Say cheese!

Erlan loves to mug for the camera. Now he must say "Cheese!" As a consequence, all of our picture are starting to look like this:




He's still adorable!

The weekend, with an update.

Some local ne'er-do-wells kicked our weekend off with a bang. They stole our car right out of our driveway. Not my precious SUV (thank goodness!), rather our 1996 Nissan that has seen better days. The car has been through Ben so it was not only a big surprise that somebody stole it---it was rather shocking that they could even get into it. Frankly I'm surprised that the mess in the car didn't make them shut the door and walk off. The dome light doesn't work, so maybe they didn't see it but surely they could smell it. The car has a peculiar odor that comes from cow-mucked boots, cattle feed, and dropped toddler food.

The car has been reported. We've driven all over town and on county roads looking for it. I figure it will turn up as an abandoned vehicle on one of the numerous gravel roads that surround us.

UPDATE: The car was found today. I'd like to be overjoyed about it, but somebody's joyride will end up costing about $400. I got to pay for towing, I'll need to get it shampooed to get all of the fingerprint powder out, and then there was the money in Ben's wallet....

The three things we swore we'd never do...

I figure it's time that both Ben and I cop to the three things that we swore we'd never do when we became parents.

Oath 1: No child will sleep in our bed.
Oath 2: Our child will not suck his thumb--ok, this was my thing (not Ben's)
Oath 3: Our child will have a normal name with a proper phonetic spelling--again just me.

Reality 1: Erlan loves to sleep in our bed! He will not go to sleep unless we lay down with him and pretend we are going to sleep too. If I try to read as he goes to sleep, he calmly stays up with me until I turn out the light. We generally transfer him to his baby bed after he goes to sleep. This means that he wakes up at least once in the night and screams to get back in our bed. Generally this doesn't work; although, I have slept walked, gotten him out of his bed, and transferred him to our bed. Occassionally we fall asleep while putting him to sleep. He is in heaven when this happens. He sprawls out like a starfish in order to cover as much of the bed as possible for a two-year old boy. His second favorite position is in-between my legs. He then tries to roll over my outside leg so that he would fall out of the bed. The consequence is that I raise that leg throughout the night. His third favorite position is to lay between us like we're a hammock, head on Daddy's tummy and feet on Mommy's stomach. I know you're wondering--yes, he kicks. By the way, he does not like it if I try to snuggle with Ben.

Reality 2: Thumbsucking was one of the few things that I really felt compelled to comment upon when my friends' kids sucked their thumbs. I did not want my children sucking their thumb. I watched my nephew struggle to break the habit when he was young, and I didn't want my children to go through that. My beautiful boy is an ambidextrous thumb sucker. He uses both thumbs interchangably. Now strangers comment about Erlan's thumb sucking. I agree. I don't want him to suck his thumb, but it is the way he learned to self sooth and I won't take it away from him now. I read that children tend to outgrow thumbsucking by age 5. This hasn't been my experience, but maybe I never met an average kid. :-)

Reality 3: I like phonetically spelled names. I wanted people to know how to pronounce my child's name when they looked at it. Erlan's name is about as far away as you can get from this. Erlan, pronounced Yair-lawn, starts with a Russian "E" not an English "E". The Russian "E" has a "yeh" sound. This spelling will confuse Erlan's teachers for years to come. :-) So, why not just change the spelling? The Russian "E" is part of Erlan's heritage, and I want him to be proud of where he came from. Also, I just like the E.

By the by, Erlan UPDATE:

1.) He grew 3/4 of an inch within two months
2.) We saw him jump by himself for the first time yesterday.
3.) He can put his sandals on by himself. He can put his shoes on, but cannot tie them yet.
4.) He's potty trained!!! WOOHOO!!!
5.) He wakes up with a smile on his face, says "Mommy! Daddy! Eat!"

The Poop Game

Erlan's favorite game is the poop game. He has figured out that poop is a magic word. It gives him special powers that allow him to escape whatever he is doing at the time and results in lots of attention from Mommy and Daddy. Here's how its played: Erlan yells, "Poop!" He points to his bottom and tops it off with a pained expression.

The result: Mommy drops whatever she is doing, runs to Erlan, picks him up and takes him to the bathroom.

As soon as Erlan is picked up, he breaks out his biggest smile and a happy giggle.

We played this game 25 times before noon. Any pooping? Nope. But what do you do? Poop is a magic word. Who wants to take chances with that one?