2009 Funny Sayings

7\09:
Mom: Sean you're going to the doctor today!
Sean: Yeah! Its fun, right?

6/09:
Sean: I made a mess
Becky (my friend): You did make a mess. Do you think you could clean it up?
Sean: Ha ha ha (fake laugh). You Funny!

5/09: We had just decided to let Sean out of his room after "Nap Time" (during which he played and did not nap). We unlocked his door to let him out (he no longer has a crib) and Sean immediately said: "I Free!"

4/09: Daddy and Sean were playing Peek-a-bo: Steve to Sean : "Peek a Boo". Sean to Steve "Hide a Boo!"

4/09: The other day Steve tooted and Sean pointed to him and said "Daddy pooey!"

"It hardly ever snows here...."

It seems that for years, what we in the valley tell new people is that Grand Junction/Fruita is considered high desert and that we don't get much snow. And if we do, it is usually gone the same day or next day. Yeah, Right! So what is this 8 inches of snow doing on the ground? In fact, we got so much snow for the area, that for the first time in 21 years, Steve's company called a snow day and told everyone to stay home. We sure enjoyed having him home. I got to sleep (yeah!!) and Steve had fun with Sean outside while shoveling the walk. Sean wanted to help so we gave him our little gardening trowel and he shoveled away. Because he was so bundled up, Steve could just push him over in the snow and Sean would just giggle and giggle. He loved it!


Sean and Steve ready to go outside. Sean sure is cute all bundle up!


Steve got out the measuring tape and we have just over 8 inches in the driveway!


Steve has shoveled just part of the driveway - look how much there is!


Sean laughed every time Steve pushed him into the snow - and it was funny to watch him try to get back out of it.


Here is Sean "shoveling" the driveway with Daddy.

Thanksgiving

With all that has been going on it has taken me some time to get this post about Thanksgiving. This year we traveled to Steve's family in Tucson, AZ and enjoyed two weeks with them. We had a wonderful family dinner and the next day we celebrated the 1st birthday of Jo and Terry's twins. We enjoyed playing games and shopping (and having more shopping choices)! Steve and I got to have a nice date to celebrate our 15th anniversary, while Steve's parents watched Sean. We went and saw New Moon, which we enjoyed. Mostly we enjoyed being together and remembering the years we have had together. Steve was also blessed to have an interview with the University of Arizona. We have wanted to move there so he could get his Master's Degree, so this was very exciting. Unfortunately, he didn't get the job, which we have decided is OK and seemed to work out with getting Angel. But Steve will continue to search for a job there and we wait for the Lord's time. Here are a few pictures of family.

Our little Angel!

We are always told be careful what you ask for. In this case it was be careful what you pray for. Upon returning from Tucson we decided we better pray about whether we should continue to do foster care because of our desire to move back to Tucson. We prayed about foster care on Thursday night and got a call the next morning asking if we would take care of an 8 week old baby boy. So I guess you could say that we got an answer. Here is a cute picture of Angel. Yes, that is his name.

Its a bonut!

Here is a funny reaction Sean had the other day when Steve brought a "treat" out.

Halloween

This year we did a couple fun things for Halloween. I know that Sean is probably still a little too young to really understand, but me being a kid at heart, I wanted to do some fun things this year.

TRUCK N TREAT

The first thing we did was go to the Fruita Truck N Treat that they hold every year. It is held a week before Halloween and you come dressed up and get to look at all sorts of large trucks - like tractors, dump trucks, fire truck, garbage truck, etc. and you get candy as well.

Sean dressed up this year as Bob the Builder and he loves trucks so we thought he would have fun this year. He was slow to warm up to the idea, but soon we couldn't keep him away from the trucks. He spent 15 minutes just on the fire truck! And he loved getting candy and would try to sneak some when he thought we weren't paying attention.








PUMPKIN CARVING

I thought Sean would enjoy the pumpkin carving so for the first time in our marriage (can you believe it), we carved a pumpkin. Steve got a template off the internet and carved it out after I gutted the pumpkin. Sean was fascinated by it and also loved all the pumpkins he saw while trick or treating.



Sean wanted to try some pumpkin so here is he (above) reaching in to get some. Below is his reaction. I think he liked it.





