First Night

First Night is fast becoming a tradition in our family. This is our third year, at least. There was just so much to see and do so this is only a small portion.

We got to see Indian dancers. The kids were all fascinated.

James danced along.


We made awesome hats out of paper grocery sacks. Joseph used pirate stickers while Elena tended toward garden denizens.


There were Japanese drummers, too. James could barely take his eyes off them. We had the chance to try them out, but passed (though we did watch close up).


We also saw a fire-tornado, a house that blew smoke-filled bubbles, a clown dressed all in burnt orange and white, bagpipers, and part of the parade. We didn't stay as late as usual, though, because it was getting cold and the wind was blowing pretty hard. All in all, it was a good evening.

It's been a good year and the Lord has greatly blessed us. I hope you have felt His love, as well.

James' First Real Christmas

Since we spent last year in quarantine, this was James' first year having Christmas with cousins and Santa.

This was before we got the stockings hung on the banister, but all five (good gravy! there's five of us?!?) are there. Also, the lights are red and white, a la candy canes, and I really really like the effect--not as plain as just white, but not as busy as multi.


One of our nativity sets. We've also got a white ceramic set (still packed up) and a vinyl cling set (on the window to the immediate left).


Here we are at the ward party, hanging out with one of our favorite families. The pageant was very sweet, too.



Mike and Jeri hosted the extended family at their house again, though a week early, and it was so good to see everyone. Elena was sooooo excited at the very thought of seeing Bridget and Paige.


James is very into phones, right now, and everything he touches turns into one. This phone used to be a computer mouse.


Ha hasn't quite figured out wrapping paper, either.


Christmas morning was simple but cozy. We made a lot of the kids' gifts and I think they've come to appreciate the effort that goes into them. Certainly, they were excited to see them when they got unwrapped.




We spent the afternoon with Jonathan's dad and sister (his mom is in Georgia with our brand new baby niece) eating delicious catfish and watching movies.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We found a yummy new cake recipe and whipped it up for Jonathan's birthday. 30 tasted good.

Catching Up

I realize that I've been, shall we say, lax at blogging, lately. That is all I have to say on that matter, but I hope you enjoy the new updates.

The boys like books. Joseph pretends to read by telling us the story while he turns the pages. James pretends by looking at the pictures.

I guess I told Jonathan about Joseph's last trip to UT's Children's Research Laboratory but didn't blog about it. He did a study about language absorption that Elena did a few years ago. The research student showed him a few toys and he happened to be in the group where she didn't apply labels to them so it was just "Look at that." Then she pulled out a stuffed dog and said "This is a gep," and Joseph was puzzled (as was intended), trying to figure out how that new word fit in with what he knew of the world and saying that "it shape lite a dod." She did the same thing with a ball, calling it a danew. Then we played a game. She put out three toys and asked him to find the gep. He went straight for the intended target, picking up the stuffed dog. Then it was the ball's turn. "Joseph, can you find me the danew?" He picked up the ball, stared at the other toys, set the ball down, and repeated about three or four times. He knew that the research student wanted the ball but refused to concede that it was called a danew. He even tried to rationalize this by discussing what the other toys were. "What that one? I thint it a bird. Maybe it a owl." In the end she had to end his session and admitted that she had no clue how to code it because he never made a real decision.

Elena also did one, right before school started, that was looking into children's perceptions of race and how parents address it with them. Apparently, this an offshoot/companion study to the one in this Newsweek article on the subject--in summary, children notice race at a very young age but have no words to describe what they see because their parents balk at discussing the topic. For ours, we read books where either the main character was a different race from us or the story was an allegory to race relations (an interesting book about what would happen if zebras lost their stripes) and they wanted to see what kind of questions the kids asked and what topics the parents brought up. I'm not sure if we passed, if the article is any judge. We did better a few weeks later at General Conference, though. Elder Sitati got up to speak and Joseph piped up with "He need to get his head white again!" We laughed and told him that Elder Sitati is from Africa so his skin is darker than ours, just like Daddy and Elena's is darker than mine and James'. Simple, direct and honest without going into a ton of needless details, right? I really hope so. It was a lot like when I had to explain to Elena why Joseph was built different, really.


