23m (Dec 20-Jan 20)

Christmas and the aftermath :)  This year we got to go to Tree Farm for Christmas.  It was a rough start for our family as Spencer was quite sick when we first arrived... we even went to the ER for the first time as a family.  Thankfully Spencer had an upper respiratory virus (which Brian had coached me all the way to the ER at 3am about how that is the most common reason kids come to the ER so I need to emphasize the fact that he just got his runny nose yesterday but has had a fever for 4 days... talk about stressful).  But Spencer quickly improved after our visit and was back to normal two days later.  

He enjoyed all the Tree Farm toys, his favorite being riding the 4 wheeler with Dad.  

Spencer also loved all the people at Tree Farm!  There were a lot of people for him, and they just kept coming every day, but he was starting to get comfortable by the end.  It was a good trip home and we just wanted to stay another week or at least come back soon.  For me, it takes me awhile to get comfortable, even with family I love, when I haven't seen so many of them for so long.  

We came home and had a hard transition back into normal life.  It was interesting because while we were at Tree Farm I commented to Brian how I missed Spencer.  I was accustomed to a lot more one on one time with him and with all the people around etc. I just felt like I wasn't able to spend as much time with him, and he was more reserved so our interactions were different than normal.  Brian on the other hand said he was having a blast spending so much time with Spencer and living up his vacation time.  So when the time came to transition back to normal life, Brian was missing Spencer sorely, and Spencer and I were at home trying to figure out what to do with ourselves and slowly coming back to East coast time zone.  

One of my favorite things is to walk into a room where Spencer has been quiet for some time and see what he is up to.  It is happening more and more lately.  This time I found him reading some books while perched upon our Christmas decorations box. He likes sitting on things and doing something.  The other day I found him sitting on the top of his slide playing with his ring stacker.  

My sweet napping angel...

and his awesome post nap hair! So stylish!

Annie came all the way up to visit us the day after we got back.  It was so fun to get to play with her all day :)  

We watched a few boys that are a bit older than Spencer (a 6 year old and 4 year old twins) and they all played with playdough for a good 45 minutes solid.  Since then Spencer, who previously had only played with playdough about 5-10 minutes tops, has gotten engrossed with the activity and will spend 30 minutes a couple days a week with playdough.  

Spencer "crunching" snow in front of our house with the window scraper.

I think Spencer has gotten the idea that when the missionaries come over we always feed them ;)

The few weeks after Christmas Spencer has started talking so much! Some of his favorite phrases are

• "pretty good"
• "like it please" for whatever he would like
• "here go, mom" as he hands me something

Spencer favorite foods:

• pancakes, especially puff pancakes, but also oat
• puffs (a peanut butter captn crunch knock off)
• oats (oatmeal) with blueberries
• smoothies
• "seabub" (sandwich)
• He likes creamy soups, but especially the rolls that come with them
• "sadents" (raisins)
• yogurt, which he now pronounces well, but it used to be "gup, gup"

If I every say, "I wonder what time it is?" as I check my phone or look for the clock, Spencer will say "fourty six". 

He's gotten into the alphabet, ever since I checked out this alphabet puzzle from the library, and surprised us by spotting letters!  At the grocery store he pointed out a couple Os and Ss.  His favorite most consistently correct letters are O, S, L, T, X, E, W... N and H he often mixes up.

Counting has been coming along too.  He has a monster with 3 eyes, I asked him how many eyes he had.  He pointed the the first eye and said, "one" then pointed to the next eye, "two" then pointed at the last eye, "couple"... "couple eyes!" Hahha he really bested me on that one :)  But when counting he sometimes will say "1, 2, 1..."  We usually just count when walking up the steps to our house or upstairs from the basement and he will randomly jump in around 4 and say "5, 6, 7..."

He is very good with all his colors.  I believe it is because he loves coloring!  He will sit there and pull out a marker, announce what color it is, then cap it put it in the cup and pull out another one.  He knows all the basic colors consistently.

I had a birthday and hung up a bithday banner, and we celebrated with yo-na-na's, and sang happy birthday.  He was very intrigued by the whole thing and I'm excited for him to have his own birthday next month! Though I can not believe he is already having his second birthday!!

