Training wheels....or not?!

Both kids have repeatedly ridden for a significant distance without training wheels. Neither child has the confidence to just jump on and GO! They get nervous, then they get wobbly in the handle bars, and stop. They don't crash or anything, they just calmly put their feet down and stop. so HOW do we help them gain that confidence? I tried it with Belle today and all I did was hold on while she got her feet on and almost immediately let go and she was fine...until she would unintentionally turn and then stop herself. Keith goes as long as he doesn't know you've let go. As soon as he realizes that, he stops himself. He hasn't caught on to the "...oh...I was doing it...I can do it!" thoughts. Some neighbor boys recently had their training wheels taken off so under peer pressure they both asked for them off. I was a bit leery, especially of Keith. since then he's shown he CAN but does he want to badly enough? We'll see...

BIRTHDAY!!!! 5!!!!

I realize this is about two weeks slllooow. But...oh well. Birthday Girl Rainbow Cake Silliness Yes. We rented a cotton candy machine and fed all the neighbor kids at least two cones of the stuff each, a cupcake, and sent them home with a treat bag of candy. OH! And I learned to make a few balloon animals/shapes. Nothing fancy, but it was fun. So we also went through a package of 100 twisty balloons in a matter of days and also sent the sugared-up kids home with a balloon sword. go us! Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. These two love that place.

Hiker/Repairman/part fish

He's going hiking. In swimming suit, goggles, golf club (as a walking stick) and backpack full of various items. He randomly wears his swimming suit around all day and can't wait for swimming lessons the next two weeks where we will swim and swim and swim....(we have an 11:15 lesson time and the pool opens for swimming at Noon, so we pack a lunch and stay as long as the little fish want to.) The next day he wore the goggles out to the garage, armed with his toy crescent wrench to fix the lawn mower, weed whacker, 3 bicycles, and "your car Mommy, of course." I love the "of course" and the "SURE!!" he says when he agrees to something you ask him to do. which brings us to the crescent wrench line...."Daddy, why does my crescent wrench look like pliers?" (It IS a pair of pliers, he has dubbed his crescent wrench....)

Making it

It's no secret to you all that Keith has been protesting going to church lately. A few weeks ago after I had roused the kids out of bed on a Sunday morning and herded them down the stairs to eat breakfast, Keith was crying about church. "but I don't want to go to church." Belle took over. "But Buggie, Mommy and I are going." He wasn't convinced. "I want to stay home, and Mommy to stay home, and you to stay home Bella." "But Buggie, we are going to make it to the sun, remember?" Yes...... we HAVE had the Family Home Evening with the whole Plan of Salvation Diagram. I made a pretty nice one for YW and used it at home, too. So we are going to make it to the sun. Who's with us? :) YES!!

Goodbye inside toys...

Hello warm weather!! I hope toys don't get jealous, because if they do all of the toys in the house are going to get mighty down in the dumps. Between the bikes:

The new load of sand in the sandbox, the neighbor's new trampoline, and running through the sprinkler (already done a couple times this year), I don't expect to see these two playing inside all that much til, say, October. Outside kids all the way! Keith got this bike last week, it's the same size as Belle's and he LOVES it. He was already riding hers whenever he got the chance and hardly ever riding the tricycle anyway. He was instantly a pro and rode all the way to the park--nearly a mile away--, played at the park, and rode most of the way back as well before David had to give him a shoulder ride and carry the bike the last block home. Isabelle rode all the way and back just fine.

