, "Whoa! Whooooa! Whooooa!" And Spencer superglued himself to my lap and laughed and exclaimed along with the rest of us, though in a shaky, I'm-really-actually-quite-scared voice.

My favorite part of the experience was hearing Spencer's firework-shape interpretations.
"Whoa, that one looks like hair!" (you know the ones that leave dripping sparkly contrails)
"That was a rubber band!"
"That one looked like a necklace!"
"Those sounded like hammers---boom, boom, boom!"
And our favorite, there were some firework fountain-things on the ground with lots of smoke rising off of them, and Spencer cried out, "That looks like a drill!" And sure enough, the smoke coming off of the firecrackers looked exactly like a drill---head, trigger, big battery base and all. Funny kid. :)

Happy Fourth of July!

A lot of silliness

2011-06-30T20:05:00.010-05:00

We've been doing a lot of silliness 'round here this June. Just a few pics to prove it. :)

On to July!

Hard-workin' man

2011-06-25T12:20:00.006-05:00

Inspired by his cousins Luke and Jacob, Spencer decided he wanted to do chores around the house to earn money so that he could buy things that he wants. So with some guidance from my sister-in-law and some helpful and ultra-creative bloggers, I assembled my first-ever chore chart.

Our system is pretty straight-forward. Spencer is not required to do chores. He does them because he wants to make money. So whenever I see an opportunity for him to help with one of the chores (e.g., the dryer is full of dry clothes and needs emptying), I'll call out to Spence that there's a job available if he wants it. Almost 100% of the time over the past few weeks, he's hopped up to do the work, especially when it involves a spray bottle. When he does the job, he gets to pull the little Velcroed image of the task off of his chore chart and deposit it back in the chore envelope. Then we transfer a ticket from the "bank" to his "earned" pocket. Saturday morning is payday.

And today, with a couple of last-minute chores, Spencer had exactly enough to buy Mater. $3.77. At ten cents per chore, minus 10% for tithing and 10% for savings and $1.00 for all the hand soap and shampoo he dumped down the drain a couple weeks ago, that's a lot of work he's done. I am so, so proud of him. Mater has been the motivation for all of Spencer's chore-doing, so after Spence triumphantly grabbed Mater off the Walmart shelf, I was sure to have him choose the next car he wants to earn. (If only I knew how to pronounce "Raoul CaRoule" ...)

Funny talk

2011-06-21T16:01:00.003-05:00

Three funny talks for the day.

Spencer: "Isaac totally just freaked out his pants." (Isaac just got really scared.)

Isaac: "Duh duh doooh." (Here you go.) A three-word phrase!

Spencer: (putting on these sunglasses, exclaimed) "Whoa! Now I'm cool!"

The unknowable nature of a child's mind

2011-06-14T15:15:00.004-05:00

Meet: Darling. (Pronounced Dar-wing, occasionally Dar-wink.)
Darling is a small stuffed bunny, and she is Spencer's baby. She's also the homeliest stuffed animal in the house. And we have lots of cute ones. Seriously, with the bulgy, droopy eyelids, bags under her eyes like she hasn't slept, ever, the blobby corners of her lips, and the desolate look on her face, she's totally depressing to look at. Why, of all the cute, cuddly animals he could've chosen, did Spencer go for Darling?

Darling cries, often. She has this high-pitched and incessant "Waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa waa, waa ...!" that makes her adopted grandparents want to toss her out the door. She also speaks in a high, squeaky voice that's grating on the ear drums. When Darling joined us at the couch for family prayers the other night, and Spencer said, "Darwing wants to say the prayer," Joe and I jumped in with a simultaneous "No!"

But Darling has her perks. Spencer is so sweet and loving and gentle with her, we can occasionally use her to manipulate him into doing what we want. For example, when Spencer's putting up a fight at bedtime, all it takes to settle him down sometimes is for us to gasp, "Oh no! Look at Darling! She is so tired. Awww, poor Darling. She's sad because she's so, so tired. You should cuddle with her until she falls asleep." And Spencer will immediately chime in with his own, "Awww," and take her gently from our arms, hold her close under the covers, and fall asleep himself. Darling is also nice and small, which is great for travel. Although this also means she gets lost easily, which makes for regular frantic bedtime searches.

As I'm writing this, Darling is hopping up and down my arm, squeaking, "Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!" Spencer noticed her picture on the screen and decided Darling needed to join in the fun. And now Darling is going to type some keys. Read the following in a high, squeaky, female-mice-from-Cinderella voice:

Zzq gfffffffffffdzxx rt m m, m,,t r,.,.ghgfgfcdxxzxxs hyyyhyhhyjjhhj ("Oops! I was on the wrong foot!")

Maybe Darling's depressed visage strikes my son's little nurturing heart and brings out the comforter in him. Maybe she's just conveniently hand-sized. Whatever the reason, Darling is a part of our family for now, so I'll just have to get used to choking out a dishonest "Mm-hmm" on the frequent occasions when Spencer holds her up to me and says, "Aww, isn't Darwing so cute?"

Summertime bliss

2011-06-07T19:32:00.006-05:00

Popsicles and "painting" the house with water. We "painted" the deck yesterday, roller brush and all. The boys are starting to actually play together, mostly when they're outside. I feel less guilty sending them off by themselves---because they aren't individually alone anymore. They have each other! I've been looking forward to this day since I found out Isaac was a boy. Hooray for brothers!

And a well-earned bath at the end of the day. How I love those smiles.

Reincarnation and grossness

2011-06-04T07:19:00.005-05:00

Our conversation at breakfast this morning:
Spence: I'm going to help the garbageman when the whole, whole, whole Spencer dies.
Mommy: You're going to help the garbageman when you die?
Spence: Yep. I'm going to turn into a garbageman next.

Awesome. What a lovely next life to aspire to.
And in Isaac news, his fetish for eating nasty things is, if anything, intensifying. My mom and brother Peter were here this week for a few days, passing through Illinois in their giant moving van on their way to Utah, where both will be settling down for the foreseeable future. And of course with my mom came her dog, a little cocker spaniel named Nutmeg. And of course, with Nutmeg, came an accessible bowl of dog food. Isaac had not one but two helpings of this. He came back for more, so apparently it was tasty. Over the course of the past week he's also eaten a couple of mud-covered rocks I had to fish out of his mouth, bitten off the end of a stick to chew on, sucked on the end of an ash-covered spoon, tried to swallow a penny, and stuck a stale, live-ant-covered chip from a restaurant floor in his mouth. Is he trying to tell me that he has an iron deficiency or something? Grossness.

Ebonics Experience and Truck Touching

2011-05-28T19:36:00.010-05:00

So Spencer had his first real contact with an African American individual yesterday. He's played with kids at the library and talked to a kid on our street, but he hasn't spent any extended time with them, really. At eight o'clock last night, just as we were about to put Isaac in bed, a fast-talking saleswoman showed up at our door, offering us, we weren't really sure what, but we thought it amounted to a free shampooing of our living room rug. What followed was actually a two-hour Kirby vacuum demonstration and sales pitch. So yeah, the demonstrator didn't leave our house until about 10:15 last night, which was kind of ridiculous.

Anyway, the demonstrator, a black guy, who was super nice, was chatting with Joe about the vacuum and about Joe's schooling as he showed us just how dirty our carpets are and just how useless the vacuum we own is. (*sigh*) Unaccustomed to the guy's heavy-on-the-Ebonics way of talking, Spencer was having a hard time understanding him. At one point, he turned to Joe, and in his none-too-quiet three-year-old voice, asked, "Is he speaking Spanish?" I about died laughing when Joe told me. Our poor, uncultured children.

