This Labor Day Weekend our family went to Camp Meriwether, a Boy Scout camp on the Oregon Coast near Tillamook, to be part of a family weekend. I was quite excited because I haven’t been back there in over 20 years when I first went as a young scout. This was my favorite Boy Scout Camp too. Since then they have had some improvements including a climbing wall. Typically on these weekends they do not have the climbing wall, rife/archery/shotgun ranges open but one of the days they made an exception and opened the climbing wall because some of the instructors were giving training. Mylie jumped at the chance to climb the wall. This was also just recently built and was the first summer they had it opened.

I wasn’t nervous for her except I worried that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the top and would feel unsatisfied with herself. As we waited in line I don’t think she ever had a thought that she wouldn’t make it to the top. She surprised us all by taking it one step at a time with great guidance from the instructor. He helped get her started but once she was going he said it was all her. He was there to belay her to keep her safe. Eventually she made it to the very top of the 45 foot tower. Because we only had one camera, I took it up the tower so I could get pictures of her from above and was not able to get down from the tower to take pictures from the ground. Once she reached the top giving me five, she repelled downward and made it to the ground faster than I could run down the steps. I was very proud of her accomplishment.

Later that day when she was walking back from the showers with Karli, she told her she really likes herself. I love her good self-esteem!

Can you spot the difference in these two pictures? It’s subtle, but it’s most definitely there. The difference is one is starting her first day of Kindergarten, and the other one is graduated from Kindergarten. Amazing, isn’t it?!

The first girl is almost three inches shorter.

The second girl now has two baby brothers instead of one.

The first girl can only write the first letter of each word in a sentence.

The second girl writes pages upon pages of stories, complete with quotation marks and illustrations.

The first’s favorite thing at school is snack time.

The second’s is Library.

The first draws stick figure people with one large egg head with lines out the sides for arms and legs.

The second draws full-color pictures, with fully-clothed people, background scenery and speech bubbles.

The first is scared to get on her bike with training wheels.

The second rides her two-wheeler around the neighborhood for hours.

The first girl can count to 100.

The second girl can add, subtract, count money and is starting to tell time.

The first might have a panic attack if her schedule or routine had to change.

The second can roll with the punches and is becoming adept at handling disappointment and scheduling conflicts.

The first girl likes to play computer games.

The second girl instant messages her dad, has an address book, and calls family members at will.

I’m sure I could go on forever. The difference in these two little girls in just 9 short months is nothing short of miraculous. I can only imagine what changes first grade will bring.

And just for kicks because these pictures make me giggle:

This year, for Mylie’s 6th birthday, we really lucked out. Kindergartner’s last day of school happened to be on a Monday, but the rest of the grades ended on Tuesday. So, we decided to go for a middle-of-the-week approach and host it on Tuesday while everyone else was in school!

This year’s theme:

Dance, of course!

We started the party in the morning at our house. We had Mylie’s favorite dance songs playing as the guests arrived, and they all got prepped and warmed up.

They greeted each other with glee and silliness.

Next, we played “Ballerina Says” (a version of Simon Says) and then they got to watch Bella Dancerella, a dance video, and show off their super cool moves.

After a pizza lunch, we opened presents and ate cake.

And then we hauled ALL TEN LITTLE KINDERGARTNERS over to Skate World for an afternoon of roller skating. I’ll be really honest and tell you that the REAL reason we chose this particular Tuesday to hold the party was not because Kindergartners were out of school and no one else was. No, the real reason was because it was “Cheap Skate” day at Skate World, and I could get all 10 girls in for $1.00 each, saving me almost $70.00 in admission charges! That was my proud mama moment Plus, they’re party rooms are cramped and nasty… not nearly as cool has having the party part at our house.

Most of the girls had never been roller skating before, and those that had had only been once. So it took a bit of coaxing, hand holding, and crawling along the edge of the rink, but within a half an hour of being there, most of the girls were “flying’ as they liked to put it. They even got gutsy enough to participate in a round of “Red Light, Green Light” and danced along while they skated to “YMCA”.

It was a super fun experience, and the whole day went rather smoothly. The girls all got along great, had fun participating in all the activities and had a good time skating. After 90 minutes, though, most of them called it quits, as their poor little legs couldn’t hold up those heavy skates anymore. But by that night, Mylie was begging to go back the next day! Yea for having another activity to add to our repertoire this summer!

Happy Sixth Birthday Mylie!

What’s Your Favorite:

Color – Pink & Blue

Number – 6

Thing at School – Library

Song – Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Music - Interpretative Dance from the book on CD, Doobie Doobie Moo

Kind of Dance – My Solo (Jazz)

Food – Mac & Cheese…. with Whip Cream (?!?!)

Friend – Lucy

Place to Visit that you’ve already been – IHOP

Where would you like to visit? – California

What do you want to be when you grow up?  - Firefighter (we’ve moved past the Gravedigger phase, I see)

What does Daddy do for work? – Get Money

What does Mommy do for work? – Watch the Winters Kids

Who are you going to marry? – Brayden… because Landon doesn’t want to, and Brayden said, “I’ll marry you.”

How many kids are you going to have? – Three. Two girls and one boy.

What will you name them? – Daisy, Rachel and Evan.

I honestly never knew it was possible to enjoy a baby so much. Don’t get me wrong – I love my babies. BUT…. let’s just say, I’m not really a baby person. They’re cute and (sometimes) cuddly, although mine have never really been. So even though I love my kids, I generally really start ENJOYING them once they’re into toddlerhood (in that brief wonderful respite before they become screaming banshee preschoolers).

This little man has changed all that.

Oliver turned six months old today, and I really have very few words to describe him other than SHEER JOY. He has an insatiable zest for life, people and knowledge. Baby brother has more personality in his little toe than most people acquire in their whole lifetime. He has a smile that just won’t quit, and eyes that gleam right along with it. Buddy has never met a camera he didn’t love and who didn’t love him. And his brain is always in hyper drive, cranking along so much I can just about hear it. Everywhere we go, people are commenting on how amazing he is… whether it’s his dimples, his smile, the gleam in his eyes, or just his conversational abilities. And I’ll admit… I’m just as smitten. He’s a total flirt, and I’m fairly certain he’d have a fairly lucrative career as a used-car salesman cuz Little Man O could sell just about anything to anyone with a wink and a nod.

This little man went from being my most high maintenance baby after birth to being a total trooper. As the third child, his nap schedule is crappy. Some days he gets two, others only one. And yet, he goes a long for the ride, and is thoroughly joyful about it… as long as he’s got someone to talk to and something to play with. Don’t let little mister get bored, or you’ll hear about it.

There really is no middle ground with this guy. We call him “All or Nothing Oliver” because he’s either all on (most of the time) or all off… and there’s not a lot of warning between the two.

