How We Decided to Homeschool, Part 2

I signed Jack up for every class SHARE had in their clubs n' classes line-up, and even offered to teach one myself. He had sign language, simple cooking (which really was more like "fun with food"), and my class which was simply directed play with imaginative toys and/or games (we called it Young Explorers and we did things like put marble tracks together, play duck-duck-goose, paint with popsicles, glue yarn on little pumpkins, etc.). He never did like sign language but I was determined he was going to be in it; I kept hoping he would like it after long enough. He never hated it, but he always wanted to be outside playing instead. I don't really remember when I went from gung-ho unschooler to making Jack take a sign-language class; I think it may have been a bit of a recoil from the unschool groups that were too radical for my taste, or it may have been that I wanted to spend as much time as I could with this wonderful group of people. Either way, I don't think Jack suffered too much, but if I had to do it over again I would play with him outside instead of making him take the class. He did have lots of fun in the other classes, and he did get some time playing outside every time we met.

Then suddenly we moved to Palo Alto, California. I was excited to explore a new place, but I was appalled when I discovered that there were no homeschooling families in my stake. One mom said she had homeschooled up until that very year, and she was very happy she put her kids in public school b/c the schools there were "so good." I was asked often "Why in the world would you homeschool? The schools here are great!" I was even told more than once "Oh, you'll give up. Lots of homeschoolers give up here!" I wondered if they were right. I asked why the schools were "so good" and discovered they have shorter days, they bring in experts to do presentations to the kids, their math curriculum is all games, and they get great test scores.

But none of that mattered to me! I realized that one of my biggest reasons for wanting to homeschool was because I believe that the most important lessons children learn are at home: in the everyday interactions between family members, in the housework and chores, in the arguments and solutions, and in the scripture study. No school can teach that, no matter how well it does academics. And while yes, kids can be just fine when they go to school and are taught at home in the evenings and weekends, how much better could they do if they get to stay home? I just don't think it's as important for a 5-year-old to learn how to count to 100 as it is for him to learn to keep his little sister out of the road. He can pick up the counting later when he finds it interesting, but the character-building of watching out for his little sister will shape the man he will grow up to be. I believe that character and morality are absolutely vital, and many thousands of times more important than academics. A man with a good work ethic and study skills can learn anything he needs to know; a man with a head full of knowledge but no desire to work will only be a burden to society.

I found an LDS homeschool group, but it spanned too large an area for them to meet more often than monthly, and even that was only during the school year, and it was now summertime. I floundered; I talked to lots of moms in my ward about school and homeschool, trying to find a kindred spirit, but there was none. Everywhere I went, people would ask if Jack was in preschool and if he would start kindergarten next year; in an attempt to feel like I was doing something, I started schooling Jack at home. We did short lessons on the alphabet, colors of light, properties of water, paint, scripture stories, and playing games; we went to the library weekly and read and read and read; we visited museums and parks and playdates. And I learned that Jack can learn from lessons, even when he doesn't want to, but he learns so much better when he is interested and plays with the subject. I also learned that Jack LOVES structure! But I burned out after a few weeks; planning lessons took time from the family and I really didn't like fighting Jack to sit down with me.

I battled a nasty case of depression. Schooling, housework, exercise, and cooking all went out the window. I managed to play with my kids, and I felt like I may not be a very good homeschooler but I was doing OK as a mom. And amazingly enough, my kids did great! I don't even think they noticed that when I wasn't playing with them I was sulking in the corner, b/c I played with them every day.

I visited Texas, and felt like I was home. I spent time with SHARE and with Malina; I watched again how she runs her house and how she mothers her children. I loved watching my kids playing with Malina's kids and with the other kids in SHARE. I thought about what I had done well and what I could improve. And I decided I would do better when I got home.

And I did, after a whirlwind move to Sunnyvale! I was excited to hear that there were homeschooling families in my new stake; I emailed the one homeschooling mom in my ward and she invited us over for dinner. I discovered that she does intensive academics with her 4-year-old daughter and she sends her son to public school, then does more academics with him after school every day. I tried very hard not to cry myself to sleep that night... But the next day I played with my kids and felt better. I prayed for guidance and studied the scriptures. I tried to stop comparing myself to other homeschooling families and stop letting it bother me that I am the only person in this area with the views I have. I worked on picking back up the habits that we used to have that were good, like reading daily, and adding new ones that we needed, like chores. And I discovered that I was rather happy!

And then I decided I needed a group, and I didn't care if it was an LDS group or not. I need support and friends to bounce ideas off of, and Jack needs friends to play with. I went online and in a frenzy I joined almost every homeschool group within an hour drive. I went to a meetup with one of the groups and was so glad to find moms with ideas a lot like mine. I sat down and wrote out a weekly schedule and a daily routine; daily routine includes chores, reading time, and play time, and the weekly schedule includes library day, housecleaning day, library day, and nature day.

And then, I realized that I had not yet prayed directly about the question: Should I Homeschool? My heart racing, terrified I might get a no, I knelt. And I received sweet confirmation that God wants my family to homeschool.

That was just a couple of days ago. Since then, I re-discovered the Thomas Jefferson method of education, and wanted to jump up and dance as I read ideas that I had been forming all on my own. (This method in a nutshell: children should play, do chores, and spend time with their parents until they are old enough for formal studies sometime in their TEEN years.) I am not afraid anymore of the question "Does he start kindergarten next year?" I am not even afraid of the question "Oh, so what curriculum do you use, then?"

I have decided to give my children a longer childhood. They will learn to work, they will learn the gospel, and they will learn that our family's love is stronger than a rampaging herd of elephants. We do this by reading together, playing together, doing chores together, eating meals together, and going out and exploring together. Since I can't actually spend every waking moment with them, they have toys that inspire creative play, they have a backyard, and they have each other to play with. When they are ready to begin formal lessons, we will do that.

My house is full of peace right now. I know there will be bumps along the way, but I am not afraid of them. I have the conviction that I am doing the right thing for my family, and I have a gloriously lovely family. This week has been the pilot week of the daily routine and weekly schedule, and so far it has been a raging success. Jack loves the structure, Lily loves that we're always doing something interesting, and Tim loves coming home to a joyful house every evening. Tomorrow we'll load up as a family and go explore one of the hundreds of natural parks available to us here, and we won't have to clean house b/c the kids and I already did that yesterday. Next week I'll check out the closest unschooling group; I hope I fit in with them, but if I don't, I'll be OK. Jack has friends he can play with in the evenings, and I have friends I can talk to on the phone during the day. And the homeschooling group I've already seen is really not that bad; they are a little academic heavy, but they try not to be!

