Snow Fun

 It's been snowing a lot here lately and I've been doing my best to get Peter used to it.  He has a really hard time with cold and snow.  He always cries like crazy whenever I ask him to go outside with me.  Yet, every time he goes, he has fun, so I keep pushing him hoping that one day it'll click and he'll stop complaining so much about it.  Here are some fun pictures from recent snow adventures.

Our favorite place to play in the snow is on the trampoline.  Bouncing the snow around and collecting the ice chunks that form underneath and then smashing them on the concrete is always fun.  Being buried in the snow is also way better than being buried at the beach.

We went sledding a few more times.  There is nothing like having a private sledding hill.  Christian got the privilege of being the first one down.

Peter was a good sport the first few runs but then he got some snow spray in his face and he wasn't taking it anymore.  "I want to go home! We go home now!?" he wailed on repeat.  That's when Christian had the brilliant idea to introduce him to the joy of eating snow. 

"Peter, do you want to eat some snow?"

"NO! I want to go home!"

"Great, more for me!"

"More for you?"

"Yeah, there's only so much snow and if you don't eat any, I get it all!"

    *greedily takes a handful of snow and stuffs it in his mouth. 

    *Peter looks on, intrigued, and finally stops crying.

"I try it?"

"Well, ok. I guess I can share."

    *Peter tentatively licks the snow on his mitten.

"I like it! It cold!"

After that we sat him up against the fence, at the top of the hill, so he could "bask in the sun" like the lizards in one of his favorite books, and he was happy as a clam scooping and eating snow for almost an hour while Christian and I got our fill of sledding.  Well, I can never get my fill of sledding, but I was willing to call it quits.  Christian is a genius.

 

Peter's favorite part of sledding, though, was the parking lot at the end.  It was filled with large puddles of nasty dirty water.  He would scoop snow into the puddles, then jump and stomp onto it to make it melt away. 

I watched him splash with glee for a long time.  Then Christian got bored sitting in the car waiting for him and said, "Peter, I bet I can get into your car seat faster than you can!" No one can resist such a challenge!  "No! I winning!" Peter shrieked and ran toward the car.  Christian pretended to hurriedly try to climb into the little car seat as Peter raced to get into the car and when Christian sadly lost, we headed home with a Christian who was grinning like an evil villain.

At home we attempted a snow man, but it was such fluffy, non packing snow that we only managed a little snow mound.  To Peter, though, it was perfect.  He loved his little snow man.

In true Peter fashion, though, this little love pat turned into a fatal swipe as he crushed the snowman's head and wiped away all elements of a face.  "Why did you do that?" I asked.  "I in the mood, " he replied matter-of-factly.  Then he decided to see if the snow at home tastes as good as the snow on the hill.  He decided it did.  He ate the snow on the picnic table because that seemed appropriate.

Then he invited Kelly to join our lunch and Kelly and I became horses on a grand ride around the house.  Peter loved every minute of it.  I think mission accomplished - maybe he won't be so hesitant to go play in the snow from now on.

Mister Seahorse

 I was reading Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle to Peter.  It's a wonderful book with lots of illustrations of different fishes and a lot of scientific information couched in a fun, engaging children's book.  

I asked, "Do you see the rock fish?  He's the same color as the rock so he's hard to see.  That's what we call camouflage.  It's how some animals stay safe from other animals who would want to eat them."  That led to discussion of all the different ways animals protect themselves - claws, teeth, spikes, smell, color, behavior (possum), etc.  "God gave every animal a different way to stay safe.  What did God give you to keep you safe?" I asked him.  His answer was delightful: "You!" he said, grinning.  I was thinking 'a clever mind to invent things like knives/guns/security systems' but I like his answer infinitely more.  He's absolutely right.

Another fun Peter moment:  We were dropping Christian off at a friend's house and Peter asked, completely out of the blue, "Jackson have a bunny?"  Christian said, "No, he doesn't."   Peter seemed so perplexed.  "Why not?  I like bunny!  Bunny nice!"  So cute!  Yeah, Jackson, why don't you have a bunny?  Don't you know bunnies are great?!

What do you do when Bella is away and you've got three bored boys at home stuck inside because it's freezing and miserable outside?  Set up targets and dixie cups and have a bb-gun shooting contest, that's what.  The distance was a bit too short, but it was a lot of fun.  Peter got to load the bb's and he was happy as could be about it.

