My "Quirky" Bridger

I just have to dedicate another post to my quirky middle child, Bridger.  He is his own person to be sure.  Everyone at the Easter egg hunt was laughing about his clothes being backwards:

I had to explain that his clothes are like that every single day and his underwear is also backwards.  Therefore, I have to assume it's on purpose and not just a mistake.  Actually, sometimes he puts his shirt on the right way.  But the underwear and shorts are ALWAYS on backwards.

I love how he yells "WAHOO" when he does something exhilarating.  He never uses "wheee" and always yells "wahoo" instead.  When he jumps from high places (not too high, just the bed), he yells "Advernture's Away."  When you call him ANYTHING besides Bridger, he always corrects you that he's Bridger but it sounds like, "I'm Bidga."  Strangers never understand him. 

He thinks "3 years old" is "3 yours old" so when he says it about himself he says, "I'm 3 my old."  It's so cute I hope he never outgrows it!

"marshmerlows"

Don't most 3-year olds insist on doing everything themselves?  He doesn't.  He knows how to buckle himself in the car, but usually just says he wants me to.  Even when Jared teases him saying he doesn't think he can do it, Bridger doesn't bite.  He's not easily tricked, cajoled, bribed, pushed, or teased into anything.  But that's ok because 1. he's an easy going kid so we usually don't need to use those things and 2.  it will serve him well later in life (I hope).

Jared found him in the bathroom the other day reading Reader's Digest.  On the toilet.  Funny kid.

He has quite an imagination.  He can go on and on telling you a story.  He plays with his Batman set for hours each day, pretending about "bad Batman" and "good Batman" and Robin and Penguin and Joker and Mr. Freeze.  He knows all of these characters.  In his head it must be real, because if someone else makes something up, he just can't imagine it.  He always tells you the "right" way to play with his Batman stuff.

He loves to play "Spiderman XBOX" which is actually a computer game we have on our TV.  Their cousin Stephen has it on XBOX, which is why they always call it "Spiderman XBOX."  But I think Stephen must have corrected them last time he was here, because now Bridger calls it "Spiderman XBOX but not really XBOX."  He's actually gotten pretty good at the game.  He beat Stephen a few times, which surprised Stephen quite a bit, but Bridger sat, cool, calm, and collected with a smug look on his face like he never doubted himself.

Let's Go Fly A Kite...Or Maybe Not

OK, this requires some backstory.  Awhile back, Jared bought the boys kites and told them when it was windy enough, they could go fly them.  Well, Bridger carried his around for days and ended up losing some pieces.  So Jared replaced it and put it up so we could wait for a windy day.  So when Bridger saw how windy it was today, he said "It's windy so I can fly my kite."  So Jared took some time off work this afternoon and we took the kids down to the park with their kites.

So Jared first decides to try out the kite in front of the house.  As soon as he starts flying it, Bridger freaks out.  He is crying and screaming that it will blow away and to bring it down.  So Jared does.  Right into a tree. lol  Kellen is holding his kite in the package, safe and sound.  When Bridger sees how carelessly (lol) Kellen is holding it (in his hand), Bridger can't stand it, so he grabs on to Kellen's kite and holds on for dear life.  When Kellen tries to convince him to let go, he is crying that it will blow away and he refuses to let go.  I tried to convince him that it wouldn't blow away and it was fine, but he just could not believe it.

So we're still optimistic, so we load up in the wagon and head to the park.  (We also had our nephew Tanner since his Mom and Dad were at the hospital.  Luckily, everything was fine.)  Jared is carrying the kite.  Bridger is freaking out that it will blow away, so Jared lets him hold it so he can know it is secure.  This seems to calm him down until we get there.

When we get there, Jared starts trying to fly it and Bridger tries desperately to try to convince him to take it down.  Bridger is screaming and crying to take it down and put it back inside where it won't blow away.  Jared even tells him that if it blows away, we'll buy him a new one.  When Jared gave Kellen a turn with the string, Bridger was still freaking out.  It was the funniest thing.  Bridger even tried my line on me, "Let's just put it inside and bring it again next time."  Hilarious.

Even Kincade took a turn flying it.  And, wow, they got that kite as high as I've ever seen a kite.  By this point, Bridger was too traumatized watching, so he had distracted himself by making sure the sand toys didn't blow away, or the wagon, or his shoes, or anything else.  I kept trying to explain to him that those things were heavy enough and they wouldn't blow away, but he couldn't be convinced.  I've never seen a kid so relieved when they had to leave the park.

Here are some pictures.  I made sure to include some of Bridger sitting and standing on his kite to hold it down and also carrying it to the park.  I love how happy Kincade looks to be flying the kite.  A good moment.

First Easter Egg Hunt This Year

We had an Easter Egg Hunt and picnic at the park with some high school friends and kids.  It was a very nice day and everyone had lots of fun.  Here are some pictures:

Befores and Afters

I have a few things going on at my house in the upcoming month, so I thought I'd try to get some stuff put away and some painting done.  I twisted my mom's arm to come help me paint and she brought along a handy guy (my dad).  They helped so much.  We finished the living room, dining room, and the upstairs bathroom.  Seems like so little finished for 2 days worth of work, but it was worth it.  I love them all!  I can't wait to move on to the downstairs bathroom, and especially the stairwell and hallways, oh and the 4 bedrooms upstairs, and my bathroom, oh my.  I hate seeing all of those white patches everywhere!  (I just realized I forgot the before shots...added them today)

I knew I wanted to do a tropical/Hawaiian/Beach type theme in the bathroom and paint it aqua blue-ish for the ocean.  So I came across these towels on clearance at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I snatched them up, along with 2 rugs and a trash can.  I matched the paint to the trash can, and voila:

Before:
                                                                            

After:

(You can probably almost make out the white patches in the hallway there.  Ugh!)

I had the green chair for the living room and decided to kind of match it for the living room and the dining room.  The paint in this house has been tricky to try to paint the repaired parts, but not paint more than we have to (not gonna paint the vaulted entry EVER).  I think we found a nice solution and I do love the green.

Before/Living Room:

After/Living Room:

Before/Dining Room:

After/Dining Room:

(Should I paint the inlay ceiling too?)

Before/Stairs:

After/Stairs:

We didn't tape anything off!  My mom hand-trimmed the stairs, living room, dining room, and bathroom.  It was a lot of work for her!  My dad and I rolled on the paint and did miscellaneous support items :)  The tan in the background has to go soon!  Too many white patches!  Finally, I can start hanging up pictures and wall art.

I also dug deep and found my inner handyman and was actually able to re-caulk our shower.  It's not perfect, but it'll do!  I'm going to move on to the upstairs shower next so the boys can officially move into their bathroom.