I must have done something weird to my neck when we were finishing up the garage on Saturday because I woke up Sunday with a stiff neck and by yesterday, it was sore all the way down to my shoulders. It’s a little better today, but I’ve spent the past two days on the couch alternating ice packs and heating pads and turning my entire body instead of just my head.

I feel about 89 years old.

Which has made keeping Nathan entertained something of a challenge. So, I decided we were going to have a couple of days watching movies in our jammies. Yesterday, I was scrolling through the Netflix library to try and find something that wasn’t Diego and found High School Musical, which I saw a LONG time ago and I turned it on to see if Nathan would like it.

We have now watched it three times in less than 24 hours. The boy is obsessed with the “basketball movie”. We even had to drag his basketball and hoop out into the living room so he could dance and play like Troy in the movie.

Get your head in the game from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

SO funny.

And can I just say that I’m pretty sure he has the cutest little jammie bottom ever? 😉

Last Friday, my sweet neighbor invited Nathan and I to come over to help her boys celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Nathan LOVED it. Shana had thought of everything – it was so cute!

My friend Jamie had given Nathan a bunch of her son’s old clothes and this has become a new favorite. It was perfect for Seuss Day! Nathan calls it his “I am Sam” shirt. 😉

The boys decorating one-fish-two-fish fishbowls and truffala trees – these turned out just adorable.

Playing a game. 🙂

This was my favorite – the themed lunch! SO cute.

We had a quiet Saturday at home, finished reorganizing our garage and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Nathan FINALLY got a haircut after us putting it off for two weeks. 😉 I woke up Sunday with a really stiff neck, so after church we hung around the house for awhile and then had dinner at my parents’ house. It’s still really sore – not sure what I did to it, but I’m writing this with an ice pack around my neck and shoulder. Ugh.

And, as per usual, we were with Uncle Bryant this weekend and last weekend and when I was looking on my phone for pictures for this post, I found these:

Anytime those two are together my phone somehow gets stolen and used for entertainment purposes. They have too much fun together. 😉

P.S. I have a contest going for a free copy of one of my e-novellas, Easter Carats, on my Facebook page! Come by for a chance to win!

Y’all.

I remember the day like it was yesterday – the ultrasound tech mashing the little scanner on my abdomen that was covered in that nasty, freezing cold gel and saying, “Oh, yeah, I think it’s a… yes, it’s definitely a boy.”

I remember being SO ANXIOUS to find out what we were having. And then I just had more questions once we knew he was a boy. What was he going to be like? Act like? Look like?

Well…

He’s a BOY, all right.

Lately, we have been very into forts and tents, destroying forts and tents and, what else? Pirates.

Jon constructed this little beauty of a tent the other night after he got home and I found the two of them in there reading.

 So precious. Jon has been having to work very late most nights and he’s also going back to school for his Master’s. Love that he still takes the time to play with Nathan every night.

And finally, our little pirate. Someone has become very attached to Jake and the Neverland Pirates and runs around our house saying, “ARG MATEY!” all day long. Yesterday, he asked me to tie a bandana on his head like Jake.

 Crazy little stinker head. What you can’t see in this picture is that he has a baseball bat down the back of his shirt like a sword. 😉 Ha! We are FINALLY coming out of the worst of the twos (hope I’m not jinxing myself, ha!) and I’m really starting to enjoy this age that he’s at. We have so many adventures every day.

I think I could be happy with him staying this little forever. 🙂

Oh, friends, he has my heart.

There’s not much better than building a fort and getting to play in it in your undies, apparently. 😉 We had such a wonderful afternoon! Hope you all have had a fantastic Tuesday!

We spent a few days outside this week. The weather was so pretty – and then it started snowing again. 😉 I love snow but not when there’s not enough to play in and it just traps us inside.

Cutie on the swing. He is so proud of himself for being able to get on there by himself.

He is such a goof. He keeps me very very entertained. 😉

We found a petrified roly poly that Nathan decided was a ladybug. Love everything about this picture – especially the little Mater band-aid over the invisible owie. 😉

Hurry up, spring!! We are ready to be outside!

We have had such a wonderful/crazy weekend!!

Thursday, my cousin, her husband and her son who is eleven days older than Nathan came to visit. The boys had the BEST time (except for when Nathan was not being kind). It was so fun to catch up and talk about the fun of having two and a half year old boys. 😉 They left Saturday and Nathan was very sad to see them go. He keeps asking me about his “friend”. “Where my friend, Mommy?” So sad.

We also got to hang out a bit with this lovely girl this weekend. 🙂 Love this picture of us from her wedding four months ago! Shannon is the one who introduced me to Starbucks, The Princess Bride and Pride and Prejudice.

She has been instrumental in my life, needless to say. 😉 We watched Ramona and Beezus on Saturday night. LOVE that movie. Go watch it if you haven’t seen it.

We spent the majority of the rest of the weekend cleaning out our garage. We have been planning this event for MONTHS and it was SO NEEDED. Oh my goodness. I took before pictures it was so bad. We’ve got a bit more to do next weekend and then I will hopefully be taking the after pictures. 😉

Meanwhile, a boy who needs a haircut here has been running around our house with his arms out to the sides singing this little song:

Flying on an Airplane from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

I cannot get it out of my head now. Oy. 😉

What were you up to this weekend??

Nathan is becoming such a riot. He keeps me on my toes – whether because he’s being entertaining or because he’s getting into trouble. This morning I walked in and found one of his matchbox cars in the toilet and Nathan told me it’s because he was “a bad guy” and he jumped in there.

