Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Skater & Superheroes

This is skater - Easton's favorite bath toy. I would even say he's Easton's first imaginary friend. Every day when he gets in the bath he searches through his massive bucket of bath toys until he finds Skater. The whole bath revolves around Skater's adventures.
Skater is really a water pump that came with a set of horses and fences, but Easton thinks it looks like it's on a skateboard. Therefor it turned into a person named Skater. I love hearing him tell me all about the funny things Skater did in the bath each day.
I've been meaning to post this for a long time...sorry Kelsey! Aunt Kelsey sewed Easton this cape! He has had a thing for super heroes for quite a while now. He even has his own song that Aunties made up, "Easton is a super hero, Easton saves the world!" It has a catchy little melody, too. We find ourselves singing it a little more often than we should!


And of course in Kelsey's true over-achiever style, it's double sided.
We really enjoyed the warm weather we had last week! We even got sunburned! The smell of sunscreen made me SO EXCITED FOR SUMMER!!! Too bad it's been raining non-stop for the last 4 days...

Easton, Tyson, and Aunties flew this Buzz Lightyear kite.
Easton and Tyson went on a hike one day to a pond and Easton loved throwing rocks in!
Easton, Callan, and I also visited Wheeler Farm and Temple square. We went to visit Grandpa Cook in his office and he was able to take a break and come walk around Temple Square with us. I was glad to have him, especially since Easton had some extreme energy that day!

Yesterday Easton threw up three times in 30 minutes. It was so weird because I ate all the same things as he did. We went to Subway, and he fell asleep on the way home. I put him in his bed and 5 minutes later he was screaming because he was throwing up and didn't know what was going on. It was so sad. He was really pale and weak for a few hours after that, but seems fine now. I just had to throw that into this post because I think it is so weird how much sickness we've had lately! In the last year we've had tumors, pityriasis rosea (Easton's 3 month rash), hernias, pre-term labor, pink eye, RSV, and countless cases of cold and flu. I'm not sure what we've done to become so immunocompromised, but I'm getting sick of it! I'm about ready to buy into Noni juice or something. We need a super fruit around here!

A post wouldn't be complete without some good Easton lines. One thing he's been saying a lot lately is "else" as in someone else. He uses the word "else" in place of the word "rest."
ie:
"The else of the water isn't draining."
"The else of those kids are playing tag."
"I already ate the else of my dinner."

He's also been using the word "strange."
ie:
"The else of the water isn't draining. Strange."
I got some strawberry on my face. That's strange."

He likes to throw the words "you know" at the end of his sentences when he's trying to drive a point home.
ie:
"I am a super hero YOU KNOW. I save the world."
"I am a big boy YOU KNOW!"
"I dont't want to go to bed YOU KNOW!"

Another common sentence finisher is "that's why." Usually followed by something he "just needed" to do.
ie:
"How come you poked Callan?"
"I just needed to poke him. That's why. That's why I did that mom. You know."

"Why did you make this mess?"
"I just needed to. I like making messes you know. That's why I did that. That's why."

He's a crack up. He came into our bed in the night of course. Tyson left for work this morning and a little while later I woke up and Easton wasn't next to me. I sat up in bed and could see that the light in his room was on, but that was the only one in the house. Usually if he gets up he just goes right out to the TV and turns it on, but it wasn't on. I started to panic a little when I heard a tiny whisper, "Um mom, I need you to find Woody's hat." It took me a while to find him, but he was hiding behind the rocking chair right by Callan's crib. It was a little freaky actually and I'm not sure why he was there, but Callan was fussing a little bit so I don't know if Easton was the cause of that, or if he went over there to try to help. Anyway he led me into his room and got down on the floor and pointed to Woody's hat clear under the bed. "I just need you to get that hat, it's all the way back there. Then I need you to find Woody my cow doll and he's gonna say, 'there's a snake in my boot!' " This was at 6:30 in the morning! He was acting so weird! He must have dreamt about Woody - we watched Toy Story yesterday when he was sick. That's the only reason I can think he would wake up begging for a toy he hadn't seen in weeks or months!


One last thing, we have a new photoblog! Click here to check it out!



