harmonica playin'!

We found Hubs's harmonica when we were cleaning in the garage yesterday. Mac seriously caught on so quickly, we were pretty impressed. He was so thrilled with him self when ever he would play it that he would smile and giggle. It was the cutest.

love him...

...dirty face and all!

We went on a bike ride and when I got him off the bike this is what he looked like!

So cute!

Things Mac ~ 2 years and 2 months

He has started talking in his sleep a little. Some of things he has said recently are (he always says the same sentence twice):
"No Grandma, don't get out the vacuum!"
"I need a diaper change."
"No Mommy, don't do that!"

He knows all the words and can sing all by himself the songs: "I am Child of God" and "I Love to See the Temple". And he knows basically all the words to alot of other Primary songs because we sing them constantly. Singing songs is his most common delay tactic in going to bed.

He goes back and forth with being a good eater and a picky eater. We are at a "picky eater" stage right now, and there are very few things he will eat. He basically lives off of oatmeal, bananas, toast, noodles, Jam sandwhiches and occasionally he will eat pears or peaches.

He has become quite the polite little boy, which makes me a proud Mommy! We have worked really hard with Mac on being polite. He almost always says "please" and "thank you". And if he doesn't say it all you have to do is ask him "what do you say?" to remind him. He says "no thankyou." when he doesn't want something. And he has just recently caught on to "excuse me" and "bless you".
We were visiting another Ward and when I went to pick him up from Nursery, the Nursery leader commented on what a polite little boy he is. That made my day.

Church wise, he goes to Nursery and stays in Nursery without a problem now. That makes for a happy Mommy too! Also, I almost never have to take him out of Sacrament meeting! I realized yesterday that this is due to alot of determination, for the last year and a half, on my part of never putting him down to play when I take him out of Sacrament meeting or any other time we were out in the hall and not in class. So all the pain and agony of holding a screaming, squirming little boy and my arms killing me by the end of church has totally paid off.

He is pretty obsessed with Thomas the Train right now, and basically knows the names of all the trains. He even knows the difference between all the blue trains (Thomas, Gordon, Edward). He also really likes his CARS cars: McQueen, Chick Hicks which he calls "Hicks" and The King  which he calls "Dinoco". He is funny because he can't just play with one of the cars or just one train. He has to have all three cars or he has to play with Thomas and Percy, not just one or the other.

He has finally learned the art of going on a walk. He used to beg the whole time for us to hold him, now he runs ahead of us like a little boy should. He also knows that he has to hold our hand when we go in the road.

There has been no potty on the potty in awhile. He became pretty defiant about it and is now most of the time defiant about getting his diaper changed in general. Although he has started the "hide-and-poop" recently.

He is back to taking 3 hour naps and sometimes longer, which makes me happy. But he isn't sleeping as well at night. He seems to be talking in his sleep and than at some point in the night he just wakes up and is awake talking for about an hour and then goes back to sleep.

He can now open doors. So keeping doors shut in the house no longer keeps him out of things, boo!

He knows all of his letters and their sounds. And even knows most of his colors when he wants to cooperate. We also recently learned that he knew what a triangle was without us teaching him (he probably learned it from Sesame Street). So I guess he is now ready to learn those. He also loves to point out letters when he sees them on things.

He seriously has a photographic memory! He doesn't foreget ANYTHING!

He usually talks about himself in Third person (is that right?) He will say "That's Mac's car!" Which brings me to him not wanting to share anything. He understands what sharing is but refuses to until I threaten to take away what ever it is he won't share. I know that this is normal behavior, but I won't allow my son to be bratty or impolite, not going to happen.

He has become shy when around other people. But once he warms up to them then he totally shows off and acts goofy. It is pretty funny to watch.

I love when he runs up to me and says "Mommy, I want a hug!" and then he will hug me and pat my back for like 30 seconds and then tell me "I yuv you Mommy!" There is nothing greater when being a Mommy than that!

