David-isms May 27

David's version of Row, Row, Row your boat is a little more entertaining than the original lyrics:

Roll, roll, roll your bum gently down the street, Verily, verily, verily, verily, life is but a scream
He sings it at the top of his lungs with all of his little boy heart.

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With the warmer weather comes all kinds of little-boy approved novelties. Like dirt to dig for worms and other crawly bugs. Everything that flies is called a butterfly. At one point, David disconnected a section of our gutter to swat the window in his attempt to reach a bug that was perched on the glass. The bug went flying and his Mama came running. I think I need to track down a bug net.
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David has taken up doing muscle poses as a form of victory dance or to show his excitement. Other times it's just for a diversion--like last night when he didn't want to eat dinner, he got down from the table and started doing lunges around the room. I'll do my best to capture the muscle poses on camera, but they come and go pretty quickly.
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At bedtime the other night:
Mommy, do you think Heavenly Father could send us a big baby?
Me: A big baby?
Yes, A big baby that knows how to play with me and share with me and a big baby that knows how to say nice words to me?

Finger Paints

Oh, so much fun--especially once he figured out that his hand print made the art go a lot faster.

Spring Clean

Xtra Tuf boots, a rake and his Daddy--just what a boy needs to get a little yard work done.

A New Bishop in Town

Two weeks ago we received an email early on Sunday morning saying the Stake President wanted to meet with us as a couple later that afternoon. When we showed up for the meeting, we were greeted by the entire Stake Presidency. And they asked Sam to serve as Bishop.

Bob Wyatt--1st Counselor, Bishop Sam Sponseller, Laird Jenkins, 2nd Counselor

Sam was ordained and set apart on Sunday, May 13th--yes, it was Mother's Day.

David and I were quickly inducted into the life of being the Bishop's family.

Sam stayed at church, as would be expected, after the rest of the meetings were over. David and I caught a ride home from a very kind neighbor. When we got home, I realized that I didn't have my house key--it was in the pocket of my coat hanging inside the house. So we went to the back yard, waiting for Daddy to come home. "It's Mother's Day, and they never have meetings on Mother's Day," I thought. "Sam will be home as soon as he finishes counting the tithing." I had a phone--I could have called someone--but I really didn't see the purpose, because I thought Sam would be home quicker than anyone else could help us out. Any other week of the year, would have been unpredictable--but I really thought that I could expect my husband to come home promptly after church on Mother's Day. So we waited while the wind blew. And we waited while it rained. And we waited all cuddled up to keep each other warm. We found the sunny spots of the yard in the few moments the sun peeked out to warm us up--it was such a blessing to warm up for 5 minutes here and there! For a while, I sent David to the gate each time we heard a car drive by to see if it was our Daddy. That was just a disappointing game. Finally, Sam pulled up. It was 5 pm and 2 1/2 hours after David and I arrived home from church.

This wasn't exactly how I thought I would spend the afternoon of Mother's Day--and yes, I learned my lesson about triple checking for my key before I catch a ride home from church. I also saw how patient David was. He was cold. He was tired. He was hungry--It was 5 pm before we got inside, and neither of us had eaten lunch. But David was cheerful. He didn't cry or whine or complain. It was the best Mother's Day gift he could have given me!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

We started potty training David at the beginning of February. Three months later, we were still struggling with #2. I'll spare you the details, but basically I was tired of cleaning up the accidents and he was very good at outsmarting the system--like waiting until he had a pull-up on at night, or just waiting for several days at a time. It was not fun for either of us. I tried a myriad of rewards, but nothing seemed to work.

Until it got warm and he saw other little children riding bikes.

So I found an image and made a chart--he had to have 10 successful times of using the potty, and he would get a bike. Finally the reward spoke to him, and David was motivated to learn. (Well, at the same time I put him in charge of cleaning up all accidents. I put him in the tub, handed him some detergent, and walked away. I think this motivated him as well as the bike, after 4 or 5 times of cleaning up.)

I hung the chart on the wall facing the toilet, and I had an inkling that we were on our way to success when David sat on the toilet with his chin in his hands and said, "That little boy is having fun on his bike, isn't he, Mom?"

 It turned out to be just the trick we needed!

David feels like such a big boy now--and a big boy bike to show off is a bonus.

A little chilly, but the sunny skies pulled us outdoors on Monday for family night.

 We had such a good time, first with a picnic, then with a bike run, then feeding the ducks.

I really enjoyed watching David ride a bike for the first time--and I learned a few things.

The first is that some kind of Big Wheel or tricycle would have done a lot to prepare him for pedal motion. We'll keep working on the coordination of it all, but I wish we had introduced him to pedaling last summer. Our short driveway and busy street don't lend itself to small children on bikes or trikes, so this is the first summer he's been on his own set of wheels. Next time I'll do things differently.