Spencer is my best buddy!  We go everywhere together.  We do normal outings such as OB appointments, play dates, library, post-office, and groceries.

22 months (Nov 20 - Dec 20)

Spencer is 22 months!  Thanksgiving was nice.  Brian was on call so we stayed here and had dinner with a family in our ward (the Andersons).  Then Spencer and I headed down for Becca's wedding.  It was fun to see Becca so happy and getting married.  I just missed Spencer the whole time though, and will mainly just make appearances at non-kid weddings in the future.  He also got sick when we came back so we had a long week or so of recovery.  

Getting ready for Christmas was very exciting.  We started a family tradition!  It's called Christmas Lights Drive.  We wait until dark, all get in our PJs and get in our car together.  We snuggle under blankets and drive around hunting for the best Christmas lights in town.  Spencer was a very good spotter and would excitedly exclaim "Christmas lights!" as soon as he saw some.  It was so fun and the most creative family night activity we've ever had.  I'm excited to keep doing it as a family.  

This particular Saturday Brian asked Spencer what he wanted for breakfast.
He replied "maybe, pancakes."  Even though he says maybe it is very affirmative.  

Spencer has been really into the moon lately!  Brian and him look for it at night and talk about it.  Spencer frequently points it out on our car rides.  (The sun does set at 4pm so we see it frequently!) Spencer has even started drawing moons, both full moons and half moons.  

Spencer feeding our friend's baby, Joy.  He was very serious about this task!

Spencer loves the baby turtles at the local children's museum.  

 Brian and Spencer's date one Saturday morning. 

We are having a little girl!

Our trip up to the JSM to see their Christmas lights.  They even had a covered bridge of Christmas lights to drive through.  

What a handsome, nice, hard working dermatologist I have... I sure love him!  Here he is solving the mystery of my pregnancy rash.

Brian's work Christmas party was such a nice date.  Unfortunately, it was only our second date since we moved... :/  It was fun to meet all the people Brian spends his working time with.  The event was honestly much more exciting than I thought it was going to be.  Brian was the perfect date; I felt like a celebrity's wife!  Everyone kept coming up to me and telling me how much they LOVE working with Brian.  And Brian was excited to introduce me to all his attendings etc.  Anyways, I really enjoyed myself!

My hair was curled at some point in the afternoon :)  

 Some cute Spencer pics.  One of him going down the slide and one of him in the window!  We don't usually get up there like that...

Brian's co-residents came over and decorated cookies for all the staff at their clinic.  It was a fun party, and we really enjoyed getting together with them.  They are all such good people.  

Spencer and I went down to my parents a couple days before Brian and did some Christmas activities.  

Spencer has been really into our neighboors schedules.  He will verbalize when 

-Renee leaves for work

-Mike's truck is pulling out

-Gracie (Mike's dog) barks, or if shes out

-he hears the upstairs neighboors he says, "neighboors, oh no!"

-he hears an ambulance, "maybe, ambulance"; or a snow plow "snow plow" and will run to the window

Whenever Brian and I leave the house together I'll always ask, "you have keys?" because if we are together he usually drives, and I therefore don't bring keys, or my wallet, or anything really (it's so nice!).  Anyways, Spencer has started asking me when he and I leave the house in the morning the same thing.  He will walk out the door and turn around and say, "keys?" It is so cute! 

21 months (Oct 20 - Nov 20)

Spencer is 21 months now!  This past month we got to celebrate Halloween :)  We had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the fall festivitiets.  First our ward had our Halloween party.  Spencer went as a super cute giraffe and I was a safari guide.  Brian was working.  Probably Spencer's favorite parts of the whole night were seeing a fireman, who also happens to be his nursery leader.  He also loved the balloons.  At the end when everyone went out to Trunk or Treat Spencer and I went to clean up the dance room and he just kicked around the orange balloons for half an hour!  He just kept going and going.  I was called into the primary presidency the Sunday before the Halloween party so Spencer and I helped set-up the day before, run events, and clean up afterwards.  It was a little hard juggling all of it alone with Spencer while Brian was working, but we managed fine and Spencer is such a good sport helping out and being so flexible.  He is my best buddy!

