Bothwell Experiment...Weeds

Let me take you back to the beginning of May. Remi could run wild through our little patch of country:
Now you can't even see him...and he can hardly run wild!
Can't you tell how enthused he is?
After Keith waded chest-deep into the fray, he made an executive decision to pay the neighbor across the street bushwhack the whole property. It took her 2 days to get the job done!

Red Butte Gardens

A few weeks ago I took the kid fellas to meet my parents and sibs at Red Butte Gardens at the University of Utah. We wanted to take advantage of the cool weather, the weekday lack of crowds, and a few free passes. The gardens are kinda pricey...$8 for adults and $6 for kids 3 and up. But, if you are into horticulture or photography, fresh air and the occasional rattlesnake, this place is pretty cool. Oh...and it is BEAUTIFUL! It was surprisingly fun for the boys. The trails gently slope through the hills, making it a nice little walk for all ages. My favorite part was the Herb Garden and Remi and Marshall seemed to like running on the grass of the Wedding Lawn the best. The Garden also has an awesome children's area that is perfect for Remi's age on up. The only downside about visiting is you might get distracted and not realize that dinnertime has come and gone. Then on the way home when you have two children crying because of hungry tummies, you might stop at Crown Burger and your toothless toddler inhales a grilled cheese sandwich with the hunger of ten men. Other than that, Red Butte Gardens is a beautifully stunning, clean and relaxing place to be!

While I'm Young

Calling to wish me a happy birthday over the weekend, Keith commented that now I'm an old lady. But wait! I'm only 29, which in my mind means that I won't be old for another year.
I once read a blog where a recent 29 year old resolved to reach 30 goals before she turned 30. Goals like growing a vegetable garden and going on more family outings. I wanted to do something similar and was looking for inspiration when I came across this website: Conkerr Cancer
I've already made my first pillowcase to donate and I want 12 of my 30 goals to include service or volunteering. I'm still formulating ideas and I think I'll spend another week or so finalizing my goal list.

Hopefully my little fellas will give me a chance to achieve 30 goals in the next year!

Day of Words

Remi is talking, folks! He's saying two and three word sentences independently with little or no prompting. This means that he has met some of his education plan goals almost 9 months early. Wow! When I originally received his goals from his teachers I wanted to cry and now that he has reached these goals I want to cry even more for very different reasons. I've been his proud little translator for so long. My heart swells knowing that he is finding his way in speech!
The list goes on! His vocabulary has grown exponentially over the last two weeks. His attempts of all different words are more common, which is a huge step. Here are some of the words and phrases he gets better at each day:

train track
stop sign
happy face
sad face
she she's house
no, me!
help me, mom
hold me, mom
my turn
dentist
park
thomas (still unclear)
word world (unclear)
thirteen
work
beach
show
snack
toast
bagel
pizza
juice
milk
chocolate
more please
vitamin
I want...
numbers 1-12

We attended a Memorial Day service at a cemetery on Sunday where the boy scouts were serving hot dogs and Remi said "hot dog" over and over broken-record style for a good chunk of the evening. Today we drove past a different cemetery decorated with flowers from Sunday. He quickly noticed and said, "Mom! Hot dog!"

And most importantly, for the first time ever, Remi looked at me and said, "Love you, Mom." Then looked at Marshall and said, "Love you, baby."

Melted. my. heart.