It Must be Hard to be Three

Sweet, Innocent, Ballerina Rachel


Crazy Rachel


Three-year olds are so funny. Half the time Rachel says things that make me think she is really growing up and learning how the world works (I promise she's more well-adjusted than the stories on here make her sound), but then just as often she says things that make me wonder how kids ever learn how to be normal (and those are the things that are fun to post). She's old enough to want to act grown-up, but she's still too young to know quite how to do it.

She was making me laugh on Sunday at church. We were sitting out in the foyer (no room in the chapel) and Rachel had noticed that a nearby classroom door was open and someone was sitting in there. I did not see anything strange about this, but for some reason it was causing Rachel a lot of stress. She kept tiptoeing around and trying to peek in the room and then running past so the person wouldn't see her.

She then called me over to her, pointing to the room and whispering, "Mom, mom, mom.. .this is weird. You've got to see this. Look - there is only one human in that room! Can you believe that?"

And I'm thinking: Well, yeah, actually, I can. What I can't believe is that you just referred to that person as a "human". Since when is that normal? I know I did not teach you that.

Oh, wait. This is getting better. Now look at my lovely daughter. Apparently she has more strange behavior in store for us. She is standing by the door with her mouth pressed up against the glass yelling, "Luuuuke! I am your faaaather!" People are giving her strange looks. Should I go grab her away from the window, or is now the time to go sit down with the rest of the family and pretend I don't know her?

We made it through Sacrament meeting (sort of), and then it was time to go to class. Everyone started coming out of the chapel just in time to hear Rachel loudly proclaim as she pointed toward the open classroom, which was now full of people, "It's okay, Mom! I checked again and now there are LOTS of humans to be in there with that other human!"

Me: Oh, good. I'm so glad to hear that. Now let's get you to class before you do any more damage to our reputation in the ward.

First Baby Picture

I finally went to my first appointment last week and they surprised me by doing an ultrasound, even though I was only 13 weeks along. I'm used to only doing one at 20 weeks. Anyway, it was really exciting to be able to see the baby, and made it seem much more real to me. They tried to see if it's a boy or girl, but couldn't tell because it refused to uncross its legs. Which might mean it's a girl, because who has ever heard of a shy boy? We should be able to find out in about a month, though.

So if any of you were doubting that we really are crazy enough to be pregnant with #5, here it is (and if you didn't know we were expecting, I guess you can consider this an announcement):



Helpful comments from my children after viewing the complimentary DVD of the ultrasound:

1) "If the baby is still so tiny, how come your stomach looks so huge already?"
2) "This baby looks like a monster."

One, Two, Skip a Few. . .

Last week Tristan came home from school with a "sweet new trick" that he wanted to show me. It turned out he had learned a special "new" way to count to 100 very quickly, and he proudly performed it for me: 1,2, skip a few, 99, 100! He was a little surprised and disappointed to learn that I actually had heard that one before, and even more surprised to learn that I used to say it myself when I was little (I think it might be hard for my kids to picture me ever saying anything cool when I was younger). He couldn't believe it had been around for that long, and he wanted to know who had invented such a fabulous trick (he guessed that it was a little kid who was "really funny and a little bit goofy").

He then wanted to go show Daniel, in case he hadn't heard it, and I told him that I thought Daniel probably had. He still went in to tell him (just in case), and it ended up working out perfectly - he asked Daniel how fast he could count to 100, and Daniel took a deep breath and started counting and actually did count all the way to 100 very, very quickly. When he was done he looked at Tristan to see if he was impressed, and Tristan just smiled and said, "Oh, yeah? I can do it faster - 1,2, skip a few, 99, 100!" Daniel started laughing, and Tristan was very pleased that his little joke had worked (although he did admit later that he was surprised at how fast Daniel had been able to really count to 100 - I don't think he was expecting that).

It was funny because I absolutely remember learning that trick when I was little, and thinking that it was so cool and such a tricky thing to be able to do to people. It's weird when you see your kids learn the same random silly things you did, and it makes me wonder who is teaching these things.

Except, of course, Tristan took it a step further than I ever would have, and said, "But Mom, I figured out that it really should say, "1, 2, skip 96, 99, 100". I had to think for a second before I realized he was right.

Random picture that has nothing to do with the post, but I added because I just like to have pictures to go along:

Tristan and Oliver drawing/journal writing while listening to music on Tristan's new MP3 player (Thanks, Grandpa Darcy!)

Rachel's Life Memories and the Drug Talk

Yesterday Rachel was prancing around singing a new song that she had made up. I thought the subject matter was a little funny for a 3-year old. The main line (and pretty much the only line) that was repeated over and over again was something like, "Remember! Remember! Remember your life! So just remember, remember, remember your life!!!!"

I asked her what her song was about, and she said, "Well, Mom, it's just, like, if you miss your life, the song like, reminds you to remember it."

?????

I really can't figure out where she is getting her material from.

Maybe she has been reflecting on her life a little bit. The other night I was babysitting over at Karen's, and Daniel was at home with our kids. They had all been snuggled up on the couch watching a movie, and then I guess Daniel decided to have kind of a serious talk with them about drug use (I am not sure what prompted this, but when they're young enough to still listen to you, you have to take advantage). I think he wanted to scare them a little bit (well, okay, I'm positive that he wanted to scare them a lot) so he told them about how some people try drugs and then get addicted and then even if they want to stop they can't, and then they run out of money and they need to get more money, and so on and so forth, until sometimes they even steal it from people or they try to steal drugs from the drug dealers, and then the drug dealers might want to kill them, etc. The boys were very wide-eyed and interested and asking lots of questions, but all of a sudden Rachel just started sobbing and sobbing. Daniel asked what the matter was, and she wailed through her tears, "I just don't like it when I do drugs!"

