Yesterday and today were all hot and wet!

Yesterday was HOT. It got up to 100 degrees. We were not prepared for that! We have only a little personal fan, no air conditioner, no big fans. So, some moms in my ward invited me to their condominium complex to swim in their pool. I asked Jack if he wanted to wear his swimsuit (just swim shorts, but we call it a swimsuit b/c that's what mine is called). He said no, but after I said I was going to wear mine under my clothes so I had the option of getting in the water if I wanted to, he said he would wear his swim shorts. He thought it was neat that they had built-in undies :D We went to the pool and he didn't protest at all about wearing sunscreen (he got used to it after we did The Dish last week or so). Then he GOT IN THE POOL. Yall, that's the first time he's ever done that. In Texas when we had our own condominium complex with a pool, he insisted on staying on the ground while everyone else got in the water. He had a blast watching everyone else, but he was not interested in getting into it himself. Right as we were getting ready to move, he progressed to not minding if he got splashed, then he made a big step and was OK with getting into the little pool and being carried in the big pool. So this was a big deal, and I was so glad he had fun!

I had a sleeping Lily when we first walked up to the pool. I sprayed sunscreen on Jack (spray-on sunscreen ROCKS MY SOCKS!), then told him he could get in if he wanted. Let's see, holding a sleeping toddler while helping my 4-year-old get into the pool for the first time ever = does not compute. Luckily my son is cautious by nature, and waited for me to figure out what to do with Lily before he really got in. Luckily also, one of the moms saw my predicament and laid a nice, soft, damp towel on the ground in the shade, for me to lay Lily on. Luckily number three, Lily was exhausted, and happily stayed asleep when I laid her down! So I got to go into the water with Jack, and laugh and giggle with him as he discovered how much fun the water was, and Lily still got enough of a nap! Jack had SO MUCH FUN!!! He could only play on the steps, b/c the pool was too deep for him to be able to touch bottom while keeping his face above water. Since he's never been interested in swimming, we don't have any floaties or anything. I should have already bought some, perhaps it would have facilitated his enthusiasm some. Almost every other mom there had floaties for their kids: life vests, arm rings, and/or boats just the right size for toddlers and 4-year-olds. Naturally, all the kids wanted to play with their own toys as soon as they got there, and nobody had any extra, so Jack had to wait before he could get a turn. He tried to be patient but I had to remind him a couple of times! But eventually, one kid got tired of her toy, and Jack jumped into it faster than she could turn around. It had holes in the bottom for his legs to go through so he could kick himself around in the water, so he discovered that he could propel himself through the water, and he thought that was AWESOME! We chased each other, played follow-the-leader, and I had fun swimming underneath him and coming up on his other side. I glanced over at Lily probably every 15 seconds or so, and I saw her squirming before she really woke up, so I got to pick her up and hold her before she realized I wasn't there :D She was a little disoriented, and needed to nurse, but once she had her belly full and her bearings, she was so excited to be at a pool playdate! By now another kid had abandoned his boat, so I put her in it, and she had fun splashing. She got her face and head almost completely soaked, just by splashing. Jack loved towing her and being towed by her and me :D Eventually Lily wanted out of the boat, and Jack too; Jack hung out on the steps, but Lily wanted to swim! I held her out in the water and she kept pushing my hands off of her, "Let me go! Let me go!" I let go for a split second so she could see she would sink if I did, but I grabbed her before her face went under, so it didn't make much of an impression on her :P I tried holding her out from me so she wouldn't feel smothered, and she liked that a lot!

How sad that we would discover the bliss of the pool, at the END of the summer :( Next summer we are SO doing swimming lessons!

When we got home, Jack was asleep, so I laid him in the bed and put a fan on him to keep him cool. I was a little worried that he'd be cold, since he was still in his damp swim clothes, but the heat in our house dried him off and he was sweaty by the time he woke up. Lily played happily while Jack napped; I was so tired and annoyed with the heat, so I played with her a little and knitted. After Jack woke, he asked me if we're supposed to play a game every day (I've told him we have to read every day and we have to go outside every day, b/c those are important things). I said yes, we should play a game every day, and he was so excited! So we got out a game and played :D Lily was sad she couldn't join in, but she was easily appeased, and Jack did really well with following the rules, and he had fun. After we played the game through, I let him play with the pieces freestyle, and he stacked them into a high tower. Lily wanted to "help", and Jack said he'd like her to not knock it down yet, so I carried her off while he finished. When he was done, he said "Lily can knock it down now!" How sweet :D So Lily knocked it down, and they had a blast playing together, and we all picked it up together.

Lily was exhausted, so I laid her down for a late nap. She didn't sleep well b/c of the heat, even with a fan on her. She was grumpy all evening, as was I. We were angry at the silly weather for being so hot (or at least, I was!). At 10pm it was too hot in our house to sleep, so we loaded up the kids in the car and went for an air-conditioned drive. Target and Wal-Mart were both closed, so we didn't get to buy any bigger fans, but when we got home we put the little fan in the window to pull in the cool night air, and the night was bearable. None of us slept as well as usual, but we slept.

And this morning! We loaded up and went to the beach! The same moms we swam with yesterday put together a beach trip. It was a little farther than the ones we've already been to, but it was fun to see yet another new beach. Lily fell asleep on the way, and was happy to wake up on the beach :D This was my first time to go to a beach here and not have to wear long sleeves; the heat wave that's making it so hot here inland is making the beach perfect! Jack did NOT get close to the water; waves are a LOT scarier than a pool, and Tim and I have done a great job of terrifying him of rip tides. But he happily played in the sand with his friends' toys, and we moms happily supplied buckets of water to play with in the sand. I had a blast with the surf breaking over my feet, and getting to hold my friends' 4-year-olds' hands as the surf almost knocked them down :D They would stand on either side of me and clutch my hand and cling to me and just SHAKE and SHIVER with fear and anticipation as we watched the wave come towards us, then it would hit us and they would SCREAM and JUMP and DANCE! Then the water would slip back to the ocean, and the boy would kick at it and yell "Go back!" and the girl would just smile :D I had so much fun with those kids, while my kids happily played with the sand a safe distance away from the water. My friend's friend (mother of the boy) came and "relieved" me, acting like I couldn't possibly be having fun with them, and I said "No, I'm loving it! But I will go play with my own kids now, thanks!"

I had fun chatting with my friend Angela while we played with our kids in the sand. She hates this area and has been trying to move away for the last 8 years, but things just haven't worked out. We have some differences, but I like her anyway. Maybe this move was good for me after all...

We didn't leave til 3pm! Lily was so grumpy! Walking to our car, she insisted on walking. And investigating every single piece of debris that she found on the way (trash, feathers, bits of grass, etc.). And of course Jack was running full-tilt, so I had to keep calling to him to stay closer to me, and picking up my screaming toddler who would then contort and squirm and try to throw herself out of my arms. Fun times! Luckily a passing stranger offered to help me, and I let her carry Lily for me. I would have let her carry my bags, but I thought (correctly) that if she carried Lily, Lily would be so shocked that she would comply with being carried. She whimpered at first, but she didn't try to get away, and by the time we got to the car her eyelids were drooping! I loaded them up in the car and away we went. They both conked right out :D

Went to the Valley Fair Shopping Center in San Jose. It's the closest mall to my house with an indoor playground. It wasn't as good as the Galleria Dallas, but then, none of the other malls in Dallas had playgrounds as good as the Galleria. It was as good as the other Dallas malls :D I was SO TIRED. I could hardly function as anything more than a child-follower. We stayed there til 7pm, just avoiding our hot apartment. Got home, and the heat wave is letting up! There's actually a breeze now! So all our windows are open to let it in, and we're not sweating anymore. Oh thank goodness!

So, to bed with me! I do regret that I didn't take any pictures yesterday or today. But I did have fun!

Here's a funny one from Saturday:

Cute little boy passed out after playing games on Daddy's phone :D

From last Wednesday, when we went to the Junior Museum (I don't know why I didn't put these up then!):

This is the front "yard" of the museum. It's so much fun, they play on it before they go in, then play some more after they leave :D

My handsome little boy!

Productive, yet sleepy, day

I was so tired all day. I felt like I was hanging on with white knuckles and gritted teeth. I prayed for help to actually get something done instead of just sitting around. Hey, at least I got some knitting done!

And I think my prayers were answered. I played with my kiddos, and felt no guilt when I WAS just sitting around (knitting).