At six months, this little man is a highly efficient crawler, and can speed to any corner of the room to find any unsafe particle that his siblings have deposited on the floor. Child-proofing for this one in combination with his two whirl-wind sibs is going to be a NIGHTMARE. And did I mention, he’s a mouther? It’s been a constant in-the-mouth obsession since he was in the hospital. But I actually find myself missing him when he’s not around, which is a big thing for me. Typically I feel kind of chained to my nursing infants and look forward to any moment to myself. But not this guy.

So, to my Little Mister Happy Pants…Happy Dappy Doo…Mister Prince…Captain Adorable… on your half birthday, I just want to say how HAPPY you make me and all the rest of us! We love you!!

TRAINING WHEELS!

That’s right my friends and loyal readers, we are a training wheel free family, and we’re never going back. Wait, you must be saying… what about your younger children? Surely you won’t throw that darling baby on a bike and make him ride for his life? Ahhh, I reply, of course I will! Because we’ve discovered a new passion. STRIDER BIKES!

We got Nolan a Strider Bike for his birthday last December. And because it was HIS and not HERS, of course, it’s the only bike Mylie’s been wanting to ride. She’s had very little interest in her own bike ever since she got it, and was terrified of going to fast on it or riding over curb cuts, or very little inclines. But because the Strider Bike was low to the ground and used feet power, she would go all over on it. And, as is the design, she began to get really good at balancing.

So, when a friend at school said she was getting her training wheels off this weekend, Nick suggested we remove Mylie’s as well. She hesitated but he persisted. And, once they were off, it only took a couple of false starts until this occured:

For the first two days, the starting and stopping was a bit rough, but it didn’t take long for her to become a riding maniac. Now she’s all over the neighborhood, and even got to ride to school when we caught a brief respite from the rain. And Mom and Dad are realizing how much more FUN life is without training wheels. We’ve got all kinds of bike riding plans for this summer. And for his part, Nolan has become so good at balancing on the Strider Bike already that we’re expecting to have him up on a real bike by the end of summer. Yes, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Just getting started

Venturing Out

Mastery

Sometimes I have a hard time knowing what to say about Mylie. This little-getting-bigger-by-the-hour person can infuriate me more than just about anyone on the planet. She’s bossy, indignant, stubborn, whiny and not very introspective. She has horrible listening skills. But there are so many more things about her.

*She’s helpful. If I ask her to run upstairs and grab something for me, she will usually run up and do it immediately… even if I tell her she can wait until she’s done with what she is doing.

*She’s responsible. I can trust her to follow the rules, which let’s me feel good about letting her go ride her bike in the neighborhood or go get the mail for me and other big-girl chores.

*She’s real. She lives 100% on the outside. What you see is what you get. She holds nothing in. Nothing. Ever. Like, no internal monologue. Refreshingly, this means she doesn’t play moody mind games that girls like to play.

*She LOVES to write notes. Every member of our family receives on average about 4 cards, notes or journal pages a day addressed to us. They’re taped to the walls all over our house. They’re on every flat surface we own. And they mostly say the same things over and over with similar pictures. But they’re sweet.

*She is a fantastic dancer. What we love to watch even more than her routines from class are the routines that she makes up. She is constantly choreographing new stuff, and she is amazing at capturing the feeling of each song she chooses. The Tangled Album, Chronicles of Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean are among her current favorites to choreograph.

*She’s an even better reader. The girl probably reads at a 4th grade level. Unfortunately, her reading far outpaces her vocabulary, so even though she can read most any word, she often doesn’t comprehend it’s meaning. I’m sure they’ll even out soon.

With all this good stuff, I feel bad that I often dwell on those negative things. I wonder why she’s always talking back, and why when I try to sit and have a conversation with her about her behavior she glazes over and immediately asks if she can have a snack or watch a movie.  I wonder why at the age of almost six she still fights me about using the bathroom, and occasionally has accidents from waiting too long even when I’ve tried to tell her I know she needs to go. And I wonder why she falls on the floor screaming like she’s dying for what seem to me to be tiny little grievances.

I need to remember, however, that I would feel awfully bad about myself if someone were dwelling on all my negative character traits instead of focusing on my positive ones. It’s so hard as a mom trying to maintain sanity, but I need to give her more” attagirls” and less “what were you thinkings?” And I need to remember that I’ve got a good twenty-four years on her and there’s a lot of learning she has left to do. Even though my Father in Heaven expects me to be perfect even as He is, He doesn’t dwell on it when I fall short. Luckily for me, He picks me gently up and tells me how precious I am. How much more, then, does this sweet, precious and so-grown-up little girl need that from me? Yep, I guess I have a lot of learning left to do too.

Feel free to laugh at either Oliver or Daddy – whichever you find more amusing. There’s nothing quite as sweet as a baby’s first giggles.

She’s also had to learn the hard lesson that will only become more common if she chooses to continue down this dance path. The challenge of time conflicts. This year one of the competitions was Easter Weekend – the same day as all the Easter Egg hunts! She was pretty upset about not getting to make it to any of her favorites, but it was a valuable lesson in prior commitments and being there for your team.

So for your enjoyment and ours… here is Mylie and the Element Part-Time Jazz Company in “White Stripes.”

And then there was the sleeping… Once he got to sleep he would do a pretty darn good job of sleeping for long stretches. Crazy long sometimes. But the going to sleep was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I would nurse and rock and bounce and he just kept fidgeting and flailing and generally staying awake. Sometimes for up to five hours. And in the early morning feedings, he would sometimes do the same thing for hours at a time, not going back to sleep.

About eight weeks in, I discovered the super swaddle. Not any contraption… no, just the technique of straight-jacket swaddling him so that he was so tight he felt totally secure. We had tried swaddling from the beginning, but I ramped it up a bit and became super consistent. That seemed to do the trick. If he’s allowed to wave his hands around (which he will do at full tilt in all waking hours) he will not go to sleep. But if they’re extra secured, we do okay. And in the middle of the night, I figured out that I can’t lay down to nurse him. Nope, got to swaddle, and sit in the chair. If I do that, I can often be back in my cozy bed within about 20 minutes… which beat the heck out of lying in bed with an agitated baby for hours.

Once we figured each other out, life has started to get good. Oh, that and… he found his thumb!! I mean, seriously… the whole self-soothing ability has gone from non-existent to top-notch almost over night. We love thumb suckers in this house! So now, our little high-maintenance man has turned into kind of a cool kid. And when you throw in his killer grin, he just about knocks your socks off. See for yourself…

And HELLO NOLAN! Nice to have you back!

For now, we’re on a roll. We signed Nolan up for a little music class that a friend is teaching out of her house. It’s delightful, and she is doing all kinds of music appreciation with them. Today they had a little performance of the songs they learned. Unfortunately, we got there a little late and Nolan was a little out of sorts because of it (not to mention in desperate need of a haircut). By the end he warmed up, though, and had a good time. And he got a recorder to bring home (Oh joy!) which promptly broke upon us arriving home (Oh darn!).

