Christmas

This is a hard post because Christmas lasts for a bout a month so there might be some random order to things as I remember them.

First off: our advent calendar. Last year I came across something where people did a random act of kindness for everyday leading up to Christmas. So we did it last year and I think I made it more manageable this year. Last year I wrote down what we would do for the 25 days leading up to Christmas. This year I winged it and made it up as the day presented opportunities. I don't think I missed a single day this year. The kids loved to think up nice things that we could do for people.

I will record the highlights. We were at the grocery store and planned to let someone in line in front of us, but there was no line. (Oddly enough we tried this on a number of occasions and there were just no lines - hard to complain about that!) So I decided to purchase a candy bar for the checkout clerk. I casually asked her what her favorite candy bar was. She didn't commit to anything so I bought her a dove bar. I handed it to her after she gave me my receipt. Her face lit up like I would have never guessed. She was so excited! I was surprised, honestly. She then gave the kids a ton of Buddy Bucks. Buddy Bucks are fake money looking things that the kids insert into a machine and a wheel turns and then the kid pushes a button and the wheel stops on a number and the machine spits out a sticker with the points on it. They can then save up the points and get a prize. Anther highlight was at the library. We were checking out and I was going to pay someone's library fee. As I was checking out there was a lady paying her fee. It was something like $5 but she only had  a $20 and the library didn't have change for a $20. I happened to have a $5 so I gave it to her and asked if I could pay her fee. She was shocked and said she was so touched that she was going to cry. That one I found touching. Another trip to the library we were going to pay someone's fees again. I held Emma up to the counter and Emma whispered that she wanted to pay someone's fees. The librarian was surprised and and it was good for Emma to see her reaction to the act of kindness. Another time we took cookies to a fire house. John just about flung himself at the firetruck. This act of kindness was paid back by the firefighters letting the kids climb on the truck. A firefighter asked John if he wanted to drive the truck. John took him literally and said "no" because he knows he isn't supposed to drive a truck. Once we cleared up the confusion, then John threw himself at the truck but was sure to ask,  "It won't move right?" Lastly, I made rolls with my mom for Christmas Eve dinner. A friend of mine loves the rolls so I made some for her. I had Aaron and the kids deliver them while I finished up in the kitchen. Emma came home as proud as could be. She and John went to the door without Aaron. She spoke to the dad of this family and told him Merry Christmas and prompted John to say "Merry Christmas." Speaking to adults is a huge deal for Emma. It was worth it to see her have a victory and feel proud of herself.

We had my parents and sister Emily come to stay for Christmas. It was a ton of fun to have them here. Emily builds some impressive train set ups. She is also great at making snowflakes with. She can turn a cutie orange into a penguin. She is also a mover and moves kids in boxes all around the world or my family room. It also turns out that she know weird secrets like you can poke meat to tell how done it is instead of cutting into it. She also knows cool things to do like stencils. She is a fun aunt.

It was fun to laugh and play with family, eat yummy food, assemble kids toys together and just visit. We went to the zoo (one of our family traditions for December). The kids loved to see the animals. I got to do Anderson family girls shopping the day after Christmas. Aaron and my dad and the kids shopped for granite.

At one point in the visit, Emily was playing with John and he started to say, "what the hex!" He was meaning to say heck. Some neighbor kids taught this to him. I was trying to stifle the whole thing and he got confused and was wondering if "hexagon" was a swear word. So after a long time of sorting through confusion, I think he knows hexagon isn't a swear word.

For Christmas Aunt Mary got John a front loader digger. The kid was in love! It was hard to get him to look at his other gifts. He did however, really like a little fork lift that my parents got him and some construction legos that we got him. He also liked his tools.

Emma was a hard nut to shop for because she didn't know what she wanted. My parents got her these light up shoes. You can see her coming a mile away. They are tie die colored and brightly colored and she loves them. We get all sorts of comments on them. Emma also got sticker earnings from Aunt Mary and Emma wears a pair just about every day. She also got arts and craft stuff. Aunt Emily got the kids some games that they really like.

It was a fun Christmas. The only things I would do differently is I would simplify meals for Christmas Eve. And by simplify I mean do take out. And on Christmas, I would do Merry Christmas Rice and Beans. It is simple and the kids like it. That way we aren't cooking and cleaning all the time. No fancy meals for us.

Prayers

John is starting to say prayers without being prompted. It makes for some memorable family prayers.

One time he said thank you for the letter 'c' because 'c' is for cookie. He also said thank you that he could cover his eyes so that the monster couldn't see him.

Today we went to a friends house to make graham cracker houses. They had a toy workbench and John couldn't be bothered to make a house when there were tools to play with. So when John was saying the dinner prayer, he was thanking Heavenly Father for the tools and the hard hat. From there he went on to list off his Christmas wish list - an excavator. Aaron cut him off to remind him to say thank you for dinner.

Caroling

We went grocery shopping at HEB today to get our food for Christmas. We don't normally shop on a Saturday because it is so busy but I couldn't avoid it this time. That is the set up for our caroling, and by our I mean Emma's and John's caroling.

As I was going up and down the busy isles, the kids were singing at a normal volume "Jingle Bells" - both versions (the normal and the batman smells version). Some people noticed and smiled at us. However, when we got to the produce section where it is more open, John decided to belt out "Jingle Bells" over and over and over. Emma has enough semblance of self awareness that she dropped out. I should explain John's singing.... he has the words down and the general idea of the tune, but the best part is that he mostly shouts the song. I got all some smiles and some chuckles and a bunch of comments. The produce manager asked if he could put John on the payroll as a caroler for the store. One lady told me that he made her day. People across the produce section where stopping, looking up, and smiling at John. He was a hit. I have to say that I have been giggling at our grocery shopping trip all day long. It just made me happy to hear the kids singing Christmas carols in the store with no regard to themselves and to see them make those around them happy.

UPS Man

We have been getting a lot of packages at the door given the season. John and Emma have taken the boxes, put their own toys in and are playing UPS man. They deliver the packages to Emma's door, knock and run away. John was the UPS man this time and it turns out that he wanted to climb on top of the side of his toddler bed and pretend that he is driving the truck. His toddler bed is a crib with the front removed so he is above my belly button and if he falls, he could fall to the ground where there is a host of his trucks to land on. So I have told him that he can't be up there and needs to get down. This cause weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Once he calmed down he said, "I want to talk about it." This means he wants to enter into negotiations. He explained to me his side - that this was his truck and he needed to drive it. I explained he could fall and offered him the mailbox to sit on as a truck. He countered that the mailbox wasn't as high as his truck. I asked him what would happen if he fell and got hurt. He explained to me that you get back up and shake it off. I couldn't really counter that one. So I caved and he was happy driving his truck and delivering packages.

Dainty and Excavator Mom

I was telling Emma our plans for tomorrow as I was laying down with her to put her to bed. I told her that Aaron and I were going to go to Anadarko's holiday party in the evening and that we are going to get to a babysitter. Emma asked if she could go. I told her that it was just for adults and that it was going to be boring for kids. She asked what we were going to do. I told her that we would eat dinner and listen to music. She then said, "And talk dainty?" I was stunned and then I said, "yes." I don't know how dainty it will be with Maroon 5 playing but close enough. Apparently she got the "dainty" talk from a Henry and Mudge book.

We checked out a Digger Man book. In it a boy buys a digger and then gets digger man boots and a hard hat. So this morning John was telling me he needed a hard hat. Aaron had a hard hat from his ExxonMobil days so he got it out for John. He was elated. We play a game where I lay on the ground on my back and he sit on my stomach and moves my knees and feet to dig and dump "dirt" out. He sat there this morning with his hard hat and sang "That's What Excavators Do." He was calling me "Excavator Mommy."

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends from our ward. It was a nice dinner and then the kids were able to play with friends.

One of the things we did this year for a new tradition was I got some branches from the park and put them in a vase and every night we write something we are grateful for on a leaf and tape it to the branches. The kids have loved it.

John has given responses like Cookie Monster, Spider-man, the park, the library, mom, dad. Emma has said things like school, Hello Kitty, family, the library, and the park. It has been fun to see what the kids think about when you ask them what they are grateful for. I would say that it helped me to stop and think about something that happened that day that I was grateful for and then to talk about it with the kids.

It was hard to be away from family during Thanksgiving but it made me think about growing up away from family. We would spend Thanksgiving (and every other holiday for that matter) with the same families from our ward. I have wonderful memories of playing with friends and eating jello salad with mayo on top with shredded carrots. Ok so maybe that last one is more of a funny memory than a fond memory.

I Want to Talk About it and Polar Bears

Lately when I put John down to bed and start singing him a song he will say, "wait, wait... I want to talk about it." Then I will ask what he wants to talk about. It is different every time. One night he was concerned that there were monsters that were going to say "roar" to him. So we talked about how we only let nice monsters into the house. He wasn't buying it. So then I changed to a no monster policy and that didn't convince him either. He would tell me a concern and I would come up with an answer and he wouldn't believe it. After time though he consented to going to sleep.