And, Touch-A-Truck Day fun ... (For my non-Illinoisan readers, this is a cool event at a local park where vehicles of all kinds gather for kids to see and experience up close---a school bus, a city bus, a huge tow truck, a backhoe, a firetruck, a racecar, a semi, etc.) Spencer had a blast, and surprisingly, so did Isaac.
I wish I'd stood back for this picture to get the full effect, because Spencer is like 8 feet off the ground in this big backhoe-front loader.
Isaac rockin' the fireman hat. Well, trying to take it off, actually.
Isaac did not want to get off of/out of any of the vehicles he got to sit in/on. He got particularly attached to the Harley.
Though he clearly loved the city bus as well.

And both of my children are now licensed drivers. Uh ... Yikes!

And just for fun, Isaac being clever:
He put the stethoscope around his neck himself, then grabbed the end and stuck it on Spencer's chest. Observant little guy! I had to snap a picture.

Little boys

2011-05-21T10:26:00.006-05:00

Spencer was watching me sweep the dirt off the kitchen floor that had been tracked in the night before after he and Joe were gardening, and he said, "Apparentwy I was digging in the dirt wiff Daddy yesterday."

And Isaac is combining concepts in his little head and trying to express himself more and more. We were standing at the window the other day, and he pointed out the window, then said, waving, "Bah?" (like bye-bye), then pointed to himself. In other words, "Can I go outside?" I thought it was a rather clever way to communicate the request.

Mothers' Day

2011-05-11T20:34:00.000-05:00

What a whirlwind, amazing weekend! We just got back late last night from California, where we and all of the other Bair children congregated to surprise Joe's mom, who is fighting cancer, for Mother's Day. She was in the hospital (home now, hooray!) all weekend, so we all mixed and matched, ebbed and flowed, visiting her for three days. How wonderful it was to be in the midst of so much love, able to contribute our own love and support, to show her how much we all care for her and how hard we're all praying for her. For the record, I have the best mother-in-law, ever. And major kudos to my super-organized sister-in-law who coordinated in part or in full the comings, goings, housings, and feedings of twenty-four people, some of whom flew in from four different states, where two of the three arriving flights went awry. I personally would have been freaking out under the stress load, but I guess if ye are prepared, ye shall not stress. I saw the color-coordinated clipboard. She's amazing.

We bid farewell to the California relatives with a "See you in a few months!" We even caught a drive-by glimpse of Berkeley before catching our San Francisco flight home. I can't believe we're moving there. In a few months. My brief impression: beautiful, green, ritzy, narrow roads, very hilly, scary beyond all reason. Coming home to Urbana felt ... weird. Like I've already taken a step back. Like while I was driving around Berkeley, I cut a few of my emotional Illinois ties in preparation for the coming separation. Like Urbana and my little house in it and all of my established routines here were a little bit less homey and a little bit less mine than they were before we left. I can't believe the end is already upon us. We're thinking of selling our house and jumping ship in August, because who's going to buy a house, even an adorable one, in October/November in a college town? Anyone?

Anyway. This has turned into a very verbose post when I know all you readers out there (hi, Mom!) just want pictures of my children. So here you go.
The awesome Bair caravan. The big truck and both Autocraft vans and the car we're driving in, all headed to see Grandma Bair.
Some of us waiting to go into the hospital, wearing our matching "Mary's Maids" T-shirts.
Spencer. A self-portrait.
Silly Joe, making Spencer, the photographer, laugh.
Isaac being his cute little self.
Spencer playing with the new love of his life---Grandma's giant toy recycle-truck.
The belt-fed dart gun. Just when I think the Bairs can't get any crazier with their dart guns, they manage to outdo themselves. My contribution to this picture is the Elephant and Piggie book that Porter is reading. I brought two of them along, and I think I successfully converted all of my in-laws to Mo Willems.
The stowaway. So this guy, which is about the length of my hand, was in the side pocket of my carry-on backpack, all the way to California, and all the way back. We didn't notice it until we were in Atlanta waiting for our connecting flight home. So yeah. Aren't we glad security is doing full-body pat-downs. Because apparently their x-ray machines don't really work. How did they miss a big hunk of metal in my side backpack pocket, both in Bloomington and in San Francisco? Yikes. Should we report this, or something?The lady of the hour. What a trooper she is!

Contemplating naughtiness

2011-05-01T19:33:00.003-05:00

Caught a few shots with our new camera (thanks, Mom!!) of Isaac thinking about being a stinker.He's awfully cute. I couldn't get any straight-on shots because he was so on-the-move. Things to do, people to see, flowers to mangle, mommies to run away from, streets to step out into ...

8 years (a day late)

2011-04-27T08:02:00.003-05:00

8 = 2 kids + 3 cars + 3 years of blogging
8 = 4 apartments + 1 house + 1 moving van + 2 car accidents
8 = 2-bedroom + 1-bedroom + 2-bedroom + 3-bedroom homes
8 = 4 wards + 1 tour + 1 school conference + 2 copies of Harry Potter 7
8 = 4 callings in nursery + 4 years as financial clerk
8 = 2 Niagara Falls sightings + 3 Nauvoo trips + 1 Kirtland visit + 2 European expeditions
8 = 7 sibling weddings + 1 ballet
8 = 2 parking tickets + 2 traffic tickets + 2 jury summons + 2 missed flights
8 = 9 nieces and nephews - 1 Swiss postdoc
8 = 2 bachelor's degrees + 1 master's degree + 2 rejection letters + 3 real-job applications
8 = 1 year of editing + 4 years of freelancing + 3 years of paychecks
8 = 20 birthdays - 12 days in the NICU
8 = the number of times we've had a full night's sleep since Spencer was born
8 = the number of times our happiness has doubled since we knelt across the Oakland altar

Love you, Joe! Thanks for turning me into a Bair!

Before and after

2011-04-23T20:38:00.007-05:00

Before: Pristine.

After: Mud bum.
The hazards of eager egg-hunting after a rainstorm.

Before: Raring to go.

After: (Still before.) Unconscious.
The hazards of planning an Easter egg hunt that follows a lengthy and very filling breakfast and devotional. This is us walking across the parking lot to the egg field. Poor guy. Next year!

Yum and Fun

2011-04-22T12:17:00.007-05:00

I just made this dish for dinner last night, and it was so delicious. Is it just me, or is it trendy now in the cooking world to make a peanut butter sauce to go over noodles? Delish.

In other news, Spencer has begun to read. He's sounding out words as we read and putting them together. A teacher friend of mine suggested having him not only spell-out words but say the sound each letter makes too, and working with that, he read "jump," "job," "but," "big," and several other words last night. I am SO excited for him!

And my own excitement for the week: I aided in the rescue of an escapee rabbit. The little bunny was on the hop, but some anything-but-hare-brained children cottoned on to his hiding place and spotted him trying to make a jump for it under the other bunnies' cages. It got pretty hare-y for a bit, but my spry friend Katie leaped the fence, and the bunny's dreams of greener pastures Petered out. Along with my supply of puns, luckily for you. Thumper of a good tail, though, don't you think? :)

Here, bunny-bunny-bunny ... Victory!

(Smart) boys + an announcement

2011-04-14T19:32:00.011-05:00

I was planning this blog post in my head while cooking dinner, to the background music of all of my boys laughing hysterically. A peek out the window to the back deck confirmed what I've already suspected: I'm surrounded by boys. They're laughing hysterically because they're hitting each other on the head with a chunky plastic baseball bat.

Lucky for me they're also all really smart, so we have at least something in common (hahaha). :) Here's some recent evidence of their brilliance.