What a Mug

I have mulled over this post for quite some time now. I’ve vacillated on what to say, how to say it, and whether it should be said at all. And to be honest, I’m not sure I’ve come to any conclusions other than I have to go with it. I should have a record of my feelings here and now. Because here at the Winters’ home, we’re officially heart sick.

About a year and a half ago, in June of 2009, I took my kids in for their well-child check-ups. At the time, their pediatrician noticed they both had heart murmurs. They didn’t seem overly concerned, and we got lost in other conversations, and the topic was dropped. Then, a few weeks later I had to take Mylie back in for another reason. At that time, the doctor mentioned again about her murmur and thought we should get it checked out. I reminded him that at our last appointment, he had been a little more concerned about Nolan’s murmur, so he gave it another listen and requested for me to take them both to a cardiologist, just to have it checked out.

About a month later I took both kids in for Echocardiograms (ECHOs). While Mylie’s murmur was benign, they were concerned about a thickening in Nolan’s heart, and wanted us to come back for a follow-up in about 8 months. The cardiologist seemed pretty relaxed, so I thought it was a fairly insignificant diagnosis.

Fast forward 8 months to March of 2010. We take Nolan back in for another ECHO, and meet with the doctor. He tells us that his initial assumptions had been confirmed and that  Nolan has Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy (HOCM). He explains that a part of his heart muscle, in between the ventricles, has become overly thickened, and is somewhat obstructing the bloodflow between the two chambers, therefore causing the heart murmur. And then he asks if I have any questions.

Questions? I don’t know. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of this disease before. What questions am I supposed to have? I mean, the only thing that comes to mind is, is it serious?

It turns out it is indeed very serious.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is one of about 4 types of Cardiomyopathy. It is the leading cause of sudden death among athletes.  Pediatric Cardiomyopathy occurs in about 12 children out of every million, and unlike other congenital heart conditions, there is no surgical treatment or cure that can repair the damaged heart or the stop the progression of the disease.

There is a vast amount of literature on adult cardiomyopathy but not all of the information is relevant to children diagnosed with the disease. Unfortunately, there has been little research and focus on pediatric cardiomyopathy over the years. Consequently, the causes are not well understood. According to the Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Registry, less than 25% of all patients have an identified cause despite rigorous, standardized evaluation. What is known is that the underlying causes of cardiomyopathy in infants and children may be considerably different from that diagnosed in adolescents and adults with similar symptoms. Pediatric cardiomyopathy is more likely to be due to genetic factors while lifestyle or environmental factors play a greater role in adult cardiomyopathy (Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation).

A diagnosis at a young age usually, but not always, signifies a serious heart condition that requires aggressive treatment. The concern lies in the uncertainty of how the heart muscle will respond with each additional growth spurt. With some older children, the condition may stabilize over time with the aid of certain medications or surgery. In severe cases, small children may experience progressive symptoms quickly leading to heart failure. This presentation contrasts with most diagnosed adults who may only have minor symptoms without serious limitations or major problems for years (Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation).

Luckily, for us, Nolan appears to be very asymptomatic. He does tend to tire more easily than his peers, though not significantly. When he gets worked up or gets sick, he develops a very palpable and very rapid heart beat. And our biggest blessing is that at least we know. So many kids who have this disease do not know about it until it’s too late.

So, I suppose that the reason this post has made it’s way to the blog at this time, is after 18 months, it’s finally sunk in that this is real, and it is not going away. We have recently been in for our 3rd ECHO, and there’s been no change. He still has too much heart, and that’s just not a good thing. Luckily, it hasn’t progressed, but the doctor has decided that it’s severe enough to put him on a medication. The medication (a Beta Blocker) won’t cure anything, but will hopefully manage is heart rate, and slow it down, so that it doesn’t overwork itself. The biggest threat to his life is electrical malfunction.

So with this last visit to the cardiologist, along with the prescription for life-long medication, I’ve finally started the grieving processes. I am grieving for the losses he has no idea are in store for him. Life as we know it has changed. He won’t be able to play competitive sports. He won’t be able to fully participate in gym class, and probably won’t be able to keep up with his peers. He may have to carry around an external defibrillator. There is a high likelihood that at some point in his life he will have to have heart surgery (either a myectomy, or an internal defibrillator or – worst case – a heart transplant). I’m grieving that he’ll be on medication for the rest of his life (and he’s only three). And I’m grieving the loss of my perfectly healthy wonderful little boy.

But on the other hand, I’m celebrating. How lucky we are to have found out now, before it’s too late. How lucky that he is young enough that I can steer him in artistic pursuits, and toward golf, and bowling. How wonderful that he won’t have to “give up” his favorite sport. How lucky that we have the medical technology for the types of surgeries he may need, and for the genetic testing to know if the rest of us are at risk. And how lucky we are for our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can know that he is being cared for by the perfect physician – and one who loves this little boy even more than I do. And in the meantime, I get to love him with everything I’ve got. Because I ♥ This Guy. And THAT is the best blessing.

…turned 8 weeks old on Friday!! Can you believe that?! Eight weeks!! That’s two months!! Seriously not acceptable behavior. So, since I can’t figure out how this is possible, I figure I need to record a little about him because he’s going to be 8 months old before I know it.

• To celebrate his 8 week birthday, Mr. O slept for 12 hours straight. That’s right…not 6 and then 6. Twelve hours without waking up once. It was glorious for his mama.
• He has the BEST smile, two ginormous dimples, and is already laughing. He is even saying “Ga” already and cooing.
• When he is not smiling, he is crying… or screaming. There’s really very little in between for this guy. He has a very LOUD and very SHRILL scream.
• He hates to be set down. Ever. For even one second. He will scream like he’s dying if you do so.
• He also hates to be naked. Ever. So much so that he thinks he’s dying when you try to change his clothes. Therefore, he wears the same sleeper for up to three days in a row as long as it doesn’t get soiled. After all, he IS the neglected third child.
• He is SUPER aware of everything that’s going on in the room. At six weeks old he could track sounds and movements like a three-month old.
• Due to his awareness, he already needs to be entertained. He actually already plays with the toys on the exersaucer by batting them with his fists.
• His arms are constantly waving all over the place with his hands balled up in tight little fists. He is trying desperately to find his thumb.
• Because of this, he has a horrible time self-soothing. When he’s really tired his arms wave even more, causing him to startle himself awake. We’ve found the only sure way to get him to sleep is to swaddle him… very tightly. The only sure way to keep him asleep is to (gasp!) put him on his tummy. Yes, we thumb our noses at the medical establishment. But that’s a post for another day.
• One night it took us FIVE hours to get him to sleep.
• Luckily, we’re starting to figure out his tricks and seem to have turned a corner on the “settling” issues… as long as we’ve got something to swaddle him with and something for him to suck on.
• He is Mylie’s pride and joy. She wants to hold him ALL the time, and the newness still hasn’t warn off. Unfortunately, he’s not a huge fan and will cry after a couple minutes. Luckily, this doesn’t seem to bother her.

