Leaving on a Jet Plane

So Evan and I bought tickets two weeks ago, or maybe more now, for Ohio. We are going in August. I'm so excited. Because, we never go anywhere, and I live where I can see all the planes landing at the SLC airport from my windows all day long.

I calculated when the last time I flew was---ready for this---October 2007. Evan and I went to Chicago for 3 days. The last vacation that we had was a 4 day trip to Portland, we drove, in February 2009. Over a year ago. We have taken 2 little escapes to Roosevelt, Utah. Which I love, don't get me wrong. But they are usually 36 hours and not as satisfying as a "real" vacation. This time, we are going from a Saturday to a Friday (that's like a whole week).

It's been hard to always be here. I used to travel the world--literally. I lived in Romania and China. I flew home more frequently than every two years. I went places. So I am hoping that this trip will usher in a new era in our lives--one in which we travel.

P.S. Let's be honest, it won't. We'll still be a poor college student family and Kyle will be 2 in September so we'll be paying for his seat from then on. That is why we are going in August. Both boys will be under two and we only have to pay for Evan and me.

Mohawk

Kyle has a very unusual hair growth pattern going on. His widow's peak was growing quite long in the front and in the back there was some curl and a lot of poof, but his crown never seemed to grow any hair. It meant that I could pull his hair in the back in to a very small pony tail.

It was bothering me to say the least, but I have no skills in hair cutting and his widow's peak seemed tricky. Also, I had promised my good friend and long time hair genius, Maranda, the opportunity to do his first hair cut before this little one was even born.

So Saturday night, we drove to Provo for Kyle's first hair cut. This is a picture of before (and I loved her apron, which Kyle did not).


Maranda asked us what we wanted and suggested a mohawk. We went for it. Do not be confused. It is not a fauxhawk. It is actually cut into a mohawk. He liked the clippers and the blow drier but did not know what to do with the water bottle.


He helps to comb his hair at home, so he did here as well. He sat very well and I was impressed at how talented Maranda was at cutting a moving target.


Final product. Although, for the most part, we just do the top. The car seat kind of kills the back or any time he sleeps. But it looks good just hawked on top (is that a word??).


Right after, we went to a Vikking dinner. Kyle loved the sword, thought I'd just throw that in.


My mother wanted me to cut the top and leave the baby curls in the back. I don't think she understands the concept of a mullet. But I was not going to do that or let the mullet continue. This is so much better and I think it makes him look even older. It was such a fun experience too and Kyle seemed to like it!

P.S. I'd like to give a shout-out to Teresa. We told her about the haircut on Saturday and she is the only reason this post is happening within 24 hours (I'm not good like that), but she wanted to see the pictures. So this is a post dedicated to Teresa. Do you have any pictures of Halle's first haircut?

Easter

This year, Easter was the same weekend as General Conference. So the week before, Kyle wore his new suit (unfortunately, during the first wear, Evan got Desitin on the bum of the pants and it won't come out, so I think they might be ruined. Any good advice to get white cream out of linen would be appreciated. I am really worried that it bleached out the linen, but it is only bum cream, so is that possible?)

He can also get himself on and off of the rocking horse that Evan's grandpa Armond made for Evan when he was two.



At Evan's work, there was an Easter egg hunt on Thursday. Because of the snow and rain we've been having, they had to spread the $300 worth of candy and eggs inside. But no one seemed to mind. Except that it was so stinkin' hot in that building. Look at the one really red check.
They had two different age groups go to two different areas, usually there are more older kids, so there was more candy and eggs over there. Well, this year, more little kids showed up. Kyle was really slow and was mostly preoccupied with picking up the cotton ball trail. Since, I was trying to be a good adult and not run ahead of my child and find eggs and "good" candy. We didn't get any eggs and had mostly dum-dums and gum at the end. At one point, I watched Kyle pick up twelve dum-dums one at a time. So no good candy for us.


We sat with the Easter bunny and threw a fit, which started a second later.

Evan works on Saturdays and then had Priesthood Conference and wasn't home all day. Sunday we spend with Evan's parents. So naturally, we had family Easter at our house on Friday night. We got Kyle ready and did a little Easter egg hunt. My family tradition is sugared cereal in the eggs and since that works well with the fact that we still have no molars, we did that. He was excited to get started.


If you look closely, there is one egg in each hand.


He wanted to stop, open each egg, and eat all the contents before moving on to another.


Then we did baskets and my mom sent us a spectacular package with lots of goodies and presents.


Kyle's big present from us was a basketball hoop. He can't reach it. But with the help of my mom, we figured out that we can push it up to the coffee table, put his ride on Tonka truck next to the coffee table, then he uses the truck like a stool and gets on the table to make his own baskets. Plus, with the exertion it takes to go up and down, it makes for a good work out.


I'm throwing this in here, so that hopefully no one sees it. Evan took one at 25 weeks, but I had to delete it. This is 26 weeks pregnant with Aiden Dillon Young.

10:24 pm

Tonight at 10:24pm, Kyle had stayed in his bed for a total of 4 whole minutes. Now 24 minutes later. He is still in bed and asleep.

It only took me 59 times of putting him back in bed. Although by the end, I was telling him, "get in bed," instead of the recommended calm and silence. He would often get out of bed while I was walking out the door. Before the 59 times there was the hour of rocking, trying to calm him to sleep, several attempts at just putting him back in bed, sitting next to his bed to make sure he stayed in and such.

I'd like to add though that the first two days of the bed, he only had to be put back twice or not at all. I am seriously hoping that this only takes a few nights because last night after 23 attempts to put him back in bed, Evan and I caved and just shut him out of our room. After 30 minutes, he was asleep in his own bed. Today at nap, I just shut him in his own room. After 90 minutes, he was asleep on the floor.

Words

(shoe love)

So it occurred to me that Kyle has several words the other day. He can say, "eyes," "ball," "shoes," "bye-bye," and "mama." But he only says mama when he wants something or got hurt. He used to say "hello" when playing with his cell phone, but he lost that long ago. He can also point to his head, eyes, and nose, and will stick out his tongue when asked where it is.

However, I never kept good track of when his sounds became the words and he was able to attach meaning. So what do I put in his baby book for first words and when does a sound become a first word? Evan doesn't think they need to know the meaning, but I disagree. Any opinions? Kyle is rather good at imitating or trying to imitate our words so I find it hard to know when it becomes a word. Evan and I definitely agree that "shoes" was first. Although when, who knows? Oops.

We also had a break through today while we were reading, he pointed to a picture of a ball and said "ball." We haven't been able to recreate it, and it is definitely his weakest word, but he said it.