My two messes

A little about Weston right now...

He is into everything!! Seriously, let me paint a picture for you. I am making potato salad. Weston is beneath me, squirming between my legs and pulling out every pot and pan from the cupboard. I let him do this for a while since it is keeping him busy and not screetching at me. Then Collin senses a mess is being made without him and joins in. They are banging glass lids on the tile and creating noise that I am quickly not tolerating. I shew them away, but Collin isn't listening and if Weston is going to be stopped, then I'm going to hear about it from him. Loudly. As I try to throw the pots back in the cupboard and block it with my knees, Weston is now into the other one, pulling out chemicals and spraying Windex on his neck before I even realize he's in harms way. (Yes, I have since put locks on all cupboards) I haul him to the sink to rinse him off while he verbally abuses me for ruining his fun. He then screetches and screetches while I offer him half a dozen things before he settles on a sippy cup. I turn to work on the salad again and 30 sec. later, step into a massive puddle of water that Weston has somehow managed to drain from his {leak proof} cup. While I'm mopping that up, he has gotten into a skirmish with Collin and both are now crying. Separate them, go back to salad. Now the recycling bin is being dumped out. I raise that on to the table. At some point it has gotten too quiet. I doesn't take much searching to find Collin hiding in his closet, painting with toothpaste all over the bins and partly on Weston. 

I'll stop there... you get the picture. It just never ends with these two!! And it's not that Weston is being naughty, he's just exploring and learning, but it has nearly driven me crazy! And he's not a fan of TV. I remember Collin at this age would at least sit for 10 min. and watch Curious George. Weston is just not interested. And with Collin abusing him so much, he now cries over EVERYTHING. He gets accidently  bumped and he wails like he's been beaten. 

He is also a climber. Collin never climbed much. If there's a will, there's a way with this one. I've actually been pretty impressed with what I've seen him scale. 

With Collin doing the preschool thing in the mornings, I've started doing my grocery shopping then. And as of 3 weeks ago, Weston has turned from the perfect shopping companion to the child I'll throw anything at to keep quiet. Just this morning I opened a box of Cheezits, a container of Gerber chicken sticks (I know, gross) and a string cheese at Wal-Mart, just to keep him quiet. The snacks I brought just weren't cutting it. 

And forget about church. I just need a pew with a sound proof box on the end that I can stick him in. 3 weeks til nursery!!! :)

He poops in the tub. He tries to play in Collin's pee, WHILE he's going. It's just a delightful age.

I saw a quote on Pinterest that went something like, "Having a 1 year old is like having a blender without a lid." Amen to that!

OK, so now I feel bad for complaining about him. I love my Weston and he is a sweet boy, he is just BUSY!! 

His big plus right now.... he comes to me when he's poopy and points and grunts at his lower half. I think it's kind of funny. Collin never did that. So I'll ask him if he's poopy and he does his head nod that really nods his whole body and will toddle after me to his bedroom for a change. 

And who can resist those open mouth kisses he gives so freely. :) Or those big, blue eyes. I always get comments on those baby blues.

He knows where his hair, nose and belly button are. He kind of gets eyes and ears. And when you ask him where his mouth is, he immediately opens it, sticks out his tongue and says, "ehhhh".  

He loves to wave at people. And he'll screetch at the store, just so someone will turn and look at him, and then he'll smile and wave. 

He doesn't talk much. He prefers the escalated shrieks, "Ah, ahhhh, AHHHHHH!!!" He will say Momma, Dadda, more, and ball. 

He still growls at anything non human that moves. 

It does melt my heart when I see these two playing together. Last night they were enjoying their frozen treats together in the backyard. Of course it ended with Collin dumping all manner of dirt and rocks on his head and him crying.

As Grandmother would say, these two are a mess!

Which means a lot more than just the state of their cleanliness. :)

Collin still makes us laugh.

We were at Target last week, and I was putting the cart away and picking up my bags when Collin stuck his hand behind the sliding glass doors. Right then someone walked up, so they slid out and caught his arm behind them. My heart about stopped. I thought it had broken his arm. Luckily, I was able to just yank it out and he only suffered a red scrape and was fine. Of course it still scared him and he cried and it was kind of an ordeal. When Trav got home and we were alone, I told him about what happened. So then Trav walked into the kitchen and said to Collin, "Did anything happen at the store today?" Collin was at the table eating, and he just looked up thoughtfully, paused, then said with long drawn out phrases, "Um, noooo. No monsters were thereeeee. No bad guyssss with shooting guns came innnnn." Then went back to eating like it was the most normal response in the world. He cracks us up.

