A Child's Prayer

Here's CTP's prayer tonight:

"We're glad that we can all be good. Next time we go to the aquarium please help me to get a Steve Irwin Crocodile Talking Guy. I really want one for my birthday. Amen."

Instantly I heard in my head, "...the Red Rider Range Model Carbine with a Compass in the Stock and a Thing that Tells Time..." We did make a visit to the aquarium yesterday. Our passes are running out next month, and we've put them to good use. Such good use, in fact, that I need a break from the place. We go there a lot because the passes were cheap, it's a great super-hot or super-cold day activity, there's lots to learn, and it takes a long time to get there and back. Unfortunately, the gift shop began to hold much more interest for C than any of the living animals. He still loves touching the rays and running around, but it doesn't last long before he heads for the toys. So I think we're done with the aquarium for a while. Well, I did think that but it looks like I need to make one more trip out there before the end of October.

Phone Call

CTP was so funny yesterday - he got on the phone with his friend, B. My heart kind of welled up just watching his happy little face, feeling so grown-up because he could chat on the phone too. He began by trying to tell B about his snack at school that day, which was spaghetti squash, and B could not figure out what he was saying so I walked into the kitchen to hear C repeatedly shouting, "SPAGHETTI SQUASH! SPAGHETTI SQUASH!" (I'm pretty impressed with his preschool, aren't you?) After that topic C decided he wanted to mention all the new groceries he could see in the pantry. Then the conversation sort of died down so they resorted to roaring at each other as loud as they could through the phone to scare each other, and then bursting into giggles. Pretty funny.

My favorite comment of the day ("Mommy, can I please have more sugar?" was a close runner-up) was, "Hey Mom! My skin is yellow! That means it can really camouflage my boogers!"

Farewell to the Greens

We've been good friends with Tyler and Marjorie Green for a long time. They lived in our neighborhood for a few years and then Marjorie and I miraculously stayed in touch after they moved to Riverton a couple of years ago. She is the friend with whom I went to Washington D.C. I was so proud of us for staying so well in touch because she moved so far away, and I think we're better friends now than when she first moved. I love her! They are leaving this very day to drive back to D.C. where they are moving. I'm so sad. It's always hard to say goodbye to friends, though I have faith that we'll still grow our friendship. On Monday we had a small gathering at the park to have lunch and say goodbye. My friends Eliza and Carrie also came, two other dear friends who have moved away from our neighborhood. It was a fun little reunion. I get such a neat chance to meet so many wonderful people who move into our neighborhood, and it's always hard when they all move away.

Here's a great photo - the four friends who were together at the park on Monday were all expecting babies at the same time in May of 2005, and we had our picture taken together. I don't have a digital copy of it, but I'll try to track down the negative at some point and post it. Yesterday we took a picture of the four of us with our four babies. Someday it will be fun to frame the two pictures side by side.

Stories

I can't believe I've never said anything about this. More than a year ago, on a long drive home from a friend's house (darn you, Becky!) C was getting very antsy and whiny, and I thought the perfect solution would be to tell him a story. I think it was the three pigs. He ate it up. Loved it. Asked for it again and again, until he started asking for new ones. Every single time we got into the car he'd ask for a story. I went through every story I had ever heard. Stories became a reward. Punishments became not telling stories. When I finally ran out of ideas we started making up our own stories. It was pretty fun at first but I have to admit that it didn't take long for my creative juices to run dry. I don't know if I can express to you how many stories I have told. If you heard me now, you would think me a wicked witch. My dear sweet boy says, "Mommy, could you please tell me a story?" What mother wouldn't love to hear that? But I have started to come up with every and any excuse I can find to not have to tell a story. My muscles tense a little when I hear him say that because I dread it so much. I don't know why. I just can't think of any more stories! Especially because we got into a pattern of me requiring C to come up with the characters and plot of each story, as a delay tactic, me hoping we could make it home before he was done deciding. Unfortunately, he usually comes up with the same idea every single time.

The conversation goes like this:

C: Mommy, can you please tell me a story?

M: (after a long tired pause, during which I'm unable to think of a kind way to say NOOOOOOOO!") Who's in our story?

C: gives a list of characters, usually including family members, movie characters and/or several dinosaurs.

M: What's happening in our story?

C then goes on to give the setting of our narrative. He gets into grooves. For a while it was all about The Incredibles playing in our back yard, and then it was Dinotopia, and then it was Jurassic Park III...He'll tell me like 10 different dinosaurs and people who are "On Jurassic Park III" and then I'm supposed to come up with what happens next. I know, I know. I sound so bitter. It really was fun for a long time, but can you imagine trying to tell three or four stories every day for a year? I will admit, sometimes I get a fun idea and get rolling still, but it doesn't happen often any more.