Tonight his concern was that the darkness was going to make him fall out of bed and bonk his head. So we talked about it.

He will also say, "I want to talk about something." So I ask him what he wants to talk about. Nine times out of ten he will say skunks. So we talk about how they are black and white and really what he wants to talk about is how they spray stinky stuff. So we spend a lot of time on that particular aspect of skunks.

This fall has been cold. By cold I mean 40s and 50s. A normal fall here would be 60s and 70s. Every time we go outside I ask John if he wants his jacket (really just a hoodie sweatshirt) and he says "no I am a polar bear." So he goes without it. One of the times he went without a jacket we were going to the grocery store. We got to the refrigerated section and my little polar bear turned back into a lizard that suns on a rock. He couldn't take the refrigerated section and wanted out of there as soon as possible.

One time I took the kids for a walk while it was 52 degrees outside. They were dying! It was then that I realized I have raised two Texas kids. They do best at 55+ and sunny.

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

I went to Emma's preschool Thanksgiving Feast. It was cute. They sang some songs and had a feast that included deli turkey meat rolled up, corn, corn bread, blueberries, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies and ranch dip, and little pumpkin pie tartlets. Emma ate her food at her pace and like usual was the last one eating. In her defense, she got her food later but this is a common occurrence that she is the last one eating. Her teacher commented on it to me and said that Emma moves at her own pace and there isn't anything anyone can do to hurry her up. It was relieving to know that it wasn't just me that was experiencing that. That is just who Emma is - she moves at her own pace. Her teacher also said that she was very bright and always knew the answer to the questions about the Calendar.

Camping

We tried to camp in our backyard. This was a trial run for family camping. We had a 75% success rate. John was kicked out of the tent after about an hour because he kept trying to walk around in the tent. So I took him in the house to sleep. I confess, I wasn't sad.

Emma didn't like her jammie bottoms so she kept taking them off and some how she managed to wind up out of her sleeping bag on a number of occasions so she woke up cold a few times in the night. Overall though, it was successful for Aaron and Emma in the tent. I count my experience successful because I got to sleep in my bed. Poor John kept talking about how he was kicked out of the tent the next morning. Another time.... when he is older....

Reading

Emma loves reading. There are times that she won't come down out of her room in the morning because she is reading. I have had to drag her down for breakfast at 9am and she is normally up before 7am. I have also had her stay up in her room for an extra hour after quiet time because she is reading. Today we went to the Children's Museum and she wanted to read books for a good portion of the time.

If Emma is reading a book, John gets excited and snuggles up to her and listens. He doesn't quiet understand how reading works. One time he took a book to a little boy his age and asked his friend to read it to him.

Our life now depends on the library and having a constantly revolving set of books in our house. Having a fresh set of books helps avoid grumpiness here. Emma likes Cocoa and Kate, Fancy Nancy, Henry and Mudge, Annie and Snowball, Wacky Wednesday, and any book with a character named Emma in it.

John likes Leonardo the Terrible Monster and Easy Street as well as Thomas books and construction, farming, and fire truck themed books.

Santa Snacks

Emma was reading a Christmas book and there was a picture of a plate of cookies left out for Santa. Emma asked about it so I told her that people leave a plate of cookies out for Santa to eat for a snack. She asked if Santa only ate cookies. I told her no and asked her if she wanted to leave something else for Santa. She smiled and said, "pizza!"

I told Aaron about the conversation and he responded, "I think that is a great idea! Santa loves pizza!" Who knows, maybe we will be eating pizza for Christmas Eve dinner and leave some leftovers for Santa.

Incentive

Aaron was trying to motivate John to eat his chili dinner.

Aaron: John you need to at least eat the beans. John, do you want to toot? Beans help you toot!

John wasn't sold.

Beans and Bishopric

Your dad was called as the second counselor in the bishopric this weekend and set apart as a High Priest. He has been daunted by the responsibility of it all. On Sunday night we talked about the ways that we have seen the Lord prepare us in the last little bit for our family to be able to serve in this way.

One way is dried beans. For a while now I have had the thought that I need something like pea gravel to bring to church for John to "dig" with using his little yellow construction trucks during sacrament meeting. He likes to pull out the almonds and pecans and dig with those but those make a mess. A couple of Sundays ago I decided to look in the pantry to see if I had anything that would work like pea gravel (I didn't have time to find and wash rocks before church). Lentils... too small. Rice... still too small. Dried beans! So I put some in a bag and brought them to church. John was elated when he saw what he could do!! He was relatively quiet and beyond happy the entire sacrament meeting. He still let out some truck engine noises and some beeps to indicate the truck was backing up. I was so proud of myself! After church he ran up to me wanting to dig with beans. I told him he could only do it during sacrament meeting. He wanted those beans so bad that he asked to just hold the bag of beans.

This week as soon as we got to church (and we were early), John leaped for the diaper bag looking for the beans. I told him we needed to go for a walk to get wiggles out before church. He was not happy about it! He had to be carried out of the chapel to get him to go on a walk. Again, when it was time to play with beans the kid was so happy and quiet!

After Aaron's call to the bishopric, it dawned on me that the beans idea was in fact divine inspiration. I now had a way to help John be reverent during church now that Aaron would be sitting on the stand. I felt foolish for assuming that it was my great idea. I was humbled that Heavenly Father was blessing me with help for the seemingly little things. Wrestling John during sacrament meeting can be exhausting, so this was really a big blessing. I feel Heavenly Father gave this bit of help to me in advance of Aaron's call so I wouldn't panic at the thought of being left alone with the kids.

Another way that Heavenly Father has prepared our family is by prompting me to be more selective about the shows that I watch. I have been feeling this prompting for a while but managed to rationalize my way out of listening to it. I came to a breaking point and finally humbled myself enough to decide to listen. It has made a huge difference in our family. I feel like I have more time to think about my various responsibilities with family and my calling and what needs to be done. There is a better spirit in our home. Aaron commented on the fact that he hadn't realized how destructive our choices in tv had been.

This next blessing probably wouldn't have happened without removing of tv. A friend had been sick in the night, had a little baby with an ear infection and a little boy (who is John's age) who had been couped up in the house and needed to get out. So she asked if I could take her older son for the morning. Normally I am a germophob and bringing in a kid who has puking going on in the house wouldn't be my first choice. However, for this friend to ask this meant that she would have to be in a world of hurt because she doesn't ask for help. So I knew that she needed relief. The kids played amazingly well together. Afterwards I was a little worried we would get a stomach bug and end up puking. Aunt Mary was supposed to come on the weekend and if we were puking, she wouldn't be able to come.

While I was doing dishes I thought about a comment that a lady made in Sunday school the past Sunday. She said that fasting is a way for us to be like Christ because we assume a burden to lift and help another. I thought about how that principle applied to my situation. The opportunity to assume a potential burden for my friend to alleviate some pain for her. I thought about how Christ didn't count the cost of his sacrifice and how I shouldn't either. I was filled with feelings of gratitude at the opportunity to help out someone and for all the times that others had assumed a burden to help me. I no longer worried about if we got sick and Aunt Mary couldn't come - if it happened, it was still a blessing to help someone out. I thought about the blessing of being able to learn that lesson and how it wouldn't have happened had I been watching tv. It was a powerful lesson about service and sacrificing for others that I needed prior to this time when Aaron will have more responsibilities outside of our home.

As I reflected back on the experiences we have been having, I wanted to write them down so that you kids could know about them. It is humbling to see that Heavenly Father has a plan for our family and is moving forward with that plan - putting things into place to prepare us for the things that he would like us to do.

Halloween

This year Emma was a mermaid and John was Spider-man. They loved trick or treating and had a great time. The first kids to come to our door were the twin boys that live across the street from us. When I was walking to the door to answer it I could hear one of them say, "This is the most beautiful girl in the world. I can't believe my eyes!" These boys had drawn a picture of Emma and given it to her a couple of days ago. It made me giggle. Emma didn't hear their comments.

After trick or treating, John would get up in the morning and tell me he wanted candy for breakfast. He was quite bummed when I explained that he could choose between cereal and oatmeal. We had a mishap in the family and as a result the candy bags went up high in the pantry and have since been forgotten about. I can't say that I am up for reminding them either. They did get to eat some of it for dessert for a bit after Halloween. Emma has learned that she likes Nerds. John likes lolly pops.

We didn't exactly carve pumpkins this year. They have these things that turn your pumpkin into a Mr. Potato Head type thing. Emma's pumpkin was a witch. She loved that her witch had earrings. Probably because Emma wants earrings so bad she can taste it. Emma would take the witch pieces off her pumpkins and dress it up again and again. John's pumpkin was surprise, surprise, Spider-man.  

