Birthday Picnic

Yesterday was Daddy's 27th birthday. He had to work during the day, but we celebrated with a birthday picnic dinner at the park. We packed grilled chicken salads Pittsburgh style (with french fries on top) and headed to the park with our blanket and picnic basket.

It was a beautiful evening, perfect for eating dinner in the grass. We had our picnic on top of a hill that overlooks our community - the same place Daddy and I ate lunch on our first date almost exactly 7 years ago! Mr. Mister wasn't even a thought then - time goes so quickly!

After dinner, we played at the playground and then got an ice cream cone before heading home. It was a perfect evening with our favorite husband and daddy! We love you!

Reading

Look at these two self-initiated reading moments! In the first one, Mr. Mister just laid down and started reading this book like such a big kid! In the second one, Daddy had given him the Toys R Us ad to look at the toys. He laid there for a good 5 minutes looking at the bikes. It was so cute!

Playing in the Rain

I love these pictures of Mr. Mister in his rain boots playing outside with his daddy.

No Fear

We went swimming this weekend at my parents' house. It was the first swim of the summer and Mr. Mister loved it. I think I'll be spending more time in the pool this summer than I want to!

As I suspected, Mr. Mister showed absolutely no fear in the pool, which is not always a good thing! We are going to have to keep a very careful eye on him when we're swimming.

At one point, he marched over to the diving board, climbed right up, walked out to the end and started jumping like he does on the trampoline (he doesn't really get off the ground yet). I thought he was content to just do that, until he turned around and started going backwards down and off the board, just like he goes down the steps. Without any coaxing, he went right in to the deep end, where Daddy was waiting for him.

I wasn't quite ready for the diving board yet!

Laughing Mr. Mister

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago of Mr. Mister playing outside after dinner. I can't remember what was so funny, but I love the look of pure joy on his face. His laughter is one of my favorite things about him. It comes so easily and is contagious.

A Camping Adventure

We attempted (and only somewhat successfully completed) our first camping trip with Mr. Mister last night. I thought the best way to describe it would be a play by play view of our night. Keep in mind that my husband grew up camping and knows everything about being outside. We like to think we're good campers...but after this night, I'm not so sure!

5:00pm: Daddy wishes we were going for the whole weekend.

5:30pm: We finally get on the road.

5:40pm: We merge onto the highway into rush hour traffic.

5:41pm: Mr. Mister starts yelling, which continues the rest of the car ride.

6:00pm: We realize we forgot our sleeping bags.

6:30pm: I drop Daddy and Mr. Mister off and go buy a fleece blanket a Kmart. Now one of the million we own.

7:10pm: Mr. Mister falls and hits his head.

7:20pm: Mr. Mister falls and hits his head again.

7:30pm and on: Mr. Mister tries to play with everything off limits.

7:45pm: We still haven’t eaten dinner. We can’t get the fire going so we use the stove instead.

7:55pm: I cut the green pepper only to find that it’s bad inside.

8:30pm: We finally sit down to eat dinner. Plain ground beef and boiled potatoes.

9:30pm: We scarf down s'mores so we can get to bed.

10:30pm: We get in the tent but Mr. Mister is too excited to sleep. He jumps, runs, and rolls around yelling and laughing hysterically.

11:00pm: We set up the pack n’play out of desperation. He crashes.

11:15pm: We all fall asleep, too tired to care about the chill that's beginning to fill the air.

1:00am: Daddy and I wake up cold.

1:30am: Daddy asks, "Do you just want to go home?" Before he finishes his sentence, I'm up and packing.

1:35am: We find our garbage bag broken apart by raccoons. Even scavenger animals didn’t want the green pepper.

2:15am: We drive away, glad to not have to face the neighbors the next morning after being so loud the night before.

3:15am: We're in bed. At home. Not even 10 hours since we left. Daddy’s glad we didn’t go the whole weekend.

LESSON LEARNED:
When you go camping, don't forget your sleeping bags.

Guess which one is Mr. Mister's?

Showing of the ice pack for his head.

Chasing a toad, trying to pet it and share his cracker with it.

Sleeping under the stars while Daddy packs up the tent.

Vacuum

I'm in the market for a new vacuum but know nothing about them. Before I do hours of research, I thought I'd ask you all if anyone has a vacuum they really like and recommend. If so, leave me a comment or email me. Thanks!!

Potty

Yesterday, Mr. Mister told us "poo poo" a couple minutes before he pooped. My mother-in-law said he might be ready to try sitting on the potty if he knows when it's coming. Then tonight, he was running around without a diaper on after his bath and started pooping (gross) so I rushed him into the bathroom and put him on the toilet. He finished going while sitting there and was SO excited to be on the potty. After he got down, he said, "again?" and tried to climb back on. So cute. Full on potty training is probably still a little ways off, but we may get a little potty now since he's so excited about it. Where did my baby go?!

Grandparents, Camping, and Hockey

We had a very fun visit from Grandma and Grandpa T this weekend. Mr. Mister loves his time with them and it was filled with not stop fun. They came in a night earlier than usual so we got the whole day Saturday to play. Sadly, it was raining most of the day so we couldn't spend much time outside.

We did make a visit to Bass Pro Shop where Grandma and Grandpa got Daddy a new tent for his birthday! We upgraded from the two person backpacking tent that an adventurous young bachelor once used for two weeks on the Appalachian Trail to a four person tent that's tall enough to stand up in and big enough for a pack n' play, perfect for family car camping. A transition that Daddy probably never thought he'd make, but one that he is super excited about now. We are attempting our first campout with Mr. Mister next Thursday and can't wait. I always say that Mr. Mister would live outside if we let him, so now he gets to do that for a night!

Mr. Mister also got a mini camping chair that is just his size. I'll definitely be posting pictures of our adventure.

