Snow Day

Bodie finally got to enjoy a snow day this weekend. Last year he was afraid of the snow, but yesterday he was very excited to go out and play. Unfortunately it was very cold out so he didn't get to enjoy it for long but he had a good time while it lasted. He might get another shot at it this weekend if the snow fall predictions for tonight and tomorrow hold up.

Fun + Frustration = 2 year olds

Bodie has been a ball of fire lately, in good ways and bad.

Fun

• He is so sweet with Barrett. I tried getting a video of him singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to Barrett one night but as soon as I got out the camera he wanted to be on the other side. Also whenever Barrett is fussy Bodie will get close to him and in a high pitched, baby-talk kind of way, say "It's ok Barrett, it's ok". Also after he gives Barrett a kiss he declares "I so nice".


• He is a huge helper. We've found a new job for him around the house, sorting the silverware:


• He loves counting and singing his ABCs.


• Has a new need to take his (empty) backpack to school.
• He really uses his imagination. He brings us pretend ice cream, cookies and M's (M&Ms) every day. The other day he was pressing down a button on one of Barrett's toys and told me he was making coffee (since we grind the beans when we make it).
• He uses our words against us, and I'll admit I find it funny. Last night I was sitting at the computer and he pointed to the router and said "leave it alone". He'll also put his feet on the coffee table and then say "I need to put my feet down". At least we know he is hearing what we tell him even if he isn't listening.
  

Frustration

• Sleeping time has become so frustrating. Not only does he come out of his room multiple at bed time, but he comes out during the night. At 2 am he will tell me "I have good nap".


• There have been a couple of occasions where he will not want to chew and swallow his food at dinner. We don't let him leave the table until the food is gone from his mouth, and this led to a one and a half hour stand off one night. Finally at 8, Curt turned out the lights and told Bodie good night. Which led to spitting out the food and much screaming. Aren't we great parents? Here he is during the stand off:


• No desire to potty train. This isn't hugely frustrating yet, but I think it is going to be a tough road. One day we let him have all the apple juice he wanted while hanging out sans diaper, with his potty chair in the living room. He kept asking for a diaper and finally peed on the carpeted floor. He always asks to go potty and will sit forever and not actually do his business until he has a diaper back on.

Lights Out

When Curt and I built our house 6 years ago, we were both first time (soon-to-be) homeowners, and pretty clueless about things related to not only owning a home, but the building of that home. So we didn't ask a lot of questions, such as "where is said light fixture we are picking out exactly going to be placed." Shopping for our light fixtures was not a great, get along, moment for us. I wanted nice fixtures and Curt wanted cheap fixtures. We mostly compromised (some of us, well me, very begrudgedly) and have mostly descent ones, but a few definitely leave something to be desired. Anyway, one set of light fixtures I have never liked are the ones in our stairway (same fixture, same switch, two occurrences). I hated them even more on the walk through of our home where I found one placed in the middle of the stairwell, at the top of our fairly high ceiling. We had thought it would be placed above the landing at the top of the stairs. Shows what we knew. I asked the builder's representative how we'd ever change that light bulb and he basically said he didn't know. Nice. So we waited for the inevitable. And waited. And waited for 6 years, until it finally went out this week. We'd replaced its partner fixture's bulb once or twice, but the big one up high stayed lit. Today Curt went out and bought a new contraption for changing light bulbs (the packaging never indicated it could be used on the fixtures) and got to work. After some frustrations he finally got the fixture down and the bulb changed. We put a CFL bulb in there so hopefully it will have another lengthy life ahead of it. The tough task came to putting the fixture back up. The apparatus thingy suctioned itself to the fixture but not enough to turn it properly. Curt began to lose the grip on the fixture and told me I'd have to catch it as it dropped (given that I hate the fixture I probably wasn't going to try too hard to catch it). I told him it was probably better if I held the changing thingy and he caught the fixture. We had a switch off, the fixture began to drop, and I see Bodie walking up the stairs. I screamed! Curt caught the fixture thankfully...the last thing I needed was for it to drop straight on Bodie, or shatter on the half wall and crumble on Bodie. With his next attempt Curt was able to get the fixture back up. I believe this fixture has shot ahead of our ugly bathroom fixtures on my list of replacements. We are definitely going to get an open, drop down type fixture in the future.