The Brilliance of Spence:
Spencer informed us when we passed a tow truck: "The car's tires are fastened with chains so it won't roll off."
When we were drawing this evening with sidewalk chalk, Spence said, "Mom, come look at what I drew in this area."
Another one to add: I was putting Isaac down for a nap--a very delicate operation. Spencer is supposed to stay in the living room and stay quiet while I do this, which is very hard for him. He was lurking outside their bedroom door this afternoon with a handful of cars, and he dropped one of them on the floor, which woke Isaac up just as I was laying him down in his crib. I came out with a frown for Spencer. With Isaac screaming in the background, Spencer just shrugged and said, "Isaac will fall asleep eventually."
And my favorite, today at Walmart, passing the video section, he caught sight of the Dumb and Dumberer DVD cover, and said, "Mommy, what's the matter with this guy? Is he frustrated?"

The Brilliance of Joe:
It is official. When we finish here in Urbana-Champaign, IL, sometime this fall, we will (hopefully!) sell our house, pack our moving van, and drive west, all the way to Berkeley, CA, where Joe will spend two years-ish as a post-doctoral researcher in chemistry for Dr. Hartwig at UC Berkeley. We are both excited and terrified to be moving to such a crazy city (I grew up hearing it referred to as "Berzerk-ley"). No idea how we're going to afford living there, no idea how I'll overcome my driving-in-a-big-city fears, but we feel like this is where we're supposed to be headed next, so I have faith that things will work out.
The Brilliance of Isaac:
Isaac is so ready to start talking, though most of what he says requires parental interpreters at this point.
Kiss=Mwuh!
Please=Pea! Pea! Pea!
Fan=Da?
Diaper=Boo-bah
Spencer=Bee-bah
Poopy=Peepoo/Poopy (he's a little dyslexic at times)
Daddy=Da-da
Mommy=Mee-ma/Ma-ma-ma
Drink/teeth/cheese=Tee!
Cheek=Chee
Shirt=Shir
That=Da!
Socks=Dah
Bye bye=Bah
Ball=Bah
Bread=Bah
Bear=Bah
Banana=Bah-bah
Done=Duh
No=No, no, no.
Baby=Baby!
What is this thing that I'm looking at or thinking about?=Dih?
Uh-oh (I dropped something either on accident or on purpose)=Uh-oh!
Amen=NnnnnnnNuh!
Yay!=Yaaay!
Wee!=Wee! (he thinks this is what one must say, over and over, whether one is having fun or not, when one is on a swing)

I love my crazy, smarty-pants boys. :)

Imagination ... or not

2011-04-05T13:04:00.009-05:00

(preschool area, for Grandma)

Spencer: Wow, look at all the clouds! (pointing out the car window at scattered marshmallow-creme clouds dolloped across the sky)
Mommy: Ooo, aren't they neat? What do you think they look like? (waiting with bated breath for an imaginative response)
Spencer: Um ...
...
...
...
...
...
... Clouds!
Mommy: (disappointed but undeterred) I think they look like whipped cream someone squirted in the sky---psht! psht! psht! Or like scoops of fluffy mashed potatoes!
Spencer: ... Mommy, they look like clouds.

Maybe next time.

No denying he's a smarty though. We were reading 2 Nephi 2 tonight, which mentions Adam. Spencer piped up, "That's like Adam John. Adams. John Adams." (I've been listening to David McCullough's bio of the second president in the car ... guess Spencer's been listening too.) :)

And as promised, Grandma, here's a video of the adorable Isaac taking a walk.

So proud of myself

2011-04-05T12:55:00.008-05:00

This past weekend, as the majority of my readers will know, was General Conference, a time when Mormons the world over gather around their TV or computer screens and listen to inspired messages from the leaders of our church. For those of us with young children, this four-session, eight-hour gathering can be ... impossible? crazy? a gigantic "no you cannot have the mouse!" battle?
Anyway, inspired by my sister-in-law, I decided this year to Be Prepared. And what a difference it made! We had the best General Conference since Spencer was a baby. Over the course of the four sessions, he built a temple out of marshmallows and toothpicks, traced the First Presidency's names, built a podium out of cardboard and toilet paper rolls, traced and colored his hand, solved a homemade magnetic temple puzzle on a cookie sheet, filled a 72-hour-kit bag, created a "prophet mobile," and listened carefully many times for the words that got him treats from the row of cups with corresponding pictures (prayer, faith, prophet, love, family, Jesus Christ, etc.). For most of these projects, all I had to do was get him going, and then I could listen with probably 80% of my brain. Impressive, I know!
And where was Isaac through all of this? Mostly napping or sitting on Joe's lap eating snacks or playing with pompom magnets and his own little cookie sheet. Totally manageable. So I just had to brag, and thank my sis-in-law again for all the help. It was a fabulous weekend!

Introducing ...

2011-04-04T17:27:00.003-05:00

"Aunt-Kristin-and-Uncle-Cam"
That is what this Hotwheels car has been named. Spencer plays with Aunt-Kristin-and-Uncle-Cam all the time. I even caught him feeding Aunt-Kristin-and-Uncle-Cam some fish crackers this afternoon. Earlier he pulled all the cushions off the couch. I asked him what he was doing. "Aunt-Kristin-and-Uncle-Cam need to go for a drive," he told me.

Spencer and his smarty-pants-ness never fail to entertain. I love hearing him explain how food goes down his esophagus into his stomach when he eats it and how evaporation makes him cold when he gets out of the bathtub. We'll make a scientist of that kid yet. :)

I could hardly keep my countenance

2011-03-15T19:44:00.003-05:00

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.

Spencer's story, Isaac's words

2011-03-07T10:45:00.003-06:00

Spencer told me his first imaginary story ever today, while we were driving in the car. It went like this:

Spence: Mommy, I'm gonna tell a story.
Mommy: Okay, let's hear it!
Spence: "There's a Big Fat Giant Roll of Toilet Paper Behind Me." That's what it's called.
Mommy: Wow, sounds great. Does it start "Once upon a time ..."?
Spence: Once upon a time, there was a big, fat, giant roll of toilet paper behind me. Then I tore off a great big piece and tore that into little half pieces.
Mommy: And then?
Spence: And then I threw them away so Isaac wouldn't eat them. Then I ate too many muffins and got a stomachache! (cackling his little head-thrown-back Spencer cackle) The end!

Awesome. I think we're going to write it out and illustrate it for preschool this week.

And in Isaac news, here's a little video of his latest speech/signing accomplishments. Though since this was taken, he has also started counting. Sort of. He says "Two, three, two, three!" I guess he hears counting a lot around here, of the "Spencer, five seconds to choose, five, four, three, two, one!" variety.

Incredulity

2011-03-03T07:21:00.003-06:00

Few know this about Joe, but he likes to make up random goofy songs all the time. Today he was singing for Isaac some nonsensical tune that ended with "I wanna poke a squirrel in the eye." Our hilariously literal, tragically unimaginative Spencer was sitting nearby methodically cutting a large piece of paper into confetti all over the living room floor. As Joe ended the song, he looked up and said incredulously, "You want to poke a squirrel in the eye?" Spencer stared at Joe for a moment. "A squirrel??" And then as if Joe didn't know but it should have been totally obvious: "It's high up in the tree. You'd need a really big ladder."

Thanks, Spence. Guess we'll forgo "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" in favor of memorizing the periodic table of the elements for you, buddy.

And just for giggles ... Isaac and the stir stick. Don't. Mess with me.

Who's on first?

2011-02-25T21:09:00.003-06:00

If you've ever seen the old Abbott and Costello skit ... it pretty much played out in our kitchen this evening.

