Ike is Three

Or 29. Depending on how he feels when you ask him.

Ike loves dinosaurs, books (especially books about dinosaurs, dragons, bears and other animals), blocks, army guys and animals. He enjoys singing and being sung to. Favorite songs at the moment include "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "the Cougar song" (which is really the BYU fight song), "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man," (which he now thinks is associated with Christmas because of our nativity set), and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

He is a moderately good helper, depending on his mood and the chore. He loves to help with laundry - bringing it to the washer, pushing wet clothes into the dryer, sorting his own clothes - but he's not as keen about putting away his toys or helping with the dishes. He loves to choose his own clothes, and usually will opt for a shirt with a picture on it. He'll opt for stripes occasionally, but only if his shirts with pictures are all dirty. He does not like having his hair washed or combed.

He has a major sweet tooth and spends his day begging for treats. I'm only exaggerating a little bit here.

His best friend is a girl who lives across the street, but he loves playing with all children. He always has fun at his sitter's house and asks pretty much every day if he is going there. Ike also loves going to nursery each week.

Sometimes he act shy, but for the most part he is very outgoing and loves to talk to all sorts of people.

I'm always astounded by his memory. There are so many things that he pulls out of his head, and I'm blown away that he remembers that event or that person. He also has a really good sense of direction, which also blows my mind.

We love this little guy and are glad he's our boy.

Thanksgiving Break

Eric had a glorious 5 days off of school. I used one of them to let him stay home with the boys while I worked all day.

On Thanksgiving I ran (but mostly walked, let's be honest) the first annual Pilgrim 5k, where I dressed up as a Native American. I did not win the costume contest, but I would have had the only other person who dressed up as a Native American not been a little girl. Ike got to sit at a little kid table, where I'm 99% sure he consumed only M&M's, raisins and candy corn from his nut cup. Also, now that I think of it, he ate some olives. The day after Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas, with all the glass bulbs hung sufficiently out of reach of our non-walking toddler. On Saturday we rode on a train (just TRAX, really).

 

We went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. Hooray for holidays!

A Teacher's Wife

Eric is more than halfway through his first semester of teaching. He wishes he had realized 10 years ago that this is what he wanted to do. Considering the relatively large pay cut he took to change careers, we are both really happy that he likes his work so much.

It's awesome to have more time together as a family. Eric is required to stay at school until 4, and usually he stays later than that, but he's still generally home by about 5. Contrast this with the old job in which he arrived home closer to 6, and usually later if he carpooled. (His commute went from 23 miles each way to less than 7 miles each way.) We can eat dinner earlier, which overall, has resulted in happier children. After dinner we still have plenty of time to play, go on walks or otherwise be together.

I am still working 20 hours per week. As I've said before, it's a little more than I'd like, but with Eric's new job it's become much more manageable. Eric has class on Tuesday nights (so he can become a certified teacher), so we don't usually see him until almost 9 on those nights. It makes for a long day for me since I also work on Tuesdays, but it's just one night a week. Since Eric is done with work so much earlier, he is now eligible to pick up the boys from the sitter's house. When he was not getting home until close to 6 that wasn't an option because our sitters don't generally want our boys that late. So on Wednesdays Eric picks up the boys while I work until 8 or so. Again, it makes for a long day. But usually it means that on my at-home days I can limit my working time to when my boys are napping. It's been great to have that change.

We are loving that Eric has so many school holidays and are eagerly planning future road trips and vacations. It's a little ironic that we now have more time to travel, because we most certainly have less money to do so. Still, we've always been frugal, and we are by no means destitute.

All in all we are both really happy with the career change. He's happy as a teacher, and I'm happy as a teacher's wife.

The Obligatory Pictures of My Cute Halloween-Costumed Children

If you are friends with my on Facebook, sorry for the duplication.

I was gifted seven garbage bags full of boys' clothes shortly after Ike was born, and included in that generous gift was a dragon costume. I've  been eagerly waiting to use that costume ever since. Then, a few weeks ago somebody posted on Facebook that she had a dragon costume meant to fit a baby aged 3-6 months. We went and tried it on, and my teensy one-year-old can still wear clothes meant for infants. Voila, two dragon costumes for free.

  

Ike had a great time trick-or-treating with his best friend who lives across the street. He couldn't keep up with her older siblings and definitely couldn't figure out why the big rush. He also eagerly corrected anybody who mistook him for a dinosaur.

Trees

If we continue at this rate of progress on our back yard, we'll be looking really good in about three years. We got trees this week.

Technically we bought our trees on Friday. It was a surprisingly good experience. We went to Cook's Nursery, and we worked with an awesome employee who really knew her stuff. It was so much better than the oodles of employees I've tried to talk to in garden departments at hardware and ginormous stores. Those employees are total nitwits. The folks at Cook's know what's what about plants. She really helped us get a good idea of what trees would work well in our soil and in our terraced back yard, and then she helped us choose the best specimens they had to offer. Most of their stock is 20% off right now since it's the fall, so that was a huge help for us since we bought seven trees.

The trees were delivered on Monday afternoon, and Eric planted them that evening. I took this picture yesterday morning, and I don't have a panoramic option, so I had to make do with using Paint (the photo editing tool of choice for people who are digital-image-inept. This explains not only the vast lighting differences, but also the uneven back fence.)

From left to right, the trees are:

• crabapple, named Krabapple (prounounced Kruh-bahpple, like the teacher from The Simpsons)
• choke cherry, named George
• hornbeam, named Horatio South
• hornbeam, named Horatio North
• Swedish aspen, named Björn
• Norwegian spruce, named Thorlief
• flowering plum, named Professor

Everyone names their trees, right?

Things I'm eagerly awaiting:

• In a few years those hornbeams will be nice and tall, which will block that horrible setting sun that beats down into my kitchen and dining area every evening.
• In a few more years that choke cherry will be big and beautiful and shady.
• Each spring we will have some beautiful blossoms. I can't remember which trees will have which colors, but it's going to be wonderful.
• Every fall that crabapple will have beautiful, bright, red berries. At first we were looking for a non-berry variant of the crabapple, but after seeing enough of the red berries on the trees at the nursery, I changed my tune, and we got a berry variety. We'll just make the children find and clean up the berries.

I'm not sure anyone has ever been quite as excited about trees.

Felix - Twelve Months

He's 1! Felix's favorite things are milk (not from Mom anymore), his brother, being held by Mom, exploring on all fours, wiggling, and bread. He is figuring out how to climb down from things like stairs, but he still hasn't mastered that. He loves to empty cabinets and shelves at any chance, and this month he has learned he can also put toys and other small items into buckets or boxes. He no longer takes a morning nap, but he's a fantastic nighttime sleeper. Felix doesn't say any words, except may "dog." I'm not quite sure about it, though. When he hears the bath water running he comes crawling as fast as he can to join in the fun. Ike has really grown to be a much more involved big brother in the last few months, and I love to hear him try to involve Felix in his activities. He is happy to have Felix follow him around laughing at his antics, and I love to hear the two of them together. I love this little guy. 

(But I sure hope he stops spitting up soon. Enough's enough, amiright?)