We've decided Keith gets away with a lot of things that Belle would not get away with. Because he's either super cute or super stubborn, and Mom gives in to both. Hopefully the real reason is that he's 3 and she's nearly 5. but in any case, he usually gets his way. He is also going through some sort of attachment phase. He gets absolutely hysterical if I have to go somewhere without him. He reacts the same way when Isabelle leaves for school--to the point where the neighbor I carpool with takes him with her to drop the kids off--for some reason he handles it better that way. Today she had errands to run after dropping the kids off and she couldn't take him. It was not pretty. He stood at the door with sad tears running down his checks shouting and waving "Goodbye Bella!" tell there car was out of sight. When he finally calmed down David & I played with him for about an hour and a half, giving him some time with us by himself. He also cries and has to give David about 7 hugs and kisses and tell him he'll miss him when he leaves for work. So basically, he doesn't like anyone to go ANYWHERE without him. He wants to go to work with Daddy, to school with Isabelle, and everywhere I am going. I'm not sure if he is worried we won't come back, has some deep need to be involoved in everything, or....?? no idea. then, there's church. Yesterday he cried and fought when he got out of the tub. When I got him dressed. (he HATES pants and I even bought him some khaki dress shorts to try and reduce the Sunday-morning resistance. It has improved only slightly.) Then refused to go to nursery. As in arching his back and dragging his feet refusing. (maybe this is part of the not-wanting-to-leave-family thing? He can't go anywhere without US?) Then had a royal fit 10 minutes into sacrament meeting. Yep. His time out when we got home was a long one. He told David he doesn't like church. The conversation went like this: David: "Keith, why don't you like to go to church?" Keith: "Because it's bad there." D:"Do they talk about Heavenly Father at church?" K: "Yes" D: "Is that bad?" K: "No" D: "Do they talk about Jesus at church?" K: "Yes" D: "IS that bad?" K: "No" D: "Do they talk about families at church?" K: "Yes" D: "Is that bad?" K: "No" D: "Then what is bad about church?" D: "They don't talk about oven pampmakes" (his favorite food, german pancakes) WHICH actually they DID because his nursery teacher asked him what his favorite food is, and of course that was his response, and she took it further and asked him what he likes to put on his pancakes, etc. These are the answers we get. He doesn't like church because they don't talk about pancakes, he doesn't like nursery because they have a scary T-Rex toy and minty marshmallows. Both of which they threw out when he cited them as the no-nursery culprits. Oh, and he couldn't finish his dinner yesterday because the table cloth was ugly. See what I mean? Either too cute or too stubborn. I'm hoping if we just keep plugging away eventually he'll grow out of all of this....

Signs that Isabelle is growing up

1- The sidewalk chalk words on the front step were not written by me or any neighbor kids, but by her. Included are: Isabelle, Mom, Dad, Beby, and Keith (which he did mostly, she helped him some). 2- she was fine to sit on the bench in sacrament meeting by herself while I had to take Keith out. It was even during the sacrament portion of the service, and she took hers and passed it on to a ward member we were sitting by who she doesn't necessarily know. 3- I reminded her that after she was done eating lunch she needed to do her unload the dishwasher job, and I didn't have to tell her again when she was done eating several minutes later. She just got up and did it. (she unloads the plastic kid dishes and silverware after I take our the sharp things every day) 4- she read, all on her own, a page like "see cat run. run cat run. Cat has a hat." etc.

Pictures

The videos in the post below are about 30 sec. each, but if you'd rather just look at pictures here are a few. The one of Keith is what he was doing while I was out taking pictures of Isabelle in the mud puddle. He poured himself, and the neighbor girl, bowls of cereal. with milk. Luckily he didn't spill, the cereal was just swimming :)

Latest Kids Movies

Belle came home from preschool on a rainy day singing this song, and looking for some puddles to try it out in. Unfortunately the best one found was a muddy one, but she had fun, and some neighbor kids followed her (like they usually do) to join in the fun.
I couldn't get the videos to upload to blogger, so you copy and paste the youtube URL into your browser. Sorry to make it complicated.

http://youtu.be/p6WNCXqh4sM
http://youtu.be/1KtFqekAyx4


Ketih's ABC's etc.


http://youtu.be/SnAWPMWmNE8
http://youtu.be/0i_YQfOb3f4

I'm confused...

It seems as though we have moved INCREDIBLY fast from these little ones:


To these big kids:



How did this happen ?!?

Good thing they are as fun as ever :)

We Caught a Leprechaun!

