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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

My Little Boy is Growing Up!

Yesterday I registered Britton for kindergarten. I can't believe it's already that time. It goes by way too fast. Although, I'm excited for him to be in school and be able to learn and make friends and all of that good stuff, I'm a bit apprehensive and sad too. I know it's still 6 months away, but filling out all the forms and answering all the questions about him just made it all the more real. I know that intellectually he's definitely more than ready for this step, but emotionally, I'm not so sure. The past 2 months or so he has been VERY clingy to me. And it's not the normal clingy that kids go through. He doesn't like to leave my side AT ALL for anything, even playing with his best friends or being at his grandparents house. I wish I knew what was going on with him so I could somehow help fix it. Hopefully within the next 6 months it will work its way out and he'll be ready and excited for school.
Now I'll switch gears and brag about Britton and how smart he is. He is always amazing me. He has always been really good with numbers and interested in math without me pushing it at all. But, lately he has shown me numerous times just how math-minded he is. The past 6 months or so he has randomly been doing multiplication. He'll say to me, "Mom, four 2's are 8" or different things like that. I've never tried to teach him anything like that so he's just thinking about it on his own.
A few days ago, while Haley was sleeping, I got out an addition worksheet to have him do. I taught him what the + symbol meant and I knew he could count them out on his fingers and do them all. After a few minutes I looked over and he wasn't counting them out anymore, he was just filling in the answers and they were all right. I watched him as he did 4+2=6 in his head. I asked him how he knew that without counting and he said, "Well if 5+1 is 6 then 4+2 has to be 6". I was amazed that he's already thinking like that.
Then, Monday, on the way to karate, as we were driving, he said (out of nowhere), "Mom, three 3's plus 1 is the same thing as two 5's". I was blown away. I can't believe how much he is comprehending about numbers and how they relate to each other. Now I'm just worried that in school if he gets problems like 5+1 he'll put something like "1 less than 7" or something.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Good Deeds, Scary Sicknesses, and Yellow Belts

Today was a busy day.

The morning started off great and I was able to do 2 good deeds before even 7:00. As we were out on our morning walk, there was a car stuck on the side of the road that couldn't make it up the hill by my parent's house. So, Cieanna and I pushed the car out. The man still had trouble turning around, he was sliding all over the place. He tried every possible way to turn around and just ended up backing up the whole way down the hill. Kind of scary. I felt so bad for him. He was driving a BMW and I know how bad they are in the snow because we used to have one. They have rear-wheel drive and it makes it so hard in the snow. I hope he made it wherever he needed to go okay.
When I got home from my walk, I grabbed my shovel to start shoveling my walks. I did my neighbors walks too because he ALWAYS does ours. I was so happy to be out and about before him so that I could surprise him by doing them. Then I did our other neighbors walks because he is not doing so well right now. He's been in and out of the hospital lately.
I was happy to be up so early and be able to start my day in such a good way.

Sunday night, Haley fell asleep really early, but I didn't think much of it because she didn't really take a nap since our church is from 1 to 4. But, about 10:00 she woke up and complained about her cheek hurting and then she threw up. I just thought her cheek was asleep or something, so I gave her a bath and then put her back to bed. She woke up several times in the night and ended up sleeping with us after a while. In the morning, she seemed to be feeling fine, but then, as I was holding her, she threw up again. Then later on, she complained about her cheek again. I realized it probably wasn't that her cheek was falling asleep, so I tried to get a look at it. She wouldn't even let me touch it because it hurt so much. Right next to her ear was a large bulge under neath her skin. I didn't see it before because of her hair. So, I immediately called the doctor to get her an appointment. He couldn't see her for a few hours, so I started looking things up on the internet to see what it could possibly be. The doctor diagnosed her as having infected salivary glands and an ear infection on that side. So, we got some antibiotics and hopefully she'll be back to normal within a week or so. (Except that she doesn't like the medicine and refuses to take it--how do you force a 2 year old to take medicine? Even if I get it in her mouth, she just spits it out.) Anyway, I'm really glad that it wasn't anything more serious.

In the afternoon, I took Britton to karate. Last Friday, he had his first belt review and he got his yellow belt. So, it was the first day of karate for him as a yellow belt. He is so proud, it's really cute. All weekend he would randomly mention something about his new belt. Last night, he was teaching Haley karate. He let her wear his white belt and he wore his yellow one. He made her say, "Yes, sir", "Attention", "Courtesy" and all the other things that they have to see. It was really cute to watch them. She's seen him in class enough times that she can do all the punches and kicks as well. I forgot to take my camera to the belt review, but I'll get a picture of Britton in his yellow belt sometime soon.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Kids at Church

Why is it that kids always act their worst at church? The place where you would hope they would be on their best behavior.

