Mariposas Oscuras & Other Obscurities

Yes, she gets it

2011-04-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

Most of the time when I mention that the Sita is reading the Little House on the Prairie books or now the Chronicles of Narnia, the first question they ask is, "Yes, but is she understanding it?"

Now, she probably isn't understanding all the symbolic or allegorical aspects of the Chronicles of Narnia, but is she understanding the basic stories? Yes, definitely! Since she is almost always making up some story out loud, it is easy to listen to her stories to see what she's been reading lately because she pulls from those to make up her own. For a while, she named one of her dolls Charlotte and they had a lot of fever and ague and eating of cornmeal mush. Now she's into talking animals and alternate realities although we've also had a lot of Fairies (the Rainbow Fairy books), Dragons (How to Train Your Dragon), and Owls (the Legend of Ga'Hoole). =)

As another proof of her reading comprehension, the Dude has been taking pretests in prep for the STAR testing next week and bringing them home to show how well he's doing on them. There are a lot of stories on them for the reading comprehension bits and I saw Sita reading one of them this morning. So I asked her all the questions that were connected with that story and she verbally answered them correctly and only needed the "multiple choice" options to guess it right a couple of times. Once she realized she got all of them right, she wanted to try the rest of the practice tests. And she totally passed. Only on one story did she get any wrong at all.

The Dude was a little jealous of her doing as well as HE did on the tests, so we got to have a nice chat about how someone doing as well as you at something does not take away from you doing well and you don't need to feel threatened by it. I'm sure we'll have this chat at least a few more times. It is something I have to remind myself of every once in a while.
~

Addicted to Movies

2011-03-21T00:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am sorry to say Boo at the tender age of 2 is completely addicted to watching movies. At first it was just Green Eggs and Ham and Cat in the Hat. Then we discovered the Eyewitness DVDs at our local library!!! Now she asks for "uhSHEEN" (Human Machine) "i-a-uhs"(Natural Disasters) and "orssy" (Horses). She didn't like Skeleton as much. Birds and Butterfly and Moth were also good ones. And although I love Dr. Seuss and the slightly crazy songs on the DVDs, I was getting very tired of listening to them.

One thing that I am sure she will NOT be watching is "educational" shows (NOT the Eyewitness DVDs - the ones on PBS, Nickelodeon, and the Disney Channel). After reading Nurture Shock, which I liked a LOT of (such as the sections on Praise and Self Control and Race and Sleep Deprivation) but Strongly Disagreed with some other points in it (especially the section on Education), I feel really good about not allowing "educational" programming in our home. I will admit that I was surprised that the researchers "found that Arthur is more dangerous for children than Power Rangers" (p.181) and "The more educational media the children watched, the more relationally aggressive they were." (p.180) The researchers theorize that this might be because the majority of children's shows are negative most of the time with just a small part (the resolution at the very end) being "positive." To quote again:

We can imagine educational television might use an initial insult to then teach a lesson about how insults are hurtful, but that never was the case, Schiebe [one of the researchers] found. Of the 2,628 put-downs the team identified, in only 50 instances was the insulter reprimanded or corrected - and not once in an educational show. Fully 84% of the time, there was either only laughter or no response at all." (p.182)

That said, I think that Charlie and Lola (at least the first few seasons) is fairly good at modeling positive sibling/child relationships because Charlie and Lola have their differences, but they don't resort to calling each other names over them.

As for what I am watching, right now I am addicted to Pushing Daisies!!!! The episodes with Wilford Woodruff and Lemuel made me laugh with special glee. =) Thanks, Lady Steed!
~

the Dude loves Math

2011-03-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

The Dude gets up at Insanely Early Hours every morning but he is expert at finding something fun to do while he's waiting for us to wake up. (See Treasure Hunt) Today he brought in a piece of paper that he had been expanding a fraction out on (I don't know the correct terminology here!) - whatever the opposite of reducing fractions is. He had started with the fraction 2/5 and had multiplied by 2 out to 4/10, and kept multiplying it by 2. He got it Perfectly Right to 1,024/2,560 and then did a slight carrying error in the bottom.

BUT he did Perfectly Right on the top all the way until he stopped (at 65,536!) AND he multiplied his incorrect answer correctly until the end (to 160,640).

I love how we talk about a concept (like reducing fractions) and he takes it in a slightly different direction to the Extreme. (I like less that he chided me for doing it the Easy Way as I wrote out the multiplication to check his answer).

One thing is certain - the Dude Loves Math!

Waking up to a Treasure Hunt

2011-03-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

When I got up this morning, the Dude was already deep at work on some project. I was warned several times to look away at certain times (which I dutifully did) and asked where my treats were because he needed some... for me. I directed him to his father, who said Mommy could get her Own Treats.

The Dude very proudly hands me a small piece of paper that reads,

I look there (the very chair I'm sitting on now!) and find another:

This might've posed a bigger problem if I hadn't heard the front door open a couple times this morning and gotten an Evasive Answer about what was going on.

So I go around collecting my notes from their hiding places. Some of my favorites:

Clue three: Youve done the hard one that is true, but now check under the table.

Clue four: to get to the prize, go and ask a old clumsy chair.

Clue nine: inside a thin drawer is next.

Clue eleven: next to the piano is next.

Until I get to "Clue eghteen: in dads box is the prize."

Of course the Dude is following me around and giggling delightedly every time I find a clue or Especially when I look in Not the Right Place immediately. He is on hand to explain to me that he could not put my prize there, but that I had Certainly earned it, so I should go get it. Since I hadn't had breakfast yet, I deferred collection of my Prize until later.

I wondered what had inspired him to this project and I found it was from his new book:

Cost of the book?

$9.99

Cost of this Treasure Hunt?

Priceless.

The Cake that wanted to Be a Disaster but I Wouldn't let it Be one

2011-03-06T23:31:00.000-08:00

Behold the Cake

(with a slight amount of photo editing to remove incriminating names)

From the time I started gathering ingredients on Tuesday night, I had a feeling this cake might be a challenge. I didn't have enough butter in the fridge to make it. I had some in the freezer, but getting butter to thaw in a short amount of time without melting it is not a skill I claim to have. So I could not make the cake that night. I left the butter out overnight and planned for a crazy Birthday morning.

I woke up early-ish and mixed the cake before making the Birthday Scrambled Eggs. When I went to put the cake in the oven, the rack was really close to the bottom, so I had to move it up. It took me a couple tries before I fit it in right. I put the cakes in, put on the timer and got back to making Birthday Eggs. About 10 minutes from being done, Boo wants to see her cakes. I turn on the oven light and gasp.

I had put the oven rack in slanted! The cakes were Very Slanted! I wanted to throw up my hands and scream AAARRRRRGGHHHH! I think I said OHNO OHNO OhNo! and then Very Gently took the cakes out, righted the rack and put the cakes back on (while yelling for various children to Stay Back so they Wouldn't get Burned!) The cakes ended up being Less Slanted than I had feared, but still Very Slanted. I had no time/ingredients to do another batch. This would have to do.

Before I knew the cakes would be slanted, I was still choosing between doing Traditional Buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the cake. Because of the slantedness, the Swiss Meringue won because of it's awesome sculpting power, cover-it-up-ed-ness, and not-so-sweetness (because this cake would need a LOT of frosting).

Now I had NO butter, so I had to go spend 10 dollars (!!!!) on 2 pounds of unsalted butter at Safeway (another reason to shop at Trader Joe's for basics!) on the way to picking up the Dude from school.

I whip up the egg whites and sugar over the double boiler, cool it, whip in the butter and start adding the gel color. And add more. And More! It is not doing anything except being tiny little blobs of concentrated color in (still) mostly white frosting. I go to the drip red coloring which does this funny beading up at first, but gets mixed in eventually. I scrap the "red frosting" idea and decide Pink is Good Enough - if I use Red Sparkle Sugar to make the heart red instead.

I trim the cakes a bit so they will fit a bit better together, but the frosting does its magic and fills the gaps and I can pile it on thick to cover up the imperfections.

No one cares about the inches of frosting! No one notices the Very Slantedness of the Actual Cake! We all delight in getting sugar highs from its beautiful deliciousness.

Mmmmm!
~

Highlights from Boo turning 2!

2011-03-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

Boo has been looking forward to her birthday since the Dude's birthday a couple months ago. She wanted Happy Birthday sung to her at all times of day. She practiced her blowing each time we finished the song because she knew that after the song came the blowing of the candles. At first it was the "ffffff" blow that is quite ineffectual but she gradually got the very effective "oooo" blow in good form before the Big Day.

We did not do a Big Party since she was just turning two, but happily her birthday coincided with Piano Lessons Day and so the students stayed a bit later and a couple other friends came over and we a fairly full house when the cake was ready to be blown out. She wanted to blow the candle out as soon as the cake was finished, so I had to put the cake somewhere untouchable so that she wouldn't be tempted until it was Time. We got her candle in her Pink Heart Cake, sang her Happy Birthday and she blew out her candle on the first attempt! (Our first child to do that on his/her second birthday!)

We all had Cake (which was very delicious from all accounts - the frosting was especially popular - being eaten by the spoonful before the cake was served!) and then some friends had to go home, but some stayed for the Present Opening. One of her presents got delivered to the wrong apartment, but since the family that got it sent out an email asking about a Miss {her name here} and a friend forwarded the email to us, we were able to go pick it up and get it in time. Ah, the miracles of modern technology! =) She loved her new pink pajamas with hearts and her baby "purse." As I was explaining that her package was addressed to Miss {her name here}, she emphatically said, "{her name}BOO!" Yes folks, she thinks her name has a BOO attached to the end of it. I love this. You can't imagine how much.

She is very happy to be TWO now and is also loving all her beautiful new clothes and putting her baby to bed in its very own bed.

(Expect a post soon on how the cake was a near disaster, but turned out fine after all).
~

Book Review: The Composer is Dead

2011-02-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

The Composer is Dead by Lemony Snicket (with music by Nathaniel Stookey)

This is a fabulously fun book to introduce children to the orchestra. Written with Lemony's famously wry style, it made the Spozo and I laugh out loud a couple times as we listened to it (which you really should do as it is read by Mr. Snicket himself and the music makes it much more fun). The basic premise (as you might have surmised) is that the composer is dead and the Inspector must figure out who in the orchestra has committed this heinous crime. The music is modern Berlioz-ish sounding for much of it, but plays with some other styles too as they introduce the different instruments.

Two of my favorite parts are:

(One, from the very beginning of the book) "'Composer' is a word which here means 'a person who sits in a room, muttering and humming and figuring out what notes the orchestra is going to play.' This is called composing. But last night, the Composer was not muttering. He was not humming. He was not moving, or even breathing. This is called decomposing."

(Two, just a couple more pages in) "The violin section is divided into the First Violins, who have the trickier parts to play, and the Second Violins, who are more fun at parties."

The illustrations are also delightful. I highly recommend this book! (And thanks to Roni and Romgi for the awesome Christmas present!)
~

Catch-Up is Impossible

2011-02-04T00:12:00.000-08:00

But very necessary. Roni, this post is for you! =)

You'd think from looking at this blog that the poor Boo is still a tiny baby. But she's not! She's a very inquisitive almost-2-year-old. She likes to do knock-knock jokes. Sample:
Boo: Knock Knock!
Me: Who's there?
Boo: Orange!
Me: Orange who?
Boo: wild laughter
She is trying out sentences. One of my favorites is "I love you!" Most of them begin with "I want" like, "I want breakfast!" (Which sounds more like, "I-wan feh-feshhhhhh") Another favorite (of mine and hers) is, "Audrey push!" (To which I usually reply, "And you pushed Audrey!") Some more favorites: her favorite letter is W; her favorite colors are pink and red; her favorite shape is a heart. She loves birthday cakes and calls them "Happy!" For her birthday, she wants a heart-shaped birthday cake that is pink and red and wants to blow out the candles. She calls my iPhone "Babies" and can navigate to where she wants better than I can sometimes! All things animal are still fascinating to her, but her especial love right now is for birds. She still loves baby dolls, but now wants to feed them or change their diapers with wipes. Lots of wipes. Maybe because they begin with a W? Who knows? What we do know is that she is still adorable and smiley and sweet.

The Sita has also grown. She wanted her hair cut short. Now it is short. She has so much of it that I think she is glad to not have so much of it making her hot all the time. I do miss her beautiful locks although she looks adorable with her new do. She has a constant little chatter of storytelling going on which can be very entertaining. Her favorite song is I Love to See the Temple (although she did let me sing He Sent His Son instead when I put her to bed last night). She is an awesome Big Sister most of the time and invents new things to do with Boo all the time. Most of the time they play babies but the other day they were playing in a storage container like it was the funniest thing they had come up with yet. The Sita still wants her "snuggles" every morning and loves to eat more berries than are good for her. She and I have been reading the Little House series together and are now on These Happy Golden Years. Reading ahead of where we are is one of her guilty pleasures. We still find her distractingly beautiful.