(P.S. This article has some really good suggestions for talking to little kids.)

Up to Something

We have major trouble brewing, at our house. James, it seems, has all his sister's intelligence and problem-solving skills combined with his brother's athleticism and adventurous nature. He's the first of our children to figure out how to get out of the crib all by himself. He also circles the table, studying the chairs to decide which one will give him the best path upward. He figured out three different ways of getting up onto the computer desk so he could dance with the computer monitor at least four months ago. Figuring out the locks on the front door by the time he's in nursery is not entirely out of the question.

Walkin' Around the Christmas Tree

James has spent the last week and a half perfecting his walking skills. He started with a crouched over, lurching duck-walk before moving on to a twitchy, sideways sidle and had now settled into the traditional controlled stumble. Choice of mobility methods has also shifted, each day bringing more displays of his new abilities. I think he might have switched over, today. Anyway, here's a bit of video (it's kind of long) to tide you over until we see many of you for Christmas.

Sunshine and Clouds

It's been a long and really weird day, today. It started at 5:30, when I got up to get Elena ready for school, because I'd forgotten that James reset my alarm clock, yesterday. Going back to bed was no longer an option, once I'd realized what had happened, so we rolled with it. We hunted mittens (only found 1 of 4), ambled to school, waited a couple of minutes for the office staff to unlock the front door, then grabbed a hot breakfast. It was a great morning. Back at home, I watched the weather report and realized that if we were getting snow on Friday, I needed to get over to our storage unit to pull out the kids' serious winter gear. Out the door I went, then right back in for a bucket of water and a scrub brush because my car had been egged. Thank goodness it's winter, not summer, and it came right off. Once I got to the storage place, I realized I couldn't remember the code to get into our hallway (it's an inside unit on a secured hallway). I tried a ton of stuff but was just stumped. I went to the office and get the guy in there to come help me. Ah ha! I had the code backward! I ran inside, real quick, to see if they'd slapped an extra lock on since I'd had problems, earlier, getting it to lock right and management had asked us to fix it or they'd lock us out. Great! No new lock (and no follow-up letters, at home) so we must have secured it fine. The first thing I saw when I pulled up the door was an empty envelope from a letter I had sent Jonathan while he was in Spain--it was on the floor, partway under a box. "That's odd. Something must have shifted." I got the door all the way up and gasped in horror at the huge gaping hole in our stuff. Then I noticed that the rest of it was *not* in the same place (or condition) it had been, the last time I'd been in there. I slammed the lock back on, zipped back to the office, and called home in a panic. No, he hadn't taken anything out. The office guy and I went back out, I got Jonathan over, we took pictures and filed a police report. But a third of our stuff is gone. The kids' vintage-style pedal-car is gone, for sure. I'm not sure what else is missing but my flute was in there, as was my china, my porcelain dolls, a whole box of Jonathan's collectibles and my favorite leather boots. I need to go through everything and assess the damage. If anyone can watch my boys while I do this, tomorrow morning, that'd be awesome.

Oh, so Yummy

It was free ice cream day, at Amy's. We happen to have one nearby, too, so we drove over, stood in line, and got our scoops. I had Mexican Vanilla with strawberries, Jonathan had Belgiam Chocolate with Reese's cups and Oreos (the extra Crush-in was for answering their movie trivia question), Elena asked for Dark Chocolate with plain M&Ms, Joseph enjoyed an Aloha ice with gummy bears on top, and James explored Pumpkin (he thought it was weird, mostly for being cold, but kept grabbing the spoon and asking for more) .

Promotion

Splitting time between Pre-K and 1st grade has been very useful for any number of reasons. Among others, it gave Elena the chance to see bigger kids in action, and it gave her teachers the opportunity to give her more specialized attention. There was a massively huge problem, though. By moving back and forth, she was missing both classes' recess times. For three weeks, she was expected to sit still for classes with kids two years older than her, without the benefit of burning off some serious extra energy. The next thing we know, she's acting up in the cafeteria and rolling around on the floor in class. Mrs. Sr and Mrs. B, the Pre-K teachers, talked with Ms. St, the 1st grade teacher, and saw that it just wasn't working. They then approached the principal and discussed at length what would be best for Elena. They presented us with two options: 1) she could stay in Pre-K and would be given extra responsibilities, acting much like a student-mentor for the other kids, while the teachers did their best to give her the challenge she needed; or 2) she could move up to Kindergarten, splitting the difference between her age and abilities, where the work would be more difficult, but wiggling and playing were still expected (and even encouraged).

