Birthday Party #1

Here are the Missing Pictures

These are the pictures that were supposed to come up on that last post. I don't know why they didn't work the first time.

More Lake Pictures

Pretending to have a snack!

I love his face in this one - he's not so sure about swinging

He ended up having fun!

Mommy even got in on the fun!

Fun at the Lake

Here is a snapshot all the fun things we did during our week at Grandma and Papa's. We had a lot of fun spending so much time with them and enjoying their beautiful property.


Mr. Mister and Cousin Beybeth playing in the sandbox that Papa made.

Papa made this slide too, which Mr. Mister loved!

Only in Western Pennsylvania!

Hanging out in the boat. Mr. Mister wanted to paddle but I think that oar is a little heavy.

Helping Papa and Daddy build a dock on the lake. (That's just the cover of the saw, not the real thing!)

A slice of heaven for Daddy.

Delicious

I don't usually post recipes on here since it's supposed to be about Mr. Mister, but I have to share this one. It's Tacos Carne Asada (steak tacos). I just made it tonight and it was absolutely delicious. The mojo sauce is where all the flavor is. I didn't have time to make the pico de gallo with it, but I'm sure that makes it even more delicious. If you like Mexican food and want an authentic tasting taco, you have to try this.

And if you want to make a complete and amazing Mexican meal, try this guacamole, too. The recipe is called "Perfect Guacamole" and it lives up to its name.

Making the tacos and the guac would be a lot of chopping all at once, but it would be well worth it!

Kayaking

On one of the mornings of our camping trip, Daddy and I got to sneak away for a 7am kayak trip on the lake. It was a foggy morning which made for some beautiful pictures. You can see the fog rising off the water. It was very peaceful and a fun thing to do together.

Camping Pics

Here are some pictures from our camping family reunion last weekend. The 6 hour trip took 9 hours and included a stop at Toys R Us to take a break from the car. Mr. Mister loved riding all the different bikes and playing with the toys. We even got out of there without buying anything!

Papa, Daddy, and Mr. Mister hanging out at the campsite. And there's our tent that we still haven't spent a night in!

Playing the harmonica for an audience. He had everyone clapping and he loved every minute of it. He's such a ham!



Hanging out in the hammock.

Oh My!

Today I smashed my thumb closing a window in the kitchen. When I yelled "ow" Mr. Mister came running from the family room saying, "Happened Mommy? Oh my! Oh my! Hurting!"

His genuine concern was so cute and made me laugh and forget the pain for a minute. What I love is that he is so serious when he says these things and has no idea how funny he is!

Jesus

Tonight, Mr. Mister said his first self initiated, unprompted prayer. It was so sweet. We were rocking before bed and he said, "Jesus. Day. Daddy. Mommy. Mr. Mister. Amen."

Love it.

And a couple weeks ago, he was in the children's ministry while we were in church and they did a lesson about friends. The teacher asked all the kids who their friends were. Mr. Mister said, "Jesus."

Now if that isn't the sweetest, most encouraging thing a mommy could hear, I don't know what is.

Fix It

Today Mr. Mister pushed the straw of his juice box all the way into the box. He realized he couldn't get it out and didn't know what to do. I've been trying to encourage him to think through his own solutions rather than just solving it for him, so I said, "What do you think we can do to fix it?"

He looked at me as he thought and I could see the wheels spinning in his head. Then his eyes got bright and he said, "Mr. Mister get his tools!" And he ran and got his plastic screwdriver and wrench!

It made me laugh so hard. I love this process of him learning language.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Mister!

Today you are 2 (no longer almost 2!). Two years ago you were just a tiny little newborn entering the world. Today you are such a big boy. We can't remember life before you and can't imagine life without you. You bring so much joy to our lives and to everyone you meet.

We love you so much!

Another Camping Adventure

We gave camping a second try this past weekend and are now 0-3 in our attempts to sleep in our new tent! (remember our first attempt?)

We were at the 45th annual T family reunion at a state park in PA, which was a lot of fun except for the two nights of sleeping (or lack of sleeping). We did remember our sleeping bags this time, but the nights were still a little rough, as Mr. Mister did not sleep well.

The first night we thought he would crash after a long car ride, a 45 min. nap, and the fresh night air. But after finally getting him to sleep at 11, he woke up at 12:30, 1:30, and 2:30. At 2:30, he was wide awake, wanting to play with Papa, ride bikes, see the campfire, and do anything but go back to sleep. We tried everything, even a car ride around the camp ground, but to no avail. Finally, at 4:30am we put him in bed in Grandma and Papa's camper with cousin Beybeth, whom he adores. He stared up at her with stars in his eyes and when she told him it was time to sleep, he closed his eyes and was out. If we had only known it was that easy!

So we ended up sleeping in the camper with him and Papa slept in our tent (with only a towel to cover him, since I accidentally took all our blankets out when we moved to the camper!).

