Bi-Lingual Baby

Did I ever mention that Canon and I have started taking Chinese lessons?  When Mark started his first contract job back in February or so, Canon and I started going to Aunt LiLing's for Chinese lessons.  Most of the time Canon isn't interested in cooperating, but the last two lessons he was really good.  Of course, we're not going to be fluent any time soon, but it's fun to just introduce these new words and concepts, and Canon is picking it up really well.  It's been really fun to have something to do on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, especially when it gives us a chance to also stop by at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house on the way home.  I don't really have pictures to show you about the Chinese, but it's been a good experience for Canon and me.

Catch-Up Time, again

So many things have happened lately, keeping me somewhat busy.  Maybe each one should be its own post, but I wanted to make sure I got them all in.

For Valentine's Day Canon helped me make a valentine for Mark.  I expected that he would want to get more involved with the coloring or gluing.  He did alright, but I did the bulk of it (as expected).  You could tell that he helped though, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

The outside says, "For How Many Reasons Can We Love You?"

Open it up and it says, "Don't know!  We haven't finished counting yet!"  Each of the little hearts are supposed to represent another reason to love him...of course, the number is no specific.

Canon's "new" haircut...as of about 3 weeks ago:
I knew he needed a haircut pretty badly, but he was hates sitting still for the scissors.  The buzzer makes him nervous, I think...and I was at a loss.  He was not going sit and watch a movie this time, so I was resolved to have Mark hold him down as I took a buzzer to his head.  I gave him a buzz cut.  Mark said I should've used a larger guide because this was too short.  When I was done, I had some regrets.  It's certainly not as cute as the longer hair on top with a part, but it wasn't worth the fight.  Once it was all done...I thought that I made a mistake.  Canon looked like a cancer patient.  At least he's a boy, and he can pull it off, and it's summer coming up...and hey, hair grows back anyway.  I think I will just have to spend more effort and get back to his old hair style.  I've been trying to train his hair, now that it's growing out a bit longer, to make sure that it's not a complete mess...hoping that his old hair style will work when I can cut it that way again.

At least he doesn't seem that upset about it!

I've gotten compliments on his hair, but I'm still unsure that I want to keep it this way.

Canon's favorite new dance moves:

I guess we have a little break-dancer in the making.

Look, mommy!  No Hands!

Mark is only 12 days older than me, and we've started combining our birthday parties in recent years.  This year we wanted to have a chocolate fondue again.  We invited family over for a hamburger/hot dog BBQ and then had the fondue for dessert.  My two brothers who live here in Utah came (although Rob's family had another engagement and couldn't very long at all...but it was really awesome of them to come for what little time they could.  Thanks for coming, Rob and Lucia!!).  Cory and Sarah came too, as well as Mark's grandparents.  Everything was so delicious and fantastic...everything until the chocolate fondue.  We got our two fondue pots from the storage unit, but Mark wasn't able to find the second power cord...so we tried an alternate method for keeping the chocolate melted...and adding milk certainly was not right.  It just solidified and wasn't working for dipping.  It tasted just fine...but I was disappointed that it didn't work out the way I wanted it to.  The caramel one worked just fine, but it was in our fondue pot that had a power cord.
    Sorry I didn't include any pictures!  I think there was only one taken at the party, and it wasn't from our camera.

Kat the Quilter:
I'm making 3 baby quilts right now.  One is for our old neighbor from Boston, the Stoutenburgs.  They're having a boy this May.  The other two are for our little girl coming in June and Cory and Sarah's little girl coming in July.  Baby quilts aren't terribly cheap presents to make...unless someone gives you fabrics for free. Mark's mom showed me boxes of old fabrics that she had in her cabinet and said that I could use.  They make not have been my first pick if I had all the fabrics in the world to choose from, but I think these are turning out to be adorable quilts.

Boy Quilt:

This is a close up of the fabric I used for the blue squares (below) and I'm planning on using this for the edging of the quilt once it's done.

A look at the top, all done and waiting to be quilted.

a close-up of the block

This is the back for the quilt.

a closer look at the corner of the back

Girl Quilts:
Remember the flying saucer quilt I made back in October?  Well, since I was using a bunch of scraps, I figured it would be a perfect pattern to use this time.  I got most of these from a box full of random purple fabrics.  I'm really excited about how these ones will turn out.  I decided to make the two girl quilts to be the same.  After all, these are for little cousins, about the same age...and it would save me from having to design a third quilt right now.  The only difference will be the edging of the quilt, so we can tell them apart.

All the pattern pieces finally cut out...I needed 96 cut of each of the 10 pieces.

One block laid out so you can imagine what it will look like.

The alternating block.  These quilts will be 3 blocks X 4 blocks.  I am looking forward to the end result!

This is the fabric I will use for the backing and the thread for the quilting part.

Canon-isms I'd like to remember!

• A little while ago Mark was helping put Canon to bed.  Canon requested that Mark sing "Blue Sky" so Mark started with the only thing he could think of:

Blue skies shining on me

Nothing but blue skies do I see...

That's not the song Canon wanted. "No, not that blue skies!"  So Mark came out of the room to ask me what Canon meant.  I told him it was the Primary song "I Know My Heavenly Father Loves Me."

Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky...

I thought it was a pretty funny, but I guess you had to be there.

• Another thing that Canon said was while we were all in the car driving somewhere.

     Canon:  I a guy.  

     Me:  That's right Canon, you're a guy!

     Canon: Yeah, I a guy.  Daddy a guy.  Mommy a guy.  

At this point I had to explain that Mommy is a girl, not a guy...and then he went on to name several people that he knows, labeling them as either a guy or not a guy.

• One day when I was especially tired, I was trying to rest in a reclining chair while Canon was playing in the living room.  He noticed that my eyes were closed, stating that I was asleep.  So he ran to his room to get his blanket and binky to give to me so that I could be more comfortable.  It was super sweet...giving me his two most precious possessions to help me sleep.  He's  actually done this more than once, but it's still adorable each time he does it.

• I think Canon needs a little bit of work on recognizing which finger is which.  He loves the Where is Thumbkin? song, but I guess we need to do it more often.  He prefers to point at things using his middle finger.  I can understand, it is the longest one and it's usually less occupied with holding things.  However, I can't explain why he shouldn't use that finger, but it's several times each day that I remind him to use the other finger while he points.  I'm not sure how long this will last, but it's been a few weeks so far. 

• A couple weeks ago Mark's brother Cory was trying to teach Canon to give two thumbs up.  Interestingly enough Canon was using his two pointer fingers.  It's been a running family joke ever since.  I saw Canon practicing once, sticking up his two thumbs, thinking really hard, and telling me "Nice job, Mommy!"