State of the Union

Yesterday the kids had some awesome moments.

Emma was explaining to Aunt Mary how to trick or treat. The first step is to eat all of your dinner. The rest was a step by step explanation of process but it made me giggle that dinner was definitely involved.

Emma also explained to my Dad that John had no idea what trick or treating was. I would like to point out for the record that it took years for Emma to figure out what this candy thing was. She played with the candy not knowing that you eat it. She never asked to open it or eat it. John had this down last year. He figured it out in about 30 seconds. I will however say that when I told the kids that we were going to do a trunk or treat John asked if we were going to climb a tree. Trunk. Get it?

I was putting John down to bed and he didn't want me to go and so he was hugging me. I get the most hugs when I am putting John down and about to walk out the door. He is at his snuggliest then - the most genius stall tactic a kid could use because who can resist snuggles? So he had his arm around me and said, "I am protecting you. You are getting stung." We have a Winnie the Pooh bear dressed up as a bee. So we talked about how Pooh doesn't like bees because they sting so he is dressed up as something scary.

The other day I made roasted veggies for dinner - potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, onions, and brussel sprouts. Emma didn't like them. She turned to me and said, "I don't like this dinner! YOu need to start making different dinners!" I giggled. She didn't appreciate that.

Lately

It seems I haven't written in a while so I thought I would comment on the state of the union.

John has crushes galore on every little girl and woman in the ward that is blond. His favorites are Marcy and Miss Danielle. He even thought a lady in an ad was cute and was embarrassed over liking her.

Emma has been reading up a storm. She will read just about anything you hand her. She reads the family scripture stories at night for us. She particularly loves Fancy Nancy books. I must admit I like them too. She has to read a book before she can text or play on the iPod. And oh how she loves to text! She is 5 going on 15. She will text Aunt Mary or Aaron and call them. One Sunday afternoon she called my dad, mom, Aunt Mary, and Aunt Emily about 8 times each. Apparently she had a hard time getting a hold of them because they all called her back on my phone - not to talk to me but to talk with her.

I have started taking Emma rock climbing and she loves it. And I love that she loves it. I am hoping to brainwash her and John into becoming climbers. Which means it totally won't work. I have taken John once and he didn't so much but he loved it once he kinda figured it out a little. My goal is to take her once a week.

John lives for legos and making "beep beeps." Those are fork lifts. He likes to have the zoo keeper drive the beep beep. He loves the color blue and hoards all of the blue legos and anything blue that he can get his hands on.

Santa Barbara A.K.A. Mary's House

We went to an Anderson Family reunion in Santa Barbara, California. We had a great time! We stayed in a house that had 4 bedrooms and a loft. Em's kids stayed in the loft which was super cool. This loft was essentially a closet. It had a huge ladder that took up the entire closet and took you up to what was probably an attic that had been made into a huge bedroom. Our bedroom had a little nook of a room off of the closet that a bunch of toy trucks in it. John was in love. There were several times when he asked to play in his room. Have at it kid! The house also had a pool, a pool table, a Foosball table, a trampoline, a hot tub, and nice patios to sit out on and enjoy the weather. There was also a cat that came with the house. Emma and John loved that the house came with a cat. I didn't share that same excitement. The owners had a spray bottle to spray the cat with if he was bugging us. I think I was the only one bugged. So if I saw the cat, he got sprayed. Everyone else loved on the cat. The owners also said that we should keep the doors shut at night because there are baby skunks that would come in the house. According to the owners, the skunks didn't spray. I wasn't interested in finding out.

Here are the highlights of the trip:

On Sunday after dinner, Mary brought out 13 boxes of oreos for another test tasting. Again, most flavors were gross. The basic flavors are good and the rest have no purpose being on a store shelf. The most surprising finding was that Josh likes watermelon oreos. Everyone universally agreed that they were gross.

Every time I turned around John had a cookie, gummy bear, swedish fish, M&M, or chip in his mouth. Mary even bought fruit loops cereal for the kids. They loved it. In fact today (back at home) John found fruit loops on the floor at church and you could just see he yearned to eat them. He knew that they were on the floor and we don't eat food off the floor. I caved and let Emma and John eat them. I know, I know, I am so nice to let my kids eat random food off the floor - I deserve a medal for mother of the year. Emma got to drink orange soda and that made her year. (On a side note, Emma was pretending to give Aaron money for the movies. He asked for money for candy and popcorn. She asked if he would like some money for a water. She has no idea people buys sodas.)

We went to the Channel Islands. We took an hour long boat ride out to the Island. Emma was pretty sea sick (as was I). So we sat in the back of the boat and hoped to not puke. We hiked around the island. We probably hiked for a mile, which is pretty good for a 2 year old and a 5 year old. Then we had lunch and played at the beach. Emma played with Amanda in the water and John just dug in the dirt. This boy was so content to just dig in the dirt the entire vacation. Aunt Mary bought some John Deer tractors and he was in heaven to have tractors and a shovel. Ben and Mary filled his swim shirt up with rocks and he would stand up and they would all fall out. John just laughed and laughed at this. So they did it a lot. Aaron swam out to a reef and looked at all the fish and stuff there was out there. This was a pretty brave thing since the air temperature wasn't super warm and the water was probably 60 degrees. He enjoyed the swim and adventure. The rest of the group hiked and then hung out on the beach with us. On the boat ride back, we gave Emma Dramamine to help with the nausea. After I gave it to her, Emily explained that the side effect was drowsiness. She wasn't kidding. Emma fell asleep just about as soon as she sat down on the boat. I couldn't wake her to get off so we transferred her to her car seat. She didn't wake up when we got home. Emily read her a book after we supposedly woke her up but she didn't remember it later on. It probably wasn't until half way through dinner that she was truly awake.She still slept fine that night.

The kids had a lot of fun swimming in the pool. It was a bit cold for my tastes, but the kids didn't even notice. There was a surf board in the pool that they played on and Aunt Mary bought blow up toys. There was a huge cube and a floaty thing and water cannons and more.

John dug in the dirt in the yard all day every day. He was in heaven. Every once in a while I would have to chase him out of a bird bath.

Emma commandeered Aunt Mary's phone and iPad and called, texted and facetimed everyone in the house a bajillion times. She also played games on the iPad.

We tried our hand at paddle boarding and kayaking in a harbor in Ventura.  I could paddle board in the harbor ok. Out in the ocean, I was getting sea sick. It didn't take much for me to tap out and head for dry land. Out in the ocean we could get pretty close to a buoy where seals were just lounging around and pushing each other off the buoy. As we would paddle past boats in the harbor we would pass a seal on the dock. It turns out that this trip inspired Aaron. He now craves kayaking. He wants to go a lot at home now. He has taken Emma once since we have been home.

We got to play games as a family. Grandma Lindy was a good sport and participated in one where she had to pick her nose and do the chicken dance. It made for some awesome video.

We went to a farmers market and saw how the granola half live. We got to try some unusual tomatoes and other things that were delicious.

We also went into Solvang and ate Danish food and looked at shops. Grandpa was nice to watch the kids at the park for us. It was pretty hot out so Grandpa earned his stripes that afternoon.

When it was over I really didn't want to leave. It was nice to just relax and enjoy family time together. We got to play tennis, basketball and go for walks. Oh, Aaron woke Ben, and Katie got up on her own and with Uncle Brian, they would go play basketball at the crack of dawn on vacation. It was a nice trip to just enjoy each others company.

Family Secrets

I took John to Costco today and had an awesome experience. I now that know that John will tell all of the family secrets.

I had to change John's diaper so I took him to the bathroom. During the process John in his full out loud voice tells me that I don't wear underwear. I tell him that I do. He tells me I don't and that Emma wears underwear. I insist I do... mostly because there are people in the bathroom. [As a note for future posterity - I do wear underwear.] We went back and forth for a bit. Finally the subject changed but I don't think I changed John's mind. The ladies in the stall hopefully were on my side but, but chances are they think kids don't lie.

On the way home from our trip John and I had a conversation:
John: What do mans do?
Me: I don't know. What do they do?
John: They sell things.
Me: Oh. What do ladies do?
John: Credit cards and babies.

He then proceeded to list off other things that "mans" do - drive excavators, concrete mixers, etc.

When Aaron got home, I related the "mans" story. Aaron asked John if he [Aaron] was a man. John said "no, you are just a dad."

Which Toot?

Aaron: John, do you want to play trains with me?
John: Yes. Cranky is asleep. I am going to wake him up with a toot.

Zerberts

Emma: John can I give you a zerbert?
John: No my tummy is closed.
Emma: I am going to give myself a zerbert. [tries]
Me: Maybe if your neck where like a giraffes you could give yourself a zerbert.
Emma [still trying]
John: [head down, blowing rasberries and then lifts head] I gave myself a zerbert.
Emma: Do giraffes give themselves zerberts?

