Quote of the week (from dad to mom about me): “He is beating me with a rolling pin!”
I am becoming a better and better wrestler but sometimes when I find weapons to use, mom and dad have to take caution.
I have recently discovered how to take off my diaper. Usually I have an undershirt onesie on, but as the days get warmer, mom sometimes decides they are not necessary. And since I do not nap with pants on, that is the perfect time to take it off and breathe a little. Both times that I have taken my diaper off during naptime, I have woken up screaming because there is a big mound of poo in the middle of my crib. Mom runs in to find my pinned up against the bars of my crib with a frightened look on my face. After this occurred twice, she learned to either nap me with pants on or tape my diaper shut.
This video shows me saying a rhyme with mom called “Poor Old Horse”. Here is how we sing it: Houston: “poor old horse” Mom: “he goes so slow” Houston: “he never stops” Mom: “in the rain or the snow” Houston: “BUT” Mom: “give him a kick and away he goes, away he goes, away he goes. Give him a kick and away he goes, all the way to town. Whoa Horsey!” Sometimes I miss the third line and skip to the “BUT” because it is my favorite part.
Look how long I am getting
This is my best bud, Rusty and me. He lives around the corner and we play together a lot. He is just a couple months younger than me and his mom, Brie and my mom are great friends.
This is a new thing I do with stickers- I actually put them there myself. Sometimes they stay on my head/face most of the day.
I am getting better at animal sounds. The lion and the puppy are the cutest. This is me doing a lion:
Just lounging before nap time
A couple of days ago I turned 18 months old. Mom and dad are just in awe at how fast I am growing and all the new things I learn everyday. Even though I still have 1-2 (average) small temper tantrums a day, I am becoming much better at listening. I can’t remember the last time I had to go to “time out”. I know now that when mom or dad threatens “time out”, they mean it and I don’t like it. I finally stopped teething (I have 16 teeth now) and then I got a cold. Considering my nose is constantly running and coughing wakes me up from sleep, I have been in good spirits. For fear of spreading my germs, mom and dad decided to keep me away from Nursery today which is a shame because this would have been my first Sunday going by myself. A few weeks ago, we had an awesome but quite short visit from Grandma Schlenker. She hitched a ride with some friends who were coming south for a long weekend. Even though it was short, we packed a lot in. Mom and grandma bought a lot of fabric for some new sewing projects and we went out to eat at some beloved restaurants (Zupa’s and Pizza Pie Café). On Saturday, when daddy was able to watch me, mom and grandma went skiing and snowboarding at Brighton Ski resort. They had a blast in the amazing conditions. Grandma has so much energy!! On Sunday we went up to Smith’s after church and Grandma stayed there for the night because of her early departure the next morning. We are not as sad that her visit was short because mom and I just planned a trip up to Canada at the end of April and beginning of May. Before that we will be going with daddy to California for Easter and to visit with his side of the family.
O, I almost forgot. On March 22, mom and dad attended a Bon Jovi Concert. They were expecting a great show, but they were still blown away. It was UNREAL! They had such a great time!
There has been quite a bit of commotion in our home this past week. As you probably heard in the video, we have been listening to the music of Bon Jovi a lot because mom and dad are going their Salt Lake concert tomorrow (this was mom’s Christmas gift to dad). They are getting really excited but are also sad their friend, Dan who was originally going to come with them, has moved and can no longer make it. On their way, I will be dropped off at Smith’s in Draper. I’m sure I’ll have a great time there because I get to go see Cousin Jake play the drums in a band concert. Another contributor to the commotion has been Jimmer and BYU’s basketball team. As most of you know, it is March Madness and BYU has made it to the Sweet 16 in the national collegiate tournament. Mom and dad are a little addicted. If it were possible, their lives would revolve around me and watching basketball right now. After the last game that BYU dominated, dad was doing an Irish jig in the living room for the last ten minutes. If you have a few minutes, here are some you tube videos that are pretty entertaining: If you watch closely, you can see 2 of my old roommates dancing beside the 3rd.
This video is funnier if you have seen the “bed intruder” music video also on youtube.
The last contributor to the commotion is mostly mom’s fault. On Saturday she had her last organized Church Basketball game. At the very end of the game, she went in for a steal and jammed her right hand middle finger. Either it is the worst jam she has ever had (and she has had quite a few) or dad’s right when he says there may be sprained or fractured. Anyway, the commotion comes when mom and dad bicker about how to care for it. Dad deals with this everyday and obviously knows how to heal it, but mom isn’t very good about listening and following instructions. She was good on Saturday about icing it because she had to play piano in Church the next day but after that she hasn’t been very good. In her defense, putting your finger in ice cold water for 20 minutes 3 times a day and wearing a bulky splint all day and night is not fun especially when you have a crazy kid like me to take care of.