My kids are growing up so beautifully. Jack is a social butterfly with a heart as big as his native Texas: he plays with any kid or adult who's willing, and he shares his food and toys with a smile. He accidentally spent real money in an iPad app, and was very penitent when I told him he had; he watched and listened carefully when I showed him how he had done it and showed him how not to do it again, and he has followed through and not done it again. His questions get more and more mature every night when we watch a Book of Mormon story, and he's starting to remember them and link them together and make connections between them. He loves to make me happy, to a fault (!); he is learning the concept of not doing too much of a good thing. He can pick up and carry Lily, and she is sometimes OK with that, so he's learning how to tell if Lily doesn't mind him carrying her around. He is learning how to show the affection to Lily that he so desperately wants to, without making her fuss, and he is learning how to tell when she's tired, hungry, bored, or wants up or down. He is learning that I will rarely turn down an invitation to read to him, and I am learning how to tell when repeated pleas of "Will you read to me?" are really him just asking for attention! He is learning how to measure ingredients when cooking, and how to load and unload the dishwasher. He can recognize most letters of the alphabet and most numbers, and he can count to 20 if he's not thinking about it. He still loves the Chronicles of Narnia and we are halfway through the second book. He is getting good at following slightly more complex game rules and sticking with the same game for a longer period of time; he still loves to play simple board games like "The Ladybug Game". He's getting very good at eating whatever food I put in front of him and not complaining about it. He's also grown out of the stage where kids throw a fit about every thing that doesn't go their way, and it still amazes me when he takes setbacks in stride. He still loves his sister fiercely, and he is learning how to care for her even better: one day she took something from him that she didn't need to have, and his sweet blue eyes were as wide as dishplates when I explained to him that sometimes it's OK to make Lily cry when she wants something that's bad for her. He then turned to Lily and said "You can't have this by yourself, but if I keep my hand on it we can share it." And today, Lily fussed in the car, and he sang to her in a sweet, soft voice, "It's OK, Lily, you can go to sleep in the car, really you can!" He is a joy and a delight to have around!

Lily explores and investigating her world with ferocity. I rarely have to do much for her in a day except a couple of diaper changes and nursing her to sleep, b/c she just tags along and explores whatever we're doing or plays with toys or other safe objects. She loves measuring spoons and puzzles. She loves to rip paper and has been desecrating quite a few library books lately. She sometimes takes personal offense when I tell her "Uh-oh!" and cries as if her heart is breaking. She only very rarely wants to be cuddled, but she's learned that she just has to put up with it from me! She still loves her Daddy and still usually prefers him to me, but I am taking a larger share of her heart and she will prefer me to him more than she used to, and not even just when she's tired! She can put puzzle pieces in correctly and she can put on Jack's shoes, and sometimes she can get her own shoes on her feet. She loves to take her socks off but can't take her pants off yet, which is good b/c if she could she'd be naked all day! She refuses to get out of bed until Tim and I have made a "tent" out of our blanket by holding it up over all of our heads. She still will go potty right after waking up, and she still refuses to go potty any other time b/c she is too busy exploring; if I push the potty issue too hard she pushes right back and refuses to even go after waking, so I am learning to back off (you'd think I'd have that one learned by now!). She will request a diaper change by patting her diaper, and she almost always lies nice and still while I change her. She LOVES the bath, and playing with water in the sink, too; in fact, I did dishes the other day with just her b/c Jack was busy eating, and after she saw me rinse dishes and put them in the dish drain, she started copying me and rinsed a wooden spoon and put it in the dish drain. I almost cried, I was so touched and thrilled that my 18-month-old daughter was helping me with dishes! She is lengthening her attention span and will watch a movie with us for a few minutes before going back to exploring; she'll sit still and have a book read to her, too, as long as the book isn't too verbose! She has learned how much we love it when she gives us kisses, and will occasionally fill a few minutes going back and forth between each of us, kissing us over and over and over. She has opinions about the clothes that she wears, whether it is squealing and dancing when I put her favorite shirt on her or tugging and fussing at a shirt she doesn't like; I often give her a choice between two outfits for this reason, but sometimes she's too busy exploring to make a choice so I have to make it for her. She is getting old enough to be disciplined gently, and was rather offended when I held her in my lap after she pulled Jack's hair last night!

They may not be academically advanced (or they may be, and I really don't care either way), but they are compassionate, gentle, obedient, and happy, and they know some very important things about God and love. Our family is in a good place right now.

Photos from the playground behind the art museum today:

Jack wasn't too thrilled that the camera was out again, but he was a good sport and tried to pose. (I say "tried to" b/c he wanted to play so badly he simply could not hold still!)

Lily posed! She was imitating her brother :D

And she was done posing!

So now Jack had to get in on the action and posed again for a nice shot!

(I'm sorry my posts are always so long...)

How we decided to homeschool, part 1

I couldn't help but consider homeschooling when I realized what kind of kid Jack is. I didn't want him to be the recipient of any labels of any kind in a school. I didn't want teachers to not appreciate how perfect he is. But I tried to be against the idea; I tried to think that school would be the better option. I really did! But the homeschooling idea just kept on coming back. We would go to a playdate and he would cling to my leg instead of going out and playing, and the other moms would comment on his unique behavior, and the thoughts in my head were of how lovely it was that I didn't feel like he had to be like all the other kids his age and I didn't want him to ever feel like he needed to be any different from the way he was. I wanted him to grow up naturally, without being shaped or molded by a teacher or school that was less than what he needed.

I couldn't overlook the examples I had in friends who homeschooled their children, and how lovely those children were. Isabel and Alexa were two girls who lived in our ward when Jack was a baby; the first time we ever left him with babysitters and came home to find him happy, they were the sitters. They were 11 and 13 at the time, I believe, but they were so very responsible and mature. I felt like I could trust them with anything and they wouldn't let me down. They were easy to talk to, and they showed so much love to my sweet little boy that I couldn't help but love them. And they were homeschooled.

Malina moved into our ward just a few months after we did. Her boys were 3 and 5 when Jack was just starting Nursery (so he was about 18 months). At first her boys terrified me b/c they were so hard to control (for me as a Primary teacher, at least) and they had boundless energy. But I could see right away how very happy they were; I asked her for advice on how to best teach her oldest son and she told me that he may be running around the room but he would still be listening. So I tried my hardest to not constantly tell him to sit still and be quiet; I of course had to sometimes, but I did see that when I let him move and fidget a little, he was willing to listen to me when I did have to tell him to be still. And so, I began to learn what normal children are like, and I began to love Malina's boys.

I was called as Malina's visiting teacher, and in visits to her house I got to see how she mothered her children. Her boys were loud and rowdy, but were very obedient and loving. They loved Jack, and he loved to watch them play but he was a little nervous about playing with them for a while!

Malina introduced me to the concept of not only homeschooling, but unschooling, or delight-directed learning. She (and many others) proposed that children who are never told what and when to study will naturally study the things they find interesting, and will learn much more and faster than if they are only allowed to study what a teacher says they can. The thought made so much sense to me, but it was just so radical I had a hard time accepting it. She had a logical answer for all my "But what if..." questions, and I decided to give it a go. (Keep in mind that even at this point, Jack wasn't even 3 yet!) Child-led learning flows pretty easily when most of the patterns in our home are child-centered. I went to the park with some unschooling groups but had a hard time feeling like I fit in. I make some pretty radical choices in my parenting but most of my other lifestyle choices are conservative; a lot of the families in the unschooling groups I met seemed radical all across the board. One day a rude little boy made my sweet Jack so angry he kicked the rude boy, and I never went back.

I found a group of LDS homeschoolers (called SHARE) and went to the park to meet them. They were so welcoming and sweet to me, and Jack loved the kids from the get-go. I looked over towards the playground at one point and was horrified to see Jack perched high up on a boulder that overlooked the playground; standing right next to him, though, was a teenage boy that belonged with the group. I watched, and the boy kept an eye on Jack and helped him down after a few minutes. I asked the moms about their educational philosophies and they said they leaned towards unschooling. I was hooked! I told Malina she needed to check out that group, and I joined.

Then I had Lily :D

All this time, I'd been praying for guidance about whether or not to homeschool. I never asked the question of the Lord directly b/c I was afraid of the answer, but I pondered an awful lot. I researched available literature on how homeschooled kids fare in life versus schooled kids. I constantly watched the kids of my homeschooling friends and imagined my kids growing up like them. I especially loved having friends with teenagers, b/c I could see just how well they had grown up! I really started to like the idea.

