Me: Be careful, Em, it's hot.

Emily: I am. I'm careful as a chicken.

Good Works

Last Monday, Joe gave a lesson on Jacob chapter 5 (gotta give the kid props for ambition). He wanted to make a tree in our house, and when we do good things throughout the year, we get to add fruit to our tree. Here is our tree. (While I was making it, I couldn't help thinking about my brother and sister-in-law in Alaska and their thankfulness tree. Amazing!) It is an orange tree since we had an unusual amount of orange construction paper around. It has been a really good thing so far. The kids get so excited when we let them put an orange on the tree. Joe is so excited to see our good works piled up at the end of the year. Me too.

2011 Outlook

Matt just posted on his blog an outlook for 2011. Since he works in the financial services industry, it is in that context. Check it out.

Contrary

Will does not love being put down for a nap. He screams. And then five minutes later he's out for the count. Today, I put him down and he started his usually screaming. His pant leg had worked its way up his leg (which he hates) so I pulled it down. He immediately stopped screaming and sat up. Fixing me with the most defiant glare I think I've ever seen on a baby, he grabbed his pant leg and pulled it up above his knee, then grabbed the other one and pulled that up above his other knee, glared for two more seconds for good measure and flopped himself back down. You're nineteen months, Will, not fifteen. Sheesh! That kids cracks me up.

Tenacity

We got to go to pack night last night with Joe. Joe has been so excited to be a scout. He is almost done with his bobcat (the hold up is our fault!) and has been working hard on his wolf.

Last night they had a leg wrestling competition. I forget how competitive Joe is. He went against Max who is his age and about twice his size and lost. Then everyone tried to beat the champ - a 10 year old. Even though Joe lost, he wanted to go against him again and again. Joe is by far the lightest scout, so he starts out fighting an uphill battle. He never saw that. He just saw that if he tried a little harder next time he could do it. He has so much self-belief. I heard him talking to his sisters later about how he's going to get his legs really strong because he's going to beat Josh.

One word to describe Joe: tenacious.

Under Lock and Key

Tonight at dinner, I said, "Emily, you're crazy." An involved discussion followed among the children about who was crazy and who wasn't. Then Emily said in response to something Joe said, "No. I keep my crazy locked up...I only unlock it when visitors come over."

I don't know if she picked it up somewhere or came up with it on her own, but it sure was funny.

Earlier she was getting ready for a tea party she had been invited to. I told her that everyone was bringing a baby doll, so she could go get one from upstairs. She looked at me and said, "I'm not bringing a baby doll. That's dumb. Can I bring a horse?" She ended up bringing a stuffed horse so her sensibilities weren't offended. I also asked if she wanted to wear a dress because the other little girls were probably going to wear one. She got the same look and said no. I love that she is so unabashedly herself. I hope she never loses that!

Mary: I love sticky tape. You can fix anything in the world that you love with sticky tape.

So, Emily said (very matter-of-factly) that I'm as mean as the Wormwoods. Ouch!

Survival!

Wow. Today was a marathon day at church.

Yesterday, Emily was throwing up all day. She finally started sleeping soundly at about 9:30 last night and woke up completely chipper. Whew! When we got to church this afternoon, Joe started complaining that his stomach hurt. Uh-oh. Luckily, Matt and I got through our talks alright. ten minutes before the end, I took a sleeping Will and a dancing Mary on an emergency bathroom run (Mary's, not mine). I passed Matt and Joe on the way to our pew with Joe in the process of holding back vomit. He had already gotten the pew. I turned and followed them out, trying to get Emily to follow. I took Will to nursery early and went to clean up the throw up (since the meeting was now over) before I had to go to Primary to teach sharing time, while Matt helped Joe clean up. A member of the bishopric came and asked if he could take over while I went to primary. I did and then passed Matt again who went to help with the pew and then take Joe home to get changed.

Amazingly, sharing time went well, but almost at the end, Mary (now a cute little sunbeam) started crying. They were singing a song, so I asked what was wrong. She said - you guessed it - her stomach was hurting and she needed to go to the bathroom. I took her, and Mandy (the other counselor) covered for me. She ended up doing senior sharing time for me - SOOOOOO grateful for that - and I took the four kids home while Matt stayed in Elders' quorum because he absolutely had to be there today, and then to stay after church to do his clerk stuff.

sigh. I am glad to be home!

Joe is alright. He feels miserable, but it is apparently a 24 hour bug. That is the good news. It hasn't fully hit Mary yet.

Update: And the fun keeps rolling! Poor Will started throwing up at 7:00 last night, and I found myself crumpled on the bathroom floor at midnight. Matt got it at around 2:00 this morning. I thought I'd blog to take my mind off of it. So far Mary is the only one who hasn't gotten it. It's only 24 hours!

Day Three

Tomorrow, Joe will be out of school again for "snow". We are going to have to take learning and structure into our own hands. I think we are going to cook for our math skills and maybe do some dramatic play. Or maybe I'll just let them go do what kids do best. Thankfully, they all went and played with friends today and burned off their pent up first snow day energy. I don't love that we will have to make these days up later, but there's certainly something cozy about things shutting down and getting the excuse to keep my babies close.

Sequels

Sequels annoy me. You fall in love with a movie and its characters. The story arc is wonderful. You feel satisfied. You wish you could peek in on those characters again and see how life is shaping up for them. But, you understand, that that is part of the magic of great storytelling. Stories end. They always remain part of you, but their story ends.

And then, the money making arm of the creative industry gets involved. They take a perfectly delightful story and cheapen by trying to take it for another ride. One example is the Fancy Nancy books. Alright, I've only read the first one. But, I really liked that book. I thought it was delightful and fresh and perfectly sentimental at the end without being overdone. So, why oh why did they have to turn it into a series of books and a line of games and a line of dress up clothes? I wish people would just leave well enough alone. Anyway. I just thought I'd vent a little.

Sounds like a problem.

Tonight Emily was complaining about her armpit hurting. I asked her what it felt like and she responded, "It feels like a dead caughten fish."

She also said that she thinks by putting her hand on top of her head and closing her eyes tight. Then she can "see all the things in the world."