Geography Lessons

John: Surpatana!
Aaron: What is Surpatana?
John: A state in Mexico.
Aaron: Oh.

He also informed us that there is a state in Mexico called Blanca. Aaron and I are a little smarter after tonight on Mexican geography.

Christmas Staycation

The kids finally recovered from their illnesses enough for us to rejoin society. On Saturday we went to take pictures with Scuba Santa. At the place where John takes swim lessons, Santa comes to take underwater pictures with the kids. Emma was excited, and John was unsure. He finally warmed up as long as Emma was there with him.

On Sunday we all got to go to church! This was a big deal for me since it had been a while and it was the Christmas program. We also were able to deliver treat plates as a family and that is always fun.

On Monday we were invited to a friends house for pizza and a movie night. We watched the newer Miracle on 34th Street. Emma was disturbed by the fact that Santa was arrested. John was mostly interested in eating. The kids loved it though.

On Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum and met our friends the Schmutz-Parentes there. It was fun to play with the kids and friends. Then we went out to Sweet Tomatoes to eat for lunch and then to the library to play on the computer  and read books. Emma is now old enough to get her own library card. She was super excited to have her own card. Then we went to a park to play.

On Wednesday we went to Target so the kids could pick out gifts for each other from the dollar aisle. Then we took cinnamon rolls to the fire station. The kids got to climb on the truck and look at stuff. Then we went to the park to play.

On Thursday (Christmas Eve) we acted out the nativity scene. Later in the afternoon we went to the Science Museum. It was free from 3pm-6pm so we decided to go. It appeared that the vast majority of the people there do not celebrate Christmas. They have done a lot with the museum since I had been there last. They have a vast weather, chemistry, dinosaur, Texas wild life and Ancient Egypt exhibits. I was very impressed. Emma just wanted to squish a penny in one of those machines that imprints a picture on it. Afterwards we went out for Greek food.

On Friday (Christmas) we woke up and waited for the kids to get up. Once we came downstairs, the kids were excited for their presents. It is interesting to watch Emma's and John's approach to opening gifts. Emma tears through things and then plays with them. John plays with them as he goes and isn't in a hurry to find out what at the rest of his gifts are. Emma spent hours drawing pictures with her new pens. John spent hours with his new Legos. It was a nice relaxing day and fun to play with the kids and their toys.

We went for a walk and scooter ride so John could test out his new scooter and umbrella and Emma her new "tie shoes". The kids also played with their walkie-talkies. Emma stood at the top of the playground and John at the bottom and they talked with each other. John would scream, "Can you hear me? Because you are so far away!" This is a picture of them doing it.

On Saturday I took Emma downtown to shop for Christmas ornaments for next year. After one store she asked to go home. I may have overestimated her ability to handle post-holiday shopping. She was a trooper though as long as she could watch Elmo podcasts while I shopped. On the way home she was able to text family member so I think that made up for the trauma of shopping. Later that day we went back down to downtown to get supplies from Ikea for a Lego table. It became very apparent that something needs to be done quickly about Lego storage. We went out to eat while we were down town.

This Christmas season I have been thinking about the story of Christ's birth and some of the hard parts of the story that are mentioned but people quickly move past them because of the wonderful things that are the result of His birth. If any woman told a group of women that they rode on a donkey for days while 9 months pregnant, that would elicit gasps from the crowd and a great deal of horror. Add to it that you give birth in a barn with animals and the horror would continue. But those things don't get much attention because of how wonderful life and the world is because of Christ. The blessings overshadow the trauma. It is the same with His death. It was awful but because of Him there is good in the world and endless happiness in the world to come. There is peace, there is joy, there is hope, and there is love. I have been thinking about how Christ can do that for our lives as well. There will be trauma but it can be overshadowed by richer blessings than we thought possible. I have experienced that and am profoundly grateful that a Savior was born.

Illness

This past couple weeks the kids have been pretty sick. Emma has/had strep throat and ended up in the emergency room due to dehydration. It took some time to figure out it was strep throat and a strain that is resistant to antibiotics. She had to get a shot of antibiotics in the bum cheeks and not even that worked. We are on antibiotic number five and this is after we thought it had gone away. She may be a carrier and that could be the problem. Just as Emma was getting better (we thought) John came down with bronchitis and an ear infection. He was coughing so hard he would throw up several times. So all in all I haven't left the house in a couple of weeks except for grocery shopping after Aaron came home. Needless to say, I was going a little crazy and now have many Backyardigan songs memorized. Fortunately though, they are on the mend and we can rejoin civilization. I even got to go to church today for the Christmas program. It was really nice to be there.