This little guy is definitely making his place in our family. We are having a good time getting to know him and are looking forward to the adventures this little ball of fire is sure to send our way!

See that giant plastic tub in the background? The one marked “Duplos”? Well, Nolan received that whole tub full of Duplos (big Legos) for Christmas. Most of them are a set that my brother and I had growing up and includes Duplo Trains and Train Tracks, along with Windmills, Googly Eyes, Slides, and a variety of other types. And not a day has gone by since Christmas that they haven’t been dumped in my living room floor. Because you can’t play with Legos without dumping out the entire bin. It just doesn’t work.

This particular creation was a train station (I think) built by the kids (meaning Mylie, Nolan AND Nick) and using every single piece in our collection. Nick claims it was just a clever way to get them cleaned up off the floor. Mylie wouldn’t let us touch it for days. We finally got it taken apart only after agreeing to photograph it thoroughly.

A view from the top... you'll notice the ticket counter, as well as the man who missed his train and is sleeping on the floor, among other guests... all of whom have names, such as Lollipop & Lime.

From the outside looking in....

As you can tell, the edifice was modled after buildings of the 1960's, complete with peace sign decorations. Peace out, bro.

After Christmas he didn’t let the idea drop, but his friends were all out of town until this week. So, both Mylie & Nolan each got to have one friend over to help in the demolition. Now please understand, this is the Costco kit, out of the box. We did not make anything from scratch. It is stale and hard and probably full of preservatives and any number of disgusting things. And it tastes AWFUL. It’s not even kind of good. It’s truly vial.

Somehow, that doesn’t matter to kids… at least not ours…

The countdown begins... the excitement is palpable...

Demolition begins

Delicious and nutritious.... NOT!

Oh the carnage!!!

We had so much fun destroying and eating the house, we’ve decided to make it an annual tradition. However, with more advanced warning, maybe we’ll make our own gingerbread next year, lest the children’s stomachs turn to cement bricks.

Below are some of his cutest one-month pictures. And to see our recent Family Photo shoot, see Steve Lents Photography.

So, today, another incident happened. Something that started out simple and stupid, like asking to watch a TV Show before school. I told her she could, but then she pushed the envelope and asked for a movie instead. I told her she couldn’t because there wasn’t time before the bus came, and she tried to bargain, saying she’d only watch a little bit of the movie and turn it off when it was time to go. Having allowed this before, I knew it never ended pretty when I said it was time to turn it off, so I declined, telling her it was a TV Show or nothing. Being on a short fuse that she was, she exploded into a fit a whines and cries. So I turned the TV off. She turned it back on. I sent her to her room. She slammed the door. I showed her how unacceptable that was. She kicked the door. I told her if it happened again she would be grounded for a week. Eventually, she retreated from damaging property and just screamed five-year old obscenities at me from her room. I ignored.

The real kicker was when I proceeded to turn on the TV Show for Nolan and made her stay in her room the whole time. Yeah, that was truly vindictive and passive aggressive of me – I don’t deny it.

One of the other things we’ve noticed when trying to deal with this kind of behavior with this particular child is that once things are calmed down and we go to try to talk to her about it, she puts up kind of a wall. It’s not that she refuses to talk about it – it’s more that she’s incapable of the auditory processing it takes to listen to what we have to say and apply it to her behavior. Thus, lessons are not learned, and the behavior continues. So we’ve been slowly implementing a new tactic – note writing.

We’ve found that if we write our feelings down as well as the problems we see with her behavior, it has much more of an impact. We got this idea because she is CONSTANTLY writing notes to her friends and us. So, after she had been cooling off for about 30 minutes, I slipped a note under her door that told her how much I loved her and appreciated all the help she’s been giving me with her brothers, but that having tantrums when I tell her no is unacceptable.

A few minutes later when I called her down for lunch, she smiled sweetly when she handed me this:

Translation: Dear Mommy, I don't like you when you're mean. I still love you. Love, Mylie

The best part was, she was so very proud of herself. She asked if I liked it, and I told her I loved it. In kid speak, it said basically the same thing I had just written to her. And truly I was very proud of her for attempting to sound out all the words for herself. Normally, she gives up on words she doesn’t know and just uses the first letter of the word in it’s place. I think she got the message too, because at least three times today I saw instances where I expected a meltdown that didn’t happen.

I think the pen might turn out to be very mighty in our house, indeed.

(click on the picture for a larger version)

I'm sure it's your turn....

Now that we made the house both Mylie and Nolan are already talking about when they get to break it up and eat it. He wants to invite his friends over to eat it after Christmas. Can you imagine a bunch of 3-year olds eating hard, stale, disgusting gingerbread with hard frosting?

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Getting to the performance wasn’t too bad and I thought being there 30 minutes early would have given us enough time to get a cupcake at Cupcake Jones before the performance. Unfortunately parking was a bit of an issue and Mylie kept complaining she had to walk far. Once we got parked I had to carry and run with her to make it on time. The show was excellent, especially Miss Hannigan. It was hard to tell if Mylie had a good time because she just seemed to be tired the whole time. She also missed out on the cupcakes. Maybe next time.

For Nolan’s date night on Saturday we went with Karli’s aunts and uncles to Gospel Christmas put on by the Oregon Symphony and some local talent. This has been a tradition for her family for some time now but she was unable to come due to just having Oliver. Since Mylie got to see Annie the night before, I thought I’d give Nolan a try to see how he did at a performance. We went right after Mylie’s performance at Zoolights (see part 3) so he was already tired and the show did not start until 7:30 PM and went until about 9:30 PM. It also had a few extra encores. He actually did quite well the first half and even clapped many times but the second half he was very tired. He still stayed quiet and did a good job waiting. Folks around us were quite impressed with him too. He seemed to like the music but probably was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

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The first day Mylie did not have school and I had passes to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville so I took the opportunity to take the 2 kids again. This is the museum where Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose lives. Going during the day on a Monday was the best idea ever because it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. I even did not have to stand in line for the flight simulators where normally I would have to shoo off the kids who would cut in front of me just because I was an adult. This museum is quite cool and they keep adding on to it. They even have a water park opening in the summer of 2011 that has a 747 on top of the building with water slides inside.

It was so cute; Mylie brought a notebook and pen so she could write down things she saw. Items were “sheep”, “large plane”, and “signs”. She also was very excited to drive through the “country” since we had to go through some rural parts to get to McMinnville.

The kids did amazingly well and the hardest part was trying to get them to move on through the museum instead of sitting in the airplane chairs. Throughout the museum they have airplane chairs provided for patrons to watch their videos. They were fascinated with the seat belts and especially the fold-out tray. Nolan got upset with me when I tried helping him open it.

