Toilet

Sometimes when things are quiet and I haven't seen Calvin for a while I find him playing with the toilet brush in my bathroom and making a mess. Last night I found him in the bathroom and he didn't have the toilet brush (it was in the garbage can, he must have already finished with it) and for some reason his hair was all wet. I asked him why his hair was wet and he scrubbed his head with his hands and said,"washing hair!"
"How are you washing your hair?" I asked. He started to reach his hands into the toilet to demonstrate. ew! Washing his hair with toilet water??! What will he think of next?

Fill in a caption #3

I really like using photoshop to color my sketches, but I'm pretty new at it so I think these little "fill in the caption" blogs are a fun way to practice. I love hearing what people come up with too. Here are links to the two from the past: #1 #2

Calvin entertainment

These pictures are from when I told Calvin to go get some shorts and he came back with another t-shirt instead. He was really mad at me that I wouldn't help him put it on, and then even more mad at me when he tried to do it himself.

Instead of saying yeah to something Calvin would say "yeah I do", whether the question was Do you want to call Grandma? "yeah I do" or Should we go outside? "yeah I do" Is it green? "yeah, I do"

He'll say sorry to so many things. Like when he doesn't want to eat lunch and I offer him a whole list of things he'll say no to all of them and then say "sowwy" Or if he trips on a toy he says "sowwy" to the toy. Or when a kid tried to play with his toy he pulled it away, held his hand out to block it and said again, "sowwy"

Fox and Frog are said almost the same way. And I can't repeat how he says it. (F@%!) We're working with him on it.

He discovered that a lot of his diapers have a picture of Mickey and Pluto on them and every time he needs a diaper change he insists on "Mickey Dog!!" We have a growing pile of Mickey & Minnie diapers he's going to have to deal with at some point.

We were in the front yard and Calvin was running through the sprinkler when suddenly he took off sprinting down the sidewalk yelling "church!" "uh church!" The church is only a block and a half down the sidewalk, but I knew he wasn't really going to church on a Friday afternoon in his swim suit. As I ran after him it turned out he was running down to the neighbors house that has a dog out front. I guess he thought if he yelled "church" I wouldn't try to stop him??

Animals

Yesterday we went with some friends to Thanksgiving Point and Calvin just ran around and screamed the whole time he was so excited. He loves walking over to see the horses by our house and pointing them out every time we drive by them (which is every time we get in the car) He was SO excited to get to ride on one. When I asked him his horse's name he said "Calvin". And the same with the next horse he rode on too.
When we walked by a little baby goat it just sat in the corner for a long time until we were about to walk away it came over to the fence and let Calvin feed it a couple pieces of corn. I told him we were going to keep walking to look at other animals and he pointed at the baby sheep and said, "mine!" That's quite the souvenir he picked out.

June 2nd

If you are curious how the June 2nd prediction went, I don't know if I can say that was a magic day and suddenly I was better, but for sure a magic week. I would say 95% of my nausea is gone and what a difference that makes on my life. I feel so good, I even went to the track this morning and got in some walking/ jogging. Calvin even ran half a mile or so at the end as he ran around the track to get a little wet from the sprinklers. Hopefully we can make this a habit. Now we both need a nap!

A/C Heaven

It's been gradually getting warmer and I kept worrying that when we finally hard to turn on our A/C it wouldn't work. My nightmare came true. And just in time to have a pile of relatives over for Sunday dinner. We frantically called around and found someone to come by yesterday to see what the problem was. It was a simple fix and not nearly the cost I feared we would have to pay if it needed replaced. I can't even say how revealed I was to feel cold air coming from those vents. I LOVE AIR CONDITIONING!!

Name That Picture

I'm putting this painting in the BYU alumni show and I'm trying to think of a title for the piece. I usually do pretty boring titles like "Ice Skaters" but I think this time I want to do something more fun. Do you have a suggestion? These are some of my ideas so far:

1. Trying To Stay Warm and Not Fall Down
2. Emerald & Aqua
3. The Girl on the Top Right Just Realized She Doesn't Actually Know the Guy She is Waving at
4. Slippery
5. 67% Of the People in This Picture Can't Feel Their Toes

I'll throw a poll on the side if you want to vote, but really I would love suggestions.

(And special thanks to Katy for inspiring me to have a more interesting title)

Memorial Day

We threw together a last minute BBQ on Monday. A friend gave us a grill and Brandon got propane for it this weekend so we are set for the summer. No more oven cooking! It's all grilled this year. Here are some of the evening highlights:
croquet battling:
frisbee:
dancing:
cookie eating:The best part about Calvin's shirt is when you ask him what it says he responds, "daddy wocks!"

Sibling

That's right, a sibling for Calvin! My due date is on Thanksgiving. I have been very nauseous and if I am sick for the same amount of time that I was with Calvin then on June 2nd the nausea will go away. In the meantime, I have been eating a lot of watermelon and saltines with cream cheese. That's the flavor of the week anyway.

