Stuff, stuff, and more stuff

Hey everyone, look who still exists! I know, it's shocking how long it's been since I've added anything new, but let's just say that Life has taken a turn for the interesting lately (translation: chaotic and flipped completely upside-down), and we've had our minds on other things. But that's a subject for another blog at a later date, so I'm just going to throw in some fun pictures and random ramblings for now.

Here's a few of Little Cub's latests:
1. His speech is truly hilarious. Not only do we have to decipher if it's English or Dutch, he's now started speaking mainly in quotes from Sesame Street, the movie Cars, The Jungle Book, Backyardigans. I don't want to make it sound like watching TV is all he does, but he retins everything like a sponge and then spits it back out with alarming consistency.

Want a little phonectically-correct illustration of his language?
'Dwumpuhs dwid' = Scrumptious squid (from a book)
'Bee dwigh-de-lit' = Be quiet
'Ah luh doo' = I love you (awwwwww)
'Sisson in'ment of peed and head-o-mammicks' = I'm a precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! This is from Cars, and it cracks us up every time!)

2. If his speech is entertaining, some of his personality traits are less so. He's figured out how to pre-empt any form of punishment. When he knows he's starting to do something wrong and is on the verge of getting in trouble for it, he looks us directly in the eyes and says 'Wanna go to my room' or 'Wanna smack' (don't report us for child abuse, for Heaven's sake, we don't beat our child....it's just when he runs out into a busy street and is about to get flattened, then laughs in our faces when we try to use words to lay down the law, it's literally the only thing left to get his attention that we mean business). Anyway, he'll even go so far as to reach across the table, grab my hand, then proceed to hit himself with it so that he can choose when he gets punished and try to take the power away from us. Everyone says 'Oooooh, he's so clever for doing that!' Yeah, great. Well, to be honest, in those scenarios, I'd prefer a child slightly less intelligent, if you don't mind!

3. The other day he took the phone off it's holder, and I told him to put it back. He flat-out refused and started walking out the room. I then told him there would be no trip to the indoor play gym (as we'd planned for the day) if he didn't put it back.

Crafty little devil ran back in the room saying 'Oh Mommy, I forgot something!' and put the phone right back where it belonged. Not because I told him to, but because he realized he'd forgotten something. It's some serious mind games keeping one step ahead of him ..... games that I'm not always convinced we're winning.

And as for us, as we knew it would be, Christmas was the calm before the storm. The saying goes that it's March who comes in like a lion, but in our case, it's been February. We're in the midst of new job contracts, new living arrangements, new financial arrangements, new childcare arrangements ...... all at once. It's a lot on our plate, and it's taking all our brain cells just to make sure we're not forgetting anything critical. As my dear Aunt Snake-in-the-Book would say, we've been given some great 'opportunities' and 'adventures.' Ummmm, yeah. Whatever.

Anyway, that's enough from here right now. Keep checking back for more in-depth updates in the future. I promise to fill you in on everything. Enjoy the pictures!

Road Trip Warrior (with portable DVD player - this Mommy's best travelling-buddy!)



















Even Big Foot has to bathe














Stair Master (this is tough for us to do, but LC is a pro!)



















Loves his first train set (after we do the hard work setting it up)




























Mommy multi-tasking -- Bath AND Story time














Daddy's non-bike-shaped bike after being 'bumped' off it by a car ..... and bounced onto the car's hood before dropping into the street (everything's recovered fine, though, both bike and Daddy)