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New water park with a 747

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before his birthday party he got to “open” his present from us. It was not wrapped because it was a Strider bike, which is basically a small bike without pedals. It is great because he can learn more of the balancing than worrying about pedaling. Slowly he seems to be learning it but hopefully the weather here can clear up so he can go at it again.

We decided to have a simple birthday party with everything that has been going on. We rented a gym for about an hour where the kids could play on trampolines and a foam pit. Unfortunately the gym was not set up very well for 3 year olds so the instructor had a hard time controlling them. When trying to get them to follow orders, I kept muttering under my breath, “They are only 3.” I think the kids still had fun. After the gym we went upstairs and had cake and Nolan opened his presents.

These past few weeks it has been amazing to see how much Nolan has grown. He has been a lot of fun and hopefully the terrible threes (I believe 3 is worse than 2) for him will not be the same as they were for Mylie.

Now that we have been home from the hospital for a few weeks things have been going well despite colds going around. Both Mylie and Nolan still enjoy him being in our family and don’t feel neglected if we are holding Oliver instead. Lucky for them they have each other to play with and do so quite well.

Being the third child Oliver sure does not have as many pictures as his predecessors but here are a few:

Oliver's First Picture

Big Sister

Big Brother

Big Brother and Sister

Oliver's First Smile

And what Halloween would be complete without a rabid frog prince?

Our Halloween was a full one, with Trick-or-Treating around the shopping center on Friday afternoon, our Ward Halloween Party (over which I was in charge) on Saturday, and Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood on Sunday. That was more than enough to wear this old pregnant lady plum out.

Yup, those were pretty much the sentiments around our house today… Mylie’s first day of Kindergarten. Kindergarten has been a dream of hers since she was, oh… about 2. Sure, she happily bided her time in Preschool, allowing it to suffice for awhile. But the big dream was always the local public school… the one where her friends go.

Let’s just say, there was no looking back. Not a hint of doubt or worry. In fact, we had to spend a great deal of time convincing her to let us take her to the school on the first day instead of plopping her on the bus. Because, really, she would have rather taken the bus. But since we promised to let her take it home from school, as well as letting her ride it to school every day from now on, she humored us by letting us drive her to school.

I can’t say that I really got overly emotional. After all, it’s not even 3 hours a day. She used to nap for that long. And mom and daughter had definitely reached a point where we were needing that break from each other. It is amazing to watch her handle everything in stride, however. A hug and a kiss and off she went, into the wild blue yonder. And really, I know as a mother I’ll always matter… but to know she is sufficiently prepared to handle this next step without a glance backwards – I’ll wear that as a sign of a job well done.

Quintessential First Day Shot

And another for good measure

What's with all these parents crying?

You can't imagine the search that went into finding just the right backpack

We lucked out and got almost all of her friends in the same class

Can't see it here, but they held hands on the way to class. A.Dorable.

Catching the first glimpse of the rest of their lives

Found the nametag, and now we're set. See ya mom and dad!

And back home again, where little brother wanted in on the action

Nolan, for his part, was still relegated to the Parent-Child swim classes. Can I just tell you how much I despise these? For starters, they are at our local swim center, which is fine for casual swimming, but I have not been too hot on the instruction. (Mylie takes at a private neighborhood pool, and Nolan will next year). And I HATE the set-up. I hate that they have swimming lessons going on at the same time and in the same pool as Water Aerobics, with the loud music and mic’d instructors. And I hate their changing facilities and don’t even get me started on the atrocious parking.

But I was sly as a fox this year, and signed him up for evening classes so that Nick would be available to take him. I may have added in some sob story about not wanting to be in a bathing suit pregnant, but Nick (being the good dad and all around good guy that he is) would have taken him anyway. Nolan had a great time and loved the class, but had a hard time waiting until the very last day to get to go down the water slide. Funny enough, once he got to go, he HATED it. We think it was more about being required to wear the flotation device than the actual slide though. He does not like to be inhibited in any way. So, in the end, we were all glad he got to take the “lessons”, or as I call them… moderated free swim, but I definitely look forward to next year when he can start in at the other pool at take real lessons. (Who knew I was such a snob?)

Floating on her back without human assistance = HUGE step forward

Visualizing the jump

And... JUMP!

Hey Mom! You should try this, the water's great!

I would be smiling, except I've got this annoying vest on...

Yeah, that feels nice.

Waterbug

Telling Mylie all about it

Syncronized Smilers

1. How could I not? Look at that face!
2. He’s a snuggler and he let’s me (on occasion) rock him for no good reason at all.
3. He loves to be carried everywhere. Okay, really, most of the time that annoys me. Especially because I’m carrying another baby around with me all the time. But when I stop and think about it, I do really appreciate it.
4. He gives the best kisses.
5. He is totally independent. I just admire that in a kid. Except for those times when I tell him no and he decides he’s big enough to do it anyway.
6. He’s got a great sense of humor.
7. He absolutely adores his big sister, even while he’s standing his ground with her.
8. He’s got a hugely long attention span for a 2 & 1/2 year old… especially when it comes to trains and cars.
9. He can now pronounce “Mylie” perfectly, but still chooses to call her “Lolly.”
10. He loves to sing. And does it well. And can match pitches. And that just thrills the little music nerd inside me.
11. He gets worked up easily, but calms down just as easily.
12. He now says, “I love you mom.”

Okay, well, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic. I know, right? You never would have expected that from me.

Nevertheless, it did dawn on me recently that I kind of had my shot. I mean, sure, I get to lead and guide and direct for many years to come…. but any tiny amount of control I may have had over any piece of a blank slate is probably gone. Although, as time goes on, I’m realizing that the “blank slate” theory just doesn’t carry much water.

Nope. Mylie was Mylie from the time she was born. She’s a quick learner and a perfectionist. She is horrible at auditory learning but great at tactile. She’s bossy and a born dancer (which makes her perfect material to be a choreographer, which she also loves to do). She has a small speech impediment (still has trouble with those pesky ‘R’s) but she has no idea that she does.

She is social and caring, and absolutely loves to talk. When she can’t talk, she has discovered the new-found joy of note-writing. Both Nick and I receive about a dozen notes a day, and she has been reprimanded in preschool and Sunday School for passing notes. She reads at an exceptionally high level, and even I’m not exactly sure how or when that happened. I know I can’t take credit for it.

She’s a perfectionist and will often get frustrated (and sometimes quit) when she can’t do things right on the first attempt. But she is learning what a difference practicing can make. She has no fear of being in front of crowds, but gets a little shy in front of smaller, intimate groups.

