BLIZZARD 2011

Catch and I got to hang out all day from Tuesday to Friday. We had some good laughs, shed a few (or more) tears, and eventually went a bit stir crazy. Tuesday was awesome, Wednesday was pretty good, but by Thursday we were both ready to get out of the house. ;0)

The best way to recap our weekend is to show you some pics. Enjoy!

This is Catchers backing up to me so I can check his dirty diaper. He tells us "poo poo" now and when we ask him if he went poo poo, he always shakes his head yes and backs up to us to check diaper. Such a smart bubba! Now if only we can get him not be scared to go pee pee on the potty. He knows how to flush, and always says pee pee when he gets near the toilet, but when we ask if he wants to, he always answers with a whiny no. One day before bath we sat him on the seat and he had toilet paper. He didn't do anything but he still tried to wipe himself. It was so cute! It always amazes me how attentive he is of everything we do.

Typical scene in the living room. My stomach is getting a wee bit big (understatement?) and I didn't want to pick them up so I pulled out the vacuum. What a wonderful invention!

Hugging his panda. Sometimes when he watches his Baby Genius: Trip to the San Diego Zoo he will grab his panda whenever it gets to the part with the panda exhibit

I didn't even ask him to kiss panda, but he's so used to always giving us kisses after hugs that it's normal for him. :0)

He loves his racecar track from Granddad Manley and Grandma Gloria.

Finally he keeps his eyes open!

I tried to snap the picture before he could close them. My little nerdball. You'd think he just helped me with laundry, but really he likes to unfold everything and throw it on the floor. A bit frustrating at times. :0)

I love my bubba's coloring. He's always so focused.

Watching his video in his favorite chair. It used to shake and giggle when he'd sit in, but it scared him. We turned it off the other day, and now he loves it. He loves it so much that he tries to give it a "bite" of his food or drink. In fact, he does that to his stuffed animals as well. Anytime he wants a bite of our food, he'll get in our face, say "bite", and open his mouth wide.

Also, he says "Melmo" now anytime he sees Elmo on tv, on his sippy cup, on anything. At first I thought he was saying mama, but nope - just "Melmo".

Nerdball. :0)

I asked him how much he loved mama, and spread his hands wide. Everytime I ask him how much mama loves him, I do the same and say "This much!" He loves it!

Classic Catch right now. Everything is "mine" regardless of what it is. I don't have a phone, camera, nothing. It's all Catch's (according to him).

If this face doesn't sum up the weekend, I don't know what does. ;0)

Quick trip in the snow. He's had an awful cough, so we literally stayed out there for a few minutes.

Poor baby fell and got snow everywhere. I think the coldness scared him so badly that he cried. :0(

All in all, I feel blessed to get these days with him (even if I go completely crazy at times). I am always so busy, and I don't get to spend near as much time as I'd like, so I have to remind myself to soak up these times. He won't always be my little boy, and just thinking that makes me want to cry. Man, they didn't lie when they said time flies when you have kids. Sometimes I wish I could just push pause...

Just Dance!

I wish this wasn't so dark, but if you put your face up to the screen, you'll be able to see some it. Catch and I watched Shall We Dance? - one of my salsa dancing movies. If you know me, then you know how much I love any kind of dancing movie. Well, I've been dancing with Catch since he was an infant. That was one of the only ways I could get him to fall asleep. Now, he loves to dance. So here he is doing his best impression of Latin dancing. Enjoy!

Our Nighttime Ritual

The main reason I blog is so that Catch will have something to look back on and see what his life was like before he could even remember his life. I want him to know about the simple things we did together that meant so much to Chris and me. For instance, I love our nighttime rituals. Don't get me wrong, I didn't always like them. It used to be so frustrating when we'd lie him down, and he'd immediately stand up and scream for us. I honestly thought it would always be that way, but now it is such a special time for all three of us. This is how it goes.

First, we ask Catch if he's ready for nite nite, and he always says yes (in his yes whisper voice).
Then he always grabs his binky (that's his little bear blanket) and his pacy (pacifier) and marches off to his room.

He always starts in my lap. I read Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I make the sounds to each of the animals (except the horse - it sounds really weird, so Chris does that noise). He always giggles when I purr like a cat and sniff him like a dog.

Then we end in Daddy's lap with Chris reading Goodnight Moon. He always asks "what's that?" whenever he sees the little bunny asleep in the bed. Chris always replies, "That's the baby going nite nite." The only part I have in this story is saying "hush" when the old lady's part is read.

He's finally realized that the baby is a bunny, and today while playing with his stuffed animals, he found his bunnies from last year's Easter. He's even saying nite nite now, and I call the bunnies his "Nite Nite Bunnies." Before bed tonight I told him to grab his nite nite bunnies, so he scooped them up and trotted off to his room with them.

He had to get up and grab both bunnies for the rest of the story.

I told him that it was time to go nite nite with his bunnies, and he stopped to pose before getting in his crib. Poor thing - I need to retire these pj's.

After we bless him, hug him, kiss him, and say our "I love you's," we put him under his blankie, and lies down for bed. He usually waves bye to us and then we leave. :0)

The other day Chris and I were talking about how we never thought he'd get over the screaming and fighting during bedtime. Chris says it's because he sees the baby bunny go nite nite and isn't scared anymore. Hey, whatever works, huh?!