Happy Birthday Dallin!

Dallin, my sweet, sweet boy, turned 4 today. He is such a fun little boy! A few weeks after Christmas, he said to me, "I want jammies with a zipper and a snap with spiderman and superman and batman and power rangers..." and every other superhero he could think of. I thought that was cute, but figured he would forget about it. As it got closer to his birthday, any time someone would mention it, he would say he wanted those jammies. Not once did he ask for a toy. Sometimes he said he wanted all the Little Critter books, and once or twice he asked for a second Hot Wheels race track (he got his first one for Christmas), but he told everyone (including the clerks at the store, who would look at me really confused) about how he was going to get those jammies. He really had his heart set on those jammies, so I figured I should start looking. You know, it's really hard to find those blanket sleepers in his size. They didn't have them at Walmart, or Kohl's, or Target. I couldn't find any good ones on Ebay or Amazon. Target had a few online, but they were designs like dinosaurs or skulls and cross bones. They had one Buzz Lightyear, but I wasn't sure if Dallin even knew who he was. I started thinking about making him one, but patterns are expensive if they aren't on sale, and fleece, especially the licensed characters fleece, is pricey too, plus the long zipper, etc. This was a real dilemma for me.

A few weeks ago, Dallin had a family birthday party combined with his cousin, who is two weeks older than he is. His aunt gave him a Buzz Lightyear fleece blanket with a large, plush Buzz. He really liked playing with it and started talking about Buzz. (Thank you Debby!) I bought the buzz jammies right away and paid top dollar for them so Dallin would have something he really wanted. I kept searching for cheap blanket jammies so he could get a couple, seeing as he really wanted 10! I found some online at K-mart for 1/2 price, just generic prints. They supposedly had them in store here so I rushed off to get them. I searched everywhere and found the last three boys sleepers in the store. They weren't the ones on the website. They were spiderman and spongebob, two in Dallin's size and one in Caden's, and they were 75% off! Dallin really enjoys matching Caden, so I got all three. It was really fun watching him open each present this morning. He really loved his jammies and has wore all three today. I think he went to bed in his Buzz ones.

























































Yes I know Dallin's cake is pink with flower sprinkles on it, but considering it was wheat, dairy, egg, and chocolate free, I think it turned out pretty well. But that's another post.

Happy (really late) Valentine's Day!

My sister posted a funny bit on trying to compete with the elaborate "card" exchanges at the school, and it made me want to share what we did. It just took a while to get around to it! Starting at the beginning of Feb Caden started talking about how excited he was for Valentine's Day. I kept thinking, really? So I asked him why. He answered with a grin, "Because Daddy always gets us a chocolate heart!"
Okay, I need to explain this. When I was growing up, every year we'd wake up Valentine's day with an inexpensive heart with chocolates on our pillow from our dad. It wasn't much, but it really made us feel special and we loved it. I wanted Steve to carry on this tradition. Of course, he didn't think it was any big deal, so I was always the one to get the heart, make him sign it, and put it on his pillow. Well, this year with Caden constantly giggling in anticipation, Steve realized it was important to them. I wanted to do something special for them too, but didn't want to "compete" with Steve, so I had to think of something non-candy. I found these little heart molds at Target for $1 and knew I could use them. Caden has eczema, so I make little bath fizzies for the boys because he can't use bubble bath. I used the molds to make cute little heart fizzies for them. Then I found this little dinosaur tag I attached to the bag. Yes, I know it says friend, and Steve thought I was weird for using it, but I knew the boys would like the dinosaur and not really care about what it said. And, of course, I was right!



I wanted to make fun stuff to eat for them too. I was going to make them pink heart pancakes for breakfast, but the boys started talking about how they really wanted eggs and sausage for breakfast on Valentines.
I tried to die the eggs pink, but of course they turned out orange. The boys went along with it though. Then I made "magic" milk for them. I put a couple drops of food coloring in a glass when they weren't looking, so when I poured the milk, it magically turned pink. They loved that and kept asking for magic milk days later. Maybe we'll have it on St Patrick's Day...



For lunch we had tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and red soda. I cut the sandwiches into little hearts and everyone really liked them, even Andrew!
Dinner was fun too, but we didn't get any pictures.

So Allison, this post was for you! I hope it sparks your imagination for next year! :)

Hot Dog

Steve and I always laugh at the silly people that dress their dogs in little outfits. So this is what we did...

A little rusty

Last week I was shopping at Walmart and I couldn't find the sugar cubes (because they don't carry them). I saw a man who worked there so I asked him where the sugar cubes were. He pointed to his ear and made signs like writing. Of course I didn't have a pen handy, but I thought, I can do this. I thought I remembered the sign for sugar, but it was awfully similar to the sign for cute, so I decided to finger spell it. My fingers were really slow and awkward, and I had to do it twice for him, but I made it. He answered me and I went on my way feeling proud I was able to use my ASL training, more to understand him than anything.
Well, this week I was back at Walmart, trying to find a hole punch without success. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a worker walking down the isle. I started to ask him where it was, when I recognized him as the deaf man from before. I couldn't think of the sign for hole or punch, so I just finger spelled it again. He helped me, I signed thank you, and then he quickly signed a question. Oh no. I could start to feel the pressure of a conversation in sign when I haven't really used it for 7 years. All I caught was "how you know..." Luckily I remembered the sign for again. He asked me how I knew he was deaf. I knew I couldn't finger spell that whole answer, so I struggled to remember enough signs to answer and plowed through a little conversation with him. It was fun to sign again, but it also made me flustered. Even though deaf people are always patient with my signing, I always feel more pressure signing with a deaf person. I would like to practice it more, but how do I find a hearing person who can sign?

Why can't boys communicate?

Last week Caden's teacher sent home a note saying, "Ask Caden about the award he got in the assembly today!" I thought, cool. So as we were walking home, I tried to get him to tell me about it.
Me - How was your day?
Caden - Fine.
Me - Did you do anything fun?
Caden - Not really.
Me - Anything exciting happen?
Caden - Nope.
Okay, I'm guess I need to be more specific.
Me - Did you have an assembly today?
Caden - Yeah! (a little surprised)
Oh good, now he'll tell me.
Me - Did any thing fun happen there?
Caden - No.
Argh!
Me - What did they do?
Caden - They gave out awards.
Me - Did you get an award?
Caden - No! (a little defensively)
What?
The whole way home I kept trying to get him to tell me about this award, but he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I finally pulled out the note from his teacher and had him read it.
Caden - Oh yeah! I got an award.
Great! That's a start.
Me - Cool! What was it for?
Caden - Working hard.
Yes! We're on a roll!
Me - Who gave it to you?
Caden - Mrs. Ferachi. (his teacher)
Then I had to try and figure out if it was just some award that his teacher did for all the kids in the class, or maybe it was just the first grade. It was like pulling teeth to get it out of Caden. Finally, we got the story straight. It was a school wide assembly. His principal gave him a certificate for working hard. He was the only one from first grade. And everyone clapped for him. Pretty awesome. When we finally figured it out, we were very proud of him! And yes, these are the best pictures we got!



































Today was the 100th day of school for Caden. He made this castle out of 100 sugar cubes. I thought it turned out pretty well. Steve helped Caden find a picture of a castle on the internet, then they designed it together and I helped him glue it.