Right.

A few things he’s saying lately:

“Buppin” instead of button. I LOVE this one. I make him tell me something about “buppins” all day long. Can’t get enough of his little voice.

He’s very into knock-knock jokes. Jon taught him, “Knock-knock, who’s there? Hutch. Hutch who? Bless you!” so now he thinks “bless you” is the punchline to every joke. A recent example: “Knock-knock, Mom.” “Who’s there?” “Applesauce.” “Applesauce who?” “BLESS YOU! HA! HA! HA! That’s a funny joke! I just kidding, Mama. I just kidding.”

Another favorite: “Excuse me, stop talking, Mom, I have sumpin to say.”

“Here’s the deal” has become quite popular. Today, I was attempting to start on the huge, several week project that is organizing our garage and Nathan said, “Here’s the deal, Mama. I have a lot to do today so I need to ride my bike and I need to play wif my cars and I have to go to Chick-fur-way.”

We made another batch of doughnut muffins and Nathan was eating his and starting laughing hysterically, held it up and said, “Look, Mama! My muffin is wearing a hap!” (aka hat)

We met our friends Jamie, Joel and Julia at Chick-fil-a and I watched as a kid shoved Nathan in the play area and Nathan just walked away. I was SO PROUD. So on the way home, I said, “I am so proud of you, honey. You didn’t push him back. The Bible says, ‘do not return wrong for wrong’ and you didn’t push him back when he pushed you and that was very good.” Nathan said, “So I don’t push someone back?” I said, “That’s right, Nathan. We don’t push anyone. We are sweet and kind.” He thought about that for a minute and then said, “What if we are playing football?”

Sometimes I worry that God has given me a child who is way smarter than I ever will be. Junior high is shaping up to be very interesting.

Last week, Jon and I had the loveliest date night at the Melting Pot, courtesy of my siblings for my birthday. It was wonderful. And such a blessing. Between living with a toddler who is constantly saying, “Excuse me, could you stop talking? I have suppin to say.” whenever we are trying to have a conversation, Jon studying to get his Master’s degree and fertility treatments that sometimes leave something to be desired mood-wise, it was SO SO SO nice to have a few hours away to sit and relax and feel completely unrushed and talk.

Big thanks to the sibs here. 😉

Last night, our wonderful friends Eryn, Evie, Gracie and Thomas invited us over for dinner. Nathan is big fan of Gracie’s. They sat and watched Sesame Street together for a few minutes and it was about the cutest thing. He always talks to her in a voice about ten octaves higher than his regular voice. Hilarious.

And in HUGE news, my dear, dear friend Kaitlin finally had her little son yesterday – ten days past his due date! Little man is absolutely adorable and I cannot wait to see more pictures of him. I already love him to pieces. Now just to get my hands on him… 🙂

Lots of blessings around us lately. God has been good. This past month started with my notes like this in my Bible study:

Faith is believing that God’s plan for my life is better than my hopes and dreams for my life?

and it has ended with this:

Faith is believing that God’s plan for my life is BETTER than my hopes and dreams for my life!

I don’t know what the future holds for me or for you. Maybe God will not answer my prayers or your prayers in the way that we hope. Perhaps His plan is something completely different or maybe not different at all.

What I do know is that TODAY, right now, is the day that we have been given. And too often, I am too busy looking ahead to what might happen or looking behind pining for the days that used to be to really focus on today – right this second, right where God has me.

Because where God has us is someplace very special.

A super big thank you to all of you for the encouragement and the commiseration. 😉 God must have spoken to my boy during nap on Monday because we have only had a tiny dribble accident since then and he’s actually been telling me when he needs to go.

I can like sense Potty Time Elmo’s smile from here.

We have had a fun couple of days. After the disaster that we shall call Monday, we spent Tuesday pretty close to the house. Nathan played outside for really the first time all year (thank you, Lord, for these beautiful sunny days!) and went for a walk/run with Gammy.

It’s amazing how much faster exercise goes by when you have a friend to do it with. 🙂

Today, we met Jamie, Melanie, Thalia and their kids for frozen yogurt and pretty much ruined all of the kids’ lunches but really, I feel like dinner was created so you can ruin lunch and not worry too much about it. Nathan got covered in chalk and sticky froyo leftovers and had to be reminded a few times that a self-serve frozen yogurt bar does not equal a unlimited-refills frozen yogurt bar, but we had a good time nonetheless. I have been so blessed with such wonderful friends. God is good.

And now we are home, Nathan is sleeping and I’m attempting to get some writing done. It’s a good day.

What have you guys been up to these last few weeks? And who is feeling the need for a contest celebrating the fact that spring is NEARLY here??!

Today is one of those days that will hopefully be filed under “Days to Forget”. Ugh. Not my best day as a mother.

 Question for those of you who have potty trained your kids: Would you like to take my son and get him completely trained and then give him back to me??? I am only half-kidding.

This last week was great as far as the training went. He had hardly any accidents at all, he got all kinds of prizes because he was doing so good and then Friday, for no reason at all, he decided that he was not going to use the potty at all and he’s barely done so since. We’ve tried everything – prizes, candy, consequences and nothing seems to be working. Any ideas, anyone??

On the plus side, he and I had a good time Saturday morning making doughnut mini muffins together. He even told me that he needed to get his hat on so he could cook.

Two is such an up and down age.