The reason I thought of this whole part of my life that I feel needs to be recorded for future generations was because of a funny comment C made last night. We're driving home from Troy's co-worker's home in Layton. C says, "Mommy, are you done taking a story break?" (Now you know my latest excuse) and Troy gallantly steps in (after only a little pleading from me) and asks C, "Who's in our story?" He replied, "Me, mommy, my friend Sydney, a Spinosaurus, a Celophysis, and a Velociraptor with a broken toenail." Piece of cake, right? I mean, once you've got a Velociraptor with a broken toenail, the story just kind of tells itself. Not.

Park Problems

I took the kids to the park yesterday morning so Troy could have some quiet alone time. I discovered long ago, when I first started taking C to the park as a baby that I have some social anxieties. Park politics have long been a source of mild panic for me, though I have certainly learned to master my feelings a little in the past nearly-five years. For example, when kids bring toys to the park and then leave them unattended, is it okay for your child to touch them? At some parks yes, some no. For some kids yes, some no. Do you speak to the person standing inches away from you while you're both pushing your child in the swings? How long do you attempt to carry on a somewhat awkward conversation? If other kids ask you questions, are you allowed to talk to them? Do you touch another person's child if you believe that child is in danger? Perhaps these types of questions don't bother you, but I, who have always thought of myself as a socially comfortable person, found myself avoiding the park at "peak" hours so I would not be faced with trying to carry on conversations with strangers or have other people watch me parent my child. I know, I probably sound nuts, and I am, but there you are. I cope better now than I used to.

Back to the story. We're at the park. Little R, who is very small for her age, is quite a climber. She loves to climb those metal ladders up to the top of the play equipment and has gotten very good at it. For the most part I stand near her, usually with a hand on her bottom, to spot her should she fall. Now that she has accomplished the feat at least a hundred times, I have to admit I'm getting bored of standing there. So yesterday I was sitting on a rock, near the climbing R, and watching her carefully. Part of me feels like I need to back off a little bit and just let her do her thing. As she got higher and higher on the ladder I started to wonder if maybe I should stand near her after all just in case. Well, before I could do anything, some other kid's grandma stepped in and assisted R to the top of the ladder, over the gap, and onto the platform on top. I felt really stupid - of course she thought I was a crummy mother - you should have seen the look she gave me as she shook her head. She didn't speak English, as far as I could tell, because she spent her entire park visit cooing to her granddaughter and mumbling in what had to be a Slavic language. Feeling sheepish I figured I really should stand a little nearer my daughter. Then on R's next ascent I really was standing RIGHT there, I just didn't have my hands on her. Hey - she's a good climber and I want her to feel independent. And again this grandma grabbed my kid to help her up - obviously very nervous for her safety. Sheish. Hands off, lady! I was so irritated. Did I "use my words" (as I constantly urge my own children) to express my discontent at her lack of confidence in both my and my child? Of course not. My excuse was that I don't think she spoke any English.

This episode was a repeat of a similar incident just a couple of days before at a different park. It's hard to know if someone's child isn't being watched carefully and they're getting into trouble or if the parent is indeed watching and knows their kid is capable of whatever it is they're attempting.

Am I the only one who has park anxiety? Should I spot my 2-year-old on every climb? Do I do it just so other moms/grandmas won't take over, thinking I'm a very neglectful parent? I think I need a drink.

Awwwwww

Last night was scrapbooking night at my house. I had a couple of friends come over to try to get some pages done. The kids were actually pretty cooperative, but when bedtime came Troy was wonderful and took them both back to CTP's room to read. He came out, alone, only a half an hour later. I swear he is so much better at putting the kids to bed than I am. RAP fell asleep with C in his bed as Troy was reading to them - isn't that cute? And she had a two-hour nap yesterday. A nap and she was asleep by 10:00? A miracle, I tell you!

Utah Football for Chicks

The other night when we were having dinner with the Mayfields, Misty told me that she was going to participate in a Utah football women's clinic - for three nights during Sept. and Oct. you go up to the football center and have fun, learn more about football and hang out with your girl friends. I think the point is kind of to get football wives more involved in the game, and enable us to understand it a little better so that we can enjoy it along with our husbands. There are some fun opportunities to see parts of the facility that aren't open to the public and get a good inside look at what goes on there. Troy was so excited when he heard about it - it was the most enthusiastic he's ever been about a girls' night out. I think his second emotion was pure jealousy, but I tried to enjoy it enough for the both of us. On Wednesday evening Misty and two other women, Tami and Megan, picked me up and we went. I really had a great time. We saw some football films and toured the facility, and got to have Coach Whittingham himself teach us a little more about the game. I don't quite get it all yet, but I'm working on it. Whenever we're watching football, Troy looks at the field and sees everyone in their own position doing their own job, and I see a big bunch of guys smashing into each other. I think my goal is to just become less baffled.

