Easter, Engagements, and Everything in Between

I thought life would slow down after the Bar Exam, but I think it has sped up instead! March 13 was Bryce's birthday. He celebrated by playing Church basketball (that is becoming a tradition) and then eating cream cheese pie and opening presents at home with us and Mollie and Kyle. I took Will to the store with me that morning to get some things for Bryce's birthday and he insisted upon the birthday hats. The following Saturday we went to Tucano's with a couple of friends and then to a movie. When we scheduled the birthday lunch we had forgotten that we had already arranged for Will to go to an Easter party at my Grandma's assisted living place, so Aunt Mollie played surrogate parent and took him for us. He got to go on an Easter egg hunt and was lucky enough to find one of the golden eggs that he traded in for a dollar. He also got a bunch of Easter erasers...which he misunderstood to be "racers" which led to him running up and down the hall with them in hand. That night Will fell asleep before I had changed him for bed so I changed his diaper and put on his pajamas without him ever even opening his eyes. When I pulled the covers up he rolled over and said "I found a golden egg..." so I guess it made an impression and he had a good time.

The day after Bryce's birthday was Pi Day so I hope you all had a slice of pie at 1:59. Having had pie for Bryce's birthday the night before I refrained. You can see the difference in the boys' complexions in the above picture. Poor Will got my paler than pale skin.

We didn't do anything to celebrate St. Patrick's Day even though it is the only holiday where people put up signs with my name on them. Will and Sawyer looked cute in their green clothes, but I forgot to take a picture of Will before he went to bed. We did go to the Bean Science Museum that night and Will's favorite part was the area where they had displays with buttons he could push. Do all kids love to push buttons? or "buttnits" as Will calls them?

Lately I wish I could just record everything Will says so I could sit and listen to him when I'm old. He talks nonstop in his little high pitched voice and it is funny to get a glimpse into his thought process. The other day he was eating some Ritz crackers in the shape of snowflakes and his running commentary was: "These are snowflake crackers from the store. I like them. They're pretty sweet!" Later that day he ran over and hugged me and said, "I like you! You're a good brother!" A few days later he came downstairs and saw an Easter package which I had assembled for my sister Megan sitting on the kitchen table. He spotted it and said "Oooooo! Oh look at this! This is a very special package!" Another day he told me "I like you! You're the best! And Daddy's the best! And I'm a wonderful guy! Everyone's the best!" He's such a positive kid (not sure where he gets that from!). Of course, sometimes his commentaries aren't so heartwarming - like the other day when he informed me: "I'm stanky, stanky, stanky! I'm covered in poop and pee! I'm disgusting!" or yesterday when I got out of the shower to Sawyer screaming hysterically and asked Will why Sawyer was crying and he responded "Because I kicked him and squeezed him and threw my fishy at him." At least he is honest...and thorough.

Today Will informed me that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up and then he said "Noooo...I want to be a chef. I love food!" I think my brainwashing is sinking in. :-)

Sawyer is getting closer to crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and kind of rocks back and forth, but then he invariably pushes his legs straight back behind him and then falls forward face-plant style and then pushes up on his arms again and repeats the process. He just drags his legs behind him like dead weight. It looks like a painful way to get somewhere, but he doesn't seem to mind.

