Recent Paul News

He'll be officially two and a half on New Years day, and he is a ham of all hams! A comment I get very frequently about Paul is that he "has so much personality". Maybe that's just something people say to you when your two year old looks like a handful, but I still take it as a compliment. Do you say "thank you" if someone says something nice about your child? This mother's still trying to figure that one out...

Funny Paulisms as of late...

1. While busily preparing Paul's breakfast, I was half listening to his babblings as he sat strapped in his high chair. Then I heard him say, "ready... set.... GO! Mom come chase me!" Then in a more melancholy voice he said "I can't really run...." More happily he added, "but I can pretend!" as his legs gesticulated frantically in his high chair.

2. We have a little 3D twisty, block, mind puzzle thing that you're supposed to be able to twist into all sorts of fun shapes. The only shape I can make out of it consistently is a straight line or, as Paul calls is, a "choo choo train". When Rachel and JC came over, JC made it into a sphere. So the next day Paul urged me to do the same and make it into a ball shape. I gave up and handed Paul my mangled attempt. He just looked at it and said, "Mommy, you can't make a ball." After a short pause he added, "Mommy, you are a girl and a woman."

3. Paul and I were driving together without Blair because "daddy was sick". Blair was suffering through the worst of the flu. Paul told me matter of factly, "Daddy is sick. Daddy's head hurts. Daddy's toe hurts. Daddy's knee hurts. Poor daddy! We will put Neosporin on him to make him feel better." (For those who were like me growing up and never used the stuff, Nesporin  is an antibacterial ointment used on open wounds. My slightly more germ-conscious husband introduced me when we married.)

4. Lately, Paul likes to pretend he can read words he sees. He saw the package of baby wipes and told me as boldly and clearly as possible while pointing at the words, "Mommy, it says 'Wipe. Your. Bum'!"


Paul's favorite and overused phrases right now:

• "What did I say?" He asks this whether he just said something or not, and just likes the confused answers he gets from people when he keeps saying this over and over again.
• "I have an idea!" This is another one that mommy falls for every time. He doesn't really have an idea he wants to share, he just wants my attention and to hear me say, "What? What's your idea?"
• "Guess what!" Yet again, I'll never learn. There's nothing exciting he wants to share! Why? Why do I keep buying it?
• "Actually" This is said very know-it-all like before suggesting the very opposite of what I just said. 
• "You're right" My personal favorite. I'm not sure how it got started, but I hope it never goes away!
• "Oh" Another favorite of mine. This is said with a humble expression and often several times in a row. This is usually used after I use an "actually" phrase with him. I think he picked this up from his Cousin Gene, because Paul will often say, "Gene says 'Oh'". 
• "Yesterday" This is used to describe any event from the past, whether it was a year ago or two minutes ago. 
• "Home Depot" For some reason, saying this puts him into a fit of laughter.
• "After that" He uses this little pair to find out what's happening after something he doesn't want to do. "But what are we doing after that?"
• "Okay?" Said very long and drawn out, this is usually used after he explains in detail what he thinks the day's plans are. Example: "We will go to grandma's house, and then we will go to the park and after that I will have a chocolate. Okay?" 
• "No!" Do I even need to mention this one? He's two, that should be all you need to know.

 Other Favorites
Time of day: Paul loves early mornings. Even on the weekends he wakes up at 6:00am the most insanely happy person you can imagine. Ug...
Jumping to music: The daily ritual includes turning on some peppy, keyboard music to repeat, (oh bring back my Bonnie to me, to me!!!!) removing the couch cushions and jumping on the couch base like a trampoline. Now before you start judging me, I did think long and hard about allowing him to do this, and there are limits and conditions. Regardless, it has been one of the most wonderful things that has bought me many precious alone times.
Immitating people: Yes, this little guy has Whitaker blood for sure! He is surprizingly talented at mimicking voice, influction, and/or speach impediments of other people he hears. And, just like his Whitaker relatives, includes a hearty laugh at his own hilarity. Its pretty crazy! Perhaps that's one reason he learned to talk so early...
Books: I bought him a cheep book of Nursery Rhymes from Ross and he LOVES this book. His favorite rhymes are Mother Goose, Old King Cole, and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. He also loves any book with trains, no matter how long and boring the storyline. If there are pictures of trains he'll enjoy it.
Songs: Book of Mormon Stories, Child's Prayer (Paul calls it "Kingdom"), The Farmer in the Dell,
Foods: His favorites right now are chocolate, blueberries, cheese, chicken, and yogurt. So, people keep telling me two year olds have no appetite and they slim out. Yeah, that hasn't happened yet for Paul. He's gotten taller, sure, but he's still is covered in dimples and rolls and can out-eat his mommy at any meal.
Vehicle: The train is still the winner! Woo woo! (Is that punny?)