A great moment of the evening - hanging out in the locker room. Kinda stinky, I have to admit. But it was fun to see the gear and all the decor that encourages the team. Here's Misty getting excited about quarterback Brian Johnson's stool. Hey, who wouldn't be excited? My most embarassing moment of the evening came while we were in the weight room, where Coach Whit was finishing up his workout, and Tami wanted to take our picture. She told us to pose with the big heavy chains hanging on one of the racks, and I thought they were attached. I picked the thing up (it was so dang heavy!) and leaned on it, and of course it was not attached. It came crashing down, everyone stopped to look at me, including Coach, and I turned bright red, and then Tami snapped the photo. I will not be including that picture in this entry, by the way.

Favorites

Okay, I'm totally behind. I have not been in the mood to blog this week - but there have been so many things I want to remember, so I've got to get them down. I thought I'd mention my favorites from the past week.

Thing 1: favorite CTP moments

CTP has done and said some funny things this week. Troy's favorite was overhearing him playing and saying, "Attention all herbivores! Attention all herbivores!" No idea on the context of that one, but it was pretty funny. My favorite was at the park yesterday - C was swinging and R was climbing a 12-foot ladder to a slide and I was running back and forth between the two of them - a common park dilemma, by the way - and I was explaining to C that I couldn't push him all the time because R needed help too. He said, "Mom, you to do it all." "You want me to do it all, huh?" "Yeah." "I'm trying, honey, I'm trying!" That made the mom next to me laugh. "Aren't you supermom already?" she asked. Also, C has gotten into telling jokes to his friends. "Why did the dinosaur stand on the tiny rock? Because he wanted to get rolling! Get it? Get rolling! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" This joke actually makes some sense, but it's the only one that did. The rest were a bit random, but he sure thought they were funny. And I loved his addition of "get it?"


Thing 2: favorite RAP moments

I couldn't ever get her to say the whole poem on video, but I sure enjoyed R playing "Humpty Dumpty" while leaping off the laundry basket. I also enjoyed and agreed with her declaration this morning, "I'm NOT a good girl, I'm a BAD girl!" I laughed about it until it became a little too true, and now she's sleeping.

Thing 3: Brighton Girl's Camp 10-year reunion

On Friday night the staff of our girls camp from 10 whole years ago got together for a party. Okay, it was actually a little weird at first because so many of us hadn't seen each other for such a long time, and we're all doing such different things. But then we got eating and chatting and of course singing (we did meet at a summer camp, after all) and it was great. I was so impressed that we got almost half of our staff there. It was a really great summer, and I adored the people there, especially my marvelous assistant director, Echo. AD was her title, but let's face it, she was way more capable than I. I wish I had a picture to post but they all turned out horribly.


Thing 4: the weather!

I think I made some dopey comment a couple of weeks ago (still in the middle of August, mind you) that I thought that our high summer heat was gone for the year. Duh. Of course it wasn't - it got up to 98 or something like that on Monday. But then a cold-front came through and we had two days of pouring rain - my friend Becky was so funny. She said, "Huh. I wonder what this strange moisture is, coming from the sky?" It has been such a dry dry summer here, we forgot what rain was like! The past few days have been around the 80 degree mark (ahhhh.....) and though I'm sure we'll get up again, I really do think this time that our upper 90's days are gone for the year. I have a desire to pull out the sweaters and start baking pies already, but I need to just settle down and enjoy wearing shorts without sweating to death for a couple of weeks. Here's C with our neighbor friends enduring the heat last weekend in a makeshift tent. They always want to build forts in the living room, but our couches are starting to show the strain a little.


Thing 5: favorite outing

I have tried to cut my kids' hair by myself ever since C was a baby. Once I gave in and took him someplace, and they did a horrible job, but it was still better than what I do. I think C has only one scar on the back of his ear from a very early attempt, so that's good, right? C's hair fianlly reached the "unpleasant" level this week, and I caved and took the kids to Cookie Cutters - a hair shop specifically for kids. Okay, it's a little pricey, but it was fun! And we even managed to get a cut for R too, though it was tricky. It took the stylist and myself to keep her distracted enough to not freak out. I loved the fun carnival-ride type chairs and the bubbles at every station. They also had DVD players at each station as well, but it didn't really help R and C could have done without it, but they had a good time. There was also a slide, video games, and a balloon for everyone. Not where I'll take the kids once a month, by any means, but I can see a mid-winter outing for haircuts.