The Day Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian Came to Town...

I have decided that when Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian come to town it is kind of like a hurricane. Don't get me wrong - a good hurricane but about that level of excitement and activity.

They came in late the night before the 4th of July. The next morning I took the kids to the parade while Mary and Brian recovered from their late night. Aaron took the Mac into the Apple Store for repairs. The kids loved the parade. The life flight helicopter did fly-bys and the kids loved it. It was fun to hear the marching bands and the old cars.

 Emma loves Aunt Mary's iPad. She begs Mary for her iPad whenever Mary is around.

 This is Mary sleeping and Emma sitting on Mary playing with her phone. Mary can sleep through anything and Emma holds so still while playing with an electronic device.

Sadly, those are all of my photos of their trip.

We, and by "we" I mean Brian and Aaron, played tennis in the middle of the day in July.... they took the kids with them and the kids loved it. John was excited that we were now the proud owners of "tennis whackiters" (aka tennis racquets). They all came home so sweaty gross.

Mary, Brian, Emma and I went to tour model homes in the newer section of The Woodlands. There were some beautiful homes with some beautiful decorations. Emma at one point turned to me and asked if we had a beautiful home. Hard to answer that one.... I am not a decorator. Choosing a paint color for our guest bathroom about drove me to insanity. Fortunately I survived the experience and live to talk about it.

We got a sitter for the kids and went out to eat. We tried a Mexican restaurant that a couple of friends had recommended. When I asked the waiter what was good on the menu he essentially didn't want to give me any sort of answer. It was weird but should have been our first clue. When the waiter came back to take our orders I asked him his opinion on two dishes. He responded with "that one is a small plate and that one is a big plate." Again, not what I was looking for. We were laughing at that experience until we ate our food. Three out of four of us thought the food was gross - Aaron included - and it was then that we figured out that the waiter didn't like the food anymore than we did.

Brian tried to feed John his oatmeal in the morning. Actually it was more just trying to tease John with his oatmeal by calling it goulash and offering it to John. John would run away, but loved it.

On Sunday after dinner, Mary came downstairs with 10 boxes of Oreo cookies for a taste test. As soon as John saw the boxes he laughed and got so excited. Emma and John got to try different flavors such as mint, berry (gross), lemon, birthday cake, reeses peanut butter cup, double stuffed blond, blond and chocolate, and I can't remember the rest. Emma liked the mint. John learned to pull the oreo apart and just eat the creme filling. Both kids were ecstatic about the experience but John especially loved it. This weekend Mary introduced the kids to swedish fishes, and gummy worms. So after this cookie experience, John kept saying, "I love fishes and worms and cookies" over and over. Later the kids were horsing around with Brian and Mary while we were facetiming my parents. The kids were truly on a sugar high after that many cookies. In a burst of emotion, John yelled out, "I love you so much Uncle Brian and cookies!" We have giggled about that for a while.

Mary was kind enough to update my wardrobe and help me learn to do my hair. I haven't received so many compliments on my hair and clothes for a while. Actually the last time such compliments came was shortly after Mary unloaded clothes on me. I love Mary's drier because I get her clothes when they shrink in it. It helps to be 6 inches shorter.

The kids were so sad to see Mary and Brian go. I quickly unloaded the box of cookies onto unsuspecting friends.

Sundays

Sundays seem to provide some of the funnier material for our family. It could be because that is when we go out in public.

Today in Sacrament meeting, during the Sacrament, John in a full out loud voice, started to say his prayers. It went something like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father, I thank thee for this bench, thank thee for bulldozers, and front loaders."

Then he proceeded to do vain repetitions and repeated the prayer over and over. The people in front turned around and asked if he was saying his prayers.

During dinner, Emma closed her eyes, and then reached out with her elbow and nudged Aaron and asked, "Is that you Dad?" Then with her other elbow reached out and nudged me and asked, "Is that you Mom?" Then with her eyes still closed stuck both of her elbows in her ribs and asked, "Is that me?"

For dinner we had waffles and eggs. Aaron cut John's waffle into the shape of a truck and had the eggs be a load of cement in the back of the truck. John was super excited. So excited that he just sat there for almost the entire dinner and played with his truck. He couldn't bring himself to eat it. He made up stories and would describe the additional features of the truck - like it had 2 ladders on it. Finally I had to tear apart his truck for him to eat it. Lesson is trucks are too exciting to eat.

Ribs

Aaron requested ribs for his birthday dinner. This morning he was up early getting them ready to smoke them. Emma saw him working on them and wanted to know what he was working on.

Me: Ribs
Emma: Pig Ribs? (smiling excitedly)
Me: Yes
Emma: Did someone take the pig ribs to the grocery store?
Me: Yes

She was excited that she understood that someone brought the pig to the grocery store for us to purchase.

At dinner time, the subject came up again about how we were eating pig. Emma asked how they got the ribs out of the pig. I let Aaron field that one. Then John picked up a piece of rib that had a piece of fat and then a chunk of meat hanging from that fat. He swung it around with his hand and kept saying, "flying pig!"

Both kids packed in the ribs by the way.

Soccer

We signed Emma up for a soccer camp. It seemed like a good idea up until the time I pressed the button to pay for the week long camp. Immediately, I knew it was a mistake. For one, Emma had never been exposed to a team sport. Two, Emma doesn't do so well being attacked with anything - swords, etc. - let alone having lots of little legs kicking you in the shins. Three, we had to buy her shorts. She doesn't like shorts and she also didn't really have shirts that you would play soccer in.

After about day 1 she knew she didn't like it. She refused to wear a jersey while scrimmaging. She would do pirouettes on the field while the game was going on. Her coaches would sit everyone down and talk to the team and Emma would be kicking the ball all around the field with no concern as to where she was supposed to be at the moment. After day two she came home and said, "We played that jersey game again and I don't like it!" The "jersey game" is soccer!

Today was the last day. She told me this:

"We chose a country and I was Mexico and they didn't ask me to wear a jersey! We had to score goals and we get one point for a goal. Then we celebrate. Celebrate means to hug each other and then run off and play." 

It seemed so scientific and calculated when she said it. First score - check. Then hug - check. Then run - check. Then play - got it!

She asked to play basketball. I told her she couldn't do basketball until she was willing to wear a jersey.

Prayers

I was fixing John's door knob because it is misaligned so it doesn't engage. The consequence is that John can just get his door open at nap time. Now that John is giving up naps, I am motivated to have him stay in his room for quiet time. As I am fixing his door knob, I couldn't let him through the door because I was in the middle of working on it. John walks away and says, "Hey Jesus, my mom won't let me out. She is working on the door. Hey Jesus, my mom won't let me out." I was giggling inside and also hoping that prayer wasn't answered.

Healthy

John has had a stomach bug and he wants to play with play dough. Pardon me if I am not excited about his germy little hands getting into play dough. So I told him no. He responded, "it is healthy our body so we can play." He seems to know how to appeal to my softer side. But in this case I had a hard time buying into his argument.

John's Newly Coined Words

John has come up with the handful of newly coined words below.  The beauty of these words is that they are so versatile, they can be used to mean anything you wish.

Goldendynkes
Dockicks
Funkabunka
Usu
Hunkagunksa
Pensagon
Huntsaweedwackiter
Trackitor
Pinkdoes (sometimes "pinkadoes")
Keempoh (always used in the sentence, "The yellow [toothbrush] is keempoh.")
Sponky

Legos

John came to me this morning and told me he wanted to play legos. Then he said, "my body is telling me to play legos."

The phrase comes from discussions about going to the bathroom, as in listen to your body telling you you need to go potty. (So you don't have an accident.) Or I will say, "My body is telling me I need to go potty" so as to demonstrate listening to your body.

Father's Day

All About My Daddy

By Emma and John

2014

What is Daddy’s name?

Aaron

Wolfies

What color is Daddy’s hair?

Brown

Brown

What color are Daddy’s eyes?

Brown

White and black

What does Daddy like to eat?

Quesadillas

Chicken potpie

What does Daddy like to do for fun?

Plau Steam Rollers

Basketballing

How long have you known Daddy?

Years

Four Years

How old is Daddy?

35

4

Where did you and Daddy meet?

You married Daddy and then I was born

You [Mommy]

What does Daddy do for work?

Writes a contract

Daddy no gonks

How tall is Daddy?

This tall [uses hands]

4

How much does Daddy weigh?

60 lbs

Basketballs

What do you like to do with Daddy?

Play with him

Sing Rumpabumps

What makes Daddy the best?

Playing with him

Best Daddy

Emma and John have the best Dad in the world. We took some pictures for Father's Day. John was not a willing participant. 

So we borrowed a picture from another photo shoot.