The other night I put Will to bed but he kept crying and wanting me to go in and lay in his bed with him. After going in there about 5 times I could here him saying "Mommy? Mommy?" over and over, but since he wasn't crying I ignored him. After about 15 minutes he started screaming so I went up there again and when I opened the door I saw that he wasn't in bed. I turned towards the screaming and found him standing in the back corner of his closet, clutching a stuffed monkey, screaming hysterically. I tried to get him to come out, but he would just freak out more. Finally he stopped crying and would just lean forward and peer out of the closet and look around his room, but he wouldn't come out. He told me that he wanted me to sit down and talk to him, so I sat on the floor and was asking him what was the matter. He said that there was a giant in his wall. This is his latest thing. About 10 days ago he started saying there was a giant in his room. And then one night we put him to bed and a short while later the heat came on and he immediately started screaming and when I went up there he was pointing at the heating vent in the floor by his bed and telling me that there was a giant in the wall. I tried to reason with him by saying that "There are no giants except in cartoons" which he seemed to accept for a moment before this sudden look of terror came over his face and he said, "Giants are in cartoons...I HAVE CARTOONS!" So clearly that logic did not work on 2 year-olds. Will eventually came out of the closet after about an hour! Then 2 nights ago Will woke up and I let him come get in my bed because I was too exhausted to do anything else. A short while later Sawyer started screaming so I went and got him and, knowing that my bed couldn't hold all of us, I went and got in Will's empty bed with Sawyer. A little while after that I heard Will start crying and then I heard my bedroom door open and Will walked into his room and straight into his closet. I'm not sure why suddenly he makes a beeline for his closet when he is scared. Needless to say I ended up in Will's bed with both Will and Sawyer and Sawyer got one glimpse of Will and decided it was playtime and kept giggling at Will - which might have been cute if it hadn't been 4:30 in the morning. Will also still has the habit of stuffing his fingers in his mouth when he is scared. He never sucked on his thumb, but when he is scared or anxious he puts all of his fingers in his mouth.

For Easter we went to Church with the boys in their new Easter clothes (well, Sawyer just wore Will's old ones...that's what happens when you're #2!), but I forgot to take a single picture of them together in their Easter clothes. Bryce left Church early because Sawyer wouldn't stop fussing and Sawyer was asleep when Will and I got home so Sawyer missed all the festivities and pictures. I found him like this. We had Kyle, Mollie, and cousin Liz over for dinner and then had an Easter egg hunt and ate carrot cake. We tried to go visit my Grandma afterwards, but found her apartment deserted. I guess she had gone to my aunt and uncle's house for the evening.

I guess that pretty much brings us up to date...since the Bar Exam at the end of February I've had Enrichment Meeting (social activity for women at church), Bryce's birthday, Pi Day, St. Patrick's Day (ok, maybe those last 2 didn't really entail doing anything but still), and Easter (I also taught the Relief Society (women's class) lesson on Sunday). It feels like there has been something major every week. And next Tuesday is Mollie and Megan's birthday.

I also have a new job. Okay, not really. My little sister Megan is engaged! She is getting married at the end of the summer in Rexburg, ID which is how I acquired the title of "wedding planner"! It is much more fun to plan someone else's wedding than your own I've decided. Megan is probably tired of me e-mailing her with all the useful links, info, and pics I find online. I think so far Mollie and I have given Megan's wedding about 200 times more thinking time than she has (no offense Megan).

This is a picture of how Will wrote his name all by himself for the first time. Not too shabby. The next day he got out the Bunco game and scattered it all over the family room. When I was picking up I found a paper that he had written his last name on. He's a smart little bugger. I credit television.


Here's my little Paddington Bear when we got back from our walk today. I love that little rain slicker. I ordered it when I was pregnant with Will because it was just so darn cute. Of course, as Bryce said, "How often are you going to be leaving your 3-6 month old out in the rain?" I will admit it. I don't think Will wore it even once! (SSHHH don't remind Bryce of that fact or I will never live it down!) It is Sawyer's little spring jacket now though.

One more Will story. The other day he kept telling me "I will go on the potty and I will get money to send to the lady!" I had no idea what he was talking about so I asked him what lady he was going to send money to. He runs into my room where he had been watching Dora while I showered. He points at the television which was showing a commercial for Proactive with a picture of Jessica Simpson. He's points at the picture and says "That lady! I will get money and send it to that lady for my birthday!" Now where he came up with that idea I don't know. I found it rather disgusting. He's only 2 and already the typical guy who just wants to throw money at "hot" girls! Eck!

EEEEEEK!