The Dude is almost grown up! Well, not really, but it sure seems that way. He is still the same old Dude in many ways, but has picked up a few new interests recently. He is into Origami spending hours folding water bombs and airplanes and flowers and swans and hearts. The Legends of the Guardians series (books about owls and their society) have captured his imagination and he has read most of the 15 books (the ones he hasn't read are ones he didn't get for his birthday or Christmas). His violin playing is getting better and better! Right now he's practicing the Hunter's Chorus and having fun with the bowing. Probably the thing he is most proud of is that he is really good at "skinnies" (apparently a very technical term regarding handball on his school playground). He is also learning a bit of Korean because most of his friends at school are from Korea and learning English. Second grade has really helped his writing take off and now our house is covered in all sorts of advisory notices - like this one found on his room:
(spelling, grammar and punctuation replicated as faithfully as possible)

1. warning! you Must be exactly 4 or 6 or 7 to entr the secret bed or (club) as we call it! no, that is Not our only place we use (we also use the passege way to mom and dad's room) and we will still make more.

and an excerpt from another:

you have to be able to solve this problum 900+970
(no students so far because noone has applyed) (we love highlights) our job is to read them) reffering to (we love highlights)(highlights is shortened to them)

I am so glad that these little preciouses are mine, mine, mine!

The Dude is famous!

2010-09-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

That might be exaggerating. A bit. But it was fun when we went by his school's office the other day and saw this advertisement for an upcoming event:

Which is so cool! This was our Chalk it Up square from last year! We did this the weekend after we moved to this school. I hope we didn't cheat. I drew the outlines and then he chose the colors and colored in. I liked it then. I'm glad someone else liked it too.
~

Thank you, Elder Uchtdorf

2010-09-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

Confession: I don't like to do things unless I do them amazingly well. Which means that sometimes I don't do things that I'm "good" at because I'm not amazing. But tonight, while I read Elder Uchtdorf's talk on being creative, these lines jumped out at me:

"What you create doesn't have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don't let fear of failure discourage you. Don't let the voice of critics paralyze you - whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside."

So, in honor of that passage (and because the Spozo was off firesiding with Elder Jensen tonight) I did this:

And I feel good.

180th General Conference Sunday Afternoon Live Blogging

2010-04-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

-finishing up lunch-

Russel M Nelson

families temple work
steps of Family Search
now helping everyone instead of own immediate families
catch duplicate and errors

Robert D Hales

rising generation
leading by example
must plan teaching moments:
Sit and talk about what is most important
No earphones when driving around
greatest influence warm caring interaction with parents
Family dinner
Pay Attention! ask questions and LISTEN
"Grandpa, are you in there?"
Connecting with them (doing PP with daughters)
You will grow together in gospel
must DO, not just know
bear testimony
legacy from love in homes

Bradley D Foster

picture book paddy "because mother told me"
influence of mothers!

-putting clothes on Boo-

rescue the lost ones
love of true mother closest to Godly love
Jesus looked at mother make sure she is cared for

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

?

Mighty ballplayer?
-reading Edwina to Boo-
-putting Boo down for nap, changing wet sheets-

Francisco Vinas

all things in commotion
replace fear with faith
rescue spiritually dead

?

No assigned topics
building upon themes
rising generation
a time of permissiveness and distractions everywhere

cannot be casual in teaching children

Stories of Jesus
embedded in minds
pray for own miracles
anticipate His return

speak more frequently of Jesus
your testimony will never leave your children

father died suddenly- remember what he taught them

Thomas S Monson

trust in the Lord and he shall direct thy path
song of righteous
study messages in Ensign

thanks for prayers in our behalf

Abide With Me

(all conference posts "typed" on my iPod)

180th General Conference Sunday Morning

2010-04-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

Pres Eyring conducting

Pres Uchdorf
-setting up treat stations: Easter, love, song, Jesus, resurrection-
LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Richard G Scott

The Atonement

Enormous responsibility to succeed
endure Satan's attacks by himself
Father did not abandon

-getting water for the Boo-

teaching children in home paramount
every decision think of him

Donald Hallstrom

fear leads to anger which leads to hate which leads to the Dark Side
Prince of Peace
turn to lord in adversity
affect generations of posterity
joy and pain part of the plan - complementary
how we respond to things
deep water is what I am wont to swim in
been wronged?
Turn to the Lord he will deliver you out of bondage

Rejoice the Lord is King

Cheryl C Lant

Sigh! The Primary Voice!!!!!!
Seek the face of the Savior an invitation to know what he has done
3 Nephi people seeing him in person - changed lives
parents job to bring children to Savior

-getting juice for Boo-

help them keep connection to heaven

Quentin L Cook

Thursday Last supper
the sacrament
teaching love as preeminent
holy ghost promised

resurrection

apendages - focus on resurrected Lord
He Lives!

Sacrament

love
how we react to one another shows commitment to doctrine
civil in discourse
love even our enemies - how we disagree shows true Christianity

holy ghost
we must find time to ponder
signs of 2nd coming
living higher life spiritually

I Wonder When He Comes Again

Pres Thomas S Monson

Thank You - two most important words
a hopeless dawn
death universal heritage
snows of age fallen upon head

designer of universe
understand meaning of death must understand purpose of life
every chance to survive gave us a savior

boyhood of Jesus
he went about doing good

summary of life and death

"why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here"

fall of Adam reclaimed
joy of resurrection!

Jason
don't lose faith
NEVER
called to serve missions together

He Is Risen!!!!!!

In the Purple east

180th General Conference Saturday Afternoon

2010-04-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

Goodbye GeneralPrimary Presidency!
Rosemary Wicks Whitman new president
voting unanimous as usual
come on up, newbies!

Robert Cantwell

auditing done fine

Brook P Hales

statistical report
(putting pants on Boo)
Truman G Madsen gone

L Tom Perry

mothers and teaching opportunity
his mother a great teacher - reference material all over table
best teaching in home ( more time) prepared to be example
lessons learned from mother:
parents entrusted with education of children
desk in kitchen while did dinner!
Memorizing scriptures memory become weak no idle thoughts
values morals taught in home
parents central cast members in lives of child
bring up child in light and truth
teaching in church to improve teaching at home and vice versa
no such thing as over preparing for teaching the gospel
Satans work more subtle andmore brazen than it has ever been

D Todd Christopherson

William Tyndale published Bible in English fluent in 8 languages
threatened power of the church

importance of scripture?
Enlarged memory of his people
-reading Smile to Boo-

Korihor- no moral absolutes (prevalent in today's society)
imagined a Jesus of social justice instead of personal rectitude
Central purpose to help grow faith help feel Holy Ghost
can have own personal copy is a huge blessing - must mean we need to be reading them now more than any other time

We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet!

Koichi Aoyagi

saving rescue by Elders admired them
parents opposed baptism
-Boo needs consoling-
postcard saves him

?

Ground effect engine stalled
commandments don't apply to us?
No! Keep commandments strictly
Jeroboam returned and introduced Satanic rituals
Naaman pride hurt, didn't want to obey
Nephi gets the plates- the lord will understand disobedience? No, but will help obey

David A Bednar

standing water ahead sign -early warning signals
Spiritual warning signs
Word of Wisdom- warn and forewarn
need to increase watching

reading and talking about Book of Mormon: only scripture Jesus testified of
youth respond to spirit- questions help to know what their challenges are

testimony
-Sita has various aches that need to be attended to -

FHE unscripted search together and feel spirit

act and seek learning

parents read seek and invite to act - will help see early warning signs

Jeffery R Holland

porn
it grieveth me
why so much moral decay?

-putting Boo to bed-

lust is unsavory most deadly Why?
Defiles highest and holiest relationships
lust is clandestine and celebrates self-indulgence
love shout from housetops (and GC)

guard against temptation
separate from circumstances and people
don't leave forwarding address
only real control in life is self-control
dull our spirituality
don't serve Tea!
Cultivate spirit in home

what was I thinking?
Think of jesus - oh Jesus thou Son of God have mercy on me
I will give place no more to the enemy of my soul!!!

Nearer my God to Thee

The End

teach them to fish

spontaneous testimony

180th General Conference Live Blogging Saturday Morning

2010-04-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Mmmm! Donuts!

President Uchdorft conducting (I just love his accent!)

prayer
haven't heard oracle for a while

Pres Monson
help with converts
humanitarian strive to be first at disaster helped countless people
temples
rhapsodizing about his dear Francis (hip surgery!) kisses from her parents on their first date
"ithink you'd look better in a navy uniform" so he joined the navy
( his ad-libbing voice doesn't have his distinctive cadence - oh It Is Back now!)

Sunshine in my soul (a little too saccharine for me)

Boyd K P
sitting down!
Battle not our own
keyword: priesthood
Gideon drinking water (One of my F-I-L's favorite stories)
Joseph Smith getting priesthood back
never been easy to live gospel
we to preach gospel
never dominate by numbers -we will influence all of humanity
priesthood loses power when sisters neglected
distribution of authority BUT power in the priesthood in families diminishing?
Father should do ordinances in his own home
Vietnam War
young man asked for blessing from Pres Lee - He said ask your father
YM said he doesn't know how
father ordains his own son
Awaken the Power of the Priesthood!
Living below their power
weak things of the earth
protect your home with that Power
Satan attacking family constantly - EVERYTHING for protection and happiness of family

Julie B Beck

sisters worried deep desire to do what is right
never been more need for strong faith, family, serve others
not enough time to serve every one
resist message that deserve more time for themselves rather than do responsibilities
Personal Revelation
temple, scriptures and prayer - paper to write impressions
conscious effort to diminish distractions
system of warchcare
assist each other in refining -Eliza R Snow
doing well when seek to improve seek out others when follow spirit
growth of church bc women drawn to goodness seen as distinct from the world

I love how empowering she is!

Keith McMullin

awake!
Providing shelter for Jews went to Ravensbrook
story in YW manual! Action THEN feeling of forgiveness

battery running low must go :(

Adorableness

2010-02-05T23:36:00.000-08:00

~
The Boo is so much fun right now. I can't believe she's less than a month away from being a year old!

She is understanding more of what we're saying and enjoying interacting with us (beyond smiling and crying). If you say "Yea!" she'll start clapping her hands. If you say "Bye!" or "Hi!" she'll start waving her hand. If you say "Sit down," "Spit it out," or "Give that to me," she does it. She laughs more than the Sita and the Dude did. We think she's getting some words almost worked out, but we're still not quite sure if she's saying "Mama" to name me or because she just loves saying "Mama" all the time.

She is in love with her big brother and sister. When either of them is away from her for more than an hour and then she sees them again, she gives them her biggest giggly smile with crinkly nose and squinty eyes and kicks her happy feet. She loves interacting with people of all ages and especially loves babies smaller than her!

Walking around has still has not captured her interest. Sometimes she will forget how much she doesn't like standing and will do it, but once she realizes she's standing she immediately sits down. At least she doesn't scream bloody murder when I try to get her to stand on her feet anymore; she tolerates it for a while and then has had enough and plunks back down.

Whatever we are eating is what she wants to be eating. We have successfully added cheese and yogurt to her diet (and have high hopes for getting her to take milk to start weaning soon!) Right now she loves oranges and tangerines. If she sees citrus fruit, she does her "I want" noise. If she gets a hold of citrus fruit, she bites through the peel to get at the juicy fruit she knows is inside.

Emptying out is one of her favorite things to do - her toy basket, the diaper bag, my wallet, the bookshelf - whatever she can get her hands on! She also already loves to hug and cuddle baby dolls. Right now she's babynapping her elder sister's babies, but soon enough she'll have her own to drag around.

Probably my favorite thing about her is how much she enjoys music. If someone is singing, she starts jumping, laughing and shrieking (the happy variety). She loves to bang on the piano. She would love to bang on the violin (she is quite frustrated that we don't let her).

She is a delight to have, and we're glad she's ours!

Sibling Similarities?

2010-01-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

So, I've been thinking about how my babies all look so different - there will be no confusion about whose baby pictures are whose. But do you think they look like siblings? My brothers and I didn't look very much alike (which lead to some interesting situations when we got older), and I think it is likely my children will find themselves in similar awkward moments.

The Dude at 10 months

The Sita at 10 months

The Rita at 10 months

What do you think?

(Besides the fact that they're all adorable!)

And did you notice?

Sita and Rita are wearing the same sweater!

My little Data

2009-11-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

~
The Sita was Ladybug Girl for Halloween.

But maybe she should've been Data from Star Trek instead.

Or another Dr. Noonien Soong android of the same generation. Because whenever she encounters a contraction while reading, she reads what it would say uncontracted. She is very cute and adorable when she reads it that way, but I wonder if she needs an upgrade in her programming so that it won't be obvious that we've got a little glitch in her positronic matrix.
~

Autumn is here!

2009-11-07T09:48:00.001-08:00

~

If only I could've found the colored construction paper! I love living in a place that has beautiful leaves all over!
~

Because I have adorable children and you haven't seen them in a while

2009-10-13T21:44:00.001-07:00

~

Boo is most happy when she has hair to pull. She is learning the word "Gently!"

The Sita likes to eat Trix. But we like to count them first.

The Dude is the Listening Star in his Kindergarten class for the day. From his perspective, this is The Most Important Thing to achieve at school.
~

You may imagine what I felt and how I acted...

2009-09-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

~
...when I came back to the lunch table after feeding Boo.

~

Overheard at the lunch table

2009-08-19T12:41:00.001-07:00

~
How did the bee cross the water?
By getting eaten by a shark!

Why did the bee hit the car?
Because it wanted to get stung!

