No, Nigh Nigh

The last two nights have been tough of Spencer. His pacifier has been taken away. He would normally have quite time around 7:30 and he would go to bed around 8:00. He never really fussed too bad about going to bed. There were many nights that he would grab his blanket and paci and sit with dad quietly on the couch and then go to bed without even a peep. When he would get tired, he would put his head down on his blanket or point to his bedroom.

Times have changed! This is the way our conversation went last night.

Me: Do you want to get your pajamas on?

Spencer: No, nigh nigh

Me: Let's just go get your pj's on.

Spencer: no nigh nigh

Me: Let's just have quiet time (picking him up and taking him to the bedroom).

Spencer: fussing and crying the whole way

Spencer now tries to avoid (at all costs) going to bed. This was never a problem before, but now he runs from us, refuses to have quiet time and generally cries and fusses from the moment the pajamas go on. We have made it two days, I just hope it gets easier from here.

Pops

Madison was on spring break this week. We couldn't really go anywhere for a big trip, so Justin and I each took some time this week to do some smaller things close to home.

On Wednesday, I took her to Arcadia, OK on Route 66. We went to "Pops."
Pops is a diner as well as having hundreds of different types of soda pops in bottles. You name it, they have it.
Our wait was supposed to be an hour, but it only took about 15 minutes.
While waiting we looked at the coolers filled with every imaginable flavor of soda and picked out 6 to take home.
Our final selections were:
1. Nehi grape
2. Sun Crest orange
3. Faygo root beer
4. Big Red cream soda
5. Izze pomagrante
6. Red Rock saspirilla



We got to sit at the diner bar and of course we played on the swiveling chairs. The menu wasn't that diverse; five sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs and a side salad. They had an entire section on the menu devoted to desserts. YUMMY!

So, Madison and I both got burgers, she got fries and I chose onion rings.
We had a lot of fun sitting there watching all of the waiters making REAL shakes, malts, sundaes - you name it!

Our food seemed to take awhile to get there, but it was really good. It wasn't the best burger I ever had, but it was GOOD!

After watching all of those delicious treats being made, we decided that we needed a taste of the desserts. To my surprise, they had cherry cobbler. I am huge fan of cherry or peach cobbler, cherry being my favorite. They had both that day. Misty was a happy camper.

To my amazement, the size of the cobbler (with ice cream of course) was ginormous, huge, OMG! Yes, I ate all of it. I was miserable later, but I didn't care.

Madison enjoyed her carmel sundae. We decided we better walk off some of the food, so we headed outside to the very tall, giant pop bottle.

SO, if you want to get your kicks on route 66, stop in Arcadia and check out Pops. You might have to wait awhile, but it was worth it. LOVED IT!

Secrets of the Y Chromosome

There is some kind of magnetism associated with the Y chromosomes. This strong magnetism that I speak of attracts such items as dirt, sticks and mud.
If there is dirt anywhere within sprinting distance, Spencer WILL find it. He picks up clumps of dirt and squishes it between his hands. He LOVES sticks. Big sticks, small sticks, fat sticks, short stick, sticks still attached to the tree (also known as branches). He likes to put them into the holes and cracks in the sidewalks.



The Y chromosome is also responsible for the hollow leg syndrome. The amount of food that Spencer can eat is amazing. The fact that he is still in the 25-50 percentile for weight amazes me.

Boys also have a secret; they are truly lovable. How can you resist they baby blues? It is definitely hard, especially when another secret is revealed from the chromosome; climbing. If it is on the ground, then it can be climbed on or on top of. Spencer's item of choice is the BRICK fireplace. He also likes to hang over the side of the couch; I am waiting for him to tumble onto his head. He also has climbed out of his crib and fell on his back.

Spencer is also a fan of athletic equipment, balls that is. Footballs, basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, anything that is remotely shaped like balls or can be thrown like one: he always has to be playing with a ball.

All The Single Babies

I think it is amazing how certain songs instigate unheard of moves from a toddler. Beyonce's "All The Single Ladies" is one such song. Spencer adores this song and at the hint of the beat, instantly jumps up to shake his booty.
The song has been renamed to "All The Single Babies" in this household.

Note: turn your volume up in order to hear the song better.

Kansas City Road Trip

This past weekend, Madison and I headed to Kansas City for her first dance competition of the season. We were joined by her friend Tae'lor and her mom Dawn. Here is a run down of our crazy and fun weekend.

Sat: Left for KC in the morning and was about an hour from KC when we found ourselves in the middle of a high speed chase. Pretty cool, but kinda scary at the same time. We enjoyed turning the music up really load, singing along and seat dancing. This was especially fun when cars were passing us; the girls were mortified! We stopped at the Target in Olathe in order to get some new swimsuits. We arrived at our awesome hotel in Overland Park and realized there were lots of sports competitions going on. There were teams of soccer and tennis as well as possibly basketball. All BOY sports. The girls were giggling quite frequently!!!! :) We ate at Applebees and then went to see the movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It was a good one.