We just discovered the presence of a mouse (let's hope it is just one) in our pantry. Gross!!! I am tempted to throw away every food item in there...and I still might...but that is a whole lot of food! Bryce was working on his laptop in the living room and told me to mute the t.v. I did and he was shining a flashlight behind the fridge and all around the kitchen. He pulled out our storage of plastic grocery bags from the pantry floor and we found that a mouse has been making itself at home there for some time now by the looks of things. Gross gross gross. We knew that our neighbors had mice which isn't all that surprising since our property borders a farm, but I was really hoping we would be spared because they changed the house design and so we have stairs leading into our kitchen from the garage instead of just a flat entrance...but I guess mice can climb stairs. Bryce is on his way to buy a mouse trap. Before he left he stuffed a towel in the crack under the pantry door and then just for good measure tipped a bar stool over and pushed it up against the towel. So the mouse is blockaded within the pantry unless it has some secret means of egress. I am trapped at home with the kids and the mouse. This means we have had mice at every home we've ever lived in in Provo. In our first married apartment, a.k.a. "the shack" we were dutifully kneeling by our bed to say prayers and a mouse ran across the room right by our feet. That was the last time we did that! We bleached the entire kitchen about 3 times due to our rodent visitors in that place. Then we had to catch a few in the trailer home we rented as well. And now even our nice, new house has been infiltrated. They might have lived here first, but we bought this property fair and square! Wouldn't they be much happier back on the farm? We are up late every night so I am surprised that we haven't seen any signs of this critter before now. Did I mention Gross!

My little chatterbox

I have a lot of catching up to do on here. We will see how much I can do before the baby starts screaming again. Sawyer (and Will and I) have had a cold for the last 5 days...I'm hoping that is the reason that Sawyer has turned into monster baby because otherwise I have no idea what happened to my calm, sweet baby. Sawyer hasn't napped in days, wakes up multiple times at night and just screams, and won't let me put him down at any point during the day. I think he just isn't feeling well and feels worse if I lay him down to sleep because he gets all stuffed up and can't breathe through his nose. Poor little guy. I hope he gets over it soon because I don't think he or I can take much longer! I finally got him to sleep about 15 minutes ago and since he has been up since 8 a.m. you would think he would conk out until tomorrow morning, but based on his record from the last few nights he will probably be awake and screaming again shortly.

As you can read and see on my friend Joanna's blog, www.joanddoug.blogspot.com, I took Will to Chuck E. Cheese's last Friday. For about 2 months before the Bar Exam I kept bribing Will by saying things like "If you let Mommy study I will take you to Chuck E. Cheese after the Bar Exam in [x] weeks." It got to the point where Will kept saying "In 3 weeks Mommy will take the Bar Exam and then I will go to Chuck E. Cheese's! Where it's cool to be a kid!" Then about 3 weeks before the Exam Will started talking about Sophie all the time. He would be upstairs and I would say "Will, what are you doing?" and he'd say "I'm playing with Sophie!" or he'd get up in the morning and say "Where's Sophie" and I'd say "At her house" and he'd say "No, she's hiding in my house. Let's find her!" and then he would go from room to room looking for her. After several days of this Will ran his toy lawn mower into Sawyer and made him cry. I said, "Will, did you hurt Sawyer?" and Will said "No, Sophie did!" Clearly, Sophie (who is in fact a real little girl) had been elevated to imaginary friend status. I told Will that he could take Sophie on his trip to Chuck E. Cheese...so that he could remember that he used to have real friends in the days before Mommy started studying for the Bar Exam. As Jo mentioned in her post, Sophie was not a huge fan of Chuck E. Cheese. I felt kind of bad because the poor girl was totally freaked out, which was not a possibility I had considered since Will thinks it is heaven on earth (despite the smell). Will really liked this little ride where he sat on a stationary bicycle and then the entire ride rotated in a circle. He rode that one about 40 times. After over 3 hours at Chuck E. Cheese I asked him if we wanted a drink of milk and he went and got in the stroller without any complaints. I stopped in at the Roberts next door and they had a wooden easel/chalkboard/dry-erase board for $15 that Will spotted and wanted and since it was a good deal I bought it. I haven't let him loose with dry-erase markers yet, but he has been drawing with chalk everyday since. He always makes me draw with what he informs me is my favorite color - yellow - and he always draws with his "favorite color" - orange. Will drew his first recognizable picture about a month ago...a smiley face. It is the only thing he draws...big lopsided ovals with 2 dots for eyes and a huge grin. Sometimes he adds circles for ears and once he scribbled above the smile and said "He has fuzz and he is a boy"--- apparently it was a mustache. Every time he draws one he makes the same comment - he draws it and then says "He is not sad!" It cracks me up to find these goofy smiley faces all over Will's magnadoodle and chalkboard and any piece of paper he got his hands on.

