Let's Talk About Rhett

This little man has been filling up our hearts with more and more love all week, which is good because last week he was awful. (Not that we loved him less, however.) Recovering from sickness (his first icky, throw-up sickness ever), possible teething pain, and just being almost 2, seem to have been the main contributors.

But this week he has been delightful!

Rhett is 21 months old, the same age Benjamin was when Rhett was born. It seems like every time I look at him I find myself marveling at his babyness, when Benjamin seemed so grown up at the same age. And because of that I find myself wishing I had let Benjamin be more of a baby, while at the same time wondering if Rhett is really more grown up than I give him credit for.

He loves for me to read to him, and his favorite books are of the Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?/Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? variety. He still loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and at the end he likes to go flap flap flap with the pages to make the butterfly fly.

He loves to ROAR! And boy, does that kid have volume! When we read Polar Bear, Polar Bear..., he roars at almost every page, as if he thinks that is the appropriate animal noise for each creature. The other day Rhett expressed his excitement at having Paul home from work by ROARING enthusiastically several times.

He discovered the other day that he is a great tickle monster. I wish I could have captured forever the minutes the other day when he and I snuggled on the couch prior to his nap and took turns tickling and laughing.

He loves dogs! Have I mentioned that before? I don't think I have, so let me emphasize it again. Rhett LOVES dogs! He can spot one a mile away, and will either shout "DAH!" or "WuhWuhWuhWuh!"


He loves to say new words, or at least we love to hear them. Why is it that he has mastered "cookie" more quickly than "please"?

He is a fabulous eater (knock on wood), downing everything from chili to spicy curry to broccoli and more. Some nights he seems like a bottomless pit.

He loves to be like his brother. During potty training (which is 90% complete, by the way), he would imitate Benjamin by sitting on the little training potty. A couple of days ago he found a pair of Benjamin's underwear and wanted to put it on over his diaper. And speaking of clothes, he likes to bring me random articles of clothing and have me put them on him. (Maybe we need a dress-up box?)

Rhett is a singer. Many times a day he can be heard singing the tunes to I am a Child of God, Called to Serve, Reverently Quietly (a frequently lullaby in our house), Autumn Day, and/or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We never get tired of it.

This is becoming longer than intended, and the subject of this post is now screaming for my attention and trying to put on his shoes to go outside. So I'll wrap up by saying that we love Rhett so much, and couldn't be happier to have him in our family!

A Child's Prayer, Redo

The last post was an example of how Benjamin decides to assert himself and do things on his own terms. But despite his occasional "funny" prayers, he has also given us displays of truly uplifting childlike faith. Today is an example.

Rhett and I picked up a sickness from somewhere, so Saturday night and Sunday were spent taking care of a vomiting child, with me on the couch much of the time. Paul, good husband/father that he is, helped me take care of Rhett (and the resulting several loads of laundry) Saturday night and took Benjamin to church with him on Sunday (where Benjamin refused to sit with his good friends and preferred to sit up in the front with Paul and the bishopric). I woke up this morning feeling much better, and realized that Paul was on the couch rather than at work. Bummer.

Thankfully, Benjamin seems to have been spared (so far, knock on wood). This morning as I explained to him that Dada was feeling sick, he immediately suggested, "Hey, we could say a prayer for Dada!" After doing so, he rushed out to the couch to tell Paul what we did, and it was evident in his voice that he believed in the power of that prayer.

So even though he is sometimes thankful for "nothing," I think he really does understand the purpose and power of a simple prayer.

A glimpse into Rhett's weekend

Builders

A Child's Prayer

Benjamin's prayer last night:

"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for nothing."



What else is there to say when you're a tired, stubborn 3-year-old boy who doesn't feel like saying his prayers?

I'm sure he'll grow out of it.

Canada... sort of

Several weeks ago we decided to make use of our recently acquired Washington Enhanced Drivers Licenses and go to Vancouver, British Columbia. Here are some of the interesting things we saw on the way (like the awesome multi-lingual welcome sign).

Kilometers!

This is what we really went to go see: the new Vancouver, B.C., LDS temple. We are excited to be part of the new temple district, partly because we won't need to arrange 6 hours of babysitting for one trip to the temple in Seattle. This one will only be about 30 minutes away.

Our stake is excitedly preparing for the open house (in April) and dedication (May 2), as well as a cultural event put on by the youth in the temple district on May 1 (Paul's birthday). We would be happy to have visitors if anyone wants to attend these things!

