Ice Storm

We're "in the middle" of the worst ice storm we've had since we've  been here. Usually it hits and is gone by mid day the next day. Tomorrow will be day 3 of public schools closed because of ice. I was a little surprised they closed tomorrow because while there are still patches of ice on the road and you need to be careful, the roads are drivable. One friend in our ward said she's lived here her whole life and it's the first time they've ever been closed 3 days in a row that she knows of. I am so, so, so grateful that we are able to park both of our cars in our garage. Most people here use their garages for storage and park in their driveways or on the street.

Here's a video of Matt ice skating on our street! We don't even own gloves for him (or real coats for the boys...at least I was able to find hats and mittens for them when it snowed a few weeks back). It was 19* and close to 0 with windchill. By the time he was done, his fingers were nearly frostbitten. But he had fun. He said it made him want to move somewhere where he lived close to a pond that could freeze over for skating in the winter. Dean has been asking for "shoes with blades".

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.

I was super grateful that some of this ice melted today and we were able to drive to the store. We were out of milk (the boys got powdered + isagenix today. Thank heavens for food storage) and some other stuff, plus we were getting STIR CRAZY (or maybe just plain crazy). 

It was really a horrible day today. The boys had a number of yelling matches. (Walt's now a very good parrot. When Dean screams "NO!", Walt shrilly screams back "NO!!!!!" and they go back and forth until I break it up.)

Dean is on day 5 of underwear during the day He's done really well with it, though he's had 1-2 pee accidents every day. But today he just plain refused to go unless I carried him in there and made him go on the potty. He pooped in his underwear and peed twice in his underwear, never telling me of any of it. I had to discover all three by coming in and seeing him STILL PLAYING the computer or wii in his sorry state. I was feeling pretty livid. Needless to say, he will not be playing either until he demonstrates that he will stop doing whatever he's doing, even if it's fun, to go to the bathroom immediately. I just have to remind myself that he's little. But boy does it make me so angry sometimes.

Dean also spun a paint roller in the bathroom that I stupidly left within reaching distance. It was on one of those cleaning things that makes it spin really fast. I had started cleaning it out last night when I decided to just throw it away since it was getting pretty grungy. I couldn't get it off the stupid cleaner, so I left it there until I could get it off today.  But he got to it first. It spun yellow paint everywhere. All over the blue walls, brown cabinets, the white toilet, etc. I screamed so loudly that it made Dean cover his ears and cry. It was horrible. I was able to clean it all up, but boy, was I not proud of how I handled it. I still lectured him afterward too, which I probably shouldn't have done.

To cap things off, right as the boys were getting ready for bed, I went to throw Walt's dirty diaper away and I heard a bloody scream emitted from Walt's mouth. Matt and I ran into their room. Dean was sitting up on their shelves guarding his stop light alarm clock and Walt was wallowing on the bed. I thought Dean had just pushed him down onto the bed and Walt was being dramatic because he had such a horribly short nap today (because Dean woke him up while I was getting him new underwear after he peed himself).  But no, as we were reading scriptures and books, a new huge raised bruise was showing up on Walt's forehead. Apparently Dean pushed him from the shelves (really an old changing table) and Walt's head broke his fall on the metal railing on the rocking ottoman below. Poor kid. He looks like an abuse victim. He has a black eye from climbing over the arm of the couch and face planting into a wooden chair as well as a cut on his lower cheek from running and tripping in the garage and lodging himself between Matt's car and the jogging stroller.

There was one cute moment, however, that I must mention. After Walt's shoddy nap I was in my room and Dean was trying to be nice to Walt because he was crying from not having enough sleep and wanting to play with everything restricted to him in my bathroom (make up, Matt's razors, etc). Dean kept saying, "Don't worry. Dean's here. Would you like to jump on the bed Walt? Would you like to go play computer?" and at one point they ended up giving each other the cutest hug ever, totally unprompted by me. It was a nice little ray of sunshine on this cold and icy day.

Walter at 15 months

My baby is growing up! With his blond curly locks and his brilliant blue eyes, he gets lots of attention and comments from strangers and friends alike. 