Spencer: What are you making?
Mom: Pudding.
Spencer: (Pause.) What are you making, Mom?
Mom: Pudding.
Spencer: Are you putting something in there? (pointing to the bowl where I was stirring)
Mom: (laughing) Yep, and it's pudding.
Spencer: (Pause.) You're putting ...? What are you making, Mom?
Mom: Pudding.
Spencer: Are you putting chocolate in there?
Mom: Yep. Chocolate pudding.
Spencer: (Thoroughly confused) What are you making, Mom?
Mom: (Thoroughly enjoying myself) Pudding!

For Aunt Lynn

2011-02-16T09:18:00.002-06:00

Thanks for the M&M shirts, Aunt Lynn. They prompted some pretty precious picture-taking this morning. :) Love you!

Wo?

2011-02-15T18:34:00.003-06:00

Isaac the little imitator. This is the new trick of the day---pretending to talk on the phone. "Wo?"

And Joe sneaked up on Spencer and Alice playing dentist while the moms and dads were having choir practice in the living room. He failed to get a picture of Spencer with the little red toolbox on his head (in the pics it's sitting on the floor next to Alice's chair), which is a tragedy. But they were both at one point wearing dentist helmets, and when Joe walked in, Alice was hovering over Spencer with the toy drill saying, "Be brave!"

Caught! :)

Pilates Pals

2011-02-07T09:18:00.004-06:00

I have a tendency to throw out my lower back. I've done it three times now in the past three years, so I've decided to take action and give Pilates a try in the hopes that I'll get some "core muscle strength" back, something that two pregnancies has apparently eliminated. Every time I grab a band and stick the video in, Spencer grabs another band and plunks down next to me, trying to imitate what I'm doing. "Can I Piwates wiff you, Mom?" I think it's adorable.

Life's little amusements

2011-02-05T16:19:00.004-06:00

Five imaginary dollars if you can spot both things wrong with this picture in five seconds or less:
And one of Joe's new favorite videos:

And Isaac learning the art of the zerbert.

And a really cute Spencer still working on the art of putting on one's own pants.

And as promised, for Joe's Californian sun-loving parents, the weird ice-balls that fell on us in Illinois this week.

(And can I just say that I'm totally amazed Blogger allowed me to put three videos in one post?? It often forbids one! Wonders!)

Nostalgia

2011-01-29T20:32:00.006-06:00

Was this really a whole year ago?

It was---a whole year ago. Crazy.
Happiest first birthday to our little monkey! We have loved, loved, loved getting to know our little Isaac, who has the biggest ear-to-ear grin, who is just overflowing with love and affection for his family, who gives huge open-mouthed "Mwah!" baby kisses, who already throws little mini-tantrums that are hard to not giggle at, who claps his hands with delight when he learns a new trick, who can't get over the fact that we put a new ceiling fan in our bedroom and has to point "Dah!" every time we turn it on, whose hero is his big brother Spence, who has yet to sleep all the way through the night, whose favorite game is peekaboo, who adores his toothbrush and would carry it around all day if we'd let him, who is brimming with curiosity for the taste and texture and function of everything around him, and who hasn't gone a day in his life without making me exclaim over his cuteness (except maybe a few of the first days ... he was kind of puffy for a while). :)
Our little Ise. What a guy.

Spencerisms

2011-01-20T15:18:00.005-06:00

When Joe was a little boy, he once climbed into his mommy's lap and said, "Mommy, you're my cutie pie." It's such a darling story I've been told on more than one occasion by more than one Bair.

Now Spencer's produced a similar cuteness of his own. He gave me a big hug out of the blue today and said, "I wuv you, Mom. You're my sweet best guy."

Guy?? haha

I guess that's what you get in a houseful of boys. :) I know my mommy heart was feeling full.

Wuv you too, Spence.

Peek-a-boo

2011-01-18T10:45:00.002-06:00

He's just growing up too fast. I love how he thinks you can't see him, with his one little eye peeking out. Too adorable.

Primary and a haircut

2011-01-10T10:42:00.004-06:00

(All dressed up for his first day of Primary ... which did not go well.)

Spencer's little self-speech of the day. (Playing with his Disney's Cars cars) "Guido has a name. I think he does. You're so smart! How did you know that?"

I guess that's a phrase he's heard a time or two. :) Though I'm listening to this book on CD recommended by a friend, and I just finished the chapter on praise, and apparently research shows that you're not supposed to tell your kids they're smart, lest they become underachievers who are afraid to try anything new because they think that having to work hard at something proves that they aren't naturally smart at it. Dang it.

And Isaac's first real haircut has finally happened, and it was a little bit heart breaking. He doesn't have the super-soft baby locks anymore. Strange how cutting it will forever alter its softness. He looks too grown up. My cute little almost-one-year-old! Unbelievable.

Bedtime delays

2011-01-07T21:06:00.005-06:00

How do you talk a three-year-old into going to bed at night?

Spencer has come up with some rather creative stalling tactics. He's done the usual "I need to go potty," "I need to go potty again," "I need a Kleenex," "I need a drink," "I need a hug," "I need another blanket" routines.

When he gets out of bed, he's generally accompanied by one or two or three of the animals he has formed an attachment to. When he tries to climb into our bed in the middle of the night, in fact, he'll often bring his bed's entire contents: Doggie, Bear, his Darling, his Baby, Deedee, his pillow, and his boat blanket. It's kind of comical to see him stumbling into our room, lugging all these supposed sleep aids.

Tonight, he got out of bed and went marching into the bathroom declaring, "I need a hair clip. I need a clip for my hair. I just need a hair clip. I'll be out in a second. Kay?" And this was after I had re-tucked him in no fewer than five times.

Most bewildering of all, he has taken to standing in his doorway, declaring, "Joe. I'm tired. Daddy, I'm tired. I need to go to bed." Uh, yeah, Spence. That's kind of the point!!

I'm despairing of ever getting Isaac out of our room and into Spencer's. Spencer doesn't sleep. Isaac is a light sleeper. Put the two together, and Joe and I can kiss our already measly 6.5 hours goodbye.

Sigh.

To finish up the year, a bit of sweetness

2010-12-31T23:23:00.006-06:00

I reclined the back of the high chair seat for him, because I saw he was getting sleepy, but this was his snoozing position of choice. What a character.

And inspired by his same-age cousin, Jacob, a budding photographer, Spencer has figured out how to turn on our camera and take pictures with it. Here's a sampling, for your viewing pleasure.

(And yes, my table top could use a little wiping down ... thank you, Spencer.)

'Tis the Season ...

2010-12-28T21:40:00.010-06:00

... to build monster gingerbread houses with lots of friends and their children

... to eat packaging materials

... to learn from cousins how to be a real Bair Boy

... to be adorable

... to have lunch with Grandma and Aunt Lynn at the Spaghetti Factory

... to donate to Locks of Love for the third time

... to eat far too much candy, muck out old toys to make room for the new, learn new games, get to know new people, sing in church, strengthen relationships, think about the Savior, and generally reflect upon how good life has been to us. Merry Christmas to all! And a Happy New Year!

Boys will be boys, Part 2

2010-12-10T08:02:00.003-06:00

And never mind about the second video. Blogger simply refuses to upload it. Oh well. Instead, here are some pictures of an awesome nearly-three-year-old, who up and decided it was time he figure out how to dress himself this morning. While it's both weather inappropriate and totally on backwards, top and bottom, not to mention terribly mismatched, I am so excited to see him take this independent leap forward, just a week before he turns three. Way to go, Spence! (At least, I'm excited today ... ask me again on Sunday when this is the outfit of choice ...) :)

Boys will be boys, Part 1

2010-12-09T17:04:00.002-06:00

(I can't get both of these videos to load in a single post. I regularly have video-posting problems on blogger ... Do others have similar difficulties?)

