easter morning 2013

When we woke up Easter Sunday, there was a jellybean trail starting at our bedroom door. The Easter Bunny came! Mom, Dad, Scott, Lina and I gathered round and watched Jay eat them all. Every. Single. One. (Well maybe not all of them but a good majority.) He was so fascinated with all the sugary goodness right at his fingertips that once he reached the end of the trail he barely noticed the Easter basket goodies.

He was a lucky boy. He got some yummy See's candies, Cadbury eggs, more jellybeans, a super soft bunny, and a Sandra Boynton book. Scott and I nibbled on some basket goodies too--we love us some See's butterscotchs and bourdeauxs. It was such a delightful breakfast.

Then church to celebrate the real meaning of Easter. My Jacob Scott looked so dapper in his turtle bowtie, argyle vest and totally impractical white pants. (thanks Grandma Heidi!) Scott was wearing a bowtie too of course. I love my preppy boys.

And it was just soooo nice to be back in my home ward and feel comfortable and "at home." We move so frequently that I always feel like a newcomer in our wards--especially since we only seem to be staying put for about a year in each place! At the end of church, my dad said he'd go grab Jake from nursery. When he brought him back to us he was absolutely drenched! The nursery class had gone outside for some fresh air when there was a sudden downpour. So all the kids were soaking wet. Jay's white pants were dripping and dirty. They didn't last very long, haha. 

twenty-one months

my wild child is still growing. still having fun. and still loving life. "twenty-one months" tidbits:

he works out! hah, but seriously, he really does. almost every night he will begin to run. for no reason that i can particularly uncover, except that he likes it. he runs back and forth from the front door to the fireplace over and over and over again.

loves bath time. he's constantly getting in the tub and turning on the water...still fully clothed.

if something is dark and small--like a piece of chocolate--he will ask me, "Choc?" (and then a sort of guttural sound meaning "-olate.") rocks, headphones...if it looks like chocolate then he wants it bad. he gets sad over pictures of chocolate too. he tries to grab them and pretend to eat them and when that obviously doesn't work out he says, "ohhhhh." so sad. but don't feel too sad, he eats thin mints daily.

j is loving puzzles. his favorite--go figure--is a Toy Story one.

he's a bow tie kind of guy. he insists on wearing one throughout the day. it's uber stylish with monkey pjs.

he's binky free!

still a bit of a neat-clean-freak. he likes brushing his teeth, rubbing lotion on his face and putting bubbles on his face to "shave" like daddy. he gets very concerned over messy hands and spills and if he makes a mess he'll yell very worriedly, "SPILL!"

new found love for trampolines.

and my all-time favorite j tidbit: he likes me to nibble his ears. it's hilarious. but he is dead serious about it, which makes me laugh even harder. as he falls asleep, he'll rub his ears over my face...for like ten minutes. sometimes he'll wrap both my arms around him and chicken peck kiss my arm over and over. i try so hard not to laugh and disturb his "going to bed" ritual but it is so funny and cute! and i love that he loves me so much! i usually get all the kisses but j always wants scott to hold him and rock him. it's precious.

happy 21 months mister!

sister masino

sister masino (aka my beautiful, graceful, wonderful cousin Camille!) enters the MTC today. 

she will be serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in St. Louis, Missouri for the next 18 months. you are awesome Camille. good luck! we love you!

mountain loop trail

oh the weather was purrrrfect. it's about time! and now it wasn't california perfect of course, but it was warm enough to enjoy a hike with some friends and not freeze our patooties off. this particular hike, though easy, is at the top of Morrow Mountain so the breezy little winds can get downright chilly. but like i said, the weather was purrrrfect.

and good thing too because j just loves himself a hike (aka nature walk). he loves throwing rocks with his dad, picking up sticks and twigs, and running back and forth on bridges. 
he showed his little, darling fiance s the ropes. and she enjoyed it so much she tried to eat an acorn. 

such a budding granola-romance these two are creating.

our view. gorgeous right?

don't let the hot pink pea coat fool you. 