She is 99.99% her father’s daughter…. they are like two peas in a pod. Which, unfortunately, tends to cause them to butt heads on occasion. She is not a girly-girl at all, but does love anything pink. She doesn’t particularly like to play with dolls, but she LOVES to mother Nolan. Fortunately, she does a pretty good job of that most of the time. Despite sibling spats that pop up frequently, the two of them get along wonderfully, and are the best of friends.

I don’t know if I did anything right in these first five years as her mom. I know for sure I’ve done an awful lot of things wrong. But we’re learning and growing together, and even though these formative years are over now, I look forward to the next thirteen even more (and many after that, of course), when I can let her take more of the reigns as I step back into the role of leader and guide. One thing I know for sure, my life wouldn’t be the same without her!

]]> http://wintersteam.org/winterskids/2010/06/14/the-end-of-an-era/feed/ 1 http://wintersteam.org/winterskids/2010/04/22/practice-makes-perfect/ http://wintersteam.org/winterskids/2010/04/22/practice-makes-perfect/#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:12:43 +0000 karli http://wintersteam.org/winterskids/?p=1862 Nick took the kids out for a little practice. Him on the camera, and them on the vehicle of their choosing. Here’s what resulted:

Are you sure about this, dad?

He’s down!

No wait, he’s up!

Race ya!

This is the most fun I’ve ever had… except for that time I got to jump in the mud.

Nothing like a good mouthful of dirt

And the ever famous puddle jumper:

Come on in, the water's fine!

But Nolan recently got an opportunity to top them all. A few weeks ago we got to go to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn. Since winter is insisting on lasting FOREVER, it had been raining for weeks, and we were well aware that there would be mud. And I came prepared. Of course… I don’t think anything quite prepared me for what actually took place.

Upon arrival, he immediately discovered the duck races, leading of course to a total and complete soaking of his jacket.

We had to take a little ride around the farm on the cow train in order to dry off.

But then the real fun begins…

Testing the Waters

Mud Puddle Target Aquired

Ooooh, this is good stuff!

No turning back now...

Mud totally rocks!

Mylie was there too... just a bit more... cautious

This was the best picture pose we could come up with

With all the muck, I thought I needed at least one pretty picture

Lil' Rascals in search of more mud

Wanted to get a nice family shot... had to crop all the mud-stained clothes out of this one.

At this point, the mud has soaked through his pants into his diaper

And we top the adventure off with a nice face plant in a puddle

But wait, check out the lady pointing and laughing at him as he passed

The Walk of Shame back to the car... Mom refused to carry him!

And yes, in case you’re wondering, I did (amazingly) come prepared with a whole new set of clothes. I did not, however, have any rags or towels, and burned through almost a whole container of baby wipes trying to get him to a clean enough state for said clothes. It never fails to amaze me that this funny, mud-loving boy could actually be related to Mylie, who has to get up to wash her hands at least twice during most meals. Funny kids.

And the prize winning shot of the day:

The Gang

When she was born, she couldn’t quite get the thumb into her mouth successfully, so a pacifier sufficed for the short term. But she was merely weeks old when she was able to find the appropriate digit consistently, and after that the pacifiers were generally worthless.

I’ll be honest… we knew we were judged. Friends and family alike would make comments like, “Oh, I would never want my kid to suck her thumb. You can throw away a pacifier, but what do you do with a finger?” And we would merely look at them and smile sweetly. Because the truth is… as an itty bitty baby she was so cute sucking away on her little thumb. PLUS, we had a baby who knew how to self-soothe, and we never had to make midnight trips into the nursery to pop the paci back in. Nope, our kid slept 12 hours by 12 weeks and took two 2-hour naps a day, credited partially to the fact that if it fell out, she could stick it right back in without having to regain complete consciousness. It was lovely.

Really Truly - Thumb Sucking Babies Are Sweet

Buuutttt…. then she grew up. She turned two. Then three. Then four. The dentist started commenting about how we needed to get her to stop. Her teeth started to protrude out a bit. And we started itching for her to quit the habit. It just wasn’t that cute anymore, and it was border-lining on gross.

Thumbsucking at Two... kinda cute

Thumbsucking at Three... Not so cute anymore

For those of you who know us well, you’ll remember some of the difficulties we faced continue to face with potty training. Through all the suggestions we’ve been given and tactics we’ve tried, it continues to be a power struggle (though much better now than it used to be). So, as we’re just barely over that fight, I’ve been in no hurry to start a new one that I was sure would have similarly frustrating outcomes.

Luckily, even though we can’t remove or cut off her thumbs, I did believe I had a secret weapon up my sleeve. Her thumb sucking was almost completely tied to her blankies, and only happened when one was in hand. So over the course of the last couple years I’ve tried to discourage the blankies. First, they were no longer allowed in the car or out of the house. Then, we had her leave them in her bed except when watching movies or TV. I’ve been prepping her for the last couple years that at age 5, the blankies will be banished to bed only. She’s been prepared for that momentous day for quite some time.

To up the ante on quitting the thumb as well, I, being the stupid mother I am who never learns her lesson, decided I would throw a trip to Disneyland in the mix. I know, I know, I can hear the gasps now. But, since I wanted to take her to the Happiest Place on Earth about the time she was five, and because she had specifically said she wasn’t going to quit sucking her thumb until she was five, I figured the timing would work out swimmingly. Plus, after the potty training hell, I figured 5 would turn more into 6 or even later. I was sure I was safe.

Yes, famous last words. Turns out, the kid has more gumption than I knew. A few weeks ago, she was looking at her teeth next to Nolan’s in the mirror. She asked why hers had such a big gap and stuck out and why Nolan’s didn’t. While we’re not for making girls all self-conscious at an early age, Nick was honest with her. He told her it was because she sucked her thumb, and that if she continued to suck her thumb, it would get worse (okay, he was only partially honest… she would have a gap regardless… she and Nolan got COMPLETELY different sets of teeth out of the gene pool). So she, of course, said, “I’m not going to suck my thumb anymore.” And we smiled and nodded and then rolled our eyes at each other. I’m pretty sure, “Yeah right,” was what I muttered under my breath.

Um, yeah. Guess who hasn’t sucked her thumb since that very moment? That’s right, it’s been almost a month with no wet thumbs in sight. The girl up and quit cold turkey. We haven’t gone so far as to video tape her sleeping, and she did admit that one time she woke up in the middle of the night and found herself sucking, but stopped immediately. Still. Cold turkey? Really?

And now, of course, I’m the sucker who has to try to figure out a way to make good on the Disney promise before she starts calling me a liar. But really, couldn’t she have decided to do this a little before we booked the vacation to EUROPE?! How are we supposed to budget in Disneyland for a four year old who all the sudden decided she wanted to grow up, and with straight teeth to boot? Ah well, I guess what we fork over for Disneyland will just come out of the pot we were saving up for braces for her, right? Right.

Move Over Mickey, cuz here comes Mylie!