Today we were about half an hour late and I was alone with my two kids because Jason threw up this morning. Fun. We walked in the back doors in the back of the gym and across the floor to the last row of folding chairs. Britton insisted on walking as loud as possible so that we couldn't be discreet. The last row was full, so we sat on the second to last row. I only had one pen and one notebook so Britton and Haley started out fighting over that. Finally I got them to take turns, then Haley had to go to the bathroom. While walking back in from the bathroom, one of Britton's shoes fell off, so he decided to sit down to take the other one off. I left him there to get his shoes while I carried Haley back to our seats. When I turned around, expecting to see Britton following us, instead I saw him in the back of the gym spinning around. I walked back there calmly and he started running, trying to get onto the stage. I carried him back to our seats and held him because I didn't dare let him go. With about 5 minutes left of Sacrament Meeting, he started saying how hungry he was and how he wanted to go home to eat. Of course he didn't say it in a whisper or anything. Instead everyone around us could hear him. And then he started saying things like, "Mom, you never let me eat. I'm soooo hungry. Why don't you ever give me food?" and other over-dramatic things like that. Luckily most people around us know us quite well and know that I'm not starving my children. Most of them just started laughing. Then, the closing hymn started so I was trying to just sing and ignore him. So, he started singing along with the tune of the hymn, but he sang, "I'm so hungry, I want to go home". That one even got me laughing along with everyone else around us. Needless to say, I was very glad when sacrament meeting was over and I could just take them to their classes. I don't even want to begin to relate how hard it was to get them both to go to class though. After about 30 minutes going back and forth from nursery to Primary, I finally got to go into my Sunday school class.

I hate going to church without Jason.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Random Pet Peeves

There are certain things that just get under my skin and I really can't help it.
One of those things is really bad grammar.
I hate it when adults use bad grammar to speak to their kids as if that's some sort of baby talk or something (I don't really like baby talk much either, but that's another story). I realize that kids are going to make some grammatical mistakes as they are learning to speak and that's okay, even sometimes cute, especially when it's your own kids. But, there comes a time when I think kids are old enough to speak somewhat correctly.
For example, the kids that live in our basement both make the same grammatical errors and I'm sure it's probably not their faults. But, I still can't get past it. They both use "her" instead of "she" and it just makes my skin crawl. For example, they say things like "Her's asleep", "No, her's not", "Her wants to do it", etc. And it's not just once in a while, I don't think I've ever heard them say "she" at all. And they are 6 and 3--not really little kids anymore. I think I could probably get past it, except that they are at my house playing almost everyday. And the other day, Haley started using "her" in the same way they do and she never once did that before they lived downstairs. When it starts rubbing off on my kids, that bothers me even more. I wish it didn't bug me so much, but I honestly think it makes me like them less which just makes me sound so mean and shallow. I guess I'll have to work on that one.

New Calling

About a month ago, I got called as the Assistant Camp Director for the Young Women. I am so excited. I love camp and I love the Young Women, so there really isn't a better calling for me. We haven't had to do much of anything yet, but soon we'll know what the theme for camp is and we can start planning.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

"I'm Mean At You!"

Haley has the funniest mad face that I've ever seen. She gets her lips all pursed and glares. It's hard to take her seriously when she's just so cute. Then, when she's really mad, she's started saying, "I'm mean at you!" Again, it's hard not to just start laughing.

This morning I tried to get her to do her mean face so that I could take some pictures, but it's nothing like the real thing. I'll post them anyway, just so you get the idea. There's one happy one too at the end.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Nice Day





We have been having such nice weather compared to the cold temperatures of a few weeks ago. Almost all the snow is melting and now when we get precipitation, it's rain not snow. So, it's definitely a lot warmer.

Yesterday we walked over to the park and my kids were so happy. It's been quite a while since they have been to the park. It's so nice when they can just get out and play.