Another day, when Weston was sleeping, I was reading on my bed and Collin was watching a show. He came in to ask for a snack, to which I reminded him we had just had lunch and wouldn't be eating a snack for a while. He left, but came back 30 sec. later to ask for something else he knew he couldn't have. I told him no, and to not come back in. 30 sec. later, scene repeated. This time I'm starting to lose my temper. Very frustrated, I again remind him it is quiet time and he can either take a nap, watch a show, or play outside or in his room, but DO NOT COME BACK IN. 

(He has the hardest time not being by my side, every second of every day. It's gotten to be a joke between Trav and I now. If he realizes he doesn't know where I am... which he NEEDS to know at all times... he comes searching for me. If he hears a door close, he's immediately up and running to see if I've left. If I've quietly left the room, it is not more than 30 sec. before I can hear him calling, "Moooooom!!!" throughout the house. It's a problem.) 

Anyway, back to the story, after the 5th interruption in 3 min. my voice is raised as I forcefully tell him to not come in again. Now I get maybe 4 min. of peace. UNTIL, I hear his footsteps and before I can see him, I hear him say, "Mom! WAIT! Don't be mad. Don't be mad!!".... now I turn and he's in front of me with hands raised, palms up in a surrendering sort of way... his face is one of pleading and his voice is dripping in sweetness as he tries to explain, "I'm .... I'm your FRIEND!"  His eyes looked like he was begging for his life and could only offer up this last piece of information to appease me. I wish it was on video! I can't do it justice with words. I couldn't help it. Those eyes and that plea totally melted me. I started laughing and told him to come give me a hug. How could I deny that cute presentation?! He can certainly get creative when he needs to.

He is crazy inquisitive. Many times he's asked me who I am. 

I'll say, "I'm your mommy". 

Then he asks, "Why". 

And I'll say, "Because I gave birth to you". 

That has always satisfied him until a couple weeks ago. But this time when I told him I gave birth to him, he threw his hands in the air, and frustratingly exclaimed, "But what does that MEAN??!!" I had to laugh. So then I gave him what I hoped was a fairly generic answer about women with babies in their bellies and then the baby comes out and that's the Mother. At least he didn't ask, "Why" afterward!

Collin is still a picky eater. He just hates eating dinner. Doesn't matter what it is. And eating it cold for breakfast if he didn't finish it at night wasn't the incentive I thought it would be. We now have a dinner chart to help with some positive reinforcement. It has not helped much. He'll eat it if we spoon feed to him, but I'm so done doing that. Makes me wonder if he'd be 14 and still happily taking bites from my spoon. I feel like we've tried everything. Cutting out snacks in the afternoon doesn't help. Offering his favorite treat after his dinner is gone doesn't work either. Going to his room for the rest of the night if he doesn't finish didn't do the trick. Or taking away his shows. If he could have it his way, he'd never eat dinner again. Any ideas?!

He is crazy obsessed with Spiderman right now and all the super heros. But Spidy is his favorite. He loves to throw his wrist out and say, "Pssst" like he's throwing webs. And his favorite activity is fighting "Globlins" with Trav. Gotta love his lisp. 
When we play, it's "praying". 
Water is "wawger". 
Despicable Me is "Hicama wee". 
Computer is a "peter". 
Girls are "grills". 
Volcano is "ball-tay-toe".
Hospital is "hoss-ca-ble". 
Popsicle is "poss-ki-ble". 
Backpack is "pack pack". 
Breakfast is "bress-kwiss". 
Popcorn is "pop-porn". Mmm hmm.
Bet ya can guess what a risbee is.... yep, a frisbee. 
And whenever he wants to say "a little bit", like "can I have a little bit more?", he adds an extra "it", making it, "can I have a little bit it more?"
There are so many more... I'll be adding to this list as I think of them.

Well, these two might be a mess, but they are my mess. :) Gotta love 'em.