Took the kids next door to jump on the trampoline. Made a startling discovery that made me laugh at myself: my neighbor is a single mom who adopted her kids. It's funny to me that I just kept expecting to see her husband, and expected him to be dark African b/c her kids are "black". (I have to put that in quotation marks b/c their skin is not actually black, it is simply the brown skin of African Americans, which I grew up calling black. And Jack tells me "but their skin isn't black, it's brown!") So, I'm just so steeped in traditional family culture that I see a "white" mom with "black" kids and just assume that her husband must be African. I've lived next to them for almost 3 months and it took me this long to realize the true make-up of the family! The oldest kid, going into 2nd grade, said today "My mom's thinking of getting a baby girl!" The middle child chimed in and said "And she says I'm going to have to help change diapers!"

We had tons of fun with them. The sun was fierce today (as fierce as it gets here, anyway) and the black (ha! Truly black, too, not brown!) trampoline was hot enough to make sweet Lily cry when she fell on it. So the oldest boy sprayed water on the trampoline to cool it off, and Jack didn't balk at getting wet. I have to keep reminding myself that he's 4 and all grown up now (but then I have to remind myself that he's still just 4 when he throws tantrums). Then we filled up water balloons and the kids had fun with them, and Lily investigated the rocks in their backyard.

After Lily's nap, we played with my new toy. So far we've mostly been copying the pictures of different tracks that are on the box, but I said today I wanted to invent and do new things. Then I had to walk away to change Lily's diaper. When I came back, Jack was proudly exclaiming that he had built a track. So I got out the camera, and he took a picture of it all by himself!

He held the camera very carefully, pushed the button in slowly so it had time to focus, and was a good distance away from his subject. He only forgot to put the strap around his wrist first. And that's a pretty neat ball track, too!

Then he asked if there could be a picture with him and the ball track in one picture. So I happily obliged :D It took 3 shots to get this b/c he was dancing and singing while smiling and posing; I would have held out and kept on snapping, trying to get a better one, but Lily was throwing a tantrum b/c I wouldn't let her have the camera :(

Went grocery shopping, and kids were great. We're starting to be a little harder on Jack for throwing tantrums, telling him he can't have treat if he screams or throws a fit (and then following through, which is as hard for me as it is for him). What motivation! And it's really working; he must have been ready for it. He was very good in the store, and got the cookies they hand out to kids who ask for them.

Took the car to the shop for its regular oil change and a tune-up prior to long road trips. Left it there for them to work on it first thing in the morning, and walked home. Yay, living in a downtown, EVERYTHING is walking distance away (except the beach). Got more groceries on the way home, too!

Made cookies for our family home evening treat. DIDN'T scream or yell at the wild and crazy four-year-old who just can't stand all the excitement when Daddy comes home. (Is it normal for kids to go berserk when Daddies come home? He literally runs around screaming, jumps on us, throws things, hits us and kicks us, and laughs at us when we tell him to stop!) We had a very successful family home evening; Jack was reverent and obedient all the way through, Lily waited til it was over to completely melt down, and the cookies were delicious :D Jack's idea for our activity was to tell stories! That was completely out of the blue, we haven't told stories in a while and he's never told one at all to my knowledge. He made up his own version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Goldilocks helped clean up after she made the mess in the Bears' house!), then I told a story about making cookies together and sharing them with friends, then Tim told a story about living in a hut in the woods, then I told a story about living in a glass dome under the sea, then Jack told a story about living on the beach and building a bridge across the ocean. !!! It's so neat to see him develop new skills, and I'm so excited every time he does something imaginative and creative :D He's so much like me, and I've never felt like I'm very imaginative or creative, so I need to work on my creativity so I can help him (hence the knitting...)

Speaking of, when I went shopping for camo yarn last week (!! I made a pink and purple scarf for my cousin's daughter a couple of months ago, and her son decided he wanted a scarf too, but he wants his CAMO. !!), I looked at the scrapbook supplies just so I could start dreaming of making Jack's and Lily's scrapbooks. Jack was really excited when I told him what a scrapbook was and what I'd be doing with it (making it for HIM, with pictures of HIM, for him to keep all his life!), and he wanted to pick his out right then and there. He picked one that was pink and purple.... I've never discouraged him from liking pink, b/c I think it is downright silly for our culture to say there is a color that is only for girls and boys can't use it. (What I really hate about it is not so much the exclusivity of the color, but the way boys so often look down on it, as if pink isn't good enough for a boy.) But I would hate for him to carry around a pink scrapbook all his life and come to regret that later! (Although, I suppose we could switch it into a more masculine one if he decides he wants it, later. Yay for scrapbooks and removable pages!) I asked him what he liked about the pink and purple one, and he said he liked the "gears" on it. Well, that's masculine enough, don't ya think? They weren't really gears, they were some kind of variation on a paisley theme, but HE saw gears. So we looked for another book with gears and couldn't find one. We'll look online next :D

I'm changing up our homeschooling schedule a bit, but I haven't decided how. Jack just asked me as I was putting him to bed what we're going to do tomorrow, b/c he wants a schedule. I told him I'm changing it a bit and I don't know yet how it's going to be, and poor kid pleaded with me not to change it, he likes doing what Malina does. So, I guess I'd better make a plan for tomorrow before I go to bed :D

Good night!

My birthday!

I turned 26 yesterday!

We tidied the house in the morning, which I was very happy to do b/c it was a wreck and completely unenjoyable. Tim cleaned with gusto, which he always does, but it was still extra nice b/c it was my birthday and he was cleaning house :D

After Lily woke from her nap, we had cake (chocolate with chocolate ganache and chocolate chips!) and Tim and Jack sang Happy Birthday (which was awful, just like they do at his mom's house!), and I opened my present: Ball N Roll! We played with it and had a blast, then went to Foothills Park, the nature preserve open only to Palo Alto residents. We hacked our way up a hill, turned around when the underbrush got too thick, and discovered that we could "ski" down the soft dirt and got down in about 2 minutes flat!

We went to another spot in the park where we had a beautiful view of the Bay, then drove back into town for a little get-together of the young couples in our ward. We got frozen yogurt! Then we came home and tried to put Lily to bed, but she refused, so we played with my new toy for a couple more hours, then fell into bed.

And today, we all slept in. I got out of the shower to discover Lily had crawled over to Jack and was lying on her tummy with her head on Jack's bum; I thought she was all the way awake, but when I picked her up she laid her head on my shoulder and went back to sleep! I let her sleep for a few minutes, then laid her on the bed and she stayed asleep! I took her onesie off to put her dress on, and she stayed asleep! I put her dress on her, and she stayed asleep still! (Now, I did all of this as gently as I could, I wasn't TRYING to wake her, but still, she should have woken up!) I picked her up and laid her in her carseat, and she woke a little and went back to sleep again! Drove to church and let Tim pick her up and hold her, and she stayed asleep another 20 minutes or so. And when she finally woke, she woke groggy and grumpy; we fed her cheerios, which always helps, but she was still not a happy girl for the rest of the 3 hours we were there.

(On a side note, I'm pretty proud of myself and my family. We got up at 8 am and left the house at 9am, and actually got to take the sacrament.)

I got to help out in Jack's class again today. It was a little harder, there were more kids in the class today and there was one little boy who was having a hard time. He missed his mom, and he didn't want to cuddle anyone else but her, and he didn't like being told what to do. We had to be careful to be extra nice to him; had a really hard time when he and Jack were playing and neither one of them would listen to me and the teacher, but she had a great idea and put the other boy's chair next to hers at the front of the class, and we had peace.

And now there is quiet in our house as the kids play and Tim sleeps and I blog and knit :D

Silly songs and other sundries

Silly Lily

Fresh and frilly

Wants to live somewhere that's hilly

Doesn't like it when it's chilly (I really should rewrite it to be "Doesn't like to not be chilly!")

Jack adds "In the oven on the hill!"

One of the first pics I took of Lily in her knitted (by me!) frilly, September 2009

A couple of songs I made up for Jack when he was a baby:

(Old King Cole)

My Jack Dean is a sweet little bean

And a sweet little bean is he:

He coos for his mom

And he laughs for his dad

And he giggles wildly for Rosie (the dog we had at the time)!

Diddle diddle dumpling, my son Jack

Went to bed with his shoes on, Ack!

One shoe white and one shoe black,

Diddle diddle dumpling, my son Jack.

Sweet little toddler Jack at Logoly State Park near Magnolia, Arkansas, November 2007.

Today was the second day of Jack's photography camp. I'm told he was an observer today, not taking many pictures but happily watching the other kids snap away. And he proudly told me all about the five pictures he did take, and glowed with pride when Tim and I gushed over one he took:

We like this pic b/c you can see the image on the camera of the girl on the right. I had fun quizzing Jack "What's her name?" and he remembers the name of one girl, and tries that name out on every other girl in the group :D He's doing a great job making friends; the thought struck me, today, that moving here is really helping him learn how to make new friends. I didn't think he needed any help with that, b/c he was always really good at it.... hmm, maybe it was me who needed the help...