 

Well...sort of. Belle talked about Leprechauns yesterday in preschool and cooked up this idea to catch one. She was telling all my Beehive girls all about it last night, and a couple of them even donated some cookies to the cause. (bait for the trap, of course). So first thing this morning she was out setting up this trap....and look!! He got away but he left a pot of gold!! You should have seen her dancing around the yard SO EXCITED!! Unfortunantely no pics of the dancing around, the leprechaun himself took these pictures for us while we were at storytime at the library. David says it was worth the 4 stores he had to go to before he found the "gold" :).
Then she was SO generous and sweet and shared all her "gold" with the neighborhood kids. "You can have as many as you want" she told them.  She's loaned the trap to the neighbors. :)

Hockey Man

 

 

 

Please ignore the mess in the kitchen and focus on the cute boy.
David was watching a hockey game and Keith decided he would play hockey. He has a baseball as his puck, snow boots as his ice skates, golf club for his stick, and the jersey provided by Dad. "C'mon Dad, let's play hockey! (Aww-tey)
He even randomly would fall down on purpose, saying he fell on the ice. Then he would hit David in the back and send himself to the penalty box. Don't forget the jumping up and down and yelling "GOOAAALLL" when he made a goal.

David's "new" job

This is the part David likes the LEAST about his new duties at work:

 

Having to wear this nametag that says "Line Check Airman" on it. And look like a "tool" so he says.

I'd say the rest of it he likes, but the only check airman duties he's been assigned so far were cancelled due to weather, so I'm not really sure....to be continued I guess. :)

Yesterday morning I had a debate going on--I had plans to go to a funeral, and the kids to go to my sister's for the day. But Keith wasn't feeling super and had been up coughing in the night, meaning he and I didn't get much sleep. Leaving him for the day if he wasn't feeling great worried me. I also had a scratchy throat and worried I was getting sick also. And a bruised tail bone making the 2 hr drive sitting not seam too appealing. But I really did want to go. So when David asked me "what decision will you regret the least tomorrow?"
I decided to go, and take Keith with me.
Belle convinced him otherwise. "Keith you HAVE to come with me! We'll have sooo much fuuun at Aunt Teen's!!" Thing 1 and Thing 2 cannot be separated.

And David was right in his thoughts, I am so glad that I went. Only the gospel full of love from the Savior and a family's love and faith in forever makes funerals an uplifting experience. What a blessing.

So I just want to write a little note, and I don't know how many of the family read this, but I want to say Thank You to the family that was involved in yesterday's service. And let you know that your family, andhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif your precious daughter, are still blessing lives through your example, and the way you put your trust in the Lord and stuck together as a family. You have blessed mine. So Thank You.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esSSh_B4zsY&feature=related

I came home and told David how amazing it is to have a family that even through life's most very difficult challenges and heartaches can show such an outpouring of love. And that it is very obvious that the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides that ability. And I want our family to be like that. That even though we will face difficult times as we all surely will--that we know in whom we have trusted, and together, with faith and love, and come through. How to get that exactly is something we maybe need to work a bit harder on, be better at. But we will try.

The latest cutes

Valentines Day Bliss...
"Mommy, I love you. I love that you are my Mommy. I pick the Lewis family."--Keith

Isabelle made me a card that she cut up some of her Valentine's she got at school to decorate it. "Mommy, wasn't I brave to cut out the Aurora and Barbie?" The cards obviously meant a lot to her, and that she was "brave" enough to sacrifice them for me was sweet.


Keith's latest favorite games:
sticking one of his shark toys in front of the fish tank. The fish go berserk trying to hide. Keith even dressed up in his shark costume and stood there in front of the tank trying to scare them. I tried to get a picture but wasn't fast enough. We've had to put a stop to it--for fear of the fishes mental health.

Sitting on the back of the couch and singing "Humpty DumpTy sat on a wall..." you know what happens next, right? He has a great fall? So this includes Throwing himself off the back of the couch and singing the rest of the rhyme.

Parenting #2....a more positive note

Yesterday while waiting (and waiting, and WAITING) at the dentist's office, I read a Parenting magazine that was about "making your child the next Steve Jobs"

And while they did mention such things as....
"why is the world pushing so hard for children to be smart rather than just be kids and play"

"they'll learn it eventually, don't stress if the neighbor kid can say the ABC's before yours"

and

"really it's the Emotional maturity and stability that is most important in having a happy life"

The main point was actually opposite all of that telling you things you should do with your kids to give them a "jump-start" in academics, or in other areas they are naturally good at, and thus giving them a better chance for "success".
they were:
talk, talk, talk to your children.
This is something that has always been super easy for me to do. I have a habit of talking to things that can't answer back. Like babies. I just talk to them anyway, as if we were having a conversation. This, at times, has been aggravating to Buggie. I once chided a toy for pinching his finger. He picked up said toy, threw it across the room and said "IT'S JUST A TOY!! IT CAN'T ANSWER YOU!!!!"