Spence and Isaac are teaching each other all kinds of useful skills, like jumping and crib biting.

2010-12-06T15:24:00.004-06:00

Spencer loves icicles. He was noticing them on the eaves of the neighbor's house today, and I told him it was the next-door neighbor's house. So he's been going around today telling me all about the icicles on the "extra neighbor's house."

I had a movie paused on a polar bear's face when Spence came into the living room from his nap.
Spence: Aww, he's such a cute doggie.
Mommy: That's a polar bear.
Spence: That's a polar bear.
Mommy: Mmhm.
Spence: You pull it.

And playing with one of his puzzles tonight, he held up a piece.
Spence: That's a crane truck.
Mommy: Yep, it is.
Spence: It cranes. It cranes toys.

And a couple of zany boys:

"I'm going to work."

Isaac eats with his hands, and he likes to pull on his hair while he eats. This is the resulting mess.

These are a few of my favorite things

2010-12-04T23:12:00.004-06:00

Spence put the glasses on himself. Can you tell? :)

What we woke up to this morning:
I so love the snow.

And decorating our Christmas tree:
It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T09:57:00.007-06:00

Things I've learned:
1. Really big turkey = Really long bake time
2. If I don't apply makeup first thing in the Thanksgiving morning, it's not gonna happen.
3. Forget nice dress and candlelight. Think ratty T-shirt you've been baking in all day and don't have the energy to change.
4. Turkey doesn't make you tired. Cooking for seven hours straight makes you tired.
5. For picky two-year-olds, Thanksgiving is kind of a crummy holiday. "Hooray! Here's an even bigger plate of even more time-consuming dishes you aren't going to eat! Aren't you thankful?!"
6. You know it's been a long day when your son is not wearing any pants in the only pictures you managed to take, and you don't care.
7. Mothers are a must on Thanksgiving. I would've perished without her. I'm sorry she had to suffer through a major sinus cold and a root canal while she was here. You're a trooper, Mom!
8. I love my patient friends. Inviting impatient friends over for Thanksgiving would be a big mistake (see #1).
9. Meat thermometers with a plastic face are not made to be left in the turkey, in the oven.
10. 350 degrees is not the same thing as 300 degrees.

Do As I'm Doing

2010-11-21T17:08:00.002-06:00

So cute! Isaac learned to clap today, and not just on his own either. He does it when prompted and tries to imitate us. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. What a cutie.

Funnies

2010-11-14T09:34:00.002-06:00

Spencer's use of the electric guitar my big brother gave him for Christmas a couple years ago never ceases to amuse me. My brother likes "other" kinds of music. Me, I'm pretty much into classical and choral with a sprinkling of Broadway and jazz. I think Ben was hoping to help my children be a little better rounded musically. Instead, Spencer holds the electric guitar like a violin, or he sings along to the rockin' tunes with a little "I Am a Child of God." Sorry, Ben. It was a valiant effort. But I win. :) So far ...

And further evidence of my winning: Spencer can identify the violin, flute, harp, piano, classical guitar, and trumpet by sound and a host of other instruments by sight. And yesterday after an inspiring Bach choral piece finished playing on the car radio, Spencer declared with a happy sigh, "Mommy, that was beautiful, beautiful music." I so totally agree, Spence! :)

Woe is me

2010-11-08T16:25:00.006-06:00

I managed to undo two "I have never"s today. Before today, I had never gotten stitches. And before today, it had been about two decades since I'd had a tetanus shot. (I know that's not a "never," but close enough.) Lesson learned: If your crock pot is falling off the counter, just tell your "Catch that!" reflexes NO. And other lesson learned: I have lightning-fast reflexes, but I have really bad aim. I'm still not sure how I got an inch-wide, really deep gash at the inner base of my thumb trying to catch a giant falling piece of totally-unsharp crockery. It smashed when it hit the floor, but I got the cut before that--maybe jamming my open hand against the counter ledge? Shudder, I know. Joe immediately asked "Are you okay?" And when I looked down at my hand and could see white inside the gash (bone? tendon?) and then watched the blood start gushing, it was an emphatic, "No, I am not okay! Definitely not, not okay!" So now I have three stitches in my hand and a very bruised-feeling shoulder (thank you, tetanus) and am feeling sorry for myself when I contemplate the next two weeks of not being able to chop vegetables, trim my toenails, or pick up my children with my right hand. And you're welcome for only showing a picture of the bandage. It's gross. Trust me.

:(

Awesomeness

2010-11-08T13:54:00.008-06:00

Everything about this video I think is totally awesome, from Spencer's checkered-flag underwear to his crazy dart-gun skills to his Daddy-imitative ending exclamation. This will be a classic in the Bair family.

And in we're-actually-raising-a-baby-woodchuck news, Isaac's dental wood-shaving fetish is becoming positively out of control. We now have double teeth tracks on our piano bench, our bed frame (heartbreaking!), Spencer's bed frame (so sorry, Susan!), the changing table, and the dresser handles. Here's the piano bench, to give you an idea:

And yes, it's junky anyway, so I don't really care, but still. There's no stopping this kid.

At least his interest in the piano isn't purely dietary. I caught this awesome video of him playing his own instrumentals interspersed with percussion. Spencer's toy electric guitar is one of Isaac's favorites as well. Maybe I actually got a musician this time around (though it's true that Spencer isn't quite as tone deaf these days as he used to be ... and I'll stop typing now because Isaac is licking my heel. Euck!) ...

October wrap-up

2010-10-31T09:15:00.004-05:00

Isaac the pumpkin

Whew! I think we are officially done with Halloween.
We have visited two pumpkin patches.
We have carved three pumpkins.
We have wrestled our children into their costumes and trick-or-treated three times.
We have drunk apple cider twice.
Spencer's got a half-full grocery bag of candy.
The tub has a grayish ring from washing five o'clock shadow and chemistry-explosion make-up.
The hay bale in our entryway is playing host to some increasingly shrively jack-o-lanterns.
The glow-in-the-dark spider has fallen off and been retaped to the ceiling twice.
Our holiday scales are already flashing higher numbers at us.
I'm tired of keeping Spencer from peeling window decorations off.
We've raked the leaves out of our entryway three times.
I have a cardboard box full of winter squash in the garage.
My house smells like cinnamon from our pumpkin-pancake breakfast.
We managed to use the Halloween cookie cutters once.
I've burned through eight tea candles in various pumpkin/ghost/bat candle holders.
I'm ready to say goodbye to the big hairy spider in the corner for another year.
I'm ready to start planning Thanksgiving.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, as I'm sure anyone who has been in our over-decorated home can tell you. So here's to the passing of another fun holiday, another happy time of year. Until next October, Halloween. It's been grand.

Spencer the mad scientist. Too bad he wasn't wearing his goggles in this picture.

Trunk or treating

2010-10-23T22:30:00.008-05:00

We didn't manage to get a picture with all of us all in our costumes together, but we did learn some valuable lessons this time around the church parking lot.

1) Babies with fevers aren't going to be happy, but they still have amazingly speedy hands when you're carrying them and a tray of cookies simultaneously.
2) You should not force your reluctant husband to wear that $3 Salvation Army suit that is actually a couple sizes too small for him, knowing that at some point in the evening, he's going to have to bend over, like when you first arrive at the church and need to get the baby out of the carrier.
3) A white lace hem and a few laps around the asphalt are a dirty combination.
4) Keep track of when your 2-year-old last went potty, because he's definitely having too much fun to do so himself.
5) Everyone should bring a change of pants (see numbers 2 and 4).
6) No matter how hard you try to make your up-do look old-fashioned, when you have zero experience styling an old-fashioned up-do but have performed dozens of contemporary ones for various choral performances, your up-do's going to look contemporary. Just accept it.
7) You can't bring too much candy, even when you try.
8) The $7 Salvation Army princess dress is totally worth it.