Cool bridge

Olympic Rings

It would have been awesome to attend the Winter Games during the past couple of weeks, and we had planned to way back when we first heard about it, but it just didn't happen. It seems kind of ironic in a way that we were so close to this awesome event, but we didn't even watch a single event on TV (since we ditched DirecTV prior to our Alaska trip--so glad we did that). But it was cool to see some of the pre-Olympic excitement up in Vancouver.

In case you forgot where you were, they had hundreds of these banners on the light poles. They certainly didn't skimp.

The city buses were even decked out.

This was one of those cool murals made up of tiny little pictures.

We thought this sign in a store window was funny.

And home again!

Think we left out something fun? Nope. That's all we saw (basically). I didn't even get out of the car the whole time. Paul only did to take pictures. Next time we'll remember to bring cash. And we'll exchange it for Canadian currency so we can pay to park everywhere we go. Yeah, we couldn't even park the car, let alone do anything. Poor planning on our part. We'll do better next time!

Love these boys

Valentines

I'm a little late in posting these things, but here are some of the memorable things we did for Valentine's Day this year.

We ate pink heart-shaped pancakes for lunch. It would have been breakfast but for Paul's pre-church meetings and the hectic getting-ready-for-church scramble. We ate these last year, too. I think I sense a tradition coming on.


Paul and Benjamin built a delicious (surprise) heart cake while I was at a Relief Society meeting after church. When I came home earlier than expected I was exiled to the back of the house until it was done. I think they frosted it in the garage, as a matter of fact! When they came back inside, Benjamin couldn't contain the surprise inside his little 3-year-old body and he immediately shouted, "Mama! We made you a cake!" I love those kinds of surprises.

My gift to Paul was a bottle of homemade hot sauce.



I don't have any pictures of it, but I used an idea from a blog for a Valentine's scavenger hunt. Benjamin (and Rhett) followed clues around the house to lead them to a "treasure" of balloons a Valentine candy. They both enjoyed it, but next year there will be some changes: Don't leave candy along with the clues, because it was really distracting. Buy two of the same balloon so there isn't any (or as much) fighting over whose balloon is whose. And clean the house first so I'll want to take pictures of it.

Finally, although we did this the next day for Family Home Evening, we used some of our Crunch hearts to make s'mores under the broiler. Why don't we do that more often?

Brothers

Lately I've been thinking about our kids and what they each look like and whether they look like each other at all. Paul's parents have a wall in their house with pictures of their grandkids, all lined up next to each other in order of their birth. Benjamin and Rhett are the only siblings who are side-by-side on that wall, and I've often wondered if stranger looking at all those kids would think that Benjamin and Rhett are cousins because they look so different. I've never done a picture comparison of the boys before, so here is a side-by-side (sort of) comparison of the boys at certain ages:

Benjamin at birth

Rhett at birth

Benjamin at 6 months
Rhett at 6 months
Benjamin at 1 year
Rhett at 1 year
Benjamin at 18 months
Rhett at 18 months

For a long time I've thought that the boys didn't look anything alike, but now that I see them this way, I can see some similarities. It's hard to define them, but I think they're there (maybe something about the eyes, or forehead?). They definitely don't look so alike that we could play a who's-who guessing game with their baby pictures, though. If I had them handy I'd do a comparison of Paul's and my baby pictures to theirs. I think I'll make that a project for another day.

Kid Stories

I want to remember a couple of things that the boys have done recently that are cute and/or funny.

Benjamin has been on a Bob the Builder kick when we go to the library. Along with our bag full of books, we usually come home with a Bob the Builder DVD. He has also enjoyed having me read to him Rumpelstiltskin, by Paul O. Zelinsky. The other day I overheard him singing to himself, "RUMpelstiltskin! Can he fix it? RUMpelstiltskin! Yes he CAN!"

Rhett has started imitating one of his brother's favorite activities: jumping off of things while shouting, "To infinity, and beyond!" Having just started out, Rhett is less of a daredevil than Benjamin while doing this. But it's so cute to watch him crouch down as if to leap, then stand up and step carefully off of his platform and say, "Ah beYAH!" Luckily I have a video so you can see what I mean. (Please ignore the pile of unfolded laundry in the background.)

A last-minute Valentine thought

On this Valentine's Day, even though it's almost over, I wanted to share something that I just read from my friend Lori, something that I wholeheartedly agree with. I've known this and believed it with all my being for many years, but it's nice to read it in words far more eloquent than my own.

Read it here.

I'm so happy with my choice. And so happy it's a forever choice.

Happy Valentine's Day!