He begs to go to Grandma and Grandpa's almost on a daily basis. Nothing is more exciting then his Grandmas and Grandpas.

He is getting his two year molars. He has one all the way through. And the other three are on their way!

When we are driving in the car he loves to tell us which way he wants us to go..."Go this way Momma!"

We are totally loving the age Mac is at right now, he can communicate with us and he loves to play and he just does and says the funniest things. Hubs and I were talking about the "terrible-twos" thing and we realized that with Mac it hasn't been all that bad because he has never been a "go-with-the-flow!" kid and we are used to the fit throwing because of that. Although he does throw a giant tantrum every once in awhile, but they are few and far between.

Speaking of huge tantrums...he threw a huge one at Walmart the other day. He got mad because I wouldn't go back and let him look at the trains and cars AGAIN. And it took me about 15 minutes to get him in his car seat because he was so hysterically mad. The only way I eventually got him in his car seat and buckeled was by pinning him down with my body. I was so worried that he was going to hurt himself or I was going to hurt him trying to get him in. He then continued to cry all the way home and got more mad when I tried talking to him or singing to him. And the only thing that made him happy again was when I put him on the couch to watch Caillou when we got home. And not 10 minutes after that it was like nothing even happened, he was as happy as can be.

Mac is such a wonderful, amazing kid! When I didn't think it was even possible, recently I realized that I am even more in love with this adorable boy of mine. I just seriously want to squeeze him and kiss him and hug him and cuddle him all day long, but he won't have anything to do with that most of the time. We feel so incredibly lucky to be his parents. And because of a few things that we have been involved with recently I have realized what a lucky kid Mac is to have a Mommy and Daddy and a stable, safe home where he is taught about love and life. And that is all because of his amazing Birthmother who wanted that for him. Mac is a lucky kid to have so many people that love him enough to give him the world and more!

Silver Falls on a beautiful day!

I have been wanting to hike Silver Falls for a very long time, not sure why I never have. My Uncle invited us to go on Thursday, and it was the perfect day to go! Sunny and 60 degrees, PERFECT! It was Mac, me, my mom, my Aunt and Uncle, my Cousin and his little girl who is 6 months younger than Mac. There are acutally alot of different water falls there, but we just hiked to one. Mac kept on saying, "I want to see the water falling!"

We hiked behind this waterfall. When we got behind the falls where it was pretty wet, Mac told me we needed an umbrella.

(Just so you know how big this is...to the right of the falls you will see a little blue speck and that is a person.)

Oregon is so beautiful! I feel so blessed to live here!

Mac standing at the top of the water fall.

Mac and his cheesy smile and Grandma.

HIM!

This is a very common way for Mac to sit...it is the cutest ever!

my little helper...

I have been trying to be better about letting Mac help me with small things when I am cooking or baking. He actually does really great and he loves to help so much. I think I need to make him a little apron now.

Lots of this going on!

There has been ALOT of playing trains around here!

My table is covered with this most of the day, until it is time to eat dinner anyway.

He is starting to get a little imagination and I love listening to him play with his little trains like they are talking.

Little Picasso!

Mac was sitting on the couch drawing on his little magnadoodle. I asked him what he was drawing and headed over to look. He said he was drawing a nose as he was making the bottom circle in the picture.

I was shocked to find that he had actually drawn a picture of a face!

We got ourselved a little artist here!

friends...

I am so very grateful for friends that understand me, who are concerned for me, and who just love me for who I am.

I found this necklace in my mailbox this last weekend, from a long time friend.

Four hearts: Miracle.Courage.Joy.Love

Just what I needed!

Cookies...

We had some friends over to decorate Valentine's cookies. It is amazing how differently Mac took to decorating this time compared to when we did them at the begining of December. In December all he did was lick the frosting. This time he took his decorating very serious and his attention span for it was amazing. He LOVED it!