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because it wanted to eat the watermelon!

Why did the car go into the cookie?
Because he wanted to see the eyeball!

Each of these was greeted with uproarious laughter. Because they're all that funny.
~

the Dude's recipe for Vanilla Cream

2009-08-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

~
(as dictated, verbatim)

On a hot sunny afternoon or morning, if you want to make this recipe you need vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients
vanilla ice cream

Directions:
In a small bowl put one scoop of vanilla ice cream in the bowl and then wait a couple minutes. Probably one minute.

Mash well on the side of the glass bowl. Then stir well. Then if you don't want to drink it yet put it in a bag in the freezer.

And when you want to, you can drink it. But it has to be in a day of the week you made it. Otherwise, it will go bad.
~

A Tale of Two Ties

2009-06-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

~
The week before Father's Day all the children in our Primary decorated ties for their Daddies to wear on Father's Day. The Dude very happily decorated this tie:

Personally, I think it is a very fun (and nicely designed!) tie but the Spozo did not. Luckily, the Dude was not there when his father first saw the tie in which he said, "Yuck. I'm not wearing that. Ever." And then went on a rant about how its not fair that Dads have to put up with nasty tacky junk for Father's Day. (The Spozo wishes to insert here that he never rants.)

But because the Dude has a memory, and he knew his Daddy was supposed to wear a tie decorated by him to church the next Sunday, it was imperative that we have a tie the Spozo was willing to wear. So the Spozo sacrificed one of his very own ties for us to decorate with a little more art direction. The Dude felt that sparkles were the most important feature to a cool Daddy tie, so we went sparkle shopping and the Dude had lots of fun besparkling the tie. Behold:

The Spozo groaningly put on the tie early Sunday morning before leaving for his meetings (I had let it be known that if he "forgot" the tie it would be brought to him). He complained about the sparkles getting all over his suit. He rolled his eyes. BUT by the end of the day, he declared that this was now his Father's Day Tie Forever (and it wasn't just for the benefit of the Dude's ears).
~

the 1st Pink Lego Creation

2009-06-21T22:05:00.001-07:00

~

from the much anticipated Pink Lego Set.
~

the Sita turns 3!

2009-06-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

~
We spread the festivities over several days:

The actual birthday:

The party:

The cupcakes:

We're so glad we've got our Sita-que-bonita!
~

Meet Baby Moses

2009-06-15T23:24:00.001-07:00

~

Yep.

I don't get it either.
~

Sposa, Plumber Extraordinaire

2009-06-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

~
After spending a couple hours cursing myself, I am feeling triumphant right now.

Why the Cursing:

I was washing things in the sink and the water was starting to rise, so I flipped on the garbage disposal to get the drain flowing again. I noticed that a sippy cup was getting dangerously close to the drain, so I shut off the disposal quickly. But not quickly enough.

The sippy cup was stuck in the garbage disposal. I tried pulling it out, but it was wedged. I tried getting some leverage around it to push it out. No go. I tried wiggling it. It just went in further. After attempting all this in greasy increasingly lukewarm water, I figure I should try getting the water out. And so I push the silly cup all the way in.

This is a very bad idea.

Now the cup inside the garbage disposal with no hope of getting out (Although the water is drained now!). I toy with the idea of being helpless and begging the Spozo to fix it when he gets home. After all, he installed the beast. He should know how to disassemble it and rescue the cup. But. I decide that it can't be too hard of a thing to fix, and I really CAN do it myself.

I spend time unscrewing various screws under the sink that I hope will loosen the dang thing and let me get the stupid cup out. 5 screws later, I am still no closer to getting the disposal loosened and I can't find anymore screws.

Why the Triumph:

I finally remember I have this wonderful resource called the Internet. 2 searches and 5 pages later, I find this gem. And it works! (Well, after I give up on disconnecting the electricity and just go flip the fuse off outside.) The garbage disposal is now cupless and I have put the disposal back together and I can't see any water leaking anywhere.

So the house is still a mess, the children haven't gotten their naps (they've been running wild during this whole episode), and all the under the sink junk is on the kitchen floor, but the garbage disposal works, and by gum, it's all thanks to me!

(Let's just ignore the fact that it wouldn't need fixing if it weren't for me!)
~

the Jury is still out

2009-06-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

~
The Sita has been fairly resistant about learning to read. Whenever I tried even a little to get her to look at words, she just buried her face. So now on the second or third or fourth book in a row she asks me to read to her, I make it a condition that she will "help" me read if I read the rest of the book.

She memorizes stories so quickly it's hard to tell if she's just remembering the word that is supposed to come next or she actually recognizes the word. Sometimes it's fairly obvious because she's got the whole phrase or sentence memorized, but other times, she just says the next word that I'm pointing to.

Since we aren't constantly getting new books, I haven't been sure which she's been doing (or a bit of both). But we just got a new issue of The Friend, and as I was reading a story for the first time, I decided to do a little test. (By the way, have you tried their online interactive site? My kids are in love with it right now!) I started reading (and pointing to the words as I read) and then I would pause and point to the next word. She would say the right one most of the time! Sometimes it took a couple guesses, and sometimes she was way off. I'm not quite sure that she wasn't just guessing the word from the context of the sentence or a combination of the context plus the first letter of the word, but still!

I'm so excited for her.

Words that she seems to recognize consistently:

Jesus
go
up
Mommy
Daddy
no
on
Evelyn

Words she seems to get some/most of the time:

bed
door
room
girl
boy
dinosaur
children
~

Presents for me?

2009-05-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

~
A couple days after our anniversary, the Dude and the Sita announced as they were getting ready for bed that they were making presents for me. I smiled and said goodnight. Much giggling ensued for a long while after I had cloistered them in their room.

The next morning they presented me with their play oven mitts taped shut and filled with Legos. They had each picked out Legos to make me a specialized "set" for me to make "a creation" with. The funny thing is, I liked the bricks the Sita picked out for me - they were just more interesting for me to play with. They enjoyed watching me make something with Legos, and then they were very possessive of the "creation" I had made out of "their" set of Legos.

I think this project came about because of all the gift giving the Spozo and I did for the anniversary and because my "biography" (I had to give a talk on Sunday and they wanted a little biographical information) had stated I did a lot of Lego construction. To which the Dude stated emphatically, "Mommy does NOT play with Legos!" I will say in my defense that I had said "attended many lectures on Lego construction" - and believe me, I have! I get shown "step 1" and then "step 2" and "step 3,759" of every creation the Dude assembles.

But the Dude was right that I don't often participate in the joys of Lego construction and has now rectified the situation.
~

She has Arrived!

2009-05-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

~

The Rita is here!

She came a little over a week early - and gave us just enough time to shuffle the Dude and Sita over to friend s, drive to the hospital (half an hour away) and get to our room before demanding entrance to the world. As a result, we had the glamour of being known as the "precipitous birth" in the maternity ward.

She had a teeny head (that stayed round!), lots of hair and dark eyes. She reminds us of both the Dude and the Sita when they were babies. Unfortunately, she's a little colicky and very determined to make us burn lots of calories to keep her happy with lots of bouncing and walking. She loves to examine things for a long time and wants to face out already to get to know the world.

We like the Rita a lot! We haven't had any serious sibling jealousy issues, but have had a little regression from the Sita. She wore diapers for awhile but she's already back on the potty! We're still working on the crying for every little thing that upsets her. (Or maybe that's just her impending three-ness). The Dude is being a pretty good sport about getting even less attention, perhaps because he is one of the Rita's favorite people to smile at.

~

My little Man of Steel

2009-05-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

~
As kindergarten fast approaches, we had to get the Dude's vaccinations up to date. Needles are among my least favorite things and the time I got my vaccinations is one of my more vivid childhood memories (not in a good way), so I was more nervous about him getting them than he was.

To prepare him, we talked about not looking at them putting in the shots, that it might hurt a little, but that it was better to relax for the shots instead of tense up because it was easier to get the needle into a relaxed muscle. I still remember (and resent!) my Mother's chant: It's easier to poke a stick in a marshmallow than a stone! (and she's right, like usual!) To sweeten the deal, I promised him that he could choose a toy if he was very brave.

We get there, he hops up on the hospital bed, and I draw his attention away from the multiple needles by having him look at the cool rainbow twirly things they have hanging from the ceiling just for that purpose. The nurse pokes him again and again and again. And Again AND AGAIN. I am in tears. He's sitting there bobbing his little head like nothing has happened. I'm wondering if she's using something besides needles to inject him.

The nurse declares him done and then gives him huge high fives.

The Sita then jumps onto the stepstool and sings that it's her turn now! The nurses look at each other and me and then we all start laughing. I think that was a first for the nurses - usually their patients are not excited to get their shots! (Especially when they're second in line!)

A week later, the Dude showed his steel once again when he went to the dentist to get a cavity filled. The dentist suggested that he take some laughing gas to help him relax during the procedure. Because I was pregnant, they couldn't let me in the room with him if he were to take the laughing gas. When I explained that to him, he decided that he would rather go without the laughing gas to have me in the room.

He stayed so still - he only twitched as they were injecting the novocain and was perfectly still for the rest of the time.

He's my brave boy. Particularly when there are Legos at stake.
~

Hallelujah, Rejoice!

2009-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

~

After about a year of trying to bribe and connive the Sita into going #2 on the potty, today was the day she decided to do it! I almost didn't even let her try because she was using it (as in common with other times) to postpone naptime. Luckily, we got her ready and I told her another story in the series of the Pink Unicorn Chronicles as she nested upon the throne. She almost panicked, but persevered and got it out. She has already sworn off diapers forever.

I should have offered a tea party set a lot sooner, apparently. Only a week after setting this up as the reward we have results! (And because she has decided that tea parties are among The Best Things on the Planet thanks to a visit with Grandma to Crown and Crumpet and playing with a tea set at a friend's house). She was a good sport about having to wait until tomorrow to go get the tea party set (because of course she had to do it on a Sunday!), so we're heading off to a toy store that does NOT stock a pink princess tea set tomorrow to pick out her Special Treat. I'm hoping she'll pick this one.

I'm also really hoping this isn't a one-time thing and that she doesn't regress after the baby arrives. It would be so nice to not have two sets of poopy diapers to change!
~

Syrup is Tasty

2009-02-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

~
When the Sita asked for syrup, we were confused. We weren't having waffles. Or pancakes. Or anything that syrup would taste remotely good on. But she kept asking for it.

Finally, she opened up the refrigerator and got out the bottle of Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette, brought it to the Spozo and asked for some of this "syrup" on her plate. To dip her broccoli in (along with everything else on her plate)!

We have known of her obsession with Balsamic Vinaigrette for awhile now. The first time we ever let her try it, we soon discovered that she liked drinking it straight and it was with difficulty that we coaxed her into dipping things (very absorbent things - like bread and broccoli!) into it and then eating it.

We're thinking pickle juice might be something she'd love - as she loves pickles, olives, hummus and Trader Joe's Marinated Bean Salad (canned). Does anyone have any other suggestions of other briny things she might enjoy? (The more calories, the better!)
~

Miracle of the Day

2009-02-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

~
Today as we drove home from dropping the Spozo off at the airport, we got to see rainbows! Real, live rainbows!

Since my kids have never really seen a real rainbow before (not sure if that means we don't get out enough or we've just been living where there's a drought), they were awed by it.

And, really?
Rainbows are awesome!

They are miraculous and beautiful and I'm glad we got to see them today - if only to hear the Sita's joy in seeing a rainbow out the window and realizing that joy can be found in simple things.

Especially double rainbows!
~

What we had for breakfast

2009-02-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

~

Mmmm. With raspberries from the Berkeley Bowl! Shockingly, we had never been there until yesterday when we were already in that part of town, and I had an entourage to help me keep wiggly children from being lost!
~

Yes, she really said that

2009-01-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

~
And yes, I know a whole bunch of holidays and things have happened since I last posted. Maybe I'll catch you up on the highlights. Maybe.

In the meantime, my favorite thing the Sita said today:

"I want to get my jammas on now!"

"Sweetie, it's really not time for bed quite yet."

"But MOMMY, I'm TIRED. I didn't take a nap today!"

Needless to say, she got her pajamas on!
~

The Dude Turns 5!

2008-12-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

~

The Dude has gotten his fill of dinosaurs and digging for a while! I am glad the two things I thought would be most fun were popular! The kids really enjoyed digging up (and sometimes re-unearthing multiple times) the dinosaurs and dinosaur bones and they REALLY liked being told it was OK to play with their food (even if they didn't end up eating most of it - except for the dinosaur chicken nuggets, of course!) One picture that I wish I had gotten was the Dude's slice of cake after he was "done." He ate the ganache frosting and left the rest of the cake untouched! Thanks to Lady Steed for all the pictures!
~

I Like My Children

2008-11-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

~
Sometimes I feel like when I'm talking about having kids with other people, that I am expected to complain about them (in general and specific). Although sometimes I need to unload about having a rough day, I really do just enjoy being with my Dude and Sita. They are wonderful!

