"Sweet"

Nate hugged Jason while putting on his pj's tonight and said,

Daddy, you're sweet like a guy.

I'm sweet like a doughnut.


(I'm beginning to think that this stage of life would be
more accurately described as the entertaining twos.)

(saying "cheeeeese")

Reason #893 why I love Costco:

Big boxes (with endless possibilities)

Movie Night

Making Progress

With one week of potty training under his belt, Nathan is doing great! A good ol' sticker chart and M&M reward system has worked really well for him. He had a few accidents on days one and four (when I started getting him fully dressed), but has otherwise stayed dry and been good about telling me when he needs to go. Public bathrooms seem to frighten him, so I imagine that will be a bit of challenge to overcome. I am hoping that practicing using the potty at school next month will help him feel more comfortable away from home.

We found many ways to entertain
ourselves while at home last week...

Sweet Words

After breakfast yesterday morning Nathan told me,

"I like Buddy and Gracie in my heart."

I love you in mine, sweet boy.

Lego Love

Nathan recently noticed Jason's huge bin of Legos in our garage and asked if he could play with "Daddy's blocks." It was a moment I think Jason had been waiting for since the day Nate was born. (Does Jason's serious "Lego-building face" bring back memories, Uncle Mark?) I'm still not sure which one of these boys had more fun...

Boys

Growing up, I remember my mom having a framed quote in her bedroom that read, "There is a special place in Heaven for the mothers of little boys." As a child the humor of this was totally lost on me, but as woman who is now the mother of a little boy, those words come to mind often and make me laugh. I offer you an example of such a moment:


These are the big boy underpants I bought for Nathan a few weeks ago while at the store by myself...


And these are the big boy underpants Nathan picked out several days later when we were at the store together...


I tried to convince him that Mickey Mouse or Thomas the Train underpants would be so cool — or, hey! Look at these awesome Lightening McQueen underpants! I mean, he's not even two-and-a-half yet. How can it already be time for scary monsters and super heroes?

But my little boy wanted — nay, had to have — super hero underwear. There was no persuading him that anything else would be cooler. This marked the first of what I can only imagine will be many, many moments of thinking to myself,


Carrie, just let him be a boy.


Raising a tough-but-kind little man is an enormous daily challenge, but I wouldn't trade the gift of having a son for anything in the world. And with that, we purchased the biggest package of super hero underpants we could find.