Real life with Roman

Real life with Roman is an adventure, every....single...day! He is so curious, always wants to know how things work, where things go and are from, how to do things, and is generally just VERY inquisitive. He is also very determined. He knows what he wants and will get it.

Recently I've had a few conversations with his teachers at school and they are always singing him praise. His reading teacher told me that he is one of her favorite students because he is always doing what he is supposed to and wants to do what's right. His other teacher said that she can't help but smile when Roman waves to her with his big smile and greets her each morning. I'm glad that he's so good at school. I wish he always wanted to do what's right at home, but he is very polite and a great helper.

Roman and I have started reading the Magic Treehouse books together and he LOVES them. They are his favorite right now. He wants to go to Pennsylvania and find Jack and Annie and go on an adventure with them. He even had his backpack packed for several days with his notebook and pencil (because Jack always carries those to take notes), a fruit rollup and a headlamp because he decided that they were going to go on an adventure to a cave so he would need his headlamp. For days he begged and pleaded and plotted ways to get to Pennsylvania. He has also started climbing the tallest trees to see if the magic tree house is here on an adventure. So far he hasn't had any luck locating the magic tree house or Jack and Annie.

His own reading has also really taken off. He is now reading without help which it a bittersweet moment. It happened so fast, I was making dinner one night and he was sitting at the counter reading a book and decided it would be more comfortable on the couch so he just took his book to the couch and that was that, he was reading by himself. He recently discovered the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems and he finds them incredibly funny. They are a lot of sarcastic humor which I didn't think he would get but he has declared them "Hilarious!"

Over the summer we started Roman in swimming lessons. For his age their are three pre-levels. We wanted to try to get through all three levels this summer so that he can start level one next year. He really loved swimming lessons and the difference we have seen with him, even in the bath tub is remarkable. He loves to put his head under the water now, he blows bubbles, he is a fish. He is starting to take strokes now too and he is so fun to watch in the pool. At the end of the second session his teacher, Tracie, said that he would be an excellent active drowning victim for their life guard training classes because he loved putting his head under the water and flailing his arms. He said he was watching the bubbles under the water.

We also started Roman in a tumbling class this fall. I haven't been able to get any pictures because they ask that parents not stay for the class so they can have their undivided attention but he has really enjoyed tumbling. He can stand on his head now and he is always doing somersaults. One day as he threw himself onto the floor to throw a tantrum, he did a somersault onto his back. It's really hard to take a tantrum seriously when you do a somersault into the tantrum.

We haven't been hiking much this summer. We've just had so many other things going on. One Friday afternoon we decided that we were just going to hike on the trail that is at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We had no idea where it went, we just started hiking. On the trail a man on a unicycle asked us if we were headed to the reservoir. We asked how far it was then said "If we can make it there." We had forgotten the hiking backpack for Hudson so we were carrying him, and Roman was straggling behind. We did actually make it to the reservoir, and it was beautiful. Spencer didn't like that it was buggy, but Roman loved playing near a little stream that we found feeding into the reservoir.

I asked Roman about a month ago what he wanted to be for Halloween, he knew right away. He wanted to be Clark Kent. He wanted to rip his shirt off and be able to turn into superman. He has not changed his mind, not even wavered a bit. He was adamant that he wanted to be Clark Kent, (he also insists that I am going to be Lois Lane and Hudson will be Jimmy, we've decided to dress Hudson as Lex Luthor instead). So I went to work and made him first the superman costume then we took an old dress shirt and added velcro, moved the buttons and made it so he can tear his shirt off. We found black hair spray and just need to get the glasses and we are ready with our little Clark Kent.

We really didn't get to the zoo much this summer, which is a bummer because they had the Dinosaurs that moved and sprayed and made sounds. And when we did go I always forgot to get pictures because we go so often. Roman did ask me to take a picture one day to show how big his hand was compared to a gorillas. He's got a little growing to do still before his hand is as big as the gorillas!

I love getting pictures of Roman and Hudson together, especially when they are playing happily together. They are so cute, and they have the best laughs when they are just having a great time together.

Roman has a style all his own. He wears winter boots in the summer, rain boots with Pirate costumes, anything with a Utah logo on it he will wear, he has boxes full of hats and costumes and he loves dressing up and getting into character. He will insist he is whatever he is dressed up as and he insists that we all play along. We must call him pirate, or magician, or whoever he is that day. He has a very vivid imagination and loves to play make believe.

