Thanks for the scooter!

Natalie got a princess scooter for her birthday from my parents. She loves it. She has not been very possessive about anything up till now. But nobody better touch her scooter. "Dat's MINES!" "Dat's Natowee's birthday scooter." She has been scooting around the house and today we went outside and she took it for a ride.We went outside after her nap--hence, the nap hair.

And you HAVE to see her in action!

I also had to include these pictures of Andrew. He has been giving me a run for my money lately, but I caught him outside playing so nicely. He was in another world with Henry the train and the dirt he was making into tracks. He actually recruited me to shovel and dump dirt for him so we got some good time together. Yea!

I wonder what he thinks it means

Tonight during Family Home Evening I told Andrew and Natalie that President Hinckley had died. We talked about him and we talked about President Monson. Andrew gave an unusually long and detailed prayer at the end and in it he said, "Bwess President Hinckwey dat he died and bless dat Mommy will die too..."

Hmmm....I think we'll need to explain what "dying" means...

No prizes to this mom!

Well, I'm still not in the running for mother-of-the-year and this morning confirmed it. It is just crazy getting my three little kids in the car to go anywhere. First there is the getting dressed battle. Either I am dressing them for the first time, or I got them dressed several hours ago, but they have managed to take off shoes, socks, pants or all of the above and so I have to re-dress them. Andrew supposedly can get himself dressed, but really he is the hardest one. Natalie runs away, but when I catch her she is pretty compliant. Sometimes she puts up a fight on what shoes to wear, but I don't always care about that anyway. And she does insist on doing it herself, which sometimes results in a few tears, but she also is pretty good at getting her shoes on herself. Andrew can't break away from whatever he is doing long enough to get his shirt on, or he seems to forget mid-walk that he was heading over to the clothes to put them on and starts playing with whatever toy he has on hand. James is usually just as sweet as can be, but he seems to need a new diaper about ever hour or so and has required a complete outfit change a time or two right when we're heading out the door.

So, by the time we get out to the car I'm feeling frazzled and usually a little or a lot frustrated. This morning was no different. Usually I manage to get the kids in the car, then I go back inside for my purse, and anything else I need to get. Today we were trying to get Andrew to a sports class by 9am and we were pushing it to get there on time. I finally managed to get the kids buckled and I ran back into the house for my purse and hooter hider (love that thing!) I ran back out to the car and started backing out of the garage at breakneck speed when Natalie pipes up, "a get baby James!!" Yep. I had forgotten the baby...in the garage.

My usual method is to put James (in his carseat) down on the garage floor right when I walk into the garage, get the older two in the car and then come back and put James in the car. Well today I got the older two in, went back inside and then got in the car without putting poor James in. I was that frazzled. The good news is he was never in harms' way. He was on the step up in FRONT of the car. I can't even imagine if I had put him down to the side of the car. I stopped the car, got out and there was James still waiting peacefully in his carseat by the door.

Thanks to Natalie for saving the day. I am so glad she is so observant!!

A Beloved Prophet

President Hinckley died today. I remember vividly where I was when I heard that President Hunter had died. I was in the MTC, waiting for a visa so I could go to Venezuela. I really felt a need to know that President Hinckley was a prophet of God. I had seen him as a councilor for my entire life, and it was at first hard to imagine him as the prophet. But I had a powerful confirmation that President Hinckley was a prophet, and that has been reinforced over and over again.

What an amazing man and prophet. He had a beautiful way with words without being verbose and always getting right to the heart of the issue. He was so funny. The most recent example being his “knighting” President Eyring with his cane at General Conference. He was the perfect combination of realism and optimism. He has inspired and uplifted me over and over again through his words and through his example. I have marveled how a 97-year-old could keep up with the demands of his calling. His faith and optimism was infectious. And what vision.

I am so grateful that I have been able to hear him speak—in General Conferences, at temple dedications (one of them in Venezuela!), at BYU devotionals; that I have been able to watch him work miracles with temple construction; that I have been able to see him wave (he has a wave that is unique to him) and to see thousands wave back.

One of my favorite quotes by him is:

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey, filled with delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas, and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride" Gordon B. Hinckley

As was his way, this quote embraces the realities of life, but still makes you feel hopeful. I will always be grateful to him for helping me to see that "hard" does not mean "bad".

I will miss him.

The Celebration

Just a few pictures of celebrating Natalie's 2nd birthday. We started off the celebration yesterday by going to the mall (yes, the mall) and riding the carousel. We're lucky the kids are so easily entertained because they were in heaven. I thought Andrew was going to burst waiting in line to get on. He was jumping up and down, shaking his hands in front of him, grinning from ear to ear. And then we really splurged and got ice cream!