We’ve been making many more library trips lately, as Mylie is devouring books. We’ve found the 1st-2nd grade readers to be just about perfect, and she has really been enjoying reading those to Nolan. Some of her favorites include the Poppleton books, Amelia Bedelia books and The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth. I’ve also been noticing so many more businesses in our community now, as I’m having their signs being read to me as we drive pass.

And then I found them. Some friends clued me in to The Magic Tree House Series, which is an adventure series of short chapter books in which a brother and sister pair are magically transported through their tree house to various places and time in history. There they learn all about what happens in that time period and have fun adventures. Yeah, it’s awesome. And though I know they’ve been around for awhile and are probably old news to all y’all with older kids, I’m totally loving this new magic world. Because, not only are the books educational, but many of them come with separate educational non-fiction guides about the historical period. AND, I can go online and print a plethora of worksheets and other activities to go along with them. I’m giddy. I’m in love. Oh, and Mylie likes them too. And, though she couldn’t sit down and read them to herself quite yet, once I’ve read them to her, I’ve caught her going back and reading the chapters out loud again. And I’m all the more excited because until she was well over two, we couldn’t get her to sit still to read a book to save our lives. But we may make a bookworm out of her yet!

The Magic Tree House - A Magic New World

P.S. Nick was bummed that no one ever comments on his posts. Have some pity… share the love below.

Both Karli and I have wondered when this day would come for our little boy. Possibly it has already but I saw it quite obviously today. Somehow all boys know how to make anything turn into a gun. Mylie was eating her dinner while Nolan was playing in the living room (he was already done with dinner). All of a sudden I heard “pquew, pquew” (how would you spell it?) coming from both of them and they each had a crayon and were shooting each other. It is amazing how kids learn from their surroundings but I am not sure from where this one came. I don’t even know which one started it first. I tried prodding to find out where they learned it but Mylie did not confess to anything.

Now, I was one of those kids who could turn anything into a gun. I also remember playing toy guns with other boys in our neighborhoods and had quite the fun time. One day we even had a shoot out where we got to choose the toy gun and what part of the body we get shot at. The one who “died” the best got to take his turn and choose the next toy gun and body part. I even made a wooden toy gun in my wood shop class. Imagine the public schools allowing that now.

My point is I am not an overly concerned parent but it’s just another step in our kids’ development. Even though I don’t want to encourage the behavior, I find it fun to see how their imagination works and reminds me of myself as a kid.

Here are the responses:

D – He works at Blue Stations and has a bubble machine and a picture from Chuck E Cheese. (Where do I sign up for THAT job?)

Mylie – He works for people who don’t have any money. He sits down at a computer. (That’s too bad – I was hoping he was working for people WITH money. I like the people who pay us to have money. She must have been paying attention when we were discussing the passage of measures 66 & 67).

C – He eats his lunch. (Always a good thing to do for work. Perhaps a professional taste tester?)

J – [shrug] (Our most common first response)

S – [another shrug]

L – He fixes wood if they broke. Then they put tool things on, then screws them. (Good description! Sounds like she’s been to work with dad before…except…he’s an accountant).

M – He’s done with work. (Aren’t we all, kid, aren’t we all?)

So, yesterday the kids and I were driving by a cemetery when Mylie commented, “That’s where the people died!” Not sure if she fully understood the concept of cemeteries, I corrected her. “Yes, that’s where they put the people who have died.”

We passed the cemetery, but her curiosity did not wane.

“How do the people get in the grass?”

I was concerned about disseminating truth without scaring her, but I simply said, “They dig a hole in the ground, and then they put the people in there,” in the most cheery voice I could muster.

Apparently, I didn’t need to worry about the creep factor because she said, “Maybe when I get bigger… when I’m a teenager girl… I can dig the holes!” Not wanting to discourage her career opportunities, I said, “Oh, it’s called a grave digger. You want to be a grave digger when you grow up?”

“Yeah! I want to be a grave digger!”

“Oh, that’s neat. Why do you want to be a grave digger?”

“Because I like to dig.”

Simple enough. I tried to leave it at that until she asked, “Are grave diggers usually girls?”

The women’s libber in me responded “Well, a lot of times they’re boys, because it can be kind of hard to dig big holes like that, but if it’s what you want to do, you can do anything you want!” Of course, now I feel like I’m encouraging her to dig graves for a living.

The conversation more or less ended there, when she got distracted by reading the street signs to me, but it was a salient enough experience for her to tell her dad that night that she was going to be a grave digger when she grows up. Of course, I know that all kids have ideas about what they want to do that simply disappear over time. Nick, for instance, wanted to be a smoker when he grew up. And I’m not saying that being a grave digger isn’t a respectable and necessary job. All I’m saying is, it’s not exactly what you dream for your little girl. So, hopefully this is one career dream that will rest in peace.

During Nolan’s haircut, he looked like a scary monster.

During Nolan’s haircut, we realized how dark his hair has become. No more little blond baby.

During Nolan’s haircut, Nolan used the comb to check us to make sure the length was suitable.

After Nolan’s haircut, he was just about too cute for words.

Nolan’s newest biggest accomplishment is discovering how to get out of nap times. And not just, “I don’t want to go to sleep so I’ll stay awake in my crib”. Oh no. He wants to get everyone out at nap time.

On Thursday, he came up with this brilliant scheme:

Just before I was about to put him to bed, Mylie comes running into my room as says, “Nolan did something bad.”

“Oh? What?”

“And I did something bad too.”

That’s when I knew I was in trouble. “What did you do?”

“Just come see.”

So, I came into the kitchen to this scene.

I almost lost it, but something stopped me. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “Well, you better get down and play in it and have fun, because you’re going to be cleaning it up. And it WON’T be happening again.”

Did I mention the outfit he’s wearing was actually black when I put it on him that morning?

They had an excellent time pretending it was snowing in the kitchen and bringing all their toys in to join the party. After almost an hour, I finally called the game, and threw them in the tub (which made a sickeningly thick corn starchy water). Naptime was further evaded with an immediate trip to Target, and we are now the proud owners of one of THESE babies on our pantry door:

So, after one napless day, I thought he’d be due for a good nap on Friday. So, to really tire them out, we went for a bike ride. Okay, I was the only one getting tired out since I was riding the bike and they were in the trailer. For a treat, I took them to Taco Bell. Nolan finished his lunch first, and really wanted out of the high chair. I agreed on the condition that he wouldn’t run around or else he would get back in.

It worked. For a minute. And then he decided running up and down the booth seats was too irresistible. I told him to come back; he declined. I counted down from five. When I reached one I went to grab him, causing him to sprint back (along the seat) to his spot. He was just about there when we had one of those slow-motion moments as I watched him trip over Mylie’s leg, and tumble with his face headed right toward the edge of the table. He barely grazed it, but by the time I got to him there was already blood all over the place, and he had filleted a small piece just outside his lip quite nicely.

