Luckiest. Vicki. Ever.

Blessed? Lucky? What word is it that I can use to adequately describe my life right now? There are so many adjectives out there but I can't seem to find the right one. Wonderful? Amazing? Full? Stupendous? Lovely? Well what ever it is, I'm in love with it. Here are some pics of late:

Malcom fell asleep on the way home from a RS activity, and stayed asleep on the journey from the car to the couch.

Our friend across the parking lot from us, Julianne, had an extra Johnny Jump Up and gave it to us. This kid had so much fun in it he didn't need me to entertain him at all. It's like a puppy or sibling substitute, but better because it doesn't poo. :)

We do laundry together nearly every day, and we typically play a lot of peek-a-boo. Here he is hiding under one of Ben's shirts. It was super cute because his feet were kicking and thrashing around as he giggled below. I love this kid.

Here by request- a pic of my new hair cut today, courtesy of the amazing (and a dear old friend) Erin Liggett. She gave me a head message, hair washing, and definitely a kind of haircut I have never had before. It's taking some getting used to, but it's tons of fun and I really like it. It's good to try something completely new sometimes! (Plus, the manchild has a harder time reaching my hair now!) All credit goes to Erin- I never would have gotten bangs with out trusting the stylist first! Erin, you are wonderful!

I'm only including this pic so you can see how big the manchild has gotten in comparison! His head is almost as big as mine! There is nothing dainty about this boy.

In other news, we may be moving in to an new apartment soon... one with TWO BEDROOMS! I know, I know, it's almost too good to be true. Apparently, a couple across the parking lot from us is moving and needs someone to buy their contract. We're going to check it out tomorrow (we want to make sure it'll have enough room for us... our apartments have different layouts), but if all works out we might get to move on over soon. Yeah. I'm excited. This week we have discovered that the manchild only needs to eat about 1 or 2 times a night, instead of the 4 I used to think. He still wakes up and cries for a few minutes though, and sharing a room with that is not fun.

Also, Ben officially cut back to part-time at Melalueca, so that he can focus on school work more. Now he only goes in MWF from 4 to 10pm, instead of the old MTWTF 1 to 10pm. It's been a nice change for both of us. He is no longer as stressed as he used to be, and Malcom and I get to actually see him a few times a week. :) We love our Ben, and we especially love when we get to have time with him! We have also been blessed in the fact that they're letting him keep the same wages as he made as a supervisor. I don't think we would be able to make it if they didn't. It never ceases to amaze me how our prayers are answered, that things always seem to work out.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Travel safely if you are traveling! Love you all. :)

Fun with the Manchild

I am constantly amazed at the little man- how quickly he grows [insert chubby joke here], his developing personality and wacky sense of humor, his physical and cognitive skills... the list goes on. Really, he just amazes me in general. I feel perfectly lucky to be able to stay at home with him and be his mom. And seriously, we have more fun than should be allowed to a 7 1/2 month old and his half-crazy mother!

Malcom loves books. Not only do the pages have fun colors and shapes, but they taste yummy too.

We bought him a high chair last week, and got to enjoy the big box that it came in.

We decided to break in the high chair, so I stripped the boy down to his diaper, strapped him in, and let him "paint" with carrots on his white canvas of a tray. He REALLY enjoyed this one!

So life's still good here. Love to all!

Toll Paint

I never thought I'd be one of those women that would stay at home all day baking yummies, playing with babies and planning my next little crafty project. In my youth, I was a skilled avoider of the toll paint and needle point activities. "Useless waists of time and resources that I will undoubtedly trash", is how I also referred to such projects. Ironic, considering my love for drawing, painting, and general creativity.

Thus, you may see how I surprised myself earlier today as I woke up early, made some bread pudding, cleaned and grocery shopped, fed the kid a dozen times, got all atwitter about the crafty potential of a 12X12 sheet of magnetic paper, and then went to the relief society activity tonight where there were blocks of wood and- you guessed it- toll paint. TOLL PAINT. Annnnnnd, *whispers* I may have liked it.

Sh! Don't tell my young self, she would find me and flog me for sure.

I didn't actually do more than get supplies and chat, since the manchild decided to prevent me from doing anything besides trying to appease him (his bedtime does shoot really close to the activities), but it was so wonderful to get to meet and know other women around here. I didn't realize how much I cherish social interaction until I'd been away from it for a while. Today was definitely a good reminder of the greatness of adult conversation.

*sigh* It's been a fabulous day.

Halloween

It's November! Is this year speeding by to anyone else?! I love this time of year, there's always this excitement right before the snow comes.. well, excitement and dread, it's hard to describe adequately. If you've lived somewhere with a long white winter, you probably know what I'm talking about. One thing I love about the fall/winter is all the excuses you have to bake things. Seriously, during the rest of the year it's like you have to have a birthday, visitors, party, or some reason to bake goodies. But this time of year is all about yummy food! I'm excited because I finally have more time to bake and experiment with recipes... last year I was preggo and working 12 hour days, 5 days a week... so yeah, I'm not sure how I survived that, I don't remember it very well at all, and I obviously had no time/ambition to do anything besides working and sleeping, and sometimes mixing the two. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls sometime in the next few days, or orange rolls. I'm not sure but it's going to be tasty! :)

We had a great Halloween. Ben worked all day (curse you month end!!! Gah! 12 hour days suck!), but Malcom and I were able to have fun. We made little pizzas and "dirt 'n' worms" (something I haven't had since I was a kid), watched some silly old "scary" movies which ended up borderline comedy, danced around the apartment, and handed out candy to trick or treaters. We only had two groups of treaters, about 9 kids total... I confess I got so darn excited at the first group I gave them all huge handfulls of candy. I believe the word "jackpot" was whispered between them... :) Yeah, I'm that lady apparently. When the second group came I only had one piece left for each of them. I felt bad but I'm sure they got lots of candy anyway.