Some things I love about them today:

The Dude:

...wants to understand things. He asked about what "on purpose" meant. He wanted to know why Mars was about war and Venus was about love.
...recognizes classical music. He can tell all of Holst's Planets apart (hence the discussion above).
...can determine which instruments are being played in a piece of music. "There are the double basses! And the trumpets! And the timpanis!"
...likes to write out math problems for himself. He wrote 3 math problems in his notebook: 9+1=10, 10+1=11, 10-1=9 AND when someone asked him what 5 plus -3 was, he knew it was 2.
...is a good big brother. He makes up games for he and the Sita to play and they have a great time together. He had them pretending to be slithery snakes on the polished gym floor.
...can be quiet for a long time. He let us take naps while he entertained himself with his Thomas storybook and a phonics workbook.
...is reasonable. When I explain why I can't do something at the moment, he accepts it and sometimes even offers to help me.
...is trustworthy. During choir practice, I don't have to worry about him because I know he'll stay out of trouble.
...wants to be good. When we were walking to church and he made the Sita fall because he was being a bit boyish, he accepted the responsibility and said he was sorry.

The Sita:

...loves wearing her dancing dresses, and then dancing (spinning around in circles until she's thoroughly dizzy).
...loves to sing! She sang the "Glooooooooria een exshellsees djeo" to Angels We Have Heard on High all day.
...isn't afraid to talk to people. Her favorite topics are "The Chicken Nugget Story" "The Nerds" "Cataloguing the Owies" and "Getting Treats for Going Poo in the Potty" (which she has yet to do).
...eats fruit. Having a pear for breakfast is just delightful. Having craisins for snack is grand.
...memorizes books and then "reads" them back to you. She's got Pinkalicious totally down (even the silly voices).
...tries new foods. She ate a couple bites of a new soup tonight without complaint.
...keeps track of who gives her what. Right now Auntie C is in her good books because she gave her a new dancing dress!
...is so charming! She has claimed the lap of her nursery leader for storytime - all the other children must crowd around.
...is excited about having a new sister. She tells everyone about her new baby sister and that someday after she gets baptized and married in the temple, she will have a baby in her tummy, too.
...can interpret my drawings. She got angel and baby Jesus and Jesus getting baptized correct (even though the Spozo said John looked like a scary octopus monster).

I love my kids. They are truly a great source of delight and laughter and love and I'm glad they're mine.
~

Not what I wanted

2008-11-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

~
With all that Thanksgiving action, I completely forgot that the Dude was supposed to give a talk in Primary today. If I had only remembered 10 minutes earlier, I could've written something out for him to read. But no - I didn't remember until they asked the child who was giving the prayer to come forward. Our only prep time was while the other little boy (or, more accurately, his mother) was reciting the scripture.

So we settled for the Dude reading his favorite verse of I Am a Child of God and talking a bit about it. It looked a lot like a traditional Primary talk - the parent whispers something to the child, they speak into the microphone, the parent whispers something more, the child whispers something back, the parent nods their head, and the child again speaks into the microphone. Our dialogue went a bit like this:

I'm going to read my favorite verse of I Am a Child of God.

I'm going to read my favorite verse in I Am a Child of God. I am a child of God, Rich blessings are in store. If I but learn to do His will, I'll live with Him once more.

Ok. What are some of your blessings? (pointing to rich blessings.)

Rich blessings. The world.

What else?

I don't know mommy.

How about living with Heavenly Father?

Living with Heavenly Father.

What are you doing to learn His will?

I'm learning to choose the right.

How about being kind?

Being kind. And nice. And sharing.

I am glad I am a child of God.

I am glad I am a child of God.

In the name...

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I didn't think about this until just now, but I never had to prompt him when to speak into the microphone - he knew when was a time to speak into the microphone and when not to. Counting our small blessings. A dear sister that was in Primary came up after church to compliment us on his talk. I looked at her a bit incredulously and laughed, explaining that we had completely winged the whole thing. She said she had guessed that, but that what was impressive was that we did that well just improvising. That made me feel a bit better about completely forgetting to prepare something, but I still think I'd like a re-do.
~

Thanksgiving Lessons

2008-11-28T08:00:00.001-08:00

~
We learned several important things from having Thanksgiving at our house this year:

It is a LOT of work.
Having no counterspace means making several things at once is extremely difficult.
Mashed potatoes taste best when there is lots of butter, cream, and sour cream and they are whipped with beaters.
If you want the Sita to eat anything besides olives at Thanksgiving dinner, you should let her eat them more often.
Trader Joe's turkeys prepared the Martha Stewart way makes THE BEST turkey.
Tenting the turkey really does work!
The Dude will eat mashed potatoes, corn, turkey, and pumpkin pie with enthusiasm (but not much else).
Leftovers are ginormous when you're by yourselves.
Having a dinner party the night before is good because your house is already fairly clean.
Having a dinner party the night before is bad because you're already tired of slaving away in the kitchen.
Pumpkin pecan streusel pie is five times more scrumptious than traditional pumpkin pie.
It is a slight disadvantage to have Black Friday be the day after Thanksgiving when you have a gadget-obsessed husband.
It is a huge blessing to have a competent cook for a husband.
You will always, no matter what, forget to take a picture of the turkey no matter how beautiful it is!

We missed having Thanksgiving with family this year, but we're glad we have family to miss. We're also very glad we have friends to share it with!
~

A Harmonious Day

2008-11-21T00:27:00.001-08:00

~
The highlight of my day today was having the Sita singing the Peter theme from Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf at random times - at Target, while playing, and in her bath. Not exactly note perfect, but she had the rhythms!

I even loved her more when she told me (very emphatically bordering on screamingly) that I was NOT allowed to sing along with her.

Another highlight was piano practice with the Dude. We had such fun doing forte and piano and high and low notes (and high and low voices - his low elephant voice is adorable). He very seriously explained to me that he can't make such low notes because his vocal chords are smaller than mine.

I am so proud that when he plays one of his little songs, it sounds like a song! (My current favorite is the Magic Tree House song). He's already better at looking at the music rather than the keys than I am and when he lifts his hand to move it on the keyboard, he does it so gracefully. We're still working on the graceful curving of the fingers.....
~

Tagged! Crazy 8s

2008-11-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

~
(At least I think I was!) by the darling Sierra.

8 things I'm obsessed with right now:
1. Finding order
2. Thinking up Christmas gifts
3. Reading my friends' blogs
4. Planning the Dude's party
5. Justifying getting new things for another baby girl
6. Stopping the Sita's tantrums
7. Taking beautiful pictures
8. Deciding if kindergarten is the best thing for the Dude

8 words or phrases I use daily:
1. "Did you want to ASK me for something?"
2. "Sita que bonita!"
3. "Girlawog!"
4. "Screamacita"
5. "Dude-a-lude"
6. "What a nice big brother!"
7. "Are you listening to your body?"
8. "You're right!"

8 T.V. shows I love to watch:
1. We don't own a TV.
2. But we do get Netflix.
3. So I do watch some "TV."
4. Monk
5. Star Trek (in general)
6. Project Runway (when they're not swearing!)
7. And that's about
8. It.

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Tried on Maternity clothes at Old Navy
2. Had lunch at IKEA
3. Put a bandaid on a profusely bleeding wound
4. Carried a sleeping Sita from the car to her bed
5. Laundered the "warm" colors and the "cool" colors
6. Read "Pigeon wants a Puppy" 3 times in a row
7. Went to Target and found pants (on sale!) for the now 4T Dude
8. Played the Scripture game in the November Friend for FHE

8 of my favorite places to eat:
1. Barney's
2. Cheeseboard Bakery
3. Bistro Jeanty in Yountville
4. Chez Souvan in Campbell
5. My Mom's house
6. Teacake Bakery
7. Macaroni Grill
8. In-and-Out Burger

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Thanksgiving!
2. Concerts with the Spozo!
3. My birthday
4. Christmas!
5. Singing Psalm 91 in church
6. Teaching a lesson on Moroni
7. New baby girl!
8. The Spozo being off his nasty diet

8 Things on my wish list:
1. The Princess Bride (the book)
2. Enamel Dutch Oven
3. Camera carrier
4. Really cute pregnancy dress
5. Naptime everyday
6. Full-time maid
7. Quickish labor
8. Healthy baby

8 People I tag:
1. the Romgi
2. Roni
3. Lady Steed
4. Tristen
5. Cindy
6. FoxyJ
7. Ramblings
8. the Spozo (even though he swears he won't do it)
~

Wise Words from a Wise Man

2008-11-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

~
(with bolding added for emphasis)

"We are forgetting God, whose commandments we have neglected and in some cases forgotten, and which we seem reluctant - or too undisciplined - to obey. In too many ways, we have substituted human sophistry for the wisdom of the Almighty.

"America is still strong, but destructive forces have been and are at work. There is a serious unsteadiness in our country's stance in terms of morality, ehtics, principles, and behavior. We as a people and a nation have increasingly neglected and abandoned time-honored virtues that have been proven through the centuries to keep human beings individually, and therefore collectively, strong.

"These problems are only symptomatic of many other problems we have as a people. During recent years, polls and circumstances have suggested that an unprecedented majority of Americans believe that the private lives of public official need not be considered as a factor in their eligibility for public office, and that private morality has no connection with public behavior and credibility. I am more deeply concerned about the growing moral deficit than I am about monetary deficit.

"For a good while, there has been going on in this nation a process that I have termed the secularization of America. The single most substantial factor in the degeneration of the values and morals of our society is that we as a nation are forsaking the Almighty, and I fear that He will begin to forsake us. We are shutting the door against the God whose sons and daughters we are."

"Marriage was once generally regarded as a sacred sacrament, but, for the populace as a whole, it is becoming an increasingly secular ceremony. ... We are losing something that speaks of accountability, not only to one another but to God who is our Father and who will stand in judgement upon us."

"If we are to continue to have the freedoms that evolved within the structure that was the inspiration of the Almighty to our Founding Fathers, we must return to the God who is their true Author. ... If we would individually and collectively resolve to stand for something, to lift our voices for truth and goodness and offer our supplications to our Eternal Father, those supplications would be heard, and the result would be remarkable.

"Does this compromise the separation of church and state? Of course not. Such a provision does not preclude a constant petition to the Almighty for wisdom and guidance as we walk through perilous times."

"There is something reassuring about standing for something, and knowing what we stand for. ... Those who are committed to, and have patterned their lives after, a Higher Power need not rely on public opinion, which is often blatantly skewed."

"Here is the answer to the conflicts that beset us. ... Here is the answer to tawdry politics that place selfish interests and pursuits about the common good."

"... Let us look inward and adjust our priorities and standards, recommitting ourselves to time-honored virtues that embrace right and shun wrong. ... Let us work tirelessly to defend and strengthen the family, which is the fundamental unit of society.

"Notwithstanding the trouble, notwithstanding the argument, notwithstanding the increasingly heavy hand of government, notwithstanding the spirit of arrogance we so often display, notwithstanding the growing tide of pornography and permissiveness, notwithstanding the corruption in public office and betrayal of sacred trust - I marvel at the miracle of America, the land which the God of Heaven long ago declared to be a choice land above all other lands, and at the people He has designated to inhabit this nation.

"This is a good land, a great land with a glorious past and a bright future - if we treat and cure the sickness spreading throughout our society."

All quotes taken from Gordon B. Hinckley's Introduction to Standing for Something: 10 neglected virtues that will heal our hearts and homes.
~

Surprise!

2008-10-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

~
We went to Kaiser yesterday for our ultrasound of soon-to-be child number 3. They wanted to look at all these crazy things like stomach and brain and heart and umbilical cord to make sure everything was in working order. Since I was practice for a new technician, I didn't get to watch much of the procedure, but the Spozo got to and would make a comment every once in a while to let me feel included.

"It's got 2 sides to the brain!"
"It's bicycle kicking right now!"
"Seems to have all 10 fingers!"

I kept peppering the technicians with questions about what they were measuring and why. I don't remember much of anything except for this tidbit: Most umbilical cords have three blood vessels, but it is perfectly OK if they only have two. Ours had three. So there's really nothing interesting to report because everything was normal (Thank Heavens!).

Finally they get around to the reason I'm there: finding out the gender.

Now, I've been thinking of this baby as a boy and expecting it to be a boy. I'm so assured that it's a boy that the Spozo even thinks it is a boy (even though he'd like another girl to cuddle and protect). I get a chance to look at the screen and see my baby (which is always emotional for me to realize that there's this little independent person moving around inside me, and even though I feel some movement, there's a lot more going on than I can tell). They start searching around to find the key indicators of gender and I'm pretty sure I don't see any exterior plumbing. And then they find the 3 dots. Which means, yes, we're having another girl. One who likes to have one hand on her ear and the other hand across the body and tucked under her chin. One who is very stubborn about showing her spine to the ultrasound technicians.

So now here's our problem: We had a boy's name all picked out and settled. Now we are searching for a girl's name that seems to fit. Any suggestions?
~

Why Prop 8 irks me

2008-10-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

~
Or, in other words, why Proposition 8 shouldn't be on our ballots.

The reason that Prop 8 is on my ballot next week is because a handful of judges decided that they knew what was better for the people of California than the people of California did. Only 8 years ago, the majority of California citizens voted to decide that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman. But in March of this year, judges ruled that this definition was unconstitutional.

Deciding what marriage means in California should not be left to the hands of an elite few. This is a decision that the people of California as a whole should get to decide. And they will get to - now. But it happened in the opposite way that it should have. That's how democracy works - the people decide when things change (even if they're wrong). If just the elite few get to decide what is good for society, it is usually considered a dictatorship.