Nighttime News
He's recently discovered he's afraid of the dark. After a few nights of panic and running out of the room, we got into a new nighttime and nap time routine which includes a nightlight, an open bedroom door and the words, "I'll come check on you in a couple of minutes". Gotta love the ever-changing needs of children. It makes parenting interesting and fun!

Pumpkin Patch!

Below are a few photos taken while at Bi Zi Farm's pumpkin patch earlier this month. That place was the size of an amusement park, I swear! 

Having Gary, Emma and their kids come along made it even more fun! 

Paul loved climbing the hay pyramid and crawling through the tunnels!

We got to choose some pumpkins from one of several gigantic pumpkin patch fields. I wish I took more pictures of us actually in the field. This was the best one I could find.

The corn pit was awesome!

Farm animals!

Freshly pressed cider!

TRACTOR!!! Of all the fancy stuff they had to do there, this was the boys' favorite attraction: a parked tractor. They did not want to get off for a good 40 minutes or so.

Here's a list of just SOME of the things they had at this crazy fun pumpkin patch: 

• live band
• tractor rides
• giant corn maze
• haybale maze
• petting zoo
• cider pressing
• food
• free drinks (hot cocoa)
• haybale pyramid with tunnels (Paul's favorite)
• pony rides
• a corn pit to play in
• pumpkin launching (Blair's favorite)
• and of course a huge pumpkin patch

Those were just the things we happened to see. We didn't see all of it though. We'll definitely be visiting that farm again in the future!

Halloween

Paul was a train conductor for Halloween. I had thought about making Paul's costume, but saw this one online for $20 and caved.

This was the first year Paul got to do real trick or treating in a neighborhood. He and his cousin were practicing saying "trick or treat" the whole time they were at peoples' front door, but as soon as the door opened, both Paul and his two-year old cousin froze. It happened at almost every single house. 

At one of the houses, "uncle Gary" urged the boys to say it nice and loud. So Paul was in the middle of yelling it at the top of his lungs (and he's got some lungs, let me tell you!) when the door opened, causing him to freeze mid sentence,

"TRICK OR TR----" 

The lady at the door just laughed.

"Boy Big Bed"

Paul fell out of his crib.

We knew it was coming. It happened two weeks ago. He's pretty good (most of the time) about not standing or jumping on furniture, but I was not motivated enough to be a nazi about it while he was in his crib. I strongly discouraged it, but I guess he needed a hard lesson involving a flip over the crib railing and a back-slam to the floor.

Luckily, Paul does take these hard lessons to heart and is usually more careful after getting hurt. But that didn't stop us from taking the leap (finally) and converting his crib into a toddler bed.

Blair made the change while Paul and I were eating dinner. When Paul was finished eating we watched him walk into his room. We waited to hear his reaction.

There was a long pause...

Finally, we hear, "It's brokened!"

Then a little more excitedly, "It's BROKENED!!!!"  followed by laughter. "I get in myself!"

In the one minute it took me to walk to his room, he had climbed in and out about a dozen times by the sound of it. Then he stood still for a moment in front of his "brokened" crib, with a look of awe, silently seeking answers to this humongous change that just took place in his little world.

I explained that babies sleep in cribs, "This is a big boy bed because you are a big boy".

Paul looked at me, and his confused expression quickly morphed into the most delightedly ecstatic (yet, slightly mischievous) grins I had ever seen on his face. He looked back at the "big boy bed" and gave a deep, slow chuckle that gradually grew, a lot like one of those deranged bad guys from the old movies.

He kept the manic, deep voice as he repeated, "This my BOY. BIG. BED!"

He resumed his climbing in and out exercise, and I left the room.

Here are some photos taken a few days later.

New Job!

