Love affair with a fan and other insatiable urges...

Let me start this post by saying that this past weekend kicked some major ass! It seems that summer is fantasmically upon us and I could not be happier about it!! We spent Saturday night at the Justice League of Street Food party with some of our favorite humans, enjoying some killer street food and having a blast watching the kids play and dance together. Sunday was spent organizing for the garage sale that will be happening this weekend (so excited to rid our house of baby stuff!!) and we took a nice long break to take the kids to Sunday School at the D-Note in Arvada. Great people, killer house beats, lots of child chaos, bottomless bloodies and mimosas, and super yummy eats!! It was pretty stellar and our little cubs had so much fun running around with all of the other kids and Stori even dabbled in some pole dancing (much to my dismay...I mean seriously, couldn't she at least wait til she was 18?).

Professing his love

Since we are on the topic of mildly inappropriate toddler experimentations, I thought it may be a good time to bring up Zoren's newest romantic interest.... wait for it.... My son is quite seriously in love with the fan in our living room. He literally gives the fan hugs and kisses multiple times a day and says "I love you, fan. I love you so much".  Only slightly disturbing, right? I mean, as far as household objects go, a fan is quite helpful on hot summer days and ours kind of looks like a small child so I can at least consider his expressions of undying love a step in the right direction... Yeah, I will keep telling myself that anyway in hopes that he will not wind up professing his love to a "Real Doll" or something equally as creepy when he reaches adulthood...

I am very much enjoying the ages that my kids are at right now. Our little bot-man is 27 months old and his vocabulary has just exploded within the last couple months so he is constantly spouting off phrases that he has heard me and the hubs say (luckily not any swear words yet)... Here are a few of my favorites:
-  "Bummer, Dude!" (his go-to phrase whenever something doesn't go his way)
-  "Back Here NOW, Mommy... Sit the butt down and read a book!!"
- "Find the pill bug, Mommy! Hunting pill bugs, under here!!" (usually accompanied by a jaunt around the house lifting up all of the big toys, rugs, and toddler chairs as if they were rocks outside)

Bugs, bugs, bugs.... I am not a fan of bugs. I am good with them behind glass at the butterfly pavilion but I would not be sad at all if I never had to encounter another insect or spider in my life.... Unfortunately, I have a toddler in my house with newfound aspirations to become an Entomologist. It all started with a trip to the library where Z insisted on borrowing a DVD put out by the Smithsonian Channel about insects and other bugs. No big deal, right? Well,  it has now escalated into daily bug hunts inside and outside the house (luckily the indoor ones involve little plastic insects which make my skin crawl a little less than the millipedes and pill bugs that he hunts for outside). We also have quite a collection of pill bugs, millipedes, and beetles as temporary pets, living in Zoren's bug houses. He takes them out every day and has them run through mazes (they need their exercise), feeds them small pieces of apple and potato, examines them with a magnifying glass, and has races to see which bug makes it out of the chalk circle fastest.

Playing w/millipedes

Bug Hunting

Examining bugs at the Museum 

While I am beyond grossed out by all the creepy crawlies that my son is always on the lookout for, I have to say that his interest and dedication to these little buggers is quite astounding. I mean, how many 2 year olds know that pill bugs are isopods and related to many sea dwellers, can name every body part of an insect, classify which ones are insects, myriapods, arachnids and so forth, or understands the life cycles of different bugs (I mean this kid knows which bugs go from eggs to nymphs to adults... and which ones go from larvae to pupa to adults). I mean some of these are things I didn't even know until we started reading books about bugs everyday. This kid just can't get enough of them!! Whether this bug thing is just a phase or not, I hope that he brings this much devotion and enthusiasm into everything in life that he is passionate about.