I took Andrew out to Wal Mart while Andrew was napping to get a few things for today. I wanted him to have a chance to pick a gift for her also. I pictured him getting caught up in the excitement of giving and pictured her unwrapping the gift and both of them embracing...not exactly how it was. He did pick out a great gift. A Little People zoo train. Natalie has been saying she wanted a train for her birthday. This was the perfect train and who better to give it to her than Andrew. But Andrew was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that the train was for Natalie and not for him. When we got home I told him that the gift was going to be a surprise for Natalie tomorrow, so to put it in the laundry room on the way inside. Instead, he raced inside, showed Natalie the gift (he really was excited) and asked her if he could have it. We managed to wait and wrap the gift and Natalie opened it today, and immediately Andrew asked her again if he could have it.

So this morning we got Natalie up by singing Happy Birthday. She loved the balloons and streamers and the special princess cereal we got her for breakfast. And she especially loved the princess scooter she got from my parents. She was riding it all around the house before church.During church, Natalie proved that she really is two. During the Sacrament she was climbing on the chair in front of us, so I got her and told her that we don't do that during the Sacrament. She crouched on the floor and said emphatically, "Don't say THAT!" and the THAT was a scream. A long, drawn-out scream. And then she repeated it, in case I didn't hear it the first time! Did I mention it was during the Sacrament?

After church and nap, John's parents came over for lunch, cake and presents. Natalie got to eat on the You Are Special plate. ( I love that plate!) John's parents gave Natalie the perfect gifts: fun dress ups, tiara, shoes, a little tote to carry. She immediately put the tiara and shoes on and was carrying the tote around for a while. Too cute.Andrew wanted to open all of the gifts and was a constant in the background asking over and over, "Can I open this Natalie?" or "I will open this for you Natalie." I think it is a hard thing to ask and expect a three year old to just observe presents being opened. There was the expected fight over the train Andrew had given to Natalie, but it was all worked out quickly.I made a princess cake and Natalie managed to blow out both candles, one at a time.

And Natalie Two

Happy Birthday to my little Natalie! She turned two today. I cannot adequately express how much I love this little one. She is a heart-warmer; a born charmer. She was born knowing how to connect with others and at a very early age, too early it seemed to know how to do this, she would direct her big, beautiful blue eyes at you until you looked at her, she would hold the gaze long enough after you made eye contact to let you know that she was directing this at you, and then she would flash a huge grin at you. There was no doubt that she thought you were special and she wanted to make sure you knew it. People have been drawn to her during her two little years because she singled them out for her individual attention and love. I have learned much watching her.

Natalie has been a complete delight. Even her arrival was easy. She came a week early! (who couldn't love that--especially after my first came a week late and only after being induced) Not only that, I got to the hospital and she was born within 2 hours. She came so fast, I almost didn't get into a delivery room before she made her appearance. And then she was a fabulous baby. Content, happy, slept through the night by 4 weeks, took great naps... No wonder we had another one so soon.She is bright, curious, funny, loyal, determined, persistent, observant, inclusive, game for anything, an animal-lover, so independent but still needing lots of kisses. And did I mention very strong-willed? All of these qualities are already so visible and she has only been here for two years! It's amazing how fast you can see these little kids' personalities. You could see many of these qualities within the first 6 months!

And what a talker. Natalie started talking early. In fact, it's hard to remember that she is as young as she is because she has been communicating for the last year. And the things she says! Lately, I wish I could just carry a tape recorder around and capture her voice, the inflections of the words, the way she structures her sentences ("I want the orange one, bawoon" "I weawy hungwy, mom a ice cweam"), the emotion. I don't want to forget what she sounds like right now. She has such a little voice (except when she is screaming, which happens more and more these days!) and it has almost an elfish quality to it. It makes everything she says sound cute. Just listening to her talk, I want to grab her and kiss her because she is so dang cute! Almost daily she is adding words to her vocabulary, changing her sentence structures so they are more correct. But I really don't want her to move on yet. I want her to keep talking this way for a little longer so I can soak it all in and hopefully get more on tape (you have got to hear how she says, "so cute!")
I love having a girl. And Natalie came girlie. When I want to dress her up in a pretty dress, pretty bows, or fun shoes, she is 100 percent on board. In fact all bows are "petty bows" to Natalie. "Where my petty bow, mom?" She sits there and lets me labor with her hair, trying to catch all the loose strands into pig tails. She does say, "Owie, at hurts me!" from time to time, but she still just sits there and lets me try over and over if I need to because she loves the result.
As Natalie has gotten older and has edged closer to this birthday, she has also become more defiant, more into everything she shouldn't be, more dramatic. But she is also becoming more loving, funnier every day, and even sweeter than before.