Blair quit his job back in the beginning of March. So, after about six months of searching, Blair was finally offered a job that he felt comfortable accepting. (He did turn down two offers. One that was too similar to his old job and another that was in Wisconsin. Okay, four offers if you include the two from the company he left. That's right. They were begging to have him back, but he wasn't taking it!) We are sooooo incredibly blessed! Not many job-seekers can be as picky as we!

Blair starts working for PGE in Portland on Monday the ninth. Woohoo!!! Of course, he had to be offered a job right before a full week of interviews for other promising - dare I say exciting - jobs. But that's always the way these things go. You don't hear anything for a few weeks, then BAM everyone wants to interview you all at once. In fact, right now Blair is in Wilsonville, interviewing for a company that makes medical devices. You heard me right. Even though  Blair is technically employed by PGE, Blair's still sneaking in this last interview somewhere else. In our defence, the PGE position is actually only a six month contract position, so if he doesn't like it at PGE maybe he could still have a chance with this other company after the six months are up. Plus, getting into the medical field is what he's always said he wanted to do with his engineering degree ever since I met him! How could we pass this up?

So, we are all very relieved and very grateful here in the Hasler home. We weren't panicking yet, but it was getting closer to that point with every month that passed.

I'm just really going to miss having Blair around here during the weekdays. He's such a wonderful husband and daddy! He and Paul are best buds!





These adorable photos were taken while I was out of town. :)

Paul's first prayer

Although I was snorting and puffing and hiding my face behind the wall to suppress laughter, I did have tears of motherly pride in my eyes while Paul said his first prayer. I mean a real genuine, impromptu, no-help-from-mom blessing on his PB & J sandwich kind of prayer.

Honestly, I don't know why I was laughing so hard. His prayer was just right in every way. I was surprised at how well he did considering we don't usually "help" him with prayers in the usual repeat-after-me style. I think I was just overwhelmed with love for this adorable, little human being who was saying what came out of his own little head in prayer to Heavenly Father. Apparently my body had no other way to express that love but through laughter. (Refer to laughter post)

Here's Paul's first prayer, without any help:

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thankful for water,
Thankful for mommy,
Thankful for daddy,
Thankful for Paul,
Thankful for Jesus,
...
Thankful for mana, (banana)
Pwease bwess us be good,
...
Bwess us be safe,
Bwess us for bread,
Bwess us be good,
...
Bwess us be good,
...
Bwess us be good,
...
In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Paul's Birthday #2

This was our birthday-party-in-the-park take number two. Last year it rained and we had to do it in our small apartment. This year the temperature was in the upper nineties! Lucky mister Paul had both sets of grandparents there as well as aunt Reana, uncle Shawn, baby Lincoln, uncle Ethan, uncle Michael and aunt Abigail. 

Trains were the "theme" for this year. He's had an obsession with trains since he was about a year old. (I hadn't even told him what a train was, but he had lined up some blocks in a row, and while pushing it from the back, said "choo choo".  Wierd!) 

This year Paul's gifts included:

• Book or Mormon picture book (he loves reading about "Norman")
• Thomas the Tank Engine coloring book
• Bubble gun (shoots bubbles)
• Mini frisbee
• Some outfits
• Brio wooden train set (This has been his favorite gift by far! The next day he didn't want to eat, sleep or leave the house - just play with his train!)
• Helmet 
• Tricycle (Thanks mom and dad!)
• Soccer goal and ball (Thanks uncle Shawn!)
• Three wind-up motor boats for the bath (Thanks aunt Reana!)
• Sidewalk Chalk (Thanks to the Haslers? We're not too sure where this came from.)
• Four Square Ball (Thanks to the Haslers!)

We somehow found the energy and creativity to throw together a train birthday cake. Even more impressive is the fact that we somehow kept him from seeing it until we got to the park. (Thanks to the distractive skills of aunt Abigail, uncle Michael and uncle Ethan. ) When Paul did see the cake he squealed with delight and asked if he could play with the train. He thought it was a toy! I took that as a compliment.

 

Once Paul discovered the train was not only edible but delicious, he was obsessed with it even more!

Paul was much better at the whole present-opening thing this year than his first birthday. His uncle Michael was a big help and almost more excited about the gifts than Paul! 