All this illness has made me realize that taking care of someone when they are sick is a not so fun experience but also a bonding experience. Emma let me snuggle her the other night when I put her down for bed. John views me as his preferred playmate (unless wrestling Aaron is an option). So, there is an up side to having sick kids, even if a little piece of sanity gets lost along the way. Perhaps by the time my kids are grown we will be snuggling all the time and my mind will be gone but we will be happy and a little crazy!

The other thing that I have thought about is our random acts of kindness that we do for our advent calendar. Turns out it is hard to be nice to people when you don't leave the house. Before we started our count down I had the thought that this year, I could include my family as recipients of the acts of kindness. Turns out, they have been the main recipients as they have been sick. I am going to count John being excited that he got to watch one more episode of Backyardigans and both kids getting grape gatorade. So maybe they weren't so random but they were acts of kindness.

Tape

Today John was home sick from church. We got to snuggle and watch church videos. I have to say that if I am going to miss church, snuggling with a small child is pretty much number 2 on my list. Emma came home from church with Aaron and wanted to play. John and I were fixing something with tape (because that is exciting for a 3 year old). Emma got a flash in her eye and said she wanted to tape me to the floor. So I let her. To be honest, I really wanted to be taped to my bed and left for an hour or so.

John was super excited for this. He announced that he was going to jump on me when I was taped up. I countered with "no jumping on people that are taped to the floor." Emma added another rule, "no taping our friends to the floor." I confirmed her rule. John then announced that since I was taped up, they could do whatever they wanted and I couldn't stop them He immediately proceeded to do something he wasn't supposed to do. John also added some curling ribbon to the tape to help secure me to the floor as his contribution. I should add that they taped me to the floor with painters tape.

After a while John came close and I jumped up to grab him and snuggle him and the kids were shocked that I could get up. I explained that I am super strong. They stood in awe of me.

Christmas Devotional

Tonight we made hot chocolate (for Emma) and frozen hot chocolate (for the rest of us because we live in Texas) and watched the Christmas Devotional from the First Presidency. I loved it. I got to snuggle kids and listen to the talks. My heart about burst. I can't think of anything better than family snuggles and celebrating Christmas.

Prayers

I was helping John with his prayers tonight and he threw in there, "that I can swing from your ceiling with a rope some day." I am just picturing him swinging from the ceilings of Heaven on a rope.

Social Anxiety

The other day I was waiting for John to finish pooping. One of the lovelier jobs of a mom, I know. He had not finished the job.

John: My poop is scared.
Me: What is your poop scared of?
John: People, but not me.
Me: Is that because your poop is used to being inside of you?
John: Yup.
Me: Doesn't your poop want to come out and join your other poop in the toilet? [We needed to move this along so we could get Emma from the bus.]
John: It doesn't want to be with the other poop. It doesn't want to swim in the sewer with the other poop.

So the lesson is, poop has social anxiety.

Repairful

Emma is home from church with a fever. So that means John is home too. They got together and decided they wanted to repair my ceiling.

John: I need you to tie a rope around me and throw me up to the ceiling to fix it.
Me: I don't have a rope.
John: You could use the hose.
Me: I don't think so.

Later, John ran into my room and said, "We need to be repairful. That means we need to repair stuff." Then he ran off.

Thanksgiving

We fortunate to have my parents and sister Emily over for Thanksgiving. Emily came in Monday night and on Tuesday the kids snuggled up to her and loved on her as she read them stories and played with them. Aaron went on the roof and I belayed him so he didn't fall down. We tied me to a tree so that I didn't go up while he went down. Emily kept the kids off the ladder and served as the communicator between Aaron and I since apparently the roof acts as an amazing sound barrier. Emily also helped John dig for worms. It turns out John loved this.

Emma asked if we could make tamales. I had mixed feelings about this. I love tamales but hate the work involved. I asked her several times if this is what she wanted to do. She said yes several times. So when it got to the assembly part Emma and John wanted to help out and they each made about 4 tamales and then John got bored. John asked to get down and then asked Emily to read him a pile of books. As soon as Emma finished the tamale that she was working on, she scooted off and snuggled up to Emily and listened to the book. She didn't want to miss any of the book. Emily got in quite a bit of snuggle time. John even snuggled up to her during dinner.

On Wednesday we went into Anderson food prep mode. My mom, Emily and I made a pecan pie, a pumpkin pie and vegetable preparations. My dad took John outside to dig for worms. They were having a hard time finding worms so my dad took John to Walmart to buy worms. They got Canadian worms. They came home and we put them in the fridge so that we could transplant them at another time. John was in love.