Funny

Stick with me here. There are 2 background stories that set up my main story.

1. Emma was discussing something about her eyes. I was discussing eyes with her and mentioned the word "eyeball." Emma and John immediately started laughing so hard they were crying. Apparently the word "eyeball" is hilarious. Periodically they ask me to say "eyeball" and then they start laughing all over again.

2. We are thinking about buying a minivan. We were discussing this with my dad and he mentioned that we should get decals of flames to put on the minivan coming out of the engine to make it more acceptable for Aaron to drive. We were cracking up over that. Aaron countered that we should get hydraulics on the minivan.

So I was singing songs to John to put him to bed. I remembered my dad's comment about the flame decals for the minivan and started giggling. John asked what I was laughing at. So I told him that Grandpa said something funny. John thought about it and asked if grandpa said "eyeballs." I giggled and told him, "yes, grandpa said eyeballs." John just kept saying "grandpa said eyeballs."


On another topic but similar theme, John loves leaf blowers. I mean he LOVES leaf blowers. He is contantly turning anything long and pointy into a leaf blower. Sticks. Lego towers. The chain cover to a bike. A card cardboard tube from wrapping paper. His arm. The trailer to a car transporter. You name it, it is a leaf blower. He makes this sound where ever we go - the grocery store, everywhere. Today, John was peeing on the toilet, looked up with a smile and then started to make a leaf blower sound. He made the connection!

Dance Lessons and Pass Codes

I showed Emma Nanny Great's funeral program this morning and on it are two pictures. One was of Nanny when she was younger and the other was a more recent picture. She asked how Nanny's hair turned gray. Fortunately for Emma I have gray hairs to demonstrate how such things happen.

Emma asked if Nanny's legs worked when she was younger. Nanny used a walker (named Petunia) in her last years. I told her that yes, Nanny's legs worked when she was younger and that in fact Nanny liked to dance. Emma lit up and asked, "Did a prince teach her to dance?" I felt bad crushing her hopes, but Nanny took dance lessons just like the rest of us peons.... no royalty involved.

On another note, Emma was telling me about the process of getting married. The temple was involved, but so was telling each other their pass codes (for your phones).

Ward Family History Scavenger Hunt

The following were the scavenger hunt items and what we found for our ward:

• Find a story about a parent I have not heard before and record it.  Growing up, I knew that when playing games with my Grandma Lofgreen, she had a rule that to signify the end of your turn, you knock on the table.  At the beginning of this April, I heard that my parent's dog, Ned would respond to any knock by running to the front door in anticipation of a visitor.
• Interview your grandparents and ask them questions you don't know the answer to.  At the beginning of April, I had the opportunity to "interview" Grandma Russell (only grandparent now living).  Something new I learned about Grandma Russell was that her favorite restaurant is Matta's (in Mesa, Arizona).  I knew she used to play Boggle with her family regularly, but hasn't been able to play because her brother and sister passed away recently.  We set up Internet Boggle for her to play against folks on the Internet.  After not playing in a month, she was able to win first place within just a few games.
• Find an item passed down.  Grandma Russell gave John and Emma each a medal that my dad won during swimming or diving competitions when younger.
• Make a time capsule.  We may a time capsule last week consisting of pictures Emma had drawn, pictures of our family and kids, and a DVD containing a recent blog book and other recent important family documents.

Nostrils

John was pointing to his facial features and naming them. Aaron decided to help John broaden his vocabulary and Aaron pointed to his nostrils and said, "nostrils." John looked at him and said, "no, hair."

Grandma Lofgreen

We went to Phoenix, AZ for Grandma Lofgreen's funeral this weekend. Grandma Lofgreen has been ill for most of the time that Aaron and I have been married. It is wonderful that she now gets to be with her husband and other family members. I got to learn quite a bit more about her and am sad that I wasn't able to know her while she was healthy.

Some of the stories that I particularly enjoyed where about a time that she drove up onto a curb. Apparently she was 4'11" and drove a station wagon. It was said that you could see two little hands on a steering wheel and a bunch of kids in the car (there were 11 in the family) and that was it. She said that when she was pregnant, she had a hard time reaching the steering wheel and the gas pedal at the same time. The image of that just made me giggle.

Here is a segment from Jana's talk at the funeral:

Mom was known for her long fervent prayers. Quoting Peggy: “While we lived in the farm house there was a skunk living underneath in the crawl space. Dad had set a trap where he thought the skunk was getting in and out. As dad was the bishop at that time he left early Sunday mornings for meetings. He gave instructions to Art to check the trap and to shoot and dispose of the skunk if it were caught. The skunk was caught. Art shot and killed the skunk. He must have hit the stink bag gland. Art quickly grabbed the trap with the dead skunk attached to the chain, ran out into the nearby field, swinging the trap and skunk above his head, flinging it as far away as he could from himself and the house. It wasn’t far enough or it was too late…it was time for morning family prayer and Mom called us all into the living room. We dutifully came, knelt down at our regular prayer spots in the living room and my mom commenced to pray. I had smelled something strange to start with but as she continued in prayer the potent fragrance increased, seemingly in waves, till it actually caused my eyes to tear and my throat to scratch. Mom continued to pray. I remember thinking, “can she not smell that?” I was Jr Sunday School secretary and thought I’d better send the rolls in the folders to the church building with a family member so they could take attendance, as we would probably be late, with the extreme bathing that was now required. The family member returned and said the members of the ward sent back the folders and told us it probably would be better if we didn’t come that morning at all. Mom went to a convenience store and bought several cans of Lysol spray. She told us that the store clerk looked at her funny so Mom explained, pointing to the cans, “We were sprayed by a skunk,” and the clerk replied, “I know.”

Grandma Lofgreen had a great love of music. I had been told this before but didn't quite grasp the enormity of her love of music. My grandfather Ben loved music and could sing very well. He gave each of his kids a piano in hopes of passing this love onto the next generation. It stopped there. I don't know of a single musically gifted person in our family (including extended, with one exception). This is not the Lofgreen family. At her funeral one granddaughter (Shelly) played the cello and Missy (a daughter) sang. It was nothing short of amazing. It might as well have been professional. I was dumbfounded. As it stands now, tone-deafness appears to be a dominate gene.

I was able to meet a ton of family on the Lofgreen side. It was nice to get a feel for more of Aaron's family. We also were able to spend time with some family from the Russell side. John loved Dave and Judy's house because they have cool trucks there. Emma loved it because you can slide down their basement stairs - too hard to explain. Emma and John also loved to play with the Deshlers. Emma and Elle were two peas in a pod. John and Dray bonded over trucks. It was very nice to sit and visit with family and to have a weekend to catch a glimpse into Aaron's childhood and what it was like for him to grow up near family.

Emma Can Ride A Bike!

Emma learned to ride a bike today! Last week I took the training wheels off her bike. She tried it and was too scared. So we took off her pedals over the weekend and she used her bike as a balance bike. It didn't take her long to figure out how to balance and get going on it. She got braver and braver each day. Yesterday and today she decided to ride down our driveway to get a better coast going. Our driveway is quite steep. Once I saw that she was backing up on the driveway to get going faster and faster, then I figured she was sufficiently skilled at riding a bike.

So tonight we put on her pedals and in a few minutes, she was off and going. We were out there for 20 minutes and in that time she figured out how to start, stop and turn on her bike. Once she got going, she was trying to go faster and faster. It was quite heart breaking that it was bed time.

G-U-M

Emma LOVES gum. Up until recently it has been an almost nonexistent treat in our house. Literally. I wouldn't let her chew gum in the house. It seemed to me she was too little to keep it in her mouth. So occasionally she would ask Grandma Marsha for a piece and Grandma Marsha would share her beloved gum. However, I haven't been as generous with my gum. Lately in church Emma has asked me to smell her breath as proof that she needed gum. Sorry kid.

Emma has recently started learning to read. We have a collection of early readers called Bob Books. They are a series of short books that help kids learn to read. Emma read about two of them and decided she didn't like them. Aaron was trying and trying to get her to read them. No luck. So he offered her a bribe of gum. Totally worked. So we negotiated a deal: she reads two Bob books and she can have a piece of gum. Emma was ecstatic - not because of her accomplishment of learning to read. Nope, she was excited that she had control over when she gets gum.

Now, every morning she asks to read two Bob books. There has been at least one morning when I had to explain that we need to eat breakfast first before we chew gum. To ask for her gum, she refers to it as G-U-M. So John doesn't know what she is asking for and ask for some himself. So there is a lot of discussion about G-U-M in our house.

Recently, Grandma Lindy offered to buy her a pack of gum of Emma's choosing and then Grandma would buy the same pack so they could chew the same G-U-M together. So we have been FaceTiming Grandma Lindy and reading to her. Emma loves that she has her own G-U-M and that Grandma is chewing the same flavor.

