That's Entertainment

The boys love to watch "shows" on the computer. These shows include family videos, little videos you all post on your blogs, real movies and even Daddy's latest work project (dubbed the Daddy Show). But what they love most of all is to watch videos of themselves and then quote them. Here is a completely non-posed picture of Weston and Davin riveted by the image of themselves on the screen. I think they were watching a little video of Weston playing in the "truck" at the mall. What a family of narcissists, huh? :)
This afternoon was the Verite Family BBQ. Every summer they have a big BBQ for employees and their whole families. It was up in Millcreek Canyon this year. It was gorgeous and we had a great time. Every year that we go there are more and more kids. Weston had fun playing with the other little boys. They shared around their light sabers, Transformer toys and a little pink car.
This is my third child . . . oh wait.
Anyway, I'm so nervous to start potty training on Monday. I hope things go well. I am trying to steel myself for the inevitable accidents on my rug and the possibility that after an entire week of cleaning up after him, Weston may still be in diapers for several more months. Wish me luck!

Back to Out

I have decided outings are still my best chance at getting through the day with Weston. They keep me occupied (sometimes with adult company) and usually keep Weston entertained enough to ward off the whinniness and let him burn some energy. I think the only drawback to a daily "outing" is the impact on my wallet. It can be hard to find things to do that are completely free. Also, when we are out and about doing fun things we often find ourselves wanting to eat lunch out. I do have a stash of cheap/free outings up my sleeve, but if anyone has any suggestions of free outings they do with their kids, I'm always looking for ideas. Our standards include: the park, the library, the playground at the mall, Petsmart, the park, McDonalds playplace, the grocery store, the dollar store, the park . . . You get the idea.

One of my favorite outing places is Gardner Village. It can be completely free, low cost or high cost, depending on how much you do and how much you shop. :) Today we went there with Dawnie and Mason, Jen (Dawnie's sister) and Kayli (her niece). We went the low cost route. We did the pony ride ($3), but skipped going into the petting zoo and just wandered around the outside looking at the animals. We fed the ducks and fish, had lunch at the bakery and wandered a couple cute shops. It was a GORGEOUS day out too.

Thanks for all your comments and advice on my post about my hardly perfect little family. Very helpful. We are doing our best and, I suppose, that's all anyone can really do. I love when I capture the joy on my kids' faces. I took this picture yesterday morning and Ian was playing peekaboo from behind me to make the kids smile. I love that I captured Weston mid-laugh.
My cowboy is getting to be a pro at pony rides. He must be spoiled. ;) His horse was named George. He loved that. He told me he was going to a meeting on George.
This was just a minute after the donkey brayed disturbingly loudly at us. Weston freaked out, but I reminded him that he was just talking to us and then Weston reluctantly released his vice grip on my shoulders.
Weston and Kayli checking out the carp in the little river. They were having fun running around in circles and laughing on this little deck. I swear running around in circles and falling down laughing is the universal language of kids.

Shannon-25 years old . . . perfect Mom? Hardly.

Weston-2 1/2 years old . . . perfect child? Hardly.
Davin-5 months old . . .perfect child? Practically.
These have to be the most adorable, sweet children you've even seen, right? Oh wait, one of them is 2. I am having such a hard time being a happy, pleasant mommy with my Weston. He drives me absolutely crazy about 85% of the time. I am grinding my teeth, my blood pressure is spiking and, if I wasn't so sensitive about my already thin hair, I would be ripping it out. I just don't know what to do with him. I try to keep us busy (as you may have noticed) so that Weston doesn't have as much of a chance to make me nuts, but it doesn't really work. He is at this stage where he is ungrateful, disobedient and laughingly does exactly what I just told him not to do. Every time I give him a punishment or even speak sternly he starts crying and freaking out and saying "I want to be nice." It's like it's almost not worth his reaction to call him on his crap. I still do.

I have been trying to drill into his head that even if he wants to be nice now, he wasn't acting nice before and he still has to deal with the consequences of that. EXAMPLE: Walmart with 2 kids. We had the big cart with a place for Weston to sit. I told him if he could be good (not get out of the cart, not touch stuff, not whine) then when we were done he could play in "Elmo's car". Well I had to scold him the whole trip and remind him about the bribe. At the end he did pretty good, but I decided I couldn't let him have the reward because he was too much of a brat for most of the trip. He screamed and cried when I told him the verdict.
As it turns out I forgot one bag at Walmart and we ended up going back to pick it up and because he did really well with that little aside, he still got a ride in Elmo's car that day. Does that negate the earlier lesson?

