Teenky tinky

The title of this post refers to what you have taken to saying lately--"teenky tinky", when you actually mean "teeny tiny".  It's just too cute :)  You're trying really hard to acquire new words and phrases, and experimenting with combining them yields funny things like "Stop talking anything!".  Another thing, which we have no idea where you came up with it, is that if you don't feel like doing something, you will tell us, "I can't. I'm too flat to _____."  You were doing this a lot when you were having a moody stage the last time I wrote.  I don't want to jinx it, but you seem like you are doing better now (hoping it continues!)
Today is mommy's birthday; we're going to go celebrate during the afternoon with Chelsea and her mom.  You picked out a super card for me (with daddy); he said that you rejected many other choices before landing on this one.  It has a sticker inside that says "Very Loved Mommy"; I plan to wear it proudly today :D
The last two Sundays, we have gone to the beach in Racine, WI--it's about an hour and a half away from our house.  You were a bit uncertain about it the first time when we arrived.  I made you a sand castle, we encouraged you to play in the sand, and after about 20 minutes, you announced that you were done at the beach.  We convinced you that we should all get in the water and play, perhaps stay a while longer.  Once you got comfortable in the water, you were completely the opposite--you wanted to stay and play for sure!  We stayed about 3 hours each time.  The first time, it was nice and sunny, not too hot.  There weren't as many people as the second time because the first time, it turned out that they were having an Ironman competition in the town that day.  This caused us to have to park about 10 blocks away; normally, that would have been fine--however, daddy only brought a cheap pair of flip-flops.  On the return trip to the car, he was carrying you on shoulders as we crossed a street and one of them broke right in the middle of the street.  Mommy had on better sandals, so she had you guys wait at that corner while she ran to the car (a half mile away) and came back to get you.  The second time, uncle Kevin came along as well.  This time, despite the weather forecast indicating "partly cloudy with 0% chance precipitation", we had complete overcast sky and it sprinkled on us for about 10 minutes!  Even so, we still had a great time :)  The water was very green this time because for whatever reason, there was a ton of algae near the shore.  We still went in the water anyway, it was mainly just near the shore.  I hope we'll get to go at least one more time before summer's done.
Last thing I'll mention this time is that you are completely obsessed with your iPhone games currently.  Every day you ask for new ones (we only do free ones); your favorite seems to be the Inside Out bubble one.
Lots of love and hugs~~mommy

July already!

Yep, the past 3 months flew by far faster than expected.  Mommy got busy with planning a trip with Nana Linda to Europe, then it was the end of the school year, the trip happened in the first two weeks in June, and boom, here's July!
I can't possibly cover all that has happened for you in the last three months, so I'll just go with some of the most recent things that come to mind.
Just after mommy came back from vacation, we had to get Nana Linda back home to Missouri.  Uncle Kevin wanted to visit his friends for a while down there, so we took him along and dropped him off.  Grandma Judy wanted some time with you, so we took you to her house to stay while daddy was busy wrapping up the end of another school term.  You were going to stay there until we were coming to Grandma's for 4th of July weekend, but Grandma started not feeling well the weekend before.  Also, you were starting to ask to go back to "Avery's house" every day. Thus, we decided to meet up with her halfway and bring you back early.
We still went to Grandma Judy's for the weekend of the 4th, as daddy's cousin was having a big party and we wanted to attend.  He lives right near the park where the fireworks are displayed for Keokuk, which is also where a carnival is held.  We took you to that for a while (you did some rides all by yourself, plus one with mommy) and then enjoyed the fireworks after.  You were so excited about all of them--you shouted and whooped about how big they were and had everyone giggling at how adorable you were about it :)  On Sunday, we attended a family reunion on Grandma Judy's side and then met up with Nana Linda in Hannibal to get Uncle Kevin to bring him back with us.

In other news, lately you have become quite the good reader.  You also ask what everything "means" and tend to fuss quite a bit to try to get your way.  We're still working on your tendency to scream when you get mad about not getting your way; think it's getting better, but not gone entirely by any means.  You are super picky about eating, too--you won't even eat some of the things you used to love and it's nearly impossible to get you to try new stuff, even sweets!  Even so, we keep making efforts and most of the time you are pretty happy and VERY energetic.