Tim stood behind me all this time. He said he thought homeschooling was more work than I realized, and that I would set my standards too high and not be able to do as well as I wanted. He said he would love it if I could, but he didn't want me to be terribly distraught if I ended up "giving up" and sending our kids to school. He constantly played devil's advocate and asked how school could really be that bad. But every time that I felt like he wasn't on my side, he reassured me that he wanted what I wanted, he just had questions, and we never fought over it. (I loved the conversation we had when I explained to him the premise behind unschooling. He said "Oh! Then I was unschooled in my after-school time, and look how well that turned out!" He started programming when he was 9 and now makes a 6-figure income, that's how well it turned out!)

Us in October 2007 (Jack was about 18 months)

Isn't he so handsome? And Tim doesn't look too bad, either!

Next post: getting started with Jack's "school" too young, moving to California, and finally growing up

Homeschooling. It's on.

I'm a little worried about getting started with schooling too soon. My focus right now is exposing my kids to different ideas and building habits. We read a lot :D We get new books from the library weekly. We go play outside every day, kicking a ball and playing with dirt. We sing. We go to playgroups. We play board games. We play chase and tickle fight. They play with water in the sink while helping me wash dishes; they play with pots and measuring cups while "helping" me cook; they help tidy the house and put away laundry. Jack helps take care of Lily by bringing her toys when she's sad and holding her hand if she's walking near the road. We have toys that facilitate learning: puzzles, blocks, cars, etc.

We have played around with learning the alphabet and numbers, phonics, arithmetic, writing, etc. My poor son is a perfectionist and will immediately shy away from something he can't do perfectly, so I just let concepts come up in everyday life and he picks things up that way. He can count to 20, recognizes most letters of the alphabet and knows some of the sounds they make, recognizes numbers up to 7, can add and subtract 1 and 2, knows the words to the songs we sing at church, knows his friends' names, knows how to play lots of games. He knows that babies can't eat the same things that grownups can, and he knows how to get a toy from a baby without making her cry (give her something more interesting!). He knows many of the stories in the Book of Mormon and Bible and can act a couple of them out for you. He is getting old enough for schooling, and it amazes me the things he can do that I thought he wasn't big enough for, but I would like to see some well-developed interest before I start.

We lean towards the Thomas Jefferson philosophy of education, and so I don't plan to start formal schooling for a few years. Of course I'm always re-evaluating :) I have a friend who did this and her oldest son started demanding lessons at age 7; I love watching that kid learn, he's so excited about everything! It's been hard in the face of so many moms who put their kids in preschool; there is so much pressure in this area to get started so young. I am choosing to give my kids a longer childhood in the hopes that they will develop a deeper passion for learning when they're older.

So, I guess you could say that our curriculum is this:
Every single day, we read, play outside, and do chores together. Most days we play a game together, too. And every single night we learn stories from the Bible and Book of Mormon. For variety and social interaction, we go somewhere almost every day, whether it's the store, the library, a friend's house, or a museum. It's simple, we love it, and it's free!

Homeschool support

So basically, all summer I pouted that my wonderful LDS homeschool support group in Dallas didn't exist here in the San Francisco Bay area. I joined the email list for the LDS group here but they are all moms at the end of their childrearing years, with all their youngests being teens and pre-teens, and they're spread all over the Bay area with none of them in my stake. I hunted and complained and pouted all summer; I did check out one other group that was local to me, but it just didn't click for me (they meet at a park and socialize on the grass while their kids all play on the playground, but Lily is just too small to play on the playground without my close supervision, so I didn't really get to make friends much). I knew there were other homeschooling groups, but I really wanted to be able to talk religion with my homeschool mom friends, so I continued hoping.

We moved to a new ward in a new stake and I sent out an email to that LDS group, hoping that some of them were in my new stake, and was so excited to learn that some of them were! But it is still only about 1 family per ward in the stake. Met the "homeschooling" family in my ward and was just crushed to find out that she considers herself a homeschooler b/c she does academics with her son after he gets home from school. While yes, that is homeschooling b/c she's doing school at home, it was not what I was hoping for in the way of like-minded support.

So, I'm done pouting. I went online, scoured every homeschooling network site I could find, and joined every group I could imagine myself driving to. I know I won't possibly go to every event that every group does, but I will find some friends who homeschool. I can handle having homeschool mom friends of another faith, just as much as I can handle having friends at church who send their kids to school. (At least in this ward there is a lot more discontent with the schools, so they say "Oh good!" when I tell them I homeschool, instead of "Why in the world would you do that?")

Tomorrow I go to a holiday craft-making meetup with a group based in San Francisco. It's a half-hour drive, but I think that's worth it.

Why does this matter so much to me? Because when I feel like I'm doing right by my kids, my world is happy. When I doubt myself and wonder if I'm really doing the right thing, the whole family suffers.

Out with the old!

The past two days we've been in our old apartment, scrubbing the walls and filling and painting over nail holes. I am amazed at both how much work it was, and how much better it looks afterwards. It really makes me wish we'd done a better job fixing up our place in Texas before we left....

Kiddos were fabulous. They literally spend most of their time there yesterday kicking a ball around and shrieking happily. They don't usually get to kick a ball inside b/c there are things that might get knocked down, but in an empty apartment it's free game! Jack kicked it as hard as he possibly could and shrieked with delight when the ball went high and hit the wall with a thud. Lily shrieked right along with him, then Jack gave her a chance to kick the ball and she thought that was pretty neat, too. I had so much fun listening to their fun while I worked!

Today Lily fell asleep on the way there, b/c we spent a while in the car helping Tim get an errand run and off to the train station before we went to the apartment. (Tim had to go to San Francisco today for his work, and he'll be coming home late and doesn't want to ride his scooter that far in the wet cold!) She woke up when we got there, and I was worried she'd be grumpy, but I had food from Taco Bell and she was so excited to try new food!

Then I made the biggest mistake of my week. I thought the kiddos could paint with their own, colorful paints on the dropcloth while I did the painting touch-ups on the wall. I covered them up with old big T-shirts and gave them each a brush and a picture frame. If Lily was a little Jack, it would have worked well. But Lily is a little Lily. She was very excited to get to paint and she had a blast, but she got paint ALL OVER HERSELF. With glee! It was hard to get upset at her, she was so cute as she squished her paint-y hands all together! Jack wasn't happy about her mixing all the paint up into one smooth black, but he still had fun painting. His technique has improved a lot (so now I need to work some painting time into our days, while Lily naps so he has free reign). I had them both covered with an old big T-shirt, but Lily got so enthusiastic that she got some on the inside of the shirt and on her clothes. I was so sad! I tried so hard to get the T-shirt off of her without getting any more paint on her cute clothes, but with paint on the inside of the T-shirt, it just wasn't happening. I put her in the bathtub and started washing her off so she wouldn't paint the inside of the tub with permanent paint, then I tried to get as much paint as I could off of her cute shirt, but it was hopeless. I really felt like throwing a tantrum :( I decided to use that as a teaching moment and tell Jack how sad I felt; I think it was totally lost on him, but I am really proud of myself that I didn't lose my temper at my kids :D

Jack got his T-shirt off quite well and happily waited while I cleaned up. (I normally have him help, but the stakes were just too high with permanent paint and an apartment we're trying to leave spotless!) I got Lily fully paint-free, then told Jack we were going to go get frozen yogurt, and he was quite happy! I put Lily in the wrap on my back b/c she didn't have a shirt to wear, and she loved it; her little legs went "KICK KICK KICK" the whole time :D I put on my jacket and I'm sure I looked like a hunchback, but Lily's sweet smiling face behind mine drew smiles from many passers-by. (Have I mentioned how much I love going out with my kiddos?) We got big cups of frozen yogurt and took them back to the apartment to eat so I wouldn't have to worry about losing my sweet little wandering girl while I ate.

