Sunday, November 23, 2008

Random Notes, Comments & Observations

1. What is this Facebook thing?

I have discovered a new planet called Facebook. I'm calling it a new planet because it feels as if there is a new kind of relationship to be found there than has ever been had before, at least by me. Never in my life have I had the chance to have such frequent contact with people I haven't been in touch with for 15 & 20 years. (Wow. I think I'm aging.) Lots of times it's great! How fun is it to find people you might never have seen again, possibly, in your lifetime? Then again, how does that relationship look? For example, I was dear friends with a guy in high school, with no romantic involvement whatsoever. We are both now married with kids. So is it now weird for me to reminisce a little bit about some favorite memories? Apparently it is, because our frequent notes to one another stopped short after I did that. And never mind the people I actually dated. And what about the people who want to be your "friend" but whom you don't want getting updates about you? I'm finding it to be a little strange.


2. Expect the worst.

I went to see Twilight with Troy and two other couples. I did not have very high expectations. Frankly, I was thinking it was going to be one big fat wad of cheese. Having such low expectations really helped out, because I thought it was really pretty good! Even Troy seemed to enjoy himself. Also, I have to say that it was just a kick in the pants to be in the theater on opening day. The place was packed with young girls who started cheering upon the appearance of Edward, and screamed and applauded for him - it was so funny. And charming. Great energy in movie theaters, I think. Okay, I'll admit it. I can't wait to see it again. Just keepin' it real.


3. My favorite quotes of the (past couple) week(s):

Bitty, after trying a pickled asparagus sample at Costco, in a rather desperate voice:
"I need a really really really really clean glass of milk!"

Bitty, upon waking up with her usual magnificent display of bedhead:
"Mom, it wasn't me! It was the crazy fairies that landed on my head!"

Stomper, upon recieving a birthday gift certificate from Toys R Us and deciding he wanted to get a little something for himself and a little something for his sister:
"Mom, I just want to make my family happy."
(Excuse me. Who are you and what have you done with my son?)


4. The tooth.

Stomper has been notorious for yanking out his own loose teeth in the past, but right now his one remaining front tooth is dangling by a corner. He won't pull it out and won't let anyone touch it. It's pretty funny-looking - it pokes out of his mouth and looks like he has a serious snaggle tooth. It's so funny. He woke me up before six this morning to demonstrate his fabulous tooth-wiggling skills. I can't wait for it to fall out because it's distracting. At the same time, it's a little sad to see those baby teeth go - you know your child will never look the same again, all sweet and cute with those little teeth. No. You get those giant serrated grown-up teeth trying to cram into the tiny spaces in there. Talk about snaggle teeth. Better start the orthodontist savings fund, I guess.




5. I won I won!

My super-knitter friend, aka Windybrook Spinner, held a contest on her website to celebrate her 150th post. I won! Yay for me! I won a beautiful pair of mits (kind of like fingerless gloves) and a cowl. I love them. I'm actually kind of attached to them and wear them everywhere. She's my knitting idol.


6. Trying to be like Windybrook.

I finished Stomper's wallaby sweater and I'm very happy. I learned a lot the first time around and so I avoided making the same mistakes. I made some new ones, but not too bad. I can't wait to start my next big project.



7. Go Utes. 'Nuff said.


I guess that's about all I have to say. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving week!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Messy is Best, I Guess

I'm finding that the things that are best for my kids to do all require a huge amount of clean up on my part. These things include playing outside, especially in the dirt and mud, cooking and working with food in the kitchen, and doing artwork. You have to agree that all three of those activities yield happy creative kids and also a big mess to clean up. As I'm typing this I'm realizing that one of my biggest faults in motherhood is not following up and having the kids help me with the clean up part. Sometimes it just seems easier to do it myself. Okay, I now pledge that I'm going to make them help me clean up from now on. Anyway.

Due to being ill and pregnant I have not been very valiant in getting the kids out of the house the past few weeks and they're starting to go nuts. I've been trying to supplement with a little artwork, but I have to say that those crappy little plastic cases of watercolor paints really bite. They're horrible. Stomper has been begging to use my watercolors - something I haven't done myself for months. Today I relented. We pulled out some old sheets of big paper I had tucked away and I let them loose on my paints. I cringed a bit as the paints got a little abused, but the kids had a ball. I then switched them to some old pastels I had in the back of the art drawer. The result?