Ugh. Did I mention I was there on a BIKE?! I tried to get the bleeding to stop with him still screaming. Then, leaving all our trays on the table, I hauled both kids outside, got their helmets on, put them back in the trailer, handed Mylie a napkin and told her to hold it on Nolan’s lip while we rode, unlocked the bike and trailer, attached the trailer back on the bike, and took off to my friend’s house (the poor woman I call any time my kid punctures himself). She was nice enough to take a look at him, stash my bike and trailer in her garage, and then haul both of her own kids into her car where we threw Mylie in the back seat and shoved Nolan on the floor of the front seat so she could drive us back to our house. Once there, we loaded up in our van and headed the 20 minutes to the doctor’s office, where we waited another 30 minutes to be seen. Of course, by the time the doctor saw it, his lip was too swollen to derma-bond back together. We decided against stitches, so…. we left. Neat. Turns out the cut is small enough that stitches would have made almost the same size of scar so….

At least he got himself out of another nap.

I couldn’t get a great shot of the little monster’s lip, but you get the idea.

Seriously, boys are a different breed. After four and a half years of girl, I have not once had to consider stitches, and now in the last 2 months I’ve had to consider it twice with little brother. This kid might make me crazy….

Each week at church, Mylie attends Sunday School classes for kids ages 3-11 (broken up into age groups), called Primary. As a part of the Primary program, kids are asked to give talks on different subjects each week. This week was Mylie’s turn.

As usual, Mom and Dad had the best of intentions about writing out the talk early, giving her lots of time to practice and having her totally prepared. And as usual, at 8:00pm on Saturday night, we remembered about our good intentions, and raced up to the computer to put something together.

Now, it is typical for most four-year-olds to have a parent at the microphone to feed them their talk while they repeat it. So, that’s what we anticipated doing. But when I printed out her talk and handed it to her, she started reading it all by herself. In fact, with the exception of the last six lines, she cold read the whole thing almost perfectly. I helped her sound out the last couple of paragraphs, and after that she was reading those too. So, after about 10 minutes she had the thing down and was excited to get to do it all by herself.

And that’s exactly what she did. Little Miss hopped right up to the microphone this morning in front of all her peers and read her talk all by herself. I stood next to her and pointed out the couple times where she lost her place on the page. Other than that, it was a one-woman show. Yeah, I’ll just say it… mama was proud.

So, for those of you who couldn’t be there this morning, here is Miss Mylie’s talk, as read to the Primary today:

Article of Faith #1 says: We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

I know that God created me.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus love me.

They love all the children of the world.

When Jesus came to the Nephites, he let all of the children come sit on his lap, and touch his hands and feet, and he blessed them. He loved them.

We were not there to touch Jesus or sit on his knee. But we can still know that he is real. We know that he loves us just as much as he loved those little children. Maybe when he comes to earth again we can be there to touch his hands and feet. We can follow his teachings today so we can be ready when he comes again.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Lolly and Neeno are the terms by which these two have come to be known in our house. The nicknames are really not nicknames so much as, it’s how Nolan pronounces their given names. And we think it’s downright cute. These two partners in crime have started to worm their way back into my heart. We had a really long year brief stint recently where, although I loved them very much, I didn’t really like them a whole lot. In fact, there were a lot of days I didn’t much like to be around them at all. It was one tantrum after another, and competitions over who could do the most damage to my ear drums with Mariah Carey-style screaming. And then there’s the whining. I swear, before I had preschoolers I thought, “Well, just don’t give them what they want when they whine and they’ll learn not to do it.” Yeah… I guess that may be true, but I didn’t realize preschoolers are such slow learners!! Even though I have NEVER given in to a whine, it’s still an ingrained tactic. It must be part a part of our genetic makeup as humans.

But that’s all starting to change.

Both kids have discovered a new parental tactic which gets them far more than they ever dreamed possible… politeness! Lolly has taken to randomly telling us thank you for things. “Thank you for making me this yummy dinner, mom,” or “Thank you for playing with me today.” Sometimes she’ll throw in a real zinger: “I had a great time being with you today, Mom.”

Neeno also says thank you for just about everything, including diaper changes.

Me: “Nolan, can I change your diaper?”

Neeno: “Geek ku Mommy.”

Lolly: “Nolan, do you want to be my pet kitty and have me boss you around and lead you around with a leash?”

Neeno: “Geek ku, Lolly.”

Truly, it’s just about the sweetest. thing. ever.

The other heartwarming trend that is appearing is how much these two love each other. Since Lolly was never really baby-crazy like a lot of first-born girls, she didn’t really ever dote on Neeno. So, they were close enough, but nothing special. Lately, it seems, though, that a new relationship is budding. Perhaps it’s stemmed from sharing a room, or perhaps it’s the northwest weather which keeps them locked inside the house for way too many days in the winter. Whatever it is, it’s beautiful.

These two have so much fun playing together. And they like the same things, which is amazing to me for a brother/sister pair. Lolly LOVES to play with Neeno’s trains, and Neeno loves to sing and dance to Lolly’s show tunes. And though their play time is punctuated with regular intervals of screaming and chasing each other down for a toy that one or the other has stolen, they quickly resolve it and move back to their games of make-believe.

So… I’m happy. I was really feeling down for awhile, like I had done something to cause my children to be bratty, ungrateful monsters. Turns out, it’s just another one of those phases that “they” don’t tell you about. It just happened to be a REALLY long phase at our house. But boy am I looking forward to this lovely new chapter!

So, after I aired all my dirty laundry in my last post, I thought I deserved a little reprieve. It turns out, I do (sometimes) have mommy successes and I need to broadcast them as the come.

I’ll be the first to admit, however, I hate making my kids breakfast and lunch. Breakfast I hate, because, well, I highly dislike most breakfast foods. Luckily, my kids don’t and would be perfectly content with cereal every day. I often feel guilty about letting them do that.

In the case of lunch, however, I am the one who would be content with PB & J’s every day. It’s so much easier… such an efficient lunch. And yet my kids grow weary of them. Unfortunately, when I try to get creative, it usually blows up in my face. I read about all kinds of moms who make lunch out of things they can put in muffin tins. My kids just stare at muffin tins and then look at me like I’m nuts for trying to serve them something in such a ridiculous manner.

I’ve tried making “ants on a log,” or a various assortment of things rolled up in a wrap. They occasionally eat quesadillas, but once I got the healthy tortillas, that lost it’s appeal as well.

But today, I succeeded. Mylie has been studying butterflies in preschool this week, and for some reason requested a butterfly lunch on the way home from school today. I took the opportunity and ran with it!

I give you:

The main reason I’m so ecstatic about sharing this lunch was that it was a raging success! Both my kids devoured every last bite, and asked for more. Of course, if I were to offer any of those things to them individually, they’d give me that crazy look again. So, thank you Eric Carle, for inspiring healthy eating in the Winter’s Home.