There was one night when she went to bed with gum in her mouth. Aaron remembered and went upstairs to find it and throw it out. I would just like to point out that I was sat a meeting when the decision was made to let Emma chew gum after brushing her teeth. So Aaron sticks his fingers in her mouth to fish out the gum. He can't find it. So he fishes some more and more. Emma is asleep through this whole process. Finally Aaron found it had fallen out of her mouth and it was on her neck. Emma didn't remember any of the experience the next morning. If she ever needs surgery, we don't need general anesthesia, we just need to wait for her to go to sleep.

NPR

I love NPR. In fact it is the only radio station that I listen to (except on the 2 weeks of the year they ask for money - then I listen to country music). The first time I remember listening to NPR was when I was in college. I was in my roommate Maria's car and she had it on. There was a story about how children in Wisconsin were over weight and it was creating a problem. The school district was thinking about purchasing more school buses because the kids the same number of kids couldn't fit on the seats as in previous years. At that moment, I knew that this was my radio station. I didn't really listen too much to NPR until I had a commute. I rarely drove my car in college so it wasn't until I had moved to Houston and was working that I became an avid listener. When I stayed home with Emma I missed listening to NPR. Oh how I missed it. The clock would hit 5pm and I would have this strong desire to listen to the radio.

I was taking Emma to preschool and the radio was off. Sh asked to listen to the radio. She has done this before but I thought she might just be bored of her CD that we sometimes listen to. I asked if she wanted to listen to her CD. Nope. Did she want to listen to music on the radio. Nope. Then she explained she wanted to listen to talking. I giggled inside with joy! I asked her why she wanted to listen to talking. She told me she just likes to listen to it! Be still my heart!

No Treats on Sundays

Emma saw my candy bar that I got in church for Mother's Day. She asked what it was so I told her. She asked if it was ours to eat. I told her it was mine but if she ate her dinner she could have some. She politely told me, "I don't want any. I am trying not to eat treats on Sundays." Then she ran off. She clearly has never had Toblerone before.

Snuggles

Aaron: I want to snuggle John
John: No! Dangit Daddy!

Handles and Pretend Play

John frequently rides on Aaron's shoulders. Each time he does, he finds a different "handle" to hold on to. Sometimes it is Aaron's hair. Sometimes his nose, his eyes, or his cheeks. It is never his chin, which is what Emma would hold onto when on Aaron's shoulders. I seem to remember the chin being the most logical handle when on my dad's shoulders. Today, John just stuck his fingers as deep as he could in Aaron's ears. I honestly love to watch John on Aaron's shoulders because it just looks hilarious and Aaron is a great sport and just lets him hold onto whatever he wants.

Today Emma had a friend over today. They played "Relief Society." One might ask what that is since it is pretty vague. Here is what you do:

1. Prepare a lot of food.
2. Set up chairs in a semi-circle
3. Pray
4. Eat food.

Pretty well sums up 17 years of my experiences in the organization. Emma's inspiration for this is my preparing stuff for my calling as Relief Society Meeting Coordinator, a.k.a. Enrichment Person.

John also engaged in pretend play today. He pretended to call Avrin on the phone and chat with her. He told her that he loves her. It cracks me up that he talks on the phone to Emma's imaginary friend/sister. I can't help but wonder if in a few years John will turn to me and ask, "So who is Avrin?" I wonder if he knows that she is pretend and doesn't exist.

Ideas

Boys have ideas and girls have ideas and these are not the same ideas. For example:

1. John took apart his peanut butter sandwich and stuck the peanut butter side to his face, under his nose. The he said, "Look at this!" Quite proud of himself. In fact he repeated this several times throughout the meal. I had debated about giving him a shower before dinner since he had been playing in the sandbox. I chose wisely to postpone that shower until after dinner.

2. Why did John need a bath? Because he was playing in the sandbox. I didn't want him to play in the sandbox so I could avoid giving him a bath tonight. He got the idea to climb under the sandbox cover and play in the sandbox anyway. This is just a fabric cover on the sandbox that Velcros on to it. So he was hunkered down playing in the sand. Pretty sure I would have just played with something else. Emma did.

3. In this same meal, John told me (rather excitedly, in fact) that he could stick his straw up his nose. I told him not to do that.

4. I know that boys and girls have different ideas because neither Emma, nor I, not my sisters growing up have ever thought to do anything like that.

5. Fire ball. This is a game that Aaron told me about that he played as a kid. You douse a tennis ball in kerosene and then light it on fire and kick it around in a field in Arizona. I was an adult when I first heard about this. So were my sisters. We had never dreamed of any such thing.

6. Emma on the other hand looked at her strawberry and asked what would happen if you stuck a straw in a strawberry and drank the juice. So I gave her a straw to find out. Turns out it didn't work so well.

Eagle Cheeks

John walked up to Aaron and asked to look at pictures of bugs. The implication was on the computer. So then he started to list off what he wanted to look at: bees, bugs, skateboards, eagles, and (my personal favorite) eagle cheeks. Personally, I would like to know what would come up when you google "eagle cheeks."

Shower

John doesn't say the word "shower" properly. He calls it a "showya." Today I asked him if he wanted to take a "showya." He looked at me and said, "no showya its shower." I kid you not, he corrected me on my pronunciation. Then he continued to call it a "showya."

High Five

John just asked me for a high five as I was walking out the door for putting him down for naps. This kid cracks me up. It is just too bad that he isn't celebrating the fact that he gets to take a nap. Because that is what I would be doing if someone were putting me down for a nap.

Bluebonnets

We took the kids to take pictures in the bluebonnets. We do this every year. When it was over, I realized that John is in a non-cooperative stage of life as far as pictures are concerned... and a bunch of other things as well. We got a a lot of pictures, most were funny, one had everyone looking at the camera and a lot were no good, but a lot were really funny and funny is important.

At one point John closed his eyes and looked up at the sky in his act of quiet defiance and rebellion. Every time I look at the picture it makes me giggle. After we took the pictures we took Emma to play at the playground and John to look at a military fire truck that happened to be at the park for an event. John sat in the drivers seat and walked around the truck and about a million times. He was in love. Serious love.

Emma was having a grand time herself at the park. There is a huge rock structure for kids to climb on. At the peak, it is probably 6.5 feet tall. She would climb up and jump off for Aaron to catch her. She has to fear because it isn't as though Aaron was standing at the base to catch her. She was taking a big leap out to him. It is strong evidence that Emma has a good amount of Russell genes.

Overall, the playground and fire truck made up for the fact that we tortured the kids with pictures.

St. Patrick's Day

I didn't like St. Patrick's Day growing up. I thought it silly to wear green and I certainly didn't like people pinching me. I was in a bind every St. Patrick's Day. Now that I am a mom and get to watch kids get excited over virtually anything, I am all about St. Patrick's Day. I confess I had to look up what it was about. All I could remember was leprechauns, 4 leaf clover, and rainbows. I learned that St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday (wouldn't have guessed that one) and that it celebrates when Christianity came to Ireland. I figured I could get on board with celebrating that.

So we had a visit from a sneaky leprechaun who used our toilet during the night. How do we know there was a leprechaun in our house since we didn't actually see him? Easy. He didn't flush the toilet after he was done. It was green. Emma loved it! She reasoned that he didn't flush because he didn't was because he didn't want to wake us up in the middle of the night. It was a very considerate and sneaky leprechaun.

Emma got dressed in regular clothes and then pointed out to me that she didn't have grean on and could get pinched. So I appropriately chased her around the house until I caught her and pinched her. I must say, she is fast. Like super fast. I actually didn't stand a chance of catching her while she was going in circles around the kitchen. It wasn't until she ran into my room and stopped on my bed that I caught her and pinched her little cheeks. After that she was dressed in green. It was so important to her that she have green on that she wore a hair clip with a tiny amount of green on it to ballet.

Emma wanted to call Aaron at work to see if he was wearing green that day. To her delight, he wasn't. So immediately she and I started plotting how we would ambush Aaron and pinch him when he got home. She asked me wear I was going to pinch Aaron. I told her I would go for the bottom. I asked her wear she wanted to pinch him and she said the arm. I found it funny that she thought about that level of detail.

For dinner we had corn beef and cabbage, potatoes, carrots, Irish soda bread, sunshine salad, and then we had mint chocolate chip and brownie milk shakes. This dinner was a combination of inspiration from Russell and Anderson families. The dinner was inspired by Grandma Marsha. She happens to  to be the most festive person I know. The milk shakes were from Anderson family tradition. When I was little, my parents would take us out for Shamrock shakes at McDonald's. It was all authentic and stuff. The kids loved it. It has been a while since I have seen John eat as much as he did. Of course the milk shakes went over quite well.

