Recent Toddler Talk

When he is not hitting, head butting, torturing the pets, and generally acting like a stereotypical 2 year old, Marshall is very entertaining. He has taken up nodding, which he does often, with great exaggeration. Instead of "why" he asks, "what's that?" for EVERYTHING. He is quite the talker and has me laughing most days. Examples:

• In the car the other day, "Marshall want milk, water, juice, crackers with cheese, Marshall want to play with cars, Marshall want to play in the garage, Marshall want to long drive to see grandma, Marshall want air on at Gram Gram's house, " a long pause, "Marshall want everything."
• Picking up the dog's collar, "This is Riley scarf."
• Me: "Would you like strawberries or grapes?"
  Marshall: "No strawberries, just grapes. Actually, mama, both please."
• "Grandma and Grandpa in long drive to Idaho. Both miss you."
• Reading precisely, "I love you forever, I like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

Busy May!

The month of May just flew by. A summary of activities: The Brown girls' first communion; a 10k race (Chris ran it, Marshall and I walked the 5k portion): a Blazej family camping trip; Chris had surgery on his hand; my college friend, Jeri, came to visit with her 15 month old daughter from Denver; my college friend, Chris, came to visit from Portland; and a fun-packed Memorial weekend with our friends. Here are some highlights:

Someone is looking rather grown up these days.

Haley and Taylor's First Communion

Marshall riding cousin Carter's ATV on the family camping trip

Playing "cornhole" with grandpa on the family camping trip

Playing with Heidi

Chris, Jeri and Heidi

Marshall helping the patient eat breakfast

Hiking

Marshall with his friend Donovan

Another hot tub gem: Chris, Tom, Taylor, Haley & Marshall

Family Visit

A couple of weeks ago, Marshall, Steph and I made a trip down south to see our cousin, Meredith, who came out from Tennessee to visit our grandparents. We really enjoyed getting to visit Merry, her husband Anthony, and their adorable 5 month old son, Blake. We spent afternoons at the beach and weathered unseasonably warm temperatures. A super trip, overall. Here are some highlights:

Great Grandpa, Blake and Anthony

Gram Gram and Marshall
Steph, Merry and Emily

Steph, Marshall, Grandma and Lucky

Marshall and his grandma's rose

Funny Little Boy

Marshall keeps me laughing every day. Here are some recent fun shots:

Yogurt mess

Sweet shades!
Daddy's flip flops

What does that sign say??

Insisting his caterpillar wear a diaper.

Easter

We had a really fun Easter weekend. On Saturday, we had breakfast with friends and then headed to the local park for the kiddie egg hunt. On Sunday, we had brunch at the Brown's and dinner at the Tamisiea's. Two more egg hunts for Marshall! We stuffed ourselves full of great food and really enjoyed the time with our friends.

Egg hunting with Grammy Mary Ann.
He quickly got the hang of the egg hunt concept.

Chris and Marshall in the park mob.

Toddler Swearing

Today I am feeling like a definite mom failure. A couple months ago, I made the mistake of calling the dog a "dumb ass" in front of Marshall. Though I have been careful to not repeat it, Marshall latched onto that word and unfortunately says it semi-regularly (and accurately, I might add). This morning, we were all in the kitchen as Riley came in through the dog door. Marshall cheerfully yelled, "DUMB ASS." I said, "we don't use that word. Let's call doggie a Silly Sausage." Marshall replied, "silly dumb ass sausage." I laughed until I cried (not the appropriate reaction, I know).

The other Emily-ism Marshall has adopted is, "get out of my way, people." He mostly uses it while pushing his trucks around but will occasionally give this directive to actual people (how embarrassing). It sounds so harsh when he says it but given the context in which he learned the phrase, it is actually mild. It is what I say when I drive (I am a recovering road rager) and given what I used to say (pre-child), "get out of my way, people" is really, really tame. Unfortunate that my forward progress is contributing to Marshall's verbal delinquency. Ah, there is so much to learn as we go as parents!

The Newest Bors

Last week Chris traveled to Iowa to meet our new nieces and nephew. Chris' brother and his wife officially celebrated the adoption of Enrique, Jasmine and Autumn. Hurray!

Back row: Chris, Terri, Chet, Enrique

Front row: Patty, Autumn, Jasmine

Enrique, Autumn and Jasmine
Jasmine and Autumn with their snowman. Chris was stunned by snow in April.

Chris and Enrique