Enjoying the fruits of a hard night's labors. :)

Babyhood

2010-10-21T16:40:00.004-05:00

Spencer's a little confused about the life continuum. He understands that he was once a baby and that Mommy and Daddy were too, but he thinks that at any moment, we might all revert back to babyhood. He'll say things like, "When Mommy's a baby, she can sit in Isaac's highchair too." Or our conversation this afternoon:

Spence: When I was an Isaac, I could stand up.
Mommy: When you were an Isaac?
Spence: Yup. I was a baby this morning.

I sure love those boys of mine!

Pumpkins!

2010-10-12T22:20:00.009-05:00

Okay, the shrew picture is grossing me out. It's time for an update.

Slightly breaking tradition, we picked up our pumpkins at Negangard Farm this year instead of Curtis Orchards. And while it was lacking the charming play areas and country store and pony rides and hot apple cider and actual-pumpkin-patch experience, as far as the pumpkins themselves go, Negangard is far superior, in quality as well as price. I realize that if you don't live in Central Illinois, you don't care. So moving on. :)

The other plus side of Negangard was the presence of the farmers themselves---a sweet and spunky old couple who have lived in their Illinois farm house for decades, raised five boys, and seen times change from when pesticides weren't even necessary to a spray for every bug. I was chatting with Mrs. Farmer about the best way to cook an acorn squash (which they practically give away for 25 cents each) with her husband half-listening in. "I cut off both ends, scoop out the seed parts, then put it facedown on a microwave-safe kind of dish, then cover it and microwave it, oh, eight-or-so minutes," she drawled in her Illinois-farmwife way.

"You gotta put it on a plate," Mr. Farmer interjected at this point.

"Ah said 'microwave-safe dish,'" she snapped back, full of spitfire, which just made her husband chuckle.

It was cute.

And speaking of cute ...
And closing with a baby kiss. I think he actually licked my face just as Joe was snapping the photo. What a goose. :)

Taming of the Shrew, Part 2

2010-10-04T15:10:00.002-05:00

So remember this dude who ran through my kitchen like a year and a half ago?Well, it's ba-aack.

Though this time instead of standing on the piano bench and squealing, I threw two shoes and two tennis balls in quick succession at it. It zipped pretty quick right back under the oven and out its hole. At least, I haven't heard any chittering from under there since, so I assume it left. Joe will be patching the hole. Tonight. Or he will be sleeping on the kitchen floor in front of the oven. His choice. After all, I am a Parenting with Love and Logic practitioner.

:)

Oh dear

2010-10-02T21:59:00.005-05:00

I was curled up on the couch with Spencer this evening while Joe was at the church watching the Priesthood session of General Conference. We were reading the scriptures together, and Spence flipped open his little Book of Mormon to the picture of Jesus in the front.

"He has a scratchy chin," Spence observed.
"Yep, he has a beard, huh," I replied.
"Just wike the daddy of the motorcycle has a wong, scratchy chin."

It took me a moment to realize that Spencer was comparing Jesus's beard to that of a large, leather-clad, rough-looking bearded man he'd seen riding a motorcycle days earlier. I have to wonder how either individual would feel about the comparison. :)

For Uncle Kyle

2010-09-22T22:31:00.005-05:00

My youngest brother entered the Missionary Training Center this afternoon to begin his training in Japanese in preparation for his two years of service in the Fukuoka, Japan, mission. Spencer dressed up in honor of the occasion. We love you, Kyle! I mean, Elder Anstead! We are so excited for the experiences you have ahead of you. You are going to be a truly wonderful missionary.

Beautiful boys

2010-09-19T16:58:00.007-05:00

Oh, how I love the sweet little boys in my life. I feel so very blessed to be their mommy, on easy days and on tough days. Easy days are so peaceful, but tough days make me stretch.
And despite the fact that Spencer asked in a not-so-quiet voice in Sacrament meeting for his fruit snacks about two dozen times, today was an easy, beautiful day. :)

Adjective troubles.

2010-09-12T16:09:00.005-05:00

Spencer: I love the American flag, because it's so, so, so, so ...
Mommy: So what?
Spencer: Because it's so, so cute.

We need to teach this boy more adjectives.

And here's a totally adorable interaction between these two cute brothers. This repeated itself a few times actually. I kept bringing Isaac back to their bedroom to get him dressed, and he kept hearing Spencer's voice and crawling away. They are just too cu--- uh ... majestic. :)

And a beautiful baby boy to finish, just because. :)

A giveaway at Everead ...

2010-09-11T08:04:00.003-05:00

In case anyone's interested, we're giving away a copy of the new "Horrid Henry" book over at Everead. So check it out!

Bragging rights

2010-09-05T09:19:00.005-05:00

I am married to the international cheese-curling gold-medal champion. Yes, I will explain.

We packed our kids off to the little Amish-country town of Arthur, Illinois, yesterday to attend the annual Cheese Festival. The three-day festival runs such events as "the cutting of the cheese," a cheese-eating contest, hundreds of pounds of free cheese giveaways, cheese tasting, and the highlight of the festival, the International Cheese Curling Competition (i.e., the only cheese curling competition in the world).
If you've ever seen real curling, like the winter-Olympic-sport kind, you can maybe kind of guess how it could be mimicked with a four-pound wheel of cheese, a giant tarp with a target sewn on it, a broom, and a bunch of four-member teams with such names as "The Cheezits," "Pretty Gouda," "The Cheese Slicers," "Wensleydale," and "Blue Cheese." Three team members are cheese rollers. The fourth member is the sweeper---the person who uses the kitchen broom to try to guide your rolling cheese wheel onto the center of the target. Here's a video of our friend Tiffany's roll to demonstrate the mechanics of the thing:

Joe acted as sweeper for our team, Wensleydale, which comprised myself, my friend Susan, her three-year-old daughter Alice, and Joe. Each roller gets a practice roll and then the roll for points. He managed to get all three of our rolls very nearly on center with more finesse than I saw any other sweeper demonstrate. We scored 11 out of 12 points (center is worth 4, next ring out is 3). Then Joe hopped out of our team to join the Blue Cheeses, who needed a fourth player. He rolled for that one. The Blue Cheeses beat our team with a perfect score, 12 out of 12. So Joe beat me, and himself, and ended up playing on the first- and second-place teams.

Joe was absolutely bursting with prideful hilarity all evening after. For our cheese-curling pains, we got to take home our wheel of cheese, and Joe won a T-shirt and got his picture in the Arthur newspaper for being on the winning team.

Apparently, one of our friends overheard the contest-runners bringing the leftover cheese wheels back to the cheese store and telling the clerks to sell them at cost, because they'd been sitting outside for the duration of the contest---"at cost" being $25-$28 each. Wowsers! And it just so happened that I caught a great deal at the grocery store yesterday for cheese and had already purchased a pile. So we now have over ten pounds of cheese in the fridge. I'm feeling a cheese-grating/freezing party coming on. And maybe a fondu party after that.

First word

2010-09-03T07:45:00.004-05:00

Isaac said his first word today---one only forgivable due to circumstance.

Joe was holding Isaac on his tummy.

Isaac barfed.

Examining the pool of spit-up, Isaac declared, "O-ba-ma."

hehehe

Cwazy!

2010-09-02T07:40:00.003-05:00

This morning, I was busily making muffins galore for the first Institute class I've been asked to co-teach. Spencer wrapped his arms around my leg in the kitchen this morning after peaking in the oven, and declared, "Mommy, you are such a cwazy, cwazy, cwazy, cwazy girl making muffins!"