My mom also brought a ton of stuff to do crafts with Emma. Emma loved it. They made all sorts of stuff together. Emma even got to use permanent markers (outside of course) and felt super grown up using them.

At one point during the day Emma was trying to get my mom's attention and I think my mom was in the middle of a conversation and didn't hear Emma. Emma came up to me and said, "I want to lead Grandma into trouble!" I giggled to myself and the idea and said "ok" not knowing what that meant. As it turns out Emma pulled my mom and Emily aside and told them she wanted to cause mischief. So they made plans together. The background story to this is a few nights prior to this I was reading Emma some stories from our blog and read about how Nanny and I would talk about causing trouble. My mom and Emily didn't know about that and they were just surprised at Emma wanting to cause mischief. So they made plans together without my knowledge.

That night we went out to eat for Indian food. It was yummy. John ordered chicken nuggets but mostly ate naan bread. At one point he had a piece of naan in each hand and both pieces in his mouth. Emma actually ate from the buffet and liked it. She is my adventurous food kid. I have decided that if I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner, we are going out to eat the Wednesday before. It was a genius idea if I do say so myself because we came home tire from a day of food prep and the kitchen was clean and we could just enjoy the evening.

On Thanksgiving morning Aaron went to play turkey bowl. He lives for this. I was hoping we could watch him this year but everybody slept in. At some point in the morning I showered and came out and there were turkey foot prints all over the kitchen, the laundry room, the kitchen table... everywhere. Apparently there was a naughty turkey in out house and I suspect Emma, Grandma, and Aunt Emily had something to do with it. Then I was in the kitchen and my mom was on the other side of the pass through and we were talking about something when I notice that my mom is stuffing paper up her sweat shirt and crumpling it up. Because this is totally normal behavior, I wondered what was going on but I didn't think to ask about it. Suddenly Emily, in the middle of our conversation, blasted John Denver from her phone. I was really confused at my family's behavior and decided to go blow dry my hair. When I came out there was newspaper crumpled up all over my family room. Again, I was confused but it was explained to me in some nonverbal terms that this was a newspaper fight. So I proceeded to pummel Grandma, Emily and Emma in a newspaper fight. It was fun! Then we made plans to get Aaron. Emma made a sign that said, "These are your. We have ours, come find us." We left Aaron a bag of newspaper balls and we hid so we could get him. He came home to a surprise attack! It was awesome - a total dream come true. It was at this point that Emily and Grandma told me that Emma wanted cause mischief and explained the crumpling of the newspaper up Grandma's shirt. It turns out that Emily noticed that I had noticed the sound of paper crumpling coming from grandma so to distract me, she turned on John Denver. I just thought she was really odd. Everything made sense to me when they told me Emma recruited them to cause mischief. Everything made sense to them when I told them about reading the blog stories about Nanny to Emma. I have to admit that I was super proud of Emma for coming up with the idea of recruiting Grandma and Emily to cause trouble. It is the second generation of trouble making! Nanny would be delighted. I am just picturing her giggling up in Heaven. This alone made my Thanksgiving week!

John and my Dad transplanted the worms to our yard. My Dad wasn't sure if the worms would make it but John was thrilled about the transplant.

For dinner we had our friends the Blodgetts over for dinner and it was nice because the kids had friends to play with. Dinner was delicious if I do say so myself. I have to confess that I believe my mom has the world's best pie recipes between apple, pecan and pumpkin pie.

On Friday we got up and went for a hike in the Huntsville State Park. This is our annual tradition. It felt nice to get out for a walk after the gluttony of an Indian food buffet and Thanksgiving back to back. We ended up walking for about 4 miles. John actually walked/ran for a good portion of it and was motivated by having to go potty but refusing to use a tree. Later that day we pigged out on left overs and chilled. I love Thanksgiving left overs. It is almost better than the actual dinner.

That night we took Emily to the airport. I was sad to have her go. We all were. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with her and my kids loved to play with her.

At some point my dad and John took a peek at their worms and discovered that they were still there and living. They decided not to name the worms.

On Saturday my mom, Emma and I went to see the Nutcracker Ballet. We snuck in some treats for Emma and I think my mom and I had a couple of naps against our will. My Dad and Aaron had naps while John watched Backyardigans. Their naps were more intentional.

