Parenting Experiments with Our Little Copycat

In our last post, we mentioned that Dean has acquired a "Count" laugh from watching Seasame Street twice a week. So, we just had to post this video of him laughing like that. (Just ignore Brittany laughing in the background...:)) He is picking up so much so fast lately!

Whenever he hears music, on TV for example, he will immediately start dancing around the room. When he hears an airplane fly by, or train go by he immediately says "airplane!" or "train!" and mimicks the sound. He's also recently started clapping and laughing whenever he notices anyone else doing so, and singing along to a lot more of his favorite songs (Wise Man, Foolish Man; Row, Row, Row Your Boat; Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam; and even You Came From a Land). We were floored this week when he successfully started counting to ten without any help, and can't help laughing when he repeats our first names, or pet names for each other, when we say them in front of him.

We've had a lot of successes, but we also know we have a lot to learn trying to teach our "guinea pig" first child through example.

We would love it if he would listen everytime when we say "No, we don't do that, it's not nice"; "Come over here, please"; and "Bring me that _____, please." We'd be set! Seems like the more we try, the less he listens. Which when it comes down to it, makes sense, because we pay more attention to him when he doesn't do it. Kids really are the master manipulators aren't they? 

Prime example: we got home from the store and were putting groceries away, when we noticed he was "helping" take the cans out of the bags and stacking them. Just watching us do it, he started to do what he saw. So, we're going to try and be better "models" with less "lecturing" and see how that works out for us.

We're even going to challenge ourselves a bit more and try another experiment Brittany came across in her Parenting class this week: not saying "Good Job!" so much when he does something right. We have definitely noticed how it has made him very dependent on our praise and attention, and need to remedy that. We're going to try and ask him questions like "How did you do that?" or "How does it feel when you help Mommy/Daddy?" that will help him see/find the pleasure in a task himself, instead of thriving on our opinions and attention completely. It won't be easy...but we're going to do our darndest to break ourselves of the habit! (If you're interested in learning more about this Parenting Tip, click here for the article that was discussed in Brittany's class.)

We know we are so lucky to have such a great kid and to have such wonderful support as new parents. We just love when Dean does something new and exciting that we can share; and when we see how difficult raising an independent, smart, and obedient child really is, we are thankful that our parents didn't give up on us. Parenting really is the biggest eye-opener, challenge, and joy isn't it? Thanks to our wonderful parents who've been there for all our manipulating and formative years. You really are amazing!!!! And to all those raising their own kids at the moment...we understand! At least more than we used to anyway.

Dean is currently in the kitchen throwing grocery bags up and then saying "Wee!" while they fall down to the ground again. What a funny kid! Better go clean them up.

Love,

The James Anderson Family

Family Fun and Movie Reviews

We think Dean has been enjoying our outtings lately.

Thursday night we went to Taco Time, just to get out. We let him run around and say "Hi!" to everyone--like he does everytime he sees someone new--we love it. Then we sat him in a high chair and got our usual lime and napkins, etc. Well, Brittany was trying to get him to smell her lime, when he took it and licked it. Of course, he made the silliest sour face, and we couldn't help laughing. Because we laughed, what does he do? Continues to lick the lime over and over and does his recently acquired "The Count laugh" after each lick. He had us laughing so loud, and this cute elderly couple a couple booths over were giggling right along with us.  Then we went home and turned on Finding Nemo, he was literally 2 inches from the TV saying "fishy!" and "wow...cool!" the whole time. That's the first time we've ever seen him like that with any movie. It was pretty cute, and of course it's a great movie. He's so entertaining!

Friday night we went for a free family date at Fat Cats. We had pizza and saw Gnomeo and Juliet. All we can say is, it was a good thing it was free! We weren't impressed with the film at all, even though there were a few funny moments, and couldn't figure out how it got rated G. However, the pizza, and being able to let Dean run around and play, we did enjoy. He got to ride with Kermit the Frog and smack some sharks, which won him 15 tickets to spend on a small piece of candy and a stretchy frog toy.

Then Saturday we had a ward party "Fiesta!" We made some apple crisp to share with everyone and it turned out pretty great. We sat with our home teachers and let Dean run around the whole time with the bigger kids. He had a blast! The ward pitched in for the meal: authentic tamales, nacho fixings, enchaladas, etc. and it sure was delicious! Plus they did two pinatas for all the kids to enjoy. It was a small crowd, compared to other ward gatherings, but we were glad we went after all.

We also saw two other movies this week through Netflix that we thought were pretty good if you want to check them out. Flipped, rated PG, is a cute movie that is really wise about how relationships work when you're in first grade through middle school. We enjoyed it a lot. And Alpha and Omega, also rated PG, got some bad reviews apparently, and wasn't spectacular, but we thought it was entertaining. It is an animated, wolf story about how traditions and obligations don't always mesh with falling in love. The writing was pretty funny.

This week was also Brittany's 7 month mark, so we decided to include one picture of her belly for you all to enjoy. :)

One last little tidbit. Dean has started saying small sentences now! He says: "Bye, see you later!", "there it is!", "let's go!", and a few new, harder words like, "please" when he wants something. We're very impressed with our smart little going to be 17 month old tomorrow!

Love,

The James Anderson Family

Valentine's Day

We hope you all had a great Valentine's weekend! We sure did! We took advantage of the weekend and celebrated V-Day on Saturday, since it falls on a busy Monday this year.

