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.