24th of July Weekend

For the most part, we had an enjoyable 24th of July weekend (except that Matt caught the flu or strep on Saturday evening).  I fear that Deacon and I will catch it next, but I sure hope not! On Friday, July 22nd we went to the Bountiful Handcart Days parade with some of Matt's family. Deacon quite enjoyed it, but didn't totally understand the concept of getting the candy. He wasn't very quick to pick it up off the street, but luckily his cousins were nice to share with him. He did get a Frisbee, but was a bit upset he didn't get a ball that one company was throwing out. I know it's hard for a 3 year old to understand that sometimes you get stuff, and sometimes you don't. I think he enjoyed the Salt Lake Comic Con entry the most because he got to see Iron Man, Spider-Man, and several Star Wars characters. He also liked the bands and even started dancing while one passed by. It was really cute. 

 

On Saturday, July 23, Matt and I took Deacon and Livy to the Handcart Days activities at the park by our house. They attempted to go through a caterpillar blow up toy first, but both got kind of scared. Deacon said it was "too windy." They did successfully go on the train ride, the swings, and went "fishing." Sadly, Deacon's frog that he got from fishing broke the next day. They also both got a green snow cone, except Livy didn't seem to like hers very much (lucky me!)

After that, Deacon and Livy played in the kid pool in our backyard for a little while.

On Sunday, July 24, we went to my Grandma Mecham's for a BBQ. It was fun to get together with family and the kids had fun running around the backyard and seeing all of the fun animals and decorations Grandpa has. 

Silly face Deacon likes to make:

On Monday, July 25, Uncle Todd and his family came over to our house to do a few fireworks for the kids. Deacon has really liked the fireworks this year and I'm glad they don't scare him. 

Deacon said a few funny things to me this weekend. While he was using the restroom one time, he told me to leave. I came back a few minutes later to check on him and he said very sternly "Mom, I told you to leave!" And continued to say "I told you" in an angry voice about three more times. I found it to be quite funny. Then when we were reading a book that night I asked him what a letter on a page was. In a very frustrated voice he said "just tell me!" which surprised me because it was the letter "D" which he easily recognizes. I guess he must have just been tired. 

Happy Pioneer Day!

On a side note, Matt went fishing in Alaska with his brothers, dad, and uncle from July 10-17. I think they had a great time and caught a lot of Halibut and some Salmon. Here is Matt and his uncle Bob with one of the huge Halibuts they caught:

Lagoon Adventure!

My work always has a summer party, typically at a park, but this year one employee pulled some strings and got us tickets to go to Lagoon. Due to my pregnancy, I won't be able to attend the work party, but was lucky enough to still get the tickets and take Deacon for his first time.  We went on Saturday, July 9 - it was a hot, but nice day. The park was pretty busy, but not as busy as we had expected it to be. The first ride we went on was one of the "spooky" rides. I was a little nervous taking Deacon on a scary ride, but he seemed to quite enjoy it. He liked all the spooky things that are decorated on the outside of the ride like the bats, witch, talking bird, and cobwebs in the windows. My silly boy loves Halloween and spooky things. After that we ventured to the kiddie rides. I couldn't go on many rides, which was fine, so Matt got to go on several kid rides with Deacon. They went on an octopus ride that squirted water all over them (which we were unaware of beforehand), so I was glad Matt got to ride on that one instead of me. It took Deacon a bit to warm up to some of the rides and to go on the ones he had to go on by himself, but by the end, he was a pro. We were only there from about 11:30am-3:00pm, but my blood sugars were getting low and I was pretty tired by that point. I think Deacon was too, because he fell asleep pretty quickly on our drive home. He likes talking about the fun he had a Lagoon and likes me to tell him all the rides he went on. I was hoping we could all go on Rattle Snake Rapids together, but the line for that ride was crazy long! I guess next time we'll have to go on that one first thing. I wasn't willing to wait for over a half hour to go on it, same with the log ride. Here are some pictures from our day:

Deacon on the Ferris Wheel and the Tea Cups

Sky Ride

Choo Choo Train

Train and Merry-Go-Round

Space Blaster Ride and Boats

(I brought a lunch for Deacon and he ate it near the Space Blaster Ride - he was so excited to go on this ride and had a hard time eating much because he wanted to go on it so bad)

Airplanes

Matt left for Alaska for a week on the day after this, so it was good that he and Deacon got to spend some good time together before he left. Deacon has enjoyed talking to Matt on the phone each night, but asks him about 5 times "what are you doing, Dad?" We just keep telling him that Dad is fishing, but it's funny he keeps asking him. Thankfully, he's been a pretty good boy for me so far while Matt has been away. 

Matt and I tried to teach him how to hit a baseball on the 9th, too, but he wants to play with the bat and ball "his way." We thought it might be a good idea to show him a video of someone playing baseball, so I played the old "Learn how to play baseball with Goofy" video on my phone (which i'm sure taught him nothing, but he liked it). Now he constantly wants to watch the old Mickey, Donald, and Goofy video clips on my phone. Luckily they are only about 6 minutes long each and have been nice to use as motivators. I used to love watching them when I was younger. It's too bad they're not on tv anymore, but i'm glad there are several on YouTube. 