Galina, our apartment manager, was waiting there to do a quick walk-through; I hadn't expected her so soon, so my sweet Jack had to wait for us to be done before he could have his frozen yogurt. Amazingly, he waited patiently (I did go ahead and let him have it before we were quite done). And Galina gave us the thumbs-up, that I had patched the holes and scrubbed the place well enough to keep our entire deposit! Yay! So I took Lily out of the wrap, and she almost dove into Jack's cup of yogurt, she was so excited to eat it! I showed her she had her own cup, told her to sit down and she did, and gave her her cup with a spoon. She was one happy little girl :D And Jack was glad she had her own cup so she'd leave his alone! I got to eat in peace for a little bit, then Lily got all done with hers and tried mine. Apparently she didn't like mine, so she tried Jack's and liked it much better. Jack sweetly shared with her, but I could tell he would rather have it all to himself; when he had only a teeny bit left he asked me if he could have the last of it without sharing it with Lily, and I said he could and scooped her up and tossed her back into the bathtub to get all the yogurt off of her! Jack came and joined after he was all done, and they had a ball playing with water with the spoons and cups they'd eaten yogurt from :D I got all our stuff packed up, got them out of the bath, loaded up the car and headed home to get clothes for Lily. And of course, both of my precious children conked right out :D

THEN, we got to go back to our old place to play with our old neighbors, the mom with the three adopted boys with the trampoline! We ate pizza, chatted, and played, and life was good :D She is a sweet mother and I'm glad I've gotten to know her and her kids, and I'm glad her kids are such good friends to mine!

These are my kids wrestling on the floor of that old apartment :D This is from back in September.

Today was full of fun!

Started the day with the discovery that I lost 2 pounds; I decided yesterday to make a goal of losing 35 pounds in 35 weeks, so this was very heartening :D

Decided to get the day started right, with chores getting done quickly instead of wandering around wondering what to do next and telling the kids I couldn't play with them b/c I was busy. Made eggs with bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and wrapped them in whole-wheat tortillas with cheese and (organic) ketchup. Oh heaven! And when we were done eating breakfast, it was only 8 o'clock! So we played duck-duck-goose, and had a blast :D
While eggs were cooking, Jack was being mischievous, so I gave him the chore of unloading the dishwasher. I've previously refrained from giving him that chore b/c he would have to stand on a stool to put up dishes and I thought that was too hard. He did fabulously, with minimal complaining :D

The things I'm focusing on right now for Jack are training him to do chores, to not give up, to think creatively, and to learn the stories of the scriptures.
-I'm learning to slow down and help him learn how to help me do all my chores, and he and I are both loving it; we get more time together and he feels helpful and important and loved, and he learns, and I love having his company.
-When he is having a hard time doing something, I encourage him to keep trying. I might offer him advice, but I don't rush in and do it for him; this is a change from before, when I would do things for him to avoid a screaming fit. He's not a baby anymore, thankfully, and he's doing pretty well with this. I love to see his excitement when he conquers a difficult task!
-When he asks me a question that I think should be obvious, I try not to berate him for asking a dumb question, give him the answer, or ignore him (things that I have been doing). I try to ask him questions that will lead him to the answer, or ask him to consider his question and tell me the answer. Also, when we watch a story (from the Book of Mormon Stories DVD) and act it out, if he doesn't know what comes next, I don't tell him, I make him go back to the iPad and watch it again so he can remember what happens. I do this b/c he has actually regressed in his story-telling skills; when he was 2 he could rehearse those stories with astonishing accuracy, but now he rarely remembers the beginning or end. I've been jogging his memory by reminding him of what he forgot, but I've been alarmed at how little he's been remembering of the stories he's been watching. My thought was that he was getting so used to me filling in for him that he wasn't trying anymore, so I'm not filling in for him anymore and we'll see what happens.
-And that's how we're learning the stories of the scriptures. Currently only the Book of Mormon Stories DVD is on the iPad, but someday we'll have the Stories from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Doctrine and Covenants too. He'll probably prefer the Book of Mormon Stories for a while, just b/c he prefers familiarity, but we'll work on that. We watch one every night before bed and he has to rehearse it back to us so we know he got it, and then he has the option of watching more before he falls asleep. We also watch them together as an activity during the day, and then act them out; Jack has discovered the joy of acting, and it's so much fun to watch him try so hard to remember his part!

Sent Tim off to work on time. He is so wonderful and he loves spending time with us, so he's really bad about hanging around here and not showing up to work until 10 or 11 or 12..... but then he has to stay late to make up that lost time, and I would MUCH MUCH MUCH rather have him home in the evenings than in the mornings, so I kick him out by 9 :D

Then Jack asked if we could play chase, and I said we could. I chased him, he chased me, I chased him, he chased me, and Lily followed us and giggled; then she fussed and I picked her up and she didn't smile, so I asked her if she was ready for her nap and she nodded. Silly girl takes her nap between 9:30 and 10am!

After I got her asleep, I read a chapter in The Magician's Nephew (the real first book in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis) to Jack. This was an idea of mine to copy my friend Malina who reads long chapter books to her homeschooled boys while her toddler naps; I wasn't sure Jack was old enough but I decided it would be fun to try. At first I was much more excited than Jack was, but I think he's warming up to it, b/c later in the day he asked if we could read more of it. yay!

Then I attempted to pay bills. We expected to get Tim's sign-on bonus with this paycheck, so I was rather dismayed when I checked our account online and discovered that it wasn't there. I ended up just playing on facebook and wasting time...

But I did get supper started, beans and rice :D

After Lily woke, we ate lunch. We had apples, and I had a soynut-butter and jelly sandwich that I cut a piece of and shared with Lily. She LOVES it when I give her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I was really excited to see that she enjoyed the soynut-butter as much as peanut butter. She's too young to have peanuts yet; when we gave Jack peanuts too early he developed a peanut sensitivity. Thankfully it went away after taking out the peanuts from his diet, but I'd rather not make that same mistake again with Lily!

Then we headed over to our old apartment to check the mail and look at the walls that our landlady said looked so bad they'd cost $350 to patch and re-paint. Decided to just do it myself, and warned her that we won't be able to pay rent this month til next paycheck. I'm really grateful that she was so nice about that, she said I'd have to talk to the bookkeeper but she's pretty sure there will be no problem. Visited one of my neighbors there, the one with the trampoline in her backyard, and actually got on it with Jack and Lily and jumped and jumped and jumped and had a great time! Went to the dentist to get more MI paste, the stuff I put on their teeth that both hardens their enamel and discourages bacterial growth. Then went to the paint store to get the paint and nail-hole-filler; poor Lily was NOT happy about getting in and out of the car so many times, but we had to go to 3 different stores to find everything.

Came home and Lily asked to nurse, and then fell asleep doing so. So Jack asked if we could read more of our book. Not iPad, not food, but The Magician's Nephew was his first request. Score! We read THREE WHOLE CHAPTERS before my mouth was sore and I had to quit, and Jack wanted more! So I reminded him that he has a marble track he can play with when Lily's asleep, and he happily did so while I finished supper. Tim came home and Lily woke up grumpy, but he held her and she warmed up. She loves her Daddy! I finally finished de-boning the Thanksgiving turkey while supper simmered, and felt so accomplished!