She was very depressed and worried about the whole thing. When Daniel told me about it I felt bad - it's always hard to warn your kids about things without making them too scared. Once after we first moved here, Tristan and Oliver were going to walk down to a little playground not far from our house. It was the first time they had gone there by themselves, so I tried to kind of casually have a little talk with them about not talking to strangers and never getting into someone else's car, and if someone tried to make them they should run away fast and yell a lot. I said all this with a smile, assuring them that of course this was not going to happen, but they quickly changed their minds and said that actually they didn't want to go to the playground anymore. Whoops.

Anyway, Daniel had told me that Tristan was asking lots of questions after the drug talk and acting like he understood how the whole thing worked. I asked him what Oliver thought about it, and he said, "Joanne - he's you. What do you think he was worried about?" I thought for about one second and then said, "Oh, right. I guess that means he was probably concerned that people might make him do drugs?" For some reason when I was growing up I was very worried about this. I think I saw a MacGyver episode once where a kid's friends "made" him do drugs, and I always thought that would probably happen to me (it never did). It turns out that Oliver has the exact same concerns. The things you pass on to your kids!

And now Rachel's singing about remembering her life, as if she's nearing the end. Maybe we should hold off on the "serious" talks for awhile. I asked her today if she's still worried about it, and she replied, "Yes, because I think I might do drugs. But if someone tries to make me then when I come home from school I'll just tell you and Dad about it and you guys can work it out." Hmmm. I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

Elizabeth's Animal Sounds

Here's Lizzy being super cute making her animal sounds:

We just love this girl around here. She is in such a fun stage right now.

And I know applesauce has nothing to do with animals; I just really like how she says that word.

. . . .

Oliver versus Rachel

I just remembered something funny that Rachel did the other day. I guess she and Oliver got into a bit of a scuffle, and she came sniffling into the study holding her throat and said, "Mom, Oliver kicked me right in the brain!" I feel bad because I immediately started laughing a little because it sounded so funny to be kicked in the brain, but of course I had to hide it quickly and then act concerned (which I guess I really would have been if there had been actual brain matter involved in the injury, but I suspected that something was not quite right with her story).

Anyway, I asked her to show me where he kicked her, and she pointed to her throat and there was a big red mark on her neck. She said, "See, I already told you, Mom - it was right here on my brain." Then I felt really bad, because I accidentally laughed again, even though I actually think getting kicked in the neck would be really painful.

I tried to gently explain to her that her brain was not in her throat and it was in fact kept safe inside her head.

I keep laughing as I think about it, and I'm not sure why it's so funny.

As a side note, the next day she got back at Oliver by pushing him into the wall and possibly breaking his nose. I am still puzzled as to how she gathered up enough strength to do that, but his nose looks pretty bad. Here he is a few days after the incident:

Winter Camping Trip - Buescher State Park

Our original plan was to leave the day after Christmas to go camping for four nights in Big Bend National Park, which is about 8 hours away in the south of Texas.

Then we found out that there are no campfires allowed in Big Bend, which kind of changed things. To our kids, camping = campfires. Also, it was forecasted to get down to around 30 degrees at night, and we realized that once the sun went down at 6:00 and we couldn't build a fire to warm us up, there'd be nothing to do except go sit in the tent with all the kids and try to keep warm, which didn't sound very fun.

We came up with a new plan to just go camping for one night at Buescher State Park, which is about an hour away. We knew it would be cold, but at least campfires are allowed there.

We decided to leave on the Friday after Christmas. Then that morning both Rachel and Elizabeth woke up sick, so our plans changed again. We did not want to deal with kids throwing up in the tent, so we decided to just have Daniel go with the boys and make it a little "Father and Sons" trip.

I think they had a lot of fun. That night they set up camp, hiked around, played catch, built a fire, cooked tinfoil dinners, built another fire, roasted marshmallows, and then tried to get some sleep despite the freezing weather. In the morning they made another fire and Daniel even cooked up a Dutch oven peach cobbler for breakfast (I had planned on making this originally, and had already bought all the stuff, but I was very surprised that Daniel went through with this plan once he was on his own). Oliver reported that they then made a fourth fire (like I said, to my boys, camping is all about the campfires) but Tristan says that maybe the fourth one shouldn't really count, because it was just Oliver throwing a bunch of pine needles and sticks in the first one that was almost dying out. Either way, they definitely viewed the trip as a success.

Before coming home on Saturday morning, Daniel took the boys to a dinosaur park nearby, which they loved.

My favorite thing about their camping trip was that Daniel remembered to take lots and lots of pictures for me, even though I'm sure he would have rathered leave the camera at home.

Tristan and Oliver at the campground:

The Dinosaur Park:

Christmas 2007

We had a great Christmas with just our own little family at home in Texas, and as usual, I took lots and lots of pictures.


Christmas Eve - opening pajamas and a few presents from grandparents:

Christmas Morning - Stockings and everything else:

Christmas Day - playing with toys and building Lego castles:

*I should probably note that the boys did not receive all of these Legos for Christmas - they got some last Christmas, and then all year they've been gradually adding to the collection. The only thing they wanted for Christmas this year was the big "King's Castle", and we pretended we didn't get it, and then tricked them by wrapping it as a gift for Elizabeth and having her open it as the last present. The boys were ecstatic, and had so much fun setting up all of their castles in a huge battle.