ABC, easy as 123

M has an intense love of letters and numbers. His eyes are always on the lookout for ABCs and 123s, for example:

He picked up our shower squeegee and said "Big T, Big T"
A coffeee table was moved and left an indentation on the carpet. M said "L!"
When he noticed a horseshoe nailed to the ceiling of an art gallery, he exclaimed, "C!, C!"

This morning our plans were changed, so I needed to get ready quickly. I decided to let him watch a cartoon and there was a show called "Super Why" on PBS. From my bathroom I heard the character ask, "What letter makes the "tuh" sound?" and M responded "T!"...so I went in to see what was up. This continued with the letters O and P. He got both correct. Then I asked him "what word did you spell?" He said matter of factly, "stop." (Now I must say that we have talked about the word stop before when we see stop signs).

I listened to M participate in the rest of the show...answering all of the questions correctly. I decided to take him to the PBS SuperWhy website for some more action. In the "spelling bee" game, he correctly spelled cat, can, and bell all by himself by listening to the sounds and picking the right letter.

I am astounded not only by his development in this area but also by his interest. We haven't tried to push learning the letters and numbers on him. In fact, I have been a little leery about it wondering what in the world he will do in kindergarten if he already knows such things. But M is just really interested in them (intense looooove), so we have tried to follow his lead.

Now if I could only get him to love sharing his toys!

b-day pics

Listening to the Birthday song:

Trying to blow:

Excited to see Elmo...not knowing that he will have to hit him! Charles kept making the pinata go up and down, so M stood there with a smile on his face saying, "up....down...up...down."
Listening to dad's instructions

The big hit...check out that sucker flying towards his face

Holding Elmo's hand afterwards...
Happy boy

A couple pics of little S. I was trying out the "eye enhancer" on picnik...so they are a little "overdone." He is still as cute as can be!

quick b-day recap

smooch in photo

smoooooooooooooooooooooooooch:

Smooch is on her way!

In an hour I will be picking up little sister from the airport but, due to the craziness of her trip so far, this may be her last visit! Let's just say it has involved a loose dog in cargo...dog poop on her suitcase...and dr. pepper all over her brand new uggs and her suitcase (which I said would at least take away the dog poop smell, right?)

We heading into a weekend of mall-ratting (is that a word), late nights of mancala tournaments, a fun photoshoot...oh, and I guess I will let M play with her, too!

some shoots and stuff

Before I post anything else, I want to again share sweet Abby's site and ask that you pray for this precious little one. The strength of this family is an amazing testimony to God's grace in the most difficult of trials.

On Sat, I had the pleasure to hang with my friend, Chelsea! She agreed to let me photograph her and didn't cancel even though she was sick! She is super cool...and gracious...that way. Here are a few from our afternoon:






And...here is M in the BIG TWO shirt!!!!! Sorry there are so many, but how is a mama to choose?

oh, happy saturday!

On Friday we had a playdate with the adorable M kids. I was worried that M would be a crazy man when he saw the kids playing with his toys...but he did so well! He was even proactive in sharing, so I was relieved! When we were at the market buying some snacks for the playdate, he was all worked up about about the idea of having to share Elmo crackers, so I stopped the cart and asked, "Do you want me to pray for you?" He nodded. So next to the canned vegetables, we asked God to help M have a generous heart. This morning we were talking about the playdate, and I reminded M about our prayer in the store...and how God answered our prayer by helping him share. He nodded.

Here's a few photos of the three monkeys...M is laughing because my friend said "poop."





OK, if you can't sleep at night do I have a site for you! POLYVORE. It is like a virtual mall. You can put together outfits from the comfort of your own computer chair. They have so many cool, funky things...and yet, I STILL came up with a very plain jane outfit! I didn't even choose a purse! The super thing is that a wide variety of stores are represented...which means a wide variety of prices. I just picked what I liked and later realized that quite a few of my items were from very affordable stores...like KMart! So this is the outfit I would choose for dinner out with Scott (I think you can click for larger view): For anyone who knows furiture...I am looking for a couch like the one below for our family room. I actually really like this one, but it is a total LOWRIDER...like only 2 feet high. So if you know where I can find a taller version, let me know. BTW, I like inexpensive!
FACEBOOK BACK! My friend, Kari, is a facebook member and the other night her husband took a picture of her hunched over her computer...he said she has "Facebook Back!" Quite funny...but leads me to ask what kind of exercise other mamas are getting. Do you workout regularly? If so, at home or gym? Does anyone know of a great workout program you can do, in say, 10 mins or less? haha!

I hope you all have a great weekend! It is sunny and warm here, and I have a photoshoot with a friend today!