Ate supper. It was quite yummy: beans and rice, a staple in our home, but with celery and cajun seasoning this time. Jack ate his, Lily enjoyed hers, and Tim always loves my food, so I was happy :D And Tim made a peanut-butter and banana smoothie to drink with our meal; I didn't get much of mine b/c both of my kids wanted it, but I guess it's more important to feed my kids healthy food than to horde it for myself. After dinner, kids played happily while I made hot chocolate by melting dark chocolate in milk and adding sugar; Jack was excited but ended up not liking it b/c it was too rich! I had just a teeny bit, Tim diluted his with cold milk, and Lily said it was weird to drink something that was warm. So Jack had a mint chocolate chip milkshake instead, and Lily fished all the chocolate chips out of his cup; they then ran all over the house shrieking and squealing and playing together while I put away some clean dishes.

And then suddenly they were both tired! I got Lily all ready for bed and nursed her to sleep while Jack watched Book of Mormon Stories, then when she was down I discovered Jack was asleep as well. Poor kid, he missed his bedtime story (we talk about all the good things we did and what our favorites were).

And now it's my turn to go to bed! Tim is working on some pretty piece of work for an upcoming conference. If I ask him to tell me about it in detail, I'll conk right out...

Photos!

Jack on her Grandpa's lap (Tim's dad, Brian). She always stares really hard at him when we visit; our theory is that since Tim looks a lot like his dad, she just can't get enough of the face her dad's is patterned after :D

(This really isn't the best picture of him, he really is a handsome fellow, but it's a good one of Lily!)

The Lily Flower and Jack the Ninja Turtle at the Halloween Party in Dallas. Lily loved her costume and asked to wear it over and over again afterwards; Jack borrowed this costume from Malina b/c the one I bought for him wasn't what he wanted :P

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at home :D We had a blast! We had turkey, green bean casserole (from scratch with no cream-of-whatever soup!), and mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes (all homemade), store-bought rolls and pie, and homemade cookies. We played games together and lazed about the house all day. In short, we had a glorious holiday "staycation"!

We happen to enjoy Harry Potter :D We owned movies 1-5 (the first 3 were actually gifted to us..), so we started Monday watching the first movie after FHE, then Tuesday watched the second, Wednesday the third, Thanksgiving day the fourth and fifth, Black Friday we actually went to the store to buy the sixth b/c it wasn't available to rent at redbox or iTunes (and we actually got a decent deal on it thanks to Target's Black Friday sales). Then, Tim and I actually got to go out on a date to go see the seventh, on Friday night! A sweet friend from our former ward in Palo Alto came and watched our kids, and we redeemed codes that were on some cereal boxes to get free movie tickets, and away we went! We enjoyed the time together and the movie, and our friend and her 1-year-old boy had fun with our kids, and our kids had fun with her and her son. Win-win-win!

Church today was great. I'm getting in a habit of making Jack listen to the talks during sacrament meeting; I cuddle him close and ask him to listen with me, and we talk about what the talks are about. (Of course they're usually over his head, so I get to explain them to him, and of course while I'm explaining I can't hear what's being said, so we just take that as a discussion launcher and head off on our own!) Jack is getting pretty good at it; I worry I'm making his ears soft and dumb b/c I'm always filling in for him when he doesn't know what they're talking about, but he is getting in the habit of being reverent in church and not hating it (I hope!).
Another habit we're getting into is taking the kiddos for a run after sacrament meeting. We go down the hall to the water fountains and bathrooms, then go out the nearest door and run around the building to the door near the Primary room. Since I'm not in Primary with him, I don't know for sure that it helps, but he loves it and I do too. And I've been peeking in on him and every time I've been quite pleased with what I've seen: not only reverence and obedience, but active listening and participation! Today I peeked in when they had a big doll house at the front and were taking suggestions from the kids for what to put in the house. Jack said "a mommy and a sister" but they already had that, so he quickly said "A Grandma and an Aunt Lauren!" And he told me later that he would have said "Toys, too!" but they moved on to the next kid too quickly! Then later in his class I listened without peeking in, and I heard happiness. Yay Jack!

Sweet Lily needed me during Nursery today, and it was funny b/c I didn't know what to do! When Jack was in Nursery, I was a Primary teacher, so it was always Tim who took care of him. AND Lily is such an independent child, I never dreamed she'd have any problems with Nursery! But after snack time, I was peeking in seeing how she was doing, and I saw them cleaning up the snacks and putting them away. Lily picked up the box of goldfish crackers and handed them to the teacher and nodded, which means "Yes I want this!" But the poor teacher didn't know that, and took the box and said "Thank you!" and put it away. Lily didn't melt down right then, so I went on to class, but they brought her to me soon after that and said she'd started crying right after snack, so she must have started right after I walked away. I held her and she pointed the way to those goldfish crackers; I gave her a couple of handfuls of them and she was quite happy. She anxiously pointed in the exact opposite direction from her Nursery room as we walked back past it to go to my class; I think it was b/c she heard them singing her least-favorite song (where each kid gets spotlighted and their clothing sung about). I took her to Relief Society with me and she sat stock-still and quiet in my lap for all of one minute, then she pointed at the door and fussed. I asked her if she was ready to go back to Nursery and she nodded, so I took her in and sat with her for the rest of singing time. (She really doesn't like singing time, I wonder if I should try to do something about that or just let it play out? Should I speak to the teachers with some suggestions for improving it, or maybe start having some singing time at home?) She was happy in my lap, and then she hopped down and was fine without me again but by then it was time to leave!

Lily is willing to try things, like I just wrote about when she sat in my lap in Relief Society, and also when she tried to go potty in the bathroom at church. She had a poopy diaper, and I knew she had more to go, so I tried to hold her backwards over the potty just like I used to when she was tiny and almost all her waste went in the potty. She tried it, then shook her head. I asked her if she'd like to sit on it normally, and she nodded, and she actually supported herself pretty well on that giant (for her) potty seat, but then she shook her head again. (I LOVE that she's saying "yes" and "no" this way!)

We got a dishwasher! Our wonderful landlords put it in yesterday! Woohoo!

Photos!

While we were moving in and unpacking, Lily found her wrap and carried it to Tim and demanded to be put in it! They were very happy I was nearby to show him how to put it on; he spent the next half hour singing and dancing about how much his Lily loves him and how much he loves his Lily. Did ever a daughter love her Daddy as much as this one does?

Also while unpacking and moving in, Lily got cold. This blanket is technically Jack's, but he's good at sharing, and Lily loves it at least as much as he does :D I love this pic b/c I have one of Jack wrapped up just like this when he was little, too (but of course I can't find it at the mo'...).

Have I mentioned my kids love playing in the bathtub?

Our Thanksgiving feast needed 2 tables; our kiddos were excited to eat it!

Jack loves putting sprinkles on cookies; this one was also his idea, to make one big cookie so he could put lots of sprinkles on it! (He also took this picture of the giant pretty cookie!)

We moved! After we spent time in Texas...

So, we went to Texas and had a blast. My kids played with my friend and her kids, and her baby came and he was perfect :D We got to visit my in-laws, and Tim even got to come after he signed a new contract to work for Palm. (He quit his old job two days after kids and I left, then spent 2 weeks in job interviews before settling on Palm. The offered the best pay and the fewest hours, and an exciting job with a great work environment. 2 weeks in, he's loving it!) We got to visit friends and family and spend lots of time with SHARE, the homeschooling group there that is water to my parched soul.

We came home October 30th because Tim needed to get started at his new job and my friend was ready to take over her house and home again :D Tim's new job in Sunnyvale was a half-hour commute from our apartment in downtown Palo Alto, so we started house-hunting close to his work. I decided pretty quickly that I needed a house with a yard, so I declared I didn't care how much I spent on rent and just started looking at houses. Luckily, Tim insisted on trying to keep our rent payment low, and we found the PERFECT house. It's 2.8 miles from his work and it has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car attached garage, and a fenced backyard. I've never loved a house as much as I love this one; I don't hate California anymore, though I do still miss my friends and family.

