Utah Trip part 1

Theo was in the bathrub, arranging his foam letters and asked me, "What does this spell?"

I did my best to pronounce it. "Srfp. But that's not a real word."

Theo continued to put his foam letters into formations, asking me what they spelled. I continued to tell him and then would say, "But that's not a real word."

Finally he said, "I don't know how to make real words. I only know how to make pretend words."

One late evening, we discovered we didn't have Theo's blue Nuby sippy cup that he loves so much at bedtime. We decided it probably got left at Gabi and Tache's. I told Theo he could drink my water. He was not thrilled. The next day I called Tache and Jay told me that Theo wanted to talk. Without any prompting, we were surprised at what Theo said.

"Do you have a water . . . Do you have a . . . dark blue cup? Sippy cup?"

We were shocked that he remembered the conversation from the day before and then thought to ask Tache about the cup.

It was there. We got it back.

A year ago he seemed very taken with his cousin, Megan. This year he liked her, but didn't seem to cling to her as much. Later driving home, though, he was talking about the alphabet and told us, "M is for Megan." He really likes Megan.

He often asked to go home. The most requested thing, typically when he was tired was Mommy snuggles in the rocking chair. I would tell him we could snuggle in a chair and he would say he needed his rocking chair at home.

He was so excited when we got home, but rather than the rocking chair, he got his alphabet blocks and giant kettle to make alphabet soup and played for awhile. The day after we got back he asked for the little alphabet blocks at Gabi and Tache's. I guess even a long car ride doesn't teach him far away the houses are.

Theo loved getting to read so many new books for bedtime from Aunt Natalie's giant library.

Perhaps this story doesn't belong with the vacation post since it happened when we were back, but I wanted to share.

We were at church and Theo say a picture of the previous first presidency of the LDS church. He told me it was a picture of me. I held him up to see better. I asked who looked like mommy, wondering if I looked like President Monson, President Eyring, or President Uchdorf.
He looked and said, "Oh, these are all daddies."
Yes, those are all men, or daddies. We look up to them. What a great thing for him to say on Father's Day.

We were trying to imitate the statues but Theo had other ideas. Katrina said that Theo's problem is that he is a boy and does boy things. The statue is a little girl.

Playing with he restickable Paw Patrol stickers.
funny story, he loves Paw Patrol (and has for a few months) but on the trip he finally actually watched the show. 

Me: What do you want to bring to do in the car?
Theo: My alphabet soup!
We never have clean spoons for him because he always is using them in his game.

Liam wanted to play with all the dogs.

Theo sometimes slept by himself and other times joined us. We like having a king sized bed for that.

Gabi and Tache got a water slide thing for water fun. It was enjoyed.

Does Theo look like his grandpa Tache?

I suggested we have a pizza night. Sakura and Megan made awesome star shaped pizzas

That hat was full of fridge magnet numbers. Theo was playing Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3.

All the dogs

This was not posed.

Theo loved this Boggle Jr game. The cards have words on each side and Theo would tell me he was spelling words. I hear Liam loves that game too. It belongs to Gabi and Tache.

They were sticking their legs out the dog door. You know, like you do.

Annie (the mom), Happy, and Little Foot