The judicial elite do not have an especially great track record of predicting the societal impact of implementing their top-down changes to the traditional fabric of society. But with the benefit of hindsight, we can plainly see how the availability (and subsequent acceptability) of abortion (as birth control) has helped create a highly sexualized culture in which pre-marital sex is expected and accepted. Looking back over the past 30 years since the advent of no-fault divorce the lasting and harm and damage to the emotional, mental, and physical well-being of many children of those divorces (and their future relationships) is apparent. This is not to say that NO good has come of these "societal innovations," but that the NET results on society have been decidedly negative.

No one can say how changing the traditional definition of marriage will impact our society, but it would be naive to say that there would be NO impact. You cannot change a definition so fundamental that no need of a "definition" was even necessary (until recently) without fundamental changes to society. Not immediately perhaps, but they will happen.

To consider a few: If the new definition of marriage is "a relationship in which people love each other and are committed to each other," why limit it to just 2 people? Some experts think it would be better for the children for the parents to stay married and just bring in other partners as they come along instead of getting divorced each time they find someone new. After all, many religions provide for polygamy in their doctrines, and it is mostly only in the Western nations that polygamy is not recognized as a legitimate form of marriage.

Why couldn't consenting adults (be they first cousins, brother and sister, father and daughter, or grandfather and grandson) be allowed the "right" of marriage?

Yes, some of those examples may seem extreme, but once you change the definition of marriage to accommodate the feelings of some, what basis do you have for not changing it further?
~

Little Pitchers Have Big Ears

2008-10-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

~
I never understood this line from the Little House series really meant (really, how many pitchers do you know that have ears, let alone big ones?), but I completely understand what they are trying convey.

The Sita really loves learning new songs. The surest way to get her to be quiet and settle down is to sing her a new song (or a song she hasn't memorized yet). Which would be why for her naptime everyday, first she picks two songs and then I pick a song she doesn't know so well before Quiet Time begins. This means that I'm quickly working my way through all the Primary songs I have memorized - she's got "A Child's Prayer" (the "Heavenly Father Song"!) and "Love is Spoken Here" ("Mommy Kneeling!") down pat. "Heavenly Father Loves Me" ("Rose Song!") and "I Love to See the Temple" ("Love the Temple!") are other favorites. "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" ("Walk in the Light!") is quickly being mastered.

I had to laugh the other day the Sita started singing along with the Dr. Laura theme song. Now, it's not like we listen every day and the Sita is usually napping during this time anyways, but the Sita proved she had heard it often enough. (Bolded are words the Sita actually sang)

I’m feelin’ good from my head to my shoes
Know where I’m goin’ and I know what to do
I tidied up my point of view
I got a new attitude

I’m in control, my worries are few
‘Cause I’ve got love like I never knew
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
I got a new attitude

At least there's nothing too incriminating in those lyrics. We learned our lesson with our firstborn.

I remember when we had to start censoring our conversations when the Dude was around because he was articulate enough to show that he understood what we were talking about. Or at least that he could parrot what we were talking about. It greatly decreased our "adult talking time" - especially because it meant we couldn't talk on our drives to visit family unless we wanted everyone at our destination to know exactly what we were talking about (or at least enough to make them very curious).

Beware of those little pitchers!
~

Parcheesi!

2008-09-27T20:57:00.001-07:00

~
We have been sadly lacking in games at our house, so in the past couple weeks we've been accumulating games. We now have Candy Land (the Sita's favorite), Go Fish and Parcheesi. Parcheesi took awhile to arrive, and when it did, the first thing the Dude did (after asking to see the board and pieces) was to read the rules. I was busy making sure the Sita didn't scatter the pieces to the wind before playing our first game and then cleaning up the wrappings and uploading our new Carnival of the Animals music, so I just asked him to make sure the rules got back in the box when he was done.

Now, you would think that I would be past being surprised at the Dude's comprehension, but I admit I wasn't expecting him to understand the rules. He did! When we played for the first time and the Sita rolled her doubles he got so excited for her that she got to go AGAIN because she had rolled doubles!

Watch out if he challenges you to a game of Memory. He beat me. Both times. And I wasn't trying to be nice.
~

Traumatized for Life

2008-09-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

~
Until last week, the Sita had one deadly fear in her life: Buzzy Bees. She has never been stung. She has never had one land on her. She just fears anything that buzzes and flies. Which includes flies. This fear was not helped by a fly that got trapped in our car and then landed on her head.

Then. Last week we went to the scenic city of Monterey and while we were dining in the park, the seagulls decided that we had some pretty good food to eat. We were mostly tolerant of their begging and (unfortunately) gave them the random french fry that fell to the ground. Little did we know this was a major tactical error.

In a feat of great cunning, a seagull got close to us and then leapt up and grabbed a chicken nugget RIGHT OUT OF THE SITA'S HAND, then flapped away to enjoy its spoils leaving a devastated Sita behind. She cried unconsolably for five minutes and screamed whenever she saw another seagull for the rest of the evening.

Luckily, the Dude loves to chase birds and was very happy to chase away the offending birds until their birdy brains understood that coming near us meant having an energetic little boy run after them while laughing maniacally (and that there was no food). He was our little Knight and scared the monsters away. The Sita enjoyed the sport after awhile and started yelling, "Naughty Bird!" to all seagulls that ventured near.

This past week, she has been retelling the thrilling story of the theft of her chicken nugget to all who will listen. But she also has another phobia. If she sees any seagulls, she shrieks and needs to be comforted from the safety of parental arms. At least she's a discerning girl. She only accuses seagulls of being "naughty birds." The rest of our avian friends remain safe from her scorn.

I don't think we'll be watching The Birds anytime soon.
~

Our Reading Material

2008-09-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

~
While I was preparing my lesson tonight, I had Jesus the Christ by Hugh Nibley out and the Dude popped in to see what I was up to. He read the title and then opened it to chapter 1. He then asked me, "Can we read Chapter 1 together?"
I said, "It's probably very long...."
He flips through the pages, "No, Mommy, it's only This Long."
He shows me that it's only 5 pages (of really dense text) long.
"Sweetie, it has a lot of really long and tricky words..."
(He usually hates too many long words all at once.)
"Mommy, that's ok. I really want to read it."
How do you fight that?
"Alright, Dude, let's read!"
And we did. Tricky words and all. Until bedtime.
(We didn't finish.)
~

Long Car Trips Bring Surprises

2008-08-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

You might remember last year on our long trip up to Portland, the Dude surprised us with what he could do.

Recently, on our way home from SoCal, the Dude states, "Daddy, you can tell how fast you're going by 10s because it goes 10, 20, 30, 40...."

The Spozo and I glance at each other in slightly amused surprise before I exclaim, "You're right! Where'd you learn that?"

"Oh, I read it in my Math Brain Quest!"

(Thanks to our friends for giving us those Brain Quests! They keep him occupied for hours!)

~

Welcome, Trespasser!

2008-08-24T18:19:00.001-07:00

Our walls snickered when they heard this today:

"I'm done with being sick. I'm ready to be glow-y and beatific."

~

Reptilian predecessors to Mammals discovered!

2008-07-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

Actual conversation between the Sita and I this evening:

"[The Dude] is a big boy. [The Sita] is a big boy!"

"No, [the Dude] is a big boy; [the Sita] is a big GIRL! Mommy is Girl! Daddy is a Boy! Nonna is a......."

"CROCODILE!"

(Don't worry, we cleared up this confusion quickly. After laughing about it.)

Memories

2008-07-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

I'm stealing this from Mikaroni. It's not my birthday soon, so I can't use her incentive, but I still think it could be fun!

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Consumerism, Revealed

2008-07-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

The Dude has a subscription to the Legos magazine. He loves getting something just for him in the mail, he loves looking at the cool things kids have done with Legos, and he loves reading the comics that come inside with every issue.

Today, he enthusiastically exclaims, "I like my Legos magazine because it shows me all the things I don't have!"

Yes, yes it does. And because he is so keyed in on getting new things and better things and the things that everyone else have already, I don't know why we even considered letting him get this magazine. Since really, he's uncovered the entire reason for this "free" collection of shiny colorful papers at the age of four and a half.

Allotment

2008-06-30T08:56:00.001-07:00

Whenever the Sita and I are reading a book and we come upon a group of similar objects, like say butterflies or flowers or jelly beans, she immediately starts divvying them up. "Dis one is for Mommy" (pointing to a red one), "Dis one is for the Dude" pointing to a green one, "Dis one is for Dada" pointing to a small blue one, and "Dis one is for [Sita]!" Pointing at the pink one. "AND dis one is for me, too!" pointing to the purple one.

Yep. Her favorite color is pink. I don't know how this tragedy happened. But at least purple is a close second!

What I've Been Reading.....

2008-06-28T14:57:00.001-07:00

I gave up on finding the lost library book and paid the fee, so now we are library regulars again! Mostly driven by a need for new reading material for the Dude (since we have neither money nor space for all the books he could read!) I know this is a rather eclectic mix: I'm trying to find appropriate books for the Dude for which I am very grateful for a new spate of books with lots of illustration (a la Roald Dahl). It's surprising how many books geared towards boys are rude and disgusting - lots of potty jokes and hating of nerds/school and general rudeness. I also picked up some random books in the New Books section that caught my eye.

Young Readers:

Babe the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith

I'd seen and loved the movie, so when I saw it on the shelf, I dropped it into our basket (causing much spontaneous weeping and wailing from the Dude - still have no idea why). The book's story is simple and charming - the male sheepdog from the movie isn't even there (eliminating a lot of the movie's contention). I like most that the pig succeeds because he is polite and treats everyone (er...animal) with kindness AND that he sets his mind on a goal (being a sheep-pig) and reaches that goal spectacularly. It is next on the Dude's reading list.

Cal and the Amazing Anti-Gravity Machine by Richard Hamilton

With a title like that, how can you resist? Cal and Frankie (his talking dog) befriend a zany inventor neighbor on his latest experiment. Of course things don't quite go as planned, but Cal enjoys the ride! I like that Cal is curious (which gets him into a bit of trouble) and isn't afraid to try new things. The Dude and I are currently reading this book - even though the first page scared him a bit because it has the word "cacophonous" in slightly-more-difficult-to-read font. He's liking it so far!

Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

I chose this book because I had heard of the Humphrey series and wanted to try it out. It won't work for us because it has too much of classroom/school politics and scheduling for the Dude to really understand (the same problem we had with Frindle, only much more so). The idea of a classroom hamster taking care of his friends in his class (and the teacher!) is fun - a nice "how-to-get-along" book, but I didn't feel it had a real quirky spark which I like when reading.

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

This is an earlier book by the author of Inkheart and Inkspell (which I really liked). This was purely a for-me read, since the plot and the fact that there are no in-story pictures made it unlikely that I could convince the Dude to read it. I liked the story, but not as much as I liked Inkheart. Plus, I couldn't help but imagine that horrible merry-go-round in the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes which terrified me! I felt that the children's behaviors and dialogue were believable and I adore Victor, the bumbling private detective; Scipio, the arrogant Thief Lord; Prosper and Hornet and Bo. And it has a happy ending. Mostly.

For Adults:

Fiction
(all grabbed from the New Books Section)

The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King

I admit, I had butterflies on the brain, so I saw this on the shelf and picked it up. That it was set mostly in Brazil was an added bonus! It's a kind of historical fiction, I suppose - set in the early 1900s - and showcasing the excesses of the rubber-making bosses in Brazil. Set up as a mystery - Thomas returns to England from his expedition to Brazil a mute shell of a man with no apparent reason. He had gone to Brazil as part of an expedition looking for new species in the Brazilian jungle - he especially wanted to find a rumored butterfly so that he could name it for his beautiful wife, Sophia. Nasty things happen to the nicest people and even Thomas gets corrupted. BUT he picks himself up when he returns home (with the help of his wife) and faces his fears. A good book - I stayed up super later than late to read it, but not one I will need to reread.

Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy

I really liked the characterization in this book! Sarah is completely believable as a bereaved widow trying to pick up her life after her husband dies. I like her rebellious granddaughter and her struggles with her grown daughter. The people are so human in their interactions. For the first bit. Then the "let's all live together in peace and harmony" hippy-ness really gets to me. And the "oh, let the new generation do whatever feels good and makes them happy." Too obviously preachy. Otherwise, a well written book.

The Other Mother by Gwendolen Gross

Told from the conflicting perspectives of two neighboring mothers that start out friendly, edge into uneasy truce, and then break out in hostilities ending with 9/11 and uneasy truce again, this is a book about mothers. That was why I picked it up. But the one that was staying at home ended up unhappy and the other was unhappy being a working mother. The "perfect" mothers were the despised target. So, a good book, but not what I'm looking for. I know mothering can be hard, but I feel that aspect is overemphasized in media already, so I don't need to be adding more of it to my life.

Non-Fiction:

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D.

