4x's the Fun

One grandparent is good. Four grandparents are fantastic!
I scored huge last week when my Nana and PopPop from Vermont came for a visit at our house at the beginning of the week and then we flew to my Grandma and Grandpa's house in Utah at the end of the week! There was no end to the entertainment, story readers, activities and LOTS and LOTS of spoiling. I loved it!

My PopPop is a good athlete and quite the competitor so I challenged him to several games involving both athleticism and brains. He and I teamed up for a fierce game of Go Fish against my dad and Nana. I'm happy to report that we blew them out of the water and felt no guilt at all. Soccer was a different story. I gave him the smallest soccer ball, trying to put him at a disadvantage. Unfortunately for me, he's just that good. My dad even resorted to pushing me down several times to try and win. But alas, PopPop prevailed in that sport.

We also took on word and picture matching cards. I think the point of this game is for me to practice my letters, but my dad turned it into a race and tried to match them faster than me. I didn't know what the picture of yarn was so he took advantage of my lack of knitting knowledge and crushed me at this game. All and all, it was a fun fun visit.

Then it was off to Utah. As our good luck would have it, the snow started falling and kept falling throughout our visit so we had incredible ski conditions. When we weren't skiing we were playing in the snow. They had to keep an eye on me because when I fell over you couldn't see me anymore because the snow was so fluffy and deep. I loved having my dad toss me into the snow. I'd land like a brick and be completely stuck until someone dug me out - it was awesome.

Grandpa shoveled out a sledding track for me in their front yard. I followed close behind and supervised his operation. Check out my sledding skills. When I wiped out - which was often - I would roll as far as I could and see how much snow I could get to stick to my face. No one else thought this was fun, something about frost bite. They sure missed out!

We also had awesome snowball fights... 

My awesome cousins, Lindsie, Troy, and Mallory, came skiing with me. And even though they could ski anywhere on the mountain, they hung out with me on the easier slopes. I sure am lucky. My dad was being cautious and had me between his legs as we skied down the hill. My cousin Mallory zipped by and well, my dad just couldn't keep up so I pushed off of his legs and said, "I've got this," and away I went...literally. Talk about freedom. YAHOOOOOOO!!! Everyone started cheering and then a bit of silence, followed by panic...I had no clue how to stop. They quickly caught me and all was good. That is until I pointed my skis down hill again and whoooooosh, I was gone. My cousins thought it was hilarious. My parents, well, they got a workout. And if my dad couldn't quite reach me before a large stationary object - such as a tree - he sort of karate chopped me (aka clotheslined me!) to bring me to a stop. And me? I just smiled all the way down the hill.

My grandpa worked with me on technique. We settled on what I called "erching" for stopping. When told to stop (by panicking adults) I would just skid sideways (aka "erch") and fall over. While not pretty, it did do the trick...most of the time. The skiing definitely wiped me out. Sometimes I erched just to sit in the snow and relax for a minute.

  

At night we hung out with my cousins and aunts and uncles. My grandparents even took us to the dinosaur museum where there were tons of cool things to check out, including this shark that almost ate us!

 

Funny Shoe and The Pea

I wasn't too clear on the Valentine's holiday. Shouldn't you be showing the people you love how much you love them all year long? It just seems odd to designate only one day in the whole year to do this. But then the candy started arriving...and I was SOLD! First a friend dropped off a lollipop, and then another with a few chocolates, and all of a sudden it was like I hit the treat jackpot! I even received a few presents when I woke up on Valentine's Day.

I recently mentioned to my parents that I'd like to go to Mars. One small dilemma...I don't own a space helmet. This, I'm sure, is the only issue holding me back from blasting off. Sure enough, on Valentine's morning, I opened this....

After putting it on I realized that I also need a space ship to complete my voyage. I was quick to point this out and my dad rolled his eyes while my mom suggested something about a large box and a father/son project. Stay tuned, my next post just may be from Mars!

Oh, I also learned about making things for the people I love. I made my dad a Valentine with an owl that said, "Hoo Loves You? ME!" He said I was clever and especially liked the candy I had glued to the owl. I made my mom this Valentine. My teacher said I could write anything I wanted to my mom. So I dug deep into my soul and told her just what I thought. "Happy Mother's Day Mom. You're a funny shoe." Poetic, isn't it?