Paul was pretty excited about getting to ride his tricycle after waiting for daddy to assemble it! Below you will see the face Paul makes when we ask him to smile.

There was baseball team having a little get-together at the park as well, and they decided to surprise the birthday boy!

Here are a few photos from our trip to the beautiful Rhododendron Gardens a couple months ago. Sorry. I seem to always forget I have a blog.























The last one is my favorite. :)

Paulisms

Hurry! I have to post an update on Paul before he turns two! (Which is this coming Monday.)

Paul's quite the little assistant. After helping aunt Reana cook dinner in the kitchen, he decided he'd also join her in the living room to help watch his cousin Lincoln. In passing, my mom commented on the cute scene, "Oh Paul, are you babysitting?" And when she came back a few minutes later, this is what she saw:

Paul took that babysitting comment very literally! (Yes, that's an apron he has on. He takes his cooking seriously too.)

Here are some more funny Paul moments:

Blair was watching the Heat play the Spurs in the NBA finals. When asked who would win, Paul said something like, "They turn their heaters on."

Paul will often give the order, "mommy, be funny". However, when spending time with Blair, Paul simply pleads, "daddy.... talk!"

How does my almost-two-year-old son play with his toy cars? I overheard this "dialogue" between a toy police car and a delivery truck: "Hi car! I got scratch on my wheel. Awww dear!... I kiss better.... *Muaaa! Oh, thanks!"

The William Tell Overture came on the classical radio station while driving with Paul in the morning. I heard a gasp from the car seat. "It's music!" then after a pause and a slow grin through his thumb-sucking pose, he said in a calm voice oozing with delight, "I like this, mommy."

While at my parent's house, Paul attempted to climb a chair taller than he and I discouraged him by telling him it was dangerous. Immediately he tried again and, again, I told him "no".  After a couple seconds of thought Paul ran into the other room calling "come here, mommy! come here!". I dutifully obeyed my toddler and without skipping a beat he ran into the previous room, quickly peaked around the corner to make sure I was still where he'd placed me, and proceeded to climb the chair.

Paul is an expert at verbal communication and pronunciation... as far as pre-two-year-olds go, anyway. He speaks in sentences up to seven or eight words long and we love asking him to pronounce big words like "internet", "republic", "accidental" etc. because he does an amazing job repeating them back quite accurately. Despite all this, though, Paul has a few words he stubbornly refuses to pronounce correctly. Here's a sampling of those words:

Oatmeal is "EE-oh"
Banana is "Ma-na"
Grandpa is "fafa" although it's beginning to morph into "brah-pa"
Reana is "Rhana"
I apologize for this next one, but please note the "r"...
Truck is "fruck"

He can say all these words correctly just fine, but he prefers his versions for now.

Some of his recent accomplishments include:
Counting to 10 consistently without any help. (With some help he can make it to 30.)
Singing the ABCs
Jumping
Drinking from a cup without purposefully spilling
Saying his full name
Brushing his own teeth (mommy still helps get what he's missed)


Above: Paul loves trying on mommy and daddy's shoes.

Above: Cousin Lincoln's first visit to our place without his mommy or daddy.

Locked out!

Here are the funny stories for the month.

While I was gone teaching last Tuesday, Blair did a lot of housecleaning with Paul at his side: dusting, laundry, vacuuming, etc. (Are you jealous? Yup. That's my man. But don't worry; that's not the funny part.)

Blair was out on the tiny balcony of our second-story apartment wiping and sweeping when...

*click* Paul had managed to lock the sliding glass door with his daddy still outside.

It wasn't intentional, of course. In fact Paul started to beg, "Daddy, come in!" after a few long minutes of futile pointing, explaining, and mock demonstration from Blair through the glass.

There is no possible way to climb down from our balcony without a rope or ladder, neither of which Blair had on hand. The front door was locked as well, so Blair really did feel that he was at the mercy of Paul's little hands.

After ten-ish minutes of this, Blair noticed a downstairs neighbor smoking on her back porch. He got her attention and explained the embarrassing situation asking if she could notify our office managers (who happen to be good friends of ours, haha) and get a key to help him out... er... in.