Brother Cuteness

 Benjamin and Christian pass the sacrament each Sunday.  We come early so Christian can set up the camera for the church's zoom broadcast and Benjamin can prepare the sacrament table.  Then they sit and wait until church starts.  Usually no other deacons (except for another bishopric member's son) come for 10-15 minutes.  During that time, the last few weeks, Peter has joined them on the deacon's bench.  It's so cute to see them all together.  He feels so special up there, acting like a big kid.

After church last Sunday, Benjamin was goofing around and told Christian he could bench press him.  Christian told him to prove it.  He made good on his claim.  It sparked a whole lot of bench pressing younger brothers, or in Peter's case, toy swords.

Notice Peter's hat in the middle picture? He wanted to be just like Benjamin. He wore it all afternoon.

That's Not Food!

Peter has begun exploring and testing boundaries.  One of his favorite ways to test is by seeing what food he can get away with sneaking.  His favorite things are granola bars, apple sauce pouches, graham crackers, and marshmallows.  First he learned that if he just asks each person once, he can get 5 servings of something.  Until we repeatedly overheard him asking someone else and realized what he was doing!  Then he had to get sneakier.  He started going into the storage room when no one was watching and swiping from the extra boxes in storage.  Up until recently, though, he wasn't strong enough to open those on his own, so he just scattered bars and pouches around in there but didn't eat anything.  Then last week he figured out how to open up the packages and it was buffet time!  He no longer came to me asking for food when he was hungry, he just went into the storage room and grabbed 2-3 granola bars. I'm all for independence but granola bars are not a substitute for healthy meals, so I moved all the snack foods to the top shelf and moved all the feminine products and kitchen sponges, etc. down below.  I thought Peter would be disappointed and then move on with his life.  Instead, he thought I'd just bought a whole new variety of granola bars!  Little stick ones that come inside little purple dispensers (tampons).  I came downstairs to find three unwrapped tampons lying around the basement, with their wrappers in tiny, soggy, chewed bits all over the floor.  He was sitting happily with a fist full of additional tampons.  He declared, "I find new bars and I eat them all up!"  Then he stuck a tampon in his mouth and licked it like a lollipop.  I could see in his face he didn't like it, but it was like he was trying to acquire a taste for it because clearly, they were so colorful and perfectly sized, they must be good.  He was crushed when I explained to him that they weren't food and what they were really for and then I had to rearrange the storage room for a second time.

The next day I came home to find Peter alone in the kitchen, sitting on the step stool, with a bag of jumbo marshmallows on his lap.  (All responsible teens were on their devices despite my request that they keep an eye on Peter).  His head whipped around to see me standing there and he blurted out, "I not do anything!" before I'd even said a word.  "Really? I answered, "Because it looks like you're eating marshmallows."  He responded, "I think no one coming back.  I go eat marshmallows.  I only eat two."  Then he popped up, dashed to the cupboard and stuffed the bag inside.  By the look of it, he ate far more than two.

Since then I've had to leave and then come back and check on him after he thinks I've left.  Several times I've found him in a cupboard sneaking something.  Once it was the medicine cabinet where we keep the gummy vitamins.  That made me nervous since there are so many other colorful, fun vitamin-looking things in there.  I guess we never needed to baby proof, but we will need to toddler-proof.

Finally Some Snow!

 This has been a very unusual winter.  We've had hardly any snow.  However, this week we had 3 days without school due to a massive snow storm prediction.  (They canceled school based solely on the prediction before a single flake fell.)  We ended up getting 5 inches over the 3 days.  Really not a lot, but finally enough to go sledding and have some fun outside.

Peter turned out to be every bit as cold and snow averse as he was last season, sadly.  Hopefully next year he'll finally learn that snow can be fun.  I kept him out as long as I could until his whining and crying started to tear too much at my heartstrings and I took him into the car to warm up and wait for the others to fnish.  What's funny is I always want to still sled long after all the kids have had their fill. 

Bella invited her friend Emma to join us and a random kid who was sledding nearby also came right over and joined us for the entire time we were there.  He was an Indian boy about Christian's age and he started talking to us and sledding with us like he'd known us all his life.  It was really cute. It made for a fun group.  I didn't photograph the random kid (never did get his name) incase his mom would be upset, although, I never saw any adult with him.