Competition

I was at Seagull Book today and I saw they have new tithing banks for kids. I am very familiar with the old selection. The cardboard one, the plastic one, and the modern tin one with color illustrations and a lock! I might be biased, but it was clearly the best one on the market, and yes, I get royalties on it and love it. So, NO! I am not happy that there is copy cat bank that is also tin, with a lock and key, and color illustration and less expensive! (smaller though) You can see them here. Just don't buy the copy cat.

Park

Whenever we go outside to play at some point Calvin will start running down the sidewalk yelling he is going to the park. It's the perfect size for him because the only thing at this park that made me nervous was the gap between the play area and the yellow swirl that seemed to big for him.
The other day he was getting better and better at climbing up the swirl without my help and eventually he got to the top, and pulled himself over to the play area. He was SO proud of himself, and even though I was scared he was going to fall, I was proud of him too.

Fishing

Yesterday we checked out Salem Pond. It was so pretty and a perfect day. Calvin had a blast and was very interested in watching (and helping) Brandon fish. I would love to see his reaction if Brandon really caught something. I guess we'll have to go back.
Do you love the super long basketball shorts Cal is sporting? It is his most frequently requested clothing item. It's his "daddy" shorts, because dad wears basketball shorts too.

Off to Russia

My little brother was in town for a few days before he entered the MTC. It was so fun to see him, and Calvin loved having him here. We don't get to see Chad very often since he lived so far away, but that didn't stop Calvin from crying when we said good-bye. No one else was crying, but as soon as he realized how far away Chad was getting Cal screamed "Cha! Chaaaaaaaaa!" It was so dramatic I had to laugh. It's not like Calvin has anyway of understanding that he won't see him for 2 years. I hope Chad felt loved.
When Calvin woke up from his nap later that day he asked for Chad and I told him he was at the MTC now to be a missionary. Calvin pointed to himself with both hands and asked, "and me??" I told him when he was as big as Chad he could go to the MTC and be a missionary. Later when Brandon asked Calvin about dropping off Chad he put out his bottom lip and said, "Cha. sad." I guess he is still a little upset about saying good-bye to uncle Chad.

What makes my day

Funny things Calvin has said lately:

Instead of just saying "no" he tells me, "no way" Like this morning when I asked him if he wanted to take another bite of cereal, "no way."

When I was getting out of the shower and someone knocked on our front door he yelled "come in" about 50 times before I got myself downstairs.

Sometimes when Calvin wants me to play sports with him I'm lazy and sit on the floor while shooting hoops or hitting golf balls. I guess that's no longer acceptable because now he tells me to "geh up!" He kind of shrugs his shoulders and jumps while he tells me this.

At the end of a hymn at church Calvin will say "done" or "the end"

When I tell him to come inside from playing in the dirt, he explains he can't because he is "working"

When Cal comes into a room you are in he will say either "hey" or "hi" in a dull voice like he's super cool. Which, he is.

He wanted to go outside at 9:00 at night and I told him it was too dark outside. He told me he would wear a coat.

Qubo

We don't have any kind of cable, just what I thought were basic stations. However, Canada is basic too I guess. Some of you may be familiar with Qubo, which is the only all-cartoon station we get. Cal's favorites are BG and Jacob Two-Two. I have to say, the art for Two-Two is kind of cool. If we tell him BG or Two-Two isn't on he'll respond with "check". He doesn't trust us that we know they're not on, now we have to check. oh he is funny. And he tells us when things are funny too. The other day he was looking at a picture of a bald eagle and he pointed at the beak and said, "teeth, funny". I don't know what was funny about it, but I sure like seeing him laughing and telling me what he thinks is funny.

Pictures

I just posted a pile of pictures, some of which include "before", "the mess", and a few "after" pictures of our new home.

Egg hunting

When Calvin woke up on Easter morning we brought him downstairs and told him their were eggs with candy in them. Since "canny" is a common request from him that he doesn't always get, he was stoked. He didn't bother carrying his basket around, but preferred to run and find a handful of eggs, run and put them in the basket, run and find more (and announce it), and run back to the basket, and so on. It was very entertaining to watch and it's too bad you couldn't have seen because we are still in a house of boxes and chaos so I have no idea where the camera is. Maybe next year.

Naming

Calvin has named his favorite basketball. He calls it "Orange". You might think he is just saying the color of the ball, but no, his orange ball that is exactly the same except it has black basketball lines is not referred to as Orange. That ball is not acceptable when looking for a ball to shoot with, only Orange will do.

*sigh*

Anyone know the best way to wash throw up out of a pillow? poor Calvin. what a night.

Crazy continues...

I will spend this week packing and cleaning as much I reasonably can. Then I will fly to WA for my grandpa's funeral, come home, and sign papers to close on our house. Then we will have only a few days to pull up carpet & tile, then put down new carpet & paint so we can move in. And clean the house. oh yeah, and while we do all that, we will finish packing and cleaning our apartment. Yesterday doesn't seem so crazy anymore. But the wonderful part is that in the end - we will be living in a house! Contrary to what my niece might tell me, I do know what it's like to live in a house and I am looking forward to it.