Thing 6: favorite dinner

On Sunday afternoon we packed up the car and made the trek to Bountiful for dinner with our friends, the Mayfields, each of whom we adore. I grilled pizzas on the back porch to enjoy with salad and fruit, followed by ice cream and berries. Terrific. I have all these great memories as a child of our family going to another family's house for dinner and an evening of play. All the kids would disappear and play and play and play - I never thought about the evening being about the adults in any way. But as it turns out, they probably wanted to get together for themselves, not us at all! Weird, huh. The best part of the evening was Mike, the leader of the Mayfield clan, describing in detail his vision for the opening scene of the movie we're all hoping for: Twilight! It was very dramatic. He thought it out well and acted it out - complete with soundtrack and sound effects. I was entranced. He should definitely write it up and send it to Stephenie Meyer.

Naughty

This week Troy was getting ready to do the last bit of demo (hopefully) in our construction project, which was tearing down a wall. The wall had been covered in maps and calendars and all sorts of things. We pulled them all down and there was this big empty blank white wall. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity for an art project - I told the kids we were going to be NAUGHTY! and I got out the bucket of markers. Oh yeah. We had so much fun coloring the whole wall. It was quite therapeutic, really, to just scribble our hearts out. The only sad part was that daddy had to tear down our beautiful artwork. By the way, I apologize for the continual nudity - I can not seem to keep my children clothed.

Due

Matthew. May 5th, the day he was born. Today, August 25th, the day he was not born.

It's been an emotional day. Emotions are most welcome, as his part in my life sometimes feels all too distant. I do think of him daily. Hourly still. Most of the time I feel very normal; lighthearted and happy. Sometimes, though, when I ponder Matthew's part in my life I am able to feel the intensity of emotions that takes my breath away. But there is something in me that doesn't want to go there and so suddenly it kind of shuts down and I feel very removed. I have been wanting these months to write a letter to Matthew or a poem about him and I often start to compose it in my head, but then my all-too capable coping mechanism takes over and I can't feel it. I imagine that I will continue working on this for months to come. It will be okay to have my poem ready a year from now.

Troy and I decided to make the day special by having some quiet time with the kids on the back lawn in the evening to talk about Matthew, write him notes and let some balloons go. RAP didn't really participate, but CTP - oh. He is such a beautiful and tender child. He was pretty amped, which I think is normal for a kid facing intense emotions. He was excited and wiggly and would join Troy and me for a while and then run around, then return again. I asked him if he would like to say anything to Matthew and he so sweetly composed a note to him about missing him and wondering what he looked like, about feeling sad that he wasn't here with us. Troy and I wrote our notes and connected them to our balloons, but CTP kept his, saying it was very special and he put it in his most special place - his dinosaur bucket. The three of us lay side by side on a blanket. We each said a wish for Matthew and let our balloons go into the sky. Troy and I clung to each other a little while we watched them sail away.

May I please express our love and gratitude for our dear friends and family? I have been quite tenderly surprised by a little flurry of support we have recieved this week. THANK YOU for not forgetting us. We have gotten calls and cards and I even had a friend show up on our doorstep with an engraved silver heart with Matthew's name on it - it was a gift from a big group of some of the dearest people I know. You can not imagine how absolutely uplifted I feel by knowing that people remember that we should be welcoming a baby home right now. I deeply love you all.

My favorite moments of the day? First, as I was walking along with the kids I was talking to CTP about the significance of today, and that we were going to do something special tonight to remember Matthew. He replied, somewhat reproachfully, "Mom, I always remember Matthew." Me too, honey. Me too. The other was as the kids and I were in the living room. I was sitting on the floor reading while they were playing and chasing each other around. RAP paused for a moment to approach me - I thought she was going to make a grab for my book or express a need of some kind. But she just pushed my arms open to get close to me, snuggle in and nuzzle me for a moment of quiet before scampering off again. How grateful I am that she finds a home-base in me, that she will stop at my door to center herself. It only lasted a second but meant everything to me on this milestone day. Milestone. I don't want to hurry farther and farther away from May 5th, but these big days do come. And they go. And I am another step farther in my overwhelming gratitude for life and the lessons it brings, and the connections it makes.

Though my own poetry seems stuck at the moment, I did read a poem that, though the situation is not exactly ours, expresses so beautifully the experience of Matthew. Here it is.


To Glenda

Small as a jewel box is your little casket,
And you, as my smallest jewel,
Are treasured up to God within it.

I did not give you willingly,
Nor did he snatch you from me.
I rather think the choosing was your own.
Or, perhaps we three had planned together
In some other world,
That you would come and make this hasty call,
Then hurry on,

That you might light the lanterns on the way
So I could find the footing.
But I have forgotten. I think you, too,
Forgot for one brief day -
You tried so hard -
But God remembered;
And then you left me.

I took a comfort in the little clothes
I made so tenderly.
The little petticoat, the dress,
The dainty lace,
The little bonnet
That frames your tiny face.
Your eyes are closed,
And mine are dimmed with tears.
But maybe you can see with better eyes
And know I love you.