I think the pumpkin is a pretty good likeness of Steve - don't you think !? hahaha



TRICK OR TREAT

We decided to stay home, because Steve was sick. Even though he wanted to take Sean around, he stayed home and gave out candy with my dad. My Mom and I took Sean around the neighborhood. This was his first time trick or treating. I think he really had a good time. As we walked between houses, he was walking slowly and humming to himself (He never let me carry him once)!

Several houses were fun - one had a goblin on the door with eyes that glowed. I don't think Sean was afraid and as we left he kept telling all the kids coming that there was a monster at that house! I pretty much has to whisper every time to say trick or treat, which he would. One time I said, "What do you say?" He confidently said "I drive a truck!" It made the woman at the door laugh.

At another house they brought out a huge (fake) spider - about 2 feet tall) and Sean backed up really quickly. Grandma suggested that he should pet it so he said yes and cautiously approached it and went all the way around to the back of it and quickly pet it and ran back to me. And at yet another house, as the lady was putting candy into Sean bucket, he noticed that she had the candy DOTS in her bowl. He said excitedly, "You have DOTS!" over and over until she understood what he was saying and then gave him more candy - this time DOTS!! I guess we have to work on being more polite and accepting what you are given the first time!




Below - Sean is trick or treating to our house before ending the night. Grandpa O is the one giving him candy. He let grandpa put candy in his bucket and then he just walked right in.



Even though we missed the pumpkin patch and corn maze this year because of the cold, being busy and sickness, we still had a great time!

Mom, Don't Let Me Out

As I have written before, we have had to lock Sean in his room sometimes as he goes to bed. Lately we have been trying to teach him to stay in bed and not lock him in. It is working well most of the time. The other night after I put Sean to bed, I left the room and shut the door, but didn't lock it. I felt like he was down and would not come out. But just minutes after I left he opened his door, but did not come out. Instead he said, "Mom, Don't Let me Out! Mom, don' let me out!" Then he locked his door and closed it and went to bed!

Nothing as constant as change

I have been meaning to write an update to our foster situation, but keep getting busy and even forgetting. We no longer have Reshaun with us. He left us about two weeks after he came. He was a sweet boy, but unfortunately, there were challenges that were difficult and even though we knew there would be challenges with fostering and we wanted to work through them, we felt that these particular challenges were detrimental to our family, especially Sean, so we asked Mesa County to find another family for Reshaun. This was really hard to do, because after all our trying to have children, it seemed wrong to so quickly send away a child (even though he wasn't ours). But in the end, we really needed to watch out for Sean first. After Reshaun left, within a few hours, I knew that we had made the right decision, and that helped so much.

We are still hoping to foster again, but have changed the age group to only 0-6 months. So we are in the waiting stage until we receive a call. This could come any day or in a month or two - we never know. So in the mean time - back to daily life - that keeps me busy enough.

Family Pictures

We finally got around to getting current family pictures and Sean's 2 year old pictures. Sean decided that he didn't want his picture taken, so we were very lucky to get such great pictures. In some, you will see his determination not to smile! Hope you enjoy!

New Addition

Many of you know that on Wednesday we received a call to foster an 18 month old boy named Reshaun (this was just 5 days after we were officially certified). We said yes and he came to live with us. When he was brought to our home, he saw all the toys and got down from the caseworkers arms and just started playing. He didn't cry at all until we went to put him down for bed.

He is a sweet little boy who seems to like everyone and loves to cuddle (before sleep that is). Otherwise, he never sits down - literally. But he will sit and eat one of about 5 or 6 things over and over again!

Sean seems to like him - they have wonderful moments together when they laugh and giggle together, but Sean does not like sharing his toys and this has made for some interesting moments when Steve and I have to referee. Reshaun doesn't like to share either and unfortunately he will sometimes hit or shove - so we will have to work on that.

We are slowly adjusting after a couple of really rough days. Amazingly, Reshaun slept through the night on the 3rd night and slept through the night again last night. It is amazing how much better things seems when you can get some sleep. Now if only Sean would sleep through the night!

We are grateful for the chance to help Reshaun and share our lives with him. We will love him as long as we have him. We just pray to survive each day right now and get into a new pattern in our lives.