We got our car back from the body shop today. That silly little girl of mine AGAIN fell asleep on the way there, even though she'd already had her nap for the day (it's not that far away, really!). Luckily, she again let me lay her in the front seat while I switched the carseats, and sweet Jack was given the job of Lily-watcher. He made sure nobody ran off with Lily :D

I gave Jack his allowance for the last week and a half, and he happily spent a dollar buying a little package of gumballs, and spent the next 3 hours happily chewing them all up and spitting them out when they became flavorless. It was hilarious.

Tim found the iPad version of a computer game we used to play together called Battle for Wesnoth. We used to play it before Jack was born, then after he was born we would take turns playing the game and bouncing the baby boy. We haven't played it since then, and it's funny how much we're enjoying playing it together right now. We took turns playing and entertaining kids and getting kids ready for bed and into bed. I always think it's funny when our kids go to bed with no urging from us. Jack says "I'm ready for bed!" and I say "You're welcome to go there!" and he does. Score!

My birthday is in 2 days :D

Feeling Better

I read some articles in my church's magazine, the Ensign, and the thought struck me, "Do you really want to be angry about moving, or do you want to move on with your life?" My feet are still dragging, but I'm moving on.

Tim came home about 10pm from work, and all I wanted to do was sulk. He got pretty mad at me for that. He stayed up til after midnight, cleaning to work out his anger. I woke up to a spotless kitchen and a forgiving husband, and tried not to be mad at him for being mad at me. Vicious cycle!

Checked out the homeschool group, Mid-Peninsula Homeschoolers. It was a LLL leader, Annabelle, who had recommended them to me, and she was there even though I didn't get there til about 5pm. I talked to her a lot, and I like her. We both bemoaned the smaller family sizes out here (she's Catholic and I'm Mormon, so we both believe in large families, and the culture has tainted even those of our faiths to limit their families to 2-3 kids), and talked about our reasons for homeschooling that have nothing to do with the quality of the schools nearby. AND, I heard some horror stories about the supposedly great schools here, from a couple of kids who moved here from the rural midwest. Their mother pulled them out of school here b/c the schools were so awful compared to what they had in Indiana. Maybe it's the early elementary schools here that are so great... I had fun, and my kids had fun playing on the playgrounds. Jack was being possessive of another kid's beach ball, so it was a learning experience for me to step back and let him learn from his mistakes instead of jumping in and telling him what to do. I did my parental duty to make sure he understood that those toys belonged to someone else, then I let him learn from the kid who didn't want her toys commandeered. I think it worked; another kid came with a toy truck that Jack wanted, and he gave that toy truck back to it's owner a lot more easily than he had given up the beach ball. Then he shared his own toy that I fetched for him from our car (a clanky metal treasure chest that just begged to be filled up with the wood chips that filled this playground).

And Lily had fun climbing the steps, then going down the slide, then toddling back to the steps to repeat. It's so much fun watching her realize what she's "supposed" to do on a playground :D

She made her version of the "more" sign a few times today. That has become her catch-all sign, her way of saying back to me whatever I'm asking her. She was done on the potty, and I asked her if she was done, and she signed "more." What's that supposed to mean, yes? Or no, she needs "more" time on the potty? Then every time I offered her food, she signed "more," and that was much more easily understood :D She's also learned how to ask to nurse, and I'm trying to teach her a sign for that, but every time I make the sign for her, she signs "more" back at me. Hey, she's communicating, and that's a good thing! It's fun to watch her realize, "Hey, I know how to ask for this. I'm going to ask for it and see if I get it. Hey, I do! That's awesome!"

Was invited to go to the Junior Museum with a couple of the moms who have just moved into our ward. (We were just the first of many new families in our ward.) It was fun, they both have ittle toddlers like Lily, and we had fun watching our little ones explore and learn and be completely overwhelmed by all the bigger kids running around. And of course, Jack had such fun he never wanted to leave.

He is getting better and better at watching Lily for me. I never leave him to watch her for more than a few minutes, but if I need to run across the room and I don't want to drag Lily with me but I also don't want to leave her unwatched, I tell Jack to hold her hand, or sit down next to her, or keep his eyes on her (that one is the hardest for him) until I get back. Sometimes I'll take a minute to watch him watch her, and he is so good at keeping an eye on her! And he'll report back to me when I get back, "Nobody tried to take Lily!"

Or sometimes, in a store or running some other errand, Lily will want to walk, and I'll want her to be corralled so she doesn't run in the parking lot or something, so I'll tell Jack to hold her hand. It was hilarious the first time, b/c she refused to hold his hand and kept shaking him off, but she's getting used to it now, and he's getting better at holding on to her :D

Before we went to the museum, we went to the library that's right across the parking lot. Jack had fun returning books and movies, then picking out new ones. We found a little section of the library that we'd never noticed before (the "New Readers' Nook"), and didn't go to the computer they have for kids to listen to books on (YAY!). Jack picked out all the Dr. Seuss books in the New Readers' Nook, and a few others as well. All the books in that section have large print, with short words, and not many words on a page; all the Dr. Seuss books in that section are books like "Hop on Pop" that are more plays on rhymes than stories, which Jack found disappointing. He wants a story, not a string of rhymes. But he loves Dr. Seuss, so he's warming up to the new books, and he'll have plenty of time to read them in the next few weeks. I learned from a friend of mine; her toddler pulls down books and puzzles every day and leaves them strewn all over the floor, but my friend doesn't mind picking them up. I was completely baffled as to why she didn't mind, why she didn't put them up higher where the toddler wouldn't make such a mess (toddler Jack used to do the same thing and it drove me nuts!), until Lily started doing the same thing, and I noticed that when the books are strewn all over the floor, Jack will pick them up and ask me to read to him. So, my house is always a mess, but Jack is picking up reading skills at lightning speed!

Tonight's photos are a little old...

This was back in Texas, in January. Lily was just starting to pull books down and delightedly flip through them :D She was about 8 months old.

This one isn't as old, it's just from last month. (I didn't have any pics of Jack and books, b/c I'm the one who reads the most to him, and I'm the one who takes the most pictures!) Tim likes to make games, and this one he and Jack designed together, colored together, then played together to work out the rules. Jack was just in heaven :D He may not know how to read yet, but he knows how to design a new game!

Good night!

Let's not make a habit of this.

Today was hard from start to finish.

If you don't want to read a bunch of whining and venting, stop now.

I hate california. I hate everything about it. No amount of beauty and nice weather is worth living here. I hate Tim's job, I hate my new ward, I hate my neighborhood, I hate my new living arrangement, I hate my new bedroom, (I do happen to like my new kitchen, except for the fact that there's NO DISHWASHER), I hate all the ugly carpet in my new apartment, I hate the culture here.

Poor Jack. We woke up late this morning, had a commitment to get to at 9:30am. Jack doesn't do well when he's rushed, and I don't do well when I'm ignored. Tim played referee between us, but poor Jack was still sniffling when we got to our appointment at 9:45, and I felt like the worst mother on earth.

But the thing went really well! It was a photography camp for 4-year-olds. I thought it was rather ambitious, expecting 4-year-olds to do well with digital cameras, but they did, and they had a blast. I stayed there for the first hour and a half (half out of guilt for making his morning so miserable, half b/c I just don't leave my kids anywhere ever). They talked about the parts of a camera, the difference between blurry photos and clear photos, how to handle a camera, where the camera focuses, and then I left. While I was gone they went outside and took pictures, then ate lunch. Jack was adventurous and ate a blueberry! (And I realize now I forgot to ask him how he liked it. I guess he didn't like it much or he would have eaten more than one!)

I went to a La Leche League meeting for about an hour. It was alright. Got to help out a new mom who felt like she was nursing all the time; told her that was normal and nothing to worry about, then gave her some suggestions for hands-free breastfeeding so she won't mind it (always being attached to the baby) so much :D I happened to have paper and pen in my hand while we were all throwing suggestions at her, so I wrote them all down for her. Yay me!

Silly Lily fell asleep there. I tried to keep her awake so she could fall asleep after I picked Jack up, but she got really mad at me for that, so I let her sleep. And thankfully, she stayed asleep when I put her in the car, while I waited to pick Jack up, when I took her out of the car, and only woke up a little when I laid her down in the bed. So I laid down next to her and nursed her back to sleep and took a nap with her, too! And poor Jack was left all alone with his cartoons. He doesn't even remember what he watched (99% chance it was something OK), so that tells me he didn't enjoy it much.