Poor baby had a rough morning yesterday. He woke up at 5:45. He was completely distraught when I left him in the nursery for my institute class. We were only there for 1/2 hour because of our doctor's appointment, but he was seriously on the verge of passing out when I got the boys. Poor kid had to stay awake a whole hour longer for his doctor's visit. Everything looks good except I have to do yet another blood draw to see if he's still anemic. This will be our 5th or 6th!

Walter's Stats
Weight: 24 lbs. 11 oz. (53%)
Length: 32.5 in. (87%)
Head Circ.: 18.75 in. (64%)

What is Walter like at 15 mo.?
He is in such a fun stage. He's constantly learning new things, it's easy to make him laugh, and he knows what he wants!  I love that he will snuggle right up to me, he'll rock with me, and he still loves helping his mama. He will not, however, snuggle up or hug Matt! He likes Matt a lot, and is always excited to see him home from work, but I guess he can sense that Matt's not a hugger/snuggler! He loves blankets spread out on the ground (it's crazy hard to keep him off Dean's time out towel when Dean's in time out! that causes extra problems to say the least) and hugs and loves on stuffed animals and puppets. He's really good at growling like growly animals. His favorite way to get from here to there is running! He loves tooth brushes and carries them all over the place. He also loves getting into my "personal items" drawer in the bathroom and as a consequence, there are tampons randomly scattered throughout my house.  The other day when we had some friends here, he came into the living room from my bathroom, had three tampons in hand, held them up high, and said, "TA-DA!!!" Good thing I don't get embarrassed easily! It was pretty funny.

He has been "saying the blessing" at meal times (he folds his arms and starts mumbling incoherently -- SO cute). He loves, loves Dean and watches him like a hawk. He copies so many of Dean's mannerisms and behaviors.  He always wants to play in the front of the car and is very disappointed when I take him straight in the house without letting him play first.  He loves the outdoors, and he's quite good at entertaining himself.

He likes to do actions with songs. Here is his latest "trick", rolling his arms. I still remember when Dean figured out how to roll his arms (right about at this same age), he was so proud of himself and found the new movement hilarious. It's fun to see these kids grow up.

My little drunken sailor

I no longer have a baby. Walter is a toddler! And he toddles all over the place like a little drunken sailor. He has been walking exclusively for a couple weeks now, but my computer can't handle the videos from our new video camera, so I haven't posted much about it yet. I'm actually posting this from Matt's computer while he's otherwise engaged.

Walter is opinionated, and knows where he wants to go and what he wants to do, and he does not feel compelled to wait for me. When I'm trying to change his diaper, he wriggles away, gets up, and RUNS with a wicked laugh as far away from me as he can get. When we are at the park, I have to watch him closely because he just wanders wherever he thinks looks interesting. Definitely an independent boy!  When we picked up dad today, Dean said, "Dad, Walt is an escapee boy."  Haha. My biggest concern is that he'll walk into a fire ant hill since they don't take care of them that well at the parks here. 

He loves making noises right now.  He clicks his tongue, makes chomping noises for emphasis while eating, and points and jabbers for whatever he wants (usually anything up high) if he doesn't have a word for it. We've been working on animal sounds and he likes to growl like a bear, roar like a lion, pant like a dog, and "who" like an owl.  His vocabulary now consists of: mom, dad, up, no (probably his second fav., right behind mom), more (sounds like mo), milk (sounds like a drawn out "miii"), on, and night night (usually accompanied by a wave. He uses this for goodbye as well). 


Here's a video of him walking and playing in the mud/rain we had during the tornado rains a couple weeks ago.

And here's another video of him helping me rearrange our bookshelf.

Arg. It won't let me load the one that showcases his walking skills.

Fiffer feffer feff

Yesterday as we got in the car to go to preschool, Dean asked, "Mom, what letter is Dean going to learn about in preschool today?"  I told him it should be the letter F.  He said, "F is for fiddle" and then sang a musical "scale" on "do, do, do", pretending to be the fiddle. (He got that from his vtech abc table he got for Christmas.) I said, "Yes, what else starts with F?"  "Um. Fiffer feffer feff."  Good ol' Dr. Suess. Helping our kids expand their vocabularies. Haha.

Also, when we were at the park a couple days ago, I said, "OK, Dean, choose one or two more things to do and then we're going to go home."  His reply was, "Um. Maybe 23 more things."  Good try buddy. Good try.