We moved lickety-split. We have only 2 boxes left to unpack; we have a few boxes of books and such that will be unpacked once we have more shelving on which to unpack them to, but I don't count those! Problem with moving, though, is that the lease wasn't up on our apartment yet. So we're still responsible for the rent there. So even though Tim's making more than he's ever made before, we are still broke! The manager of our old apartment is advertising it and hopefully it will get rented soon; we are in talks with a realtor to sell our condo, too. That will be so great when that's all done!

My kiddos are growing up so fast. Yesterday I realized how much Jack loves to act out the one story we've ever acted out (the story of Samuel the Lamanite calling the Nephites to repentance). I was getting tired of doing the same thing over and over, so I showed Jack that we can do other stories, too. That opened up the floodgates! He watches Book of Mormon stories, begs me to watch them with him so I'll know what to do, then we each take a part and start acting. It's so much fun to watch him learn the stories with such enthusiasm!

Lily is so much like her brother. I was expecting her to be so different, and she is in some ways, but she is so much like him. Jack was a late talker, but I wasn't worried. Boys talk later than girls, and Tim was a late talker, so I just knew it would work out, and it did. He started talking at 20 months and just exploded with words, and had a full 2-year-old vocabulary in just 2 months. But Lily being a girl and being so different from Jack as a baby, I was expecting her to talk sooner, but she's 18 months now and still doesn't talk. I've decided not to worry b/c she DOES communicate, with whispers, gestures, and non-word vocalizations. She points to what she wants, she nods her head for "yes" and shakes it for "no" (and she's even started saying "no"), she pats her diaper when she needs a change. She's learning to catch her food in her hands when she spits it out, she's using a spoon and a cup pretty well, and she puts her shoes on by herself. She helps clean up messes, both by wiping up spills and picking up toys. This morning she even showed patience by waiting for me to get dressed before I nursed her :D She's decided that baths are fun again b/c she loves to play with the water, and this is another reason I love my new house: the bathroom with a bathtub is off of the kitchen, so the kids can play in the tub and I can cook/clean while they play and I can still keep an eye on them to make sure Lily doesn't drown! (When the water gets deep, she loses her balance and falls underwater. That's what happened months ago and she decided to be terrified of baths from then on, until now.)

Yesterday, Jack helped me cook broccoli casserole for supper. We had so much fun! He dumped the broccoli into the boiling water, poured the milk for the sauce, stirred up the sauce and poured it in, and helped me pick the seasonings to use. And then, when the casserole was done, HE ATE IT. Yes, Jack ate BROCCOLI casserole. With no fuss. Hallelujah! Then he helped me make cookies by dumping in ingredients and helping to stir; then he rolled balls of cookie dough in a plateful of sprinkles to make beautifully colorful cookies :D Then we had Family Home Evening and finished the night by watching the first Harry Potter movie and eating cookies; Lily spent about an hour shrieking and jumping on us, and Jack conked out with his head in my lap. Good times :D

So Thanksgiving is coming up and we don't have money for plane tickets :( We decided we'd drive to Utah to visit Tim's family up there, but there are mountains between here and there that are covered in snow. Tim has to work the day before Thanksgiving, so if we went we'd be driving overnight, and I just don't quite feel safe about driving overnight through snow-covered mountains. So it looks like we'll be celebrating our first ever Thanksgiving at home. We worked hard to get our unpacking done quickly and I feel at home here, so I'm really quite excited about it! I'm making a menu and trying to keep it short and simple so I can spend more time playing with my family; I'm planning on doing the grocery shopping today so I can possibly do some cooking tomorrow. And we might even go take the kids to the mountains Friday or Saturday so we can play in the snow!

Pictures!

Packing to go to Texas!

Lily went to Malina and didn't let go of her for about 15 minutes! I wonder if Lily remembered Malina? She did the same thing with her Grandma (Tim's mom) and with Vickie; Vickie and Malina were there when she was born and we spent lots of time together while we lived in Texas.

Lily and her Nanna, my mom :D

All the grandkids together! (And Jessica, Tim's older sister and mother of the two little girls in front of her.) This is marginally the best picture of the 60-something I snapped. Trying to take a photo of 4 little ones is fun!

Camping at Walker Creek Ranch

One of the fun things about being married to a famous Node programmer is that he gets free tickets to local programming conferences (if they have anything to do with Node, which is a rather small niche...). This conference was out in the WOODS, the great California outback. It was so far removed from civilization that there was no cell phone signal with any carrier (I had fun imagining myself as one of the advertised 3% not covered by AT&T).... but there was wireless internet, courtesy of a router duct-taped to a tree. It was called CouchCamp, thrown by CouchOne, which is the company built off the success of a database software called CouchDB. I don't know why everything is couches... but Tim likes them, and they like Tim. They just don't need his skills at the moment, so he can't work for them. (Shame, too, b/c they're one of the few awesome companies in Oakland, which is MUCH cheaper to live in, and much closer to the temple!)

So, we were only home from Utah for a couple of days before we left for this 3-day camp. Thankfully the camp was in lodges, not tents, so we had room to put all our stuff, beds to sleep in, and bathrooms indoors. It was also catered by the Ranch kitchen, which cooked us superb food that they said was about 80% local (and of course most of the local stuff was either organic or close to it). So, in a lot of ways it wasn't really camping, but it was out in the boonies and there were lots of animals around to gawk at. We saw tons of deer, and birds and squirrels and rabbits, and Tim saw raccoons and foxes. And we got to hike and trek in the woods and on the not-wooded hills. It was so so so much fun for me, the biologist, to go hiking with my kids and have Jack point out the trees and rock formations and be curious about whether they were all one big bush or lots of different bushes and trees together, and want to pick our way through spiky, thorny grasses to go investigate.

See this? It looks like a gigantic bush!

But this is what it looked like when we got closer:

It was so much fun for me as a mom and homeschooler to see Jack get tuckered out with all the hiking, but then see something interesting and forget that he was tired and want to go investigate, even if it's farther uphill or on the other side of spiky thorny plants. And of course Lily loved every second of it, too!

There was also a creek (Walker Creek!) to play in. It was so nice and shallow; rocky, but with sandy parts too. And cold! But not too cold for Jack and Lily :D There was a little bridge that was just a few 2x6s laid across some rocks, and Jack thought that was so neat and wanted to cross it. I asked him to just take his shoes off first in case he fell in, and he did, but he didn't even come close to falling in. He's got pretty good balance :D That reminded me so much of my own childhood, when my mom used to take me to Logoly State Park just outside of my hometown, and let me play in the creeks there. I used to love it when I could find a tree fallen across a creek, and I would cross the creek on the log and feel so proud of myself for balancing. My mom was always worried I'd fall in, so one day she asked me "What are you going to do if you fall down?" I thought and couldn't come up with any answer, so she gave me a good one: "Get right back up again." And she asked me that same question every time I was about to cross a log, for years! So it was really fun for me, to see Jack getting ready to go across on this little footbridge, and ask him "What are you going to do if you fall down?" and he did the exact same thing I did, searched for an answer, and I did the exact same thing my mom did, give him the right one after just a few seconds: "Get right back up again." And he smiled, and I asked him again so he would give me the answer this time, and he did, with a big smile, and I had to blink to hold back the tears of pride in my big grown up boy. I had to do a lot of that, blinking, watching him run back and forth across that bridge, and wade in the water, not minding the rocks in the bottom, and shriek and yell and splash and watch his rope floating in the current.

