Category Archives: Movies

Quick Update

I did not forget my fifth wedding anniversary on Friday. Ryan worked at the temple until late. We’re celebrating starting tomorrow when we head to NYC together, sans Paul!
I’m working on scanning pictures and archiving them in a personal flickr account. If you befriend me on flickr (rebreidfamily) then you can see all the albums. I’m going to post some of the images on our new Family Gallery page, but most will, for privacy’s sake, be hidden to strangers. In honor of our wedding anniversary, see our Wedding Festivities page.

Paul is very excited to spend time with his friends (two nights) and with grandma (the rest of the week). He started packing a bag last week, but I’ve been trying to convince him it’s still too early to pack.
Paul’s imaginary friends are still around. They keep multiplying. One of his newest friends is Pinecone.
I took my first Karate belt test on Saturday night. If I passed, I’ll be a red belt. If I didn’t pass, I’m still a white belt. Either way, I’ve got to keep working out. My stomach is no longer satisfying to me.
For three days in New York, I will be attending Book Expo America and a Book Blogger Convention; I’ve been invited to be on a panel talking about special issues for bloggers writing about the classics. They have paid my way to the convention. Although I don’t read a lot of newly published literature, I’m still ridiculously excited.
Today was Paul’s last day of gymnastics class. We might do it again in the fall; I don’t know yet. Trust me, even though he’s getting lots of help in this video, he’s much improved.

Paul’s First Primary Talk

The subject Paul was given for his talk was “Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer.” We got our favorite pictures of Jesus from the gospel art kit, Mommy put it in order, and to help herself, she wrote the words of Paul’s talk on a paper on the back. To her surprise, Paul was reading the words on the back. Here is Paul’s talk for Sunday.

We watched this video together and Paul said, “Mommy, I want to follow Jesus.” Yes, dear. I do too!

Paul’s Friends

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I think it’s about time to introduce the rest of the family.

Paul has a mommy named Rebecca and a daddy named Ryan. Also in our family is Goldbug, and Pootie and Frosty and Frosty Goo (who is sometimes just called Goo).

Goldbug has a pink shirt and white pants, and white socks. He is a little bit short.

Pootie is a boy. He has yellow pants and a blue shirt. He is short.

Frosty and Frosty Goo have blue pants and white underwear pants. They both have pink shirts and gray socks. They are not snowmen, even though that’s what they were named after.

Sometimes they change their clothes, so tomorrow it may be different.

Paul also has a lot of other friends that visit every day. Pinoochio; Huckle, Lowly, Pig Will and Pig Won’t, and Hilda Hippo (from Richard Scarry); and ABCD; and “no more” (he says right now).

Most days, Paul will ask about random letters. “What does QXRG spell?” and I’ll try to pronounce it. He’ll repeat it and say “that’s my imaginary friend! He’s coming to play today!”

He also pretends real peopel are imaginary all day long. A pretend Brother B– from church, for example, or a pretend mail carrier who comes with Christmas presents (already, yes).

As we talk right now, he says, “No more imaginary friends!” but I know there will be more tomorrow. It’s just how it is today.

Goldbug and Pootie are here to stay though. They are his brothers. They live in a house above ours, but it is in Florida. They share a car with Frosty and Frosty Goo, which has three toilets in it. In short, they are pretty cool friends to have. He loves to bring them along every where. When we’re going for a long drive, he often talks about how he wishes we had a toilet in our car too, either because he needs to go or because he really didn’t want me making him use the toilet before he left.

One week when Goldbug was new to our family (last September?), Paul begged to bring him to church with him. I said, “as long as he is reverent.” When Paul started squirming during the meeting, I said, “Paul, show Goldbug how to sit reverently,” and Paul sat right up. It’s very convenient.

Here is a video of a few conversations I had with Paul about his imaginary friends. He mostly wanted to tell stories about his friends, but he does introduce them a little bit too. It is quite funny, if you ask me. The video was taken April 10, 2011. We both have colds then, and somehow we already both have colds today too.