Sunday, May 8, 2011

Thoughts on Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day everyone! Especially to my own mom and mom-in-law - I am the luckiest! Tyson was kind enough to give me the gift of sleeping through the night last night! He got up with Callan and gave him bottles. It was a much needed break after 3 and a half months! In the morning I decided to have a lazy morning and didn't do much of anything. Tyson, on the other hand, did dishes, laundry, cleaned glass, bathed Easton, made Easton's breakfast, and just kept going and going and going. He always knows just what will make me happy and I'm so grateful for him. Unfortunately Tyson had to go to work around 10 and it all went down hill for me from there:)

After Tyson left, I realized how little time I had to get myself and the kids ready for church. It was at that point that I started to get discouraged about how if I take any time for myself to relax, it ruins the whole rest of the day. I should have just gotten up and showered and got going at 6:00. I pretty much turned into a real "Debbie downer" (to quote a phrase I just learned) for the rest of the day.

I got showered and wanted to straighten my hair which I so rarely have a chance to do since I'm always chasing kids. Taking the time to fix my hair prevented me from being able to finish the mothers day projects I was working on for my moms so they didn't get presents which caused me a lot of guilt. And it ended up pouring rain all day so my hair was a waste. Easton got our coin bucket and dumped money all over the house. I fought with him for a half hour over cleaning it up and he just refused. Finally I said, "Do you want to clean it up or get a spanken?" He said, "I want a spanken mom. Just give me a spanken!" Well what do you say to that? A two-year-old using reverse psychology on me? He never did pick them up. We fought and fought and I finally just did it myself. I was not feeling like a good mother at all at this point. I finished getting ready...I straightened my hair which is falling out at an incredible rate thanks to my post-partum hormones. Seriously if I had to guess, I would say I lose thousands of hairs a day... It's a miracle I have any left.....I put on my make-up and did my best to cover up all the acne - also being caused by the post-partum hormones along with the stress the children bring...And I got dressed - only to find that none of my skirts will zip up over my childbearing hips.

After all of this and a whole weekend full of "baby weight" comments and
"You look tired."
"I am tired."
conversations, I was feeling like this whole motherhood thing is kind of the pits! I felt like mothers day was an excuse for men to throw chocolate, service, and inspirational speakers at us to try to convince us to stick it out for one more year!

The last thing I wanted to do was go to church. However, I was glad I did because things started to change right when I got there. I was so glad to see one of my favorite moms in the ward was speaking. I loved her talk, but couldn't help feeling a little bit inadequate after hearing about great mothers who teach their children so well. A lot of things were going through my mind like, I need to make sure we pray at night with Easton. We need to read scriptures, etc... Then the primary got up and started to sing, "I see my mother kneeling with her family each day...." and Easton whispered to my parents, "My mom sings this to me in my bed." When my dad leaned over and told me what Easton had said I tried to act like it wasn't a big deal, but it was exactly what I needed to hear. I needed to hear right from him that I was actually teaching him something! That I was doing a good job at something! I started to feel a little better and continued on to the next 2 hours of church. After church Easton ran up to me with this card he made in nursery. I cried and laughed and knew everything was going to be ok:)

That is the silliest smile I've ever seen. After church we picked up dad from work, had a great dinner at his mom's, and went to plant great grandma Page's flowers. I lucked out and got to stay inside with the baby, but everyone else got soaked in the pouring rain!

So I guess Mothers Day turned out ok after all. I'm so lucky to have my two sweet boys and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I definitely have my days, but overall, I LOVE being a mom!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Blessed!

Callan was blessed yesterday! It was such a special and fun day. Thanks to everyone who came to share it with us! Tyson gave a beautiful blessing. Thanks Cassidy for writing down some important little pieces of it. That will be a great reminder for him!
For as sick as Callan was, I consider it a miracle that on Saturday he suddenly had major improvements and we were able to enjoy the day of his blessing! I'm so glad he was able to wear the same outfit as Easton! I had my doubts, but it worked out perfectly!
Callan didn't quite fill it out like his rolly polly brother did, even though he is almost twice as old as Easton was at his blessing:)
Hayden and Nicole - never looking at the camera at the same time:)
"Old" Grandma and Grandpa Page (according to Easton). Sorry Pages, we caught you out in the BRIGHT BRIGHT sun! We're just glad the sun was shining!
Grandma and Grandpa Page
Kelsey, Desi, Tony
Tony scheming a dodgeball plot against Easton
Some of the Knowlton family.
(I'm going to be in big trouble when Tyson sees my out of focus camera work...oops, sorry)
Callan and Auntie Katie, as Easton now calls her
Uncle Josh
Callan's Great Grandma Allen
Grandpa and Grandma Cook
Thanks mom and dad for hosting the luncheon! Everything was perfect!
And our little fam.