Trip to Vegas

Rychen P. and I spent a week in Las Vegas. I only took a few pictures. Mostly we just hung out and shadowed everyone's regular lives. We saw my sister Emily and Laura's husband Jon for a quick day before they turned around and went back. Laura and Amelia stayed for most of the time we were there. We had fun playing with his favorite Gremlich-exclusive toys (even before we left, he was so excited to play Big Big Loader), enjoying the warm weather, going to parks, going to visit friends, going to restaurants, going on Grandma-Bubba dates, and following his uncles around.



One funny thing was that everytime somebody asked what his name is, Rychen P. would say "Honey Bunny." Since this got a laugh, Grandma quickly learned to get all of her friends to ask him his name. At one friend's house, Rychen recognized a picture of Jesus. He was excited because "we have that picture at our house!" When he came back and told me about it, I asked which picture it was. He said Jesus holding a sheep. I was trying to think of which picture we have to this description, and I asked "Is that a picture you saw in the little book?" and he said "No! The picture on the fridge!" I was so thrilled at his cognitive skills, and laughed at the fact that he has a better memory than I do.

Here is a new discovery, a little trampoline in Grandma's garage.


Uncle Evan, Grandma and Amelia, Andrew


Rychen playing Big Big Loader with Mickayla, a girl from the ward.


A random picture of Laura eating, I was just impressed with her multi-tasking (Amelia had been nursing).

Cousin Amelia!

My little neice Amelia is so adorable and enchanting! I am not usually a baby person (a couple months ago, my friend noted that I wasn't baby hungry, just because I wasn't getting into her baby--little did she know, I was already pregnant!) but this little sweetie just stole my heart! She is 2 months old, and she will stare at you, captivated by your face, and you can just coo at her forever! She is such a happy baby, and I really admire my little sis for her dedicated parenting!

How fun that we all cuddled together. Rychen P. was practicing being a big brother!

By the way, Rychen P. gets possessive when I hold other babies, but with Amelia he was glad to share, loved her, cooperated, etc. So this gives me some confidence! By the way, I am due the last week of August, and so far it's been much easier than my pregnancy with Rychen. We are all excited, and Rychen P. is being well-prepared! He is a very knowledgeable 2-year-old (I told him all about births, placentas, drew a picture, etc. and he'll even tell you that we get to cut a tube with scissors when the baby comes out!)

So Rychen has 2 cousins now, both on the Gremlich side. Ethan is 1 yr, 3 months younger than him, and Amelia is 1 yr, 3 months younger than Ethan! Our baby will be 8 months apart from her, and who knows who will be next??? The race is on!

Kiddie party FHE

We have extended FHE's now every month with Rychen's family and grandparents. For our turn, we had the idea to throw a kiddie party--we ate sack lunches, played musical chairs and pin the tail on the donkey, hide and seek, and took turns presenting scripture stories. Some of us dressed up like school kids (notice my pigtails).

Everybody visiting

Rychen P. dancing for us (he got pretty wound up with everybody there)

Musical chairs

Grandpa Huxford's dramatic version of Sampson

Grandma Jones shooting the "wild animal" (the paper has a drawing of a bow on it) with her new bow and arrow (from the story of Nephi)

Madison's drawing of the First Vision

Random sillies

We had a fun dinner last night with Aunt Madison as our guest. Rychen P. is now discovering all the funny stuff you can do with food. Being the "cool" mom that I am, I showed him how you can suck up spaghetti into your mouth, and then he wanted to both suck the same strand! Lady & the Tramp style :) But this photo actually took several attempts because these noodles are a lot more slippery than you'd think!



This is his new toy, the "key game" that he picked out at Value Village for $1.99 woohoo! The keys unlock blocks, which are peices to a puzzle, and then you form the puzzle on top. A very simple, mundane game, but he gets so excited about it. He chose this over Cat in the Hat game or a big truck, and insisted we go home right then and there so we could play it.


And in case you've never seen one before, this is a tummy.

