New Moon Madness

As a 23-year-old mom, I've noticed my body doesn't work like it used to. I know you're thinking "Ah, 23...those were the days", but being a mom kind of cancels out the 23-year-old-ness. Remember the good old days at college when you would start hanging out at like 11:00 p.m.? Those days are over, I tell you. We see 11:00 p.m. still, but only jammy-clad with waxy contacts and greasy end-of-the-day makeup surrounded by a big comfy blanket. And we're kind of in and out of consciousness as we try to finish the movie we so stupidly started at 10:00.

So what possessed me to think it was a good idea to go out to the double feature of Twilight and the midnight showing of New Moon? Pure madness. Pure need for a fun GNO and pretending I'm a teen again with squeals of delight at the shirtless werewolves. But I only like them because they remind me of Ben. :) I'm so lucky to have a ward full of cool girlfriends. It was blast. I don't regret going at all, although I was dragging a little, was a bit shorter on patience, and may or may not have used the miracle of TV more than usual today. I wasn't feeling as tired as I thought I would be though. So who's up for Eclipse next year?

C-C-C-Cars!

Emerson is such a man's man. He was born with a love of all things manly hardwired into his little brain. Since he was born, I've often wondered what he's thinking about. And now I know because he can finally communicate. He runs around all day saying "Cars! Cars! Cars!" Not singular "car" but plural "cars". This word encompasses not only cars, but trucks, trains, buses, airplanes--really anything with wheels. In fact, he has a plastic drawer set to hold his stuff in his room, and it has wheels so it is also lumped in the car category.

The other day we were driving in our "CAR!" and E was in the backseat jabbering to himself while looking out the window and Ben and I just started laughing because he was saying "Cars! C-c-c-cars! C-c-c-cars!" He loves them with all his young boy heart. He even sometimes sleeps holding a car in the hand that's wrapped around beah. (You know, he has to have that thumb accessible.)

We caught him the other day obviously playing out a huge scenario with his farm and "cars!", perfectly content. I wish I knew the storyline, because there definitely was one. It made me realize how big he is, because babies can't map out recognizable scenarios. Big boys can. :(

Mmmm!

For FHE on Monday night, we had a wonderful lesson from the Nursery manual by Daddy. I seriously love that manual. The lessons are just right for a short attention span and I love the little coloring pages that go with the lesson. It warms my heart when they're hanging up on the fridge and E goes up to them and stares like he remembers what we talked about. Or when he wears the unwieldy paper necklace around and brings me mine to wear too. I felt like I had arrived as a mother when I looked down at the pancake-sized necklace with little crayon scribbles hanging around my neck with a piece of moist, scratchy yarn.

The best part about FHE though is always the treat. We gave E his first ice cream cone. Let me assure you this is not his first time having ice cream--merely the first time we gave it to him on his own cone, and let him hold it.

Mmmm...mango sherbet

He has such a long tongue. I don't know where he gets it from. Seriously, I don't.

This picture makes it look like we held him down and MADE him eat his ice cream. We're such mean parents. We threatened him with time out if he didn't finish. :) (Ok really though, my camera sometimes catches weird expressions because the shutter speed is a little slow. So I caught him mid-blink this time, but I can't manage to catch a smile when I want to.)

Some Visitors from Up North

We had our fun friends, Jared and Liesl (and cute baby Bailey) come for a visit on Saturday. They used to be our friends in Logan and now they are living in Cleveland (and we get to resume our friendship now...:) ) while Jared attends dental school. Ben and Jared were on the A-team together at Utah State, and people used to get them mixed up all the time so they learned to answer to both names. They are practically the same person though. They even have the same calling in their respective wards.

Ben just happened to win tickets through the med school to the OSU hockey game. So we went to dinner at Caffe DaVinci and headed out while finishing our delicious gelato. And the girls totally finished first. Favorite quote of the night by Jared: "Oh, are you finished ALREADY!?" as he was trying to juggle his 3/4 full dish. Yes, we are pigs. Actually, I think we just learn to eat fast because it's only a matter of time before the children need something.

Us at the game

We weren't sure how Emerson would do since the game went past his bedtime, but he did great as long as he was sitting on either Jared or Liesl's lap with his arms flapping around.

Cute little Bailey. Isn't she the perfect mix of the two of them? She was such a sweetie. She lured Ben into holding her and then had a blowout on his lap. He forgave her quickly though, especially since none of the mustard poop got on him.

Thanks for the visit! We'd love to see you again soon. Oh, and if you ever find out whether those elephants were poisoned or struck by lightning, let us know. ;)

A Few of My Favorite Things...