Christian tried to use our little, cheap snowboard on the hill and did pretty well, but mostly he did a lot of falling off it.  I think we should buy a real snowboard and see how he'd do.

Sitting out on the frozen lake is always fun.  Especially for Peter who can never get enough of Emma. He is quite the little flirt.

For family home evening, Benjamin did the lesson on Noah's ark.  He had us build tinfoil boats in the bathtub and load them full of toy animals.  Peter thought that was a blast and the activity went clear past bedtime and necessitated a complete outfit change.  

More Fun with Peter

 Just thought I'd share a few pics from the last few days.  Peter found my box of stamps and hole punches and had a wonderful time experimenting with all of them.  He'd never seen such things before and he thought they were a lot of fun.

We've been having fun playing doctor/vet with his dolls and stuffed animals.  His favorite thing is giving them shots! :)  I love when he listens to their heart because he'll make the little lub-dub noise as he listens.

I'm not sure what he's doing in this picture, but I took it for the sake of the floor game we set up.  We taped roads on the rug that led to houses labeled with letters and then labeled his favorite cars with the same letters.  He had to drive the cars around on the roads and park them at their matching letter.  I didn't have any great expectations for this activity other than just some letter exposure, but when I took him grocery shopping the next day, he starting pointing out those same letters on store signs all over without me asking about it.  It was really cool to see it had stuck with him.

I just noticed he's in the same clothes - his pajamas - in every picture.  That's basically life with Peter.  He hates getting dressed.  He'd stay in his pjs forever if we'd let him.

We Have Another Driver!

Yesterday we took Benjamin to the Secretary of State and got his learner's permit.  He has completed 24 hours of classes and 12 hours of driving instruction with a teacher, so now he is allowed to drive under our supervision for the next 50 hours.  If he can complete the 50 hours in time, he can get his license in July when he's 16. 

I had him drive us home and he also drove to Bella's school to pick her up and to scouts in the evening - in the dark on snowy/icy roads on the freeway!  It was impressive.  He's a good driver.  He does great at anything he enjoys so it's no surprise.  He shifts lanes more abruptly than my mother heart would like and he doesn't slow down enough in advance of turns, but he's very amenable to correction and he's far ahead of where I was when I got my full license.  I'm proud of my boy.

Beginnings of Pretend Play

As Peter gets older, it's fun to see how his imagination and ability to improvise and pretend improves.  He used to just hold the little figurine in his hand by the doll house as I would narrate pretty much the entire conversation from both sides.  Then slowly his little doll started to add to the narrative in ways he understood from his own life "I hungry" while going into the kitchen or "I go wash hands" before heading to the little doll sink.

Lately we've been doing even more fun scenarios at his request.  Scenarios that require a bit more imagination than day to day tasks. For example, we've set up a pirate attack on a treasure island.  We took turns being the natives (army soldier figurines on jenga towers) and the pirates (pirate figurines on plastic boats) and in each case we had to radio to our fellow teammates and coordinate our attack/defense.  His radio of choice was the tv remote.

We also set up a birthday party for Llama at a restaurant, complete with multiple courses and a birthday cake at the end.  We had guests with different food choices and we made sure everyone had a balanced meal. (Have to squeeze that little life lesson in wherever I can.)  It was a lot of fun.  He loves stuffed animals.  He's happiest in a big pile of them.

I've also noticed he has really started loving our animated scripture books.  I'll find him looking at them on his own a lot.  Today he brought me one and said, "That Moses!" pointing to Moses at the Red Sea, "Read me that story!"  It's fun to share those stories with him and see him beginning to find interest in those things as well.

He also loves to play pretend with Christian.  Sadly, I'm always so relieved that someone else is keeping him occupied that I always run off to get things done and forget to take a picture.  I'll have to get some pictures of the forts and elaborate games Christian and Peter invent.  They usually involve lots of furniture, blankets, and guns. :)  When he's not playing with Christian, he loves to watch Christian play.  He's my little soccer buddy.  Maybe someday he'll enjoy playing too.  So far anytime I suggest it, his answer is always "NO!"