Huge milestone

Today Rychen P. took a big step toward growing up. He is gaining a lot of independence and becoming more comfortable with other people, knowing I will still be here when he is done. We went to a meeting at the church, and some kids were playing in the cultural hall. He wanted to play with the kids and I told him "Okay but I am going back to the meeting." He said fine, took his friend's hand, and ran off. Wow! What autonomy. It was so fun to see him holding hands and running around with the older kids, and even afterward at playgroup, he was off playing with older kids, not caring where I was. He is really maturing. (This may not be a spectacular feat for your child, but this is the boy who won't go to nursery by himself!)

After the playgroup, Laura wanted him to come play at her house. I said that would be fine, and Rychen P. told me Goodbye. He went home with them for a couple hours while I did some writing and yoga at home. Hooray!

P.S. The next day Rychen went back over to play some more. When I came to pick him up, he was not excited to see me, and said "But I want to stay at this house!"

Latest Fashion

This is not one of those posts where I brag about my kid. This is completely strange and I admit it. So go ahead, laugh. (He does this on a regular basis and sometimes insists on going out in public like this!) Just look at his smile, though, I can't take that away from him!

Faux Hawk

I love Rychen P.'s long hair and keep resisting cutting it, but SOMETHING needed to be done with it! So Dad styled it.... (and yes, he really likes getting his hair done, don't let the scowl fool you)

The next day was Sunday so we had to do something more serious. At least we find that a simple gel comb through makes him look presentable over the usual double cow-lick 'fro. And Dad informed me, "He looks best when the part is on his left side." My husband needs to go to beauty school, he is really into this.

Fun day with friends

Today we had our friends Emma and Laura over for a long time. I was prepared with a fun project, making valentines with cute scrapbook paper and stamps! Laura got really into it, but it didn't keep Rychen's attention for long.

But luckily they had brought over his favorite toy from their house, plastic fruit. He always has to have a big serving utensil and a big bowl to play with. (Emma's favorite activity was riding Rychen's trike.)

We love playing with Emma & Laura, especially hide and seek, duck duck goose, games with balloons, going down the slide, riding bikes, playing balls, music time, etc... There is always something fun going on. After realizing he has an aunt with the same name, Rychen now calls Laura "Little Laura," and so Emma of course is "Little Emma." Another funny thing to note is that after spending so much time with Emma, Rychen has picked up a few of her traits: her loud infectious laugh, and her high energy enthusiasm with certain phrases. It's very cute but we are not used to this much excitement!

Dinner after a long day

This is embarassing. But we sat down to dinner and I just started laughing. Seeing a great opportunity for a blog post, I asked, "Are we secure enough in ourselves to let other people enjoy a good laugh too?"

It had been a long day, as long a day as a whiny 2-year-old on 3 fewer hours of sleep than usual can make it. The last task of the day is get him fed before bedtime. Rychen had to finish leftover taco soup (and made some home-made tortilla chips to accompany it), but the thought made me feel sick, so I opted for salad and pasta. Rychen P. heard me mention fish as an option, and then threw a FIT to have fish. Dad said no, it will stink the house up. Rychen P. screamed louder. FINE. So we cooked three different meals, for a total of 5 dishes on the table. We sat Rychen P. down with his food as we finished gathering our dishes, and the next thing I know there is a PILE of SALMON on the table! And I had served him a restaurant-worthy, beautiful dish of salmon, pasta, and broccoli. He hadn't wanted the broccoli, but I cooked it anyway, and so when I find him munching away on his broccoli and a pile of salmon removed from his dish, naturally it fit right in with the kind of day we were having. All I could do was laugh, so we took pictures.

Of course the scene is worse than that though. Look at our table. We didn't even have the energy (presence of mind?) to clear it off for dinner. There are remnants of the day's projects pushed into the corner. And being totally honest, I would say don't let me fool you into thinking that we usually have an orderly family dinner, at least with a specific meal plan (it is common to have a few meal choices). And to bring more humiliation to myself as a homemaker and sterile person, I will even admit this.... Well you can't just waste SALMON! C'mon, I know other moms out there finish up their kids' food after they have fingered it. The truth is, Rychen P. had the best meal of any of us, and he barely touched it!