My mother's day present- late but great

I'm so excited, we finally got my mother's day present all finished. I had known what it was since mother's day when we bought the bougainvillea, but we had to wait until kenny had enough time to work on it. It was worth the wait.
We went from this:

To this:

The gift included the hand-made cedar raised bed and trellis, soil (since the soil on our property is only 100 years or so from being a rock), bougainvillea, and herbs (parsley, rosemary, dill, oregano, basil, and my own favorite, lemon thyme).
The idea is to train the bougainvillea to climb the trellis and give our bathroom window some cover so I can take baths in our nice big garden tub without having the shades pulled all the way down. It will take a few years, but I'm so excited for the green light to filter through that big window!

Bougainvillea's a gorgeous flower, I've completely fallen in love with it:

Better yet, since Kenny built everything, we were able to build it on a very tight budget. (herbs themselves only cost a couple bucks). Up front I've also planted some lavender, and we're trying to figure out a place to place some mint that we can keep it easily controlled. I still need to buy (and find room for) some sage, some marjoram, and some chives and I'll pretty much have my old garden back!

I was VERY into herb gardening in high school and leaving that garden behind in Washington was the hardest thing about moving out. The smells bring back such memories!


Thanks for the fabulous, work-intensive gift, Kenny!

Ways in which the Terrible Twos aren't so terrible

We've loved having a two-year-old. Seriously. I'd take 26-month old Daniel over 20-month-old Daniel any day. The perks of having a two-year-old:

• I can figure out what he wants- he now has 82 words in his vocabulary! That's HUGE progress for us. Sure, 80 of those words use only 4 consonants- b, d, m and s; and for some reason he's decided "w" makes a good replacement for "k", and I still can't understand him 60% of the time, but I'll happily take that 40% and run with it.
• He can now correctly operate a fork and spoon on his own. My days of spoon-feeding him yogurt are over.
• He's a great helper with Daddy in the garage:
  
  
  
  
• He can hold his own banana. You have no idea how happy this makes me.
• He understands that no matter how much he wants to wiggle during a diaper change, I WILL WIN. Mommy always wins, no use resisting.
• His drawings kind of resemble things. I LOVE the intense look of concentration he has as he draws a very random-looking squiggle, then informs me that it is a baby shark. He will then draw a smaller squiggle on it, and tell me with great pride it is an "eye" for the baby shark.
• He cleans up his own messes. He will take any dirty dish in the house and throw it in the sink (had a few broken dishes, but, oh well). He does not tolerate video game controllers being left out- he will put them on the appointed shelf, every time. He also does not allow the TV to be left on. (toys on the floor are a different story)
• He can brush his own teeth without me tackling and sitting on him... and likes to brush them 6 times a day (I "help" at least a couple times to make sure it's done thoroughly)
• He can climb into his own car seat- as I get more and more pregnant, this seems like a gift from God. 
• He helps feed the dogs- including his own stuffed dog:
  
  
• He knows how to keep a pen on paper rather than a desk or wall. Not saying he always does, but... at least he knows the difference
• He can "read" on his own- mommy is no longer needed to point out things of interest in a book
• He understands what we say so well. If we mention pancakes or swimming, even in passing, he will throw his little arms above his head and shout "yay!". Nothing is more gratifying than cooking pancakes for a kid running around with his hands in the air shouting "yay! bapay, bapay!!" ("bapay" means pancake, for those who don't speak toddler)
• He is a good playmate. The playgroup ladies were telling me that even though he's afraid to go down the slide himself (remember how he sprained his hip on a slide? yeah still not over that) he likes to sit next to the big step before the slide and help boost all the other kids up there. 
• He no longer prefers mommy over daddy (this may have a lot to do with Daddy being home for summer, and how amazingly fun he is next to boring, tired mommy- I'm not offended in the slightest). 
• He takes after his mommy and is very empathetic. A lady was crying while baring his testimony at church this month, and from the back row he started telling me, quite concerned, that she was sad, then blowing kisses and air-hugs at her, and finally offering her goldfish by holding them up in her direction and saying "nom nom nom"
• He can notify me of future diaper-fillings. I know having a kid point to an empty diaper and tell you "poo" may not SEEM like a big deal, especially when the "big event" can happen anytime in the next hour, but he knows it is in there. This gives me hope that someday he will be potty-trained. 
• He does cute things like this- he removes the armrest cover from the couch and uses it as a tailor-made, camouflage blanket:
  
  

The draw-backs of having a two-year-old:

• Sacrament meeting*. Enough said.

*For non-mormon readers, church for us is three hours long. The first hour and a half, the entire congregation, from newborn to ancient, sits in pews together and (hopefully) quietly listens to speakers and prayers (the second half of church, the 18-month-olds and up get to go to nursery or sunday school and mommy gets some sanity). Keeping a two-year-old still and quiet for that first portion of church is nothing short of a miracle. Fortunately most people there are wrangling their own children (or have in the past) and understand if Daniel occasionally roars like a dinosaur.