You Want WHAT For Lunch?!

I was getting ready to feed Mathison lunch yesterday. Since he and I are the only ones home now during much of the day, I usually talk to him quite a bit - even though he doesn't always answer, or when he does, I can't always tell what he's saying. As we walked into the kitchen, I asked him what he wanted for lunch.

"Pee-pee," he answered.

What????

"Pee-pee," he said confidently when I asked him again.

Hmmmm. I know that's something not on the menu at the Beatty household. As I stood there puzzling out what my child was asking for, the little tyke walked over to a cupboard, opened it, and pulled out a container of fruit. He held it up triumphantly.

"Pee-pee!" Mathison exclaimed, handing me the container.

Oh - PEACHES. Okay. We can do that.

As Mathison gobbled down his lunch, I found myself hoping that he learns how to say "peaches" a little clearer before potty training begins.....otherwise, I'll have a tough time knowing if he's just hungry or needing to use the bathroom!

Oops, My Bad

My big, BIG bad.

I don't have "one of those moments" often, but when I do....watch out.

So, I sat down at the computer the other day to do some digital scrapbooking when I noticed that the photos I wanted to use wouldn't pull up on Photoshop Editor.

Then I noticed that about 90% of the photos in my Photoshop Organizer were having the same problem.....it was then that I started to panic.

You see, last week I decided to do some cleaning up on the computer, and decided that getting rid of my photo files would be a good way to clear up space. I wasn't too worried about it since all of these pictures were available in Photoshop Organizer. I didn't think about the word "organize" not being synonymous with "storage"; while Photoshop is great for editing and organizing, it does NOT SAVE THE PHOTOS.

200 pictures down the drain.

AARGH!!!!!!

To make matters worse, I'd just deleted a slew of the same pictures off my digital camera a few days before realizing my mistake.

DOUBLE AARGH!!!!!!

As bad as it's been, this blunder hasn't been a total disaster. Thank heavens for the pictures I've been able to recover from my blog, and the fortuitous decision to make photo disks of about half of the pictures. Otherwise, this blog might have been rated PG13 for some very strong language :)

One Terrific Toddler!

Mathison turned 21 months old a few days ago. All of my kids hit the "terrible twos" early...and Mathison is no exception! We have tantrums, explosions, and tears several times a day. However, I'm trying hard to focus on the positive aspects of his behavior; hence the title of "Terrific" instead of "Terrible" :)

Here are some cute and interesting things about Mathison at this age:

*Mathison loves temples. At age 20 months, he pointed to a picture of a temple and said "temple" without any prompting or previous exposure. His favorite song is "I love to see the temple", and he already can sing the words at the end of each phrase.

*Mathison is our resident escape artist. He's escaped from the house once already, and the yard, too (I found him halfway across the road, headed to the neighbors'). He also loves to climb and has figured out how to climb onto the counter by using his high chair.

*Mathison is extremely smart and recognizes the numbers 1-10, 5 different shapes, and all of his letters. He also tries writing the letters, and has drawn legible M's, A's, and H's. He actually knows what numbers represent; last week he told me he had "two trucks" and told me "two M's" when he saw the word "summer". Kind of scary!

*Mathison loves the outdoors, and is especially fascinated with the sky. He loves the "hun" (sun) and the "moom" (moon - this was actually one of his first words), and is quick to point out passing airplanes.

*Mathison recently learned that his parents' names are "Dowel" and "Tim". We're going to have to work on Mom's name, or strangers will think he comes from a non-traditional family!

*Mathison loves his grandparents - especially his Grandpa Beatty. Whenever he sees someone with a cap, glasses and mustache, he calls them "Gumpah" - no matter what their age is!

*Mathison continues to LOVE trucks, and he also likes "choo-choos" (trains)

*Mathison is scared to death of our garbage truck (it makes a very loud sound). He also hates haircuts, getting his diaper changed, washing his hair, and eating vegetables. He is very sensitive and gets upset if someone else is crying.

*Mathison loves music and wants to listen to it all day long. He definitely has his favorites and gets EXTREMELY angry if we put anything else on. Let's just say that we have the "Hairspray", "Mama Mia", and "Alley Cats" CD's memorized frontwards and backwards!

