"Someone took my spot!"

As I was slowing down to pull into a nice parking spot I had circled around the hospital parking lot for, a fast black car zoomed right into it from the other direction. When he was about halfway in, he looked at me apologetically and questioningly motioned if it was mine. I nodded, a little sadly. And he paused, zoomed back out, found another spot, and ran into the hospital.

He made my day!

Jeremiah's Update

Jeremiah is three! His birthday was on Monday, though we haven't celebrated it yet. We did sing him "Happy Birthday" a dozen times or so, which he enjoyed. (He sings along a little bit: "Happy birthday ooo ooo, happy birthday ooo ooo! Appy birthday ear ooo? Happy birthday oo ooo!")

Because he's 3, he no longer receives his services (speech therapy, occupational therapy, and one-on-one with an early childhood teacher) that he had been getting weekly. BUT! School starts for him a week from today. And let me tell you that I'm super excited! We have a meeting with his teacher, in his classroom, next Tuesday. Everything is just working out so well. He's imitating everything now--some language or social something-or-other clicked for him--including actions for little songs and words we say all the time and singing. Jeremiah sings "The Star Wars Song," as in, he imitates the song that Isaac dubbed "The Star Wars Song," and "The Crazy Frog Song" (same), and "The Care Bears Song" which Isaac doesn't sing, and a couple others. He's just so cute and sweet and precious.

An interesting thought I've had a few times the last week or so: Because Jeremiah's speech is so delayed, I treasure it so much more. It's like I was given the gift of time with him. Actively teaching him to speak has been interesting and at times frustrating, but now I just treasure it, all the little words he says, all the little things he does. It's wound the strings tighter that bind us together. And I'm really glad I'm having this experience with him--it makes me a better person.

Jer has an eye appointment later this morning. Because he's been alternating the eye he uses this past month, I'm guessing that it won't be eventful. If we could get him to use both eyes, it would be super! But I'm not holding my breath for that one.

Sunbeams

Three and a half weeks ago, I received a phone call (a very apologetic one) in which I was asked to teach the Sunbeams class (3-4 year olds) at church. I almost said no, because Isaac's in that class and I know he does a lot better at church when I'm not in sight. But I said yes--she wouldn't have asked if there were many other choices. And later that day, all the substitutes were asked to continue subbing their respective classes for another two weeks.

Well. Today was the last of the two more weeks. And every week has been a different combination of kids, and consequently a different personality spectrum. Today was high on the feline side of the spectrum--5 of the 6 kids were pretending to be cats for 50 minutes, including the entirety of closing exercises and most of our class time. They weren't the purring types of cats, either; They were the loud, hungry types.

I had a breakdown on the way home from church and closed myself in my room when we got home. So now I'm wondering why in the world I'm planning on calling our new Primary president (who was the last one in the branch) to see if there's a Sunbeams teacher lined up for the next few weeks...and considering volunteering to be subjected to more. Part of me is just stubborn and not used to failure--maybe I just feel some odd need for a new challenge. Or something. But there's got to be a way to get those kids to focus and be interested. There's got to be, I know it.

ITIHANBF

John and I make up new acronyms when we're IMing each other--It's kind of fun to try to interpret what the other has to say.

So, that was "I think I have a new best friend." I think I can have an infinite supply of best friends, because each one is so different. THIS one brought me homemade jams and salsa and applesauce the first time she came over. What more could I ask for?

I know, I'm pretty easy. But I think everyone knew that already...

Another Fun Game

Monkeys shooting balloons. What can get better than that?

(Recommended by my little brother. :)

"The Race"

Alison: Hey John, are we "slow and steady wins the race" kind of people?

Pause.

John: Are we "hold still when the gun goes off and hope the race goes away" kind of people?

A Fun Thunderstorm

We've had some stormy weather the past few days--thunder and lightning and many inches of rain.

Last night, after Danielle had fallen asleep, John and I were getting the boys to sleep in their room.

Isaac was leaning against his wall, whimpering about sitting on his bed, when, all of a sudden (but not unexpectedly) there was a big thunder.

And Isaac started to giggle. "The thunder tickled me! hehehe! The thunder tickled me!"

Smarter than the Average Bear

One of the parenting tricks I've heard over and over again (mostly for toddlers or preschoolers, or at least in reference to toddlers and preschoolers) is to let them choose between two things:

"Do you want juice or milk with your lunch?" "Juice."

"Do you want to hop to your room or skip to your room?" "Skip."

Et cetera.

Isaac doesn't fit into the toddler or preschooler mold very well. This was our conversation in the kitchen:

Isaac: "I want some soda."

Me: "You need to put clothes on first, then you can have soda."

Isaac: "I DON'T WANT TO WEAR CLOTHES! I WANT SODA!"

Me (internally rolling my eyes): "If you want to have soda you need to put undies on. Do you want undies or Pull-Ups?"

Isaac: "I don't want undies or Pull-Ups. I want soda."

Me: "Would you like to wear undies or Pull-Ups?"

Isaac: "Um." Lengthy pause. "Soda."

People swear this strategy works. I'm not one of them. Isaac doesn't care what his choices are if he knows what he wants.

I'm picturing taking him to a restaurant in a year or two..."What would you like to drink?" "I want grape juice, with ice. I would like each ice cube to have a frozen grape in it. Thank you." Pause. "Um. We don't have gr--" "I WANT GRAPE JUICE WITH..." You get the idea.

The Best Part of being a Mom...

Is when it's Sunday afternoon and there are three little children asleep on their beds, one large husband asleep on his bed, and a tray of cookies ready to come out of the oven.

I love being a mom...

The Branch

Oh. By the way, our branch was combined with the ward two Sundays ago. I didn't write about that. I don't have much to say--we don't have callings for the moment, which is nice, but I'm sure will soon change. There's more people now. Maybe something interesting will happen later and I'll write about that sooner...

Danielle's Update

So, everyone knows that the cutest babies are sleeping babies... Especially with two fingers in her mouth...
Danielle was curious about the camera, and came over to investigate.
In many different rooms of the house
She's so happy! And fun and smile-y and sweet.
Can you see her two bottom teeth? I'm not sure--I think you can't see them in this picture. But they're pretty cute! And she's getting her top four teeth right now, too... She's sleeping better at night (not waking up 4-8 times like she was for a week or so), and she has a bit of a runny nose. And yes, that is a shoe in the picture, not attached to a foot.

Danielle still doesn't like baby foods. But she does like small solid foods, like Cheerios and little pieces of bananas. She doesn't really like cold food (ice cream, refrigerated apple sauce...).

She crawls all over the place. She knows what she wants, and intends to get it, whatever it is.

She's starting to babble! I say, "Dadada?" and she says "Mammama!" and it makes me grin. I get this secret thrill...okay, so it's not a secret. I get this thrill--she likes me best! I know it's ridiculous and not (necessarily) true, but it still happens!

A Brief History of our Marriage

Minesweeper: The Movie

For better or worse, a lot of you may be familiar with the work of Uwe Boll (BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark). Well I found a trailer for his latest project I thought worth sharing.