Psych, Cars & Hot Sauce...

No pictures - sorry. I do have a few pictures to post, but they're a pain to get to right now (the new addition of a crib to our bedroom has really put a damper on the organization of the corner where all Tyler's school stuff, my craft stuff and any other random stuff usually lives). Now it just looks like an explosion of baby stuff, school stuff, Cole's toys and anything else that has been thrown over there this week. The camera is in the back...

Anyway, just a quick note (mostly to remind myself for later) about what we've been up to:

Tyler is working hard at school - he's got about 4 weeks left, so we're all pretty excited. He just finished 2 classes that have been ongoing throughout the semester, but unfortunateley that doesn't seem to have freed up much time. He's still going strong. Right now they're working on psych stuff. I think he's got one more week of that then it's one more class 'till the end! YIPPEE!

Ty's also trying to decide exactly what to do this summer. He has a couple options and is working on trying to figure out what will work out best for his school and for us as a family. He's being very considerate of our new baby girl too. He always thinks of everything! I think we're all just hoping for a nice break from the norm.

Cole is being Cole. He's into cars, trucks, busses, cycles (motorcycles), trains, b'doers (bulldozers), tractors, bikes, tagiz (taxis), anything that goes. He plays with them all day - in the kitchen where they roll on the floor, in the window sill, on the carpet, the sheep skin, in his crib, and on the cleared off shelves (where he's thrown everything else on the floor to make room). If he's not playing with cars, he wants to watch Cars (the movie). He's just a little obsessed. He also loves to watch cars pass on the street. We go on lots of walks to watch the cars. :) Once in awhile he takes a break from the usual and plays with Tyler's tools. He LOVES to pretend to "figx" things. He babbles on about the drivers (screwdrivers), wrenches, hammer, mezzer (measuring tape), etc. and talks about when Grandpa will come and they can play with toos. :) Gear up, Dad and Grandpa - you've got one excited 20 month old on your hands who will for sure want to help you "fig-it."

Cole also loves to "dance." He loves to have music playing in the background and he loves to bump to the beat. We have to say bump because basically he bends his knees to the music and waves his arms around. It's pretty cute. He loves to jump too - to music, on our bed or on the couch... Unfortunateley, our house sortof is a gymnasium...

Cole is learning all sorts of other new things too. He's talking a lot and trying to make sentences. He tells really cute shrot stories with one and two word sentences. He almost always asks "please" and he for sure keeps Tyler and me in stitches with the funny things he says. We might be crazy, but we stay up at night laughing about all the funny phrases he's coined at our house. We love to read to him - he asks for the books and songs by name and can finish lots of the phrases along the way - including the alphabet. :) His favorite books are: Dinosaur Roar, The Alpha Building Crew, any of the machine/car books, and nursery rhyme books. His favorite songs are the "ABCs", "The Eensy Weensy Spider," adding the nursery rhymes to the ABCs (thanks Anna for teaching us that fun game - now he wants me to sing it AND all the nursery rhymes over and over), and "I Am a Child of God." The other night at bedtime he kept shouting "God" - I was mortified as a mother that my child would yell something like that. It took me the whole next day to figure out that he was asking me to sing "I Am a Child of God" and was getting more and more frustrated when I didn't understand what he meant. We're working on teaching him more words to that song...

Cole is learning to pray. He gets better and worse depending on the day and the distractions, but it's pretty cute. He likes to do it himself and will tell us if he wants a turn. He's getting really good at understanding taking turns with us and with his frens. :) He plays pretty well with other kids, but is sometimes a bit of a bully to his little friend, Shaun. He absoluteley LOVES him, but it's really hard to share toys you're both so interested in. We're just glad they still like each other. :) We're proud of Cole for not hitting or kicking his friends. IF he has a problem (which really is rare) he yells about it and kindof asks for help. It's pretty funny. We love our little guy! He makes life exciting!

I'm just doing the same old stuff. The mom thing is a lot of the same over and over. I do love it though. What else can you do that lets you slide down the slides at the park, play in the sand, eat lots of strawberries, cut fruit into shapes, hang out with other moms and kids, watch/memorize Disney movies, crawl on the floor, make car noises, swim/splash, and be intested in every hole, piece of dirt, leaf, bark, rock, wood chip, puddle or tall patch of grass in the vicinity? :) It's a blast!!!

I am still scared out of my mind when I think that we'll soon have two kids to accompany on these great adventures and one of them will be a newborn. Adding to my anxiety is the fact that I've been thinking Brooklyn will be here every day for the last month. I can't believe she's not (and neither can our doctor...), but at the same time I'm glad she's stayed in to bake a little longer than Cole. I do have to say that I have gained a new respect for women who carry children to their due date and beyond. I didn't know how easy I had it with Cole. I woke up in the early morning (without panicking about anything or worrying about when he'd show up - it was a complete suprise). We went to the hospital, he was born and life was grand! (Granted, he has given us a run for our money since that day, but really, pregnancy and delivery with him was pretty easy.)

Brooklyn has been so different and even now is showing me I need to be grateful for everything - grateful for how easy it was before and grateful for learning about what it's like this time around. Life's not horible - don't get me wrong - but I can sure tell you I'd prefer to have her in my arms right now than in my tummy. Our doctor says she's going to be a big baby and that's exciting and scarry all at the same time. We'll see if she's right. Tonight I decided I'd had enough and we went out for spicy Mexican food to see if that would get her excited enough to come join us (today was Tyler's day off school - a free day for no other reason than for us to have our baby... or not... it would have been nice and convenient :) ) Aparently, Brookly is going to take after my dad who is a legendary salsa-drinking champion. Yes, I admit I drank hot sauce today to see what would happen - - - the answer: absoluteley nothing (well, almost nothing). Brooklyn did a little salsa dance for us for about 10 minutes then decided it was time to go back to sleep. So much for that one. I guess she'll come when she's good and ready.

Tyler gave me a sewing machine for Mother's Day. I've ha d a lot of fun the last couple days trying to figure out how to make a few things. It's been really fun and it's kept my mind off worrying about when our baby will decide to grace us with her presence. :) We've hung out with friends quite a bit too, which makes things fun. We're lucky to have such great friends here in CA and just about everywhere else right now too.

Guess that wraps it up for us right now. Sorry for the long and wordy post. I'll climb over the mountain of junk in the corner soon to get the pictures from the camera - until then...