Monday, December 25, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Let's Not Tell Them. . .
We were at a little Christmas party with Tristan's football team (yes, football has been over for awhile, but they always do these little get-together things) and at the end one of the other coaches dressed up like Santa Claus and came out to let the kids sit on his lap. Daniel pulled the boys aside and reminded them to not say anything about Santa not being real, because the other kids all thought he was. Oliver replied, "what about the other grown-ups? Should we not tell them he's not real, either?" We told him that the grown-ups probably already knew, but to not say anything, just in case. Oliver was very suspicious of the whole affair, and kept looking around at everyone trying to figure out what they thought of Santa Claus. He did end up going to sit on Santa's lap, though, and he got a little sack of candy, so after that he and Santa were great friends.
Monday, December 18, 2006
What if?
Tristan and Oliver often like to think of weird or crazy situations and imagine what it would be like if they were true, and Rachel has started copying them, which is fine, of course, except when it happens during Sacrament meeting.
Yesterday at church, she stood up on her chair, and then in her "whisper voice" that is just a tiny bit softer than a yell, she asked me, "Mom, what if we only had ONE toy, and we didn't have ANY house, and we didn't have ANY clothes and we had to live outside, and WE WERE NAKEY?" As I quickly tried to "shush" her and pretend that people weren't looking at us, she kept asking loudly, "would you be sad if that happened, Mom?" and she wouldn't give up until I answered that "yes, I would be sad if we only had one toy and no house or clothes and we lived outside and were nakey."
I wonder why she was still allowing us to have one toy. It's like she couldn't imagine life with absolutely no toys, so she had to throw just one in there to make the situation a little more realistic. For some reason that particular combination of hardships has become her favorite thing to talk about, and she keeps mentioning it to me. I think she feels cool and grown-up to be able to imagine something soooo drastic, like, "wow, I am really thinking about the end of the world, here".
Yesterday at church, she stood up on her chair, and then in her "whisper voice" that is just a tiny bit softer than a yell, she asked me, "Mom, what if we only had ONE toy, and we didn't have ANY house, and we didn't have ANY clothes and we had to live outside, and WE WERE NAKEY?" As I quickly tried to "shush" her and pretend that people weren't looking at us, she kept asking loudly, "would you be sad if that happened, Mom?" and she wouldn't give up until I answered that "yes, I would be sad if we only had one toy and no house or clothes and we lived outside and were nakey."
I wonder why she was still allowing us to have one toy. It's like she couldn't imagine life with absolutely no toys, so she had to throw just one in there to make the situation a little more realistic. For some reason that particular combination of hardships has become her favorite thing to talk about, and she keeps mentioning it to me. I think she feels cool and grown-up to be able to imagine something soooo drastic, like, "wow, I am really thinking about the end of the world, here".
Christmas Decorations
I think Oliver was born to enjoy Christmas decorations. We have a rule that Tristan and Oliver can't get out of bed until 7:00 in the morning (I put a little clock in their room, and starting at about 6:00 Oliver watches it like a hawk and then sounds the alert as soon as it reaches 7:00) and every morning at 7:01 Ollie is down in the family room sitting in front of the tree.He's reacted almost violently to all of the decorations - when we were getting the Christmas tree all set up, he kept saying he was so happy and excited it made his stomach hurt, and after we got the nativities out he was looking all around beaming, and said it just looked too, too, beautiful and almost made him feel like throwing up. And no, he's not sick - that's just typical Oliver talk.
I have caught him several times in the last few days wandering around singing to himself, "I love Bethlehem, I love Baby Jesus, I love Bethlehem, etc."
Friday, December 8, 2006
"Will I get hit by the ball?"
I just had an interesting conversation with Oliver. He was drawing a picture at the kitchen table while I was cleaning up from lunch.Oliver: Mom, do the people who draw pictures in books ever mess up?
Me: Yes, they do lots of practice pictures and then just put the good ones in the book. You are so good at drawing pictures. Maybe you could illustrate books when you grow up.
Oliver: But Mom, look at how bad I'm coloring. I don't know how to color pictures in a book.
Me: You could learn how to illustrate at college.
Oliver: But I already go to college.
Me: No, you don't.
Oliver: Hmm. But isn't college like jail?
Me: No, of course not! BYU is a college.
Oliver: Aaah! Will I get hit by the ball?
(I think here he is assuming that BYU is just one big never-ending football game with footballs flying all over the place.)
He obviously has a solid understanding of how the world works.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
Grandma will like it!