A few weeks ago when I was trying to study for the Bar, Will was sitting on the floor playing with his cars. He picked one of them up and gave it the following lecture: "What are you doing? I asked you not to do that, okay? Listen to me when I'm talking to you. I asked you not to do that. If you do that you will have a big time-out. Okay?" It went on like that for a while.

Will is starting to understand the concept of "favorite" so we like to ask him what his favorites are. According to him, his favorite food is "croutons" or sometimes "Caesar salad" (as if he's ever taken a bite). His favorite show is "Super Readers" (also interesting because lately he only wants to watch Dora). His favorite color is orange. His favorite music is "Linkin Park like Daddy" (way to kiss up to Dad). I asked him a couple days ago what his favorite thing he ever did in his whole life was and he said "Hmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmm...ummmm chicken salad." I'm not sure he understood that question.

Will was demanding Dr. Pepper the other day and I kept telling him that he couldn't have it because it wasn't good for him and it would give his teeth owies. Bryce, however, gave in and poured him a little of his soda. Will took a big gulp and glared at me and declared "Ah! My mouth is happy!"

I was sitting on the couch with Sawyer this morning when Will woke up and came downstairs. He came over to me and said "Mommy! I'm so glad to see you! Is your throat hurting?" and I said "Yeah, it's kind of scratchy." He replied, "Did you have something to eat?" and I said "No" and he said "Do you want some peach juice to make it feel better?" (He calls this flavored water stuff we buy at Wal-mart "peach juice") and I said "No thanks," but he went and got it out of the kitchen anyways and gave it to me saying "Here you go sweet stuff!"

The other day we went to dinner at Chili's with my mom and brother and sister before my mom went home. On the way there Will kept saying that we were going to the cold restaurant. It took us a while to figure out that we were going to the "cold restaurant" because we were going to "Chillys".

Will has added "Oh come on" to his vocabulary. For instance, this morning he wanted me to play blocks with him and I told him that I wouldn't play with him until he got his diaper changed. He turns around and says "Oh come on Mom! Just play with me! Don't be scared!"

A few weekends ago we were returning something to Target and Will saw some hotwheels cars that he has been obsessed with ever since. I told him that we weren't going to buy them because cars cost money and we don't have enough money to buy cars every time we go to the store (thinking it would be better to explain than to just say no). After Target we stopped at Sears to return something else and the kids and I were waiting in the car. Will asked where Bryce was and I said that he had to "give something back to Sears and get some money." Will immediately perked up and said "If Daddy gets money we can go get the Hotwheels!" I guess he has that all figured out. I told him that we still weren't getting Hotwheels which set off another twenty minutes of crying. So on pretty much a daily basis since then Will will bring me some of his toys and say things like "I don't want these. Let's take them back to Target. And then I will get Hotwheels" and he always uses this particular tone of voice that is like "I'm making a huge sacrifice here but I'll do this if I have to." The other morning he was driving me nuts because for about 2 hours all I heard was "I don't like my Valentine's toys. I don't like my Christmas toys. I will take them back to Target and get some Hotwheels." Finally I said "Ok Will, if you don't want your toys I will take them and give them to some other little boy because I'm sure there are lots of boys who would like to have such nice toys." Will said "Ok, we will give them to someone else. I don't want them" so I said "Ok, bring all the toys you don't want in the kitchen and I will give them away and you won't play with them anymore." Of course, I was thinking that if he saw me acting like I was actually going to take his toys away he would flip out and suddenly be overcome with a desire to play happily with his toys. Instead, Will went and got his new Disney cars that I spent $20 on for Valentine's because he had been wanting them for months and put them in the kitchen saying "I don't want these Valentine's cars. We will give them away." Then he went and got his car garage from Christmas, his race car, his Lightning McQueen car and his truck with the other Disney cars inside and put them in the kitchen as well saying "I don't like these Christmas toys." Then he hauled in his basketball hoop and added "I don't like my basketball." I found this kind of hilarious and kind of infuriating at the same time. I picked everything up and took it out in the garage and put it in the back of Bryce's truck thinking surely he would want it back after 30 seconds...but nope, I eventually took it back out of the truck the next day when Bryce had to go somewhere. I was telling Bryce about it when he got home from work and Bryce (always wanting to think the best of his son) asked Will, "Will, why did you want to give away your toys? Did you just want to share them with other kids?" and Will replied "No, I don't like them. I will give them away and then get some Hotwheels." Nice try kid.

