Toddler Television

I guess I'm going to admit that my little guy watches television.  3 shows nearly every day.

Curious George - His favorite show. During the opening song he makes animal noises when it shows different animals and then when George goes into the hole he waves goodbye and then holds up his palms to say 'where's George'? And then when George appears again he points excitedly.  I tried to get a video of this about a month ago and this is probably the best I got.  I started late, and could have gone longer cause he does cute stuff as the show starts, but it's still really cute :)

2-27-13 Curious George Theme

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood - His second favorite show.

Super Why - We think this show contributes to why he is so interested in letters. He watches it every morning while Hot Cup and I are getting ready for the day.

He'll watch others occasionally too, of course.

The Baltimore Zoo

Yesterday we had a fun time at the Baltimore Zoo with some friends! It has 3 areas: Arctic, African, and MD Wilderness & Childen's Zoo. We went to the Arctic & African.

Our little guy most enjoyed the animals that were active and close. So some of his otherwise favorite animals weren't as exciting to him. Turns out elephants that are far away and monkeys that just sit there aren't as exciting as ravens, foxes, and okapi that are super close and giving him a show.

The Arctic is just polar bears, foxes, and owls, but the owl exhibit was temporarily closed :( Our guy would have loved the owls!  (Their website shows other owls too, I'm really bummed I didn't realize that and find one for him.)  He enjoyed the foxes, one walked right up to the front to look at everyone. They also have the African Ravens in this section, I guess cause it's the front section. They are the official mascots of the Baltimore Ravens: brothers named Rise & Conquer. They were going after a carcass of some kind (mouse?) and sticks and our boy really loved it! He kept making excited noises so I decided to record him, but once he saw the camera he stopped. Oh well, you can hear him at the very beginning.

4-4-13 Baltimore Zoo Ravens
Reminder: the password is the 6 character title of this site, no spaces.

He enjoyed the animals in the African section too. Particularly the okapi. We saw it indoors and it kept going back and forth rubbing it's horns against the window we were looking through. Our boy loved it and I tried to get a picture but I should have been recording a video. That didn't occur to me until much later, of course. I don't do videos very often so it doesn't occur to me when it should.


One of our first stops in the African section was the zebras, ostriches, and rhino.  After he was done looking at them I put him back in his stroller and decided to take a quick picture before moving on. And he decided to throw his toy car through the fence. I'd looked away so I don't know if it was on purpose or an accident, but I'm glad it didn't go further or I wouldn't have been able to get it back. I had to lay down on my pregnant belly to get a stick, and then again to use the stick to get the car back. I refused to let him have it again which quite upset him until I pulled out a snack. I'd tried to get him to give it up earlier, I guess I should have tried harder.

Owl Eyes

Our cutie was taking the lids off his milk jugs and I took two of them and put them over my eyes and said whoo whoo. He smiled at me and then took the lids off his peanut and jelly jars and put them over my eyes. Milk lids are too small to be my owl eyes.

Easter Weekend

Saturday we went to the Kite festival in DC.  There wasn't a whole lot of wind, but when it came kites went up.

Hot Cup's kite is the one at the top!

When Hot Cup assembled his kite our toddler immediately tried to take it, he loved all the kites! He even whispered the word 'kite' a few times, totally unprompted.


He also loved walking around and having a picnic.


When we'd been there almost 2.5 hours, and it was a little after his normal naptime, he started to get a little cranky and I asked if he wanted to get in his stroller for a nap and he said yes. He didn't end up sleeping but he didn't ask to get out either and seemed to be having a good time snacking and watching kites. We left about an hour later and he napped most the way home. What a fun day!


First thing Easter morning we brought our toddler downstairs to see his Easter basket. There wasn't really anything new since he went shopping with us but he loved it.  His favorite was definitely the new train.  (It's the yellow engine and yellow coal car set you see in the picture.)  Then we had him hunt for eggs which he also loved. He was delighted to find chocolate candy in some of them. He didn't care as much for the non-chocolate candy.


After church we had a wonderful time visiting our parents. Hot Cup's dad has recently moved into a assisted living place and we made our first visit. Then we visited with his mom a while and then went to my parents' for Easter Dinner. Our little guy got some fun things from his grandparents. He loves being with them but when bedtime came around he asked to go home. Smart little guy.

Spring Break & Date Nights

My mom and sister are on spring break this week so they stayed with us for a few days :) We showed them old town but besides that stayed home. Hopefully they didn't get too stir crazy; they're not used to it like I am. Our toddler loved having them here! We went for a nice walk and he held both their fingers nearly the whole time.



We took advantage of their visit by leaving our little boy in their care a couple of times, including a night out. Our Christmas present from Hot Cup's mom had been money to go to the local dinner theatre we've wanted to check out, so we went! They were showing Fiddler on the Roof and we had a great time!