On Sunday we decorated our Christmas tree. It was super fun for me to watch the kids get excited over their ornaments. They hung all of their ornaments at the bottom front of the tree. It was awesome. It was wonderful to have the help of my mom and to see the kids get involved and have fun. John spent the afternoon pulling a sled ornament with a wagon ornament.

On Monday Emma was sad to go back to school while Grandma and Grandpa were here. Grandma helped Emma with her homework after school. During the day, Grandma helped me hem a bunch of pants that Mary had given me. John helped Grandma with ironing and sewing. I enjoyed watching my mom work with him and enjoy the experience of ironing with John. It was truly a grandma moment.

On Tuesday, my parents and I went to look at counter tops and then went out to lunch and to Costco. It seems all Anderson get togethers have to involve a  Costco trip at some point. Then we went to Emma's ballet class and Aaron showed my parents his work. Afterwards we went to Jason's deli for dinner. As part of the kids meal, they got chocolate milk. John dropped his straw into the chocolate milk box. My mom got him another straw to put in there. John was horrified and said, "I am not going to drink this chocolate milk! I am not a raccoon!" He thought that if he drank from the new straw he would drink up the first straw and it would go down his throat. He knows raccoons eat garbage and he didn't want to eat the straw. We poured his milk into a cup and he drank it straw-free that way.

Grandpa had John as a buddy this trip. At times John would try to play with Grandpa just like he plays with Aaron - pretty rough. My dad was a good sport about being a jungle gym and being ram-rodded by John at times.

It was sad to take my parents to the airport. We had so much fun with them. I have a lot of fond memories from this trip.

Aquire

John: I am going to play Acquire with Daddy. [it is a board game]
Emma: Can I be in the choir too?
John: Sure!

Pumpkins Everywhere

John: My bum is like a pumpkin.
Me: Oh really? Why is it like a pumpkin?
John: Because there is this [pointing to his crack]. And then it is round.

Enough said.

Camping

Aaron took John camping in the backyard this weekend. John was in love. Fortunately he fell asleep right away but woke up at the crack of dawn, just after 6am. Aaron was kind enough to take the kids for an early walk in the forest. It was a cold morning and I think they complained on the hike that it was cold but they came home happy. I got to clean a toilet and believe it or not, it made me happy. Turns out cleaning toilets is a great time to think.

Blast Off

I had a nap today and it was glorious! While I was napping, Aaron gave the kids a choice between learning about space, muscles, or french. They chose space. He showed them some videos of rocket launches and the moon walk and discussed gravity and the atmosphere. I woke up rested and they were smarter.

Aaron and Emma left to go help some one rip up carpet and John turned to me and announced that he wanted an astronaut costume. Turns out I don't have one. He was very insistent so I figured we could conjure up something. We looked online and came up with footie jammies, a bike helmut and an amazon box covered in printer paper with duck tape straps and voila! We had an astronaut costume. The good thing is, John is pretty easy going so this costume totally worked for him. We played moon walk and blast off and all sorts of things. Then he wanted to be an astronaut that rode his bike so he put on his fireman rain boots because astronauts wear boots and we went outside in full gear and rode his motorcycle. He was beyond proud. He even wanted to wear his oxygen pack to the bathroom but I drew a line there.

Emma watched this for a while and then five minutes before bed time she decided she wanted to be an astronaut. So by the time I had finished her oxygen pack it was past her bedtime and she got to wear her bike helmut and footie jammies and oxygen pack up the stairs to her room and go to bed. I am sure tomorrow will hold more space exploration adventures for us.

Monkey Bars and Tag

Emma lived for the monkey bars. That is all she would do at recess at school. If ever we went to a park, we HAD to go to a park with monkey bars. Then, one fateful day, they tore out the monkey bars at school. Emma was devastated to say the least.

Shortly after this significant loss, she started to play tag at recess with a group of kids. Now she plays tag most days at recess and wants to go to the park to play tag. She also wants to play tag around the house. She is very good at tag. I am actually shocked at how good she is. She will even taunt whoever is "it". And she is sneaky and fast.

We went to the park today and there was a little 5 year old boy who wanted his grandpa to play tag with him and his grandpa didn't want to. Emma was asking me to play tag with her and so I suggested she play with him. The grandpa told Emma not to play tag with him because he essentially thought that Emma would be too timid or not take the game as serious as this boy. I told the grandpa she could hold her own. Sure enough, she did! She had that boy running in a full sprint for a long time. My favorite part was seeing her run in a full on sprint for about 20 minutes straight with the biggest smile on her face. She was loving it. And this was after playing tag at another park 5 minutes before. She seemed to have no concept of fatigue. The whole time the grandpa kept making comments on how impressive she was and that she was actually a match for his grandson. I admit it - she was good.

