I beat-ed you!

This is one of Robby's "Bobo brothers." Or as he says it, "bobo budders." So he calls it a bobo brother because it looks like the monkeys on Go Diego Go called the Bobo Brothers. When I was in MD for Nessa's wedding I found him a second monkey to get him to make a pair so he could have Bobo Brothers, plural. He was very excited. He even let Daddy hold one of his Bobo brothers in the car on the way to the zoo, hence, the monkey driving.

So without meaning to we have created a very very competitive little guy. It became a way to get him to do things - "let's race to the door!" "Race to the car!" "Bet you can't put your shoes on super fast!" And now it's turned into this constant yelling of "I beat-ed you!" Ah! Oh brother! What did we do!? And he doesn't like to lose but we are working on that.

Rob: "What do you say if daddy gets there fast?"
Robby: "Oh dang. Good job, daddy."

He doesn't like it when his friends say, "I beat-ed you" to him (which pretty sure they only started because HE was always making it a race, whoops) so we are trying to explain the whole, "if you don't want them to do it to you then don't do it to them!"

We knew this was a SERIOUS problem when we were in church last week.... we take the bread for the sacrament... sitting there quietly... and Robby looks up at Rob and says, kinda loud, "I beat-ed you!" He opens his mouth to show he's chewed his bread already. Oh my goodness. Seriously kid? Rob and I just looked at each other like, NO WAY! Ha ha ha... something's got to change.

I usually try to think through the psychology of what I'm saying and can't believe I didn't forsee the consequences of making everything a race! Sheesh! It was just so darn effective at a time where it was just so hard to get him to sit down and put shoes on or get dressed... Oh well. So we'll have to work on un-doing some of that...

We've been working on reading our scriptures at night before we read bedtime stories... with this we've been working on being reverent during scriptures... it's hard to sit still and listen to something you can hardly understand. We have him repeat words as we go which is always so cute... and I knew he was getting the picture when the other day he did a big sneeze and then said, "I'm horry my neeze was houd." (sorry my sneeze was loud) He's always making us smile.

I've been trying to come up with ideas for how to deal with this weaning off of naps business... he would probably still take a nap every day if I let him but it'd be from like 3-5 by the time he falls asleep and then he's up until like 10 pm. No thanks. I've tried having him do "quiet time" in his crib and gave him some books to read but all he ends up doing is yelling the BYU fight song. So, not much resting going on... and come 4:30 he is cranky and falling apart.... so tricky!

Something I've been wanting to try is getting some stories on cd for him to listen to during "rest time" to see if that would keep him quiet... Sunday I put him in his crib and put on some Primary songs on the ipod and within 30 minutes he'd actually fallen ASLEEP! I was shocked and thrilled. So I rented some cds to try from the library... today he was listening to a Backyardigans cd and fell asleep. Not so great though cause he fell asleep at like 4 pm... but I woke him up at 5 and he didn't go to bed too late. We'll figure it out. But I'm excited about this whole stories on cd idea.

Why have I been taking NO pictures lately? I'm gonna work on this! That also helps me remember what we've been doing and what things Robby's been up to...

He's my snuggly little boy.... I love it. He's always playing with my hair, likes to give hugs and kisses... this morning when we're eating breakfast he looks at me and smiles and says, "I hove you mommy!" I love listening to his sweet little prayers... "peese bwess I can have a brodder or a sister." Although when I said that the other day he added (during the prayer), "a brodder." Okay... we'll take either one!

I love that he LOVES playing with his cousins and friends but also is great at playing by himself! He'll get into his own world playing with his firefighter legos and spiderman guys... I heard him the other day playing with his toys and saying, "Can I be excused? No, you need to eat more. Okay...." ha ha ha! Love that they totally mimic what their own life is like in their play. So cute.

Today we did some preschool stuff while I watched Syd & Rob and our neighbor Ryan joined in for some of it too! We talked about My Sense of Touch and Sound... I'll leave you with the recap of the day!

We talked about what our hands can do and sang a bunch of songs including Where is Thumbkin - I drew smiley faces on their thumbs...

We looked at touch and feel books and tried to describe how they felt...

We buried animals in beans, dug them up, buried them and traded....

then we practiced our motor skills - using lids to fill up little cups... and spilling a lot in the process! But it was fun!

Drew in flour...


took a break and watched Backyardigans while I cleaned up all the flour! Look at these 3... Syd was totally snuggled up to Robby... so cute!


Traced our hands, talked about things we do with our hands, drew pictures....



Made "sound canisters" out of easter eggs then tried to match up the different sounds... then had fun opening them all up to see if the match was right! And then making a general huge mess of all the eggs! There were a LOT more than this...


Ate....


Lots of different "feels" - crunchy, chewy, soft... Syd described the apples as "skinny and wet." :)


And did some other stuff.... we had fun.