We Finally Painted...15 Years Later

The basement wall colors were the first thing I noticed in the pictures of our house when I looked at them online for the first time.  "Who would do that?!?" I wondered.  Mustard yellow on top, ketchup red on bottom.  I almost didn't come see the house because of those colors.  Upon buying the house, painting the basement was going to be a first step.  Then we got busy doing other things - dealing with kids, mostly - and we kept putting it off.  Then we started telling ourselves it was perfect for a kid's play area anyway, and we abandoned the plan of painting it for a long, long time.  Finally Peter came along and the need for another bedroom became our first priority.  Kelly did a wonderful job putting in another room and of course, we couldn't paint that new room ketchup and mustard color, so it got nice new colors.  That made our basement look even worse by comparison, so finally, we painted the whole thing!  Yay!  So happy.  Well, Kelly painted it.  I did some sanding and miniscule prepping so I would feel helpful. :)  The final step will be getting new carpet, but that will likely take a while as well.  It's our way, I guess.  

I wish I were the type who takes before pictures, pictures all during the project, and then a beautifully staged after photo, but I'm not.  So here's a couple before photos I found from waaaay before.

Here's a couple I just took now, complete with toy mess and tv reinstallation debris.  You get the idea.

A couple funny things about Peter to end:

He loves his toy phones and his remote controls which he uses like phones.  He sees all of us with our phones so he wants to have one too, obviously.  The other day we were driving home after dark and he was "looking at his phone."  "I looking at pictures" he told me.  Only, it was dark in the car, so he asked me to "turn on light please."  I tried to explain that a phone has a lit screen so you don't need light from outside to see it.  He insisted the light needed to come on.  "So, you need real light to see imaginary pictures on a fake phone?" I asked.  "Yes. Turn light on please!" he responded emphatically.  Needless to say, we rode home with the dome light on.

Kelly did all the painting downstairs and during the project, he needed to remove the tv wall mount to paint there.  He left a sharp tool laying out and walked away.  Not a great idea with a toddler in the house.  Peter found it and thought it looked just right for banging on the wall.  When Kelly returned, he found he wasn't as far along with his painting as he thought!  Many more holes now needed patching and sanding and painting.  He was his usual calm Kelly self, but he pulled Peter over and held up the tool.

Kelly: Did you play with this?

Peter: I don't know.

Kelly: Did you bang this on the wall here? (indicating the myriad holes in the wall)

Peter: I don't know.

Kelly: When you bang on the wall like that, it makes lots of holes and then Daddy has lots more work to do which means I don't have time to read books or play, so we don't want to bang on the wall and make holes.

Peter: (staring at the ceiling) I not listening. I not hear you.

He's been watching our teenagers far too closely, I fear.

Round 2

This morning I heard "Mommy!  Come get me!" over the baby monitor, just like I do so many mornings.  However, as I entered the room this morning, I was greeted by a very unpleasant smell.  It was still pitch black in the room so I wasn't sure at first what it was.  A moment's reflection, though, helped me to grasp what I was smelling - dried vomit.  I flipped on the light and was stunned to see my little boy, covered head to toe in dried, crusty vomit.  It was all over his clothes, face, mattress, and hair.  His hair stood up in spiky tuffts full of mushed food particles.  He seemed completely oblivious and unperturbed.  He reached out to me and I picked him up carefully.  He couldn't tell me what happened.  He had no memory of vomiting during the night.

When I said he'll need to take a bath, then he got upset.  He hates taking baths!  He screamed non-stop through the whole thing.  Imagine bathing a feral cat and you'll have a good idea of what baths are like with Peter.  Plus it took much longer than the usual shampoo to clean everything out of his hair.  It was a long time before he stopped smelling like vomit.  However, he was happy, energetic, and had plenty of appetite all day, so whatever it was that bothered him during the night seems to have disappeared. What a mess.  When will this vomiting cease??  I didn't take a picture of his condition this morning, so you can be spared that sight.  However, this afternoon he kept asking me to take his picture while he "make funny face" and so I'll share that with you instead. Oh, and don't worry - the stuff on his chin is cream of wheat, not vomit.  

Who's Next?

