A Few of Our Favorite Things

We went to the mall this week and Curt had a blast. That is thanks mostly to his really cool older cousin Tyler. Tyler let Curt hold his finger instead of holding mine-what's cooler than walking around the mall with your cousin? Then Tyler rode the carousel with Curt-about 7 times. And if that alone didn't make it the best day at the mall ever, Tyler even rode the escalator with Curt-again and again and again. He was absolutely in heaven. And of course I was really happy because I didn't have to ride the carousel-Tammy was actually holding Curt because she is an awesome aunt, and I got to sit and eat a cheese dog on a stick. One of my favorite unhealthy foods!
On the way home he fell asleep and had chocolate smeared all over his face from the treat his Aunt Tammy gave him as he got into the car. I have to say he is a pretty lucky little boy.
This picture is sideways-again I am very technologically challenged, but it is one of my favorites. It shows how deep his love of animals is. A few weeks ago Curt and Miguel were sick so they stayed home from church and this is what I came home to. I had even put Curt in the tub before I left, so I knew he was clean and he just really wanted to wear his pajamas that have lions and elephants and snakes and rhinos and giraffes on them. But apparently he opened his bottom drawer, where we are storing his 12 month old clothes and found his pajama bottoms that have lizards and frogs on them. So he was not content until he could wear both. Who can say that animal print doesn't go with animal print?
This is us at the Draper temple open house. It was really beautiful. At first, Curt was amazing. We walked by the baptismal font and I told him about being baptized and how you go all the way under the water and then afterward he reinacted it for me and even when he looked at a picture of the font he reminded me of how we get baptized. As the tour went on, Curt ran under the ropes to the roped off section and even banged on the stained glass windows. Needless to say, I was beyond mildly embarrassed, but he did learn about the baptismal font, so it wasn't a total loss.
Notice how there are not many pictures of me pregnant, and now I feel like I'm about twice the size I was in this photo....



Curt is absolutely crazy about his animals. He has a collection of more than 30 that he will name and then show it to me for me to name it. Then he will tell me about it-like if it has a tail or paws. He does not take a bath unless all of his animals take a bath with him. He then lines them up along the side of the tub while he points out which ones have spots and so on. Just yesterday he was getting frustrated when he was putting them in the tub and I realized that he needed them to be on their sides. The turtles who can't be on their sides had to be flipped on their backs. I guess he doesn't think they will get clean if they stand up... He always makes sure the animals are facing the same direction. One day in church he spent the entire hour of sacrament trying to get his animals to line up in a circle around some crackers. Since we were sitting on a padded bench, it was very difficult. Man, he has a lot of patience!
I just had to throw in this picture because sometimes I get thinking that he is so big and responsible and he can do so much that he couldn't before. This is all true, but just like before, he still knows how to make big messes and apparently it is still just as enjoyable for him. What a crazy little guy. I'm glad we have him around to keep our sense of humor in check.
Miguel bought him a keyboard and he loves to turn it on and pound on the keys. He also walks around the house playing the recorder, which naturally makes such a lovely sound, but when a two year old blows as hard as he can into it, it is even more wonderful than you can imagine!