Thankfully, the office manager was home and all was set right. After Blair told me this story, I said, "well, I hope the apartment looked decent when the manager had to walk in." But of course it was. My fabulous husband had just thoroughly cleaned it. So, that's what makes this event alright in the end. At least everything looked nice as my husband was rescued from our 22 month old's new-found door locking skills. That knocked off 20% of the humiliation points from this incident.

Of course I have to include pictures in my blog post, so here's documentation of something else that only takes place while I'm gone:
Paul chose this "outfit" to wear to bed one night. After carefully hand-picking each article of his pajama ensemble he stood in front of the mirror, looked up and down and exclaimed "awesome!"
(Sorry the pictures are blurry.)

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

First Hair Cut

When my mom said Paul's hair reminded her of Nicholas Cage, I knew it was time to give Paul a hair cut.  So, we decided to do it for Family Home Evening on April 1st (no joke ;) and get his adorable dignity back once and for all. 

Here are some before pictures.

Paul didn't seem too happy about the sound of clippers at a distance, let alone on his head.  So we just sat him in his high chair in the middle of the kitchen and I clipped away with scissors.

I was afraid of that. I thought for certain that me using scissors to trim a wiggly 21-month-old's hair would = a very bad haircut.

 As Paul watched chunks of hair fall down around his face he said,

"It's raining!"




And here is the finished product.

 Although it is shorter than I wanted and a bit choppy looking, I think it turned out alright
.
Here's a random video of Paul. I'm testing out my video-adding skills since I haven't been able to for months. Enjoy! (hopefully)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a happy day!

Jobless

Okay. I said I'd provide a "juicy" post about us. Well, it's not exactly exciting or anything, but it's kind of a big deal to us.

Blair quit his job.

Are you wondering if he has another job lined up? Haha! Nope. We're in full-swing job-search mode. Am I worried? Am I stressed? For some odd reason, no, I'm not.

Maybe that odd reason has something to do with the fact that I finally have my husband back, literally and... emotionally...(?) That job was sucking all the life out of Blair as if it were a dementor slowly eating his soul. That may sound overly dramatic, but if you think of one's soul as one's personality/happiness, I feel that dementor analogy isn't too far from the truth. The more I heard about what he was dealing with, the more I would say to Blair, "you need to get out of there!". Three years is long enough to feel like you're heading off to hell every morning. I honestly do not know how he lasted that long.

Blair is always calm and composed on the outside and he would not write about his experience as dramatically as I am, but I know that underneath that handsome, cool, head he was feeling like this:

(I'm not sure, but I think that picture is supposed to be a man expressing frustration at work. However, as I looked at it longer, I wondered if it might be showing the ecstatic joy of a man who just quit the job he hated. Either way, it works for this post.)

Since quitting, Blair is happy, plays with Paul, plans, creates, and talks (well, as much as a Blair ever did, which isn't much). It's the Blair I know and love!

As far as a new job: we have some promising possibilities. Regardless, I'm just glad he's out of the doom-and-gloom smog and finally has the energy and clarity of mind to look for something new. Meanwhile, I'll be teaching more dance classes at the studio to keep us from eating into our savings too much.

If you hear of anyone needing a super talented and good-looking engineer, let us know!

More Paul - 21 months

Yep another blog post about Paul. Don't worry, we still exist too. In fact, I'm planning a really juicy blog post about Blair and me and what's going on in our lives very shortly. Until then, enjoy more pictures of our current obsession: Paul.

 Paul has really become good friends with his Teddy Bear as of late. He wants to eat, sleep, cuddle, talk and play with him. I even saw Paul "teaching" the bear how to climb on the armchair and turn on the lamp by using the bear's fluffy limb to turn the switch. If the bear falls down Paul will say, "Uh oh! Ochie!" kiss the bear on the head and say "All better!". He loves to just "ug" and "kiss" (or "mua!") the bear just because he loves it so much.

And here are some other random pictures for the blog.

This is what Paul does when we ask him to smile:


Another good "fend" of Paul's is his baby cousin "Ing-kuhn" (Lincoln). Paul talks about "bebe inkun" all the time. He loves to just be near him. Who wouldn't want to be close to that adorable little face?


This was Paul's first trip to the library, which he absolutely LOVED! You wouldn't know it from the pictures, but he was giggling with delight the whole time we were there. Just smile for the camera once please!




Thanks for stopping by!