Now that the excitement of Valentine's Day is dying down, I decided to create a little  excitement of my own. During lunch today I proudly announced, "Mom, guess what I put up my nose?" My mom, who's given me the "Only fingers go up your nose" lecture about 1,000 times, quickly turned around in the kitchen and said sternly, "Your finger???" (I think she knew full well that was not the correct answer.) "Nope, I said, a pea!" "Seriously Bodie?" was all should could say. When I replied affirmatively, the look on her face changed. And not a "You're awesome, way to go buddy!" kind of change. More like a "Oh geez, it's been nice knowing you" kind of look.

My mom isn't much for panic but I could tell this pea-up-the-nose incident was not going to win me any prizes. She was not happy. For the next twenty minutes she held my face in strange positions and requested I blow. No luck. She pulled out this suctioner thing, attempting to coax the pea out. No luck. She begrudgingly called the doctor - did we need to go in or would it just dissolve? They were closed; they were at lunch too (I bet none of them stuck a pea up their noses at lunch!)

My mom took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and appeared to go to a much happier place. When she opened her eyes and returned to our pea-in-the-nose reality she said, "Okay buddy, this is it. You have one last chance. I'm going to plug the one side up and you need to blow with all your might. Got it? Otherwise you'll have to go to the doctor." She pinched the one side of my nose really hard and I blew like I had never blown before. My face turned red and I thought I was going to pass out. Then all of a sudden, that pea shot out of my nose like a rocket! Seriously, it was moving at about 20 miles per hour. My mom started to laugh so hard tears were rolling down her cheeks. We high-fived. The pea was out.

Refresh and Relax

We were in town this weekend, so my parents decided a decorating refresh was in order. I quickly got on my smock shirt, the one I wear when I do water colors, and the sweat pants affectionately called "grubbies" by my mom. "Where's my brush?" I asked eagerly. "Um" was my dad's reply followed by, "Don't you want to play downstairs with all of your cool toys? Painting is no fun at all." Who was HE kidding? Painting a tiny piece of paper is awesome, so painting a whole room has got to be euphoric. Hand over the paint brush people.

My mom smiled and said, "Okay, you can paint." Now we're talking. She got me a small tray of paint and a brush and walked me over to a space on the drop cloth. My dad muttered something like, "This is a terrible idea Lisa..." "One rule," my mom said, "You cannot touch the walls....ever. Got it?" Yeah sure, I got it, how hard is that rule. Now hand me the brush. "Okay buddy, here's the brush." I leaned forward to get the brush and did what any three year old would do, I balanced myself by putting my whole hand on the wall. "Hey mom, what happened? I have paint all over my hand."

Somewhere between covering my hand in fresh wall paint and being swooped to the kitchen sink before my dad could say, "I told you so," my mom and I agreed on a compromise. I would paint watercolors on paper at the kitchen table. My trusty smock shirt still had a purpose, whew.

My parents got to work and a few hours later our front room was painted tan...again ("richer tan" my mom would say), new drapes were hung, different wall hangings were up, and my toys were back in the room - which, frankly, was what I was most concerned about. Well that, and the "richer" tan color, of course.

While I may mock them a bit, I do like the new mirrors, they are just my height. So I've figured out how to climb up on the console table to check out my full profile - I don't think this was  their intended purpose, but it's definitely a bonus!

So after a hard days work, we rewarded ourselves by going out to dinner with our friends, the Vets. For being just a little guy, their son Colby is hilarious. Here's a photo of us doing a spoon trick together - the kid's got talent!

Football...It just makes me happy

I'm three and my favorite football team is already in the Super Bowl. Apparently this is not normal. But my mom grew up in the 80's and the 49ers not only played in, but WON, four Super Bowls in a ten year span - so maybe this is a start of another decade-long streak! One can only hope.

For my dad's birthday, I got him a Miami Dolphin football helmet. He won't say it in front of my mom, but it's definitely his most favorite present. We play tackle football every night before bed and, with me becoming so strong and such a good tackler, I decided "safety first" should be our motto. Now we both have helmets and can tackle at full speed without any worries. Oh, my mom says to point out that there are about 17 neon colored stickers on the helmet and packaging that said, "THIS IS A TOY. NOT TO BE USED AS PROTECTIVE HEAD GEAR," whatever that means....

My dad's favorite move is to "stuff" the football into the face mask of my helmet. It usually occurs right before I would score a touchdown. This is not only a penalty, but I cannot see when this happens and I usually run into a wall. This makes my dad break into uncontrollable laughter. While also laughing, my mom admits this may reveal a small character flaw in my dad's personality. Lucky for me I have my trusty Niners helmet on!

Fingers and toes crossed that the Super Bowl outcome provides a reason for a serious touchdown dance!