Malcom dressed up as the Monopoly, officially named Uncle Pennybags. He turned out looking a lot more like Mr. Peanut, or a capeless magician, or the villain from Rocky and Bowinkle, or an old-time gangster like Al Capone. I worked for weeks on that costume and he was barely fitting in it by the time I finished! He actually had outgrown the shoes I made. It's all good though, I think he was quite dashing anyway. :) Here are some pics from the cuteness:

Haha, I love how serious he looks in the picture. Priceless.

That's all for now. I'm off to bed. Happy November!

Master Malcom's Maple Leaves

The sky is a pure cornflower blue, it's almost warm outside, and Master Malcom is captivated by all the gold, bronze, and crimson colors dancing in the air outside his window. He must go outside on a day like this! Urgently he calls for his chariot (ahem, mother... in PJs...) to carry him to his outside domain to further enjoy the day.

Upon arrival to his first autumn throne, the manchild feels a gust of unexpected wind on his face, and with it a thousand leaves whirl and surround him. This is hilarious, and he finds himself in a fit of uncontrolled laughter. Well done Mother Nature- you are a good jester.

Satisfied with the breezes performance, Master Malcom turns his attention to an investigation of his colorful subjects.

"Hmmm, not crunchy enough.. too green.. too small... this one is looking at me weird..."

All at once his efforts are rewarded when he finds the most beautiful, crisp, deep orange leaf.

Overcome by it's superb crunchiness, he stuffs it into his mouth and closes his eyes to enjoy the savory taste of the season.

All at once Master Malcom is overcome by the urge to eat leaves, and begins frantically searching for more. He begins to stuff his mouth with varying sizes, shapes and textures. A small growl escapes his throat in his pursuit to fulfill his sudden hunger.

...And again...

And again...

Suddenly, the breeze picks up again and makes the golden leaves dance, disrupting his concentration and sending the Manchild into another fit of uncontrolled laughter.

A delightful bit of autumn lands on his chin, and he (or his PJ clad chariot) gets an idea...

Satisfied, Master Malcom takes one last look at his splendid kingdom, eats one last leaf, says a few parting syllables to his subjects, then heads back to his castle for a well deserved nap.

Tomorrow his autumn excitement will blow away and will be replaced by a blanket of snow. Soon a whole new adventure will await!

I promise to actually write another update soon (to be honest there really isn't much to report). Yesterday I ran into a few entertaining videos on YouTube and decided to share them with everyone.

Enjoy!

Pilot Training Video -Haha

Big Wave Surfing - Crazy.

Tickle Me Elmo on Fire - Creepy and morbid, but funny to someone who has hated those toys as much as I have!!

Trying to Impress the Ladies - (And Failing)

Life with a Cat - (Oh, so similar to life with Malcom!)

Demitri Martin -Some entertaining Jokes

6.5 Month Manchild Update

Today is a beautiful fall day- thank goodness Monday's snow melted and went away! I wish it were warmer so that we could actually enjoy the gorgeous colors and crunchy leaves, and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible before the real snow comes and traps us inside. Oh well. I hope someday we'll live in a somewhat warmer climate where the winter isn't sooo long and cold! Don't get me wrong, I love having all four seasons, but it would be nice if the coldest season wasn't the longest.

Anyway, I just thought I'd put up some Malcom updates. :) He says "Hi" back! We've been working on "mama" as well, but so far he just mimics you with his lips and no sound. He also loves to stick his tongue out at you, and if you stick yours out back at him he thinks it's hilarious! We have fun. He's also great at eating solids now. Every time I'm eating something he gives me this expectant face like, "where's mine?" His favorites so far are peas and prunes.. Apparently he has the palate of an old man. ;) I guess it's time to get a high chair... any suggestions?

What else? Hm. There's nothing new going on in the way of crawling. He's a pretty good "scoocher", but ever since he figured out how to roll on his back he hasn't had much incentive. He's a great sitter though! He sits up more by himself every day! I'm so proud of my little manchild. He's by far one of my favorite people in the whole world!

Here are his stats as of today:

Weight: 21 lbs 3 oz (90th percentile)

Height: 26.4 inches (50th percentile)

What's funny to me is that he used to be in the 25% for both height and weight. This kid has been going through some CRAZY growth spurts! How does he grow so fast? In just 6 months he's more than tripled his weight and grown 7 inches taller. My baby is growing waaaay too quickly!

That's all for now. Love you all!

I Love Google.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays- you get to dress up as whatever you want, go to parties, create mischief, decorate, there's crunchy leaves and cool air, and there's something about ending a great night with a total candy binge that you just have to love... You can imagine how excited I am to be able to dress up the manchild this year! I'm not revealing what it will be yet because I have yet to make it, and there's a lot of variables to how it will turn out. I'm be sure to post pictures on Halloween though!!

I just had a thought- I get go all out dressing up the cutest little guy on the planet, go to a party or two, take pictures of my shear costume geniousness, then eat all of the candy we acquire. Could this be the best Halloween ever?! I think it may be.

Anyway, I began working on Malcom's Halloween costume yesterday. I have the fabric and the sewing machine, but unfortunately I really have no idea what I'm doing. That's why I love google!

I found some a fun site that instruct you on how to do everything from sewing gloves, to toddler shoes, pants, underwear (haha, no joke!), to, well, just about anything! I just thought I'd share what I found if anyone's curious (especially since we'll all be thinking about Halloween costumes soon):

Free Sewing Patterns/Ideas

Enjoy!! :)