I met another mother who has a child Paul’s age and I was shocked to hear him recognizing colors. So I decided to start emphasizing colors. We had a red day the other day. Paul wore a red shirt, he ate on his red plate, we went to the barn (which is red), and he played on the red slide.
And here’s the life-action shot:
I’m not sure our “Red Day” made a difference in my son knowing the color red, but it was fun.
My mom is a winner!
I mean, I already knew that, but now she’s been recognized as such. She wrote an essay about what the Naperville Municipal Band means to Naperville. As the winner of the essay contest, she earned the opportunity to direct the band at the last concert of the season! Here are the video of the event.
An introduction to my mom, and the story of the baton.
Kay from the band reads Mom’s winning essay, and Mom walks onstage. (I apologize for the unsteadiness; Paul was trying to run away, onto the stage.)
And then Mom directs the band in the Washington Post March. (Paul keeps saying “Grandma! Grandma!” through a lot of it.)
Congratulations, Mom! I’m so proud and happy for you.
Paul wanted to be like his grandma. Here he is helping direct the band. He’s standing next to grandma, who’s practicing for her big band debut.
(I forgot I can’t rotate videos, so you’ll have to turn your head.)
It was time. The curls, while adorable, were beginning to look like a mullet. Or a girl’s long curly locks. Since Paul will be two in just two months, it was definitely time for him to get his first haircut.
I’d say Paul doesn’t care how long his hair is, except he does definitely care. It gets so snarly that he cries out when I try to comb it. There is no reason for a little boy to have to yell “Chopsticks!” while getting his hair combed. It was definitely time.
< 
Paul was very interested in what the guy was doing. In fact, he thought this whole thing was a lot of fun! Paul held one of the very large combs as his hair was cut.
My son’s baby-hood came to an end with all those lovely, whispy baby-locks on the floor!
Now he looks like a little boy.
I’ll post some “After” pictures later, maybe tonight or tomorrow.
![CRW_8325-1[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6577372811_790240bb20.jpg)
If that picture (just a random snapshot) doesn’t capture the essence of this little boy, I don’t know what will.
Paul loves to say “Happy.” I know it’s going to be a good morning when I go in to get him and he says “Happy! Happy!” He also learned the sign for “awake” via Signing Time and he likes to say that too in the morning or just after a nap. As if his happy noises weren’t enough of a clue.
He also has taken to saying “Yes” whenever I ask a question. It’s always a very deliberate answer, and now the “s” is very distinct.
“Do you want to wear shorts today?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want raisins in your oatmeal?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want me to wash your hands?”
“Yes.”
I’m glad it’s the positive word instead of the negative word. I’m not looking forward to that day…
Daddy has begun traveling again, after working from home for almost two months. Monday Paul spent a lot of time looking for Daddy: in his office, in the bedroom, in the closets. By today, he’s figured out that Daddy went to work by taking an airplane. When he mentions Daddy, I say he’s at work, and Paul acts like an airplane. It’s so sad to see how much he misses Daddy! But we’re glad Daddy will be home Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Paul likes airplanes. Probably not as much as he still loves trains, but airplanes we see outside everyday. We also pass the train station on our way to church every week, which always gets him happy as well.
Paul sits on the toilet about five times a day. It is a new fun game that I don’t mind encouraging. Sometimes he’s successful. Success always startles him.
Anyway, I have been horrible about pictures this month. My sister and her kids came this week and I didn’t even take a single picture. Here’s my official commitment to be better in August!
P.S. I am debating cutting off the curls in August….Stay tuned!
We had a busy holiday weekend, although it was very nice.
I was going to write thoughtful post about what it means to me to have freedom and to be in this country, but it didn’t happen with all that was going on. So here are my more abbreviated thoughts.
This was the first forth of July that we’ve been in the USA in three years. I didn’t think I missed it, but in some respects I did. Not for the fireworks — I don’t care about those — but because it’s nice to reflect on past years: where I was, what I doing, and who I was with.
This year, I also spent some time reading an annotated version of the U.S. Constitution, which really got me in to a patriotic mood. I felt so strongly as I read that this constitution was inspired: not because it creates the only “perfect” or “free” country, but simply because it is so appropriate. The constitution and the government grows and changes with the years. It provides opportunity in the future, not just today. It’s a miraculous document.
On Thursday, we drove down to Naperville early in the afternoon and spent the afternoon with family, visiting with my parents and my grandma. Then we went to the band shell for a very patriotic concert. There was a lot of talking, but they finally got to the 1812 overture, with cannons and all. Paul was very tired by the time the cannons came and they scared him a bit, but he still had fun.
On Friday, we got a very late start. We hadn’t gotten home until midnight the night before, so we were exhausted. But Ryan had the day off from work; he spent the day mowing the lawn and then barbecuing a rack of ribs. Huge. I cleaned the house and got ready for our first holiday barbecue. Some friends from the ward came over and we had a busy afternoon and evening with them and their five children.