If you have a boy, I strongly suggest reading this! I am determined to read Dr. Sax's other book Why Gender Matters as soon as possible. Because I've read this book, I am now paranoid of using plastic bottles (so, if we have another baby boy, it's glass all the way!), wary of public schools (well, the next book probably convinced me more), more open to the idea of an all-boys school and determined to strictly limit the type of video games and time played. Dr. Sax points to the changes in school, video games, medications for ADHD, endocrine disruptors, and (tongue in cheek) "the revenge of the forsaken gods" as factors in why boys are losing interest in Growing Up and becoming Productive Members of Society. What I liked most upon reading this was realizing that the Dude is just a normal boy in his NEED TO COMPETE and that (most) boys are just inherently different than (most) girls (which by no means suggests that one in more or less than the other - just that they're (shockingly!) different!). It also gave me pause about sending the Dude to Kindergarten early.

Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind by Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruf's main thesis is that there are many more gifted children than schools are really set up for and that because of this teaching to the lowest common denominator that a lot of gifted children end up hating school and failing to realize their potential. She also pokes holes through the commonly held thought that gifted children should be kept with their age group so that they can be "socially well-balanced." She divides giftedness into 5 different levels and has examples of children in each of the levels and (more importantly for me) suggestions of how to get the appropriate schooling for each of the different levels. It was also nice to know that other parents of gifted children have had similar problems and frustrations in getting people to believe in their children's abilities. A most informative read, although her focus on math/science giftedness was a little frustrating for me at times. Since a lot of the kids I know would fall into her "giftedness" scale somewhere, I would suggest reading this one, too!

The Ogre!

2008-06-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

Today I had the rare chance to be in the car with only the Sita. Most of the time the Dude monopolizes conversation simply because of his need to know and read and comment on everything we drive by. One the way home from church today, the I asked the Sita how she had liked nursery and who was there. She listed a couple of her friends and then said, "The Ogre!"

(Aside)

The Ogre is from a Charlie and Lola (which you should look into if you're looking for a great kids show on positive sibling relationships (or how to deal with them when they're not) and using your imagination) episode that actually terrified the Sita because for most of the episode all you hear about is The Ogre being mean and scary. It turns out all the Ogre wants is for everyone to be quiet while someone sings him a song so he can get to sleep! Now whenever the Sita talks about the Ogre she usually says, "Ogre nice. Sad Ogre. Wants to take nap. Wants a song."

(Back to the car ride home)

I asked her about the Ogre and she said she was going to sing to him so he could get to sleep. I said that would be very nice of her. Then she stated that the Ogre needed lunch before his nap. I asked what the Ogre wanted. "The Ogre wants Macaroni and Cheese." I suggested that she and the Ogre share some macaroni and cheese for lunch and she squealed, "[Sita] and Ogre eat Macaroni and Cheese for lunch!"

As I braced myself for the addition of an imaginary friend to the table, I realized that I don't often get to just talk with the Sita because she is so often overshadowed (or overridden!) by the Dude! And she is such a delight to talk with! I simply must schedule more delightful time into my day.

Gregoire!

2008-06-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

A friend and I celebrated her birthday by going to Gregoire (Cedar just east of Shattuck in Berkeley). It was soooooo delicious! I can recommend the potato puffs, but you probably only need one serving for two people.

The Sita Bonita Turns 2!

2008-06-15T23:17:00.001-07:00

The Sita was most pleased at (finally) having her Pink! Butterfly! Cake!

Thanks to the Spozo and Lady Steed for all their help in making it happen! Thanks to friends that came and celebrated with us!

If you want to see pictures with faces (of which Lady Steed did an excellent job of supplying!), leave a comment or email me!

A Testimony Svithe

2008-06-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I most love being a Primary teacher is because I get the chance to testify about some gospel principle every Sunday to a bunch of young women. Sharing your testimony is Super Spiritual Power! You get re-confirmation as you share your testimony and everyone listening can feel the Spirit and get confirmation for themselves that what you're saying is True.

So much about living the Gospel is only what you can do for yourself (or adding oil to your own lamp)- you can't transfer your scripture reading to someone else or your prayers or your church attendance to someone else. You can encourage and suggest without too much success, but sharing your testimony is Powerful because you can invite the Spirit there and both of you can share that Spirit and feeling that Spirit can change hearts and minds.

Or, as Alma said, "...the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just - yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them..." (Alma 31:5)

I have noticed that I can be talking about the story of the scripture lesson of the week and keep the children entertained, but when I really get their attention is when I am testifying. Or reading a scripture like it is my testimony. Sometimes the challenge is simply getting to the testifying part of the lesson!

For me, testifying is also an act of faith in itself. Sharing something so personal to me and so special is hard because there's always that chance of complete rejection. Since my testimony is such a part of me, rejecting my testimony is like rejecting me. So I don't share it much - which is why I like the weekly reinforced stretching of my comfort zone (which is always good for the soul).

Did I forget to Mention?

2008-06-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

Yes! I have my new Nikon D80! It is wonderful! It is amazing! I love it! I am growing new muscles in my arms for carrying it and hefting it and focusing it. When I'm using manual, which isn't often. Yet. It is amazing the quality of photos I get from it. Amazing. Crazy depth of field. Vivid colors. Beautiful even in lower-light situations. And the flash doesn't look so flash-y.

Ahhh. I am sated.

Although I do need a new camera bag. Accessorize! Any suggestions on where to get a cool camera bag?

My first post from the iPod touch

2008-06-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

.....and maybe my last? Although this is really super cool! What's even better is that it was for free! (Well, that's what the Spozo tells me, at least! :)

Delicious

2008-06-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

I just finished one of my favorite breakfasts:

Sliced strawberries with strawberry yogurt (baby yogurt! full fat but small serving) and granola sprinkled on top.

Yum.

An almost-two-year-old's prayer

2008-05-30T20:24:00.001-07:00

Hen'ly Fa-dah, tinku a-day. Tinku a Biiig Mess! Jesus Kai, AAAAAAAAAmen!

Or, interpreted:

"Heavenly Father, Thank You For Today. Thank You for The Big mess! Jesus Christ. Amen."

(She's at the stage where she thanks for things that she sees - although she did thank for Grandma's House and Nonna's house the other day!)

Oh, the Idiocy of Bureaucracy!

2008-05-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

So. I am about to pull out my hair and then cram it down the District Person's neck. Or would if I didn't think my hair deserves a much better fate than that.

AGAIN I am forced to drastic measures to get Mr. C to talk to me. I had called about setting up an appointment for this assessment that the Dude was supposed to get and was promptly ignored. The next time I call, I suggest that I just contact the principal and set up a time with her and SHE can commune with Mr. C about all the vagueries of red tape that they want to put up around me. AhHa. Mr. C wants to talk with me immediately.

He gives me the same old line: "thelawisthelawisthelaw" and throws in for some sympathy about not having enough space for the children who actually are supposed to be in Kindergarten according to the law. He relates little testimonials about children that are put up a grade too soon and then their parents have them held back. He listens to me explain again why the Dude is quite ready for kindergarten. He explains that they just don't do assessment tests anymore - that was ten years ago when kindergarten was all about playing. (Which doesn't make sense to me - wouldn't it make more sense NOW to do assessment tests if it's all about the academics?)

His suggestion? Put him in private school for kindergarten and then back to public for first grade with no questions about his age. I explain that as we are a student family, spare cash is not really on hand, besides the fact that all the private kindergartens have been filled and won't have space until 2020, which will be a little late for kindergarten.

Synopsis: No assessment test. Probably no kindergarten for the Dude. I need to write a letter to write down for him everything I've already said (which I'm sure won't get "lost" like my phone calls have been answered).

The Spozo pointed out I've been very conflicted over this whole deal - that if I really wanted this to happen, I would be beating down every door to be making it happen. I confess, I don't really think that this particular kindergarten would have been ideal for him. I'm hoping to find one that will be.

Rejoice with me!

2008-05-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight for dinner, we spooned the refried beans on the Dude's plate and gave the usual shpeel about them being super-duper-excellent healthy food for him (which he has much reason to suspect since for the first 3 and 1/2 years of his life we trained him to avoid ANY contact with them at all!) without much hope that they would actually be consumed. But I guess that "put it in front of them 12 [million] times, and they'll eat it" advice has some truth to it because he ate them and kept eating them without our bobble-headed encouragement for every bite!

He has only one condition: he will only eat them with tortillas. And cheese. With sour cream, too is most preferable. I'm sure this negates a lot of that healthfulness, but I figure the Dude needs fattening.

Yegos

2008-05-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

I had hidden the Legos well on a high shelf in the usually closed closet that the children are not allowed in for mostly safety reasons (mainly that something might come crashing down on their head or toe or other exposed body part). But the Dude (after not remembering them for a long time) finally remembered them. And asked about them and kept asking about them untilitdrovemealmostcrazy asking about them.

I had forgotten how creative he gets with his Legoing. His new request upon embarking on an art project (and for him, Legos are an ART), is that I do one for him and he does one for me. Today we started with seussian stairways that combined to create spaceships (or something that blasted around the room) and then ended very prosaically with a little red house.

The Dude is so happy free-forming and so stressed out when he's trying to make it Perfect Just Like the Picture, Mommy. Although the little house is charming and his attention to detail is alarming, I find his own creations to be much more interesting and fascinating. Especially since he's starting to come up with stories and reasons for all the kinks here and colors there and tall towers por aquí.

I'll try to remember all those happy creative juices spouting everywhere when I step on the Legos tomorrow. In my bare feet.

Mistaken Identity

2008-05-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Sita, Dude and I were looking back through pictures of when they were teeny tiny babies (because that is what the Sita loves MOSTest right now). We played "name that family member" and they did pretty good at distinguishing between grandparents and aunts and uncles- until we got to the Dude's baby pictures! Then they both started consistently labeling the pictures of their Daddy as "Unca Maak!" That brotherly resemblance is much stronger when the Spozo is beardless.

I'm so spoiled

2008-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome Mother's Day.

The Spozo let me sleep in AND he made me breakfast (fruit salad, hashbrowns, and orange juice!). At church, the Dude very charmingly got up in front of everyone and didn't hurt himself by launching himself off the stand (but didn't do much singing), the Stripling Warriors were only mentioned once (the same amount The Incredibles were mentioned) AND we get an all-women extravaganza where I get to hear wonderfully inspiring experiences from wonderful, inspiring women AND they feed us a lunch (with cupcakes! mmmm!) while I get to talk to even more women!

The Spozo got me a wonderful magazine subscription that I am super excited about because it focuses "on the daily interactions taking place at home. Although these exchanges are often seen as mundane or inconsequential, the sum of our daily exchanges is what shapes a family, for better or worse." AND it has no ads AND it is just gloriously beautiful looking. The Sita got me Emma (and helped me open the pretty sparkly paper); the Dude got me a short story collection of Orson Scott Card's. AND (this is a big and) the Spozo ordered me a Nikon D80 and a 50mm lens! (I think this also part anniversary present and half-birthday present and general because-you-deserve-it-and-i-love-you present).

I do the snuggle and sing routine with the Rosita for her nap, and then I get to have a serious conversation with the Dude which is always enjoyable and entertaining to hear his views on the world as he knows it.

I ask you, can it get any better?

Well, it did. The day ended with a scrumptious lemon pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream on top (courtesy The Spozo).

What a wonderful day!

The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

2008-05-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

I mainly picked this book up because I was desperate to read anything, and I had heard that his other book, The Notebook, was really sweet and a successful movie.

I'll admit, I enjoyed reading it, but I can't help wondering if a man would ever read this and enjoy reading it because the story is so girly romantic even though the main character is a man and it's written by a man. Did Mr. Sparks write this hoping to inspire men to stop it with the working all the time and to pay attention to their families? (The whole book was centered around that cliched axiom "no one ever wishes he spent more time at the office") Or at least that they should never, ever forget their 29th wedding anniversary because it might be the death knell for their marriage? Or was it for women to feel understood and wish that their husbands would read it and get a hint?

Some parts resonated with me, and yes, I too wished for some of that romance. But once it was over, I felt no need to reconnect with the characters. Re-reading it would be boring, and my criteria for a great book is that I can reread it over and over and over again and still love it.

If anyone wants it for an evening fling, it's yours!

1 out of 2 ain't bad

2008-05-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah for 2 reasons: to see my Dad and s-i-l run in the SLC marathon AND to see my little brother graduate.

You'd think that after waiting for 3 hours at one checkpoint, I'd have seen Dad go by. But I didn't. Whether this was because I was looking for a guy in a tan shirt and black hat (when he was really wearing a red shirt and red hat), or because I had two small children that were fried by the time he might have passed, or because it was right when I realized that the Sita had erased all the pictures I had taken during the vacation so far from the camera, or perhaps a combination of all three, is not certain. What is very certain is that I did not see him go by. And the brother (cheering on his fit and fabulous wife) did not see him at the finish line, either.

I began pestering race officials about how I would find out if my father had collapsed onto the sidelines or twisted an ankle or had a heart attack, but they couldn't help me. Finally, the brother found an official that could help him and discovered that Dad had finished the race.

Forty-five minutes earlier.

We all congregate at the finish line and spread out in a search pattern to find the missing man. We call all the people we think he might've tried calling, but no one is home. When we find someone home, we only know that he called, but didn't leave any message about where he was or where he would be. I get an irate phone call from my aunt asking me where in the heck I was and why I hadn't picked up my father. I rejoice that she has told him to stay where he was to wait for someone to pick him up -

TWO MILES from the finish line!

