Just a Couple Weeks

Sunday my sister came and kindly sat with Daniel while I spoke in Sacrament meeting, which went as well as anything I suppose. I did receive several nice compliments afterward, including a sweet hug from one of our young women at the end of church :).  Sunday evening we had our monthly 'Birthday Dinners' with my mom's side of the family that was fun. Daniel loved playing with several of my cousin's kids, and I had a good visit with several of them as well. Monday was laundry, interspersed with a super fun playdate at Melinda's! Daniel has endless fun playing with Naomi and Dean and gets super excited when I tell him where we are going! And, as always, Melinda and I had a nice visit. Afterward we came home and Daniel napped while I started cleaning up my poor kitchen that looked like a disaster area! Tuesday late morning, I packed us up a lunch and I loaded Daniel into his stroller and we took a walk down to the fun looking 'Dinosaur Park' that is across from our church building and Daniel asks to go every Sunday when we drive to church.  He was very excited and ran around and played and we were even joined for a bit by another little boy, though Daniel and he pretty much did their playing separately. As we were walking back toward home, I bumped into a few ladies from our neighborhood, they were going to a little farm that is nearby our condos with some of their kids, and invited me and an asleep in the stroller Daniel to come and look at it. Daniel was half asleep/half awake so he didn't really get into anything, so we'll have to go back, as I really think he'll enjoy seeing all the animals they have when he is more awake and aware! After that fun visit, Daniel and I went back to our condo and I carried him in and put him down for nap. When Daniel woke up from his nap, I opened his door and asked him if he was ready to come downstairs and play. Well, he thought about it for a minute then told me very matter of factly, "No Mommy. I am staying in my room for now. Bye." And shut his door on me. I got a nice laugh out of that one! Wednesday was a normal day, after I picked Daniel up from daycare he asked to go to Grandma's house and play with his cousin's, so we did. We were there for a couple hours before we came home. Wednesday night again was a bit  of a rough late night, but we made it through. Thursday Daniel did GREAT at daycare! His teacher Miss E told me he even showed interest and went potty in the toilet 4 times!! (I guess we are starting the potty training thing again) :) He gets a sticker every time he goes at daycare, and when he gets enough stickers he will get a treat, which he is excited about! After the good report, we came home and Daniel played while I made dinner. I got dinner made, got Daniel ready for bed, and a little after 6:30 Haley, a young woman from my ward came and watched Daniel and put him to bed for me while I went to my Humanitarian Committee meeting. We tied a blanket, which was lots of fun, I haven't done that in a really, really long time....I am thinking the last time was I helped on my sister's quilt before she got married, and it was nice to relearn and to chat with the wonderful ladies, especially Marie, as she's become a great friend, and Daniel and Jonathan (her little boy) love playing with each other. When I got home, Haley reported Daniel did really well for her which made me happy. Oh, and Sister H (my relief society president) informed me that night, that she really wants me to do the Humanitarian Committee and the Activities Committee as there was some confusion as to which one I was on, so I told her I would give it a go and see how it works out. If it proves too overwhelming I will probably just do the Humanitarian Committee, but I told her I was willing to try both for now. So now I get to look forward to doing a balloon arch for our Relief Society Birthday in April (I do believe) but that sounded like the easiest of the tasks they had (at least to me)....as I am NOT, in anyway shape, or form, NOT, NOT, NOT, a crafty person! It could be interesting, at the very least. Nothing exciting on Friday, Saturday though, my awesome brother and his wife watched Daniel for me while I attended our Stake Women's Conference. He was excited to go play, but told me he has to be careful with Lizzie, 'cause she's a baby :)  He had fun, and I greatly appreciate their willingness to take Daniel. The women's conference was absolutely wonderful! I carpooled with Marie & Marie from the Humanitarian Committee and another lady Jerry, and it was nice to be able to attend with them. After the conference ended and while we were having the delicious lunch that was provided and visiting, the closer to my age Marie that I've become friends with, invited Daniel and I to her home on Monday for a playdate with Daniel's friend Jonathan. I told Daniel about it when I went and picked him up and he is very excited for Monday!
Sunday March 1st....Sacrament meeting went...well.....it was the worst part of church. But Daniel settled down and did fine in nursery. I wasn't feeling real great, so we came home and had a low-key afternoon at home after church. Monday morning, Daniel and I went and got some stuff done, then we had our playdate with Jonathan. While the boys played and made messes, Marie and I visited and it was wonderful! We were there for a couple hours and it was fun. Then we had lunch and then Daniel  and I left so he could have his nap, and I dug into starting laundry and working on finding my kitchen counter tops again ;) After that, I rested while Daniel finished napping. Monday evening we had a simple FHE lesson and since Daniel was pretty much done and being loud and ornery...and it turned Tuesday morning into a BATTLE! It was a battle of wills all morning, Daniel and I didn't even make it out of our pajamas all morning, he played and experienced time-out frequently :(  After lunch and nap though, his mood improved a lot, so we bundled up and he ventured outside to play in the new fallen snow. He played outside for about thirty minutes before we came back inside. A while later, we went up to Melinda's and he got to play more outside with Naomi and Dean and we stayed for dinner as they were kind enough to invite us!  It was a great afternoon and he was a lot better behaved having "cousins" (as Daniel calls them, close enough) around to play with!  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were just normal work/daycare/Grandma days. Nothing horribly exciting. Though while at my mom's Friday eating lunch he kept telling my mom and sister that he was a 'lucky boy' but because he says his l's like y's he sounded like he kept saying, "I'm a yucky boy!" It kept my mom and sister laughing pretty good. After that, I brought Daniel home and we played at the playground with a couple other little girls that were there and they had a good time (after I got Daniel over his territorial issues!)  I am still trying to teach him that the playground isn't his alone....it's to share with everyone!! Hopefully we'll get there some day.

I haven't taken many photos the past couple weeks, but enjoy

these few I managed to get. 

Daniel is loving his legos more everyday, he gets very

creative with them! And he loves to show me his 

creations..then he takes his little tractor (you can see it on the

right in the first picture) and the tractor knocks them down.