These were the only pictures I took because by the time I remembered to take pictures Mac was the only one left at the table still decorating.

Mac Funnies ~ January 2010

The goofy faces Mac made when I asked him to look at the camera and say cheese!

I asked Mac if he wanted “Jam” for lunch (Jam sandwich) and he relpied with “No thank you Mama, I don't want Jam.” Holy Cow, when did this kid get all grown up?!

We walked to the mailbox (which is NOT close to our house) so we could get out of the house and get some fresh air. Right when we got to the mail box it started to down pour and my reaction was saying “OH CRAP!” and not a second later Mac says the same thing! Shoot need to watch what I say. But it did make the whole situation a lot more funny and I was able to run all the way back home holding Mac laughing.



He was playing with some plastic easter eggs and when he wanted help putting them back together he would say to us “eggs kiss”



I gave Mac some chocolate with caramel inside, he tried to eat it and then said to me pointing to his mouth “it's stuck!” The caramel had stuck to his teeth.



He was playing with one of his trucks and I over hear him saying “hello, what's your name?” I love that he is starting more imaginitive play.



We were playing blocks and Mac wanted to build a fort out of them. We used up almost all the blocks and Mac says, “Good job Mommy, you built a fort!”



We  went to the grocery store and Mac fell asleep on the way there, he wakes up in the parking lot and says, “Where are we at?”



We asked Mac if he wants a baby brother or baby sister, and he responded with a baby sister, I then asked him what he wanted to name his baby sister and he said baby “Jonah”. Hmmmm...



I was looking at one of Mac's precious Thomas the Train books and he saw me and said “NO!” and took it away and gave me another toy and said “Look at this!”. I guess he didn't want me to look at his book.



I think the cutest and funniest thing he says right now is “uuuuuuum, no thank you.” when you ask him if he wants something. It makes us laugh everytime.



One Sunday we went to the english speaking sacrament (to the Ward the coincides with our Spanish Branch). His nursery leader, Brother Vance was going to give the prayer and was sitting on the stand waiting for the opening hymn to end. Mac was standing on the bench next to me and spotted brother Vance and kept on pointing and yelling his name. It made Bro. Vance smile. It was really cute to see that Mac recognized him and that he gets excited to see him and go to nursery now.



During this same sacrament meeting Mac was loving leading the music everytime we sang. He uses both arms and goes at it like he knows what he is doing, and he even stops leading at the right times. His ear for music amazes me.
 
SORRY IF THERE ARE ALOT OF MISSPELLINGS, THERE IS, FOR SOME REASON NO SPELL CHECK ON MY POST TOOL BAR.

Throwing rocks...

We walk to this to place at least once a week to throw rocks in the water.

Mac loves it!

I feel so privelaged...

that I get to be a Mother!

moments...

One of my favorite moments of being Mac's Mommy are the moments when I feel such incredible JOY and LOVE for him that I feel like I am literally going to explode and I have the urge to grab him and hold him close forever and never let him go. I am so incredibly grateful that I get to have my sweet boy forever.

Lately when I have had these moments with Mac, I feel that same love growing for our next baby. And I can totally imagine having these same feeling with our next little one. It makes me so anxious to get my baby here to us.

I have some very specific feelings about our baby, and the fact that we feel someone is missing in our home, but at the moment they are too personal to share. For a couple of months I was really struggling with all that goes with preparing ourselves to add to our family again through adoption. But over the month of January, I have had alot of experiences, reminders and comfort that show me all will be well and soon we will have our baby with us (even with all the reminders that Satan is really trying hard to destroy this for us)!

I have enjoyed the opportunity that we have had to ask for love, peace, comfort and guidance for the Birthmother of our baby in our prayers each day. And I love that C (Mac's Birthmother) has told us that she is also praying for her, that gives me great hope.

I have also been reminded at what a spiritual journey adoption is and I am excited to see our next adoption story unfold.