Letter to Jarom: Month 30

Dear Jarom,

Happy Half birthday! Today you turn 30 months, or 2.5 years old! Lately you've been talking like crazy - forming sentences and saying things that we had no idea you could say or answering questions we didn't know you understood. It's pretty funny sometimes. I took you to the doctor because I thought you had an ear infection (but you didn't) and when we got home you told daddy everything the doctor had done: checked your ears, chest, mouth. You even said your first prayer this month! You like it when we help you say the dinner prayer or the night prayer. I hope you learn all the good things by our example and not the bad! And you still think we have to eat at McDonalds every time you see one but now you actually say McDonalds. Or Wendy's. Or pizza. And you say "I try." "I want some."

Your favorite thing to do these days is play Wii. Daddy bought one this month and you think it's a lot of fun. You've learned to say baseball, tennis, bowling just from playing those games. But your favorite is the boxing and you are really good at it! The other night you and daddy were boxing and you beat him 2-1. You don't say the words for basketball or football though. Any time you see basketball you scream, "Jazz!" and anytime you see football you say, "Buckeye!" Probably because you have three Ohio State footballs and a bunch of Jazz paraphernalia.

At the beginning of the month daddy presented an Arrow of Light ceremony and got all dressed up in traditional clothing. You thought it was so fun and you loved wearing the turtle pouch and breastplate and buffalo hat and dancing around to the pow wow music. You even sang along sometimes. It was really funny. You love to sing along with the radio too. Right now your favorite song is Rock and Roll by Eric Hutchinson. You like to sing, "rock, rock, rock, roll, roll, roll, nananana." We bought you the movie Space Buddies for Valentines Day and you love to watch that but your favorite part is dancing to the song on the end credits. It's "Dancing in the Moonlight" and you always say "Dance Moon" and dance to the music.

I can't get over how funny you are. We love you so much.

Love, Mommy

Bailey

Jarom loves all of his cousins but he especially loves his cousin, Bailey. Probably because they're closer in age - only a year apart - and because they are so much alike! Put the two of them in a room and you are glad they have someone to keep them occupied but you also worry about what kind of mischief they're getting into! Jarom is constantly asking if we are going to "Bailey's house" and when they do see each other they start screaming with joy (literally, screaming). The other day Jarom had spent a few hours at Bailey's house and we had come to pick him up. Bailey looked at me and said, "please don't take him away from me." It was so cute! I'm glad Bailey likes being with Jarom as much as Jarom likes being with him.

Arrow of Light

This week Matt presented an Arrow of Light ceremony for one of his Webelos. He was able to get an outfit and script from a member of the Order of the Arrow and it was amazing. He memorized the whole script, and personally, I think he was the only one who could have pulled it off. Everyone said it was the best Arrow of Light ceremony they had ever been to and are so impressed with Matt and what he does for the Webelos. He definitely has a love of scouting and teaching the scouts new things. Here are a few pictures from that night.

Letter to Jarom: Month 29

Dear Jarom,

A couple days ago you turned 29 months. It was a busy weekend so I'm just getting to this now. You are growing and changing so much these days it's hard to keep track of everything new you're doing. I'll see what I can put together!

Your vocabulary gets bigger everyday. Your favorite thing to do is to mimic whatever anybody else is saying. You don't always get it exactly right but we get the gist. I think I understand probably 50% of what comes out of your mouth now. Some of it is pretty funny too. You are always saying "Anon!" and putting your hands straight up in the air. We finally figured out you were talking about Buzz Lightyear and you were actually saying, "To Infinity and Beyond!" You got really hung up on the fact that Buzz's arm fell off. And one day you watched an episode of the Spiderman cartoon and he lost his powers. That really concerned you. I finally convinced you that Spiderman would get his powers back if you took your naps like a good boy!

Speaking of sleeping, since we got you your new bed you will not go to sleep without someone in the room with you. Just this past week I finally got you to go to sleep by yourself by telling you you could go see Bailey if you went to sleep by yourself. And it worked! I'm crossing my fingers that you'll finally start going to sleep on your own. Or, I should say, go back to sleeping on your own.

You are very good at remembering things. I already talked about how you recognize Daddy's car, no matter what color you see it in. Now you've taken to pointing other things out as well. When you see the Twilight books at the store you say, "Mommy's books." You always recognize the Utah Jazz logo - even if it's not in normal Jazz colors. You recognize places too. When we get near our house you know we're almost home. When we pass McDonalds or Wendy's you always say "Eat!" I don't think we eat fast food that often but for some reason you always think we need to eat when we pass one of those places! You only let people sit in the seats they usually sit in at the table and you know specific people usually drink out of specific cups.

You have a very good imagination too. You like to slide down the handrail for the stairs and say it's your fire pole. Daddy was tickling you with a stuffed cat one day and later we found you tickling yourself with the same cat! You have this little stuffed puppy you carry around everywhere and I always hear you barking and whimpering like a dog and you're petting the dog, trying to calm him down. You sit inside your toy tub and say it's your pirate ship and when you're pretend sword fighting you close one eye like you have a patch over it and say "argh!"

And you love to play dress up. You're always putting everybody's shoes and hats and mittens on. You love to wear masks and I'm sure you'd love to have a pirate patch to wear! It's so funny to see you exploring your options and it'll be interesting to see what you become as you grow up.

Love, Mommy