I just love this little girl and can't believe that she is mine!

Safety and Freedom

Tuesday night we had a Relief Society board appreciation dinner. We had soup and bread bowls for dinner and afterwards there was a bag full of the bread-bowl innards that was being offered to the first taker. I took it and on Wednesday I loaded the kids and a bag full of bread up in the car and we went to feed the ducks. Andrew and Natalie were so excited. And I'm sure James would have been too if he realized it was his first time feeding the ducks! On the way over to the park, Natalie bit a hole through the bag of bread she had insisted on carrying and when I turned around to look at her during the drive, she was wrestling some bread out of the newly-created hole with her mouth. We got to the park and the kids took off running. It was once again an absolutely beautiful day. Just enough crispness in the air to justify long sleeves, but not enough to warrant a coat. I love those days, where you can feel the sun warming your arms through your clothes and at the same time feel the coolness on your face. Perfect.

We got to the ducks and the kids were a little nervous. In fact, maybe I was a little nervous too--there were A LOT of ducks! So they hung back a little while I started to throw bread to the ducks, but they didn't hang back for long. Soon they were throwing big chunks of bread into the water (the idea of breaking off small pieces of bread was lost on them).
And I was throwing right along with them. There is something great about throwing bread to ducks. It feels good to throw something in the water and I really don't get tired of watching the ducks all race for the same piece of bread and fight over it. And I have such great memories of feeding the ducks when I was little.We soon ran out of bread (it goes fast when you throw big chunks) and headed for a playground. The park we went to is a big park. There are hills, waterfalls, ponds/lakes, and large grass areas. The kids were loving the freedom of all the space and loving the idea of exploring it all. I was not loving the idea of them exploring it all because I was concerned about the safety of my little kids. I was worried that if I couldn't see them, somebody could snatch them up in a minute. I started thinking about safety and freedom.

When I was growing up, I and the rest of the kids in my neighborhood lived outside. We would meet in the street on our bikes, big wheels or whatever else we had and would play games, ride around for hours, explore abandoned schools, cross over creeks, and anything else that caught our fancy. My parents had no idea where I went because we just rode and rode and rode. We knew when it was about time to head for home and my dad would come out and whistle his trademark whistle to let us know we had to come in for dinner.

So I see those hills and expansive grass and I want my kids to be able to run and run and run and explore. And it makes me think that I want my kids to learn independence and resourcefulness. I don't want them to grow up thinking they can't do anything without me or to feel scared to go out on their own. I want them to know the wonderful feeling of the wind whipping in your face as you ride your bike as fast as you can to no real destination, of turning back to talk to your friends and feeling the bike wobble and weave, of watching the pavement zoom by under your tires, of inhaling the different scents of flowers, trees in the warm spring air as you pass them by.
Where is the balance between safety and freedom? It is true that the world is different than when I grew up. It is not as safe. But I still want and need my kids to experience the freedom of doing something without mom hovering nearby--before the responsibilities and pressures of age take away that completely carefree feeling. How do I instill independence when I'm scared to let them play in the front yard (of course, they are still pretty young!)? Am I being too fearful? Hopefully as they get a little older I won't feel quite so worried when I can't see them. For now, though, I don't want them out of my sight!

(Natalie picked out her own shoes that day!)

The Joys of Reading

My kids love the show Super Why (we call it Super Readers) on PBS. We don't watch it very often, so it is a huge treat when we do. In fact, John was in Wal Mart with the kids to buy a DVD before our drive to Utah in December and Natalie was saying, "Get a Super Weaders, dad."

The other morning I was combing Natalie's hair, putting it in pig tails, while the kids were watching Super Readers. I started commenting on how exciting it is to learn how to read and told Natalie, "First you learn your letters, and the letters' sounds, and then you can put the letters together and make words!" Natalie immediately said, "And fwy an airpwane too!" The Super Readers fly around in saucers on the show, so she was associating learning to read with flying an airplane. I hope she's not too disappointed when she starts reading!

And....The Rock Song

We were driving along the other day, listening to one of the kids' cds, and Andrew said, "I want to listen to the Rock Song, mom." What is the Rock Song? I couldn't think of one song on this cd that we had listened to over and over and over again that could possibly be associated with rocks.

So I started skipping through each song, playing the beginning of each song and asking him if this was it. We got through about 13 and on the 14th try Andrew kicked his legs and got a big grin and said that this was The Rock Song.

