prayers

L is more often willing to go to sleep by himself.  He says the sweetest prayers "Heavenly Father, bless me have good dreams, bless  .....  in that name of Jesus Christ.  Amen."

When the boys rode in this L was all business inside.  Then when they got out he said triumphantly "Now you can't get us Ninja Turtles!"

Suddenly Speaking

L is suddenly fully fluent.  He was mimicking for about a month.  The other children would prompt him to say things word or sound at a time.  Then suddenly he is saying his own hilarious things.  The other day he started saying "I want something else to eat, how about... hmmm, milk!"

Conversations

L has learned to say "I love you mom."

When he tells me he loves me I sometimes say "Thank you" to which he replies "you need say I love you too."

If I remember to say "I love you too."  he'll say "you need say 'oh, so cute!".

He's so fun.

affirmations

L is getting so talkative it's awesome.  He doesn't ever ask, he encourages with affirmations.  "Hey mom, you can get me milk."  Is a common phrase.  "You can sit with me?"  a frequent plea.  "I can sleep on your floor.  You can give me a blanket." a sweet way to be waken at 6 am.

We watched "Brigadoon" recently and L likes to sing "Go home, go home, go home with bonnie Jean."  He'll even sing a long high note for "I'll___________ go home with bonnie Jean."

He's so adorable and awesome.

We've tried potty training some.  He is happy to just go once a day and will let us know "I went potty already."

Potty Training

L is 3+ a few months.  I've been watching and waiting for the optimal time to potty train him.  The trouble is I can't remember how the other 4 were potty trained.  My sister in law works in a child care center so I got some good tips from her.  And it seems with L able to take his clothes on and off, it may be time. 

Wednesday we were helping a neighbor trim the bushes at the entry to the neighborhood.  B needed to potty so I sent him into the bushes.  L said "I need to potty too." and proceeded to pull everything off.  He didn't potty, but he did show that he's very interested and ready to learn.

Last night he went potty int the pot and got a treat.  He also peed all over the shorts in the process so M was trying to put new shorts on him.  He said he already went potty and wanted a diaper.

This morning he put on dinosaur underwear and has pottied once so far.  We do "Potty treats" which are equivalent to jelly beans.  When the little one potties everyone gets a treat.  Everyone is involved and enthusiastic about getting little one to potty.

Stop whining

We're working hard with L to stop the screaming and crying.  It's a process.

nana boo boo

Today when I called for the children to leave the steep slide playground L stood at the top of said steep slide and cried out "Na na Boo boo, you can't get me mom!" several times.  I just grabbed some trash from the car and walked it to the park trash can.  Back and forth I walked paying him no mind.  Eventually he came down the slide and said "Don't leave me!" 

I love how talkative he's getting.  I don't love the sass.  I remind his brothers and sisters all the time to be a good example.

Hours of fun for everyone

L is 3!  He had so much fun at the science museums we visited.  It's really strange having our youngest child be 3.  We still think of him as 18 months old.  But everyone is so independent.  L will probably learn to do the monkey bars this year.  We can't go to mommy and me, or toddler events because we don't have anyone small enough!

B was sick when we visited goblin valley so he isn't in this picture.  But L was right there along with the big kids enjoying EVERYTHING!

At one point I had climbed a rock and felt proud of myself.  Moments later there comes M with L by the hand. 

life

 L fell asleep in this box today and when P tried to put him in bed he cried for 30 minutes.

We've been going to the beach a ton lately.  L loves it so much.  It used to be that we stayed until he started walking back to the car, about 25 minutes.  Now he's the one crying when we leave after an hour.

O-tay Brrr

B and L are such a funny team.  B names the game and tells L his lines.  I often hear L's reply "O-day Brrr" (OK B). 

I recently put them side by side in the car and they had a blast until L pulled B's hair.  The bromance goes only so far.

growing up

 P and L share this tender moment as L gets a bite of P's swiss cake roll.  So nice.

We went to the splash park today.  L kept wandering off.  It's amazing how much he's grown and how independent he is.  He's a fun kid.

Spend time with me!

L is pretty independent but he's also getting into games like pat-a-cake and reading books with me.  I love this little sweet boy.  One of his made up games is to play tag with objects in hand.  Like if I have a car and he has a car, he'll make his touch mine and say "Tag You!" 

Today we were at a park and saw a wild turkey.  L was intrigued and kept wandering after it until he made his way out of the cultivated area and around a pile of brush, to the dirt road behind.  There he stood, when I finally found him, saying "Where go?"

Who is this boy!

 L climbs right along with the big kids.  This is a climbing dome near the lighthouse.  It's scary to let him but he does a great job and it's so wonderful to let him do it.  Also it's pretty miserable keeping him from doing it for the sake of not frightening bystandars.

 He was playing peekaboo with me in the tiger towel recently.  So cute.

 I went away for woodbadge and L seems to have grown up over the weekend I was away!

We found this sweet outfit for $1.50 and bought it even though I was pretty sure it was too small.  He tried it on and was done.  I sent it on to my friend who has a little one along with some mini rubber boots.  Cuteness!

No thanks!

This little guy is such a delight.  He doesn't like diaper changes and protests with a rapid fire "No thanks!  No thanks!  No thanks!"

cute machine

I took L with me to get a tire fixed.  He just hung out and was happy for the hour it took.  This tire place has a nice waiting room.  It's so different when you go somewhere with just 1 child.  We let the youngest stay up much later than the other kids and they get to have that only child sort of bedtime hangout.

Today L came by the kitchen asking for "food? food?  food?"  I offered him a bagel and he started clapping and saying "Yay!"  When I gave it to him he said "Eat this."

He's so cute and growing up so fast.  He still looks like such a baby and will for the next 5 years. 

Two words

 This is L on Christmas eve eating with a fork on the hearth at Grandma and Grandpa P's house.  He was great.  It's amazing having family gatherings with all children old enough to just be.

 At uncle T's house L had so much fun looking at all the cool toys.  This is a rocket backpack uncle T made.  So cute!  L was surprisingly good about not touching their lego creations. 

L is so lucky to have 4 siblings that are so good to him.  Here he is on M's lap.  Earlier that day I'd offered him a cheese stick and he cried out "Chee,  Chee,  Doh!" looking back toward M.  He was calling to her to get a cheese stick.  I love that our children have been so receptive to being trained to share.  I give L 5 marshmallows and he goes and finds all the kids and gives them each one.  There have been times, with M&M where the sharing didn't go so smoothly.  But in general it's fantastic.

He's using a lot of 2 word sentences now.  He'll say "Taoh Mom" for Thank you Mom.  He loves "Choo Choo Train". 

He ate too much corn on the cob today.  He loves it.

He still gives a lot of lip kisses and makes us all laugh.