Matt got back from a business trip today and had a little treat for Dean.  After he ate his [very messy] push pop, he declared, "Dean likes it when daddy goes away!!"  (Poor kid doesn't get many treats from us "health conscious" parents...) I tried to reason with him that he likes it when daddy comes home, since that's when he brings his treats back, but he just repeated, "No, Dean likes it when daddy goes away."

Here's a video of him "reading" Bears in the Night a couple weeks ago. He does the dramatic voices, so you may not be able to hear him when he whispers certain phrases. This makes me smile every time I see it.

Recent happenings

We went to the beach again this week. When I was trying to get the boys showered off before we went home, I had them both stripped down naked. I set Walt in the stroller but didn't strap him in. I turned to help Dean turn on the water and smash! Walter tried to climb out and did a major face plant onto the concrete. Not two minutes later Dean wanted to turn the water off before me, so he ran in his sandals on the wet concrete, slipped and got pretty bad road rash on his bum. I felt horrible. Two screaming, injured, naked babies. Oi. Walt's nose was bleeding. Luckily he just got scraped up. His nose still looks pretty bad and he got road rash above and below his eye. I'm just glad it wasn't worse. They both fell asleep before we even made it out off state park property! I don't have a pic of his face yet, but you can see it in the video I'll link.

He's a crazy climber, though, so I doubt this will be the end of the injuries! I mean, just look at him climbing up Dean's step stool. He gets very frustrated when he climbs up and there's no water in the sink for him to splash in!


I got some new painting supplies for Dean and he has been LOVING them. I got paint, a little paint roller and some dot paints. By 6:30 this morning he was asking to "do crafts"! Today I just let him free paint. Yesterday we did F is for fireworks and Flag for the up coming 4th. He calls the dot paints fireworks now. =) We also made a very hungry caterpillar since he wanted to do more crafts with his new paints. (Dean took the second F picture "Dean want to take a picture for the flag." Every time he wants to take a picture of something he says he wants to take a picture for something.)


I finished building the toddler picnic table today. I nearly finished yesterday. I had 2 screws left and I hit a knot and split my board! I was so furious. I totally cried and everything. (Though I started my period today, a week early, and that may have had something to do with my crying. Once a month I break down over something. Never fail!) I just need to sand and paint it.

Walter's starting to talk a little more. He says mama, dada, uh oh (occasionally), and no, no, no (though it sounds more like na, na, na). He also shakes his head no and yes and can usually get it right. The second one is him trying to climb onto the finished picnic table.

Clap yo' hands and forward motion

Walt's been clapping tons lately when he's pleased with a situation. Usually it's if I walk in a room where he's sitting or put him in his booster for meals. He loves feeding himself finger foods. I think he honestly eats more solid food than Dean does.


Here he is actually crawling forward as opposed to his backward/sidewards scoot. It's not a long stretch, but it's something.

brotherly love

These boys are getting to be friends. Walter generally likes Dean and laughs at his antics. Dean likes Walt more than he used to, though he still often gets frustrated when I have to give Walt attention for feedings and what not.



One day Dean started saying "One, two, three, four hop!" and would jump. Walt thought it was hilarious. Ever since then Dean's really enjoyed trying to jump with Walter or make him laugh. Here's a video of them jumping together.

So I heard

In the morning Dean headed out the door with my pillow:
"Where are you taking my pillow?"
"Bringing it to chichen."

During "nap time" (which is evolving into "play alone in your room time") I hear him call out, "Hey mommy. Dean need to go check on sumfin." (He periodically has to check on things. He'll run out into a room, look around, and then come back and say everything was ok.) Me, "What do you need to check on?" Him, "My ABC's table."

Right before my shower as an observation: "Mommy no have a penis."

(Under his breath tried to sing) "EIO". He started to freak out, stopped, and said, "I so frustrated." "What are you frustrated about buddy?" "Singing EIO (Old MacDonald)." So I sang it with him and he was happy.

*I've been trying to work really hard with him on verbalizing his frustrations since he gets frustrated so easily. He often ends up hitting, throwing (train tracks usually), or just kind of tantruming when this happens. This week he's started saying "I frustrated" instead and I'll ask why he's frustrated and we see if we can fix whatever is going wrong. I'm very happy about this development.*

On Sunday he was sick so Matt stayed home with him. Matt stayed in bed and read scriptures while Dean played next to him. When Matt got up to go to the bathroom, Dean hustled onto his pillow and said, "Dean's spot now." When Matt came back he sat on my side of the bed. Dean got up and said, "Need to check on sumfin." and headed toward the door. Before he got out the door he said stopped, turned around, and said, "No take mine spot daddy!" He left the room and came back. Matt asked what he had to check and he said, "The piano!"

