Twins

Here is our 3D photo of froglegs from his/her ultrasound last week. Look familiar?

Bookworm

The other day I was distracted by the sound of little pitter-pattering feet running back and forth from their room to the couch and came around the corner to catch Luke in action:

He carried almost every single one of his books to the couch, then sat down and demanded I read. At least he seems to have improved on my method: I did the same thing at about his age, but I carried them one by one. 

Christmas Tree, by Luke

Luke has been so excited every day to wake up and come out to see the Christmas tree, and Tuesday he was rewarded with the chance to decorate! He was very patient all day, being told he had to wait for dad to come home to start, and only sneaking a few giant ornaments on the tree beforehand. 

With Ken as designated distributor and picture-taker, Luke was very gentle and even shared some ornaments with mama so they didn't all end up on the bottom half of the tree. 

He didn't demand more when they were all gone and only tried to climb into the tree once, to get an ornament way back on the branches. 

My favorite parts of the tree? 

These ones. 

Brief Moments of Motherly Genius

do not come often enough, in my case. But when they do, I am extremely grateful for the divine help. 

Voila! Corn kernels, kitchen utensils, a baking sheet, and an empty egg carton.

But what about the mess? You may be wondering. Surprisingly, Luke was very fastidious in his playing, carefully picking up every kernel whenever there was a spill.

Until mom walked by and accidentally kicked the egg carton, spilling kernels everywhere. 

Motherly genius, indeed.

Turkeys

This year I am thankful for some of our oldest friends (as a couple) the Tanners, who hosted our joint Thanksgiving dinner and then joined us for some game-playing once the babes were in bed.

 

I am also grudgingly grateful for the just-cool-enough weather that let us try out the Houston Thanksgiving Parade without jackets and other such warm gear. 

We were also incredibly grateful that we could host Uncle Matto and Beka for a fun weekend full of games. Even for Luke, who played (and played, and played) Mousetrap for the first time and loved every minute of it.





Food, friends, and family. Couldn't ask for a better weekend. 

Poor, Neglected Froglegs

Yes, I am still growing a baby. 

You may have noticed how sadly silent we have been on this subject. Turns out that already having a child completely throws a wrench into planning for the next one. With Luke, I knew exactly how many weeks along I was, was reading prenatal books and updates each week to find out how he was developing, was taking weekly pictures (sort of), can remember the exact moment I first felt him move, spent a good chunk of each day thinking about who I was creating and had daily birth preparation exercises to help prepare me to be a mother. And pregnancy took forever.

With this one, I can sometimes spare some mental space at night after I am already in bed, but not always, and am surprised to find myself almost halfway there! Plus, Kenny has taken it upon himself to nickname our children based on what they look like at their earliest ultrasound (Luke was peanut), and this poor child got the unfortunate designation of "froglegs". So here we are, froglegs and I, at 18 weeks and 2 days:

Sadly nothing can be done about the giant white arm. 

As if this baby already knows it is entering a world where it will need to fight for attention, it is a serious mover. I don't know what froglegs is doing in there, but he/she completely skipped the "little butterfly flutters" movement phase and went right to kicking and punching and flipping, hard enough that Kenny has already felt movement. My midwives suspect that this will be another giant of a baby (apparently that's just the way my body grows 'em), so maybe we're already running out of room? 

Take that, Pottery Barn!

So I rarely post about crafting and never post how-to tutorials, but this one had to be bragged about. 

Behold, the Young Family Gratitude Tree.

A two-year project in the making, I got the idea from a similar tree I saw in a Pottery Barn magazine, although mine is so much cooler. Everyday you take off the corresponding numbered leaf and replace it with a leaf or acorn mini-chalkboard, upon which you write something you are thankful for. There are also blank leaves to replace the numbered ones for the years when Thanksgiving comes a little early, all kept within the handy leaf drawstring bag seen on the left. 

Just to give you an idea of why it took so darn long to finish (to be fair, I only worked on it during November and last Thanksgiving my mom was around to entertain Luke), here is the crazy amount of work that went into it:

• 96 leaves cut out
• 62 pieces of velcro sewn on
• 8 bobbins of thread respooled
• 28 wooden pieces spray-painted
• 3+ yards of felt used 

...all for 20 minutes of interest on Luke's part when I finally hung it on the wall. :)

Cougars and Horses and Dogs

This past weekend we flew up to Kansas City to see BYU lose (in a very miserable game) to Mizzou, as per Kenny's yearly tradition of attending a BYU away game since he graduated. Nate Tanner's parents were kind enough to let us stay at their house, even though it was very full with the rest of their entire family, and Luke had an absolute blast exploring their enormous backyard, complete with horses, a massive dog named Danny Boy, a trampoline, a swingset, and a sandbox. 