I tried to salvage the day by playing with the kids. And that really was the highlight of my day. We played with the dominoes, then played another game together. And the kids played happily while I talked on the phone with a good friend, so that was nice. (And the highlight of that conversation: I told her I'm burned out a bit and not doing any "school" this week, and she said "Good! You're supposed to take a break when you need it!")

We went to the Stanford shopping center to look at the fountains there. I always feel so ugly when I go there; all those upscale clothing stores and their dressed-up manequins, and the shoppers that go there all dressed so much nicer than me, with their hair and makeup and nails all done. And I realized what I hate about this place so much: there is such a segregation between kid-friendly and not kid-friendly. The places that are kid-friendly are GREAT. FABULOUS. WONDERFUL. The places that aren't kid-friendly, I'll be the only silly mom there with my kids, and it just sucks.

Again, I hate california.

Tonight was a "Ladies Night Out" with some of the moms. Here's another reason I hate my ward: the relief society (the women's organization) never provides babysitting at their activities, and they never have kid-friendly activities. So, again, I was the only one with my kids. And no matter how good they were, they were still kids with active minds and bodies, and I hardly got anything out of the evening. (Except maybe an appreciation for how well-behaved my kids are, but by then I was so sulky I hardly even noticed. Poor kids.) I really think next time I'll just stay home. In fact, I'm really tired of trying to make friends here, so I think I'll just stop trying. (Really, I won't, but it feels good to type it...)

Tim's job rocks. He's a celebrity. He gets to ride his scooter up to "the city" (the term for San Francisco around here. Interestingly enough, they despise the nickname "Frisco".) to eat lunch or dinner with his buddies, and that's part of his job. He gets to fly to Germany to speak at a world-famous conference, and that's part of his job. He gets to do work that he enjoys so much that he did it for free for a month when he was bored of the jobs in Texas. It's really hard not to hate him for having so much fun here.

At least my kids went to bed well. We got home and they were both exhausted. Lily even happily let me brush her teeth (she usually fights it). Jack climbed right into bed as soon as we walked in the door. Nursing Lily to sleep took no more than 10 minutes. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have such delightful children.

This was Lily on the grass by the fountain:

And the rest of the pics from today are in another Picasa album.

Opposition in all things?

You know your day is going to suck when you have to go drop off your car at the body shop, and your silly toddler falls asleep on the way, even though it's only 9am. You get there and take her out and go into the office to hand them the keys and sign the papers, then you realize that you're going to have to take the carseats out of your car and put them in the rental car WHILE holding your sleeping toddler. The rental-car-guy is not allowed to help you put the carseats in for liability reasons, and even if he was, he doesn't know how.

God smiled on me, though, and Lily let me lay her down in the front seat of the car while I installed her seat and Jack's booster. She even stayed asleep when I picked her up from the seat and put her in her carseat and buckled her in. Dude drove us to the rental place, and except for lying to me he was super nice :P He said I wasn't covered by my insurance when I was in the rental car, so I needed to purchase the loss damage waiver for "only" $12/day. When I got home (with a very crabby awake Lily) I called the insurance to ask them, and they said I was lied to and I needed to call them back and see what they could do. I did (with screaming Lily clinging to my ankles), and they said I'd need to come back in to sign papers again! So I got a picnic ready to go, and printed out a map to the place, and got in the car.

The address they gave me was right in the middle of the Stanford campus. There is no rental car office in the middle of the Stanford campus, yo. I didn't have their phone number to call them, and I was getting pretty hungry, so I went ahead and drove to our picnic spot. (Both kids were now asleep in the car.)

Got lost, of course. Oh well, gave the kids a longer nap. Got to the spot: The Stanford Dish. Got out, wrapped on the sleeping Lily, discovered that since it's a coyote-infested area, they don't allow picnicing. Oh well, we passed a good picnic spot a couple of blocks uphill, so there we trekked. Sat down and enjoyed a nice lunch: salad of Swiss Chard (locally grown, organic, purchased at a little farmstand on the way home from the beach!), strawberries and pluots (also from the farmstand), and peanut butter and honey sandwich. Lily woke up and ate strawberry and bread. I felt much better as I felt my blood sugar rise :D

Packed up our picnic things and went back to The Dish. It was quite sunny, and had a lovely smell just like every wild place around here. I got out our sunscreen and sprayed it on myself and Lily; Jack didn't want any part of it, so I told him he ran the risk of getting a sunburn if he didn't wear it. He said he wanted to go home, and I told him that wasn't an option and started hiking away. He followed me, whining and fussing, and eventually said he would put on the sunscreen so he wouldn't burn. I put it on him as lovingly and sweetly as I could, and he liked it, and that was that!

We hiked up the hills slowly but surely, and had a lovely view of the bay. I took lots of pics! Jack was tired and wanted to turn back, and I almost let him, but then he started running to go investigate something and I knew he had enough energy go to uphill some more. So I encouraged him to keep going up with me, and he did. Lily alternated between wanting to investigate the grass and wanting me to carry her; I could tell she was still tired, but I didn't think she'd get too cranky since we were outside and she LOVES the outdoors. Had a really sweet moment when Lily asked Jack to pick her up; I got a pic, but pictures just don't capture moments like that :D

Plopped Lily down in the grass at the very top of the hill so I could take some pictures; she had SO MUCH FUN playing with that particular patch of grass that she threw a screaming fit when I picked her back up to start back down the hill. I kept thinking she would stop screaming, but she didn't. She threw herself around in my arms, so I put her down, but the damage was done; the tantrum continued on the ground, so I picked her back up and continued down the hill. Poor kid, she was screaming so much I was starting to worry someone would think I was abducting her (there were plenty of joggers out there); I was running through ways to prove she was my daughter in my mind (doesn't she look just like me? Here, my 4-year-old can vouch for me! in fact, doesn't she look just like him, too, and doesn't he look like me? I can tell you the locations of all her weird freckles!). Finally we happened upon a patch of shade so I plopped down and nursed her. I thought that would fix her, but then she started throwing a fit b/c I wouldn't let her pull my shirt up to expose me to the passing joggers. So up we got and continued back down the hill, with her still screaming. I was amazed how much work it was to go downhill; I would have thought it would be easier than going up, but it was definitely harder. I turned around and went backwards for a while for a break! (If I got that much exercise going up and down those hills as slowly as I did today, imagine the beating I would take if I got a double stroller and carted my kids up and down those hills. Am I a masochist for wanting to do that every week?)

Lily stopped screaming right before we got to the car, and giggled and babbled in the car the whole way home. Go figure.

Had a decent evening. I asked Tim if he could come home early so we could get family home evening out of the way and get Lily to bed; he came home pretty quickly, but we didn't actually get started on our evening until after 7. Then Jack had a really hard time settling down and being reverent for family home evening. I was ready to just call it off and send him to bed, but Tim persevered and we had a good time eventually.

So, I never did get to the stupid rental car office to sign for them to take the ldw off my account. Yay for throwing $12 down the drain.

Jack said "Two twos is four!" on the way from the picnic spot to the car. That was completely unexpected and pretty neat :D Then he started asking "What's 3 3s? What's 3, 3, 3, 3, 3? What's 4 4s?" etc. Reminded me of Lorn and Hal a bit :D

Trying to pick a couple of photos to share, I want to share them all, so yall get a Picasa Web Album.

And the Anniversary Celebration Continues...

Today was a great Sabbath. We actually got to church on time, and even better, we did it without getting all worked up and stressed out! (Church starts at 9am, but it's like a 20-minute-drive. It's sad how many days we end up there at about 9:15!)

Dropping Jack off at Primary, they were singing "I Know My Savior Loves Me", which I haven't heard them sing before. The last time I heard it was in Texas, where we all learned it together, with Malina as our music leader. It really caught me off guard how suddenly homesick I was. I pouted the rest of the meetings.... but I don't think anyone could tell, and I did my best to act as if I was having a good time. Fake it til ya make it! On a good note, I made significant progress on my current knitting project (a pull-on soaker for Lily, pink and blue).

When I picked Jack up from his class, I asked him what they talked about in class. I ask him every time, and he never remembers. Hey, he's 4, I'm just happy he's having a good time, right? Well, today he actually remembered, and told me "We talked about choices!"

AND! He colored a picture for me! He usually isn't at all interested in coloring with crayons, but he colored me a picture today! Yay for progress! And I actually remembered later to discuss with him about choices; bringing home the lessons they learn in church is a FABULOUS way to cement those lessons :D

On the way home, poor sleeping Lily woke up and screamed. Not just any scream, the really sad scream. It really is a heartbreaking sound, and it gets me every time. I haven't heard it in months, thankfully, and I thought maybe she never would cry like that again, but I was wrong. We were almost home when ANOTHER light turned red right in front of us. (We live in a downtown, so it takes hours to drive half a mile. Traffic is thick, the lights aren't timed and are very frequent, there's always someone parking or pulling out right in front of you, pedestrians are everywhere, and there are a million alternate routes that are all just as slow. It's supremely frustrating.) I hopped out, grabbed her, and walked home, with her sniffling on my shoulder the whole way. That was SO much nicer than listening to another minute of that sad screaming!