Yesterday Oliver was trying to draw a picture of a Care Bear for Anita. He had asked me to draw it for him, but I told him he had to do it himself. When he said he didn’t know how, I told him that Grandma Nini would love it no matter what it looked like, but she would want him to draw it, not me. He was getting so frustrated because he felt like he kept messing up and he thought she wouldn’t like it.
We had a funny little exchange about the drawing.
Oliver: So Grandma Nini will like it even if it’s not good?
Mom: Yes, she’ll love it.
Oliver: Okay. Happily starts drawing.
Oliver (bursts into tears): Mom, I messed up!
Mom: No, that looks really good.
Oliver: But look at the face – I accidentally drew it in a circle shape and when I looked at Girly’s Care Bear plate I noticed that the face is not a circle shape because it has cheeks that stick out.
Mom: Well, I can see tiny little cheeks on yours and Grandma Nini will still like it.
Oliver: Okay. Resumes drawing for a few seconds.
Oliver (bursts into tears): Mom, I messed up again! Look, I’m done with the head and it looks like a monster! It’s so bad!
Mom: I don’t think it looks like a monster. And remember, Grandmas like pictures no matter what.
Oliver: Even if I hate it?
Mom: Yes.
Oliver: You’re sure she’ll like it even though I hate it so much and it looks like a monster?
Mom: Yes.
Oliver (chuckling): That is so weird. Okay. I guess I’ll finish it. Resumes drawing.
Oliver (wailing): Mom, now I really, really hate it! What should I do? It’s so bad.
Mom: Let me see it. What’s so bad? I think it looks wonderful!
Oliver (rolling his eyes): Are you serious? Look at that leg – it looks like a volcano! Grandma Nini will NOT like this for sure.
Mom: Oliver, I promise she’ll like it. There is kind of a funny rule with Grandmas – when their grandkids draw something for them, they always, always like it, no matter what it looks like. They always think it’s a good drawing.
Oliver: Okay. I guess we can still give it to her.
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Normal Days
We went to SeaWorld on Saturday with Josh and Natalie Dayton and their 3 kids, and Taber and Becca Rigg and their baby. Josh graduated from the MBA program with Daniel and works at Dell, and Taber is a first year MBA student doing his internship at Dell.
Some parts of SeaWorld were fun, but overall I feel like the experience was not worth the money. I loved the dolphin show, as always, and I also loved feeding a fish to a dolphin and getting to pet it, but that was about it. Part of the problem was it was just too crowded. I think everyone in Texas decided to go to SeaWorld on Saturday. We could not even get into the Shamu show, because every time we tried to go all the seats were filled up, even when we went a half hour early. We finally got into an evening Shamu show that is a different show than the normal one, but we didn't really see it, because both Daniel and I had to sit with two kids on our lap because it was so crowded.
It also was just hard to be there with four little kids. They got hungry and tired, and I felt like during the shows I was spending the whole time trying to get them to see what was going on and pointing out how excited they should be, but all they wanted to do was eat lunch. I remember that the water-skiing show was neat, but I was nursing Elizabeth while I was watching, and the kids kept going through my diaper bag trying to find more food, so it was a little stressful and I couldn't pay attention to the tricks very well.
The kids did love a little Shamu roller coaster that they have there, but we were only able to take them on it once because the lines were so long. We kept promising them that they would be able to do it again before we left, but every time we went back the lines were still too long, so they were bummed about that. Their other favorite thing to do was play in one of those little splash areas where water comes up out of the ground. They spent a lot of time there, but it was not even as neat as our community pool area, and we can go there for free.
For most of the day, it seemed like the kids were hot and tired, and not really sure why we were dragging them all around to different places where they couldn't really see what was going on.
I'm not trying to say that SeaWorld is horrible, because it really can be a lot better when it's not so crowded (last year it wasn't nearly as crowded and we enjoyed it more). I do have to remember, though, that big activities that cost a lot of money don't always create the memories that you tell yourself they will.
I think sometimes I tend to try to force the good memories - I talk about it a lot with my kids afterwards, like, "Wasn't that fun to see that?", and "Wasn't that amazing when this happened?", and I ask them what their favorite part was and then talk a lot about it, so then they kind of think, "Oh, yeah, that was a really fun day", even if they didn't think so at the time.
I should start talking to them about good memories from just normal, stay-at-home days. Just last week I remember thinking at the end of a day that it had been very fun and fulfilling. It was last Thursday. Early in the morning Tristan and I drove over to the school to register him for kindergarten. It was kind of exciting because he got to see what his school looks like. In the short time that we were there he managed to get lost and locked out of the building (confirming my fears that he is not ready for school) but then he proved that maybe he is ready by bravely walking all the way around the whole school to get back to the one door that was open and then coming to find me without panicking the whole time.
