Cute sayings and stories

Benjamin came into the bathroom and said in a deep serious voice:
Mama, I brush my hair. My hair is so crazy Mama.

Over Christmas break we spent a lot of time at my parents' house. Grammy, Grampy and Aunt Kathy are all visiting. On Saturday, between Star Wars, babysitting for a meeting we had and visiting, he was at their house all afternoon and evening. He had a blast, but as we were driving home I asked him what he did there. He said, after pausing to figure out how to say it, "I was at Grandma's house too much longer!"

We still help him sit on the toilet when he needs to go because it's a little tall for him and getting his pants off is hard sometimes. Well, Lamoni and he were working in the garage while I was gone. He got cold so Lamoni brought him in. While he was inside he went to the toilet and went "big poo poo" all by himself.

He can identify a bunch of letters depending on the day and his attention level. Today we were doing a puzzle that had a stop sign on it. I asked him the letters while pointing at them and he said "S, T, O, P"! Wow!!

He is big into puzzles right now. Grandma Kara has given him tons of them and he will do them all day (it has currently replaced reading books). He can do a 25 piece puzzle without any help, so grandma gave him a 48 piece puzzle. He hasn't quite figured that one out yet.

November

He makes everything into "choo choo trains".

This is why it's a good thing I teach - my living room looks like this on mornings I don't, and very clean when I do!

He thinks I can't see him.

When we go to the play place at the mall this is what he does. He thinks he's deprived. He also lines up his toys on pretend couches and says "they're watching TV."

Putting Lamoni in an arm bar.

Our emergency room adventure. After church Lamoni was giving a family a ride home and I was playing piano for choir practice. That left Benjamin to run around freely. Unfortunately he tripped and banged his lip against the corner of a pew. The cut itself wasn't terrible, but we decided to take him in anyway. It turns out if the cut is above or below the vermilion border (lip line) it's not a big deal, but if it crosses it they have to consult with a plastic surgeon to do the stitches in order to line up the lip line properly. So the doctor sent us to the ER where we sadly missed the Thanksgiving dinner my family was having (they brought us some, though). It was quite a traumatic experience for poor Benjamin. They wouldn't let him eat because they thought they'd have to put him under since the stitches have to be so precise, and he hadn't eaten since before church - about 6 hours before. He begged for food and it was so sad. Of course we didn't show him the food my mom and Jason brought us. When the doctor got into us, she saw how calm and well-behaved he was so she said that we could just give him locals and wrap him up like a cocoon so he wouldn't budge. They insisted he needed some drug to make him relax. He cried more from the burning and gagging that caused when they administered it than he did from anything else! Since it was a pediatric ER they had a TV with toy story and he happily stared at that screen for the entire thing and didn't move at all. They said he was the best toddler they had ever worked on. My hope was that by having them stitch it, it would avoid a bump on his lip, but it's over 2 weeks (or 3 weeks?) later, and he still has a big hard bump on that part of his lip. :-( I really really hope it goes away. 

I was desperate for a few minutes to finish whatever food I was making, so I didn't care that there was an eerie silence in the house. When I was done, I found that he had climbed up onto the bathroom counter and was washing the mirror with a bar of soap. He was so proud of himself. 

We put up our Christmas decorations early because he is SO excited about Christmas. He talks about it every day and has no idea what it even is!

Playing outside at Dar a Luz waiting for our baby appointment. They have a nice play area.

 Sam family side in Bloomfield for Thanksgiving: 

Here we are on a walk with Marie, Faith and Jason's German exchange student. Benjamin surprisingly loved petting the horse. Jared wasn't that into it. He's hiding his face in Marie's back. He was all too happy to say good bye to the horse, though.

Playing with cousins Anabella and Dantes

Grandma and Grandpa Bear love spoiling Benjamin, and Benjamin loves them spoiling him, so their relationship works out great!

All the cousins asleep (except for Lydia who will watch the movie to the very end).

We got to go to Nahaeva's baptism while we were there.

Family Picture

Jason took this of us at Courtney's wedding in September. We don't have many family pictures so it's nice to have this!

Trying to teach a 2 year old...

Me: Benjamin, where was Jesus born?
Benjamin: Jesus Prince of Peace
M: Yes, but what city was he born in?
B: Prince of Peace
M: You know how we live in Albuquerque? That's a city. And Faith and Jason live in Rio Rancho? That's a...
B: No, Faith and Jason live in a house.
M: Yes, a house in Rio Rancho. And Deruchette lives in Salt Lake City. That's a city.
B: No, Deruchette lives in Utah.
M: Yes, and Salt Lake City is in Utah.
B: No, Deruchette lives in Utah.
M: Okay.

Family Movie Night

We had our first family movie night in....ever. I realized last night that we have never sat down and watched a movie all together! Yesterday was a never-ending, endurance-testing day, so on our way home at night I stopped by Redbox and got a movie (we were in separate cars). Lamoni was pretty disappointed to see I got Cinderella. And even more disappointed to see that Benjamin was totally into it. "Where did Underella (Cinderella) go? Where did her blue dress go? Where is the prince? Underella has a pink dress! Look!" Haha. Anyway, we cuddled up on the couch, plugged a speaker into our laptop, ate grapefruit and pomegranates and let Benjamin stay up way past his bedtime. We thought he would fall asleep, but he sat there like the puppy on 101 Dalmatians who sits right in front of the TV the whole time. It was a fun evening. 

