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.

Carving Pumpkins

*Editor's Note: Please note at the end of this post that I have NOTHING against dentists. I'm glad we have dentists and love all of our friends here going to dental school. It was the fact that this person made me feel like a bad mother that my bear claws came out.

For family night on Monday, I was feeling fun and adventurous, so we decided to make sugar cookies and carve pumpkin. No there is no "s" on the end. We used to have more than one pumpkin to carve, but we found it was rotten and Emerson had stepped in the gunk so it was promptly tossed out. (Remember though how we picked out our pumpkins in complete darkness? Hence the rotten ugly pumpkin.)

E wasn't too sure about the stuff Daddy was pulling out of the pumpkin. Luckily stroller is close by watching over him.

Tell me these two are not the same person.

Daddy let E take a whack at it with our little blunt-edged pumpkin saw

I wish the pumpkin had dangling toes too

He loved spreading the flour on the table

He was pro at pushing down the cookie cutters and even made grunting noises to demonstrate that great effort was being made. There were silly little thumb prints in all the cookies surrounding the ones he cut out.

He was sooo good at transferring the cookies to the cookie sheet

He only smashed like, all of them. :)

And yes, we're horrible parents because we let him eat a cookie at the end. *Gasp!* Not SUGAR! Oh well, it's ok because Ben isn't going to school to become a dentist. Just a doctor. Therefore we don't care if his teeth rot. (Someone actually insinuated that yesterday. Grrr.) And yes, we're also planning to let him eat some of his Halloween candy. I guess I'd better run out and buy a toothbrush finally. (Hope you're catching the thick sarcasm here. We obviously have a toothbrush and wield it daily.)

18 Months

E with his jack-e-lantern

Emerson went to the doctor on Monday for his 18 month appointment. I told him we were going to the doctor, and the closest reference point in his little mind is "tractor" so he immediately started saying "bubububub" (his tractor noise) and was content as could be. He wasn't even really upset when we got there and there was no tractor in sight.

Our little guy is a runt!

He weighs 21 lbs. 13 oz.

He is 31 inches tall.

His head is still in the 50th percentile. He has a very good head.

We love our little Emerson. He is growing and learning so much! Some of his/our favorite things about him are:

He is obsessed with firetrucks, tractors, and semi trucks and has sound effects to describe all of them. He just discovered trains at a friend's house. (hint hint Santa)

He can sign: more, please, thank you, flower, star, moon, banana.

He can say: caR, caRs, beah, beaR, mom, dad, more, outside, piggy, elmo, show, drink (aight aight), nanana (banana), Pa (grandpa), Ama (grandma), Fi (Stephy), Abaya (Bradley), Nay (Natalie), Sott (Scott), Shysh (Ashley), yeah, no no no, hi, teeth, juice, that, there, eye, nose, toes, Jesus, and cheese. (Those last two sound very similar...). Today he's just started saying "what's that?" although it sounds more like "wassah?"

He loves to give and blow kisses and hugs.

He loves to watch his "shows". (Baby Signing Time, Elmo's World, Baby Einstein, Super Why)

He loves to go outside.

He likes to be held when he wakes up from his nap.

He has a good little sense of humor and cracks himself up. He also loves to laugh when Mommy and Daddy are being silly.

He likes to dance to music.

He likes to "color" which means loading and unloading the crayons while sitting at the table with a blank sheet of paper.

He is getting better at minding and following directions.

He loves anything with wheels and calls it a car. He can often be found pulling his wagon or pushing his stroller loaded with blocks, animals, and cars.

He loves reading stories, especially if they have firetrucks, tractors, or cars in them.

He gets excited when Daddy "Da" comes home from school. Yesterday he ran up to him and said enthusiastically "Hi Da!" and gave him a big hug. What a warm welcome.

18 months is a big milestone, mostly because it means one glorious thing...NURSERY! He went for the first time while we were in Utah and only cried a little and asked for "mama" when Grandma came in to do singing time. He's been excited to go in but then cries a little after awhile when he realizes he doesn't know anyone; not enough for them to bring him to us yet though. He loves playing with the toys and enjoys snack time and singing time from what I hear.

