The Happiest Place on Earth

JW and I went to the Happiest Place on Earth last week with Papa and Omi, Auntie, Uncle D and Co. We catered the trip to my four year old niece, Noelle, but one might be a little suspect when they see how much fun we were having on this fast paced ride. Can you believe there wasn't a line for this? So we all went twice.

Thanks for 11 Months

Sweet boy, where has the time gone? I blinked my eyes and suddenly you are 11 months old. I know if I actually close my eyes I'll wake up and you'll be 18 and off to college, so I'm trying to keep my eye on you as much as possible. I don't want to miss a thing.


You've spent the better part of the last month advancing your skills in a few choice activities including, walking and standing, eating and talking. You can not walk on your own yet, but this does not stop you from trying. You will be cruising around the furniture and suddenly let go for a moment while you stop to concentrate on something other than your two feet. You are completely unaware of your lack of stability as evidenced by the number of times you fall over and inevitably donk your head on the corner of something hard. The Dad and I usually laugh at your expense, but you know how to pull off the crocodile tears because they get you lots of loves and kisses without fail.


Even though you only have two teeth, you seem to think it's time for corn nuts and hard candy. You don't appreciate the ready-made pureed stuff anymore. You let me know this by spitting it at me. I'm not so sure I'm ready for you to graduate to adult food yet. I was really hoping you would eat Gerber until you were 12 and could fend for yourself. This milestone not only means that I need to figure out how to prepare meals before you go to bed, but that I actually HAVE to plan meals, my least favorite thing in the world. Alas, growing boys need to eat. I will not be a bit surprised if your first words are "What's for dinner?" since The Dad asks this question everyday and you are every bit like The Dad.


Speaking of first words, I think you have figured out that dadada is for "Dad," and "Feed me!" and "Get me out of bed!" and "I love the bath!" This is your word of choice and you use it for most anything. What is really endearing is that you say mama indiscriminately. It sounds more like "mumma," but it is the one word you've reserved just for me and I turn into a gooey mess every time you say it, it's so sweet.


Dear Dubs, not a day goes by that I don't thank the greater powers of the universe for sending you my way. I know you wonder how on earth you got such stupid parents (I know you think this by some of the looks you give me), even so you are such a good boy. We love you so much.

Halleeeeee-luuuuu-jaaah!

Handel's Hallelujah Chorus is an all-time favorite piece of music. I think my love for this piece began as a young girl when I would join my Mom for the annual Utah Symphony Messiah Sing-In at Abravenel Hall. The best part of the chorus is the very end, when there is a brief, or long, pause. I would wait for the silence, inevitably interrupted by some guy's cough, and then end in a grand finale and a roar for the hall when it was over. The older I get the more awesome the song becomes. It moves me to tears almost everytime I hear it and sing it. Who knows why? Maybe it's the words and the exuberance in praise the song invokes.

So when my Mom sent me this link today I was blown away. I wish I were there the day this happened in the middle of a Macy's department store. Instead, I just pretend I was there. I'm pretty sure I would have started singing at the top of my lungs, even though I probably wouldn't have been one of the invited choir members. I probably would have cried too. The experience would have been amazeballs.

Experience it for yourself.

Dinner Time with The Dubster

JW thinks he's pretty funny with his new dinner time antics. This video was shot the other night when I was still a tolerant mother. JW was quite offended when I tried to teach him table manners tonight.

Halloween Rewind

This year was a Halloween first for The Dubster and me...my first Halloween as the mom and his first Halloween as the kid. I was pretty excited about getting in costume. JW thought it was all pretty overrated.

His preschool had a parade with all of the kids in costume. JW in typical fashion wasn't thrilled either way about the whole parade thing, or the costume for that matter. He did get shotgun on what I like to call the "Infant bus."

Do you see the enthusiasm in this kid's face? Yeah, me neither.

He kept looking at me like he was being tortured.

"Are we having fun yet?"

Lucky for JW the preschool planned a fire drill during the parade. However, the school failed to let the fire dept. know it was only a drill, so a slew of fire engines showed up to put out a faux fire. Dubs LOVES the fire truck.


Later that afternoon I took JW to my office Halloween party. I stayed up almost all night making my princess dress to match my li'l dragon. It took me three days to catch up on that lost sleep. Talk about overrated. What was I thinking?! I tried to get G to be our Knight in Shining Armor, but he'd rather die than dress up for Halloween. He'd make a good Stick in the Mud.