In fact, Luke loved pretty much everything about the weekend. He loves flying on airplanes for some reason (but thank goodness, amiright?), and was beyond excited to head to the airport both times, could not get enough of being outside, got a kick out of going potty on all sorts of new potties, took to the babysitters for the game instantly, and was even stoked to go to a new nursery on Sunday. He tried so very hard to get Danny Boy to play fetch with him and even rode a horse without crying for several minutes (albeit with a death grip on the saddle). The little man sure knows how to enjoy himself. 

Ken and Nate made full use of a house full of people with plenty of games, and I made full use of the numerous outdoor activities with some very rusty tennis on my part, horseback riding, and shooting. And yes, we did see the game. 

*sigh* BYU, when are you going to stop breaking Ken's poor, trusting heart?

The War

We have entered the last and worst realm of what I now refer to as self-inflicted toddler H-E-double-hockey-sticks (second only to breastfeeding/weaning and sleep training): 

Potty Training.

And because of Luke's personality (and mine), and the success my cousin Janessa has had using this method, we decided it would be best to cut diapers cold turkey and never look back. Luke is just the type of smart, stinker-like toddler to say, "Oh, I can wear diapers when I sleep? Well, I'm just going to wear them forever, thank you very much," And I decided long ago that two kids in diapers was going to be a no-go for me. So to avoid training too close to the baby to have regression issues and hopefully to avoid active training during the bulk of the holidays, I changed my last Luke-produced poopy diaper on the night of November 2nd. 

So far the results have been promising! After several small accidents in the morning two days ago, we did get some pee in the potty, and I was rewarded with Luke running towards me mid-morning frantically yelling, "Gotta go poopoo!" and a successful bowel movement in the toilet shortly after that. He also woke up dry from his nap yesterday and developed some really obvious dancing and frantic crotch-grabbing signs that helped me haul him to the potty more often than not (only one accident inside, the rest out on our balcony). This morning he woke up dry and immediately went potty when we put him on the toilet, which was just the encouragement that mama needed to keep it up. He is always very proud of his accomplishments, and this is no exception. Hopefully we make it out with minimal emotional scarring, on both sides. Honestly, "losing the battle but winning the war" has got to be a reference to potty training. 

Yes, I totally blurred the penis. I wonder how much he will hate me for putting this on the internet. 

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

Curious George was quite the hit, both at the ward Trunk or Treat and sloshing through the wet after it had been raining all day on Halloween night. Plenty of pictures were posed for, including some sweet grandparents who had to send it to their grandchild because his favorite TV show was Curious George, and lots of little kids came up and went, "Hey! It's George!"

Even more of a hit with the kiddos, however, was our man in the yellow hat. Visible even in the dark from far away, several kids came up, their moms in tow, just to stare at Ken while their moms apologized and said, "He saw you and just had to come see you up close; you're one of his favorite characters!"

Ken thinks it's because he is the ultimate father figure; he lets his monkey do anything!

Halloween Extravaganza

For those of you who are unaware, I go a little nuts over the holidays. The end of September approaches and I begin organizing weekend activities and planning food and treats and decorations (housework and other such responsibilities be darned). This year I decided to try planning daily Halloween activities for Luke, something I have dreamed of doing since I was little and my mom dyed our milk green one St. Patricks' Day. 

Some of the activities, like the finger puppets I painstakingly sewed from the book Five Little Pumpkins, have been duds. Others, like our jello googly eye blobs, were wildly successful.

Honestly, who doesn't love gooified sugar?

 Other successes:
Pom pom pumpkin patch with ice cream scoop

and his monster, the *only* stuffed animal he is allowed to color on.

When all else fails, a Halloween song off of Youtube is sure to do the trick. 

Chopstick Lessons

So far surprisingly successful!

To Autumn

Dear Fall,

We miss you. It is so darn hot here. Every time we see pictures of changing leaves and apple orchards it makes us long for colder days. We feel like the only sane people as we listen to people talk about how nice it is outside and how beautiful the weather is.