Mat's Stats:

Height: 31.5 inches (10%)
Weight: 23 lbs (10%)
Head: HUGE (90%)
Teeth: 12

We sure love this little guy...our family just wouldn't be the same without him!!!



This awesome picture was taken by our niece Katie Valentine at the recent John Lewis Beatty family reunion.

To Ski or Not to Ski

That was the question two weekends ago when we spent a day at the lake. Our home teacher has a small cabin right on Scofield's lakefront and had invited us to join him for a day of water play.

There were all sorts of fun things to choose from....a paddle boat, a kayak, a huge water disk that is pulled behind a boat, and of course, water skiing. Believe it or not, I have never been water skiing before. When I was a teenager, I was afraid of losing my contacts and didn't want to ski without them as I am blind as a bat without vision correction. Since we've been married, I really haven't had many opportunities to try. However, it is something I've always wanted to do and I decided that I'd better give it a go before I get too old and decrepit (see the "Old Gray Mare" blog).

To solve my vision dilemma, I decided to ski in a pair of Krissia's swim goggles. They make for a goofy picture, but they did the job :) Scofield Lake is above 7,000 feet, so it was quite a shock when I got in. Getting up on water skis is not as easy as it looks - especially your 1st time around! It took me about 5 tries before I got to a standing position; I was able to ski for about 50 yards before one of my skis slipped off. By this time it had clouded up and there was lightning in the area, so we had to call it quits.





I would like to try again before the cold weather comes; I think I'll do much better next time around. Here are some pics of the rest of the family enjoying the day; Krissia is absent from them because she had to work. Too bad....I think she would have enjoyed this trip more than anyone else in the family as she's such a fish in the water :)

Back in School

Today was the first day of school...where did the summer go?

My kids prepared for this event in very different ways, showcasing their different personalities. Jefferson put about 15 minutes into deciding what pants and shirt he was going to wear, but didn't go beyond that. Krissia spent half a day trying on different outfits, planning what she was going to wear for the first three days of school and planning every detail from her hair to her socks to her earrings. Bronson threw on the first clean outfit he could find.

I can't believe I have a senior this year......I guess my days masquerading as a twenty-something are gone :) It also looks like Mathison and I are going to be best buddies again now that all of my babysitters are back in school!

Here are the kids before they left this morning; don't they look great?




Just a quick side note: When I asked everyone to line up for pictures, the first one to jump up was DEl. I asked him what he was doing, and he said that it was his first day of school, too (CEU started today). What a ham!

The Days of Knights

Jefferson and his friend Mark have planned several creative events together the past few months such as making their own movie and bringing together several friends for some "military maneuvers" in a wash nearby our house. Their latest adventure was organizing a "Clash of Kings".

The boys' original idea was to set up a week-long medieval camp and charge money for it....I talked them into making it two afternoons only and just inviting their friends to participate at no cost :) It was a big hit! The friends met at the CEU football field on the first day to make their cardboard armor:


They had such a great time doing it! After the creation of their outfits, they had to pose for a picture:

On the second day, the "Clash of Kings" took place. The boys had some skirmishes with each other:


The culmination of the event was an epic battle against the evil warlord...aka Bronson. He was such a good sport about it; his only stipulation was that the kids had to make his armor for him. That, and absolutely NO pictures taken of him!

As Jefferson was planning this event, the thought occurred to me that this was totally something DEl would have done as a child. When I mentioned that to my husband, he laughed and said that he'd organized a neighborhood circus when he was around Jefferson's age. Like father, like son :)

Fun With Family

Here are pictures from the John Lewis Beatty (JLB) reunion held last Saturday. Paulette was in charge this year and had lots of great activities planned like a treasure hunt, frisbee golf, relay races, skits....the list goes on! It was so nice to be able to spend the day making fun memories with family :)

Krissia and Naomi "Best Buds"


Mathison and Lucas playing their version of frisbee golf


Jefferson bobbing for apples


Mathison loves his "Gowmpah" Beatty!


Mikayla, Jefferson, Emma, and Krissia waiting in line for frisbee golf


Mathison and Baby Katie


Eva, DEl, Rick, and Dad relaxing