At home, we napped together, ate more of our delicious food from yesterday, watched cartoons, and had home teachers come visit. The kids started to get antsy from too much sugar and TV at about 6pm, so we just went to the park. Lily played feverishly, zoning in on every activity she did, not getting distracted by anything. I took that to mean that she was really tired, so we came home as soon as I noticed the light getting low, and we put that girl to bed. Now Jack is watching more cartoons. He took a button-down shirt off by himself (he is way behind the curve in his self-help skills, so I'm really excited every time he makes progress in that area), then put on his pajama shirt by himself. I worked on planning our week of "school", but I'm at a bit of a loss for most of the week's activities. And now it's almost 10 and time to go to bed!

I got the pics up from the beach yesterday: I love Picasa :D

"Mom, I want on the playground!"

Happy Six Years!

We were united in marriage 6 years ago :D

From the day I demanded to be introduced to him at that stake dance 11 1/2 years ago, I had a crush on him. I thought he was way too good for me. (With one exception), The only guys who showed any interest in me were the ones with nefarious intentions :P Then, 5 years later, we found out that we both liked each other! We settled things quickly enough :)

In 6 years of marriage, we have moved 4 times (and that is counting the first move into our first apartment). We've borne, birthed, and brought up 2 delightful children. We've laughed, screamed, pouted, giggled, tickled, vegetated, cuddled, and worked side by side. We've grown together, which we all know isn't the most fun thing in the world, but worthwhile. And by the blessing of heaven, as we've grown, we've loved each other more.

I don't know about Tim, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I wish I could convey in words what this last 6 years have done for me, but it is simply impossible. Heavenly Father gave me a life I did not come close to deserving, and I will be forever grateful.

To celebrate, we went to Rubio's, then drove over the "hills" to Montara beach, then came back and ate cake and ice cream and ordered gigantic New York pizzas. I kinda had the idea that our kids should enjoy our anniversary as much as we do, since it was our marriage that brought them into this world :D I think they had fun; I know we did!

We had a blast at the beach. We played with the sand, watched the waves beat on the sand, watched surfers, got our feet wet (but no more than our feet, b/c the riptides there are so strong and the beach slopes so sharply that people have literally been swept away and drowned when they got deep enough to be wading in the water...), hiked and climbed, chased and tickled and played freeze tag, joined a game of kickball, and took lots of pictures!

We came home and ate chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, from the awesomest grocery store in the world, Trader Joe's. (We figured, birthdays are anniversaries of birth, why not do cake and ice cream on anniversaries of marriage?) We ordered the biggest pizzas we'd ever seen from New York Pizza. Those things are 2 feet across! We watched Anastasia on Netflix. And now it's the end of the day. I'm working on uploading the pics to Picasa to share with everyone :D

BUT! Lily was very cute yesterday and I took pics :D so here is one of those! (It was a strange day, Jack napped while Lily was wired and hyper and happy!)

"I'm not sleepy, Mom!"

I'll put up the link to the Picasa album when that is done :)

Productive Day!

I had a lot to get done today. I was looking down the barrel of my overfilled day, this morning, and I just knew that I was going to get stressed and take it out on my poor innocent kids. So after we got all loaded up in the car, I told Jack we were going to say a quick prayer; I prayed for guidance in choosing which things to do, and help in staying patient and cheerful. I had a great day :D The things that didn't get done were the laundry and dishes and tidying. The things that did get done were the car repair, the playgroup, the La Leche League meeting, the reading to Jack, the playing with Jack, the playing with Lily, the grocery shopping, the dinner cooking, the cookie making (more about that later), and the German neighbor and his Japanese wife coming for dinner. Oh, and the blogging :D

I'm so glad I went to the LLL meeting! Not only was it fun, and nice to get to meet with a bunch of crunchy moms again (I don't get my crunchies from the moms in my ward, sigh), but as we were leaving I was talking with the leader in charge, and she said "You'll fit in a lot better once you find a good homeschool group." She said I just looked like a homeschooler, and she loves her group and would love to see me on Wednesday afternoons at a park close to me where they meet! I checked them out online and they seem like a good group: Mid-Peninsula Homeschoolers. I've hesitated to go seeking a group, first b/c of the sheer volume of groups out here. Seems like I'm not the only one who rejects the "great" schools out here :P I get overwhelmed with too many choices sometimes! But also, the one mom in my ward who used to homeschool but quit last year, said that the groups she saw nearby were just "weird." (I keep forgetting that I'm "weird" to most people, so I shouldn't be scared by that description!)

Our neighbors downstairs are quite international. On one side, we have a mom who's half Mexican and half Persian. On the other side, we have a couple who have the husband from Germany and the wife from Japan. (And our next-door neighbors are an interracial couple with two kids. I have to admit I do love the diversity here!) Since Tim is going to Germany in 5 1/2 weeks, I thought it would be neat to ask our neighbor to teach us som German. Tonight they brought us dinner, which I thought was hilarious b/c we're the ones who wanted them to teach us, so shouldn't we owe them dinner? But it was yummy and WAY different from our usual fare! Rice and edamame with tofu, then tomato cucumber radish salad with peanut butter vinaigrette dressing. Craziness! The rice was delicious, the salad was just different. Hey, it wasn't nasty! I happily ate it all and was grateful for it :D

I discovered how to not overeat my delicious chocolate chip cookies (made with organic butter, organic evaporated cane juice, and M&Ms): WEEVILS. That's all I need to say.

Tonight's photos!

a picture of me in my blog, oh no!

I love this view...

The end of a little creek emptying into the ocean. It was tons of fun to wade across!

There was a driftwood teepee that was just right for taking pictures in!

These are from San Gregorio Beach, one of the beaches near us. We went there on a day I was feeling pretty homesick; Tim said "You need to see the good things we live near!" and took us all to the beach :D It was beautiful! And COLD! We laughed at the one person we saw there in a bikini :P And happily snuggled in our sweaters :D

Tomorrow is our 6-year anniversary! We're planning on taking another trip to the beach.

Counting my blessings....

...so I won't feel quite so homesick.

My friends and family in Texas were so fabulous. Still are. I miss them so badly it hurts.

But there are good things here. Today we got to hang out with two of our neighbors, one next door and one downstairs. Our next-door neighbor has a trampoline, and we went and played on it. They also have a lemon tree and an orange tree, and one of the kids said I could take all I wanted. I really hope he spoke for his mom, b/c I'd been eyeing those fruits and I really wanted some, so I took a few! (She seems like a really generous person, so I'll bet her son was just saying what he'd heard her say before.) Then we ate enchiladas at our downstairs neighbor's house. That was delicious, and fun. She's so cute; she has a 7-month-old baby, and she loves being a mom, but she's clueless about what's ahead. She was asking me what Jack could eat, like he can't have everything yet; she was worried the enchiladas were too spicy, and they totally weren't. But she loves how energetic Jack is at her house; I don't know why he's so energetic at her house, maybe he's bored? Anyway, we all had fun. And her friend was there, who is pregnant, and she said she'd love to stay home with her baby but she doesn't think their finances will allow it; then she was groaning "Oh, I've got to figure out childcare!" and I said "Hey, I live right next to your work, I could watch your baby!" Here's hoping I didn't just bite off more than I can chew.... Tim makes more than he's ever made, but it costs more to live here and we're still paying a mortgage on our Texas house, so our money doesn't go as far as I'd like it to. Besides, yall know how much I want another kid, and this would be a teeny baby baby I could cuddle! And it wouldn't even start for another, like, 8 months or so. Hmm, we may have actually sold our house by then. Or not.

We want to go camping, and we want to take a trip to Utah to visit Tim's older sister who just had a baby. This coming weekend is our anniversary, 6 years! And the weekend after that is my birthday, 26 years! So, maybe UT trip the next weekend? I REALLY want to take the trip, not just to see the new baby, but to see how Lily will do on a long road trip, and visit Tim's family with Tim since I'll be driving through in a couple of months without him. It would be slightly less awkward visiting them without him if we'd just been there all together.

Jack and Lily officially started wrestling today. Jack carefully knocked Lily down, and he did it gently enough that she liked it, and I praised him for doing it so gently. He then proceeded to knock her down over and over and over and over, and she liked it for a while, but then she got tired of it. Jack wasn't tired of it at all, so he was assigned to help me tidy the house. And he did, albeit reluctantly. He's a good kid :D

I DID play with them today. And I read a few books to Jack, including the Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss. I love that man. Jack does, too, thankfully.

