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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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?

[Show as slideshow]

 

 

 

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.

[Show as slideshow]

 

 

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

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.

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!