The other thing I learned is that our David is maturing into a little boy with a lot of determination and patience when he's learning something new. He kept a smile on his face the entire time, and didn't let the whole learning process get him down. We have a long ways to go before he will be able to ride, even with the training wheels attached--but I was really glad to see the glimmer of patience he showed. It's really encouraging to me to think that maybe David is growing into more impulse control, and when he wants something, he can be a very patient little boy while he works towards it.

Happy Mother's Day

Oh, give me patience when tiny hands

Tug at me with their small demands.

And give me gentle smiling eyes;

Keep my lips from sharp replies.

And let not fatigue, confusion, or noise

Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys

So when, years later, my house is still-

No bitter memories its rooms may fill.

-Author unknown (to me)

Oh, how I love this little boy!

 He makes me want to be a better person every day.
Sam watched us for a few minutes while we interacted at bedtime the other night, then remarked, "David, do you know that you bring your mom complete joy?"

 I love him for it.

We came home from our date on Friday night to see that the babysitter had helped David make his first homemade card for me.

It's a real treasure! She clearly helped him--a lot--but David was so excited to give it to me when he woke up the next morning! The rolo candy that was supposed to be with it? He explained it like this:
"Wellll, Dad, I gave the candy to mom, but she really wants me to have it."

Sleep Tight

David is moving in the direction of no more naps.
I never know if he needs a nap until he has a no-nap meltdown.
So the following day after said meltdown he'll get a nap instead of just quiet time.
A nap when he doesn't really need one results in his playing in his room when he is supposed to be going to sleep at night. When we were first figuring this thing out, there were nights when we stayed up late just trying to get him to fall asleep first.

On this particular night, he must have retrieved his winter coat from the closet--I had just washed it and put it away to pull out the lighter jackets for the upcoming summer months.

But apparently our sleeping boy needed a little more time with his heavy coat--zipped up, hood on, and all cozy.

Record Weather

This post is about a month late, it is true--but I wanted it part of the blog for my own journal purposes.

This picture was taken mid-April. Typically this is the week when we are raking leftover fall leaves and "fluffing" our grass with the rake to get it to turn green. This year we were still under snow. Sam decided to shovel the garden free of the snow so our strawberry plants could start their revival and so the ground would thaw in time for our Memorial Day planting.

I've mentioned a couple times how we were getting close to record-breaking snowfall--and I'm pleased to say that we got it! We had 134.5 inches of snowfall this year down at the airport--so we had quite a bit more than that fall in our own yard. (Based on the snow accumulation in the paper, and what was actually in our yard, I would say it was at least 50% more. For instance, the airport would report 2 inches on a day that we received 3-4 inches in our yard.)

As we were getting close to the record, I really wanted it to break through to the snowiest winter on record. It happened that the snowfall record was broken while I hosted my Easter Egg Hunt. So it served me right that it snowed on my own party.

But the main reason I wanted it so badly was because I was 13 years old in Phoenix when it was 122 degrees, still standing as the hottest day on record in that town. On that day, I decided to ride my bike to the corner gas station, and I bought a caramello bar. I rode home with it in my hand instead of eating it at the gas station--and when I got home it didn't look anything like a caramello bar. It was a melted mess, and I was burning up. It wasn't until the evening news that night that I learned we had just experienced the hottest day Phoenix had ever seen. Here's a cool piece of trivia--the date was June 26, 1990 and if you add the numerical values of the date 6+26+90 then you get 122. I remember my best friend's mom often wore a shirt about having survived the hottest day in Phoenix--she hated the heat of the dessert, and wore that shirt with pride!

So there you have it. I was in Phoenix for the hottest day they have on record, and in Anchorage for the snowiest winter they've ever recorded. And just for the record, I don't feel compelled to survive any more weather records.

My Helper

I love David's enthusiasm to to help me do chores. He is good at them, and his willingness helps me decide to dive in to some deep-cleaning tasks that are far too easy to put off in the name of playing with my son instead.

Check of the to-do list and have fun with David?

Now that's a win-win.

As a side note, we replaced our kitchen cabinet doors last year with this pretty new red-ish color. A huge improvement from the former drab brown. Sam sanded down the frames, re-stained and lacquered them, then we hung all new doors and end panels. And we painted the insides of the worn cupboards--which really made ti feel like a new kitchen! Our end panels under the fan are missing (lower right in picture) until we put up a new fan over our stove. But I can't figure out why the frame looks bleached in the lower part. It must be the lighting of the picture, because in real life they are as cherry red as everything else.

This summer we'll replace our flooring.