Eventually all the kids at the park left because everyone was heading home for dinner. I thought Emma would welcome the down time because she had essentially been playing tag for an hour wit very little break. Instead, she turned to me and asked me to play tag with her. I was gob smacked. So we played and I tagged her with a move that was quite impressive if I do say so myself! Emma was running down the stairs on the playground and yelled, "Ow!!" So she came up to me and showed me where she hurt her hand. I kissed it better and then she wanted a hug, then she walked off, turned back at me and said, "Ha! I tagged you! You're it!" She was sneaky alright! She wanted a hug so she could tag me! She knew my weakness for hugs! She was so proud of herself and I confess, I was proud of her too!

Oh and a few nights ago we went to the park as a family after dark and wore glow sticks and played tag in the dark. It was a ton of fun. The kids loved it. It was one of the funnest times at a park that I think we have ever had as a family.

This Week

John has been prolific with his interesting conversation this week:

John has been working on his Christmas list. So far it includes a wrecking ball and crane, a real stump grinder that will be parked in the garage (originally it was going in the house), and a jack hammer.

I rolled through a stop sign and John said, "I saw a stop sign. Did you stop?"

John held his arms up in a circle above his head and said, "This is everything that I know: paving, stump grinding, diabetes, 18, 21, you have to dig a lot and eat food." He was telling me he knew a lot of stuff.

John told me Aaron invented tickling. Just think of all those poor kids that didn't get tickled before Aaron came on the scene.

John came up with the following idea: "I know, we could take a fan to Antartica and fan the penguins and that would cheer them up! Then they would be happy with us and let us live with them!" He gets cold if the house is colder than 72 degrees. I don't think he would be fanning depressed penguins in Antartica.

John: "What happens when a worm saves your life? Is he a life guard?
Me: "No, he doesn't have to be a life guard." (I was thinking about a swimming life guard and that the worm could have any profession he wanted. This is what happens to your brain when you are home with a 3 year old all day long.)
John: "He could just be a pretty worm, a fun worm?
Me: "Yup." Because that is the alternative to a career as a life guard. I guess Aaron is just pretty an fun!

John: How does a bear hibernate?
Me: He goes in a hole and sleeps very deeply.
John: What happens if there is another bear?
Me: He goes in the hole and sleeps.
John: Then I guess they are married?
Me: Yup.
John: What if the other bear decides he doesn't like it? They get a divorce?
Me: Yup. [This is where I am not sure how much to explain and figure that at 3 years old it isn't the time to go into depth about the matter and figure he will learn about such things as he gets older.]

Emma: Do you know how to grow a tree?
John: Yes, you put lots of trunk in it.
Emma: You plant a seed and give it water.
John: And give it lots of faster and a lot of trunk.
Emma: Well, the trunk just grows.

We were in the car and John said, "I love driving so much. Maybe I could help you?" I responded, "Great, do you want to tell me which way to turn?"

John came home from preschool and wanted to be superman. I told him he had a "Super J" cape that we inherited from my sister Emily and her son Josh. He got excited and ran and got it. We put it on and immediately he wanted to fly. So I picked him up and we flew around the house until I got tired. Then he asked me to go upstairs and pretend to build a tower out of blocks and to need help and he would come help me. So I went upstairs and pretended I needed help building a tower and how I wished for Super John to come help me build a tower. He came "flying" up the stairs and helped me. Then he told me to go back down stairs and pretend that I needed someone to read to. I was cracking up. So I went down stairs and pretended that I needed someone to read to and wondered who on earth could there be that I could read to. Sure enough, Super John came flying down the stairs and was kind enough to sit by me and give me someone to read to.

Halloween

This Halloween Emma was Elsa from the movie Frozen and John was Iron Man. John knows nothing about Iron Man but loved the mask at Costco and so that is what he wanted to be. He didn't wear the mask trick or treating - Aaron carried it the whole time.

Emma got to wear her costume to school on Friday for the storybook parade and John got to wear his to preschool on Thursday. The kids loved dressing up.

On Friday night we had the ward trunk or treat. Emma didn't want to go around and get candy. She just wanted to pass out candy. John, however, wanted the candy. So Emma sat with a friend of mine and passed out candy. John and I went around for candy. Emma finally decided that she wanted to get some candy after everybody had already run out of candy. The rest of the evening was a bit challenging from there on out.