Emerson, we're so glad you're in our family! You brighten our day and make us laugh. We love you!

Circleville Pumpkin Festival

For our date night last Friday, Ben and I went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. We felt a little bit like mean parents not taking Emerson since it's supposed to be such a fun thing, but when we got there we were SO glad we didn't have him and the stroller to maneuver around because it was pouring rain. We were waiting for the parade to start and the sky just opened up and dumped on everybody. I felt bad for the people carrying their food and watching it get soaked. Especially the people with nachos.

We watched the little parade and made all sorts of funny comments about the floats and the millions of Freemasons in the parade. It was fun to joke around and flirt with my hubby. It felt like we were dating again or something! We loved the parade. It totally beat the Hilliard 4th of July parade by a landslide, mostly because there were actual floats and not a baseball team in sight.

As for the pumpkiny fallish things we tried, the mini pumpkin donuts were our favorite. Second was definitely the apple cider slush. Sooo good, with a surprisingly strong apple taste. We also tried sugar waffles, had a piece of pumpkin pie, and got some candied almonds for the drive home. Among the things that were pumpkiny that we didn't try was pumpkin fudge, pumpkin chili, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin taffy, and I'm sure there were even more. These all just looked/sounded gross. Then there was the usual fair food and rides, but we just had a good time holding hands and watching people, looking at the pumpkins, and laughing.

It's funny that we look forward to our date nights so much and then when we're on the date we just end up talking about Emerson and what a funny and cute little guy he is. We're always glad to go back at the end of the night to pick him up from the babysitter's house. But don't get me wrong, we wouldn't trade our date nights for anything. It's so nice to be in a babysitting group with 2 other families in the ward because we tend one night and then get 2 nights out. Plus all the kids are so good and so cute and Emerson loves playing with them.

Boo at the Zoo

We went to Boo at the Zoo on Thursday with some girls from the ward. We realized once we got there that our kids were the only ones dressed up...but that was ok because they were the cutest anyway. Plus it's never a bad thing to get some adorable pictures with your son and his best buddy. Every time I tend Tucker and Emerson wakes up in the morning it's like the biggest and best surprise I could give him. I can hardly get him to sit down and eat breakfast. They are so cute together playing peek-a-boo and watching Elmo's World...and of course stealing toys from each other as much as I try to encourage sharing. It's pretty cute when they have to say goodbye too because they are so willing to give hugs to each other. Britni and I can't stop laughing when they keep going back for more. (I think they're both praise junkies and know we like it when they hug.)

So it turns out the actual Boo at the Zoo event is held on weekends with treat stations and such. We ventured over there today with Ben and got E some treats, which he caught onto pretty quickly. I don't think I've ever seen him sign "more" and "please" so much. I took advantage of this and bribed him into learning the sign for "thank you" as well.

Such cute little monsters

And such good friends (They seriously give each other like 8 hugs when Britni picks him up.)

My favorite little beah...I can't decide which picture I love the most.

Emerson decided it was a good idea to sit on the pumpkin we picked up from Circle S the other night...so he did. Very matter-of-factly.

Circle S Farm

We've been in need of some serious fall fun, so we ventured over to Circle S Farm on Wednesday night with a few friends from the ward. Emerson had a great time with all things farm:

Testing out a tractor

Throwing hay

Cracking himself up throwing hay

Gazing longingly at the people getting rides from the tractor

Saying "To heck with this line!" (mentally) and trying to climb the fence to get to the cool tractor

FINALLY getting pulled by the tractor to the pumpkin patch

Miraculously discovering a few pumpkins in the pitch dark and then racing back to the tractor before it left us to be picked up by the next round in 30 minutes or so.

Not to mention the delicious pumpkin donuts and juice.

And we didn't even step in any manure.

A Little Preview...

...of Emerson's Halloween costume.


What could be more fitting than a beah?
And yes, that is a giraffe peeking over his shoulder. :)