Also, I only have about 6 more weeks of pregnancy left. My doctor scheduled me to be induced on Monday, August 22, so if baby brother doesn't come before then, that'll be the day! I know they won't be able to really play together for several years, but i'm excited for Deacon to have a little brother to play with. He'll enjoy having him when we do things like go to the park and Lagoon again. 

Lastly, I don't know how it happened, but we seem to be calling Deacon "dude" a lot lately. I'm not really sure why, but he's just turned into our little dude. 

July 4th Weekend

I recently found out that West Bountiful has a fireworks show. We decided to take a chance and see if we could get a spot and see them from the other side of the freeway, and we got pretty lucky. We pulled the truck into a business parking lot, set up our chairs in the back, and enjoyed the full 13 minutes of fireworks. It was a pretty short show, but it seemed to be enough for Deacon and he liked watching them. 

On Saturday, Deacon and Livy played in Grandma's kid pool and water table again.

On Sunday evening, Deacon and I went over to Uncle Todd's for a family BBQ (Matt was out of town), and then on Monday night my parents, Livy, and Mandy came to our house to do some fireworks. Deacon enjoyed watching them, but Livy was scared and did not like them at all. We did them with her last year and she did just fine, so i'm not sure what changed. Mandy gave Deacon a glow stick "light saber" that he quite likes and Grandma got him a yellow glow stick "magic wand" that he had fun with. After our fireworks were done, several neighbors around my house did some fireworks that we were able to watch and enjoy. Happy 4th of July!

June

Summer is finally here! Even though I don't enjoy the hot, hot, hot, I will take the heat over the cold any day! June went by fairly quickly and Deacon has been busy enjoying popcicles, going to the library, and playing outside (a lot)! 

Mandy and I took Deacon and Livy to the Foxburro Splash Pad a few weeks ago. Deacon was pretty hesitant to get wet at first and it was a little windy which made it a little cold, so Deacon decided he wanted to play at the park first. After playing at the park for a little while, he decided to give the Splash Pad another try. He thought it was fun to put his feet on the holes that spray water, enjoyed running around, and even laid down at one point in the water. I think overall he had a fun time. Livy on the other hand didn't enjoy it very much. When we got home, Deacon took a nap, and sadly he woke up with a fever. He had a fever all that night and the next day so we took him to Instacare and found out he had strep throat. Boy, one dose of antibiotics sure makes a difference! He was back to his normal self by the next morning. 

Grandma Mecham got this cool "Jeep" for the kids to drive around in. Livy calls it her 4 wheeler, but it sounds like warrior instead of wheeler. She enjoys putting her purse and baby in the jeep while Deacon is more interested in spraying water on it and "cleaning" it. They both seem to like it, but have needed several driving lessons from Grandma. 

Kids first swim of the summer in Grandma's pool and backyard:

Toddler Activity List #2

This is just a personal list for me of ideas to have Deacon do while I am busy with baby #2. Honestly, I'll be lucky if I actually do any of these, but I guess at least having a list handy might motivate me more.

Fishing for Letters

http://pigtailsandtutus.blogspot.com/2011/09/fishing-for-letters.html

Pool Noodle (or something else) & Rubber Bands

http://handsonaswegrow.com/keep-kids-busy-fine-motor-activity/

http://www.andnextcomesl.com/2015/08/pool-noodles-rubber-bands-fine-motor-activity.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Sand and Rock Box

http://frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtail.com/diy-sand-and-rock-box/

Homemade 2 Ingredient Play Dough (Conditioner and Cornstarch)

1 part conditioner to 2 parts corn starch

http://hip2save.com/2015/07/23/homemade-2-ingredient-play-dough/

Ball Walk

http://twostepsbehindsixlittlehands.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-how-toddlers-are-content-for-long.html

Scavenger Hunt

http://smashedpeasandcarrots.com/childrens-scavenger-hunt-a-free-printable/

Coloring on Sandpaper

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/coloring-on-sandpaper-activity-for-toddlers/

Animals Kids Game

http://www.craftionary.net/guest-post-emotional-animals-kids-game/

Activity Dice

http://myminiadventurer.com/2015/01/rainy-day-fun.html

Trace the Lines

http://owensfamily-gwyn.blogspot.com/2013/05/sign-printable.html

Printable Preschool Worksheets

http://www.worksheetfun.com/preschool-worksheets/

Straw Plane

http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2014/05/2-paper-flyers.html

5 Different Activities for 6 Lines of Tape

http://handsonaswegrow.com/5-different-activities-for-6-lines-of-tape/

Apple or Potato Stamping

http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/07/8-activities-for-tots-that-wont-cost-you-anything.html

Toddler Car Wash

http://www.iheartartsncrafts.com/top-10-activities-for-toddler-boys/

Giant Ice Cube Awesomeness

http://www.crumbbums.com/?p=2476

Also let them hammer stuff outside

Rainbow in a bag - no mess
http://www.powerfulmothering.com/rainbow-in-a-bag-no-mess-art/


Bottle and Cap sorting
http://www.simplelittlehome.com/2012/03/50-ways-to-distract-toddler.html


Puffy Paint
http://onelittleproject.com/how-to-make-puffy-paint/2/


Spoon It Out Water Play
http://lovepeacebeauty.com/spoon-it-out-water-play-activity-for-kids/

Santa Slime
http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/12/santa-slime-recipe.html