Miss Ginny

John has a stuffed animal/blanket combo that is a blue dog. It is essentially a dog head with a blanket sewn on to its neck. John has recently named it Miss Ginny. He snuggles her. He calls her cute and is very excited to see her.

The director at Emma's preschool is named Miss Ginny. We don't have many conversations about her. In fact, I can't think of more than about a handful of times we have mentioned her name over the past 7 months. However, this was a name that John apparently took to.

In Charge

Emma: Daddy, are you in charge?
Aaron: Yes, Mommy and I are in charge.
Emma: Well, really Heavenly Father is in charge. [putting Aaron and I in our place]
Aaron: Yes, good point.
Emma: I am in charge of my class. [putting Emma in her place]

Personalities

There are a few things I want to remember about Emma's and John's personalities right now.

1. Books. They love, love, love, love to read books. John more so than Emma but I didn't think it was possible. John will hold a book up to the shower with the page open so I could read to him while I shower. He will hold up books for me to read while I drive, wash my hands, cook, etc. You name it, he will ask me to read to him during whatever I am doing. Lest you think this kid doesn't get enough reading time, we read when he wakes up, before naps, after naps and just about any time he is awake. We can easily pass an hour reading together. He has a long attention span for reading.

Emma will ask me to read a book to her 5 times in a row. There is a method to her madness. She is memorizing the book. She memorizes the book so she can read it to herself and to John. She will sit down with John and read to him when I cannot. Emma is branching out to a variety of topics. Right now she loves Hansel and Gretel and the Gingerbread Man. John likes truck book or a book that has a picture of a truck somewhere in it. He also likes books that you sing. For instance there is a book that has different words to the "12 Days of Christmas."

2. Bikes. Bikes are another story for John's attention span. Emma could ride a bike until her legs drop off. John will go 3 feet and then look at a truck near by or the moon or the sun or the airplane in the sky. This will go on forever and then will tell me that it is taking too long to get to where ever we are going. Emma loves to ride up and down hills, speed as fast as she can, ride backwards on her bike, do anything to get more joy out of riding a bike.

3. Imaginary Friends. Emma still has imaginary friends. Scratch that. Imaginary family. Chip and Avrin are family. The other day John turned to me and told me he loved Chip. He loves Emma's imaginary framily. Mostly I think that John just loves Emma. He loves what Emma loves. He is sad when Emma goes to preschool. He says he wants to go to preschool as he watches Emma go but he wouldn't like it given his love of nursery. Emma also has an imaginary class. She teaches this class and is in total control of the class. This has been her dream for about 4.5 years now. Total control.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian Came to Visit

Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian came to visit. They are good sports to come visit our house. They leave the comfort of their quiet house and come visit our chaos and early bed times. Emma and John live for it though.
 Mary sneaks John Oreo cookies. Brian taunts Emma by telling he is going to touch the decorations in her room. Mary hold candy classes with Emma to teach her about cookies and candy. My favorite was that Mary made salted caramel butter bars. These things have enough calories in them that by definition they are wonderful. Emma looked at it, tasted it, scrunched up her nose and handed it back to Mary like it was a piece of poop. Mary made vanilla pudding and Emma tasted a bit and never asked for more. Mary even asked Emma if she thought it would be a good idea if Emma kept candy under her bed. At this point one might wonder if Mary should be left alone with children who live in a state where there are roaches. Here is how Emma responded, "No, because my mom would find it and ask me where I got it and then she would take it away." Emma speaks the truth. Pretty much, Emma didn't show too much interest in the cookies and candy. So it is safe for Mary to be around Emma.

John was another matter. Every time I turned around, he had a cookie in his mouth. After a while she stopped giving them to him and put the bag of cookies in her purse. A short time later, he had Oreos again. I looked at Mary to place blame with her but she didn't do it. He turned around in the shopping cart, and fished around in Mary's purse for the bag until he found it. He also found a candy bag in her purse several times. Even after Mary left, he found the same bag of candy somewhere in the house and was attempting to open more candy. Mary might need close supervision when she is with John.

While Mary and Brian where here, we cooked steaks. By "we," I mean Aaron. I have no interest in cooking steaks. I love to cook, but have no desire to learn about steaks. Aaron was kind enough to take on grilling steaks for me. He did a good job. In fact John, who only eats bread and crackers, said, "I like it!" John ate a bunch of steak. If he is a steak and potatoes kind of guys, he was born to the wrong family.

Aaron and Brian we shooting guns. Mary and I picked out paint colors for my bathroom. Seemed like an appropriate way to divide our time.

Emma and John loved spending time with Brian and Mary. One day Mary and Brian took a nap. Emma sat quietly on their bed the entire time. Granted she was playing on their iPad, but she just wanted to be by them. John followed Brian around like a puppy dog, begging to be read to. He also watched Brian shave. The first thing John would ask for in the morning was "Brian." The kids would come downstairs in the morning, very excitedly waiting for Mary and Brian to come down and make an appearance.

We got to celebrate John's birthday. We sang Happy Birthday and John liked that. However the blowing out the candles part was beyond him. We even had Emma demonstrate and he was totally lost as to what he was supposed to do. He was not lost on the concept of a cupcake. Again, he said, "I like it!" This kid never met a sweet he didn't like. Mary and Brian were kind enough to get him Thomas the Train books and backpack. Those books have become staples of our everyday reading.

We had a great time visiting with Mary and Brian. Some day we will bring our chaos to their house... something I am sure they dream of.

Butterflies and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Emma turned to me the other day and asked if butterflies eat butter. So we walked through the logic. I asked her were butterflies live. "The Forest."  Do you see butter in the forest? Nope. Do you think butterflies eat butter? Nope.

John lately tells us that he is tired... a lot. If I didn't know better, he could be diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome. How do I know he doesn't have it? Among other reasons, Aaron asked him if he could hear the birds singing. He replied, "No, I tired!" He uses the phrase to explain his grumpiness and anything he doesn't want to do so I am not sure what he thinks the phrase means. All I know is I hear it a lot.

Prayers

We are trying to teach John to pray. We are attempting, without much success to have him repeat after us as we pray. He does not want to do this however. Instead he would rather tell us what to say. His typical list includes: Grandpa, Katie [John's word for Grandma], and Amanda. Then John lists off every truck he can think of. He is grateful for combines, monster trucks, front loaders, ni no nis [fire trucks] and the list goes on and on. Typically we have to cut him off because he could go on forever.

Also, sometimes when John isn't saying the prayer he will interject "Jesus. Amen." I think this usually happens when he feels the prayer has lasted long enough.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we met with Aaron to go to lunch. We got to look around at Anadarko's new building and see their cool exercise gym and other things. Then we intended to take a trolley ride to a restaurant but the trolley went a different direction than what we thought so we just rode to the next stop and got off. The kids were twitterpated over the trolley ride. I don't know if it was the thrill of riding on something where they didn't have to be in a car seat or use a seat belt. However, they don't seem to get the same thrill over the long term shuttle at the airport. They were disappointed when we didn't ride the trolley back to Aaron's work. Emma would point to the shuttle as we were walking and ask why on earth we weren't riding on it.

We ate a an Irish Pub called Goose's Acre. It was delicious. We got the kids chicken tenders and fries. They ate their fries and were again twitterpated. Oddly enough John didn't like ketchup. That confirmed my suspicion that he is a picky eater. Pickier than a normal 2 year old. Emma on the other hand pointed to her ranch dressing and asked if she could drink it. Negitory good buddy. Aaron and I had shepherds pie and it was delicious. It was fun to see the kids so excited to eat lunch. French fries are a rare treat in our house so they thought they had died and gone to heaven.

We walked back to Aaron's work and then I took the kids home. Emma wanted to stay with Aaron and was confused as to why she couldn't just sit quietly in Aaron's office. I was wondering why she couldn't sit quietly in church but we didn't have that discussion.

After naps we made sugar cookies. The kids loved it. Emma liked pushing the cookie cutters down. John didn't really care about it. However, when it came to frosting the cookies, everyone was on board. John would frost a little bit and then he would lick the knife. He did good though - he didn't eat a cookie during the frosting process. Emma was grossed out by John licking the knife but was totally okay with licking her fingers and then touching the cookies. I giggled. Toward the end, John would frost a cookie, then lick the cookie, then frost the cookie, then lick the cookie, etc.

The next night Aaron and I went rock climbing. Be still my heart! We have been able to comfortably climb 5.9s so this time we worked on 5.10s. My arms were so tired, even the next day. We had a great time though. And we bought a punch card and so that means that we get to go back!

Bees and Flies

John is severely afraid of flies and bees. It goes back to when a fly got in our house and was stuck between the window and the blinds in our study. We have the kids books and toy kitchen in the study so they spend a good amount of time in the study playing. So back to the fly stuck in the blinds. It would bang up against the blinds and make a decent amount of noise. This terrified John. He would come running from the study and tell me that a fly was in there. He wouldn't go into the study for a while even after the fly was removed. This was months ago. Occasionally, he will come running from the study and tell me that there is a fly in there. I tell him that there isn't one and that flies aren't scary.