The second night Mr. Mister fell asleep at 9pm, but woke up every hour. We decided to sleep in the camper again with him so Grandma and Papa wouldn't have to wake up with him. That meant they had to sleep in our tent another night (this time we gave them blankets!).

So, we never slept in our tent and Papa never slept in the camper he rented. Needless to say, after two sleepless nights and two really hot days, Mr. Mister (and mommy) were ready to come back to a bed and air conditioning!

We're hanging out here at Grandma and Papa's house for the rest of the week, which is like a vacation with all the fun things to do at the lake. I'll be posting pictures later!

Random Summer Pictures

I was just going through my pictures from this summer and found these few that I haven't posted yet. What a fun little guy!!

Playing in the rain in his fireman jacket and rain boots.

Playing at the end of swimming lessons.

This is what he does when we tell him to smile for the camera!

Where did he learn this?!?!

Summer Fun

Mr. Mister is making the most of the final weeks of summer. Here are some of the fun adventures he has had this past week:

Last Friday night, Aunt Na Na babysat him. They went to a carnival where Mr. Mister rode a merry-go-round and went down a big slide with his aunt. We're not really sure if he liked the merry-go-round, though, based on his expressionless face the entire time. Here are pictures of him in action - and she said his face never changed!





Then, on Monday, my mom graciously took him for a few hours so that Daddy and I could work on painting our room. They went to a park nearby where they played on the playground, fed ducks, and played at the kid's water park, which has a bunch of things that spray water everywhere. He loved it and then got to go out to lunch with grandma, too!

On Wednesday, Pey Pey came over, for the first time in a while due to our busy summer. While it was a tough day overall with Mr. Mister's tantrums and difficulty sharing toys, they did enjoy a little bit of time in our makeshift pool in the front yard.

And this picture pretty much represents their relationship!

Today we went to the zoo to meet a friend and her 1 year old son. It is so much fun now that Mr. Mister knows the animals and gets excited to see them. On the way to the zoo, he asked me to sit in the backseat with him. I said, "Well then who is going to drive us?" He thought about it and answered, "Monkeys!" It's fun to see him beginning to use his imagination!

Magic Erasers

A couple people recommended that I use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser when Mr. Mister colored on my newly painted wall. I had already cleaned the crayon off the wall using a baking soda mixture, but got a Magic Eraser just in case it happened again, which it did.

I have to say that it was seriously amazing. The crayon came off right away without any scrubbing. So I started using it to clean other marks on my walls and doors. I was so excited I kept saying, "This is amazing!" Mr. Mister thought that was funny and repeated something that sounded like "amazing!" over and over.

I feel like I could have been their spokesperson that day! I had black marks on my white front and back doors from all the dirty fingers over the years. I've tried to clean them many times and was ready to paint them because I couldn't get the marks off. But the Magic Eraser came to the rescue and wiped it clean like it was nothing.

So I'm a big fan and highly recommend it. A friend said that the generic brand works just as well too.

Blue Slide!

Ever since the first day of swimming lessons, Mr. Mister has had his eye on the big, blue, twisty water slide. His hopes of riding it had been dashed daily because first of all, we're there for swimming lessons not for playing, and second of all, he is far too short to ride it.

But that all changed today, which was our last day. After a few structured activities, we were allowed to just play in the water. AND they let the parents take the little kids down the big blue slide. It was the highlight of Mr. Mister's week (maybe month).

I wish I had a video camera. As soon as we told Mr. Mister he could go, he ran off without worrying about who was coming with him. Thankfully he has short legs and couldn't outrun his daddy, who caught up with him and carried him up to the top. I waited for them at the bottom and watched them fly off the end of the slide, Mr. Mister with a HUGE smile on his face. Of course he wanted to go again, so I took him up.

After three trips down the slide, we told him we were all done because another class needed to take a turn. He immediately started bawling. Not screaming like he does when he throws a tantrum, but just a sad, sad cry because he wanted to go again so badly. The compassionate lifeguard said he could go one more time, so I told him: "After we go one more time, we are all done." He nodded in agreement and said, "all done" then ran to the steps.

We zoomed down the slide and before we even flew off the end of it, he had is hands in the air doing the "all done" sign, shouting "all done!" It was hilarious...everyone there was cracking up at him declaring that he was all done right in the most action packed moment of shooting off the end into the water. At least he listened!

So it was super fun and overall we had a great experience with swimming lessons. He even got a progress card (his first report card!) that had a check next to all the skills he could do and a sweet note from his favorite teacher, Miss Emily. That is one to keep for the memory box!!

Top Ten!

We recieved our monthly issue of Outside magazine this week (one of the million free magazines we get) and one of the headlines was 2009 Dream Towns: The Best Places to Live. Whenever I see a headline like that I always feel disappointed because I know my city won't be on the list and I'll be jealous that I don't live in a city that is fun, scenic, healthy, young, hip, green, home to good sports teams, etc.

Right after that thought passed through my head, I opened up the article and to my surprise (shock, I should say) saw my beloved hometown of 17 years on the list of the top 10 cities in America! I have to admit, I don't know that I necessarily agree, but it's nice to finally get a shout out from someone.

