Jeremiah's Update

This post is the second of three, in the attempt to give my kids equal attention, and is centered on Jeremiah.

Jeremiah. We're working on potty training with him right now, and sometimes it goes pretty well. Yesterday he didn't have any accidents! I made a chart for us to make a green dot when he goes potty and a red X when he has an accident, which helps remind me to take him potty. The tricky part with him is I don't think he registers that he needs to go, which means we need to remember for him.

A week or so ago he and I were exiting a store and one of his friends from school saw him and excitedly was telling his parents "That's Jeremiah! He's in my school at Southern Bluffs! Hi Jeremiah!" After a minute of prompting, Jeremiah said "Markos!" Sometimes I think that everything inside of him just doesn't know how to get out. And he probably had a hard time connecting someone from school with someone at the store (I know I have a hard time with that, at least).

In his special book for Primary, I filled in the following:

One of my favorite things to do with my family is "family tickle time." It's pretty fun...and he has such a great cracking up laugh!

My least favorite thing to eat is grapefruit. He won't touch the stuff. Everything else he'll eat. Just not grapefruit.

My favorite Primary song is "Whenever I hear the song of a bird" and he sings all the words. :)

When I grow up I think I want to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or Spiderman. He's been practicing. He has some pretty refined moves.

If I could visit any temple in the world it would be Hong Kong China. The Primary president brought in 20 pictures of temples around the world and let each child choose one.

If I could meet anyone in the scriptures it would be Jesus.

One way I try to follow my Savior is by saying prayers. Jeremiah says the sweetest prayers. Granted, all the phrases are taken from prayers that we say with him. Maybe it's just his little voice. But it is very sweet.

School ends next week. Jeremiah has grown so much this past year. He speaks in small full sentences at least some of the time, and communicates what he wants very clearly. He does have a bunch of obsessions, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spiderman, and some "stims," including spinning toys on a surface and spinning toys in the air and (hopefully) catching them to do it again (not such a great idea during Sacrament meeting). He loves to cuddle for a good 20 minutes when he wakes up and 20 before he goes to sleep again at night. He loves to go to Grandpa's house and to eat "brown" (usually brownies). He knows his colors and some letters and most of the words to songs from Primary and school. He's a very sweet little boy.

Gardens

This year we bought wood and made two 4x4 gardens in our backyard. We combined strategies from square foot gardening and lasagna gardens, and up until yesterday it seemed to be going very well.

We made our garden boxes and filled them with layers of compost, manure, dried grass and leaves, and peat moss--not necessarily in that order--and covered them to "cook" which wasn't necessary, but speeds up the decomposing process and it was a mite too early to plant over here.

Yesterday I (finally) planted our tomato plants that have been so good on our kitchen sill. One of the stems broke as I was planting it--I'm not exactly sure how.

And then last night there was a thunderstorm. And looking at my sad plants, it appears that a rabbit came by and had a snack. I wanted to get a fence around the garden beds, but needed to plant the tomato plants before I got the fence up.

I was just looking at the garden with Danielle. She broke one of the plants in half.

From our gardening experience so far this year, we have beautiful soil and one tiny tomato plant left. Maybe one of the other plants will miraculously survive, but with so little left of them it's hard to imagine.

Danielle's Update

In an attempt to give my kids equal attention, this post is the first of three, centered on Danielle.

Danielle is such a sweet little girl! She's 17 months old now. She's all girl. From her hair (which apparently always needs a couple more butterfly clips) to her shoes (which are typically changed at least three times a day to keep her happy).

She just started dancing--she'll push a button on a toy guitar to play a song, take 2-3 steps backward, and start marching her feet or spinning in circles. Usually spinning in circles. After the 10-second song is over, she repeats the process.