The news is constantly announcing how a "cold front" is moving in, and we wait for temperatures to drop, only to be disappointed when they hover around 75 degrees. We see people outside in jackets and long sleeves (even puffy coats and scarves!) and wonder what they're doing as we walk around comfortably in shorts and flip-flops.

*sigh* Here's to the days when we don't have to turn on our air conditioning.

All our love,

The Youngs

Dethroned

Kingdom soon to be usurped by this little bugger:

Loyal Cougs

We have finally purchased Luke his heart's deepest desire: 

a BYU hat. 

It's still a little big, leaving lots of room for that giant noggin to grow, but is his constant companion, even in sleep. He is very concerned about getting it dirty, so it usually sits on the table next to him while he eats, and if it is ever misplaced I will hear an ever-repeating "mama, where's my BYU Cougars hat?" until it's found. He is very excited that he and dada both have BYU hats and asks dada to put his on often (mama luckily doesn't have one). 

And because it was promised several days ago but has taken us a while to deliver, here is the BYU Cougar fight song, as sung by a two-year-old. 

A Boy and His Baga

Last weekend Baga managed to squeeze a quick day-and-a-half trip into his business trip itinerary and stopped by to see us! Luke was very excited and made the most of every minute, following him around and forcing him to play lots of baseball and football. 

Luke showed off one of his favorite grocery stores, fed Baga some Tex-Mex and frozen yogurt, and let Baga play on one of his favorite playgrounds. 

We miss you Baga!

The No Good, Very Bad Day

I have to share a wonderful experience Lukey and I had at the Houston Zoo splash pad yesterday, so that any time your child does something that forces you to do something embarrassing in public you can think about this and decide yours isn't so bad. (with the exception of you, Wheelers, I doubt anything can top some of Caleb's antics) 

Next to the splash pad there are some very nice changing rooms for your changing convenience, and after splashing around for a while Luke decided to go check those out by himself. Before I could dash over there, he had locked himself in an empty stall and was happily playing inside. Unfortunately for me, the doors to the stalls go down far enough to the ground that it's a bit too small for an adult and the walls went up about ten feet (for all of those ten foot tall patrons out there). After several minutes of hearing "Hi, mama!" and "I locked the door!" coming from inside with clearly no attempts at unlocking it, I was forced to clamber over the ten foot wall with the aid of some other moms. I was not happy, let me tell you. 

Not. Happy.

But Luke sure was! He was sitting on the bench, kicking his feet, and seemed not the least bit concerned when I gave him a stern talking to in the most level voice I could manage. The conversation went a bit like this. 

Angry Mama: "Luke, mama is not happy. You are in big trouble."

Happy Luke: "Okay!"

Angry Mama: "We are going to have a time out in here."

Happy Luke: "Okay! I locked the door!"

While I counted to make the timeout official, Luke kept enjoying and admiring his surroundings (my bad, should have taken him out of his sanctuary). Every once in a while a brief look of confusion would cross his face as he would turn to look up at the ceiling, no doubt wondering where I had dropped down from. 

After the timeout we went back out and I gave him two more chances to go play (he kept headed for those darn doors!) before we had to leave. On our way out the splash pad attendants were laughing and called him their little buddy (did I mention he had also tried to escape the splash pad several times before this happened? had to be run down by the attendants). 

Sitting here writing this I can't help laughing as I remember it, but honestly at the time I think I was slightly insane. I don't really remember thanking the moms who gave me a leg up over the wall or what anybody said to me as we came out, I don't remember if this caused a scene (I guess enough of a scene that another mom thankfully took pictures) or if there was a crowd or something gathered around and I think it took a few minutes before I started really paying attention to anyone other than Luke. Honestly, how have we not all been committed? 

All By Hisself

Luke's ongoing independence kick has Kenny and I ready to scream on a daily basis. He adds new things he "need do by myself" every day, usually without precedent, and each one adds at least two to three minutes to our daily routine. Heaven forbid we forget and do something for him, because that requires a complete start-over of the entire process. For example: whenever we drive anywhere, Luke must open the car door, climb in, shut the car door behind him (we always have to sneak help on this one, but it has to seem like he shut it himself or he will insist on doing it over), and climb into his carseat unaided or else a major tantrum is triggered. 

In this case, Luke decided to throw some leaves from a flower on our kitchen table all over the floor and then insisted he clean it up himself. And to his credit he did a pretty good job! Perhaps all of our pseudo-patience is paying off.