There is very little in Jack's life that offers as much fun as a stick tied to a rope...

And my sweet baby girl! She rode happily on my hip when we first got to the creek, but when she saw Jack getting in she was not happy. I put her down but she didn't want down, so I held her but she still wasn't happy. Then she kicked down again, and started heading for the creek like she wanted in, so I took off her shoes and let her go in, but she wasn't quite comfortable getting in it yet. So I held her hands and walked her across the bridge, and she got more and more confident, and then she waded a teeny bit and let her feet get wet. Then she went across the bridge one more time but wanted to reach down and splash the water. I leaned in and held her torso so she could have her hands free, and lowered her down so she could reach the water, and she went to town! *splash splash splash* went the Lily hands, and *shriek squeal giggle* went the Lily mouth. The front of her overalls were SOAKED by the time she was done. And then she happily plopped on her bottom and played in the sand on the "beach" while Jack continued his playing.

Isn't she so darling in her rolled-up overalls?

I didn't actually get any pictures of her in the creek, b/c I was so busy making sure she didn't drown :D But we got a picture of her in a different spot in the creek the next day:

The camp was really only a day and a half, as far as I was concerned. We got there Wednesday evening, just in time for supper, then had all day Thursday to play, then just Friday morning. Tim got done with his scheduled activities at lunchtime, then he took some time to play in the creek with us before we loaded up and headed out. THAT was fun, getting to share my kids and creek fun with Tim :D He clambered around on the steep slope down to the creek, and explored, and provided an extra set of arms and eyes to keep the kids safe :)

Road Trip to Utah!

We took a road trip to go visit Tim's grandparents in Orem, Utah, the first weekend in September. We planned it as a trial run, so that we would see how Lily might do on a road trip to Texas later :D

Packing up was an all-night event. I decided that this time, I was going to have a clean house before we left, gosh darn it! (We always have goals to do all the dishes and laundry before we leave on a trip, but we NEVER do, and we always have such a let-down coming home!) Between cleaning and packing and that ever-present feeling of forgetting something, I didn't go to bed at all the night before we left. And we left early in the morning, 4:15am! (The plan was to get a few hours of driving done before the kids woke, so we might make it there faster. It was the best compromise between driving overnight and not leaving until dawn.)

The kids were so excited; we warned them the night before that they'd wake up in the car. (Jack sometimes has a hard time handling surprises, so we warn him beforehand whenever we think a surprise might upset him.) So, they felt us lifting their sleeping bodies up to put them in the car, and they woke right up! Luckily they were happy, and ended up going back to sleep after an hour.

We stopped and breakfasted as soon as we got to Nevada. Got back on the road and Lily threw up her breakfast. YUCK! Took off the carseat cover, changed her clothes, got back on the road. She threw up again. Oh no, this girl gets motion sickness! (She threw up on the way home from the beach, both of the last two times we went, and both times I attributed it to other circumstantial factors.) So we made more frequent stops, and tried to put easily washed blankets down under her, and made it to Utah with only one or two more incidents, at 8pm.

We had so much fun hanging out with Tim's grandparents :D I love Tim, who happens to be just like his mother, so I love his mother too. Well, she's not too much unlike her own parents, so of course I rather like them too! We cooked and cleaned kitchen together, we toured the garden again, we chatted, we saw Tim's aunt and uncle that live right next door and another aunt and uncle that live across town, and we spent time with Tim's sister who just had a baby.

(And I am disappointed in myself that I never thought to go take care of her postpartum like I'm planning on doing for my friend in Dallas. I think it was just that the friend DID live just around the corner from me when she got pregnant, and so the plans were laid before we ever knew we were moving away. But next time a sister-in-law of mine has a baby, she will have the option of my help after the birth!)

Jack and Lily enjoyed playing on the steps in their house, and the movies they have there that Tim got to watch as a kid. Jack enjoyed the jacuzzi bathtub, and got his first-ever bubble bath. Put regular baby soap into the water right in front of the jacuzzi intake, and you get a MONSTER bubble bath!

We left at about 5am to come home. We turned Lily's carseat to be facing forward, and Tim sat next to her and helped her to look up and forward instead of down inside the car.We made great time, stopping once in Utah and once or twice in Nevada. But the entire state of California was a traffic jam! It was Labor Day weekend, and there are lots of state and national parks there at the eastern edge of the state that people were driving home from. We stopped multiple times, and had a pretty cranky toddler by the time we got home, but we got home by 9pm and were so happy to have a clean home! And, turning Lily's seat around and helping her look up, worked, and we made it home with no vomit :D

And then I bought a plane ticket to Texas :D I arrive at 5:35pm on Saturday, October 2nd, and will hopefully go straight to visit my in-laws in Texarkana. I'd like to get 2 visits in before I have to come home, and Malina doesn't want me too far from Dallas when her baby is due, so I'd better get that first visit in as soon as I get there so I don't manage to miss her baby's birth :D Then I'll go visit again after the baby is born and before I come back home.

I am SO excited to go see my best friend and see our kids play together again. I have to be careful not to talk to Jack about it too much, b/c I don't want to make him as homesick as I am, but when I do ask him if he's excited to see Lorn and Hal, he says "I want to see them RIGHT NOW! I can't wait!" I worry that I won't be very helpful while I'm there; I want to do all her laundry and dishes and help her to welcome her newest child in peace and joy, but I'm barely hanging on to my own duties right now. But that's a whole nother post ;)

Picasa album of road trip pictures!

Playing on the pony ride

This was a double pony ride outside a baby store in San Bruno (just south of San Francisco, between San Francisco and South San Francisco :P ). It was worth the 50cents to get this pic :D

Little Miss Independent!

Eating breakfast :D We were still trying to not put anything on the credit card, so it was a meager meal of bread (whole-wheat, of course) and honey and milk for Lily, and peanuts for Jack.

The pic came out blurry but you can still see her grin!

And I can't take a picture of just Lily without taking a picture of just Jack. Oh dear, what will I do when I have 15 kids?!

Lily has a chair to sit in at the table!

We had a little strap-to-existing-chair seat back in Texas. It broke, we glued it back together, but it kept on breaking. I refused to pay to have something broken shipped across country, so we came here with no chair for Lily. And having carpet under the table made me hesitant to let her have a place at the table in the first place :( She's been asking for spoons and for cups and for food, so I finally got tired of letting my fear of messes get in the way of my daughter's development. I stacked some old college textbooks (calculus, organic chemistry, and anatomy!), put a towel on them to protect them from dropped food, put her on it and scooted it up to the table. She loves it! Now she will settle for nothing less, of course :D

The best was when I gave her a spoon and a bowl full of yogurt and cereal. She was so excited! She wanted to keep playing and exploring it even after her belly was full, but I put a stop to that. She was pretty angry at me... so I laid down and nursed her until she fell asleep. Gotta love being a Mommy :D

Last Post of the Night: Ocean Beach in the City

(with "the City" being, of course, San Francisco)

Lily was asleep when we arrived. She woke as I was putting her in the wrap, but she was quite content to stay in the wrap the whole time we were there, making my job just that much easier :D Being at the beach in thick fog means I have to keep an even sharper eye on my kids, and only having one to keep an eye on was just fine with me!

We ran races, we investigated the statues, we watched the surf, we collected rocks, and we enjoyed the fog that was SO THICK that we literally got wet just walking through it.

I had a hard time picking which of the pics of Jack to put up. He's just so darn cute!