Preschool Fun

Two weeks ago, it was "S" week for preschool. We went outside and made snow letters and colored them with food coloring. The kids had so much fun. Britton made a B in the snow and Michael made an M. It added a little variety to the typical things you do in the snow like building snowmen and having snowball fights.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Gardening

Yesterday I went to my first gardening class. It got me really excited for planting. All we talked about was preparing the soil, but even now that part sounds fun now that I'm sure I know what I'm doing. He also talked about some different crops, but just briefly and he's going to go through each one individually and the different types that do the best here. I got really excited to have raspberries and strawberries and melons along with the tomatoes, corn, squash, etc.
He also talked about the benefits of having a garden and how it's really important to make it a family affair and teach your kids how to work, especially if they are young. They love helping and being outside. It's a fun way to do something worthwhile all together.
So, I'm already super excited to get started. It won't be for a while, but it's warm enough now and the snow has just about melted that we can still play outside and start planning out where we want everything.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Tough Week

This has been a really tough week for me and my family. I'm exhausted and sad, but also very grateful. I have been able to reflect a lot and have been reminded of how blessed I am.

Here are some of the things that I am particularly grateful for right now:

*I am so lucky to have two beautiful, wonderful kids that I love so much. They are my greatest gift and bring me so much joy everyday. I don't ever want to take them for granted.

*My husband is the greatest and always tries to take care of me. He shares my pain and knows all the right things to do and say.

*My family will do anything for me--day or night. And they've had to this week--day and night (the middle of the night). And they are happy to do it. Thank you! I love them all so much.

*I have been blessed with great friends--both near and far. I appreciate all that they do for me--the dinners, babysitting, cards, emails, phone calls, talks, distractions, etc. It all means so much to me.

*I'm grateful for the Spirit that has been with me to strengthen and comfort and calm and teach me. I can be at peace because of it.

Girly Girl

Haley is such a girly girl! I love to watch her and listen to her and see all the things that she loves. I'm surprised by what a girly girl she is because I really am not. But, that makes me like it even more because it's just so her. She loves pink and purple and babies and wearing dresses and tights and high heels.
The latest girly thing that she does is when we go to the basketball games. She ooohs and aaahs and gets so excited whenever she sees the cheerleaders. It's so cute. Even when we're watching the games on TV. As soon as they flash the camera at the cheerleaders, she gets so excited. I think she thinks thats what we're watching for. She does the "Ra Ra Ra, Go Cougars" thing perfectly. And now she has started pretending like she's a cheerleader. I have to call her "cheerleader" or she won't respond. And tonight she made me do all sorts of lifts while she was doing cheers. It was so cute and fun.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Underwear

Haley has the "Days of the Week" underwear (something I never had growing up). Well, I don't ever really pay attention and I just grab out whatever underwear each day. The other day, however, (Tuesday) I noticed that I grabbed the "Tuesday" ones. I was so excited because she could say, "I've got on my Tuesday panties, but I guess you know that too!" (My favorite line from Big Business) It made me happy all day just thinking about it.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Animal Skin

We subscribe to the National Geographic Kids magazine and my kids love it. The last edition had a lot of pictures of different animal skin on the back and you had to try to guess what it was. Haley brought it over to me for me to watch her do it. I was pretty surprised that she could get everyone--except when she got to the cheetah she said "cheeto". I guess she's much more familiar with Cheetos than cheetahs. It was really funny.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Weekend of Sports

This weekend was very fun-filled--mostly with sporting events. Friday night, Jason and I went to the BYU Men's Volleyball game. It was so much fun and reminded of the good old college days when we used to go to every game to watch our volleyball boyfriends.
BYU is doing great this year. They are ranked #1 and they were playing the #2 ranked UC Irvine. We went an hour and a half early and didn't even get very good seats. There were hundreds of people in line already when we arrived. And it sold out before the game even started. It was so much fun. BYU played great and swept them. They have swept every single team this year except for one at the very beginning of the year.
Saturday, we went as a family to the BYU basketball game. They played UNLV who was ranked #25 in the nation. BYU started off strong and took the lead and UNLV never could recover. Mike Rose hit 8 3-pointers and the whole team hit 15 3-pointers. So, it made for a very exciting game to watch. BYU ended up winning by 27 points. I was expecting a really tight game, possibly even a loss for BYU, so it was great.
Then, today after church, we went to the Kemp's house for a Superbowl party. They have a projector, so we got to watch it on the big screen. I didn't care too much about the game this year, so I just kicked it upstairs with girls and the kids. There was a Monk marathon going on, so that's what we watched. I've only seen Monk once or twice but it was fun watching it and just hanging out and talking.