Other things we did on Thursday: I watered the trees in our front yard, and then because the hose was out, I filled up the little swimming pool on our back porch and Tristan, Oliver, and Rachel all went swimming, along with several hundred little animal toys they brought down from the playroom.
Later on in the day I worked with Tristan and Oliver on writing their numbers. Tristan had been having a problem with writing all of the numbers backwards, so we've been doing practice "worksheets". Oliver loves tracing numbers that I write down, and then he draws them himself. When he does it, he holds the paper upside down and writes them that way, and then turns the paper right-side up at the end. It's a very odd system. To each his own, I guess.
After Daniel came home and we ate dinner, we all went out to the backyard to feed our pet spider, Reggie. He is a huge garden spider that has spun a web in the back corner of our yard where some plants hang down from the other side of the fence. He is a very pretty spider, as spiders go. In case some of you are wondering, I was not involved in the decision to keep him as a pet or to name him. All of that was done sometime in my absence, and since then everyone has become much too attached to do anything about it. I will admit that Reggie is probably the easiest pet anyone has ever had. The kids (and Daniel) had a lot of fun catching little grasshoppers in the backyard and then throwing them into Reggie's web. Although I did not participate in the catching of the grasshoppers, I did find it fascinating to see him jump on the grasshoppers and then roll them up in his web before biting them. I even got out the video camera and videotaped the whole thing.
Somehow during the spider feeding Rachel spotted the pool and decided it would be really fun to go swimming again, this time in her dress and shoes. Once she was in, I decided to let her stay in and play, and it kept her occupied the whole time I cleaned up the kitchen.
After we all came back inside, we got the kids all ready for bed and then I hooked up the video camera to the TV and we watched the Reggie movie. Then we rewound the whole tape and watched some of the other home videos that we have made. Rachel loves seeing herself on TV. She kept commenting on how blue her eyes are.
After home videos were done Daniel practiced some flag football with the boys. We had been thinking about signing Tristan up for a flag football league (he ended up deciding that he didn't want to play - attending a meeting with Daniel where the coach said the kids would all throw up at practice could have had something to do with that decision). Anyway, Daniel ran around with some socks in his shorts for flags, and Tristan and Oliver tried to pull the socks out, and Daniel gave them pointers on moves and stuff. Then they each took turns running around with socks in while the other tried to pull them out. A couple more sessions of that, and they'll both be solid in offense and defense for sock flag football. Except there was no football involved. That could probably complicate things.
After the kids were all in bed, Daniel and I worked on babybooks. Well, Daniel worked on his Yellowstone book, and I organized babybook stuff. I have one drawer that I have been sticking random keepsake things in for too long, thinking, "someday this will all get organized into the right spot." I've been too intimidated to start on it, but even just spending just one evening on it helped a lot.
Then we went to bed on time, which hasn't happened for too long.
Anyway, my natural inclination would be to remind my kids about last Saturday at SeaWorld and how fun it was, but really Thursday was a lot more fun for everyone, I think. I guess sometimes normal days are actually more enjoyable than the big days, they just don't usually get the credit.
Some parts of SeaWorld were fun, but overall I feel like the experience was not worth the money. I loved the dolphin show, as always, and I also loved feeding a fish to a dolphin and getting to pet it, but that was about it. Part of the problem was it was just too crowded. I think everyone in Texas decided to go to SeaWorld on Saturday. We could not even get into the Shamu show, because every time we tried to go all the seats were filled up, even when we went a half hour early. We finally got into an evening Shamu show that is a different show than the normal one, but we didn't really see it, because both Daniel and I had to sit with two kids on our lap because it was so crowded.
It also was just hard to be there with four little kids. They got hungry and tired, and I felt like during the shows I was spending the whole time trying to get them to see what was going on and pointing out how excited they should be, but all they wanted to do was eat lunch. I remember that the water-skiing show was neat, but I was nursing Elizabeth while I was watching, and the kids kept going through my diaper bag trying to find more food, so it was a little stressful and I couldn't pay attention to the tricks very well.
The kids did love a little Shamu roller coaster that they have there, but we were only able to take them on it once because the lines were so long. We kept promising them that they would be able to do it again before we left, but every time we went back the lines were still too long, so they were bummed about that. Their other favorite thing to do was play in one of those little splash areas where water comes up out of the ground. They spent a lot of time there, but it was not even as neat as our community pool area, and we can go there for free.