I have to give a shoutout to my husband and his hockey team for winning their playoff game Friday night and making it to the championship on Saturday. They lost in a good game to a really good team but I'm so proud of them for getting this far. Especially since they finished in last place their first season playing. Way to go Rooks!

Cereal

Yesterday I came home from the grocery store and left my bags on the floor while I unpacked everything. Soon, I realized it was too quiet so I turned the corner to look for Mr. Mister and this is what I found. You can't really see in this picture, but the bag of Kix is open and he was taking handfuls out and eating them. Pretty impressive, isn't it?

Mother's Day

After a rough morning on Sunday, Mother's Day ended up being a wonderful day. After church we went to my parents' for lunch and to spend time with my mom. We then headed home and we all took a long, much needed nap. After that we spent a couple hours outside in the beautiful sunny day. The golf course we live on was recently closed so it's all open for public use. So we walked to one of the fairways with a blanket and a frisbee and enjoyed relaxing and playing. It's like living in the middle of a big park now!

I loved hanging out with my boys. I told Mr. Mister that he's the reason I get Mother's Day and he's the reason I deserve Mother's Day! I love him so much and am incredibly thankful to be his mommy.

The Butterfly Show

It's been a while since I've had a really good Mr. Mister story. And now I have one. Yesterday, Mr. Mister and I met my sister and her boys at the Butterfly Show that comes to the Conservatory downtown every year. It's really cool - they have thousands of butterflies flying freely around the greenhouse. They fly all around you and sometimes even land on you. And these are no ordinary butterflies. They are exotic species from India.

So we go up to the door to go in and the sign says, "Butterflies may land on you if you remain quiet and still." That should have been my first warning that I brought Mr. Mister to the wrong place. He doesn't do quiet and still.

As we walk into the greenhouse, Mr. Mister runs in and immediately starts climbing a fence and trying to grab the flowers it's protecting. Meanwhile, cousin Ney Ney is clinging to my sister's leg saying "no butterflies" even though he's been talking about going for the entire day.

Ney Ney then finds an older girl and heads right to her (he finds an older girl to follow everywhere they go!). She has a butterfly in her hand, which she tries to hand to him. He pulls his hand away, the butterfly falls to the floor, landing right under Mr. Mister's shoe as he comes down from the fence. The woman next to me frantically tries to warn me as she sees the whole thing happening, but I can't react quick enough and Mr. Mister steps down on the exotic Indian butterfly, crunching it beneath him.

The little girl who was just holding the butterfly stares with wide eyes at her friend now laying motionless on the ground while the woman tries unsucessfully to save it. Mortified at what she just witnessed, the woman gives us the bad mom look and moves along.

While I did feel bad for what happened, my sister and I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that all of that happened in the 1 minute we were in there. It was such a classic experience with our boys. I guess that's what happens when you bring a "bull in a china shop" into an exotic butterfly show.

The day didn't get too much better for Mr. Mister as he splashed in the fountain, tried to pull all the flowers off, and then pulled some grass up to through over the bridge into the water below. Needless to say, it was an adventure and maybe not the best place to bring my energetic little man. But, we had fun with my sister and the boys and it makes for a good story!

Here are pictures from the day:

Joe, Mayo, and Mr. Mister

Before Mr. Mister's nap this afternoon, we were reading his children's bible (it's called The Jesus Storybook Bible...I highly recommend it. It's the best children's bible I've seen and I like reading it, too). Every time we read it, he wants to find the page with the picture of the baby on it. So today we were looking at the picture where Jesus is born and I was telling him who the mommy and daddy are. So he repeats it back to me and points to Joseph and says Joe and points to Mary and says Mayo. (He has a friend named Mary who he calls Mayo too).

Then I asked him who the baby is and he said, "Mr. Mister." (saying his real name). So there you have it - Joe, Mayo, and Mr. Mister hanging out in the stable.

More Cheese

Today at lunch, Mr. Mister said "more cheese." Just like that. No big pause in between. It was clearly one phrase, not two statements. That is the first time he's ever said two words together like that! I got so excited and started clapping and praising him. Of course, that made him want to say it again. And again and again. Even when he wanted more orange, he said "more cheese" with a big smile on his face. Adorable.

More Words

Mr. Mister keeps picking up new words, a lot of times just from hearing us say them. Recently, he started picking up filler words like um. If I ask him what he wants for breakfast, he'll say um... like he's thinking about it. He also learned Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada. He loves saying them now and it is so cute to hear! The funny one is that if I yell for Daddy and call him by his first name, Mr. Mister yells his name, too. It makes me laugh every time.

Heavy

Yesterday, I was vacuuming and Mr. Mister wanted to help. He was playing with the handle and the vacuum fell back so that he was holding it up with all his strength. Instead of saying help or mama, he said heavy. But it was strained and drawn out as he tried to hold the vacuum up and say heavy at the same time. I knew he wasn't hurt, so it was pretty funny to watch. (Then I helped him).

Daytime Baths

Baths are usually part of our night time routine. These events from the last two days explain why...

Wednesday night, Mr. Mister spread toothpaste in his hair, but we had our church gathering at our house, so I didn't have time to give him a bath. I just wiped it out and put him to bed. So Thursday morning, I gave him a bath. Then at breakfast, he spread yogurt in his hair. Then when I changed his diaper, he put his foot in his poop and spread it all over.

Today we played at the park, which was wet from last night's rain. So he came home sweaty, wet, and dirty. I couldn't put him down for a nap like that this afternoon, so I gave him a quick shower. After his shower, while I was getting his clothes out, he drew all over his leg with pen.

So there are two examples of why we do night time baths. At least when he sleeps, we get 12 hours of cleanliness!

By the way, I'm also realizing how much more laundry the summer requires. Playing outside = lots of dirty clothes!