"Mommy just kidding!" (About bed time. Daddy often comes home from work and says it's time for Dean to go to bed since Dean missed his nap. Dean starts freaking out so I tell him daddy's just kidding. So now he thinks I'm kidding when I tell him it's bed time at night. nope!)

Lately when I've been getting dinner ready, Dean takes out the pots and pans and plays in the cupboards. "Dean going to work. Bye mommy. Bye Walter. Take my blankie and mine hammer." Haha. Tonight it was the same routine, but instead of going to work, he was going to school. =) So cute.

Some of his favorite books to check out from the Library are the David books. He has a cousin named David who happens to have a mii on our wii from our reunion. Often when we play wii sports, he asks to play "oh david". We recently brought home "David goes to School" and he had it mostly memorized after 2 readings. He loves it. This is a video of him doing his David "reading", though I have to admit it's longer and not quite as "good" as his impromptu readings. Still cute to me though.

My smart guy

I love my little guy. I'm happy to be his mom.

As I mentioned in the last post, my parenting books came. I'm simultaneously reading "1-2-3 Magic" and "Parenting with Love and Logic". Both are very good so far. I started using the 1-2-3 method today (I felt it would work better with a younger person than the "uh-oh song" in Love and Logic, plus I felt I could easily remember it since I'm re-training myself!) and it was a fabulous day. I feel much better about this "time out" situation than what I was doing previously.

If he misbehaves I say, "that's 1" (with no emotion and no lecture). I wait 5 seconds and if he stops, I stop. If he continues misbehaving I say, "that's 2". If he stops, I stop and we continue doing what we were doing. If he continues misbehaving I say, "that's 3. take 5." and I take him to his room and shut the door. I am perfectly content with him playing in his room with his toys. The time out is mostly to cool down and be removed from the negative situation. Now, you're supposed to leave him in there for 5 min., but I just held the door for a min. to make sure he didn't try and get out immediately (he tried to every time) and left. When he came out on his own (usually about after 2 min. total of being in, which is fine with me), he was very apologetic (on his own) every time. I didn't discuss his wrong doing or give him any lectures. I just happily welcomed him to participate in whatever I was doing at the moment. I saw significant improvement and he did not repeat many of the behaviors that he got put into "time out" for after he went to his room. It seems so simple yet I felt much more in control of myself, and he seemed more in control of himself. Magic I tell you.

We also started the bed transition today. He's been asking to sleep in the toddler bed the last couple of days. I tried twice this week and he came out both times and I put him in his crib as a result. Today I told him (well, actually he told me) that if he came out even once he'd go into his crib for nap. Well, he didn't come out once! I heard him talk and sing abcs and play with toys for about 30-40 min., but then came the quiet. I don't know if he slept on the bed or floor (though I think it was bed). He slept about 40 min. and when I heard him talking again, I went to let him out. The door was locked. haha. I knocked on the door, he unlocked it, and went back to sit on his bed! His room was a little more disheveled than when I left, and his bed had acquired a couple shoes and books, but all was well.

We had a great day together. This week has been really busy so we didn't go anywhere today. As a result I took a few more videos for your viewing pleasure.

Here he tries to count to 20. It's pretty much down hill after 13, but I think it's a pretty darned good effort for my not quite 2 year old.


Here he helps me read "I can do it myself". This is mostly for adoring grandparents since it is kind of long (2:12)...

Dear Cousin Large S

Dear Large S,

My mom said you asked for more videos of me, so here are a few.

This is me going to bed.


This is my shape clock.


I'm singing my ABC's all by myself.


This is my new vacuum my mom got at a yard sale. The batteries fall out a lot since it's missing the battery cover, but I love vacuuming anyway. It's right up there with mowing the lawn and fixing things with my tools.


This is me dancing to the music on my mom's computer before bed.


Sincerely, your cousin Dean

Forming Habits

Yesterday Dean picked up the set of scriptures we read with him at night and nestled into the couch. He opened them up, folded his arms, and after a minute proclaimed "amen!" It was too cute to pass up on camera.