Today we went to see the movie "Inside Out", which you had requested to see when you saw the previews with daddy and Uncle Kevin at another movie a few weeks ago.  When we first got there, things were not going well--you stumbled on the stairs a little and got a scrape on the front of your ankle.  This put you in an unhappy mood and you weren't so sure you wanted to watch the movie after we got inside.  Daddy took you to the restroom (per your request), then mommy had to do the same (per your request); I also had to get you calm enough to come back in and decide to watch the movie after all (whew!).  At the end, you insisted we stay to watch all of the "credix" lol.  Later, we went to Meijer for some shopping, which went mostly well (you were getting fussy about which register and helping at the end).  Overall, I think you had a good day.  Love you lots and will hopefully not be 3 more months before I write again ~ ~ mommy

Catching up

Yes, I know, this entry is dated for April fools' day, but it's not a joke entry :P
Just wanted to enter something so that you will know I haven't forgotten about blogging here, just been extra busy with work.  Plus, you spent about 2 weeks at Nana Linda's house in March, so we didn't have much to report there.  You had a great time and so did Nana :)  You picked up the habit of saying "Oh, yes." instead of just "yes" (I blame her for this lol).  She also got you thinking there are potatoes growing in your ears because she calls earwax "tater patches".  She would tease you when you got tired and say, "Don't you go to sleep" in a silly way, which made you giggle and you said to daddy on the trip back home from her house when he laid back and wanted to close his eyes for a bit.  We also celebrated Easter early at Nana's, complete with an egg hunt that you really enjoyed in her front yard.  Papa Junior didn't get to see us much while we were there because he had a problem with his ankle that made him go to the hospital.  He's getting better now.
Daddy got a new car just before we went to Nana's to pick you up/spend his birthday weekend.  It's all electric and really fun to drive.  We would have taken it there, but it only has a range of about 65 miles per charge, thus not at practical for more than city driving.  You love it, too, probably because you love cars and can see out the windows really well in it.
You're really getting great at reading; it's amazing how many words you know now!  You are becoming more articulate and asking clearer questions.
Just the other day, you decided you like "Futurama", thanks to seeing a scene where Bender is chanting "Bender, Bender, Bender!"  You thought this was hilarious and since it's animated, you kept on watching.  You even requested to watch more episodes after that one was over.  For some reason, though, you repeat the chant as "Fender, Fender, Fender!".  Silly boy.
You were supposed to start taking an art class tomorrow, but it got canceled due to low enrollment :(  Hopefully the other classes mommy signed you up for will not have the same fate.
There's plenty more to tell, but mommy's getting sleepy.  Night night and love you lots :)

Long jumper

Lately you have decided that you have to test how far you can long jump (much to mommy's delight and dismay, as she fears for injuries...)  It started with jumping over daddy's Muppet throw blanket, I think, and has happened in different forms every day since.  Today, you lined up some of your toys in a row to jump over, as if you were a monster truck jumping them lol.
Kevin reported the following story happened while I was gone:
In Kevin's room--he wrote the letter "W" on a piece of paper.  You told him it was "W", and he said you were right, then continued with "X", then "Y", then "Z".  Then Kevin said, "Ok, now say all of them," and without missing a beat, you said, "all of them".  LOL!!

More cooking

Just a brief entry for today :)  This morning, we went to the gym and you had a great time at Kids Zone like usual (and mommy had a great workout, too :))  In the afternoon, mommy wanted to cook some more, and as always, you were right there to help me.  First we made some chocolate chip oat bars that turned out really good.  You sampled the dough as we went along, assuring me with lots of "mmmm"s lol.  Second, we made ratatouille.  The first ingredient I chopped up was eggplant.  You were fascinated with the vegetable when I got it out (think this is the first time you've seen one up close/not in a supermarket), examined it, held it above your head, and watched closely as I cut it.  To my surprise, you reached for a slice and took a bite!  You had a funny look on your face, so I suggested you try it without the skin, cut off a small piece and let you try another nibble.  You pondered as you chewed and then said, "yucky eggplant." LOL!  You didn't spit it out all over the place, so I don't think it was super yucky, but I was elated that you just tried something new like that and told you so, plus rewarded you with a few M&M's.  You then requested celery and apples, which have become some of your new favorite snacks.

