Leapin' Leprechauns, Haircuts and More March 2019

March really did come in like a lion and out like a lamb this year for our family.  In-between potty training Max, Hinckley's allergies and some other family concerns, we were not in a good place at the beginning of the month.  Thank heavens, all three of the problems have seen vast improvement.

Hinckley continues to be our charming little troublemaker and copycat.  He is a classic toddler, throwing unused rolls of toilet paper and many other items in the toilet (yes, including toothbrushes) as well as moving and reorganizing pretty much everything he can reach.  He cannot seem to help himself from getting into the dog's water and food bowls.  He went from pouring it out every chance he got to holding himself back (you could see the tension in his face as he restrained himself) and only grabbing handfuls of dogfood and placing it in the water bowl.

Another source of trouble has been his congestion.  He has been congested pretty much since December.  We figured out that it was mostly allergies and then, at the end of the month, four of his molars broke through.  So we've been dealing with a nasty combination of teething and allergens.  

He is so good about praying with the family (you can see his prayer hands below) and I don't really even need a babysitter when I teach Joy School.  He LOVES to play, dance, "draw," and eat with the big kids.

He was dribbling a soccer ball at the beginning of the month and I got excited but... since then he has lost interest.  He does, however, love brushing his teeth with Atticus, dancing to music (little squat, gorilla and/or stomp dances), playing tug of war with Max, running "laps" with me and giving me high fives as we go and going down slides. 

 

We love the way he walks around, chugging water like he owns the place.

He got his first, much-needed, professional haircut this month.  He wasn't afraid at all- just very interested in Amanda's supplies.  Anyone who needs a haircut, Amanda Chase is awesome!  

It's amazing what a haircut can do!

He has also gotten really good at using a fork.  Spoons are still tricky but he's getting pretty good with those, too.

He is repeating more and more words.  Most notably he started saying, "All duh" for eating, "Sees!" for please, "Poop" (it comes out as "Buhp" a lot of the time) and he is learning to say, "Sit," and "Stop" with the dog. We could have sworn he was singing, "Happy Birthday" last week after hearing it a few times for a Joy School friend, but we couldn't capture it on film.

Atticus continues to love wolves and plays "wolf" any chance he gets.  As our friend, Ginger put it, he is a method actor.  We are so excited- we are reading our first chapter book together (Charlotte's Web) and he loves it!  Yay!  And, since he is starting to recognize the numbers 1-10, we have just started simple addition.

Above you can see his "yummy" and "yucky" faces when I was teaching about the letter Y.  

He and I had a nasty knock at a playground that has left my chin bruised.  It's pretty unsightly but is fading, ever so slowly.

My favorite Atticus development has been how much closer he is growing to his brother.  Hinckley has always loved Atticus but Atticus seemed disinterested a lot of the time.  Now that Hinckley is walking and talking more and more, Atticus just LOVES his little brother.  He still tells him not to drool on his stuff (his concern isn't misplaced!) but he can't get enough of him.  

He calls him his "baby brother" and his "best friend" all the time.  They "wrestle" at least once a day and Atticus randomly hugs him all the time.  I feel like it's been a long time coming but it sure is sweet to see.  Our hearts just melted as we watched the two of them walk, hand in hand, to church last week.  

Atticusisms:

• "Yep, indeed!"
• "Let's not tell them and get someone else in trouble." (to me at a store- I was flabbergasted)
• "I don't want to go to college.  I want to stay home with you forever."
• "How do we get to Heaven?...I think there's an angel that takes us there." (and many other deep questions)
• "I like saying mean things."
• "Max, come!" (kiss kiss)
• "Are you being mean to my dog?"  
• "Are you being mean to my baby brother?"
• "I want to spend time with my baby brother."
• "Say sorry to Max!"
• "We should visit someone who's sick in the hospital, like Nana!" (on a Sunday)
• "I'm going to beat up the flu that Nana has."
• "You're the meanest!  You're a bully!"
• "It's a beautiful day."
• "You look beautiful, Mommy."  "You always look beautiful."  
• ("Don't we just love Ellie?  She's so fun.")  "And she's cute!" (about his adorable friend)
• "I don't know what I want to be/how I'm going to be all the things I want to when I grow up... (then he proceeds to list all sorts of things, animals, dinosaurs and superheroes he loves).
• "I want to be a wolf when I grow up."

Oh, I almost forgot.  You can't have March without celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

A little update on Max:  We have definitely experienced moments of regret when it comes to our canine friend.  He is a sweet dog but we've had some hiccoughs in potty training.  Now that we seem to have cleared that hurdle we're hoping to tackle the biting and other behaviors...  Wish us luck!  Training a dog is a marathon, not a sprint, right?

We do love him, even if I've felt like a crazy person some days.  And we LOVE the chores and feeling of responsibility he gives Atticus, who thrives when given the chance to be responsible.

We also love watching our two puppies, side by side.  

I wanted to end by sharing a quick story.  We had a really rough Saturday night March 23 and our sleep deprivation led to us all having a rough Sunday morning.  I was scheduled to teach the lesson, "Why is Jesus Christ important in my life?" to our Beehives.  We made it to church feeling trying to keep it together.  As we sat down, a sweet ward member sitting with his family in the pew behind us greeted us warmly and asked us how we were.  