Fun art and kids in the tub:

Monday, November 17, 2008

Top Ten

Troy and I were trying to think of the top ten funniest things that made Bitty cry yesterday. It turns out that only a few of them were actually funny - mostly they were just frustrating, irritating and inducers to pulling all your hair out. Don't you ever have one of those days when a child of yours just weeps for the whole day? For example, Bitty and her daddy were having a lovely time at the park when they found a ladybug, which Bitty got to hold for awhile, until it flew away. Ladybugs will do that. Bitty burst into tears and cried all the way home, declaring that she never wanted to go to the park again. She cried about everything from me choosing the wrong dress for her to picking up the wrong cup to...pretty much everything. Lots of tears. I imagine she got a little dehydrated.

The day did have its perks, however. Stomper was in the annual primary program at church. This was an event of some stress for me, partly because I know how shy he gets and sometimes just can't handle attention. This happened last year, when he spent the entire program with his head buried in his arms and trying to crawl under his chair. I had little hope for any participation from him this year as he refused to say his part during any of the practices. And then he horrified me on Saturday afternoon when he informed me he had decided to change his part from: "The prophet asks me to be kind to everyone," to: "The prophet asks me to poop my pants." I should have laughed or something except that I could just imagine him, in a fit of giggles and silliness, actually saying it. So I calmly said, "Stomper, you wouldn't really say that, would you? It isn't very respectful." Then he cried and delcared he never wanted to go to primary again. (My kids have been doing this lately. They declare, multiple times each day, that they are never going to ________ ever again whenever something doesn't go their way. Not sure how to handle that one. Spankings? Yes. Definitely spankings.) But on Sunday morning I just told him that all I wanted was for him to do his best. That did the trick and he was very cute as he sang the songs and said his part, without a single mention of pooping his pants.

Then today, Troy and I stood in the kitchen watching our two children, both of them, playing TOGETHER in the back yard in the cutest happiest little game. Troy said to me that I have messed up his thinking. He now thinks in blog titles, and this one would be called, "Who are you two and what have you done with my children?"

Helping


Long ago my mom bought us kids a record called "Free to Be You and Me." It was full of cute songs and politically correct stories and poems. Just think Boulder, Colorado, in the 70's. Yeah, we were all about macrame, recorder groups, ethnic print smocks and listening to politically correct kids' music. (Explains a lot about me, doesn't it!) One of the songs, written by one Shel Silverstein, goes like this:

Agatha Fry, she made a pie
And Christopher John helped bake it
Christopher John, he mowed the lawn
And Agatha Fry helped rake it

Now, Zachary Zugg took out the rug
And Jennifer Joy helped shake it
Then Jennifer Joy, she made a toy
And Zachary Zugg helped break it

And some kind of help is the kind of help
That helping's all about
And some kind of help is the kind of help
We all can do without.


I must confess that this song played through my mind a time or two on Saturday evening as I was doing some "hurry before the sun goes down" raking in the front yard. What do you say to your darling child who begs you to let her help? Of course, you say yes! I am guessing that it will not be too often in my life when I'm getting a big job done and my daughter is saying, "I'll help! I want to do that part! Let me try that!" It's actually pretty endearing, as well as surprising. She was actually pretty good at grabbing big armfuls of leaves and putting them in the bags, and she was also good at packing down the leaves in the bags to make room for more. She loved hauling the bags over to the bag tower by the driveway. The only trouble was when she was doing any actual raking. Luckily we had a spare rake for her so she wasn't just trying to rake with the same rake I was using, and she only beaned me in the head with it once or twice. And as it turns out she's quite effective at moving leaves with the rake. Just not in the right direction. If I were the leaf-piler, for example, she was the leaf UN-piler. I couldn't believe how quickly she could completely dismantle a mountain of leaves. Impressive, actually. I'd get a few piles going, and as I started bagging one, she'd have the rest of them spread out perfectly evenly over the grass again in no time.

I couldn't be mad, though. I just couldn't. How can you be when all she wants to do is help you? So I guess this was actually the kind of help that helping's all about. It's just a little more time consuming.

(See all those leaves she's running through? Yeah. I had already raked all those. That's okay. True joy is seeing a kid running and jumping into leaves, right?)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Too Tired....

I'm...

Just....

Too....

Tired....

To....

Blog.....

must go to bed.

I'll blog again someday in the future. Maybe.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Whiplash

Sometimes fall goes by so quickly I get whiplash. Of course, I am hoping that it's not actually over, despite the fact that I am sitting at the computer watching the back yard fill up with snow. We've got a pretty good snow storm on our hands over here. Of course, we are in Utah, which means that it will probably be back to 70's next week, right? RIGHT? I can't deny that the snow looks lovely all piled up on the leaves, especially our ginkgo, who's leaves are so bright yellow they look like they're glowing.

Here are some great Halloween photos of the kids:



This is on my inlaws' street, with the cute kids of Troy's older brother Sam. I thought their costumes were just great. Now that we're having a blizzard that warm wonderful Halloween evening feels like it was a really long time ago.