All the dreams we dreamed together,
While you were one with me -
These can wait.
I do not count them wasted.
Nor the drops of fresh warm milk
That fall unbidden from my aching breasts,
Like beads of pearl unstrung about your neck,
And caught by your fixed fingers.
These one day
Will be distilled as manna.
This milk that you never tasted will satiate your soul,
And life will be fulfilled.

Go then, my little jewel.
Go back to God.
Tell him I feel no bitterness at all.
With my own hands I offer you.
I have a treasure laid up in heaven.
And where my treasure lies,
My heart will follow.
You are my surety laid up with God.
And I will come to you.
I will, I will.

- Ora Pate Stewart

'Bout Birthday-ed Out

So, Happy Birthday to all you 8/21sters out there. I'm about done with birthdays for a while. Of course, RAP's is the first in a long string of birthdays on my side of the family - three nieces, one nephew, two siblings, and my son. Not to mention Halloween, which leads to Thanksgiving, which leads to....Christmas. I feel like we're almost there already.

We did have a very nice party for RAP. It was at my folk's house, in their fantastic back yard. I really didn't want to have a big stressful party, and it worked out great. Mom had seen some ladybug party supplies in a cataloge, so we had a pinata and ladybug bubbles and candles. I invited my sister and her three daughters and my friend Becky who brought two of her kids. This gaggle of kids played so well together that they just spent the evening romping, swinging, chasing, etc.

RAP was a little overwhelmed by it all, and only opened one gift, much to the disappointment of my neice. But she got into the birthday song singing and blowing out of candles. I felt I had to made a ladybug cake - it worked out okay. Luckily it tasted better than it looked. It was a lovely creamy lemon cake. All you had to do was scrape off all the sprinkles and it was great.



I'm just so grateful for a lovely family - sitting in the warm summer evening, chatting with dear friends and watching kids playing. We were even blessed by the attendance of a deer and two fawns who live in the hollow - they came right down the hillside and munched leaves only 20 feet away from us.

Worth Mentioning

Here are some comments made of late that I think are blogworthy.

1. At RAP's Preslar-side birthday party, on Sunday, she recieved a couple of Fisher-Price "Little People" circus toys, and her cute 5-year-old cousin asked his mommy, "Is she rich in circus?"

2. CTP and Troy were lying on CTP's bed, snuggling a little after some pre-sleep stories. They were looking at the plaster texture on the ceiling, finding shapes as you would do while looking at clouds. CTP's first find, he enthusiastically announced, was a "gorgonopsid" face. When Troy told me this, I thought CTP had made it up, but no, it's actually an Paleozoic (think pre-dinosaur) reptilian/mammalian animal. The next thing he saw was a reticulated python. I would imagine finding bunnies and sailboats in the clouds, but not our boy.

3. Little RAP is in a bad pattern lately - she has been getting up early, thus requiring a nap, thus staying up until midnight, and then waking up again very early. This wouldn't be so bad except that she has been so grouchy she's almost intolerable. For example, on her birthday she woke up crying and saying, "I not a good girl!" Yeah, I know it. She was so crabby that while Troy and I were lying in bed (her crib is next to our bed) Troy asked her if she was the devil, and where was her trident? RAP replied, "It's behind my bed!" Oh - well, maybe we should get that removed.

4. Caution: private parts mentioned here. The other day I invited my friend Emily and her three boys over for some afternoon swimming. I could not convince RAP to put on a suit - she just wouldn't do it. I asked Emily if she would mind a naked little girl running around. Emily didn't mind, but cautioned me that there might be some strange looks from her boys. Indeed, just at that moment, her 3-year-old, who was sitting by us, took one look at RAP and got a very quizzical and studious expression on his face, which sent Emily and me into a burst of laughing. Well, Emily reported later on that her 7-year-old was asking what was wrong with RAP and where her "pee-pee" was. Before she came up with an answer, her 3-year-old told all about it - he had it figured out right away. Using his universal 'him' pronoun, he said totally casually, "Oh, him's pee-pee is in him's bellybutton." It's true, RAP has the most outie bellybutton you'll ever see. I do not, however, think there is a "pee-pee" in there.