Lily finally popped her fifth tooth today! I was starting to wonder if she was ever going to have more than four teeth!

Tonights pictures are a little older, but not much:

Jack and Tim sleeping on the couch at Tim's parents' house in Nash, Texas. I love how they have the exact same sleep habits.

My mom holding sweet sleeping Lily for me while we did our yard sale in Texas in June.

Lily sitting on Jack's chair that Tim's dad made for him. We had just unpacked it and put it together, and Lily was excited to see it! Unfortunately, Jack broke it today by jumping on it. I think we can fix it pretty easily if we just get the pipe-thingy, but until then it is out of commission.

Well, goodnight, yall. I've got a busy day tomorrow; I run at 6am, take the car to the shop at 7:30am, and then I've got to fit in a playgroup, a museum trip, a La Leche League lunch, grocery shopping, and Lily's nap.

Played Parcheesi; headache

Jack and I played Parcheesi today, by the rules. He did really well, but got bored of it after a while. He counted the dots on the dice, counted the spaces to move, and strategized. That's math practice, right?

We played outside today :D And I read him some books :D But I didn't get the laundry or dishes done. Someday I'm going to get everything on my list done, AND play with the kids!

I had a nasty headache this evening. But by the grace of God I found a way to sit with a bag of ice on my head, and the pain went away. Stayed like that for 10-20 minutes or so, and it's gone! Hallelujah!

Today's photo is from a couple of weeks ago, at our new pediatric dentist's office:

That's Jack in the X-ray chair. This was his first time to have X-rays done of his mouth while he was awake. He had 3 cavities in his mouth back in November 2008; when the dentist put him under to fill them, she did X-rays while he was unconscious, and found 3 more cavities in there. SIX cavities! Poor kid got another one just a couple of months later, then another soon after. But the dentist took a "wait and see" approach; she said that they didn't look very big, and since they weren't there just a couple of months before, then they couldn't be very deep. She had us come back every 3 months for a while to check, and we just tried our hardest to brush after every meal. This dentist agreed, they look small, but he tried to take X-rays to be certain. The cavities are in Jack's molars, and to get an X-ray of those you have to bite a piece of hard plasticy stuff just exactly right. Jack tried, but had trouble getting it right, and the dentist and his helper didn't want to push him too hard and make it a bad experience, so they told him he did great and let him go.

But before he got up, I took a pic. I was so proud of my little boy for being so cooperative with the dentist and his helper!

Lily did great, too. The dentist jokingly called her "fortress mouth" b/c she locked her lips tightly shut and didn't want to let anyone look at her teeth. But she didn't fuss at all when he pried her lips open and looked at her teeth and put fluoride varnish on them. I walked out of that office with many compliments on my good kids, and elated that they did so well and had a good time.

A lesson I just learned...

So my best friend in Texas, another homeschooling mom with kids a little older than mine, did what she called Theme Days. She did writing games on Mondays, science experiments on Tuesdays, math games on Wednesdays, history/social studies on Thursdays, and art on Fridays. I thought "What a great idea! I should do that too!" But then I thought, "Why should I let someone else pick what I do for my theme days?" and decided I would pick and choose what we would do. And I never got around to picking and choosing, and we never did anything. After we moved here and Jack was begging for some kind of schedule, I decided it would be better to copy someone else than to do nothing at all, so we started doing her theme days, with just one modification, turning Monday into reading day instead of writing day.

Now that we've done this a few weeks, I can see that reading day is pointless, b/c we read every day, and a nature day is much more needful b/c we live in a downtown and rarely get to connect with nature. THIS is how it's supposed to be done; copying someone else is fine to start out with, as long as you're willing to make changes along the way to adapt to the needs of your family.

Is it sad that that's such a revelation for me?

Visited Foothills Park today

There's a nature preserve south of Palo Alto that is open to Palo Alto residents (and their guests) only, called Foothills Park. 50 years ago, when the city was buying the land for the park, they offered to share the cost with other nearby cities, which all turned down the offer. Apparently, the city of Palo Alto was a bit miffed, so they decided that the park they bought would be open to their residents only.

It was beautiful! I'm so glad we didn't let the threat of mountain lions scare us into just staying home! Unfortunately, when I left our house we only had about an hour we could spend there, then I got lost on the way there, so by the time we got there we only had about 5 minutes we could be there. Undeterred, we got out and took some pics right off of Panorama Trail:

It's hard to get Jack to pose right. He gets all self-conscious and grimaces and arches his back. I would just take pictures without asking him to pose, but once he sees the camera in front of him he automatically poses (which is a good thing, but we need to work on that pose!). It's hard for me, b/c my son is hands-down the most handsome little boy on the planet, then these pics I take of him come out less than perfect, and it's sad b/c I can't show everyone just how adorable he is!

I offered to let him take some pics with the camera, but he wasn't interested. And then it was time to go :(

The outdoors here all smell so beautiful. Even right next to the bay, in the salt marsh that I expected to stink b/c it's a marsh, the smell was delightful. I wish I could describe it.

We don't take advantage of our proximity to this awesomeness nearly enough. I hereby declare every Monday: Nature Day! (Why Monday? B/c it is right now dedicated to reading, which we do every day.) We have beaches, mountains, grasslands, salt marshes, and fabulous sunny weather all within an hour from our house. It would be an absolute disgrace if we moved away from here without getting to know this land a little better!

I also have to brag on my son. We went to a Relief Society event tonight, a discussion of John chapter 15 and ice cream. I told Jack he would need to read the chapter with me so he could discuss it with us. I considered adding a "so you can eat ice cream" qualifier, but decided to hold out and see if he needed extra incentive. And he didn't! He sat and listened to the chapter, asked questions about words he didn't understand, laughed when I talked about "fruit" being good things that we do ("I never knew fruit could be that!" he said), and then happily played quietly while we ladies all discussed the chapter. I got so many compliments on my fabulous kids! (I was the only one who had her kids there; it wasn't really a kid-friendly event and I hadn't planned on taking them, but Tim had other commitments and I was NOT going to stay home and miss the ice cream!)

Good night, my friends!

A completed list!

Today was one of those RARE days when I got everything done on my list. Well, except one thing, but that's a thing that I'll be working on all week so it's OK if I didn't do it today, b/c I'll be doing it tomorrow too.

We read scriptures, read other books, had Jack tell me one of his books, went to the park, did laundry, did dishes, tidied, and had Family Home Evening. Lily said "Shoes? Shoes?" while I picked up the shoes, followed me to the bedroom, then "rescued" them from the closet where I had put them. She then handed them to me imperiously and plopped down on the floor, which means "Put these on my feet!"

She's learning how to play rough with Jack. It's fun to watch them wrestle. She never lasts long before she doesn't like it, but that she likes it at all for even a few seconds is pretty neat. She LOVES it when she sees Jack wake up for the day; she always wakes up before him and reaches for him, wanting to go tackle him and wake him up.

We learned a little bit of German from our downstairs neighbor (we have 5ish downstairs neighbors, but only one from Germany). Neither of us thought to make a coherent lesson plan, so there wasn't much language taught, but Tim learned a bit about the layout of the city he'll be in (I was wrangling kids). I think it'll be a good idea to try to do some German lessons online, and have him come correct our pronunciation weekly or so. He said that there are a few Americans in Germany who get the pronunciation so perfectly that nobody can tell they're not native, until they get a gender wrong. Which, by the way, there are THREE genders in the language, not just two. I found that hilarious; I think it's hilarious in the first place to have genders in language at all, but then to have 3?

