Birthday

Here are some pictures from G's Birthday. We were all wearing costumes, just in case anyone was wondering if we dress like this normally.

Somebody said this day would come.

G has always been a wonderful sleeper. He would go down at 7pm and wake up at 7am without a peep. We had the perfect child...until about a week ago. For the last week he has been waking up 3-5 times a night hollering for us. This has resulted in us getting up over and over telling him that it's still sleepy time and re-adjusting a blanket, night light, fan, whatever. It's maddening! So after talking to some friends yesterday and reaching the end of our ropes, we decided it was time to bust out the tough love. We were going to put him to bed and then let him cry it out.

It didn't take long. At about 7:45 he started. We went in once and told him that it was sleepy time and that we wouldn't come back in any more. At about 8:00 the hollering started. First it was, "Daddy...DADDY....DADDY WHERE ARE YOU!?!?" After about five minutes of that it switched over to mommy. Pretty soon thereafter the sobbing began. Wailing and sobbing, calling our names. Any parent knows how hard this is to listen to. BAB retreated to the basement and I started timing it out. My max was 15 minutes and I would go in and comfort him.

It was about 14.5 minutes when I heard a loudish thump. "Is that what I think it is?" I thought, hesitating for a second. The crying had gotten a little louder but not more intense. I went to the door to finally check on him to have my suspicions confirmed. Before I could open it, G was standing with the door open, bawling. He had finally done it, he had decided if we weren't coming to him then he was coming to us.

Well that little stunt landed him a spot in Mom and Dad's bed. We all laid down until he went to sleep and then transplanted him to his crib. We didn't hear him from then on, and everything seemed fine. Fast forward to 1:30am, we wake up to another loud thump and a little whimpering. BAB runs in to find him on his hands and knees on the floor. He didn't even call for us! He was just coming to get us. AHHHHHH!

So the day has finally come. G can climb out of his crib and is not planning on staying in it at all. What the heck are we going to do? Any advice for how to keep a 2 year old in a big boy bed? Wait, we need to buy a big boy bed. What a mess.

You can't surprise him!

For anyone who hasn't heard, tomorrow is G's second birthday. We are very excited, however I'm not so sure that he fully understands what is going on. We have been having conversations that go a little like this:

Me: "G, did you know that your birthday is coming?"
G: "Yeah birthday."
Me: "It's Saturday!"
G: "No, no, no, no, no Saturday."
Me: "Yeah, Saturday..."
G: (interupting): "NO SATURDAY"
Me: "Oh ok."
G: "Happy Birthday to you"
Me: "You want me to sing Happy Birthday to you?"
G: "Yeah. Mommy do it."
Then we sing Happy Birthday to you about 5 times until I tell him we aren't singing it anymore.

Last night, however; we asked if he was excited about his birthday and he responded with, "Yeah, birthday train." BAB and I looked at each other kind of puzzled. We are getting him a little train set for his birthday and he helped us pick it out, but we figured he'd forgotten since it had been last week sometime. So I told him we would think about it. Today when I asked him about his birthday he said that same thing, "Yeah, birthday train." Again, where does this come from? A few hours later the cat was scratching at the door to get into the guest bedroom. G jumped up and happily obliged, letting him in. A few seconds later we hear, "BIRTHDAY TRAIN!" We had left his birthday presents sitting on the bed in the spare room. Apparently he had been going in every day and looking at his train set. No surprise this year, he definitely gets that from me.

Random thoughts

When we were growing up my mom made up all sorts of words that I found hilarious. My favorite was when she would yell, "poo poo pa doo on you boo boo!" when she was driving and angry at another car. I think that there must be something about being a mother, however, that motivates you to generate bizarre language. Recently I have begun to find myself doing it as well. For example you can't just say move, it has to be skootchy poochy. Likewise your stomach is now called a tum tum-a-rum. Sadly, this nerdy way of speech is starting to become so natural I notice myself using these words among individuals above the age of two. It's a little embarassing when you are talking to a professor and you almost say, "alrighty-roo!" Now if I could just turn my obscenities into amusing anecdotale words then I really would be my mother.