Bushed

It's official. I'm exhausted. Have you ever noticed that sometimes the stars allign in just the right way, pointing to one day on which all events will happen? Perhaps you are all just better planners than I am, but some days just seem to be heaped. This particular day only had two major events, but being bookended by two birthday parties is perhaps adding to the feeling. You may remember that I taught RAP a lot of sign language as a babe, and we used the video series "Signing Time" to help out. The "signing time lady, " a.k.a. Rachel Coleman, is much loved at our house, and I found out that she would be performing today at Hogle Zoo. I faithfully put it in our calendar several weeks ago and we've been looking forward to it ever since. In the meantime, my good friend Emily, mother of three beautiful boys, wanted to celebrate the end of summer with some big outing days and invited us along. I love being invited along! This afternoon was the only day and time that worked for us to spend some hours together at Discovery Gateway, the children's museum in the Gateway shopping center. So the day went like this:

1. Hurry and wake up the kids, get dressed, shove food in their faces and drive to the zoo, just in time to wait in line for 40 minutes to see the Signing Time show. (Pictured is the line stretching behind us another 200 or so people. Wow!)
2. Enjoy the show but leave early to get CTP to school on time, stopping along the way for fast food to get something in his tummy. I did, just so you know, bring an apple and a granola bar, both of which were rejected. (I must attempt to appear like a responsible mother.)
3. Drop CTP off at school (only 7 minutes late - pretty good!) and then do errands quickly before RAP fell asleep.
4. Come home, get stuff done as fast as I could for two hours before waking up RAP to go get CTP.
5. Hurry home, stuff more food in my kids' faces, and head off to the museum, where we then spent almost four hours playing and having a total ball.
6. Come home and crash. Of course, RAP had a nap, so she was up until midnight.

Sometimes, after slapping myself, I wonder why I do it. We did manage to carry out the day without too many incidents, but it's really asking so much of my kids to survive (and behave well) on a day like this. When I think about it, though, I wouldn't have skipped any of it. The Signing Time show was really fun - R and C were so thrilled to see Rachel and the kids from the show. And we haven't had so much fun at the children's museum for months. So is it worth it? I think probably, in the long run, the kids will remember the things we got out to see and do, and hopefully won't remember feeling super rushed or exhausted by it. Even showing RAP the pictures this evening from the day's events she was all excited again. So, though I feel pretty wiped out, and I hope to keep our schedule a little more evenly spread, I think it was worth it.

Here's CTP, who found a long-lost friend from his preschool class, last year. I loved watching them running around holding hands.

Birthday, Take I

Tomorrow is RAP's 2nd birthday. She is joined in birthday bliss by many beloved friends - CTP's friend Brandon, L of Seattle, twin daughters of a friend of mine, among others. It's a very popular day to be born, apparently. And the lucky girl gets two parties this year - one thrown by each pair of grandparents. Last night was the Preslar side - and it really was a very fun evening. We were joined at Grandma and Grandpa's by Troy's next older brother Sam, his wife Kathleen and their two boys. RAP took one look at Uncle Sam and pronounced him "very scary." It took Sam most of the evening to win her affections, but by the end he managed it. Sam is so cute with kids - CTP romped with him all night long. Here they are enjoying cloud formations together:

We enjoyed dinner, presents and of course cake and ice cream:



And I didn't mention the pony rides!



I think it was a good warm-up for the next round.

A Sunday to Love

You're not going to believe this, but I'm not being sarcastic. I really had a great Sunday yesterday. I guess I just really enjoyed my kids being themselves. Here is what I loved yesterday:

1. CTP having his turn to say the prayer in primary. I tried to prepare him for it, and Troy and I even attended opening exercises to be there for him. I just loved the little blond crown of his head as he buried his face in his arms on the child-sized pulpit. He did not muster the gumption to actually say the prayer, but he decided he would be okay to give a talk next week. We'll see how that goes.

2. Watching as we took our seats on a lengthy pew for sacrament meeting. I just can't believe that we are able to so thoroughly spread the usual clutter of snacks, crumbs, water bottles, wrappers, books, clothing, toys, and shoes across the entire bench within the first 5 minutes. Luckily we have that handy closing song, otherwise known as "the cleanup song." It doesn't sound very humorous, but once in a while you just have to appreciate what your kids are really capable of in terms of mess.

3. Little RAP getting ready to partake of the sacrament and happily crowing, "I love the snackament!"

4. RAP singing hymns. She held the book carefully open to a page and sang, "Old MacDonald." I wasn't aware that that was in the hymnbook, but according to my daughter it's very uplifting.

Sundays are not an easy day with small children. Yesterday, however, I think I was given the gift of appreciating their little souls. I need that from time to time, you know?

Getting Behind

We've had a busy week. I have to say, I'm so tired at the moment that I'm not sure I'll be very coherent as I write. If I don't get a few things posted, however, the giant week ahead will sweep by and then I'll be swamped.

