Anyway - I decided to do a little pre-celebrating and take Steve to see Les Miserables at the Hale Center Theater. My dad was so nice to come and babysit once again so we could go to dinner and the show.
We headed to our favorite Indian restaurant - Flavors of India. Seriously - if you like Indian - you need to go there! We've been three times now and have gotten to know the management well - they recognize us when we come in. I've found that I have this innate need to tell waiters or any help at restaurants how much I love their food (when I love it). Well - that habit of mine has paid off my friends, because you are looking at the proud owner of the VIP member card to their restaurant. We now get 20% off EVERY time we go there. Also, we got free take out rice to go with our leftovers, as well as a complimentary appetizer for our dinner there. I was QUITE satisfied. :)
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| The happy payer ;) |
The play was fantastic and I really enjoyed the rotating stage and amazing scenery. It was so creative. Jean Val Jean was incredible as was Eponine, and Javert. Oh that music is so incredible and the story so powerful.
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| Woot woot! |
As of late, Steve has had this thing of pointing out random people we pass proclaiming he has to know them from somewhere and comes up with all these scenarios. The last one was how determined he was that this guy at Cafe Rio had been on the BYU basketball team years ago...or in a commercial...and he was wrong. He gets actors mixed up all the time, swearing that so-and-so DEFINITELY was in that so-and-so movie too. We have to cut him some slack. He's stuffing PT information in his head morning, noon, and night so nonessential information comes at the end of the list.
Anyway - at intermission Steve saw a man in a suit and then told me he was a General Authority and he was going to look for him in the audience to see if he could find any other GA people. I laughed and told him nice try. He was pretty determined, and tonight he proved me wrong. Elder Tad Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy was at the play last night and he and Steve passed a knowing nod to each other. So one point for Steve!
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| Elder Callister |
We also notice a missionary from Steve's mission was actually in the company. He plays Javert, but wasn't performing that night unfortunately. His voice is incredible as I'm told, and he's also been in commercials - a claim to knowing fame! ;)
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| Steve's mission friend's poster for an upcoming play :) I made him let me take this picture. :) |
Overall it was a fabulous night and now we're back to not seeing Steve ever and just biding our time until he passes his Boards and we can resume normal life. :)
In other news - Spring is definitely here and we have been enjoying great weather! Ruby is sporting an adorable Spring outfit with her cute little legs, and we've been outside a lot more. We recently got a free exercise bike and treadmill which is great for me! Ross and Ruby are totally fascinated by it and want turns...fun. Anyway - Ruby has turned part of the bike into a slide for stuffed animals. Enjoy below. :)
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| She is ADORABLE. And the headband is just tight enough that she can't whip it off her head. :) Also I tell her it's pretty so she likes it. :) |
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| Strike a pose girlfriend! |
Hilarious story - tonight at dinner we were singing "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" (yes, we are that family) and I asked Ross afterwards if when he grows up he wants to go on a mission.
Ross promptly replied: "I don't grow up!"
Me: "You do grow up, but slowly. Don't you want to go on a mission when you grow up?"
Ross: "No, I'm not throw up. We just grow up in bowls"
Me:....."What?"
Ross: "We grow up in bowls"
Me - racking my brain trying to connect the two...ding!
Me: "Oh you mean we THROW up in bowls...when we're sick"
Ross: Look saying, "Duh mom!"
We then talked about when he gets bigger he can go on a mission, and Ross said, "Yeah - and I'll get bigger and bigger and BIGGER!" He really wants to grow a foot or two. :)
We started a little Preschool here. The group is really young, but we had a great time starting out. We learned about the letter A and its sound. The kids did well with their moms there for the most part and we made some alligator A's. Ross was a stinker and wouldn't leave my side (just like in our Preschool before). Ruby was a CRAZY social bug. While I was teaching I'd look out of the corner of my eye every so often and she was ALWAYS somewhere different - looking at a baby, trying to poke him, sitting on the couch between two moms chatting them up with "Hi's!" and "Hello's!", stealing kids' goldfish or apples during snack time, picking off their marshmallow teeth we were gluing on to our alligator A's mouths, or doing some perimeter checks. Everyone told me how amazed they were with how 1) social she was and 2) how fast she is. Have I mentioned she's in running mode now? AND she has the dodging and darting down to an art. I'm just lucky I have a longer stride than she does. She keeps me burning calories all day. Outside play is a crazy game of "I'm going to get you" with how interested she is in putting EVERYTHING in her mouth and setting herself RIGHT in the middle of all the action (which may be RIGHT between two kids swinging on the swings - that's not terrifying for a parent at all ;) ).
Anyway - it went well and was fun to meet some new little friends.
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| Our little group :) |
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| Ross finishing gluing on the marshmallows. I had to bribe him for every marshmallow he glued he got one to eat. :) |
Ruby has been upping her vocabulary quite a bit lately. She is pretty good at expressing herself and what she wants. She can say, "outdide (outside), be (bath), Hi Ra (Hi Ross) - one of her favorites and always gets in Ross's face until he says hi back to her, a bite, boobee (blueberry - I know totally inappropriate sounding), awbee (strawberry), pea, pee, plea (please), hole me (hold me) or hole you, ell me (help me), boddle (bottle), kidded (kisses), Hi Baby (said VERY clearly), a buh (a book), hippo, dinky (binky), and a whole bunch more I'm sure. She is just a busy body in mind, body, and spirit! She is determined to get going with all these skills. She's pretty good at putting some of our simple puzzles together and the shapes in the right holes of the bucket. She's a little smarty pants that one. And she has gotten three molars. The last two came together this last week and the fourth is on its way. Sheesh!
Ross has become more of a deep thinker. He's gotten really good at connecting ideas, words, situations with his already collected knowledge. He's very curious and likes to ask me lots of question now - mostly in the form of him telling me but with a questioning tone for me to confirm or clarify (although clarifying takes a little while for him to accept. He likes to say he tooted instead of peed and had a hard time believing my corrections were right). He also has gone through the night without any sort of diapering thanks to my dad actually! While he babysat he just put him to bed in his underwear (which I hadn't clarified anyway) and he woke up nice and dry! Wahoo!
The other day I came in his room to find THIS:
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| He's really excited to show me this! |
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| Proud |
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| I LOVE his face! And that definitely is an empty toybox. |
He was really excited to show me his pile of his ENTIRE toy box in a heap. It gave me a flashback to when I was three (my earliest memory almost) and my brother and I decided we wanted to camp outside that night, so we felt we needed to throw our entire room out the window...as in everything. I believe we only had a little basket of something left when our mom found us. I was pretty proud of our idea, but my mom felt otherwise. Needless to say we didn't camp out that night, and had to pick up every last toy we owned outside and bring it back in. Oh good memories. At least Ross didn't try to throw his toys out the window.
I came back in later to find this:
Just transferred - very clever. :) He definitely has some hoarding habits in him. He likes to pile up his toys so they are properly inventoried and protected from intruders. I'm practically Ruby's bodyguard when she's playing with something of Ross's that he hadn't even noticed until she took it. He watches like a hawk for when she puts it down. She seems to turn any toy into gold for him. It's crazy! They are two cute kids though. I love them with all my heart!
