Toddler Tad Turns 2!

 After a long night at the wedding, Tad was nice enough to let us sleep in until 9am!   He got cute jammies from grandma and grandpa (They took him home early from the wedding because he didn't get a nap all day and was ready to go.) 

 He helped mommy get ready for church while wearing his "Cowey Hat". 

 Since he's obsessed with ties, we got him a few new ones.

After church we found a birthday card from my sister's family in CO.   Tad was so excited.  (He now goes around the house and takes everything out of any envelope he finds.)  (When they called and sang happy birthday on my vm, Tad kept trying to blow the phone like candles.) 

Tad got a nap after lunch, while Fred and I scurried to get the party ready.   BBQ chicken, Roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, cornbread, and a lemon-lime tractor cake!

 

(Don't look close, it's probably the messiest cake I've ever made!)

(Tad is sitting on my lap as I type, singing happy birthday to himself and trying to blow out the candles again.)

More presents than any 2 year old should get!   Thank you families for spoiling him - and helping stock his wardrobe. 

He had to clap with everyone else after he blew out his candles. 

Pushing "Dolly" in the swing.  (Funny moment at the party, I was opening some clothes for Tad from Gma & Gpa and found 2 baby outfits, I thought for sure they were for my sister-in-law, and turned to give them back to my mom, nope, they're for Tad's Dolly! They're size Premie and fit perfectly!)

A friend made this for Tad- it is the cutest stuffed horse I've ever seen, and it's crocheted!

We found a helmet and cheap scooter for Tad's birthday present.  We're hoping the 2 front wheels prevent too many accidents.   It'll take awhile to get down the coordination of pushing off, but he seems to like it. 

Tad had his 2 year appointment today.  35lbs, 37.5 inches, 99th percentile.  So glad that we're just moving to yearly appointments now.
He did have to get one shot.  He's been kind of emotional today and I thought for sure he'd cry, but he just gave the nurse a weird look, and checked out his cool orange bandaid.  (His new word of the day.) 
 

When we got home, there was another package in the mail from Fred's sister back east.  A cool farm set that makes animal noises.  

 I'm not sure which aunt taught him to stick out his tongue for pictures. 

Such a long week!

 

We knew we were going to have a long week of crazy schedules, so we took time to go on a bike ride and a picnic to have some family time.   Can I just say how out of shape we are?  Not to mention we went during the hottest part of the day.  Tad loved it though. 

Tad found Fred's cowboy hat and has now claimed it.  I love to hear him ask for his "Cowey Hat". 

 The first few days of the week were spent with Fred working long hours and when he was off he was gone doing some volunteer work for 3 days.  In between all of that I ran a few errands and weeded the garden.  I think we saw each other a total of 3 hours, then I did see him for an hour (helping him pack) before he left for scout camp for the last 3 days of the week. 
Lucky for me, Tad is an incredibly mild kid, but I still don't think I could ever do the single parent thing. 

Tad and I spent a long, hot morning at the zoo.  It was nice to know we didn't have to hurry back and try to catch dad in between schedules.   We saw the Elephant show, the Bird show, and part of the Discovery Show (where they let you pet smaller animals). 

Of course we had to eat out at Wendy's to finish off our "date".   Tad took a good nap, then we went shopping, to a birthday party for K, and Aunt Crystal slept over.   The next morning we found out there was a standoff down the street - that's the closest I'd ever want to be to a SWAT team!  Fred made it home from scout camp on time (I threatened his life).  He was home long enough to shower and head out the door for a cousin's wedding.   (He still hasn't unpacked.) 

He was so sore from his 10 mile hike the day before.   Aunt Crystal was nice enough to watch all 3 young nephews while we were in the temple.  (3, 2, and 1 year old.  She survived!  That is good birth control!) 



The happy couple!

 They had planned it well, we went to the temple, straight to a church for yummy dutch oven dinner, then outside to a bowery for the reception.  There wasn't any sitting around waiting for the next part to start.  My sisters, cousin, and I ran the refreshments so we continued to be on our feet all night. 
Such a long week!  And we still had Tad's birthday the next day....

We've been....

Working in the garden.  He'll ask "ready?" before he picks them.  :}  We've already picked 27 cups this year!

Tad has learned how to swing in the big swing by himself.   I swear he's not afraid of anything!

We finally visited the HAFB museum.  Pretty cool. 

Helping dad wire the truck for our trailer.  Now Tad "fixes" everything.  Last night he laid under the foot rest of the couch and "fixed" Crystal's feet.  :}

Can you tell he wants to be just like daddy?  

Fred and I took off for a week to help trail sheep with my Uncle.  It was supposed to be a glorious week in the mountains, while Tad stayed with Grandma & Grandpa..... We came home after 3 days because I got the flu from my cousins' kids.  :{ 

It was nice while it lasted.  :} 

The Days of '47 parade in SLC. 

We had great seats and enjoyed lunch at the Gateway before a 2 hour nap for each of us!  :}  And fireworks at our house. 

He can talk!

Tad has started talking the end of June and for the most part it's pretty fun! (After about the 30th time of hearing "Mom" I get annoyed.)
He's been learning a lot of things the past couple of weeks. (I put pictures in a slideshow below because there were so many.)
* Words he knows: Tie, hat, church, juice (means a drink), bus, truck, Cars (he loves the movie), horse, candy, bye (he says it with an accent, I really need to get it on video), hello, nks (thanks), trick, shoes, socks, purse, dolly, daddy, work (if you ask where daddy is), mom, keys, please, book, TRACTOR, pompa, Nannie, Crystal, Lauralee, Ernie, hot, knock-knock, kitty, go, "Where are you?", cookie (sounds like truck-key), teeter-toter, swing, ready, Battery (he wants me to put it in the exercise bike so he can play on it).
* He's getting better at tearing bread for the ducks- we still need to work on his throwing the bread.
* He taught himself how to swing on the trampolene frame. Now he always tries to swing if he's holding 2 people's hands.
* He taught himself to go down his slide head first.
* He learned he can go swimming in his pool in his clothes..... Mom's a sucker and didn't get mad, just changed him into a swimming suit and let him continue playing.
* He ate a whole hot dog without freaking out on the 4th of July. He'll loves watermelon.
* He's obsessed with his church tie and tries to put it on himself, he also wears his hat all day (if mom's not hiding it).
* Unfortunately, he's also learned to throw tantrums. When you ask him to pick something up and he doesn't want to he'll grunt and reach out, like he can't reach it, or he'll try to pick it up and grunt like it's too heavy (even though he just dropped it). The other time is when you make him come inside, he sits at the bottom of the stairs and acts like he's dying.
* He can climb on his teeter-toter by himself, but can't quite get it to go.
* He can make his bed with help!
* He pretends to say his own prayer or help dolly say his prayers.
It's fun to see him learn, but also scary wondering where he learns some things.
** He's also learning to tell on himself when he does something wrong. He reminded me of two words I forgot he knew: Color.... He colored on my exercise bike. When I asked him if he knew why he was in trouble he said "Color". And just a minute ago, he put something in the fish tank. After another timeout, I asked if he knew why he was in trouble and he said "fish". He makes this easy huh?!

Growing fast! (4th of July)