This is a good habit.

Two days ago when we were coloring with markers, I looked over to find Dean sniffing the markers. Now, I can only imagine he's sniffing them because we smell things like shampoos and body washes while at the store. The last picture sure looks like he's getting a little buzz from it! haha. He looked like a little Hitler or Charlie Chaplin. Cracked me up.

This is a not so good habit.

Adjusting

Dean and Walt look quite different as babies. Dean had dark hair and was much more filled out. He never had the "old man" look. With Dean I thought Pampers were horrible diapers because they never fit him properly. Low and behold, Huggies are a little too big for Walt and the Pampers fit him! haha. So, Pampers for skinny babies and Huggies for chubby babies...

So far Walt has really been a dream baby. He rarely cries and he has his nights and days correct. He has been so laid back and relaxed and I am very grateful for that!! His jaundice is getting better and he's not quite as yellow today. He eats really well and generally doesn't complain. He's a little squeaky at times and occasionally the sound of his breathing scares me, but he's been great.

My incision burns much more than I remember. It's worst when I move a lot and after I sleep. My back seems more tired as well, but that's probably from having another little guy to look after. With my parents here I've been able to keep up with the two boys. We'll see how I do come Wed. when they leave, I can't drive, and Matt's at work. =( I tried going to the store with Matt last night and it's amazing how taxing it was just walking around!

It was Matt's 28th birthday on Friday. We had a german chocolate cake with delicious homemade frosting. He had to cook his own birthday dinner (pastrami burgers, grilled zucchini and fries), and I felt kinda bad about that. All part of adjusting to a new baby, though.

Dean really has been behaving much better than I had anticipated. He seems pretty panicked that I'm going to leave him again, and it breaks my heart I can't pick him up to console him. Considering his life has been turned completely upside down, he's been quite good. He'll tell me to put down or stop feeding Walt occasionally, but he's also shown his "baby brother" lots of love.

Here are some of the good:

Yesterday Dean said "share" and put his favorite blankie on Walt. SO CUTE!

Dean likes to pat Walt's head and usually is good about being gentle. It's a little scary though.

Dean often waves to and tells Walt hi.

He tries to rock Walt when he's in the swing or in his car seat. Again, a little scary, but he's trying to show love.

------------------------------
The not so good:
He steals Walt's pacifier for himself. (Which is funny since he never really used one as a baby.)

Last night Dean had had enough change and had the biggest melt down I've ever seen him have.

We've kept both a rocker and a glider in Dean's room since he moved in there at 3 months. Yesterday Matt moved the glider into our room for night feedings. Dean did not like that one bit, but got over it. I decided I didn't want the glider because it just didn't fit right, so at Dean's bed time (mistake one) I had my dad trade it out for the rocker. We didn't bring the glider back first (mistake two), so Dean thought we were taking both of his chairs. He went berserk. Hyperventilating, crazy talking, running around, scream-crying. My mom was changing Walt's diaper at the same moment and was hungry, so he was crying too. I was beyond hungry and quite tired, and I started yelling at Dean to stop acting like he was. I yelled for Matt to come help. We finally got the glider back in his room and I read him books before bed. We were both still crying a little, and he cried himself to sleep.

This morning when he got up, the first thing he talked about was the chair. He had mini melt downs any time he entered our room and saw the chair. Poor kid.

How to Make Rabbit Stew

First: Live in the part of town that has about a billion rabbits hopping about the neighborhood.

Second: Plant a garden to attract the fuzzy bunnies.

Third: Now here's where people are often thrown...put up a buried fence around the garden. Fences not only keep things out, but they keep things in as well.

Fourth: Allow the little tiny baby rabbits to squeeze through the fence links and live there undisturbed for a couple weeks to get a little meat on its bones.

Fifth: Once the rabbit is too big to escape through the fence links, catch the rabbit. They're quick little buggers and can hide quite adeptly in the bushy vines and plants, so it might take you about 45 min. in crazy hot weather like it did us...Our tips: high pressured water sprayer to direct it to the corner. Hope that it tries to get out of the fence but instead gets its head stuck in the fence.

Sixth: Boil it up and strip the meat...Ok, ok. We didn't boil it up this time. But the next time it makes its way into our garden...watch out bunny!

