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It's good to be home... I think.

There is a great video documenting the disaster that is my living room, but it's too long to email from the iPhone. It'll be posted to the blog in due course.

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He just got this book with the happy meal, and the first page says "...to watch the birds I look up."

So I'm eating and Jasper's looking at the book and I hear him say 'I look up!'

Cuz he's READING.

Brilliant.

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Mesmorized...

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Using the wheels is for BABIES.

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1st day of school! Today we learned COW and CALF.

He's saying "MOOOO" as he colors.

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I forgot his 'bah-lik' (that's blanket to you and me).
No worries.

"Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome."
- Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge

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Put these on him at 11 to run some errands. He hasn't taken them off since.
Thanks gran for the new 'foos'!

a brief... BRIEF

Nugget,

It's been so way too long since I've done a status update on you and your growth. what can i say? There is laundry and dishes and diapers and potties to clean and oh laundry and oh don't forget the laundry.

But - lest you read this 20 years from now and think all I ever did is watch you sit on your potty (and photograph it) here it is - the good, the bad, and the ugly, at 27.3 months.

The Good...

Your vocabulary is amazing. You are stringing words together (even words i don't want to hear like 'mommy i poopoo') and a lot of them are a complete conundrum to me. where did you learn that Luke Skywalker's home planet is a 'beach'? I never told you that. Surely your father didn't, as he would have drilled it into you that the planet is Tattoo-een, not a 'beach', and not really his home planet anyway, as he was actually born aboard a starship with his twin sister, while his mother was escaping from his evil melting father... But I digress.
You are HUGE into your alphabet - singing the ABC song at least 380 times a day - and I'm probably underestimating that number. When we go anywhere, anywhere at all, you find letters and shout them out. License plates? 'PEE! CUHUE! DOUBL! VEEEE!' Signs? 'ARRR! ESSS! THEEE!' It's pretty darn cool.
You are also really loving your numbers as well. You've finally mastered 1-13, (including the illusive 'por' or four) and you are working your way up to 20 pretty fast. So, you are always shouting those out as well. I love how smart you are. You have even discovered numbers! My (and apparently yours too) very favorite is 'nineteeteen'.


The Bad...

Potty training is really kicking my tail. You understand the concept, but you just don't want to go. You will hold it until you are crying - CRYING because you don't want to LET IT GO. When i finally HOLD YOU DOWN (not really grandparents) on the potty you let it go and our collective sigh is heard all the way down the block.
We (and by we i mean you) are fully in the "terrible two's". I feel like most of my day is 'No, No, NO!' and 'WHAT are you doing?' and 'OH MY GOD DON'T DO THAT!' Earlier today I actually said 'Jasper! Please don't lick the cabinets!'
There is lots and lots of whining, and lots of 'I huuuuurt. Kiss.' You seem to be always hurting yourself, or just always requiring a kiss SOMEWHERE (your butt, knee, mouth and toe are favs) and literally, it's ALL DAY sometimes. There are A LOT of tantrums, not just on my part, and by the end of those days I am so ready to throw up my hands and get a job pumping gas, or just put you to bed. Then I sit on the couch and miss you. What irony.


The Ugly...

You keep pooping on my floor. The end.

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This child believes in dressing appropriately for every occasion.

Btw, the potty training is going... uh... well, it's going.

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... and one and two and free and oh and nineteeteen and nineteeteen...

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At the boy's request, we've switched potty rewards from cars to books... And the occasional m&m.

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Good morning from Sodor, via casa Avila

On another note, you are looking at the newest OFFICIAL AISD hire!

How you feeling daddy?!

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Lest you think meals are all calm book reading and eating...

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Happy birthday daddy.

You are SO loved.

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Next week, chemistry.

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Rainy days mean inside caves.
It's a good motto to live by.

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It's 5:15PM. Do you know where your toddler is? Surely not napping. No way. Uh uh. Nope.

Oh damn.
I thought he was being pretty quiet.

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Hi bug!

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Big shoes to fill.

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This one's special for AuntieM.

Yes, that's the gran-dumpling, eating breakfast while positively MESMERIZED by Midsomer Murders.

A nice break from Thomas I tell you what.

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This ones going up on the wall.

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I put the bird down to let him out, and IMMEDIATELY the boy climbed up on the chair to play Thomas with him. He's so good about including others in his play-even birds.