David always says I have a good way of explaining things to the kids so they understand complex concepts on their level.

the next thing to do was to read, read, read. We love to read.

It had criteria for different age groups stating what was considered "average" "smart" or "brilliant". They both met the category for "brilliant".

But this isn't because I sit around reading parenting magazines trying to figure out what to do to make my kids "brilliant". This is because
A. They came that way
B. All of this talking, reading, exploring, explaining we do is part of our play. I'm not quizzing them relentlessly until they memorize half of "The Grinch that stole Christmas" book. We're reading it for fun. I'm not scheduling Math facts into Belle's day. She plays with a first grader, who teaches her what a "addition sentence" is, and the next thing I know addition sentences are scrawled across all her scratch paper. Nor do I sit and give Keith a vocabulary lesson about what a "conundrum" is--he works with Daddy on the fish tank (because he likes it) and Daddy uses the word, and he picks it up. It's all PLAY.

Reading this article made me more committed to making sure they get to be kids, and scrawl their names across homemade valentine cards, and count how many ladybugs are in the book, and use their imaginations and engineering skills to build Lego towers and train tracks. And their art skills to paint with finger paints and get them all over the floor. And help measure while making cookies and get covered in chocolate.

I'm going to love them whether they are "average" or "brilliant". I hope they know that, and what it's like to have a happy, loving, eternal relationship. Because in my world, that's the greatest joy and success.

Parenting...eek!

So Belle has developed a sassy attitude that you would expect from a 13 yr old. Mostly we laugh but really...it's scaring me. Especially when an explosion of this attitude yesterday as we were taking a babysitter home caused the babysitter...a cousin who has been a babysitter around here since we moved to Grantsville...to go into shock. "I've NEVER heard her talk like THAT before!" says the babysitter.

Well, yeah. It's an issue.

I guess it's time to get out the Love & Logic book again. And finish reading the "Teaching self-government" book I only got half way through, thought I had lost, then found it again.

When we had an issue with this attitude last Sunday as we were saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa --which we will get to do again :)-- we came home and I promptly took 2 stickers off her chart. "Oh, that's ok" she says "I don't mind." Sticker #3 came off. "Oh really, Mom, it's no big deal, I'm almost there to earning my prize anyway" Sticker #4 came off.
I think it hurt more than she'd let on. She has to work hard for those stickers.
But she doesn't want us to tell her what to do. Her primary teacher gave her a wonderful lesson on your ability to choose. And so she says to me "I can choose for my own life, Mom, you can't tell me what to do!" she is 4, remember??
And so I respond. "Yes, you may choose for yourself. You may choose to listen to my instructions and retain your privileges or you may choose not to listen and deal with the consequence."

That leads to our next problem....the LISTENING. I can ask her to do a simple thing like, say, go get your pajamas. She is perfectly capable of getting them herself, and even getting them on herself, and has done so numerous times. So I'm not asking too much. And she stands there and looks at me. And I ask again. She gets distracted doing something else. And I ask again. And again. Until I finally get upset that she's ignoring me. then she tells me she likes Daddy better and can't wait until Daddy gets home, because he's nice, and I'm mean. And whines that she's scared (to which I think yeah right kid, you've never been afraid of anything in your life to this point...), or it's too hard...or excuse, excuse, on why she couldn't comply with my simple request. Humph! Yep, need the Love and Logic again. They would say only ask once, then apply the consequence. Then you don't get the chance to get upset.

Then maybe I wouldn't be the mean one.

Alright, I'm going to get the book out, But I'll take any suggestions you people may have:)

PS and why...why in the world would she dump a melted Popsicle on her and Keith's head? This is why they watch TV while I'm in the shower....less dumping of Popsicle on the head.

Feeling....mortal

Feeling tonight the frailties of living in a mortal body, in a mortal world. And very grateful for things like prayer, priesthood blessings, temples, and the Plan of Salvation. How could you survival all the things in the world without it?? There are several things this week that have me feeling this way. I'm not sure how these things tie together or even if it matters, but for some reason they FEEL all connected somehow.