Playing in the snow

As I mentioned the other day, we got quite a lot of snow and I was ready to take you out to build a snowman.  On the day of all the snow, however, it just snowed and the wind was rather fierce all day long--it was actually true blizzard conditions at times.  Thus, we stayed inside and waited until the next day (yesterday) to get you all geared up for snow time.  Finally got to use those snowpants mommy bought for you in...the beginning of November (I blamed this action as the reason we lacked a big snow all winter up until now).  You were elated to get all decked out in winter wear and head outside.  It was pretty bright, though, and you weren't totally sure what to do with all that white stuff lol.  Mommy tried to get a snowman started, but the snow was too fluffy--wouldn't stick well enough to hold shape.  Instead, I proposed that we make snow angels.  I went first, and you seemed mildly amused.  When I said it was your turn to try, you just wanted me to make another one.  I said you should try and that I'd help you.  You only did the arms part and then wanted to get up.  You said we should go inside, but we'd only been out for a few minutes, so I decided we should try the backyard where it's not bright.  Back there, I threw snow in the air and this pleased you very much, so you tried as well.  This is where you decided that this was grand fun and did it over and over again.  After that, you headed back towards the driveway and grabbed one of the chunks of snow, threw it sideways, and declared that to be fun as well.  We somehow ended up at the end of the driveway and out in the circle, where you had tons of fun throwing snow chunks of all sizes sideways (I think you wanted to throw them in front of you, but in trying to get your arm in motion to do so, it ended up going to the side each time).  Either way, your cheeks were getting quite pink by the 45 minute mark, so I then said we should go inside.  You didn't want to do this now, so we played a little longer and then came back in.
Today it snowed again a little bit and you wanted to go out, but it's much colder now, so I said you will have to wait on that until another day :)  Love you!

Another growth spurt?

Since about two days ago, you are quite the little food consumer, which we are guessing means you are perhaps hitting a new growth spurt.  Wouldn't surprise me one bit, as you haven't done so in a while.  You even tried some new things--nothing major, but still...  When we made fondue the other night, you ate the cheese chunk that the processor didn't catch.  And then you wanted another, and another...  If that wasn't enough, you kept asking for one of the blue canisters that are kind of hidden on one of the counters.  One of them used to have Hershey's kisses in it, but is empty now.  I showed you the other day that there weren't any, yet you asked again.  This time, you wanted me to open the container that has dry spaghetti in it.  I handed you a piece, and by golly, you crunched a bite of that (daddy told you he likes to eat it that way).  Unlike the cheese, you weren't impressed with this and didn't even finish the piece you started lol.
Today, while I was cleaning up the kitchen a bit, you spied the cornstarch on the counter and said, "I want corn, mommy."  Alrighty--went to the pantry, grabbed a can, you made me put it back so that you could get it yourself, and you proceeded to eat about half the can.  Usually, you want everything cooled off a lot; today, you kept asking me if the bite I was about to give you was the hottest one, to which I always replied affirmatively ;)  Oh, and you also sang, "Chain of Fools" while we cleaned.  Yes, I said "we"--you LOVE helping me clean (really!!) and insist on "getting all the bubbles away" (the spray cleaner 409 bubbles lol).  Sure wish this would last...  You decided this would be a great time to come and take a massive amount of pictures with your phone (you have an old iPhone 4 that doesn't have service--just the apps and such work).  It's always funny to look at your photo collection; you tend to have numerous shots of the same thing, many of yourself.
This evening, for dessert, I made chocolate malts and of course, you got your own little one.  While drinking it, I had you on my lap and you turned towards me and said, "I like mommy," and nuzzled into my neck.  So very very sweet!  We were watching TV at the time and a commercial came on for a social media game called "Clash of Clans".  I remarked to Kevin that it must be making a ton of money to be advertising on TV now, and daddy remarked about how social media games are projected to be the most profitable ever in 2015.  Moments after the commercial was over, you said, "I want Clash of Clans on red iPhone, daddy." We all erupted in laughter--how on Earth did you manage to know that was the type of game it is, and then to request it for your phone?!?!  No, sorry, deary, that game's a bit too advanced for you, you will have to wait ;)
A bit later, it was time to get you in bed and we did the usual routine of reading the French books.  Daddy had closed the door when he came in, not realizing that it was locked (on the outside).  Lately, you have a thing about locking all the doors that have them (the push button type).  Thankfully, we got Kevin's attention and he came down the hall to liberate us lol.  You weren't happy about going to sleep, but I managed to get you calmed down by reminding you that right now it is snowing--we are finally supposed to get more than just a couple of inches, so I told you that we can play in it and hopefully make a snowman tomorrow!  Love you lots :)