little s was fearless. heights and steep drop-offs? didn't phase her. 

she practically wanted to run down them.

 see ya later nature! try to warm up a little more for us, k?

our favorite things

are books. you have no idea how happy it makes me to have j run to our reading chair and sit so excitedly with his little hands clasped, waiting to read stories with me. he often shuts the door too, just to make sure we are uninterrupted and have absolute quiet. it's our favorite time(s) of the day. 

our favorite reads at the moment: The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton; Winnie the Pooh; The Three Little Pigs; Deep Sea Dive; and Humpty Dumpty (which is four lines long but J's fave.) 

i simply can't wait until he's old enough to share in my love for Harry Potter, Charlotte's Web, Where the Red Fern Grows and dozens of others. it's gonna be awesome.

 we love books so much we wear them on our heads.

bye bye binky, binky bye bye

i am flabbergasted right now. i think we may have done it. i think we are off the bink. wow. we are on day three of no binky. sure he calls out for it every now and then, "Bink-y!" (which kinda breaks my heart and I may or may not have totally cried that first night as he searched frantically for it and sobbed so sadly. he clung to me so tightly as he went to sleep because i've totally taken away his security blanket and he was scared! so our sleeping rituals have gone a little less smooth without binky, but surprisingly it's been easier than i thought it would be.

which i NEVER thought i would say. and i have a confession to make: i'm scared without binky too! in the past, if j got too cranky/crying i could stick that binky in there and....silence...instant calm. but seriously, what do i do now if he has a meltdown in public??! how do i keep him calm in sacrament meeting??! how are we gonna get through our 5 hour airplane flight at the end of the month??! i'm looking for answers here, these are not rhetorical questions. help!

i've tried to replace binky with a cozy, uber soft, stuffed animal named "puppy" (he's pretty darn cute.) every time j calls out for binky i say to him, "hug puppy! here's puppy!" i know i'm probably just creating another separation anxiety induced security blanket here but hey, puppy won't change the shape of j's mouth. so i'll take it. but what's worked for you (or you all--since i'm not sure who exactly reads this except for my mom hah!)???

through this all, i've come to realize that both scott and i relied on the binky too much. because it's easy to give in and it's easy to have a fail-safe way of keeping your kid calm and quiet when he needs to be. because, let's be honest my j is a talker. he talks talks talks and i usually haven't a clue what he's saying (but i know most of it revolves around basketball, dad and toy story.) but yes he's a talker and kinda loud. he's my climbing, curious, silly, wild child. but i realized something else over the weekend (at stake conference actually)...it's OK that he's loud and talkative. obviously, scott and i take him out to the hall if he's being disruptive. but he's a toddler. he likes to be crazy. and i don't want j growing up thinking he can't speak up and say what's on his mind. that he has to be quiet all the time.

here's where i guess i project myself on the situation. i wish i had spoken up more when i was younger. mainly throughout junior high. i wish i would've not been scared to stand up for myself in certain circumstances and not let people walk all over me or make me feel that what i had to say was unimportant or didn't matter. maybe junior high and high school does that to everybody, i don't know. but on a whole, i was scared of hurting other people's feelings. which is great and all but sometimes you gotta look out for number 1.

so i want j to be strong and always stand up for himself, because i won't be there by his side during school (or maybe i will. in camo in the bushes making sure nobody treats him meanly. hah.) truthfully, the whole thing freaks me out and i know i'll bawl on that first day of preschool/kindergarten/whatever. not because i'll be sad he's growing up, but scared that someone's gonna be mean to him, steal his toys, not include him, say mean things, or heaven forbid tell him naughty things and teach him about the middle finger.

i totally understand now why my mom wanted to know every detail of my day at school. you gotta know if you need to go all ghetto on some kid/parents. who knew that a binky would inspire all this right? binky=stand up for yourself? in my world it makes sense. so i'll end with a Downtown Abbey quote since everything about that show calms me (my personal "binky" :) "Isn't it the business of parents to worry?" Yep. Boy it's stressful.