BUGGLESQUIRT!

As with most kids, their names are slowly morphed into their own nicknames. Leila has been called Leila Bug, to The Bug, to Buggles, to Bugglesworth, to Bugglesquirt. A couple of weeks ago, Leila looked at us and said "Where's Bugglesquirt?" (all serious like) then pointed at herself and said "Here I am!" So now, when she is in her wild, silly mood, (and with some prompting from Troy) she pumps her fist in the air and yells "BUGGLESQUIRT!"

It's stuff like this that makes all of her "terrible two" stuff worth putting up with! Love my bug.

Say Cheese!

NO WAY!

Today I took Leila to her first dentist appointment. She HATES when I try to brush her teeth (so I must confess, it doesn't happen often b/c of the struggle), but she always comes to me to help her get food out of between her teeth, so I knew the trip to the dentist would either be a DISASTER or a BREEZE. Enter Disaster.

Leila is seriously the funniest kid ever, but when "outside" people are around (meaning anyone besides mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, Troy, Shawn, Michelle, or Kiley) she clams up. She just observes. She went the entire Easter weekend in practical silence compared to how rowdy she usually is!

So when we went to the dentist, the same clammed up behavior presented itself. She finally sat on the chair after I sat on it and had her sit with me. But there was NO WAY she was going to open her mouth and show her beautiful teeth to the dentist. So they introduced her (and her monkey) to the tools - the mouth mirror, the toothbrush (and brushed her fingernail with it so she could see it doesn't hurt), and the spit sucker. She ALMOST gave a smile, but held it in.

I asked for advise on how to get her to brush her teeth. The dentist and two different hygienists told me to lay her down, pin her arms with my knees, and do it that way. I may even have to pry her mouth with my fingers. "but it will be worth it." I believe him. I just don't want to be the one who has to do all the effort and make her hate me for brushing her teeth!

She got a cool toothbrush that looks like a marker. It's awesome. We opened it and she started brushing her teeth like she does it all the time. The insurance company will be paying a LOT of money for that toothbrush, since we didn't get anything else out of the visit. The Dentist reassured me that for 2 1/2 , her behavior was more normal than not. He wasn't frustrated. He wasn't rushed. He just spent as much time with her as he would have if he were checking her teeth. He also reassured me that bringing her in was a good thing to help get her familiarized with the place and know that it's not scary (until her first cavity.)

Here's to hoping the next visit later this year will be more successful. Also, wish me luck in trying to get her teeth brushed on a daily basis.

Funnies

While driving on "Turtle Road" to get to my aunt's house in St. George, we looked out and saw the Temple. I said, "Leila, look! There is the temple." She looked (not sure if she really saw it) then said "Oh my gosh!" (NEVER heard her say that before.) Then looked at me and said "It's beautiful." (NEVER heard her say that before either.) Cracked me up, but, how correct she was!

She practices counting. Twice over the past few days I've heard this: One, Two, Three, You wanna spank? Get over here, Four... LOL! Think she's hear that one too many times?

Leila was supposed to give Rusti (my cousin's daughter) something from the egg hunt. Leila couldn't decide if she really wanted to give it to her. Rusti's hand was out, but Leila kept putting the item out, then putting it behind her back. Rusti looked at me and said "She needs to go to time out." Oh my goodness. SO funny.

Leila - 2 1/2

Leila is 2 1/2 now. According to my dad, when girls are 2 1/2 and boys are 3, they are half of their adult height. I may have said that when she was two, but I've since been corrected. If that holds true (which it did with Troy so it has GOT to be true) Leila will grow to be 6' tall! She is currently 36" and 36 pounds. She wears mostly 3T in pants and shirts, none of which are too big. Most of her shirts are getting too short, so we've started buying 4T in shirts and shorts.


Leila is HILARIOUS! She says some really funny stuff. Right now she is "NOT (fill in whatever you just called her.) Ex: Leila, you are cute. I NOT CUTE. Troy started calling her Bugglesquirt. She recently started calling herself Bugglesquirt. She is SO strong and SO daring. My dad took her to the park and she was jumping off of platforms as high as the kitchen counter top and one a bit higher all by herself to the wood chips below. She would also drop from the monkey bar things all by herself. She LOVES to laugh and has the stinkin cutest laugh ever. She pulls some really mean looking faces when people try to be cute to her. She has the most exaggerated facial expressions of any little kid I've ever seen. She is not the best at sharing, but she is getting better. She makes pretend calls on the phone and brings the phone to you to talk to them. She usually calls Kiley, Auntie, Shawnt (that's the way she pronounces it) or daddy. Daddy is never at work, he is always "playing ball." She has started bumping a bouncy playground ball like a volleyball. She will repeat this as long as someone will play with her. She is pretty coordinated. She has learned that if she doesn't want to go to bed yet, she just has to say "I wanna snuggle mom" and I let her. (she is only this young and cute for not very long - I'll take advantage while I can.) She also knows that if she wants something (like a sippy) she has to say Please, then give us a big hug and a kiss. (again, I'll take it while I can get it.)

