Moses is TWO! (and has been for a few weeks...)

I'm playing the catch up game.  I just want to write about my big two year old boy.  Time has flown by and it makes me a little sad to think Mose is growing so fast.  At the same time it has been so fun to watch him grow.  He makes new discoveries every day.  Here are some fun facts about little Mose:

1.  He loves trucks and cars!  for the last 8 months or so any time he hears a siren outside our apartment he gets a surprised/excited look on his face and runs to the window to watch the firetruck/ambulance/police car speed by.  Sometimes he makes it to the window in time and says "Ah! Peece Car!"  Sometimes he doesn't get to the window fast enough and he'll say "Ope.  We miss it!"

2.  His favorite songs are "Itsy Spider" and "Do As I'm Doing."  Often times, I'll start singing a different song and he'll stop me and say "No mom.  Sing itsy spider song."  Other times he'll just say "No mom.  Don't sing mom!"  Haha the boy knows what he wants.  And he knows low quality singing when he hears it.  He dances to the music he likes too... he really gets that left shoulder movin' and groovin'.  He's got some serious rhythm!

3.  He's been throwing more and more tantrums lately.  I have to say, most of them I don't find funny... In fact I find them very overwhelming as his mama. But the other day I couldn't help but laugh.  It was so ridiculous.  After his bath he was crying- scratch that-  SCREAMING for 45 minutes saying "No mom.  Take. off. my diaper. mom.  I wan. touch. my poke!!!"  I was dying laughing.   He was so upset because I wouldn't let him run around naked.  This kid!

4.  He is learning to be a good older brother.  He still has the urge to hit Desmond on occasion (I have a hunch this urge will continue to creep up throughout their growing up years.)  But not nearly as much as he did when Des was first born.  Now he'll share his toys with baby brother and even give him kisses on the forehead.  Nathan always says "I know ya" to Des.  The other day Moses leaned down to Desmond on the floor and said "Hi brother.  I know ya!"  It was pretty cute.  Proud mom moment.

The next picture I took Mose was poking Des' eye.  Yeah, this one is much cuter.

5.  Moses is a scooter pro and has been since 18 months old.  We were so impressed when he started figuring out how to scooter.  Moses will take his scooter out while Nathan skateboards and they'll race.  His face lights up whenever he races dad- he feels pretty cool rollin around the apartment complex with dad.

6.  Mose has learned most of his shapes.  He's in the process of learning his letters (he's got about half of them down pat), his numbers, and his colors.  It amazes me how much he knows.  Everyday I'll ask him questions thinking he probably won't know the answer but low and behold... he'll answer them!

7.  He loves Mista Dog.  He won't go to sleep without him.  When I go to get him out of his crib in the morning he's always holding him.  Always.  This morning when I got Mose out of the crib he threw Mista Dog in and said "See ya at nap time Mista Dog."  Haha such a ham.

8.  Some of his favorite foods are pb and j's (hold the crust), cubababas (cucumbers), banas (bananas, he has to hold the whole thing by himself), quesdeeyas, kumquats (there's a tree in our apartment complex that he picks them from when they're in season, he calls them baby onges [oranges]), aacados (avocados), chick nugs and fries from McDonalds (bad mom for feeding this to him... I know).  He also loves milk and apple juice.  He really likes smoobies (smoothies) too.  Sometimes if he lets me cut his finger nails we'll walk to whole foods and get green smoothies after.  We both like them and he has no idea he's drinking spinach.  Win, win!

9.  We've been going to story time at the visitors center every tuesday this summer.  This past week the sister missionaries taught the kids about love and families.  After I asked him who he loved and he said "Jesus."  YES.  Another proud mom moment.  A few weeks ago MoPa was babysitting Mose. My dad told me he went to get Moses out of his crib after his nap and Moses started telling him the names of all his stuffed animals- "Mista Dog.  Mista Bear.  Mista big monkey.  Mista yittle monkey." Then he looked up at the pictures hanging on the wall (we have some pictures of some BoM and Old testament prophets, and Jesus).  He pointed to the one of Jesus and said "Mista Jesus!'

After his second week of nursery.  His necklace says "Heavenly Father and Jesus love me."  He since learned he loves them back.

10.  Moses thinks he is pretty funny.  He likes to make jokes and laugh at himself.  As a result, I find myself laughing with him every day.  I'm pretty lucky to be able to spend every day with such a funny guy:)

To sum it all up, Mose is the coolest two year old ever.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOSES LUTERU BECK.  Your mom loves everything about you.

A few weeks ago we had a firetruck birthday party out at our apartment playground.  We had lots of family and some friends come to celebrate with us.  We borrowed a firetruck cake pan from someone in my parents ward.  I thought I'd be able to decorate it myself... how hard can it be right?  I've seen hundreds of homemade cakes on pinterest that look perfect!  Haha well, the night before, around 11, I was trying to decorate it.  It was looking pretty sad when Nathan walked out of the bedroom; "Here, I'll do it... I do this kind of thing every day in dental school except its in someones mouth!  This will be so easy!"  And sure enough he fixed the cake!  It looked awesome too!  I do get some credit though... I baked it.  Annnd I put the little square candies on.  Basically i did the part that took no skill.  Lucky for me, my husband is awesome at pretty much everything he tries.

Forget dental school.  Nathan is the next Cake Boss.

Moses was pretty happy about it when he saw it the next morning.  He said "Oh! Fire truck!"  He had fun playing with the Pratt boys, Henry, Kaia, Amon, Cal, Charlie... all his little buddies that came to the party.  We ate burgers, yummy salads that Nana and MoPa brought, fruit kabobs (another pinterest idea...), cake, and ice cream.  The kids played with sidewalk chalk and kept each other entertained.  Lots of cute kiddos running around!  

Opening presents with some help from James.

On monday, his actual birthday, he woke up to a new table and chairs (20 bucks for the whole set at ikea!), and a rug to play cars on (playing cars is his current obsession... maybe because we live in LA and we see cars ALL THE TIME.)  He was pretty excited about it.  We went to lunch with MoPa and Gabby that afternoon to celebrate.  He ate a lot of fries and got a sucker afterwards.  

I love this boy so much!  He is so much fun to have around.  Nathan and I are blessed to have such a fun, funny, determined, smart little boy in our lives.  He has taught me many things in the two years he's been around and I'm so grateful.