Let's have some fun

Having a little fun in the Pitzer house 

Matchmaker Matchmaker make me a match!
He thinks this is hilarious!

What you need for easy tub paints.
Thanks to a friend for telling me this works!

This is how Landon spent his evening,
 with homemade tub paints

The Artist at work

           

An original Lando

The painter with his pallet 

Mommy wanted to paint our faces like bunnies.
I guess bunnies aren't cool with you're a boy.  So I only got my bunny nose.

For anyone wondering about the tub paints, they do not stain!  My fear was that they would cling to that lovely soap scum, that we all have and are ashamed to admit to, and stain it.  I only used one drop of food coloring to dye the shaving cream and it was pigmented enough.  I did use two drops of yellow to get it a prettier color.  The purple was more gray, but I was fearful of using too much dye.  Landon did have a little red that I needed to scrub off because I was painting him and it dried.  To help keep me from worrying about it staining I also kept wiping it off a). to create a clean canvas for him to work on.  b). to keep it from drying and possibly attaching to the soap scum (stupid scum).  He also got a kick out of helping do that and was excited that it turned his bath water a greenish-blue, which is always fun!

ARRRRRR!  After his awesome bath he wanted to be a pirate.
Best pirate EVER.

Better late then never

Little man turned 9mon back on the 12th, but I neglected to get this done in a timely manner!  Within one week he went from army crawling to crawling like a champ at high speeds.  I now can't do anything without suddenly hearing deep breathing and the pat pat pat of little hands as they crawl along after me.  The dog can't drink or eat while he's awake because he splashes in the dog's water like he's at a water park and nibbles on any remaining dog food as an extra snack.  In that same week he began pulling to standing on the couch and at this point is cruising with only one hand.  He likes to let go because he believes he can walk!  He finds out otherwise when he crashes to the floor, but he tries again a minute later. This one week was actually the week before he turned 9 months. He has spent this month perfecting his new skills.

He loves to "talk".  This boy jabbers more then his brother ever did and I didn't know that was possible!  He talks to you with such expression in his voice and in his face that you swear you should know what he's telling you.  If he is in the midst of a story you are not allowed to interrupt him for any reason, he will stop you and continue to tell you his tale.  He is also beginning to grasp the concept of waving goodbye and will do it now and again.  I got a wave goodbye as I left for work the other night and it made me smile all the way to work. Will has the ability to make you feel like you are the most special and important person in the world when he smiles at you.  It's one of his awesome gifts.  He recently has begun "barking" at the dog.  Hilarious!  After I crate the dog and I'm standing at the base of the stairs preparing to leave he cranks his head trying to see the dog and "barks" at him.  I caught him chasing the dog through the kitchen two days ago "barking" after him.  I love this little goofball!  He's mischievous and sweet and I can't imagine the past 9 months without him.

Potty training woes and joys

As many people know, I've been struggling with Landon man and getting him potty trained.  We had trial runs in the past, but hit it hard when he turned three in December.  Poor Facebook world has had to deal with my ranting and ravings on the days where I just want to throw in the towel or when I want to scream at him and cry and lock myself in my room.  Yes, it is frustrating for me.  It doesn't seem frustrating for him at all, or stressful.  Our breakthrough moment began when I realized he needed to be naked to use the potty.  If only that realization had come earlier. Naked was the only way to get him to poop in the potty and not in his underwear.  Believe me, I was getting the craps of that (pun intended).  I was gagging as I had to clean out his underwear multiple times a day in the toilet....seriously, I never would have survived cloth diapers.  I would have sent them off to the diaper service full of poo.  And yes, I would have payed out the nose for a diaper service.  I thought about contacting them for little boy undies.  People told me that they just threw them away instead of cleaning them, but I couldn't bring myself to throw away his superhero big boys.

For my one nephew it worked just to tell him not to pee on the character on his underwear.  He loved that character so much that he wouldn't do it.  I tried that angle...no luck.  He didn't seem to care that he pooed on the Hulk's head or peed on Iron Man.  Show a little respect man!  After a month or so of struggling with the underwear issues the light bulb finally came on.  *DING!*  NAKED.  The child needs to run around in nothing but a shirt and socks.  Slowly we were able to bring back the big boys and only a few accidents.  But then we would have those days where it all went to pot and we were back at square one.  And not just a day, multiple days.  It usually happened after people were over or we traveled for the day since we stopped the routine.  And although I knew that it didn't make it any easier to handle when there was pee everywhere. So we would have to go back to naked for a few days and slowly work back to underwear.  And thus my frustration.

He was doing an amazing job and then in the span of two days he peed on the floor twice and on the couch. I thought I was going to loose it.  This was just a few weeks ago.  Two of those events were on the same day!  Frustration reoccurring.  So we had to go back to naked for a day and work our way back.  But the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to grow brighter.  Hooray!  He is wearing his big boys successfully all the time.  This is at home, not in public.  And at home he can't wear pants over them or he forgets about it entirely.  He's also wearing a pull up in public and just in the past few days has been doing amazing!  I'm over joyed at this development.

