Mommy's Hat

I think it looks better on him than on me.....

Plus he isn't wearing it just to get out of doing his hair...so.....

Photo A Day: Makes me happy

You might think that Tommy is about to punch John in the stomach and that his mom is simply watching it happen while taking a picture.

But that's because you didn't know that the previous 7 pictures look like this:

And that Tommy was saying "Yay Johnny! You WOLLING OVERED! Bump it Johnny, Bump it!"

And that Tommy repeats the above every time he sees these pictures.

Photo A Day: Self Portrait

The advantage of working from home is that I can show up looking like this at 11:30pm and nobody even comments. (except you - and really even that's questionable....) 

The disadvantage of working from home is that I am expected to work at 11:30pm even if I look like this and nobody even feels bad for me. (except you - do you?)

Photo A Day: Front Door

Here is my front door - from my side.

Crooked door mat, cluttered launch pad, child lock and all.

Romeo Romeo

Let's pretend we went out on the balcony just to blow kisses goodbye to daddy. Because that makes this picture way cuter than us going out there to yell at dad for forgetting the library books.

Photo A Day: The Sun

We're quarantined. And it's winter in Utah. So we haven't seen the real sun for days.

Your choice of alternates:

the artificial sun

the very very real son(s)

Photo A Day: button

The green one in the upper right corner has only been pushed once today.

I blame the disease and not my lazy parenting....

Hoarder

Sometimes near the end of playgroup Tommy's (admittedly limited) ability to share is gone. He has used it all up.

That's when he gets his hands on every toy he can find and sits by the moms trying to stay away from the kids.

Hard to believe...

Hard to believe that these two pictures are of the same child in the same swing, isn't it?

Photo A Day: Dinner

We're a day behind on our menu, so this should've been a big beautiful Sunday dinner. Instead it was Monday dinner. Still big. Still (sortof) beautiful. Definitely delicious.

"gourmet" chicken, roasted red potatoes, & salad. Yum!

Date #2

Date #2 was a Vocal Point concert.

Remember Vocal Point? They got famous last year on The Sing Off but if you were mormon and into mormon boy bands you had already heard of them I bet.

ANNNYway. On Saturday we had Date #2 from Josh's Awesome Christmas Present.

We dropped the boys off at Grandma's house and headed to Salt Lake for the event. Miraculously we made it sooner than we expected so we went to Cafe Rio for lunch before heading to the Conference Center.

These dates make me feel so light. There's just something about going places without a child. Carrying only yourself and your own supplies.

• We held hands in the car and talked about our plans for the future. Farther in the future than who has to do which jobs for bedtime tonight - this almost never happens. 
• We parked anywhere we wanted not caring if there was room to open all of the doors wide and set up a stroller. We simply got out of the car and walked away. No stroller, no bags to pack, no babies bundle and haul around.
• We followed each other through the crowd and found our (totally awesome - front & center) seats and sat in them without tucking an enormous diaper bag underneath. We chatted with our neighbors about something that wasn't "how old is he? he's adorable! such a fun time of life....." 

Don't get me wrong, I love my boys with all my heart. But going places without them (even just once a month) is freeing.

Josh and I are sometimes a really crappy married couple. Sometimes we fight and quarrel and serve the devil. Sometimes we forget why we got married in the first place and sometimes we flat out don't like each other.

But other times we love love LOVE to go out with just us. We remember that we have things in common and we're fun to talk to. We like each other and say and do nice things. We enjoy being around each other. Because sometimes WE (together) are awesome.

And these fellas aren't bad singers either. The concert was awesome.

But not as awesome as my date.

Backfired

Remember how Tommy hates getting his fingernails cut?
When he saw me trimming John's nails this morning he ran over to rescue John from the horror.

"Oh it's OK." I told Tommy. "I'm just trimming his nails so he doesn't scratch himself."
"Owwie nails." Tommy said.
"No, it doesn't hurt to cut your fingernails. Look, Mommy does it. Daddy does it... See? It's easy!"
"OOOOOOWWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" John interrupted my thought about how safe it is to trim your nails with the scream of horror. I looked down and saw the blood start to spread from the tip of John's tiny finger.

Tommy ran the other direction "hurts! nails! noooooo!" and face planted in the love sac.

Mom Fail.

Photo A Day: 10am

10am should have looked like church.

Instead it looked like this.

The cold-from-hell is kicking my boys' butts.

Attached

Tommy is attached to his stuffed animals.

All of them.

He takes turns with each one carrying it around for days at a time.

It was "PANda bee-er" for a while. And Panda needed to color.

Then it was Scout. Who needed to come with us every time we left the house. And who definitely needed a jacket. Fortunately I talked him out of the a carseat for Scout too and told him to just hold on tight.

Photo A Day: A Stranger

This morning I was terrified of this day of the challenge.

But then I remembered we'd be going out today. And a concert at Temple Square is sortof perfect for taking pictures of strangers.

So I told Josh that his mission (should he choose to accept it) was to find someone fascinating to take a picture of.

We started off boring.

"Lookit! 3 gray-haired folks in a row - I win at tic-tac-toe."

Josh pointed out how lame that idea was and took this picture over his head. 

