Yep, There's Monsters...

Ammon is incredibly smart and creative. He gets really into things and usually obsesses about it for long periods at a time. Recently his free time has been spent creating monsters. I’m not sure if Halloween started this or the movie that we watched together “Monsters vs. Aliens.” He draws them (eyes, mouth, legs, arms, horns, and feet) and then asks for me to cut them out for him. He is adamant that we cut it a certain way. He envisions it looking a specific way and when it doesn’t turn out as he expects he can get a little frustrated. Honestly, I am the same way at times and this is why I seldom do crafts.

Ammon names each monster and interacts with it as if it were a real person. He is very compassionate towards his monsters as well. No matter how many times I tell him that he needs to feed himself and not his monsters, he still insists that they are hungry too. He even attempted to take one with him into bath, but was very upset when the ink washed off the paper and it to fall apart.

The other day, I threw out some of his monsters. Some of them had food on it and were starting to look a little yucky. We seriously had about 50-75 of them in the kitchen drawer and I was running out of space. Surely, he wouldn't miss some of these, right? Well, the next morning Ammon was frantic. He was running around in a daze, screaming about his Monsters. It took me awhile to realize that he knew exactly which ones were missing and described them to me. I felt awful. Unfortunately at this point, the trash had been picked up and digging through the trashcan wasn't an option. I was absolutely amazed that he could describe them all to me, the one with thirteen eyes and blue and black legs, the one with red and orange dots all over its body, etc.

I felt awful about the situation not realizing that he was attached to each and everyone one of these monsters. Luckily, Ammon finally calmed down and we created new monsters together. Today I took pictures of his daily creations. Enjoy!

Each Monster is given a name. This is Blue.

Ammon brings us a lot of joy. Isn't he just the cutest little boy?

Our Little Princess

Maddie Sue is such a joy to our family. She is always smiling and laughing. She loves to run and chase Ammon, enjoys playing peek-a-boo, and has an amazing sense of humor. She loves to wrestle with her big brother and is fearless when it comes to climbing up objects. She has managed to climb onto a chair at our kitchen table and then proceeded to get onto the table. It scared me to death the first time I saw her do this. The chair legs are higher than she is, but she somehow manages to pull herself up onto them. Dinner preparation can be a challenge to say the least.

She seems to be a bit of a tomboy and kind of reminds me of my niece Kaili when she was Maddie Sue’s age. At the same time, she loves her baby doll and insists on wearing the necklaces that daddy brought home for her awhile back. I never thought having a little girl in our home could ever be this much fun!

Maddie is one tough little girl!She makes the funniest facial expressions.

She has four teeth now... and knows how to use them!

A Visit from the Collins...

Bryan, Carol, Ben, Will & Zach Collins came to visit from Ohio this weekend. It was wonderful having them here. The weather wasn’t too accommodating having rained the entire time, but we still had a great time together. We visited the Lutz Children’s Museum on Saturday and then watched the Ohio State football game.