I. Lizard Sitting:

This is a leopard gecko by the name of Lizzie. Lizzie belongs to the children of my friend Terri Lyn, and we have had the pleasure of her company for an entire week now as TL and her family have been visiting her home town of Seattle. (She might have cruised your house, Durham-friends...) Lizzie is well-mannered, easily held, and most importantly, non-stinky. I don't enjoy grabbing the meal worms she dines upon, but it could be worse. CTP wants a lizard for his upcoming 5th birthday and his excitement over Lizzie's visit was of such a magnitude initially that I was pretty sure I couldn't manage a full-time reptile. He talked of little else and wondered aloud such ponderings as, "What is Lizzie doing now? What about now? What position is she in now? How does she sleep? Can I feed her my sandwich? Does she like me?" in such a barrage that I got very near to going crazy. He's settled down now, and I'm frankly a little fond of Lizzie. Perhaps there is a leopard gecko in our future. We shall see.

II. A Last Burst of Summer:

We seem to have had a last burst of high summer heat this week. I'm hoping that it is the last - the forecast shows low 90's for the next week, and my hunch is that we've seen the last of the upper 90's and 100's. We gave our pool one last hurrah. My nieces were here for a bit, and the youngest, MG, celebrated by doing CTP's hair. It looks wet in this picture, but the shine was the result of the extra coats of hair gel. CTP was very proud of his new coif and demonstrated its pointy-ness to anyone who would listen.

III. Messy = Happy:

I don't think this photo does justice to the amount of ice cream plastering my kids. I had to take a scrub brush to the car seats, where the ice cream was consumed. Perhaps giving my kids ice cream in the car on a 100 degree day was not the best idea, but when you pass a Nielsen's Frozen Custard you just gotta stop.

IV. Dino Display:

Troy indulged in some time on Saturday morning to do something he's wanted to for a long time: find out exactly how too-far we've gone in the dinosaur department. Actually, it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. This is a display of nearly every dinosaur Chase owns. It looks more impressive when they're all crammed into one gigantic plastic storage bin, but I think you get an idea of the magnitude.

My Favorite RAPisms

Let's play a little matching game. Here are some of RAP's vocabulary words, and below them are the translations. Can you match them up?

Painpake
Scumskeen
Hadeyoo
Packpack
Boppin (my personal favorite: "My boppin hurts!")
Let's do ginAgain!

Bottom
Backpack
Pancake
Let's do that again!
Please hold me
Sunscreen

And my favorite quote of the day, "I'm not beautiful, I'm cute!"

Noted.

Sheepish

Well, I have to own up to it. I went out and bought the third book in the Twilight series today...you know, those young-love, vampire/werewolf teen adventure romances. I couldn't help myself. My friend Misty recommended the first two books to me a few months ago, and when I got them I became a non-existent mom for three solid days while I inhaled them. I've been waiting ever since for the third in the series of four to be released, which it was just today. I dropped the kids off at their various appointments (school and playtime with auntie Margaret) and headed for Barnes & Noble, where the book was completely sold out. By 11 a.m. Oh good. I'm not the only pathetic person in the city. What's really funny is that although I thoroughly enjoyed reading these books I pretended that I would never be so crass as to spend my time on something so purely...whatever. As it turns out every woman in the free world is secretly devouring these books. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had about Twilight in the past three months. It's an epidemic. To quote the Simpsons, (Homer referring to all the adults reading children's fantasy novels,) "Poor broken lonely grownups!" I had to laugh as I watched women leaving the bookstore with two and three copies of the books in their arms, dragging crying toddlers behind them, a gleam of anticipation and hunger on their faces. There will be many neglected children today. Luckily there was still a pile of them at the King's English, where I was somewhat horrified as the woman ringing me up exclaimed, "Oh! Don't forget your free tattoos!" Yes, the book comes with a sheet of curli-que tattoos boasting slogans like "I love Edward" on them. (If you don't know who Edward is, you're either a male or ...I don't know, live on another planet or something.) (Or maybe you just have a life.) I replied, "I feel a little silly taking these." The seller assured me that nearly every book she had sold that day was to a woman in at least her 30's. Great. Somehow Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series (and BYU graduate) has hit a nerve and we've all been sucked (no pun intended) into her story. I think that she pretty much put on paper her deepest fantasy, and we're all enjoying the ride. See you in a few days. If you're one of the three people I know who haven't read these books, well, get on it!

Another Tuba!

On Saturday night, Troy and I were sitting comfortably on the couch while RAP played on the floor. CTP was at the back of the house playing on the computer - a "Little Einsteins" game in which his goal was to collect musical instruments or something. We heard him running towards us at a full sprint and just as he came into view through the doorway, he uttered an, "ugh!" as he tripped, flying though the air to land on his stomach, sliding forward several inches from the momentum of the launch. It was rather dramatic. We held our breaths, waiting for the crying to start, but he paused, looked up and, with delight on his face, said, "Another Tuba!" We calmly praised him for his computer-game success. As soon as he pattered back to the computer we both burst out laughing. At least we allowed him his dignity, right?

