Treasure hunt

Here's our new activity for when we're sick of it being cold outside:

 

The more clues the better, and I kept them simple. ie: tv, front door, bathtub, etc. One day the treasure was a toy I had gotten earlier at the dollar store. Another day it was the ball he had asked me to help him find (it was behind the couch) and a dum dum.What an easy way to make a 2 year old really happy.

More on prayer

I already blogged about Calvin saying funny prayers like all toddlers tend to do, but I have to share today's gem.
I asked Calvin if he would say the prayer for dinner and he said he would help Paul say the prayer. (my college age brother)
Here's how it went:

Calvin: Heavenly Father, thank you Paul come over
Paul: Heavenly Father, thank you I was able to come over
Calvin: No. thank you Paul come over
Paul: oh. thank you Paul came over
Calvin: thank you Pauls here
Paul: thank you that Paul came here
Calvin: No. thank you Pauls hare.
Paul: uh, thank you Paul is here
Calvin: NO. Thank you Paul's HAIR (my eyes are open at this point and I see Calvin leaning over to Paul and pinching a clump of his hair. I instantly try to contain my laughter wondering how Paul is going to repeat this)
Paul: oh. (muffled laughter) Thank you for Paul's hair
Calvin: thank you Paul's ear
...repeat from Paul, and on to eyes and mouth before Calvin said he was done praying. I reminded him to bless the food and then we had dinner.

Imaginary

Calvin likes to play imagination games now. We pretend to be characters from his favorite cartoons, he pretends to be a teacher, etc. Today after lunch I told him we needed to wash his hands so he rubbed his hands together, smiled, and said, "all clean, see! I used pretend water!"
(as you can see from the picture Calvin insists on wearing basketball shorts quite often. In this case, over his Buzz Lightyear pajamas. During the day it is over his clothes. I want him to wear pants, he wants to wear shorts, so it's our compromise. win. win.)

Pancakes

Calvin is obsessed with pancakes. Since Saturday he decided he wants to eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I've let him eat them for breakfast. When I was feeding Shelby yesterday I heard some pots clanking together and then something spraying for a long time. I yelled at Calvin to come upstairs and I asked him what he was doing he proudly said he was making pancakes. When I went downstairs there was about half a cup of Pam sprayed on a cooking sheet. I'm starting to consider letting him eat pancakes for breakfast lunch & dinner because it couldn't take more than a day or two before he was sick of them, right?

Shelby's blessing

Here are some pictures from Shelby's baby blessing, it was a fun evening:

Home Depot

Brandon took Calvin to Home Depot's free kids workshop today. Here is his race car creation:

Triathlon

I've been thinking about doing a triathlon ever since last summer and I am finally starting to plan for it. (not really run or anything, I just put it on the calender) I'm only doing the sprint distance so it's not too crazy. I've done swimming and running races, but never biking so that's where I'm the most concerned. Even if I go slow, I'll at least finish.
So the question is: WHO'S WITH ME?! It's 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run. It will be so much more fun if friends race too. It's about an hour south of here. Saturday, September 10th, so we have all summer to train. It's one of the cheapest triathlons I have found ($55) And if you don't want to do the whole thing, they have relays teams! ($95 for the whole team) Repeat after me, "this is a great idea!" Now click here to sign up!

(and if you have any triathlon tips, I would love to hear them!)

Full

Here are some samples of how often Calvin will use the phrase "I'm full."

Do you want to go clean up your toys? "No thanks, I'm full."

Could you go get your shoes? "No thanks, I'm full"

I think you get the idea. 

Calvin the cook

Calvin thinks it's fun to dump spices on food like he sees me do when I'm cooking. When our spaghetti sauce was simmering on the stove the other day he went to town when I wasn't looking. What scared me most was him on a stool right next to the stove. When I saw what was piled on top of the spaghetti that wasn't a pretty sight either. And again yesterday I left my baked potato unguarded and the next thing I knew Calvin had added excessive amounts of salt for me. yum. actually, it really was yum. Not good for me, but very delicious.

Well worn

The 4 week plan is going... ok. Could be better. I realized today that of all the recipes I have in my recipe folder my chocolate chip cookie recipe is the most worn out. (cookies aren't a dessert though, right? Just an unhealthy snack? Oh well, better luck tomorrow)

And as a side note, my basketball stats are doing much better.

4 weeks

I've decided I need to get out of the habit of eating dessert so often. So my plan is to not eat dessert for the next 4 weeks. I'm already planning what kind of ice cream I'm eating on February 28th.

Ward ball

I love playing sports so even though I am not good at basketball, and even more out of shape than usual, I was still excited to go play ward ball. Here are my approximate stats for the game:

  Ball stolen from me: 3
  Rebounds: 2
  Direct passes to the opposite team: 3
(in my defense, no one had jerseys so it was really confusing)
  Points: 4 oh yeah!
  Pathetic lobbed passes that didn't go to anyone: 4
  Injuries: 0

I mention injuries because it was very important to not get hurt. Brandon said he would rather I get into a fight than get injured. Luckily, neither took place.
With how awesome I played you would think we won, but no, we lost 18-36. They were really good. They even had a player with actual basketball shoes on. She must be in the WNBA... or at least played in high school.

Art blog

I know no one checks my art blog because I never put anything on there. But today I did. I don't do much art, but I try to fit in when I can.

Comments from Cal

Calvin saw a BB gun in an ad and told Brandon, " look Dad! A squirt gun! (all guns are "squirt guns") We buy it?? I be REAL real careful!"

Another great comment was when we got to stake conference and since we were late and in the very very back we saw the speaker on the large wall projection. "look Mom! TV!" So initially, stake conference was super cool to Calvin.
Then when we were in the last half an hour, all the fruit snacks were eaten, and he had used up all his drinking fountain breaks, Calvin started repeating over and over "I don't like this church. *sigh* I don't like this church..."

Call Feature

I've recently started using gmail's calling feature. (instead of clicking on someone's name to chat you can call a phone) It's so useful. Now when I can't find my phone I don't have to email Brandon or someone to call it for me, I can call it myself. Over and over if necessary. And just now when I needed to call the library and didn't want to go downstairs to get my phone, I used the computer to call. Thank you gmail. You continue to make my life easier.

All together

When Brandon and I would tell Calvin we love him he used to yell, "NO! Love you!" Then he decided it was okay that we love each other and now when we say "I love you" the response is "No, love you all together." Meaning = we all love each other.
Often he adds a list of who is included: "No, love you all together - Mommy, Daddy, Calvin, Shelby."
And recently the list was expanded to: "No, love you all together - Mommy, Daddy, Calvin, Shelby, TV, Buzz Lightyear."

Worst organization idea ever

We have a large toy box that we used to throw all the toys into. Since we have too many toys for the toy box now, I thought it would be helpful to use small shelves with bins to make it more organized, baby toys in one area, large toys in the toy box, etc. Great idea, right?
Nope. Before we had this shelf it took Calvin a lot of effort to dig toys out of the toy box and the small ones that fell to the bottom never made it out at all.
Leave it to me to put them in easily accessible bins that take no more than 10 seconds to dump out all over the floor.

Time out

I'm not sure what the penguin did, but it was soon joined by a transformer for time out.

Favorite Christmas picture

This is a picture (made into a Christmas ornament) of Brandon's family acting out the nativity when he was a kid. Since he was the youngest, he always played baby Jesus. Even when he was seven.

HD

Brandon and I have different opinions on having HD for our TV. I think it's nice, but not worth paying for. Brandon can't live without it. Once you've had it, you can't go back. He says it's like going from a car to a handcart.