Alphabet Kisses

Anders has alphabet cards that he has been obsessed with lately. Every time we get them down and Anders starts to tell me the letters, it is not long before you can hear Bram trying to yell the letters too. Bram grabbed two different letter cards and brought them to me. I pronounced P to him. He thought I was asking for a kiss when he watched my mouth. He then handed me the letter M. Again, as I pronounced it he thought I was asking for a kiss and gave me one. Next thing I know, every letter I tried to help him pronounce was interpreted as me asking for kisses. And he gave me a kiss after each and every one. So now we have this new game called Alphabet Kisses if I am ever feeling the need for some extra love.

Shark Boy

I was blow-drying Anders hair because we were about to go outside in the cold and he had just finished taking a bath. He saw his hair and excitedly exclaimed, "Mom, ima shark!"

A few nights ago at 3am I hear a squawk, and then another one. I go into the boys room and Bram is patiently laying and waiting for me to change his diaper and nurse him. I put him on the change table (in the dark) and he pulls out his pacifier with his eyes still closed and signs "food". It was so cute! I love that guy! His humor is really starting to emerge and he knows how to make me laugh constantly every day.

"I Make it Better"

As I was tucking Anders into bed tonight, I began to feel a pretty intense fatigue headache. I had my left hand across my forehead, and Anders goes, "mom, what are you doing with your hand?" The obvious answer is that I am laying it across my forehead. Instead, tell him that I am not feeling good. He then goes on to explain how I need a bandaid to make it better. So I let him get out of bed to go get one to make it better. His footsteps pitter-pattered down the hall and he braved the dark kitchen by himself (he is afraid of the dark). His footsteps rumbled as he came running back into his room, which is also dark except for the nightlight. I unwrap the bandaid and hold it while Anders runs to throw away the wrapper. He comes back and puts the bandaid on me as seen below in the picture. He then has a very pleased smile as he tells me that he gave me one of his lightning McQueen bandaids and it is going to make my head all better. I thank him profusely for sharing with me and making it better. He then tells me he loves me, grinning from ear to ear.

While my head still aches, I find myself feeling a little better with a smile every time I think about this bandaid on my forehead.

Nerf Unicorns

One upon a time there was a young baby named Bram who liked to chew on Nerf darts. One day the mother of the baby had the brilliant idea of sticking the dart to Bram's forehead every time he tried to chew on it. Now that baby is one and still remembers having the dart on his forehead.

This morning he was trying to put it on his forehead by himself, but couldn't do it so he gestured for my help. Here is the result:

Reading with Anders

One of the times I laugh the most with Anders is when we are reading. Tonight, we were reading "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" by Dr. Seuss. As I pointed to the pictures to prompt him, he easily said blue fish on cue at the bottom of the first page. The second page starts with "black fish" and then Anders said, "blue fish". Next comes, "old fish, new fish." I point to the old one and he says, "some are yellow". Technically, he was right. I corrected him. Then I pointed to the picture of a mother fish pushing a baby fish in a stroller. I pointed toward the baby fish and Anders says, "bed". Lol. Again, technically I guess that was what I was pointing at and the stroller did look more like a bed. Oh, he is just too much sometimes.

We also love taking pictures with photobooth. I have both chubby Yoda and Syndrome living in my house. Who knew?

The Temple

This past week, I went to the temple on Wednesday night, and David went to the temple on Thursday night. On Friday night we had a scheduled studio photo shoot. We were trying to get Anders pumped about it, so I said, "Anders! Guess where we are going tonight?!" No response. "We are going to the mall to get our pictures taken!" Anders, "No. We going to the temple. I want to go temple with Dad." That was most definitely not the response I was expecting, at all. We promised him we would go see the temple the next evening.

So last night we drove over to see the temple. It was cool weather, but not with a chill, so we got out of the car and played in the snow mounds and talked about the temple. As we prepared to leave, Anders lost it because he hadn't gone INSIDE. We explained it was closed and he wasn't old enough yet, but that we would bring him back often to see the temple since we only live a ten minute drive away.

We love to see the temple! And as we were there and I was watching the three most important people in my life stomping around in the snow with me, I was overwhelmed with gratitude to be sealed in the temple to my beautiful family and have the assurance that we can be together forever, regardless of what tragedies can occur in this life. I hope that my lifetime will conclude with innumerable treasured moments like the one we created tonight.

The Temple which we visited can be found here

P.S. Bram is officially walking and is starting to understand and use minimal sign language. He has made leaps and bounds this week. He can sign: please, thank you, water, food, and more. The sign he will do most readily is always FOOD.