On Saturday, we took the kids trick or treating. The kids were excited but not as excited as they have been in years past. Once we got started though, Emma was particularly excited. They both would just stand there, silently at every door. I had to prompt them at every door to say, "trick or treat!" I thought they would get the hang of it.... but nope. We were curious to see if Emma would be willing to go to the shirtless wonder's house (we have a neighbor that NEVER wears a shirt - no matter what the weather). She was willing but they didn't have a light on this year.

We got home and they snarfed down about 5 pieces of candy each, which might not sound like a lot, but the first year Emma had not clue you could eat the things people handed to you.

I do confess that while I don't like the massive candy that is in my house afterwards, I do love to see cute kids dressed up and excited.

John This Week

John told me he wanted to ride a motorcycle but it was in such a way that he was implying that he was going to actually do it. I told him that he was too small to ride on a motorcycle. So he told me I can't ride a motorcycle because I was too medium.

On another note, John was playing with Legos and suddenly said, "Ha Ha Ha sniggered me!" He got the word "sniggered" from a pirate book that is pretty old. I think "snickered" would be the current word of the day. It cracked me up that he was narrating himself.

John was helping me peel carrots and said, "I feel like I am peeling Dad because this is a huge carrot." Daddy is huge and is therefore like anything else that is huge.

Celebrate

We have had some good accomplishments in our family so we have been celebrating. Emma actually said her part in the primary program. This is a big deal! In the past she has been too scared but she was brave and did it this year.

Also Emma was chosen as the kindness kid from her class in kindergarten in September. Also, John is starting to show some interest in learning to read. We are talking interest - a long way off from reading.

Sick - Part II

Emma had diarrhea on Tuesday. She cried when she couldn't go to school. I was the meanest mom ever. Never mind that the school is the one that made the rule that you can't go to school when you have diarrhea. My sister Mary was referring to diarrhea as cancer given John's previous comments. I was at a baby shower and a two year old wandered off with my cell phone unbeknownst to me. When The mom handed me back my phone, I looked at it and Mary had sent me a text message that said, "Has Emma recovered from cancer yet?" The mom didn't comment on it.... I don't know if she saw the text or not but I was giggling over it.

Sick

John has been sick for the past couple of days. This is about as sick as he has ever been. Normally the only way I know he is sick is because he has a measurable fever. He just keeps on running around and is generally happy through being sick. These past couple days have been different. He has been laying around and we have read books for hours on end. He has had diarrhea and it is the worst case my kids have had post potty training. He has really taken it in the shorts. At one point he turned to me and said, "It is hard to open a door when you have cancer." He said it in a way to imply he has cancer. I explained that he doesn't have cancer and has diarrhea. Later that night he said, "It is no fun to have cancer." In case you are wondering what he knows about cancer, well, apparently not much. Josh, my nephew, told Aunt Mary she would get cancer from drinking artificially sweetened sodas. John caught on to that.

As a result of a hurting bottom, John has been sporting desitin a lot these couple of days. He said it tickles his bum when I put it on. Awesome! So the last time I took him potty today he saw me grab the desitin and said, "Yeah! Tickle time!" No words for that...

Dates

Aaron and I decided to take the kids on dates this weekend. Aaron took one for a walk in the forest and I took the other for ice cream and then we swapped kids.

John picked out red Italian ice (which amounts to a fancy name and flavors for a slurppie) because of the color and not so much for the flavor (cherry). At one point there was an actual piece of cherry in his mouth and he didn't like it. It was maraschino cherries. Emma found out what flavor John got and wanted the same flavor as well. It cracked me up that they wanted a flavor for something other than the flavor.

Emma and I watched a couple of bees eat melted Italian ice and we named one Fred and the other Freddy. We pretended that they belonged to our friend's hive. We talked about how isn't it nice that our bum doesn't move when we eat and that our bum doesn't get in our food when we eat. It was totally appropriate conversation!

I asked John what was his favorite thing to do with Mom or Dad. He was upset that I hadn't also included Emma in that question so I rephrased the question, "what is your favorite thing to do with Mom, or Dad, or Emma?" He replied, "get ice cream!" I don't know how often he and Emma go get ice cream together.

Both of them got to see bunny rabbits on their walk with Aaron. Emma reported that she saw horse guano, which she explained to me means "poop." Emma also told me that there was wood chips in the guano. They saw a dry river bed. That was everything according to Emma. John also saw the horse guano. John saw a bunny and explained to me that he and the bunny were strangers.