We find him (only blocks from where I had been waiting for him to pass for 3 hours!). He stops feeling like no one loves him when he realizes that we've been worrying about him and where he is for 4 hours. We all agree to laugh about it after we loudly and forcefully explain what had been happening to each other.

The graduation was a much easier affair. Cell phones are a most wondrous invention for coordinating with family at large events with many people to get lost between. We listen to a boring graduation speech. We see the brother and hear his name called in the first 10 minutes of the procession. We wait for the next hour and a half for everyone else to walk and shake and shake and smile and get flashed and walk and sit. We smile and take our own pictures then proceed to enjoy some sensuous sandwiches before heading home to collapse in bed.

Well, that's what I should've done. Instead, I went on a date with the SM to get a milkshake and diapers (so romantic!), and proceeded to come down with strep throat the next day. I can't say I recommend doing this to finish up a vacation, but at least I got lots of sympathy (even if I couldn't hold my darling nephew for the first time!)

A step forward

2008-04-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

To recap the saga: I've been trying to see if the school district will let the Dude start kindergarten this fall even though his birthday is after the state-mandated cut-off date. I've called several times and gotten reassurances of responses, but haven't heard back from anyone.... since January.

So after trying AGAIN, and making it very clear that I had called several times before and had not gotten any response, I finally got a call back from the district today! Actually, two calls! First from the secretary this morning to see what exactly I wanted to talk about with Mr. C (during which I relate Again all my reasonings) and basically stating that I was leaning towards homeschooling since I was getting so little support from the school. Voila! Mr. C calls back (when I'm out of the house, darn it!) and leaves a message saying that they'd like to set up an evaluation of the Dude by a kindergarten teacher at the school he would be going to even though the law clearly states that the Dude is past the deadline.

This doesn't mean that the Dude will be kindergartening this fall. He still has to "pass" this "evaluation" (ha,ha), and they still need to convince me that what they can offer the Dude will be worth his while. I'm still leaning towards homeschooling right now, but I'm glad that it looks like that won't be the only option open for us.

Sucked into Sudoku!

2008-03-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

Last summer, while camping with all the family, my sister-in-laws introduced me to the wonderful world of Sudoku! They took mercy on me and let me borrow their Sudoku books to do a random puzzle poorly (they are so cool, they were doing them in pen!). I didn't have too much leisure time since I was a single parent that week (and yes, there were lots of people willing to help, but the Sita would scream if anyone other than her Grandpa or I would touch her) and sudoku isn't that easy to do by campfire. Or, more accurately, I'd rather be eating s'mores or those wicked croissant with melted chocolate and marshmallow confections (trust me, they're fifty times better than s'mores).

I got home and quickly got my own Sudoku book, but got rather frustrated with how slow I was at getting them done. While unearthing my bedroom floor, I found it again, and since Sudoku-ing is much more interesting than excavating, I've been trying to achieve Sudoku greatness!

I now share with you my Sudoku lore:

1)Starting with the number 1, fill in as many numbers as you can deduced from the given numbers - if you narrow it down to 2 squares within the smaller square of 9 squares, write the number in the top left corner of both squares.

2)Once you've gone thru the number 9 over the whole puzzle, then start focusing on the small groups of nine squares and fill in what you can.

3)After you've done all nine squares of nine, starting at the top row of 9, try to fill the numbers in by starting at one and going up to nine. Go down all the rows. If you can fill in a number, check to see if that can change anything else and then go back to the next number in that row. If you can narrow it down to 2 square in that row, write the number in the lower right hand corner of the squares.

4)After you've finished the rows, start on the columns. Again, if you narrow a number's potential position down to two sqaures, write the number in the lower left hand corner of the square.

5)If you've been writing the numbers in the corner after you've narrowed it down to 2 squares, you'll find that you hit a point where all you have to do is hop from square to square to finish the puzzle quickly! Plus, with all the corner writing, you won't get so frustrated about not being able to write a number in for a long time!

You are henceforth Sudoku masters! Go forth and enumerate!

"With a Hearing Accent"

2008-03-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Last night, I went to a discussion headed by Susan Schaller, who champions the languageless, and author of our book group's book this month,A Man Without Words.

I would never have guessed that a good number of people - even in the United States! - grow up without symbolic language to express themselves! Most of them are deaf children born to hearing parents, and some parents are guided by doctors and therapists to deprive their children of visual communication. I'm assuming this is to encourage (or force) their hearing senses to develop, but it seems so... contrary to what babies are about!Babies seem pre-programmed to like smiles - they recognize facial expressions very early and even know what faces to make when something is sweet or bitter before they can even see all that well! To repeat something from last night: Isn't it ironic that we encourage hearing children to learn "baby sign" so that they can communicate before they can talk, but that parents of deaf children are told to never sign to their babies? That seems like such a no-brainer!

Another interesting thing we talked about is how children seem to have a natural expressiveness that they grow out of around the age of six or seven and become more reserved with displaying emotions. I think a lot of this is because we learn to fear what other people think about us, so we show less and less. I didn't realize that part of Deaf communication is what we "hearing folk" would consider overly-expressive. Every emotion is expressed much more visually than we would do. Just knowing that helps me understand some of my experiences with the Deaf community a lot better. Our more stoic faces are part of the "hearing accent" we have - even when communicating with good sign language. One girl who had taken several semesters of ASL said that she was told that when she got more fluent in sign, she wouldn't even look at the hand signs, she would look at the face of the person signing - and she did!

I'm glad that smiles are still universal for happiness! I can always communicate at least that much! (At least, I hope so - are there any cultures that don't like smiles?)

Easter in Progress

2008-03-24T22:33:00.001-07:00

I'm still getting used to the idea that I'm the adult making sure holidays are holidays-y. My parents still did a gianormous Easter egg hunt for my brothers and their wives and kids at their house. Congratulations to the Romgi for winning the hunt with over 40 eggs!

I had a lot of good ideas for making Easter Easter-y, but only followed through on a couple of them. Here's the most shocking of them: We did not dye eggs. We did not even boil eggs. We did not do our own egg hunt (but the one we went to was lots of fun). We did not have Easter baskets filled with toys and jellybeans and chocolate and bunnies and chocolate. Some of this is because I didn't get around to it. Some of it was by choice.

We had backpacks filled with plastic eggs with yummy chocolate and jelly-ish things. And a chocolate bunny. I can't do without the chocolate bunnies! I chose backpacks instead of baskets because: The Sita has been wanting a backpack for a long time and I found her the perfect one, and I wanted to give it to her now. (and) I wanted something that would be useful for a bit longer than one weekend.

We did have a dinner with foods Jesus might've eaten on a special occasion. I went for simple because I knew Easter was going to be exhausting for the first half of the day and didn't want the Spozo to mop me off the floor at the end of the day. We had lamb (oh deliciousness!), lentils, flatbread, cucumbers, apricots (dried), yogurt cheese, feta cheese (which the kids LOVE), olives, and almonds. I think the entire feast was a la Trader Joe's. The Sita decided that the way to eat was to take one bite of everything, chew it for a few seconds, and then spit it back out. Except the cheese. And the flatbread.

We also watched the Lamb of God, which I was kind of hesitant to do because those last few hours of Christ's life were so violent. One thing I didn't forsee was the Dude's laughing reflex for whenever anyone speaks in a different language (which really isn't appropriate when there is hitting and spitting going on). By the end (and with continuous commentary), the Dude got something out of it and the Sita was still upset that we hadn't watched the Baby Jesus movie.

I think I'm going to declare Easter a success because we emphasized the most important aspects of the holiday: Jesus and Chocolate (in that order).

My favorite time of day

2008-03-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

My favorite time of day is the mornings. My favorite time of morning is right after waking up but before actually getting up - snuggle time!

The best mornings go something like this:

The alarm goes off at 6:30, I turn it off and nestle my head on the Spozo's shoulder until he escapes to the shower. The Dude exits his room soon after the water is turned on and hops onto my bed. He snuggles with me and then tells me about how he slept and reports on whether the Cita is still asleep. We talk about what type of day it is and what we are going to do and his many virtues and maybe discuss a serious question or two. The Spozo appears wreathed in steam and the Dude starts chatting about when Daddy will play with him. The Cita wakes up about now and the Spozo brings her to me for more snuggling while we wait for the BaBa to be warmed. The Dude has breakfast with his Daddy while the Cita drinks her milk and I admire what a darling girl I have and ask her questions about what she'd like to do which she responds to by widening her eyes and nodding while sucking. Spozo dashes out the door to catch his bus and the Dude returns to the bed for even more snuggling and laughing and hiding and tickling.

I know I should probably be getting more done in that first while in the morning, and sometimes I feel a teensy little tiny bit guilty for being so languorous. This morning, which was one of those deemed most excellent, I was just grateful to be able to simply enjoy Being with my children...

And that the Cita hadn't soaked through her pajamas and bedclothes last night.

"Yucky Poo!"

2008-03-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

is the Sita's favorite descriptive phrase right now.

Lovely.

A place of love and beauty

2008-03-04T00:33:00.000-08:00

I love going to the temple.

I always feel so refreshed and renewed afterwards. I feel like I've been seeing through a glass darkly and then I get complete vision back with added illumination. And then my lenses get blurred with all those worldly cares and woes and I'm feeling blundering and hesitant about where to go and then Whoosh! I go back to the temple and all that lovely perspective is restored.

I love going to the temple.

Mr. Generosity

2008-03-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

The 'Sita Bonita is recalcitrant about getting her nails trimmed, so in the spirit of bribery, she gets Jelly Bellies (jei-BEAN) after the ordeal if she has stayed (mostly) still. Yesterday, as she hopped down to go get her treat, the Dude handed her one of his Jelly Bellies that he had gotten as his potty treats earlier to her and said, "Here, ['Sita], here's a treat for you!"

Then today, the Dude shared his party loot with her! Of his own free will! After already having shared his Smarties with her, I expected him to say, "Oh, there's only one chocolate left - it's MINE!" But he hesitated, and when I suggested that I cut it in half, his face lit up as he exclaimed, "Yes!" and he and the Sita pealed laughter while I chopped and distributed the spoils (I slipped him the bigger half - he deserved it!).

I am so glad he has learned so young the joys of sharing - well, unless it's that unicorn finger puppet during Sacrament Meeting.....

Ok, so honestly, now...

2008-03-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

I'd like to know what you mothers do with your kids to help the time pass away. After the house is (relatively) clean and it isn't that pretty out and you don't have any spare cash.

I am probably a very boring mommy because I figure it's time to teach them something! Letters, colors, numbers, songs... I guess I'd have to admit I don't just play with my kids because... well.... it's boring. I can only pretend to drink fruit soup so many times. My attention span for going around and around and around a train track is extremely limited. After the fifth rereading of the same book in a row, I'm done.

What do you do to keep their abundant energy focused on something other than destruction?

Minutes!

2008-03-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

When your child exclaims, "Minutes!" what would you think she was talking about?

It took me a while, but I found out that the 'Sita affectionately calls our microwave "minutes." She knows it makes things warm also and usually calls it "warm!" when it's warming. I haven't figured out why the "minutes" is so fascinating. Is it something as innocent as liking the beeping noises when you push the buttons? Is it something more sinister like the fact that her brother is usually in trouble when the "minutes" is getting used?

Either way, it is now her favorite kitchen appliance.

Beep!

A Moral Moment

2008-02-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

While explaining about how we know good actions from bad actions, I said, "..like when you want to push your sister..."

"...Or throw a rock at her!" he interjects with relish.

"Ummm.... yes. Or want to throw a rock at her..."

How you know when you've been playing too much Super Mario Galaxy

2008-02-24T20:52:00.000-08:00

While watching her Daddy play, the 'Sita distinctly states, "Bowza, messy! Nonono!"

Renaming

2008-02-23T17:15:00.000-08:00

After deliberating about this for a while, I have decided to reinvent the Cita as the Sita. The "Cita" came from a shortening of "Rosita" (little rose), and I put a "c" instead of an "s" because it looked better to me. I forgot about "cita" being a real word in Spanish meaning, "date" or "appointment." I feel that as she gets older, it would be best to not be calling her, "my daughter, the date."

Henceforth and forthwith, she shall be known as the Sita, which name she should have been all along.

An Ah-Ha! (Svithe-ish) Moment

2008-02-23T16:31:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time (no one knows precisely when) I listened to a talk by one of the Twelve Apostles (it could have been Elders Holland, Oaks, Eyring, or Maxwell), and it changed my life. I'm really quite sorry I don't have a better memory of who gave this talk or when it was - I know it was during my freshman year at college.

In it, the speaker told us that we were always being prompted to do good things, and that we should act on any good thing that came into our minds because it came from God. We shouldn't worry about offending the person or worrying that they wouldn't want our help, if it was potentially good, then we should just do it. I was struck by that thought then, and it still influences me now.

I remember that slightly after that talk, I found someone trying to get down a rather slick walkway (ok, so I can narrow it down to wintertime). She was a disabled girl that I had seen around, and she was doing ok, but I felt that I should go and help her down the slope. Immediately I thought, "But what if I offend her because she doesn't want help or pity?" Then I remembered that exhortation to act on any good thing I could do.

I helped her.

She was very grateful and said that I was an answer to her prayer. That seemed a little strange to me because I didn't feel like I was doing anything especially wonderful - it was just a random thought that popped into my head - not a burning desire or anything spectacular.