These are a few of Emerson's favorite things lately. Sometimes he'll just decide to lay down on our kitchen floor in the middle of playing like it's the most comfortable thing in the world. Apparently he loves this floor a lot compared to the old linoleum.

I admit that I let him watch shows. You can think that I'm letting him rot his brain or whatever, and no, I'm not one of those moms who thinks that Baby Einstein is teaching my child everything he needs to know, but I use it for entertainment value so I can get things done sometimes. And honestly, when he wakes up from his nap sometimes he just needs to sit with me, watch a show, and re-orient himself before he's ready to play by himself again. Plus it's not like I'm letting him watch Jerry Springer or anything, it's just Sesame Street. There is educational value there.

I realize he looks like he's praying here, but he's actually just fascinated with this show called John Deere Heaven that I got from the library. I wish I could've gotten a picture of both he and Ben completely lost in the show because you can bet they both were. There's everything from cars, animals, tractors, and trains and they're all yellow and green. It was pretty heavenly for both of my boys.

Ooooh!

There are just so many things I could say about why this picture makes me smile, laugh, and grit my teeth all at the same time. But I won't. I'll just let it speak for itself. Ok, the one thing I'll say is that the title of this post comes from Emerson's lips saying "oooh!" which he learned yesterday.

Good Head

I've always liked the shape of Emerson's head. Who knew that a Cool Whip container could fit on it so perfectly? I know what you're thinking...and yes, he put it on himself and then nonchalantly wandered into the kitchen. Not even with an expression like "Look how clever I am, Mom!" like he so often does, but just like "Oh hey Mom" and then went about his Emersonian business.

Handsome Boy

He's such a funny boy. I asked him to "go stand over there" and I guess he thought he was supposed to kneel like when we say prayers before bedtime? I just think it's funny to see such a small boy kneeling.

I took these pictures of Emerson in his new outfit for church. The only thing is he won't smile anymore and kind of gives me these blank stares. They make him look very intelligent.

He's such a big boy in nursery. The report from the singing leader was that he got to be a helper yesterday because he was being the most reverent. That was news to me. :) I peeked at him through the little window and he was having a great time and being a good boy, sitting still on his chair. I think he's still intimidated by the older kids, so I'm sure the reverence/submission will subside before too long.

A Note About E's Costume

Apparently bears run in the family.

This is me trying to be brave in my bear costume. It terrified me to put it over my head but I was ok once it was on. I'm glad my son is braver than I am.

(This picture is from our midweek Halloween activity. One of the girls in our ward is a professional photographer and was so nice to take pictures of all the kids!)

Trick-Or-Treat

As I mentioned last year, Ohio does trick-or-treating a little weird. Each city has a designated day to go trick-or-treating as well as a specific time. Our "Beggar's Night" was Thursday from 6-8pm. Apparently they do this to make it safer for the kiddos as well as to avoid interference with the OSU games. We went around our neighborhood with the Richards, our adopted cousins.

Our little Emerson bear had a good time going around from house to house and Ben did a good job with his fatherly duty. He kept his little son's tired legs moving and then carried him a lot so that we hit every single house. I'll admit that it brought out the competitive side in me as well and took me back to the days of trick or treating with my Daddy-o and how we had to win.

Emerson's favorite item was the mini tube of toothpaste from the Nydeggers. He was holding a piece of candy when they handed it to him and he threw it down and grabbed the toothpaste. He wouldn't even drop it in his pumpkin for fear of losing it forever. He also got more aggressive at the last 2 or 3 houses. The nice people were holding candy out for him and he smacked their hands away and picked what he wanted out of the bowl. (Yikes...a little embarrassment for us.) At least they thought he was cute...but I can see we need to work on manners. E wouldn't say "trick-or-treat" to anyone, but he faithfully said "bye" and waved and sometimes even said "oh yeah" when prompted by Daddy. All in all, a very successful night.

Our little beah with his jack-e-lantern and dots

The trick-or-treaters

Ariel Taylee, Emerson Beah, and Peapod Mathis

Emerson Beah

E and Daddy

Our ward had a trunk-or-treat on Saturday morning, so we went to try to get rid of our candy, but so did everyone else. So we just really ended up trading.

E in the backseat on the way to the ward Trunk-or-Treat

We also had our little spooky Halloween dinner. A few things have changed since last year.
1. The kids are of course bigger.
2. There was an extra big eater present this year...Mathis sure can pound some serious chili.
3. Rocky and Joni are expecting a "little beast" in March, so he/she counted as a half person at dinner.
But the coolness factor remained the same. :)

I promise there was actual food...I just forgot to take a picture until we were at the marshmallow-roasting portion of the night.