Mr. Noodle

So the other day after Clark had shaved Ethan asked, "Dad, did you shave off your noodles?" It cracked me up and grossed me out all at the same time that Ethan thought his Dad's beard was made of noodles. I bet it makes you think twice next time you eat spaghetti!

On Thurs. I went to a fun Girl's Night Out and came home to this:

Even after a long day Clark was willing to take on Caden, our little non-sleeper who is quite attached to his momma, so I could go have a good time. I'm lucky to have my Mr. Noodle!

Substitution Gala

For the past 2 years Clark and I have gone to the DMU Gala with our friends. It has been such a fun date to look forward to each year. This year the school decided they couldn't afford to host such an extravagant party, so the venue changed, limiting the number of tickets.
In January when Clark went to buy tickets he found out they were sold out!!! I was so sad...but Clark planned a surprise substitution gala for us last Saturday night, and it was so much fun!
Instead of wearing our fancy clothes each couple had to dress alike. Clark and I wore our matchy Pilsbury doughboy jammy pants.
We met at our friends house and Clark presented me with my Valentine gift (which also happened to be our activity for the night). He got me Just Dance 2 for the Wii! We had the BEST dance party! It was so much fun! I honestly have to say that our friends danced a lot more playing the Wii game than they would have at the Gala.

It was such a fun date night! As we were driving home Clark reminded me of another fun date we had with very similar circumstances before we were married. Clark asked me to BYU's Homecoming. On a Sunday morning when I looked out my window I saw my invitation to the dance in our apartment complex parking lot.

Clark had cut out every letter by hand! (In Romanian too)

I honestly can't remember how I answered him, but it was something creative I'm sure. Anyway, a few days before the dance Clark went to buy tickets and all of the dances were completely sold out! He felt so bad, but I didn't mind. We went to Salt Lake and had dinner at Benihana's, then we came back to my apartment and had our own dance party! We had so much fun until the neighbors from below came and asked us politely to quiet down (apparently, when I busted out my tap shoes it was just too much)!

Clark is the best! I loved my surprise Substitution Gala! Clark has rhythm, he can shake his groove thang with the best of them!

Boys will be Brothers

If little boys are cute in overalls...

(even overalls that are a size too small)

And if little boys look cute when they are playing together so brotherly...

Then this morning I guess these little boys are cute, cute!

And a little video of some more brotherly love. Now I should defend myself before you watch this video, I promise I'm normally not such a heartless mom...I promise this is not Ethan's real cry, he had been having such a day of fits that it began to be comical to me. That's why I pulled out the video camera.

HEARTBEATS

For some reason Ethan calls all hearts "heartbeats." We've had a lot of fun with all of the heartbeats this Valentine's season.

Maddy (who Ethan refers to as the little princess) and Krew came over and we had lots of fun with Kool-Aid play dough.

Then we made more heartbeats out of Jell-o jigglers.

Such a fun day!

And on the topic of Valentine's Day. I think that this picture should be on the front of a Hallmark card.

Ethan looks like he's professing his love to cute Shannon at the beautiful Botanical Center.

I Am Brown Dog

When Ethan was six months old he started sleeping with Brown Dog, he's only been away from him one night since then. Brown Dog is definitely his comfort object.

Ethan and Brown Dog (back in his fluffier days)

I've been trying to get Caden to have a comfort object. We've tried a blue dog, a red giraffe, different blankies...but I've come to the realization that I am his comfort object, I am Caden's Brown Dog.

This has caused a few issues when it comes to sleeping. Caden is sleeping in a pack n play at the foot of our bed. He has been waking up several times in the night and wants to be in our bed. So pretty much all 3 of us are a little sleep deprived. Last week I pulled out my copy of Baby 411 and started studying the chapter on sleep. I laughed when I read the list of 10 Common Mistakes Parents make when establishing an infant's sleep routine, because we were regularly doing 7 of the mistakes. Clark and I decided we were going to start "Ferberizing" Caden (it worked great for Ethan). It was awful. The first night he cried 2 hours! I had to put on headphones and watch a movie...I hated it! But it was amazing the rest of the week he started sleeping at least 7 hour stretches at night. He also was able to self soothe back to sleep when he woke up. We were feeling great! It's amazing how different you feel when you sleep at night.

Then Saturday night Caden had a stomach ache, the only way he would sleep was for me to hold him on the couch all night long.

Now he is teething, his two top teeth are just starting to cut through and he has been miserable. Not only would he not sleep in his bed, he wouldn't sleep in our bed unless I was holding him. Not my best night ever! I feel like the great progress we made earlier in the week has all been thrown away.

So although there are perks to being a comfort object (I LOVE snuggling with this little cutie), I've learned that Brown Dog has a pretty tough job, he has earned my respect, maybe today when I wash him I'll use the gentle cycle.

Just Earning His Ice Cream...Part 2

So if you read my last post you saw that Ethan earned an ice cream cone for using the potty. Well apparently Caden felt a little left out!

On Saturday during dinner Ethan announced that he needed to use the potty. So we all ran upstairs for the event. After a few minutes it was clear that this was going to take a while so I decided to give Caden his bath, since we were all just hanging out in the bathroom anyway.

As I was lifting Caden into the tub Ethan yelled, "Caden is pooping too." I didn't really think anything of it until I was shocked to see some foreign objects floating around the tub. I quickly plucked Caden out of the tub, and in a panic I pulled Ethan off the potty and replaced him with Caden. Poor little Caden sat shivering and screaming on the potty, but he used the potty just like a big boy (such an over achiever)!

Ethan was pretty amazed at Caden's success. While I was comforting Caden and drying him off, Clark started cleaning out the tub, and Ethan danced around naked stuffing toilet paper into the toilet. By the time I came back into the bathroom Clark had the plunger out, and Ethan was still running around loving the fiasco. The whole situation was hilarious to me...I guess we need to take Caden out for his ice cream cone now.

I did learn my less though, muti-tasking during potty training is probably not the best idea. Anyone out there have any tips for me?

A Blizzard in a Blizzard?

Tonight when we pulled into the Dairy Queen parking lot Ethan commented that there were no cars, apparently no one likes a Blizzard when there is a real blizzard swirling around them.
But we braved the frigid elements, because today Ethan earned an ice cream cone! He was promised a few months ago that when he used the potty successfully for the first time he would get an ice cream cone! And in his own words, "I DID IT!" Of course he had to pick a day when it was below 0 with the wind chill, but we will take it!

A very proud boy enjoying his ice cream!