On the Hunt

Easter egg hunt #1. Awesome.

Granted he was just as interested in playing with the rocks and mulch as he was in the Easter eggs, but he still had a fun time. We crashed our neighbor's Primary Easter Party (she's the prez, gave us a VIP pass and waived the underage issue). He enjoyed running around with everyone, eating the Play-Do, and trying to bathe in the drinking fountain. The best part was when he has already found two eggs, one in each hand, and then came across a third. He put egg #1 down to pick up the 3rd, but then had to put egg #2 down to pick up #1 again, and this went on for awhile before he gave me one and then ran away.

This past month or so has been an explosion of climbing exploration. He can climb onto the kitchen table, so we took away the extra chairs and the remaining ones are often in the middle of the kitchen, safely away from everything. He's close to figuring out how to push them back to the table though. His comprehension of no and yes and stop stop stop! are still getting there. He often waits, halfway up the chair or table or sofa or bed or stairs or chapel aisle, and waits till one of us comes and catches him. Then he squeals and goes in turbo-speed mode to get as far as he can before we pick him up. We used to get through Sacrament meeting by sitting in the overflow on the folding chairs, cordoning off a quarantine zone by rearranging the chairs so he was trapped in. That worked until he figured out how to climb under, over and then through chairs.

He's got a thing where gets really excited (or bored, depending) and hits whoever is holding him really hard, which is a no-no and he knows that, so he also shakes his head "no" the whole time. He's doing waaaaaay better sleeping during the night. Naps are getting there. He takes one most days, unless he has a rough night or wakes up really early one day, then he might take two.

Maybe.

three eggs! uh-oh!

Big kids are so cool

kids!

focus face

Do your cheeks hang low...?

Ess cop ay

He's got this little knee-arm twist- wiggle thing he does when he runs happily

Spring Fling

Steve has gotten to know his professors in the graduate program pretty well. He has developed a unique relationship with one in particular, who shares many of the same interests and ideas and goals for writing. During one of their long walks together discussing life and literature, Steve decided the time was right to ask this mentor if he would please pretty please be the chair of his thesis committee. But Steve couldn't simply open his mouth and ask- he needed to make an impression, do something special for a special teacher. With the help of some other students, this is what he came up with:

 He decorated the professor's office door and then made sure several of his colleagues had taken note, before fessing up. The answer was yes, by the way. And no, Steve had never asked me out that elaborately.

Steve also recently went on a writer's retreat near Capitol Reef in southern Utah with his cohort and several professors. This fancy sleepover was "not bad," according to my source.

Wrapping up this semester, Steve was invited to read a short story he had written in the BYU English Reading Series. You can watch the reading online here. Steve has done excellent academically, scoring a new scholarship for next year and a creative writing teaching internship. 

However, I still beat him at Scrabble.
And blacklight mini golf.