This is what I heard: When Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah, Hurrah, We'll give him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah, Hurrah...

And every time the cd sang Hurrah, Hurrah, Andrew and Natalie were singing, "The Rock, The Rock."

The Hot Dog Song

Natalie is starting to request song after song when we put her down for bed. She lies there snuggled all up in her blankets and as soon as I finish singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" she is mumbling through her pink pacifier, "Mom, a sing one more song...popcorn popping?" She can go on and on with her requests.

About a week ago she started asking for "the Hot Dog song." I just scratched my head. I had her say it again, I had her take out her pacifier and tell me the name of the song, I asked her to sing it. All to no avail. I asked John if he knew what the Hot Dog Song was. He said he didn't have a clue, but that Natalie had also asked him to sing it.

The next day I was back in her room, leaning over her crib, singing. As I finished a song, she asked for "the Hot Dog song again." I told her I didn't know what that song was, but that I would sing "I am a Child of God." Bingo. That was it. That was "The Hot Dog Song."

I then realized that she had asked John for "I am a Child of God" with her pacifier in her mouth and he had dubbed it the Hot Dog Song. So that is what she started asking for. Too funny.

Pink is not just for girls

This morning started out rough. Everybody was crying at everything. It didn't help that every time Natalie picked up a new toy, Andrew just had to have it too. And he was not subtle. He would proclaim that he wanted it and then take it away from Natalie. She was left crying and screaming. Even in the car he was grabbing stuff from her.

I had to laugh later as I thought about myself "lecturing" my three-year-old as we were driving along about how to ask someone if you can have something and then dealing with it if they say no. But I think some of it may have miraculously sunk in--he seemed to be trying to ask and not take.

It did make me laugh to see later in the morning that somehow Andrew had convinced Natalie to take his broken pail and he was using her non-broken pail. But she didn't seem to mind, so neither did I.

So amidst all the crying and bickering this morning, I was getting us all ready to get out the door by 8:45am to get Andrew to a little sports class he has on Mondays. We somehow pulled it off and were actually going to be on time when I noticed that there were no "reduced speed" signs in front of the schools. Oh yeah. No school today....no class today. We turned around and drove home, but I knew this was not a morning for us to be home. We all needed to get out.

Luckily I called my sister-in-law, Diane. She was planning on heading over to her in-laws' house and invited us to come. That may sound a bit strange, but the house sits on about an acre with a trampoline, great swing set, sand and lots of grass. They were planning on playing outside, so we headed over to join them. And it was great. It was so fun to visit with Diane. I really admire her and it was just what I needed to talk with her. And the kids played and played and played.

James was in his car seat and was cooing and smiling at me, so I pulled him out. I had already changed his diaper once since we had been there, but I guess once was not enough--there was poop all the way up his back. Hardly any of it made it into the diaper. How does that happen?!

But it could have been a lot worse. Luckily, I had another diaper. And I had a plastic bag to put the messy diaper in. And I had a grocery bag to put the poopy clothes in.

AND I had Natalie's pink sweater to put on him and a blanket to wrap him up in. And I even had my camera with me to get some pictures of my little boy in the pink sweater. The pink still doesn't make him look like a girl. This one is all boy. And even better, these days he is all smiles!

If you look closely at these pictures of James, you can see how he scratches his head. Nails are short, but it doesn't matter. I'm trying to keep a hat on him to see if that will help. Poor guy.

Dreaming of carousels

I was sitting down going over what needed to get done today when I heard a scream coming from Andrew's room. It was about 6:50am--much earlier than Andrew's normal wake-up time. But then I heard loud crying. Odd. Andrew usually comes out on his own when he wakes up if I don't go in and get him up first.

I opened the door to his room, and saw him lying on his bed, still under the covers but crying loudly. I went over to him, sat down on the bed and asked, "What's wrong? Are you ok?" or something like that. He said, "wanndksoektndkslekd" or something totally incoherent in a very loud crying voice. So I asked him to repeat it and got the incoherent answer again. This went on for several tries until I finally got him to slow down and stop crying a little bit.

This is what he said, "I want to ride on the carousel!"

I repeated in an I'm-not-so-sure-I heard-you-correctly voice, "You want to ride on the carousel?"

He looked at me like I had suggested such an crazy thing at 6:50am and said, "Yeah." and stopped crying. Looks like I broke into the end of a dream and he was very disappointed that he didn't get to ride the carousel.

I have laughed about that off and on today.
Here are some pictures of the last carousel ride the kids went on ...in November. Maybe it's time for another one!