Joey

And I thought I would end with some great Quotable Roman's too since I haven't done those in a while and he always says the best things

Roman came in wearing devil horns and a tail on and asked me "Mom, when you got married did you wear one of these?" (Pointing to the devil horn headband.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While scraping the butter out of the bag of microwave popcorn Roman said "Mom, this is so good. I'm so glad I have butter in my life."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me - Roman you NEED to eat your dinner. NOW.
Roman - Okay, okay mom. You don't have to freak out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love listening to my 4 year old telling his dad that he doesn't know how to read. He's trying to read Mr Tickle.

Roman - "Dad, I don't know why it says "Mur"
Spencer - That doesn't say Mur it says Mister.
Roman - No dad, M says um and R says er so it's Mur.
Spencer - Mr is an abbreviation. It's a shortened word.
Roman - No dad, M says UUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMM and R says ERRRRRRRRR. Do you know how to read?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are zoo animal vitamins. There aren't any zookeepers though because we don't eat people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman - Is Harry Potter really hairy?
Me - Um, no. That's just his name.
Roman - it's not a nice name.
Me - What's a nice name?
Roman - (Thinks for a minute...) Roman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman - Why is Dad up early today?

Me - He's going golfing for work today.

Roman - Oh, when you and I grow up, I'm going to go golfing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As we were driving home one day Roman wanted to review our address and phone number. He's just recently learned them and really likes to talk about them. After he said our street address I asked him what city we lived in then the state and he said Utes Utah. I told him it was just Utah and he said "NO, It's GO UTES Utah." Yeah, I think we've created a monster!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom, I'm a good big brother, huh? Sometimes I have to push him down and sit on him or he'd get in trouble.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And a few random pictures that make me smile.

Here's what's Happening with Hudson

In an attempt to catch up, I'm going to just do one big post about each of my boys. Since I last posted Hudson has become a full time walker/runner/climber/trouble maker! He is so fast and gets into EVERYTHING! We've done lots of baby proofing in the kitchen and as soon as we stop him from getting into one thing, he finds another. He has also discovered the toilet (And he has a brother that forgets to flush the toilet regularly, eew!!!!!!!)

One of his favorite things right now is books. He will point at his bookshelf and say "book, book." He pulls all the books off his shelf at least every other day (if not every day, and for some reason I just keep gathering them back up and putting them back on the shelf.) He carries them all over the house saying "book." Occasionally he will bring them to us to read them to him. One morning Spencer got his diaper changed and he made his escape before he got clothes on. A few minutes later Spencer called to me that I needed to see what he was doing. I went out to see him sitting in the dog bed, reading a book.

One night Spencer was at work late so I was getting the boys to bed alone. Roman likes to read at night so Hudson was playing in his room and I was in Roman's room reading with him. I had opened Hudson's toy drawer for him so that he could get toys out. It got quiet....too quiet, so I went to see what all the quiet was about. I went into his room to discover him IN his toy drawer.

Another morning Roman wanted to watch a movie. He found the movie Up! so I got it started for him and Hudson grabbed the case (calling it a book) and took off with it. He went straight to Roman's room with the case and settled into his chair to look at his "book."

Hudson has another tooth. He is such a slow teether. He gets them one...at...a...time. He just got his 7th tooth on the top right.

Hudson has started to become a picky eater. He won't eat most noodles, rice, sauces, he doesn't like most things that we have for dinner, but we discovered his favorite food. He gets so excited when he even sees pancake batter, the griddle, or us take a pancake out of the fridge to reheat. He LOVES pancakes. He would eat them every meal if we would feed them to him that often. (He's actually not eating pancakes in these pictures, but I thought they were cute, he thinks he's so funny sometimes!)


Hudson is still totally loving his monkeys. We bought the second to have a backup, but he thinks he needs both now. We only let one out of the crib at a time now so that if we lose one at least we'll have the other. I am seriously thinking about going back to Build-a-bear and getting ANOTHER monkey, but if I do I won't take the boys and it will get put away so that we have one if something happens to Funky Monkey (Utah shirt monkey) or Monkey Brown (with the flannel shirt.)

Last week we went to the Discovery Gateway children's museum with my sister Becky and her girls and Becky's sister-in-law Jessica and her little boy Eli who's just a month younger then Hudson. The kids had a LOT of fun, but it wasn't a great place to go to sit and visit and catch up because the kids didn't do much sitting. Hudson found the water table and spent quite a bit of time there. He found a place that he could drop a ball down and he thought that was so much fun. He was soaked, but happy.

Hudson found the music area and was having fun making music so Roman came to join us. They had fun playing with the mallets.

There's a baby/toddler area and it has this large swan for the kids to play on. Another of Hudson's favorite things right now is ducks. He was pointing to the beak saying "Duck, duck."