We responded quickly and brightly and left it at that.  It wasn't until we heard the sacrament prayers that it hit me.  That sweet man had just lost his mother earlier in the week.  He had a smile on his face and was showing concern about US.  I was filled with gratitude for the beautiful example of faith set by their whole family.  They sang the hymns with all their hearts and reached out to everyone around us.  My problems, which had seemed so frustrating and overwhelming, paled in comparison.  Further, the same source of comfort that was helping them through such a difficult time, our Savior, Jesus Christ, was exactly the source we needed to approach for help through our own.

I can't wait to celebrate Easter!

Puppy Love and Hinckley Walks February 2019

Holy moly, February FLEW by and it was eventful!

Of course, we celebrated Valentine's Day.  Dane and I outdid ourselves this year, I must say.

We actually got snow- twice in one day!  I'm told it hasn't snowed here for around a decade.  The kids went out with buckets to "catch" the snow (and were pretty disappointed when it melted).  We made sure to dress them warmly, which was totally unnecessary, ha ha.

But one of the most newsworthy changes of this month is for Hinckley!  He finally started walking on Feb. 25 (just a few days short of being 16 months).  He took a few steps that evening and the next day walked across our playroom.  He still has plenty of practicing to do but we are so proud (and relieved that he beat 18 months!)

Of course, living with Atticus, our wolf lover, Hinckley has learned to howl with the best of them.  It's funny, he also howls whenever he puts on a mask or a hat.  He seems to think that one should howl when dressing up.  

Oh, this little charmer.  He had his 15 month appointment at the beginning of the month and I'm happy to report that he's back up in size (45th percentile in height, 29th in weight and 59th in head).

Man, that doctor appointment was hard.  He remembered the doctor's office and put up the FIGHT of his life.  We actually had three of us adults hold him down so that the doctor could check his ear.  Dr. Tenby joked that he should be a wrestler with all that strength and use of leverage.   

We see this strength of will more and more.  He and Atticus literally butt heads all the time.  He loves coloring and has already colored on two of our doors.  And he doesn't just use the crayons for drawing.  He loves to sneak them in his mouth and chew on them.  Bleh!  

He also is the culprit in many, many missing items in our house.  For example, I couldn't find my hairbrush for a few days.  It turned up behind Atticus' chair- all the way across the house (along with several other bathroom items!)

I think our favorite thing he does, however, is singing. He is singing ALL the time.  He has a really sweet voice and his favorite song is now "I am a Child of God."  Of course, he's not saying the words yet (though some of his sounds are similar) but it's really recognizable: "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me..."  He also loves "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but that's the only other song, so far, that we can recognize.

He still LOVES "Shoes" (he says it with the cutest voice!) and socks ("Sah") and often surprises us with new words (If I say, "Ready," he'll say, "Set," and sometimes even, "Go!")  He has said, "Hi Mom!" and I'm pretty sure he's been saying or repeating, "Sorry" ("Sah-dah"-Atticus and I have plenty of chances to say that one!)  He goes around saying,  "Dis" and "Wha-dis?" all the time.  

And yes, I not only let my kiddo chew on a rock, I took a picture of it.  Even rocks can look cute around this guy.

Atticus continues to go back and forth between his inner Jekyll and Hyde.  You'll see in the quotes below that he has some mean ones (I've blocked out the worst ones) but he also shows such depth in his questions and comments.  One of my favorite moments came when we saw a sweet widow from our ward at the store.  She's probably in her 80s and Atticus, instead of being afraid like I would have, gave her a great big hug.  Absolutely melted my heart.

He is sounding out words more and more.  He often reads the letters backwards but gets almost all of the sounds correct and is getting better at putting them together.

Another favorite day was when he decided his favorite superhero was the Flash.  He ran around and around (to the point that he said his legs were hurting after a couple hours).  But he was helpful and kind all day- because the Flash is kind (? I know nothing about the Flash!)  It was a lovely, lovely day.

For the past few months he has had gorgeous hair with perfect, Little Lord Fauntleroy locks.  Dane and I didn't want to part with it but, halfway through the month, he told us he was sick of it... so I tried my hand cutting it.  Eek.  It could have been worse (and I couldn't resist giving him a bowl cut halfway through) but it was pretty obvious that it was my first time.

Well, Atticus didn't earn a sticker for every day of the month, but he really did do his best and did lots of extra chores to make up for missed days.  (Annnnd we had already put down a deposit on our little puppy...)  Soooo, I'd like to introduce our family's newest member:

Max (born 12/28/2018)

He has such a sweet disposition!  We are all in love.  We were worried about Hinckley being too rough with him (his first interaction involved him wacking the puppy while saying, "Soft!" again and again) but now that the novelty has worn off, the two of them get along just fine.  It's actually really adorable to see them side by side (especially when they both have a chew toy sticking out of their mouths).  

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Here's to many more hours of cuddling with our little snuggle bunny.  And wish us luck with potty training!  Yikes.

Atticusisms:

• Hinckley and me are gonna beat you up cause were on a team!  Come on Hinckley!  Let's escape!
• I want to fast for Nana.
• Daddy doesn't like green for the Grinch, he just likes guns.
• Mommy, I have a quesion!  I want to whisper it in your ear...
• Why did Jesus have to go in Gethsemane?
• Daddy, you need to say sorry to Mommy!  Now Mommy, you need to say I forgive you.
• I want a green smoovly.
• I can see Heaven through the clouds
• This is my house! (mouthing off to a grown up)
• How can I change?  How can I put what I learn in my heart? (during one of our many discussions about changing his behavior)
• Mom, does the Flash get sweaty (while running)?