This is me in my “happy place”: no pants, warm milk in a bottle and of course my “melmo”.
The best update of all is that I have yet another boy cousin on the Schlenker side (that makes 5 grandsons on the Schlenker side so far and no girls; I guess Derek and his future wife will have to be in charge of making baby girls). Beckham Mark Schlenker was born on March 10 and joined Uncle Mark and Auntie Laurel’s family. They now have thee boys and I can’t wait to see them all again so we can all play. I am sure I will be as obsessed with little Beckham as Ashton and Nick were with me when I was younger. Mommy and me are always looking for ways to get up to Canada, so if you know of an inexpensive way, please let us know!!
I have been learning so many new words lately! The three latest are “all gone” (galgon), hat and elmo (melmo). I love watching Elmo on Sesame Street so when mom and dad found a stuffed Elmo for me, I was overjoyed! He even laughs when you push his belly. So for the past couple of months I have not been dealing with as much separation anxiety as I have in the past. But in the last couple of weeks, I have been even more extreme and simply love strangers. Mom wishes she could put me in nursery now because she thinks I would thrive. Having babysitters is so fun and going out to play is even better. Last week at Stake Conference, I wasn’t thrilled about sitting on my mom’s lap so I went for a strole and found a very friendly teenage boy. I sat in his lap and ate my cracker for about the last 15 minutes of Conference. Mom and dad didn’t know what to think but they will definitely embrace this new development. This is me in NURSERY! Even though I am not yet 18 months, dad has been taking me for the past couple of Sundays and so far I love it (he just has to stay with me the whole time because of the 18 month rule). The first time I went, I fell off the little person chair and cut my lip so I didn’t last the whole time. But this last Sunday went much better. Mom and dad are in shock that I am so grown up.
Last week, mom substituted for a music class again. I was able to stay with one of my best friends, Rusty who lives really close to us. His mommy is so nice and took very good care of me. Mom loves that she has nice people that she can trust close by because we are not geographically close to many family members. Last week turned out to be a great experience for both of us!
This video may need some explanation: Recently mom has discovered that some particular face movements make me laugh, specifically opening and shutting eyes and raising and lowering eyebrows. A couple of days ago I tried to imitate her and this video is of exactly that. My imitation attempts had mom laughing so hard she knew she had to share it. At the end, you can hear me singing my favorite song, “Poor Old Horse” which is pretty cute as well.
If I’m not walking outside, I’m crawling with shoes on my hands.
For my mom’s birthday, I thought I would give her the gift of waking up an hour and a half earlier than I usually do. I figured she would want to be awake for more of her special day. Turns out I was wrong though. Since we were up so early, mom had time to get ready and then we were off to institute. The rest of the day was pretty normal until daddy came home. He had arranged for a babysitter to come so he could take mom out. They went to Good Wood for supper, then for frozen yogurt and then to see “The King’s Speech”. Overall it was a very special day. Mommy wanted to thank everyone who gave or sent her cards and all those who called to wish her the best! As for gifts, I got her a balloon which I actually like to play with more than her, dad got her a women’s size basketball, and everyone else gave her money. With her money she bought a new curling rod for her hair which she LOVES and hopes to also buy a day of snowboarding. From G & G Campbell, she got a pair of mittens from the Vancouver Olympics. She had seen these in pictures and really wanted a pair so she is absolutely thrilled! BYU basketball has been so fun to watch this year and Mom and Daddy decided to take me to an afternoon home game. They were a little nervous I wouldn’t like the constant loud noise especially because it was verses Utah. Much to their happiness and surprise, however, I loved every moment. When they turned the lights off and played the music really loud at the beginning, I was right into it clapping and smiling from ear to ear. Because of mom and dad’s love of BYU and even great love for me, it was a very proud moment for them! The game was the Saturday before Valentine’s Day so I guess that is what we did to celebrate. On the actual day, nothing was really different other than dad trying to pick up a heart shaped pizza that turned out not being heart shaped. O ya, and mom and daddy exchanged gifts: mom gave dad a little stuffed bear holding a heart and sitting on candy and dad gave mom a beautiful pair of earrings and a heart necklace. Dad was able to find some time to explore some mountains near Springville during President’s Day weekend. He got some pretty amazing pictures! Fun in the snow… a storm brought in 9 inches over night and the next day was sooo beautiful, mom and I wouldn’t pass up the fun!
Latley a new thing I have been doing is dancing. Mom and dad find this very entertaining and finally got it on tape today when we were at a friend’s 1st birthday party.