I'm pretty much at a loss of how to get through my day without completely losing it. Another joy about Weston is that he is a TALKER. I realize you are probably thinking, "Well look at his mom. She talks all the time." I realize this, but he is incapable of being quiet for more than 5.3 seconds unless he is sleeping or pooping. Even while eating he talks non-stop (and consequently doesn't eat more than would feed your average mouse). Today we had nowhere to go this morning and I was planning on taking him to the park for free lunch, but he said he didn't want to go, so we stayed home. By 10:30 I was contemplating leaving Weston on someones porch with a sign that said "FREE." Anyway, any suggestions would be welcome, or even just a phone call in the middle of the day to distract me from my crazy mommy moods. :)

Davin is a great baby. Very happy and content to just observe and babble. He LOVES Weston and thinks everything he does is great. Davin is my favorite child right now because he doesn't talk. He would be perfect if he could just start sleeping through the night already.

In other news I am trying to get my life together in other ways, thinking that maybe this will help me during the day with the kids. I have started getting up early every day to exercise and read my scriptures before the kidlet bombards me and destroys any quiet time I may have. So far, besides being kind of tired, it is working out great. I really am a morning person and I enjoy being up before anyone else and having that peaceful time. Sorry if this post struck you as pessimistic. I'm really not all that depressed. When Weston is being cooperative we are fine and I'm not such a nutcase.

More Firsts and Park Adventures

I think I have sufficiently recovered from all our fun times with my family now. On Friday night we decided to take a picnic to Murray park and let Davin try out the swing for the first time. We would have done it at our local park, but the "baby" swing there is just a chain on one side and I am way too paranoid that he is going to fall. We had a blast at the park and really enjoyed having a little family time. Saturday we couldn't just sit home, right? I met up with Dawnie and we went and saw "Mamma Mia" (which was great and made me sad that we were in a theater where accepted social norms would frown on my dancing in the aisles) while Wynn and Ian watched the boys. Then we all had dinner together and stayed up WAY too late watching movies and visiting. It was a very late night and I am still pretty tired from it. I'm trying to avoid napping though since I sleep worse if I nap.

Also, I am back in the swing of swimming. Unfortunately the long course (50 meter) season is over and the pool is back to short course (25 yards, standard high school competition length). I miss the long course because it means fewer flip turns. Oh well. It is nice to be more consistent again. A friend in my ward joined the class too, which is kind of fun. One more person to swim with, even if he is more focused on training for a triathlon than on enjoying adult/girly chats during set breaks, like me and the other girls I swim with. :)

I am still steadily making my way through Breaking Dawn and trying not to make it end too quickly. It is so much fun to read though! Today I am relishing a little normal routine without too much going on. Unfortunately we will miss Ian since he is working late. The boys and I went grocery shopping this morning and we got all the "fixings" to start potty training Weston next week (underwear, Pull-Ups, candy . . .). If anyone has any succinct potty training advice, please leave it in my comments. I'm pretty nervous, mostly because I don't particularly enjoy cleaning up excrement. I'm hoping he'll be a miracle boy toddler and pick it up really quick. The plan is to give him a full week of staying close to the potty and using it as often as possible and if he is still not even getting it then we will put it on hold until he is 3. Anyway, look forward to the Potty Training series posts next week.

While my mom was here we fed Davin his first rice cereal. He was amazingly good at eating from a spoon and swallowing the new texture for a newbie. Since that first feeding he hasn't been as thrilled with eating cereal, but we're persevering.
On Thursday evening we went to our local park and decided Davin is big enough to go in the umbrella stroller. He seemed to love it, but got tired more quickly since he had to hold himself up a bit more than normal. What a cutie!
Davin's joyous grin during his first go on the swings.
Davin on the swings with Weston pushing.
Me manning the controls of the stroller at Murray Park on Friday night.
Ian and Weston feeding the ducks at the park. There were like 25 ducks! Weston didn't eat enough of his dinner though because he kept eating the duck's bread. Oh well.Playtime with Daddy.
My little monkey.

Wednesday-Dinosaur Museum and Chick Flick

We decided to do the Dinosaur Museum after all and just pay full price. It was worlds better than if we had tried to do it during 2 Buck Tuesday. Weston got to actually see and touch all the exhibits. He loved pushing any and all buttons, doing the dino puzzle, making echo noises in the star corridor and seeing the human skeleton getting stepped on by the mammoth skeleton. It was a great museum and we will have to go back and play some more sometime. After the museum exhibits we had lunch in the little cafe, purchased the requisite dinosaur toy and headed home to watch Sesame Street for the first time in several days.