"lookit! 100 more gray-haired folks."

But then the concert went on and my eavesdropping skills made me fall in love with 2 of my neighbors specifically. And getting their pictures was a little tricky, but for you justforyou! we did it. 

I have a tiny-kid-crush on this boy who was my immediate neighbor. He was rockin' out through the whole concert, and he behaved beautifully. Excellent manners, taking care of his little brother. He was adorable and I can only hope Tommy grows up to be this awesome.

Wanna see the video? Particularly the lip sucking happening around 9 seconds. 

Stranger #2 is found just over Josh's shoulder (and by his ear). 

 She had more of a crush on the band than I do on the boy next to me. From what I could gather all of her dreams came true when her daddy asked her out on this date. She called her mom at intermission and told her about every song they sang and every joke they told. "And John is one of the new guys and he just got ENGAGED mom! ENGAGED!!! This is so cool."

But the photo I REALLY wanted for today, was the one I couldn't catch on camera. 

Tommy fell asleep in his carseat on the way home. And when we pulled into the driveway Josh and I both looked back at our sleeping boy. Then we giggled because he was picking his nose in his sleep. 

And there is nothing stranger than a boy who picks his nose in his sleep.

Piles

Tommy has become a piler.

As in, one who makes piles.

He has bins of toys and every day before he naps he dumps EVERYthing he can reach. He dumps out all of the blankets, all of the noisy toys, all of the stuffed animals, all of the book, EVERYthing.

Then he puts blankets and pillows on top of it and sleeps there.

Like this.

He also enjoys sorting all of the toys into their appropriate bins when he wakes up, so I don't really mind that he does it. But wow. "a mess!"

Photo A Day: Hands

Hands

Whooped

These boys are straight up whooped over each other. 

Every. Last. One of them.

Photo A Day: words

Tonight's dinner - it was delicious.

Yoga = success

I sortof rocked my January goal of doing yoga or meditation 4 times each week. I always did longer sessions than required and most weeks I did it more than 4 times. And I really really liked it.

Yoga is fun for me even if it is totally embarrassing.

I'll keep doing it throughout the year I think = but considering that my March goal is running and I haven't run consistently in about a year, I feel like I also better get started on that.

Next up? Finances.

For the month of February I'll be tracking every penny we spend. If you're lucky I'll show you my mortifying charts of where our money goes at the end of the month. Try to contain your excitement.


To hold me accountable for all the months so far......click here.

January?

Usually it looks like this in January in Utah:

Heck, it looked like this in April in Utah last year.

But something creepy, strange, incredible, beautiful, eerie is happening in Utah this year. And instead it looks like this on January 31st Utah:

So we went for a family walk.

On our way back, we stopped at the park.

We're calling this next video "careful Tommy, careful"

I love it when he talks to himself.

Meanwhile, Dad and John enjoyed the sunset.

Tommy attacked the playground in way he never has before. I normally have to coax him through every part of the playground, but he was a madman trying every new thing the whole time. It was AWESOME.

What a lovely January day.

Photo A Day: your view today

February is a Photo A Day month.

Day 1: your view today....

.....how long has it been since I complained about laundry? Oh yes. Way too long. 

I hate laundry. It will be the death of me. OK?

Wake Up John....Wake UP!

Tommy loves to go in with me and wake up John for the day.

John is almost always already awake, but going in to get him is one of the best parts of the day.

3 months

Today John is 3 months old.

And what a beautifully, horrifically, hard and rewarding 3 months it has been.

John rolls over, barfs (a lot), and giggles like a mad man.

He's long in the torso and I swear I actually watched him grow all day yesterday. He was significantly bigger when I put him down for the night than when he woke up that day. He's wearing 6-9 months onesies and 0-3 month pants. Poor boy is a bit out of proportion, but it's OK because his mama loves him.

He watches me across the room and loves to be held.

He likes doing things - anything. And he does not like staring at the ceiling or being left alone.

He is sleeping through the night almost every night in his crib. (I know - I am the luckiest mom there is.) He also naps 2-3 times every day.

He eats like a maniac. I am still nursing him (heaven help me!) and giving him a 4 ounce bottle every time I feed him too. And sometimes just for fun I pump.

He has the most beautiful blue eyes I've seen since Tommy was tiny. Josh and I both forgot how beautiful Tommy's eyes were until we saw John's.

Little John never cries. I remember talking to Ashley about Stella when Tommy and Stella were little - she'd wake up and wait quietly in her crib for Ash to come and get her. Tommy would wake up screaming. There was nothing between awake and "GET ME NOW OR I WILL DIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!" I thought Stella was a mutant. I'm still not convinced she's not. But it turns out that John has taken a page from Stella's book. I hear him wake up, he coos and sucks his hands and waits. If I leave him too long he will, of course, cry, but more often than not, Tommy and I go in to "Wake up! John!!!" and are both greeted with smiles and coos.

Kid loves his bath. Seriously. Loves it. Every time.

Bedtime is still my favorite time of the day. Mostly because it's the only time of day I have all 3 of my boys home and together. It's a beautiful thing.

Somehow John has managed to win Tommy's heart. I'm not sure what flipped the switch for Tommy, but Tommy now (mostly) loves John.