It was a big decision, for us. If we left her were she was, there was the risk of boredom and fatigue. If we moved her up, she'd be moving into a whole new age group. It would be a premanent move, too--no "testing it out" or "seeing how she does," here. It would effect the rest of her life. Desperate for some shred of hope to cling to, I reached out to the thought of Elena's cousin, Bridget. They both had the same due date, though Bridget is two years older than Elena. Through the happenstance of fate, though, Bridget was born a preemie and made the September cutoff for Kindergarten, when she turned five. Had Elena been a preemie, too, she would have been on the exact same academic track Bridget took, two years ago--youngest in the class, but delightfully brilliant. This was what I needed. If Bridget could flourish and thrive as the youngest kid in the class, so could Elena.

So, this morning I got Elena up and took her to school for breakfast, as usual. But instead of lining up with 1st grade, where she had been going for morning reading time, or heading to the gym with Pre-K, she was going to her very first day of Kindergarten. I got to walk her to her room and watched as another girl showed her where to hang her backpack. I saw that the tape on the floor had been redone so that she would have a place to sit with her class. I closed the door and peeked through the window just the tiniest bit. I wanted to stay, to make sure she would be OK, but it was time to go. I walked home in a bit of a daze, wondering what she was doing. Somehow it was more nerve-wracking than the first time I left her at school, only 10 weeks ago. Then, it was merely odd that I wasn't the center of her universe, with her nearly every waking moment of her life. Now, I worried about her being the odd duck, catching up with classwork, making friends again, and a thousand other adjustments.

At the end of the day, I suppose I shouldn't have worried so much. Elena bounced down the sidewalk with me, shouting "I love Kindergarten!" and telling me all about going to PE and how she gets to go to art, tomorrow, how they counted to 51 in Spanish, and the picture they colored when they got back from the playground. Responses to questions about Pre-K had usually been short and you'd really have to dig to find out what she did, but here she was bubbling with stories.

The first day of Kindergarten was a roaring success. I hope the rest of the year is, as well.

Haircut

I love my baby boy's curls. They are such a delight. They do tend to get scraggly, though, and poof (yet hang down) in odd ways. Being a Big Kid of 13 full months, it was time for his Very First Haircut. I plunked him down on the bathroom counter, so he could watch, then quickly grabbed the back of his hair and gave a few swift snips. It's not my best job, but it will do. I'm not even going to attempt the top, yet.

Before:
After:

Wonderland

Elena decided she wanted to be Alice, for Halloween, about two weeks ago. Because we like to work in themes (it makes decisions easier, that way), the rest of us sorted out what we would be. There was some debate over who would be the Mad Hatter, but Daddy won out because we couldn't figure out what he would be, if Joseph was the Hatter. In the end, I think it all came out pretty well.


We went trick-or-treating in Mike and Jeri's neighborhood, but since we were running a bit behind we missed almost everyone by just a couple of minutes. The kids still had a great time, getting the hang of trick-or-treating (Elena made sure James got candy, too, even though he didn't really go up to the doors) and then watching It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with their cousins.

Life is Beautiful

Elena wanted to make me a cake for my birthday, because cakes are very important to the well-being of any good birthday. She wanted it to be triangle-shaped, too, so we went with it. I helped her bake, and Jonathan helped her frost and decorate. There are actually 15 candles, though they spell out 30. I think the Halloween sprinkles are what really make it, though.

My visiting teacher brought a chocolate satin pie, earlier in the day, and I shared some with all who were in the house. James only got a tiny bit, but seemed to enjoy putting it to good use.

The kids have been laughing at the talking jack-o-lanterns in the Papa Murphy's commercials, so I promised we could have a pumpkin-shaped pizza on my birthday. I think it came out pretty good, and the kids thought it was great.