Midnight Post

I've been up since 2:30 and it's now 5:30. I'm not able to sleep so I decided to be productive. It's too bad we have 1 o'clock church then choir from 1-5 because I think I will be a zombie by then!! I fantasize sometimes about being that person who stays home from church because they're not feeling well, or are morning sick, or didn't sleep but that has never happened and I doubt it ever will. Besides playing organ in sacrament meeting, conducting in primary, and accompanying the choir, I think even if I stayed home I'd feel so bad about it I wouldn't be able to rest anyway! At least that's what I keep telling myself.

I'm 11 weeks pregnant and so far this pregnancy has been sooo much better than Benjamin's. Charity insists that means I'm having a girl. I was reading in my journal (that has been very neglected) from when I was this far along with Benjamin and I saw a "list of complaints". It was seriously about 20 things long. I remember how miserable I was, but I don't think I fully appreciated how hard it was because I had nothing to compare it to. My only "complaint" this time is nausea, which I would take any day over the former 20. I think my symptoms are directly related to how much sleep I get.  I think the reason I couldn't sleep tonight is because Saturday was ridiculously busy and I didn't have any chance to rest. I was born for naps. With Benjamin I rarely had time to sleep as I was teaching at 5 schools, had my private school and our business. With this baby I was more prepared and rearranged my teaching schedule so Benjamin can sleep in til 8 every morning (I had been teaching at 6:45 or 7 every morning up til August!) and he naps from 1-3, which means I can nap too. He thrives on a strict sleep schedule. So do I. He must take after me. The only problem with sleeping when Benjamin does is I don't get anything done since I teach 6 mornings and afternoons a week. I am really looking forward to cutting back my studio to 10 students in the Spring. However, I love teaching every single one of my 30 students, so it will also be heart-breaking. I've never had a studio before where I didn't dread teaching at least 1 student, so I've really enjoyed this.

Well, my pictures are uploaded, so I will share the good stuff now.

He loves hats and will turn anything into one.

Grandma and Grandpa Sam wanted to try out making his cake. I really hope Lamoni has other pictures of his birthday on his phone because this is all I have! We had both sides of the family over (even Mariah and Dentin were able to make it!) and Yoshi and Tiffani, who have so sadly moved to Las Cruces. :'-(   (I don't know if we can survive that.)

He likes to build temples with legos. On the right hand side of the structure there is the entrance, going to the steeple there is a staircase and in the left picture he is pointing to angel Moroni on top.

I think he's tired!

The train set he got for his birthday from me and Lamoni. He plays with it all the time. When he gets frustrated with a piece, or any toy actually, he yells in tears "stop it train! stop it!"

At Galloping Grace pumpkin patch in Rio Rancho.

He surprisingly liked this slide and after a few times with Lamoni he would go down on his own.

When Lamoni left his last internship a co-worker gave him a gift card for a new movie theater here (off of Central and Tramway). I don't think we'll ever be able to go to another movie theater again! Fully reclining seats, sooo much space between chairs, free refills on all sizes of popcorn and drinks... It's the real thing. We watched The Line (I think that's what it was called).

Asleep on Papa during choir. This is what I'll look like during choir today.

Visiting teaching with Michelle Reyes. She is the most enthusiastic companion I've ever had! (I'm sure I think that about each of my companions)

Look at these adorable faces! The top ones are his "thinking face". He uses it a lot. When you ask him a question like "do you need to go potty?" He puts on his thinking face and says "ummm, Nope!"

I'm bummed I didn't get pictures of the final product! I hope Lamoni has some of those on his phone too. They carved a mickey mouse, batman, and one of my students carved a regular jack-o-lantern face while her sister was having her lesson. Lamoni is very good at carving! He has it down to a science.

This is our new obsession. When people come to dinner at our house this is usually what we make them - taco salad pizza - inspired by California Pizza Kitchen (I think it's on their secret menu now).

He's big into building towers with whatever he can stack.

The face I get when I ask him to smile.

I left him on the toilet and came back to this! He is now fully potty trained - including nights! I'm not going to tell you how good he is about it, because any time I brag about him he inevitably has an accident that day. I'll just say it's nice saving money on diapers. ;-) 

Halloween

The primary presidency was in charge of putting on our fall festival. We decided to have a carnival instead of a trunk-or-treat and it was sure a success! I don't have any pictures unfortunately of the actual festival, but it was a blast. There were about 150 people there, and about 12 booths at the carnival. This is the side room where the judging of the chili and pies took place. I oversaw the judging and it was sure fun. There were 24 chili entries. 

The poor judges had a really hard time deciding the winners for the different categories because everything was so good.

Benjamin had fun at all the booths. They had ones for all age ranges - including babies! The teenagers ran it.

On Halloween we had dinner with some friends (the Bean family, her neighbors and Charity and Jarrett) and then went trick-or-treating with them.

Benjamin was the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. I had no idea who that is, but Lamoni has Benjamin infatuated with a 2 minute clip of the Swedish chef trying to carve pumpkins so Benjamin was all into it.

Treat-or-treating in style.

This is the only candy he got. Actually, he had a couple pieces the next day, but on Monday morning when he woke up early from the time change and was in a non-stop tantrum from 7-9 a.m. because he wanted his candy we hid it and he hasn't had a piece since. He asked for it that whole day but he hasn't asked since. I have no problem with it (I have no idea where Lamoni hid it, or I'd probably just throw it out). No post-Halloween cold for us! However, on the sickness note, Lamoni and I got the stomach bug a few weeks ago. It was awful. There is nothing worse than being morning sick with a stomach bug. I had it 3 times in a 2 week period I think. It's hard to tell what's morning sickness and what's a bug, but since I usually don't throw up I counted it as a bug. We almost took Lamoni to the ER one night because he was in so much pain and couldn't stop throwing up. It was a very painful sickness. Not even water would stay down. Luckily Benjamin escaped it.