One random afternoon Spencer and I went on a bus ride on the city bus.  We walked to the stop near our house and rode it all the way to Hanover and back.  Spencer loved it!  Here you can see his serious face :)  He spotted all sorts of things out the window and loved not being in a carseat.  He loves doing things by himself and would not sit on my lap, but insisted having his own seat.  

Spencer and I went to a clean the church day.  They were cleaning out the nursery and we brought home this baby doll.  I picked a girl because I was so confident we were going to have a girl.  Here Spencer is giving his new doll a little drink while she sleeps with her blankey near-by.  I am excited for him to become a big brother!

Spencer has been interested in the potty for a month or so and we have started letting him flush for us.  This month we did some potty time and Spencer pees in the potty lots.  I'm planning on doing some more direct potty training after our Thanksgiving travels and am excited to see how it goes.  

We painted pumpkins with our friends Luisa and Molly.  

Nate, Mindy, Holden & Isaac came to visit during Halloween!  Mindy and I took the boys to a Senior Center in town to do some trick or treating.  It was really fun.  All the seniors loved the boys and the boys loved them... and the candy!  It was fun to be in a senior center with Mindy.  During our college days we would go to the Senior Center near BYU and talk to people or sing to them.  It was a little blast from the past, except this time we had our cute boys with us!

We also hiked up to Boston Lot lake during their visit.  It was beautiful!  And we went to our town's Halloween party and played some games, rode in a horse drawn carriage, saw firetrucks, and took pictures with Elmo!  Holden is all about racing and Spencer quickly picked it up.  Now whenever we go down to the basement to do laundry he says "set go!" and we have to do a little racing before heading back upstairs.  

We got a fair amount of candy from our various Trick or Treating activities and chocolate is by far Spencer's favorite type.  He never really got down saying Trick or Treat, but still ended up with lots of treats!

Spencer, Isaac & Holden

Spencer and Brian throwing rocks off the bridge into Boston Lot Lake. 

Catch with Dad :)

It was such nice weather one day Spencer and I decided to have a little picnic in our backyard.  I just love the sun!  There is something about soaking up it's rays that just enthuses my skin and soul.  

Connect 4 is a special game to Brian and I.  We have started playing it through Spencer... which means we have him place a red piece then a black piece then red then black etc. until one of the colors has won.  It's fun to watch and Spencer gets a kick out of our reactions to his placement.  :)

Spencer has discovered how fun it is to walk around in Mom & Dad's shoes.  He will just come out of another room clomping along and smiling :)

Grandma and Grandpa Harper came up to hang out with us for a day! It was so fun.  Spencer's favorite part was our family home night.  We hid the mini pumpkins for him to find, played Connect 4, and read books cozy style (under a blanket) on the couch.  

A couple different walks from this month: me and Spencer while up in the woods behind our neighboorhood, and Brian and Spencer while hiking up by the hospital.  

Spencer love his Papa, and decided to join him on the floor during scriptures one night.  

Spencer and his friends from left to right: Bobo, Fluffy, Ma, Spencer, and Gigi.  

Fluffy we got from the Dr's at his 20 month visit.  After his shots he didn't cry and the nurse was so relieved she asked me if she could go get something fluffy for him.  I said yes and she came back with this little bear that Spencer has named Fluffy :)  Ma is one of those Aden and Anais swaddly blankets.  Spencer was swaddled in them for the first 4 months of his life and has continued to sleep with them since.  He will ask for Ma sometimes when he is tired, or sad.... or even if he just wants her for no reason.  We don't let her leave the house, but he will often bring her around with him from room to room.  Thank heavens we have 5 of them!  If Spencer spots one while helping with laundry he gets soooo happy!  If its dry he runs away laughing saying "dry Ma!" Gigi was a gift from Grandma Earnshaw (technically his great-grandma) that she gave him before he was even born.  I accidentally referred to it as Gigi one time and the name has forever stuck.  And you know about Bobo already.  These are his cuddly friends.  

Halloween was definitely the first holiday that Spencer has really gotten into.  We checked out a couple Halloween books from the library and he has loved learning about ghosts, skeletons and especially witches!  He LOVED the book "Brooms are for Flying" by Micheal Rex and had the whole thing memorized before I had to return it to the library.  

We also went on frequent walk to see "Halloween".  Which means the house the next street over that was all decked out for Halloween.  Any time we drove by he would say "Halloween!"