It was so little, I did feel bad to be chasing it around and terrorizing it. He kept getting smarter and smarter with his hiding and by the end it was hard to scare him out of the thick vines. Matt nearly got a gun to shoot it when we were unsuccessfully trying to catch it. Sad, but we couldn't let it continue to live in our garden. Our cantaloupes, watermelons, and cucumbers are looking too good to be eaten by a little bunny.

A father's day message from Dean

It's always difficult to film a wiggly toddler, but boy is he a funny and smart 19 mo. old.

A few words

Today I tried to capture some of my favorite words that Dean uses. These are only a few, and most of these are relatively new. It's not great editing, but it's only about 30 seconds. Featured in this video: Snack, thank you, computer, couch, and bye-bye.

This word, I do not think it means what you think it means...

(I think that Princess Bride is my most quoted movie ever.)

Dean frequently uses the word "hot" at meals as an excuse not to eat something. It most often has to do with temperature (either too hot or too cold. He likes food at room temperature best.), but lately he's been using it when he just plain doesn't want to eat something. I'll try and tell him it's not hot, but he refuses to try it insisting that it's hot. I guess that's better than saying "yuck". I think that's what he was trying to say today for the first time in connection to food. It really sounded like yuck. We only use that word for trash and diapers, so I guess he could be making the connection to something he doesn't want. He totally goes in cycles of what he thinks is good. He doesn't seem to like eating the same things the next day. One veggie he will often eat that surprised me a little was celery. He's not a big fan of carrots and won't even try lettuce yet. He finally has warmed up to eggs a little, though, so that is good.

Today he kept asking for daddy so I told him daddy was at work. He then said, "(ph)one" and pointed to our phone (he always leaves out the "f" sound). Yesterday he got to say hi to dad on the phone twice since I had to ask him some questions. It was pretty cute. Other words he currently repeats over and over are "doggie" and "gankie" (blankie). He sure loves his little tag blanket.

This portion of the post was brought to you by the letter "R" (Mostly posting this for family to enjoy, but if you're not fam. and enjoy this stuff, by all means relish in my little guy.)
He's getting to be a cute little smarty pants. He tries copying new words I say all the time. I tried getting some videos today of his "educational tricks" and was surprisingly successful.

The letter "R"


Animal Sounds


Truck and Car


Shape Sorter The only shape he ever tries to actually say is oval.

Our first duet

Dean has always loved listening and dancing to music, but he's never shown interest in singing with me until this week. For some reason he really took to the "eieio" in Old MacDonald. It's not always discernible to untrained ears, but I can tell what he's "singing". Sometimes he'll insert his eieio into other songs as well now. Also, he's discovered head phones and think they're great. He'll (with my help) plug my headphones into my computer speakers, put them up to his ears, lay down on the floor, and shake his head and/or body to the music. He also loves clapping rhythms (not necessarily on rhythm) with me during piano lessons.

I tried to catch Old Mac today on video, but it's so hard to get a good video when he's so enthralled with the player.

Roll your arms

Apparently I can't laugh and sing on key at the same time, so sorry about that. We were getting Dean undressed/dressed for bed when he very obviously wanted to sing this song instead. It was the first time he figured out how to really roll his arms on his own. It was just cracking us up!

Shake your groove thang

Today when I turned on music at lunch, Dean BUSTED out dancing. Hand movements, body movements, leg movements. It really was the first time I thought, "Wow! He's really dancing!" By the time I got the camera he was done with his hand movements, so it's not the whole package, but it's still cute. His leg stomping is my favorite.

What a big boy.

Dean's birthday's coming up in the next few weeks. It's really hard to believe it's almost been a year!!

These pictures kind of sum up what he's been up to recently. The video isn't spectacular (only a few seconds long), but it's the best I have of him walking thus far. Just in the last two days he's really ramped it up. He still only walks about 4 or 5 steps in a row, but at least I'll call it walking now. If he wants to get somewhere fast, he crawls or uses anything mobile as a walker (his high chair, a stool, his walker, etc.). When we're outside on the sidewalk, he does a one foot standing, one knee crawling thing. It's pretty funny except when he loses his balance and smacks his head on the pavement leaving a nice scraped up bruise...poor kid. It's a hard knock life.