Jack came and found me to tell me that Lily was distraught. I thought that was pretty neat. He loves that little girl :D

Lily choked on a piece of carrot she found on the floor. I chopped up baby carrots to go in soup yesterday, and a few pieces fell on the floor; I thought I picked them up but I guess I didn't :( It was just the right size to lodge in her throat. It came out pretty quickly, but it was scary for both of us! She cried for a while afterwards, poor kid, until I nursed her :D

So, in bragging that I got everything done on my list, I'm realizing that I spent very little time playing with my kids :( I guess that's how it goes. At least they have each other to play wtih; they played together with their toys a LOT today. Hopefully we'll play more tomorrow :D

Jack climbing at Johnson Park near our house, back in June. I was impressed that he climbed that far, so I grabbed my camera :D

Lily in the bright morning sun, also back in June :D

The Talk I Gave in Church Today

Introduce our family - We grew up in the same stake. I was in AR, he was in TX, our stake center was in LA. I was an only child, he was the second oldest of 7. I was a convert, he is the descendant of pioneers. And since he's not here to defend himself, I can tell you that he is the most patient, honest, righteous, and attractive man that I have ever met. We have a running argument about which one of us is the lucky one, and I can tell you unequivocally that I am :D Last week he stayed home with our sick 4-year-old son, this week it was him that was sick. He was worried y'all might think he's inactive, but that certainly isn't the case. He's probably listening to conference talks right now, actually! So he gets the words of apostles and prophets, and y'all get stuck with my ramblings. Hmm, maybe he is the lucky one after all…

We married in 04 after he got home from serving a mission in southern CA, Jack was born in 06, Lily was born last year, and we want about 15 more kids now. Tim's mom did such a good job raising her 7, and Tim was high enough in that order that he helped with his younger siblings a lot, I feel like as long as I have his help and his mom's advice, it can't be too hard, right? Jack is a very helpful boy: he rinses the dishes after I wash them, he picks up his toys and Lily's without complaint, he brings Lily books or toys to help distract her when she's sad, and he's a very obedient boy when we go out. Strangers on the street and in the stores are always telling me what wonderful kids I have, and I have to admit I can't be modest about it; I always reply "I know, I'm such a lucky mom!" Lily explores everything with intense curiosity and does NOT like to be told that she can't have an object she'd like to learn about, but her tantrums are almost always easily defused by simply finding something else as interesting as the first thing she wanted. She dances to music with such an adorable smile, points to herself and says "This, this!" when she wants you to tell her her name is Lily, and tells me she wants to eat by smacking her lips. She's 14 months old and halfway potty trained, but not saying any words but uh-oh.

Tim is a programmer, and I like to knit :D

Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly

Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants is a plea for help from the Prophet Joseph Smith as he languished in Liberty Jail, and a reply from an ever-loving Father in Heaven. It is a beautiful piece of scripture. At the very end is this promise:

D&C 121:45-46

45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

What an amazing promise!

Ensign, August 1989

President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency

In Search of Peace and Freedom, First Presidency Message

"May I comment on this marvelous promise. It has been my privilege on various occasions to converse with presidents of the United States and important leaders in other governments. At the close of each visit, I have reflected on the rewarding experience of standing with confidence in the presence of an acknowledged leader. And then I have thought, what a wonderful thing, what a marvelous thing it would be to stand with confidence—unafraid and unashamed and unembarrassed—in the presence of God. This is the promise held out to every virtuous man and woman.

I know of no greater promise made by God to man than this promise made to those who let virtue garnish their thoughts unceasingly."

What is virtue? The Guide to the Scriptures says it is "Integrity and moral excellence, power and strength, or sexual purity." I would like to focus on the first part of that definition, and save that second part for people of a sterner character. (And part of my reason is b/c I don't want to be the one to give the talk that makes all the kids go home and ask their parents questions that parents didn't want them asking yet :D)

Integrity, moral excellence, power and strength should garnish our thoughts unceasingly. In other words (I'm used to rephrasing things in terms my 4-year-old can understand), we should ALWAYS think about the best things we possibly can. Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Our thoughts eventually make themselves known by coming out in actions. Should we not, then, think on the wonderful and glorious things of the gospel, instead of dwelling on the smut and filth that we find ourselves surrounded by? I discovered this for myself this past week. With the overturning of Proposition 8 by a federal judge, there was a lot of internet chatter. I made the mistake of reading the comments on the news articles; I was searching for someone, anyone, to be as dismayed as I was at the news, but all it was was hate and rudeness. By the end of the day I was in a foul mood, and took it out on my poor innocent children. Thankfully I have a husband who was cheerful and patient, and we survived. How much better would our day have gone if I had read scriptures instead of rude comments?

A noted educator (Charlotte Mason) once made the claim that the mind is not an empty bag to fill, but a living organism that needs information to flourish. Like a plant given polluted air and soil, our minds will not reach their full potential if we surround ourselves with toxic waste. Conversely, if we fill our days with the words of Christ and His servants, think on the beauty that we can become!

Think of how much our Heavenly Father loves us. There is NOTHING that He has done that was not done for our good; there has been NOTHING that could have been done for our salvation and exaltation that He has not already done. He gave us a world and a body whereby we may learn the lessons we need to learn in order to be great. He organized us into families for the same reasons, and so that we may help each other. He speaks to us through many channels of communication: personal prayer, acts of service from others, the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, and His chosen servants, both local and church-wide. He gives us commandments to help us find our way back to him. He sent His only begotten, His precious Son, to atone for the sins that we would commit in spite of all His help. And He forgives us freely when we truly repent. Are we not blessed?

Think of the example Jesus Christ set when He was on the earth. He served, loved, and taught. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, raised the dead. He loved the children and His earthly mother. And after His resurrection, He visited the people in other parts of the world who had not had the privilege of walking with Him in His mortal life. How lucky we are to have lived after His life, and to have the scriptures which tell us of Him, available to us in so many forms! We have paper books of different sizes to fill different needs, and now we even have scriptures on our phones and iPads. One of the highlights of my day is my daughter's naptime. There are so many things I can do when she's asleep, but I find that if I first open the Gospel Library app and read some words of Christ, my mind is so much more at peace than if I just start on my to-do list.

Think of the specific topics spoken of at our most recent General Conference. Did you notice that our last conference seemed to be aimed at parents? Or was it just because I have young children?

Think of your family, friends, and neighbors, and how you can serve them. Do you know someone who could use a phone call, even if you only have 5 minutes to say "I thought of you today and wanted to tell you I love you."? Would your kids like to help you make a meal for someone in need, or a card for someone in a nursing home?

And I don't know about y'all, but this is EXACTLY what I need to accomplish my daily work. As I raise and care for the next generation of Caswells, I need the Holy Ghost as my constant companion.

Bear testimony of the worldwide church and the Atonement.

Flying Solo at Church; Jack Learning to Read

I gave a talk today in church. It was quite interesting; Tim is still getting over the flu, so he stayed home, and since he's still getting over the flu, he couldn't watch the kids for me. I hoped to be able to sit next to a mom I knew, so she could watch the kids while I gave my talk. My kids' temperaments are such that I can leave them in a pew and they'll do fine, I just wanted to make sure someone I knew would be in charge so that IF something went wrong, they'd be taken care of. I ended up leaving home late, which greatly lowered my chances of even getting to sit in the chapel at all, so when I got there and there was an open spot right next to a mom I know, I rejoiced! I breakfasted my kids while the first speaker gave his talk, then I got up and gave my talk (which I'll post later), and my kids did great! Jack sat and listened (and told me later he wasn't able to listen to all of it, which I thought was cute), and Lily did too until the guy sitting behind her was unable to resist her overwhelming cuteness. He picked her up and sat her in his lap, and she immediately crumpled into tears! Poor kid, poor guy! So the mom I sat next to took her out; luckily I could see that she was fine, or I would have had to stop RIGHT THEN. But within a few seconds, HER daughter was crying! Her older kids took care of their youngest sister, but it wasn't good enough. I ended with my testimony and skedaddled :D And Lily was fine, and my friend's daughter was fine too. So my talk wasn't quite long enough, but I was able to give every last word that I had prepared, so I would have ended soon whether there were crying daughters or not. (I guess the crying kids just saved the congregation from my rambling to take up time!)

THEN I got to help with Jack's class! That was AWESOME! I was a little worried he'd be clingy and disobedient, the way he was back in Texas when I was called to Primary and was in there with him every week. But he did great :D He hugged and kissed me goodbye, hugged and kissed Lily goodbye, sat in his spot, then noticed that I was still there in the back, and he wanted to come sit with me. I told him he still needed to sit with his class and he didn't argue, and sat with his class and participated. They did a memory game, with kids coming up to take turns playing, and Jack called out a couple of times that he wanted a turn, but he never got one, and he didn't fuss about it at all. Then his class went to their classroom, and I was amazed he did so well there too. His teacher had a love for her students that they could feel, and they behaved really well for her. She didn't seem to have any groundbreaking ideas for keeping them in line (which I was expecting since she took Jack from whiny clingy disobedient to happy cheerful obedient), just love and the Holy Ghost. (Maybe her usual helper is the magic-worker, but she's on vacation and it's her job I was filling.) She expected them all to raise their hands to speak, which I never would have thought of since they're all FOUR YEARS OLD, but she just reminded them gently at the beginning of class, then ignored them if they didn't raise their hands. She never had to remind them again, and none of them cried or fussed about being ignored. She rewarded them with stars by their names on the chalkboard; one of the girls tried to get competitive about that ("I've got more stars than you do!"), which is exactly why I wouldn't be using stars by names, but she was the only one who tried and she forgot about it after a while. So it worked out pretty well, and they got lots of stars :D