I really think I'm going to like my 30s. I'm old enough that I can do my own thing, again, and no one will look twice at me. I don't feel like I need to pretend that I'm just out of my teens/college, anymore. I don't feel compelled to look at the clothes in the Juniors' department, I've stopped wondering if I'm the Young Mom at the park. My friends range from 23-45 (and there are several of the young women I'm friendly with, as well) and my hobbies give me something to talk about with nearly anyone I meet. I'm loving being the mother of a school-kid, too. I honestly didn't know I could have this much fun waking up before dawn and walking a sluggish child through the cold and rainy puddles. I didn't realize how much I could enjoy talking with teachers about how my daughter is progressing, or sitting down with her and going over homework. It's like rediscovering that brilliant teacher I had that opened my eyes to the wonders of learning, so long ago. Only, this time, I see it in my child's eyes--that dawning awe and inspiration, the knowledge that there is so much to explore and discover. It's a beautiful time, here at our place, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

A Day at the Park

We have found a new favorite park--Mueller's Lake Park. We've been there the last two Saturdays and loved every moment we spent there. The playground is possibly the best I've ever seen, and that includes fond memories from childhood. The "lake" (large duck pond) has ducks, coots, at least one heron, and a small flock of parrots nearby. We've flown kites and watched minnows. There are lots of people to see and kids to make instant friends with. Plus, everything is so perfectly lovely and begging for the most beautiful pictures to be taken.

I love how they show off their natural tendencies, here--she picking flowers, he hitting the bushes with a stick.

We'll be back soon, I'm sure. It has an almost irresistible draw.

Weigh to Go, James!

My last WIC appointment happened to be on the same day as a deluge of epic proportions. I spent an hour on the road, and didn't get much more than 5 miles from my house. The light in front of me was letting through about one car per cycle and the freeway was at a total standstill. I missed that appointment, but got rescheduled for today. It was still raining, but not nearly so hard.

James got weighed and measured as part of his recertification, and came in at 20 lbs 6.2 ozs and 29 ins tall. That's two full pounds heavier, in just one month, and makes him the biggest (fastest growing?) of the kids. He's also officially eligable to ride forward like a big kid. Not that we have room for that, in our car. We're going to have to figure out what to do if he gets those last two pounds to max out his baby seat at his next pedi check-up.

A Wreck of Art

Cake Wrecks came to town, last week. A few of you have spotted my work, there, but here I give you all the details.

Jonathan asked me if was going to enter anything in the Wreckplica contest. I wasn't sure, and had no idea what I would do if I did, so he suggested I do this one from this post. It's his favorite cake on the site. It gets better every time he looks at it, it's just so messed up. Inspiration given, I sat down to write up a plan, and got to work. I still had my library book on cakes, so I whipped up a half batch of the same one I did for Elena and James' birthdays. I used a mini-loaf pan to get the overall shape, then cut it down to the proper size and specific shape. To give you a sense of scale, that's a 6" paper dessert plate.



I made a batch of frosting and split it into a couple bowls for each color on the cake. The brown went on first, then the blue around the edges. I was hoping it'd create curves in the right places, and it did a beautiful job.



Next came piping. I'd gotten a few tips, but didn't have a piping bag, so Ziplocks it was. With creative placement of the lines, I got all the right curves and shaping. I think it came out pretty well. Here we are, all ready for delivery.


These are most of the contenders. I think there's only one or two that aren't in this shot. I wasn't a finalist, but I did make an honorable mention on the blog. I missed the judging because Elena needed to use the restroom, but c'est la vie. It was a fun event.

Small Girl in a Big World

Elena is loving being five, and loving going to school. Shortly after her birthday I went in for my first parent-teacher conference and her teacher tells me "Let's cut straight to the point. Elena is so far ahead of the rest of her classmates, she really needs more than what I can provide her." The rest of the Pre-K kids are doing things like "this is the letter M," while Elena is somewhere around "that says 'the penguin climbed up the mountain to see the ocean better." Mrs. Sr had been trying to get her some old workbooks from the other teachers, to provide Elena a good challenge, but wasn't having any luck. Special arrangements were made, though, and Elena now spends her mornings in 1st grade with Ms. St. When we toured Ms. St's room, I talked to her about what Elena will be doing there, and it all looks so exciting. They're doing reading, a bit of writing, some math, telling time, and reading a calendar. She won't be getting much chance to practice forming letters and other more basic levels of writing, though, since one class is below that level and the other above, so we got her a few workbooks at the local teachers' store, and she loves doing those, too. I know she's going to have a great time in her Big Kid Class, and I love hearing about how they are taking to her and really treating her well. There's a possibility that she'll skip a grade, in a few years, but the teachers don't want to address that, yet, because no one's sure of the legality of that, what with the age requirements for the Pre-K and Kinder classes.