As many of you may know, James and Brittany's first Valentine's Day together was celebrated by him coming to visit her up at school and taking her to the Valentine's Day Ball. She gave him a picture frame will 100 Reasons she loved him, and he sent her red Tulips. Well, this year we had another wonderful celebration in the same spirit as our first one together.

Brittany got a beautiful garnet maternity dress (on clearance) to wear, and James got some new dress shoes for $6 at Deseret Industries (that are high end and in great condition); so we decided to go dancing at the Center Stake Adult Valentine's Day dance. Brittany gave James a compilation of all the love notes we have written to each other, through Face Book messaging, since we started dating, and James came home with an arrangement of red Tulips for Brittany.

Thanks to Brittany's cousin Heather, who agreed to watch Dean, we were able to leave at 7. We were too early for the dance, that started at 8, so we went and shared a Cold Stone ice cream, and then went and danced for an hour and a half before going home. It was so nice: to dance together again, and to watch the dance groups perform, but most especially, to go out just us two on such a nice date! Brittany, being 7 months pregnant on Tuesday, wasn't able to swing it like she usually does, but it was still so much fun. Even the sunset was beautiful!

We had a lot of fun having dinner with Heather and listening to how things are going for her, and watching Dean eat his chocolate-covered animal crackers that were left on our doorstep from his lil' girlfriend Shayla in a Lion box. His first Valentine! They are so cute to do that. It was really a fun day and we are so thankful that we had so many awesome people around us to help us enjoy it so much.

Love,

The James Anderson Family

Game Day

GO PACKERS!

Okay, so none of us are die-hard Green Bay Packer fans, or Super Bowl junkies, but we had such a fun time watching the game. Have to say it was even more fun knowing that everyone was expecting the Steelers to win. It was a pretty close game at the end and had us out of our seats cheering. Plus, just being able to eat great food with great company is enough of a reason to gather for the occasion.

Our good friends the Nielsen's invited us to their new home in Rigby and it is always nice watching their now 11 month old, red-headed girl, Shayla, and Dean romp around together. We always love hanging out with them; feels like family. Their new place is so perfect for them and definitely feels like their home already. So great to have such awesome friends!

Pizza from Papa Murphy's, pomegranite 7-Up, chicken/bacon salad, bean dip, cookies, and chips, and the babies having fun playing with toys while us adults chatted and cheered, made for a good time. Dean and Shayla did so well together, and we loved when Dean would mimick our cheering or booing during the game. The commercials were over-the-top as usual, especially the Pepsi commercials, hahaha. And the half-time show would have been amazing had the sound been on target instead of muffled by the crowds. The lights were pretty darn cool though, we thought, and at least it wasn't as entertaining as a "wardrobe malfunction," right? We'll take Black-Eyed Peas over that anyday. :)

Added some pictures and recipes of our contributions to the feast. Hope you all enjoyed Game Day as much as we did.

Love,

The James Anderson Family

More Handsome and a Little Lighter Too

We've started a Dad and son haircut tradition. Whenever Great-Clips coupons come in the mail, we go to Idaho Falls so James and Dean can get their haircuts together. It's always a traumatizing experience that leaves Dean ready to zonk-out once he gets back in his carseat, even with his precious lollipop treat. But by the time we get around to going to get haircuts for these two, they are in dire need of them!

Notice Exhibit A: Hair down to his eyes almost and too much to handle. Love how parts of it were always sticking-out funny after naps, car-rides, clothes-changes, playtime, etc. It was cute, but the time to move on had come.

The problem is that Brittany doesn't ever want to cut off his baby curls, and frankly, is scared of cutting his hair so short that he looks bald, or silly. How do you know what haircut will look good on a toddler? But as you can see we got it cut anyway, and the final results are pretty darn good looking. Thank goodness. Just look at these GQ photos! 

Like father, like son. Now they both look more handsome and a little lighter too. It's one of the small things that makes such a big difference.

Love,

The James Anderson Family

Notre Petit Artiste

Just had to share the beautiful abstract art that our 16 month old has been creating lately.  

We also have a couple cute stories we must tell. First, James is taking a voice class at the college in which he does voice warm-ups, and records his practices to help give him a better sense of what to work on. Well, Dean found the tape-recorder and started singing into it like he saw Daddy doing, and then proceeded to go around the house singing "tee-tay-toe-ta-too!" for the rest of the evening. We thought it was pretty priceless.

He also, lately, when we ask him if he's sleepy, will go right over to his toddler bed and wait to be tucked in. Can't complain about that!

As far as the rest of us, Brittany had an appointment this week for her glucose screening and RH shot. Luckily, her glucose levels were great, but her iron levels were pretty low. So, we added some chewable iron supplements (that taste like cherries) to her nightly vitamin regimen. We also got a voucher for a free date night at Fat Cats from her doctors and are excited to use it to help us celebrate Valentine's Day this year! Whoo-hoo! Riley seems to be doing just fine in there, and her heartbeat sounded good and strong, we're happy to report.

This weekend we're excited to cook up some yummy snacks and treats to enjoy an evening with our friends for Super Bowl Sunday. Brittany found this great recipe for Southwest Bean Dip and has been waiting for an occasion to try out her cousin Fawn's devil's food cake and rolo cookies, so it should be a lot of fun.

Hope you are all doing well and having a Happy February.

Love,

The James Anderson Family