Toddler Bed Dilema

As we get ready to open our home to a foster child, I have been looking for a used toddler bed for Sean, so we could put his bed back into a crib for the new baby. I have had trouble finding a toddler bed, because either I don't like the bed, or if I do, it seems I contact the seller, just a little too late and it is gone already.

But now, I think I found my solution to the problem. We will just have Sean sleep on the floor. We have been finding him asleep at night on the floor many nights and some nights, as we put him to bed, he will actually tell us he wants to sleep on the floor, so we move his pillow to the floor and "tuck" him in and he goes to sleep. So.....problem solved!!!

Joys of Toddlerhood

I will admit that parenting a toddler can be very tiring and challenging. Sean is especially busy and always wants his own way - so that results in tantrums (thankfully not too many a day).

But recently I have discovered the joys of toddlerhood that have made me realize, once again, how much I love Sean.

- Hearing "Mommy, Hold me" or "Mommy, sing to me"
- Seeing Sean's excitement over the 10th tower that he has built
- Watching him learn to finally jump off the ground with both feet
- Seeing how much he loves music - he wants to hear it in the car and at home and to watch him dance and sing to the music.
- Watching and hearing as he learns new things and figure things out. The other day we were having homemade hamburgers and he asked for pickles. Daddy told him we didn't have any (usually if we eat out we give him our pickles from our sandwiches). Sean looked at him and said "Go to the store and buy some".
- Getting a great big hug and kiss. Especially when he will grab around my neck and hook his legs around me, giggling and not letting go.

And mostly, finally hearing him say "I love Mommy"

McGyver or Houdini???

Ever since Sean started to move, we have had to childproof everything and lock doors, put up gates, etc. But also from that point, Sean has tried to figure out our locks and gates and childproofing and he has pretty much succeeded in getting through all of our childproofing methods.

When we moved him from a crib to a toddler bed, he would not stay in bed, so we had to start locking him into his room. We switched the lock so we could lock it from the outside. He has watched us for a long time with these door locks and understands that we have to put something in the small hole to get it to open.

Well, one day, when he was locked in his room for nap and he should have been sleeping, he was trying to figure out how to get that door unlocked. This is what he came up with....



So he is McGyver or Houdini - or a little of both???!!!

Just our luck

Have you ever tried to do something really important and good, that you really want to do and it seems like you get stopped at every turn?

Take for instance - right now we are working on the certification for foster-adopt (yes, I guess this is our announcement to everyone) and we have to take these classes to get certified. There are 8 weeks of classes and we can't be certified until they are all done - so we want to get them done quickly. We met with a case worker at the end of May, but couldn't get started because I was switching jobs and worked on Thursday. Then Steve was going to be out of town for two weeks - so we waited again. Then a couple of things came up and finally we could start three weeks ago. Yeah! Only 7 weeks left.

But then last week Steve got the stomach flu really bad and we had to miss. So that left tonight. We were all ready to go - we had a babysitter and I was on time to pick up Steve from work and we drove to Subway on the way to class to get our dinner and we get back in the car to go (we were about 1 mile away from the class in GJ) and the car wouldn't start!

WHAT???!!! We were going to miss again??!! Well, I tried not to give up hope yet. We quickly determined that it was the battery. Well, conveniently, the Subway was in the Walmart shopping center - so we just walked over and bought a battery. Steve has changed many batteries and it only takes about 10 minutes. But we discovered a problem. One of the battery terminals was rusted on and Steve could not get it off. We called our friend who owns the Aammco (also conveniently next to Walmart) to see if he could help. He had left already, but told us to call the shop anyway and someone could help. They did - someone came by to let Steve use a tool to try and get it off. Well, that didn't work. So we tried to pry off the cable. But then it broke. So we had to go back tow Walmart a 2nd time, but they didn't have the cable we needed, so we had to walk to the Auto Zone was about 2 blocks away down the street in the 100 degree heat. One of the employees getting off work was nice enough to give us a ride back. But Steve still needed a deep socket to get the old cable out, so we walked back to Walmart a 3rd time to get the socket set we needed and then I hung out in Walmart while Steve worked on the battery. He couldn't get the old cable off. After another hour or so a man came to Subway to eat who just happened to be a mechanic and he helped Steve get it back in and now the car runs great! Whew!