In no particular order.
1. I've been reading D-Day by Stephen Ambrose. David has been trying to get me to read it for...I don't know...years, probably. It is very intriguing, interesting, informative, and well, sad. Because of the actions of a few wicked men so many lives lost. Sigh. But, alas! Freedom prevails! this is what I tell myself. There is a 'happy ending' (sort of) in there somewhere.


2. Our trip to San Antonio a couple weeks ago was fun. We spent a lot of time at the Alamo. I can now recite a complete history in some detail of the Texas area from about 1730--present. Lots of war. People dying. Ugh.


3. My sweet 4 yr old nephew is lying a hospital bed struggling to breathe.

4. My neighbor next door is expecting a baby in May. During a routine prenatal visit they discovered blood in her urine, which led to the discovery of a medium sized cyst on one of her kidneys. It could be nothing, or it could be...something. They can't do anything or even find out if it's cancerous or not until after the baby is born. Here's to praying she doesn't have to start chemo with a newborn and 2, 4, and 6 yr old children at home.

5. One of my other neighbors who has a 3 month old, 2 yr old, and a very difficult 4 yr old with Asperger's syndrome just sent her husband to war in Afghanistan. She is struggling to handle each day as they come.

6. Ashley Peterson Baird, (my siblings might be interested in this story), a 36 year old mother of 5 who grew up here in Grantsville, has stage 4 breast cancer with a VERY aggressive, rare form of cancer. So of course they are giving her a VERY aggressive form of chemo therapy, and using drugs that haven't exactly been approved by all appropriate government agencies yet....just to improve her chance of survival. They had a race in support of her last weekend in our community. Did I mention she is 36 years old and has 5 young children??

7. One of the ladies I work with in my YW calling is done with her chemo, and into her radiation for her breast cancer. It's very exhausting emotionally and physically.

8. The Powell family story. Nothing to say about that.

9. A dear sweet cousin of David's who's struggle for life is coming to an end.

10. My parents leaving to go so far away from home to COLUMBIA....not exactly the safest country in the world. (But not the most dangerous either).


So can you see why I am feeling a bit..., well..., mortal? Maybe a little depressed at all the horrible things in the world? War, sickness, wickedness causing pain to so many.

Last summer as I was typing my Grandpa's mission journal there was an entry in it that he expressed having some similar feelings. He was far from home in a foreign country and had received news one of his brothers, a best friend growing up, was undergoing heart surgery. And I don't remember his exact words but it was something along the lines of ...it doesn't really matter how long our life here is. It's how we live it, and that we rely on the Lord and are ready to go when it's time.
Something like that. It was interesting to read those thoughts from my Grandpa after he had gone.

So I guess that's it. We try our best to be good, and live happy, full lives. But in the end the only life that is ended premature is the one who isn't ready to meet his maker. And I can say I am so incredibly grateful that life after this one is something I know about. Because I know. It is something I can put my faith in and move forward through all the sickness and pain around in the world and live a happy, full life. And it gives me faith that the Lord will take care of those hurting around me.

Happy Birthday Buggie!!!

 

 

 

 

What a sweet three year old we have. He kept saying "Thank You, guys" SO sincerley. He was a little disappointed the snow prevented most the people he had invited from being able to come, but in the end he was fine and happy that Grandma and Grandpa O. were there.

And Look! I did it! Made the train cake that David had for his 3rd birthday. Not without a late-night call to his mother for some guidance---but, it worked! And he liked it.

He received a shovel he has carried around constantly--not really the best of carry around toys, but the boy has been carrying around shovels since before his 1st birthday so we put up with it.

He also got a new-in-the-box 1989 Ertl die-cast John Deere Combine. What a find (thanks ebay). The Ertl John Deere stuff these days is all plastic, bleach. But this one is just like the ones David and his brothers had. Which David was happy about, and so is Keith. He loves it.

Keith's Birthday outing

 

 

 

 

Keith picked the Children's Museum for his birthday outing. Well, it was his second choice. Hie first choice was to go see the sharks at Sea World. Since the passes we had last year expired, I told him it was too far away. He calmly replied we could go on a zoom to get there. To these kids flying somewhere is as normal as jumping in the car, I guess. Anyway, we got him to pick a second choice. He loves the ball games they have in there. And Belle likes it, too. They had a fun time and even had surprise appearance by Daddy, who we thought we wouldn't see for nearly 48 more hours!