Tonight we are going to stay home and relax with a girl movie and some ice cream. We are trying to wind down from all our outings and adventures. Fun times with my Mom. We Olson's sure know how to play hard. It has been such a great visit and we will be sad (and exhausted) when Grandma B heads home tomorrow afternoon. Hope you enjoyed our little travelogue. I will begin catching up on all your blogs tomorrow night, oh wait, I am also going to be starting "Breaking Dawn" tomorrow night, but don't worry I bet I can get to both!

Here is Weston tickling the big huge dinosaur toes. I'm not sure what the deal is with that, but it sure makes us laugh.
Checking out the armored dinos. Not sure why Weston thought a fishy face was good for this picture, but I appreciate my unique little man.
Working on putting together the dino puzzle. He pretty much only played with this already-put-together head/neck piece.
Playing in the erosion exhibit. Basically they have sand and water and you can create dams and gorges and rivers to bury or uncover the little dinosaurs they have in there. Weston didn't get that at all, but had lots of fun digging in the sand with the little dinos.
Woah. That's a big shark, right? Weston wanted to touch his teeth. Um, no.
On our way out of the museum Weston climbed on top of this little pile of rocks and showed us his muscles. He also has his new dinosaur toy in his hand. It was absolutely worth full price to not have to battle the huge crowds.

Tuesday-2 Buck Tuesday

I wanted to take Weston to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point (aka, the Dinosaur Museum), but it's kind of expensive, so I found out that on Tuesdays in August all venues at Thanksgiving Point are only $2. Well, I underestimated the cheapness and vastness of the Mormon culture in Utah County. We showed up about 20 minutes after the museum opened and discovered that I had vastly underestimated the power of 2 Buck Tuesday. There was a line out the door and around the entire building to get into the Dinosaur Museum. It was a madhouse. We decided that it was not worth it to try to get in, so we went to the little Farm there instead since it was slightly less crowded.

It was still pretty crazy but we had a good time. Weston got his second pony ride in a week and he fed the goats. Grandma bought him a new cowboy hat, a little sheep and a cute tractor/dump truck, which he has been inseparable from ever since.

After the farm we grabbed some lunch then went to visit an old friend of my Mom's in Highland. Weston fell asleep in the car on the way home, which is usually the kiss of death, but amazingly I got him from the car to his bed without waking him up, so it was fine. That night Grandma B babysat while Ian and I went to the temple. Thanks Mom!

Grandma B with Weston checking out the baby chicks. They were so adorable.
Weston with the big dairy cow replica. The Farm is sponsored by Meadow Gold Dairy, so there are some exhibits about how milk is made inside.
Weston poking a goat in the nose.
This was pretty much Davin on all of our outings-smiling and playing with linkadoos in the stroller or sleeping in the stroller. He is such a great baby.
Weston on pony ride #2. He is so grown up riding without me walking with him!

Weston was getting tired and a little cranky by the time we left, but I really wanted a picture of him in his new cowboy hat, so lets pretend this is his tough guy face and not his bratty 2 year old face. :)

Monday-Departures? and FHE

I got a little lazy with the pictures on Monday for some reason. We went to the big pool Monday morning and had a really fun time swimming. I even took Davin in the pool for the first time and he loved it, but I didn't get any pics, so we will have to do it again before the end of the summer. Anyway, after showering and eating lunch I took Dad and Jules to the airport to catch their flights back to CA. Unfortunately I didn't have my cell phone on me and when I got home I found out that their flight was delayed 4 hours, so Mom went back to the airport to pick them up. I thought it was kind of nice having them with us that evening for dinner and FHE. Long story short, their flight ended up being cancelled and they were put up at the Crystal Inn for another night and didn't get out of Salt Lake until 10am Tuesday!

We had a really fun FHE. We talked about prophets and then we all picked a prophet and made a paper bag puppet of them. We went around and told what prophet we picked and a little bit about that prophet, then sang "Follow the Prophet". It was a big success.

Here is Weston with all of our prophets. He is pointing to his on the end. He picked President Monson (surprisingly) and drew the face mostly by himself.
From L-R: President Hinckley, Lehi, Nephi, Joseph (and the coat of many colors), Moses and President Monson.