Colton-our very own parrot!

This was Colton's first lollipop. He is a big fan.

I have a million updates that are overdue, so I will try to cram them into a pre-Christmas post!

Colton is forever saying "Go that way?" in the car and pointing one direction or another. A couple months ago we were driving home from daycare and he asked this and I said, "No," to which he responded, "Wrong way!" and giggled. It was so funny because certainly I sometimes say that in response to make him understand why we can't go that way, but funny still to hear him use it in context. That same day I was putting him in the car seat and he pointed at the driver's seat and said, "I drive?" and I said, "No." He waited a second and then said, "Too tiny!," which is what I often say to him when he says he wants to drive. It was quite hilarious.

Of course, the remembering and repeating skill does have it's downside...as he hears and repeats everything so we have really had to watch what we are saying at all times so our little parrot doesn't repeat it! Not that we are big potty mouths or anything, but something not so good for a child to say might slip out when we are frustrated or hurt ourselves. We try to ignore it when he repeats something we don't want him to say and sometimes Justin tries to say something similar to what was said to confuse him, but he has repeated one statement in context recently that we would have preferred he did not. Reminds me of a story of my sweet niece Katy Grace who, when frustrated with her kiddie broom when she was 2 or 3, through it on the floor and used a very colorful adjective in context to describe the broom. :-) Little sponges....

Thanksgiving:


Colton got his Uncle "Edik" and Papa to climb under the dining room table/fort in October:


Good helper!
Colton loves to help most anywhere but he really enjoys helping bake or wash dishes. If he sees one of us doing it, he grabs a chair and drags it over to help.




Justin found a bug on the woodpile outside the door and Colton was so excited and wanted to hold it:



Hold, and wear it:



Under the coffee table (took a bit of wiggling to get OUT of here)


Crazy sleeping baby:




Loves some "hot" tea:


Fun with cousins! First at the playground and then later in October at the county fair:




Katy Grace-the photographer

He loves to run anywhere including the inside of the house. A few weeks ago we were playing this run around the house game and he pointed me forward and said, "Mummy go first," and "I go next." It seems odd to me that he understands what that means!

Recent trip to local animal rescue/wildlife rehab place with some friends:


Zay is 6 months younger than Colton and we get his hand me down clothes!! Lucky us! :-)

Colton prefers to count things as 1, 2, 3 and then start over, but he can count to 20 with minimal prompting if he wants (skipping eleven and eighteen usually). When we calm down in time out, we count to 20 before getting up and apologizing.

Speaking of Time out, he put himself in time out the other day for no reason. "I go time out, " and then sat in the living room where time out is observed. I told him he didn't have to be in time out because he was being nice and he only has to go to time out when he is not nice. He got up, came over to me on the couch and said, "I pull Mummy's hair. Not nice," and reached up to try to pull my hair and then bite me when I wouldn't let him pull my hair. Eventually, however, he ended up in time out like he wanted a bit later for another 'not nice' incident. We ask him why he is in time out and he usually can tell us why he was in time out, which is pretty amazing I think.

Over the past month or so, Colton seemed to have developed an imaginary dog/friend. He saw it a lot and was not always happy to 'see' it. If he is going to have an imaginary friend, I would prefer he likes it! Haven't 'seen' him lately, so maybe he has moved.



Apparently he is creating a masterpiece here he doesn't want anyone to see til he is finished:

"No want to!"

We have been having potty training issues as some days he can stay dry all day and "keen" as he says, but we are going back and forth on if he will say he has to go or if we just have to tell him to go to the bathroom. His current favorite saying is, "No want to," which is his normal response to the question about going to the bathroom. He was doing great at daycare too, but this started after he stayed home with me about 2 weeks ago when he was sick and he has been pretty much refusing to go at daycare, and of course they don't have time to wait on him to 'warm up' to the idea like I can at home and no one wants to force him to go. So...hoping we can get him steady before the end of the year! I would be happy to stop washing diapers!

It seems wild to me that Colton uses phrases like, "and Mummy too!" like he understands the concept of 'also' already. Every day is entertaining to see what he says!

Last week Justin and I were both tickling Colton and he told us, "That's enough guys!" Which cracked us up and seems to be the caption for the picture below:

Happy Halloween!!

CUTEASAURUS REX!


Well, Halloween started out that I was just going to get Colton dressed up to take some pictures on the porch and maybe go next door to see one of our neighbors, if he would cooperate. But after we got him dressed, our neighbors came over to the house and gave him a bag of candy. He was so excited, I decided to take him across the street to another neighbor's house...and then we hit about 7 other houses in our little tiny neighborhood. Unfortunately, we only ran into about 4 homes with people home and with candy to give out. I think Colton ended up being the ONLY child who trick or treated in our neighborhood because we didn't have any come to our house. We even got a drive-by treat as a neighbor passed us on his way home and gave us candy he just bought at the store on the way home. Colton had a good time and liked knocking on the doors and seeing if they were home to give him "more tweets." He did great in his costume and didn't complain about it at all, even walking all over the neighborhood which really takes a long time when you walk up to everyone's doors without walking in their yard. I was annoyed with several people who had porch/driveway lights on but no one was home as well as the two homes that had decorations but were not home either, OR had decorations but didn't answer the door even though I saw them come home, heard the TV and they came to the door, peaked out of the blinds and still didn't open the door for our cute dinosaur! He had fun though and didn't have a clue since he still was able to get some "tweets." Now I wonder if he thinks he will get treats any time he goes to the neighbors' houses? Candy Confession: I swaped out all of Colton's collected candy for the organic/not so scary options we had at our house for trick or treaters. Our local heath food store is doing a candy swap this week, so I'll swap out the rest of his oh-so-bad-for-you-full-of-trans-fat candies for some better, but still yummy options tomorrow. I'm sure this won't work in upcoming years!