My mom and dad had come up a week earlier so we could have a night out then, for our 4th anniversary. We went to an Italian place for dinner and to the Temple. And our little cutie had so much fun with his grandparents. I'm always so happy to see how much he loves them, and all his family. We're lucky to have all our parents and some of our siblings so close!

20 Weeks!

We're very excited about getting another little boy!

Here's a picture of me from Monday -- at 20 weeks.  I tried to get big brother to be in the picture with me so it would be cuter, but he didn't consent.  Sorry about my lack of expression.

And here are pictures of our new baby from Tuesday's ultrasound.

All curled up with his knees by his mouth.

I was finally sure I felt him kicking by 17 weeks. (Though there were times before that when I thought I did.) And have felt him every day since. But I don't think I realized quite how active he was until during the ultrasound when I saw him turn and flip and kick and move his arms and hands. So fun!

23 Months

I wrote a lot this month and the pictures are all at the end, so skip right down to them if you like.

I can't believe our little guy will be a 2 year old soon!

He's such an obedient, polite, & organized little guy. Don't get me wrong. He always knows exactly what he wants and has given us the pleasure of a couple little tantrums. But, you know, generally speaking.

I don't think he would ever intentionally do something he's not supposed to. If he gets told 'no' he feels bad and needs a hug. Sometimes he thinks it's something I'm even going to praise him for. Like when he colored the window sill with a purple crayon. I told him no and he looked at me like I should have told him he did a good job and then started crying. Poor guy.

When he wants to see how we'll react to something he's doing he gives us a smile.  We call it a stinker smile because sometimes he's doing something he thinks we won't let him; but maybe we should call it a silly smile because usually he's just being silly or clever.  He kinda crinkles his nose and squints his eyes as he smiles. Adorable.

He's pretty good about it when we tell him to turn of the TV (not that we ever do it in the middle of a favorite show!), or tell him something is not a toy, or ask him to help clean up. If we tell him something is trash he throws it away. Hot Cup recently installed some new cabinets in the kitchen and we had to get our little boy his own little trash can since the big one isn't out anymore. He's loves throwing away trash, it would be sad if he couldn't do that!

At mealtime he used to throw stuff on the floor that he didn't want, which I didn't like! Now, when he's done eating he puts all the food he didn't want is on his plate and hands me his plate.

He's trying what we're eating more often, and discovering he even likes it sometimes.

When we get home he takes off his jacket and puts it away. He's good at putting toys away too, if he's ready to.

He's pretty good at signing please and thank you, it's too bad that most people don't understand him.

He loves to play with daddy and they always have fun together. Hot Cup likes to juggle with the toy balls and our little boy has been imitating him. He gathers all the balls in his arms and throws them all at once, haha.

He loves going outside. He didn't used to want to hold my hand to cross the street. I guess winter made him forget about that because he holds my finger when we cross the street. And other times while we're walking too (I love it!) but he seems to know he's supposed to when we get to a street.

When we tell him it's time for prayer he joins us and holds one hand with the other and is pretty good throughout the prayer. If he has toys he has to arrange them how he wants them before we begin. But that's true of anything we do. He has to place his toys exactly how he wants them first.

He knows some colors.

He's known all his letters for a long time and still loves them and is saying about 16 of them.

He's been in Nursery for 5 months and I still stay with him for the first half hour. While I'm there they read books, sing, and have their lesson. When they start coloring I leave. Then they color, have snack, and play. He really enjoys himself and participates while I'm there and it's a lot of fun to be in there with him, but if he thinks for a second that I'm going to leave he gets really attached to me. When he starts coloring I tell him I have to go and I'll see him later and he's fine with it. A few weeks ago I was staying through snacktime so maybe I'll be able to leave even earlier soon.  I may be the overprotective mama in the ward but I don't want to leave if it makes him upset.  (I admit I like being with him too.)

He was sick a couple times at the beginning of the year. When that was past we had to go through a little withdrawal of TV & the pacifier. The TV part went well and in a day or two he was back to being happy with only a couple of shows a day. But the pacifier has been trickier. For now I'm okay with him having it at bedtime and naptime. I take it from his crib when I go to bed at night but he wants it again in the morning. He gives it up by breakfast so I guess that's okay too. But the tricky part is between his nap and dinner. I'm figuring out a few tricks.

He's climbs onto furniture more. He sits on the couch to play with his toys or to be closer to me.  He likes to be where I am and is often playing at my feet in the kitchen while I cook ♥

Here's a few pictures from this month ...

Dipping waffles in syrup (makes a sticky mess!)


Super Zachary & Daddy


Fun with the chalkboard