A couple of times, I was tempted to remind Jack not to do nasty 4-year-old things like lick his hands and pick his nose, but then I noticed that other kids were doing similar nasty things and I wouldn't dream of asking them not to (unless it was REALLY nasty...), so I refrained. I remembered that the very first time I was in Primary with Jack, I treated him like I would have treated any Primary kid, and it went fabulously. I lost that idea somewhere in the following months, and his behavior (and mine) deteriorated :(

Tim's better! He's about 90% or so. He's still weak, and gets tired easily if he over-exerts himself, but he's fever-free and cheerful :D He first came down with it Thursday-ish, though, so he's supposed to be quarantined until Tuesday regardless of how well he feels (flu is considered contagious until 48 hours after last fever, or 5 days after first fever, whichever comes last). I didn't let him go home teaching today, or wash the car (yes, he wanted to go wash the car. Seriously. He can't hold Lily for very long, but he thinks he can scrub the car by hand. ????), but since he came down with this flu at work and probably got it from his coworkers, I'll let him go to work tomorrow if he's still feeling great. (I probably have enough power to keep him home if I really insist on it, but I'd have to have a good reason, and I don't! Marriage isn't about power struggles anyway :D)

I cross-stitched! I'm getting into a bit of a habit of crafting a bit on Sundays. I have to be careful to not let Tim do all the childcare while I craft, which is hard b/c I love knitting/crocheting/sewing/stitching/etc., but I can do it if I put forth the effort. Today I picked up my cross-stitch Christmas stocking again, for the first time in a year or so, and I'm so glad I did. I'd love to get it done by this Christmas! Jack is getting old enough to pick his stocking out, so I'd love to get on to that :D I can't wait to be making something for my son. I crocheted diaper covers for him when he was a baby, but that's really not the same! He was a baby, and honestly the diaper cover was more for my appreciation than for his.

Speaking of making things for my kids, I've decided I want to make scrapbooks for them. One scrapbook for each kid, documenting the important things of their lives for them to remember when they're grown and gone. Ambitious? I figure no one scrapbook will take up much of my time at once; the big investment will be catching up Jack's to his 5th year and Lily's to her 2nd (remember, we celebrate birthdays at the END of a year, so after our birthday we start working on our next year, ie my 4-year-old son is in his fifth year and my 1-year-old daughter is in her second year :D). I think that'll be fun; I've never been much for scrapbooking, preferring to make a digital photo book and have it printed, but I like the idea of a scrapbook for each of my kids. A dear friend of mine keeps a journal for each of her kids that is in the form of letters to them; she writes in them periodically when they do something noteworthy. I think that is just so neat, but I want pictures to be saved too, so scrapbook it is.

I'm having fun creating things :D I've never thought of myself as a creative person at all, so I'm really pleased to discover that I am, and I'm actually good at some of it :D

Tim's only older sibling, Jessica, had a baby at 1:26 this morning! I have got to be the most excited person about this (except her and her husband and their daughter and their respective parents, of course). I love how so many bits of her experience were so much like mine: her first was early, and born in the hospital. Her second was a healthier pregnancy b/c of better nutrition, and was born at home, and was a week late, all just like me (except my second was one day later than hers, but that's a very minor detail). I told her yesterday that I didn't mind a phone call at 3am to tell me the good news; sure enough, my phone rang at 3:12am! I had kiddos to take care of (nursing Lily back to sleep, then taking Jack to the potty), but once they were back to sleep I called her back. It was so fun to talk to her at 4am about birth and a new baby and just get to share her joy :D

I'm so baby-hungry, btw. I keep noticing pregnancy symptoms that my body is faking, I want a baby so badly. I dream of being pregnant, I even dreamed of adopting a 3-year-old! Chances are 96% that I won't conceive until my cycle starts again; it started when Jack was past his second birthday, so I'm counting on repeating exactly what happened last time. We're pretty sure we will get to have at least one more baby, so my task now is to be patient. I don't see anything wrong with eagerly anticipating my chance to bring another precious spirit to Earth, I just don't need to let that longing get in the way of taking care of the wonderful children I already have :D In some ways they make it easier, b/c they keep me busy (!), but in some ways they make it harder. They've been SO VERY GOOD lately, so helpful with each other and so cute and so sweet, it's exactly that good behavior that makes me want more kids!

I've been doing the daily themes with Jack's "schooling", and that's been working great. I can tell I'm getting a little burned out; I've been slacking in my own personal scripture study, and that certainly affects how well I perform as a mother and educator. But I think I need to add a couple more things to our daily schooling: scripture study and memorization. I know memorization isn't the best way to learn 99% of the things we need to learn, but I feel pretty strongly that we need to have some words of the Lord stored in our heads for us to ponder whenever the need arises. Jack memorized 2 Articles of Faith earlier this year, before we moved, so I know he is old enough. I'd like to work on memorizing some scriptures, too, so we can work on it together :D

I'd also like our family to learn a little German. Ambitious, much? Tim's going to Germany at the end of next month for a conference, and we have a neighbor from Germany, so why not? Even if we only learn a few words, I'd like to put the idea in Jack's head that we can learn to speak another language. I have a lofty dream that our homeschooling family will learn a new language every year, and culminate the year with a trip to a country where they speak that language. I think in reality we'll be doing well to get to do that even just once, but I refuse to give up on the idea! What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun? I don't give up on my dreams unless there's a better one to replace them with :D I dreamed once of being a doctor; I still hold out that I'll do it one day, but for now I'm doing something even better!

Jack is working on reading skills! And I know this b/c I'm reading a book called "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn -- and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less" by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff (what a mouthful). One of the really important things I'd like to mention is that reading skills are developed as the child develops, and simply cannot be rushed. Some studies have indicated that children who are rushed into "reading" too early (and they're usually not even reading, just recognizing words they've learned) don't do any better in school, and may even be surpassed by their peers in just a few years. Children learn reading by being read to and talked to, holding conversations about their books and telling the stories back to their parents. Children who learn to read in this natural way, if they do learn to read early b/c of the richness of their environment (LOTS of reading, LOTS of storytelling, LOTS of natural conversation with parents and loved ones), will do better throughout their school years and will even do better in life after school.

I'm still in the beginning of the book, and I've learned so much, and it's made me so excited to see the things they're talking about in Jack's (and Lily's!) development :D He's working on math skills, as well, but reading is his big thing right now.

Lily's language development is doing the exact same things Jack's did. We put Jack in speech therapy b/c his pediatrician was adamant, but I was indifferent about it the whole way through. I enjoyed his speech therapy, but I'm pretty sure it didn't make any difference in when he decided to start talking. He simply didn't want to talk; there was nothing wrong with him. I was a little worried about letting him be behind b/c he didn't talk as early as he "should", but once he started talking he surpassed his age level within 2 months! Being able to see the milestones of Lily's speech development, I'm positive that there is nothing wrong with her as well. She just doesn't want to talk, just like Jack, but she is listening and learning. She'll probably continue to follow Jack's precedent in this, and surpass her age level soon after she begins to actually talk.

Which may not be too far off, b/c she said "Shoes" all afternoon. According to the book I'm reading, a word doesn't really count as a first word if it's not used correctly. Well, she said shoes today when holding or pointing to shoes!

In honor of Tim's sister, here are pictures of happy cousins playing together:

Jack liked to get in the way of the camera when I was trying to take a picture of his cousin :P but I got some good pics that way!

Leslie, Jack's cousin! Notice how similar their smiles are? She's 18 months younger than Jack, and 18 months older than Lily. They visited about 7 or 8 months ago, when Jessica was newly pregnant, and Leslie and Jack had trouble getting along; Leslie was in the "Mine!" stage and poor Jack simply could not handle her claiming possession of his toys! They did manage to play nicely together a few times, but it was a challenging time (but fun! And I'm so glad we got to host them!). This time they were two little peas in a pod, playing together so sweetly, and Leslie and Lily even played a little. It was just astounding the difference those few months made for both of those kids! OH OH OH how I wish those two cousins could grow up closer together :( I love the kind of parents Jessica and Aaron are, and I think extended families like that make homeschooling (and life!) so much richer. I do think that that is our goal, though; Tim and I dream of living near his parents, and I think Jessica wants to live closer to them as well. Just think of the possibilities!

I have reached a happy problem. Writing this blog is making me stay up to late at night. Apparently, I have too much going on in my life to be able to document it all :D I'd like to keep writing a post every night, but I guess I'll have to make my posts shorter, just write about the most important, best things. I am so richly blessed :D

Quote from Jack as he watched some cartoon characters balloon into balls, "They got big! They had a lot of poo-poo."