Tis the Season

I love the whole month of December.  So many fun things to get the kids all hyped up for Christmas.  Last Sunday we got to experience gingerbread houses... well gingerbread tractors, thanks to Grandma Bird.

Taya just stuffed her face with handfuls of candy.  She never actually touched her house, but she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Milo obviously enjoyed it too. 

Look at that smile!  Priceless.  Aunt Ellie was singing the gummy bear dance and cracking him up.

Milo is so big this year.  He gets to experience all of these fun festivities for the first time and it makes me so happy to get to watch him!

Vegas Baby

We took our first vacation without our kids. 
We went to a couple of shows

Walked the strip (in the pouring rain).














Played in the arcade.




We gambled. . . Not like boring slots gambled, we fell in love with roulette.  Chris was awesome at winning... and I was awesome at losing all of his winnings:).

It was amazingly fun to have some time together.  I couldn't believe how relaxed I was from the moment we took off.  I have never been away from the kids like that, and I was worried that my anxiety would outweigh our vacation fun-but it didn't.  Probably because the kids were having the time of their lives with grandma.  A couple days after we were home Milo looked at me with those killer brown eyes and asked, "are you going to leave me at grandma's?"  I felt this twinge of guilt, "No, buddy Mommy is staying with you.  I'm not going anywhere."  In the middle of the smothering hug (given by me), he says, "Ah man, Grandma's fun.  You go to the airport and Grandma can sleep over".  .   .   .  .  .  .  He obviously missed us lots.

They Don't Know What They Are Missing

I love food.  Breakfast-yep. . . Asian-of course. . . late night snacking-favorite!
My kids, hate food.
I don't know how it happened.
Milo is getting better.  Compared to a year ago, he is working miracles. Did you know that there is such a thing as "food therapy"?  We've seriously considered it.  I can't complain, he eats a ton more than he used to, but any time he sees something the tiniest bit different on his plate, or even if I cut things differently, he'll crinkle his eyebrows at me and say, "I really don't like that mom.  Just like when I was a baby I loved tomatoes, but now I don't love them".  Hindsight I never should have told him that in the first place, because I hear it a lot now.  The other issue is that Milo won't feed himself.  I don't know if it's because he doesn't want to get dirty, or if it's just pleasant to have someone place food on your tongue.  I guess I'm just so happy that he is showing interest in food that I don't mind making rice balls and cutting noodles into tiny pieces and perfectly placing them in his mouth-at least he's eating.
. . . then you've got the little sister. . . .

When she was 6 months old she would drink her baby food, because I couldn't shovel it in fast enough.  Now, I'm lucky if she eats ten crackers all day, and that's with me making Fat Tony dance, and reading her books, and letting her honk my nose.  I seriously don't know what happened?!  I keep telling myself that it's just a phase, but WOW the hours on hours I have spent trying to trick my kids into eating.   This is where people say, "oh, it's easy, just don't force them and they will eat when they are hungry". . . Ya, tried that.  Taya would starve to death before chomping down on some chicken by her own free will.  The problem is, both my kids are small.  They can't be skipping too many meals!
Then you've got me.  I caught myself eating a Cheeto out of the diaper bag the other day.  When it was stale, it dawned on me that I haven't bought Cheetos for months.  I swallowed it all the same. . . and enjoyed it:)

Pickin' Pumpkins 2013

I've decided why traditions are so much fun.  Doing the same thing every year gives you the chance to see how much your family has grown.  Last year Taya was still in a car seat. Milo was still a clingger.  This year they seem so grown up.

Milo was all chatty with anyone that would listen. He was especially talkative with the little girl sitting next to him, but she wasn't feeling it.  Guess she isn't into "tractor men".

He even liked it when a witch jumped

 out of the corn and tried to scare us.  He just yelled back, "boo, I scare you"

 Taya chugged along with the tractor and prattled around the pumpkins. 

She loved to sit on the hay like the big kids, and to jump off of the trailer (and scare mom).

I love the fall.  I used to hate it, but now that I have kids to dress up for Halloween, fun traditions, and most importantly NO TREES to rake up after, I have officially decided that the fall is awesome.

