Silly

The little dude licked the couch tonight. Then he said "I licked the couch. That's silly." And then-- he licked the couch again.

He's a total genius!

Sweetheart

The little guy got to play with some friends while we went to a small group at church. One of the little girls in the nursery was fussing that she wanted her mommy. Apparently my little darling gave her a hug and told her it would be ok-- that her mommy would come back. What a great kid!

Haircut!

We took the little dude to a barbershop yesterday for a real haircut. He was overwhelmed by the cape and the huge mirror and the big chair and the clippers-- so he just sat there, completely still, like a little angel. I was stunned. However, he was back to normal as soon as we got home and tried to take a cute picture of the haircut.

This is what he did when we said "Stand still and smile!" 

I've totally given up at this point and am playing with Sadie.

CHEESE!!!!!!!

So, that's his new haircut!

Saturday!

I hope your Saturday was this much fun:

What a Helper!

The little guy is really good at picking up (even his teachers say so... it's not just me). He even puts his dirty dishes in the dishwasher now. It can be a bit stressful to watch, but he gets it done eventually and he hasn't broken anything yet (knock on wood).

Noodz

When the little booger dished up some pasta for dinner tonight, he said "I got two noodz. No, THREE noodz." It never occurred to me to give noodles a nickname, but I've got to admit-- it's pretty catchy!

Big Kids

The big kids who live across the street were playing basketball this evening. The little dude was entranced, so we watched them out the window.

Soon enough, little guy, soon enough.

More Trains!

The little dude asked if he could play with his trains this morning. We told him he could play with them when he got home after school. As soon as we got inside, he said "I play with trains?"

He stopped playing long enough to eat one pancake and about half a pound of bacon.

Things might get a little repetitive around here...

Trains!

The little booger also got a hand-me-town train set the other day. He LOVES it! My brother and I spent countless hours playing with our trains when we were little, so I'm loving this set, too.

Trains are the coolest.

Carolina on my mind

Ever since our trip down south for Christmas I've had a hankering' for some good barbecue.  It's been too long since I've been to Eastern Carolina and I miss so many places that dot the road between Beaufort and Raleigh; place like the Barbecue Lodge in Raleigh, Wilber's of Goldsboro, Roland's in Beaufort, and even the local chain Smithfield's Chicken and BBQ.

Well, I had enough and tried my hand at some good eastern Carolina vinegar sauce.  I bought a pork loin and (because it is winter) cooked it in the slow cooker all day Tuesday.  After sufficient time I took it out, pulled it, and poured my sauce all over it and let it simmer for another hour.  Emily made some cole slaw (delicious - thanks Southern Living). We broke out our $0.99 wheat buns and this is the result.

There are a few things I'll tweak next time, but all in all, a worthy effort and a satisfied palate.

The boy didn't want any.  Dumbhead.

Enjoy your banana and milk while I enjoy this awesome barbecue sandwich with the soggy bun while sauce runs down my arms and drips off my elbows and slaw falls out the back onto my plate into the pool of vinegary goodness.  You don't know what you are missing!

SO EXCITING!!!!!

One of our lovely relatives dropped off a ton of hand-me-down toys for the little booger today. They were in our foyer when he and I got home, and the little dude was enthralled. It was hard to get him to take his coat off-- it was even hard to get him to eat dinner!

With something as cool as that truck, though, who can blame him? (Thanks!)

One Benefit of Being Short

I should clarify that this benefit is for me and not the little dude, even though he's short, too. The little booger likes to build really tall towers with his Legos. Then he likes to hold them up REALLY HIGH to make them even taller. Sometimes he wants the tower to touch the sky! And when he wants that, only daddy will do... I literally cannot get him there.

Potty training and jay birds

We decided to really push potty training this weekend since we were all home and we had Monday off.  I think the little guy is starting to get the hang of it.  I don't think he had any pee accidents Sunday or Monday so that is very exciting.  He even woke up in the middle of the night last night and wanted to use the potty.  Unfortunately for him he'd already peed in his diaper and couldn't squeeze out any more for the potty.  Poor thing.