Saturday morning, we met Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Frank and Elizabeth’s family at the Illinois Railway Museum for a day of looking at the trains. This is a place for serious train buffs. But Paul loved it and so did Grandma, since she recognized trains from her childhood days in downtown Chicago. Unfortunately, it was raining, so we didn’t stay long, and especially not for the parade of trains. (I suspect that was a bit too much for us anyway.) The museum is nice and close and Ryan looks forward to returning on a day when there isn’t a train parade and it’s not raining so he can get pictures of more trains. Paul loves trains, so I imagine he’d love to return to see them again. I haven’t actually gone through my pictures yet, so I may have something to show from that at a later time.
Then Mom and Dad and Grandma came to our home. We reheated the barbecue and ate and ate again. Then we played cards for a while. When Frank and Elizabeth got there, we had another round of barbecue. The rain had stopped so we ate outside, at least until the mosquitoes got us. The kids played and we visited until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore!
In all, it was a long, busy weekend! Sunday we took it easy, thank goodness. It was fun, but maybe three big events in one weekend is a bit much.
As I said, I haven’t gone through all the pictures, but here’s one winner: Paul with his great-grandmother.
We went to a local park that had a plastic train to play on. Paul is going through a very serious train phase, and so this was quite an exciting thing.
We also went to the petting zoo with his little friend Andy. Paul was seriously scared of the sheep: they “baaaa”ed very loudly, and as we weren’t cool people who paid for animal feed, they were not happy with us. Paul only had interest in the animals for a very short time, but we live very close to the petting zoo, so we will return many times this summer, I’m sure!
Remember this photo from about a eighteen months ago?
Some things never change.
![CRW_8279[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6577450967_94c98b5103.jpg)
Ah, I love my boys. And I had worried that Paul wasn’t going to take a nap.
(Apparently, he was playing happily and then he went over to Daddy, put his head on Daddy’s lap, and fell asleep. It was enough to put Ryan to sleep too, apparently.)
It may have taken three months to get to it, but I have finally put some pictures on the wall of Paul’s bedroom!
I have Greg Olsen’s O Jerusalem and a picture of the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple, and Aunt Jenny sent Paul some wall hangings last Christmas: an airplane, a car, a train, and a name plaque. I also bought a document frame from Michael’s and I’m going to rotate pictures from the Gospel Art Picture Kit. This month it is a picture of Christ being baptized, in honor of cousin Daniel’s upcoming baptism. I’ve been telling Paul about baptism all month. Next month I’ll put a different picture up and we’ll talk about the story all month. Hopefully by the time he’s older, he’ll actually learn something from that, right?
I think everything looks pretty nice and having something on his wall makes the room so much more cozy. The pictures are a bit small, so I may get something big for the largest wall at some point. For now, it’s very nice.
Here’s Paul giving a guided tour for you.
Signing Time does wonders. We got the “Leah’s Farm” episode from the library, and Paul just loved watching the animals in the video. Our yard has plenty of birds to watch, and every single one of our neighbors has at least one dog. Those are, by far, his favorite animals, and he loves to sign the words too.
“Birdie” looks like he’s eating his hand in this video. He also says “outside”, “cold”, and”dog” in this video. He signs “birdie”, “dog”, “frog”, and “cold.”
Paul loves shoes. He goes around the house picking up shoes and carrying them into the laundry room (where I put them when I tidy the room). He likes to tidy the house, including “helping” me sweep and vacuum. I hope he keeps these habits when he’s older! Shoes are his favorite item of clothing.
He also loves music and he loves to dance.
Sometimes, he goes around the house saying “Jesus” and pointing to our pictures of Jesus.
He likes babies and signs “baby” when ever we see one in the store or church. I bought him a baby doll at a garage sale, and he likes pointing to her eyes, ears, nose, toes, and mouth. She doesn’t have any hair, so that always confuses him when I tell him to point to her hair! I think Paul likes his belly button the best and likes to look for his at random times of the day. If I ask him where his ears are, he’ll come find my ears.
In this video, he’s dancing, saying “shoes,” and pointing to our family picture (looking at either daddy or the baby, which is, of course, himself).
Paul loves to say “hi” and “bye-bye” to everyone we meet. Most people ignore him, but often people come up and tell him how adorable he is, patting him on the head in the process. (That is something Ryan says he hated when he was a kid. Oh well: like father, like son!)
Paul also loves to eat, as he always has. His favorite foods are bread, milk, bananas, and tomatoes. He also likes peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, and apple sauce. Here he is saying and signing a few more words for you while he eats a snack. Isn’t he cute?
Paul’s favorite toys are trains (there is a train table at the library and he has two engines) and cars, which he likes to make vroom all over the furniture. But his other favorite toys include an empty oatmeal container and a plastic tupperware container. He puts his matchbox cars and other small toys inside them and mixes it together with a plastic spoon from the kitchen. I think he is making soup.