Last week he actually let me take him to the bathroom at a restaurant!  He sat on the toilet, but began to panic because it was so loud in there.  Other people were of course coming in and turning on the hand dryers (that sound like jet engines taking off) and flushing the toilets (that sounds like they are sucking people down to the depths).  He began to cry and we had to abandon the trip, but I was so proud of him giving it a try at all!  This week he successfully used the potty at his grandma's house to poop, AND today use the potty at the tax office to poop!  Are you kidding me???  He even came and told me that he had to go instead of resorting to his pull-up.  I am gushing with joy over my big guy and the leaps and bounds he has made recently.  Maybe one day we'll be able to wear pants at home too.

I know that one day he'll be potty trained and then it will be on to boy number two.  I'm hoping that my challenges with him will help me with the future children.  I'm so happy that we are closer to the end and I hope that I can hold on until then!

Project completed

Yesterday my Mom came over and we finished the glider rocker project.  It was harder then we thought it might be.  Since neither of us has any experience upholstering or recovering things it took us a long time to figure out how to make it happen.  The original covers were attached with snaps, so my Mom purchased some on her way over.  After spending ample time trying to figure out how they worked we ended up not even using them!  We were better off just sewing the fabric on the chair.  It held it tight enough that the foam won't move an inch or the fabric for that matter.  So no need for snaps or for even sewing a sleeve for the foam to go into.  We just covered it right on the arm and stitched it in place.  My Mom showed me how to do a slip stitch, which was great!  I am not versed in stitches, so I'm happy to have another one in my arsenal.  She got one attached while I took care of Will and then she had to leave so I finished the other one myself.  Luckily it stayed in place.  If mine falls off in the next few weeks we'll know I screwed up. haha.  I did for some reason start from the back and ended up having to sew with my non-dominant hand and I stabbed myself deep with the needle and had to get a bandaid so I didn't bleed on the fabric.  This all occurred while Will was climbing through the gliding mechanisms and Landon was trying to get me to play guns, or asking me about my "boo boo" repeatedly.  Ah, I love kids, but man they make doing a project hard!

Arms completed!

I have gotten to use it a little and it's perfect!  I wish that I had had this chair while Will was smaller.  We are currently working on getting him to fall asleep alone, with only a little rocking, so I don't get to spend much time enjoying it anymore.  But today I had  to have him fall asleep on me to get him to take a longer nap so I snuggled in and really enjoyed it.
Thanks to my Mom again for helping me out!

A piece of February

What have we been up to lately?  Lots of fun!

Is there something on my face?
Come here, Mo, I want to love you!

Playing peek-a-boo.

 Will loves playing peek-a-boo.  It's his favorite thing to do.  He does it all by himself too and just waits for us to play along.  The day I took the above pictures I heard him go, "eek!" and when I looked he was laying on the floor with this blankie on his face waiting to play.  Such a cutie pants!  And of course Landon had to get in on the action too.

Watching the world go by...

 Landon loves watching the trash get picked up and he was just so cute watching them.  Later in the day Will got to enjoy the view out the window too.  He was so happy that he could stand there alone and see the outside he kept pulling up on his tip-toes and squealing with joy.

...and just being too darn cute for words!

I can't get enough of Will's big eyes and chubby cheeks.  Seriously, I can't!  He's eating big boy food, cut two more teeth, is crawling at high speeds, and pulling up to standing (all in the last month).  Tonight he even used his brother's rocking chair as a walker and moved down the hall.  It won't be long now until I have a walker on my hands.  Hard to believe since Landon refused to walk until 14 months.  I love how different every child is and I love my boys.

Life on shuffle

Yesterday I was driving to and from my parents to retrieve the kiddos.  That's an hour each way.  As I started out I was trying to decide what to listen too.  Then I decided to do something I've always wanted to try.  I put my iPod on "play all" and "shuffle" and just let it make the musical decisions.  It was fabulous!  I all of a sudden found myself being taken down memory lane.  First was Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband bringing me back to my college days with 1000x's.  If you've never heard it you can go here.  It actually made me tear up a bit.  Maybe because I have always loved the lyrics, or maybe because it took me back to those college years.  I was back there sitting and watching them.  Dancing and rocking out in the Provo tabernacle and feeling a little weird screaming and dancing in a place that we had church meetings.  I was there meeting the band (several times of course!) and randomly meeting Craig Miner's parents and thinking I was the coolest person EVER for doing so.  I was with wonderful friends, feeling connected to those that I left in Utah so long ago.

Following that came Colors.  Colors is a band that will forever have my heart, regardless of the fact that they are no longer together.  The song that came on was 11:20, check it out.  For some reason this song brought me to tears too. Once again I was back in my college years listening to my favorite band.  Seeing them in concert, meeting them.  I was their biggest fan in my apartment, so when their final farewell concert came to my college campus I didn't get to go.  If only I had had a car or was willing to ride the public transit but that late at night.  So I bought the DVD and pretended I had gotten to go.  I own every album, even the one they released in High School.  I sing my children to sleep with Lullaby by Russ Dixon.  Oh how I love Russ Dixon!  I love all of them, truly I do, but Russ's songs touch my heart in a different way.

This kept on going like this for a little bit, and I loved it!  There's nothing like going back in time on a musical journey.  If you are anything like me then music touches your heart, your soul, and holds more memories in it then anything else can.  Songs take me back to specific moments in my life.  I will definitely be putting it on shuffle again and seeing what good old songs creep out of it's memory.