That experience was liberating somehow - because I could fear my own doubts a little less.

In that moment of enlightenment, I also began to understand how Heavenly Father can use us as His instruments; how small and simple things really can bring great things to pass. Perhaps not great things in the eyes of the world, but perhaps in the eyes of the person who we can help in that small moment.

But I want it!

2008-02-17T19:56:00.001-08:00

The Spozo most Maravilloso got me a new digital camera for Christmas. He did a very good job reading reviews and getting the best one for the price range it's in. Unfortunately, I still prefer my ancient one over the newcomer. I (regrettably) threw several hissy fits over the new one because it wasn't what I was used to, and the pictures I took were miserable. (Sorry to family members that I was supposed to be taking portraits of!)

The Spozo philosophically realized that he would never, not ever want me to pick out a gidget for him without much consultation and well, picking it himself; in short, that he had committed the cardinal sin of buying a me-specific gadget without my input. More, he agrees that the new camera's picture quality is not what he was expecting. Now that he has confessed and repented of this most grievous gift-giving sin, he is quite ready to let me get the Camera of My Dreams.

Within reason.

I would love to buy one of those thousands of dollars beauties, but being a (somewhat) rational creature, I have focused in on the Nikon D80. It is almost a completely irrational attraction, but I cannot deny it. Yes, yes, I know that the Canons are quite nice, too. (And having gotten to play with one recently, I can say they are very, very nice indeed!) But that doesn't change the fact that I want a Nikon.

Please?

Hack, Hack

2008-02-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Of course one of the few Sundays we both had to be at Sacrament meeting, both of our kids are very very sick. Much of the night they spent coughing in their sleep.

So what do we do? We dress them up and bring them with us.

I don't know if I'd recommend doing this again.

Thankfully, we have wonderful friends that helped us out during the bit that we were both occupied. Thanks, friends!

Don't worry, the kidlets went (happily) home with Dad after the meeting was over. I guess some bug is taking out all the kids the Dude's age because only 2 of the usual 6 kids were there in his class today. I guess they're just exceptionally good bug sharers.

I guess I am bloodthirsty

2008-02-07T15:48:00.001-08:00

I just heard on the radio about some parents that actually .... I don't want to say encouraged ... but allowed their son to have sex with his girlfriend in his bedroom. Knowingly!

So now, if the Cita ever wants to visit her boyfriend at his house, I must have met his parents and had a nice cup of (herbal) tea with them while I get them to sign in triplicate that they will neither encourage or consent to our children being alone in a room with a closed door at all. And that if anything does happen, their son will be celibate. By force. Permanently.

Would that provide enough incentive, do you think?

Rant no. 2

2008-02-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

After wobbling between not sending the Dude to Kindergarten at all in the state of California, homeschooling, and sending him "early" (he's just past the deadline), I decided that I should at least see if I can get him in early. I wrangled the Dude and Cita to a kindergarten open house to see if I could get some questions answered.

I didn't expect that we were going on to visit every single classroom on the school grounds. The Cita panicked because of so many new faces and environments, and the Dude lost interest after 3rd grade, so we ended up staying in the halls and learning the names of the states and their capitals and looking for stars.

I did learn two valuable things: which kindergarten teacher I would trust my son to, and that his reading level was easily in the 3rd grade and perhaps in 4th grade (although my elementary-ed sis-in-law told me it was 5th-6th last summer).

The meaningless question and answer period - first with the PTA, then with a teacher, and then with the student council and then with the principal. Luckily, we were in the school's library and the kids amused themselves by reading books. Or becoming a ghost to haunt the student council and crash into folding chairs. The Dude pulled out a Dr. Seuss tome and sat at the same table as the principal to read it.

Finally, after everyone had finished asking their insipid questions about school lunches and recess and filed out, I got the principal's attention. She admitted to being impressed with his reading, she also thought that he proved himself to be emotionally ready for kindergarten and greeted with surprise the fact that he hasn't gone to (formal) preschool.

As I explained the reasons why I wanted the Dude admitted to kindergarten this year rather than next, she very agreeably agreed with most of my points. 1)the Dude can read already 1.5)he is just past the deadline 2)he is starting to do simple addition 3)he knows his numbers to 100 (mostly) 4)he's just past the deadline! She very sympathetically said the law is the law is the law... but let me give you some phone numbers.

I am so frustrated with this. I understand the need to set some limits, but I am really frustrated (see those italics?) with how the system only deals with outliers in one direction. There are a plethora of programs for "Special Education." But the Special part is for the kids that are struggling. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they have safety nets for kids that don't handle normal schooling well.

BUT.

It seems like the really smart kids are just expected to make do with the normal education. I think that is as unfair as expecting a kid that has problems learning to make do with normal education. It is NOT fair.

Should we be surprised that a lot of gifted kids are the ones that don't do well in a "normal" classroom environment? (Here's where we trot Einstein out.) I knew a couple extremely bright people that did horribly in "normal" classrooms just because they were extremely bored - or because they were always thinking outside the box, and the teachers only rewarded the inside the boxers. Once they got among their true peers (in age AND ability) they really shone. (Especially with outside-the-box-appreciating-teachers). A recent issue of Time Magazine focused on truly brilliant kids that dropped out of school for various reasons - mostly because the system neglected them in some way.

Now that I've talked to the District person once, he's promised to get back to me, he didn't, I called again, his secretary reassured me he'd get back to me, and he hasn't, I am leaning toward giving His Districtness a Severe Lecture and then opting for "homeschooling" the Dude through kindergarten. I want him to have the social fun of kindergarten, but having him sit through "A is 'a' like 'apple'" is ridiculous when he can read this: (which he did tonight without any help)

And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God; for his soul did rejoice and his whole heart was filled, be-cause (hyphenated because of a line break) of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him.

Contested Territory

2008-02-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

The Dude and Cita have a new game: Who's Got Mommy?

The rules seem to be that you can play at any time. Bonus Points for being the one who starts it.

Once you have successfully gotten Mommy to snuggle with you, you turn to your sibling and laugh maniacal laughter to indicate that you have won that round.

The unsnuggled sib then comes to the mommy and tries to get possession of half of the Mommy Lapspace so that they can join in the maniacal laughter and then the jumping starts.

This lasts until the mommy goes crazy from all the bouncing and laughing and general craziness and finds something that Has To Be Done Immediately so she can jettison the children with good reason.

Out with the old....

2008-01-30T14:19:00.001-08:00

...and in with the new!

The Spozo Maravilloso has been desperate to get me a new pair of glasses. He abhorred my old Cynthia Rowley frames. I didn't think they deserved such scorn. The story is that when I tried on these Norma Kamali frames (even though I picked them out mostly to be silly), he immediately Knew These Were the Frames for Me. I didn't quite believe him, but trusted that he saw me more often and knew what I would look best in. And I think he might be right. Maybe.

My son, the Outlaw

2008-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

The Dude is interested in familial relationships right now, and we started discussing what an "in-law" is. After I explained that I was his Nonna's daughter-in-law, and Uncle M was my brother-in-law, he thought for a second and then said, "Then I'm your outlaw!"

Cue much riotous laughter.

In loving memory

2008-01-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

By now, you all know that President Hinckley died last night. He was a man of energy, optimism, and love. I always felt better after listening to him speak because of his unfailing confidence in us. He inspired me to try a little harder to be a little better.

He will be missed.

Magic Disappearing Chocolate

2008-01-26T19:34:00.000-08:00

While at See's Candies the other day claiming our Christmas present (thanks, Auntie C!), they gave us our usual sample chocolates. Being preoccupied with picking out which ones we wanted, I held my sample in my hand. After we had finished making the See's employee run back and forth and debating whether to get the raspberry truffle or the raspberry cream, I reached to taste my sample and found only an empty wrapper!

I immediately rounded upon the Spozo and demanded to know where my chocolate had gone! By his look of bewilderment, I surmised that he hadn't taken it. I looked mournfully to the ground and didn't spot it there, either. A little perplexed, I looked around a bit more - and then I remembered: I had a chocolate-loving Cita on my hip.

Now, chocolate is one of the few foods you can name and the Cita will immediately purse her lips and say "ooo!" while doing her happy kicky feet.

And yes, she had dexterously snitched the truffle and had already taken a dainty nibble (I told you she knows how to eat chocolate!). Obviously, the butterscotch caramel had not appeased her. I snatched it back and let the chocolate melt in my mouth, noting that it was especially tasty. I tracked down which flavor it was: Kona Mocha.

MMMMM.

Since the only time I get mocha is by happenstance, I enjoyed it thouroughly. I only hope we don't have another Mocha convert on our hands.

Conversation

2008-01-25T09:33:00.001-08:00

As I scrub the table the Dude prances in, "Hey, Mommy, I can pull [the Cita] up onto your bed!" (He likes showing off his strong muscles.)

"Hmm." I scrape off some cemented-on breakfast cereal, "That's pretty cool. Why would you do that?"

"Because I was up on the bed..... and she loves me!"

Your Highness

2008-01-22T22:08:00.000-08:00

During reading time today, we came across a lot of words that are not in the Dude's usual vocabulary. The words immovable, independent, miraculous, privately, century and anxious among them. (I admit to a little thrill of Parental Pride when he piped up, "And four centuries would be four hundred years!" - especially because he just got the concept of "one hundred" last week!)

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to describe what "with dignity" meant to my four-year old without confusing him even more. My best stuttering attempt, "like a king or queen," didn't fly because he's never really seen a king or a queen, and he literally starts crying and flees the room when we (try to) watch Disney fairytales (those villannesses are quite nasty!).

Finally, I jumped up and tried to show him how not to walk with dignity (I'm very good at that) and then attempting to walk with dignity. Of course, he wanted to try - and did so.... decidedly without dignity. Professor Higgins would've been aghast.

Long story short: I failed to describe "with dignity" with dignity, and I won't be cast as Eliza Doolittle anytime soon.

Who's more wonderful?

2008-01-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

While cleaning, the Spozo Maravilloso prickles as I lord my superior cleaning experience over him.

He waves one of his cards, "I took out the trash!"

I counter with a full house, "I washed, folded AND put your laundry in your drawers!" Smugly thinking I had won this round, I moved in for my victory kiss.

He took the wind out of my sails with this straight flush, "You're right. You're more wonderful than me."

Yea. He's right.

So he won that round.

Darn humility.

Advantage to sparring with spouse: You get a victory kiss no matter who wins.

Excuse me while I laugh in your face

2008-01-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

I admit I knew I was pushing my kids beyond their endurance when I took them into Michael's the other day. My mission was to find some yarn for belated Christmas presents. I didn't expect the trouble to begin before we had even entered the doors.

The Dude started to stage a sit-in protest due to the fact I would not let him push the wobbly Michael's cart with his sister inside. Because I wasn't taking what he considered proper action in regards to his protest, he decided to add a more vocal protest as well. Quite vocal, indeed.

We started getting attention from other customers, so I stopped completely ignoring his protests. While admiring the new Martha Stewart Crafts line (it is so divine), I explained in a neutral voice that he was in NO WAY going to win me over when he was acting like this, and that if he wanted to ride in the cart, I would be happy to put him inside once he stopped his current actions, but that he was Not going to be pushing the cart that day.

I think he's learned that I'm a pretty tough negotiator, so after some token whining he capitulated sooner rather than later. As I wheeled through the store with reformed protester in cart basket, a gentleman stopped me to say, "I was impressed with how you handled your son over there."

Blank staring from me ensues. He passed me, saying, "You must have the patience of Job."

Here's where I start laughing. Not just a little smile or titter, I am belly laughing in the Christmas clearance aisle of Michael's.

I'm still not sure if he meant it as a compliment or not, but I'd like to say, "Sir, Thank you for giving me a good laugh when I needed it, and I hope I didn't offend you."

That "House of Order" thing might have something to it

2008-01-10T22:36:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning for months to put a schedule together for the week. Mostly just for me to say, "Gee, today is Laundry Day - I'd better do some!" or "Even though the bathtub is not growing red algae yet, I shall clean it to be Ahead of the Game!"

Over Christmas, my dear Mother-in-Law suggested that I put things like naps and potty times on a schedule because the Dude does much better when he knows something is coming and when to expect it. When she started speaking, the light started shining and that cool wind started blowing my hair all around and then I knew it was Inspiration.

Accordingly, I've drawn up a "schedule" and getting him to sit on the toilet for five minutes or relaxing on his bed and quietly reading his books is now as easy as asking, "Well, what's on the schedule?"

Just because I inscribed "poo time" and "REST" on a piece of paper seven times!

The Begging and Pleading and finally Ordering on Pain of TubTime associated with getting him to sit on the throne to make a deposit have vanished AND he has actually Taken a Nap Without Prenaptual Tantrum.

My faith in scheduling is restored.

Amen.

Now THAT is Generosity

2008-01-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

Now that the Dude is four, he is aware that he will be going to school in the next couple of years. A couple blocks after we had dropped his Dad off to work (for the first time in three weeks), the Dude said, "Mama, when I'm five, then I'll go to school and I'll give all my money to you and Daddy to help pay for things."

Hmmmm...

Apparently he's aware of more than going to school.

Apparently we need to stop discussing finances in front of the Dude.