John is afraid of a lot of things so we are trying to help him be brave. So we tell him flies and bees aren't scary. I am not sure if we are being 100% honest. Ok, we aren't being 100% honest. Flies are gross, but not the stuff horror movies are made of. Bees on the other hand, can sting you but generally the kind that we run into aren't out to get you. So we told him that flies are nice (we leave out the bad hygiene part) and that bees are nice.

John was in the car yesterday and started to say, "Bees sting." He repeated this mantra over and over. So we told him bees are nice to help him not be afraid of them. So then he started to say "Bees nice." Over and over. Then it evolved into "Bees hugs. Bees kisses." Over and over. It was adorable. Then he added, "Bees snuggle." At this point Aaron and I started to feel guilty because bees don't give hugs and kisses and snuggles. So we went back to "bees sting." John was confused but is now back to "bees sting." I tell you want though he was pretty cute talking about snuggling bees.

Random Stories

John is a funny kid. He is the does and says funny things kind of kid. In the past 24 hours there have been some stories that I want to remember.

1. Last night I put John on the toilet (yes, potty humor, I know...) and asked him to go pee. He tried and then said, "tooters stuck." Tried again. "Tooters no working." Tried again. "Tooters working."

2. John loves pockets in his clothes. He will stick his hands or toys in them and is thoroughly delighted. He found an old cell phone and stuck it in his hip pocket. He carried it around for a few minutes. Then he took it out. Then he was trying to stick it back in his pocket. He was getting frustrated at his attempts and came to me for help. I tried to stick it in his hip pocket and he yelled/commanded, "No! Cheekies!" I stuck it in his back pocket and he walked off happily.

3. I was relating the story of yesterday when John got into the candy three times and into chapstick to my mom. John said, "candy!" and ran off. Part way through the conversation I noticed that John was quiet again. I went looking for him and sure enough he had managed to get to a bag of candy that I had put up from yesterday. He got a starburst. How I don't know. It really was out of reach. This kid is part bloodhound, part Inspector Gadget (a man with robot arms that extend to reach things far away) and part Pavlovian dog. My dad hypothesized that when my sister Mary was here, John learned that there are yummy treats in bags. Now instead of sniffing them out, he was trained to search them out in bags.

Nose Like a Bloodhound

I was quite proud of myself when I feed John a green smoothie where the predominant ingredient was spinach. I even added sunflower seed butter for protein. I should know by now that whenever I feel proud of myself, it bites me in the tukus.

While I was in the bathroom I could hear John playing with a plastic ziplock bag. I couldn't imagine what he could have gotten a hold of in my bedroom that was in a plastic bag. As it turns out, Aaron had a bag of candy in his church bag. (It was for his primary class.) John had eaten a star burst and was working on opening a lolly pop. I promptly took away the bag of candy and moved on with my morning.

A short time later, Emma called to my attention that John had a bag of candy. So I took away another bag of candy that originated from Aaron's church bag. It hadn't occurred to me that he would have two bags of candy in his church bag. I don't think John was able to partake of his findings this time.

While I was making my grocery list, it was nice and quiet. At one point John came up to me asking me to open a life saver from it's wrapper. I took the candy away and put it on the counter and went back to my list. I figured the life saver dropped out of the bag when John was looking through it this morning. John wandered off and was super quiet. I managed to finish my list and carefully think through everything. It was that quiet. Then it dawned on me... it was that quiet! I went to find John in my room. As it turns out, Aaron had three bags of candy in his church bag. John had eaten several colored tootsie rolls. He apparently tried a chocolate one and spit it out on the carpet. I took that bag away from him and decided that I should search Aaron's church bag for a fourth bag of candy. No fourth bag.

John was quite the happy camper with his raid. I figured that I could laugh off his candy raids of the morning and we were done because I had removed all of the bags of candy. I was getting lunch ready when again John was quiet. I looked for him and he was at our desk playing with a marker. When I picked him up he opened his mouth and pointed inside signalling to me that he had eaten something. I smelled his breath. Fruity. I was struggling to believe that I had left candy on our desk. Then I remembered. I had seen a tube of cherry chapstick on the desk. Yup, I opened it up and the entire container was gone. What was left, were little teeth marks in the remaining chapstick at the very bottom. The remainder of the day, John had his hands in his mouth trying to dig out chapstick from his teeth.

Happy Birthday John!

John is officially 2 years old. We celebrated his birthday by taking the kids to the Children's Museum. The kids love the museum. John was particularly in love with the fire truck, and the pit of shredded tires and dump trucks. He would run back and forth from one area to the fire truck. The fire truck was definitely his home base.

For dinner we did waffles, yogurt and strawberries, since he prefers all carbs to anything else.  We also had cake an ice cream. I have evolved as a mother. It didn't occur to me to give Emma cake and ice cream for her birthday. We did Happy Birthday Guacamole. Lest I evolve too much, John got secretly healthy cake with zucchini and apple sauce and whole wheat flour. He was quite excited about the cake and ice cream. He did not however finish all of his ice cream. Nor did Emma. Nor did I give them Aunt Mary portions. I was shocked. As a kid, I would stuff myself full of junk food until it hurt. All in the name of treats. Glad my posterity has more self control than I did as a kid.

We got him a monster truck and a sandbox dump truck. He was in love. Emma was very sweet and wanted to wrap up gifts to give John. So she found a book and a toy to give to him. Once she realized how fun it was to cut wrapping paper and use tape without my supervision, she was feeling very generous. She kept finding toys until she had exhausted our wrapping paper supply. She was quite proud of herself. John on the other hand was confused as to why he was unwrapping toys that he already had. It was cute though to watch Emma enjoy giving presents.

John at two is a funny kid. He has a lot of personality oozing out of that little body. He tried to tell jokes and just laughs and laughs. He lives for trucks, trains, and anything with wheels. If he meets someone new, he isn't all that shy and just starts to tell the person all about trucks. Trucks are always a relevant conversation topic. John wants to drive just about anything he can see.

Sometimes when he talks he uses a growl to talk. He has essentially done this since he was a little baby. He has the communication skills of a teenage boy.

John loves to eat carbs, carrots, apples, and he has a 6th sense for junk food. At the grocery store I was purchasing Carnation Instant Breakfast for him. He is a little guy and the doctor recommended getting him some extra calories. He saw the box and knew he wanted it. How I will never know. He held that box throughout our grocery store trip. He held it as soon as we got home. He could hardly stand the anticipation of drinking it. I thought he would take off in flight because his arms were flapping and he was jumping as he was saying, "Drink it! Drink it!" Sure enough he was in love. Emma on the other hand saw the box and asked what it was. She was satisfied with the explanation that it was for John since he needed more food. She hasn't asked for any.

John is a picky eater. He doesn't like pizza (except the crust). We offered him a McDonalds hamburger and he looked at it and wouldn't touch it. The only thing I know he will eat is junk food and carbs. Since there isn't much junk food in our house, it is really carbs. And if John doensn't like a meal that he is offered (think every meal except breakfast) he can wait for the next meal.

John also loves books. He will sit for 20 minutes by himself looking at books. Then he will come to me and say, "Read it! Read it!" He could sit on my lap reading books for at least an hour at a time.

He is just starting into the "I do it" phase. The one exception is walking down the stairs. He wants to be carried.

John wants family and friends with him at all times. However it is insufficient to have just one person. He wants the entire family. If someone is missing he keeps asking for that person. He particularly loves Emma. They play very well together, except when they don't.

John is quite snuggly, particularly when reading books.  He does say, "No Hugs, no kisses, no zurberts!" He hasn't figured out kissing yet though. If you ask him for a kiss he will put his cheek up to yours. He will out of the blue say, "Mommy cute!" or "Emma cute!" 

John also likes animals and the sounds they make. He knows quite a few bizarre animal sounds like a macaw and a sloth. He is afraid of flies and bees. He isn't all that found of petting dogs and cats due to fear as well.

Overall, John is a funny kid. Very sweet, very interested in trucks and reading. Glad you are in our family John! Happy Birthday!

Crabs

The kids and I were walking toward the track by our house. The track goes around a drainage pond. Emma suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no! The crabs will get us!!" Totally out of the blue. We haven't even been talking about crabs lately. So I told her that crabs live at the ocean. She replied, "And at the beach!" My first response was to say, "same thing." However, upon closer thought, they are different. So I agreed with her, "yes, and the beach." To calm her pretend fears I said, "We don't live at the beach or the ocean so what does that tell us about us?" I was expecting an answer like we won't see any crabs or something along those lines. Instead I got "We are not crabs!" Yup, we are not crabs.