The other day Will kept telling me that he wanted "'Baby Bach on." We don't have anything that fits that description so I said "What is Baby Bach? Is it a show" and he turned around and looked at me and said "No, it's a commercial honey!"

Apparently, Sawyer really enjoys watching our Baby Beethoven dvd lately...at least according to Will he does. About once a day Will tells me that "Sawyer wants to watch Baby Beethoven" and then makes me put it on. I'm pretty sure it isn't Sawyer who wants to watch it though.

Will has also added the phrase "or something" to his repertoire. So a normal request from him these days goes like this "Mom! You want to play baseball or something?" or "I want to have some fruit snacks or something." We went on a walk today and we saw a house for sale and he told me "Some people will move in there maybe or something"...I thought "Wow, you sound about as decisive as your mother!"

Yesterday it was about noon when I told Will that it was time to get dressed and got some clothes out for him. He looked at the clothes and said "Who's coming to see me?" I guess he's figured that we pretty much only bother to get dressed if someone is coming over!

Sawyer rolls around like crazy these days, but doesn't do much in the way of crawling. He has started to communicate by making these little "uh uh" noises. If he wants me to pick him up he looks at me and says "uh uh!" or if Will has something he wants he will stare at it and say "uh!"
That's about all he is up to these days...oh, and eating. He has suddenly decided to be a little chow hound. He goes through 6-8 jars of baby food a day and still nurses 4 times a day. He is a little sweetheart and already has such a different personality from Will. He seems to be a lot more sensitive about things in general. He will only sleep in his own bed. If Will gets too crazy and shrieks or yells too close to Sawyer he will burst out in tears. He doesn't laugh spontaneously very often, but he cracks up when Will talks silly to him. He tends to get a little hyper when he is tired and will kick his legs and pump his arms up and down crazily.

I will have to get the camera out and add some pictures to this the next time both my boys are asleep while I'm still awake....that could be a while! Update: there I added some pics that don't have anything to do with this post, but are at least fairly recent.

Will modeling a majority of the clothes I bought him for next fall at the same time.

What I've read

I'm moving this into a post so I can replace the information in the sidebar... Also, I meant to post something yesterday since I won't have another chance to date an entry February 29 for 4 more years...but I didn't get to it.

• 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina: My Dad bought this from the author while in New Orleans recently. The author is a columnist for a paper down there and the book is a compilation of his articles in the aftermath of Katrina. I think it is hard to imagine the level of destruction that is STILL part of the status quo down there. The author talks about going to play basketball and walking by a dead guy out of the porch of a house for 3 weeks before someone took him away. Now, dear reader, sit and close your eyes and imagine your current neighborhood totally empty, think of the closest stores to you- they are all abandoned, think of the next closest stores/businesses to you - sorry, they are abandoned too, some of your neighbors have been dead and rotting for almost a month in their houses or on the sidewalks...sounds like some armageddon hollywood film right? Nope, New Orleans after Katrina.
• Watership Down: I read this many years ago and asked for it for Christmas. Santa delivered and I enjoyed it again. It is about rabbits...and interestingly, the author would like to make clear that it is NOT an allegory or parable of any kind. Just a good story about rabbits I guess.
• We Are All Welcome Here: The idea for a book about a woman who contracted polio and gave birth in an iron lung apparently came from an actual person...but the plot is entirely made up. I wish I had read something about the woman who actually did this and then lived another 30 something years inside an iron lung instead.
• My Soul to Keep: I didn't notice until after I got home that this had a dove sticker on the binding = the Provo library has tagged it as "Christian literature" = it reads like a proselytizing pamphlet that someone decided to add a plot to after the fact. Enough said.
• The Last Voice They Hear: A murder mystery story...although not very mysterious. Described as a psychological thriller so I kept expecting some big shocking plot twist or revelation, but, alas, there was none.
• Madeleine is Sleeping: This was extremely odd...like a very odd Japanimation type dream. Extremely bizarre. I won't even bother to describe the plot because you will think I'm kidding. On a side note, I do like the name Madeleine.