She loves to read. I've been trying to read to her off and on (like all good parents should), but up until the past month she's always pushed the books away and tried to squirm away. Now, however, she finds the books she wants, thrusts it to me (or John is I'm not around), sits on the floor, adamantly pats the ground next to her indicating that I need to sit as well, and refuses to be content until we read that particular book. Her favorites this week are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?," Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see?," "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?," (are you noticing a theme here?) and "Go Away, Big Green Monster!" (which I recommend to all children between the ages of 1 and 6--it's a paper book, not a board book, or I might recommend it to the younger set as well).

Danielle also has a genetic predisposition to electronics and communicative devices. I don't know what else to chalk that up to. She's obsessed with the computer and has figured out the mouse-pad on the laptop.

Danielle has been practicing nodding and shaking her head "no." Naturally, she gives her opinion quite frequently. "Do you want a drink?" Emphatically nods. "Do you want to eat breakfast in your high chair?" Seriously nods, then walks to her high chair and attempts to climb in by herself. "Are you ready for bedtime?" Slowly shakes her head "no." "Should we read a book?" Her eyes light up and she nods as she walks to get a book. All very cute and deliberate. The cute-ness might be deliberate cuteness, as well.

She plays crawl-across-the-crib with me when I come to get her from her nap. I ask, from the hallway, if she's awake (she probably nods, but I don't really know), and then come to get her out...and she crawls to the other side of her crib! So I peek at her over there, and she giggles and crawls super-fast to the other side of her crib. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (I usually just take her out after that. This could go on for many many minutes.)

Danielle will officially be old enough for nursery in four weeks. I did leave her there last for the third hour of church because I taught in Relief Society. We've been going to nursery during Sunday school for a couple weeks now. We'll continue to do that until she can go by herself. She likes to play with the toys, and she likes the little colored chairs that are just a tiny bit to big for her. She loves singing time.

She's a happy and cute little girl! And we ALL love her dearly.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Top 4 ingredients in Marshmallow Mateys

No, I'm not currently a health nut. But the top 4 ingredients are...

1. Whole grain oat flour.

2. Marshmallows.

3. Sugar.

4. Corn syrup.

Um, the sugars content is 13 grams...of a 30 gram serving. Breakfast cereal? High-sugar snack/dessert? Does anyone really want their kids eating this "food"?

(Yes, I do think that the whole grain oat flour is wonderful for our bodies, and corn syrup is better without the "high-fructose" part.)

Birthday Cake

Today was John's birthday! Happy birthday, honey! (I thought I'd mention that even though the rest of this isn't about him.)

Danielle was so sad in her crib tonight. I guess she'd been crying for a while before I came home, so about ten minutes after I'd been home I retrieved her from her crib (standing with tears streaming down her cheeks) and started walking around our house to figure out if there was something specific she wanted. When she saw John she gave him the evil eye and didn't want to be within a few feet of him. Then I wandered into our kitchen. And the reaching and grunting/whining started.

There was a frosted cake on the counter and Danielle wanted some. She helped me make it this afternoon. I think she was extremely upset that she was put to bed without getting any cake! She was also thirsty and some family was over watching the last songs of American Idol, but I really think it was the cake.

Is anyone surprised my son would say this?

Speaking of show-and-tell at pre-school Isaac said "The planet Earth doesn't love it when Romello brings shooting robots"

Naturally anthropomorphizing his home planet to facilitate a mecha discussion. That's my boy!

Math Comic

Faraway Child

I read "Faraway Child" yesterday. It's been on my to-read list for a few months now. It's a fictionalized story of a mom who has an autistic daughter (PC would be "daughter with autism"), from an LDS perspective. (The author is an LDS woman who has an autistic daughter, and bases the story off of her experiences with her daughter.) I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know what it's like to raise an autistic child: the hopes, fears, struggles, griefs, joys, peace.

My experiences with Jeremiah are much different. But so much closer to what she describes than how anyone would describe a typical child. But her feelings, inadequacies, joy and appreciation and comfort when something finally goes right...those are all the same.

John looked over at me a few times as I was reading, and saw me sobbing at least three times. He kept asking if I was certain I wanted to keep reading this book. I don't know that it was necessarily heart-wrenching, just incredibly close to home.