We didn't make it to the zoo very many times this summer. Too many things going on. We were able to sneak a few short trips in, but didn't take many pictures at all. We go so often I just don't think to take pictures anymore. I just love when my boys are playing happily together I have to take pictures to remember that it happens, and it's so cute!

We didn't get to do much hiking this summer either. We had great plans to go hiking every weekend over the summer. I think we went maybe 5 times all summer. The weekend of Labor day Spencer decided to take the Friday off work and go into work on Monday so that we could go hiking while it wasn't as busy. We dropped Roman to school then went up Little Cottonwood Canyon. We were trying to hike to Red Pine lake (We've never actually made it there yet, we've hiked the trail many times, but it's about a 6.5 mile hike round trip and we've just never had enough time to go all the way.) We ran out of time to go all the way to the lake because we had to make it back in time to get Roman from school. We enjoyed the day in the mountains though and Hudson was having a great time just along for the ride.


One thing that always makes me happy is watching my boys have fun together. Hudson always wants to do whatever Roman is doing, and Roman has his days that he wants to do anything to make his brother happy. I always try to get pictures of them when they are playing happy because I want to remember all the good/happy times.

I built them a fort with a blanket going from our bed to the storage ottoman that usually sits at the end of our bed. They had so much fun running around the ottoman and crawling through it. The brought books, pillows and animals in their fort to play with.


Hollywood Connections

And finally a few odds and ends. Hudson has started signing more, and I LOVE watching him sign. Roman signed a lot more because we were better about it with him but so far Hudson can sign:

Cup (actually milk, but he says cup when he signs it)

more

eat

daddy

All done

Please

He has his 15 month well child check on November 1 so we'll see how big he is then but I had him weighed (fully clothed) when Roman had a doctor appointment 2 weeks ago and at that appointment he weighed 21 lbs. I think he may actually be back on the charts at this next appointment! (I HOPE!) And measuring him on our unofficial wall one it looks like he's grown about 2" too!

Dear blogging world

I have been avoiding my blog because it's so far behind. I will never catch up now. I'm giving up (mostly) on catching up and I'm just going to start from here. I'll throw in this and that from before but there is no way I'll ever get caught up....so in an effort to resurrect the blog, I'll start with the here and now.

The last few weeks I took a self-enforced internet break to get some craftiness done. I recently found Pinterest which is my newest addiction and I decided I couldn't keep pinning things if I wasn't actually going to make any of it...so I started making ALL of it.

I started out making winter hats for my boys. I thought Roman would be too cute in a dinosaur hat, so I made this one for him.

Then I made Hudson an acorn hat. I found pictures of the acorn hat on Pinterest but it was just a hat that was for sale. I looked at it and decided I could make it. I found a cuffed hat pattern, a leaf pattern, and made up the stem pattern myself and I think it turned out pretty great.

Then, I found this cool bracelet pattern, I've never done a "broomstick stitch"so I tried it out in a color I didn't LOVE first to make sure I really wanted to do it. LOVE it!

So I made a second in a color I like. Then the next morning I saw the bracelet sitting on my bathroom counter as I was trying to run out the door with wet hair and it also makes an awesomely adorable bun cover for your hair.

I am not sure what got into me at this point but I think I became a crocheting machine. I found a pattern on Ravelry.com to make a sock monkey and a sock monkey hat and decided that Hudson NEEDED that too, seeing as how he is so into monkeys. I made the hat first and tried it on him (and Roman, they have just about the same size heads right now) and love LOVE it.

The sock monkey is going to go in the top of Hudson's stocking.

And since I was on Ravelry looking around I also came across a pattern for the cutest lady bug hat and booties and decided that Spencer's cousin needed them for her soon to be born baby. So I whipped those up too.

At this point I decided I needed to take a break from crocheting. My hands and arms were seriously hurting from all the crocheting I had been doing....so I decided to make some hand puppets for Roman for Christmas. They are Old McDonald hand puppets, so it's McDonald and his animals.

Last Saturday was my niece Ariana's birthday party and Roman was invited so I decided to make her present too (like I said, I think I turned into a crocheting machine.) So I crocheted a different sock monkey hat and a different sock monkey for her. I hear that they were a big hit. I hope she still loves them.

I am now mostly working on bigger projects with a break here and there for a small project for instant gratification. I just finished this little guy for the top of Roman's stocking.

I did teach my friend Reagan to crochet this week too and she is working on making an acorn hat for her daughter so hopefully she can keep up the pace that I seem to be losing. I hope to make several more gifts this year, hopefully I can keep this motivation going.