 Peter's stomach bug found its next victim - Christian.  He was at his first indoor soccer practice of the season and suddenly he tells his coach, "I feel like I'm going to puke."  He ran off the field but didn't throw up.  He came back, kept playing, and then the feeling returned so suddenly, he didn't even have time to explain.  He just ran to the bathroom and luckily made it just in time.  Poor kid.  He had to miss the game today because he still felt sick, but by the afternoon he was already doing better.  He seems to have fought it off faster than Peter did.  What a mess.  May it please end with them.

A terrible photo, I know.  Indoor soccer is tricky to photograph.  The netting around the entire field makes good photos impossible.  Christian is the one on the farthest right.  This was just after he puked.  He was on that post-vomit high where you feel really good for a few minutes and so he went back in!  I didn't find out why he ran off the field until after the practice ended or I wouldn't have let him go back.  I just thought he had to pee!

A lego catalogue arrived in the mail randomly today.  Nothing like a 50 page color catalogue of $300 lego sets to bring the boys together.  So adorable.

Just When Life Was Getting Monotonous

 It's been quite a busy week.  Benjamin started driver's ed driving hours.  He's taken 24 hours of classes, but this week was his first drive.  I wanted to get a picture of him but the only available lesson time was after dark.  Plus, I try not to embarrass him too much. :)   He came home from it so happy and bubbly.  He gushed about how funny the teacher was and how much fun it is to drive and what was hard and what wasn't, etc., etc.  It was so fun to see him happy and excited about something.  It was fun to hear him talking and telling me things about his life without me having to drag it out of him!  I wish he could have a driving lesson every day.

The same day as the driving lesson, Bella got her braces.  She looks so sweet, but she's in so much pain that I had to pick her up early from school today.  Braces stink.  I remember hurting so much I thought I'd never eat again.  "What am I going to do, Mom?" she lamented to me.  "Eating is my favorite hobby and now I can't do it!!!"  She was still willing to smile for me so I could take a picture.

 

Aaaand...not to be outdone, also on that very same day, Peter was a whiny, clingy, lethargic mess all morning and early afternoon.  Then, I returned home from dropping Benjamin off at his lesson, to find Peter sitting alone in the kitchen with a look on his face that I recognized immediately.  I dropped my things on the floor and rushed over to him, scooped him up and got him to the sink just in time for him to vomit multiple times.  He proceeded to vomit all afternoon, evening, and during the night.  Nothing we gave him stayed down for more than a few minutes.  He was just vomiting bile after a while.  Poor, sweet thing.  He never ran a fever or had any other symptoms, though, and he woke up in the morning feeling fine, although with a major reduction in appetite, and never had another issue.  Luckily no one else seems to have been affected by the nameless illness.  Today he was himself again and happily helped me make muffins for everyone to enjoy as an after-school treat.  Except Bella, of course, who sadly had nothing but applesauce and spent the afternoon in bed trying to sleep off her teeth-induced headache.

One more thing about Peter.  I thought I'd heard all his night-time activity, but when I got him out of bed in the morning, I found more vomit on the floor that I hadn't witnessed.  When I asked him about it, he told me, "I not want wake you.  I throw up quiet."  He'd managed to get it all on the floor and none in his bed and then had gone back to sleep.  Such a sweet boy....and thank goodness we'd recently removed the carpet and installed flooring!

Quotes By Peter

I looked through my pictures to see what I could post and I realized I haven't taken a single one since Christmas.  Ooops.  Must take some pictures this week.  I guess that lost week between Christmas and New Year is real.  I have no evidence it happened.  I'll just post a couple funny Peter-isms instead. Peter's learning of the language is always fascinating to me. 

Today I realized that he's deduced that the opposite of nobody is yesbody rather than somebody.  Makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  I asked him if nobody was in the basement and he said, "Yesbody in basement."

He came to me yesterday and held up a little toy.  "I sheeshed it!" he proclaimed triumphantly.  "You what?" I asked, perplexed.  "I sheeshed it!"  "Show me," I said, trying to decode what he was saying.  He led me into the living room, threw the toy at the couch with all his might, and yelled, "Sheeeeesh! " "See, I sheeshed it!" he explained, matter-of-factly. 

Kelly noticed Peter had his headphones in his hand and that he'd ripped the rubber tip off one of the headphones.  "You ripped them all apart!" Kelly exclaimed in dismay.  "I not rip them ALL apart," he calmly explained.  "I rip ONE apart."  Yeah Dad, can't you see?  Very different.

I love that kid.