Winter is Coming

Whenever Milo gets up at night to go pee, he says the most hilarious things. 
This is what he told me tonight.  He was beaming ear to ear just thinking about it, and said it all in one big breath.
Milo: In two more months, when I get bigger, it will snow, and I will be a berry berry good boy and Santa will come and bring me a mini-ex, and I will say, 'thanks Santa', and then we will go outside and build a Sylvester the snowman, and have hot chocolate, and I will be so happy!

I'm so glad that he as fond memories of last winter, because all I can remember is Dr.'s offices, being trapped inside, and sleepless nights. . . oh, and the FREEZING cold. But hey if he's that excited about it, and it's only September, I guess I better jump on the optimism board and get excited too. He's already been singing a lot of, 'Jingle Bells' and 'Let it Snow".

Fall

Holy 3!

I could make a hundred lists to try to capture all of Milo's personality right now, and still be forgetting something. I'm crazy about my little guy and age 2-3 has been amazing.
Accomplishments
- Potty trained!  That's right. HUGE accomplishment for mom and Milo.  It really wasn't too bad.  Peeing was mastered after only a few accidents, and after holding it for a couple of days, I bribed him with a trip to Cal Ranch to pick out a tractor, and twenty minutes later we had our first poop in the potty.  It's so weird how proud you can be about poop. 
- Food is his friend.  Happy to report that we have had little to no vomit experiences this year.  It used to be that if you forced Milo to eat something, he would start gagging and throw up anything that you have managed to get down.  I swear every meal used to be a struggle.  I seriously never thought that we would be able to say this, but Milo enjoys eating now!  This summer he has really ventured out.  He'll now eat pizza, hamburgers, chicken, and hot dogs.  This kid eats all the time.  He still is skinny as a rail, but he eats!
- Nursery and playgroup.  Milo has always had "mommy" issues.  From infancy he has known when I leave the room, and it stresses him out.  There have only been two times in the past three years that I have left him with non-family, and I'm pretty sure we both were hyperventilating. Maybe mom has "Milo" issues. . . Anyway, in the last few months, Milo has started to go to nursery and playgroup on his own.  He still gets really anxious, but no tears, and once he's there he does great.  He's learned how to tell time, so he knows that when the big hand goes up twice, then mom comes back.  If I'm one minute late, he lets me know about it!
- He can spell Bob. "Bobobobobob". He can also spell Milo, "Mbobobobob".
- Textures.  He is still a very clean child.  But he's accepted that, "sometimes tractor men get dirty.  It means they are working bery hard".
- He knows his shapes, colors, alphabet, and most numbers.  But if you asked him what he's best at, he would tell you that he can name twenty trucks.
-Milo is our little fish.  He can jump off the side of the pool with no floaties, surface, and then swim about half the length of the pool without help.  He loves to go swimming.  It is super impressive to watch him. 
Milo Loves
-Tractor everything
-Rockets and space shuttles
-Construction boots
-Tractor driver music (country)
-Little Caesars breadsticks (me too)
-Popsicles
-Going to both Grandmas' houses
-His dog Sadie
-You Tube
-Arctic Circle complimentary ice cream cones (again, me too)
-Pestering his little sister
-Making popcorn
-Papa John one (getting thrown in the air)
-Hiding under the covers
-Dad coming home from work. (It's almost not fair how excited he gets)

I Love it When He Says
-Panpakes
-boochie
-Sunny goofers (funny)
-Holy moly
-Turn on some yousic
-When I get bigger and bigger then I can . . .
-I'm getting my exercise
-It's amazing
-Sprinkle sprinkle
-They must love me
-Moon come out?
-Orange Bob (SpongeBob)
-Mom, I been doin this trick all the time (referring to stopping and going pee)
-Conskeeter (computer)

Milo Hates
-The moon
-Getting his toenails clipped
-Going to the Dr., (even though he talks about Dr. Owen like he is his best friend)
-Crowds
-Church vests.  .  . Too bad I love church vests and make him wear them anyway:)

Favorite Songs
-My Fire truck is HOT
-International Harvester
-Big Green Tractor
-Springsteen

On the day before his birthday, Milo found a kitty.  It followed him in the house, and I thought we were going to have to keep him for sure.  Luckily, kitty wandered off while we were out.

We took Milo and Aliyah to the Gateway on his birthday.  Milo LOVED it.

Chris was sad, because Milo wanted to play by himself and with the kids-not with us... Guess he's a big boy now.

Chris made a pretty epic birthday breakfast for our little tractor man.

                                            

Party at Layton park with family and friends.