MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

- CJ is obsessed with coins lately. It's so cute to watch him take them all out of his coin jar and line them up, or pile them up, or put them one by one in new places, like Mattie's shopping cart, or their toy box, or a drinking glass. We try to catch him before he puts them down the vent or in Mattie's mouth though...

- I have friends - actually, a lot of them - like most of us do, but I hardly ever talk to most of them. Why? I dunno. Anyway, last week I spoke to my friend, Alycia, who is seriously one of my bestest friends in the world, who was there for me during some of the roughest times in my life, but whom I haven't spoken to in over two years! I'm pretty embarrassed to even admit that. Yeah, we've emailed a few times, but where has the time gone? And I think things like Facebook and blogs are partially to blame - who needs to give someone a call when you can catch up on their life online? Blah. Anyway, as you can imagine, we were on the phone for like 3 hours, promising to talk again in a week or so and to never let it go that long again. But what's great is that I think most of my friends are in the same boat and understand. And when we do talk, it's like picking up right where we left off. I've made so many friends over the years in the various places I've lived, it's impossible to stay in close contact with all of them, and it makes me sad...AND it makes me look forward to the day when we will all be together again and will have an eternity to catch-up!

- Mattie started giving closed-mouth kisses last week! But she still makes her "mmmmmmah" sound when she kisses, so she's not all grown-up yet.

- Speaking of being grown-up, I think I've mentioned before that CJ will call Bryce and me by our first names every once in a while, like when one of us is upstairs and he's downstairs and wants our attention: "Bryce? BRYYYYCE?" He gets this from us, because that's what we do. Well now he's started calling us something else we call each other - baby! Some couples call each other "babe", or "hon." Well Bryce and I call each other "baby," like 90% of the time. And now CJ has started doing it too, but again, only once in a while in certain situations where he's heard us say it before, like (exact quote from CJ), "What's wrong, baby?"

- And that's not all CJ has started saying. He now loves to say, "Oh my goodness!" He definitely gets that from me, and I'm just counting my blessings that's all he says, because despite the fact that I have a pretty clean mouth, there are other things I say that I'm glad he hasn't picked up on yet...like: "oh my heck," "oh my gosh," and probably the worst, "gosh dang it." Man, you gotta watch what you say around these little sponges! 

- Just today Mattie started standing from a sitting position, all by herself!!

- Apparently CJ thinks we live in a nudest colony, or would like to join one, because the last few days he just randomly takes off his pants, undies included, and proceeds with what he's doing. Maybe our next FHE will need to be on modesty...

- The other night we were driving home from a friend's house and the radio was on. As I was listening to One Republic's "All the Right Moves," I heard CJ singing in the back seat. At first I thought he was just singing his own song, but then I realized that he was totally singing the chorus to the song! It was hilarious and SO cute! And it made me realize that I really need to be aware of what I'm listening to and watching because nothin' gets by my little guy!

- Mattie has found a hidden talent...mega bloks (yes, that's how you spell "bloks")! We have those big blocks for toddlers, and she loves to pick them out one at a time and build them on top of each other. Maybe it's not that amazing, but I'm always so impressed every time.

- For the last two days CJ has decided he hates naps and has been throwing tantrums. Eventually he falls asleep, but we're talking after like an hour! And yes, he totally still needs a nap...and so do I! I swear, right when you get comfortable with something and get into a nice routine, toddlers decide to mix it all up. They're sneaky that way.

- Mattie has the funniest hair...it's so soft and fine, and so fun to play with. But whenever the back of her head touches something - i.e. in bed, in her car seat, etc. -  it gets all frizzy and crazy in back and so she ends up looking like an unkempt little kiddo all the time. Boo. 

- We sent out Bryce's graduation announcements today. So he better not let his senioritis keep him from passing his finals next week :)

- Bryce gets upset when I delete pictures right after they're taken. I tend to delete them if I don't like how I look in them or if they're just kind of a meaningless picture, but Bryce says I'm "deleting memories." I say they're not memories we want to keep. Who wants to look back at a fuzzy picture of the back of my head? Seriously.

- Have I told you how whenever we go anywhere CJ likes to list everyone who he thinks will be there? He names each person he can think of, and says their name in an asking tone. He usually starts off on track, but then gets lost in the plethera of names that he knows, and starts naming people like his uncle Brent and cousin Peter, who live in Michigan and whom I think he has met a total of like, 3 times. What's funny is that lately he's learned the names of our friends, or his friends' parents, as he sees it. So it's not just Brody, it's Brody, and Heather and Tyson. And what cracks us up the most is when he says Becca and Levi (Abby and Audrey's parents), it's "Becca and Leaf guy." Hahaha! Love it! 

- One more funny CJ saying. He gets kind of mixed up sometimes when he tries to say things that rhyme. The other day he was saying, "No way!" So I tried to teach him how to say, "No way, Jose!" But all that he could get out was, "No hay, whoa-say!" And that's still what he says. It's a total pick-me-up when you need a good laugh. Ah, love that kid!

Happy Monday!