Nemo

Over the summer Sawyer was rewarded for peeing in the potty by getting a 10 or 15 minute youtube video. After getting sick of those videos I offered to let him watch a little bit of Finding Nemo. I fast forwarded past the part where the mom and most of the eggs get eaten, but then let him watch the next 20 minutes. In my mind he would watch 20 minutes and the next day he would watch the next 20 minutes, eventually watching the whole movie. Instead he kept asking to watch the same 20 minutes over and over again. He was especially fixated on the part where Nemo is captured by the scuba diver and then drops his mask in the ocean. And he has never watched any of the movie past the shark scene. So this last week we were at Disney World with the Garlands. One day at the Animal Kingdom we watched a 30 minute musical stage play of Finding Nemo. Of course it is the first time he actually watches the whole play (of course this being an abbreviated version). He seemed to really enjoy it and sat intently watching, leaning on his buddy Liam's knee during the performance. The funny part is that yesterday, he told someone that he saw the play, but in the play Marlin gets Nemo back, which he said is different than the movie, because Marlin doesn't get Nemo back. :)

And so it begins...

"Mom, why do I have a pee pee and a bum and Nala just has a bum?" This was said as he is washing his hands after peeing and Nala is just getting on the potty. I am not ready for these talks yet, but I guess I better prepare myself!

cake smash? not quite

I took Reese today to do a little photo shoot with her eating her first birthday cake. I set the cake in front of her and she daintily used her index finger and touched the blue frosting, and then tasted it. She did it 4 or 5 times over a couple of minutes, and finally I took her hand and tried to make her grab the cake. She spent the next few minutes trying to wipe it off her hand, and then decided she was bored with this whole idea and crawled around the side of the cake. It felt like she was telling me that she was too proper or too grown up for all of this nonsense. Once again, my children never want to do anything I want them too.

Raphael the ninja turtle

Sawyer is obsessed with ninja turtles right now. Especially the red guy, Raphael. This all started from him seeing one Lego ad with a ninja turtle set in his Lego magazine. He has never seen a show or a book about them, but he loves them. He knows they fight bad guys and tonight after reading a book about lost children with his papa before bedtime, he told me "this is my uniform (his ninja turtle PJ's) and if any child gets lost I will help find them while I am sleeping." So cute. He currently has ninja turtle bed sheets, PJ's, and finally I found him a costume for Halloween. Easy to find a ninja turtle costume, not so easy to find the red guy. "It has to be the RED guy!" I love my little ninja turtle. I also love that the picture of the ninja stars that one of the turtles fight with on his bed sheets he thinks are snowflakes. He is so innocent and precious at this young age of 3. I wish I could write down everything he says.

"Hold my hand mama!"

Last weekend we went for an overnight camping trip with Sawyer's school. He had never been camping before and was very excited about his new sleeping bag. We stayed up at a great spot near Deception Pass with 35 other families. It rained part of the time, but luckily they had cabins for us to sleep in and a lodge for meals, so really it worked out fine. Sawyer tie dyed a shirt for the first time and played with his buddy Oliver "bubs", Tiago, and a new little girl from Germany that spoke no English, Lilly. Luckily, for us we had our own cabin, so I didn't have to worry about Reese waking others up in the middle of the night. I was also nervous about Sawyer sleeping on the top bunk, which you know is where he wanted to be. We finally were able to convince him that it would be even more fun if we lined up the mattress' on the floor in the middle of the room and then laid all of our sleeping bags next to each other. He decided that this would be a great plan IF he could hold mama's hand. Awwwwww! And he did. All night. When he would wake up at night he would find my hand again and grab it. Even in the morning when he woke up, the first thing he did was grab my hand and he said "mama, leave you hand right here!" We didn't sleep great, but the kids did fine. We finished off the camping trip with a mile hike down to the beach through a gorgeous forest, with the primary goal of finding slugs! :)

Birds

While we were in Hawaii, Reese developed this obsession with birds and chickens. They really catch her attention and she will watch them for the longest time. She also learned to clap and wave while we were in Hawaii. We watched a short hula show and she clapped through the whole thing! She is 10 months old and growing way too fast.

I love you

So after coming off of a couple of hard weeks with rough bedtimes and tantrums, Sawyer has been super snuggly and affectionate. Tonight he asked me to come listen to Papa read him a story for bedtime. I said "of course, just let me go put on my pajamas." He said "okay mama, be safe." and then walked back into his room. A second later, he ran back and said "because I love you." Then he gave me the tightest hug ever. Moments like this would make anyone melt!