For most of the day, it seemed like the kids were hot and tired, and not really sure why we were dragging them all around to different places where they couldn't really see what was going on.
I'm not trying to say that SeaWorld is horrible, because it really can be a lot better when it's not so crowded (last year it wasn't nearly as crowded and we enjoyed it more). I do have to remember, though, that big activities that cost a lot of money don't always create the memories that you tell yourself they will.
I think sometimes I tend to try to force the good memories - I talk about it a lot with my kids afterwards, like, "Wasn't that fun to see that?", and "Wasn't that amazing when this happened?", and I ask them what their favorite part was and then talk a lot about it, so then they kind of think, "Oh, yeah, that was a really fun day", even if they didn't think so at the time.
I should start talking to them about good memories from just normal, stay-at-home days. Just last week I remember thinking at the end of a day that it had been very fun and fulfilling. It was last Thursday. Early in the morning Tristan and I drove over to the school to register him for kindergarten. It was kind of exciting because he got to see what his school looks like. In the short time that we were there he managed to get lost and locked out of the building (confirming my fears that he is not ready for school) but then he proved that maybe he is ready by bravely walking all the way around the whole school to get back to the one door that was open and then coming to find me without panicking the whole time.
Other things we did on Thursday: I watered the trees in our front yard, and then because the hose was out, I filled up the little swimming pool on our back porch and Tristan, Oliver, and Rachel all went swimming, along with several hundred little animal toys they brought down from the playroom.
Later on in the day I worked with Tristan and Oliver on writing their numbers. Tristan had been having a problem with writing all of the numbers backwards, so we've been doing practice "worksheets". Oliver loves tracing numbers that I write down, and then he draws them himself. When he does it, he holds the paper upside down and writes them that way, and then turns the paper right-side up at the end. It's a very odd system. To each his own, I guess.
After Daniel came home and we ate dinner, we all went out to the backyard to feed our pet spider, Reggie. He is a huge garden spider that has spun a web in the back corner of our yard where some plants hang down from the other side of the fence. He is a very pretty spider, as spiders go. In case some of you are wondering, I was not involved in the decision to keep him as a pet or to name him. All of that was done sometime in my absence, and since then everyone has become much too attached to do anything about it. I will admit that Reggie is probably the easiest pet anyone has ever had. The kids (and Daniel) had a lot of fun catching little grasshoppers in the backyard and then throwing them into Reggie's web. Although I did not participate in the catching of the grasshoppers, I did find it fascinating to see him jump on the grasshoppers and then roll them up in his web before biting them. I even got out the video camera and videotaped the whole thing.
Somehow during the spider feeding Rachel spotted the pool and decided it would be really fun to go swimming again, this time in her dress and shoes. Once she was in, I decided to let her stay in and play, and it kept her occupied the whole time I cleaned up the kitchen.
After we all came back inside, we got the kids all ready for bed and then I hooked up the video camera to the TV and we watched the Reggie movie. Then we rewound the whole tape and watched some of the other home videos that we have made. Rachel loves seeing herself on TV. She kept commenting on how blue her eyes are.
After home videos were done Daniel practiced some flag football with the boys. We had been thinking about signing Tristan up for a flag football league (he ended up deciding that he didn't want to play - attending a meeting with Daniel where the coach said the kids would all throw up at practice could have had something to do with that decision). Anyway, Daniel ran around with some socks in his shorts for flags, and Tristan and Oliver tried to pull the socks out, and Daniel gave them pointers on moves and stuff. Then they each took turns running around with socks in while the other tried to pull them out. A couple more sessions of that, and they'll both be solid in offense and defense for sock flag football. Except there was no football involved. That could probably complicate things.
After the kids were all in bed, Daniel and I worked on babybooks. Well, Daniel worked on his Yellowstone book, and I organized babybook stuff. I have one drawer that I have been sticking random keepsake things in for too long, thinking, "someday this will all get organized into the right spot." I've been too intimidated to start on it, but even just spending just one evening on it helped a lot.
Then we went to bed on time, which hasn't happened for too long.
Anyway, my natural inclination would be to remind my kids about last Saturday at SeaWorld and how fun it was, but really Thursday was a lot more fun for everyone, I think. I guess sometimes normal days are actually more enjoyable than the big days, they just don't usually get the credit.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
The Dancing Birthday Girl
Here's Rachel doing the "birthday dance" on her second birthday. Wow - look at that hair. I don't think it had hit me yet that with girls you actually have to do their hair. Hopefully she'll forgive me later.
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