Now, I really have no way to transition into this next rant other than to say I did title this post "random thoughts." The more that I think about my graduate school experience and the more that I want it to be over with, the more I have come up with reasons that graduate school kind of ruins your life. In no particular order here is my latest list:

1. It makes you believe that receiving a bachelors degree is not really an accomplishment at all, when in reality there are a lot of individuals who do not have college educations. Further, it makes you believe that a masters degree is only somewhat of an accomplishment but truly unworthy of the PhD which holds all of the power and secrets of life. (And might I include many of the pompous boogerheads of life)

2. It makes you believe that there is nothing more important than the pursuit of knowledge and education. Anyone who has a family can see the fallacy in this line of thinking.

3. It presents language, ideas, and concepts to you in such a way that anyone not in your specialty has no idea about. This speciality of thought creates a sort of distance between you and others in your ability to discuss certain topics and ideas.

4. In relation to #3, your mind begins to be filled with so much information about every topic you've studied that arguments and thoughts become so expansive it is difficult to crystallize and articulate them to another individual.

5. It creates constant guilt. If you aren't planning on using your degree--what's the point? If you plan on using your degree, you should always be working harder and smarter than the next person to ensure your standing. You should publish more, publish in better journals, be a better teacher, go to more conferences, get grants, more, more, more, more, more.

6. It destroys your creativity. They want you to think, but think in a way that is still playing the game. Think in the way that you are trained...and after 8 years of college you do. I used to think I was a creative person, college and graduate school have killed that in me. The best part, though, is that once you graduate they want you to come up with completely original research that will innovate the field. What a laugh.

I must say, in general I really have enjoyed school. I suppose I haven't had much of a conduit for my teenage angst as of late, perhaps this is it. Maybe the solution is to do what my friend from school suggested, start our own college and create our own curriculum. I think my number one class would be napping 101 with an advanced class of hibernation 220. Oh with maybe a side of silly made up words offered every other semester. Sign me up!

Camel begins with C

G has a few alphabet games that he can play on the internet. My plan was to fall asleep while he played by himself, but then I noticed that every time a new letter was announced he would gasp out of excitement. I thought it was so funny I had to take a short video clip of it. Sorry the picture is so fuzzy, I think the camera batteries are on their last leg.



Oh and if you couldn't tell, C was his favorite because the camel makes a licking motion and sound.

Shrek Song

I think by this point everyone knows that G loves Shrek. So being the loving and attentive parents that we are, yesterday we went to the library and checked out the Shrek and Shrek 2 soundtracks and have been listening to "I'm a Believer" and "Livin' la Vida Loca" for the last two days straight. But really, who can complain with dancing as funny and cute as this?

Cute!

G really enjoyed the first five minutes or so of conference every session. In the first session, after the choir sung and we listened to "Pesident Hinky" he turned to me and said, "This is a good show."

Quotable Quotes

So now that G is talking more he has started saying some really funny things. I thought I'd write a few since I always get a kick out of reading quotes from everyone else.

The other day after BAB put him down for bed:
BAB: "Good night, I love you!"
G: "Bye, thanks for coming!"

At church during the sacrament: "Jesus Christ!"
(in his defense we say that a lot during the sacrament prayers)
Later when playing with his cars in sacrament: "Crap, crap, crap"

Today pointing at a zit on my forehead:
G: "Owee mommy!"
Me: "What? Where?"
G: "RIGHT THERE!!"
Me: "Oh my zit, awesome thanks!"
G: "Zit, RIGHT THERE!"
Again, thank you.

Yesterday when I told him Grandma was coming to watch him:
Me: "G, guess who is coming to play with you!"
G: "Aunt A (my sister)?"
Me: "No Grandma"
G: "No Aunt A"
Me: "No Grandma"
G after thinking for a minute: "Mimi?" (BAB's older sister)
Me: "No Grandma, and you will have so much fun!"
G: "No, no, no, no..."
Apparently he thought this was a negotiation. I know that this sounds sad, but as soon as Grandma came over he didn't care that I was there anymore and then wasn't even excited when BAB and I got home. Little stinker.

Well that's all I can think of right now. I will try to keep track of more for later.