Here's the article if you're interested: Best Towns 2009

Family 5K

On Saturday, we ran our first race as a family. It was a local 5K, held in memory of a high school student who died in a car accident a while back. This was the 10th running of this race, but our first time participating. It was so fun to do a local race with people from our community.

It was also a lot of fun to run together. Daddy and I used to train a lot together before we had Mr. Mister and haven't done much running together since because the little guy hasn't been a big fan of staying in the jogging stroller that long. But we tried it out a couple weekends ago and he did well, so we decided to try this race.

Daddy pushed the stroller, which slowed him down a little bit, but not all the way to my pace. So I ran hard to keep up with him and ended up getting a PR (my fastest time ever finishing a 5K)!

Notice that Mr. Mister has is own race number! He wanted one when we were putting ours on, so we made him a mini bib.

Here is Mr. Mister's new friend - a random guy that he just went up to and sat on his lap after first trying to climb on his back to do horsie!

Displaying my medal for 2nd place in my age group
(and sadly, I am on the upper range of that group!).

MoreTalking

A friend recently told me to make sure to write down all the funny things Mr. Mister says as he learns to talk because she didn't do it with her daughter and wishes she could remember everything. So I'm going to blog more of his comments because if I don't write them down here, I probably won't do it.

• (background info - last Friday night, Daddy and I went out to dinner and then to a surprise party for a friend of mine. Our friend Leah babysat with her friend Erin.) So a couple nights ago, almost a week since our night out, I was reading Mr. Mister a book before bed. He told me, "Erin read book. Leah rock. Mommy Daddy hot date." !!!

• If you ask him hold old he is, he says, "almost 2." I wonder if when he turns two (Aug. 22nd!) he'll understand that he doesn't say almost anymore.

• We've been trying to speak more Spanish to him. I taught him "Como te llamas?" which means, "What's your name?" He knows to answer with his first name. But now whenever I say anything else in Spanish, he quickly responds with, "Mr. Mister." (using his real name). I think he just knows when Mom says something I don't understand, just answer with my name!
  

• He says, "moey moey" for holy moly, "dumpy dumpy" for humpty dumpty, and "dokey dokey" for hokey pokey.
  

• Remember the yay song we listen to all the time? Well the CD has been in Daddy's Jeep so every time he has asked for it in my car recently, we haven't been able to listen to it. The other day we were driving and he said, "Mr. Mister miss yay car." Translation: I miss listening to the yay song in the car!

• He mostly refers to himself by his first name, but is now kind of learning pronouns. But there's still some confusion...after he does something he's proud of, he says, "My did it!" (instead of I did it!).

• At the bank the other day, I was signing the back of my check and he said, "Mommy write name." So of course he then wanted to write his name. So he scribbled on a deposit slip and said, "A, R, O, O, O" (which is how he spells his name). Then handed the paper to the teller. He was so proud!

• When he's looking for someone or something, he says, "Are you?" Like, "Shoes, are you?" or "Diego, are you?" (looking for the library DVD we can't find!)
  

A Big Milestone

Today is a big day in Mr. Mister's life. His first day sleeping without his sleep sack. (if you don't know, a sleep sack is a wearable blanket. It's good for babies because they can't suffocate themselves with it. You can check it out here.)

So anyway, we (unsucessfully) put him down for his nap today with his sleep sack on, like always. After he didn't fall asleep, we went up to check on him and he was playing in his crib and his sleep sack was on the floor. We had no idea how that happened and thought that maybe we didn't put it on like we thought. So we put it back on and put him back down. Again, he didn't fall asleep and when we went up to his room, his sleep sack was back on the floor.

It's a pretty good accomplishment on his part because it zips from the top to the bottom. So he had to unzip it all the way to the top and then get his arms and legs out of it.

So tonight, he officially refused the sleep sack and chose a blanket to sleep with instead. He looked like such a big boy laying under his blanket! I knew this day would come eventually - you can't go to kindergarten still sleeping in a sleep sack. But it just came without any warning! I guess that's life with a child. They grow up without telling you first.

Feeding the Ducks

Yesterday was the first day in a long time that we didn't have something planned. I decided we'd just rest and play around the house. So we played with blocks and read books and played some more. Then I looked at the clock and it was only 9:00. At this rate, it was going to be a very long morning so I decided we had to get out.

The only thing that got Mr. Mister excited was the idea of going to throw bread to the ducks at the park. It ended up to be a really fun morning. We fed the ducks then played at the park (until 2 big day care field trips came and overran us) and then walked around the lake looking at the boats. While all of our activities have been fun, it was refreshing to have a date with just the two of us.

The action shot of his throw. You can see the bread flying through the air!

Mr. Mister learning the reality of feeding ducks. Lots of ducks fighting over a tiny morsel of stale bread.

Watching all the big kids run around and play at the big kid playground. Some day that will be him! I like that he still wants to play with me for now.