Cockroaches

I was putting John to bed and he requested a story about cockroaches. So I started to tell a story:

Once upon a time there was a Daddy cockroach, a Mommy cockroach, a big brother cockroach, a little brother cockroach, and a baby sister cockroach.

At this point, John stopped me and wanted to add in his own part to the story:

And a cousin cockroach and a Jesus cockroach!!!

He was so proud that he had included Jesus into our story. I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't want to squash his idea but I also didn't want to make Jesus into a cockroach. So I went with squashing and said that "Jesus is just Jesus, he isn't a cockroach." I am glad the Heavens have a sense of humor.

General Conference Weekend

Normally I have a love/not-so-much-in-love relationship with General Conference Weekend. I love listening to conference and hearing the messages. I do not love kids feeling neglected because their parents are listening to 8+ hours of Conference in one weekend and the kids acting out as a result. I have learned to love reading conference more than I love to listen to it. This weekend was substantially better. Aaron had the idea that we take the kids to the park on Saturday and they can play and we can listen. It was genius/inspired. The kids loved it and I haven't been able to listen to so much conference in 6 years.... maybe more because it is much harder to fall asleep on a park bench. I still managed to go in and out a little but it was infinitely better than usual.

Sunday, was a different story. I was trying really hard to listen to conference and the kids were not having any of it. I was also trying to write thoughts down as they happened and Emma noticed and wanted to write stuff down too. Here is what she wrote:

"I feel the Spirit. I feel love. I love myself. I love my neighbor. I feel the Spirit helping me. I feel the Gospel helping me. I feel love. I feel the prophet loving.  

I feel the Spirit helping me. I feel my heart helping me. My heart is helping me feel the Spirit. I feel it helping me be happy.

I feel the prophet guiding me. I feel the prophet saying I am doing the right thing and I am doing a good job. 

I feel the Spirit guiding my faith. I feel the Spirit. I feel The Lord saying He loves me. I feel I am being good. I love the Spirit."

Kindergarten and Preschool

Emma started kindergarten on August 24th. She has been waiting for this day but was still a little nervous. Fortunately there is a girl in our ward that is in her class. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Allen and she seems nice. On the first day of school she woke up early because she was so excited. She got ready and we all went to the bus stop together as a family. We took pictures and when the bus actually came, I confess that it was harder than I thought it would be. I had to work hard not to cry! Aaron felt the same way. One of the things that cracked me up was Aaron, totally serious, said, "I she she had a cell phone so we could text her instructions!" I was giggling because I was confident that Emma could handle kindergarten and also, what kindergartener texts.... oh, wait, that would be Emma.

After we got home, Aaron went to work and John and I finished breakfast. It was just John and I and John turns to me and says, "Lets tie a scarf around our ankles and run around and fall on our face!" All I could think was, "Where is Emma when I need her???" I am not a run around and fall on my face kind of mom. I am more of a legos kind of mom.

Emma loved her first day of school and came home exhausted. In fact we have been working on getting settled into a routine for 4 weeks now. Emma has to get up at 6:30am to get ready and leave the house by 7:10 to catch the bus for school to start at 8:05am. Then school ends at 3:05 and she is home about 3:30. It is a long day for her.

John started preschool the same week that Emma started kindergarten. John goes to preschool at lady's house that is in our ward. She is super nice - Sister Christiansen. John loved preschool because there was a drill press and a circular saw. He talked for days about these tools. On the second day of preschool he told me not to hurry to pick him up and even asked why I couldn't just leave him there. I told him all of the kids had to go home. He wasn't convinced that was a good reason to come get him.

Getting Big

John sat up tall in his chair at dinner and with his chin barely above the table announced to me that he couldn't snuggle me any more because he had to go to school. He starts preschool on Thursday. Unfortunately for him, he is mistaken.

Milk

Out of the blue at dinner tonight Emma announced that she knows how to make milk. I was expecting something that involved utters and expecting a funny story. I asked how you make milk.

"You mix flour and sugar and water together."

Aaron and I did an amazing job of not giggling. Later we asked where she learned that and she said she made it up.

The Last Week of Summer (and Our Unscheduled Life)

We had a busy week this week. I think I was trying to pack in all the last minute fun that we could before our lives as we know it are changed forever. I had to remember that we will have other summers and it isn't as though we are going to be dead or never see Emma again.

I have enjoyed very thoroughly not having much of a schedule this summer. Having a schedule adds a great amount of stress to our lives since I seem to be the only family member (during the daytime while Aaron is at work) who is interested in being on time to anything or motivated to go anywhere.