I think he likes going to the potty though as it gives him a chance to get naked.  He loves running around the downstairs circle without any clothes on screaming, "I naked as a jay bird!  I naked as a jay bird!"  Sometimes he'll leave his shirt on and look at his mom or me and ask, "I naked as a jay bird?"  We'll have to answer no so he'll take his shirt off and run around as stated above.  What a goof!

Here he is watching me take out the dogs.

(Sorry about the blurred bottom, not sure what is allowed.)

Hello!

Sorry for the brief lapse in posting-- we had a minor technical difficulty and the little booger's had a stomach bug this weekend. He napped on the couch with Beau on Saturday-- it was hilariously adorable!

He seems to be feeling better, so hopefully tomorrow we'll be back to normal.

Curtains!

We finally hung some curtains over our back door this past weekend. The little dude still likes to play peek-a-boo-- so the new drapes were a hit!

I still need to wash them and then hem them, so please ignore the fact that they are about eight inches too long right now.

Bookworm!

We can add "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" to the list of books the little stinker has memorized. He was 'reading' it on our almost-finished bench tonight before dinner.

Cheese!

We had chicken tortilla soup for dinner. The little stinker took advantage of the opportunity to eat tortilla chips and cheese. His spoon did get a workout scooping cheese out of the serving bowl and putting it on his plate.

Each time he took a chip from the chip bowl, he would offer both his dad and me one. It was so cute and polite! He's such a sweetie.

Dogs

The little guy played fetch with a very sweet dog (who belongs to some friends of ours) yesterday and they both had a blast. It made me kind of sad that our dogs don't fetch. I don't think it's affected their bonding with the little dude though.

This was taken while Eric and I were finishing up dinner-- which is before we let the dogs out of their crates.

Who needs a nap?

This is what dinnertime looked like yesterday after the little guy didn't take a nap:

He slept pretty well last night!
Also, the red marks all over his arms are from a Christmas stocking stamp.

Drowning (Out) Your Sorrows

Sadie loves to eat crayons and can be a bit of a, um, jerk. She actually ate a crayon out of the little booger's hand tonight. He was devastated. Luckily he has a xylophone, so he was able to drown (out) his sorrows.

Less Than Helpful

We moved our Christmas tree to the garage tonight to let it acclimate... we're going to plant it tomorrow. Anyway, it shed needles and gushed water (unbelievable) all over the place while being hauled out so we had a bunch of mopping and sweeping to do before dinner. The little booger stood on the cord pretty much the whole time Eric vacuumed.

Once the vacuum was off, though, the little dude got the floor attachment and started going over the rug really carefully.

Timing is everything!

T...T...T...Today Jr.!

It is amazing how fast kids pick up language skills.  It's even more amazing how much faster their minds develop; so much so that they often have a hard time saying their words fast enough to keep up with their minds.  Our little one is no different as he's begun to stutter some when trying to tell us something exciting.

Tonight Pops was in town so he took us out to dinner and we ordered The Booger (what else but) some chicken fingers.  After taking a few bites he looked up at us and said - getting louder with each stutter, "I...I...I...I...I...I...I...I...I...I...I...I...I LIKE IT!!!"  We all just cracked up.  What a goof.

And just for the record here is another picture of The Kid having a blast SLEIGH RIDING!

Sledding!

We've had a really mild winter so far (hooray!), but yesterday it finally snowed enough to use the little booger's new sled. He had a blast.

He rode down the hill by our house with me, then with his dad, then all by himself. Look at those rosy cheeks!

And here's a video, for good measure:

Woah!

My brother and sister-in-law got the little booger a huge (over two feet tall!) ramp thing for his little cars for Christmas. We put it together last Monday night after the little guy went to bed. When he came downstairs and saw it Tuesday morning he said "Woah! Wow! Look at THAT!"

And that's why we were a little late for our carpool.

Happy New Year!

The little booger and I made chicken for dinner last night. His job was to place the breaded chicken on the cookie sheet. Apparently he hasn't learned what "evenly spaced" means, because this is how he did it:

He was muttering "evenly spaced" under his breath while tossing each new piece on top of all the others. The kid cracks me up.