I could go on and on about some of her funny stuff she says and does, but I won't. I'll try to be better about posting more of her funny sayings so I don't forget how dang cute she was at this stage!

Las Vegas Rugby 7's 2012

Not much more to say than...."MANU SAMOA WINS THE CUP!"

Each year I learn more about the game, therefore, appreciating the game and getting excited about the game. Kuso is CLEARLY one of the biggest fans and takes that passion and spreads it to the rest of his Samoan community members by leading them in songs and cheers in their native language. Kuso is a HUGE source of entertainment for fans of ALL nations. His light heartedness helps keep the peace between some of the fans during some intense games. I'm so glad that my husband is willing to share this passion of his life with me for a weekend.Above: Making a huge ball out of the "clappers."

Below: You can see chunks of the huge ball that fell apart as it had been passed around the stadium. Dallin and Levi LOVED helping Uncle Kuso gather more clappers.Above: MICHAEL JONES! Michael Niko Jones (born 8 April 1965) is a New Zealand former rugby union player and coach. He was nicknamed 'the Iceman' or 'Ice' because of the number of ice packs he needed for injuries. He has been voted by Rugby World magazine as the third best All Black of the 20th century after Colin Meads and Sean Fitzpatrick.[1] John Hart, who first selected him for Auckland, called him "almost the perfect rugby player".

People in the stands were almost falling over each other to get pictures with the rugby star.

Below: Me, Ana, friend, WhitneyAbove and Below: Kuso helping get the crowd cheering for their team.
Above: Kuso and friends
Below: Team USAAbove: Our cute nieces and friends (Whitney, friend, Ana, Tasha, friend)
Below: Kuso and friends (and my Bestie Leslie in the black!) Above: Manu Samoa getting ready to play (in the blue.)
Below: The rushing of the field after Samoa beat New Zealand to win the cup! 19 to 26. You can see Kuso and his blue wig a the bottom of the picture.Above: Kuso posing with his "Fans." (no, he does not know them.)
Below: Kuso making friendly with security. He told me later that the security guards jokingly blamed him for people rushing the field. Earlier in the tournament, between games the MC guy brought some people on the far end of the field to show off their best "try" (touchdown) move. Kuso got bored and thought he could do better, so he jumped down on to the field, grabbed a ball, and proceeded to show his slow motion version of doing a great try. EVERYONE laughed, but he JUMPED back into the stands as security approached him. He is kind of lucky he didn't get in trouble for that one.

I really do enjoy rugby. As much as I enjoy watching Kuso play, I would rather be near him on the stands where I know he can't get hurt! (and he can help explain more of the rules so I can understand more.)

Already getting excited for NEXT YEAR!

There are several videos of Kuso on You Tube of doing slow motion runs with the ball after it was kicked into the stands after kicking a field goal. If any of my "viewers" have or know the links to those, please post them. SOMEDAY maybe I'll try and find them and post them here. They are pretty funny. I'm not lying when I say he is a source of entertainment for everyone near him.

Christmas 2011

(Leila was more interested in sitting on the presents than opening them. She did the same thing at our house.)

I may have told this story already, but when I was in 9th grade, a few of our neighborhood boys stole our Christmas. Yep, that's right. My mom kept our presents at work until the day before. The boys saw my parents unloading our gifts into our locked camper. They broke in through the bottom access doors and took everything that would fit out of those small doors. Long story short, my entire family was awake at 2am. We decided to stay up and open presents that were under the tree. After presents we played some games and had some snacks then went to bed. So later that morning, family members from out of town started calling to see how our Christmas was. We were still sleeping because we had been up all night. They thought we had not woken up for Christmas morning. WELL...I tell this story now, because that year started a new tradition for our family.

Christmas Eve is the more celebrated of the two days. We have dinner, play game, and just socialize with one another. Then when the clock hits midnight, it's time for presents! We have done this every year since 1994 (the year of the event if I recall correctly.) Since we now have children that need visits from Santa Clause, we have made arrangements for Santa to come to our house a bit later so we can keep our tradition, but still have Santa bring the kids presents. That is exactly what happened this year.

(Leila LOVED this dog from Kiley. It whimpers, barks, pants, and growls. The first thing she pushed it whimpered. She put her own puppy dog eyes on, pulled the puppy up to her face, and in her cute "concerned" voice said "you okay?" Then hugged it and gave it a kiss. SO sweet.)

We opened presents at Grandma's house, then went home and opened presents at our house. (*please note, when we got home it was around 1 am and Leila was STILL awake. So she watched us open our presents...we left hers for the morning after Santa came.) We went to bed, Santa came, we got up, saw what Santa brought, went to church, came home and opened the rest of Leila's presents, my parents and brother came over for breakfast, we watched basketball (opening day for the NBA season after their lockout.) and then took naps.

I LOVE that we don't have to do a lot of family stuff for Christmas. It's usually a pretty low key day that we just get to enjoy those closest to us, not the ENTIRE family.