Today is only 90 degrees instead of 100 - I can't describe how pleasant it is out there. The kids are out in the mud patch once again, and I'm so proud of RAP. She's actually getting in and getting quite dirty. At the moment she's actually standing, in her diaper, in a big bucket of water. Earlier in the summer she wouldn't let herself get dirty. This is a very big step! Of course, this morning she cried for quite a while over her clothing and changed her dress three times. Troy will wonder where on earth she picked up this behavior. Come visit me on a Sunday morning and you'll find out.

Summer Happenings

What a pace! The summer is flying by. I'm so proud of myself for enjoying the summer and filling our days with outings and plans. As a result, time is in warp speed and suddenly CTP starts school next week. I'm in shock. I didn't realize that the school where his Pre-K class is is a year-round school. Frankly, I'm not ready for summer to come to a close just yet. I know we have plenty of heat left, just not the empty care-free days. I know this will probably be a good thing that I'll get used to, but for the moment I'm very sad to be losing my buddy for three hours a day, four days a week.

Anyway, time is rushing so fast that I haven't gotten a chance to keep up with the many events of July...

Event I: Grandpa's 70th Birthday
Grandpa Morris (Troy's dad) had quite the shin-dig in his back yard for his 70th. We brought our inflatable pool, and the grandkids had a ball (see photo of leaping nephew Curtis). There were six kids leaping in and out of that thing for two hours. After dinner I looked in a the water and decided that a swamp had sprung up - I've never seen such filthy water. In my mind filth is a sign of good times. Morris and Carol's neighbors, the Canfields, who I might have to adopt, hauled over a grill and made some seriously great steaks. Morris got an RC airplane from his wife - good job, Carol!

Event II: Pioneer Day

Again, Becky saved the day by providing the holiday activity for us. We enjoyed the afternoon at her house eating good food and watching the annual Butlerville Days Parade - it's a pretty good one. Although, I have to wonder why the police cars and fire engines feel it's a good idea to honk their super loud horns while the street is packed with young children. I also enjoyed being pelted with salt-water taffy - some of those kids on the floats had pretty good arms and pretty good aim. Ouch. I had to laugh as I watched myself push my kids to pick up as much candy as possible out of the gutters where it had landed. Isn't this usually something I would discourage? But there we all were, urging our kids to scoop it up. And eat it.

Event III: Harry Potter

Who am I kidding? It should be event #1, don't you think? I gobbled this book up in two days fearing that someone would read it faster and then spoil the ending for me. It turned out that everyone else I knew took at least a couple more days than I did to finish and I was in agony with no one to discuss it with. I won't say more, but if you'd like to discuss, call me. Sigh. I love that Harry Potter. What I'm happy about is that CTP is starting to listen to me read chapter books. This is a joy to my heart. I have the fondest memories of my mother reading books to us at bedtime or in the car on trips, and I've been waiting my whole life to start reading to my own child. This month we've read Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat and Fantastic Mr. Fox by Rhoad Dahl. It's so fun to hear him be as excited about these stories as I was. We're probably not ready for Harry just yet....

Event IV: Zoo After Dark
Last Monday we had this HUGE day - a trip to the library in the morning, a boisterous lunch with friends at Laird Park, swimming with cousin Smith and Oma...you'd think that would be enough, right? But of course the stars were all aligned perfectly for everything to happen on the same day, and it was the night that I had registered for us to attend a "Zoo After Dark" tour. I guess I thought that it was kind of free wandering around for three hours, but it was actually a specially guided tour. And as luck would have it, only one other family signed up for that night. So there were two darling zoo keepers, Katie and Maggie, who gave us a very personal tour complete with some animal interaction. I think three hours was perhaps a bit long for us (luckily RAP had taken a nap - 20 minutes seem to be enough to keep her going until midnight - no kidding) but we really enjoyed the cool quiet zoo.

This picture is hard to see - it's the cougar looking very longingly at Chase. I think I might have seen it lick its lips, even...

Event(s) V: Hooray for Friends!

Hooray for our friend Steve, who delivered his own baby on their bathroom floor last week - and hooray for his wife Mary who had to be the laboring deliveree... Hooray for my friend Kathryn Hart, cousin and dear friend from my mission who I visited today after a couple years. I love those friends that you can see only periodically and yet you are so yourself with them, and always have been, that it makes no difference how often you see them. Our boys played so well - they just took off and heartily played. The didn't surface for hours. Success! Our girls, who are so similar in temperament it's almost scary, also did pretty well. They even said their pouty little "no!"s in exactly the same way, sometimes at exactly the same time. And hooray for the Durhams who came to see me for an hour even though their time was tight as they were visiting in SLC. Thanks friends. I could use a little more time with you - only a month or so - would that be okay?