And his lunch prayer cracked me up.
Heavenwy Father,
Kankee for dis day.
Bless Mommy to be safe.
Bless Daddy to be safe.
Bless the neighbors to be safe. And healfy and strong.
Bless the neighbors to mow the grass.
Bless the grass to be safe. And healfy and strong.
Bless the neighbors to be safe.
Bless the neighbors to be safe.
Bless the food to be safe. And healfy and strong.
Bless the neighbors to be safe.
Bless the food to be safe. Bless the muffins.
Bless Daddy to be safe.
Bless Mommy to be safe.
Bless Spencer to be safe.
Bless Isaac to be safe.
Bless the neighbors ...
(Mommy interrupting, "In the name ...")
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Apparently we are rather concerned with the general safety of everyone and everything, including the neighbor's lawn. I pray with a very bowed head these days. :)

2010-08-23T18:16:00.004-05:00

Spencer was blinking wierdly, and I asked him, "Is there something in your eyes?" "Yah," he answered, "it's just contacts."

I think ...

2010-08-22T22:00:00.003-05:00

... I could get fat off of good peaches. Good thing they're so hard to find. :(
... you shouldn't talk and laugh about the funny things your son used to say within earshot, like "I poop candles."
... you shouldn't reward your children by taking them out of Sacrament meeting when they're naughty, lest they up and slap you on the face in the middle of church and then ask hopefully, "Spencer needs to go outside with Daddy?"
... you shouldn't bring your two-year-old up on the stand with you when you're performing in a choir during a very spiritual fireside, lest he escape once the fruit snacks in your pocket run out and climb around behind the conductor and up onto the organ bench and start pounding on the keys in front of the whole audience in the middle of "This Is the Christ." Good thing he didn't locate the power button.
... I'm going to bed.

Find the baby

2010-08-22T08:14:00.006-05:00

Ever since Isaac has started crawl-scooting, he's taken great delight in exploring the strangest locations in our house. And can you blame him? Haven't you wondered what the world looks like from underneath the kitchen stepping stool or wedged over the back bar of the baby swing?

Puppy

2010-08-17T15:12:00.004-05:00

(Isaac lunging over a pile of his own toys to nab and chew on my sandal.)
Sometimes I think I'm raising a puppy instead of a boy. He wiggles back and forth when he's excited. He drools when he's happy. He begs for our food at every meal. His favorite things to chew on are my shoes, belts, and the leather handles on my purse. Now that he's mobile, I wouldn't be surprised to find tiny double-bottom-teeth marks and drool on our kitchen-table legs. (And yes, I promptly took the sandal away from the baby. After snapping a picture. He only got in a couple nibbles, tops.)

A Sabbath post

2010-08-15T08:11:00.004-05:00

Mommy: Spencer, what day is it today?
Spencer: Today is not-on-Sunday!

(apparently that's a phrase we've used a few times ...)

Birthday time

2010-08-09T16:24:00.006-05:00

My birthday was this past Sunday. I'm 26, which feels over-the-hill, in a way. I'm past midtwenties, getting into late twenties, which is practically 30. *sigh* So what do you do when it's Sunday and tithing took longer to do than usual and your husband is late getting home for dinner which is late getting on the table because two boys were alternately crying or going to the bathroom, one in the toilet, the other blowing out a diaper in your arms, and you have friends coming over at 7:30 to eat some birthday dessert that hasn't even gone in the oven yet, which means that when it does come out of the oven, the friends are already present and have other appointments to attend to that evening, which means you have to eat said birthday dessert hot, which means that if you try putting your candles in it, they'd melt all over the congo squares? Well, if you're Joe, you design some makeshift candle holders and individually wrap all twenty-six candles in aluminum foil. Clever Joe. :)

Opening my birthday card from my Dad this week, I exclaimed "Cool beans!" when I saw the B&N gift card. From his highchair, where he was refusing to eat his lunch, Spencer piped up, "Where'd Mommy's beans go?" And then in a really cutely hopeful voice, "Spencer can I have some beans?"

And with all my birthday stuff happening, Spencer's become suddenly aware that he too will eventually have a birthday. He's been talking about it every day. Today it was, "I'm sixteen years old. I'm a person. My birthday is on Friesday, tomorrow." (He's obsessed with being sixteen, because we've told him that that's how old you have to be to drive the car.)

And our fun birthday bowling game---Spencer's first. I love how Joe gets him all positioned here, only to have Spencer pause to clap for someone else's bowl a few lanes over. I've been told that I talk with my hands a lot, and I think I must be rubbing off on Spencer, because he talks with his whole body these days. You can't see it here, but his little leg kicks up with every other word as he tells me what he just did. He calls the pins "pongs" here. I think he's a little confused with ping-pong. Before we told him what they were called, he dubbed them "icicles."

An early Halloween

2010-08-05T07:24:00.005-05:00

My grandma sent me this adorable costume for Isaac a while back, but unfortunately, he's going to be too big for it come Halloween. So we just had to do an early photo shoot of our little horsey. :)

And Spencer quote of the day:
Spence was rough-housing with Daddy in the living room this morning. Joe asked me if I was ready to take over so he could shower. Spencer declared, "No! Mommy, go to your room and play with something else."

My boys and I

2010-08-03T13:14:00.009-05:00

Joe:
Drove us 2659 miles without mishap or complaint.
Stayed patient and calm in the face of screaming children and an occasionally stressed-out wife in a very confined space for forty hours.
Presented a rockin' poster at a chemistry convention in New Hampshire about his cancer-killing molecular creation.
Got a full night's sleep five nights in a row.
Was very, very missed by his wife and children.

Spencer:
Possesses a deep and abiding fear of public-restroom hand-driers, especially the turbo ones.
Possesses a deep and abiding love for rocks, especially when there's a body of water nearby into which he can throw them.
Is capable of sleeping through a physically painful hotel fire alarm at 11:30 at night.
Memorized about 40 sight words over the course of our 40-hour drive.
Was almost always sweet and obliging, as long as he wasn't strapped into his car seat.

Isaac:
Is now a whopping 6 months old! Happy half year, baby!
Has the cutest dimples I've ever seen.
Can roll, pivot, and scoot backwards under furniture.
Ate apple slices, grapes, crackers, juice, and pizza crusts over the course of the trip, all in the name of pacification.
Is not capable of sleeping through a physically painful hotel fire alarm at 11:30 at night.
Was almost always sweet and obliging, as long as he wasn't tired or hungry or strapped into his car seat.

I:
Confirmed my former love for kayaking.
Fell in love instantly with the incredible beauty of the state of Vermont (seriously, I'm surprised there weren't rainbows and choirs of angels singing---though I bet there are in the autumn ... ooooh).
Need a new swimsuit.
Successfully kept my children safe from ticks, bears, rabid moose, getting lost, and drowning.
Bought a tiny, 8-oz. jar of locally made Vermont maple syrup for $7, and no, I'm not sharing.
Miss my mom already.

Animal Kingdom items of note

2010-08-02T13:04:00.004-05:00

1. There is a cricket hiding under our dishwasher, chirping its guts out night and day. I pray that its life will end swiftly, and soon.
2. There are no peaches left on my peach tree. We didn't eat any of them. I pray that our backyard squirrels' lives will end swiftly, and soon. I hope they die of fructose overdose or choke on the peach pits.
3. I did not see any bears or moose while visiting my mother in Vermont this past week. Phew, the former, bummer, the latter.
4. I walked through multiple sets of cobwebs in crossing from my front door to my kitchen when we arrived home from said VT trip. I pray that all the spiders' lives will end swiftly, and soon.

