Puzzles, Blocks, & Clifford!

Rychen P. is so into puzzles right now, it's awesome! He can do a 20-30 peice puzzle all by himself, but I can't explain how. Who knows? We sit and watch him, who knows how his brain works? It's all trial and error. We've tried to teach him how to see the straight edges, or how to match up peices of the same picture, but he doesn't get it! He just tries to fit peices in and finds a way--and then MEMORIZES it! The next time he does it, he'll just put the right peice exactly where it needs to go. He's so brillliant.

(p.s. Where are his pants, you ask? I promise I do dress my child. We had just gotten home from the library, where he had a HUGE accident! We had to change him in the car - can we say Yuck! - and it took like 20 wipes to clean up. Ah, the joys of motherhood...)

So this puzzle craze all started with a little book of Spot puzzles a couple months ago, and then a friend gave us this Clifford puzzle (which is very, very worn now). Check out all the Clifford stuff, Rychen P.'s favorite character (he also knows Dora but mostly Map, and Spiderman).

We also bought these blocks for him, which he loves. So this past week he's just been switching off, blocks and puzzle. (It's a new puzzle with like 50 peices, a U.S. map. He doesn't do that one by himself yet.)

Anyway I thought this way funny. This afternoon, Rychen came home from work and got down to do blocks with him. I ended up distracting Rychen P. for ten minutes or so, and Rychen just kept on building. What a cute husband! Here's his brilliant architecture.

Animal half-shows

There was an animal no-show or two, but that's not as interesting as the animal half-shows...

Too far away to tell, but this is supposed to be a musk ox?

And the hippos, of course, who ever really sees them? Always submerged...

The crocodile, same story. Sleepy guy...

But our favorite half-show, which was definitely better than a full show, was the zebras' butts! At least, we think this is 2 zebras. But it's hard to tell. It's either 2 zebras, or one really deranged zebra whose head doesn't line up with his butt.

We're going to the zoo-zoo-zoo!

...How 'bout you, you, you? /

You can come too, too, too! /

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Thanks, Raffi, for that little intro.

Here are some pictures of our $5 family ZOO TRIP!! Wahoo!!

Rychen P. loved this guy. Monkeys are so charismatic! One silly orangutan was eating leaves and smeared the chewed-up goo all over the glass! They sit in front of the window and just watch us....almost like they think we are the exhibit!

This weird creature is a cross between an alligator and a dinosaur... and check out his FINGERS! So so freaky.

Don't even get me started on bats. They are so strange, I just don't get them. But here's an interesting fact we learned: they hang upside down until they have to poop. Then they turn over, fully-stretched out by their arms, and then poop, then resume their blood-rush-to-the-head position.

And who can forget the polar bear? Rychen P. just stood at the glass, silent and still, staring at this huge beast.

I am so impressed that zoos in the U.S. can imitate other habitats. Does your zoo have penguins?

My personal favorite is the giraffe. They are such a marvel! So elegant, graceful ... in a clown suit! Really, they're just beautiful.

Rychen P. showed the most interest in the elephants. Funny creatures just pace back and forth. But they are so smart too! It was really hot, and the baby elephant went to the puddle of water, used his trunk to suck up the water, and then sprayed it on his back!! How awesome is that. We totally need to get equipped with trunks in the resurrection.

And now, if you made it to the end, here are our token silly pictures demonstrating how stinking small we are compared to these superior creatures...

Blasted Train Set!

This is the train set Rychen Parker is obsessed with, the reason none of us sleep anymore.

First time bowling

I mean Rychen P.'s but if you were, you would have thought it was mine!

Ah, well the kid had a blast. We let him play his own game, and Rychen helped him roll/push his big ol' ball down the lane. He knocked down 8 pins once or twice! But whether it was that or a gutter ball, he'd clap his hands really big all the way back to his special chair. Then he wanted to take all of our turns for us, so we worked hard to distract him. During the second game, he discovered a handicap ramp on the side of the alley and spent his time running up and down it. Cute kid!

p.s. He has suddenly began singing, and especially likes primary songs. He knows the usually nursery activity songs, plus "The Boat Song," (a.k.a. Nephi's Courage) where he yells out enthusiastically, "I WILL GO! I WILL DOOOOOOOOOOO!" but my favorite song of all is "We like sheep! We like sheep! Have gone astra-a-a-a-ay..." etc. He is just so funny, the way he pronounces those words and actually sings the whole run! You have my permission to call him up just so he'll sing that song for you!

Christmas Morning! (oh, wait)

So Saturday we spent our morning seeking out endless garage sales with the hope of finding some cheap furniture that we could resell for a profit, using Craigslist. It's no secret that garage sales are cheap. And it didn't take us long to realize that Craigslist is not cheap. *Hmmm, how can we use this phenomenon to our advantage?* we asked ourselves. Rychen and I are generally two opposite personalities, but we both love to get weird ideas (especially money-making ideas) and just RUN with them!

So we did end up buying a futon, lazyboy chair, and a couch & chair set. (4 Peices for the grand total of $87) Earlier that day we had sold our own couch (paid: $0. sold: $100. profit: $100. net after tithing: $90.) So we put some of the furniture into our living room. Well well, that used garbage actually spruced up our living quarters quite a bit! It actually MATCHES now! I am not sure I want to resell them after all. Check this out.

Meanwhile, you can't go garage-shopping without coming back with a bunch of cheap toys for your 2-year old. Rychen P. received:

- a large plush Clifford dog

- a big plastic dragon that plays music and shoots balls down his tail

- LOTS of books

- a Boggle (?) word/flashcard game with letters dice

- a keyboard board book that plays notes, oh wait that actually broke the minute we walked in the door

...and of course, this was the same day that Great Grandma Huxford showed up with a HUGE table and TRAIN TRACKS SET!!!!!!

Goodness Gracious. It was like Christmas morning, except it was a hot afternoon in the middle of August. And as it turned out, Rychen P. got overstimulated and could not sleep that night! *sigh* Kids...

Human Milk Machine

We got some stuff garage-sale-ing to try to sell online for a profit. Check this out...

Can you believe what people are coming up with nowadays? I am secure enough in myself to post this ridiculous picture on the internet. This useful device is called a Pumping Band. It holds the electric pump onto your breasts so that you can have your hands free while you pump. Because we all like to do dishes and gardening while milk is being electrically expressed from our nipples. This is so awkward, and as if it's not bad enough that an electric machine is suckling from your bossoms, but now a special strap is holding everything together for you, and all you have to do is stand in your milking stall and be oblivious to the whole event! This is made of cotton and velcro and sells for $35. Such ingenious inventions!

(no offense if any of my readers use this thing!)

Fun with Gremliches

We really enjoyed our week with the Gremliches in town. Grandma & Grandpa, Emily, and uncles Peter, Joe, Andrew, & Evan.

Here are some pictures from swimming. (With Madison)

(special visitor Fenway)

And here, we were playing silly games. Like TELEPHONE! :) It was late. And hilarious...

And finally, reading books, which is Rychen P.'s favorite thing to do (aside from baseball) and my favorite way to show him off!