We surprised the girls with goodie "Good Luck" boxes full of girlie fun things.

Tae'lor and Madison in the hotel room on Saturday night.

Dawn and I singing with Twizzlers to the girls; there is no end to the amount of things we can do to embarrass them.

Sunday: The girls got up and went swimming and then we headed back up to the room to get ready. We arrived at the convention center at 3pm dressed and ready to go. Then it was time to hurry up and wait. We watched some really interesting dances, some shocking. It is so sad to see the groups that wear adult costumes (lots of skin, sexy, etc.) and the choreography looked liked it should have had a dance pole in the middle of it. Really, really sad.

The girls did their dance and Madison did well. She was about the only one who smiled and generally worked it! Unfortunately due to this particular competition's rules, they weren't eligible for the top ten awards. SOOO, they got a pin and that was it. Here is a breakdown of how this is scored and I will skip the technical stuff.

Each group is placed into a category based on the type of dance that it is (jazz, lyrical, hip hop, ballet) and age group. The judges score each dance against a point system; max is 300 points. The points are divided into categories (roughly 1st through 4th). Each group is given their scores. At the end, they combine all of the groups by age and give their top 10. This is the top 10 group dances based on the scores. So, whoever scored the highest points in the junior division would be #1 and it goes to #10.

Madison's group scored 270 (roughly 3rd place) according to their scores. We aren't sure where they stand overall because they weren't eligible. Overall, I think they did good. Their biggest missed points were their performance faces (not smiling). This can easily be improved upon.

We finally got out of the convention center 6 hours later at 9pm and went straight to the hotel to remove makeup, hair and costumes. We then went straight to IHOP and ate some yummy pancakes, eggs and bacon.

The girls headed to the hot tub after eating and we relaxed before heading back to the room.

Monday: The ride home wasn't very fun. There was snow and ice on the ground and so the first hour was really slow. My washer fluid was also frozen, so I kept having to stop to dump water on my windshield. As soon as we got back to OKC, Madison headed straight to honor choir practice and then to dance practice later that night.

Overall, we enjoyed the weekend. It was a lot of fun to spend time with her, laugh and goof off. I am proud of how she danced and behaved. Love my girl!

This weekend is competition #2, but we only have to go across town!

18 months and Counting

Spencer is now 18 months old. He had his well check on Monday and no shots. That was a great surprise! I thought I would update everyone on him and his growing personality.

First the stats: no real changes. He is 25 pounds (25-50%) and 32 1/2 inches long (50%).

According to his feeding profile, he should be able to use a spoon effectively. Well, I guess he didn't get the letter on this. We always give him a fork and spoon, but he doesn't usually use them and if he does, he doesn't do it well.

He enjoys his books, rolling a ball or truck back and forth and playing with Haree (Harley). He absolutely loves to take things out and put them back in. It could be laundry in and out of a basket or Little People in and out of a bucket. He will do it over and over again.

He hates socks, always has. He constantly pulls his socks off and you can find them in the crib, on the floor or the couch.

He finds delight in "helping" and following basic instructions. He finds Sissy's phone and he runs with glee to give it to her. He absolutely must take the dirty diaper and throw it in the diaper pail. Cleaning up the toys is such a fun game to him. It is so much fun to grab toys quickly and dump them into the toy bin only to dump it out again.

He can climb on the couch by himself. He will go and sit down next to the shoes for you to put his shoes on him and then asks for his hat. If you are sitting on the floor, you are fair game: he will grab a book and plop between your legs and "read."

He is very particular on what he wants mom to do and what he wants dad to do. Dad must be the one to give him a bath and put him to bed. I must feed him and generally be around him all the time. I guess we each have our roles, he has just determined them for us.

He plays fetch with Harley, but lately Harley hasn't been bringing the ball back (I think Harley is jealous).

Sorry, no pictures. I will try to get some soon. I have another post to be working on.

Surfer Dude

Spencer's daycare teachers have called him a surfer dude for awhile now. His hair is really blond and a bit on the longer side. Time had come to get it cut short. He has had many haircuts, but it was needing cut way to often and required a professional to try and cut a moving target (his head).
Justin had been suggesting that we cut it with the clippers to get rid of all of his baby hair and he said it would help it grow back better. Bottom line was that he needed it cut.

So on Saturday I put him in the highchair, took off his shirt and got the clippers out. I REALLY was shocked at how long the hair was that I was taking off.

I knew I was past the point of no return when 4 inch strands were falling from the shears.
UUUHHHHHGGGG
It was killing me.
There, fine it was done.
Boohoo, he looks like a mean marine now.

Before, with his flowy blond locks.

After, with his new buzz cut. :(

Okay, not such a great picture.

He looks like a 3 year old marine now. Where did my baby go?