Hard at work

2010-07-18T11:50:00.012-05:00

We've been working hard 'round here the past while. Maybe that's why I've taken a blogging hiatus. Or maybe I just haven't heard any super-memorable Spencer one-liners that I've been dying to share in a while. In any case, here's what we've been up to.
Mowing the grass:
Chopping branches with our neighbor Bro. Eggett so that we could park both cars in our driveway so that our truck could avoid getting backed into a third time:
Paddleboating on a seriously humid day with Aunt Kristin and Uncle Cam and the Stewarts (and yes, doesn't Spencer just look like he's having FUN?):

Herding geese:
Being adorable:
And sleeping:
It's a hard life, I'll admit.

Giveaway at Everead

2010-07-03T16:30:00.004-05:00

The book blog I contribute to is having a giveaway of a fun children's book. If you're interested in winning it, go and comment here! :)

The giveaway is open until noon on Wednesday, July 7th.

Mobility and nightmares

2010-07-02T16:12:00.008-05:00

Our cute little five-month-old is no longer a stationary baby. He has been able to roll from his back to his tummy for a while now, but he's added the tummy-to-back roll plus a bit of turn-scooting into the mix, all of a sudden. So suddenly that I left him on the blanket you see in the picture while I turned my back to mix up some granola bars with Spence, and was very surprised when I turned around to find him halfway into the kitchen, just laying placidly on his back and chewing on his fingers.

He's also talking. I love the initial Ba-Bla-Bwa's, especially when his mouth keeps moving even though the sound has stopped.

And in other random news, Spence had his first nightmare last night. We were all sleeping peacefully when suddenly Spencer screamed, the most terrifying, blood-freezing scream I've ever heard. I don't think Joe and I have ever gotten out of bed so fast in our entire lives. From what he's been talking about since, it seems he was dreaming that a tiger was carrying him. We got a children's book from the library that has a picture of a mommy tiger carrying her baby by the scruff of the baby's neck in her mouth. Apparently that image totally terrified Spencer's subconscious. Who'da thunk. Poor little fellow.

3 Things

2010-06-26T09:25:00.010-05:00

1) My youngest brother, Kyle, just got his mission call. He's going to Fukuoka, Japan!! He enters the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on September 22. We are so, so excited for him.

2) A flurry of Spencer quotes:
Spencer wandering around the house this morning in his underwear: "I'm too naked to mow the grass."

Watching Joe bike away to work a few mornings ago: "Daddy's as tall as the sky." (Awww.)

Playing in my drawer of hair-doing stuff and talking to himself: "I love my curling iron. I hold it, and it makes me hot. It makes me so happy."

Singing to himself: "I am a child of God, and he has sent me here, all day. We fank for our dinner, we fank for our lunch, help me find the way, teach me all that I must do, to live with sooommedaaay."

This kid cracks me up daily.

3) And in other news, my dad and stepmom came to visit last weekend for a day and a half. We had tons of fun, even though the weather was less than agreeable.

Wouldn't you love ...

2010-06-15T09:43:00.003-05:00

... to wrestle with a two-year-old who keeps shouting, "I need to poop! I need to poop!" during Sacrament meeting?

... to lift your happy, smiling baby up in the air only to find your neck and shoulder suddenly covered in cheesy white barf?

... to scrape soggy, bloated Cheerios off the underside of your bare foot?

... to scrub poster paint out of your hair after the aforementioned two-year-old decided he was tired of painting on his paper?

... to open your son's sippy cup that he's been drinking out of only to discover that it's milk and it's curdled and it's probably the cup you poured for him three days ago?

... to change your baby's outfit four times before 8 a.m. for uncontrollable-bodily-excretions reasons?

... to get to wake up each day to these faces? At five a.m.?
Ahh, a day in the life. :)

Spencerisms

2010-06-11T22:23:00.003-05:00

Spence stepped on the bathroom scale this afternoon, waited for the numbers to stop flashing, then said, "Six hundred point six pounds. Whoa. I'm really big."

Shaking his little finger at the faucet, Spence said, "The hot water is hot. Yep. It's the troof."

While I was grabbing a can of something out of the garage, Spence stuck his little head in and declared, "One thousand dollars." I have no idea where that came from.

What a character. :)

A long week

2010-06-10T09:27:00.005-05:00

This week, in three words: Hand, Foot, and Mouth. (Just don't count the and.) It's a wacky childhood illness I had never heard of until about half an hour before it struck, first Spencer, with a fever of 104.5, then Isaac, with canker-sore-like patches all over the back of his throat, then, possibly, me. (Not totally sure that's what I've got, but I've had a wicked sore throat for three days now and have a couple random dots on one hand, though no fever. So jury's still out.) But, we are all on the upswing now. All the boys' symptoms are gone, so we're just quarantining ourselves for a few more days in hopes that they'll stop being contagious. (How is one to know when one is done being contagious? One wonders ...)

So we've baked bread we couldn't share with anyone, we've made homemade strawberry jam, we've made strawberry sorbet in our ice cream maker, we've watched a dozen movies (mostly Signing Time, over and over), we've taken walks all alone, we've ridden bikes all alone, we've taken lots of naps, we've read lots of books, and we've generally tried to not feel too sorry for ourselves. I've gained a greater appreciation for both my boys and my friends. The ones have astonished me with their incredible level of cheerfulness in the face of a painful illness; the others, I've missed lots. So here's to a healthier, more social week next week. Here's hoping!

And a little side-by-side comparison ...

Hmm ... I guess they could be related. :)

Proof of rolling

2010-06-03T15:36:00.005-05:00

And since he looks the tiniest bit funky in the movie, here's evidence that he's totally adorable as well. :)

Spencerisms

2010-05-25T21:29:00.006-05:00

The newest Spencerisms of the day:

Spence has managed to grow out of all of his shoes, except for the cowboy boots Grandma Bair gave him on a recent visit (thanks, Grandma!). Since boots and shorts don't really go together, we set off on a summer-shoe hunt. Spence found a pair he really liked at the consignment store. I was a little surprised that he even had an opinion, but to every other pair I tried to get him to try on after we found these particular shoes, he declared, "No, I don't like those. Those are ouchy." I put his new sneakers on him when we got home and asked, "Spence, do you like your new shoes?" "Yeah," he answered, matter-of-factly, "they're pretty fabulous."

After dinner yesterday evening, I was off in the bedroom feeding Isaac, when from the kitchen I heard Spence suddenly shout, "I Don't Like Green Eggs And Ham!" (We had barbecued-chicken-and-grilled-pineapple quesadillas for dinner ...)

And in Isaac news, the baby blasted or blurped his way through four outfits today. It's no wonder our laundry output has tripled since he was born. He's trying hard to roll over. He managed it once a few days ago. But now he's an official four-month-old. Wow! How time doth fly.

Happy b-day, Uncle Ben!

2010-05-19T20:16:00.004-05:00

In honor of my big brother Ben's birthday (how's that alliteration!), Spence and I built a fort in the boys' room. It was only two blankets strong and didn't have multiple rooms, hideaways, inner doors, or escape hatches, but still, it was a fort, and it made me a bit nostalgic for those good-ol' childhood days when we'd pull out all the kitchen chairs and build nearly living-room-sized blanket mansions using clothespins and blocks. Happy three decades, big bro! (And despite what Spence says, I know you're not 38. I was trying to teach him to respond that you're 30 for the camera, but he was quite determined that you're 38. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Especially since that'd make me 33!! And sorry I couldn't get that particular video to upload. You'll just have to content yourself with a close-up of a really cute and really chubby baby face.) Oh yes, and (whispered) I yove you. :)