Watch what you S-P-E-L-L ?!?

Mommy has taken to letting the boy ride inside the basket of the grocery cart when doing the weekly shopping - that is... if the boy doesn't talk mommy into letting him go to Barnes & Noble with daddy instead of being mommy's shopping helper. For this past week's shopping, for a change, the three of us went together.

The boy rode in the basket as we piled things around him. He sat and inspected our additions. 'Ahh, he's doing just fine...' we thought as we dropped in our latest entry into the basket; Cheez-its. He was rather quietly sounding out the letters on all the different packages when, before the end of the aisle, he looks up at me and asks, "Daa-ddy?" "Yes", I say as I direct my attention solely to him.

"Get your box!" ... "What?" I ask, trying to figure why he would say that. "Get your OWN box!", he replies. I look at mommy and we realize he just read this off the box. The third time he follows the word with his fingers.
GET - YOUR - OWN - BOX

Giving full disclosure..., it's possible 'get' has become a sight word due to rhyming exercises with words ending in -et. 'Own' and 'box' I believe he could legitimately sound out. I was impressed that he got 'your'. Altogether, I think this is the first sentence he has read; NOT MEMORIZED, actually read. We were floored.

So now not only do we have to be mindful of what we say and what he sees visually but we now have to be extra mindful of what he reads! I wouldn't be surprised if marketers gear their ads to a 2 year-old mentality! This will be fun!

Winter fun!

There is now a 6 foot Snowman in front of our house that the boy has appropriately named Frosty. When I asked him what our snowman's name was, with furrowed brow and head tilted he relied,"FROSTY!"; as if there could have not possibly been another name for a snowman. I personally was going for Sidney Snowman. Between the two of us... majority rules... so the boy got his way!





After the first 'snowball' we needed a break to walk to the mail box to check for mail. After the second, we needed a break to see why a tricycle does not work well in the snow and to look for nice rocks to use for eyes & nose. During the final 'Head' phase of the project, the boy planted his eyes and nose on the lower ball, sat in the snow until he was soaked through and then wanted to go inside because he was cold from the said soaking.

After a change, a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a PB&J sandwich, all is well again.
Happy winter everyone!

The Boy Skis!

Can you believe our boy can ski?! Well, slide on the snow at least. Skiing implies that he had control over where he was headed but all that is just semantics! He was skiing and he did great for his first time. All credit to Counting_Blessings.

All this was quite a suprise to me, as we hadn't planned on going skiing at all. I was looking forward to playing some paintball while lil'daddy and mommy went to their swim class. Mommy and the boy decided to play hookie and tag along with daddy instead. The paintball field happens to be located behind a ski area. In fact you ride the ski lift and hike (or ride in a trailer behind a Quad) to get to the paintball lodge. I think mommy and the boy were hoping there was a tubing or sleding activity that a 2 y/o could participate in. I personally thought it was a long shot when Mommy mentioned seeing if the boy wanted to try skiing. Sure enough, during a break between skirmishes when I call, Mommy reports the boy had been skiing already and they were currently on a lunch break in the lodge. After the next round of skirmishes I am riding the lift back down the mountain.

To my surprise the boy still had his boots on in the lodge and was rearing to go back outside. In fact he kept asking me to TIGHTEN back up his boots so we could go! I was amazed that he had no problem with his boots the whole day and didn't even want them off during lunch. When we got outside, I was doubly amazed to see that he knew how to click his boots onto the skis! He literally clicked straight in! It was a blast to see him enjoy himself so much skiing between Mommy and Daddy (and the occasional orange fence). I had a fun time paintballing but I had a great time with mommy and the boy skiing. If you don't know already, I love to Ski. Getting Counting_Blessings out and skiing 13 odd years back and sharing the sport with her over the years has been awesome. Having your 2 year old on skis before he's out of diapers is priceless! -OH! We're so going back during the week!

We Miss You!

We can’t wait for you to get home. See you soon.