On Monday John had gymnastics class. This was a big deal because it was his first class without Emma. I admit I was nervous and he was excited. He is pretty nervous about doing anything without Emma. But he did great. It was like he didn't even notice that Emma wasn't there. Afterwards we went to Emma's elementary school (David Elementary) to help unload school supplies for the teachers. The kids did really well helping out. I admit I was surprised. It was nice to be able to work with them and have it be a positive experience as opposed to many of our "clean up the house" experiences. And I was hoping that the more that Emma is at the school, the more comfortable she will be on her first day.

On Tuesday I took the kids to a movie. It was a disaster but that is another story, one that I would like to forget about so I won't write it down. But the good part is this was Emma's first movie theater experience. The kids loved eating popcorn. John didn't want butter on his popcorn and Emma did. John is a purist - no condiments shall taint his food. John lost interest in the movie two thirds of the way through the movie. Neither kid totally got the movie as evidenced by the fact that they laughed at parts that were supposed to be sad. In the end I think they liked the experience.

On Wednesday we went to the butterfly museum with our friends the Schmutz-Parentes. Emma could have sat there forever pushing buttons in the educational section of it. John liked to look at the bugs. They liked the actual butterfly portion of if but I don't think it was the highlight of the experience. Afterwards there was a little play area for kids. They were pretending to be bees in a hive and do a shape sorter in flowers and a bunch of other things. By the way, the baby that I am wearing is my friend's. No strollers allowed in the museum. Then we had lunch with our friends and headed home. Emma also started ballet again. She liked it but asked to be moved to a class with fewer kids. This made me nervous for kindergarten because there will be 20 kids in her class. Preschool only had 13.



On Thursday we went to the school again because I had to print stuff off for the PTO. Yes, I am volunteering for the PTO. Turns out a sucker is born ever kindergarten. I am supposed to organize volunteers for the PTO. Which ultimately means that I will be answering questions about volunteering. The irony is that I am a kindergarten mom - totally clueless. Anyway, we went to make copies. It was fun for the kids to use the copier for a while and then the system started to break down and I had to pull out Elmo on my phone. Mostly because there was a paper cutter involved and John just couldn't keep his hands off of it.

After the school we went to Wonder Wild. It is an indoor play place for kids. The kids ran around and loved it. One of my favorite memories is when they would lay down in this little ball crawl type thing and I would throw balls at them. They would giggle every time a ball hit them. I love happy little kid giggles. I am such a sucker for them.

On Friday we did a father-son date and a mother-daughter date. John calls it "Daddy time" and Emma calls it a "Emma daughter date." John and Aaron took my car to Walmart to get the oil changed and eat and ice cream cone. Cue grunting. Emma and I got lunch at chic fil a and then drove down to the butterfly museum. When we were in California and again at the butterfly museum earlier in the week Emma saw one of those machines that you put in 50 cents and a penny and it imprints an image on to the penny. She wanted to do one so bad she could taste it. However, both times we didn't have two quarters. I was supposed to take the kids to the downtown children's museum Thursday but it just didn't work out. She was so broken-hearted that all she wanted to do was go get an engraving. So we drove 45 minutes downtown, got the engraving and then walked around Herman Park. Emma wanted to get an engraving for each member of our family. She spent $2 on us all and that is quite a lot of money for her. We looked at the Japanese gardens and she liked them.

Afterwards we went to costco to get Aaron's tires rotated. The funny part about this was getting samples. Emma didn't like the mixed nuts, or the carmel flavored puffy things (kinda like pirates booty or cheetos). She didn't even want to try the pizza or chicken nuggets. She did however like the chocolate milk, the juice, and the asian noodles with vegetables. Go figure.

That evening we got to meet Emma's kindergarten teacher - Mrs. Allen. She seemed warm and fuzzy like all kindergarten teachers should be. And the good news is that there is a girl in our ward who will be in her class. Aaron bribed Emma with candy so she would go around the room and introduce herself to all of the kids. I was worried that Emma would appear to be the really old kid in the class but it didn't look that way at all.

I am looking forward to Emma having more intellectual and social stimulation than what I can personally provide her. I think she will love school after she gets over the initial shock of it all. I can't make the same promise for John and preschool. I am nervous that he will figure out that it is just like nursery and riot. John has been making progress in potty training but is still a little touch and go at times. For example, he won't wash his hands unless I sing the ABC song. He doesn't feel he can do that on his own. I am picturing him asking his teacher to sing the ABC's so he can wash his hands. Some how, some way, he will make it to adulthood right?