ROAR!!


Scaring something in the grass I guess...


Face off between two species...


I hosted Halloween Bunco this year again and my alter ego has returned...


I have a great tatoo on my neck you can't quite see, but it was great!


Porch decorations with my speedy carved pumpkins


Colton had 3 costumes since we bought several on super sale last year so we had to get some pictures made....

My favorite


Umm, what do you want me to do with this junk?


Sad puppy:


Giant, scary candy corn

Cute Costumed Cousins!

Scooby Doo Grayson and Candy Corn Witch Katy Grace!

Charlotte! This little piggy sure is cute!

Lovely Little Mermaid Savannah and the great face!!

Hope your Halloween was spooktacular!

Yellowstone! Elk! Bison! Geysers! Oh my!

Colton did amazing on all the flights to and from Wyoming. Especially since naptime and bedtime were totally screwed up. He enjoyed watching us take off and land and really liked fixing his seat belt. On our second flight of the day, I put him down on the seat and before I could sit down in the middle seat, Colton already had his seat belt on and was telling me to put mine on!


Our Kabin at the KOA (yes, that is how they spell it) in Jackson Hole. Right off the Snake river!



Hiking at Jenny Lake in the Tetons


Someone made hundreds of these crazy stacked rock formations on the side of the lake. It was wild to see!


What a view for lunch!


"Sa-da!" (or Ta-da!)-something he said often on this trip!




Hiking around Old Faithful area:


Seriously, how much cuter could he be?!


Right before the hike that never happened. Once we finally got to the area we wanted to hike, ate and got going...we saw the "Bear Frequenting area" sigh at the trailhead. Since it was SO windy we could hardly hear each other speak, we didn't have much chance of making enough noise to warn off bears, so kicking and screaming we headed back to the car.



View of Old Faithful Geyser outside our cabin:


Sometimes you want to hike...


...and sometimes you just want to lay down and cover your face.


You might have noticed Colton's monkey backpack with the strap/leash. This is the reason we brought it for the curious 2 year old checking out the hot springs ("no touch")...


He actually really liked his little back pack and wanted to wear it but every once and a while we had to pull on the strap and he would say, "No pull tail Poppa! No pull tail!"




Some days were colder than others and the super cool hats had to come out!


He had just learned to say "Cheese" before taking a picture right before we left for the trip and you can almost hear him saying it in some of these pictures!


Too soon and he will be able to reach! :-(


This was some sort of mole cricket that Colton found and eventually held. He thought it was so amazing, especially when it started moving and hopping.


Note the appropriate shirt and the dirty hands


Snack time! Oh, and a little Mickey Mouse on the DVD player. Without that, we might never have been able to a lot of things in our cabin or without Colton wandering off into a thermal area or something.


The views!








Cute:





The faces!




Colton likes chocolate. He really liked the signature dessert at the YNP hotels. One night he was ready to go and we told him we had ordered some chocolate, did he want to wait and eat some? He said, "I wait," and crossed his arms on the table, and waited. Then he said, "Sa-da!" when it finally arrived. Yum!


Hiking to the Hoodoos. Hoodoos are these odd rock formations in the park. You can drive through some of them but there is a hike that supposedly goes through them. We can't say as the first time we tried this hike we missed the trailhead and make our own adventure. This time we started off great....


Our car is in that parking lot...top right of the picture


Then we were "All done" and "Stay, no walk" and Colton would just sit down on the path. He was tired and over the excitement of hiking for the day. PLUS, the hike got really steep going down the other side of the hill, we probably wouldn't have chanced it with a two year old who wasn't grumpy either.

End of the hike looked more like this...


Fell in the dirt once or twice, sat in in a lot, and then rubbed a little in our tired eyes. Can still whip out a grin for the camera though!


I told Colton to "Be Nice" to the flowers he was about to rip out of the ground and this is what he did...leaned over and kissed them sweetly!


Wildlife:

One of the bulls showing off for the ladies in Mammoth:


Spike, out the car window


Bull outside our cabin window one morning:


Pronghorns in Grand Tetons


Watching the Elk show in Mammoth!

'
Some people were not as entertained by the elk...


Bison! One of the funniest things Colton said on our trip was, "Be cawful! Bison poop!" as he warned you to watch where you were walking.


Sometimes it was a long day...


The end of our trip came too soon...but there is always next year! Even a month later, when you ask Colton where we are going or where we went he says, "Yeddostone!"