She's such a mischievous girl, always giggling and acting silly, but so sweet with her brothers. She's a great helper, too, and loves doing jobs around the house. She's trying to save up for a bike, though I'm not sure where we'll keep it. We'll figure something out, I'm sure. I love how her birthday pictures came out. The middle one is for the wall.

Movin' Right Along

Will did it at the beginning of the summer. Tess did it, a month ago. Danielle did it, two weeks later. Joseph has joined their ranks, now. We have one less kid in diapers! I can't say "no more diapers!" because James still wears them, but I can't say "he's in underpants!" quite yet, either. We'll get to that.

I'm not sure who decided what, or why, but it started a week ago, Friday. Our standard deal with Elena is that she can not have any accidents in the week leading up to the Daddy/Daughter Campout, because the campground restrooms take time to get to, and she has to practice planning ahead. At the last minute, I ran out to the store so that the campers would have cash on hand to pay for the campsite, and Elena begged to go with me. That poor grocery cart did not deserve what happened to it, and the deal was broken. Somehow, during the cleanup and bath at home, Joseph ended up in underpants. He did not seem in any way adverse to this development--perhaps because of promises to go camping for his birthday, in the spring--so he stayed there. I set the kitchen timer for two hours, and every two hours I 'd get him to hop up and run to the bathroom to do his thing. After a couple of hours, he knew that the beeper meant potty time, and that he could go on his own, too. He even happily repeated the performance for three days. One small hitch, though--dry pants percentage was ~90%, clean pants were only about 2%. And then, at some point, Joseph forgot to put his underpants back on, after visiting the potty, and was totally accident-free for the rest of the day. He knew he needed to go, ran to the bathroom, did his thing, and that was that.

So... we have a half-naked child running around our house, these days, though he does put the rest of his clothes on if we need to go out. He managed to stay presentable at church, today. The process was much more laid back than earlier attempts with him, too. Don't worry, Regan, the diapers Tess passed on to us will still get used, it'll just take a little time for James to grow into them.

Birthday Kids

We've got two big birthdays, this month. James turned 1, last week, and Elena will be 5, next week. I checked out a cake cookbook from the library and had fun reading through all the recipes. Elena asked for "a almond" cake when I presented her with a couple choices of flavors. She also wanted a big round cake that she could share with everyone--totally her idea, I was all for her having her own personal cake like James' but she insisted. Oh, she wanted Corduroy on top, too. Good thing I'd picked up some piping tips at the store, yesterday.

There were a few more spare cupcakes, but I'd run out of frosting and didn't want to mix up some more.

We sang, candles were blown out, and the birthday kids dove in. Elena ate her cake very slowly, but that may because she loaded up on jello, homemade pink grapefruit sorbet, and banana bread from my mom earlier in the evening.


James figured out his cake very quickly and had a great time ripping it apart and smearing the frosting around. The nose was the first casualty, but it all went, eventually. After gnawing all the identifying features off the front, he flipped the plate over to see if there was more on the back.


As always, the batteries in the camera died, at this point, so we don't have any more pictures of this 1st birthday, either. Poor boys. Maybe I can get some from the grandparents' cameras...

Both kids got clothes and books, which will all see a lot of use, I'm sure. If you couldn't make it, we're so sorry we missed you and hope to see you soon!

Not Forgotten

Joseph got birthday pictures, too. They were a little late, and I was bummed that I put it off and then he went and chipped his tooth off. I was going to share them, and then I took him to get his face stitched up. (Oh, yeah, I should put that picture up, too...
There. It was the day before he got them out, so it's most of the way healed, but still kind of ugly-looking.)

That still doesn't really excuse waiting yet another two months before I get around to this part. So here you go.


The last one is the one on our wall.