Spring Has Sprung!

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I took these pictures and the video on Wednesday, March 17, 2011. I had intended to post them as a “Wordless Wednesday” post to contrast with the post from a few weeks ago. But I didn’t have a chance. The first day of spring is a good reason to celebrate a day of sunshine, though!

Here’s Paul on the day he wouldn’t come in. We were outside for at least four hours.

Wordless Wednesday: ABC Book Written by Paul

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Belated Birthday Boy Video

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Here is a video of Paul and his birthday cake.

Happy birthday, dear boy!

P.S., please tell me if you cannot view this!

Blues Clues and the Three Bears

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It started with cooking. Paul has been “cooking” oatmeal (aka magnets, blocks, puzzle pieces, etc.) underneath the television for the past year. Then I recently told him the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and we read James Marshall’s version, which is quite playful and fun (baby bear’s chair breaks into “smithereens,” for example). He loves the story, maybe because he loves oatmeal. He sits at the breakfast table saying “I’m Goldilocks!” whenever he eats his oatmeal “all up.”

Then a few weeks ago we played with puppets at the local library. We came home and he was jumping on his bed “doing a puppet show.” So I got some paper bags and said we’d make puppets.

“That’s not a puppet! That’s a paper bag!” my very astute two-year-old exclaimed with a frown.

But a few crayon marks later and some construction paper ears/hair and we had Goldilocks and the three bears.

Papa is frowning because he’s always mad (says Paul). Mama bear has a yellow dress. And baby bear has a t-shirt and shorts.

Then one morning I came down stairs and Goldilocks was in the garbage.

“I want a Blues Clues puppet!” said Paul. So we made Blue. (In the show called Blues Clues, which we rarely watch, the dog’s name is “Blue”. In our house, the dog is named “Blues Clues”.)

This morning we recorded a video of his puppet show. I must apologize: this is very long (more than 5 minutes). We did it again and it was shorter but it was not as cute (he forgot lines and went out of order, which is cute in it’s own right I suppose). And because I did the video on my phone (my point and shoot is not working very well) I cannot edit it in Windows Movie Maker (it’s .mp4 format which I can’t edit in). My voice is also very loud and Paul’s is too quiet. At any rate, you can hear Paul tell the story very well. He loves doing this.

Nauvoo

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As was mentioned, we drove to Nauvoo this last week. The first day (Tuesday), he enjoyed learning about Joseph Smith at Carthage, even if the movie and then the tour was a little too long for him. Then, at the visitor’s Center, a full ten mintues got him through all the exhibits. Lots of exclamations of “Joseph Smith!” and “Jesus” when he saw something familiar. Then, Paul saw two and a half of the restored old houses (he had a fit during the blacksmith, which I thought he would have liked) and the second day he made it through a visit to the bakery. And that was it. I overestimated how “fun” it would be for a two year old.

We did play a little bit at the Pioneer Pastimes station, which has pioneer games. But it was sweltering, so we didn’t stay outside long, and in fact came home Wednesday afternoon. (They closed the outdoor exhibits due to excessive heat and Paul would not sit through the inside things.) Before it got too hot, we also went to the ox cart ride. Homer and his friend (forgot the other ox’s name) walking in a circle for about 4 minutes and Paul got to pet his back. He has said “I rode a Ox!” to anyone who will listen every day since then.

The Ox Cart

Paul with Homer the Ox

Paul also loved seeing the Temple.

I think our brief time in Nauvoo was just right for him.

Mommy and Daddy took pictures of the Nauvoo Temple and so we encouraged Paul to as well since we gave him that cheap camera. He took a couple pictures and then said, “I did already” so I don’t think he understood why his amateur photographer father took an hour of pictures!

Here are Paul’s pictures. I’ve omitted the dozens of pictures of his fingers and of the wall, floor, grass, etc. I know these below still are silly and out of focus but I’m actually pretty impressed that I could tell what he was taking pictures of!