So just our luck - we miss yet another class, spend $200 bucks, and spend 3 hours in the heat trying to replace a battery that should have taken 10 minutes.

But it was also just our luck that our car died next to Walmart, Subway, Aammco, and Autozone, instead of on the highway or some other out of the way place. It was just our luck that several people offered to help. And, it was just my luck that I have the best husband (hero) in the world, who knew he could fix it and did so with the help of others (and their tools). And it was just Steve's luck that he finally got the deep socket set he has been needing/wanting for a long time!

Sean's highlights

I have wanted to write down some of Sean's milestones and happenings for his 2nd birthday, but now two months later am finally getting around to it.

- Sean is growing, growing, growing. He is now 30 lbs and 3 feet tall. Some people think he is 3, instead of 2!

- Sean is just talking, and talking and talking and talking. Steve came home from a week and a half traveling for work - and that night Sean pretty much talked non-stop until he went to bed - Steve could hardly believe it.

- Sean loves to say new words, especially ones he hears us say - some that amaze us and make us laugh are: ot-a-gon (octagon), frid-je-ray-ter (refridgerator), Oh My! - he will say this if something falls, spills, or seems to make a mess.

- Sean is recognizing his letters and can sing the entire alphabet. He can also count to 14 on his own and is starting to count things a little bit.

- Sean loves to play and his favorites are: Cars, trucks, tools, and a camp stove/canteen set - he says "I cooking Mommy". Once or twice I have caught him with a chair pushed up to the kitchen counter and he had a pot, some spices, a knife and a big spoon and he said "I cooking mommy". How he doesn't cut himself with the knife, I never know, but he gives me a heart attach every time.

- Sean is still very fascinated with doors, but he has taken it to a new level. Anything he can't open - like a drawer, bottle, lid, etc he thinks it is a locked door (now where would he get that idea since we have used so many locks for childproofing???). One day he was trying to get into Steve's back pocket (not sure why) and it was buttoned shut. Sean said while trying to get it opened - "Daddy, door locked. Unlock the door!"

- With the warmer weather, we finally took Sean to the pool and he loved it - kicking and swimming around - even jumping off the edge of the pool to our arms. He moved so much that sometimes we almost lost our grip. Then we got out his new wading pool from Grandma and Papa O and he loved swimming around in that.

- He is such a daddy's boy right now - he always asks "where Daddy", or "I want Daddy". Often he asks this when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do - like sit down to eat dinner or go to bed, or when he has gotten in trouble.

- Sean also loves his Papa O (Grandpa O). Almost every day he says "Where Papa O?" We were going to see him Saturday for his birthday and Steve told Sean the night before that he had to go to sleep so we could go see Papa O the next day. At 2 am, Sean was up wondering the house and saying "ready go Papa O's" over and over again. I guess he figured he had slept enough!

- Sean is getting harder and harder to stop these days. He has now figured out the gates that we use and can easily and quietly take them down and sneak into the room he is not supposed to get into.

- Sean loves to sing and be sung to - this includes singing in the car and for nap and bedtimes - he is always asking for one more song as we try to leave him at bedtime - usually he asks for the songs by name. His favorite songs are: Row your Boat, ABC song, Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonald - and he likes to throw in funny things like "On his farm he has an Elmo, or Sean, or Tiger", I am a Child of God, I Love to See the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam - and many more.

- I have found it hard to get a pictures and videos of him because he is usually giving me the cheesy grin - where he closes his eyes, or he is always running towards the camera to grab at it.

Sean is such a treat to be near and we sure love him. Living with him is a little challenging right now as he is perfecting the art of being a toddler (i.e., tantrums, flopping on the floor, crying for mommy when he has daddy and crying for daddy when he has mommy, trying to stay up later for bed, etc), but he is also so much fun as he continues to discover and learn new things. I am always wondering what funny and new thing he is going to do next.


He's loving his wading pool!


Isn't this the cutest face? Finally, a picture without the cheesy grin!


Playing under a tree in the circle park in downtown Fruita


Just hanging around.


Surprise!