After an hour, we went to join Tim back at Node Knockout. Parking was a little tricky; the signs posted on the street had different instructions for different times of the day and different days of the week. As I was getting my kids out of the car (and Jack was dilly-dallying getting out), I commented to the guy standing nearby (waiting for a cab?) how hard it is to figure out if it's legal to park there, ha ha. He said "Yeah, that tow truck in front of your car is just waiting for you to walk away."

*gasp*

He was right! I'd seen it there but just couldn't fathom that it was waiting for me to walk away. I quickly re-read the signs and realized I had 20 minutes until I could park there legally. I got Lily back in the car and told Jack to buckle back up. As I was getting into the driver's seat, I noticed that two official-looking vans had stopped, on in front and one behind my car. They drove away as I did. WHEW! I was so glad I talked to the guy.... but then I was annoyed that he hadn't volunteered the info without being talked to.

Drove around for 20 minutes trying to find a place to park. (I miss Texas...) Finally parked back in that exact same spot, no tow truck in sight :D

Next post: Little Miss Independent!

San Francisco and Node Knockout

Tim's work is dealing with some revolutionary programming called Node.js. It's javascript on the server, which is remarkable b/c it always before only ran in the browser. Tim understands it pretty well and has been helpful in getting it publicized and in shaping its development. The guy who started it lives in San Francisco, and that is the biggest reason we now live here. Node is growing like crazy, and we hope it will be our ticket to fame and fortune someday, but for now it is still beta and changing too often to be doable for a large business. (So, that said, Tim's job is to make sure that with all this growing and changing, Node ends up being something that his company can use for their software; they get an inside voice in an awesome new platform, and Tim gets paid to work on Node. Win-Win!)

Anyway, Tim got to be a judge in a Node contest on August 27th. We got to go up to the City (AKA San Francisco) and explore while Tim was at another company (also in the City) chatting it up with the Noders. We took these pics there near Ghirardelli Square:

Lily was rather sleepy... but Jack was happy to try to help her! He loved exploring and had to be reminded a couple of times to stay close. I finally had to remind him that there are horrible people in the world who steal children, but he's safe as long as he stays close. He was MUCH better at keeping close after that :D

A statue of a mermaid nursing her merbaby would only be found in San Francisco, hippie capital of the world :D

We donated money to the street musicians and danced to their music, explored the boutique shops with frilly girl dresses and neat European toys, and were headed down to the beach when Tim called and said that some other guys had their kids there and he'd like us to come, too. So we went to spend some time with him and eat free food :D We walked into the building and were greeted by little boys between Jack's and Lily's age, playing on their Daddies' smartphones. It cracked me up, but made me feel a little better, seeing that other programmers' kids also get their fair share of computer know-how :P (As a side note, simply being the kid of a programmer is rather rare. Most programmers don't reproduce. We're not going to repeat here the jibes about the social skills or lack thereof.)

Jack had a blast playing on the arcade-game machines the company had there, I had a blast eating the food, and Lily had a blast napping, nursing, and playing with the ping-pong balls :D I even got to knit a little! At the end of the evening they had live music. It was a rock concert, in a typical business office. I found the whole idea hilarious :D Like a typical rock concert, it was LOUD. They had free earplugs for our protection :D I put some in, I put some in Jack's ears and he liked them, I put some in Lily's ears and she didn't like them. Jack and Lily loved dancing in the very front, until Lily found the little amps all taped on the floor in front of the band, and nothing I did could distract her from trying to investigate those, so we had to say goodbye to the live music and go back to the arcade games.

We went back the next day for more free food :D

Diplomas!

Tim got his paper in the mail. You know, the one that is pitifully small and insignificant-looking compared to the hours of blood sweat and tears that went into getting it? We're not sure if you call it a diploma or a degree, but it's on our wall whatever it is :D

Tim did the framing and the arranging. And he sweetly put up my piece of paper from FIVE YEARS AGO, too :D (He also did the artwork on the photo; it's a pic from New Years' Day that he did some neat little photoshopping on.)

In case I've never mentioned it, Tim's degree is in Software Engineering, mine is just a Bachelor of Science. I did the work to get a degree in Biology and a degree in Chemistry, and was told by some administrator at the school that I would indeed receive two papers since I received two degrees, but I only got one and it doesn't even say what it is. So disappointing.

I have hope for my education. I sometimes despair and think I've forgotten everything, but sometimes I get a chance to talk to someone about basic science and see how little they know about it, so even if I've forgotten everything Dr. Suggs taught me in Instrumental Analysis, I still know more about biology and chemistry than the average person. Is it bad that that makes me feel good?

Jack loves to check out "body books" (books about the human body) from the library, and go through them with me pointing to everything and asking me all about it. He loves to learn about how the body works. I did, too, when I was his age; if my education does nothing more than ignite my children's curiosity to learn about the way they work, it will be worth it :D I remember being fascinated by my mom's college physics book, and a book of hers that had pop-ups of the chambers of the heart, the chest cavity, the eye, the abdominal cavity, skeletal muscles, etc. I've always credited that book with my love of learning about anatomy, but seeing how much Jack loves learning it, I'm thinking it was inborn.

Next post: San Francisco and Node Knockout!

Trying to play catchup...

I missed a few days blogging. Then I missed more b/c I knew that catching up would take a long time.

Should I start at the most recent and work my way back? Or start where I left off and work my way up?

I'll only be able to write about the things I was smart enough to take pics of, b/c I won't remember anything else :( Luckily I carry my camera with me everywhere!

August 25th

This was at the Valley Fair Shopping Center in San Jose. We had a heat wave, which is hilarious b/c it was the coldest summer in 40 years, then all of a sudden at the end it gets hot! To escape the heat, the young moms in my ward went to the beach. I neglected to take pics, but we had a BLASTITY BLAST BLAST BLAST. Lily loves exploring sand, watching it pour through her fingers, tasting it (but she doesn't eat much of it so I don't bother trying to stop her....I think making a big deal out of it would do just that, make a big deal out of it and end up making her eat more), swishing it with her hands, squishing it with her fingers, kicking her feet in it, etc etc etc. Add a big bucket of water to the mix and you've got hours (literally) of entertainment! Jack liked to make the perfect mix of sand and water in a bucket that would look like sand but really be water to the touch, and drag any object tied on the end of a string through the sand and watch the trail it made, and drag same object through the little creek that emptied into the ocean and watch it get carried away by the flow of the creek and watch it be pulled back by the string. I could hardly compete with that string for his attention; he only stopped to eat b/c I repeatedly demanded that he do so, and he was the first of all the kids to be back up and playing. I had fun chatting with the other moms, and playing with my kids in the sand and surf. I sat with Lily in my lap and let the surf wash over us a few times, and had the high honor of getting to watch her face as the cold water washed up to her chest and back down again. I tried to convince Jack to come join us, but he was absolutely not interested. He was way too busy with his string :D I love watching his intense focus when he's doing string physics (as I like to call it...). He is MY son. (I guess he's Tim's, too, but I don't know Tim's childhood quite as well as I know mine!)

Anyway, those silly ladies made beach trips twice during the heat waves, and both times they went in the morning. Morning-time is the nice, cool time, the time that our home was actually bearable! It was evening-time that it was too hot to live in, so we just went straight to the mall from the beach. It was a pretty nice mall, with a play area as good as some of the ones around Dallas, but the best parts were the family lounges. Rooms with play tables and magazines and soft chairs, and booths with curtains for private nursing, and changing tables and sinks for washing hands. But my kids preferred for whatever reason to be out in the fray, battling the crowds to explore the mall. I was glad to get to go home, even if it was hot :P

Next post: Diplomas!