And now, some Shae...

Ahem, I mean, Ryder. Meet Ryder:

 He likes to bring his dogs (Zuma, Skye, Chase, Marshall, Rocky, and Rubble) with him everywhere we go.

 He will make it known that he is Ryder if you call him something different.

Those (invisible) dogs have become his bestest friends.

Seriously though, Paw Patrol. He loves it. We watched it like, once at my parents house when we were visiting. It's not on Hulu or Netflix so we never watched it again, but then found a DVD at the library and the obsession began. It was super cute at first, then got ridiculous because he began having melt downs when people wouldn't call him Ryder or one time one of his friends "threw" the dogs off the play equipment and he LOST IT. We're now at a happy place where he can be Ryder at home or in the car, but Ryder and the dogs have to stay in the car when we are with friends, at church, at joy school, etc.... it was just too much for anyone to handle. Now that we are at our happy place, I really do love seeing him in his pretend Paw Patrol world, going on rescue missions with the dogs to save daddy from the big brown chair or to get Belén out of her bed, or whatever other random missions he comes up with.

Shae has really grown out of "toddler" over the past few months and looks and acts so much like a little boy KID to me. (Although the toddler behavior sometimes still shines through).

I can't get enough of him and this backwards hat look.

 

"Look mom, I'm a strong football man."

Like I said in my last post, he's quite the big brother leader. He does it, she follows. "Come on Belén, let's get our squirt bottles and go outside." She silently follows. (She is sssooooo quiet next to him).

 

You take a bath, I take a bath. You play with ladle, I play with ladle. 

Poor girl has no idea what's coming.

You drop your towel and run away from mommy, I drop my towel and run away from mommy.

He made a semi-pretend picnic for us at the library a few weeks back and couldn't have been happier. He even set a plate for daddy and kept on saying that he was waiting for daddy to come (even though he was at school).

Our sweet little baseball loving boy.

He could play at the Science Center ALL DAY.

Shae is mastering the camera skilllssss! Maybe I can be in more pictures!

I know sleeping pictures of Shae are probably only cute to me, but seriously, when he is go go go every second of the waking hours, this really is such an amazing sight to see. Here we are coming back from the library, holding on to his Paw Patrol book, he just couldn't make it. I drove around a bit to see if Belén would take her nap in the car too and she would not, so I parked in front of our apartment, quickly brought her up to her bed, opened the window a crack and sat on the stairs outside so that I could hear/semi-see both of them. What a wild nap day.

And one more sleeping pic, because I couldn't resist! Darin had a random fever sick day last week and was asleep in our room where Belén usually naps, so I ended up putting her in her room. I had a lot of work to do so I still needed Shae to do quiet time. I turned on a Dr. Seuss audio book for him in the livign room with some cars to play with and snuck away to the bathroom so that he wouldn't talk to me. When the book finished I came out to turn it back on and found this! Never thought the day would come where this kid would fall asleep in random places, but he knows when he's tired.

Being three can be so hard some days, on both of us. Take a picture so we can both look back and laugh some day, right? 

Shae is really into this ABC song of Daniel Radcliffe on Jimmy Fallon. He also LOVES the Barbra Ann Jimmy Fallon video and could watch it over and over again.

Makes friends SO easily. When we go to the park he quickly walks over to whoever is there and plays with them. It was so funny to watch him milk his friendship with these two 8 year old girls to get them to help him around the playground when he can totally do it himself..."I can't do it...heeelllpp me...I need you to help me."

Just some little things from the past few months that I want to remember:

Prayer after Mother's Day church where I received a Dove chocolate bar:

"Heavenly Father, I wish I could be a mommy so that I could have a chocolate bar someday."

Pointing out people in our pictures on the wall:

"Daddy, Mommy, Jimmy Fallon!" (pointing to Darin's mission plaque picture)

He started saying "All dem!" (All of them) all the time, for everything.

Me: Do you want some milk?

Shae: Yes, I want all dem!

Me: Let's read some books.

Shae: I want all dem!

While driving in the car:

Me: Shae please stop kicking the back of my chair.

Shae: I can't mom, my feet are in outer space.

While talking about going on the metro in D.C.:

"I can't wait to go on the mattress!"

One day when my glasses fogged up coming in the house:

"Woah mom, why your glasses so soggy?" 

At my parents house:

"I go upstairs and get the toys out of Ammon's garage." (The attic door is in Ammon's bedroom where all the toys are...attic, garage, it's all the same).

Lot's of election talk going on over the past few months:

"Monson and 'Bama are our prophets! They come to visit me in my house. Who is John Kasick again? We have to vote for Monson and 'Bama!"

During FHE while talking about talents.

Me: What are some of daddy's talents?

Shae: Hhhmmm...I know! Daddy is good at counting! And he knows the alphabet!

The month where he had invisible number friends, 1 to 20 to be exact. This kind of led in to the dogs and took over, but the numbers were fun because he would say things like, "Mom, can 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and...come with us." He would way it so fast and go up to 20, every. single. time. It all started when it was 1's birthday and we made him a special lunch to eat with us.

Finding letters on things and saying, "There's an E for me! There's an A for me! There's an S for me! There's and H for me!" Once at Target a guy was wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt and Shae said, "Mom! Where that man going with my S and E!?" 

How he thinks that any of those 4 letters START his name. He says all the time, "H start with Shae! E start with Shae!" Still trying to help him understand the difference between beginning, middle, and end." 

Eppie will say, "I start with E" and Shae will say, "Me too!" hahahahaha, oh man, kind of funny to me.

The way he says piano (pan-eeo) and telescope (skelescope). 

So in love with this little boy. He sure does make life fun!