And Natowee too

Just a note to myself about my little Natalie. She is such a kick. She loves to read the book "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?" that my mom and dad gave her for Christmas. We read it over and over. At the end it has a little mirror page. She gets the biggest grin as she looks at herself in the mirror. I ask, "Are you a princess?" and she says, "Natowee a princess and mommy too." I'm in the mirror too because she is sitting on my lap. She always includes me and it makes me feel so good.

Another thing I love is that she is calling James "Jamie." Nobody else calls him that. It's her little name for him.

Natalie turns 2 the 27th of this month. I was asking her today what special toy she wanted for her birthday. She said, "A choo choo train." "What kind of choo choo train, " I asked. "Anuna (another) choo choo train." She thinks that is all you can get as a gift because that is all Andrew wants and talks about.

I went to get her out of bed after her nap today and she was sitting in the corner of her crib, sucking on her pacifier, looking guilty. But I couldn't figure out why. She was fully dressed. Then she looked sideways to the other side of the crib. I followed her gaze and saw her diaper sitting there. She had taken her pants off, taken off her diaper and then put her pants back on. Pretty sneaky. Her response to almost every conversation or comment is "and Natowee too." I was asking Andrew if he wanted to take a city rec sports class. Natalie pipes up, "and Natowee too." We have been talking to Andrew about how he is getting so big and is now in the Sunbeams class at church and Natalie says, "and Natowee too." And when she says it sometimes she nods her head while she is saying it. She just wants to be a part of everything. I love her enthusiasm!

Died and gone to heaven

I was making dinner tonight and Andrew pipes up, "Mom, let's clean up this room" referring to the toys he and Natalie had scattered around the kitchen floor. He then started really picking things up off the floor and putting them on the table. This is the kid that when I say "Let's pick up the puzzle" or "Let's pick up the cars" responds with "I can't" and then lays there while the rest of us pick everything up and try to convince him to join in.

So I was stunned. And thrilled. And tickled.

After he picked up the kitchen floor, he went and got the vacuum. I helped him plug it in and he really vacuumed the dining room and living room. Or at least parts of it. Then he had me help him pull out the hose and he sucked up some fruit snacks Natalie had dumped on the floor and then...he went around and sucked up the dead crickets around the baseboards. We have lots of crickets and for some reason that dining room ends up with many of them as they die where the bug guy sprays.

So we are now dead-cricket-free thanks to Andrew. Having three little ones I sometimes wonder if I will ever get to the stage where they can do things--like get dressed or wipe their bottoms--by themselves, let alone actually help out. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. He took care of one of my list items! He really made my day.Here he is hard at work. Of course you have to love the no pants, underwear, one sock on look. I cannot get that kid to keep his pants on.Funny note--he actually forgot he had the sock on and got into the tub with it on tonight. I had a good laugh at that.

Surprisingly fun sick day

So, we are all sick. Natalie had pink eye and double ear infection in Utah, John went in for an ear infection when we got back from Utah, Andrew has strep and an ear infection (he had a 104.3 temperature the other night!), and I don't know what I have. I feel stiff and achy and have a ear-nose-throat thing going on. James was showing signs of pink eye, but we immediately put the medicine on and his eyes are looking good.

Today is a stay-at-home day (except for John who left for work at about 5am--what a guy!). Andrew just barely started the antibiotic last night so were are self-quarantined--we can't go anywhere. That can sometimes mean a very very long day. But we have actually had a really great morning. And I'm writing this now because everything may have changed by 5:00 tonight ;-)

It is an absolutely gorgeous day today. In my opinion, it is the perfect temperature--not too hot, not too cold with a very very slight breeze blowing every once in a while. It's the kind of day you go outside and take a deep breath in through your nose and feel a little lift. My sister-in-law called to see if we wanted to go to the park. That was the perfect activity for today, but of course, not an option for us unless we wanted to expose all the other kids. But we have been playing in the backyard all morning--even James. We jumped on the trampoline, played in the dirt with tracks, shovels and cars, ate a picnic lunch outside, made silly shadow people, and my favorite.....ate our first oranges off our tree!! Well, I think they are oranges. I can't remember which tree is the tangelo tree and which tree is the orange tree...but they were pretty good and it was great to eat something growing in our backyard. It was just a great morning and it really felt so great to be on the ground outside with my kids. Some days I just feel like I'm trying to get them out of the way so I can get the "real stuff" done. It was great to remember today that they are the "real stuff" and it is so worth it to take some time to play and laugh with them. So I guess sick was good for me and my little kiddos.
About the pictures: Natalie has her waif style hair that just cracks me up--we're not planning on going anywhere! And miracle of miracles, I got Andrew to look at the camera and smile at the same time!!